Round one of spring midterms is over and it's time for fall camp! (There must be some kind of just logic to this somewhere, but I can't find it.) Anyway, reading all of your inspiring reviews made for lovely study breaks as I prepared my 20+ page ethnography portfolio. As always, the location and most of the cast belongs to Tamora Pierce.
Synopsis: Last episode, Numair and Daine defeated the Immortal mage, ending the second Immortal war. Penelope was seriously wounded during the battle and barely survived to celebrate her 17th birthday. This episode begins with a flashback but most takes place about three weeks after the last.
"I'll go mad if I stay here any longer," Penelope said, throwing off her blankets. "Let's go find Neal." She climbed awkwardly out of bed and shoved her feet into slippers. Since there wasn't any other clothing available, Penelope decided to ignore the fact that she was still in her nightgown.
"You're not supposed to tire yourself," Dalton told her as he followed her out the door. "The healers all said you shouldn't get out of bed for a week."
"It's been two days," Penelope told him. "And you're excellent company, but another hour of staring at the ceiling would kill me."
"So would pulling open your wound and bleeding to death."
Penelope shrugged. "You won't let that happen. Besides, I want to see what kind of progress Neal's made on the book."
It seemed that Penelope's legs weren't as interested in Neal's History of Warrior Women, however, because they nearly gave out several paces from Neal's quarters. Penelope reached for the wall to keep herself from falling as a wave of dizziness hit her. She blinked rapidly, trying to clear her head.
"Dalton, I—" The request for help started shooting from her lips before she could swallow it back.
But he knew how much she hated needing help and he had an arm wrapped around her waist before she had to finish asking.
"I'm not going back to the infirmary," she told him once the corridor had stopped spinning.
"Don't worry, I'm not going to fight with you," Dalton told her calmly. He brushed a bit of hair from her face and they continued walking towards Neal's door. "An argument might exhaust you in your current state," he added teasingly. "And Neal is closer." He took advantage of their closeness, turning his face sideways to kiss her.
Penelope sighed loudly, pushing aside the memory and forcing herself to concentrate on her search for clues about Jessalin the Short's year of birth. She missed Dalton even more than she missed sword fighting. He had left two weeks before and Neal had told her that she could return to the practice court that afternoon if she promised "to be quiet and civilized and not stay too long or hurt herself."
"You don't have to stay," Neal told her.
Penelope shrugged, glancing up at his desk from the floor where she was working. "There's nothing else to do."
"True," Neal agreed wickedly. "Any luck?"
Penelope sighed again and glanced down at her notes. "She was born during a summer full moon, the year after a famine and before a flood."
"Sounds like the year 103," Neal said, quickly.
Penelope blinked. "You've been inside too long."
"Quite possibly," Neal agreed, stranding slowly—he could walk well enough now, but his limbs were still stiff. "Get your gear," he ordered. Penelope leapt up and, pausing only to enfold him in a tight, brief hug, launched herself out the door.
MMMM
"I think that's enough for today," Neal said, keeping his tone as calm and diplomatic as possible—no easy task when Penelope had him flat on his back with a sword point to his throat. "You don't want to overdo and set back your recovery."
"Just one more round?" Penelope pleaded, sounding rather like Kefira, as she stepped away to let Neal up.
Neal shook his head. "I'm sorry; you're a young lady of many talents but pouting and begging are not among them. I remain hardhearted."
"Let him win next time," Dom advised Penelope from where he stood watching Kel teach Kefira a pattern dance. "That way he'll be less likely to quit."
"Yes, but then he'll wind up with a fatally engorged ego."
Neal scowled at both of them as he collapsed on a bench. Kel left Kefira working with a small, bladeless glaive and came to sit beside him, followed by Daine and Tobe, who'd just come off the archery courts.
"Just a few more minutes," Kel called to Kefira. "We'll try to get her to bed early tonight," she whispered to Dom, "since we're going to have a long day tomorrow, starting camp."
"Early bedtimes always backfire, you know," Neal said, speaking deliberately loudly so that Kefira turned around to glance briefly at all of them. Kel and Dom glared at him and he shrugged innocently. "Well, it's true. Keep her up late and she'll fall asleep faster."
"And be cranky when we wake her up early tomorrow," Kel muttered back.
"That's what morning naps are for," Neal returned sweetly. He still enjoyed morning naps when he could get them and he considered himself an expert.
"Perfect," Dom snapped back in an undertone, "then she'll skip her afternoon nap, fall asleep too early, and wake up hours before dawn the next morning."
"Actually, maybe we should have had her take a nap this morning," Kel muttered thoughtfully.
"See," Neal said, "I'm capable of strategic parenting." He then had to pinch Penelope to get her to stop laughing—he was worried that her violent silent shaking might stretch her injury too much too soon.
"What you really ought to do," Daine said thoughtfully, "is to let her run around for an hour or so." All the parents turned to blink at her. " They're not so different from puppies," Daine explained. "You just wear them out and fill their bellies and tuck them someplace warm—actually sticking them in with a litter of puppies or kittens is ideal—and they nod right off."
Dom immediately stood, grabbed two small practice swords, and knelt beside Kefira, offering her a duel.
"Can I come?" Penelope asked suddenly. Kel turned towards her with raised eyebrows and an appraising expression. "It's just—I know we're not going back on the road again this fall, but I don't want to just sit waiting for midwinter. And I know I'm not up to much more than riding and light exercise, but I could help out a little."
"Perfect, I'd love to have some extra help," Kel said. "See that you're ready by the second morning bell."
"Wait," Neal said. "I absolutely forbid you to run off with my squire given your disastrous record for dragging her into danger."
"Well, that's settled then," Kel said. "You'll just have to come along as well so that you can personally supervise your seventeen-year-old squire."
MMMM
"I had no idea you were coming," Neal muttered to Wyldon, doing his best to keep his horror out of his voice. He glanced back and saw Penelope smirking at him as she maneuvered her horse so that she was riding just behind him and Wyldon. He could practically hear her thinking, this'll be good.
"I wasn't planning on it," Wyldon confessed stiffly, "but my squire pleaded very persistently." He sighed irritably. "And Greyson could do with some proper outdoor exercise."
"Oh," Neal said slowly, trying to block out his sudden vision of himself at Wyldon's age, worn into complete submission by a generation of obstinate squires foisted upon him by an even more obstinate lady knight. He shuddered, glanced sideways, saw that Wyldon was shuddering too and shuddered even more violently. He was doomed to share Wyldon's fate—expect he'd skip the years of rigid discipline and chauvinism and go straight to graying and balding—the gods were all heartless monsters.
A very soft giggle made him turn back but Selena and Penelope both raised their eyebrows and shrugged innocently at him.
"Go scout ahead," Wyldon ordered them, "and refill the spare waterskins".
To Neal's surprise they went without protest. After five long silent minutes beside Lord Wyldon it occurred to him that they had only obeyed so that they would be able to gossip about and laugh at their knight masters without detection.
MMMM
Kel blinked, unsure what had woken her but sure that something must have. She wouldn't have just wandered into wakefulness on her own when conditions were so perfect for sleeping. Her tent was dark and quiet and the night has was cool against her face, but she was warm with Dom's arm wrapped around her waist and Kefira curled against her chest. She would have been content to doze forever but she had woken suddenly. Kel lifted her head off Dom's other arm and listened carefully.
Just as she was lowering her head, convinced she was imagining things, she heard a very faint sob. Kel sighed and slid out from between Dom and Kefira. Wyldon would never have done such a thing, she knew, he probably wouldn't have woken even. But then, she reminded herself as she tugged on her coat, Wyldon wasn't a mother. Gently, Kel scooted Kefira up against Dom's chest to keep her warm. He stirred just long enough to mutter, "take care" and wrap a protective arm around their daughter. Kel glanced back at them once more and smiled before stepping out into the night.
There was another sob—still very quiet—as Kel began her walk towards the pages. She paused to glance at Neal and Wyldon's tents, where Penelope and Selena were sleeping beside their respective tent flaps. Penelope was curled into a fetal position and her face wore a troubled frown; Selena was stretched out with Greyson standing guard beside her. But another sob sounded from the pages and a loud grunt came from Wyldon's tent, and Kel tiptoed away quickly; she didn't want to have to explain herself to Wyldon.
Another sob, this one more pitiful than the others and this time Kel realized it came from Roland, the newest and youngest page. He was crying in his sleep and he was curled so tightly that he looked about six years old. Kel knelt beside him and brushed a bit of sweat-soaked hair from his face, wondering if she should wake him; he'd be embarrassed but at least his nightmare would be over.
Before she could decide, he woke with a tiny squeak, breathing and blinking rapidly.
"Hey," she whispered, helping him sit up. "It's all right."
He gasped, recognizing her, and began stuttering an apology.
"Shush," Kel soothed, grabbing the boy's water skin and helping him drink from it. "What's wrong? What's this all about?"
"I ke-keep remembering the attack when—" He stopped suddenly and screwed up his face in a very determined effort not to cry.
Kel gathered him into her arms—Wyldon would accuse her of coddling the boy but she didn't care, he wasn't all that much older than Fira, really, and he needed to feel loved and protected—as she remembered that his entire family had been killed in an Immortal attack over the summer. He been sent to begin training a year early because no one knew what else to do with him. Kel resolved to start checking up on Roland more often once they returned to the palace; never mind discipline, he needed taking care of.
"That's not a good thing to think about at night," Kel told him gently. "Maybe it would be better to wait and talk about it in the morning." She wet her handkerchief and wiped the tears from his face. "You'll feel better after you've gotten some real sleep," she promised, tucking him into his bedroll. "For now, just imagine your favorite place to go for picnics when you were little and pretend you're there."
Roland's lips twitched into a sleepy smile and he blinked once or twice at her before his eyes fluttered shut. Kel sat beside him until his breathing settled and she was sure he was sleeping peacefully. Then she stood and tiptoed back to her own tent.
Dom woke—like most soldiers, he was a light sleeper— and lifted his head when she came back in. Kel kissed him as she crawled back under the blankets and adjusted her body so that she and Dom were both curled protectively around their daughter.
"Where have you been?"
"Protecting and nurturing," Kel whispered back.
"You really don't know how to take time off, do you?" Dom chuckled softly. It was the last thing Kel remembered before she fell back asleep.
MMMM
Kel divided the pages into small groups the next morning and sent half of them off to practice mapmaking, while the other half held the sort of mock battle that had been introduced during her own page years with Neal, Wyldon, Dom, Selena, and Penelope acting as (allegedly impartial) judges. The fight was so noisy and chaotic that it was only when the small groups of pages began trickling back for lunch that Kel realized that Kefira was missing.
"I thought she was with you," Dom said worriedly when she asked. And Neal claimed that he'd thought Selena was taking care of her when they found him.
"Well, she can't have gone too far," Wyldon said in a gruff attempt at kindness that revealed his lack of experience with three-year-olds. "Perhaps this would be a good day to have them all practice tracking," he added a few moments later, sounding genuinely concerned.
This was a reasonable suggestion, but Kel was having trouble forcing back her panic. She didn't want to wait for the rest of the pages to return to begin her search.
"We'll start now," Penelope offered, tugging at Selena's arm, " there don't seem to be any tracks but we can run a big loop around the camp and see if we spot anything." Kel swallowed and nodded gratefully and the two squires jogged off into the woods.
MMMM
Kefira scrambled eagerly onto yet other log, following the unhappy mewling that had called her away from camp. She fell off, scraping her elbow, which didn't hurt enough to stop her, and climbed back onto her feet. The sound was louder now and she must be getting close.
She took a few more steps and then crawled into a brambly patch, ignoring the way it scratched her hands. And that's where she found them. The kittens were so small that even Kefira could have lifted them easily. There were four of them and they were crying desperately and trying to climb up the sides of their next. There was no Mama cat in sight and Kefira had the sudden and terrible thought that none would be coming back. The kittens were all alone, so she would have to stay with them until her Mama found her. Her Mama would help her with the kittens; she knew how to take care of everything.
Kefira stretched out so that her legs extended out of the brambles and dropped a hand into the nest so that she could stroke the tiny bodies. The kittens nibbled affectionately at her fingers and she laughed. She lay there growing slowly cold and hungry, but she didn't mind; she was sure someone would find her soon.
MMMM
"Go ahead, Mindelan," Wyldon told her. "I'm quite capable of watching the others get back and setting them to work. And you are too distracted to manage it. Go find her."
"Yes, sir," Kel said, resisting the urge to bow as though she were ten years old again.
Wyldon suppressed a chuckle as he shook his head. "Might as well make myself useful now that I'm here."
"You're always useful," Kel muttered and then shocked both of them by hugging him tightly. He patted her back awkwardly and cleared his throat. Then Kel dashed off, leaving him blinking in recovery.
She sprinted off in the direction that Penelope and Selena had taken, quickly catching up with them.
"We think we're on the right track," Selena explained, pointing to a tiny boot print.
Kel nodded in relief and was just about to croak out her thanks when a small falcon dove at her, apparently out of nowhere. Kel threw up a hand reflexively, trying to stop it from hitting her hand. Though completely devoid of leather markings, it landed expertly in her glove. Kel found she wasn't surprised when its beak began to shift, transforming into a mouth.
A moment later, she found herself staring at Daine's very small face.
"She's fine," Daine said quickly. "You'll want to turn right here and head up that side path." Kel obeyed instantly and Daine continued her explanation as Kel carried her along the trail. "A crow friend of mine told me that there was a two-legger child loose in the woods and I didn't know she was yours but I came out to check on her and…anyway it's a good thing you've brought your cloak with you."
"What—" Kel began anxiously.
Daine cut her off before she could finish. "She's fine." Then her tiny lips twitched into an amused smile and she refused to say anything more.
MMMM
"What do you mean "they're all yours"?" Dom demanded as he dropped onto the sofa in his family's suite.
Daine laughed as stretched her legs out across their rug. " I mean that I'm finished healing all of their little infections and I've found Splotches to nurse them but they're very attached to your daughter and they're not going to settle with anyone else, hence, they're all yours." Daine gestured across the rug to where Kefira lay curled around the four kittens under the benevolent supervision of the large plump calico known as Splotches. "And I very much doubt that they'll be the last."
Kel laughed and lowered herself onto the sofa beside Dom. "Not if she takes after her mother."
Dom let out a resigned sigh that turned into a chuckle when he heard on of the kittens sneeze. "We're going to have our own menagerie by the time she's ten, aren't we?"
"Don't worry," Daine assured him. "The more creatures you find, the more you have room for. It's like magic."
"Besides, it's an excellent way to learn responsibility," Kel pointed out.
"You can't expect her to grow up save the world," Dom teased.
"Of course not," Kel said breezily, "but saving kittens is a good start."
Dom laughed and settled an arm around her shoulders. She was right, of course.
Spring break starts tomorrow so I'll try to have another episode ready soon. Thanks for reading and feel free to review!