Where\'s Brodie\'s Armor?

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\"THREE WEEKS!\"

To say that Diarmad, the younger brother of Kedhern, is angry would be an understatement.

\"THREE WEEKS! And Ceann Brodie\'s body and the armor of the Bear are both missing! I say we have a traitor in our midst!\"

The younger version of the hot-tempered Kedhern seems to know a little more about gaining the favor of the crowd. He stands atop a riser in the Courtyard of Creatrach Keep before a large gathering of Bears. It is midday in October, and already, there is bitter bite to the wind that sends chills to exposed skin. But the hot air generated from Diarmad seems to keep the crowd warm.

\"I say Brodie\'s family is hiding the body! They spread lies that the former Chieftain is still alive so that they can go on living in luxury! Wasn\'t it enough that Brodie brought shame to our clan by attacking a homestead of women and children? I say it is time to throw them out and proclaim a new Ceann!\"

The large man points at the keep proper, where Brodie\'s wife and two children are probably trying to hide.

Inside the keep, in the living quarters of where the Bear Ceann\'s family traditionally lived, the soft spoken wife of Brodie cowers in a corner. Although the windows are securely shut, the shouting of angry voices can still be heard. She holds a little girl in her arms who is crying, not quite understanding what is happening.

\"Aeden,\" the woman looks up at her young eight year old son. \"If you can run, you must. You must not let them catch you. Do you understand?\"

[Raconil(#32384)] \"PAST TIME!\" comes a gravelly voice from the crowd.

\"Brodie was a plague upon the clan almost as bad as Ryanne,\" says this new voice and some of the crowd parts to allow the man to step forward. \"Though who will lead is matter that demands attention as well,\" he continues. \"Your brother was little better, Diarmad. He set us upon the Wulf and has allowed the Hawk to rise once more. I need not tell you the threat they pose to us.\"

Raconil Mathain gives Diarmad a long look and then steps forward. \"Before we sit a new Ceann upon the throne, we must first rid ourselves of the leftovers of the last, as you say.\" He motions towards the Keep. \"Let us go forth and demand these heathens tell us where they have hidden the body.\"

Aeden has little more understanding of the situation than his sister, but the boy is the only one that isn\'t shrunk into the corner in fear. He has a shock of thick brown hair on his head and greatly resembles Brodie in appearance, his relation unmistakable. \"Only the weak run away, Ma!\" He argues, spouting words told to him by his absent father. The child makes his way over to one of the shuttered windows and squints his eyes, trying to see out through the cracks. After little can be gleaned, he reaches up to try and unhook the latch holding the window shut.

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\"Elder Raconil, I promise you I shall have that bitch crawling across the floor to beg forgiveness,\" Diarmad bows deeply as Raconil makes an appearance. He points at a group of men who seem itching to break something. \"You heard the Elder Raconil! Go into the keep and drag them out! Tear apart their quarters and search every corner to find the armor!\"

Inside the Keep, Leah lets out a shriek as she tries to stop the boy from opening the window. \"No! Your father is far away from you now. He will not beat you for running away!\" His mother bites her lip and looks at the boy who looks so much like her violent husband. Her face contorts momentarily with pain, but she composes herself. \"And it is not weak to run away. It will take great courage.. for you must run away from me. And your sister. You must go alone, into the wilderness. That is a brave thing. Now go take the dagger from the shelf there. Hurry! You do not have much time!\"

Brodie\'s son is startled by his mother\'s shriek and turns to look at her with a challenge in his brown eyes. \"Papa said that you -never- run away, and that you can\'t be scared.\" When she tells him to fetch the dagger, Aeden moves over to the shelf, reaching up on tiptoes to blindly grope for the weapon with his hand. He wraps his fingers around it and pulls it down, then looks at her with the first show uncertainty. \"He\'ll be angry.. Why do I have to go?\"

[Raconil(#32384)] Raconil stands firm in the courtyard, watching with approval the men begin head into the keep eagerly.

Among those who enter is the smith Draig, who heads straight for the door of the Ceann\'s chamber. He pounds upon it with a thick fist. \"We\'ve all heard your talk, woman,\" the burly smith calls. \"We\'re tired of talk, but you\'ll keep on talkin til your dyin\' day.\" He slams his fist against the door once more, and when it doesn\'t budge he hurls one of his massive shoulders against the stout wood.

\"Open the door, or by Kiern I\'ll break it in,\" he says and slams into it once more.

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Bits of dust come sprinkling off the ceiling as the pounding of the door shakes the entire quarter. A terrified Leah clutches onto her daughter even tighter. \"Don\'t cry my darling. Mother is here. Don\'t cry.. don\'t cry..\" Leah comforts her daughter the way she does when she cries in the night.

\"You have to go because.. because..\" She squeezes her eyes shut as the pounding of the door becomes even louder. \"Oh Kiern.. it is too late. Listen to me very carefully, Aeden. Hide that dagger. Tuck it in where no one can see it, like how your Papa told you. Yes. Now hurry!\"

She looks sharply at the door that seems to bend with each pounding. \"Take my hand. Don\'t be scared now. We\'ll make it, I swear. I will give you a chance to run. But when I tell you to run, you must run. Do you understand? For now, we stand. We will let them take us out of here. And when they take us out into the Courtyard, when we are near the gate, you run when I tell you.\"

Aeden isn\'t standing far from the door and when the smith loudly pounds upon it the child nearly jumps out of his skin. He forgets his argument as he retreats away from the entry, lingering not far from his mother with a fearful expression on his face, his eyes as wide as saucers. The boy stares at the door with an almost strange facination, expecting it to burst open at any moment. \"Papa said.. he said that.. \" The child never finishes the thought as each slam against the door startles him from his thoughts.

He looks over at his mother, listening to her instructions and nodding mutely in understanding. The dagger is carefully considered before he tucks it into his belt, under his shirt, just as his father taught him.

[Raconil(#32384)] Draig slams into the door again and again and the timbers begin at first to creak and then crack. He let\'s out a loud grunt and slams into it a final time and the bulging wood finally gives way. The huge smith fills the door way as he steps into the room.

He pays not attention to the boy, but his eyes are upon the cowwering woman. \"I\'m not Brodie,\" he growls as he looks at her. \"Don\'t look at me as if you\'re waiting for the next attack,\" he points towards the courtyard. \"You\'d best come, there\'s no turning back.\"

He then turns to look towards the boy. \"You too boy, get movin\'.\"

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Draig is followed by a pack of Diardmad\'s frothing men who thunder into the room that Leah and her children called home. They begin ransacking every shelf, every cupboard, pulling out dresses, shirts, belts, even a little doll made out of a sweet potato. He looks at it, flings it on the floor, and crushes it under his heel. Next, he ransacks the corner of the room where Brodie\'s belongings are kept. The man takes a bottle of Brodie\'s treasured ale, shakes it up, as if trying to listen for something inside.

\"Sacrilege!\" Leah hisses softly under her breath as she continues to hold onto Aeden\'s hand. But she does not put up a fight. \"You will not find anything here. We have nothing to hide. Come, Aeden. Let us go to the courtyard.\" She begins to make her way out of the keep, and out into the open where a crowd awaits them.

\"Heathen! You call yourself a Bear?\"

\"Oh look at her.. always playing the little miss innocent. You just KNOW she has something to hide!\"

\"..and the boy looks JUST like him! Sell \'em all as slaves!\"

Amidst the loud jeering of the crowd, no one but Aeden could hear her words. \"Remember what I told you, Aeden.\" She continues to walk towards the gate.

Aeden tries to stand bravely when the door is busted open, his small hands clenched into tight fists. When the large smith looms in the entry the boy creeps closer to his mother, fear winning out in the strange situation. \"What\'s happening? Mama? Papa will be very angry that the door is broken. Why are they doing that?!\" The pitch of his young voice rises as he begins to get more worked up.

When the others bust in and begin ripping the place apart the child\'s face grows pale with terror. He grips his mother\'s hand tightly, trying to look around at everything at once as she pulls him out to the courtyard. \"Slaves?!\" That particular jeer catches Aeden\'s attention and he presses closer to her skirts, swallowing hard.

[Raconil(#32384)] It is Raconil who puts an to the crowds jeering. \"ENOUGH!\" he bellows in a voice that brooks no arguement. \"Let us not forget that we are Bear. We are not animals like the Wulf or Stag, there will be no selling of anyone. Once you go down that path, like a bad penny it will turn up again.\"

He turns his hard steely gaze then upon the woman and her children. \"Like that same bad penny, you and your family have lost their glow,\" he says then in the same hard tones. \"You will be held in the dungeons below until those belongings your husband has crept away with are returned to the clan,\" he says to Leah.

He motions towards a pair of his own guards. \"Sieze the babe from her,\" he says. \"I\'ll put no children in the dungeon and they are too young to know anything that will be of use to us. Take the boy too, we\'ll find a place for them.\"

As he awaits the guards to follow his commands he looks at Leah once more. \"Your husband nearly broke the clan like a shell,\" he states. \"But I am not as cruel as he, if you know where he is tell me now and you will be spared the dungeon.\"

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Quickly, Leah looks about to assess the situation. Everyone at the Keep is gathered around to watch her fate, even the guard who usually stands at the gate. Her grip on Aeden\'s hand becomes so hard that surely, it must be hurting the boy.

\"Not animals?\" She slowly turns to Raconil. \"You say you are not like animals yet you quietly watched as my husband beat me until my eyes, mouth and nose swelled shut. You say you are not like animals yet you did nothing when he beat me so bad that I could no longer bear any children.\" Her words are quiet but they are seething with rage. And that rage explodes when they seize Brenna from her arms.

\"I will not let you do that to my son!\"

She swings the arm she clasps Aeden with all her might, hurtling him towards the gate. At the same time, she lunges and grabs the dagger of the guard, and before anyone could react, she sinks the tip into the guard\'s belly. \"RUN AEDEN!\"

Some say, she was every bit the ferocious and deadly mother bear, protecting her cub.

All of the grown-ups are tall around them, the loud yelling and angry words frightening to the young boy. Raconil hushes the crowd and Aeden searches around desperately to catch sight of his father. Surely the powerful man will show up, demanding that all obey and listen to him, putting an end to this nightmare.

He doesn\'t find his father in the crowd, but suddenly Aeden finds himself being flung towards the gate. At his mother\'s words to run, the child flees for the gate, far too afraid to want to see if the men yelling of slavery and dungeons are true to their word.