Little Red Pixie

Part 2

"May I have some more dried fruit?" asked a fair haired girl thrusting out her hand.

"No, until you eat a sandwich with jerked beef," said Zedd with his mouth full with cheese and bread.

"It's brackish! I don't wanna eat that! I wanna some more fruit!" she pouted looking at the wizard pleadingly.

"Don't look at me like that! You already ate mine, Richard's and Kahlan's portions of dried fruit. You'll have a stomach ache!" growled the old man.

"How about some bread?" Richard offered a piece of scone that began to grow hard.

"It's already hard!" complained the child.

"You have teeth." Richard began to lose his patience because Cara didn't eat anything except dried fruit they offered her.

"What would you like to eat if you were at home?" asked Kahlan curiously.

"A piece of cherry cake with huge cream flowers on it," came the reply.

"So, Zedd. Can you do it out of this bread?" Kahlan looked at the wizard, who breathed deeply finishing chewing his cheese.

"Today I've done enough unnecessary magic without any success. I spelled the clothes of those soldiers which she refused to put on!.."

"They were scruffy and filthy! I can't put on the sweaty reeking clothes of those bastards!" With all her tiny posture Cara showed that she was in a huff.

"What did I tell you about language?!" Kahlan furrowed her brows.

"This is the childish behavior I warned you about. And mark my words it will be worse and worse every day!" Zedd casted an angry look at the Mord'Sith.

"Fine, I'm full. I'll take the first watch." Cara stood up from the rag and was going to leave them to take the best position to guard their small camp when Richard's chuckle stopped her.

"How is a five-year old going to protect three adults from the Imperial soldiers?" asked Richard mockingly. "I won't give you the agiels. Don't even think about them!"

"I throw knives."

Cara had two knives one in each boot. Both of them she borrowed from dead soldiers. Another knife was stuck in the male leather belt, which Zedd shrunk to fit a little girl. She looked ridiculous in an enormous black under vest turned into a light dress by the Mother Confessor. It was girdled with the brown warrior belt with a dagger on the left side and a tiny spelled sword on the right side. Two knives were 'hidden' in high red boots. Cara resembled a child that ran away from some awful fancy-party.

"Really? Show us."

The Seeker stood up, made fifteen steps and stuck the Sword of Truth into the ground.

"Do you see it clearly?" Richard inquired.

"Yes, I do." Cara nodded.

"Well, try to hit the sword-hilt."

The Mord'Sith threw the first knife but it didn't reach the target. Another didn't make it either and only the last dagger stuck two feet from the sword. Two knives and a dagger were on one line but neither of them hit the hilt. Cara looked disappointed. She turned and went away from the camp not carrying much about the weapons she left.

"Cara, come back at once!" She heard Kahlan's voice but was too upset to say anything or go back. "Cara, I mean it!"

Richard picked up his sword and the knives and ran after the Mother Confessor, who was close on Cara's heels. Kahlan took the child by the shoulder and made Cara face her.

"Tell me where are you going?" The Confessor squatted to be at the eye level of the child.

"Let me go! You don't need me! I can't protect anyone! I can't even throw a knife! What's the use of a five-year old? Leave me here!" She shouted too upset of being so miserable.

"Cara, you don't need to guard us all the time. You're like a sister to me. How do you think, if the same happened to me, will you leave me alone in this steppe?" Kahlan tried to drub the idea in this sweet blonde head.

"No, I would protect you as if you were my own child."

"We feel the same, don't we?" She looked up at Richard.

"Yes, we do. I will hate myself if something happens to you." He took her small palm in his. "By the way, you are really good at throwing knives. If I had put the target five feet closer, you'd have hit it without doubt."

"Can I try it again, then?" She asked yawning at the same time.

"No, you've yawned three times in a row by now. It was a long day. It's beddy-bye time," said Kahlan smiling at the girl.

"Don't talk to me like I'm a toddler!" Cara furrowed.

"Of course not, how can I talk to such a grown-up girl like that," Kahlan grinned. Richard also couldn't fight but smile.

In the morning the Seeker woke up from child's screams. Cara rolled on the grass in agony from terrible pain. Richard saw the tip of the agiel poked out from the backpack. Kahlan kneeled near the child to soothe her pain.

"That's enough!" said Richard angrily. "I don't care a child or not but you are punished!" He shouted at the weeping girl.

"Don't shout at her! Don't you see she's in pain!" The Morther Confessor seemed annoyed and worried at the same time.

"Who is responsible for it?!" The Seeker sounded too serious. Kahlan knew this ominous tone. "Cara, tell me when do you start girl's training to become Mord'Siths?"

Cara still shaking from pain was already sitting on Confessor's lap and mopping up tears with two little fists.

"From the age of 9," sniffed the girl.

"Why do you start at this age and not earlier?"

"Otherwise children can't bear pain and die." The child sniffed again.

"Look at me!" He gently touched her chin to make her not avert those blue eyes from his face. "Cara, do you want to die?"

"No, I don't." She whispered avoiding his piercing gaze.

"Then, as Lord Rahl I'll take your agiels until you are grown up enough to have them. If you disobey my order, I'll spank you no matter a Mord'Sith or not. Is it clear?"

"Yes, my Lord," answered the child.

"Wonderful! I said you are punished. So, take water skins and bring water. Two skins at a time."

"Come on! I'll help you." Kahlan put up Cara on her feet and stood up herself.

"No, you won't. It's her job." The Seeker made eye contact with Kahlan, who saw fire burning in his eyes. So, she didn't object his decision.

Instead of going straight to the cave Cara approached Zedd.

"Can you light the torch? I need to take water from the cave." She stared at the cave nervously. Zedd noticed that but did what she asked him.

Cara couldn't shake the feeling of uneasiness while entering the cave. The light of the torch danced on the irregular surface of the walls making them absolutely evil for a little child. Each curve of the wall and each protruding stone threw a freakish shadow. The cave was silent if not for the sound of a tiny dribble of water that run from a crack in the wall two turns down the labyrinth of long, dark corridors. The girl endeavored not to think of the pictures that her mind made of the walls. There she saw a face of the monster looking at her from above. Turning right there was an opened muzzle of the beast ready to bite. She knew it was just the flight of her vivid childish imagination. Nonetheless, she quickened her pace to fulfill the task as soon as possible.

Unfortunately, she was too little to reach any taper holder and couldn't put the torch down because it wouldn't give her enough light. So, with one hand she was holding the torch and with another the water skin, which was very slowly filling in with water. The more she stood waiting for the skin to be full, the faster her heart beat. Goose bumps covered her pale skin when she heard a bat flying high at the ceiling. Unknown primal fear gripped her heart. The only thing Cara wanted very much was to run, to leave the place, to cry for help.

Kahlan noticed a small girl running out of the cave as if a pack of dogs was hunting her. Two big water skins slowed her down a bit hitting against her hips. Suddenly, Cara tripped over a hassock and would have fallen down if she didn't use the torch as a cane for balance. This clumsy movement put the fire out but didn't stop the girl from this crazy race.

"Cara, where are you running so fast?" Richard greeted the panting Mord'Sith.

"I… I… Just wanted to come… faster for two more… skins," she pronounced totally out of breath.

"Thank you. Give these to me," Kahlan took one and then another skin that were hanging in a crisscross manner on Cara's little form. She put two more water skins over girl's head and Zedd held out a lighted torch. "So, one more round, young lady." Kahlan smiled at the girl, who furrowed her brows.

Again the invidious cave. Cara took a deep breath and entered the darkness immediately feeling how hair stands on end of her head. Yesterday she ran after two soldiers of the Imperial Order dangerously and ruthlessly sweeping them away not paying attention to the darkness of the cave or non-ending narrow corridors which now stroke terror into her soul. She quickly approached the dripping and hastily uncorked the skin. The child tried to slow down her breath but the heart rate accelerated ever more. She could hear it in her head bumping in the temples. Strange noise made stretch her hand out towards the dagger on the belt.

"It's very impolite to throw daggers at old men!" reprimanded the wizard stopping the knife in the midair.

Cara heaved a sigh of relief briskly hiding her right hand with the knife behind her back.

"I thought you had to fill in the water skins not to sail them in this puddle," said Zedd picking the fallen skin up from the puddle.

"Sorry, wanted to come to grisp with it when you appeared," replied Cara relieved that somebody was near.

"Afraid of the dark?" He asked putting the skin under the dripping.

"A little," the girl confessed turning red immediately. "Please, don't tell Richard and Kahlan. They will laugh down. I'm so ashamed."

"There is nothing to be ashamed of. You're a vulnerable kid. If somebody told me at the age of five to go into an unknown cave, I would scream for mommy." He smiled reassuringly.

"But I'm not a five year old child. I'm a Mord'Sith."

"Your mind isn't but your body is. All your feelings and senses are coming from this vulnerable form." He touched her chest with his finger. "Were you afraid of the dark as a child?"

Cara nodded admitting those scary nights when she came to her elder sister's bed too frightened to sleep in her own.

"Now everything you were afraid of as a child came back. This is your instinct. You can't fight it. You understand it with your brain, but your body refuses to accept it."

"What should I do?" asked Cara.

"Nothing. No matter how strange it may sound to you, but you have to trust us. You have to rely on us. Enjoy every day of your childhood. Other people don't have this opportunity."

"I'm a Mord'Sith but in this body I feel myself like a bug." She sighed.

"We have to accept our fate, Cara. You have been taking care of us since we met you. Now let us return favour."

The old man corked the skin, stood up and offered Cara his hand. The girl just frowned. Took the water skin from his hand and gave him the torch. Zedd shook his head and followed the blonde girl.

To be continued…