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Chapter 5: The Beach
Part 1
Frix stood over his adversaries, all lined up one after the other. Silent, they intimidated him with their perfect stillness. He clutched his shortsharp, the smooth bone handle lacking its usual comfort. He rubbed the blade sidelong with the thumbpad of his free hand. The opponents stood their ground. He could feel sweat beginning to bead.
Beside him, his mother sighed.
“When’s food?” called Callum from some other part of the tent. “I’m hungry!”
“We’ll start whenever your brother makes a decision!” shouted Ennie of Bit. “Frix, dearest, it’s not that difficult.”
“Can’t we just roast some fowl? I’m great at roasting fowl,” said Frix.
“As the hosting family, we have to offer greens,” said Ennie. “If you’re old enough to be courting a lady from a prestigious triad, you’re old enough to be making the feasting decisions too.”
For the record, having Mossalea over to a family feast was not his idea. He’d much rather climb trees with her, or fish in the river like they usually did. But his parents had been persistent, and he was remiss to let them down. Also, he did want Callum to formally meet her. His little brother was now old enough to appreciate a match like her.
On the downside, he was now faced with coordinating the food. Before him, his mother had laid out no less than thirty different ingredients. Leafy greens, twiggy bitter greens, crunchy purple-greens, lumpy roots, knobbly roots, perfumed herbs, piles of seeds…
The tradition was to pick six things: three for each of the families in his triad, three for each in hers. Some sort of reasoning was required, stuff like how the sharpness of this flavour represented the spark of that family and the heartiness of that flavour represented the history of this family and on and on.
This was not his strong point. But time was running out, and he had to act.
“Okay, um. These vale nuts, let’s use them.”
“Delicious choice,” said his mother. “What’s your thinking?”
His reasoning was: because he knew she liked them. He said, “Buttery flavour, that uh, is like the smoothness of the Pal family’s… tradition of song and dance?”
“Hey, not bad, not bad. That wasn’t so hard now, was it?”
“I’ve been in worse situations,” he admitted, memories darting back to the witch on the hopjack trail. He gripped the sharp harder.
“Keep going.”
He concentrated, trying to remember the significant things about all these families. His mind wanted to wander in five different directions, from the bole-marshal’s debrief—which had concluded only hours ago—to the raid, to the girlwitch, to the new campwitch, to this feast… He forced himself to stare down the veggies.
“The All family, powerful and old, everyone knows it, so go with field lettuce,” he said.
“Fair enough.”
“And us, of Bit. Um, great at building and tenting so… strong roots. Carrot?”
“Halfway there.”
“Her family: Ran. Best of the Seedwind, know the woods really well. Mossflower sprouts. Every shoot-lead’s guide.” He grinned. “And ‘cause you know, her name.”
There was a bark of laughter from the entrance. Frix turned to see his father entering with a fresh catch of hopjacks. Barrod of Bit eyed the spread of foliage and smiled. “My boy’s a real romantic, eh?” he said.
“Isn’t it cute?” agreed Ennie.
Frix flushed. “Shut up and skin those, father, before I call the whole thing off.”
Still chuckling, Barrod retreated to another room.
Frix turned back to the task. “Something sharp and bitter for those of Tel. Snakewood seeds. And finally, the Got family. Big into breeding and, and big families, umm…”
Something poked his hip. Frix looked down to find his brother surveying the food. Callum said, “Buncher berries, those are great. Pick those. You can put lots in for lots of babies in the Got family and plus you need some sweetness in there, and plus, I’m hungry.”
“You’re a natural,” said Frix, ruffling Callum’s gangly black hair. “Maybe you should be courting Mossalea.”
“Ew, she’s old.”
“Yeah, you just wait until you meet her.”
“Okay boys, are we ready then?” asked their mother.
“Buncher berries it is. I’m going to go help father with the hopjacks now.” Frix made his escape before he got recruited for foliage-prep as well.
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