Tales from the North I
The cold night had come. The really cold night that is, not those half-cold summer nights, but those really cold nights where ones breath almost turned to a mist of white crystals in the air that almost hurt your throat. In cold nights like these the children used to gather close together at a hearth, trying to keep warm by the fire. The grownups would go outside to closely seal all the doors and windows and to make sure that everything was in order before they too cuddled close together with the children in front of the hearth.
In the beginning the children would speak, giggle, and poke each other when they were under the blankets and the old grownups left to watch them would speak with low voices. The mothers would hold their babies to their chests and whisper comforting words to the newborn. But slowly the low murmur that would fill any house would fade away. The children would grow tired of their jokes and become restless. The grown would stop moving around and in the end everyone would just sit silently and watch the fire together. Nobody saying a word, only listening to the crackling sounds of the fire, waiting.
Waiting until the oldest among them finally speaks, and this is what everybody has been waiting for. This is what makes The Cold Nights so special. The old ones would speak, and everybody would listen. It was at this hour, just before the children would start falling asleep and just after everyone had settled down and the silence had fallen, where the traditions and history of the people would be passed on from the elders to the young. There were no weapons, no armours, no harsh words, only the tales and the lessons within the tales.
And so it has been for generations, and so it will be for generations to come. It’s something everyone yearns for, to sit by the fire and listen to the tales but also that one day be the one telling the tales at the hearth. To keep the legacy, tradition and secrets of the people alive. To bind the family together with bonds hard as steel. To listen to the tales, by the fire…
“Close together” and “warm” twice for a reason, why not once?
Quite good, but work it over again changing a word here and there. You repeat yourself a little bit too much and so on. Good motaviational story or what to call it, gives the feeling of a country like Deben I guess and it looks like there will be more to it.
I will change that, and please if you see anything else, point it out.
Yes, there is an part two, soon finished. This part though will be protected.
Part two is finished, but it is scheduled for 2010-01-06 00:00, so in ten minutes or so. You should find it quite interesting, since your character will have had and will have, some interest in what’s written in that post.
Nice.
A good read.
Yes a nice read, gave a nice feeling of how a familiy gathers together.