"Howard, dear, are you sure he said he didn't want to stay for dinner? He usually does." Henry heard Susannah's voice through the door to the main hall in their residence at the Fount.
He clenched his fist, narrowed his eyes, and determinately pushed open the door. "I never said such a thing, actually!", he called towards Luxa's aunt, who stood in the middle of the room with her oldest son. Howard was almost a head taller than her, and yet he visibly shrunk a few inches as soon as Henry entered.
"Howard...?" His mother put her hands to her hips. "It is impolite to speak for others like this. He is our guest now like he always is. Please behave yourself."
Henry had to suppress a chuckle. Howard getting lectured was such a rare occurrence that he decided to treasure every second of it, for as long as it lasted.
"Dinner will be served in around an hour", Susannah turned towards him, smiling, "I assume you will be leaving after, like always?"
Henry nodded, unable to resist throwing Howard a gloating look. "I'll tell Thanatos, Cevian and Triax. We will all be happy to attend."
Susannah threw him a last, sympathetic look. "We will see each other in an hour then."
Henry turned around, preparing to leave the room, though if his ears could be rotated, they'd be pointed backward, at Howard and his mother, right now. Unfortunately, they left the room pretty quickly as well, without speaking any more, and Henry shrugged and decided to actually go looking for his trading party, to tell them when dinner would be served.
Maybe two more weeks had passed since his and Thanatos' first failed saddle attempts. They had decided to stay with the mice for a while longer, mainly because Henry had started enjoying these trips to the Fount more than he probably should. Not even necessarily because he was extremely attached to the people here, but because it was human contact – in general – that he had missed more than he had realized.
The gossip around their household was almost worse than what he remembered from Regalia's palace, and he relished every second of it, every juicy detail he could discover, every secret, every scandal. With the five kids, it was never boring too, and the visits here had soon become his favorite thing to do, except for maybe working with Teslas.
Half an hour later, he had informed Thanatos and the two nibblers, Cevian and Triax, who had accompanied them, that they were invited to stay for dinner, like usual.
Then, he went back to the main residence, even though he wasn't exactly supposed to wander around in there unsupervised. But so far, Henry had always managed to find a believable excuse, the few times when he had actually been caught. And he had learned very early throughout his childhood, that, if you wanted to hear gossip, the best time to do that was when nobody knew you were around.
He had spent many days here as a child and knew the layout of the residence pretty well. There were no secret tunnels, like in the palace in Regalia – at least from what he knew – but a whole lot of little-used halls, that were normally empty.
Now, he was strolling through one of them, close to the main hall, when he suddenly heard the steps of a different person coming down the hall. Henry quickly dove into a room that he heard was empty, and praised his new echolocation skills and how easy they made it to spy on people.
From the steps, it sounded like a teenage girl, and when he peeked through the curtain, he saw it was Stellovet, who seemed to be in quite a hurry. Her hair, that she usually put a lot of time and effort into, creating beautiful and intricate hairdos, was now loosely cascading down past her waist, and she held the seams of her long yellow dress up, to be able to walk faster without tripping.
She soon entered the main hall, that was connected to this hall through a doorless stone arch, and Henry heard her voice – but not spiteful or bratty as he expected, but rather abashed – "Dad, mom, what did you need me for?", she addressed her parents, who apparently both were in the room.
Henry had to focus his hearing, but from where he sat, behind the curtain, he was able to understand everything said in the room. He grinned, internally rubbing his hands in anticipation of the drama. Oh, how much he had missed being around humans. Other species were not nearly as interesting, for the lack of gossip and scandals alone.
"Stellovet, we need to talk to you about your behavior around the Death Rider, recently." That was York's voice, and he sounded less than pleased. Susannah's husband was, in regards to Henry, more like Howard. He usually put on a friendly front before him, but the exiled prince had often listened in on him complaining how "inadequately comfortable the outcast seemed to be getting in our home, recently", to all sorts of people.
"Oh Stellovet, dear, how are you even looking", that was Susannah, Henry heard her take a few steps, he focused and visualized her standing before her daughter now, fumbling around at her dress and hair, "you are usually so mindful of your appearance, what in the world has gotten into you today?"
Stellovet shifted uncomfortably. "It's not like anyone is around to see me anyway. And why are we talking about the Death Rider now?"
Henry realized she had not seen him yet, and wondered where she had been all day. Usually, she was one of the first people to greet him.
"Because he arrived here, earlier today, while you were out at the lake with your teachers. He will be attending dinner in around twenty minutes", York informed his daughter, who audibly gasped.
"WHAT?! He is here, and you don't even TELL ME?" Henry had to suppress a chuckle.
"Actually, I specifically told your teachers to take you out today, in order for you to not embarrass yourself and our entire family again, by acting like you normally do, around him", her father continued.
"We get that all you children are fascinated when an outcast like him, with exciting stories, comes here, but you are old enough now to not act on it, like your brother", Susannah added.
"Yes, just look at your brother, he is always the epitome of dignity." York sounded pleased with Howard. Maybe, Henry thought, nobody had told him yet that his son had tried telling Susannah that Henry would not stay for dinner, earlier.
Stellovet turned a little, the exiled prince assumed she was irritated. "Yes, I know, dad. Howard is perfect – how dare I forget."
"Mind your tone, young lady!" Her father wasn't having any of it, "And for the love of everything, please stop swooning over him like you always do, it will do you no good, and it is an embarrassing kind of behavior for a girl your age. You will turn fifteen in a few weeks, only a year from now you will be an adult. This is very inappropriate behavior for a daughter of my house, and I will not tolerate it any longer."
Surprisingly, Stellovet remained silent, and York continued – "If you can not restrain yourself, I will personally take care to send you away from now on, whenever he comes here", quieter he added, "Perhaps we should send note that we wish for less frequent supply deliveries altogether. He's been coming here far too often these last couple weeks if you ask me."
Suddenly, Henry heard a different set of footsteps, approaching from the other side. He recognized Howard, and Stellovet's brother awkwardly stopped, when he realized his father was in the middle of lecturing her.
"Howard, is that you? Would you please go fetch your other siblings for dinner? Stellovet will join you shortly after she has tidied herself up", Henry heard Susannah address her son and Howard voiced an approving "Right away, mother."
"You are dismissed as well, Stellovet", York added, "But heed my words, will you? I expect impeccable behavior from you during dinner."
Henry heard no response, her steps simply moved away towards the door. He heard the suppressed anger and frustration in them clearly.
"And what are you gawking at?" She hissed at Howard, who had apparently waited for her in the hall.
"Nothing, hey, Stello, wait a moment!" He called after her, and Henry heard their steps move away, in the direction of the living quarters.
He quietly left the room he had been hiding in and followed them, as quietly as he could. When he could hear their voices again he stopped, hiding behind a stone ledge this time. They were now standing in the middle of the living room the kids shared, to all sides of it were their bedrooms.
"What is it, Howard – I have to "tidy myself up for dinner", or mom will lose it again!" Her voice was seething with suppressed anger.
"Stello, what was that about, in there? They seemed angry with you." Howard's tone was concerned. "Are you in trouble?"
Stellovet snorted. "Apparently, dad doesn't like it when I'm too friendly with the Death Rider. "Inappropriate behavior for a girl your age" – my ass!", she called, and Henry had to suppress a chuckle.
"Stellovet, language!", her brother heeded, and she scoffed. "You're not any better than them, you know? Do you have ANY IDEA how much harder you make things for me – HOWARD? "Oh, but your brother is so perfect" here, and "your brother did excellently" there, everyone LOVES you, EVERYONE – mom, dad, now even stupid Luxa, but who's really surprised at that, she's as PERFECT as you, after all!"
Stellovet's voice had become louder and louder throughout her little monologue, and Henry heard Howard's voice sounded more concerned than before – "That, that is not true, Stello, I am not perfect, and neither is Luxa. Why do you always judge her like you do, you barely even know her!"
He chuckled a little, "I used to think she was a brat myself, but then we got to know each other better, and I really think it was just Henry being a bad influence on her before. She is a good person, Stellovet, and maybe if you tried to get to know her as well, you'll find that yourself."
Henry grit his teeth. I wasn't a BAD INFLUENCE on Luxa, he thought, all I was, was a hundred times more fun than YOU.
Stellovet crossed her arms. "Okay, then go and be super friendly with her, like you are now, because she is so much fun and all. Go on your stupid quests together, enjoy yourselves and become BEST FRIENDS for all I care, while I sit here at home, fulfilling MOM'S expectations of me, which are essentially summed up by "be a good girl, look pretty and get married as soon as possible, so that we are finally RID of you", sound good?" Henry heard a suppressed cracking in her voice towards the end, like she was trying desperately not to cry.
"Hey, hey – who says we want to be rid of you?" Howard sounded soothing now, as well as still highly concerned. "You are my sister, Stello, and yes, you are... difficult, sometimes, but I will still love you always. And so will mom and dad, I promise."
Henry heard her sob now. "Say that all you want, but you have no idea how it's like to be me. You can do no wrong in mom's and dad's eyes, the perfect firstborn, the positive example for everything. The twins are twins – everyone loves twins, and Chim – Chim is just the little cute sweetheart that we all adore. But me? What am I, hm? Just the bratty, unimportant middle child that nobody wanted anyway."
"That is NOT TRUE!" Henry saw him grab her arm now. "I... I did not know you felt this way. I know mom and dad have high expectations of you, but they do of me as well. I can do a lot wrong in their eyes too, believe me. Especially in dad's. Why do you think I try to be so perfect always? Because it is what's expected of me."
Stellovet was silent at that, and Howard continued – "But please never assume we don't want or love you, Stello. Because we do."
She remained quiet for another moment, before finally speaking up – "I don't believe a single word you are saying. It was you calling me wretched and bad to Luxa, She told me the last time she was here. Or was she lying?" Her voice sounded challenging.
Howard sighed. "No... she wasn't lying. Look, I... I am sorry for saying that, but... maybe do yourself a favor and think about what caused me to say it. If you want to be perceived as nice, you have to act nicely too. Luxa and Nerissa have done you no harm, and they are good people, both of them. If you give them a chance, maybe you'll find you have more in common than you think – now that Henry is gone."
Stellovet hesitated for a second. "G... gone? What do you mean gone – isn't the word you were looking for "DEAD"?"
She almost sounded agitated about it, and Henry furrowed his brows, pondering on a reason for her to defend him.
Howard was apparently as confused as the exiled prince. "Well... yes... but, what difference does it –"
His sister interrupted him. "DO NOT SPEAK ILL OF THE DEAD!", she called, audibly distressed.
Howard was even more confused now. "But... didn't you yourself call him a rat in front of Luxa, almost a year ago?"
"ONLY I CAN BADMOUTH HIM GOT THAT?!", she screamed and ran for it, apparently to her room, Henry heard the flapping of a curtain.
Howard remained alone in the living room, shaking his head in disbelief, and the exiled prince heard him snort – "sisters..."
The dinner that followed went without complications, only Stellovet was unusually quiet, but considering what he had overheard earlier, Henry would have been surprised if she had been normal. Howard sat next to her, throwing her concerned glances, but she talked, if at all, only to her governess Daliah, a young woman in her mid-twenties, who was supposed to look after her and care for her education. Hero, Kent, and Chim, at their designated spots, were cheerful as always.
Henry himself was mostly occupied digesting the conversations he had listened in on earlier. The fact that her parents thought Stellovet was too friendly with him, amused Henry greatly. Sure, she was a little over-the-top nice when he was around, and he had further noticed she seemed to always pick out her nicest dresses when he was here, but he found her parents were exaggerating.
Maybe it was just him though, still seeing the bratty kid, that had always bullied Luxa and Nerissa, when he looked at her.
But then again, her conversation with Howard had revealed a completely different side of hers, that she had always hidden very well, throughout their childhood. Henry realized he had never even asked himself why she was the way she was, or what kind of problems she could be facing in her own home. He realized that growing up with Howard as an older brother, and four siblings, could not have been easy.
Still, he found he agreed with Howard – surprisingly enough – just because she had problems herself, it did not give her the right to take them out on others, especially people he cared about. But maybe, he thought, she's at least not as irredeemable as we all thought.
Well, he almost chuckled, I guess if I can turn from a bratty traitor into an independent, fearless warrior, then there surely is hope for Stellovet too.
After dinner, he was about to gather their things and leave. He had decided to tell Thanatos the gossip he had heard later, even if he would most likely leave a couple things out – the flier was constantly teasing him about Stellovet anyway.
"You got everything?", Thanatos asked, and Henry nodded. "Let's leave, I think I had enough human contact for a while." They both laughed.
They had left the saddle prototype at the colony, for now, it wasn't ready for the world yet. They still tried to come up with a way to improve the stability, even if Henry hadn't fallen off again, after their first test run. As of now, both of them agreed they needed to perfect the design before taking it on missions, or really anywhere.
Then, he suddenly saw two people, a bigger and a smaller silhouette, running towards them from the residence.
"Hey, wait – are you leaving already?" Henry recognized Stellovet's voice and grinned. "Escaped your parents to say goodbye?"
She blushed a little and shoved Chim, who turned out to be the smaller silhouette, towards them. "Not just me, she... she had a gift for you, that she didn't want to give you in front of our parents. Or they would start lecturing her about being "too friendly" with you as well."
"They did that to you?", he acted surprised and kneeled down before Chim. "Well, what'cha got there?"
The little girl grinned. She leaned forward, whispering – "It was actually Stello who dragged me out here, it's her who wanted to say bye, not me. I already did!"
Henry grinned at her. The family had officially seen them off together, after dinner, so she was technically not wrong.
"But pshh, don't tell her I told you, or she won't let me play with her dolls for an entire week!", Chim added, and Henry chuckled – "You still play with dolls, Stellovet?"
The teenage girl blushed more, throwing her little sister a death glare. "NO, I do NOT! Whatever she told you... SHE IS LYING! I AM NOT A LITTLE GIRL ANYMORE!"
Henry chuckled. "Whatever you say!", then he turned back to Chim. "Your sister said you had a gift for me?"
The little girl nodded and pulled out a piece of paper. "I made it for you. So that, if mom and dad ever forbid you to come back, you don't forget us, okay?"
Henry unfolded it and saw it was a drawing. Thanatos glanced over his shoulder and grinned – "Aww, that is sweet of you. I LOVE the way you drew your siblings."
"Thanks Than!", she called and hugged his face. Only Chim was allowed to abbreviate his name, Henry thought and grinned, before being caught in a hug from the little girl as well.
"Well, he is not wrong" Henry grinned while staring at the picture after she had let go of him. Chim was six, and her drawing was not the best, skill-wise, but it surely was an accurate representation of her family. Howard was so tall, his legs were the entire length of Stellovet, whose hair reached to the floor, and who wore a beautiful, flowing gown.
Hero and Kent were almost identical, the only difference being, Hero's hair was long and she wore a dress. Chim herself had a wide grin plastered over her face, and she was standing next to Henry, who wore an almost evil smirk and, of course, the eyepatch and his fur coat. Behind him was Thanatos, spreading his wings. She had drawn the exiled prince holding Charos, which was as tall as himself.
The other arm, Henry saw, he had around Stellovet, and when he asked Chim about it she just grinned and shrugged. "She would like that", was all she said, and Henry and Thanatos both broke into vigorous laughter.
"I would like what?", Stellovet asked, and Henry quickly hid the picture, winking at Chim. If he showed her sister, she'd surely punish her for drawing it, and out of all the Fount-siblings, he had recently found Chim was his favorite.
"Well, it was nice seeing you two, but we really have to get going now", he grinned and tipped an imaginary hat to them. Stellovet threw him a big smile, and he inevitably asked himself if her obvious crush on him would disintegrate instantly, the moment she found out he was Henry, and not some mysterious, powerful, alluring stranger.
Then again, Henry pondered, there was the whole thing with her "Only I am allowed to badmouth him" – claim. Whatever that was supposed to mean.
"Back to the colony!" Henry called, while Thanatos had already lifted off. He leaned back casually on his back, letting his feet dangle next to the flier's face.
"Back... to the colony." The flier sounded not nearly as enthusiastic as his rider.
"What do you say – do they look like they want to be ground to dust?" Henry whispered to Thanatos' ear, while they were cowering on the side of the arena filled with rats.
The familiar anticipation of battle overcame him, and Charos in his hand itched for a fight.
"Oh absolutely. You?", his flier answered, and Henry felt him tense up in preparation for the battle.
"Always."
Nearly two months had passed since the two had finally left the nibbler colony, to go back to the Dead Land. It had been a sad goodbye, but they had all known extending their stay even more was not an option.
Henry knew he would miss the nibblers, and he would miss the missions to the Fount, but life went on. Maybe, if he didn't show up for a while, York would stop whining about him being there too much either. And for all it was worth, he would still have Chim's drawing of them to cherish.
As they had no idea where Longclaw had disappeared to, the Dead Land had been a good place to start. And fighting in an arena seemed like the most reasonable occupation, while no mercenary jobs were coming in. So, they had returned to the place where it had all began – to the arena run by Splintleg, where they had been forced to fight Sizzleblood, more than a year ago.
The scarred gnawer had been extremely surprised to see them, after a year, and almost not recognized them either. When Henry had announced they wished to become champions, he had been even more surprised. But after a swift demonstration of their abilities – and a little bit of threateningly holding Charos to his throat – he had agreed fairly quickly.
He had even offered to conveniently forget that Cleaver had accused Henry of killing Gorger, all those months ago, and Henry told him to just introduce them as the Death Rider – to avoid any more unwanted recognitions.
Ever since then they had fought and won maybe twenty battles in his arena, over the course of the last two months. And when they weren't fighting, they were doing jobs or experimenting more with the saddle. They had still not found a suitable solution for the stability problem, mainly because they had focused on other things recently.
They were still determined to track and bring Longclaw to justice, Henry had to admit one of the reasons why he had insisted on coming here was because he had hoped they would at some point be able to pick up a trace of their enemy, through one of Splintleg's visitors.
"... against our one and only flier-human duo champion, THE DEATH RIDER!" Henry heard Splintleg's voice, and Thanatos lifted off, flying a circle around the arena, accompanied by cheering.
The exiled prince felt the familiar sensation of power and the approval of the audience fill him and grinned. It was so different, he realized, from when he had fought in Longclaw's arena alone. Back then, it had been a means of escaping his own screaming thoughts, and maybe a way to override emotional with physical pain – now their only reasons were the rewards, the glory – and the heck of it.
The time of adventures wasn't over, was Henry's last thought, like I had feared back then. They had only just begun. Then he stopped thinking – and fought.
This battle was won swiftly, like most others, and as payment, Splintleg awarded them a stack of furs and leather. Henry rejoiced, he thought it gave him the materials to work on the saddle more.
"I don't think this made it any better, but if you insist... I told you I won't argue because of this anymore." Thanatos rolled his eyes as they flew out onto the waterway.
Recently, they had conducted all their saddle experiments over the ocean, ever since Henry had fallen off during their first attempt, Thanatos had insisted on it. For safety reasons.
"Well, at least you're keeping to your word", Henry muttered, strapping on the belt that connected to the saddle now. "Look, now I am as tied up as you are, does that make you feel any better?" They both laughed.
But when Henry tried out the rotating function again, he discovered the belt was not enough. It was his legs, that were dangling all over the place and hindering both him and Thanatos from moving properly.
"How do I fix this?", he muttered angrily, trying to untie the mess that faulty planning of strings had gotten him into.
"You need to find a way to lock your legs in place. I don't think me or you will be able to work with a rotating saddle unless that is taken care of", Thanatos said, while landing close to the cave where they had slept, ever since they had come back to the Dead Land.
"Yes, yes, but how?" Henry had finally managed to get out of the mess of strings and sat down, frustratedly fetching his sketchbook. "I want this to work so badly, you know?"
"I know, I know. It will... eventually", Thanatos muttered, before flying out to catch fish for dinner.
He had just gotten back, with four big fish in his mouth, when Henry suddenly heard a noise. The flier had noticed it as well, but before Henry was able to fetch a weapon, he saw it was only a crawler, hiding behind one of the rocks that guarded the entrance to their cave.
"Hey, you, are you looking for us?", Thanatos asked while approaching him cautiously.
The crawler came out from behind the rock and only now, Henry saw he was carrying a scroll of leather. "I have a message for the Wielder of Light and the Rider of Death, I have a message. It is urgent, it is."
Henry frowned, taking the scroll from the crawler. "Who sent you?"
"The humans from the Fount, the humans", he responded, and Henry exchanged confused glances with Thanatos. Why would York and Susannah send for him, when they had some sort of problem?
He unrolled the scroll eagerly and started reading. The message was short and to the point, and Henry's expression became more and more dire the further he read. When he had finished it, he let the scroll snap shut. "We need to leave. Now."
Thanatos threw him a confused glance. "What does it say?"
Henry stood up already, readying himself to depart. "It's Longclaw."
