[Fic] "An Embarrassment of Riches" -- original, Ekanu

[edenfalling]

I was thinking about Ekanu and Denifar and different concepts of privacy, but the word didn't lend itself to that scene. So I wrote this one instead: Denifar, in his ongoing effort to help Ekanu acclimate to Estara, takes her to a tavern. Loosely inspired by my drinking experiments in Germany.

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An Embarrassment of Riches
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Her people don't have much alcohol; they don't have much to ferment. Oh, they use milk, and some berries from the short, violent summers spent down at the northern edge of Mohrad, but mostly they drink melted ice, or blood.

Ekanu tells this to Denifar one evening when he drags her to a tavern, and laughs at the shock on his face.

"Blood is life," she says. "Rich, it warms you. We don't waste life, don't waste anything. Winter kills if you waste."

"I guess," Denifar says doubtfully. "But ick!"

"No, no, a treat! We make the kill, the blood is to celebrate. Life for life, you see? We can't wait, it doesn't keep. Not like this... piss-water." Ekanu frowns at the glass of beer sitting on the table before her.

Denifar shakes his head. "Sounds exciting, really, blood and death and all -- but that's not for me. I'll stick to Estara and beer, thanks awfully. And it does not taste like piss!"

Ekanu grins slyly. "You know this how? You taste both?"

"No! Ekanu!" Denifar reaches across the table to swat at his friend. She ducks, laughing.

"This beer, it's thin, sour," she says after he leans back again. "When my people make spirit-water, this alcohol, we make it strong. Ours burns, thick with life, not piss-water."

Now Denifar grins. "Yes, but that's the beauty of it. You drink whiskey or gin, you'll be drunk in no time. Beer lets you keep your head longer. Also, it's cheap!"

"Cheap like piss," Ekanu mutters, but she raises her glass along with him and knocks back another swallow of the yellowish-brown liquid. It's just like everything else in the south, thinned-out and spread wide for all to see, not thick and rich and hidden against the killing cold. Here people don't have to cram life into every moment. Here they can relax, can wait for the spirits to float along on rivers of thin beer.

Still, she's fairly sure Denifar doesn't know the purpose of drinking, but then, he doesn't need to call on life with blood or alcohol. He bubbles over every moment, all of himself.

Ekanu leans back in the tavern and watches her friend get drunk on life.

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Inspired by the Feb. 22, 2003, 15minuteficlets word: intoxicating

Comments

[redwolfoz.livejournal.com]

I like the cultural differences between your characters. You write them well.

[edenfalling]

Thanks! I've been working on Ekanu and her people for around ten years now, and I'm glad that it seems to be paying off.

[intercedo-circu.livejournal.com]

You've been working ten years on them. God, that's commitment. I love that they do have such differences. It's a really cool look at this moment.

[edenfalling]

The ten years is more a lack of anything concrete to do with Ekanu; I had the character, but I didn't really have a story to put her in. So these brief scenes are great because I finally get to write her properly.

[kayay.livejournal.com]

These words of the week are good for that; they keep you thinking and make you come up with new ideas and scenarios, and so far you're doing fine at taking an idea you've had for a long time and putting it down into understandable and interesting mini stories.