User:Choltai/Story

MY STORY continued

I settled on Adn, a majestic and flat land punctuated by mountains that lies at the edge of the sea. I was lucky enough to find paradise there, a beautiful grove of trees with a variety of colorful plants and a view you wouldn't believe: ocean from my doorstep to the horizon! I didn't have to deal with the crowded town, or neighbors so close they can look in your windows, or the traffic slowing your progress. Just the sun and fresh, sea air. I was happy for a time but was beginning to get lonely and this weighed heavily on my mind. My multi-great grandmother had died from lonliness; my grandmother tried to run away from it. I thought I could endure it, but when the Gods saw fit to recognize marriage my trial became more difficult. Happy couples all over the place. Celebrations and dancing and fireworks. The partnership, the companionship and the satisfaction it brought. I had to find a husband.

I was region hopping for some reason or another, maybe I was herbing or looking for acro, and there was this... talkative... guy in Stillwater looking for a wife in regional. Everyone seemed to know him, though he didn't live there, and no one was taking him up on his offer. My ride arrives for Shabbat Ab and I thankfully get on, and so does the wife hunter. Same story repeats itself: everyone knows him, he offers himself in marriage to any woman but no one will have him. I walk up to him and introduce myself - SteveThePirate, meet Choltai. We agree to marry and I agree to move with him... to Queen's Retreat. I thought I could hear the Gods laughing at their joke, but I tried to push it out of my mind. When that failed I promised myself to make a new path not coloured by my family's past.

But I forgot about it completely when we arrived to QR and I was introduced to everyone in the community for there were many good people to meet: artists, metalworkers, farmers, a hermited knight, and would you believe it, I think one is a distant relative for he bears the name of my grandmother's husband! That first night was chaotic, trying to keep everyone straight, trying to be on my best behaviour. There was a minor fight, I snapped from the stress of the evening but things were smoothed over. The wedding was scheduled, held and attended, and went well. I had my own celebration and fireworks.

Many days of hard and happy work followed with stories to keep us occupied. Steve slowly stopped coming home, he was out for longer and longer periods of time with no messages of whereabouts or when he'd be back. I tried to be content with my friends, be faithful and trust in my husband but the bard kept grabbing my attention. When he spoke, it was like the Gods themselves were telling me their secrets, as though the stars were calling me to dance in the sky with them. It was a great help to my sanity he was also married. The Gods bless us in strange ways.

Pirates, being who they are with their whims and moods, collect enemies. I was out hunting cicadas in some mountains when they ambushed me; I admit I should have been paying attention but I had been daydreaming. Again. They took me and hid me for months and I'm pretty sure it was outside of Egypt because I didn't recognize the land. I finally managed to escape and make my way home. It was such a long and fearful flight, I wasn't sure I would make it. I make it home expecting a warm and relieved reunion with my husband only to find him absent. The house is long shut and empty. Steve's enemies thought they could intimidate and coerce him by kidnapping me. HA! We all should have known better. After asking around I find he is out looting on the seas and hasn't even given me a thought! I can't say I'm surprised, or even upset about it - a pirate is who he is. But so is a woman and a wife. I didn't want to stay not getting what I wanted, so I penned a note and sent it along. Imagine my surprise to the friendly and accepting answer I received to my divorce request! That man did have the capacity to always do the unexpected.

I walked, well, ran really, to the nearest Essence of Harmony feeling the wings of freedom spread and the excitment of adventures on the horizon. Okay, I grabbed some things to start my new life first but I left most everything for Steve, I wanted no burdens. I had no place to call home really, just my main guild allowing me to store my few supplies... and you know, it was pretty nice. No ties, no chores. You could just be off! I ran a lot, looking for cicadas, gazelles, otters and rats; sometimes, I found them too.

During this time I noticed many friends leaving the land of Egypt, the halls of a once busy and industrious guild slowly going silent and empty; it was noticeably less crowded even when I first returned from my escape. It eventually came down to just a handful of us left. 7 on a good day; 5; then only 4 regularly but rarely at the same time. I found myself in the company of the silver tongued bard more and more, the chivalrous man I had contented myself to never hope of knowing beyond our time in the commons. I cannot describe my delight, and utter shock for it was out of nowhere, when this master of words stared at the rocks on the ground and plainly asked for marriage!

I want to confess that I worked and aimed and hoped for that moment yet at the same time, I was slightly hesitant to give up the new life I had found for myself. I was in the process of searching for a new home site and finishing 2 tests, planning for a third. My heart, and curiosity of the non-Egyptian, won the day however. Sadly our dwindling family was nowhere to be found on our first day together but we were witnessed quietly instead by distant neighbours and well wishers.

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