I used up most of my time and energy today adding Creative Commons Licenses to my pages, but I did want to write something for today.
I think in light of the above, I had some trouble figuring out what exactly I wanted to do, then getting it to 500 words.
Luckily, Egeria has a very distinct personality that actually makes her pretty easy to write…
“Awful nice of y’all to help me haul all these taters to the Porthaven Summer Market,” Egeria says as she loads the cart. “Normally, Old Man Fitzburton loves to go to the Market, but his back ain’t been quite right lately.”
She grins broadly at the Lyte Brigade.
“Yeah,” Nolan says. “Happy to help. I mean, hey, you’re Amara’s family. That means you’re basically our family.”
Egeria turns eagerly to Amara.
“Oh, Cousin Amy!” she squeals giddily. “Is this Nolan? Is this the boy you’re always goin’ on and and about?”
She leans in close — bemusingly close — to Nolan.
“Gosh,” she declares. “Cousin Amy’s right. You do got real purdy eyes.”
“Uh…” Nolan stammers, slowly backing away. “Thanks?”
“Egeria,” Amara warns. “That is quite enough.”
“Sorry, Cousin Amy,” Egeria says.
She leans in close to Amara to whisper in a conspiratorial tone.
“Gotta make your move, Hun,” she tells Nolan. “Cousin Amy don’t think it’s proper for a lady to make the first move.”
She winks encouragingly at Nolan before going to back to loading the cart.
“Uhhhh…” Nolan says.
He clears his throat and awkwardly coughs into his elbow.
“So, uh,” he stammers. “Let’s, um, let’s get these taters loaded. Potatoes.”
He gesticulates in the direction of the cart.
“Those.”
He clears his throat again.
“Hey, Falcata,” he asks, noticing the Amazon staring intently at him. “Everything alright?”
Falcata nods thoughtfully. “Oh, yes,” she answers. “It’s just that I’ve noticed that you really do have very pretty eyes. The way they catch the light is quite remarkable.”
“Thanks, Falcata,” Nolan mutters.
“But I would like to clarify that, although I do respect you as a companion and my Captain,” Falcata explains. “I don’t like you, well, that way.”
“Well, thanks for letting me down gently, Falcata” Nolan mutters.
The Amazon nods. “Yes, for one thing, you’re a little young for me,” she says. “Also, I fear that Amara would worry I was trying to move in on her territory.”
“Falcata,” Amara growls.
“I am looking forward to the Summer Market,” Falcata says, as if the entire previous conversation hadn’t happened.
Soon, the cart is loaded up with Egeria’s baskets of potatoes.
“Thanks for the help, y’all,” she says happily, climbing into the back of the cart. “Especially you, Falcata. You’ve got more muscles than a bodybuilder at a seafood buffet.”
She looks hopefully across the members of the Lyte Brigade.
“So, y’all like taters? I could talk about taters all day long.”
“I do enjoy a good hash-brown. Though, actually,” Tancred says. “I prefer sweet potatoes.”
“Git. Out,” Egeria growls, eyes narrowed and voice filled with icy menace.
“Huh,” Pela muses. “You know, I couldn’t really see how she was related to Amara, but I see it now.”
“Yeah,” Matilda agrees. “That’s the face Amara made when we accidentally dropped her into the harbour.”
“Have, I, uh, done something to upset you, Miss Egeria?” Tancred asks.
“Oh no, darlin’,” Egeria says, immediately returning to her previous sunny disposition. “I’m just playin’. I ain’t got nothin’ against sweet potatoes.”
Again, as previously established, Egeria is named like, but not necessarily a reference to, 4th-century pilgrim Egeria.
Mostly, I’m envisioning “Egeria” is being a plausibly vowel-shifted form of “ager“, Latin for field, and meaning something like “Farm Girl.”
That’ not correct real Latin, but it’s only a couple steps away from correct real Latin.
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This work is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial-NoDerivatives 4.0 International License.
Realmgard 