Tag Archive for 'nijelyn'

Title: Carisae's Return Arc: Faerie Rating: PG Written: Summer 2000 Summary: A young Jeassinae reflects on her mother's behavior toward her. Author's Note: This is one of the earliest scenes I wrote for The Saint's Heir which dates it to the summer of 2000, shortly after I finished the first draft of The Fairie's Daughter. I think my primary reason for liking it so is that it contains a very young Jeassinae. These characters, stories, and ideas are the original, copyrighted work of Nicole Sharp and are protected under a Creative Commons License. The forest was quiet and peaceful in the sunlight and provided hiding places where the girl could view everything around her and think without being disturbed. The branch where she sat was her favorite, nearly eight feet off the ground, and as high as a mountain to the five-year-old. She sighed and leaned against the tree trunk, her hands gripping the oak’s bark with caution. Sunlight glittered through the foliage, teasing her senses. It was beautiful here in her home, the only home she could remember. She belonged here, with her family of older brothers and sisters, and Aderana. She smiled, her wings twitching, as she thought of her oldest sister. If anyone was her mother, it was Aderana. But, as much as she wished that it were true, she knew that it wasn’t. And her real mother was coming. Everyone else was excited at the house. They were all nervous with anticipation, and even Aderana had ignored her more than usual. Everyone was working to prepare for her mother’s visit from Aderana to Deirdae to Nijelyn, who was the youngest next to her. A tear escaped her eye and she wiped it away. She didn’t want to see their mother at all. She abandoned me, the girl thought. I never want to see her again. “Jeassinae?” a voice called. The girl glanced down to see a sister, Sylla, looking up at her. Sylla was fifteen winters old now; her birthingday had been celebrated recently. “Aderana is searching for you. Why are you out here and not helping to prepare for Mother’s arrival?” “I don’t want her to come.” “Jeassinae, that’s terrible! Come down here right now. I want you to go tell Aderana that to her face. I don’t think you could manage it.” “I’ll say it to Carisae’s face,” Jeassinae snapped, her temper flaring. “You wouldn’t do that,” another voice said. “Come on down, Jea. Sylla, can you go back to the house and make sure that everything is going smoothly?” “Yes, Aderana,” Sylla acknowledged as she left. “Come, Jea,” Aderana beckoned. “You must greet Carisae with me.” “No,” the girl said as she shook her head, “I won’t.” “Jeassinae,” Aderana said firmly, “come down here right now.” The little girl’s eyes were full of pain and anger as she shook her head again. “Aderana, please don’t make me. Don’t make me see her again.” Jeassinae began to cry. “Oh, my little one, don’t cry. Come here, I’ll dry your tears, but you must tell me what troubles you so.” Jeassinae agreed as she climbed down and ran into her sister’s embrace. “I love you, Aderana,” she sobbed, “but I don’t love Mother. I can’t.” “Jea,” Aderana gasped, “why not?” Jeassinae knew her sister could not imagine hating Carisae. “She hates me,” the child answered. “She hates me so much, and I don’t understand why. She left me here before I was even finished with my spurt, sister. And you don’t know what she did to me before that.” The girl’s explanation dissolved into tears. “It’s all right, Jea. You don’t have to love our mother. But you still need to come with me and stay at the house while she’s here.” The girl shook her head. “Don’t make me, please.” “Jeassinae, you know I will not let you leave. Come on, Jea, be brave, my little Faerie.” Jeassinae giggled as her sister tickled her. “Okay, okay, I’ll try, sister, for you.” They walked back to the house together, and, not an hour later, Aderana sensed her mother’s approach. “She’s here, she’s here,” Nijelyn sang out from the windowsill. “Aderana, Cecyl, Girryn, Deirdae, Jeassinae, she’s here,” he sang as he danced about the room before running out the door, just ahead of his siblings. The black haired boy reached her first and threw his arms around the woman’s waist. “Mother, Mother, Mother,” he chanted. “Is this my Nijelyn?” she laughed as she ruffled his hair, shifting the child she held in her arms. Her older children gathered around her, and shouts and happy cries surrounded them all. It was chaos until Aderana spoke, “Mother, who do you have with you?” The children fell back to allow Carisae room to speak. Three new children grasped the woman’s skirt and she held a toddler in her arms. “This is Mettissia,” she said, indicating a fair-haired girl, “and she is four winters old. These boys are twins, Taimer and Fontin; both are three winters, and this little one,” she indicated the boy in her arms, “is Veklos. He is two winters old. I have brought them to join you here.” She looked up at her older children. “My goodness, there are so many of you now, Chervari.” “You know my name,” Aderana said with annoyance. “Yes, of course, Aderana. Forgive me.” “We are seventeen now?” Trijeson asked, standing tall at age eighteen. Cairsae looked over the sea of faces. “Seventeen? There are only sixteen of you here.” Aderana glanced behind her toward the house, where she saw Jeassinae standing near the door, her expression that of one lost. She beckoned to her little sister, and Carisae craned her neck to see the person Aderana was calling to. She saw the face of the little girl and gasped; it was so much like that of her little Chervari, and the wings were nearly the same. But rather than Aderana’s expression of joy, this girl glared at her mother in anger and resentment. “Who is this, Aderana?” Carisae whispered. “Is this—“ “Is this the child you abandoned the night she was born?” Jeassinae interjected. “Yes, I am.” With that she ran into the forest again. Aderana reached toward her little sister and started after her, but Carisae called to her. “No, Aderana, don’t go after her. Come. Show me the home you have made here.” It was beginning to get darker anyway, and Aderana turned back to the sunlight, her mother.

« Return to the public Faerie excerpts