Flowers of the Spring
Of Haedley
Introduction
Haedley, the only son of Haeden. His father(Who was a soldier from Harwick) had long died in a sortie with Easterlings who sought to cross the Langflood; thus left his wife Alodie to raise Haedley to manhood. And so Haedley grew with his dwindling mother. Alodie had a beautiful garden before her home, and every spring the two of them would enjoy flowers together; it was something so simple, yet became significant in their eyes, for they delighted in beautiful flowers, and loved innocent beasts; for this reason they seldomly ate meat. Haedley was blue eyed as the folk of the Riddermark commonly are, and his flaxen hair was all braided into a single braid that hung upon his back. This he could not do on his own, thus Alodie ever did this for him.
These things remained with Haedley as he grew, and when he came of age Haedley was never considered among the mighty, nor wise. But instead was a gentle spirit. Holding onto the habits of his boyhood - he remained a child at heart - and managed to find himself a way into the barracks, and served Aldor Harding as a guard to his Mead hall. Haedley felt very out of place in the barracks, all the men were stronger than he, and he had few friends among them. To that day he had seldomly left Harwick, his mother did not wish it, for she feared that the fate that befell her husband would befall her own flesh and blood. In the end Haedley could not have been stopped, and so sometimes left the walls of Harwick, learning new interesting places, and it seemed that even as he walked through the brown plains of the Wolds he could find beautiful flowers. His interest had always fallen to birds if he had seen them fly over-head. He wondered what their names were, and where they went; hoping that all the most beautiful birds would some day come and perch themselves upon a post nearby him in Harwick.
Haedley appreciated the trivial things more than others. He would often water Alodie's garden and help her in it, and so the two of them remained together. Though Alodie was getting old and frail; Haedley began to visit her more often, and stayed with her some nights. He grew worried, thinking that her time was nigh, but it was not so. Alodie was strong in her age, and she did so for her son most of all.
Days went on, Haedley became good at his duty -- to the surprise of many. His tongue was sharp, and though he was no strong man he was hard to be moved - at least when on duty. His mind was set as stone, and he could sometimes conjour all the right words when it was needed. Then there times when he could only conjour all the wrong words, those are the times of embarasment for him, and he saw them all too often. 'How?' You may ask, and the truth is that men would to tease him. They would have a busty servant in the Mead Hall or Barracks seek to flirt with him, and they would sometimes agree, for they thought him to be amusing when he stuttered endlessly, and could not find right words. They often departed with an alluring stoop; pinching or kissing his cheek, and how his cheeks would burn red with blush.
Haedley did not ever find the reasoning as to why this would happen. Some men would tease him and pretend that the women had queer interests him; making him blush once more, he even believed these tales, yet did not wholly like them.
Even so, Haedley was not easily offended. He had grown adapted to mockery sometimes, and this had forged a hard shell about him. Yet that does not mean that he was difficult to confuse, for it was easy for most folk. His mind wasn't accustomed to the ways of well-grown men who knew of wars, women, and great tales of kings. But Haedley's story continued, his days were perhaps dull; even lonely as they went on, but he was content with his life, seldom miserable, and often seen with a smile on his face.
