by Fleur Le Marc
Hours after The Beginning of Wisdom
-=The Sanctuary at Altaan, Bajor=-
Hours after The Beginning of Wisdom
-=The Sanctuary at Altaan, Bajor=-
Slowly, heavy eyelids fluttered open.
The light from the fire burning in the fireplace across the room immediately drew her attention.
She thought of how they always told her not to go too close to it, because it was scary. She watched the flames flicker for a moment, gradually managing to lift her head from the pillow.
*Hot,* she thought, watching the fire dance and burn. *No touch.*
She inhaled and exhaled, blissfully unaware of the involuntary actions of her lungs as she looked over to the person asleep beside her, and then jarred fully awake at the sight.
*Not Maman.*
This was the kind lady with the pretty face and smile that helped her get better from 'sick'. The lady who liked to give her toys.
*I love toys.*
The thought reminded her of one specific toy that she missed very much. She began to look around her on the bed, wondering if anyone had found him and brought him to bed, too.
She almost squealed aloud as she saw chou chou, her beloved stuffed bear, resting against her tummy. She didn't know where he had come from but she was glad to see that he was safe, too. After all, the man had taken him away when they made her leave Maman.
*Bad man.*
Then Papa had come to get her, and brought her to Maman, and now they were back in the place that she was getting very used to, with people who were always kind, and where her tummy was always full when it was time to go to sleep.
*No sleep.* Nearly two-year-old Gillan Tress thought to herself defiantly. *No, no sleep. Maman.*
She seized hold of her teddy bear and dropped him over the side of the edge of the bed, a drop down which seemed so great to Tress, but only because she was so small.
Satisfied that he had survived the fall, she grasped hold of the blankets, anchored beneath the weight of The Good Lady, and held fast. Slowly, she lowered her pudgy legs over the side toward brave chou chou who had taken the descent so well. She dangled there a moment. She wanted to slide down off of the covers, being smart enough to know that if she made a sound, that even though she couldn't hear it, that other people still could. If she woke up The Good Lady then she would never have a chance to go and find Maman.
She thought about the fact that nothing made any sounds anymore, not to her.
She knew that 'sick' was what made her ears stop working.
She wished that they could make them all better. She missed hearing Maman laugh and sing, and she wished she could hear it again.
The Good Lady was very asleep, and didn't move at all when Tress finally slid down the quilt; tiny fingers losing their hold at the last minute and sending her dropping down onto the floor or more precisely, onto the cushioning provided by her diaper.
Unharmed, and what was more thinking that it had been fun, Tress rose to her feet.
She signed a quick [[sorry]] to chou chou for having landed upon him.
She shook him vigorously by his neck so that his stuffing would reposition itself until his face was no longer flat from the impact.
Her feet felt cold, bare as they were, as they padded along the wood floor but Tress didn't care. She wanted what she wanted, and she wanted it now.
She found that someone had left the door cracked open, and she managed to wiggle through it without any trouble at all.
*Free.*
She moved into the hallway.
It was dark, and everything was so big. She couldn't pull open the heavy wooden doors alone, she soon realized, no matter how hard she pulled on the handles. Her frown furrowed her brow, and wrinkled her tiny Bajoran nose ridges even more than they wrinkled in their natural state.
She dragged chou chou behind her by the ear, his legs skimming the floor as he faithfully followed where she led.
She went to the end of the hall, turned back, then back again and soon, she realized she didn't know just how to get back to the room she'd left.
Her chin began to quiver.
She almost started to cry, but then she recognized the entrance to the dining hall, and she quickened her small steps, hoping that maybe Vedek Shamira had forgotten and left out the tin of Kava cookies that she liked to eat late at night when she thought no one was looking.
The same tin from which she liked even more to give Tress a treat, when she was sure no one was looking.
She pushed through the swinging doors between the dining room and the kitchen and scanned every available surface for her desired target.
Sure enough, there it was. Sitting on the counter top, tantalizingly close to the edge.
*Chair...* Tress thought, knowing she needed to be higher up if she was going to get to those cookies.
She set chou chou down on the floor, and signed to him. [[Good chou chou. Right back.]] It was a promise that she was often given by Maman and Papa, and they always did come back.
-=Down the hall=-
Unable to sleep and afraid that his tossing and turning would disturb Timal, so badly in need of rest as he recovered from the fever, Gillan Pace had finally abandoned Timal's quarters. He made his way to the small library that was not far from Timal's office.
The door had not been locked and earlier in the evening, he had seen several of the younger Vedeks coming and going from this room and so had been unable to prevent himself from curiously seeing just what was inside.
Afraid to touch anything, he scanned the titles embossed on the spines of the old-fashioned, elegant looking books. Some of them bore the names of specific prophecies; others were collections of prayers. There were also books on Bajoran history. Pace wondered what it would be like, to be allowed to hold one of them in his hands and read from it.
Would some special blessing come from the Prophets if one earnestly sought Them? That was what the prophecies taught. He had tried, so hard, all of his life to follow Them as his parents said that he should.
It had been so much easier to follow his parents’ words, while there were still alive to speak them.
*My Parents...*
Pace closed his eyes and allowed his head to fall into his hand as he tried to picture their faces.
Their voices.
It had been only a year and a half that they'd been gone now, and still, it was getting harder every day, to remember exactly what it was that Gillan Laine and Gillan Mariisal had been. Tears burned behind Pace's eyes; the tears he had dared never show to anyone, not since...
"Forgive me, Father, Mother," Pace whispered into the darkness, his shallow breathing threatening to extinguish the solitary candle he'd brought with him and set on a tall stand beside him.
"I don't want to forget you."
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Fleur Le Marc
Currently on Bajor
NRPG: Gillan Tress was inspired by a very special, specific little girl that my husband and I met on a flight last year to Orlando, Florida. I will post about her on the website soon.
Fleur Le Marc
Currently on Bajor
NRPG: Gillan Tress was inspired by a very special, specific little girl that my husband and I met on a flight last year to Orlando, Florida. I will post about her on the website soon.