Sarah Z. Creates

In this World-Building Wednesday series, I’m doing just that: fleshing out Talah, one of the worlds in The Sundered Realms. This month’s series is sketching out a few Quersyam holidays! Image created using MicroSoft CoPilot.

“Momma, I’m still hungry.”

Mavoryn’s voice pulled Eythne’s attention from the washing. She shrugged her aching shoulders, wishing they could afford the casting that made removing dirt as simple as pouring water over the garments. Not the full-bodied wrangling she was engaged with now. Eythne was grateful for the distraction, even though Mavoryn’s voice was close to whining.

“I know,” she said, trying to wipe her hair out of her face without using her wet hands. “Remember we talked about this? It’s the Hungering.”

Mavoryn nodded her head. “We don’t eat too big to remind us of when we couldn’t.” She sounded proud of her memory, but the whine crept in soon enough. “But I’m still hungry. Deydre and her family had a regular old lunch. How come we can’t do that?”

Eythne sighed and sank to the ground, drying her hands on her trousers. She pulled her daughter close.

“No one has to observe the Hungering, and how people chose to observe it differs. I heard that in Rhew, they don’t eat anything at all from sunup to sundown.”

“But why can’t I have more? I’m hungry!” Movryn’s bottom lip trembled, and Eythne smoothed some of her daughter’s wayward brown locks out of her face.

“What did we talk about yesterday?”

Mavoryn’s lower lip stopped trembling and jutted out instead.

“That during the Fae Wars, when the Deep was hurting everyone, there was no food, so now we fast for a day to remember and honor those who died.”

Eythne bit her own lip to smother a smile. Those were indeed the words — almost exactly — that she had used to describe this observance to her daughter yesterday. Mavoryn could remember things quite easily, when she wanted to.

“So will you be hungry tomorrow?

“No,” Mavoryn replied, her tone souring. She apparently guessed where this conversation was going.

“Can you imagine feeling that discomfort in your belly and knowing you can do nothing to make it better?”

“I can’t do anything to make it better now,” the child grumbled. She shifted in her mother’s lap, her knees and elbows digging uncomfortably in as she settled. Eythne tried not to wince and kissed the top of her daughter’s head.

“You can have a glass of water, which will help the grumbly tummy a little. And then we’ll have a plain dinner, and you can go to bed and dream of the big breakfast you will have tomorrow morning. All right?”

Mavoryn grumbled again, but nothing intelligible this time. She was hungry and she was cranky, and this wouldn’t be the last time the pair had this conversation today, but she was a good girl who loved her mom and even enjoyed being grown up enough to observe these holidays. When her belly wasn’t grumbling.

I hope you enjoyed this glimpse into The Sundered Realms! There’s plenty more to enjoy. In addition to these World-Building Wednesday posts, you can sign up for my newsletter to get a FREE short story: The Ruin of Ehslyng. Or stay connected via my Facebook page.