Abhorsen's Training
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Disclaimer: I do not own Naruto or Garth Nix's Abhorsen Trilogy in any way, shape, or form.
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Chapter 2: Meetings in the Study
Dinner was an almost totally silent affair that night. It was usually quiet, but it was more… companionable. And if Mogget showed up, it got hectic.
Sabriel looked up from her plate now and then to watch the three boys. Sasuke ate in cold silence. Neji was even colder, though every now and then stabbing a bite of steak as if it had done him a deep personal wrong. Both of them were thoroughly ignoring her, though she suspected that they were more aware of her than they let on. They were ignoring Naruto even more thoroughly.
Sabriel finished first, which surprised her. Didn't boys eat faster than girls? "When you are done, leave your dishes. The sendings seem to enjoy attacking dirty dishes on the spot," she said to the air. She turned to leave, picking up her bell-bandolier from where it was hanging on the back of her chair.
"Where are you going?" Sasuke asked.
She stopped, surprised. "To study."
"But… you're the Abhorsen!" Naruto burst out.
"So?" Sabriel asked.
"Why do you need to study?" Naruto asked.
"To learn," Sabriel said, slightly puzzled by Naruto's shock.
"But… but don't you know all kinds of stuff?" Naruto asked.
"Yes," Sabriel said slowly. "But most of it I learned after I found my father, bound Kerrigor, and put your father on the throne."
Naruto looked dumbstruck.
"I was raised in Ancelstierre, Naruto," Sabriel said patiently. "I've been studying every night whenever I'm here."
"Oh," Naruto said lamely.
"It's the only way to gain knowledge," Sabriel reminded him.
"Yeah."
"Besides, your lessons start tomorrow. Enjoy your free time," Sabriel said to all three boys as she walked out of the dining hall.
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Sabriel set the bell-bandolier on the dragon desk. She walked slowly around the circular room, looking for a book from which she had not yet studied. She finally selected one of Charter Magic.
She set it on the desk next to the bell-bandolier.
"Is that really what you want to study?" Mogget asked.
"No," Sabriel sighed. "How was your nap?"
Mogget gave the equivalent of a shrug. "Not bad."
Sabriel fingered the spines of the books on still on the shelves, then selected one at random. It detailed the ways that the bells could be used.
"That's more helpful," Mogget said, licking one paw.
"Why?" Sabriel asked, though she thought she knew the answer.
"You're going to have to teach them, you know."
Sabriel sighed again. She had been right. She set the book on top of the book of Charter symbols and then went over to the glass cabinet, resigned. She unlocked the cabinet and took out The Book of the Dead.
She walked back to the desk, setting The Book of the Dead on the table next to the book regarding the bells. She sat down to study.
After almost an hour of reading out of the book on the bells, occasionally checking some fact against The Book of the Dead, there was a knock on the door. Mogget, who had been dozing on one of the ladder steps, mumbled something that sounded like, "Of course, he'll show up…"
"What, Mogget?" Sabriel asked absently, getting up to open the door. Her mind was still on the bells.
She opened the door, startled to see Sasuke standing there. "Yes?"
Sasuke looked uncomfortable. "Um, could I come in?"
"Okay."
He walked into the room, his eyes alighting on the open books on the desk. "You weren't lying," he muttered.
"No."
Sabriel noted that Mogget had vanished from his step. Sasuke walked uneasily around the circular room. His eyes flickered to the spiral staircase more than once.
"It leads to the observatory," she said in answer to his unasked question.
"Right," he said, looking away.
Sabriel was starting to get uncomfortable. "Is there something you wanted?"
"To become an Abhorsen," he mumbled, examining his feet.
"I can't guarantee anything," Sabriel said carefully. "But I can try teaching you."
"Okay."
He walked out of the study.
Sabriel watched him go, her brain whirling with questions. "I wonder if that was his real reason…" The brief history that she had gotten from Rechad about the Uchiha massacre fluttered at the edge of her thoughts. "There is much more to him than meets the eye," she thought.
"Are you just going to stand there and stare all night?" Mogget asked grumpily.
"What?"
Mogget opened his pink mouth, but before he could say anything, Sabriel walked back to the desk. She sat down, but she no longer wanted to study.
She turned a page of the book on the bells half-heartedly. She knew that she should study, but she just couldn't bring herself to do it. She was startled out of her confused mess of thoughts by another knock on the door.
"Well," Mogget said, "this is interesting."
"Mogget!" Sabriel snapped.
"What?" he asked innocently.
He hopped lightly off of his step, and walked over the desk. Leaping gracefully to its top, he curled up on the corner, his back on The Book of the Dead. She glared at him, before going to let in her "guest".
"Neji?" she asked, surprised.
He looked her in the eye. "What?"
"You and Mogget," she muttered under her breath. When Neji's eyes narrowed, she rolled her own at him. "You two are going to have to get along."
"That doesn't mean he has to like it," Mogget pointed out.
"Mogget, I suggest you keep your mouth shut," Sabriel advised.
"Whatever you say, Abhorsen," Mogget said, yawning.
"Oh, just ignore him, Neji!" Sabriel snapped, as Neji reached unconsciously for a kunai knife. "Besides, I doubt one of those could kill him."
"You're right," Mogget said.
"Mogget –!" Sabriel cut herself off, conscious of the fact that she must look very childish snapping at him. Besides, that was Mogget's job.
She sighed, trying to be patient. "Well, what do you want?"
He brushed past her, into the study. "I want to learn," he said quietly, staring at the books opposite him.
"I will do my best to teach," Sabriel said slowly, with even more care than she had with Sasuke.
Something in her manner must have alerted Neji. "Uchiha was here, wasn't he?"
"Yes," Sabriel said, trying to control new annoyance.
He didn't respond to the barely concealed annoyance in her voice. Ignoring Mogget very thoroughly, he walked around the room, studying the many books with his white eyes. When he again reached his starting point, he brushed past Sabriel, still standing by the door, without a word. He left in silence.
Sabriel watched him go, equally silent.
She turned back to her books, lost in thought.
"Abhorsen?" Mogget asked quietly.
"Yes?"
"Never mind," Mogget said uncharacteristically.
"Then I'm going to bed," Sabriel said. "Good night, Mogget."