Somadina's Adventures.
CHAPTER 2- Part 1- Double Life: A Trip to Waltadot
Somadina walked up to her room and sat on the bed, she had been reminded by her parents what was to happen the next day; if she had been given a whole day to guess she would never had thought of that. A lord would be coming to take her back to his mansion, he was sure to send a carriage instead but that wouldn’t change the fact that she was to serve in his mansion as his servant. If she was to refuse going with him, then they would be stripped of their house, land and protection, their current feudalistic government wasn’t the best and they knew it but then they couldn’t do anything about it; they were just ordinary vassals.
Her parents had called her back home to get prepared for the next day, the few clothes she’d take with her needed packing and she too needed to get a goodnight’s sleep for the journey tomorrow. This was probably going to be the last time she’d be in her room, her heap of cloths would be left behind and would be obsolete by the time she might return.
She picked up a thick leather bag and walked to the heap of cloths on the ground to take what she might need and leave behind those she wouldn’t. All the cloths she had been accumulating over the past few months were now to be left behind, even her favorite; a lavender short gown with a woven flower on its chest and a black scarf to be passed across her back and held onto, all these she had gotten in a flea market. She couldn’t take those because she felt it’d look better than whatever the lady she might eventually be attending to could garner up. She hoped terribly that it wouldn’t be the over-pampered Sanita that she’d be made to attend to, if she ended up in such situation, she knew well enough how to source a garrote and using it wouldn’t really be a problem.
Soon, her bag was full but the cloths she would have loved to bring along were still littered across the room, she’d have to leave them behind and hope she wouldn’t have grown in anyway by the next few or several years when she might be allowed to return. She laid back-first on her bed to whimper, when she had been told of the Lord’s coming she hadn’t felt it was to be a big deal to her; she had sidelined thoughts of it, hoping the day would never come.
***
Somadina opened her eyes wide, she had slept off while watching a movie, she must have been dragged away by her second-life which seemed to have taken a negative turn, but then it was just a dream, and she hadn’t dreamt anything about it the night before so she was sure she could live without ever visiting it as long as she didn’t sleep in the daytime.
She sat up on the couch and tried paying attention to the movie playing out on the screen before her, it seemed a lot like her second-life but this one had greener pastures which her dream-life’s countryside farm lacked.
She soon yawned loudly and laid back on the couch, if there was anything she knew, it was that she could fight off the pressing urge to sleep for as long as she needed to, and with help of the movie she was watching she was in no doubt of a victory. A blink and a half later the television was off, she heard a loud bang from a relatively loud distance and knew for sure that their transformer had blown up and it would probably take a day or two to get fixed; so much for her positivity of victory! Her dream life was now winning and would end up being willingly let to win if only it would present another scenario different from the one it had been giving her since yesterday. She sighed softly whilst concluding she’d wake herself if she didn’t start liking her new life.
***
A shake jolted Somadina back to life. A new day’s sun shone brightly into her eyes, reducing the lady before her to a shadow. Her medieval room hadn’t really changed, it still had her cloths lying beside her on the bed and on the ground; the lord had probably decided to let her be, and must have chosen another girl to replace her—she only came into this dream to enjoy it and not to serve as anyone’s slave.
‘Get up, Miriam,’ the lady said, Somadina looked up at her in confusion, who was Miriam. She knew well enough her name wasn’t Miriam, how could the lady’s mispronunciation of Somadina lead her to Miriam? And if the woman was really calling her that name then there will be trouble in the land, trouble that she’d cause, ‘Lord Laryis would be here anytime soon! ‘
Somadina slowly sat up on the bed, her mother was the one talking; her second-life’s name must have been Miriam, a name she didn’t like at all. She yawned loudly at her mother before attempting to get up to go take her bath. A few more bags were waiting beside her bed; her mother must have filled them up for her before waking her.
Miriam walked downstairs after getting ready for the day. She carried a few of her bags with her expecting to see Joe who she believed would be ready to help her carry them. She dropped the bags right at the door and walked out of the house in search of Joe who seemed to be running late; but then there wasn’t really any reason to look for him, he was a habitual late-comer. She could remember telling him to come earlier than she had woken up, he had told her not to worry but now there was need to worry—he was nowhere to be found.
She shouldn’t really be surprised, she thought. She had seen him with Sanita the previous day so she had a clue of what had happened; he chose Sanita over her, if that wasn’t the case why else would her be running late on the last day they were to be together—together as friends, Miriam soliloquized. Miriam turned back into the house and walked to an open wooden window where a sundial was waiting: it was well past noon and she knew the Lord would already be on his way so she had to remove thoughts of going to Joe’s house from her stubborn mind, he must have come earlier and had gone after waiting forever for her to wake up, and must had also deliberately refused to wake her up.
A carriage rattled to a halt at the end of their farm, no vehicle could get past the farm through the narrow path, it was the only way into the farm and was sandwiched between the towering wheat farm and the nearly full grown maize-crops. Her father helped her carry the bags to the carriage amid his chants of how she’d enjoy her stay with the Lord and the inevitability of her forgetting her family. She grinned at his funny jokes and made a few comments on things she expected to have changed when she’d return. But she knew better, there was probably no coming back for her, at least not until her youthful energy would’ve been milked away. Joe had told her of his aunt who had spent and was still spending a few decades of her life at a Lord’s mansion. Although he was anticipating his aunt’s return he said he knew she was only to spend a few years on earth before passing on.
Miriam and her father were soon done with the lifting and loading, what remained now before a final goodbye were the final hugs which she had been dreading since she was informed of her leaving. She had avoided the few hugs her mother had tried to give her on several occasions but could never reject her father’s hugs; he was indeed her good old chap!
After a hug or two Miriam found herself in the carriage waving a heavy handed goodbye at her parents, her sister had probably left home a few hours earlier to avoid offering her a final goodbye. They had both been best of friends but the news of her departure had hit them both hard; the usually long chats they often had had been reduced to one-word exclamation which was a measure they employed to attempt reducing the amount of tears to be shed for each other once they were separated.
A heavy sigh followed by trickles of tears exited Miriam’s system, outside the fast gliding carriage was their little house which she had recently come to love. It was soon covered by the stalks of wheat which seemed to be waving goodbyes to her too; behind the few ripples of the wheat she could see her parents still waving their hands at her or probably couldn’t just bring down their hands which he believed was supposed to be heavy by now.
Beyond their house was the once beautiful cottage where Joe also lived with his parents, she hadn’t seen him today possibly because he couldn’t bear seeing her go, or because he had decided to cut his losses and stay with Sanita who wasn’t going anywhere anytime soon or ever, she was a Lord’s daughter and didn’t have to work for any one, she had servants doing a lot for her, but perhaps there will come a time when she’d have to leave; when she must have met her prince charming!
The luggage clapped and banged onto each other all through the journey but soon came to a stop along with the carriage. Miriam stepped out of the carriage to meet staring eyes which weren’t what she had expected to see, she had drawn up in her mind a peaceful and quiet mansion with servant standings humbly beside their lords and ladies who were to sit on comfortable chairs beside a beautiful house sipping down a glass of brandy which would be filled back up when it gets low by a servant carrying a jug and waiting beside the lord and lady.
She carried her bag of cloths and followed a young man who had beckoned her to do so whilst she was still looking around, she had expected the other servants carrying the other bags to follow her but that wasn’t the case, she was mistaken, those bags weren’t hers’, they were for the lord, her parents seemed to be telling the lord a big thank you with the bags for taking her in but she knew they weren’t; they were only doing what any other vassal would have done. She walked past the young man who was waiting for her to enter through a door he had opened. He slammed the door shut behind him and began leading her again. She was led up a series of curved stairs to a king-sized moderately dark room with a nicely robed four-poster bed and a blue cushioned stool at its end, a dressing table with a large mirror, two large drawings—one on the wall next to the bed, and another beside the door—, a door probably leading to a dressing room and a bathroom just like the one she had at home; she was sure the bathroom had a chamberpot in it. He told her to stay in the room and await his return. She suspired as she walked to the bed where she sat down before dropping her bag on the floor; the lady or lord she’d be serving must really be a kind one to let this be her room!
After opening the windows Miriam laid on the bed to await the young man. The door soon opened and a young girl of her age walked in smiling at her, she had on her a red velvet gown that had its large sleeves hanging down towards the floor, a thick furry blue scarf was around the girl’s neck and was also reaching down to the floor, with her dark brown hair chasing the scarf down to her back; she was gorgeous, but unlike Sanita.
She sprang up from the bed knowing she had to show respect to her probable mistress, but on second thoughts she believed herself to be in the girl’s room.
‘You can lie back down if you want,’ she walked to her side still smiling. Miriam knew there wasn’t anything funny about her, her father had told her so, but why was she still smiling? She was sure, and had been advised she only had to stand erect and not talk to or say what was on her mind to the lady, any lady unless she had been asked to do so, ‘I asked father to allow you stay in the same room with me! ‘
Miriam sat on the bed after a few seconds, pondering on whether her sitting down was correct; she had only been asked to lie down, but then she had to test the water to know if it was safe to tread on.
‘What’s your name?’ the girl asked, sitting beside her.
‘Soma— Miriam!’
‘Sweet name! Mine is Hzhasneha, mother calls me Hzha, you can also call me that if you want,’ the girl stood up from the bed and took hold of Miriam’s bag, ‘but not in front of father, he’d be mad at me—he says we shouldn’t be too informal with the servants but I don’t really get it’.
Hzhasneha left the unzipped bag and walked to the door when a knock was sounded on it; she pulled it open and talked with a servant who left shortly after.
‘Father wants you to come meet him, he’ll be waiting with mother in his chamber.’ Hzhasneha watched her stand to go with her but stopped her with a stern gaze, ‘father wouldn’t want to see you in that, he prefers responsible dresses. I think I saw a lavender gown in your bag, you can wear that, it would make father think I was kind enough to lend you one of my old wears!’Miriam couldn’t believe her eyes when the girl pulled the cloth out from her bag, her mother must have packed it in.
The girl had said it looked like one of her old cloths but that couldn’t be true, she was probably jealous and had said that to hurt her feelings. Hzhasneha put the gown in Miriam’s hand and pushed her into the dressing room which got Miriam amazed; it was a lot bigger than her own room.
She walked out of the dressing room still gazing at the gown she had been made to wear. The girl resumed her smile whilst leading her to the door through which they then headed towards the stairs.
‘After meeting father we could both go into town and watch the men unloading the carts from the ship, but we have to leave early so we’d go watch a musical revue at the theatre downtown.’
CHAPTER 2- Part 1- Double Life: A Trip to Waltadot
Somadina walked up to her room and sat on the bed, she had been reminded by her parents what was to happen the next day; if she had been given a whole day to guess she would never had thought of that. A lord would be coming to take her back to his mansion, he was sure to send a carriage instead but that wouldn’t change the fact that she was to serve in his mansion as his servant. If she was to refuse going with him, then they would be stripped of their house, land and protection, their current feudalistic government wasn’t the best and they knew it but then they couldn’t do anything about it; they were just ordinary vassals.
Her parents had called her back home to get prepared for the next day, the few clothes she’d take with her needed packing and she too needed to get a goodnight’s sleep for the journey tomorrow. This was probably going to be the last time she’d be in her room, her heap of cloths would be left behind and would be obsolete by the time she might return.
She picked up a thick leather bag and walked to the heap of cloths on the ground to take what she might need and leave behind those she wouldn’t. All the cloths she had been accumulating over the past few months were now to be left behind, even her favorite; a lavender short gown with a woven flower on its chest and a black scarf to be passed across her back and held onto, all these she had gotten in a flea market. She couldn’t take those because she felt it’d look better than whatever the lady she might eventually be attending to could garner up. She hoped terribly that it wouldn’t be the over-pampered Sanita that she’d be made to attend to, if she ended up in such situation, she knew well enough how to source a garrote and using it wouldn’t really be a problem.
Soon, her bag was full but the cloths she would have loved to bring along were still littered across the room, she’d have to leave them behind and hope she wouldn’t have grown in anyway by the next few or several years when she might be allowed to return. She laid back-first on her bed to whimper, when she had been told of the Lord’s coming she hadn’t felt it was to be a big deal to her; she had sidelined thoughts of it, hoping the day would never come.
***
Somadina opened her eyes wide, she had slept off while watching a movie, she must have been dragged away by her second-life which seemed to have taken a negative turn, but then it was just a dream, and she hadn’t dreamt anything about it the night before so she was sure she could live without ever visiting it as long as she didn’t sleep in the daytime.
She sat up on the couch and tried paying attention to the movie playing out on the screen before her, it seemed a lot like her second-life but this one had greener pastures which her dream-life’s countryside farm lacked.
She soon yawned loudly and laid back on the couch, if there was anything she knew, it was that she could fight off the pressing urge to sleep for as long as she needed to, and with help of the movie she was watching she was in no doubt of a victory. A blink and a half later the television was off, she heard a loud bang from a relatively loud distance and knew for sure that their transformer had blown up and it would probably take a day or two to get fixed; so much for her positivity of victory! Her dream life was now winning and would end up being willingly let to win if only it would present another scenario different from the one it had been giving her since yesterday. She sighed softly whilst concluding she’d wake herself if she didn’t start liking her new life.
***
A shake jolted Somadina back to life. A new day’s sun shone brightly into her eyes, reducing the lady before her to a shadow. Her medieval room hadn’t really changed, it still had her cloths lying beside her on the bed and on the ground; the lord had probably decided to let her be, and must have chosen another girl to replace her—she only came into this dream to enjoy it and not to serve as anyone’s slave.
‘Get up, Miriam,’ the lady said, Somadina looked up at her in confusion, who was Miriam. She knew well enough her name wasn’t Miriam, how could the lady’s mispronunciation of Somadina lead her to Miriam? And if the woman was really calling her that name then there will be trouble in the land, trouble that she’d cause, ‘Lord Laryis would be here anytime soon! ‘
Somadina slowly sat up on the bed, her mother was the one talking; her second-life’s name must have been Miriam, a name she didn’t like at all. She yawned loudly at her mother before attempting to get up to go take her bath. A few more bags were waiting beside her bed; her mother must have filled them up for her before waking her.
Miriam walked downstairs after getting ready for the day. She carried a few of her bags with her expecting to see Joe who she believed would be ready to help her carry them. She dropped the bags right at the door and walked out of the house in search of Joe who seemed to be running late; but then there wasn’t really any reason to look for him, he was a habitual late-comer. She could remember telling him to come earlier than she had woken up, he had told her not to worry but now there was need to worry—he was nowhere to be found.
She shouldn’t really be surprised, she thought. She had seen him with Sanita the previous day so she had a clue of what had happened; he chose Sanita over her, if that wasn’t the case why else would her be running late on the last day they were to be together—together as friends, Miriam soliloquized. Miriam turned back into the house and walked to an open wooden window where a sundial was waiting: it was well past noon and she knew the Lord would already be on his way so she had to remove thoughts of going to Joe’s house from her stubborn mind, he must have come earlier and had gone after waiting forever for her to wake up, and must had also deliberately refused to wake her up.
A carriage rattled to a halt at the end of their farm, no vehicle could get past the farm through the narrow path, it was the only way into the farm and was sandwiched between the towering wheat farm and the nearly full grown maize-crops. Her father helped her carry the bags to the carriage amid his chants of how she’d enjoy her stay with the Lord and the inevitability of her forgetting her family. She grinned at his funny jokes and made a few comments on things she expected to have changed when she’d return. But she knew better, there was probably no coming back for her, at least not until her youthful energy would’ve been milked away. Joe had told her of his aunt who had spent and was still spending a few decades of her life at a Lord’s mansion. Although he was anticipating his aunt’s return he said he knew she was only to spend a few years on earth before passing on.
Miriam and her father were soon done with the lifting and loading, what remained now before a final goodbye were the final hugs which she had been dreading since she was informed of her leaving. She had avoided the few hugs her mother had tried to give her on several occasions but could never reject her father’s hugs; he was indeed her good old chap!
After a hug or two Miriam found herself in the carriage waving a heavy handed goodbye at her parents, her sister had probably left home a few hours earlier to avoid offering her a final goodbye. They had both been best of friends but the news of her departure had hit them both hard; the usually long chats they often had had been reduced to one-word exclamation which was a measure they employed to attempt reducing the amount of tears to be shed for each other once they were separated.
A heavy sigh followed by trickles of tears exited Miriam’s system, outside the fast gliding carriage was their little house which she had recently come to love. It was soon covered by the stalks of wheat which seemed to be waving goodbyes to her too; behind the few ripples of the wheat she could see her parents still waving their hands at her or probably couldn’t just bring down their hands which he believed was supposed to be heavy by now.
Beyond their house was the once beautiful cottage where Joe also lived with his parents, she hadn’t seen him today possibly because he couldn’t bear seeing her go, or because he had decided to cut his losses and stay with Sanita who wasn’t going anywhere anytime soon or ever, she was a Lord’s daughter and didn’t have to work for any one, she had servants doing a lot for her, but perhaps there will come a time when she’d have to leave; when she must have met her prince charming!
The luggage clapped and banged onto each other all through the journey but soon came to a stop along with the carriage. Miriam stepped out of the carriage to meet staring eyes which weren’t what she had expected to see, she had drawn up in her mind a peaceful and quiet mansion with servant standings humbly beside their lords and ladies who were to sit on comfortable chairs beside a beautiful house sipping down a glass of brandy which would be filled back up when it gets low by a servant carrying a jug and waiting beside the lord and lady.
She carried her bag of cloths and followed a young man who had beckoned her to do so whilst she was still looking around, she had expected the other servants carrying the other bags to follow her but that wasn’t the case, she was mistaken, those bags weren’t hers’, they were for the lord, her parents seemed to be telling the lord a big thank you with the bags for taking her in but she knew they weren’t; they were only doing what any other vassal would have done. She walked past the young man who was waiting for her to enter through a door he had opened. He slammed the door shut behind him and began leading her again. She was led up a series of curved stairs to a king-sized moderately dark room with a nicely robed four-poster bed and a blue cushioned stool at its end, a dressing table with a large mirror, two large drawings—one on the wall next to the bed, and another beside the door—, a door probably leading to a dressing room and a bathroom just like the one she had at home; she was sure the bathroom had a chamberpot in it. He told her to stay in the room and await his return. She suspired as she walked to the bed where she sat down before dropping her bag on the floor; the lady or lord she’d be serving must really be a kind one to let this be her room!
After opening the windows Miriam laid on the bed to await the young man. The door soon opened and a young girl of her age walked in smiling at her, she had on her a red velvet gown that had its large sleeves hanging down towards the floor, a thick furry blue scarf was around the girl’s neck and was also reaching down to the floor, with her dark brown hair chasing the scarf down to her back; she was gorgeous, but unlike Sanita.
She sprang up from the bed knowing she had to show respect to her probable mistress, but on second thoughts she believed herself to be in the girl’s room.
‘You can lie back down if you want,’ she walked to her side still smiling. Miriam knew there wasn’t anything funny about her, her father had told her so, but why was she still smiling? She was sure, and had been advised she only had to stand erect and not talk to or say what was on her mind to the lady, any lady unless she had been asked to do so, ‘I asked father to allow you stay in the same room with me! ‘
Miriam sat on the bed after a few seconds, pondering on whether her sitting down was correct; she had only been asked to lie down, but then she had to test the water to know if it was safe to tread on.
‘What’s your name?’ the girl asked, sitting beside her.
‘Soma— Miriam!’
‘Sweet name! Mine is Hzhasneha, mother calls me Hzha, you can also call me that if you want,’ the girl stood up from the bed and took hold of Miriam’s bag, ‘but not in front of father, he’d be mad at me—he says we shouldn’t be too informal with the servants but I don’t really get it’.
Hzhasneha left the unzipped bag and walked to the door when a knock was sounded on it; she pulled it open and talked with a servant who left shortly after.
‘Father wants you to come meet him, he’ll be waiting with mother in his chamber.’ Hzhasneha watched her stand to go with her but stopped her with a stern gaze, ‘father wouldn’t want to see you in that, he prefers responsible dresses. I think I saw a lavender gown in your bag, you can wear that, it would make father think I was kind enough to lend you one of my old wears!’Miriam couldn’t believe her eyes when the girl pulled the cloth out from her bag, her mother must have packed it in.
The girl had said it looked like one of her old cloths but that couldn’t be true, she was probably jealous and had said that to hurt her feelings. Hzhasneha put the gown in Miriam’s hand and pushed her into the dressing room which got Miriam amazed; it was a lot bigger than her own room.
She walked out of the dressing room still gazing at the gown she had been made to wear. The girl resumed her smile whilst leading her to the door through which they then headed towards the stairs.
‘After meeting father we could both go into town and watch the men unloading the carts from the ship, but we have to leave early so we’d go watch a musical revue at the theatre downtown.’
0 comments:
Post a Comment