Wow, it has been a long time! I've let life get away with me, as usual. This chapter is really, really short. It was much longer and contained conversation and all that between Gilbert and Serra, but I thought it was rambling along, and not getting anywhere. So the ending is kind of left hanging there, for you to decide whether it ends happily or not.
Oh, and you should go and read Chapter 6 of my story Mindstream, as it contains the middle bit to this story, when Gilbert is with Elspeth.


Chapter Two - Stitch Me Up

"Deki, you leave your brother alone right this instant, or you can forget about going to the moonfair!" Serra threatened loudly. The infant just gurgled happily and hit his unamused twin with the carved wooden horse once more.

She sighed. What could she do? No matter how hard she worked, nothing seemed to happen the way she wanted. She had thought once Gilbert had left she would have some peace. A reprieve from the constant feeling of incompetence he forced upon her.

And yet here she was, many moons later, on the verge of tears. On the verge of falling apart.

The pressure of raising the boys by herself, without the security of having Gilbert there as a theoretical backup, at least financially, was proving difficult. And was not helped by the antics of her mischievous little boys.

"Mama?" A small voice inquired. Serra looked down to see her two red-haired sons peering at her angelically from the floor.

Suddenly she couldn't hold back the tears. Those faces, framed by hair the exact shade of Gilbert's, symbolised everything she was striving to protect. But she wasn't so sure she could manage it on her own any more. Tears ran freely down her cheeks, obscuring her vision as she tried to gather the boys into her arms.

No matter how bad things got, she would never let her children go. And she would never fall apart. She might fray at the seams a little, but she would keep stitching those holes back up until she was safe. Until they were all safe. She took a deep, shuddering breath. "Come, my darling boys, time you were in bed."

She was trying to convince Deki to stay in his bed for more than a moment when she heard a rattling from the front of the cottage. Recognising it as an attempt to open to door from the outside, she scooped up a larger version of Deki's wooden weapon of choice from before and moved stealthily down the hall, closing the door to the boys' room on her way out.

As she neared the door, gripping the wooden horse tightly in her hand, she tried to remember if she had closed the latch. She usually did, as a defenceless woman leaving her doors open at night was asking for trouble, but the terrifying possibility that she had forgotten was freezing the blood in her veins.

The door started to open, and Serra could hear the footsteps of the intruder covering the threshold. Closing her eyes and sending a prayer to Lud, she swung the wooden horse with all the strength she could muster.

"Ow! Serra! What in the name of -" the intruder reeled backwards clutching his head.

"Gilbert? What are you doing here?"


I really hope you enjoyed it, please let me know what you thought!