Withstanding Trials: Day 12

Word Count: 72,035

Summary of Events:

Aodhán set out in the Athchóirigh for his tour around the Taoiseach, starting with the three small isles southeast of Neamhaí. A man on the shores of the first one he reached told him not to land, though, as there was an outbreak of the spots, so Aodhán carried on. Saraid and a bunch of the women, led by the blacksmith who'd come along to protect them, went to a large grove of nut bushes, where Saraid ended up not noticing the others pack up and leave, leaving her alone in unfamiliar woods with the best route back being on the main road where she could end up getting accosted. Owing to signs of bad weather nearing, Aodhán docked at the third isle and made his way to the nearest settlement; he saw a young woman walking ahead of him, and so meant to catch up with her and maybe befriend her, but a young man headed the opposite way accosted her and stole her fruit basket, prompting Aodhán to confront the young man, whom he managed to give a beating, before warning the young man about doing that sort of thing again…

Excerpt of the Day:

With a pained grimace, the young man scrambled to his feet and hobbled away as quickly as his sore leg would let him. Aodhán waited until he made it a hundred metres or so before he turned around to look back toward the settlement, as well as the young woman who was standing, looking at him.

Unsurprisingly, she looked even fairer from the front than from behind, with some hairs that were too short to be caught up in her long, auburn braid framing her face attractively.

Her eyes were a pretty shade of green that the deep auburn of her hair seemed to make stand out, and her whole face was a beautiful contrast, looking on one hand beautifully delicate and feminine, just like Mama’s, but on the other looking resilient and strong.

Aodhán also observed that she looked a bit younger from the front than he’d initially thought she was, suspecting she was more than the one year younger than him he’d initially been inclined to think that she was.

She was staring at him with rather wide eyes, looking nervous and unsure. Aodhán wished he could stare at her forever, but his mind was pricking him about the nuts, so he lowered his gaze to the discarded basket, its contents scattered across the roadway.

Moving toward them, Aodhán righted the basket and started collecting the fruits that had stayed close into the basket. The young woman soon appeared and joined him in putting the fruit into the basket until all of them had been recovered.

Aodhán gave her the basket.

“Thank you,” she said quietly, not looking him in the eye.

Turning, she started away from him quickly. Aodhán hurried after her.

“Please,” Aodhán said. “Are you alright?”

“It’s not the first time,” she replied, not looking at him, and keeping up her brisk pace.

Aodhán wanted to stop and stand in appall, but he also didn’t want to let this young woman get away from him, so he matched her brisk pace instead.

“Why would any young man dare to treat a young woman as beautiful as you so horribly?” Aodhán asked.

He stopped abruptly, his face flaming with warmth. He’d said that out loud. He hurried after the young woman, who hadn’t stopped or hesitated at his words.

“It’s only consistent with what they believe,” she replied, her tone suggesting that she’d not even really heard what he’d said.

Aodhán nodded. It’d been his immediate supposition upon seeing the young man accost the young woman that the young man was a traditional believer, as the traditional believers considered women to be about equal with livestock — if the women were fortunate, some were regarded as even lesser than livestock — with their sole purpose being to please the man and bear him many sons, and so men would beat their wives liberally when they were displeased with conduct or daughter numbers.

At the same time, Aodhán couldn’t say he’d seen a traditional believer quite so appalling as the young man had seemed to him, as usually traditionally believing men didn’t quite accost women that directly, and with no apparent reason. If a woman wasn’t their wife, or they weren’t desiring her to be their wife, they usually left them alone, even if they weren’t traditional believing women.