Page 27 of The Lost Art of Woodworking and Taking Risks
A few minutes later, he asked, “This isn’t somewhere to go off and have sex, is it? Because I would normally be all for that, but I’m pretty sure Onadal was not exaggerating when he said he would make us regret it.”
Chamis laughed. “No, it’s not somewhere for us to have sex. Well,” he allowed, more truthfully, “not exactly.”
Bennan looked more and more curious, but Chamis wouldn’t tell him where they were going, and it wasn’t until they actually arrived in sight of the house that he seemed to realize.
He sucked in a breath. “Chamis, is this—?”
Only by then his sisters had caught sight of him and come pelting out to greet them, making it not at all necessary for Chamis to clarify.
“Chamis!” they were yelling, waving furiously.
“Oh, you’ve gotten so big!” he exclaimed as he dismounted and then knelt down so he could catch them as they threw themselves at him. “I can’t believe it!”
They were still tiny compared to him, but they’d grownso much. Halna was already taller than her older sister, and Chamis hoped she wasn’t going to wind up anywhere near as tall as him. There was laughing and crying, and it felt so good to have them in his arms again. And then, before the butterflies in Chamis’s stomach could get too anxious, his sisters werehugging Bennan too, almost like he was another seldom-seen brother. Chamis’s boyfriend hugged them back without hesitation, and soon had them chattering all about their ribbons and beads.
“Everyone was jealous!” Dorana declared proudly, her gold curls gleaming in the sun. Pink beads matched the pink dress she was currently wearing. “We had the best ribbons and beads out of anyone.”
“But we shared them,” Halna put in staunchly, “so everyone would have some to enjoy.”
“It was nice to make everyone happy,” Dorana allowed before she went back to chattering about how amazing her dress had been.
Apparently, the ribbons had been sewn onto the dress and a hat and a small bag, and they’d made itperfect. Chamis still didn’t totally grasp the details, but he was glad it had made his sister so happy.
Chamis’s mother emerged from the little house, and she let Dorana and Halna run up and tug her forward and present Bennan and Chamis to her, chattering as they did so. She looked older than when Chamis had last seen her, a few threads of gray in her golden hair, and she still only came up to his chest, but she smiled brightly and seemed happy. (Truthfully, she’d always seemed more content after the death of Chamis’s father than before. Chamis tried not to think about it too much, but really, she wasn’t the only one.)
His mother went back into the house to work on dinner, while his sisters followed him and Bennan to the small barn where they took care of the horses, getting them settled with the two old workhorses who nickered and snorted when they saw Chamis. He came over to pet them, and Halna ran off and then came back with a couple carrots he could feed them.
He smiled at his sister as the horses contentedlycrunched.
Dorana was practically hanging off Bennan’s arm as he was taking care of their mounts, still chattering about fashion. Chamis hadn’t imagined there was that much that could possibly be said about clothes, but he was clearly mistaken. Bennan listened patiently and seemed to know exactly how to respond, because Dorana was practically glowing with happiness.
“How’s school?” Chamis asked Halna, since that seemed like a safe question.
Sure enough, his little sister had plenty to say on the subject.
In fact, there seemed to be no shortage of things to talk about, and Chamis’s nebulous worry that his family somehow wouldn’t like Bennan or that everything would be awkward wafted away. It seemed more like they’d known Bennan their whole lives, actually, and he always knew exactly what to say and do.
“—Andthat’s why you should never upset a Water Mage!” Bennan told them triumphantly as he finished another story that had them all dissolving into laughter around the dinner table.
Chamis mostly just sat there and listened to everyone, but he got a warm, contented feeling seeing how well they all got along.
Bennan praised his mother’s cooking, seemed to have an inexhaustible patience for hearing about Dorana’s clothes and accessories, and assured Halna that of course women could be Warriors if they wanted to be.
“A number of my colleagues are women. We’ve got women, men, and nonbinary folks, and they’re all welcome if they want to work hard and protect people.”
“Boys usually have more muscles than girls,” Dorana said matter-of-factly.
“They can,” Bennan agreed. “But that’s not always true, and muscles aren’t everything. It can also be helpful to have speedy people. Or smart people, for that matter. If you can out-think an opponent, you might not even need to use your muscles. And women and nonbinary people can develop lots of muscle too, if they want to.”
“If I get stronger, can I be a Warrior?” Halna asked.
Bennan smiled at her. “We don’t accept anyone before they’re seventeen, so you’ve got time to grow up a little more, get stronger if you want, and decide if that’s really what you want to do. It’s a lot of work, and you’d have to move away from your family. It’s not for everyone, but it can be very rewarding, too.”
Halna turned her hopeful little face to Chamis. “I could come work with you!”
Chamis wasn’t so sure that his mother would want another child being a Warrior, but he also knew her well enough to be sure that she would support Halna in her dreams, just like she had Chamis.
“If that’s what you decide,” he agreed.
