Another chapter for you all, muse was very active today as the weather outside was cold and blah...so snuggled up to the comp to write for the most part. A little cheese cake fanservice later in the chapter...


Left alone once again with her charge, Pen again took the chance to look over Nuada. He was groaning. The predicted hangover full upon him.

"Do you need a basin?" She asked quietly, knowing his bones would rattle at any volume.

He made a sound, which she took for a yes and got him to his feet. The privy was on the other side of the room. He would have snarled her away save she had a grip on his elbow. It was only shear will that kept his stomach quiet until he was on his knees before the privy hole.

Pen watched him try to fight down the bile his empty stomach wished to forcibly eject. It was only moments before she heard him vomit into what ever cesspit served the castle. He stumbled to his feet, only to be met by Pen.

"...You have to eat something, then a bath...."

"Be gone, I can look after my..."

She dragged him toward the table, no doubt he was surprised someone could make him go anywhere. A chair met the backs of his knees.

"Sit..."

The commanding tone surprised him, he sat.

"Now, we'll start with water...since that is all your going to get for drink, that or tea." She kept her voice calm. "It will give your body something to process besides wine."

He made a face and attempted to knock the cup from her hands as it touched his lips.

"Drink......." She said, "It will make your head feel better."

The water was sweet, fresh rain water. How long had it been since he'd stood in the rain and let the pure sweetness wash away his faults.

"...A little food..."

The bred was rich with gains, something he'd forgotten in his war. A human would have called it Limness, but like the bred that humans ate there were several kinds.

"...a little more."

The meat was fresh, near perfection.

"There, come now..."

That hand at his elbow again, pulling him to his feet. A hand guided his to rest upon a slender shoulder...

"Keep your hand to my shoulder, I will guide you." Pen said. "A hot bath will go a long way to warming you up."

"...Who are you, and what gives you the right..."

She tugged him along, despite his protests.

"I forgot you were not sober when I arrived." She said. "I am Pen, his Majesty Jareth summoned me to be your caretaker." She put her hand over his. "...I will be attending to all your basic needs and teaching you to care for yourself, as well as being your guide for now."

He remembered vaguely breaking down some hours ago, an a lullaby he'd not heard since he was a child in the royal nursery.

"You sang for me..." He said, surprised.

Pen let herself smile, "Yes, I did."

"Where did you learn..."

She didn't want to give away that she was human, not while gaining his trust.

"I was raised in a remote enclave, his Majesty thought it best that your caretaker came from outside the underground with few ties to court."

She felt his hand tighten on her shoulder.

"...So you are my keeper."

"No Lord Silverlance, I am not." She said. "I am to care for you, not hold you prisoner." She paused, smelling hot water. "We were expected, a bath has already been drawn for you..."

she guided him over to the tub, turning to strip him down so she could get him into it.

He near protested when she began tugging at his pants, thinking she was taking "Basic needs" a bit too far. But when she reached up to undo the bandages, he could smell the water scented with herbs. The silk fell from his hips, revealing him to her near clinical gaze. Under any other circumstance she would have appreciated the sight of a naked male, but was drawn in horror at what had been done to him.

His eyes had been cut out, and the resulting wounds burned closed, the lids sealed to cover the empty sockets. He raised his hand to touch the wounds, still raw after nearly six months. The other healers had not let him touch his face in all that time.

"...I...am." He said, his hand pulling away.

"Yes, blind." She said softly. "I will re-bandage the wounds when we are finished."

He near fell to his knees again, she moved forward to catch him.

"...What have they done to me..." He gasped as if struck by a blow.

She didn't now how to answer him as she guided him into the tub.

"Let the water wash away your doubts...sit..."

The warmth of the water sank into him, giving pain to the many scratches and wounds upon his skin. He let out a hiss of pain.

She soaped a sponge, grabbed his arm and began scrubbing. He let out several explicative when she scrubbed over fresh scratches and the cuts upon his skin. She ignored them to get them cleaned properly. Not that the healers had done a bad job, they had done their best with an uncooperative patient. She got him to stand, as she gave only a passing notice to his anatomy when the sponge skimmed over it. She raised her head to get him to sit again and came face to face with said anatomy; showing its appreciation for even her glancing touch. She let out a soft gasp.

"...Please sit and tilt your head back." She said, fighting down the blush heating her skin.

He sat, as her hands touched his head.

The water flowing over his hair was warm and smelled of the same herbs as the bath water. Her fingers in his scalp, freeing the matted strands from the long neglect. He let out a sigh, it had been very long since anyone but himself had attended to such a task. She had began singing, a tune he'd never heard before.

"Gather round me ones I love/I can feel your presence here...You are in the falling leaves/you are in the ground below/I remember who you are/call your name and let you go..."

It was one of the songs she had chosen to sing at the enclave before her contract had been drawn up. It helped her focus, and quiet appropriate for the time of year "above".

"...what song is that..."

She paused, not realizing she'd sung a human tune.

"Its called "Gather round" one of the songs I've exchanged with a singer who sings for humans." She said, rinsing his hair. "Its meant to be sung in remembrance of the dead, and as a round...but I sing it solo. Now stand up so I can get you out an dry you off..."

He placed a hand on her shoulder as he stepped out, a towel was warped around his hips. She wasn't going to parade him around the room naked.

She guided him to a chair and had him sit as she worked a towel through his hair. He had shown no reaction to her mention of learning from humans, though she could feel his disgust that such "elvish" talent would be wasted in such an exchange. She began braiding the long strands, better to fasten a clean bandage around his eyes. The wounds looked a bit better, less red. She was gentle as she retied the bandage around his eyes. His hand brushed hers.

"Yes..." She said softly.

"Do not leave me to myself..."

She was surprised, as she had no intention of leaving him alone in such a fragile state. He may have been lucid for this short time, but there was no guarantee he'd stay that way.

"I intend to make my bed near the fire.." She said.

"...I would that you be closer..."

"Surely you don't intend to invite me, a stranger into your bed."

His mouth worked, but no answer came. She knew he'd not meant it that way, but all too often the fey lords usually equated her with a whore as their perceptions of humans were hollow, lusting creatures. She had been grateful for her lost love's insistence on learning to defend herself.

"If you wish to be held, I can provide that..."

His hand touched hers, trembling.

"You beneath, I above..." She said.

He let out a soft sound.

She got him to his feet, wishing she had something to put him in to lessen the embarrassment that was to come in the morning.

She led him back to the table, feeding him a bit more food before she brought him to the bed and got him to lay down. She sang, this time a tune from the lost city of Lothlorin, Tolkien had spoke true of the old elvish cities from the first ages of man. He drifted to sleep, breathing softly. She stepped back from the bed, turning her attention to what was left of the food. She would fill her own belly before joining Nuada in sleep.

She remembered why they said that once mortals tasted Fey food they would never leave Elf land, the food was untainted by man's insistence on the dominance of the soil. It still had a life that it shared with the one who consumed it. She looked out the recently repaired window, and thought she could hear a faint cry of anguish from somewhere in the Maze.

"...So another fails," She said. "I hope the child finds peace among his new family..."

She stripped to tunic and trousers, leaving her riding skirt and boots by the hearth, taking up her cloak to use as a blanket.

She gently climbed in to the bed from the foot as not to disturb Nuada. Much to her surprise, he turned to his side so she could lay against his back. She moved closer and as he requested held him, humming a soft lullaby. It did not take long for him to drift back to sleep, perhaps secure he was not alone. She closed her own eyes and soon drifted down into sleep.

Some time in the middle of the night...

Pen woke with a start, the dream she'd been having caused her to wake with a start. She turned to look at Nuada, he was still on his side softly breathing in his sleep. She breathed a soft sigh of relief. The dream had been disturbing as it had been erotic. She had dreamed of a warm weight upon her, naked milk white skin and silver hair with sun kissed tips. She knew that could describe most male elves of Bathmora. What had made the dream disturbing was other hands guiding her to touch, molding them to the milk white flesh to memorize the musculature as that body slid into hers. She closed her eyes as the words that awakened her echoed.

"...The mother has given him to you, he is yours...for he is the first...and he shall be the last."

She had heard them once before, upon a bed in an enclave room where she'd given her virginity to a male the elders had chosen for the task. She had been too stated to understand the the words of sacred marriage spoken over them.

It was strange to remember that rite now, as she lay above the blankets of a man's bed. She quietly rose, going to the window and out into the small balcony. The night air cooled what ever sweat that clung to her skin. This was the first time she had dreamed of such things since leaving the enclave. She had to admit Nuada was attractive, most elven males were having grown up with more than she could shake a long bow at. She leaned upon the railing, her eyes tightly shut as the memories came.

She could keep them at bay while she sang, but the dream and waking beside Nuada triggered the memories of abandonment, the revelation of what her beloved was and him disappearing with their child. She fell to her knees, her arms wrapped around herself. She silently shook with her tears, it had been as parts of her had been torn away when she'd been left bereft of both the man she had come to love and the child she had desperately wanted. After a short time, a red tailed hawk came to perch upon the rail, watching her shaking with grief she couldn't voice lest she wake her charge After a few moments, it departed crying out its own sorrow into the night.


The song Pen sings "Gather Round" Is by Bare bones ensamble off their albam "songs from the bone yard.