#yuri van der woort

[bandanas99]

Untitled Future Project: 4 - The Group

Clang-a-lang-a-lang-a-lang!

A loud bell started me from my slumber.  My heart thundering as I sat up quickly, peering out from Ryla’s bunk to see a man further down the corridor wearing the same tunic as me and ringing a large brass bell on a wooden handle.

My attention turned to Ryla. Her brow was furrowed, still clinging to sleep despite the racket. In the morning light I could see the generous sprinkle of freckles across her nose and her smile glimmering on her lips even while dreaming.

The bell stopped ringing, “All rise!” The man shouted shortly. I looked out cautiously to find him inspecting the bunks around him as people climbed down carefully with their backs to the bunks. Opposite the way I had attempted. Where he found someone still sleeping, he pulled them by their ankles to the edge. Their limbs were usually flailing by that point.

“It’s morning, Ryla.” I said, pushing her arm gently to draw her from her sleep.

“One more cuddle.” She whimpered. “Five more minutes.”

“A man is checking beds.” I said, using her arm to pull her towards me; “We need to get up.”

“The Priest?” Her eyes shot open. “Get up! Get up!”

Ryla sat up with urgency, bumping her head on the ceiling. She hissed as she crawled from the bed and stood up. I climbed out behind her and felt relieved when the Priest was still some way away. I was nervous at the idea of him seeing us sleeping in the same bed. I had a feeling that it would be against the rules, but I definitely wanted to repeat it. I had forgotten – perhaps out of necessity – how wonderful it felt to be held at night and I did not want to give it up.

The people around us wore identical tunics and were various ages, shapes, colours and creeds. They had an air or purpose and contentedness about them. I took comfort in the idea that this would be my eventuality. Making the Choice had been the end of my pre-planned life plan, so I was open to ideas.  

Everyone stood adjacent to their column of bunks and waited for the Priest. He paced in the divide and beckoned a woman with soft blonde hair towards him. I watched him pick out three other people before he became level with us. He pointed his finger at me and then Ryla and waited for us to join his gaggle. When we were a group of seven, he stopped choosing people and rang the bell once more, catching it in his hand and silencing it.

We followed him down the corridor towards where I knew the bathroom to be. He stopped outside of it and scanned each of us in turn.

“A large group this year.” He commented without any obvious emotion, I got the distinct feeling that he did not consider this to be a good thing.

“Each one of you is has the honour to serve as New Hands of the Church.” His eyes focused on mine and I shifted under his gaze uncomfortably. “Introduce yourselves, quickly.” He pointed to himself, “Father Quess.”

He pointed to the woman with soft blonde hair falling to her waist in braids and unblinking pale blue eyes,

“Violet Pauson.”

The Priest pointed to each of us in turn:

Tall thin man with a shock of dark hair introduced himself. “Yuri van de Woort.”

Tall thick man with a crop of red hair looked at his brother; “Syd van de Woort.”

Short woman with short, dark hair smiled slightly; “Freja Rodke.”

“Ryla Kivis, Father.” My friend stated.

“F-Fae Masrus.” I stuttered.

A man with a long dark hair falling into his face fidgeted with his hands as he spoke; “Daishi Niven.”

“Today commences the week of rotations.” The Priest stated, his attention shifting to Ryla as she rubbed her bumped head. “We shall begin with the Garden. Appropriate protective clothing has been provided in the bathroom. You have ten minutes to get ready.”

His hand pushed the door open and I found the room contained a row benches with piles of towels and clothing set out for each of us. One of the doors I had assumed led to another toilet, was instead leading to an attached shower room.

We each approached the piles and found them embroidered with our full names across the left collarbone. It was not dissimilar to the clothing we were already wearing, except thicker and slightly waxy. I looked around to see if anyone was going to seek privacy to change to find most already stripped bare and the others half way to it.  

“You think there will be trees in the garden, Yuri?” Syd asked as he rubbed his hand through his burnt orange hair.

Despite being completely exposed, he seemingly decided now was the time to take a break to chat to his brother. He was covered head to toe in ginger peach fuzz, muscles clearly defined on his heavy-set form. His thick thighs were shoulders width apart as he rested his hand on his hip.

Ryla, herself topless but wearing the new slacks, was unabashedly drinking in the view of his body, her eyes roaming without any attempt to disguise her interest. She nudged me with her elbow approvingly and bit the corner of her lip.

I struggled to know where to look and tried to concentrate on swapping one pair of trousers for the other.

“I dunno.” Grumbled Yuri, pulling his protective tunic over his head and getting it stuck around his shoulders. His soft belly was sprinkled with thick dark hair and wobbled as he tried to wriggle into the top. His naked brother shifted the fabric until it surpassed his broad shoulders.

“I don’t think the garden is gonna be for me, I sneezed for a week when ma bought those flowers!” Yuri sat on the bench with a sigh and began putting on his trousers.

“What Assignment are you hoping for, then?” Violet asked from over her shoulder, she had her back to us though her tunic was already covering her. Her delicate hands were gently pulling up her trousers. She smoothed her braids down her back and looked at the brothers with interest.

“Kitchen.” Yuri responded with a shrug, he ran a hand over his clothed belly with a smile; “Good food has always been my calling.”

“I’m hoping for the Watch, myself.” Freja piped in returning from the shower room as she rubbed her dark head vigorously with the towel. Her body was svelte and athletic, her small perky breasts were the only thing that jiggled with her furious towel motion; “A lot of adventure to be had there. I didn’t leave everyone I know to be planting turnips for the rest of my life.” She scoffed and caught my eye, cocking an eyebrow as she looked me up and down with a smirk.

I felt my flesh flush with embarrassment and concentrated on pulling on my clothes instead of ogling my new peers. The material of our new clothing was not an unpleasant texture, but it had a rubberiness to it that I did not expect and squeaked a little when I sat on it.

“Kinda feel like a pinafore penguin.” Freja let out a hooting laugh as she began waddling around the room.

“Penguins aren’t real.” Violet rolled her eyes and crossed her arms in front of her.

“Actually, they were real, the just went extinct.” Syd corrected. He still had not put on his tunic and was taking a long time lacing up his trousers. Ryla sat beside me with her whole body turned in the opposite direction in order to look up at him. He seemed to be enjoying her attention as much as she was enjoying watching him. “They went extinct in the 3030s along with all the other antarctic creatures.”

“You’re so clever, Syd.” She fawned, “Did you read that somewhere?”

“Oh, yeah.” He grinned, stooping to bring his face level with hers, “I may look like a dreamboat but I’m actually a massive bookworm.” He showed her the index finger of his right hand; “See these scars? Paper cuts. Most painful pain in existence.”

“You poor thing.” Ryla crooned, capturing Syd’s fingers in her hand and lifting them to her lips, pressing a single kiss into them.

“Most painful? What about child birth!” Violet protested, looking from Syd to Ryla to me incredulously.

“By all accounts, child birth is extraordinarily painful.” I commented in a deceptively bright tone of voice. “Lots of women die from it.”

“Have either of you experienced child birth?” Syd asked pointedly.

“None of your business.” Violet’s ears turned pink.

“I’m just saying, of all the pain I’ve experienced, paper cuts are the worst.” Syd waved his hand emphatically; “If your pain scale skews it lower down due to different experiences then that’s fair, but we aren’t talking about hypotheticals here.”

“Are you guys ready to go yet?” Daishi asked impatiently, cutting off the argument before it had a chance to develop. I had almost forgotten he was with us he had been so silent.

I turned to see that he was already dressed and facing the door, ready to walk through at a moment’s notice. His hair dripped wet down the back of his neck and his hands intertwined behind him, but his fingers fidgeted together.

“Viztel, give me one more minute.” Syd muttered, slowly pulling the tunic over his head to give Ryla one last view of his barely visible abs.