#He is just so wonderfully easy to villainise and I cant resist...

[avirael]

FFxivWrite 2024

Day 11 - Surrogate

"Laqa!", a woman’s voice scolded. "Didn’t I tell you to leave the boy alone?"

A tall woman with long white hair stepped closer and sternly looked at the cheerful blonde boy, who had introduced himself as Laqa. Her voice lacked sharpness though and her dark eyes sparkled with amusement.

"But mommy! A‘viloh seemed so lonely!" Laqa protested and A’viloh thought that she didn’t look like his mother at all. Painfully he was reminded of his own mother’s lifeless green eyes staring through him while her blood, as red as her hair - as red as his hair -, had spread across the sand. Stifling a sob, he buried his face at his knees, which he had pulled to his chest and embraced with his arms.

"A’viloh?", she asked confused. "Is that his name? Did he speak to you?"

Laqa nodded, oblivious to the fact that the red-haired boy hadn’t spoken a single word to the Miqo’te women the whole way back across the desert. "But he says we can call him A‘vi and that he would like to stay with us. We can be his new family, right?"

This had mostly been the blonde boy’s interpretation and nothing A‘viloh had actually said but he didn’t care enough to protest.

The woman thoughtfully tilted her head and looked at both of the boys. Then she knelt down with a sigh and gently put a hand on the crying child’s back, carefully rubbing in circles.

"If it was only this easy… Besides, your father has the last say in this matter. He wants to see him first before he decides what to do with him."

"You can tell him to allow A‘vi to stay!", Laqa insisted. "He will listen to you."

"Maybe…", she mused. "Now go play with your siblings while I speak to your father."

The blonde boy put his arms on his hips and shook his head. "Uh-uh, I‘ll go with you! If he doesn’t listen to you, he will surely listen to me!"

"Laqa…", the woman said a little more sternly. "Do as I tell you or the only thing your father will listen to is your crying when you are grounded for a week."

Alarmed the boy hurried away and the women looked after him for a moment shaking her head, before returning her attention to A‘viloh and stretching out a hand for him to take.

"Now, A‘viloh - if this is your name - follow me, please…"

Anxiously he stared at her hand.

"There’s no need to be afraid anymore, you are safe here.", her voice sounded so soft and soothing, and a kind smile appeared on her face. Somehow the little Miqo’te believed that he could trust her.

Carefully A‘viloh reached out for her hand and let her help him get to his feet. With tiny, weak steps he climbed down from the small platform of the aetheryte and almost fell while doing so.

"Oh, you poor thing. Come here, I‘ll carry you…", she said and picked him up. The warmth of her body surprised the boy and with tears welling up in his eyes again all he wanted to do was to cling to her, pretending she was his mother, and cry until he fell asleep.

But that wasn’t granted to him yet.

"Just a little longer and then you can rest, I promise.", she explained gently and brushed the tears on his face away with her fingers. "Try not to cry now, will you?"

Faintly A‘viloh registered that they entered a building, then a deep, loud voice spoke up. "Can the boy not even walk himself? Isn’t he a little to old already to still be carried around?"

A‘viloh was still too young to put a name to the mockery in the man's voice but whatever it was it made him feel bad.

Reluctantly he let the the woman put him down again but still he held on to her leg and tried to hide behind it.

Angrily she addresses the man at the other side of the room.

"You can certainly see how weakened he is, he probably hasn’t eaten anything in days."

"Indeed, I can see he is quite weakish…", the man stated bluntly. "Give me one good reason why I should burden our hunters to feed one more hungry mouth instead of just sending him home."

"He is just a child, Odh! And he doesn’t have a home anymore!" the woman exclaimed pleadingly. "I told you his whole family was slaughtered by the lizards! Women! children! There was a dead baby barely a year old if at all! I know you’re not this heartless!"

"I‘m not heartless.", he said unmoved. "Just pragmatic. He‘s not one of our own and the tribe always has priority. We should think carefully about wasting our precious resources on outsiders."

Annoyed the woman growled. "You‘ve been listening a bit too much to my old father‘s antiquated nonsense it seems! Weren’t you an outsider yourself once?! Sure, he will have to be fed but don’t worry about your precious supplies! I will take care of and hunt for him all on my own if that’s necessary! I love you, Odh, but make no mistake, sending him away would be nothing but cruel and I don’t remember you treating strangers that way when we met! But if you decide to send him away anyway, know that I will go with him!"

It was an empty threat of course, she could never abandon her children and taking them with her would be too dangerous. But the implication alone had the desired effect.

A smirk appeared on the man’s face, he was visible amused by her emotional outburst. "Of course you are right, my love. How could I deny you any request. He can stay. At least until he is old enough to take care of himself or until he proves his right to belong to this tribe…"

She nodded. "That is all I am asking for, thank you. I will make sure you won’t regret this decision…"

Then the man focused his attention on A‘viloh. "Come over hear, boy! Let me take a look at you."

The women encouraged him to go but only reluctantly he stepped towards the man.

"What is your name?", the deep voice asked. A’viloh didn’t dare to look at him and just stared to the ground shaking, his ears flat at his head and his tail between his legs. Somehow this man scared him.

"Laqa says his name is A‘viloh.", the Miqo’te woman explained.

"Is that so, boy?", the man asked him.

Weakly A‘viloh nodded but didn’t dare to look up. Then the man reached out to him, put a big rough hand below his chin and turned his face upwards so he had to look into his face.

"You should look at people when they speak to you, you know…"

His eyes were bright and piercing and made A‘viloh feel uncomfortable. The man smiled but his smile didn’t look kind for some reason. The boy’s fearful eyes, swollen and red from crying, evaded his gaze, tried to look anywhere else but not at him directly. Finally his eyes landed on one of the windows at the back of the building and he almost gasped in surprise.

Through the glass the curious face of the blonde boy from the aetheryte plaza peeked into the room. As he noticed A‘viloh looking, he grinned and waved, before diving for cover as the two adults followed A’viloh’s surprised look.

For a moment there was silence.

Then the woman stepped beside him and kneeled down with open arms.

"Come, A‘viloh. You must be horribly hungry and tired. And we need to find new clean clothes for you too."

Without protest he let the woman pick him up again but held on tightly to the soft green scarf around his neck. He wouldn’t let her take it away no matter what.

He was glad to get away from the unfriendly man but still threw one last glimpse over his shoulder as they left, back to the window where a pair of blonde Miqo’te ears and curious, warm, golden eyes peeked over the windowsill.

Weakly A‘viloh smiled and cuddled closer to the friendly woman’s warm body.