Serpentis Family/Erik Eyolf/Aspects of the Common Life - Part I
The Road
Some days ago...
The caravans were full with several products. Splendid manufactures worked in the skilled hands of Slimbar's people, the magnificent city that bloomed in the middle of green forests. Cradle of the elves. Elune's favorite place. It is what the travelers said. But the most precious "goods" were in the carriage: the merchant's two daughters. Jewels of rare jovial beauty. And their presence turned everything banal: the packed caravans, the mules overloaded of goods and the aligned employees to demonstrate the owner's wealth. The merchant didn't underestimate his daughters' importance. He knew that if they go beautiful and special to the eyes of a nobleman, the marriage would bring titles and lands. A noble name and inheritance. Prestige. And that hope was more worth than the well sculpted goods of Slimbar.
But the youths didn't worry about their father's malice. Leave Slimbar by the first time to know the world was an extraordinary adventure. Under the gold-orange light of the dawn they followed the roads through the forest, drawn as streams in the green immensity. The song of the birds in flight with the woodcutters' heavy sound. Sound of iron against secular trees. The spiraled smoke that ascended to the sky from the small coal-pits that fed the fire in the farms. Small properties in the glades where the people produced food to feed the region.
The merchant preferred to ignore Lissa, the small village. He was in a hurry of arriving in Dolmbar before the evening. But he couldn't avoid the temple. When the horses and mules needed some rest, it's also the moment to leave the employees to rest and eat under the crowns of the trees, taking advantage of the fresh shade and calm winds. Some merchants were the closest link between the commoners and nobility members. They didn't have titles and their lands still belonged to the Lords, but many got to prosper and accumulate small fortunes. They also paid the largest taxes, what certainly pleased their Lords. And pleased the temples too.
The druids were celebrating the morning prayers under the leaves that fell of the trees around the white-stone temple. Green mantles as the moss of the stones and roots. Hair and gray beards like a cloudy day. Holy Father venerable servants. They received the merchant and his daughters and accepted the gift: fruits of the season, milk, wine, honey and potato bread. The blessing of receiving the gift from beautiful feminine hands was rewarded with prayers that would protect the group in the travel and would bring good luck in the businesses. Some silver coins concluded the respectful change. Under the soft rain of leaves they returned to the caravans. The rest had finished and they went back to the road.
The sun moved forward with the travelers. From east to the west. It won vigor with vivid golden hot-yellow rays. With the humidity of the forest and the calm winds, the travel became extremely pleasant. Mainly for the curious youths inside the carriage, looking and absorbing that unknown world. For one of them the proximity with Dolmbar was especially exciting. Soon the first warnings appeared along the road and the expectation grew up when the sun began to hid behind the trees, decreasing in the horizon and spreading in the sky a red color that dyed the clouds in an impressive show. Was in that beauty of colors and sensations that they arrived to stay overnight in Dolmbar.
Dolmbar was a place of rare beauty, mainly after the administration of Lord Erik Eyolf Serpentis. Such beauty was explicit with the priestesses' cheerful return to the temple after the sacred baths in the small lost lakes in the forest. Beautiful women with light dresses and silver ornaments. They greeted and sang:
Beneath the moon
Beside an ancient lake
Enter again the sweet forest
Enter the hot dream
Come with us
Everything is broken up and dances.
Like mermaids and dryads they enchanted the men that couldn't take them. The favorites of Elune, affectionately known as Erik wives. They danced around the small cortege to disappear in the forest shadows. The men would have abandoned everything and forgotten their wives, but the merchant's inclement yoke made them forget those stupid ideas. Even his daughters were fascinated with so much beauty and freedom.
Merchant, to his daughters: "Now you know why a woman never captured the heart of the Judge of Sirion. It is difficult to choose when you see the Goddess's face in each woman's beauty."
The merchant cursed in a whisper. And inside the carriage one of his daughters sought for some determination. Perhaps she could get the prize that each woman in Sirion coveted.
