THANKS FOR ALL THE REVIEWS AND STORIES GUYS! I HAD SO MUCH FUN READING THEM, VERY INSPIRATIONAL ;) THIS CHAPTER IS MOSTLY VALEK AND CHIARA, I HOPE YOU FIND IT AS AMUSING AS I DID. ENJOY:
Disclaimer: Chiara would be a happy baby if I was making money off this.
In the couple of days that passes, twenty of Valek's soldiers fell ill with the flu. Twice as many of Cai's soldiers became sick as well. While Cai's soldiers magically healed themselves, however, Valek's were stuck in the infirmary. And guess who decided to join them? None other than Ayden. And Cai, being the fool he was, refused to heal his son using magic.
"I think you've been hit on the head one to many times with a sword." Valek offered to Cai when he came to visit Ayden in the infirmary.
Cai gave Valek an annoyed look as he placed a wet towel on his son's forehead. "Didn't your parents teach you to keep your mouth shut if you don't have anything important to say?"
Valek snorted. "No, everything I say is crucial to survival. Tell me again why you refuse to heal Ayden."
Cai chucked a used rag at Valek's face. "It's because the prolonged use of magic leads to resistance. For example, if someone is gradually given small doses of poison, over time, their body will become immune to it. A similar thing happens with magic. A person may not become entirely immune, but it will gradually take more and more magic to heal them. This is my current problem. I was injured and healed so much as a child that it now takes twice the amount of magic to seal a cut. Ayden gets hurt a lot too. I'd rather his body learns to heal itself and hopefully he gets a little common sense in the meantime so we can save the magic for the big stuff." He drew his hands away from his son quickly as Ayden rolled over and puked in a bucket next to the bed.
Valek wrinkled his nose at the smell and let the topic go. "Where's Chiara?"
"Oh, I met this really nice lady who offered to take care of her. She's the castle seamstress, I believe. She's a fate-send, I swear." Cai helped Ayden rinse out his mouth.
"You just handed off your daughter to someone you didn't know? What if she was a child killer?" Valek asked incredulously.
"Then Vivian and I would just have to have more children." Cai said blithely. "Besides, if she was a child killer, I doubt she'd be working for the Commander. He usually has better judgment when it comes to picking employees." He paused for a bit before continuing. "On the other hand, he does allow you to work for him...so...you never know." He shrugged and grinned.
Valek tossed the rag back at Cai's head. "Why Vivian thought you were mature enough for children is beyond me." He turned and walked away, wondering how Cai could be so carefree. Valek felt such a sense of responsibility when it came to children. He wanted to check on Chiara to make sure she was okay and he didn't even like her.
A few hours later, Valek realized he should be much more careful about what he wished for. He'd wanted to check on Chiara to make sure she was okay, but for some reason, fate thought he wanted to take care of her. Why? Why? Why? Why?
As Valek held Chiara in his arm that was all he could think of: What was he doing here with this child who hated him? And he had to take her to dinner with him too!
As if she had been thinking the same thing, Chiara placed her little hands on Valek's shoulders and glared at him with her icy blue eyes. She grumbled growled something when he glared right back and then squirmed to be put on the ground. Valek happily acquiesced. Though he would never admit it, Chiara scared him slightly.
She smiled triumphantly and strut around his living room as if she owned it. Valek shrugged and went to his desk to do his work. Chiara didn't seem like she needed constant attention. She was pretty content in herself.
Valek was so immersed in his work he didn't notice the unusual silence at first. But then, he felt something tugging at the edge of his consciousness and knew something was wrong. He finished the sentence he was writing and then slowly scanned the room, looking for anything out of place. He took in the haphazardly stacked books, the cushions strewn on the floor, and then his eyes landed on the ripped page of a book and he suddenly remembered there was a child in his suite.
Valek ran through all the rooms, turning his house upside down in an attempt to find Chiara. Everywhere he looked, he could see evidence that she'd been there but he couldn't find her. At last, he found himself in front of his carving room door. He silently opened the door and peeked inside. At first, he didn't see anything out of the ordinary, but once he stepped in and took a few steps to the left, he saw a little hand peeking out behind a table.
He ghosted around, curious as to what Chiara was doing. And when he saw, he nearly died. Chiara sat on the floor, with six statues around her, carefully painting them rainbow colors, and when she got bored of that, she would make designs with black ink and once her masterpiece was complete, she shoved it under another heavy table, effectively breaking the final product. From the debris around her, Valek estimated that Chiara had already destroyed three statues. She did all this with obvious delight and Valek swore that she would never step in his room again, and if she did, he'd have to confiscate all artistic items beforehand.
"Chiara." He growled from behind her, crossing his arms across his chest.
She froze, her paint tip hovering just about a humming bird's beak. Slowly she looked up and observed Valek's expression. Seeing that he probably wouldn't be softened if she cried, Chiara scowled at him back, as if he was the one antagonizing her.
Valek frowned at the audacity of this child. Most people knew to cower in front of him, but not his niece. She was so much like her mother. "I will lock you in a cage. Get out of the room." He said, his voice quiet and hard. He also pointed to the door, knowing that Chiara couldn't understand what he was saying. He didn't mean his threat but he meant to intimidate her with his tone more than anything.
Chiara hesitated, as if she wanted to question his authority, and then decided otherwise. She got up and walked to the door, standing just outside the threshold, watching as Valek cleaned up the room. Valek did a quick sweep, cleaning whatever he could and carried it to the nearest trash can. Chiara followed, looking up at him cautiously.
Glancing outside the window briefly, Valek noted that it was late enough for him to start getting ready for dinner. He led Chiara into the master bedroom and set out her dress, hoping that she could change by herself. She could walk and lift things on her own so Valek figured she'd be able to change also. He grabbed his own things and headed to a different room to change.
When he returned, she was gone again. And the dress was still there, untouched. Valek checked every room again and found Chiara sitting on his chair in the living room, pretending to read a book. She garbled a few letters out loud, giggled, and then took his ink pen and tried to write something, though she couldn't since the cap was still on. Valek observed her for a moment, wondering if there was something wrong with her brain. Surely all children weren't this odd…
Still, Valek had work to do so he gently pried the book away from Chiara and led her back to the master bedroom. He pointed to the clothes and then crossed his arms again, giving her a look. Chiara watched him back curiously and then raised her arms. Valek stared at her stupidly. He didn't think she wanted to be picked up but what else could she mean?
So he picked her up and the two of them exchanged confused looks again. At last, Valek decided that this was going nowhere and he needed to take action. He set Chiara down and tried to unfasten her dress to help her change. As he pulled on the fabric, Chiara raised her arms again and Valek realized that she was trying to help him change her clothes. He shook his head and chuckled slightly before finishing his task.
"Well, that was difficult." He said, after doing all 27 buttons on her little dress.
Chiara garbled something back at him and smiled. Then she raised her little arms and came closer. Valek could tell she wanted to be picked up again, though he had no desire to carry her around. Couldn't she just walk next to him or something? Valek stepped back as Chiara came forward and eventually she backed him into a corner.
"I don't want to hold you. How about you just walk next to me?" He asked and stepped around her, walking out of the room. Chiara ran up and grabbed his leg, clinging to it as he walked. Valek didn't stop, he figured she'd let go on her own eventually. But that time never came as Chiara realized she was small enough to sit on Valek's foot as long as she clung to his shin with both her arms and legs.
Valek looked down at Chiara in awe. She was such an annoying little demon but surprisingly smart. She knew how to be quiet and how to get what she wanted. Still, Valek didn't pick her up because that would mean giving into her demands. Instead, he walked all the way to the Commander's rooms with Chiara sitting and clinging to his leg. He got odd looks as he passed by, but he looked at everyone so stonily no one dared questioning him.
To his great chagrin, many generals were in the room, dining with the Commander when Valek arrived. They tried to hold back their snickers as they saw Chiara but failed. Both Chiara and Valek leveled them all icy glares until they fell silence. Valek smirked; half wishing he could tell Chiara to bite them all.
As dinner started, some of the female generals decided that Chiara would be a good distraction from the monotony of the present conversation and asked Valek if they could talk to her. Valek shrugged and gave them his consent. He had no doubts that Chiara could handle herself if any generals started to annoy her too much.
One young general by the name of General Sweet cooed to Chiara across the room and offered her some tea. Curious, Chiara climbed out of Valek's lap and made her way over, still holding a fork in one hand and a napkin in the other. General Sweet placed the little girl in her lap and gave her the cooled tea. Chiara watched it swish around the cup in delight and then spontaneously stuffed her napkin in the cup, spilling the contents onto herself and General Sweet. She clapped and laughed in delight as the poked her now-stained dress with her fork.
"I'll take her from you." Another General said to General Sweet as she tried to clean her suit.
"Thanks." General Sweet handed over Chiara and went to change. Chiara examined the new general carefully and decided that she didn't like what she saw. She scowled and wiggled her way to the ground and then crawled under the table.
Valek briefly considered checking on her down there but he decided that what he didn't know couldn't hurt him. Still, he crossed his legs under the table so that Chiara wouldn't be able to do anything to him. For a few moments, the conversation flowed and Chiara seemed pretty content to just sit there and mumble to herself, and then all of a sudden, four generals hissed and jerked out of their chair.
Valek sighed and looked under the table to see Chiara grinning at him wickedly, still holding her fork in her hand. "Get out." He said and pointed to the area next to him.
As Chiara crawled out, General Sweet returned and decided that she hadn't had enough of the cute little girl. She strode by and swept Chiara in her arms on her way to her chair. Chaira was stunned for a moment and then became angry. She growled at General Sweet and when the general only laughed, Chiara reached up and bit her nose.
General Sweet jerked back, and nearly dropped Chiara. The other female generals swarmed General Sweet and Chiara, trying to calm the situation. Valek set back in his chair and watched, knowing he'd have to intervene soon, but too amused to take action yet. Chiara slowly made her way through the arms of all the female generals, each enraging her more that the last. Finally, a crying, squirming, screaming Chiara was thrust into Valek's arms to handle.
"Hey there." He said calmly, holding his niece a little away. "It's okay, those old ladies aren't going to bother you anymore." He said soothingly and Chiara silenced for a moment, looking around the room distrustfully. Valek brought her closer, and she buried her face in his neck, slowly relaxing.
The generals all looked at Valek in awe. "How did you calm her down so quickly?" General Sweet asked, rubbing her red nose.
Valek gave a one armed shrug. May be it's because I leave her alone. He thought but outwardly said very little. "She's tired." He said, as if that was an explanation.
As the room slowly returned to its calm atmosphere, Chiara dosed. Sometimes, when one general got too loud, Chiara would wake up, screech and then go back to sleep once the room was silent. Valek found this supremely amusing and found that Chiara wasn't as bad as he'd first thought. She had a way of making him laugh when he was bored.
When he finally returned to his room, he found Cai passed out on his couch. Cai was here to pick up his daughter but clearly the days exhaustion had caught up to him before Valek had. Valek carefully laid a sleeping Chiara on Cai's chest and found the stone bracelet to put on her tiny wrist.
When he was almost done fastening the bracelet, Chiara opened one eye and looked at him blearily, but thankfully didn't make a fuss. Valek gently stroked her cheek and made his way back to his room, more content than he ever thought he would be.
DID YOU LIKE IT? AS ALWAYS, PLEASE LEAVE ME YOUR THOUGHTS, WANTS, AND LOVE. I HAVE A COUSIN WHO IS LIKE CHIARA. HE'S SO FUNNY IT KILLS ME. WHAT DID YOU DO WHEN YOU GOT MAD AS A TODDLER?