*pulls herself out of bed and writes* Hi. I'm almost getting back in my groove…

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Knives shook his head. Special. That was one word for it. A nicer one than he would have chosen, if it were up to him.

"So the last thing you know about my brother, and I, was when we fought in the desert?" he inquired, looking for clarification.

"Yup," she agreed easily. Then she became a little more suspicious. "Why?"

"Oh, no reason," he replied a little airily, suddenly finding the sky very interesting.

"Why?" she asked again, certain that she was missing something now.

"If you need to know, I assume you will find out. Later," he said, then got up and went to get a drink of water. And no matter how she pestered, he would say no more.

It was a bit chancy, but they managed to settle into a routine over the next couple of days. Ace was taught various things in the morning, from reading and writing to engineering and gambling. She received a couple incredibly different views of social history and the place of humans in the universe. Knives tried to teach her how to be intimidating, but after she dissolved into her seventh giggling fit, he gave it up. Kiley did her best to teach the basics of self-defense, and Ace learned quickly, but when she tried to show a few slightly more advanced, and lethal, responses her interest quickly waned. The girl devoured basic mathematics in a matter of hours, and quickly outstripped Kiley's ability to teach her. She did manage to watch, amused, as Knives and the girl worked over a tricky problem dealing in chaos theory and imaginary numbers.

Knives had been a bit surprised to find that she really didn't have much of a background in chaos theory.

"Well, my world hasn't advanced the study of mathematics as this one has, obviously," was her slightly miffed reply. "It's not as if I don't possess the ability to learn that sort of thing."

"But still," he insisted. "These things are so obvious. I can't believe you couldn't figure them out on your own."

"I did have a few other things on my mind then math," she pointed out. "Death, destruction, war, famine, pestilence, and other slightly more pressing matters."

"But it's basic math," he persisted.

"Calculus is basic math," she shot back. "Chaos theory is just that. Theory. Leading edge of discovered universal applications. Not my field of research. If I couldn't apply it to my continued survival, I didn't study it."

"What a limited approach to study," he chided.

"Yup. But as since I still haven't figured out how to put more hours in a day, I needed to limit my study options somehow, and practicality just seemed like a logical approach to screening."

He sighed. "Humans and their limited lifespans. Sad, really, when you think about it. Or, it would be, if your demise wasn't ultimately such a benefit to the universe."

"Aw, Knives. Thanks for caring," she said sarcastically.

He smiled easily and returned to teaching Ace.

Afternoons were spent teaching Knives. Ace mostly watched these sessions, or napped in the shade, as Kiley would not allow her to overtax herself while she was still growing, and Knives agreed.

"I'll learn all she has to teach, and then I'll pass it on to you in a couple years. Now is the time for you to concentrate on your physical growth," he informed her sternly when he found her trying to practice a few of the basic tricks. He tried to keep the mood serious as he lectured, but Kiley ruined the effect he was trying to create when she made funny faces over his shoulder.

Knives learned more tricks, and got better at cell manipulation. What he couldn't do was even begin to reach the level of control that Kiley showed, something that aggravated him to no end. She tried explaining that he needed to practice patience, but he seemed unable to comprehend how she could entice results out of living things so quickly while he still struggled to keep things from slipping out of his control. Wasn't he the superior being? Kiley tried very hard not to sigh and roll her eyes, but they were such elegant means of punctuating the things she couldn't quite say.

In her spare time, she tried to make the oasis a little more friendly. She had purchased some seeds before leaving December, and she began to play with the water table a little. She managed to force water about halfway up one of the spires. There was only a small trickle that emerged to flow down the inside of the rock tower, but she managed to sculpt a bit of a pool at the base, and lined the trickle with a low, clinging bit of greenery.

Knives viewed her experiments in horticulture with a jaundiced eye.

"It looks nice while you're caring for it, but what will happen when you leave?" he asked rhetorically.

"It should still stick around," she replied. "These plants are hardy little buggers. So long as the water keeps flowing they'll be fine."

"I don't see why you waste your time on trivialities like these," he said scornfully, but she caught him fingering the leaves and sighing later that night.

He seemed lost in thought as she crept up on him.

"Humans like to be surrounded by living things," she said quietly.

He made a surprised noise and spun towards her. "You did that on purpose," he accused.

"Of course," she replied easily. "I like scaring the crap out of you. Like those?" she asked, nodding towards the plants.

"They are…nice. They smell good."

"They're mint. Of course they smell good. That's what mint does."

"Why mint?" he asked, breathing deeply. The crisp scent filled the desert night, mixing with the softer scent of water and the fading heat from the day. All in all, it smelled rather good.

"Because of the way everything smells, right here, right now," she replied, taking a deep breath. "Think of it as a sculpture of scent."

He looked at her, eyes glinting slightly under the light of the moons. "Sculpture? Can't say I ever thought of you as much of an artist."

She shrugged, slightly uncomfortable. "I'm not. But sometimes I try things, just to see what will turn out."

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Author's whiny note: Ok….If you haven't reviewed for a while, and you're still reading this, would you let me know? I keep worrying that I've bored folks and they've gone away….