Wordcount: 886 words
Rating/Warnings: PG-13
Summary: May gets a letter from her fiancé and daydreams about her future.
NOTE: This is the first draft of a story, so it will most likely contain plot holes, retcons, and other inconsistencies. I’ll come back and fix things once the story (or arc) is complete!
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Aaron’s Letters
The mail wagon passed Cybil and May on the way home. It was a rough wooden frame with interchangeable poles that allowed it to take on more or less cargo. Pulled by two horses, big heavy drafts, instead of four which meant the load was light this time. She’d seen it pulled by up to six, but that was the year the caravan brought home an unexpected find from the battles with the northern Wolf Kingdom.
With the mail wagon came another letter from Aaron, as well as some new wool and dyes for her mother. Her brother got a letter from his godparents and there were some bills and other general correspondence.
All May cared about was the letter.
As soon as she was able, which was rather soon since her parents knew what had just arrived, she run to her upstairs room, closed the door and flopped down of her bed to read the missive. He’d only written four pages this time, in small handwriting, front and back. He tried to tell her as much as he was allowed of his likes and adventures. He sometimes wrote up to six pages, but this time around there was not as much happening, which she was glad for.
The more boring his life, the safer he was!
Since the kingdom was not currently at war, the foxknights were more decorative than anything else. They kept up drills and did parades and some basic police work, but they did not have a real job to do. Which annoyed some folks because the taxes were the same wartime or peacetime when it came to their upkeep.
The mail wagons came in once a week, the express riders came through more often, but there was little call for them. Since they were mostly hills the express riders still came through on long leggy horses, as opposed to the compact ponies that they favored in the mountain ranges.
The mail wagons brought bulks goods as well as mail and in the busy seasons they’d come by twice a week. There were proper caravans that came through Oak Grove, but the smaller towns were not profitable stops for those. If they were on any of the caravan routes, it would be different, but two beaches was far enough off the beaten path that they would have been a detour and not a way point.
Today’s letter was the same as last week’s letter which was the same as the one before. Aaron talked about how much he loved her, what their future would be like, how much he loved his foxhawk and being a foxknight. She’d read it before, but she’d read it again and again and again.
She wrote him much the same letters back, about school and what was going on in the town. Nothing much ever changed, besides who was marrying whom and what children had born and who had died. The town itself rarely changed, and it was the same as it had been in her grandfather’s day and in his grandfather’s day. The grandfather before that was debatable since that had been during the one war with the western Lion Kingdom where the battle actually came through Two Beaches.
She had already sent her letter out for transport on the same wagon that had dropped Aaron’s letter off. Which meant it was time to start a new one… just as soon as she finished reading about what they would name their third child and if they would live in the loft above the bakery or if they would rent out something else in town.
She was leaning towards Deni for their second girl, she’d had a playmate when she was much younger with that name and it held fond memories. Aaron thought it was a tinker’s name, which it was, and that they should pick something more, well, baker-y. May thought it was a bit silly considering that a Smith was going to bake bread (and the other Smiths were weavers) it be picking on what names meant.
There may or may not be something foreboding about the letter, but we’ll have to wait a bit and see if it needs to be retconned in.
They would have two boys and a girl, and they would keep their uncle once he retired, assuming he did not find a wife– she did not want to rule out the chance for happiness in his old age, but to be honest he’d have to find someone rather hard up for spouses to take him. Too wrapped up in his work to court anyone and she did not see him slowing down as he got older.
They’d keep the name of the shop, for old times’ sake, not many people refereed to things by names anyways. There was the picture logo and that was what most folks went by. Reading and writing, while taught in school, were not something the general public had much time or inclination to keep up on.
Aaron would retire, his foxhawk would go off to the warrens and save for a few old drinking buddies, that time in their lives would wrap nearly in saving paper and go into the hope chest to be buried in when they reached that final pinnacle of their lives.
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