My Family

By Sabrina Zbasnik

A little Halloween/Fall Solstice story with Cullen from my series to get everyone into the autumn mood.

Six months after their wedding, Cullen and Lana Amell visit his sister's farm. Being a mage, Lana missed out on all the traditions that came with All Soul's Day and Cullen is ecstatic to teach them all to her. Lots of Fluff & Kissing.

• Language: English
• Publisher: Sabrina Zbasnik
• Release date: Oct 27, 2016
• ISBN: 9781370897698

Sabrina Zbasnik

Sabrina Zbasnik may or may not be a half frozen corpse spinning tales. Her first traded,“Tin Hero,” is set 20 years after TerraFae. Corpses don’t do well with the linearity of time. Sabrina spends nearly of all her time in Nebraska because it is impossible to leave without finding the lamppost. She lives in a house that has at least four walls and some other souls wandering forlornly calling to their lost lives within.

Book preview

CHAPTER ONE

Pumpkins

Children's laughter threaded through the fall air, wrapping itself around the barn as a trio of Cullen's nieces chased after his only nephew who carried a stick covered in ribbons. Orange and black tendrils trailed in his wake as he kept slowing down for the girls to get near but not enough for them to catch him. Lana chuckled at the antics as they passed by for a third time, none of them showing any sign of slowing. She leaned back from the bowl in her lap and scooted across the tarps tossed upon the wood floor. Despite the creeping chill of autumn, a warm sun beamed down upon them, the rays powerful enough she dressed only in a light dress that blended her in with the other farming families filling the land. Her cane rested a few feet away within easy reach, but for the moment she only had need of the knife clutched in her husband's fingers.

With his tongue pinned between teeth, Cullen drove the blade deep into the flesh of a green and yellow star shaped gourd. Sawing with the same deadly focus he'd spend upon the march of armies, he augured a hand sized hole into the top of the gourd and then pried it off. Strings of elongated squash fibers stretched from the top, back inside the vegetable. Without any care, Cullen sliced the innards off the top with his knife, then scooped a massive handful out with his hand.

We're supposed to save the seeds, Lana spoke, her eyes upon her own pile of gourds she was supposed to be preparing. It was not going as well.

The tongue slid back into his mouth, and those honey eyes lifted from his prize to try and find hers. With exaggerated movements, he plopped his fistful of guts into the pail. I know, Cullen insisted, as if he hadn't intended to toss another pile to the mabari resting a few feet away, her tail thumping in anticipation.

Mia was insistent about planting another crop. And she said something about roasting the remainder? Lana cast an eye over at him, uncertain of the proposal.

He chuckled at her unease and placed a hand on her knee, the fingers still coated in gourd guts. Don't worry, they're rather tasty once seasoning's added. His eyes darted down to her leg now slimy with the squash's strings. Oh, sorry, I...uh...

Carefully, Lana plucked up a pile of the guts from her own barely carved squash, leaned over, and dropped it onto Cullen's hair. Orange streaked through his sandy locks, dripping down his cheeks as he laughed. I suppose I deserved that.

Lana wiped her fingers off on the tarp below her, Not really.

Smiling wide at her response, Cullen scooted forward and, with his gut covered fingers scooped along her jaw, pulled her in for a kiss soft as a sunflower's petals. He was so achingly handsome by the hazy autumn light, dressed nonchalant in mended and patched breeches as well as a simple checked shirt she didn't care about the squash juice sticking to her skin.

I love you, he sighed, tugging his hand around her waist and trying to scoot her closer for a hug. She wanted to give into his machinations but she had business to accomplish, even if it wasn't going very well. Cullen paused in his attempts to snuggle her tight to him and gestured at the gourd in between her legs.

While he had the good sense to carve a gaping hole in his, allowing easy access to scrape away the innards, Lana began with one so small her hand barely fit inside. Sighing, she admitted, I'm afraid I'm not very good at this.

Nonsense, he stuck up for her despite the evidence, you've got the top off, and already scooped out most of the... Cullen pulled up her pumpkin and placed it in his lap to inspect. Okay, more of this needs to come out before the carving can begin.

There's more carving? Lana tried to glance around at the other gourds lined up around the barn in anticipation of something but Cullen caught her chin again.

Here, he plopped his own cleaned off gourd into her lap, you take mine while I finish yours off. After passing her a paring knife, he gestured to a turnip resting on the lip of the windowsill. See that? You carve a little hole so you can slip a candle inside.

Why? she asked while rotating the knife around and attempting to stab deep into the green squash's skin.

To create a lantern, he smiled, already having cleared out the guts Lana missed. Pulling a dagger off the sheathe around his waist, Cullen began to expertly slice into the pumpkin's skin.

I don't understand, are there not already lanterns around? she struggled. A few memories of celebrating something for the fall solstice rattled in her memory as a child, but nothing this elaborate. And the tower would never have let so many mages hold knives at once.

It's tradition, he didn't explain. With the back of his hand, Cullen wiped sweat off his brow, leaving more orange guts in its wake. Normally the children do this, but... he whipped his head around trying to follow the fifth lap of the barn, they seem preoccupied.

You like this, Lana smiled. Every Satinalia he grumbled through the high traditions adopted from Orlais, Wintersend got a begrudging omelette or two, and he all but holed himself away for First Day, but something in this autumn celebration brought out the ecstatic Ferelden boy hidden beneath layers of duty. They'd only arrived a day ago, having been swamped at their abbey, leaving Cullen sniping at nearly everything in sight. But at the first apple bite, his forehead furrows lifted, he smiled serenely to himself, and a twinkle Lana once thought only she saw sparkled in his eyes.

It's... Cullen gestured at the piles of dead squash, "it reminds me of days on the farm. Not the bad ones, but...you finish harvest. You've got everything picked, jarred, put up for winter, so it's time