Alistair wasn't sure what to do with himself. Now that the pup officially belonged to Vaughan, the stable master had assigned one of his own dog boys to care for it. He was still to sleep in the pen with it tonight, but until then he'd given way to one of the boys who'd be caring for it in future. He'd gone from the kennel into the stables, far enough away that the puppy wouldn't see or smell him and be wanting him to come near again. Unfortunately that put him underfoot of the grooms and stable boys, trying to get through the evening mucking out and feeding early enough that they could go watch the entertainment, which was going to be held outside.
After the second time a groom cursed at him for being underfoot, Alistair decided he'd be better off going outside. It would be colder there, but at least he wouldn't be in the way.
The stable yard was all slushy from all the traffic through it earlier that afternoon, when the nobles had gathered to watch Vaughan ride around on his new horse. Alistair didn't think his boots would stay warm for long if he stood around in the sopping wet mix of snow, water and dirt currently overlaying the cobbled yard, so he ducked out the arched entranceway and into the estate grounds. The narrow roadway curving off toward the estate's main gate was also mucky from traffic, but a stretch of smooth snow broken only by a narrow footpath trodden in the snow led off to his right. He wandered that way, following the path, curious to see where it led.
Several minutes of trudging around the grounds brought him out in an area that, judging by the snow-covered fences and leafy lumps and bumps, was a kitchen garden in warmer seasons. It backed onto a small wooded area. He was about to turn away when a dark shape moved over near the forest, and he realized there was a young girl there, kneeling down and doing something in the snow. Curious as to what she was up to, he walked closer.
Delilah looked up at the sound of footsteps crunching through the sodden snow, expecting it to be her nurse again, or one of the other children, but it was no one she'd ever seen before. A boy, a few years younger then herself, with dark blond hair sticking up in all directions. He was roughly dressed and smelled of dog and horse. A stable boy, perhaps.
"Good afternoon," she said composedly, as she carefully made another small snowball and set it on top of a slightly larger one.
"Hello," he said, eyes running over the lines and piles of snowballs, the little snowmen. "What are you doing?" he asked curiously.
"Making a city. These are my snow people."
"Oh," he said, and frowned, looking at it again, turning his head to one side as if that would help it to make more sense to him.
"You can help me," she told him, feeling generous. "Make more snowballs for me to use."
He looked surprised, then smiled shyly. "All right," he agreed, and knelt down in the snow nearby, packing together snowballs and passing them over to her. She finished the line of little snowmen she'd been working on, and then started work on a more ambitious structure then any she'd made yet.
"What's that going to be?" the boy asked, as she carefully worked on making the stacked-snowball walls for it extra-tall.
"Their chantry," she told him calmly.
He nodded, and they continued working in companionable silence.
Vaughan scowled as he went out the servant's entrance and out into the snowy grounds of the estate. He'd wanted to keep his beautiful new clothes on, but Faro had made him take them all off and put things away, saying it was too good to wear to go play outside in the snow in. He wondered where Thomas was – he'd hoped to find him and go exploring again, but he'd seen no sign of the other boy.
Scuffing his feet through the snow he started to circle the estate, wondering where everyone else was. All of them seemed to have disappeared, except for a group of the adults busy talking and drinking in the hall, which seemed to be about all they did. Boring!
He rounded the corner of the manse and stopped, seeing two smaller forms crouched in the snow near the little wooded copse beyond the gardens. He felt his spirits lift. So that's where the two of them had disappeared off to He hurried forward, not quite running, and called out as he drew nearer to them. "Delilah! Thomas!"
Two faces turned to look at him. He came to an abrupt stop, realizing the young boy wasn't who he'd thought it was.
"Good afternoon, Vaughan," Delilah said, and smiled. "Did you like your presents?"
"Yes," he said shortly, and frowned at the blond boy, taking in his rough clothes, wrinkling his nose at the faint reek of stable and kennel that clung to him. "Who is he?" he asked suspiciously.
Delilah shrugged, went back to what she was doing. "I don't know. Who are you, boy?" she asked imperiously.
"Arl Eamon's dog boy," he said, looking nervously back and forth between the two.
Vaughan's eyes narrowed. "Why aren't you in then the kennel then?" he demanded. "Looking after his dogs?"
"He only brought one, and it's your dog now, so I'm not in charge of it any more," the boy explained.
"Oh," Vaughan said, feeling chagrined. He should have realized there wasn't any reason for Arl Eamon to have brought any other dogs, just his puppy. "What are you doing out here?"
"He's making snowballs for me," Delilah said, and looked at the boy. "I'm almost out again," she said pointedly, and he hurried to resume making more.
Vaughan frowned, and looked at the lines and piles of snowballs, the clusters of little snowmen. "What are you doing, anyway?"
"Making a snow city," she said. "These are my snow people, and I am their Arlessa."
Vaughan snorted. "You're not going to be an Arlessa, your brother Nathaniel will be Arl after your father, just like I'll be Arl after mine," he said triumphantly.
"I will be at least an Arlessa, possibly even a Teryna," she responded placidly. "It all depends on who I marry, after all. I could even be a Queen, except my father says Cailan is already promised to Anora. Girls can be anything, if they marry well," she said, and then frowned thoughtfully. "I suppose if I liked him enough, I'd be willing to marry a Bann, but I would have to love him very much, I think, before I would ask my father to agree to that."
Vaughan felt a surge of annoyance. She was right; she might well be an Arlessa some day, even as a younger child. A boy who wasn't his father's heir would have to do something special for that to happen, special enough for his Teryn or the King to reward him with an arling somewhere.
Realizing the dog boy had been witness to his stupidity made him feel even more annoyed. He glared at the younger boy, who didn't even notice, as busy as he was with making snow balls for Delilah. That annoyed him even further – what right did a mere servant have to ignore him? He would be Arl of Denerim some day, while the dog boy would remain a nothing.
He snorted and took a few steps to the side, closer to the edge of the area Delilah had filled with her so-called city. He looked sideways at the two younger children. Neither was paying any attention to him. He scowled, and kicked angrily at the snow. A clod of it flew forward, landing against one of the snowball walls and knocking it slightly out of alignment. He felt a tiny thrill of satisfaction at that, and glanced quickly to see if they'd noticed what he'd just done. They hadn't.
He kicked again, this time purposefully knocking a bigger clot of it at the same wall. It impacted solidly enough to knock part of the wall down. A bigger thrill that time – the first had been an accident, but now he was being bad on purpose. But they still hadn't noticed – Delilah was busy making a bigger-then-average snowperson in the big structure she was working on, the dog boy peering curiously in over the wall at what she was doing as he packed together another snowball for her.
He stepped closer, nudged a snow person over with his foot, then a second, glancing at the two repeatedly, feeling angrier and angrier as they continued to ignore him. He scowled, and kicked viciously at a tall pile of snowballs. They were stacked together loosely enough to mainly break apart into individual balls again, raining down upon and damaging a gratifyingly large patch of Delilah's city. He glanced over, and found the dog boy staring at him, mouth an astonished 'O' of shocked surprise. He grinned triumphantly at the younger boy, and purposefully kicked apart a second pile.
Delilah, looking up for another snowball and finding her assistant didn't have one, turned to see what he was looking so shocked about. She shrieked in angry surprise as she saw the wreck Vaughan was making of her city, then launched herself at him, tackling him and knocking him right off his feet.
Vaughan yelped in surprise – he'd never have expected a girl to attack him like that. He yelped again as one of her flailing fists connected with his cheek. As they struggled her knee dug into his groin, hard enough to hurt. He bellowed in pain and fright and fury, and shoved frantically at her, harder then he'd meant to, rolling her off of him. He rose, drawing back his foot to kick at her, only to be knocked over a second time as a smaller form barrelled into him. The dog boy, he realized, angry that a servant would dare lay hand to him. Delilah wailed unhappily as the two of them struggled and fought, rolling around in the snow and flattening even more of her snow city.
Oswyn looked into the room he and the others had been in before their session in the practise yard earlier. He saw Thomas playing quietly with Habren, while Habren's nurse and a woman Oswyn thought might be Delilah's nurse sat and talked near the fire. Apart from them, the room was empty. He frowned, wondering where everyone was. He turned and started to walk away.
"Oswyn!" a familiar voice called out from behind him.
He turned, and smiled to see Cailan and Nathaniel at the far end of the hallway.
"Nathaniel was about to take me out to the stables to show me his horse," Prince Cailan called cheerfully. "Want to come along?"
"Certainly," Oswyn agreed, and hurried over to join them, feeling pleased and flattered that the prince wanted his company, though he did wonder where Cailan and Nate's usual companions were.
"Anora and Fergus are off listening to all the boring old sticks talk," Cailan remarked, as if in answer to his thought. "Nate and I escaped as soon as we decently could. I'd rather go three rounds with Loghain then spend one hour listening to my father and his friends talking politics," he added, wrinkling his nose in distaste as he led the way to the stables.
They spent a while admiring Nate's horse, a rather fine sorrel gelding, and took a walk around to admire some of the other mounts currently there.
"How about some fresh air?" Nathaniel suggested after a while, nodding toward the doors leading out to the stable yard. "We can take a walk through the grounds before dinner."
Cailan nodded agreement, and the three young men headed outdoors. They set off along a path through the snow, crossing one open space, then turning a corner, and were about halfway across a second section of open ground when they heard a distant shriek.
"That's Delilah!" Nate exclaimed, and started running, the other two quickly following him at speed.
They came to a section where the grounds widened out, snow-covered gardens backing on a forested area. As they raced through the gardens, they could see Delilah sitting in the snow, howling with upset tears as two boys fought nearby. The larger of the two was straddling the smaller, hitting out at him while the smaller was trying to keep his head and face shielded from the rain of blows.
Nate dropped to his knees in the snow beside Delilah, and she flung herself into his arms, crying hysterically. Cailan reached the two boys first, and plucked up the one on top, pinning the arms of the struggling child – Vaughan, Oswyn noticed in passing as he crouched down to check the smaller boy. He had to lift the boy into his lap before he could coax him into lowering his arms so he could see his face. The boy – a stable boy or dog boy judging by clothing and smell – had a dazed expression, a bleeding nose, and a bruise coming up on one cheek, but otherwise seemed fine.
"What happened here?" Cailan demanded loudly. Vaughan stopped his thrashing and went still, looking pale and angry.
The three older boys quickly realized that none of the three children was currently in any state to answer; Delilah was still more then half-hysterical, Vaughan was tongue-tied with anger, and the servant boy was too scared and possibly more then a little stunned.
"Bring them over to the fountain courtyard," Cailan said, and led the way to the nearby flower garden, tucked into a corner of the building. The fountain was dry for the winter, but there were benches they could sit down on. "Do something about that nose bleed," Cailan directed Oswyn as they carried the three children over.
Oswyn nodded. He scooped up a handful of snow after sitting down with the child in his lap, holding it gently but firmly against the boy's nose to absorb and stop the bleeding. Nate sat down beside him, cradling a now much-quieter Delilah in his arms. Cailan lowered the now still and silent Vaughan to his feet and frowned down at him.
"What happened?" he asked again, quietly.
Vaughan scowled, and pointed at the younger boy. "He attacked me! I was only defending myself," he exclaimed angrily.
The look on Cailan's face said pretty eloquently what he thought of defence that involved beating a smaller, already fallen foe, but he still turned and looked questioningly at the boy in Oswyn's lap. "Did you attack Vaughan?" he asked neutrally.
The boy squirmed, pushing away Oswyn's hand. He let the handful of reddened snow drop to the ground.
"I... yes, ser, I attacked him first," the boy said quietly.
"He was defending me!" Delilah exclaimed. "Vaughan and I were fighting, and Vaughan pushed me and was hitting me, and then he attacked Vaughan."
"And why were you and Vaughan fighting?" Nathaniel asked his sister, voice severe.
"He broke my city! I spent ages and ages making it and he was kicking it apart!" she wailed, and started crying again, burying her face against his shoulder.
"Is this true?" Cailan asked Vaughan, frowning at the younger boy.
Vaughan was looking scared now. He was silent for a long moment, biting his lip, face going pale as his eyes flicked back and forth between the three, then slowly nodded. "Yes, ser," he agreed in a very small voice.
Cailan nodded. "It would have been better if you'd admitted that properly the first time, Vaughan, rather then trying to shift the blame for the fight to the other boy," he chastised him gently, then looked at the others. "I'll take him in and turn him over to his tutor, you two see to the others."
Vaughan went even paler, and followed Cailan away.
Nate frowned after the departing pair. "Hard to believe he's only a year younger then you," he remarked to Oswyn. "Even well before you got your growth you were more mature then that."
Oswyn didn't say anything, not sure how to respond to either the implied compliment to him, or the condemnation of Vaughan's current immaturity.
Nathaniel rose to his feet, Delilah still clinging to him like a limpet. "Come on, pet, let's go find your nurse," he said gently to her. She nodded, face still hidden, arms clasped tightly around his neck as he carried her away.
Oswyn looked at the boy still sitting in his own lap, face still bloody from his nosebleed. "And where do you belong?" he asked him. "Stables?"
"Kennels," the boy corrected him softly. "I'm Arl Eamon's dog boy. I can find my way back myself," he added worriedly.
Oswyn nodded, rising to his feet and setting the boy on the ground. "I'd better come along anyway," he said. "To make sure the stable master knows that you're not due a whipping for having ended up in a fight. It was the proper thing to do, defending a girl from a larger boy," he added approvingly.
The dog boy's face lit up at the praise. "Thank you, ser," he said shyly, and turned to lead the way back to the stables.
