June '23 contest winner's entry, written by elvipoint! 

It was raining and my eyes could be playing a trick on me, as I could not make any sense of what was in front of me. It had been years, at least six years without seeing him, without knowing about him and much less remembering his face, or at least I thought so, but having him here in front of me it is clear to me that it is him. I wipe again the drops from my face and I see how he approaches me, I don't know if he has recognized me directly or if he thinks he has, but when he approaches me we both know that we had left behind all the difficulties that had separated us for so long. I hug him and I feel his muscles tense, my brother, my little brother who had always defended me was now a strong and mature man. A few seconds passed in which we could not separate and stop crying, it was as if we were both telling each other everything in that act of love and understanding, when it stopped raining and we looked at each other, this time with dry faces, red eyes and between tears and laughter we began to catch up since I thought he was dead, in jail or serving in some death post, but clearly I was wrong.

Rashta that was his name, but we all knew him as Ra because every time he got into a fight his way of dealing with conversations and arguments was to yell something that always sounds like "Ra" and go to the canteen and not come back until the next morning or when my dad go and took him back to the house, which is why my father constantly said he was an embarrassment to our family.

I had changed and for the better, he did not know that I had been left behind in Taifa de Granada, the town where we grew up; that as a woman I had to deal with many obstacles and many unpleasant scenes, we all know how it is to live the life of a woman in that century, but I managed to camouflage myself by cutting my hair and thanks to the corsets I had I managed to flatten my chest giving me a less feminine image, also wearing clothes that I found in the stables at night when the guard was drinking or with some prostitute who misled and tempted him. I worked alongside Meol in his armory . He was a forty-eight year old man who lived alone, he was humble and polite. In charge of all the weapons for the war of Spanish succession, he always treated me as if I were, in this case, a son to him.

My father did not want a daughter as his heir and even less so after my mother's death, so he refused to treat me as such, even so he taught me everything he could not teach my brother because he was always in the cantinas, from skinning a rabbit to fighting and keeping me on my feet after a good fight.

I spent 5 years with Meol perfecting my work. Those swords were used by the high ranks who went to war. I never let them know my true identity, not because I was a woman, but because I was related to my family. My male facade may have hidden me with Meol, but those who saw me working in the sun, dirty and with short hair would know it was me. My original name was Idoya, but I had to change it to Igor to keep the male persona I was hiding behind in order to survive.

I talked about all this with Rashta while we drank a beer and sheltered from the cold inside a tavern with few patrons at that hour, before he told me how he came to Monte Calpo that some were beginning to call Gibraltar. He told me how he had survived all these years, our father had made sure everyone knew what a son he had. He was ashamed of himself, of his lack of judgment. He never let him show his potential. In the background I heard a toothless old woman talking about the new governor. That turned out to be our father and I could only wonder if perhaps my brother had followed him here for public revenge or if he would continue by his side.

Rashta looked at me puzzled, he had an unusual shine in his eyes, he had grown at least fifteen centimeters and increased the volume of his body, he seemed a different man, then he began to tell me everything that had happened and I knew the truth. When our father left me in that town and then publicly humiliated him.

He never forgave him but he didn't think that they had really left me, the days that followed he was assuming it since he saw our father start his new life without worrying about what would have become of me, so he came back to look for me, he thought that I would not stay in that town and he would try to dissuade him through messengers or pressure, but as much as I wanted to when my father made a decision it was very difficult to make him change it.

Rashta escaped after a few months when they managed to settle down and start their public recognition again, at night he got on a wagon belonging to a humble man who was going in the direction of where I was, it was a 2 day trip so he slept hidden in it so that the next morning when the man left I would not see him get on. This in the hope of finding me and bringing me back to him safe and sound. Several hours passed and I was very hungry, but I could not get off and perhaps lost the opportunity to arrive before the next storm. Night was about to fall again, the ideal moment to get off the wagon, but also the most dangerous because it is when they make ambushes, for his luck he was walking at midday and decided to get off at dawn. Because they were arriving at a nearby village.

After spending the night in a pasture, he looked for me among the homes of those who knew us thinking that maybe someone had given me asylum or had helped me, but it turned out that all of them closed the door without any answer or invitation to eat. He was alone, discouraged and with no place to stay, he went to what was our old home with the hope of perhaps spending a few days there until he found a way to return or find me, but it was becoming increasingly difficult, no one had seen me or knew about me so he spent the next two months eating the food that was left on the ground after the markets because they did not want to give him work in the city, and tired of looking for me he told me that he decided to return to this colony as hell was to live with our father, So one of those nights in which he thought he was dying from the cold and lack of food, a man on the road picked him up and climbed into his shoes, he was heading right here, Rashta was unconscious and has vague memories of what were the following days, he thought he was still on the road in agony but he woke up in a house lit with the rays of the morning sun, he smelled rosemary and heard in the background a woman who told him not to get up, it was Lizbeth, the daughter of the monarch.

Rupert had been the man who picked him up on the road, he was the right hand of the monarch and known for always helping the rest, he had seen him dying and a storm was approaching so it was against his principles to leave him there to die and decided to bring him with him.

Lizbeth was the only daughter of the Monarch and was known for her beauty and simplicity, she had grown up more with Rupert than with her father, because when he was always traveling he brought her flowers and plants so that she could learn about their properties, that is why the house smelled of rosemary. When Rashta was able to wake up after a few days with more energy, he told Lizbeth about his trip to Granada, but he limited himself to explaining the whole story to her because he did not want her to think that he was a failure.

Even though in the eyes of our father he was an embarrassment of a son, Rashta had many qualities and among them was that he was a very good warrior, among so many times he had to defend himself he learned and was known precisely for his physical condition, the Monarch had given him the possibility of lodging in exchange for his help with the care of the animals and things of great size. One of the mornings that he returned from one of his trips he found him defending the stable from a group of young people who wanted to take the mare, he was surprised by the skill and agility with which he defended what was not his but that because of his loyalty and love for Lizbeth he defended, he spoke with Rupert to make him part of the security of the colony and so he emerged.

Rashta rose quickly in the security of the colony forming battalion groups and general security, this gave him fame and that was how it came to our father's ears that his son was the future husband of the Monarch's daughter, yes, Rashta was engaged to Lizbeth when she became a royal guard and it was an honor for her to be his future wife.

I did not understand how everything had changed in 6 years, how we had gone from having everything as a family to him being a royal guard and being the husband of the Monarch's daughter, I felt like fainting not only because of the surprise of this news, but because when we were talking about this our father appeared in the background next to a tree, his expression and pale color I had seen him only once in my life, we did not expect a hug or a forgiveness, honestly we did not even expect a greeting, but he approached us slowly, leaving a moment in case we did not accept his approach, ashamed and with tears he begged our forgiveness. Seeing him in that condition reminded me of the day our mother died of a cold.

My father had gone in search of my brother when a storm fell, in desperation my mother saw how my father brought Rashta dragging him through the mud, she went out to look for him being completely soaked, my father hit her and she stayed crying on her knees all night next to my brother, it was the time I had seen him pale and with an expression on his face very difficult to describe, he blamed himself for it all his life because he had never hit her and he should never have left her alone in the rain.

As a result she had fallen ill and subsequently died.

When he saw us sitting excitedly it reminded him of the happiness he once felt, when he saw us with our mother, when we would walk around the lake and when he would come home with stories to tell. I know that seeing me hurt him enormously because I was the spitting image of my mother and even though I did not have long hair like her because I kept my character of Igor, even so my features were like hers, not having me by his side for 6 years, without news or intention of meeting me broke his heart, although my brother lived a hell throughout his life with constant abuse and humiliation, perhaps even product of that night, he also missed that family.

Even with his great virtues he could never be appreciated by our father, thanks to Lizbeth he learned to forgive and wanted to have his family together again especially now that he felt he had made a change.

It was quite a coincidence that we met there, we considered it a sign.

Lizbeth knew all of our history and knew how important it had been to Rashta all this time, so she named her twins after us, so that history could be rewritten.