Post by Zen on Dec 23, 2019 15:25:03 GMT -5
About 2 turns before What's In A Name
Treyjen: 20
Treyjen: 20
Gildira had never made any secret of her attraction to him, and yet she was so set in her traditional holder mentality that it took quite a while before she finally agreed to share a bed with Treyjen. It was something that rather baffled him because she was the one that always sought him out. There were times she seemed to cling to him like a burr whenever he and his family were back in Tillek and he couldn’t seem to shake her. It made it rather difficult to find more… agreeable company. And she scolded him for that too.
Gildira was nice enough, and they’d been friends as children, but the sharding woman couldn’t seem to get the idea of marrying him out of her head. Treyjen knew she wanted to see more of Pern, to be more than a fisher’s wife. She’d said as much. She saw him as a way to do that, but it wasn’t something he particularly appreciated. If she wanted to see more of Pern he thought she should just go out and do it. It wasn’t his duty to carry her along when she refused to put in any of her own effort into getting what she wanted out of life.
So it was some shock when she finally, shyly, invited him to share the night with her. He wasn’t about to turn her down, despite his general growing annoyance with the young woman and her ridiculous, though understandable, infatuation with him. Nor did he turn down any of her future offers, even when she kept up her silly marriage talk. He would always laugh and tell her it was never going to happen, but it didn’t seem to deter her whatsoever.
It had been a few months since their last stop in Tillek and when Treyjen left the Lokarra for the first time upon their return, he was mildly surprised and more than a little exasperated to find Gildira waiting at the docks for him. Couldn’t he just have a few drinks with his friends in peace before she started clinging to him?
Beside him, Karosh snickered, “Looks like your wife’s come t’welcome y’home there Trey.”
Treyjen shot him a glare, snapping, “Shut it, will ya?”
Karosh ducked the cuff aimed at him, stepping away before Treyjen could aim another blow, “Well, if y’can escape her, I’ll meet y’later.”
Treyjen made a displeased noise and headed toward the girl, slipping on the mask of the pleasant trader, “Gildira… t’what do I owe the pleasure?” The forced but passable smile on his face faltered a bit as she looked up at him with some amount of trepidation.
“I… we… can we talk?” she asked him quietly.
“Are we not talking now?” he replied with some amusement, but she didn’t laugh and simply glanced around them.
“Privately?” she added, a strange look in her eye. Treyjen shrugged and let her lead him away to a more secluded location. Gildira hugged herself and took a deep breath, “Treyjen I… I’m….” Her hands slid down to rest lightly over her belly, “I’m… with child. Your child.” She looked up at him then, some sort of hope on her face, beneath the worry.
“... Oh,” Treyjen glanced away, mentally cursing. He could guess where this conversation was about to go.
“You… are you angry?” her voice seemed to grow smaller, wavering slightly.
“No! No, I… I mean…,” he scratched at the back of his head, unsure exactly how to proceed, “What… d’you plan t’do…?”
She blinked up at him, “What do you mean?”
“Well… are… y’gonna keep it?” he glanced back at her warily.
Her eyes grew wide, her arms covering her stomach protectively, “Of course I am! It’s our child! How could you even say that?”
He winced, but he’d expected as much, “Gildira… y’know I’m not gonna marry you, right?”
“You… not even… not even now?” she seemed completely shocked at the admission, even though he’d been telling her as much for months, “Treyjen I’m carrying your child. If we don’t marry then… then….”
He grimaced as he noticed the tears beginning to well in her eyes, “I’ve been telling y’that for months. What in Faranth’s name makes y’think I’d suddenly change my mind now there’s a child involved?”
“Because it’s the right thing to do!” she cried, desperately, “Treyjen I can’t… if we don’t… my family… how am I supposed to live with the shame?”
Treyjen nearly rolled his eyes, but he had a bit more tact than that. “Gildira y’oughtta have known this might happen when we started sharing a bed. If y’were planning all along that I’d marry you if y’got pregnant, that was a shit plan.” Balancing tact and truth was sometimes a difficult thing to do, and feeling now that she had been planning to try to trap him into a marriage with her based on this, he wasn’t entirely inclined to try very hard.
So he wasn’t at all surprised when she started crying in earnest then, “Treyjen… I thought… you… you would….”
“Well, I’m not,” he cut off her explanation of the obvious, his tone going cold and curt. He didn’t appreciate being manipulated, and he wasn’t going to just go along with it. Let the gossips in Tillek say whatever they wanted about him, he didn’t give a shit. He wasn’t going to be forced into something he didn’t want, “I’ll help provide for the child but I’m not going t’marry you.”
“You’re horrible!” she managed to choke out through her sobs before she turned and fled.
Treyjen let her go, not at all inclined to follow and try to calm her down or make her feel better. How dare she call him horrible when she’d been trying to manipulate him. If she wanted to stop acting ridiculous and actually talk about this, she was free to come find him. Until then, he needed a sharding drink.~~~
When Gildira showed up at his home the next day, he was reluctant to agree when she asked to talk with him again especially as he was nursing a decent hangover from last night, “Are y’going t’scream at me some more?”
She shook her head, looking down at her feet, “I’m sorry… I was just upset…. I still am, but… please, Treyjen….”
His gaze narrowed down at her, “Do y’understand I’m not gonna marry you?”
She glanced up, looked about to cry again, and her gaze fell once more to her feet, “I…. Why… why won’t you-”
“I won’t be tied down. It was your decision t’sleep with me and now it’s your decision to keep the child. You’re not taking my choices away from me,” he growled, “Do y’really think you’re gonna live some happy, children’s story marriage with me by trying t’force me into it? Y’think I’ll suddenly change who I am for someone that manipulated me into something I made very clear I didn’t want?”
There were more tears, but he honestly couldn’t bring himself to care. He couldn’t help but think she was still trying to manipulate him, trying to play on any guilt she thought he might have. He hadn’t forced anything on her, however, and he felt nothing but anger over what she was trying to do. “Treyjen, please… I don’t… I don’t know what to do….”
He didn’t know what to tell her and he was glad to see his mother approaching behind the girl, figuring the older woman might have a better idea how to handle the situation. Jenara, seeing the two of them and the rare serious look on her son’s face, paused, unsure if she should give them privacy. But Treyjen lifted a hand to wave her closer and Gildira turned to see who he was waving at. Jenara hurried her steps when she saw the tears on the girl’s face, “Gildira, what’s wrong?”
“I… I…,” she covered her face with her hands, too ashamed of her current state to admit it to anyone else.
“She’s carrying my child,” Treyjen offered, leaning against the doorframe.
Jenara drew in a sharp breath, then turned a narrowed, disappointed eye to her son, “And you’re just making her stand out here?” She wrapped an arm around the girl’s shoulders and led her inside.
Treyjen rolled his eyes as he stepped aside for them, “She can stay out there if she’s going t’keep demanding I marry her.”
Jenara wasn’t surprised. She had thought perhaps her son would settle eventually, but his reckless and often selfish ways had made it rather clear it wasn’t going to be any time soon, if at all. She frowned over at him as she led Gildira to a chair and sat in front of her, taking the girl’s hands, speaking softly, “What is it you want to do about this?”
She shook her head, “I don’t… I don’t know…. I don’t want to… to… kill our baby….”
“Of course not,” Jenara soothed, giving her hands a light squeeze, “But you have spent enough time with my son to know, my dear… no one can make him do anything he doesn’t want to do. Keeping this child will not make life easy for you, being that you’re unwed. Does your family know?”
Another sob shook her, though she tried to suppress it, and she shook her head, “I can’t… I couldn’t handle the shame… not right now… not when I don’t… I don’t know what… what I’m supposed to do. I thought, I hoped....” She cast a quick look at Treyjen, but was soon staring down at her lap again.
“I’m too hungover for this,” Treyjen growled, and left the two two women alone as he pushed out into daylight. Maybe he’d go back to the Lokarra for a nap and sleep off the worst of his headache. His mother called after him before he closed the door, ignoring her. He was sick of all this sharding marriage shit. It somehow seemed to keep coming back around to it and it was pissing him off.