How, Now Nuncle!
I'm a little girl. In the druidic shrine they worship what looks like a giant Christmas tree. Only, it's not really big enough to be worthy of worship is it? As I make it taller, until it almost touches the high, high ceiling, it grows proportionally in width as well. But how will it get light inside? I make a large skylight in the ceiling right above it so that this will all make sense. Still not enough sun, I decide, but at least it's believable now.
I notice shadow people, all hunched over, sneaking toward the tree. They sneak up, take some kind of crystal, and then leave in a repeating cycle. No one else seems to see them. I tell someone. He tells me it's just an illusion. It's been going on forever, a shadow of the tree. But as I watch I know it's not. The shadows know that I'm onto them and one of them kills me.
I'm her brother. I wonder why I don't cry for my sister. Is it because I am male? I hear that some men don't cry even in such circumstances. Or is it because she was my dream sister, and I'd only known her a very short time? The dream hadn't been very long so far, after all. People keep coming up to me and giving me their condolences. I want to tell them, "I'm all right, she was only my dream sister," but I do feel some deep grief.
My cousin wants to date me. She had curves to die for and curly dark hair that tumbles down her back. I had kept my distance because of our close blood relation, but in grievance for my sister I'm not sure that I care anymore. But no, I'm in love with another girl. She had been close to my sister too and had gone back to her father's stronghold to grieve. I travel there, walking across the countryside. When I get there, I look for her in the kitchens, opening a cabinet under a sink. There she is among the pipes, holding a whole bunch of books and some Comet. She's blond and fair as my sister had been. Although older, of my age. "If you came to get me you should have looked for me in my room," she points out, annoyed. I know that she's taking about stealing her away. Is that what I came to do? Maybe.
Just the same, she welcomes me into her home. There's a famine in this part of the country, so when she takes me to dinner, the cook looks at me, and asks her angrily if I'm supposed to be there. I'm served anyway: eggs and oatmeal. It's all they have. Her father, who is my uncle, actually might not welcome me.
A doctor hired by my family comes to check on me. After examining me he tells my uncle, "The young man is in grieving for his sister, but otherwise healthy." The doctor is of the opposite faction from us, which worries me. Will he attack us? But I look in the upper-right corner of the screen and see that the name of our location is green; we're in our own territory and safe from attack. But what possessed him to come here? We could attack him at any time, and with so many of us there would be nothing he could do. We would kill him. Turns out that he was sent to get information out of my uncle in return for treating me. He asks about how much money my uncle has. My uncle gives some evasive answer and the doctor says, "No, how much gold!?"
My uncle summons me and I go to speak with him. He tells me of his plans for his fleet in the war. It's a conservative plan. I'm closer to another uncle and me and him had discussed a more ambitious plan for our forces. We had hoped to get this uncle to cooperate. I'm referring to the other uncle when I say, "My nuncle-"
"You don't have a nuncle!" he interrupts me angrily, "For no demon came forth in a boat for you!"
I know that he's talking about my birth. I had been wondering about the definition of "nuncle" IRL, I remember." So does it have something do with demons? Is a nuncle a demon uncle? I'd thought it was just a familiar, affectionate term for a well-liked uncle. Or maybe had something to do with being a maternal uncle.
