New Post
Search
HelpBarsukov Family
in reply to a message by Daffodil
This is the one I did in 2018 (or whenever this game was last posted). It's not quite complete, but I wanted to keep it here anyway since there's so much written for it that I never otherwise posted.
DH: Nikita Kirillovich Barsukov (straight brown haired physician)
DW: Feodosiia Gavriilovna Barsukova (curly red haired herbalist)
Nikita met Feodosiia when she tried making a new salve, tried it out on herself, and ended up with not only a rash, but a fever and chills, and vomiting.
"I think it's safe to say that one is poisonous," Nikita told her as he did his best to medicate the rash.
"You never know until you try," she'd replied, and somehow instead of being put off by an amateur trying to do his job, he'd been completely smitten.
Feodosiia had inherited a bit of land from her mother and Nikita had sold his small patch of land to afford to travel to school and learn medicine so when they married the following year, he moved into her simple home and the two penned in a few rabbits and chickens and began their life together.
Year 1:
Nikita brought home a large goose for dinner one night which would have been all well and good if Feodosiia hadn't stumbled upon three tiny motherless goslings near their home the next morning. She deposited the three of them into her gathered apron and brought them into their house. Originally, she told herself they'd raise them for food, but after she lost the first one unexpectedly and her frown got firmer, she worked harder to care for the other two. When the second one got out of the house and became dinner for a feral cat, Feodosiia frowned firmer, named the remaining gosling, and informed Nikita they they were not eating him.
Nikita certainly approved of the name, Uzhin*, and eventually even warmed up to the bird itself.
DH: Nikita Kirillovich Barsukov (22)
DW: Feodosiia Gavriilovna Barsukova (18)
Goose: Uzhin
*"Uzhin" is Russian for "dinner."
Year 2:
Feodosiia was in the market one day, making some trades and buying some spices, when a horse still hooked to a cart was spooked and ran through the town center, startling two other horses into running free as well and colliding with no fewer than eight townspeople and multiple other carts and fences. Feodosiia was caught beneath the wheel of one of the carts and suffered a broken leg and countless scrapes and bruises, but she considered herself fortunate as two others had been trampled and crushed to death in the chaos.
Nikita and his colleague Yevgenii had attended to eight people from the incident, but only one had he looked at slyly while he reset her leg and commented, "Do you think there's a plant that can fix this?"
Year 3:
The Barsukovs land was bordered on two sides by a thick forest. It had always been good for hunting dinner or chopping firewood. But one evening after Feodosiia and Nikita had already eaten and had blown their candles out, a torch was seen outside and then a loud banging knock was heard at their door. A young man's voice called out in very broken Russian asking for the doctor and Nikita shot up out of bed. Feodosiia grabbed onto his sleeve at first, but then let go knowing that Nikita was going to open the door regardless. He motioned for her to get up and reached in the dark for the knife he kept by the bed, passing it to her silently. The knock came at the door again and Uzhin honked loudly. Nikita grabbed a second knife, lit a lamp, and braced himself as he opened the door. Outside their doorstep were a small muddle of Kazan soldiers- swords and bows drawn hesitantly. Then Nikita's eyes fell to why they had come. On a piece of cloth and dragged between them was their own doctor, bleeding profusely, and praying in his native language. Nikita was Muscovite, but foremost, he was a physician. So he motioned for Feodosiia to stay back and then opened the door to the soldiers. By sunrise, the Muslims had brought several more injured fighters and had surprised him by bringing a few Muscovites to him as well. He treated everyone he could, hoping that as long as he remained neutral and helpful to both sides, his home and his and Feodosiia's lives would be spared.
Year 4:
The fighting happening on the other side of the forest eventually moved further west and for the most part, the soldiers stopped coming to Nikita for aid. But recognizing his help, both sides gifted the Barsukovs with a horse -one mare and one stallion to help them to reclaim their own land, to plant a garden and to regrow the food and herbs that they had used dry trying to assist anyone who came to their door. The mare was named Iskra, but the stallion was named by his gifters, Ayrat a Tartar name meaning "forest people."
DH: Nikita Kirillovich Barsukov (25)
DW: Feodosiia Gavriilovna Barsukova (21)
Goose: Uzhin (3)
Horse: Iskra (4)
Horse: Ayrat (3)
Year 5:
Nikita and Feodosiia were married five years before their first child came along. By that point, the couple had ventured occasionally to mention that perhaps they couldn't have any, but that fear was put to rest when they found they were expecting.
When the time came, there wasn't another mother or midwife called. Nikita just rolled up his sleeves and helped Feodosiia deliver Natalija Nikitichna* into the world one cold December morning in their little cabin. Their daughter's loud, clear lungs and fiery red hair proved immediately that she planned to be a force to be reckoned with and her parents could not have been more delighted.
DH: Nikita Kirillovich Barsukov (26)
DW: Feodosiia Gavriilovna Barsukova (22)
DD: Natalija Nikitichna (nb)
Goose: Uzhin (4)
Horse: Iskra (5)
Horse: Ayrat (4)
*I don't want to knock your example because I'm glad that you have it, but Nikita actually is an irregular name when it comes to patronymics and gets Nikitichna for females and Nikitich for males. (This is the rule for names that end in vowels.)
Year 6:
Nikita wrote to his brother in Mensk about the birth of his daughter and the following autumn, Lavrentii showed up with gifts for the child and parents alike. Nikita and Lavrentii had grown up in a family of seventeen children- Lavrentii the second eldest and Nikita the second youngest- but due to one misfortune after another, only the two of them remained. According to his elder brother, Nikita and Feodosiia were destined to regrow the family back to a "happy size." And while Nikita didn't have the money that Lavrentii's career had gained him, they were doing well enough and asked the older man to stay until spring of the next year. Lavrentii obliged and delighted in helping the younger Barsukovs in any way he could which included helping Nikita and Feodossia welcome a new animal into their family when Iskra gave birth to a ruddy brown foal that same year. They named him Schast'ye*.
DH: Nikita Kirillovich Barsukov (27)
DW: Feodosiia Gavriilovna Barsukova (23)
DD: Natalija Nikitichna (1)
Goose: Uzhin (5)
Horse: Iskra (4)
Horse: Ayrat (5)
Horse: Schast'ye (nb)
Year 7:
By the following spring however, things were not good for Lavrentii. While many years Nikita's senior, he was not yet an old man when the colder weather of Moscow spread illness to him. He burned with fever that both Feodosiia and Nikita were powerless to stop and he passed away in early April. They buried him when the ground thawed a few weeks later and Nikita wrote a letter back to their cousins who lived in Mensk to give them Lavrentii's land. He had told Feodosiia with a solemn expression, "I have no reason to ever return there now."
Year 8:
The skirmishes started back up in the west and for a while, Nikita and Feodosiia assumed that sooner or later injured soldiers would show up at their door, but this time no one ever arrived. The fights moved further and further west until they were sure they were too far for the soldiers to find refuge there and somehow this made things worse than if they had shown up.
Feodosiia mentioned another child, perhaps someone to join Natalija now that the little girl was nearing three, but Nikita wasn't sure how he felt about that either.
Year 9:
Regardless of feelings, another fiery-haired infant made their way into the world the following year- this time a boy who the couple called Sevast'ian Nikitich. Natalija was mesmerized by him and constantly wanted to hold and touch the baby much to little Seva's annoyance. Despite his initial hesitance, Nikita was as pleased as Feodosiia with the little one's arrival and he even caught himself telling multiple patients about his new son at home.
DH: Nikita Kirillovich Barsukov (30)
DW: Feodosiia Gavriilovna Barsukova (26)
DD: Natalija Nikitichna (4)
DS: Sevast'ian Nikitich (nb)
Goose: Uzhin (8)
Horse: Iskra (9)
Horse: Ayrat (8)
Horse: Schast'ye (3)
Year 10:
Sevast'ian was not even a year old and Natalija was just under five when the woman came into Nikita's practice. She was fevered and coughing up blood. Nikita and his colleague knew the signs immediately and were surprised when the small golden-blond child with her didn't seem to be displaying any himself. They didn't have to ask to be able to tell she worked the streets and to assume the child was a bastard. Nevertheless, Nikita offered to hold him and then balanced the thin boy on one hip as he examined the mother. She couldn't pay in money, she let him know, but he waved her off. He'd had numerous patients over the years who couldn't pay and it wasn't what his practice was about (though it was always graciously welcomed when one could). Nikita looked at his colleague with a knowing nod when he passed the small boy off to him and just as they assumed, the mother only survived a few more days.
"Yevgenii," Nikita had said, trying to encourage his colleague to his cause. "Could Ksenija care for Kazimir? Until we find his family?"
The other doctor raised his brow skeptically. "You think anyone will come for him? You think anyone will willing claim that boy?"
They both looked sympathetically at the child as he slept fitfully propped in the corner of the room.
"I'll see what Fedya says."
"Shes's a mother," Yevgenii replied, "Surely she will care for him? If she doesn't find it possible to care for him the same as Nata or Seva, at least she can probably keep him alive. It will be better for him than the streets and we can look for someone to take him."
Nikita shook his head. "If he goes home with me, he's there to stay. If Fedya can mother a damn goose for this long, I imagine she'll be twice as keen to take in a motherless child. Besides, Nata has taken to playing house with the animal so I'm sure she'll help with another sibling."
"They'll treat him differently," Feodosiia worried as they tucked their new son in between Natalija and Sevast'ian.
"Tell them he's my brother's child. Ferapont who hasn't been passed much longer than Lavrentii. He had a son who died that same winter. Let's say he didn't."
"You better start making smart trades from your patients or asking for money or we're not going to be able to feed all of these mouths."
"Is there a problem with their nursing?"
"I'm afraid there won't be enough milk to go around," she said pointedly and drew Nikita's hand up to her middle.
DH: Nikita Kirillovich Barsukov (31)
DW: Feodosiia Gavriilovna Barsukova (27)
DD: Natalija Nikitichna (5)
AS: Kazimir Ferapontovich (2)
DS: Sevast'ian Nikitich (1)
Goose: Uzhin (9)
Horse: Iskra (10)
Horse: Ayrat (9)
Horse: Schast'ye (4)
Year 11:
The next child was born rather quickly and unexpectedly. Nikita had set off for work that morning with Feodosiia only mentioning how uncomfortable she had become and he came home to the neighbor there and the children all doing as they were told to help attend to their mother who was swaddling their newest sister. Nikita dropped his bag and began to check over the mother and child. The neighbor tried to shoo him away, but Feodosiia's husband wasn't like most men of Muscovy. They may not have been allowed to know or see anything to do with the birth of a child, but Nikita had been a physician for long enough to not be bothered by blood, bodily functions, or female anatomy- especially not that of his own wife. He tucked the both of them into his arms and cradled the little girl- the first child they'd had to look like him.
DH: Nikita Kirillovich Barsukov (32)
DW: Feodosiia Gavriilovna Barsukova (28)
DD: Natalija Nikitichna (6)
AS: Kazimir Ferapontovich (3)
DS: Sevast'ian Nikitich (2)
DD: Valentina Nikitichna (nb)
Goose: Uzhin (10)
Horse: Iskra (11)
Horse: Ayrat (10)
Horse: Schast'ye (5)
Year 12:
By the time Valentina was a few months old, it was apparent she couldn't hear anything. She didn't respond to her parents' voices and loud noises didn't startle her. There was an unspoken sense of despair hanging around the couple for months as they watched their new daughter begin to crawl and discover the world around her. Nikita sat at their table one evening anguishing over their options and watching Natalija play with the baby when he noted, "Valya's still learning like the others."
"I'll do my best to teach her," Feodosiia assured immediately.
"How? She won't be able to hear instruction. Are you going to gesture for everything?"
Feodosiia thought for a moment. "You'll have to teach her to read like you."
Nikita scoffed. Hardly anyone read and especially not women. Besides, how would she hear the sounds and learn the pronunciation of words?
It was the source of quiet discord between them for weeks before Feodosiia offered, "She doesn't have to ever say them out loud. She has to recognize them when she sees them. She has to understand how they work."
"I don't know how to teach that, Fedya."
"Then teach me. Teach me to read the words. I'll know the meanings and I'll teach her."
Nikita looked at their children and finally sighed. "If I teach you, you teach her and the others."
"Give me a lesson every evening and I'll repeat it to them the following day."
Nikita nodded a bit to himself. "I can do that."
Year 13:
The older children began to pick up on words almost as soon as Feodosiia taught them. There were days she thought they caught on better than she had the night before. Lessons had to slow down a bit when late the following summer brought another child into their family. Grechin was a healthy baby, but he cried nonstop some days which led to more and more days where Kazimir preferred to play in gardens rather than be stuck inside with the wailing child.
DH: Nikita Kirillovich Barsukov (34)
DW: Feodosiia Gavriilovna Barsukova (30)
DD: Natalija Nikitichna (8)
AS: Kazimir Ferapontovich (5)
DS: Sevast'ian Nikitich (4)
DD: Valentina Nikitichna (2)
DS: Grechin Nikitich (nb)
Goose: Uzhin (12)
Horse: Iskra (13)
Horse: Ayrat (12)
Horse: Schast'ye (7)
Year 14:
The lessons got even harder to teach when they became mundane and therefore lost their excitement for both the children and occasionally even their mother. Sevast'ian found he preferred drawing on the board meant for practice. And sometimes between dealing with the children learning letters and words, monitoring Valentina and Grechin who were still too small to learn them, and the birth of the new twins Isidora and Miloslava, lessons got pushed aside. Especially when Isidora and Miloslava and arrived early, much smaller and weaker than any of the previous children. Their cries were feeble sounds and their bodies small and thin. Much of Feodosiia's time was spent just rotating between nursing the twins and Grechin and watching their breathing chests to make sure they were still soldiering on.
DH: Nikita Kirillovich Barsukov (35)
DW: Feodosiia Gavriilovna Barsukova (31)
DD: Natalija Nikitichna (9)
AS: Kazimir Ferapontovich (6)
DS: Sevast'ian Nikitich (5)
DD: Valentina Nikitichna (3)
DS: Grechin Nikitich (1)
DD/DD: Isidora Nikitichna & Miloslava Nikitichna (nb)
Goose: Uzhin (13)
Horse: Iskra (14)
Horse: Ayrat (13)
Horse: Schast'ye (8)
Year 15:
Feodosiia was already exhausted to the point that she'd stopped trying to have any kind of business with her herbal knowledge and started only helping her family and neighbors when she could. When Dmitrii was born, she stopped trying to do even that. Full days were spent mothering and teaching and housekeeping and cooking for their increasing family. At least, unlike his predecessors, Dmitrii was healthy enough that Feodosiia didn't lose sleep watching his chest rise and fall. He was born in early summer and was strong enough by the colder months that they counted themselves grateful not to have the fear they'd had the previous year.
DH: Nikita Kirillovich Barsukov (36)
DW: Feodosiia Gavriilovna Barsukova (32)
DD: Natalija Nikitichna (10)
AS: Kazimir Ferapontovich (7)
DS: Sevast'ian Nikitich (6)
DD: Valentina Nikitichna (4)
DS: Grechin Nikitich (2)
DD/DD: Isidora Nikitichna & Miloslava Nikitichna (1)
DS: Dmitrii Nikitich (nb)
Goose: Uzhin (14)
Horse: Iskra (15)
Horse: Ayrat (14)
Horse: Schast'ye (9)
Year 16:
By age five, Valya had discovered her favorite thing to do was to prank people. She left lids off of containers just to watch contents spill out. She enjoyed sneaking her siblings' things from them and then quickly returning them to right under their own mattresses and blankets. And most of all, she loved hiding behind doors and jumping out at people. The grand gesture of someone jumping must have been hysterical to her so no one had the heart to tell her that her feet and clothing made noises as she moved and they could hear her hiding from a good distance away. It was easier, kinder, and more fun to play along.
Anastasii made child eight born to Feodosiia and Nikita and child nine added to the family and he came into the world almost colorless and without breathing. Nikita had never felt the pressure of his job more strongly than he did with the eyes of his whole family all watching him as he tried to pump breath into the baby's lungs and smack his skin until he started inhaling.
"Are you going to hurt him?" Sevast'ian had asked as Nikita jarred the child's chest over and over, but when he finally held the baby upside for what must have been the six or seventh time and saw the newborn's tiny face scrunch up and cry a tiny sound, he swore something under his breath in relief. The whole family seemed to take a collective breath. Nikita knew he'd been more fortunate than most in never having to bury one of his children, but for a few minutes, he had thought that today would change that. He rubbed at the baby's skin and beat at his back a bit until the cry was loud and strong and the pink color flooded his skin. Feodosiia cried and so did Natalija, having the softest heart of them all. Uzhin honked at the baby's crying and it seemed to break them all from their moment of worry and a feeling of happiness flooded back over their small, crowded home. They named him Anastasii. They didn't know the meanings of too many names, but this one they knew and it seemed apt: Anastasii, resurrection.
DH: Nikita Kirillovich Barsukov (37)
DW: Feodosiia Gavriilovna Barsukova (33)
DD: Natalija Nikitichna (11)
AS: Kazimir Ferapontovich (8)
DS: Sevast'ian Nikitich (7)
DD: Valentina Nikitichna (5)
DS: Grechin Nikitich (3)
DD/DD: Isidora Nikitichna & Miloslava Nikitichna (2)
DS: Dmitrii Nikitich (1)
DS: Anastasii Nikitich (nb)
Goose: Uzhin (15)
Horse: Iskra (16)
Horse: Ayrat (15)
Horse: Schast'ye (10)
Year 17:
Despite the rough start to many of their lives, it turned out not to be the children that Nikita had to worry about.
As the twins pulled through and more babies kept coming, it was only a matter of time before something stopped them. Feodosiia grew ill rapidly and the fever took over her with a vengeance that terrified Nikita and the children. Nikita sent them off to do their mother's usual chores while he stayed home from his practice to tend to her. He had Yevgenii bring him medications and cared for her day and night. There were points when her fever ran so high she didn't know him and moments when he held her knowing he had done all that he could. He spent a few days trying to convince himself of the nearly inevitable probability of losing her and did his best to keep his devastation from their children despite knowing it was written across his face. He was cradling Valya in one arm and Miloslava in the other, trying to help children that small understand what was happening when he heard Kazimir climbing up into their loft. "Ot́ć," Kazimir barely managed through tears and Nikita saw the panicked and grief-stricken look on his son's face. A cold, sickening chill went through his body. He was torn between letting go of his daughters to cling to his son or letting go of all of them and racing to hold the wife he wasn't ready to part with yet. Then Kazimir said, "Uzhin's dead," and there was a brief moment where Nikita was so confused at hearing the name of the goose instead of Mati that he actually shook his head and said, "What?"
Despite having begrudgingly come to actually enjoy the goose's company over the last fifteen years, in that moment, Nikita had never been more relieved to hear that the goose had met his unfortunate demise instead and that Feodosiia was still clinging to life. He regretted that he probably had failed to notice the ailing bird whilst he had been so preoccupied with his wife, but was hard pressed to be upset about the situation considering the gravity of their circumstances.
Feodosiia's fever broke in the middle of the same night. In the pitch black darkness of their tiny home, she made a small noise and Nikita had blinked awake from his half-asleep state to find her skin cold and clammy and her clothing soaked. He'd lit a lamp and started a fire and helped to strip her of those wet clothes and into her dry set when she'd finally been awake enough to mutter at him that she was hungry. So he laughed and then he cried as he heated her broth over the fire and then helped her to drink it while sitting propped against his chest.
Year 18:
As it turned out, Feodosiia was the first of many cases of the same fever that swept through their area. Feodosiia recovered as many of the younger Barsukovs -Sevat'ian, Grechin, and the twins- all took turns passing the fever around, but despite how terribly ill they were, none of them succumbed to the epidemic as it flooded the streets of the Muscovite province and sent multiple people Nikita's way. He visited house after house and the practice he ran with Yevgenii was overflowing with patients. The illness seemed not to bother those in good health already, but those too young or too old to fight it off or those too sickly already often contracted and sometimes even succumbed to the fever as it tore its way through the area.
When he recovered, Grechin found he liked to help his father tend to the other patients and despite having had the illness initially, Nikita found that the boy seemed to be resistant to it after his recovery and was able to help administer rations and blankets and bottles of medicines without the illness affecting him again.
Year 19:
Isidora and Miloslava turned out to be as different as their appearances. While Miloslava was engrossed in creating her own stories and reading the ones Natalija wrote for her, Isidora was much more interested in bothering her sister. She was constantly tackling her and trying to invoke a response that would rile up her sister's angrier side and allow them to tussle. She could usually get Dmitrii to fight her back, however, as he was just young enough to have discovered that with so many siblings he was going to have to fight them to get anything anyway. But too much rough play caused Dmitrii's lungs and airways to seize and he had to sit and breathe carefully for a time until he's well again.
It was during one of those times, when he was sitting in the kitchen watching his mother and Natalija make soup and bread for the family and trying to regain regular breathing that Isidora and Grechin came running into the house with wet and ragged animals in their hands. Grechin shoved one at Dmitrii and Isidora shouted for the others to look as they hosted their prizes high in their hands and showed them off. The puppies were matted and wet and cold. They were probably two or three months old, but they weren't scared of people and they weren't seeming to mind being carried around by the children.
Of course Feodosiia had never had the heart to turn anything out, but she did tell them to wait and ask their father before they assumed they could keep them. Nikita didn't return until late in the day and by the time that he did, the sun had set outside and the puppies had been washed up and brushed and dried by the fireside. They named them after the dukes that had been rulers of their lands before because of how regal the three of them sat by the fire- proud and brave and warming themselves- with tails wagging.
And for the first time, Feodosiia was surprised there was something still left to learn about her husband, but she discovered that dogs were his weakness. He played with them as much as the children did.
DH: Nikita Kirillovich Barsukov (40)
DW: Feodosiia Gavriilovna Barsukova (36)
DD: Natalija Nikitichna (14)
AS: Kazimir Ferapontovich (11)
DS: Sevast'ian Nikitich (10)
DD: Valentina Nikitichna (8)
DS: Grechin Nikitich (6)
DD/DD: Isidora Nikitichna & Miloslava Nikitichna (5)
DS: Dmitrii Nikitich (4)
DS: Anastasii Nikitich (3)
Goose: Uzhin (15) (deceased)
Horse: Iskra (19)
Horse: Ayrat (18)
Horse: Schast'ye (13)
Dog: Vova (nb)
Dog: Yuriy (nb)
Dog: Kalita (nb)
Year 20:
Dmitrii was never as well as his brothers and therefore, he tended to stay behind when they all went running through the fields or outside to play with the animals. It was all the sitting inside and watching Feodosiia and Natalija cook that made Dmitrii want to help and by the time he was five, he was quite the little chef himself. He made food like it was more than a necessity, but an enjoyment or art form and Feodosiia delighted in watching him find simple joys in everyday things.
Nearly three and a half years after the terrifying birth of Anastasii, Feodosiia gave birth a final time to another set of twins, Zoia and Luka, bringing the total number of Barsukov chilren to eleven. Zoia has been born easily late one afternoon, but Luka's existence had taken then by surprise and when he delayed too long, Nikita sent Sevast'ian after the nearest midwife. Luckily, she had known how to help and little Luka made his entrance some time that same evening. Both children had been checked over to Nikita's satisfaction and then swaddled and given to their mother.
"Do you remember," Feodosiia had asked as she started to fall asleep that night, "that there was once a time we thought we may have no children?"
Nikita laughed.
DH: Nikita Kirillovich Barsukov (41)
DW: Feodosiia Gavriilovna Barsukova (37)
DD: Natalija Nikitichna (15)
AS: Kazimir Ferapontovich (12)
DS: Sevast'ian Nikitich (11)
DD: Valentina Nikitichna (9)
DS: Anastasii Nikitich (7)
DD/DD: Isidora Nikitichna & Miloslava Nikitichna (6)
DS: Dmitrii Nikitich (5)
DS: Grechin Nikitich (4)
DD/DS: Zoia Nikitichna & Luka Nikitich (nb)
Goose(m): Uzhin (15) (deceased)
Horse: Iskra (20)
Horse: Ayrat (19)
Horse: Schast'ye (14)
Dog(m): Vova (1)
Dog(m): Yuriy (1)
Dog(f): Kalita (1)
Year 21:
Natalija was sixteen when she met Aleksei Kazakovich. He'd been young and handsome and a soldier who set his sights on the eldest Barsukov child. Nikita was adamant that she could do better- Natalija was educated and of some decent standing while Aleksei was neither and had a future of nothing but farming. Then both Natalija and her father were locked into a stalemate where neither were willing to back down from their stances. Nikita refused to allow their marriage until Natalija confessed one day that she and Aleksei were expecting. Rather than push his daughter away, Nikita begrudgingly allowed their marriage so that the child could have all of the proper rights of an heir and Aleksei moved into the small home with the other thirteen Barsukovs.
DH: Nikita Kirillovich Barsukov (42)
DW: Feodosiia Gavriilovna Barsukova (38)
DD: Natalija Nikitichna Osetrov (16)
-DH: Aleksei Kazakovich Osetrov (19)
AS: Kazimir Ferapontovich (13)
DS: Sevast'ian Nikitich (12)
DD: Valentina Nikitichna (10)
DS: Anastasii Nikitich (8)
DD/DD: Isidora Nikitichna & Miloslava Nikitichna (7)
DS: Dmitrii Nikitich (6)
DS: Grechin Nikitich (5)
DD/DS: Zoia Nikitichna & Luka Nikitich (1)
Goose(m): Uzhin (15) (deceased)
Horse: Iskra (21)
Horse: Ayrat (20)
Horse: Schast'ye (15)
Dog(m): Vova (2)
Dog(m): Yuriy (2)
Dog(f): Kalita (2)
Year 22:
A blizzard hit Muscovy in the midwinter and everything the region seemed to hold dear was in jeopardy. The first to go were the crops as nothing, not even the hardiest of winter crops, could survive the thick layers of ice and snow they became buried beneath. Next went the horses. Without enough space to bring them in by the fire, they had had to leave the horses in the barn with coarse blankets over them, but it hadn't been enough. First they lost Iskra, the old mare unable to withstand the harsh temperatures, but Ayrat followed only days later. Nikita, Feodosiia, Kazimir, and Sevast’ian all did their best to push and persuade Schast'ye to enter the house even if just to stand in the doorway, but the house wouldn’t budge once he reached the doorframe. Nikita and Kazimir both built fires out in the barn, but they went out almost as soon as they were lit. The wind was too strong even in the interior, and so Schast'ye succumbed to the harsh conditions as well. They couldn’t leave the house and without a horse, they wouldn’t make it into town without freezing first anyway so no one went anywhere except out to the woodpile to get more wood and then back inside. They simply stayed home eating what little was available to them and praying for the blizzard to pass.
It was during one of these impossible days that Natalija gave birth to identical twin boys- Marin Alekseievich and Kariill Alekseievich, but the winter was too harsh and food had been too scarce. Without access to his medicines and supplies, Nikita was helpless to stop the tragedy that played out before them as Natalija suffered complications from their birth and was too weak to overcome them. She died only a few hours later and left the family in a state of shock and numbness. Feodosiia tried nursing the newborns with the milk she still provided for Zoia and Luka, but Marin refused to eat most days until he became too sickly and soon, he joined his mother. Then Feodosiia’s milk stopped coming- not enough food and too heavy of hardships had caused her body to stop providing what the infants needed and so she cried helplessly as little Kariill passed as well. Zoia and Luka didn’t eat other food. It had always been easier to nurse the little ones as long as possible before dividing up more of the household’s food between even more mouths. What had always saved them before proved to be their demise that winter as no amount of mushed potatoes or broth seemed to soothe Luka.
When spring came, the Barsukovs found themselves burying Natalija, her sons, and Luka all side by side near where they had once buried Nikita’s brother. It seemed the house was very quiet after that.
DH: Nikita Kirillovich Barsukov (43)
DW: Feodosiia Gavriilovna Barsukova (39)
DD: Natalija Nikitichna Osetrov (17) (deceased)
-DH: Aleksei Kazakovich Osetrov (20)
--DS/DS: Marin Alekseievich* (deceased) & Kariill Alekseievich (nb) (deceased)
AS: Kazimir Ferapontovich (14)
DS: Sevast'ian Nikitich (13)
DD: Valentina Nikitichna (11)
DS: Anastasii Nikitich (9)
DD/DD: Isidora Nikitichna & Miloslava Nikitichna (8)
DS: Dmitrii Nikitich (7)
DS: Grechin Nikitich (6)
DD/DS: Zoia Nikitichna & Luka Nikitich (deceased) (2)
Goose(m): Uzhin (15) (deceased)
Horse: Iskra (22) (deceased)
Horse: Ayrat (21) (deceased)
Horse: Schast'ye (16) (deceased)
Dog(m): Vova (3)
Dog(m): Yuriy (3)
Dog(f): Kalita (3)
* I know I told you the former was the rule for names ending in vowels, but Alekseievich is an exception to that rule. Now, it would be spelled Alekseyevich to avoid this, but back in Middle Ages, it would have been Alekseievich so I just went with it anyway.
Year 23:
When the border skirmishes start up again, Aleksei is gone almost as soon as word reaches them. Nikita recognizes the desperation of a man who has lost too much and knows no other way to handle his anger. It’s why he is grateful himself to throw himself back into his work and try to push everything from his mind except for the patient in front of him.
But one day, Sevast’ian comes running into the practice, out of breath and immediately clinging onto his father.
“You have to come home. Kazimir wants to go fight. You have to stop him!”
And Nikita is so tired that for a moment, his thought is that Kazimir is old enough to do as he pleases, but his second thought is that of having lost too much of his family already.
He and Sevast’ian rush home as fast as they can, Yegvenii instructing them to take his horse, and arrive in time to see Feodosiia physically clinging to her son’s arm and begging him to stay.
“Haven’t I lost enough children already?” she asked and tears soak into the young boy’s sleeve. “Isn’t that enough pain for one mother?”
Kazimir ends up sobbing too, clinging back onto Feodosiia and the two of them stand out in the garden for what feels like an age until Kazimir reluctantly agrees to talk to his parents about the situation.
It’s revealed that Kazimir doesn’t want to go to war as much as he wants to get away from the house that’s now haunted by what they’ve lost. He agrees to go to school instead and so Nikita uses the money he’d been saving for a new horse and sends his son off to the city to be educated. It’s far from the fighting so there’s an unspoken understanding that if they have to lose him, they’d rather it be temporarily to school than permanently to war.
Year 24:
Nikita and Yevgenii's practice is burgled. Medicines and supplies all stolen.
Year 25:
Festival.
DH: Nikita Kirillovich Barsukov (straight brown haired physician)
DW: Feodosiia Gavriilovna Barsukova (curly red haired herbalist)
Nikita met Feodosiia when she tried making a new salve, tried it out on herself, and ended up with not only a rash, but a fever and chills, and vomiting.
"I think it's safe to say that one is poisonous," Nikita told her as he did his best to medicate the rash.
"You never know until you try," she'd replied, and somehow instead of being put off by an amateur trying to do his job, he'd been completely smitten.
Feodosiia had inherited a bit of land from her mother and Nikita had sold his small patch of land to afford to travel to school and learn medicine so when they married the following year, he moved into her simple home and the two penned in a few rabbits and chickens and began their life together.
Year 1:
Nikita brought home a large goose for dinner one night which would have been all well and good if Feodosiia hadn't stumbled upon three tiny motherless goslings near their home the next morning. She deposited the three of them into her gathered apron and brought them into their house. Originally, she told herself they'd raise them for food, but after she lost the first one unexpectedly and her frown got firmer, she worked harder to care for the other two. When the second one got out of the house and became dinner for a feral cat, Feodosiia frowned firmer, named the remaining gosling, and informed Nikita they they were not eating him.
Nikita certainly approved of the name, Uzhin*, and eventually even warmed up to the bird itself.
DH: Nikita Kirillovich Barsukov (22)
DW: Feodosiia Gavriilovna Barsukova (18)
Goose: Uzhin
*"Uzhin" is Russian for "dinner."
Year 2:
Feodosiia was in the market one day, making some trades and buying some spices, when a horse still hooked to a cart was spooked and ran through the town center, startling two other horses into running free as well and colliding with no fewer than eight townspeople and multiple other carts and fences. Feodosiia was caught beneath the wheel of one of the carts and suffered a broken leg and countless scrapes and bruises, but she considered herself fortunate as two others had been trampled and crushed to death in the chaos.
Nikita and his colleague Yevgenii had attended to eight people from the incident, but only one had he looked at slyly while he reset her leg and commented, "Do you think there's a plant that can fix this?"
Year 3:
The Barsukovs land was bordered on two sides by a thick forest. It had always been good for hunting dinner or chopping firewood. But one evening after Feodosiia and Nikita had already eaten and had blown their candles out, a torch was seen outside and then a loud banging knock was heard at their door. A young man's voice called out in very broken Russian asking for the doctor and Nikita shot up out of bed. Feodosiia grabbed onto his sleeve at first, but then let go knowing that Nikita was going to open the door regardless. He motioned for her to get up and reached in the dark for the knife he kept by the bed, passing it to her silently. The knock came at the door again and Uzhin honked loudly. Nikita grabbed a second knife, lit a lamp, and braced himself as he opened the door. Outside their doorstep were a small muddle of Kazan soldiers- swords and bows drawn hesitantly. Then Nikita's eyes fell to why they had come. On a piece of cloth and dragged between them was their own doctor, bleeding profusely, and praying in his native language. Nikita was Muscovite, but foremost, he was a physician. So he motioned for Feodosiia to stay back and then opened the door to the soldiers. By sunrise, the Muslims had brought several more injured fighters and had surprised him by bringing a few Muscovites to him as well. He treated everyone he could, hoping that as long as he remained neutral and helpful to both sides, his home and his and Feodosiia's lives would be spared.
Year 4:
The fighting happening on the other side of the forest eventually moved further west and for the most part, the soldiers stopped coming to Nikita for aid. But recognizing his help, both sides gifted the Barsukovs with a horse -one mare and one stallion to help them to reclaim their own land, to plant a garden and to regrow the food and herbs that they had used dry trying to assist anyone who came to their door. The mare was named Iskra, but the stallion was named by his gifters, Ayrat a Tartar name meaning "forest people."
DH: Nikita Kirillovich Barsukov (25)
DW: Feodosiia Gavriilovna Barsukova (21)
Goose: Uzhin (3)
Horse: Iskra (4)
Horse: Ayrat (3)
Year 5:
Nikita and Feodosiia were married five years before their first child came along. By that point, the couple had ventured occasionally to mention that perhaps they couldn't have any, but that fear was put to rest when they found they were expecting.
When the time came, there wasn't another mother or midwife called. Nikita just rolled up his sleeves and helped Feodosiia deliver Natalija Nikitichna* into the world one cold December morning in their little cabin. Their daughter's loud, clear lungs and fiery red hair proved immediately that she planned to be a force to be reckoned with and her parents could not have been more delighted.
DH: Nikita Kirillovich Barsukov (26)
DW: Feodosiia Gavriilovna Barsukova (22)
DD: Natalija Nikitichna (nb)
Goose: Uzhin (4)
Horse: Iskra (5)
Horse: Ayrat (4)
*I don't want to knock your example because I'm glad that you have it, but Nikita actually is an irregular name when it comes to patronymics and gets Nikitichna for females and Nikitich for males. (This is the rule for names that end in vowels.)
Year 6:
Nikita wrote to his brother in Mensk about the birth of his daughter and the following autumn, Lavrentii showed up with gifts for the child and parents alike. Nikita and Lavrentii had grown up in a family of seventeen children- Lavrentii the second eldest and Nikita the second youngest- but due to one misfortune after another, only the two of them remained. According to his elder brother, Nikita and Feodosiia were destined to regrow the family back to a "happy size." And while Nikita didn't have the money that Lavrentii's career had gained him, they were doing well enough and asked the older man to stay until spring of the next year. Lavrentii obliged and delighted in helping the younger Barsukovs in any way he could which included helping Nikita and Feodossia welcome a new animal into their family when Iskra gave birth to a ruddy brown foal that same year. They named him Schast'ye*.
DH: Nikita Kirillovich Barsukov (27)
DW: Feodosiia Gavriilovna Barsukova (23)
DD: Natalija Nikitichna (1)
Goose: Uzhin (5)
Horse: Iskra (4)
Horse: Ayrat (5)
Horse: Schast'ye (nb)
Year 7:
By the following spring however, things were not good for Lavrentii. While many years Nikita's senior, he was not yet an old man when the colder weather of Moscow spread illness to him. He burned with fever that both Feodosiia and Nikita were powerless to stop and he passed away in early April. They buried him when the ground thawed a few weeks later and Nikita wrote a letter back to their cousins who lived in Mensk to give them Lavrentii's land. He had told Feodosiia with a solemn expression, "I have no reason to ever return there now."
Year 8:
The skirmishes started back up in the west and for a while, Nikita and Feodosiia assumed that sooner or later injured soldiers would show up at their door, but this time no one ever arrived. The fights moved further and further west until they were sure they were too far for the soldiers to find refuge there and somehow this made things worse than if they had shown up.
Feodosiia mentioned another child, perhaps someone to join Natalija now that the little girl was nearing three, but Nikita wasn't sure how he felt about that either.
Year 9:
Regardless of feelings, another fiery-haired infant made their way into the world the following year- this time a boy who the couple called Sevast'ian Nikitich. Natalija was mesmerized by him and constantly wanted to hold and touch the baby much to little Seva's annoyance. Despite his initial hesitance, Nikita was as pleased as Feodosiia with the little one's arrival and he even caught himself telling multiple patients about his new son at home.
DH: Nikita Kirillovich Barsukov (30)
DW: Feodosiia Gavriilovna Barsukova (26)
DD: Natalija Nikitichna (4)
DS: Sevast'ian Nikitich (nb)
Goose: Uzhin (8)
Horse: Iskra (9)
Horse: Ayrat (8)
Horse: Schast'ye (3)
Year 10:
Sevast'ian was not even a year old and Natalija was just under five when the woman came into Nikita's practice. She was fevered and coughing up blood. Nikita and his colleague knew the signs immediately and were surprised when the small golden-blond child with her didn't seem to be displaying any himself. They didn't have to ask to be able to tell she worked the streets and to assume the child was a bastard. Nevertheless, Nikita offered to hold him and then balanced the thin boy on one hip as he examined the mother. She couldn't pay in money, she let him know, but he waved her off. He'd had numerous patients over the years who couldn't pay and it wasn't what his practice was about (though it was always graciously welcomed when one could). Nikita looked at his colleague with a knowing nod when he passed the small boy off to him and just as they assumed, the mother only survived a few more days.
"Yevgenii," Nikita had said, trying to encourage his colleague to his cause. "Could Ksenija care for Kazimir? Until we find his family?"
The other doctor raised his brow skeptically. "You think anyone will come for him? You think anyone will willing claim that boy?"
They both looked sympathetically at the child as he slept fitfully propped in the corner of the room.
"I'll see what Fedya says."
"Shes's a mother," Yevgenii replied, "Surely she will care for him? If she doesn't find it possible to care for him the same as Nata or Seva, at least she can probably keep him alive. It will be better for him than the streets and we can look for someone to take him."
Nikita shook his head. "If he goes home with me, he's there to stay. If Fedya can mother a damn goose for this long, I imagine she'll be twice as keen to take in a motherless child. Besides, Nata has taken to playing house with the animal so I'm sure she'll help with another sibling."
"They'll treat him differently," Feodosiia worried as they tucked their new son in between Natalija and Sevast'ian.
"Tell them he's my brother's child. Ferapont who hasn't been passed much longer than Lavrentii. He had a son who died that same winter. Let's say he didn't."
"You better start making smart trades from your patients or asking for money or we're not going to be able to feed all of these mouths."
"Is there a problem with their nursing?"
"I'm afraid there won't be enough milk to go around," she said pointedly and drew Nikita's hand up to her middle.
DH: Nikita Kirillovich Barsukov (31)
DW: Feodosiia Gavriilovna Barsukova (27)
DD: Natalija Nikitichna (5)
AS: Kazimir Ferapontovich (2)
DS: Sevast'ian Nikitich (1)
Goose: Uzhin (9)
Horse: Iskra (10)
Horse: Ayrat (9)
Horse: Schast'ye (4)
Year 11:
The next child was born rather quickly and unexpectedly. Nikita had set off for work that morning with Feodosiia only mentioning how uncomfortable she had become and he came home to the neighbor there and the children all doing as they were told to help attend to their mother who was swaddling their newest sister. Nikita dropped his bag and began to check over the mother and child. The neighbor tried to shoo him away, but Feodosiia's husband wasn't like most men of Muscovy. They may not have been allowed to know or see anything to do with the birth of a child, but Nikita had been a physician for long enough to not be bothered by blood, bodily functions, or female anatomy- especially not that of his own wife. He tucked the both of them into his arms and cradled the little girl- the first child they'd had to look like him.
DH: Nikita Kirillovich Barsukov (32)
DW: Feodosiia Gavriilovna Barsukova (28)
DD: Natalija Nikitichna (6)
AS: Kazimir Ferapontovich (3)
DS: Sevast'ian Nikitich (2)
DD: Valentina Nikitichna (nb)
Goose: Uzhin (10)
Horse: Iskra (11)
Horse: Ayrat (10)
Horse: Schast'ye (5)
Year 12:
By the time Valentina was a few months old, it was apparent she couldn't hear anything. She didn't respond to her parents' voices and loud noises didn't startle her. There was an unspoken sense of despair hanging around the couple for months as they watched their new daughter begin to crawl and discover the world around her. Nikita sat at their table one evening anguishing over their options and watching Natalija play with the baby when he noted, "Valya's still learning like the others."
"I'll do my best to teach her," Feodosiia assured immediately.
"How? She won't be able to hear instruction. Are you going to gesture for everything?"
Feodosiia thought for a moment. "You'll have to teach her to read like you."
Nikita scoffed. Hardly anyone read and especially not women. Besides, how would she hear the sounds and learn the pronunciation of words?
It was the source of quiet discord between them for weeks before Feodosiia offered, "She doesn't have to ever say them out loud. She has to recognize them when she sees them. She has to understand how they work."
"I don't know how to teach that, Fedya."
"Then teach me. Teach me to read the words. I'll know the meanings and I'll teach her."
Nikita looked at their children and finally sighed. "If I teach you, you teach her and the others."
"Give me a lesson every evening and I'll repeat it to them the following day."
Nikita nodded a bit to himself. "I can do that."
Year 13:
The older children began to pick up on words almost as soon as Feodosiia taught them. There were days she thought they caught on better than she had the night before. Lessons had to slow down a bit when late the following summer brought another child into their family. Grechin was a healthy baby, but he cried nonstop some days which led to more and more days where Kazimir preferred to play in gardens rather than be stuck inside with the wailing child.
DH: Nikita Kirillovich Barsukov (34)
DW: Feodosiia Gavriilovna Barsukova (30)
DD: Natalija Nikitichna (8)
AS: Kazimir Ferapontovich (5)
DS: Sevast'ian Nikitich (4)
DD: Valentina Nikitichna (2)
DS: Grechin Nikitich (nb)
Goose: Uzhin (12)
Horse: Iskra (13)
Horse: Ayrat (12)
Horse: Schast'ye (7)
Year 14:
The lessons got even harder to teach when they became mundane and therefore lost their excitement for both the children and occasionally even their mother. Sevast'ian found he preferred drawing on the board meant for practice. And sometimes between dealing with the children learning letters and words, monitoring Valentina and Grechin who were still too small to learn them, and the birth of the new twins Isidora and Miloslava, lessons got pushed aside. Especially when Isidora and Miloslava and arrived early, much smaller and weaker than any of the previous children. Their cries were feeble sounds and their bodies small and thin. Much of Feodosiia's time was spent just rotating between nursing the twins and Grechin and watching their breathing chests to make sure they were still soldiering on.
DH: Nikita Kirillovich Barsukov (35)
DW: Feodosiia Gavriilovna Barsukova (31)
DD: Natalija Nikitichna (9)
AS: Kazimir Ferapontovich (6)
DS: Sevast'ian Nikitich (5)
DD: Valentina Nikitichna (3)
DS: Grechin Nikitich (1)
DD/DD: Isidora Nikitichna & Miloslava Nikitichna (nb)
Goose: Uzhin (13)
Horse: Iskra (14)
Horse: Ayrat (13)
Horse: Schast'ye (8)
Year 15:
Feodosiia was already exhausted to the point that she'd stopped trying to have any kind of business with her herbal knowledge and started only helping her family and neighbors when she could. When Dmitrii was born, she stopped trying to do even that. Full days were spent mothering and teaching and housekeeping and cooking for their increasing family. At least, unlike his predecessors, Dmitrii was healthy enough that Feodosiia didn't lose sleep watching his chest rise and fall. He was born in early summer and was strong enough by the colder months that they counted themselves grateful not to have the fear they'd had the previous year.
DH: Nikita Kirillovich Barsukov (36)
DW: Feodosiia Gavriilovna Barsukova (32)
DD: Natalija Nikitichna (10)
AS: Kazimir Ferapontovich (7)
DS: Sevast'ian Nikitich (6)
DD: Valentina Nikitichna (4)
DS: Grechin Nikitich (2)
DD/DD: Isidora Nikitichna & Miloslava Nikitichna (1)
DS: Dmitrii Nikitich (nb)
Goose: Uzhin (14)
Horse: Iskra (15)
Horse: Ayrat (14)
Horse: Schast'ye (9)
Year 16:
By age five, Valya had discovered her favorite thing to do was to prank people. She left lids off of containers just to watch contents spill out. She enjoyed sneaking her siblings' things from them and then quickly returning them to right under their own mattresses and blankets. And most of all, she loved hiding behind doors and jumping out at people. The grand gesture of someone jumping must have been hysterical to her so no one had the heart to tell her that her feet and clothing made noises as she moved and they could hear her hiding from a good distance away. It was easier, kinder, and more fun to play along.
Anastasii made child eight born to Feodosiia and Nikita and child nine added to the family and he came into the world almost colorless and without breathing. Nikita had never felt the pressure of his job more strongly than he did with the eyes of his whole family all watching him as he tried to pump breath into the baby's lungs and smack his skin until he started inhaling.
"Are you going to hurt him?" Sevast'ian had asked as Nikita jarred the child's chest over and over, but when he finally held the baby upside for what must have been the six or seventh time and saw the newborn's tiny face scrunch up and cry a tiny sound, he swore something under his breath in relief. The whole family seemed to take a collective breath. Nikita knew he'd been more fortunate than most in never having to bury one of his children, but for a few minutes, he had thought that today would change that. He rubbed at the baby's skin and beat at his back a bit until the cry was loud and strong and the pink color flooded his skin. Feodosiia cried and so did Natalija, having the softest heart of them all. Uzhin honked at the baby's crying and it seemed to break them all from their moment of worry and a feeling of happiness flooded back over their small, crowded home. They named him Anastasii. They didn't know the meanings of too many names, but this one they knew and it seemed apt: Anastasii, resurrection.
DH: Nikita Kirillovich Barsukov (37)
DW: Feodosiia Gavriilovna Barsukova (33)
DD: Natalija Nikitichna (11)
AS: Kazimir Ferapontovich (8)
DS: Sevast'ian Nikitich (7)
DD: Valentina Nikitichna (5)
DS: Grechin Nikitich (3)
DD/DD: Isidora Nikitichna & Miloslava Nikitichna (2)
DS: Dmitrii Nikitich (1)
DS: Anastasii Nikitich (nb)
Goose: Uzhin (15)
Horse: Iskra (16)
Horse: Ayrat (15)
Horse: Schast'ye (10)
Year 17:
Despite the rough start to many of their lives, it turned out not to be the children that Nikita had to worry about.
As the twins pulled through and more babies kept coming, it was only a matter of time before something stopped them. Feodosiia grew ill rapidly and the fever took over her with a vengeance that terrified Nikita and the children. Nikita sent them off to do their mother's usual chores while he stayed home from his practice to tend to her. He had Yevgenii bring him medications and cared for her day and night. There were points when her fever ran so high she didn't know him and moments when he held her knowing he had done all that he could. He spent a few days trying to convince himself of the nearly inevitable probability of losing her and did his best to keep his devastation from their children despite knowing it was written across his face. He was cradling Valya in one arm and Miloslava in the other, trying to help children that small understand what was happening when he heard Kazimir climbing up into their loft. "Ot́ć," Kazimir barely managed through tears and Nikita saw the panicked and grief-stricken look on his son's face. A cold, sickening chill went through his body. He was torn between letting go of his daughters to cling to his son or letting go of all of them and racing to hold the wife he wasn't ready to part with yet. Then Kazimir said, "Uzhin's dead," and there was a brief moment where Nikita was so confused at hearing the name of the goose instead of Mati that he actually shook his head and said, "What?"
Despite having begrudgingly come to actually enjoy the goose's company over the last fifteen years, in that moment, Nikita had never been more relieved to hear that the goose had met his unfortunate demise instead and that Feodosiia was still clinging to life. He regretted that he probably had failed to notice the ailing bird whilst he had been so preoccupied with his wife, but was hard pressed to be upset about the situation considering the gravity of their circumstances.
Feodosiia's fever broke in the middle of the same night. In the pitch black darkness of their tiny home, she made a small noise and Nikita had blinked awake from his half-asleep state to find her skin cold and clammy and her clothing soaked. He'd lit a lamp and started a fire and helped to strip her of those wet clothes and into her dry set when she'd finally been awake enough to mutter at him that she was hungry. So he laughed and then he cried as he heated her broth over the fire and then helped her to drink it while sitting propped against his chest.
Year 18:
As it turned out, Feodosiia was the first of many cases of the same fever that swept through their area. Feodosiia recovered as many of the younger Barsukovs -Sevat'ian, Grechin, and the twins- all took turns passing the fever around, but despite how terribly ill they were, none of them succumbed to the epidemic as it flooded the streets of the Muscovite province and sent multiple people Nikita's way. He visited house after house and the practice he ran with Yevgenii was overflowing with patients. The illness seemed not to bother those in good health already, but those too young or too old to fight it off or those too sickly already often contracted and sometimes even succumbed to the fever as it tore its way through the area.
When he recovered, Grechin found he liked to help his father tend to the other patients and despite having had the illness initially, Nikita found that the boy seemed to be resistant to it after his recovery and was able to help administer rations and blankets and bottles of medicines without the illness affecting him again.
Year 19:
Isidora and Miloslava turned out to be as different as their appearances. While Miloslava was engrossed in creating her own stories and reading the ones Natalija wrote for her, Isidora was much more interested in bothering her sister. She was constantly tackling her and trying to invoke a response that would rile up her sister's angrier side and allow them to tussle. She could usually get Dmitrii to fight her back, however, as he was just young enough to have discovered that with so many siblings he was going to have to fight them to get anything anyway. But too much rough play caused Dmitrii's lungs and airways to seize and he had to sit and breathe carefully for a time until he's well again.
It was during one of those times, when he was sitting in the kitchen watching his mother and Natalija make soup and bread for the family and trying to regain regular breathing that Isidora and Grechin came running into the house with wet and ragged animals in their hands. Grechin shoved one at Dmitrii and Isidora shouted for the others to look as they hosted their prizes high in their hands and showed them off. The puppies were matted and wet and cold. They were probably two or three months old, but they weren't scared of people and they weren't seeming to mind being carried around by the children.
Of course Feodosiia had never had the heart to turn anything out, but she did tell them to wait and ask their father before they assumed they could keep them. Nikita didn't return until late in the day and by the time that he did, the sun had set outside and the puppies had been washed up and brushed and dried by the fireside. They named them after the dukes that had been rulers of their lands before because of how regal the three of them sat by the fire- proud and brave and warming themselves- with tails wagging.
And for the first time, Feodosiia was surprised there was something still left to learn about her husband, but she discovered that dogs were his weakness. He played with them as much as the children did.
DH: Nikita Kirillovich Barsukov (40)
DW: Feodosiia Gavriilovna Barsukova (36)
DD: Natalija Nikitichna (14)
AS: Kazimir Ferapontovich (11)
DS: Sevast'ian Nikitich (10)
DD: Valentina Nikitichna (8)
DS: Grechin Nikitich (6)
DD/DD: Isidora Nikitichna & Miloslava Nikitichna (5)
DS: Dmitrii Nikitich (4)
DS: Anastasii Nikitich (3)
Goose: Uzhin (15) (deceased)
Horse: Iskra (19)
Horse: Ayrat (18)
Horse: Schast'ye (13)
Dog: Vova (nb)
Dog: Yuriy (nb)
Dog: Kalita (nb)
Year 20:
Dmitrii was never as well as his brothers and therefore, he tended to stay behind when they all went running through the fields or outside to play with the animals. It was all the sitting inside and watching Feodosiia and Natalija cook that made Dmitrii want to help and by the time he was five, he was quite the little chef himself. He made food like it was more than a necessity, but an enjoyment or art form and Feodosiia delighted in watching him find simple joys in everyday things.
Nearly three and a half years after the terrifying birth of Anastasii, Feodosiia gave birth a final time to another set of twins, Zoia and Luka, bringing the total number of Barsukov chilren to eleven. Zoia has been born easily late one afternoon, but Luka's existence had taken then by surprise and when he delayed too long, Nikita sent Sevast'ian after the nearest midwife. Luckily, she had known how to help and little Luka made his entrance some time that same evening. Both children had been checked over to Nikita's satisfaction and then swaddled and given to their mother.
"Do you remember," Feodosiia had asked as she started to fall asleep that night, "that there was once a time we thought we may have no children?"
Nikita laughed.
DH: Nikita Kirillovich Barsukov (41)
DW: Feodosiia Gavriilovna Barsukova (37)
DD: Natalija Nikitichna (15)
AS: Kazimir Ferapontovich (12)
DS: Sevast'ian Nikitich (11)
DD: Valentina Nikitichna (9)
DS: Anastasii Nikitich (7)
DD/DD: Isidora Nikitichna & Miloslava Nikitichna (6)
DS: Dmitrii Nikitich (5)
DS: Grechin Nikitich (4)
DD/DS: Zoia Nikitichna & Luka Nikitich (nb)
Goose(m): Uzhin (15) (deceased)
Horse: Iskra (20)
Horse: Ayrat (19)
Horse: Schast'ye (14)
Dog(m): Vova (1)
Dog(m): Yuriy (1)
Dog(f): Kalita (1)
Year 21:
Natalija was sixteen when she met Aleksei Kazakovich. He'd been young and handsome and a soldier who set his sights on the eldest Barsukov child. Nikita was adamant that she could do better- Natalija was educated and of some decent standing while Aleksei was neither and had a future of nothing but farming. Then both Natalija and her father were locked into a stalemate where neither were willing to back down from their stances. Nikita refused to allow their marriage until Natalija confessed one day that she and Aleksei were expecting. Rather than push his daughter away, Nikita begrudgingly allowed their marriage so that the child could have all of the proper rights of an heir and Aleksei moved into the small home with the other thirteen Barsukovs.
DH: Nikita Kirillovich Barsukov (42)
DW: Feodosiia Gavriilovna Barsukova (38)
DD: Natalija Nikitichna Osetrov (16)
-DH: Aleksei Kazakovich Osetrov (19)
AS: Kazimir Ferapontovich (13)
DS: Sevast'ian Nikitich (12)
DD: Valentina Nikitichna (10)
DS: Anastasii Nikitich (8)
DD/DD: Isidora Nikitichna & Miloslava Nikitichna (7)
DS: Dmitrii Nikitich (6)
DS: Grechin Nikitich (5)
DD/DS: Zoia Nikitichna & Luka Nikitich (1)
Goose(m): Uzhin (15) (deceased)
Horse: Iskra (21)
Horse: Ayrat (20)
Horse: Schast'ye (15)
Dog(m): Vova (2)
Dog(m): Yuriy (2)
Dog(f): Kalita (2)
Year 22:
A blizzard hit Muscovy in the midwinter and everything the region seemed to hold dear was in jeopardy. The first to go were the crops as nothing, not even the hardiest of winter crops, could survive the thick layers of ice and snow they became buried beneath. Next went the horses. Without enough space to bring them in by the fire, they had had to leave the horses in the barn with coarse blankets over them, but it hadn't been enough. First they lost Iskra, the old mare unable to withstand the harsh temperatures, but Ayrat followed only days later. Nikita, Feodosiia, Kazimir, and Sevast’ian all did their best to push and persuade Schast'ye to enter the house even if just to stand in the doorway, but the house wouldn’t budge once he reached the doorframe. Nikita and Kazimir both built fires out in the barn, but they went out almost as soon as they were lit. The wind was too strong even in the interior, and so Schast'ye succumbed to the harsh conditions as well. They couldn’t leave the house and without a horse, they wouldn’t make it into town without freezing first anyway so no one went anywhere except out to the woodpile to get more wood and then back inside. They simply stayed home eating what little was available to them and praying for the blizzard to pass.
It was during one of these impossible days that Natalija gave birth to identical twin boys- Marin Alekseievich and Kariill Alekseievich, but the winter was too harsh and food had been too scarce. Without access to his medicines and supplies, Nikita was helpless to stop the tragedy that played out before them as Natalija suffered complications from their birth and was too weak to overcome them. She died only a few hours later and left the family in a state of shock and numbness. Feodosiia tried nursing the newborns with the milk she still provided for Zoia and Luka, but Marin refused to eat most days until he became too sickly and soon, he joined his mother. Then Feodosiia’s milk stopped coming- not enough food and too heavy of hardships had caused her body to stop providing what the infants needed and so she cried helplessly as little Kariill passed as well. Zoia and Luka didn’t eat other food. It had always been easier to nurse the little ones as long as possible before dividing up more of the household’s food between even more mouths. What had always saved them before proved to be their demise that winter as no amount of mushed potatoes or broth seemed to soothe Luka.
When spring came, the Barsukovs found themselves burying Natalija, her sons, and Luka all side by side near where they had once buried Nikita’s brother. It seemed the house was very quiet after that.
DH: Nikita Kirillovich Barsukov (43)
DW: Feodosiia Gavriilovna Barsukova (39)
DD: Natalija Nikitichna Osetrov (17) (deceased)
-DH: Aleksei Kazakovich Osetrov (20)
--DS/DS: Marin Alekseievich* (deceased) & Kariill Alekseievich (nb) (deceased)
AS: Kazimir Ferapontovich (14)
DS: Sevast'ian Nikitich (13)
DD: Valentina Nikitichna (11)
DS: Anastasii Nikitich (9)
DD/DD: Isidora Nikitichna & Miloslava Nikitichna (8)
DS: Dmitrii Nikitich (7)
DS: Grechin Nikitich (6)
DD/DS: Zoia Nikitichna & Luka Nikitich (deceased) (2)
Goose(m): Uzhin (15) (deceased)
Horse: Iskra (22) (deceased)
Horse: Ayrat (21) (deceased)
Horse: Schast'ye (16) (deceased)
Dog(m): Vova (3)
Dog(m): Yuriy (3)
Dog(f): Kalita (3)
* I know I told you the former was the rule for names ending in vowels, but Alekseievich is an exception to that rule. Now, it would be spelled Alekseyevich to avoid this, but back in Middle Ages, it would have been Alekseievich so I just went with it anyway.
Year 23:
When the border skirmishes start up again, Aleksei is gone almost as soon as word reaches them. Nikita recognizes the desperation of a man who has lost too much and knows no other way to handle his anger. It’s why he is grateful himself to throw himself back into his work and try to push everything from his mind except for the patient in front of him.
But one day, Sevast’ian comes running into the practice, out of breath and immediately clinging onto his father.
“You have to come home. Kazimir wants to go fight. You have to stop him!”
And Nikita is so tired that for a moment, his thought is that Kazimir is old enough to do as he pleases, but his second thought is that of having lost too much of his family already.
He and Sevast’ian rush home as fast as they can, Yegvenii instructing them to take his horse, and arrive in time to see Feodosiia physically clinging to her son’s arm and begging him to stay.
“Haven’t I lost enough children already?” she asked and tears soak into the young boy’s sleeve. “Isn’t that enough pain for one mother?”
Kazimir ends up sobbing too, clinging back onto Feodosiia and the two of them stand out in the garden for what feels like an age until Kazimir reluctantly agrees to talk to his parents about the situation.
It’s revealed that Kazimir doesn’t want to go to war as much as he wants to get away from the house that’s now haunted by what they’ve lost. He agrees to go to school instead and so Nikita uses the money he’d been saving for a new horse and sends his son off to the city to be educated. It’s far from the fighting so there’s an unspoken understanding that if they have to lose him, they’d rather it be temporarily to school than permanently to war.
Year 24:
Nikita and Yevgenii's practice is burgled. Medicines and supplies all stolen.
Year 25:
Festival.
Archived Thread - replies disabled
1