So`l Mackenzie
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"Your shoelaces are untied."
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a JP by So'l and Be'thal
Be'thal had not done much that day that she could account for. Besides the tournament which had lost much of its relevance early on. She had investigated and contacted a few resources but now there was nothing to do and she felt uneasy.
Not knowing what to do she strolled through the starbase and in the end decided to go for to the bar and drink some of her uneasiness down. She ended up in the bar and realized that she didn't think of her self particularly social that night. Instead of seeking out the usual crowd she spotted somebody else, S'ol, one of the students at KDB was at the bar.
So'l didn't notice her approach him at the table at the rear of the bar he'd adopted as his own since late afternoon. A watery stare and the pair of empty tankards aside from the half full one he held in his hand gave testament to the tab he was running up at the bar.
"Greeting S'ol." be'thal said. Her curiosity was sparked. "Care to split the next barrel with me?"
"Mph? Oh. Yea. Sure."
Be'thal seated herself and filled one of the tankard for herself. She didn't say anything but merely watched S'ol and the tankard that was in front of him.
Seconds turned into minutes, and after a while her tankard was empty. They still had not spoken anything and to a degree Be'thal found it relaxing to have silence.
She went to refill her tankard but found the barrel next to them empty. S'ol obviously had been at work on it for a while. She got up and went over to the bar retrieving another one. Once back at the table she cracked open the top and helped herself. " Well here we go." she spoke. "Half of it is for your sorrow S'ol."
So'l mumbled something that might have been thanks, or might have been him telling her to go to hell.
Be'thal chuckled and drank more from her tankard. "Drink" she said. "The bloodwine will wash away the pain for a moment."
Again So'l mumbled something unintelligible.
"I didn't think the tournament would be such a burden for you S'ol." Be'thal said after settling down her tankard. "Among the students you are among the most capable and yet you dwell here looking rather forlorn."
So'l didn't respond immediately. He remained silent for a moment, then said. "It's not about ability."
"It' never is," Be'thal said, "It is about your heart and your honor."
"No, it's not about that either."
She looked at him, friendly with a disarming smile yet her piercing eyes were searching. "No? What then? There are not many things that remain, or so your teachers maintain."
She looked at him and then said. "So what is that causes of of K'Hare's best students to drink himself into stupor."
"It's..." So'l hesitated and met her eyes for the first time. He didn't know if he could trust her. He'd thought he could trust QaraH, but when the time had come, he was wrong. Something, probably the alcohol, made him feel safer this time around, with bethal. "It's about a promise I made to my sister."
Be'thals eyebrow quirked, this was getting interesting. "I don't remember you mentioning her."
"I don't, not often. But I think about her a lot. She's my half sister really, but she never treated me like anything different."
"So this promise." Be'thal said approaching the subject carefully, "must be very important to you."
"It is. Or it was. I think. I don't know."
Be'thal took a long sip from her tankard. There were so many thoughts swimming in her mind - for she too had a true brother once." Siblings are a precious thing. I loved my brother while he was among us."
"She's still alive. I think. I haven't heard from her in a long time."
"So why are your mourning here as though she was in Sto'vo'kor?" be'thal asked curiously.
"I'm not mourning, I'm trying to stay drunk without losing the ability to speak. There is a subtle and important difference."
Be'thal chuckled and filled up his tankard. "Indeed there is?"
"Yea, and if you were serious about your drinking, you'd know it."
Be'thal chuckled. "I have seen to many warriors waste away in such manner to care for it." Be'thal said. "Emotions are a powerful thing S'ol, I use them a fuel while others quench themselves in drink and denial."
"That last bit sounds real nice right about now."
Be'thal sighed. "So what is exactly this promise of yours that torments you so much?"
“When I was about eight years old, there was this boy named Ronald Hayworth who bugged her in school- he pulled her hair, threw spitballs at her, that kind of thing- and I know now that it he probably just liked her, but at the time, at the time all I knew was that there was this guy bugging my big sister. And she didn't appreciate it at all.” So'l gestured with his mug before slamming back a big shot of the potent brew.
“After about the fourth or fifth time she came home in tears because he wouldn't just leave her the hell alone, I decided, in all my infinite adolescent wisdom, to call him out and settle things once and for all. Sso, I meet him in the school yard, and I threaten him, and I tell him to keep his hands off my sister.”
"So what became of this Ronald petaQ?" Be'thal asked while helping herself to the bloodwine.
"I'm getting to that. You want to talk, or you want to listen?"
Be'thal raised he hands indicating she would say no more.
“Ok. Now, the thing about Ronald was that he was an arrogant bastard because he was a genius, and he was also about six inches taller and half again as heavy as I was. So when this little Klink kid starts telling him off, he doesn't take me seriously and starts walking away. Well that, that was the final straw as far as I was concerned.”
“And he didn't stand a chance. I tackled him from behind, and started to pound the snot out of him. If I'd been human, he would have rolled me off him, and proceeded to destroy me, but I wasn't, and he was, so,” So'l's voice broke. His eyes squeezed shut, and he continued in something just more than a whisper. “so I almost killed him.”
So'l stopped speaking. The moment stretched on as he stared past the bulkhead, into the past. With a start, he came back to the present, and after another moment, he continued with a quavering voice.
“They had to repair a crushed skull, three broken ribs, a cracked collar bone, and replace his left lung. I spent nine months in a juvenile corrections facility before being released into the custody of my father when he moved off planet. He spent five months in the hospital, and was still in physical therapy when we moved away. When Ronald went to school that day, he had an IQ of 169. When he got out of the hospital, it was 64, and they had to teach him to read again.”
“What did I rob the world of? What might he have done if I hadn't done that to him?” So'l asked, not expecting to find an answer. He never had before.
Be'thal listened to the story, it was moving, she did not think it was moving and yet it was. She wondered whether she should respond but decided to wait. Maybe there was more, S'ol hand was heavy and she didn't want to irk him now that he was talking freely.
“She didn't take that well. She was angry at me, at Ron. She felt guilty for the whole thing, and so, she made me promise. She made me promise not to fight anymore. And that was one of the first things I did when I joined the Academy. I started training even before I joined. I told myself that's what I needed to do to fit in, that I had to go along to get along, and that it didn't really matter because it was just a match. But the truth is I love it. I like beating the other guy. But every time I step in the ring, I'm betraying her. I'm doing the thing that hurt her the most. So there it is."
Be'thal shook her head. "You did what you heart demanded S'ol, you did it then and you are doing it now. There is no betrayal, to give up your true nature - that would be a much bigger betrayal." she drank a bit more before continuing. "Your sisters human way prevented to see your true side, you were a warrior and responded as such. "
"You just don't get it, do you? I almost killed someone, because they had a crush on her. Do you know what that kind of thing does to someone human?" So'l demanded, voice rising. "Do you understand that she thought I was a monster?"
"And you probably were, to her and many others." be'thal said levelly. "They did not understand you, you were never meant to be among them S'ol" The mongrel grew angry but she continued. "Ta'pez told me once a story about his childhood."
So'l stared at her in perfect loathing. "Go to hell." He got up and left before she could tell her story.
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So'l and Be'thal (Read 368 times)
