Author's Note: This is my first Legend of the Seeker fic ever. Please be nice!! O:) Thank you to fyd818 and The King's Soldier for the read-throughs and encouragement to post :). Without you two, I probably wouldn't have... ;)

Protection

by: jewel of athos
For my dear twin sister fyd...^_~

~o~O~o~

Cara watched Kahlan and Richard say goodbye, feeling frustrated and impatient. It wasn't as if either of them was dying; they both had tasks, and they had to do them. They had no reason to be making such a big deal over something temporary. It was a good thing that her task was to protect the Seeker; she didn't think that she could handle running around after a lonely, emotional confessor.

It was a different matter entirely to inform the Seeker of this.

"No, Cara, you can't. You need to go with Kahlan and find Zedd, I'll be fine." She frowned, feeling betrayed.

"The sisters of light aren't the only ones who swore to protect you, Richard. I'm coming with you."

"You need to go with Kahlan, Cara. Protect her as if you were me." Well, fine. If he didn't want her around, then she wasn't going to give him the satisfaction of making it easy on him, either.

"I'm glad you're leaving," she lied. "You'd only slow us down, anyways." She turned away before she could see him react. But she couldn't stop her ears.

"I'll miss you too!" he called after her. She rolled her eyes and kept walking. She would not let him see how much he was hurting her, not letting her protect him as she had sworn. Again.What was her purpose if not to protect and serve the lord Rahl?

...To protect Kahlan, apparently. The Mother Confessor. The woman who had wished her dead ever since they had met; even more since she had found out that Cara had killed her sister. The woman who was the exact opposite of everything that the Mord-Sith stood for. That was the woman that Richard wanted her to protect.

By protecting her, you're protecting me, too.Richard's voice came into her head; something that he had said to her recently, before Zedd had been captured. Without her...without her, I could never be. If you're protecting her, you're serving me, and you're saving my life.

She didn't like it. In fact, she hated it, body and soul. But the lord Rahl had said it, and by his very nature as the Seeker, he was unable to lie about it. If hauling around with the Mother Confessor for a few weeks while he learned to control his power was going to keep him alive, then she could put up with it. At the very least they'd find the wizard soon, and she wouldn't have to deal with Kahlan alone for very long. And until then...well, it would be interesting to see how long the strength of the Mother Confessor would last without her precious Seeker.

This whole journey could prove to be interesting after all...