Disclaimer: I own nothing in this entire story except for the characters that I create(d), and the plotline.
A/N: I know, I know, I started another story, but this one wouldn't leave me alone. Reading Adagio To A Wolf's version of Bloodhound inspired me to write this – I just started wondering what would happen to their son…so, yeah…Some of this may be a bit far fetched, but bear with me, the ideas just fell into place, and who am I do deny the characters the power to write their own story? Haha. Anyways, enjoy! And don't forget to review!
From the journal of Rebakah Cooper,
Provost's Guardswoman,
Resident of the Lower City, Corus
April 3, 267
Writ before Evening Watch
I figure I should do as usual, but I can't stand it right now. Today's a hard day for me. Every year it's hard, for the last eighteen years. Eighteen years ago, I said goodbye to Rosto for the last time. Then, I didn't know it was the last time.
Rosto and I had said goodbye that evening when I was off for my Watch and he to his Court. He hadn't come home. Aniki said he'd never arrived.
We never found a body, we never had a ransom note, and no one claimed to have killed the Rogue. Not even a spirit on a pigeon. We searched the entire city. I haven't seen Rosto since that day.
Today we'd have been married for nineteen years to the day. Aniki took over the Rogue, after that. What I find the hardest is that Rosto never knew his son. Jarred's a good young cove – he's to be made a Puppy tonight. Jarred reminds me so much of Rosto, the way he acts.
He acts like his father so much it scares me some days. I know I'm lucky to have him. At this point, I think I'd be lost without him. Some Lower City Rat would have cut my throat by now.
Things have changed since Rosto's disappearance. The Dogs at Jane Street Kennel have changed. When Ahuda retired a few years ago, Goodwin was put in charge of the Kennel. She wasn't too happy, but she took it anyway.
She and Tunstall still walk Watch for all they're getting up there in years for Dogs. When she goes on Watch she usually leaves Harper or some other of the senior Dogs who have a different Watch in charge. I haven't had anything interesting on Watch for weeks, but I've gotten used to that.
It doesn't bother me so much when it's the beginning of April. It's been hard for me since Rosto. I knew I shouldn't have let the relationship get that far. I knew I shouldn't have let him get closer than a friend. Now it hurts to even think of him, I miss him so much…
Even now, I can see Rosto in my mind's eye. I can remember him so clearly after eighteen years. His skin was as pale as starlight, and he was proud of it.
He wore his hair long, pulled back in a horsetail – it was the color of the corona of the sun, so pale that it was almost white. He hated it when someone said that he had white hair, he got all upset over it if sommat was mentioned about that topic.
Eyes like the dark side of the moon, he had, sometimes the look in his eyes could make any mot or cove in the room flinch just by looking at him. I remember every scar on his hands, the way he held his daggers, the way he played his pipes, the way he never ran from a battle.
He met any opponent face on, even if he was outnumbered, or if it was the Dogs. So many times he could have gotten himself doused, but he didn't. He was constantly in danger, being the Rogue and all, but he always made it back.
I never though I'd lose him. I was so naïve to think him invincible. I never saw that he was as much a human as me. He was just as likely to die.
He never seemed like it, but he was just as vulnerable. He seemed so sure of himself, so comfortable, so invulnerable. He seemed to be so secure – he was the Rogue, I didn't realize that he was just as insecure as me, that there was more than the calm, charming surface.
Rosto had a good heart, you wouldn't be able to find another Rat, or a Dog, even, who was like him. He was a good cove, even if he was a Rat. He wasn't the kind of cove who just got up and left. That's why I'm so sure he's dead.
Rosto had promised, and it was against who he was. He'd promised that he would be by my side when I needed him, that the only thing that could keep us apart was death. Mayhap he was captured by someone, or sommat else happened, but I don't think so. He never would have broken his promise to me, I know it. He never would have let sommat like that happen. That's how it was for him, near the end in particular – all or nothing. It almost hurts to think of him these days.
I hate to think that Jarred's had to grow up without his father. I tried my best, but I'm not so sure that my best was good enough. Jarred's so much like Rosto, I wonder if it's just because he's the Piper's son, sometimes.
It's Watch time. I'd best get going, else Goodwin will have my head for being late again.
Writ after Evening Watch
My son's a Puppy now. He's just gotten back from Watch with his Dogs. I remember what it was like, myself. He hasn't said a word about what it was like for him. He was awful tired, and he was asleep before he even got to his bed. I have time to recount my Watch, now.
It wasn't unusual for the most part for the first few hours. Kayly and I rarely have anything to do at first – after that, we're busy. Tonight we had a gang of Rats – not part of the Rogue, just Rats – trying to ambush and kill a couple of knights and Dogs.
They stood in a dark alleyway as we passed, seemingly not paying attention. That's what made me keep a glim on them while we stopped at the bakery for sommat to eat between the start of Watch and dinner. All of a sudden they all moved off at once. Not a smart move for Rats.
I nodded to Kayly, and we split up to follow the two groups that had formed. I stopped and asked another pair of Dogs, Ersken and Birch, and their Puppy, Elaine, to help us trail the Rats. Birch and Elaine went after Kayly, Ersken stayed with me. We followed them all the way to the inn Rosto built – The Dancing Dove.
That made me mad. Ambushing knights and Dogs from the inn where the Court of the Rogue was set up? That would give them the appearance of being under the Rogue's orders – and I know that Aniki would never let them do that if she knew.
She's been the Rogue ever since Rosto's been gone, and she keeps a firm hand on her Rats. If they don't do as she tells 'em the first time, then she warns 'em. Second time, she gets 'em stuck in the cages. If they disobey her a third time, they'd best pray that she's in a merciful mood, else they're not likely to live much longer.
They stopped in front of the inn, and stood there. Ersken and I stayed hidden while we watched them. Then I saw the other group coming from the other direction. A moment later, I saw Birch and Elaine, Kayly was on the rooftop - her favorite spot for surveillance.
I dislike it when she does that – particularly since she was crouching right above my room, this time.
It was then that the group of knights and Dogs turned onto the street. I could see the hungry glimmer in the eyes of the nearest Rats. They were eager, they wanted blood. None of the group noticed – the Dogs were Fourth Watch, and drunk, by the look of it.
The knights I didn't know about, they were a group I'd never seen before in the Lower City. Wonderful, I have a bunch of jinglenobs to protect, I thought.
The first rat lashed out at one of the knights in passing. That was when the fighting started. I heard a dull thud nearby, and I glanced back to see my partner crouched on the ground.
We nodded to each other, and sprang. The others followed our lead as we threw ourselves into the fray. I gave the first Rat that came at me a nap tap, just as Goodwin had taught me, years ago. He would feel where my baton hit when he woke in the cages the next morning.
Another came at me with a sword in hand. He feinted left, and tried to stab my right side. I blocked his blow with my baton, wincing when I saw a chunk of the wood fly when the blade bit into the wood. He tried to jerk his sword out of the wood and away so that he could make another attack, but I twisted my baton, and jerked back toward my body. His sword clattered to the ground. He looked at me with wide eyes.
"Don't mess with the Elkhound," I said, a hard look on my face. He ran. I heard a grunt behind me. I whirled to see another Rat, this one had gotten himself tangled in a pile of rope. He looked at me with wide eyes.
I disarmed him, and hit him in the back of the head. His eyes rolled up, and he collapsed. A few more Rats and the fight was mostly done. With five Evening Watch Dogs, the knights and the Forth Watch Dogs (even if the bugnobs were drunk), they were outnumbered, and they knew it. They surrendered.
So we dragged them back to the kennel. The Cage Dogs were pleased to have some Rats to harass. It seems that they like that…I never want to be a Cage Dog – they get violent real quick, and are known for it.
More Rats die in the cages in a week than all of the diggers Crookshank murdered back when I was called the Terrier, when I was a Puppy.
The rest of the night was relatively quiet – a real rarity. Evening Watch is the busiest Watch in the Lower City, but it's been lighter in the last few months. I think Aniki's really tightened her grip.
Things were better when Rosto was the Rogue, then things went back to before when he disappeared, then Aniki took the throne from the squabbling district chiefs.
Honestly, I think I'm doing more thinking these days, and actually writing it down. I didn't put a lick of events in my entry from before Watch. I suppose I have an excuse, considering the day it is, but I wonder if that's a good thing.
I'd best be getting to bed now. I have reports to help Goodwin with in the morning, and my hand is starting to ache from too much writing today.
A/N: Review, please! Next chapter's gonna be from Jarred's POV, and three times as long as my usual chapters, so (hopefully) you have something to look forward to.
