Standing Steady in the Storms Ch. 32

Puppies and Butter in Town

Notes:

I think Frankle came to Anniera with Leeli....but I don't actually know, lol

One of the core purposes of this chapter is to show what's going on outside of Castle Rysen in Anniera and outside of their family. It's not super extensive, but it covers a bit of the town^^

*****

“I cannot believe that Frankle ate the rest of Mama’s butter!” Leeli exclaimed as she and Sara began walking down the dirt road that led to Rysentown. “I just don’t understand it. I’ve told him so many times not to eat it, and every time he listens. So why did he disobey this time?” She looked at Sara for an explanation. 

She received a shrug in response. “I don’t know. But Mama — I mean, Nia — needs butter to make butterbread and we have to go get it.” She looked down at her feet as they began walking to the edge of Rysentown, where the less-local Annierans held a farmer’s market from breakfast to just after lunchtime.

Leeli felt Sara’s awkward silence and couldn’t help but do something about it. “You know,” she said sweetly, slipping her hand into Sara’s. “I really like that you started calling Mama ‘Mama’ in the past few weeks. You’re like a sister to me and Mama treats you like her daughter. She always has. Don’t be afraid to call her Mama.”

Sara raised her head from the ground and looked Leeli in the eyes. Leeli smiled at her and Sara smiled back. Of course they were sisters-in-law, but Leeli thought of them as sisters-in-heart.

It was a short walk to town from Castle Rysen. Sara had gone with Leeli for two reasons. One, take a break from being inside Castle Rysen. Nia knew it was hard for her and wanted her to have a relief that involved distance for a solid hour. 

The second reason was the one that made Leeli laugh. Sara was also there to keep her from going to the puppy vendor and buying another puppy. Or two. Or four. Or all of the ones he had there and at home and in Anniera.

Even though she knew she wasn’t supposed to bring any more puppies home, as soon as they stepped foot in the Market, Leeli found her feet gravitating towards Lork Wendle, or the “puppy-man,” as she had secretly nicknamed him. 

“Hello Mr. Wend—” she managed to get out before she felt Sara’s hands on her shoulders, steering her away from Lork and towards Mrs. Hendra, the cheesemonger. “I’ll be back later,” she whispered as she craned her neck to see him.

Lork laughed and waved. “Goodbye, Lady Leeli.”

Sara made a beeline for Mrs. Hendra’s stand. “Good morning, Mrs. Hendra,” she greeted her politely. 

“And a ‘good mornin’ to you too, Sara,” Mrs. Hendra replied, face beaming. 

She was a genuinely nice woman, plump and middle-aged with rosy cheeks and a warm smile. Formalities mattered little to her — she would just as soon give her guest room to a penniless tramp as to a royal courtier. In fact, if the tramp was much more polite than the snobby courtier, it was likely that she would slam the door in the courtier’s face and watch him rage as she welcomed the tramp into her home.

“Now, what’ll it be today?”

“Mama asked us to pick up some more butter. A pound and a half, please.” Leeli jumped in before Sara could answer.

Mrs. Hendra raised her eyebrow and turned to rummage through her cart for the butter she kept cold with ice from the previous winter. “I seem to remember Nia comin’ into town just the other day for a boatload of butter. Now I wonder how she managed to go through it all so quickly.” She walked back over, holding a brown-paper-wrapped parcel with a large block of butter inside. As she and Sara exchanged the butter for Annieran coin, Mrs. Hendra looked at Leeli, a suspicious twinkle in her eye.

Leeli laughed nervously. “Well, Frankle managed to get into the butter and eat it. All of it.”

Mrs. Hendra smiled. “Ah, the honest Leeli. Unable to hide a single thing or tell a lie. I bet your Ma was a mite bit furious, wasn’t she?”

“Uhh,” Leeli thought back to the time that morning when Nia had found Frankle in the cellar, his face smeared in creamy butter that he was still in the process of licking off. Her mother’s yell had been enough to wake her, and she was sleeping two stories above. “I suppose she was a bit frustrated.”

Mrs. Hendra laughed this time. “I take that to mean she was. Now, Sara. How is Janner doin’?”

Sara’s eyes flickered uncertainly and Leeli felt a change in the air around them. Mrs. Hendra had spoken quietly, knowing that it was a sensitive subject that was on the minds of every Annieran at the time, but others still heard. 

Sara waited until normal traffic had resumed again before speaking. “He’s...alright. I guess.”

“And what does that mean, dearie?” Mrs. Hendra pressed with inventions that were only good.

Sara hesitated again. Leeli involuntarily held her breath. “I mean, he’s not really eating well, and communication has been a bit of a challenge.” She stopped there. Leeli knew it was because if Sara went much further, she would start crying. Crying in public was the last thing she wanted to do.

Mrs. Hendra nodded understandingly. “I take your words to be downplays of what’s  really goin’ on. Mr. Hendra and I are prayin’ for you and your family. ‘Specially you and Janner. It’s harder for the both of you than it is for the others.” Sara nodded and Leeli gave her arm a reassuring squeeze. “But lookin’ at a lighter note,” Mrs. Hendra continued. “Tell me ‘bout the twins.”

Sara’s eyes brightened and she launched into a long description of what Evnia and Elquinn had been doing lately. Mrs. Hendra listened with genuine interest that so many people lacked. She actually cared to hear how others were doing and she made it a point to let them know that they were cared for.

Seeing how absorbed Sara was in the small talk, Leeli slowly began edging her way towards Mr. Wendle’s puppy booth. She had made it three feet and was about to make a break for it. 

But just as she moved to do so, she heard something. It was a conversation between two men who she could not see, but she could hear them. She could hear what they were talking about.

“Eh, Kyler, what’d’ya think ‘bout this situation with the royal family? The Throne Warden’s lost the ‘Igh King ans’ in ‘ysterics, or so I ‘ear.” Leeli located them, standing at the tiny, makeshift pub just two booths down from Mrs. Hendra’s. She crept closer and listened. 

“Aye, mate. Seems strange to be visiting the Shining Isle of Anniera when the King’s not even present and his Throne Warden seems to have failed in his duties.” A worn-looking man with a gray mustache responded, and the hair above his lip wiggled like a caterpillar. If their conversation had not been so concerning, Leeli would have laughed aloud. 

“Me 'ole life,” the first man said. “I’ve been told stories of Anniera, of their traditions and the beau’y of i’tall. But ‘ere I come all the way from Dugtown, and everything’s falling apart. Seems to me they did a poor job training that Throne Warden, ‘oever 'e may be.” 

Leeli’s mouth dropped open in horror. What if word from these men reached Skree about what had happened? They would fill their story with a bunch of falsehoods created from their own misunderstanding and the painful truth of the matter. But what they said about Janner isn’t true, she thought, balling her hands into fists. 

Leeli popped up from where she was listening and walked over to them, her eyes flashing dangerously. “I don’t think you know what or whom you are talking about. Anniera is not falling apart. In fact, it is being run quite successfully through the start of summer.” She did not add that she was helping more than she ever had before and that it was incredibly stressful and nearly impossible to handle, even with assistance.

The first man’s dark eyes had grown wide with her unexpected interject, and he opened his mouth to speak. Leeli’s glare was enough to silence him. “And ‘that Throne Warden,’” she said, seething inwardly. “Just so happens to be my brother. You’ll do well not to speak poorly of him to each other or to anyone.” Leeli fixed them in a fierce stare and they responded with a dumbfounded look of fear and confusion. “And Janner — that’s the name of ‘that Throne Warden,’ just so you know — is doing his best to fix the current situation.” His best was currently wrenching her heart into tiny pieces, but the men before her did not need to know that. “So stop your criticisms and just—”

“Leeli!” She felt a hand on her shoulder as Sara spun her around. “Please, stay close.”

“But,” she protested.

“I am so sorry,” Sara turned towards the two strangers and smiled her biggest, and most theatrical, smile. “This is my little sister and she can get fierce sometimes. But you shouldn’t talk badly about situations and people you don’t understand. That can lead to destruction. Have a good day,” she said as they began the walk back to Castle Rysen.

When they were farther away from the market, Leeli turned to Sara. “Why did you do that?” she demanded. “Do you have any idea what those men were doing?”

Sara fixed her in a sad gaze. “Leeli, I know what they were—”

“They were heaping abuse on my brother and your husband, who doesn’t deserve it in the least." Leeli's eyes fierce and furious. "Janner's already drowning himself in far more shame than he should be — he doesn't need anyone else doing it for him! And not only that, they were saying the kingdom was falling apart. FALLING APART! Sara, can you imagine what would happen if word like that got back to Skree? They live in Skree! In Dugtown, of all places. Can you imagine how destructive it would be?”

Sara was quiet for a few moments, and when she spoke, her voice was sad and quiet. “Of course I can imagine it. And it would be dreadful if Skree heard that, especially when it isn’t the truth. But depending on how much longer Kalmar is missing, Skree will eventually learn. The fact remains that my husband is wallowing in guilt,” a tremor came into her voice and she swallowed. “Because he believes he failed as a Throne Warden. So are they right in their judgment? Maybe a little. But without the whole story, they have no right to judge.”

Leeli did not respond. When someone attacked her family, it was never a good thing. 

The question was: what would happen if Skree learned what had happened from such a tainted lens as the two men in the Market?

*****

Notes:

My main concern with this chapter when I wrote this was that characters were acting out of character.

I think Leeli's flare-up works because she got SO ANGRY with Slarb when he took Nugget. That coupled with the fact that she's a teenager with the ability to speak...it probably is IC???

And Sara knows out in public is the place to keep her emotions on the inside. I think. Possibly.

Unless no one in this chapter is in character. Or maybe no one in this entire fic is in charcter! Except for Thorn. He's in character when he appears on the scene 😂

Just to clarify, there are a lot of cocerns regarding 'word getting to Skree' that don't even come to fruition. Honestly, now I feel a little bad about those things kind of being loose ends...but...yeah. Anyway^^