wheatencrown | Teja's Vacation

Demeter smiles as she opens the door onto a blooming garden in a day full of heat and sun,

"Now, there's plenty of space, a pond if you want to swim and well if you need anything just ask."

Threaded | Top-Level Comments Only

From:

ostro_goth

Teja is standing inside the door and looks around, dazzled.

"It is so bright and lovely," he finally says. "That light -- it is like high summer in Italy, flowing over the hills and bathing the world in warmth."

From:

wheatencrown

"We are in the South of France, my friend. Now come enjoy the light."

She takes his hand and leads him out where the smells of flowers and herbs in bloom fill the air.

From:

ostro_goth

"It is such a difference from the lands north of Hadrian's Wall," Teja says. "Southern Gaul -- some of it was even part of our realms, at one time, during Theodoric the Great's peace. Then, our Visigoth relatives took over."

From:

wheatencrown

"So it should feel familiar then."

From:

ostro_goth

"Indeed," Teja says. Then, he spontaneously turns and takes her in his arms.

"Thank you!" he whispers. "This is as close to 'going home' as I may be, one would assume!"

From:

wheatencrown

She just laughs,

"I'm glad I can do this for you, Teja."

From:

ostro_goth

"I can walk in these hills," Teja says. "I can sit in the warm garden and play my guitar. I might go to a village market and sample the fruits of the land. There was much war here, before my time, and during my time -- but there is peace here now, and I shall savour that."

From:

wheatencrown

"Oh yes, there are wineries where you can sample their best. I'll point you to the best markets and you can just wander, nothing is too far away."

From:

ostro_goth

"And I am used to wandering far, on foot, and on horseback," Teja says. "It will be good to do some of that again -- leave in the morning, and return in the evening, with a bottle to share with you, if you are here."

From:

wheatencrown

"I will be and I would enjoy that. We don't have many horses, Kore and I prefer to walk, but there's a stable just over that way and they know me."

From:

ostro_goth

"That would be good," Teja says. "That way, I could roam further."

From:

wheatencrown

"Gustav runs the stables, we can go over and say hello and he'll lend you a horse to use for your stay."

From:

ostro_goth

"That is a good idea," Teja says. "We might have some tea first so I can get to know your house a bit more, and then go over to meet him?"

From:

wheatencrown

"Oh yes, I should show you where you're going to sleep, follow me."

And then Demeter starts moving through the garden, there are paths but there's a mixture of wildness and cultivation to everything.

Soon they reach the house which is old and stone, which has clearly had additions made from time to time, Demeter moves into the huge kitchen to get tea going and set out bread and olive oil and vegetables and herbs that she picked as they walked.

From:

ostro_goth

"It is a lovely house," Teja says, following her. "One may feel safe here. Or talk the night away, over wine, around the table."

From:

wheatencrown

"Its a home for us. Now we've lots of tea so you have to pick which one you want."

Demeter opens up a cupboard with many, many types of tea in it as she gets the water boiling. She's far more used to doing things as a mortal would than Eirene since its how she spends part of her year.

From:

ostro_goth

"Can we have black tea with fresh herbs, as I make it in Milliways, from the herbs you gave me?" Teja asks. "I saw you pick some."

From:

wheatencrown

"Of course."

Demeter pulls out some black tea and mixes it with some lavender and camomile.

From:

ostro_goth

Teja sits in a chair at the kitchen table and watches her.

"How long has this been you home?" he finally asks. The place feels as if it had been lived in, and loved well, for a very long time.

From:

wheatencrown

"I don't remember the exact year, but it was when a colony was started out here by the Greeks."

From:

ostro_goth

"That was long before my time!" Teja says. "But this, then, would not have been my world, would it? So had I been here while alive, I would have found a random villa rustica full of random men and women."

From:

wheatencrown

"Perhaps, I'm still not sure if our worlds are that different."

From:

ostro_goth

"I cannot go back, with what I know now, and then find time from my life to travel to Massalia, and its hinterlands, and see if I find you in this place," Teja says, sensibly. "So the question shall forever remain unresolved."

From:

wheatencrown

"Yes, a wise man I knew in Greece once said, you can't step in the same river twice."

From:

ostro_goth

"Indeed," Teja says, "he said so in my world, also, and I read of it. You knew him?"

From:

wheatencrown

"We talked once under a tree, he had a lovely smile."

From:

ostro_goth

"What a lucky world, in which true goddesses would speak to the philosophers," Teja says, with a wistful little smile.

Pause.

"The herbs smell lovely already."

From:

wheatencrown

"I've talked to many on as I walk and enjoyed every one. It should be ready."

She pours out the mugs, good solid earthenware mugs which have the feel of long use and care.

From:

ostro_goth

Teja wraps his hand around his, not even drinking yet -- just to feel the warmth, and the solidity of the mug.

"And if you ever spoke to me," he says, quietly, "I either do not remember, or it would have been a different version of me."

From:

wheatencrown

"I've walked for so many Winters that I don't always remember all I spoke to."

From:

ostro_goth

"So even you can't tell me," Teja says. "It would be one of the things that man may not know."

From:

wheatencrown

"Or even gods at times."

From:

ostro_goth

"That is something about the old gods that I like, compared to Christianity -- any old gods, be they Greek, Etruscan, Germanic, or shintô," Teja says. "You do not pretend to know everything. You struggle with the universe as you go along, even as we mortals do."