Disclaimer: Tin Man is not mine. Although I do own the DVD. It rocks!
The rest of the night was relatively uneventful. The resistance fighters were used to camping and integrating a few more people into the mix didn't seem to be a problem for them. The fact that the Witch was dead may have helped to lift their moods as well. They were very nearly jolly as they had gone about their tasks and had been eager to share their food and fires with her family and friends. They had also hounded them for stories about the last week and while she had smiled politely she had declined to comment on it. She needed some distance from what had happened before she could talk about it, particularly with strangers.
Even the most casual question about the storm that had picked her up had forced her to think about Momster and Popsicle and that hadn't been good. Hiding her thoughts she had tucked into a bowl of stew as Ahamo answered a number of questions about the realm of the unwanted. His time spent there hadn't been unhelpful. He had loads of knowledge about the underground that even the resistance wasn't aware of. Then an idea occurred to her.
"Ahamo?" Now she didn't know much about trade but from what she was listening to she would guess getting food into the O.Z. would be easier to do if they went through the crime lords. She started fidgeting with her spoon as soon as he glanced at her realizing she had accidentally interrupted him mid sentence. "Sorry, but, when we were in the Papay fields Raw said the people were starving. Is that true?"
He sighed but didn't appear to be angry that she had cut into the conversation. And now everyone else was listening to her, and she meant everybody, she'd rarely felt so uncomfortable. "Unfortunately yes."
She decided to forge on because she was already embarrassed. How much worse could it get? "I, ah, know I don't know anything about how the economy works here but why don't we get food through the black market? If what you said is true most of the people who ran into the realm of the unwanted were originally merchants and small business owners who were afraid of the Witch, not criminals. They'd know who to talk to outside the Outer Zone and probably be more than happy to help get the country back under control of the monarchy."
Silence reached critical mass when she stopped talking. She bit her lip face flushing as she spun the worn spoon in her fingers. Great, now everyone thought she was a moron. She was never speaking again. "Oook. Or not. My bad."
Cain grabbed her hand to stop her from squirming. "That's right clever." She glanced up at him and found his blue eyes locked on her face. He turned from her to her parents who were also staring at her.
The Queen pinned her with her odd eyes. "Did you study politics? Your nurture units were not programmed to encourage you to do that. It could have put you in danger when you got here."
Programmed? "What? No." She nearly cringed at the mention of them but before she could the Tin Man's hand tightened around hers before he let her go. Had her mother given Father Viewer specifications for them or something? That was disturbing, she didn't know how to feel about that.
Her father was grinning at her. "She must have gotten her political savvy from you, Dearheart." She sighed quietly going back to her food as Ahamo, Lavender, and Ambrose began to discuss how best to go about her idea. She wasn't sure how brilliant that idea was or how comfortable she was being compared to the Queen.
And now she was replaying every suggestion her roboparents had ever given her. How much of what they had done had been based on what had been best for her as opposed to what her mother had instructed them to do? They had said they had been programmed to love her. While they had claimed that hadn't made their love any less real she had to consider the fact that maybe it made a difference to her. Could she trust what they had meant to her when those feelings had been created? Suggested? Manipulated?
She set her bowl down her appetite gone. And really what did that say about her mother? On some level she could understand what her mother had done. It was essential to keep her hidden and safe. Any mother would do that for a child and as a Queen who needed two magically powerful children to destroy the Witch it made sense. But why had she chosen robots? Why hadn't she picked real humans to raise her? Should she ask her mother or was that something she should leave alone?
As these questions rolled around in her head Raw sat down beside her with a soft rumble of concern. "DG sad again." His voice was quiet but she was pretty sure Cain had heard the viewer because he shifted closer to them without turning his head from the conversation between the advisor and the royal couple. "Should not be. Idea was good."
She turned to the seer leaning into him and his familiar presence. "It's nothing Raw. I think I just need to rest for a few days. I'm sure everything will be better when we get to Finaqua."
He took her hand in one of his and stroked it with the other. "Princess not worry. Friends will be here."
She smiled gratefully. "I know, Raw. Like I said, I'm just tired."
His warm eyes searched hers and she felt a tendril of heat seep into her from the seer. "DG should sleep. Long day. Long week." She nodded in agreement. "Blankets by tree for Princess." He pointed behind his shoulder and she followed the line of his finger. She spotted a number of blankets spread out beneath two trees that were growing closely together.
"Thanks, Raw. I'll see you in the morning." She stood waving to her family in farewell as she trotted off across the darkened camp to the blankets. She noticed that the rumors of Cain's interest in her were widespread because there were two sleeping spots set out beneath the trees. She wasn't foolish enough to think that they had been set up for anyone else, especially with the amount of space between where she was sleeping and the rest of the camp. She rolled her eyes even as she picked the spot on the right and lay down. Cain had said he couldn't sleep unless she was next to him so whatever, she really didn't care what anyone else thought and she did feel better when he was close to her.
She didn't take off her shoes knowing better than that. Instead she wrapped the brown material around herself and yawned hoping Finaqua would bring her some amount of peace. She fell asleep to the sound of voices flowing around the camp. When she woke up dawn was still trying to creep up over the forest and there was a warm presence at her back. Cain had found her it seemed. She figured she should tell him what people were saying about them. Then a tiny selfish voice in the back of her head determined that this was to good to give up if he decided to stop staying with her at night. If that made her a bad person she was willing to live with it.
As soon as she shifted the Tin Man came awake. So much for sneaking off when he was sleeping next to her. "Can't you stay asleep until the suns are up?" He asked groggily from under his hat. How could he tell that when his eyes were covered?
"Apparently not." She whispered, sitting upright and pulling her knees to her chest. It was kinda nippy in the woods this early in the morning with all the dew and the light breeze that was dancing through the clearing. "Go back to sleep. I wont go anywhere." She shivered as she pushed her hair behind her ear.
He grunted shoving his fedora away from his face as he sat up next to her. As he yawned he reached out wrapping his arm around her shoulders and tugged her body up against his with one arm as he opened up the blanket with the other. As soon as she was situated to his liking, being too surprised to protest, he dropped the blanket around them both and leaned back against the tree shutting his eyes. Once she processed the fact that Cain had, for some unknown reason, tucked her against him she hesitantly relaxed into his side half afraid he was going to get up and walk away if she got to comfortable.
His arm dropped from her shoulder to rest at her waist and she mentally cursed every deity with such a sick sense of humor. This was torture of the worst kind. Enjoy the lovely closeness of Wyatt Cain but no touching back! So very wrong. Then he spoke again and she focused on that instead of the reactions he was causing her body to have. "Should get to the maze tonight."
"Super. Nothing like a romp through the green shrubs of mystery to brighten the day."
He snorted his eyes still closed. "This time at least we'll get to go into the palace you were good enough to bring back."
"Hope I didn't do a lousy job on the décor. Not how I want to be remembered. Princess of Light, Destroyer of Evil, and all around Bad Interior Designer."
He chuckled his eyes opening at last. "Do you ever stop? Or is this a constant state for you?"
"This? You should see me on a caffeine high."
"I think I'll take your word on that." His thumb tickled her side as he looked around the camp. "As long as we can get across the bridge this should be an easy walk."
She opened her mouth to ask if he was going to be ok going back over the gap before she thought better of it and closed it. It wasn't her place to nag the man about how he felt about getting so close to where his wife had died. To bad he was so damn observant. "Whatever it is just ask." She could hear the hint of humor in his voice.
She sighed trying to sit upright. He tightened his arm waiting. After a significant internal struggle and a serious inner debate about the wisdom of this question she went ahead. "Are you going to be alright walking by the cabin?"
His blue eyes were startled when they returned to her face. Not the question he had been expecting to come out of her mouth. "I'll be fine, DG." He sighed. "I wasn't lying when I said finding her grave brought me peace." His eyes went distant for a moment. "Jeb might not be comfortable with it."
She found his hand under the blanket a squeezed it gently. "Do you want to talk to him before we leave? He didn't lose her that long ago." She looked down. "Wound's still open ya know?"
He made a sound in the back of his throat. "Maybe he's not the only one that needs to talk."
That's it, she wasn't helping people anymore. It only got her into trouble. And where the hell did Cain learn psychology? She nodded reluctantly. "Yeah but no time for a counseling session now. Maybe when we get to Finaqua."
"I'll remember that." He would too. "I'm going to find my boy. Go find your family. The camps waking up." He let her go standing up and catching the blanket as he went. As he walked off he folded it up and tucked it under his arm. She grumbled as he left grabbing her own blanket as she headed over to where Az was huddled. The resistance fighters were waking up and fast.
She crouched down next to her sister who was snoring softly and shook her. "Wakey, Wakey!" Az jerked back to consciousness with a very unladylike grunt. Dark eyes glared blurrily up at her and she snickered in response.
"You're a bad person."
She could be truthful in the morning as well. "And you snore."
Her sister gaped at her. "I do not!"
"Do to."
"Do not!"
She grinned having to set the record straight. "Do to!"
"Do not!"
"Do to!"
"Do not!"
"Must stop! Giving Raw headache!" The seer moaned pitifully as he sat up across the fire bumping Kalm awake as he went. Both of them started giggling at the sorrowful look the viewer was giving them. Glitch sat up with a yawn at the noise they were making.
"Oh it's morning!" He stated brightly. So he was Glitch again this morning. This was getting weird. "Good morning, Azka-D!" She tilted her head with interest. Glitch was starting to reconnect if he could remember and be happy to know who her sister was when he wasn't Ambrose.
Her sister was unsure of what to do. "G-good morning, Glitch."
"Are you ready to stop the soldiers on the bridge?"
She nodded hesitantly at the thin man. "I'll do my best. I don't think it will be that difficult to freeze them with my magic." No one had told her about that! That was a wicked good plan! As she asked them for details the camp was being destroyed. Within minutes Jeb was shouting orders for them to start moving out. She helped her sister to her feet and they started out of the clearing. She paused long enough to take down her spell before she hurried to catch up with everyone else.
The Tin Man and Jeb were far ahead of the rest of the group and while she didn't see them talking she wondered if Wyatt's presence was doing anything positive for his son. She wished she had more memories of her parents from when she was a child or that she could have Momster and Popsicle back but things just weren't going to happen that way for her. As it was her parents just jangled her nerves every time they got to close or said something that she simply couldn't recall.
It was mid-morning before they heard the sound of the rushing river cutting the gap ever deeper into the Outer Zone. Jeb held up a hand and their merry band came to a halt silently. Several of the fighters crept forward into the bushes weapons drawn so the could scout out the area. Several tense minutes later they returned and one pointed silently to the left holding up four fingers and fisting her hand.
Jeb pointed to Az then crooked his finger. She moved toward him and he took her arm murmuring into her ear. She listened then nodded following him and seven other fighters into the trees. Glitch went stiff all over and made to go after them before Cain grabbed him and shook his head. While she knew that the small band was not only planned but more than capable of taking care of this problem it didn't make her feel any better about not being able to help them.
Her sister had told her that she simply didn't know enough about her magic to help if something went wrong and she lost focus. She hated to admit that she was probably right about that. So here she was forced to the sidelines. In her opinion it was the worst possible place to be. Once Cain was sure Glitch wasn't going to follow Az he walked back over to where she was shifting her weight from one foot to the other impatiently.
"You can't do everything all the time." He whispered.
"That doesn't make waiting any easier."
"No, you don't do patience well. But you do have faith in your sister. This is the time to show it."
"I'm trying."
"I know. You haven't even tried to run after her." He smiled down at her. "So already better than usual."
She rolled her eyes a smile tugging at her lips. "Why must you tease me in high stress situations?"
His eyes softened. "Because it makes you smile."
That was about the sweetest thing she'd ever heard. She was about to answer when two shots rang out across the forest. Birds took off out of the tree tops as Cain drew his gun and they ran off into the underbrush toward the bridge.
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