Chương 359: 8.4

Hazim laid back in the softest cushions he had ever touched and tossed another of the wine soaked dates into the air and caught it in his jaws. His teeth caught the sticky sweetness and bitter hints of the glazed fruit. Then chewing on the absolutely decadence that was his new favorite treat! He licked the clinging syrup from the pads of his fingers before reaching over for another. Hazim knew his family thought him a fool! That he shouldn't be dressed so finely as he was now!

Every time he walked into a room he could smell his mother's disappointment and his father's judging irritation! Which was entirely unfair! Dorka got to enjoy all of her fancy new dresses but as soon as he chose to wear something regal and fine it was some betrayal?! Yark! He tossed another incredibly, wonderfully sweet glistening fruit into his mouth and chewed and swallowed all the harder! Couldn't they see how much better all of this was for them?!

How awful they were to scorn these gifts Evren was suffering away from home for?! Father would never have to give up another lamb to any lord ever again! If they were not so stubborn about it he could have been enjoying candied dates cooked in wine like these every day instead of only when he could sneak away with his tutors. It was so stupid! They had the freedom to drive the flocks over hills that had been forbidden from them for generations!

They could tell the lord in the valley what to do and he had to simper and bow to them! Mother didn't have to struggle with the wool, she didn't have to light the fires or dust the floors! They had proper good stone floors now too! Not just woven straw on hard packed earth! He could wear shoes if he wanted! Shoes! None of Hazim's so-called friends that had abandoned him had ever been able to afford real shoes before! He shifted a bit over in the absolutely wonderful silken cushions of this incredibly artful thing!

A chair covered in stitched-in cushioning softer than any bed he had ever slept on before! Hazim's silver plate of dates was growing sparser with the treats, but he managed to reach another and popped it into his mouth without having to get up from lounging in the decadence his initiative had earned him! Why should they sneer or look so pitying at him?! This was fantastic! Elek was still too much of a boy to appreciate how much their fortunes had changed since Evren started going away to the Lord's lord in Kars!

Hunor was having a sore tail over the baker's daughter refusing him because now she wouldn't be able to hold it over him how much richer her family was for living in the valley. And Dorka? Well everyone was soft on Dorka, Even Hazim could not begrudge his sister her joys. Even though apparently he was always wrong and stupid for simply enjoying what he'd never even dreamed he might have! Yark and Cursed Towers!

It made the fur of his back bunch up uncomfortably against the cushion under his clothes even thinking about it! Mother would have scolded him for that! As if he didn't wear garments billowing enough to hide his anger! What was the point of suffering like they used to?! He chewed hard, having to snap his jaws apart and really work with his tongue between his teeth to get the sticky sap like candy free where he'd squeezed his treat tightly between them!

Hazim had to shudder a bit as he pried it loose and yet the sweetness just kept growing in his mouth! He'd never had dates taste like this before his tutor had shared them with him! It made his mother's simple honeyed cakes seem so bland and dull tasting. Stolen from its rightful place, this narrative is not meant to be on Amazon; report any sightings. That was it!

He was just too angry to lounge, Hazim sat up on what was still a certainly divinely blessed cushion, shaking himself out so that the fur at his back had room to shift under his clothes. What was so great about living one bad year or a wild griff attack from begging for food from their neighbors?! Mother and Father spend every day singing the same old songs about collars and chains and how noble it was to sleep on a bed you had to make yourself out of the worst of the wool?!

They called Hazim stupid as if fleas were a blessing! Even his littlest yet largest brother Evren looked at him like he was a fool! Nevermind how much the overgrown pup was trying to carry the weight of their entire family all by himself! Poor pup trying to be brave even though he was obviously terrified and lonely and scared so far away from them! Hazim was the second eldest son! Wyrm or not it wasn't right for his youngest brother to have to do so much for them! Hazim should be able to help Evren!

He grabbed two dates and stuffed his mouth with them, letting the sweetness fill his cheeks and cover his tongue in cloying syrup. Yark, Cursed Heights and dock his stupid parents and family for thinking Hazim was a fool when they were so obsessed with living just like all the people in the cities imagined they were! Nevermind how much they didn't run on all fours, or never bared their teeth!

If his family were still going to slink around half naked like wild animals of course everyone would still treat them like such! But Hazim was a fool?! Because he chose to wear their new riches like a peer to the lords that they now were? Well he couldn't stand for it! That's why he was here again in the Capital! That's why he was given all the fine foods by the Lord's lord. All the wonderful clothes and now had a room even greater and finer and richer then the ones his parents had back home!

The Lord's lord in Kars had asked him to come, because Hazim was the only one in his family that could see what they were being given! And it wasn't for any fantasy vileness like his parents were always singing songs about every night! It was for his brother! For Evren! This was going to be a difficult time and his brother needed family to support him! He huffed hard and swallowed the fruit with a heavy gulp. Looking at the incredible walls, black and white cut into such perfect shapes. Like a woven carpet of rock!

Silks a cloth so soft and beautiful he'd never been able to touch it before. And there on a little table just for him a silver platter once full of candied dates soaked in spirits! The palace was even more amazing then when he had last been there! Evren had only been on his fifth summer when they had come with him by Greater Griff, but at least they had been together! Hazim had been little older then Evren was now at the time!

He'd thought himself old then, but looking back on it of course his poor pup of a brother was so scared and lonely always being far away! He was only the second eldest, but apparently it took the most foolish of the family to see that his brother needed him! Apparently only a fool would dress how a proper civilized man should, speak like a person of good station and actually listen to the advisors and teachers that the High King himself sent to help raise them up from what they had been!

Out of his entire family apparently only Hazim saw what a wonderful gift his brother had secured for them while every single hair on the wyrm was trembling in homesickness and worry! But Hazim was an idiot?! Hazim was so foolish!? Well Hazim was in the Capital! Hazim let out a heavy breath and threw himself back on silken pillows! He had the ear of the man that lord's called lord! Eating wine soaked dates and bread so light and flakey it was like savory air mixed in spices!

In quarters secured by the Lord's Lord that everyone called by the fine title of "Vizier". Hazim was here, and he was ready to support his brother just as the Lord's Lord told him he could! He reached for the second to last date and tossed it into the air. A cool north breeze coming in through the windows and-" What are you doing here you absolute idiot of a mongrel and where is your medallion?!" Hazim nearly choked to death on his date.