Nights is a collection of short one-shots about Kel and Dom as their relationship transforms from friendship into something more. I chose to write about the nights that they end spending together, so there is no real focus on the events during the day. Each chapter starts with a short paragraph from the perspective of an all-seeing narrator before switching to either Kel or Dom. And it ends with a paragraph from the narrator also. I know it's an odd style. But oh well. It's mostly a test to to see if I can write romance with any skill. I'm not sure if I've succeeded. And I'm not sure how many chapters this end up having. But I hope you enjoy it! Please let me know what you think.
Layla
Stormy Weather
The first night they spent alone together had nothing to do with romance and everything to do with survival. Shortly after the conclusion of festivities of Raoul's wedding at Steadfast, Third Company was stationed at New Hope to help secure the newly rebuilt forts and towns of the region for the coming winter months. The squads of Third Company cycled through New Hope, Mastiff, Giantkiller, Goatstrack, Riversedge, even going as far north and east as Anak's Eyrie and Northtwatch, to bring news between stations, ensure the safety of the northern roads, and shift supplies to troubled communities. That they based out of New Hope was Lord Raoul's decision, not that Kel or Dom were complaining.
It was late November when Dom's and Aiden's squads returned to New Hope after making their first circuit of the winter. As always the men of the Own added their names to the duty rosters, helping the town's people out in any way required. It was originally Wolset who was to go on patrol with the Lady Knight on the first day of December, but the ride from Steadfast to Mastiff had given the corporal a rather nasty head cold, and he hadn't shaken it by the time the group reached New Hope almost three weeks later. Concerned that sending the ailing corporal out into the chilly weather again after another healing would have more lasting results, Dom said that he would take the duty. In Dom's defense, he didn't learn that he would be riding with Kel until after he'd agreed, not that he was complaining.
The day started crisp and clear, with a sharp chill in the air that reminded everyone that true winter was just around the corner. Riding out shortly after the noon bells, Kel and Dom took the wandering path through the lightly snow covered roads, taking the opportunity catch up with each other as they patrolled.
Kel's laughter rang out, cutting the quiet forest calm. "She left Aiden standing there without his clothes?"
Dom's blue eyes twinkled with wicked merriment. "Without a stitch. He had to go apologize the following morning, in front of everyone, to get his clothes back." He had spent the past hour regaling Kel with the rather humorous romantic exploits of his and Aiden's squads. "If anyone so much as mentions his stirring apology, Aiden tries to crawl under the nearest rock. The lady was so loud when she tossed him out of her rooms that the entire town of Riversedge turned out the next morning to watch him grovel for his clothes," Dom drawled, enjoying the story as much as he enjoyed making Kel laugh. Getting the ever serious and focused Lady Knight to relax had been a favorite pastime of his since she rode as Lord Raoul's squire.
"And I'm sure you boys make sure to spare Aiden his embarrassment whenever possible," Kel snorted, knowing that the men of the Own took great pleasure in tormenting one another over stories such as this one.
Dom's innocent look earned him another laugh. "Why, Mother, we would never do anything to make Sergeant Aiden even the slightest bit uncomfortable." Even he couldn't keep a straight face at that statement, and laughed easily.
"Speaking of uncomfortable, have you heard how Neal…" Kel was interrupted by the anxious twittering of her sparrows returning from their own patrols. With a quick glance at each other, Kel and Dom rode
swiftly after the sparrows, dodging trees and bushes until they rode onto the open path of the northern road along the Greenwoods River.
Up ahead a merchant cart was sprawled in the middle of the path, the rear axle broken. Orphel and his family had left New Hope around midmorning, on their way to Anak's Eyrie for the winter months. Apparently, the family had made it less than ten miles before their cart had broken down. Relieved that the situation didn't involve any bandits, raiders, or immortals, Kel and Dom quickly moved to help the family change the axle.
By the time Orphel and his family returned to their journey, evening was approaching, and Kel and Dom had several more miles to ride to complete their patrol circuit. With a friendly wave to the family, they remounted, and rode northwest, hoping to complete their patrol before anyone at New Hope became too worried. Knowing that Neal would worry anyway, Kel sent two of her sparrows back, to hopefully reassure the town that it's commander and the missing King's Own Sergeant were fine.
They made good progress until they came upon the remains of a Spidren web. Although they looked thoroughly through the surrounding area, they found no other sign of the difficult immortal, but would have to warn everyone that at least one was in the area. By the time they returned to the patrol circuit it well past dusk, and the temperature was dropping very quickly. Rather mean looking clouds were billowing up over the mountain at an ominous speed.
Both were feeling a little tired after the work of repairing the broken axle, and the extended and tense search for the spidren left them both wishing for warmth and the safety of New Hope. They were within five miles of the town when the looming storm began dumping snow on them. Although early in the year for a true winter blizzard, the storm left Kel, Dom, and their horses with no option but taking cover until it ended. With the cutting wind whipping violently around them and falling snow so thick that they couldn't see more than a foot in front of them, both Kel and Dom were grateful for the shallow cave they found cut into the mountainside. It wasn't as open or as deep as either would have liked, but it would at least keep them, Hoshi, and Dom's horse, Winddancer, out of the worst of the elements.
Working quickly and efficiently, the two humans unsaddled the horses and brushed them down. They built a small fire with what little dry wood they could scavenge, putting some aside in case it became necessary. As the temperature continued to drop, both worriedly watched the storm. In little over an hour, the storm had dropped two feet of snow on the forest floor and showed no signs of stopping. The weak fire they had going was smokey and threatened to die out whenever the wind whipped through the opening of the cave.
Kel sat quietly beside Dom on the far side of the fire; the two were backed up against Hoshi and Winddancer, sharing body heat with the two horses and each other. Even with the left side of Kel's body touching the right side of Dom's under their doubled up horse blankets both were shivering from the cold. At first their conversation focused mostly on the storm, food, and the possible presence of spidren, but as the cold and physical tiredness began to take its hold on them, both Kel and Dom had to work to keep their eyes open.
When Kel startled awake to realize that her head had just dropped onto Dom's shoulder, she decided that something had to be done to keep them conscious before they both froze to death in their sleep. "We can't fall asleep," she stated evenly.
Seeing as opportunity to tease her, Dom replied, "Really, Lady Knight? Then you weren't just using me as a pillow, but rather stretching a stiff neck?" He's customary drawl was somewhat garbled due to the chattering of his teeth.
Hoping that the weak fire light and windburn, hid the blush on her checks, she said solemnly, "Neck muscles are known to stiffen in cold weather." It earned her a quiet laugh. "But seriously, Dom, we can't fall asleep." Grasping for something to focus on Kel remembered the story she had started to tell Dom before they were waylaid by Orphel and his family. "I never finished telling you about Neal and the spice power mix up."
Dom gave her a game smile. "I am always willing to be entertained by stories of my meathead cousin."
Despite the weak fire Kel's eyes and smile were easy to see. "We received a shipment of healing herbs and other necessities from Corus a few weeks ago. They caravan with the healing herbs met up with a caravan of Gallan merchants on the road. They did some trading among themselves before they arrived at New Hope. Somehow during the trading, they got a bag of anti-itching powder mixed up with a rather spicy herbal seasoning powder." Kel started to chuckle. "They day the carts arrived, Neal and I pulled Meech, Loey, and several of the younger children out of an ivy bush. Neal used the last of our powder on the children. He was itching so badly by the time the wagon pulled in that he found what he thought was the anti-itching powder and covered himself with it."
Sitting so close to one another, Kel could feel Dom's laugh before she heard it. "The spicy herb made his initial rash even worse. He couldn't sit still for two days." It took several moments for the two to stop laughing.
"Ahh, the Meathead. He's such a wonderful source of amusement," Dom said, still grinning. He began to tell her a story about one of Aiden's men and his encounter with a snake. Focusing on the silly stories they told, their teeth chattering laughter continued until well after midnight. Eventually, though, even laughing couldn't stop the drooping of eyelids.
After a lull in the conversation that lasted several long minutes, Kel stood to place a large branch into the smokey, and mostly ineffectual fire. When she returned to the blankey-fort, as Dom had called it earlier, she was shaking from the cold.
Without really thinking about it, Dom reached over and wrapped his right arm around her shoulders, pulling her closely against his side to warm her. "We have a few hours left until dawn, but at least the snow looks like it's slowing."
Fighting to keep her eyes open, and to keep from blushing, Kel nodded. "Hopefully it will have stopped by morning and we can make it back to New Ho-o-ope." She ended on a huge yawn. "I can't think of any more good stories."
Dom shifted his weight back against the wall of the cave and Winddancer's side. He pulled Kel with him, saying. "A little sleepy there, Protector?" When she snorted softly, he coaxed her head down against his shoulder. "I think your neck is a little stiff. You may stretch it against my shoulder if you wish," he teased.
That earned him a laugh, but she didn't resist when he settled her against him, silently reminding herself that she would not get any ideas from this. He was just trying to keep them both warm, not that she was complaining.
With her head half resting on his shoulder and half against his chest, Dom said softly. "Tell me about the Yamani courts. What was it like growing up there?"
Forcing herself to think in spite of the cold and sleepiness, Kel told him about the formal rules of the emperor's court, about her favorite formal tea ceremony, and about Nariko, the emperor's training master.
"You must have surprised everyone during page training with your Yamani fighting style; I remember Neal's letters saying that you almost threw one of your instructors on the first day. You certainly surprised most of us when you were a squire," Dom said.
Kel rolled her eyes, although Dom couldn't see it. "You mean I kept getting in trouble for my Yamani fighting style," she said dryly. "The first day of page training we worked with the Shang Wildcat and the Shang Horse. Hakuin Seastone also trained with Nariko. I didn't mean to try to throw him; it was just habit after all those years of training with her. It was exactly what Anders told me not to do."
"He told you not to throw the Shang Horse?" Dom sounded bewildered.
Kel shifted just enough to look up at him and smirk. "He told me not to do anything to make myself standout more than I already would. Almost throwing Seastone definitely made me stand out. He also used me as a demonstration on how to fall. Seeing that I did even that small thing before they could did not help endear me to the boys that day."
Dom briefly tightened the arm he had around her and rested his head on hers, but only for a moment. "You won them over in the end." He stopped talking long enough to yawn before saying, "It wasn't much later that you and Peachblossom won me a free lunch."
Kel snickered. "Why did you bet on me? I thought I was going come off for a moment there."
Dom shrugged. "You looked determined. And I had great odds," he answered lightly.
Kel rolled her eyes. The men of Own would bet on just about anything. "I was so embarrassed when I realized it Lord Raoul who was watching. I even asked Neal if he could make me disappear."
Dom sounded amused. "You're braver than I am. There's no telling where you would have ended up with the Meathead making the decision."
Kel poked him in the ribs.
With another gigantic yawn, Dom said, "I think it finally stopped snowing. And it's almost dawn."
Kel sighed. "It's going to be rough getting Hoshi and Winddancer back to New Hope with all this snow. I hope everyone else on patrol made it back before the storm hit. "
Dom gave her another quick hug, "Relax, Mother, I'm sure your children are both safe and behaving themselves."
"I might believe that if the men of the King's Own weren't there corrupting them," Kel retorted, before pulling away from him and beginning to saddle up Hoshi.
"Why Lady Knight, I'm wounded. How could you believe that the Own would ever be anything but a good influence on the citizens of your fair town?" Dom grinned at her with tired eyes and he too began to prepare Winddancer.
Kel chose not to dignify that with an answer and simply stuck her tongue out at him.
Dousing the fire with snow, they led the horses out of the cave, and slowly began to pick their way back to the road. It took them nearly four hours to make it back to New Hope. When they finally led the horses through the gate, they were greeted by Neal, Merric, Tobe, and several relieved looking member of the King's Own.
As Tobe took the horses to the stable and Neal fussed over Dom and Kel, a mischievous looking Corporal Wolset called out. "Welcome back, Sergeant Dom. We thought maybe you'd decided to keep the Lady Knight for yourself."
Kel was temporarily grateful for the windburn and cold hiding the color she knew was on her cheeks.
Dom just glared at his corporal, but before he could reply Aiden interjected. "That'd never work. The Lady Knight has better taste than that. She'd beat him bloody and just throw him out."
With a wicked grin Kel answered. "I thought being thrown out was your specialty, Aiden. Perhaps you should be giving lessons on 'How to Apologize at Dawn'."
Over the laughter of the men Kel heard Aiden bellow, "You toldher?" Kel exchanged a glance with Dom before heading to her rooms for a warm bath. His gaze was filled with laughter and something she couldn't quite place. Even if had only been for warmth, no one need ever know that she had spent part of the night with her head on his shoulder and his arms around her. Not that either of them were complaining.
