When a Wolf Comes to Dinner

[Dulcie]

It had been so long since Kacela had made anything even resembling a social call that she had almost forgotten what few things she knew about human manners. Despite all that however she had made an effort today to be as appropriate as she possibly could be. She had bathed that morning in the bathhouse rather than from a shallow stream and she had made sure that her tunic and pants were clean from any debris or dirt, she had even gone to the effort of wearing leather boots because she seemed to remember that she was supposed to.

It was dangerously close to the full moon, but Kacela chose to begin her journey to the farm in the early morning so that she would arrive about mid-day when the calming rays of the sun should be in their fullest glory. As she got ready to leave she thought briefly about waiting just a few more days to make her trip to the Kaczmarek farm, but the truth was that she really didn't want to wait much longer. Rain Wilders had short lives, at least from her perspective about the matter and she had been thinking about it for some time.

As she left the tavern she wished briefly that Catch had been there. She wanted to tell him her plans, to confide in her closest friend about her intentions... that word that N'vek had taught her, but as she crossed through the room it was empty, as it often was so early in the morning.

Her journey to the farm took her to a few different places, though she was never lost, simply attending to an errand here or there, never forgetting Agnie's scent, which led her to the gate that the other woman had rather firmly told her to wait at. Kacela was going to be on her best behavior after all. So there she waited, as human looking as she could possibly be, holding in one hand a sack of ground corn and looped over her other arm a large bear's pelt. It was a large gift, probably larger than the wild woman might have intended to give to anyone, but the service that Agnie's mother was offering to her was a great one and for Kacela there was great meaning behind it. When someone offers you something like that then it should be returned in kind. Kacela had lived through a Myrken winter and knew how the human people here chattered in the cold. A bear pelt would keep the woman's family warm, and family was what weighed so heavily on her mind these days.

She'd avoid leaning on the fence, worried about her weight and it's stability and so she would just stand there and wait quietly until Agnie would come for her.

[channe]

Agnie has been helping bale hay out in the front of the farm complex where a few bored horses and cows while away the afternoon chewing away, their tails flicking back and forth in the heat. When she notices Kacela, she waves, wipes off her hands on the sides of her pants and walks towards Kacela, looking considerably less well-dressed than the werewolf. In fact, she's wearing men's clothes, homespun and dirty, the kind a serf might wear day in and day out, and sandals that don't protect her feet very well from the dirt and the dust. Today, at least, she's definitely not the picture of a solid army commander.

The Calomel farm itself isn't so massive, but it's certainly one of the bigger holdings on this side of town. From the front gate, you can see the new castle, built for Cinnabar and his growing family when he purchased the place years ago; the old farmhouse with its peeling paint, just a little more run-down now that it's less of a home and more of a community center; a scattering of small but comfortable stone houses, and a number of cavernous barns.

"Hey, Kacela," says Agnie, extending one slightly dirty hand to the woman, realizing what she's done, and then wiping it down again. "I told my Ma you were coming. Told her you were, uh, not around here. Ready to cook?"

[Dulcie]

Kacela really wasn't that well dressed herself, but she was clean, and she was wearing shoes. Both of those were important factors to her understanding of the standards of conduct for such things. Seeing Agnie dressed in such a way made her almost feel more comfortable with the other woman. It was interesting to see a warrior out of their warrior's dress after all. She'd see the wave and she'd bow her head a bit in greetings, waiting for Agnie to come to the fence.

"Good day." She'd say, though she hadn't adopted a name for Agnie just yet and so she'd be silent on that part. Not from around her, well at least that was the honest truth. Kacela wasn't much of a liar anyhow. "Yes. I am ready. I have a gift for your Mother. A thank you."

[channe]

Agnie's eyes light up a little as her eyes dart down to the pelt, and back to Kacela's face. "Oh," she says, in an approving tone. It's cold on the farm during the winter -- warmer than it used to be, with the stone houses, but it can still be a killer. "Um. Yeah, she'll like that a lot, I think."

A pause in her words, as the woman flicks open the front gate to the farm and indicates that Kacela should follow. "So. What's this thing you want to make, anyway? Like... proposal bread?"

[Dulcie]

The wild woman saw the light in Agnie's eyes and it pleased her, a tiny touch of a smile coming to her own lips. She had hoped that she had chosen an appropriate gift and she was pleased to see that she hadn't been wrong. So much of the human culture here was a mystery to her and she hadn't spent much time with those who were actually born and raised in Myrken. The truth was she was a little anxious about how this whole thing would go, but for the moment her confidence was building.

Agnie would open the gate and Kacela would pass through it, closing it behind her. She could be observant of things when she wanted to be, and this happened to be one of those times. Her deep brown eyes took in the sight of the little stone house, the farm, where the animals were, where any of the people were. Everything was looked at, regarded and tucked away somewhere in her mind for some reason. It was better to be cautious than to be unaware. In the midst of her observations however Agnie started asking questions and Kacela could feel heat coming to her dark cheeks. If she could be seen blushing this would be the moment, she still wasn't used to the whole idea of what was to be, determined though she was.

"Yes, something like that." She started with one of her usual phrases but then thinking more on it she decided that Agnie needed more of an explanation. "In my village when a female wanted her spirit to be bound to a male she would make him a corn cake. She would bring it to where he lived. If he ate it he would accept her offer, if he did not it was not. I would like to be bound to Ocean.." She paused a moment, thinking about the superstitious Myrken mother in the house and corrected her words, using the common name for the man she loved. "Kals." His given name felt strange on her tongue and she wrinkled her nose a bit at it. Oh she knew the names that most people used for most of the people she had re-named, but that didn't mean she liked using them.

"I want to learn how to make the cakes because I am the last one left. There are none of my people remaining to teach me." And somehow the melancholy she usually felt about that was somehow lessened. Perhaps it was the idea that she wouldn't be forever alone.

[channe]

Confidence is a good thing, Kacela; Agnie can tell you a little bit about that. It was partly a crazy kind of confidence, really, that had brought her to the notice of Ariane Carnath-Emory, and partly a pigheaded kind of confidence that eventually placed her in her current position. She listens to Kacela's explanation, indicating that she should follow with one hand, and begins the short hike back to the tenants' stone houses.

"I guess everybody does it differently," she says, shrugging. "Mama tells me that in New Dauntless they engage you at seven or eight and marry at fifteen; younger, if you're a toff." A pause, as she tilts her head to one side. "Hey, does he know that the corn cake means that you wanna be with 'im forever? Just in case he just thinks it's just a cake."

A few more steps, and then she hears Kacela's last bit, and she shakes her head. "... the last one? Whoa. What happened?"

[Dulcie]

"Yes, everyone is different." She agrees, following Agnie as she leads the way, her eyes still roaming over all the details that surrounded them. She was listening carefully to the words that the other woman was saying and though she didn't know the meaning of some of them she got the general understanding out of it. At her first question Kacela would smile and incline her head slightly. "Yes he knows. He is waiting." Clearly although the corn cake was a formality there had already been some discussion between both parties.

The second question caught her off guard a little, just from the way that Agnie acted when she said it. "Nightwalkers. I think the word you use for them is.... vamp... vampire?" She furrowed her brow at that, trying to remember if she had gotten it right. "At the end of the battle I was what was left." That certainly said something about the werewolf now didn't it?

[channe]

"Vampires." Her voice is clear: she's not a fan. "I'm sorry," is all she can say; a pause, and she looks down. What else can you possibly say to that, especially when you have no idea what the woman feels?

But -- they've arrived. "And, oh, here we are," she says, pausing at the door of a well-built, sturdy-looking, small house. It has no more than three rooms -- the people who live here are not very well-off -- but it's far off from the abject, dirt-stained poverty of the seedier parts of Myrkentown. She opens the door, calling for her mother in consonant-filled Dauntless. The woman that appears is in her late thirties and rather stout, but a hard life has made her appear slightly older. She's stoking a fire, wearing an apron.

"Mama, this is Kacela, the woman I told you about," she says.

Magda smiles. And with that, she'll walk over and make an attempt to grab Kacela by the upper arms and drag her into a hug. "Agnie's friend!" she'll crow. "And you are getting married, yes?"

[Dulcie]

"My thank yous for the sorries." And that seemed to be enough. The wild woman had been given the time she had needed to recover from the great tragedy, as much as anyone ever really could. "Kals makes it better." It still felt strange using his common name and yet she did for the sake of understanding, and though she didn't explain exactly how he made it better, she just knew that he did.

The state of the home didn't seem to bother Kacela at all, poverty was something she found difficult to understand, though it felt more comfortable to her than the finery of some of the parts of Myrken that she rarely frequented. People such as these were easier for her to relate to than those like Glenn Burnie that would have insisted upon perfect manners and dresses and silly things that she couldn't truly comprehend. Still her eyes took in what she was seeing, at least until the moment that Magda was grabbing her by the arms and pulling her in for a hug. For a moment there'd be a look of panic in Kacela's eyes and she'd stiffen considerably, almost as if she didn't know what to do with the hug, though the truth was she was trying very, very hard to keep control of herself, the hint of amber ringing about her deep brown eyes an indication of such. It would be a long moment for Kacela while she let Magda hug her, breathing a long slow breath and lightly, gingerly touching her fingertips to the back of the other woman in an attempt to return the physical contact. It would perhaps be too obvious that she was relieved when Magda finally let her go, the wild woman breathing out a breath she had barely been aware that she had been holding, taking a moment to remember that the woman was talking as well.

"Y..yes, yes." She'd say more confidently on the second time. "Trying to be married yes. I think the word Agnie said was proposal?" She had been paying attention after all, but it was apparent from her speech pattern and her accent that she wasn't a local to these lands.

[channe]

And this is how things are done in poverty-stricken New Dauntless -- the barren foothills, before the strange, violent piety of their northern cousins takes hold further up the mountains. Kacela might find it the peasants' sheer physicality quite uncomfortable, but it's completely cultural for the Kaczmareks to hug without permission, slap each other on the back, lift the kids up and spin them around, hug in greeting. So it's a little strange when Agnie does none of it -- she simply slides into one of the rickety wooden chairs and pushes across a mortar and pestle, obviously intending to stick around and help.

Magda lets the wild woman go, and turns back to the fire, stoking it for a moment before she indicates the table, strewn with baking-utensils like battered pewter spoons, a loaf-mold, and more ingredients. "So, you tell me what we make today, yes? Agnie says corn-cake? Not something done too much in New Dauntless, but we are not there, are we not?" Like always, that particular piece of information -- not being in New Dauntless, that is -- makes Magda laugh under her breath for a moment. "You brought mill-corn, yes? And Kals, yes? He is the lucky man?"

[Dulcie]

The wild woman was relieved that Agnie didn't take part in the overly physical nature of her mother. It was so hard for her to manage such things and when a place was indicated she'd take up a seat at the table where Magda had indicated, taking a moment to set down the bag of ground corn and the thick fur.

"This is for you and your.. family." She'd say, hesitating on the last word as if she had to remember to insert it in place of something else. She indicated to the fur that she set on the table. At the question about the mill corn she'd nod her head and pat the sack that she had brought with her, moving to loosen the ties that kept the bag shut. "Yes, I have brought the mill-corn" using Magda's words rather than those she might have come up with for it herself. "Corn cakes, yes, they are this big" She indicated with her palm and other hand as if creating the circle shape that it should be in. Much smaller than a whole cake or a pan of bread. "I knew once how to make it but do not remember. It is a little sweet but not sweet like pies." Pies were something she had only just recently learned about anyhow.

When Magda asked who the lucky guy was Kacela would smile, inclining her head in response. "Yes, it is Kals. I am lucky more I think."

[channe]

Family. Yes -- family is the right word, and family is what Magda Kaczmarek is all about. It runs in her veins, is her reason for living, is the thing that gets her up in the morning -- and she's brushing the hearth, making room on the table, grabbing some already-milled flour hanging about. "Sounds delicious," Magda says. "... so we will use my mother's recipe, yes? A good Dauntless recipe. And Kals." She pauses. "Agnie tells me about him, yes? He is her friend Rhaena's brother. Very protective." She clucks a moment. "Bad for Rhaena, good for you."