Chapter 1: "Tomorrow!"
An evening was falling on the village
of Taru; A quiet evening, but also a very tensed one. This evening was soon followed by a
night - quieter, for every movement was stopped and every men and women was lying in their
beds, but also more tensed, for the very same reason.
Mistake not to think that the source of this tense was fear, or anger, or sadness!
That was the best kind of tense, coming from a joyful expectation. Every wood seemed to be
whispering the word, every wind seemed to be passing the word, every dog seemed to be
howling the word toward the sky: Tomorrow! Tomorrow the Fianna are coming! Tomorrow!
Young Ayrien was lying in her bed as well, but she could not get herself to sleep:
she was too tensed, too excited. Tomorrow! Tomorrow the legendary warriors, the center of
her dreams of day and night, the ones she admires so much, the Fianna themselves will be
HERE, in her little village! The day she had longed for for so long is TOMORROW…
Tomorrow, she will get to dance in front the Fianna!
Unlike the other dancers, Ayrien had no fear from the dance. She knew she was good
enough, or she would not have been chosen to lead it… 'And who knows?' She was
thinking for herself, half-dreaming. 'Maybe one of the Fianna will see me dancing,
and…' A smile started spreading on Ayrien's face, a joyful smile, yet not without
self-criticism. 'You silly girl', she thought. 'Now you really won't get any sleep!' But
that thought didn't help much - her smile was widening still… With a little sigh she
crawled out of her bed - A girl like her just can't remain lying in a night like this!
Very quietly she tiptoed out of the house, and started running in her joy,
bear-foot as she was. Knowing that no one can see her, she ran straight to her favorite
tree and with three leaps climbed to its top, where she sat on a wide branch, her back
leaned on the tree's thick trunk. Her legs were swinging in the air, and a short laugh of
childish happiness forced itself out of her mouth to the sweet spring air. Between the
green leaves she could see the moon smiling toward her, and she, off course, returned a
smile. The old moon looked just as he is going to open his mouth to speak, and Ayrien's
too wide imagination could give words to him…
"What would your dear father say, if he'd found you up here, all alone in such
a late hour of the night?" She could almost hear the moon saying. Ayrien knew very
well what her dear father would say… "Oh, what can I do with you, girl?" He
would sigh. "Why can't you understand that you are almost a women now, not a little
child that can run out all day with the boys! Soon you'll be expected to take
responsibility on a house of your own, girl! You're 17, you're not a baby any more!".
Ayrien gave out a sigh of her own. She tried, she tried so hard to be more reasonable, to
behave the way she was expected to, but it was so hard for her! Her blood was too hot for
that, her spirit too free.
'Maybe the gossiping women of the
village were right' entered an un-called thought into her mind. 'Maybe I would have been
different if I had a mother to raise me…' After all, it was logical - since her
mother died giving birth to her, she had no feminine model to follow. She wasn't ill
raised, nevertheless - her father and elder brothers gave her all the love she could ask
for. But they were no mother…
As soon as she regained control on
her own thoughts, however, Ayrien knew that it was not true. Her brave heart, her boiling
blood was a part of her special self just like her deep blue eyes, and as crucial for her
as her breathing mouth. She can't be different; she can't be like the other girls, so weak
and vulnerable. She is Ayrien! And her mother was not very different, she knew from the
stories - It's not common for a poor girl, as beautiful as she may be, to marry a
nobleman, the head of the village - but her mother did.
No, she would have still been like
that, even if her beautiful mother were alive.
A sudden feeling of peace came to
Ayrien's beating heart, and silently she slipped back to her bed. It was not long until
she was sleeping like a baby… The smile, however, had not left her face - a moment
before falling asleep she could still here the trees whispering: "Tomorrow…
tomorrow… tomorrow…"
