AN: this was written for the DN Writers Faction Writing competition. The following rules and prompts must all be included at some point.
1. No word limit
2. Daine develops her first crush (we're discounting that whole swooning over Jon thing)
3. Numair tries to give her 'the talk'
4. Daine receives her first kiss but not from her crush
5. Daine must say 'It's not really worth it' at some point.
Now I only have to add that everything you recognize belongs to Tamora Pierce. I am not her.
The hardships of a teacher
"Magelet, are you even listening?" Numair sighed. She was gazing out of the window. Again.
"What?" Daine looked startled. Then she blushed and grinned sheepishly. "I'm sorry, Numair. What did you say?"
Numair tried to look stern and forbidding, but it was of no use. He could never refuse puppy dog eyes. He sighed again. "Would you at least try to listen to my instructions? I have other projects as you may well be aware."
What had made him agree to teach her? Ahem, maybe that highly unusual coppery fire that flittered about her form? It was reduced to a steady shimmer already. He had to admit that she worked hard at controlling her magic. Something that was not always easy. Wild magic was not named "wild" for fancy. Maybe it would be easier if she did not think of "controlling" but more of "guiding" it? That would be worth a try, he would ponder the question later. Now he had a student to teach. A student that was at this very moment occupied by having a conversation with a sparrow. A female, if his ornithological knowledge was accurate.
"I hope she has interesting news." He commented dryly and sighed again. His student was not about to let herself be disturbed by her teacher.
"The pickings are richer than last year and the stable yard families have more chicks. A delegation of them is moving into the courtyard behind the pages wing." She said absentmindly. He was fascinated. "How does she know about the principle of Erin of Hollyrose?"
"What?" Daine seemed confused. She looked up.
"The principle of Erin of Hollyrose explains in essential the connection between more food and more offspring, oh student of mine. Erin of Hollyrose lived about three hundred years ago and is regarded as one of the founders of modern biology. His younger son Darwin of Hollyrose followed in his footsteps and described the principle of strength. Which can be summarized as the victory of the strongest. Some scholars argued against his theorem of evolution and called it blasphemy."
"What?" now his student looked really confused. There was a big question in her eyes.
Numair sighed. Working really hard, he reminded himself. "Never mind. I will give you his book for your studies. Now, I think we should end our study time for the day…"
Daine had leaped up from her chair and was out of the door, before he was even able to finish the sentence.
"This child makes me feel old." He mumbled and turned to one of his bookshelves. "Now where might I have placed you?" he said and began his search for "The evolution of nature" by Darwin of Hollyrose.
Later that day Numair made a couple of really disturbing discoveries. The first was not very bad, just unsettling, and explained in part the late lack of concentration in his student.
He had overheard a whispered discussion between his student and one of her rider-friends, Mia or Myrra or else. Not that he had meant to spy on them, it was kind of a magical experiment gone awry. Now the disturbing part of this was not the failure of his experiment, if you could call it that, since it was a rather interesting outcome of the… never mind, back to topic, the disturbing thing was the content of said discussion. It was centred on some new rider trainee, who was obviously a very handsome young man. Numair shuddered to even repeat the exact words, the girls had used to describe his advantages. Even if it was only in his thoughts. He sighed. Obviously his magelet had a crush. He had heard somewhere that this was quite usual for a teenage girl. Nevertheless it could produce some problems. There where enough young man who would take advantage of an innocent young girl. Especially a girl who had no family to protect her virtue. He should know firsthand. Not that he was proud about knowing first hand...
Well, Daine had a crush. Part one of his problems. The other part, was really much worse … and complicated the whole situation. During the same experiment he had overheard another conversation. Which was between a group of young men. He had not recognized any voices, but from the content of the discussion he was sure about two things. Firstly, they were riders, or trainees, and secondly they were discussing the female advantages of his student! Not only that she had a sudden interest in the other sex, no, that other sex was definitely interested in her, too. Big trouble. Maybe he should talk to someone about that…
That was when the third of his disturbing discoveries hit him. Not only that horse mistress Onua, one of his closest friends, laughed about his discoveries, no, she suggested that he should give Daine "the talk". Of course he had sought other opinions on this matter. But everyone gave the same advice. Since he was her teacher and had some responsibility over her, he should be the one to give her the talk. After he had exhausted every source he went back to Onua. He tried to convince her that "the talk" should come from another woman, but his supposed friend had only accused him of shirking his responsibilities. With friends like that, who needed enemies?
Some days later Numair still tried to convince Onua, who was only becoming more stubborn and perverse. He was storming out of the barn after accusing her to be as thick headed as her charges, when he heard Daines voice.
"Perin, I really like you, but…" her speech was suddenly interrupted. Curious, Numair turned around the barn to find a man, who he identified as one of the palace clerks, in the act of kissing Daine. Who seemed to be not really passionately involved, but at least not adverse to the concept of being kissed. He had enough experience himself to tell the difference. Be that as it may, the situation made it obvious, that Daine desperately needed the talk. Since she seemed in no apparent distress, he waited a moment before loudly clearing his throat. He found himself to be slightly angered at the sight of the couple, but could not really discern why that was. Perhaps he was angry at himself for neglecting his duty to his student. He repeated the throat-clearing a bit louder and finally caught their attention. Both looked up and, on finding that they had an audience, separated quickly. Daine blushed crimson. The clerk, Perin, as Numair recalled, paled visibly.
"Daine, might I have a word? Now?" Numair asked as politly as possible and turned to walk to his study. Daine followed suit, leaving the clerk standing without a word.
"What was that about?" Daine asked curtly, after closing his door with rather more force than necessary. Numair sighed. During the walk to his study he had tried to find the right words for the now unavoidable talk. But somehow his wit had failed him. There was no way to do this without humiliation on both sides. Time to get it over with.
"Daine, please take a seat." He said softly.
"I don't want to take a seat. I want to know, what that was about. It was so… humiliating. And absolutely uncalled for. Perin was only kissing me." Daine was obviously angry.
"That is why I wanted to talk to you." Numair said, heat was creeping up on his face.
"What? Perin? Or the kiss?" Daine spit out.
"Well…" he stopped and cleared his throat, "you have now reached an age, when the other sex gets interesting." Now he had begun, and it seemed a rather good start. Formulate it like another lesson, he thought and proceeded with a firmer voice.
"Kissing is only the beginning. There are other activities that could follow from kissing, which you should be aware of." Daine was staring at him with incredulity written all over her face. He continued quickly.
"When a man and a woman… how shall I put this." He blushed again. This was even more difficult than he had thought. Daine burst out laughing.
"I fail to see where the humour in this situation lies." Numair said indignantly. Daine giggled.
"Are you trying to give me the talk?" she managed to say between gasps.
"Well, yes." Numair admitted. "Someone has too."
"Numair, I am the daughter of a midwife. The bastard daughter of a midwife. Don't you think I'd know by now where babies come from?" She said, trying her best to not laugh again.
Put like this, it was a rather stupid thought, but who could have known for sure?
"And how should I have been sure of that?" he asked stiffly.
Daine sighed. "I thank you for your concern, but really this is unnecessary and only embarrassing for both of us. I have known about pregnancy charms and their use for nearly ten years now. Not that I think I'd need one, at this point. I know from first hand how life is for a bastard. I will not go around creating one."
"Please let me tell you that passion is able to overcome reason. When two lovers are swept away…" Numair tried to caution her.
"I don't even have a lover at this point, so there is no way I will be swept away from passion. And from what I know about canoodling at this point? It's not really worth it." She told him with emphasis.
"I hope someday you find someone who shows you the pleasure of canoodling, as you put it so charmingly. Wait, let me amend that, I hope it's far away in the future. Now let's please change topic. This is way too uncomfortable for my liking. Did you read that book I lend you? About Darwin's theorem?"
Years later Numair found himself wishing desperately that he could be the one to show Daine the pleasures of canoodling.
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