D's Christmas
SUMMARY
D had expected his Christmas to turn out the same way it usually did. Alone with only his horse and the irritating parasite in his left hand for company as he travelled on the frost bitten road. But this year, his Christmas turned out to be slightly different to what he expected.
STORY
The powdery white snow shimmered upon the ground and in the air as it floated downwards from the heavens. Leafless tree branches sagged with the weight of the frozen substance as a small group of warmly wrapped children played in the frozen landscape. Up above, the sky was a steely grey as the soft snowflakes descended from its icy depths. Not far away was the little brick houses of a snow shrouded village and long snakes of smoke rose from neat, brick chimney stacks. A lone snowman stood cheerfully at the gate of the field the children were playing in where a lone, less cheerful black rider guided his horse forwards through the deep drifts of snow.
It was Christmas day and D was alone once more. He ignored the way that the icy wind invaded his armour, despite the thickness, in fact, to the casual observer, he looked like he was not affected by the cold at all. However, if you looked close enough, you'd see the occasional shudder of his shoulders that even this illustrious dunpeal couldn't suppress. Not that you'd blame him, for most nobles would not be able to cope with the cold the way he did, sat astride his dark mount, holding the reigns in his motionless fingers.
One noticed the figure's discomfort, however. Most gave the stranger one mere glance and then they resumed their previous occupations once more. This one person, however, was different to the rest. The first village orphan. A young, pale woman, who looked to be just out of her teen years. She was of eighteen winters and dark of her disposition. Her onyx eyes regarded the village children for a few seconds, before they flicked back to the stranger again. She sighed as she saw the almost unnoticeable shudder of the strangers shoulders again.
'Curse me and my careworn heart.' she thought, sliding from her perch on the gate of the field, flicking a stray strand of her chocolate brown, mid back length hair out of the way of her eyes and vaulting over another part of it so that she could lean against the fencing that was at the side of the track, that was slowly accumulating a fresh trail of hoof prints from the cyborg horses shoes.
She rolled her eyes when the man shivered again and tugged one of her two plain black scarves off and waited until the man was but a few feet from her before she tossed she scarf at him so that the black article of clothing settled upon his shoulders, despite the wide brimmed hat that the man wore. He looked like she'd taken him by surprise for a second, before he took up the corner of the scarf into his fingers and rubbed the soft woollen material through his slender, bare fingers. He then shifted his gaze to the thrower of the object who just shrugged.
"You looked like you need it more then I do." she said, she had the voice of someone who had pretty much been there, done that and come back with the blood stained, tattered old t-shirt and didn't really care, but her voice still betrayed her youth, as did the lack of lines of any sort upon her face. Her lips, though they looked as if the spent most of their time pursed in a thin line of disapproval, were currently turned upwards in a playful smirk as a few more words left her mouth. "Would you like a pair of riding gloves to go with them? The cold will freeze your hands."
"I'm fine." he replied, making no effort to wrap the scarf further around his neck. The girl frowned.
"Liar." she said simply, with no real venom as she put a few steps forwards, whipping a pair of men's gloves from her worn, black leather belt and grabbing D's left hand in her own gloved one, D felt the parasite in his hand make a rapid escape as he, himself froze as the eighteen year old took his hand in her own ones and slid the gloves on, he could feel soft fake fur inside of the glove which was still warm with the girl's body heat as she pulled his other hand towards herself and slid the second glove onto his hand. His breath had hitched as the heat of the girl's hand had seeped through her own woollen gloves, onto his bare hands before she'd covered them with the soft gloves she'd bestowed upon him.
"I don't like it when people lie to me." the girl told him passively. "And I like it even less when people lie because of pride. If you get any colder you'll turn into a mini glacier. Now do you need me to fix the scarf for you?"
Without waiting for an answer, she snatched the scarf from his shoulders with a deft movement of her arm and folded it in half before moving closer to D and looping the scarf around his neck, using the stirrups to boost herself up slightly so that she could slide the ends of the scarf through the loop at the other end.
She slipped down again and smiled slightly.
"I know what you dunpeals are like." she told him comfortably. "Too much pride to accept such a small thing from a little orphan girl without a bit off a push."
D just started down at the girl with surprise written on his normally strictly schooled features. She seemed satisfied with D's reaction. Finally, he spoke.
"Why?" he asked.
"Why what?" asked the girl, coaxing him lightly.
"Why did you do that?" he asked, not showing any of his irritation seep into his words.
"You were cold." replied the girl. "And I always keep an extra pair or two of gloves handy because someone always manages to lose theirs, but I've only got adults gloves since I grew out of children's gloves, so, they naturally fit you. I don't like people suffering because of their own pride and fear. It isn't fair."
A sharp, almost inaudible gasp left D's lips at her accurate analysis of him, his eyes had widened ever so slightly, but she had noticed it.
"Scary how I always know, isn't it?" asked the girl.
"What's you name?" asked D.
"Belle." she replied. "You?"
"D." D said simply. Belle smiled slightly at him.
"Welcome to Jedora, D." said Belle. "You look like you could do with a hot meal. I imagine you've got no one to go home to at Christmas, or I'd have known you before you'd even got past that copse of trees" She gestured to a copse of trees, ten feet from the field that D had passed on his way to the village.
"I was merely planning on stocking up on supplies." D told her, sedately, and was left wondering why he'd just said that. Normally he would remain perfectly tight lipped about anything other then vampires. Why on earth had he just told that girl why he was going to drop in on the village instead of skirting around them like he normally did.
"The General Store will be shut till evening today." said Belle. "It's Christmas day. Everyone's out playing with the children and skating on the lake with their loved ones."
"Why aren't you with them?" asked D, only to wonder why he had asked that about ten seconds later.
"I fancied a quiet morning before I had my Christmas dinner." replied Belle. "And I guess I had a hunch that someone would be heading this way and would need a little Christmas cheer." she gave a lopsided smile and looked at D curiously. "I was planning on going in now. Want to join me?"
"Well, I…" D began, but he was cut off.
"You won't be going anywhere until the evening. This is the only town that will have an open General Store at all during the day for miles." said Belle. "And I imagine you're hungry and I wouldn't mind the company. I live on my own and your not the only one who has no one to go home to at Christmas, well, other then Penny, my collie dog. Come on. I've got more then enough for two and I'd appreciate the company, no matter how silent."
D didn't even get a chance to speak as the reigns were slid from his slack fingers and his mount was being guided forwards for him. He had a split second the grab the front of his saddle before there was any possibly of him falling off. He felt his cheeks gain a light dusting of pink as he thought of how much like an inexperienced rider he must look without the reigns in his hands. He decided that it was not below his dignity to ask at least once before they entered the village.
"Do you mind?"
"No, not really." Belle commented, grinning back at him. "Relax into the saddle and then you won't fall off. You don't get people guiding your horse for you very often, do you?""People don't normally get close enough to me for that." replied D.
"Well, you may find that people will get very close to you in this town. replied Belle. "Because I'm a dunpeal and everyone knows it. But everyone is quite at ease with me and they were just as good with my father, before he was killed in an accident. Another vampire who lived in the town went a little too far during his 'courting' and, just like if it had been for any ordinary man, my father was the one send to 'sort him out', as it were. Both were killed in the accident and they were the last of the Vampires in this town, but there are still a few dunpeals about. My mother died of pneumonia three years ago. I've been living in the house ever since. We still have a blood donor system, which is basically where if any dunpeals give into the bloodlust they go to the local doctor and he sets them up with a blood donor and the dunpeals of the town make blood replenishing potion for the humans. Thankfully, I'm not at the bloodlust stage yet so I've not been set up with a donor yet. I bet your sick of my jabbering. In a nutshell, no one around here minds dunpeals that much and we're pretty much all a part of the family. One very big, if not slightly dysfunctional, family." during her speech, they had entered the town and now Belle was waving to every person they came across.
A football rolled in front of Belle and she kicked it back to the teenagers who were playing in the street and they waved to Belle before turning back to their game with relish. D noticed that both boys and girls were playing together and raised his eyebrows as he knew that teens of that age, in this region, usually avoided members if the same age, but opposite sex like the plague.
"I know what you're thinking, but like I said, we're all a family, so we all get along fairly well." said Belle. "You'll normally only see them apart from each other when a prank war sweeps the village. Let me tell you that that is something worth being around for. It is very funny."
She smiled at him again and lead the horse over to an average sized house with a small stable where a cyborg mare was already in one of the six stalls, munching on hay and occasionally ducking her head out of a door that lead out onto a small paddock that was mirrored by the other five stalls.
D slid from his saddle as Belle began to remove the horses bridle.
"What's his name?" asked Belle.
"He doesn't have one." replied D.
"Oh." said Belle. "Well I'm sure that the village children would love to name you." she said to the horse, petting its side as she undid the girth expertly. D quickly removed his saddlebags and began to secure the stirrups on the right side as Belle did the same to the left, before pulling the saddle off of the horses back and putting it with her own, also black saddle.
She lead the horse over to the neighbouring stall of the mare and quickly filled up the horses hay and water, along with a bucket of feed.
She then lead D to her average sized, brick house. She took out her key and unlocked the holly wreath adorned door and stepped inside, stamping her feet on the welcome mat to rid her boots of snow, before removing them and placing them on a shoe rack at the side of the cream hallway. She gestured to D to do the same and he did so as Belle removed her black cloak. Once he'd removed his boots, one found that he was also wearing black woollen socks, like Belle.
The removal of Belle's cloak revealed that underneath she was wearing a black wool jumper and a pair of black trousers. She hung up her cloak and then spun around to sweep D's hat off of his head, stick her arm outside of the door for a second and give the hat a good few shakes to remove the snow that had gathered across the brim, brought it back in, brushed it off with her hand for extra measure and hung it up on the hat stand. D was so surprised that he hadn't recovered in the time it took Belle to unclasp and remove his cloak and do a similar thing to his cloak as he had done to his hat.
"Don't you ever shake the snow off?" asked Belle, turning back to him with a grin. She then removed his scarf and gloves and hung them up with his cloak and hat. "Welcome to my humble abode. Come through to the lounge and I'll prepare dinner." she walked through a door, gesturing for D to follow her into the next room. He did so and found himself in a room with emerald wallpaper and an apple white carpet and dado rails, along with cream sofas and chairs and several logs in the hearth of a marble fireplace that were just waiting to be lit. there was a beautifully decorated Christmas tree in the corner and every surface was covered in tin foil and the edges were trimmed with silver tinsel and white, sparkly felt hung over the sides like icicles over the edge of a windowsill. There were even crystal icicles on the ends of some of the branches of the tree. Upon the foiled over shelves, windowsills and tables were Christmas ornaments of a tasteful sort. The emerald rug in front of the fire just completed the whole cosy feel of the room. Several presents rested under the tree, all wrapped in bright colours with gold or silver ribbons and little tags neatly taped to the neatly wrapped items.
"Take a seat and I'll bring some coffee over." said Belle, gesturing to the sofas and chairs, before departing through another door. D obligingly sat down and looked around himself, whilst trying to appear that he wasn't. Belle came in a minuet later with a steaming mug.
"I'll be back out in a minuet." she said. "I've just gotta stick everything in the oven and I'll be back out."
True to her word, within ten minuets she was back out of what D presumed was the kitchen with her own steaming mug of tea. D was still a little tense, though he could feel the caffeine in the tea calming his nerves. Before he knew it he had actually managed to relax into the leathery embrace of the chair and was even participating in the mostly one-sided conversation. Belle smiled as she talked about various people in the village.
D couldn't remember the last time he'd actually gotten comfortable with someone over a coffee in said person's living room, but he caught himself rather enjoying himself.
Belle eventually got up to check on the meal and a minuet later she came through a different door to the one she had exited through.
"Dinner is served." she said. D stood up and walked through the door that Belle had come through and found himself in a dining room with pine furniture and cream walls. The Christmas decorations in this room were gold orange and red and the tablecloth was gold. Two plates of well cooked dinner was placed at either end of the table. A single gold candle was at the centre of the table and Belle took up a box of matches.
"Would you like to light the candle as my guest?" asked Belle, holding out the box to him. D raised his eyebrows, but struck the match and lit the candle anyway.
They sat down and Belle immediately held out the Christmas cracker at her end of the table to him. D tentatively grasped the other end firmly in his hand and gave it a sharp tug in union with Belle. There was a loud bang as Cheza's end ripped and D came away with most of the cracker and a small black object dropped from the cracker, barely missing his plate. He found it to be a tiny little spider neck charm, made of glass seed beads. Belle saw it and smiled.
"The general store makes the crackers and their daughters put the gifts in them. Last year I got a hatpin in the shape of a bat. Want to try again?"
They pulled the second cracker and this time, Belle came away with a little chain of pearly plastic beads. She put them around her neck and when D raised his eyebrow, she shrugged.
"The kids will be around later. They like to see me wear what they make. A seven year old made this sweater. She tugged on her jumper with a hand and then raised the small piece of paper with the joke on it in front of her.
"What do penguins sing at Christmas?" asked Belle. D just looked at her like she'd lost her marbles. "Can't guess?" she waited for a moment before she spoke again. "We fish you a merry Christmas. Yeah, rubbish, I know. The aunt puts the jokes in. she just skims through an old Christmas joke book and dissects whichever ones she deems would be suitable for the traditional Christmas torture. Something tells me that the one on your card will be worse."
"I'll forego it then." replied D. He turned to the meal and with surprising daintiness for a man of his visage, he began to cut up his meat as Belle did the same after putting her little paper hat on. D enjoyed the meal. He said so to Belle.
"Well then sit tight because the Christmas pudding's coming round now." she said, picking up D's plate and her own. "It's an old recipe that my grandmother gave me." D raised his eyebrows.
Belle came in mere seconds later with two steaming bowls of pudding. D's sensitive nose caught the scent of the sumptuous dish and took a deep breath.
Belle placed a bowl in front of him and placed her own down at her place.
About halfway through the pudding, the doorbell rang.
"Oh! They're here!" cried Belle, standing up to greet whoever was at the door, taking her empty bowl through to the kitchen.
D heard the greetings of several people before the dining room was assailed by several young children.
"Alright kiddies!" Belle's voice called out over the babble. "Just let D finish his meal and then we'll move into the living room."
"Yes Miss Belle." the children replied.
D blushed slightly as he felt the children's eyes on him and continued eating. Suddenly he felt tiny hands on the top of his head and something being placed on his head. He turned his head in the direction of the little blue eyed girl with her golden blonde hair in a bob.
"You're meant to wear your Christmas hat at the table on Christmas day." she said simply. D nodded, knowing very well that this sort of thing was something that children were often very adamant about. He turned back to his meal and quickly finished it. He stood up to take his bowl away, but one of the children took it from his hands and skipped to the kitchen with a smile on her face.
When she came back, Belle spoke up.
"Alright everyone, lets move into the living room." said Belle, smiling. Cheers went up through the children and they flocked into the living room. D then looked at Belle.
"Don't worry, they're good kids." said Belle. "Just make sure they don't break anything or each other because children do have accidents. They come over here to unwrap the presents I give them and then we sing Christmas carols in the evening. Just try to enjoy yourself. If you just relax whilst they're around it can be very fun."
"I'll try." D said through clenched teeth, wondering what the hell he'd gotten himself into this time. Belle gave him an encouraging smile and then proceeded to push him through the door where the children were sat patiently by the Christmas tree.
"Time for presents!" cried Belle, smiling jubilantly as the children perked up even more, if that was at all possible.
And so it began. One by one the presents were passed round, the older children's presents seemed to be smaller then those of the younger ones, but they seemed to not mind, as the gifts were more centred around their age groups anyway. And as if that wasn't enough, Belle had let her excitable collie dog, Penny, out of the kitchen and the dog had taken great interest in D, before returning its interests to the children.
Soon the children were playing with each other, their presents and the boxes and wrapping paper. D stood to the side and watched. Suddenly, he felt a tug on his sleeve and looked down at a little red haired girl with green eyes, framed with little emerald glasses.
"Would you play with me please?" she asked in her little six year old voice. D remembered how Belle had muttered to him that he'd better be nice and gave in to the pleading gaze. He was taken over to be on the hearthrug in front of the fire, where a sequin art was laid out, really to be completed. D knelt down next to the girl and immediately began to help her create the picture of a little barn owl perched on a branch with a crescent moon shining in the background.
They worked in silence for a few minuets before the girl tuned her eyes towards him for a second before she returned her gaze to the board.
"You're a dunpeal." she said. D raised his eyes up to her in surprise.
"How did you guess?" asked D.
"Because I'm one too." replied the girl. "My mum was a vampire and my father is human. Mum died giving birth to me, but I still have dad. I'm the only dunpeal in my year. All of the others are either older or younger then me by at least two years."
"Well that's one way of being able to tell." commented D.
"OW!" yelped the girl.
"Are you alright?" asked D.
"Yeah." replied the girl. "I just pricked my finger." D took her hand in his own and saw the tiny pin prick on the end of her index finger and touched it to his lips and gave it a rub in his larger hands.
"That'll be fine." said D. "It's not even bleeding. Just stings a bit, eh?" she nodded. "What's your name?"
"Rosemary." replied the girl. "But everyone calls me Rose, Rosy or Mary." D felt his lips quirk upwards in a smile. Rose returned the smile.
They returned to the sequin art with their figures slightly more relaxed in their postures.
"You're a very patient person, D." Rose observed.
"What makes you say that?" asked D.
"Even the other adults get bored of doing this with me." Rose said calmly. "You see, some of them, though they do not hold anything against dunpeals, they still feel wary of me. It's because I'm young, and more prone to the odd slip up, if you get my meaning." Yes, D knew exactly how that felt. He knew from experience that it was hardest to control the bloodlust as a child. Nowadays it was easier for him after centuries of practice. "People, therefore don't really speak to me, which means that they have nothing to occupy their wandering minds with, which makes them get bored and leave quickly."
There was one thing that was certain, that kid could sure read people well, despite her young age. "You just sit in silence with me, but you still give me companionship and you don't seem to be bored.""Companionship is enough to satisfy me." replied D. "I don't get it often."
"So in other words people from other places avoid you like the plague." commented Rose. D just nodded. "You could stay here." The sweetness in Rose's voice pulled on D's heartstrings as he looked up to see the girl looking back at him with a small smile on her face.
"It's not that simple." replied D.
"Why not?" asked Rose. "Your reputation proceeds you, D." said Rose. "I read a lot and I know that you're good with a sword and the town's always looking for someone who's good with a sword to teach the others. "And I know that you're good in hand-to-hand combat too."
"Not the sort of thing a child should really know about." commented D.
"I know a lot of things I shouldn't know about." replied Rose. "Most of which involve war strategy and hand-to-hand combat strategy and a little about sword fighting, which I've only recently started reading."
"You like to read." asked D, finding this little dunpeal far more interesting then he ever thought he would.
"Oh, yes." replied Rose. "I love to read."
"What do you like to read?" asked D, finding this girl to be strikingly similar to himself as a child. He had red, and red, and red, until his head hurt.
"Everything and anything that I can get my hands on." replied Rose, with a grin. D's smile became slightly more pronounced as he felt his heart melt at the girl's trust in him. For the first time in lord only knew how long, D felt the rooms warmth completely. He knew that the parasite would lecture him something chronic later and couldn't really care. For them first time in a long time, he was just content to enjoy the company of the sweet little girl beside him for a while.
"I used to be like that." replied D. "Apparently, in my earlier years I used to recite Shakespeare in my sleep."
"Alas, poor Yorik! I knew him well." recited Rose with exaggerated sorrow.
"What is to be, or not to be? That is the question." D countered with one of his own quotations.
"He is as valiant as Hercules, that only tells a lie and swears it!" Rose piped in in false anger.
"Is this a dagger that I see before me." D reached out a hand before himself as if to hover over a dagger as the other hand was held over his heart and his face and voice laced with false fear as he actually went up as high as he could without his knees leaving the floor, becoming slightly more animated in the presence of the little girl who seemed to have found it easy to worm her way into his icy fort of a heart and bring the spring back to his personality, after having freedom of expression vacant from his persona for so long.
The Next thing D knew, Rose was standing up, pretending to wield a false dagger.
"And so I draw my naked weapon!" she cried, with a few false swings. She swung her arm around so violently that she almost ended up face first in the pins, but strong, slender hands gripped her underneath her armpits and raised her up into the air like an airplane. She looked down to see that it was D twirling her around as he'd come up to a standing position, making a few other children stop what they were doing to look.
D finally set Rose smoothly on the ground, the little girl giggling her heart out. D smiled down at her, before kneeling down by the sequin art once more. Rose followed suit, tucking her legs beneath herself in the same manner D did. D laughed as Rose tried to imitate him and Rose smiled back up at him.
'I caused that smile.' she thought with pride. 'Just me.'
Rose turned to the plan sheet and placed it so that both she and D could see it. They continued what they were doing even everyone else did the same as Belle's lips were quirked into a secretive smile that only she understood.
After an hour of simply ploughing through the sequin art and enjoying each others company, Rose suddenly seemed to have an idea, she rose to her feet and ran over to one of the cupboards. She opened it and rummaged around in it for a few seconds, before coming back with a red and gold box in her hands.
She swiftly packed away the sequin art and opened the box and revealed something that D recognised immediately.
"A chess set." was the bland comment.
"Wanna play me?" asked Rose, holding up the board. D waited a moment before sliding the board from her fingers and placing it down, reaching over to pick up the black pieces on his side and Rose set up the white pieces on her own side.
Soon they were leading their troops into battle. Soon pieces were being taken left right and centre.
A black pawn.
A white knight.
A white pawn.
A black castle.
A black pawn and another black pawn.
A couple of white pawns and a white castle!
They were pretty evenly matched until both players finally sat back and looked mischievously at each other.
"Stalemate!" they said as one.
They then packed away the chess set and Rose went back to the cupboards and brought out a cardboard box. The mere sight of it made everyone stop what they were doing. Belle stood up and disappeared through the kitchen door, only to return again with an armful of newspapers. Rose grinned and set the box down. Belle set the newspaper down next to the cardboard box and the two of them began to spread it out. Soon, D got the idea and began to assist in spreading the newspaper out, followed by the other children.
Then the children began to empty the box so that its contents were spread out over the newspaper and D found that the box's contents were in fact coloured paper, feathers, glitter, glue, paint, paintbrushes, beads, sequins, stamps, sell tape, hole punchers, card, cardboard and so many other craft things that one could just go on and on and on.
Before D knew it, he was being taught how to make a Christmas card by the children and soon they were all at it. Rose stayed right with D the whole time, he got the feeling that the little dunpeal was becoming attached to him and D had the feeling that he was becoming attached too. He knew, that for once in his life, he'd have trouble leaving this place behind. But, just like Rose had said earlier, there was nothing stopping him from staying. As D thought this over, his mind came up with another idea, one that he was sure would allow him to still be around the village at least a part of the time.
For now he was content to enjoy his time with the children who had touched his heart down to his very soul.
Suddenly, Belle stood up and looked over to the piano in the corner of the room.
"Alright kids, lets get this cleaned up and we'll have some Christmas Carols!" she said, immediately setting aside her cards and helping tidy up as the others did the same.
The children were soon gathered around the piano. D stood at the back as Belle pulled the stool out. She then turned to look directly at D.
"D." she said. "Would you have the pleasure of starting with the first Carol."
"Well I…" D made the mistake of looking at the faces of the children that were all portraying various versions of the puppy-dog-eyes look, and D found his resolve crumbling almost instantly. "I'm not really that good." he continued. "I haven't played in years."
"I'm sure that you'll be able to play something." replied Belle. "Just pick something that you know reasonably well."
D bit his lip and walked over, taking the seat in front of the piano. He took a deep breath as he rifled through the pages of the Christmas Carols book and soon came to one of the most traditional songs he could find.
"Ready?" asked D. The children all nodded eagerly. "When you know the song, join in." D didn't know how he knew what to say to the children, it just came to him and he started up on the tune and almost immediately, Rose and Belle joined in and D also began to sing.
"We wish you a Merry Christmas,
We wish you a Merry Christmas,
We wish you a Merry Christmas,
And a Happy new year!"
And on it went, well into the night with Belle and D continuously swapping round at the piano.
When the parents began to arrive to pick the children up D stopped playing. He smiled as he watched the children go with their parents. He was surprised when Rose's father, a tall man with mousy brown hair and emerald eyes, stepped forwards.
"Rosy says that you had a little fun with her tonight." he said, looking piercingly over his horn rimmed glasses.
"It was pleasure to watch her." replied D. "Your daughter is very clever, sir."
"Oh, call me Dax, or Baxter. Dax is just a nickname." he said, holding his hand out to D to shake it. D returned the handshake, when normally he'd just have glared at the hand. "And thanks for keeping the young lass company anyway." Dax patted Rose's shoulder as the little girl smiled up at D. She looked up at him for a few seconds before saying the one word that he thought that no one would ever say to him.
"Stay."
D felt his heart twist at the word. He looked down at the girl sadly, before kneeling down at her height and looking her in the eyes.
"Rose, I can't stay." said D. "The job I have, it requires me to move around a lot."
"Then come back for Easter." replied Rose.
"I'll try." replied D. "But I can't make any promises."
"I can only ask that you try." replied Rose. She then jumped forwards and locked her arms around D's neck. "I'll miss you."
"I'll miss you too." replied D.
"Of coarse, D won't be going anywhere for tonight." Belle suddenly appeared from nowhere.
"Since when did you know my plans?" asked D, straightening up.
"Since I'm inviting you to spend the night here after we've gotten everything you need from the general store." replied Belle, jovially.
"Now are you sure that's a good idea?" D's voice was abnormally laced with humour. "What will the neighbours say?"
"Not a lot." replied Belle with a grin. "Men avoid me like the plague when it comes to that sort of thing."
"I wonder why." joked Dax.
"What are you talking about, daddy?" asked Rose.
"When your older Rose." said D.
"Much older." intoned Belle. "Bye, Rose!"
"Bye, Belle! Bye, D!" replied Rose, waving as she disappeared from the house with her father. D sighed as he watched her go.
"She's right you know." said Belle, as the other adults lead their children from the house with waves and farewells to Belle and D. "You could always come back at Easter. I always have a spare room."
As she spoke she got her cloak, scarf and gloves from the hanger and put them on, before tossing D his.
"We're off to the general store. You need supplies."
When they got to the general store there were a few others, most of which D had met earlier. After they'd gotten everything, they went back to Belle's house. They enjoyed an evening by the fire, talking about everything and nothing. They went to bed with full hearts and peaceful minds.
"Goodbye D!""Come back soon!"
"We'll miss you!"
"Good luck!"
D paused on the road, to look back, something he'd never done before.
"I'll be back." he whispered, his voice carrying on the wind to reach the ears of the waving children and their parents as they watched D leave the village, opposite the way he'd come. As small smile graced his lips and then he urged his horse away from the village once more.
"See, you can fit in when you try." came the crude voice from his left palm. "You are going to go back, aren't you?"
"I must admit…" D began slowly. "That that's the first place I've ever thought of as anything like a home."
"So you're going to go back one day?" asked Left Hand, as they vanished from the sight of the people behind them. D raised Left Hand to look him in the eye. He said only one word.
"Definitely."
THE END
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