Also-
Thoughts on chapter 2 so far?
The dream was in complete darkness this time, no moon or stars, just eerie and thundering loud.
The wind was screaming this time, screaming as the trees attacked each other, branches battering branches, trunks groaning as they fought to stay in the ground. Like every time she dreamed, she didn’t feel the wind, she didn’t feel anything, just heard and saw when the dreams decided to have a light source.
A branch snapped in the turbulent wind, she saw it swinging by as a flash of lighting struck a tree behind her, lighting the world for a few scant seconds. Thunder followed close behind.
Seconds later the trees were on fire, the flames spreading all around her in seconds, roaring along with the screaming wind.
Then she was on the ocean cliffs again, the fire was gone, but the lighting was not.
She watched as it struck the water, a quick flash of light revealing the deadly waters below, illuminating the rocks.
The thunder came seconds after, at first booming, then crackling, in the end it sounded like it was tearing the sky apart.
She looked up into the darkness, and jumped.
Unlike yesterday, Jaro was up right when the dream ended. Usually she woke up peacefully with the sun rising on her face, calm and peaceful, but this time her heart was racing and she was drenched in sweat… or was it the water from the ocean?
The sun wasn’t up yet, and when she looked out of the window she couldn’t see any stars, just heavy clouds illuminated by the setting moon.
Today was the day. Today she was going to meet the other Kletchar families. She got up slowly, her stomach was in knots and her fingers felt icy, and she knew she wouldn’t be getting any more sleep. She’d seen plenty of storms in her dreams, snow storms, lightning, thunder, rain, hail, she’d even had screaming wind and the trees were almost always battling each other, but never once had she seen fire in them, never once had the lightning actually struck the trees… she didn’t know if she should be worried about this change or not. Its just a dream, right?
“Jaro?” Lysias murmured sleepily as she pulled on her cloak.
She just ignored him and silently passed through the door, cringing as the hinges creaked, in the dead silence of the house those creaks were all too loud.
She padded over to the stairs, stopping for minutes at a time when the wooden planks squeaked, it was too early for her to wake anyone else up.
Jaro finally made it to the hearth after what felt like hours of stalking through the house. The last log from last night was still smoldering, so she poked at it and added a few more, watching as the flames grew and grew, engulfing the firewood.
She sat in front of the fire till the sun rose, curled up in her cloak, watching the flames flicker and dance.
She didn’t notice how the windows durned from black to light gray till her mother came walking down, “Trexah, darling, what are you doing up so early?” she asked, sitting down beside Jaro and wrapping a warm arm around her.
“Couldn’t sleep…” she murmured in reply.
“You shouldn’t be so nervous dear” her mother grabbed her face and looked straight in her eyes, “no matter what, you’ll have your father and brothers. They won’t let those other Kletchars do or say anything bad, even Kilian and Asgar. They may not show it, but they love you just as much as Lysias and Valek, just in their own ways.”
She smiled and looked back at the fire, leaning her head on her mother’s shoulder.
“Do you get strange dreams, Masta?”
“I think we all do dear, especially when something as big as the celebration is today. But don’t worry. You’ll be wonderful” her mother kissed her forehead before slowly getting up and walking into the kitchen.
Her father came down a few minutes later, tussling her hair as he walked by to add wood to the fire before sitting down next to her.
“Whatever the other families say, I’m proud to have you as my daughter. I wouldn’t switch you out for a son for the world. I will make sure they accept you” she gave her father a weak smile.
She had no idea what she was supposed to do at the celebration. It was a rule that outsiders and children younger than sixteen didn’t know, to keep it purely in the Kletchar lines. It was said to be an old Melkrix ritual, but why would they make her do a dead ritual? Melkrixs hadn’t been seen for over three hundred years. In the north and the south.
A while later her brothers all came down, Lysias looking paler than usual, Kilian and Asgar barely giving her a second glance while Valek gave her a warm smile, they disappeared into the kitchen seconds after.
Jaro finally got up, her legs stiff and numb from sitting for so many hours, and made her way into the kitchen. Her mother had made bacon, eggs and fresh bread.
“Jaro, you need to eat something, I know you’re nervous, but you need something in your belly” her mother said after everyone as almost done eating. She’d just been staring at her food as it cooled.
Jaro had been nervous before, but this was a completely different type of nervous, she wasn’t restless or excited, more… scared, like she wanted to run… Though Lysias seemed to be nervous too, he was still eating and the color was returning to his skin, whereas hers was probably white as snow.
She nodded and started eating the bread. A few minutes later her plate was empty save for a few small crumbs; she didn’t realize how hungry she’d been, or how much food would help settle her stomach.
“I expect I’ll see you tonight with the other Kletchars? How many do you think there’ll be? I baked as much as I could yesterday, but I hardly think we have enough to cook for a hundred men” her mother asked, “they better not bring their wives” she muttered afterwards.
“The Crahs and Reks have both grown by a few men, but about as much as the last time, and no, their women won’t be joining this year, they’ve been seeing too many southerners to leave their villages too unprotected. Those shiny bastards best not think they can start raiding the north again.”
After breakfast they said their goodbyes to mother and mounted their horses; surefooted, not necessarily large, steeds who could outrun any southern horse in the snow.
She was riding Storm, a sturdy silver buckskin mare with a thick black mane, tail and feathers.
They rode west, towards the Frozen Giants hidden behind the horizon. It was a week travel on horseback through a forest, hundreds, maybe thousands of miles long; and that was if you had good weather all the way through.
She knew their destination wasn’t too far, in the past years her father had always left in the morning and returned before the sun had set, so wherever they were going, it was either in the middle of the woods, or surrounded by them.
For the next couple hours her father and older brothers chatting about where they were going, somehow succeeding at keeping the “ritual” a secret, no matter how much she asked, they usually just answered with “you’ll see.” Even Asgar and Kilian were actually being friendly to her… or as friendly as they could get.
An hour before they arrived to the place of the celebration Uncle Janick joined them, muttering about her father bringing her. Janick lived in a tiny village of maybe fifty people, old and young, in the forest and rarely left except to visit her family every few years, one time he brought his sons, his eldest, who was a year younger than her, spent all his time with Kilian and Asgar, his youngest, who was eleven now, had spent most his time with Jaro and Lysias, though by now she expected him to have the same opinions as his father.
“Jaro, Lysias, pull up your hoods” this her father had warned her about. Any new Kletchar child was supposed to hide their face till introduced to the other families; had something to do with revealing yourself to the gods when Melkrix still walked the lands.
Almost right after she had the hood over her head they rode onto a small clearing with a large lake on one side and at least a hundred horses tied up on the opposite side, with just as many men sitting or standing about. She counted five others with their hoods up, two were taller than father, one looked to be smaller than herself while the other two were just a bit shorter than Lysias.
“Racknare! Janick!” a great bear of a man roared a greeting.
The man had a thick braided beard, almost as long as her own hair, and looked to be a good seven feet, if not taller. Valek wasn’t wrong, Crahs were giants. Most of the tall men had the same chestnut brown beards and pale eyes, yet they were completely outnumbered by short men with thick black hair and beards. Badgers, Bears and Wolves.
“Kadeck!” her father hoped off his horse and hugged the great man.
“Are we the last ones to arrive?”
“Aye, but not by long, my Abra decided to take a shit so he only arrived a few minutes before you” the clearing erupted with laughter.
She thought that living in a family with five men was bad enough, but this, this was special. She didn’t know all men had the same dumb humor, even Lysias was laughing.
“Your Crahte looks as short as a Rek!” the oldest of the badgers said, pointing towards her. Crahte, or Crah was the northern word for son, just as Reklach and Rek were child and Tsen was blood. Kletchar’Son, Kletchar’Child, Kletchar’Blood.
Jaro stayed silent. Her cloak covered most of her chest, so they wouldn’t be able to tell that she was a woman till the hood came off.
“Taller than her mother, by a good inch or two as well” her father boasted.
“Her?” immediately the chatting and laughter disappeared.
At her fathers motion she and her brothers dismounted and stepped up behind Racknare.
“My son, Lysias Kletchar’Tsen, the older twin, and my daughter, Jaro Kletchar’Tsen, the younger twin” Jaro was the name of her great-grandfather, meant to be a name for men, yet she was told, that when she was in her fathers arms after her birth, that he saw it in her eyes, saw it in the way she laughed and cried, that she was a Jaro.
“Daughter? Racknare. Women don’t belong in the Kletchar families. Girls can’t be born into our families. I thought you knew that” Kadeck, the bear, said, glaring at her.
“I thought that was well, but my niece has proven herself to have just as much Kletchar blood as I, and though it pains me to say, she may have more blood then some men here. I don’t like it, I don’t like her, but she’s a Kletchar” Uncle Janick was always an honest man, though she didn’t know if she should thank him, or curse him.
Many men crossed their arms at Janick’s words, more glared at her, but it seemed that the dispute over her being there was over. She’d imagined it to be much harder, she thought they’d want to kick her out or sacrifice her to the gods.
“You know what this means? Having a daughter is-”
“It means that Altaya’s magic has left us, it means that magic has finally left this world. Nothing more and nothing less” Her father glared at the Kletchar’Crah that had spoken.
Kadeck clenched his jaw, “Quiet brother. If they say she’s a Kletchar, then she’s a Kletchar” more men glared.
“Its time for the ceremony, new sons, kneel before the water” the old Kletchar’Rek man spoke.
Summer Month: 2 
Day 
