DISCLAIMER: These characters belong to Tamora Pierce and are used here without permission. Please don't sue me!
The Road Less Traveled
Choices
Briar and his friends would never believe it, but Crane and I didn't always hate each other. As Lark said, we used to get along very well. Of course that was her idea of a joke. After all, we did get along very well. We were in love.
When I first arrived at Winding Circle, I was a young novice eager to learn all that I could so that I could become a great dedicate. That was all I cared about--that and my plants, of course. I was focused. I knew exactly what I wanted. The future appeared within my grasp.
But at Winding Circle, although I was very good, the other novices didn't like me. The dedicates praised me too much for my own good. Plus, I was a just a farmer's daughter, a rural tomboy, and the other girls teased me mercilessly.
I suppose that it is greatly ironic that a count's son would be my savior. Unlike the others, Isas didn't seem to care that I was just a country girl. He treated me like he treated everyone--with plenty of arrogance, condesension, and competition. It sounds silly that I liked him for this, but compared to the others, he was wonderful. He never treated me like I was inferior or like I didn't belong. In fact, he paid special attention to me because I was, as he put it, the only one with half a chance of keeping up with him.
It wasn't long before I fell in love with him, and not long after that he admitted that he was in love with me. I was shocked. I had never thought of myself as pretty. I was too short and stocky, unlike the tall, willowy young girls I saw. I did have nice hair, long auburn curls, but they were so unruly, flying about in the slightest breeze. Anyway, it didn't matter. He was the most wonderful person I had ever met, and, even more amazing, he loved me.
We went to Lightsbridge not long after we started a relationship. Novices were not supposed to be involved, so we had to keep it secret. Outwardly he was as cool and aloof towards me as he was towards everyone else. Privately, though, he continued to win my heart. He saw how miserable I was there, so he stocked my room with plants, constantly adding more and more greenery to the collection on my windowsill. Those little reminders of the life outside was all that kept my body alive during that horrid time, and his love was all that kept my spirit going.
When we returned to Winding Circle, I was thrilled. I was thin and pale and very weak after my time there, and I couldn't wait to get back home. Best of all, without the teachers' constant eyes on Isas, we could have a little more privacy.
One night as we lay in each other's arms, he casually remarked, "When we get married, think how different our lives will be, living in society instead of here."
His words shocked me. Not the part about our getting married--we had already agreed not to take the oath and to instead marry--but the other part. "Society?" My experiences at Lightsbridge had made me hate the word. "Why would we have to live in society?"
"Well, I am the son of a count, Niva," he reminded me. "When we get married we'll go back to the home where I grew up, of course. It's very nice, very old, though. And it's surrounded by woods. You'll like it there."
"But...but we'll have to...to mingle in popular society?" I asked.
"Well, of course, Niva."
Without warning I bolted from his bed and ran outside. He jumped up and followed, but years of playing chase with my brothers had given me good instincts. I easily hid from him in a secluded part of the meadow where the grasses grew particularly high and collapsed on a bed of clover, staring up at the stars.
I shouldn't have been surprised, of course. Isas was very comfortable in those sorts of situations. He had the natural grace of a member of high society. But it had still taken me by surprise.
I dreaded having to mingle with those sorts of people. I hated the thought of once more being the awkward outsider. Here I had made a home for myself. I was comfortable and safe here. The thought of leaving for some dank castle far away where I would have to attend dances and fancy dinner parties made me sick to my stomach.
I loved Isas. I still do. I just couldn't do it. When I saw him, I told him that I didn't want to be with him anymore. He was hurt and angry, and we maintained a strained relationship until he built that monstrosity and gave us a formal reason to disagree. The greenhouse reminds me of Lightsbridge, a manmade prison trying to force nature to conform to its will. Anyway, that's not important. None of it is. I'm happy now. I have the life that I had always dreamed of living. Yet it is all bittersweet. I wonder sometimes what life would be like with Isas, with the love of my life. And I wonder if he feels the same way. But none of that matters. I've made my decision. Now I have to live with it.
The Road Less Traveled
Choices
Briar and his friends would never believe it, but Crane and I didn't always hate each other. As Lark said, we used to get along very well. Of course that was her idea of a joke. After all, we did get along very well. We were in love.
When I first arrived at Winding Circle, I was a young novice eager to learn all that I could so that I could become a great dedicate. That was all I cared about--that and my plants, of course. I was focused. I knew exactly what I wanted. The future appeared within my grasp.
But at Winding Circle, although I was very good, the other novices didn't like me. The dedicates praised me too much for my own good. Plus, I was a just a farmer's daughter, a rural tomboy, and the other girls teased me mercilessly.
I suppose that it is greatly ironic that a count's son would be my savior. Unlike the others, Isas didn't seem to care that I was just a country girl. He treated me like he treated everyone--with plenty of arrogance, condesension, and competition. It sounds silly that I liked him for this, but compared to the others, he was wonderful. He never treated me like I was inferior or like I didn't belong. In fact, he paid special attention to me because I was, as he put it, the only one with half a chance of keeping up with him.
It wasn't long before I fell in love with him, and not long after that he admitted that he was in love with me. I was shocked. I had never thought of myself as pretty. I was too short and stocky, unlike the tall, willowy young girls I saw. I did have nice hair, long auburn curls, but they were so unruly, flying about in the slightest breeze. Anyway, it didn't matter. He was the most wonderful person I had ever met, and, even more amazing, he loved me.
We went to Lightsbridge not long after we started a relationship. Novices were not supposed to be involved, so we had to keep it secret. Outwardly he was as cool and aloof towards me as he was towards everyone else. Privately, though, he continued to win my heart. He saw how miserable I was there, so he stocked my room with plants, constantly adding more and more greenery to the collection on my windowsill. Those little reminders of the life outside was all that kept my body alive during that horrid time, and his love was all that kept my spirit going.
When we returned to Winding Circle, I was thrilled. I was thin and pale and very weak after my time there, and I couldn't wait to get back home. Best of all, without the teachers' constant eyes on Isas, we could have a little more privacy.
One night as we lay in each other's arms, he casually remarked, "When we get married, think how different our lives will be, living in society instead of here."
His words shocked me. Not the part about our getting married--we had already agreed not to take the oath and to instead marry--but the other part. "Society?" My experiences at Lightsbridge had made me hate the word. "Why would we have to live in society?"
"Well, I am the son of a count, Niva," he reminded me. "When we get married we'll go back to the home where I grew up, of course. It's very nice, very old, though. And it's surrounded by woods. You'll like it there."
"But...but we'll have to...to mingle in popular society?" I asked.
"Well, of course, Niva."
Without warning I bolted from his bed and ran outside. He jumped up and followed, but years of playing chase with my brothers had given me good instincts. I easily hid from him in a secluded part of the meadow where the grasses grew particularly high and collapsed on a bed of clover, staring up at the stars.
I shouldn't have been surprised, of course. Isas was very comfortable in those sorts of situations. He had the natural grace of a member of high society. But it had still taken me by surprise.
I dreaded having to mingle with those sorts of people. I hated the thought of once more being the awkward outsider. Here I had made a home for myself. I was comfortable and safe here. The thought of leaving for some dank castle far away where I would have to attend dances and fancy dinner parties made me sick to my stomach.
I loved Isas. I still do. I just couldn't do it. When I saw him, I told him that I didn't want to be with him anymore. He was hurt and angry, and we maintained a strained relationship until he built that monstrosity and gave us a formal reason to disagree. The greenhouse reminds me of Lightsbridge, a manmade prison trying to force nature to conform to its will. Anyway, that's not important. None of it is. I'm happy now. I have the life that I had always dreamed of living. Yet it is all bittersweet. I wonder sometimes what life would be like with Isas, with the love of my life. And I wonder if he feels the same way. But none of that matters. I've made my decision. Now I have to live with it.