/ we need to stay /

CHAPTER ONE - FIONN MAC CUMHAILL

seán fathartaigh was sprinting as fast as his sunday shoes would allow him to, up the road past upper cill rónáin and legging it straight to mainistir. he had absolutely nothing on his mind except for being at his home in the shortest time possible.

once his legs would no longer let him sprint, he ran the same way still, eventually slowing down to a jog and then speedwalk. he was heaving, and the chilly mid-april air made his throat hurt as the rest of his body was flaming to the touch. he pushed himself uphill and to the last stretch of the front door to the house. he pushed the bottom part of the door open as to not let the chickens in, and took his shoes off before stepping inside.

"ma- ma...." he heaved and put up his finger to show that he needed a second "ma....tell me father hasn't left yet, please"

"no, your father is well gone now, seán" she looked up from her knitting, uninterested. "fishing boat left a while ago."

"how longs' he gone? i could catch up to him yet still ma, i haven't been out so long. i'll put on m-" seán got interrupted.

"should have gone to the morning mass and not the evening one, if you had wanted to go so bad. don't even try going anywhere now"

"a here" seán sat down beside the hearth, still out of breath, nudging his younger brothers out of the way and prodding the fire to see if it would last up to morning. "i told da i don't know how many times i wanted to go with him. he knows i'm a good catch too"

"well sure look, should have gone to morning mass instead of messing around with the ó corráin boy. that's what you get." she lightly kicked him with her own bare foot. "take off your sunday sweater and go to bed, the three of yous. i'll wash ye tomorrow."

"tell father to wait for me next time, please." he begged, with his eyes still glued to the fire.

"your father is his own man"

"and yet you're the one that feeds him everyday, ma." seán looked up at his mother. "please, for your eldest. tell him next time" she was nearing the start of her 40's and yet she seemed much older, worn down by the harsh conditions of the climate she lived in and the things she had experienced. a hand knit woolen shawl enveloped her head and shoulders, and a heavy grey skirt draped over her legs all the way to her ankles. she sat barefoot with her legs crossed, hands busy knitting.

"fold that sweater"

and with that, the conversation was over. seáns' father was far out at sea in the currach, with other village men fishing for cod and mackrel right before the sun came down. he'd pull into the islands at dark and marinate the fish in the shop, going to sleep barely before the sun rose and waking up barely after.

seán stripped eóghan and enda, his younger twin brothers, down to their underclothes and gestured them to the back room of the house, behind the fireplace. it was kept warm from the stones surrounding the back of the fire and from the fact the room was very small, with only a brass bed with pots under it and a few shelves on the wall full of things that didn't fit in the kitchen. there was no window, although thankfully the bedroom was much less smoky than the main room.

"is father coming home tonight?" enda asked, pulling the woolen blanket up to his neck and throwing half of it over his brother.

"no, i dont think so. he's out fishing" seán replied, throwing a second blanket overtop of them. "he has to get fish for the shop for tomorrow."

"will you tell us a story then?" eóghan asked "about fionn and the fianna. or the salmon of knowledge. or the giants causeway"

"fionn and the giant? i can tell you that" this story was one of seáns favourites when he was a younger too, about the legendary irish warrior fionn mac cumhaill and his spat with a giant from scotland, that created the giants causeway in aintrim. seán and his brothers had never seen it with their own eyes, but remember when their father hurriedly came into the house after staying in the pub, holding a piece of paper ripped out of the news one of the village men got on the mainland. "look!" he shouted, pointing to the small square of a printed out photos with a weird formation of rocks on it. "its the giants causeway! from fionns story!" the scrap of newspaper was lodged into a photo frame above the boys bed, all those years later.

seán put out the candle on the shelf beside the bed, and burrowed himself in beside his brothers underneath the blankets. "the story starts, with fionn mac cumhaill, the fiercest warrior in all of ireland. after the samhain festival, the in the early darkness of the autumn days, the benandonner - a fierce redheaded giant, with a massive burly beard shouts insults across the ocean at our hero. fionn shouts back, saying that since the benandonner is so strong, he should come over and fight him himself!" the boys laugh at this part, and say what their father usually says while telling this part of the story "yar boo!"

seán continues. "to show that fionn was not scared of the benandonner, he uses the aintrim rocks from the seaside and builds a bridge all the way across from ireland to scotland. the benandonner leaves any weapons at home, and he stumbles across the bridge onto irish soil. but his rival, our hero, is nowhere to be seen."

"the benandonner knocks on the door of fionn and sadhbh's house, and sadhbh opens it for the giant, saying she had just got her child, fionns son, ready for bed. the giant walks over and sees a child the size of a fully grown man! wrapped in a blanket, he is six feet tall! with that, the benandonner thinks about how huge the childs father must be, and knows he cannot fight him on his own! the scottish giant runs back to the bridge, and stepping from stone to stone he smashes them into raggedy pieces, that all fall back into place on the aintrim coast. the child in the cot, which had actually been fionn wrapped in a blanket and his wife sadhbh laugh, as they know the giant will not be coming back for them anytime soon."

seán looks over at his brothers, which are both staring up at the cieling of the cottage, where they can see the supports of the thatched roof. he remembers when enda boasted about how he knew the exact number of reeds in the thatch that covered the house, but he wouldn't tell anybody the number.

"how was that?" seán asks

"fionn was very smart, wasn't he seán? dressing up." enda says "i dont think i'd have thought of that"

"i would have just fought the giant" eóghan says

"but if you die, who's left to protect all of ireland?" seán asks

"i guess nobody. but fionn had the fianna to help him"

"well thats not fair then, because theres one giant and the entirety of the fianna fighting against him" enda says to his brother.

"hey, both of ye close your eyes and sleep now. try and see if you can hear fathers currach pulling up at the shore"

"okay. night enda, night seán"
"okay. night eóghan, night séan"
"night boys"

~~~
hey guys lol this is my first time ever writing a book and i'm tryna keep it very casual. this is a kind of pronunciation guide incase anyone has any problems imagining how certain words sound in english. as many words as i could have, i have used the irish spelling of because this book takes place on inishmore, and everybody in this book speaks irish :-) seáns father is the only one in the family that speaks english. this also takes place in the 1960's, incase anyone is confused.

cill rónáin - kilronan
mainstir - manstir
seán - shaun
eóghan - owen
sadhbh - sav

see ye 0w0