Brynleigh Pasternack
Brynleigh smiled fervorously as Casey Dupree approached from across the street. It was as dark as the bottom of a barrel as the moon barely lit up the midnight hour. Far too late for either of them to be outside and still be considered safe. But if either of them knew anything, it was that neither of them would ever miss one of these. Not by their own willingness, that is to be true.
“Ruthy…” Casey muttered.
“F.C…” She responded.
The two young women nodded at each other, not daring to mutter any more words to each other before heading inside the building at which they were meeting. Cherry's Bed and Breakfast!’s sign swung along with the quiet bell just beside the door as Brynleigh roughly shoved it open.
Cherry, an old woman who was sixty years her senior, stood up from behind the front counter with a cheery smile on her face. That was until she saw who had just walked into her humble motel like shop.
Her face turned grim as she shook her head, not wanting to believe what she already knew as true. But the two young women's expressions and nods only answered her questions. They just did so in the worst possible way. The most horrible thing, they knew that was just how it was.
The woman hobbled her way around the counter, holding up her brown dress and red robe to get down the one step to the floor before walking over the girl’s and grabbing their shoulders.
She looked at them intensely without a bit of fear in her eyes, though they all knew just how much fear she held in her heart. She sighed before ushering them both into the backrooms of her establishment. The rooms that she never ever let any of her unknowing guests into, no, these were reserved for much more important matters than just whatever travelers showed up at her doorstep on any given day.
Brynleigh looked around at the rustic old wood of the building, even rotting in some places, and smiled just slightly. Even though times were rough, this place still managed to bring her back a semblance of nostalgia and home. More of a home than her own ‘home’ had been a lot of days.
She remembered cold winter nights when, no matter what her brothers did, she couldn’t shake the weather or the feeling of a hollow bit inside her soul. Her brothers were great, but they weren’t exactly parental figures.
She knew that Cherry wasn’t really her mom and that she never would be. But sometimes, especially when she was younger, she would like to close her eyes so tight that she saw little spots.
Then, and only then, she would imagine what it would be like if Cherry had been her mother.
“Ruthy, c’mon.” Casey looked at her expectantly as she was already sitting on the couch in the small room.
Brynleigh sat down next to her old friend and previous lover. Casey looked over at her with intensity in her eyes. A sorry look swimming deep in the dirt brown. She already knew what the other was thinking. They had known each other far too long to be able to hide anything. Much less their worries.
“What happened? What did they do?” Cherry’s words came out choked as she practically sobbed before even having definite news. They all knew that it wasn’t needed to understand the situation.
Casey spoke up first, “Brynleigh wasn’t even there. If you’re going to blame someone, blame me. Please.” She pleaded with the older woman, knowing how much she meant to her friend.
“If I am going to blame anyone, it is the King!” Cherry shouted in grief.
“Quiet down, please.” Brynleigh spoke up.
They all calmed for just a moment before Cherry said, more calmly this time, “What did they do to my boy?”
“We were on a mission last night and…and we didn’t realize that the guards were behind us…” Casey’s voice shook as she recalled what had happened. “By the time that we were finished, they had already grabbed us and- a-and they weren’t letting go.” She choked back her sobs. “They…they…”
Brynleigh grabbed her companions' hands to reassure her, letting the other lean into her chest to cry before she continued her story. Besides, it wasn’t exactly like Cherry was waiting in anticipation for the end. It was already so obvious.
“I tried to stop them, I swear!” Casey cried out. “B-but it just happened so quickly. And Tyler was screaming at us to leave him behind when we started running. I didn’t think he was serious. I thought he was right behind us.” Her voice softened to barely a quiet whisper, in contrast to her usual booming voice.
Cherry nodded along and stood up to pace the room. She took out a handkerchief from her pocket and wiped away her tears. Brynleigh looked down. She had never been particularly close with Tyler, never having a real reason to ever be close with him. He had been Cherry’s son, but barely her friend until she joined the rebellion.
He was two and a half years older than she was and had begun his fight against The Royalty when he was only twelve or thirteen years old. Cherry had never approved of him doing it so young, but his mother could do nothing but encourage the rebellious spirit that he had.
The only thing the older woman could’ve ever really done was try and keep Brynleigh, as inquisitive as the young girl had always been, separated from any of the danger that she knew her son was getting into.
She wasn’t really her daughter by blood, but if you asked either of them, she had always been her daughter at heart.
♚♛♚
Brynleigh stirred the pot of stew carefully, not wanting to get any on her dress. It was, quite possibly, the largest pot she had ever worked with. It sat upon the fire, needing stilts for extra support of its weight.
She smiled at a kid who waved at her from one of the many overcrowded tables. She wasn’t sure who he was. He looked around four or five years old, and he, his mother, father, two sisters, and three brothers showed up to every single free food gathering that she had ever helped with. Which was most of them.
Hunger had begun to ramp up its numbers in the kingdom of Jakal for many years. Over the past ten, the number of people going to these had at the very least quadrupled, possibly more. She felt horrible as she saw how the tables slowly went from barely a couple filled to dozens upon dozens of them overfilling with people in the seats. It had gotten to the point where she and the others couldn’t afford any more seats, so people had just resorted to sitting outside or on the floor when it was cold.
She looked down at the measly vegetables floating around in the watery broth, without any of the flavorful spices that she had grown up with. She sighed, knowing it was done but that there was nothing she could do to make it any better than it already was. So she took it off the flame with shame.
She grabbed the first large stack of bowls, not sure that they even had enough to give everyone one. She knew that some of them shared bowls between siblings or parents, or entire families.
She was the only one on duty that night, most people bailing out of the job to do other things. She still tried to go there as many nights as she could. She couldn’t put much money towards those types of causes, barely scraping by herself with her brothers. So she tried to offer whatever extra time she had to work without pay to try and get people even less fortunate than her food.
“HI! CAN THE FIRST THREE TABLES MAKE A LINE PLEASE!” She screamed over the chatter of people.
Everyone from those tables began lining up. PaBadgerts harshly whispered to their children about not fidgeting, children continued to fidget, and people on their own awkwardly looked around while hugging their arms tightly around themselves. Everyone was different, but all their faces passed in a blur as she quickly gave everyone a bowl and placed a single ladle of soup into it.
So, the pattern continued. Three tables at a time, no words exchanged, as quick as possible. Finally, after a whopping three hours, everyone had been served. She wiped her forehead with a rag.
She was just glad that there had been enough for everyone, between that one pot and a couple of others.
She looked around and finally saw who she was looking for. Her eyes softened as she spotted them. She didn’t remember them coming through the line, but she never remembered anyone coming through the line.
Orien looked up, their wide, greenish brown eyes shining under the dim light. Their long curly hair didn’t fall down their shoulders, instead being held up by a thin tie at the back of their head. They smiled as brightly as they could, which wasn’t very bright. She had never seen them with a genuine smile before.
She walked over to them and discreetly placed a small bit of bread next to their soup. Orien let out a small chuckle at the bit. She couldn’t always give them extra food, but she tried her hardest to when she could.
She, admittedly, saw too much of her and her friends in the Revolution in Orien. Just a fourteen year old kid who was trying their hardest to get by in the dark world that they lived in. She always wished when she was younger that someone would befriend her and help her, even though she knew it would never happen.
She wasn’t sure if Orien had ever wanted that to happen to themselves. But even if not, she would always try to make sure that they had just the slightest bit of extra food in their stomach. Although it meant giving up her own bread.
(The Monarchy in this world is VERY corrupt, and this will go into detail about some pretty bad things being done to people. Don't worry, though. I'll still add trigger warnings at the beginigs of any chapter that has that type of content.
Casey and Bryn Bryn used to date because BISEXUAL BRYNLEIGH!!!
Let me know your thoughts on Orien. I don't know how big of a role they'll play in this book, but they might appear more in the second book. Oh, and they do use they/them pronouns, just so no one's confused.
Hope you enjoyed! Bye!)