(no subject)

[theravenboy]

Bran and Owen Davies celebrate the holidays quietly this year. Chapel, on Christmas Eve and Christmas Day, is warm and well-lit and full of song. Bran and Owen recited psalms in devout thanksgiving. In the afternoon, the Evans family invites the whole farm for Jen Evans' excellent dinner.

Later that night they unwrap presents. Bran gives his da a new winter coat, and Owen gives Bran a leather suitcase. Bran stares at it, muscles clenching in his jaw, but says, only, "Thank you."

Owen says, "You will need it soon enough."

Even when they discover two more gifts waiting on the kitchen table that night, Bran and Owen do not speak of Milliways.

***

Bran spends the winter hols helping with the farm, to earn some extra money for gifts and for university. On the fourth day after Christmas, though, snow falls heavy and thick upon the Dysynni Valley, and the icy wind blows down from Cader, so that Bran and Owen have to stop working early and go home. There, warmed by clanking radiators and by the fire in the fireplace, Bran tells his da something about the days spent in Milliways: the theft of the harp, the locked door, the caroling by the lake. Of his terror and despair he says nothing.

"I called your school and told them you were sick," is all that Owen says about those days.

***

By the second of January, 1978, the storm has died down. Owen's cleared the local roads with the farm tractor, and Bran and Owen are shoveling the smaller paths by hand. As he lifts his shovel, Bran says, "I should go back."

Comments

[owendavies.livejournal.com]

Owen leans his shovel against a low bush and stands up, facing Bran.

[theravenboy]

Bran wears dark glasses to protect his eyes from the glare of the snow and the sun, but he turns his white face towards his father.

"I promised Will I'd help him, in need. And there is still need."

[owendavies.livejournal.com]

Owen takes the shovel back, gripping it tightly in his gloved hands, but does not bother to scoop snow.

"I will not have you putting yourself in danger alone again."

[theravenboy]

Bran's lips tighten on an unspoken answer.

[owendavies.livejournal.com]

Owen remembers to shovel. Thus he is turned away from Bran when he says, "If you go back to Milliways, Bran, I am going with you."

[theravenboy]

Bran puts his own shovel down. "It's not safe--"

[owendavies.livejournal.com]

Owen continues working. "If it is not safe for me, then it is certainly too dangerous for you."

[theravenboy]

Bran rubs his hands together to knock snow off his gloves, and pushes damp sweaty hair behind his ears.

"I have a responsibility," Bran says quietly. "To Will, to the Light, to the world."

[owendavies.livejournal.com]

Owen drops the shovel into the snowbank by the side of the path and looks at Bran with sudden, complete focus.

Sharply, "And you think that I do not?"

[theravenboy]

Bran removes his sunglasses, blinking rapidly in the bright light, and stares at his father. Owen is standing straighter than he ever has in Bran's memory, and his jaw is unusually firm. Looking closely, Bran can see how hard Owen is working to maintain his focus and his balance.

Bran's eyes begin to water in the snow glare. Hastily, he pulls the glasses back on. Voice a little hoarse from the cold, Bran says, "Then come. Come tonight."