Sel, Chapter 2 Options

[Dantrag]

In those days, I was quite wild. I searched for adventure in everything. and more than once, I looked for fights. I find it sad that other people made excuses for me, even when I refused to give one for myself. I was often convinced I was right, such as in the time I tried to rob a Legion fort and got caught. Then, I got out of trouble because of my 'horrible childhood'. Looking back, it wasn't so horrible until the deaths started happening.

-Selenil Vendas

"Sh!" A ten- year-old Sel ordered his sister as he put his finger over his lips. "You don't want us to get caught again, do you?"

Vysi put on a pouty face and shook her head 'no'.

"Stay here." he whispered, handing Vysi a piece of bread.

They were hidden in a storage closet in Fort Buckmoth eating some bread that was stored in the crates. They often went there when they got hungry, and had only been caught once. That hadn't been pretty; their mother was less than happy to say the least.

Sel wanted more than bread this time though; he wanted some gold; hat way his family could have more than two changes of clothing each. Besides, why pass up an opportunity for adventure?

He sneaked out the door of the storage room and made his way up the stairs; he was disappointed in the fact that the corridor was lighted. He peered under the closed door to the next room, the soldiers were drinking and lagughing loudly. Sel even thought he heard a song somewhere in the choas of noise. Smiling, he made his way into what he had found out days before was the Fort commander's quarters. He opened the door, now confident that he would have no trouble. He stood straight up and opened the door. To his dismay, the commander wasn't one to drink.

"Hey! Who the hell are you?"

Sel stood there wide-eyed for a moment before finally taking off down the hallway. Unfortunately for him, the commander did too.

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It's short, but hey, it's really late here.

This post has been edited by Dantrag: Nov 27 2005, 05:39 AM

[Dantrag]

Here you are.

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The next few weeks atschool passed without any events to speak of. Sel began getting annoyed at Retin though; he was always taking Sel's things without asking. One day he even stole Sel's lunch.

Sel tried his best to be good for his mother, so that she wouldn't be disappointed or angry, but this Retin made it hard, and since Sel made it obvious that he wasn't doing anything, it seemed to make Retin think that he had free reign to do what he wanted. Sel got tired of being thought of as a 'sissy'.

It was break time again, and the students sat on the floor of the main hall of the Sarethi Manor, eating lunch yet again. Sel and Retin had been assigned as partners, since they sat beside each other, and Retin seemed to want to follow him around; probably for more food.

Sel ate beside Aril, the breton girl that sat on the other side of him with the red hair that almost hurt everyone's eyes.

Aril smiled when he sat down, and that unnerved him a little, but she was nice, so he didn't think too much of it. They had barely even started a conversation before Retin sat down beside Sel. Sel would have sighed, but didn't. This situation seemed all too familiar. It wouldn't happen again, Sel decided.

When Retin's little hand came to swipe his bread, Sel dropped his bread and grabbed the other dunmer's arm and twisted it violently.

"Don't touch my stuff anymore!" Sel shouted, drawing the attention of the adults around them. They seemed more interested in seeing what would happen than stopping what was inevitable.

Retin freed his arm with a grimace of pain--his arm wasn't exactly placed in a comfortable position--and swung at Sel. Sel felt the blood flowing from his nose, but didn't care. Sel charged Retin, and they tumbled on the ground for a minute or two when Master Athyn came in and quickly broke the fight.

"What are you two doing?" Master Sarethi asked with a tone of authority. "Fighting will not be tolerated in my house, and certainly not among my students."

Sel and Retin both looked at the ground shamefully, and Athyn put them both in opposite corners of the main hall that served as a dining room for the students, and even in the classroom they were separated.

When Sel got home, his mother had already recieved the news. She didn't tend to his bloody nose or his bruised body at first, she didn't even seem to notice them. In fact, she added to them after another long lecture on behaving. Sel stopped trying to explain to his mother; she would not have understood.

The next day at school, Athyn put the two together again, but neither one would speak to the other, or even acknowledged the other's existance. Over the next few weeks, the two often got in fights over everything, and really, nothing at all.

Soon, they were assinged new partners, and kept totally separate. Almost every day, Sel went home to recieve punishment from his mother, and it became hard to sit down. Sel's new partner was actually Aril, and she no longer gave him that smile; he actually got the idea that she was scared of him.

He and Aril didn't talk much either, it was almost the same as being with Retin after their first fight. After awhile, she finally did speak up.

"I liked it better when you were nice." she said when they were supposed to be working on some arithmatic.

When she saw that Sel wasn't going to reply, she continued. "Why do you always try to beat up Retin?"

"He stole my food." Sel protested weakly.

"So how are you any different if you hurt him all the time? That's worse than stealing someone's food."

Sel was about to say, 'Unless you're starving.' but he didn't. He was tired of all the sympathy he got from everyone. but as he thought about it, Aril was right; he had been the one to start every fight, and Retin just defended himself, and often won the fights.

Just because he admitted that she was right to himself, though, didn't mean that he would admit it to anyone else.

"I've never been mean to you, so why do you even care? Why can't you just mind your own business?" Sel asked, suddenly regretting his words and the tone that went along with them.

Aril began working on her arithmatic. She didn't even need to say that he had just done what he said he hadn't.