(Page 1 of 12) Durantem: Chapter I; Toil and Trouble. by Micah McQuearySUMMARY: A lot more interesting.Toil and Trouble
It was daybreak and Durantem awoke, stretching and yawning with such force that his feet pressed against the foot of his bed, making a low groan followed by a thick crack. It was getting to the time where a new bed needed to be made and he didn't really have the time to do that sort of thing, what with the gardening and all. Durantem dwelled on this thought with gloom as he sat up in his bed. Rubbing his eyes, he felt a sort of trapped feeling, a sort of exhaustion; it was like being trapped in a cocoon. A mentality that was like being hopelessly in a trance and, with the awakening of a physical sort, he would break out of it. With a little effort, he hopped from the bed, his feet making a "plop!" on the wooden floor. There was a mirror across the room next to the doorway, and he could see his hideously tired figure exclaimed in the frame against the sun pouring in through a window behind him. Durantem was a boy of age fifteen with dark brown hair and blue eyes and, though he was a little short in size, had the look of a hard worker. Upon standing up and rubbing his eyes again, he flip-flopped across the wooden floor to the window next to the bed and leaned on the sill overlooking his garden outside. There, out in the garden several yards away, was Mish.
Mish had happened upon Durantem when he was only three, who was found in a burning building among a pile of dirty rags where no one else was present. Mish, who was there at that moment, was searching the home for survivors and heard Durantem crying and quickly fetched him out. He was raised by Mish and his wife the rest of his life, and when he turned 13 they built a small home and Mish offered it to him on a condition that he worked his share out on the gardens. Almost every cottage had a garden, and required tending to before the winter came, which would be, presently, very soon. When it turned winter there was a certain amount of harsh fog, snow and ice; the time when drifters would come. Drifters were common in Lyrnyiuin; the land that Durantem currently resided in which lay far south of Lacerta. Mish and Ancie usually took it upon themselves to feed them, maybe allow a one nights rest and then send them on their way. Usually the drifters were people who had landed by ship, as the coast was only a few miles to the south.
Sometimes Traders came by to Lyrnyiun and bought their wares, giving the village enough money to perhaps buy better tools or more seeds. It wasn't such a stressful life because Durantem didn't mind. But frankly, Durantem wasn't a stay at home type. Yeran was like this. Yeran was a lean, tall individual who, during the First Age War, was a commander. Recently, he had been training to be a bard. Durantem had no clue where his peculiar friend, Yeran, had come from, but he usually traveled many places in search of something to write, fight or sing about, and in Durantems mind it was a most adventurous way to accomplish a warriors trade, albeit the singing and poetic stature.
Durantem would find any way of leaving with Yeran when he was young, and it usually never worked because Yeran was always careful and made sure he could spot him out.
| 
