Disclaimer: No.
A/N: I am so sorry I haven't updated! Here's a consolation chapter, one of my longer ones. Thank you so much to all my reviewers! I love you guys!
Chapter 10 - First Words
The stallion the girl had called Psyche was pacing around outside the wooden door, his hooves clicking on the wood porch. His silky white mane flowed down his neck to rest lightly over his rippling chocolate brown muscles. Every other step he'd sniff the air for a scent of his mistress, and every time he lowered his head and took another step.
Dom, Owen, and Merric were all asleep in their room, while Kel still hadn't returned from her job with the girl. There was a clunk upstairs as Kel closed her door and scrambled down the stairs to where Neal sat at the table, drumming his fingers. She had a piece of paper in her hand.
"What happened?" Neal asked tensely. Kel held out the paper, shoving it under his nose.
"I found it in her pocket." She said crisply. He took it from her and studied the sketch.
It was done in charcoal, as he tested his thumb on an edge of the drawing. The parchment depicted two beings in a library, a young, preteen girl with long hair that fell over her shoulders and down some of her back, smiling as she read a book. She was sitting in a dark figure's lap, and he was cloaked, no face visible underneath a hood, and his hands covered in armored gauntlets.
"Do you know what it is?" Neal asked Kel, interested.
"Not in the slightest. I believe he has some connection with her, but how or who I don't know." She said as she shook her head. "But maybe we have more on our hands with her here than we thought." She added softly. In a stronger voice she said, "I've got her ready for you, Neal." He nodded and followed her up the stairs.
*~*~*~*
Devon opened her eyes slowly, the image before her blurry and shifting. She blinked a few times, and everything came into focus, even if the floor still seemed to be resting atop waves. Sitting up, she put a hand to her forehead to steady her reeling senses. Her head throbbed like someone had hit her good and hard over it with a sturdy wooden club. The light of the room, though dim, made her eyes water and her headache grow. She lowered herself back against the pillows, taking deep breaths and feeling her headache ebb away slowly, reducing it to a dull pain.
Opening her eyes to slits, she glanced around the room. It was all wood, and old wood at that. A small heating stove was in the corner, covered in black ash. Various articles of clothing in many colors were sneaking out of the lid of a heavy wood trunk near the door. The bodice of a green silk dress sprawled on the floor, and beside it was a pair of green brocade slippers.
Still reclining in the bed, Devon reached for her foot and pulled her boots off her feet, careful not to injure her bad leg further as the supple leather slid down her calf. Her black leather breeches were scuffed and ripped all over, but because they were tight, she didn't dare try to take them off. They might snag on her leg, and they were holding it in one piece nicely where they were. Besides, she didn't know who or what lived here, other than something very, very green she'd remembered before she'd blacked out, and they might walk in any minute.
She was inspecting the shreds in her white blouse when some noise, amplified by a hundred, caught her ear. It was deafening, and she covered her ears to muffle the sound. Before long, she realized they were footsteps, approaching her door. Soft whispers accompanied them, and the door clicked open.
With a swift movement that sent her mind careening, she grabbed the hilt of her sword, pointing it at the swaying door. Two people, one young woman and a man, stopped dead at the doorway. When she met their eyes, she noticed that his were a deep, rich green, the same shade she'd remembered. The woman stepped forward, hands in a gesture of peace, her eyes gentle and concerned.
"Easy, we won't hurt you." She said, "Put the sword down." Devon backed up against he headboard so she could sit up safely, and dropped her sword. It went skidding across the floor with an unearthly ring, the iron shivering.
"Good, how do you feel?" The woman asked. "Anything you can tell us in particular that doesn't feel right?" Devon rubbed her temples furiously, trying to calm her hearing down. Even the woman's quiet voice seemed to be a yell in her brain.
"Please, lower your voice." Devon said, voice barely above a whisper. "Every sound makes my head ring like someone is shouting in my ear." She waved the man behind her forward, and he gently touched her temples with both hands. In an instant, everything sounded normal, and her vision wasn't swimming. The floor was thankfully steady.
"Better?" He asked.
"Much, the floor is in one place now." Devon smiled wryly.
"I'm Lady Knight Keladry of Mindelan." The woman said, "But you can call my Kel. This is Knight Nealan, Neal, of Queenscove."
Devon nodded politely. She recognized Keladry now that her eyes were straightened out. She was the lady knight all the cheering had been about in Port Caynn. She didn't mention this though; they would ask questions if she reminded her that she was present. And that she was wearing a black cloak, like the one she had now, though it was thoroughly ruined, and not very recognizable.not anymore that is.
"I'm Devon of." Devon stopped herself from saying 'the realm of the gods' because she was positive they wouldn't believe her, and instead remembered what the Goddess had told her, ".of Nocturne." She finished. Kel's face was puzzled, as was Neal's, they glanced at each other.
"Is Nocturne a fief in Scanra?" Neal asked.
"No it's." Devon bit her lip, thinking of some cardinal direction. In her head, she heard the voice of the Goddess, 'East, say east.'
"It's East." Devon said confidently. This only confused Kel and Neal more, she noticed with distress.
"Tusaine and Galla?" Kel inquired, intrigued.
"No, farther east." Devon replied at the Goddess' bidding.
"There is nothing beyond the borders of Tusaine and Galla." Neal stated, as if he thought she was lying. Which she was, but at the instruction of the Goddess.
"That's what you think." Devon said confidently, though if there was anything else beyond the borders of Tusaine and Galla, she didn't know of it.
"You are a long way from home, then. What brings you out so far to Tortall?" Kel asked, not completely satisfied with Devon's answer.
"My father sent me out to see the world for two years." Devon began. "I was traveling with a company, my riding master, a friend, and a lady in waiting of my mother's, along with a map reader, but Sora, the lady in waiting, got sick and my riding master had to leave to take her back. My friend Quinn came too, with me that is, and we were separated by the spidren fights." Devon's anxiety eased. As long as she didn't say 'zombie' or 'skeleton' or 'gnome', she could fully tell the truth, and make the Goddess her mother, and the Black God obviously her father. Kel nodded, and walked out of the room to get Devon some pain-relieving tea. Neal sat on the bed at her side.
"Anywhere else you're hurt?" He asked. She nodded.
"My leg, I'm sure it's broken." Carefully, he rested a hand on her knee, assessing the damage.
"Four places, it's going to take awhile to heal. Not even my father, the royal healer can heal this all in one day. A month is more realistic." He said, looking back at her. "I saw you fight the spidren." He said, as if it was something unusual. "You're a good fighter, even on one leg." He smiled a little at this and she smiled back, feeling relieved that he wasn't as uptight as she'd feared.
"I'm always the stylist." She said dryly. He laughed softly as he healed her spidren bites with simple touches of his hands. The skin closed, leaving a small scar, maybe the length of her fingernail. He sat back thoughtfully as he looked at her leg, stiff and unmoving, held together by her breeches.
"I'm not really fond of it, but you need to get that splinted and wrapped, unless you want it to keep getting hurt every time you use it. I healed the small break at your thigh, so I only need to get a little above your knee." His voice faded.
"Do what you have to. I don't take to being on bed rest very easily." She said honestly. He smiled knowingly,
"I expected you not to be." He said, rising from his seat. At the door he paused, and turned to her. "Tomorrow I'll wrap it. I'll send Kel in to help you into your nightclothes." With that, he closed the door. Devon sighed and leaned back against the pillows, thinking until Kel came in with a simple, homespun nightgown. Gently, they peeled the tattered breeches off her legs and untied the vest and blouse, throwing the nightgown over her head. It went to her ankles. Kel and her were the same height, apparently. Kel smiled and helped her into bed.
"Thank you for helping me, Kel." Devon said sincerely, "I owe you."
"No, I should be thanking you." Kel said seriously, "Neal has been pretty down the past weeks, and having someone to heal takes his mind off of things." Devon smiled.
"It was a girl, I know." Devon said, at Kel's surprised face, she explained, "He seemed too relieved to be talking to me for it to be anything else." Kel laughed, and closed the door behind her.
Devon leaned against the pillows and gingerly rolled onto her side, thinking about what Kel had said. Did she mean something other than the obvious? Neal seemed to be a little rattled about the girl thing, which Devon really only guessed because Neal seemed to her to be someone in and out of love. But what Devon wanted to know was what exactly about her had been what Kel had been thanking her for. Was it lending an ear, or being a distraction? A decidedly female distraction. Sighing, and silently cursing the earthly humans for their complicated workings, she said her nightly prayers to Mithros, the Goddess, the forest god Armalin, and her father. Satisfied that they had heard her, she fell asleep, dreaming of the Goddess' gardens outside her palace where all exotic plants grew and water seemed to flow from everywhere. The air was fresh and heavy with a damp, natural feel. From behind a plant, she saw all her friends, and her father, waving and smiling at her. In reality, she smiled and sighed, turning over again and falling into a deep sleep.
*~*~*~*
In the next room, Neal was tossing and turning, disturbing his cousin Dom who was in the bunk below his. Dom opened an eye and kicked at the bottom of Neal's mattress.
"Neal, stop writhing like you've got ants in your breeches and go to sleep." Dom hissed, rolling over to show that the discussion was ended. Neal took a breath and stretched out on his bunk. He closed his eyes experimentally, but like they had a mind of their own they just wouldn't stay shut. Skeletal shapes plagued his mind and an unfamiliar multi-toned voice kept speaking, but the words were just babble to his ears.
Deciding that sleep wasn't going to happen any time soon, he crept out of bed and downstairs, sitting on the steps of the porch and thinking, green eyes pensive. His thoughts wandered to a pretty, plump, peppery Yamani woman, and wouldn't stray from her.
From behind him he heard a light footstep, the double-click of a heeled boot. A tall leather boot stood beside him, flowing into tan breeches, and Devon sat beside him slowly, avoiding pressure on her leg as she leaned a crutch against the steps. With her rear a few inches from the wood floor, she plunked herself down in an ungainly way with a thump.
"Couldn't sleep?" Neal asked a little sharply. He hadn't wanted to be interrupted while he thought, and least of all by the invalid. Something about her made a little warning sign go off on a rampage in his head. Something about her made him wary. He could sense it in Kel, too. This 'Devon of Nocturne' was much more than she appeared, he thought. Someone dangerous, and perhaps an enemy, though nothing in her introduction of herself had swayed them either way, towards friend or foe.
"Neither could you." She responded dryly, sensing his irritable mood. Her face was thoughtful as she lightly elbowed him and said, "Spill." He scowled at her and didn't respond.
"What makes you think I'd tell you?" He snapped. For some reason his mind was telling him to run from her, and his heart was beating double time in uncertainty, fight or flight. She shrugged, completely unfazed. If she noticed his wariness, she didn't bring it up.
"Nothing does. But I know you need someone to talk to." He could feel her eerily stormy gray eyes on the back of his head as he looked away. "You think there's something missing." She said plainly.
"Missing from what?" Neal asked her angrily, "What if I'm fine?" She looked at him, regarding him with respect.
"If you were fine, you wouldn't be yelling at me right now, and you wouldn't have been tossing and turning half the night." Devon said quietly. She stood, leaning on her crutch.
"Goodnight Neal." She said sharply, hobbling inside. Scowling to himself, Neal sat alone on the steps to the porch until the sun began to rise over the tops of the trees.
*~*~*~*
Devon felt a hand shake her awake, and she looked into Kel's hazel eyes. Kel smiled brightly and tossed her a pair of tan breeches and a loose white shirt with a light green tunic to put on over it. She helped Devon into her clothes, not noticing the grimace that Devon's face held, as these were the first clothes on twelve years she'd worn that weren't black, red, or gray, in any variation. With Kel's help, she hobbled downstairs and sat on one of the benches, which had been padded with cushions especially for Devon.
With a smile, Kel went to the fire outside and came back in with a steaming cup of tea. She sat down next to Devon as she drank her tea suspiciously, not recognizing any painkilling agents in its herbal depths. She put it down on the floor and sat back, resting her leg up on the soft cushions.
"How are you feeling?" Kel asked, motioning to the crooked appendage that stretched over half the bench. Devon shrugged.
"Okay, I guess. I hate being confined to sitting." She said gloomily. Psyche whinnied from the pen outside and Devon longed to run outside and jump onto his back and ride like the wind, but she couldn't run, nor could she jump. Not for at least another month, Neal had said.
She scowled as she thought of the healer. She had only wanted to help the night before, and he chewed her up and spit her out like some piece of tobacco or something. Kel smiled apologetically, as if she knew what Devon was thinking.
"He's difficult sometimes, but he's got a heart of gold." She assured her, though Devon saw the fakeness in Kel's smile.
*~*~*~*
Kel thought as she poked the fire into a pile of hot coals. Neal hadn't been himself lately, and she knew it was because of Yuki. In other times, he'd had his share of crushes, but everyone, including him, had believed that Yuki was the real thing, that she was it. They'd seemed so perfect together, until Yuki left unexpectedly and Neal had changed for the worse. It was possible that they were too much the same.
But how Neal treated Devon last night was appalling! Kel had been spending time with Peachblossom and heard the whole conversation. Neal had been rough, angry, sharp, and Devon had only been trying to help. The memory made Kel furious. Although, she had to admit that Devon was pretty strange in her ways, and that she herself was a little reserved and wary around her.
But she had hoped beyond hope that Neal would calm down and forget for a while during Devon's stay. She had thought that having someone who needed his help urgently near him would take his mind off of Yuki. Instead, he was beginning to hate their young guest.
Kel looked over at Devon's sleeping frame on the cushioned bench. She didn't look at all like Yuki. Yuki had been plump and curvy, peppery yet amusing, and beautiful with her dark brown eyes and dark hair. Devon was tall, thin and strong, like an aspen tree. She was curious, and extremely rare-looking with her gray eyes and bronze colored hair and tanned skin. She was more pensive than outspoken, and would often take to staring into nowhere with her eyes glazed over like she was deep in the realms of thought. Nothing in her whole being was anything like Yuki; in fact the Yamani and the stranger were like night and day! So why did Neal hate her so?
Suddenly, the door opened and Neal came inside, and saw Kel sitting beside Devon's bench, about to wake her, another steaming mug of tea at her left. Kel looked up and touched a finger to her lips in the gesture to be quiet. Neal glared and sat down at the table, watching Kel with the look of a man who was about to meet his rival.
"Devon, Devon wake up." Kel said gently. Devon's gray eyes opened, and she took the mug Kel held out to her, sipping gratefully. When she was done, Devon stretched and yawned, leaning on her crutch as she stood shakily.
"I believe I will go visit Psyche." She said stiffly as she witnessed Neal at the table, watching her spitefully. Kel held her in her seat and shook her head.
"You aren't going anywhere until Neal bandages your leg." She said firmly. With a look at the aforementioned healer, she went outside to douse the fire.
There was silence before Devon sighed and looked at Neal with hard, cold eyes. She rolled up the leg of her breeches to a few inches above her knee.
"Let's get this over with." She said, "I dislike this as much as you, you know." She added tartly. Neal suppressed a growl and sat beside her, taking out a long bandage and two small poles of wood Merric had whittled for a splint. He placed them on either side and started to wrap, a little less gently than he usually did.
"Ouch gods damn you that hurt!" Devon snapped, as he pulled a piece too tight. She scowled as he continued on without even looking up at her, crossing her arms over her chest.
Outside, Dom sat beside Kel, talking, until they heard a string of curses coming from none other than Neal. Kel cringed as they listened to the two yelling at each other.
"Mithros, just HOLD STILL!" Neal snapped loudly.
"I refuse to hold still when you're hurting me! I have the right to defend myself!"
"You're such a baby! Just stop wiggling like a helpless puppy and you'll be fine!"
"Don't' call me a puppy, you.you." There was a pause, "You fiend!"
"What?!"
"Venemous, conniving, evil."
Inside, Devon was standing behind the table, leaning heavily on her crutch as Neal watched her angrily.
"Look, if you don't want your leg healed, fine!"
"Healers aren't supposed to hurt more than help!" Devon retorted. Neal took a step towards her and she took one back.
"Come, on, stop being so childish." Neal sighed exasperatedly.
"I am not! You should stop being childish!" Devon retorted, nearly catapulting herself over a chair as she lost her balance and fought to regain it.
"Am not!"
"Are too!"
"Am not!"
"Are too!"
"SHUSH BOTH OF YOU!" In the doorway stood Dom, looking as mad as anyone had ever seen him. He pulled Neal over to the bench across the room from Devon's and pushed him until he sat down. He lightly urged Devon to her own bench and made her sit as well, because she was injured and it would be stupid to impose more of her healing on Neal.
"You are to sit right in these places until you can look at each other without wanting to strangle the other person." Dom looked at each of them coldly and then returned to Kel, who was outside.
"Thanks a lot." Neal hissed under his breath. Devon sighed and lay back on her bench.
"It would be easier if your mouth wasn't moving." She said scathingly.
"Easier for what?" Neal growled.
"For me to not strangle you."
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A/N: I am so sorry I haven't updated! Here's a consolation chapter, one of my longer ones. Thank you so much to all my reviewers! I love you guys!
Chapter 10 - First Words
The stallion the girl had called Psyche was pacing around outside the wooden door, his hooves clicking on the wood porch. His silky white mane flowed down his neck to rest lightly over his rippling chocolate brown muscles. Every other step he'd sniff the air for a scent of his mistress, and every time he lowered his head and took another step.
Dom, Owen, and Merric were all asleep in their room, while Kel still hadn't returned from her job with the girl. There was a clunk upstairs as Kel closed her door and scrambled down the stairs to where Neal sat at the table, drumming his fingers. She had a piece of paper in her hand.
"What happened?" Neal asked tensely. Kel held out the paper, shoving it under his nose.
"I found it in her pocket." She said crisply. He took it from her and studied the sketch.
It was done in charcoal, as he tested his thumb on an edge of the drawing. The parchment depicted two beings in a library, a young, preteen girl with long hair that fell over her shoulders and down some of her back, smiling as she read a book. She was sitting in a dark figure's lap, and he was cloaked, no face visible underneath a hood, and his hands covered in armored gauntlets.
"Do you know what it is?" Neal asked Kel, interested.
"Not in the slightest. I believe he has some connection with her, but how or who I don't know." She said as she shook her head. "But maybe we have more on our hands with her here than we thought." She added softly. In a stronger voice she said, "I've got her ready for you, Neal." He nodded and followed her up the stairs.
*~*~*~*
Devon opened her eyes slowly, the image before her blurry and shifting. She blinked a few times, and everything came into focus, even if the floor still seemed to be resting atop waves. Sitting up, she put a hand to her forehead to steady her reeling senses. Her head throbbed like someone had hit her good and hard over it with a sturdy wooden club. The light of the room, though dim, made her eyes water and her headache grow. She lowered herself back against the pillows, taking deep breaths and feeling her headache ebb away slowly, reducing it to a dull pain.
Opening her eyes to slits, she glanced around the room. It was all wood, and old wood at that. A small heating stove was in the corner, covered in black ash. Various articles of clothing in many colors were sneaking out of the lid of a heavy wood trunk near the door. The bodice of a green silk dress sprawled on the floor, and beside it was a pair of green brocade slippers.
Still reclining in the bed, Devon reached for her foot and pulled her boots off her feet, careful not to injure her bad leg further as the supple leather slid down her calf. Her black leather breeches were scuffed and ripped all over, but because they were tight, she didn't dare try to take them off. They might snag on her leg, and they were holding it in one piece nicely where they were. Besides, she didn't know who or what lived here, other than something very, very green she'd remembered before she'd blacked out, and they might walk in any minute.
She was inspecting the shreds in her white blouse when some noise, amplified by a hundred, caught her ear. It was deafening, and she covered her ears to muffle the sound. Before long, she realized they were footsteps, approaching her door. Soft whispers accompanied them, and the door clicked open.
With a swift movement that sent her mind careening, she grabbed the hilt of her sword, pointing it at the swaying door. Two people, one young woman and a man, stopped dead at the doorway. When she met their eyes, she noticed that his were a deep, rich green, the same shade she'd remembered. The woman stepped forward, hands in a gesture of peace, her eyes gentle and concerned.
"Easy, we won't hurt you." She said, "Put the sword down." Devon backed up against he headboard so she could sit up safely, and dropped her sword. It went skidding across the floor with an unearthly ring, the iron shivering.
"Good, how do you feel?" The woman asked. "Anything you can tell us in particular that doesn't feel right?" Devon rubbed her temples furiously, trying to calm her hearing down. Even the woman's quiet voice seemed to be a yell in her brain.
"Please, lower your voice." Devon said, voice barely above a whisper. "Every sound makes my head ring like someone is shouting in my ear." She waved the man behind her forward, and he gently touched her temples with both hands. In an instant, everything sounded normal, and her vision wasn't swimming. The floor was thankfully steady.
"Better?" He asked.
"Much, the floor is in one place now." Devon smiled wryly.
"I'm Lady Knight Keladry of Mindelan." The woman said, "But you can call my Kel. This is Knight Nealan, Neal, of Queenscove."
Devon nodded politely. She recognized Keladry now that her eyes were straightened out. She was the lady knight all the cheering had been about in Port Caynn. She didn't mention this though; they would ask questions if she reminded her that she was present. And that she was wearing a black cloak, like the one she had now, though it was thoroughly ruined, and not very recognizable.not anymore that is.
"I'm Devon of." Devon stopped herself from saying 'the realm of the gods' because she was positive they wouldn't believe her, and instead remembered what the Goddess had told her, ".of Nocturne." She finished. Kel's face was puzzled, as was Neal's, they glanced at each other.
"Is Nocturne a fief in Scanra?" Neal asked.
"No it's." Devon bit her lip, thinking of some cardinal direction. In her head, she heard the voice of the Goddess, 'East, say east.'
"It's East." Devon said confidently. This only confused Kel and Neal more, she noticed with distress.
"Tusaine and Galla?" Kel inquired, intrigued.
"No, farther east." Devon replied at the Goddess' bidding.
"There is nothing beyond the borders of Tusaine and Galla." Neal stated, as if he thought she was lying. Which she was, but at the instruction of the Goddess.
"That's what you think." Devon said confidently, though if there was anything else beyond the borders of Tusaine and Galla, she didn't know of it.
"You are a long way from home, then. What brings you out so far to Tortall?" Kel asked, not completely satisfied with Devon's answer.
"My father sent me out to see the world for two years." Devon began. "I was traveling with a company, my riding master, a friend, and a lady in waiting of my mother's, along with a map reader, but Sora, the lady in waiting, got sick and my riding master had to leave to take her back. My friend Quinn came too, with me that is, and we were separated by the spidren fights." Devon's anxiety eased. As long as she didn't say 'zombie' or 'skeleton' or 'gnome', she could fully tell the truth, and make the Goddess her mother, and the Black God obviously her father. Kel nodded, and walked out of the room to get Devon some pain-relieving tea. Neal sat on the bed at her side.
"Anywhere else you're hurt?" He asked. She nodded.
"My leg, I'm sure it's broken." Carefully, he rested a hand on her knee, assessing the damage.
"Four places, it's going to take awhile to heal. Not even my father, the royal healer can heal this all in one day. A month is more realistic." He said, looking back at her. "I saw you fight the spidren." He said, as if it was something unusual. "You're a good fighter, even on one leg." He smiled a little at this and she smiled back, feeling relieved that he wasn't as uptight as she'd feared.
"I'm always the stylist." She said dryly. He laughed softly as he healed her spidren bites with simple touches of his hands. The skin closed, leaving a small scar, maybe the length of her fingernail. He sat back thoughtfully as he looked at her leg, stiff and unmoving, held together by her breeches.
"I'm not really fond of it, but you need to get that splinted and wrapped, unless you want it to keep getting hurt every time you use it. I healed the small break at your thigh, so I only need to get a little above your knee." His voice faded.
"Do what you have to. I don't take to being on bed rest very easily." She said honestly. He smiled knowingly,
"I expected you not to be." He said, rising from his seat. At the door he paused, and turned to her. "Tomorrow I'll wrap it. I'll send Kel in to help you into your nightclothes." With that, he closed the door. Devon sighed and leaned back against the pillows, thinking until Kel came in with a simple, homespun nightgown. Gently, they peeled the tattered breeches off her legs and untied the vest and blouse, throwing the nightgown over her head. It went to her ankles. Kel and her were the same height, apparently. Kel smiled and helped her into bed.
"Thank you for helping me, Kel." Devon said sincerely, "I owe you."
"No, I should be thanking you." Kel said seriously, "Neal has been pretty down the past weeks, and having someone to heal takes his mind off of things." Devon smiled.
"It was a girl, I know." Devon said, at Kel's surprised face, she explained, "He seemed too relieved to be talking to me for it to be anything else." Kel laughed, and closed the door behind her.
Devon leaned against the pillows and gingerly rolled onto her side, thinking about what Kel had said. Did she mean something other than the obvious? Neal seemed to be a little rattled about the girl thing, which Devon really only guessed because Neal seemed to her to be someone in and out of love. But what Devon wanted to know was what exactly about her had been what Kel had been thanking her for. Was it lending an ear, or being a distraction? A decidedly female distraction. Sighing, and silently cursing the earthly humans for their complicated workings, she said her nightly prayers to Mithros, the Goddess, the forest god Armalin, and her father. Satisfied that they had heard her, she fell asleep, dreaming of the Goddess' gardens outside her palace where all exotic plants grew and water seemed to flow from everywhere. The air was fresh and heavy with a damp, natural feel. From behind a plant, she saw all her friends, and her father, waving and smiling at her. In reality, she smiled and sighed, turning over again and falling into a deep sleep.
*~*~*~*
In the next room, Neal was tossing and turning, disturbing his cousin Dom who was in the bunk below his. Dom opened an eye and kicked at the bottom of Neal's mattress.
"Neal, stop writhing like you've got ants in your breeches and go to sleep." Dom hissed, rolling over to show that the discussion was ended. Neal took a breath and stretched out on his bunk. He closed his eyes experimentally, but like they had a mind of their own they just wouldn't stay shut. Skeletal shapes plagued his mind and an unfamiliar multi-toned voice kept speaking, but the words were just babble to his ears.
Deciding that sleep wasn't going to happen any time soon, he crept out of bed and downstairs, sitting on the steps of the porch and thinking, green eyes pensive. His thoughts wandered to a pretty, plump, peppery Yamani woman, and wouldn't stray from her.
From behind him he heard a light footstep, the double-click of a heeled boot. A tall leather boot stood beside him, flowing into tan breeches, and Devon sat beside him slowly, avoiding pressure on her leg as she leaned a crutch against the steps. With her rear a few inches from the wood floor, she plunked herself down in an ungainly way with a thump.
"Couldn't sleep?" Neal asked a little sharply. He hadn't wanted to be interrupted while he thought, and least of all by the invalid. Something about her made a little warning sign go off on a rampage in his head. Something about her made him wary. He could sense it in Kel, too. This 'Devon of Nocturne' was much more than she appeared, he thought. Someone dangerous, and perhaps an enemy, though nothing in her introduction of herself had swayed them either way, towards friend or foe.
"Neither could you." She responded dryly, sensing his irritable mood. Her face was thoughtful as she lightly elbowed him and said, "Spill." He scowled at her and didn't respond.
"What makes you think I'd tell you?" He snapped. For some reason his mind was telling him to run from her, and his heart was beating double time in uncertainty, fight or flight. She shrugged, completely unfazed. If she noticed his wariness, she didn't bring it up.
"Nothing does. But I know you need someone to talk to." He could feel her eerily stormy gray eyes on the back of his head as he looked away. "You think there's something missing." She said plainly.
"Missing from what?" Neal asked her angrily, "What if I'm fine?" She looked at him, regarding him with respect.
"If you were fine, you wouldn't be yelling at me right now, and you wouldn't have been tossing and turning half the night." Devon said quietly. She stood, leaning on her crutch.
"Goodnight Neal." She said sharply, hobbling inside. Scowling to himself, Neal sat alone on the steps to the porch until the sun began to rise over the tops of the trees.
*~*~*~*
Devon felt a hand shake her awake, and she looked into Kel's hazel eyes. Kel smiled brightly and tossed her a pair of tan breeches and a loose white shirt with a light green tunic to put on over it. She helped Devon into her clothes, not noticing the grimace that Devon's face held, as these were the first clothes on twelve years she'd worn that weren't black, red, or gray, in any variation. With Kel's help, she hobbled downstairs and sat on one of the benches, which had been padded with cushions especially for Devon.
With a smile, Kel went to the fire outside and came back in with a steaming cup of tea. She sat down next to Devon as she drank her tea suspiciously, not recognizing any painkilling agents in its herbal depths. She put it down on the floor and sat back, resting her leg up on the soft cushions.
"How are you feeling?" Kel asked, motioning to the crooked appendage that stretched over half the bench. Devon shrugged.
"Okay, I guess. I hate being confined to sitting." She said gloomily. Psyche whinnied from the pen outside and Devon longed to run outside and jump onto his back and ride like the wind, but she couldn't run, nor could she jump. Not for at least another month, Neal had said.
She scowled as she thought of the healer. She had only wanted to help the night before, and he chewed her up and spit her out like some piece of tobacco or something. Kel smiled apologetically, as if she knew what Devon was thinking.
"He's difficult sometimes, but he's got a heart of gold." She assured her, though Devon saw the fakeness in Kel's smile.
*~*~*~*
Kel thought as she poked the fire into a pile of hot coals. Neal hadn't been himself lately, and she knew it was because of Yuki. In other times, he'd had his share of crushes, but everyone, including him, had believed that Yuki was the real thing, that she was it. They'd seemed so perfect together, until Yuki left unexpectedly and Neal had changed for the worse. It was possible that they were too much the same.
But how Neal treated Devon last night was appalling! Kel had been spending time with Peachblossom and heard the whole conversation. Neal had been rough, angry, sharp, and Devon had only been trying to help. The memory made Kel furious. Although, she had to admit that Devon was pretty strange in her ways, and that she herself was a little reserved and wary around her.
But she had hoped beyond hope that Neal would calm down and forget for a while during Devon's stay. She had thought that having someone who needed his help urgently near him would take his mind off of Yuki. Instead, he was beginning to hate their young guest.
Kel looked over at Devon's sleeping frame on the cushioned bench. She didn't look at all like Yuki. Yuki had been plump and curvy, peppery yet amusing, and beautiful with her dark brown eyes and dark hair. Devon was tall, thin and strong, like an aspen tree. She was curious, and extremely rare-looking with her gray eyes and bronze colored hair and tanned skin. She was more pensive than outspoken, and would often take to staring into nowhere with her eyes glazed over like she was deep in the realms of thought. Nothing in her whole being was anything like Yuki; in fact the Yamani and the stranger were like night and day! So why did Neal hate her so?
Suddenly, the door opened and Neal came inside, and saw Kel sitting beside Devon's bench, about to wake her, another steaming mug of tea at her left. Kel looked up and touched a finger to her lips in the gesture to be quiet. Neal glared and sat down at the table, watching Kel with the look of a man who was about to meet his rival.
"Devon, Devon wake up." Kel said gently. Devon's gray eyes opened, and she took the mug Kel held out to her, sipping gratefully. When she was done, Devon stretched and yawned, leaning on her crutch as she stood shakily.
"I believe I will go visit Psyche." She said stiffly as she witnessed Neal at the table, watching her spitefully. Kel held her in her seat and shook her head.
"You aren't going anywhere until Neal bandages your leg." She said firmly. With a look at the aforementioned healer, she went outside to douse the fire.
There was silence before Devon sighed and looked at Neal with hard, cold eyes. She rolled up the leg of her breeches to a few inches above her knee.
"Let's get this over with." She said, "I dislike this as much as you, you know." She added tartly. Neal suppressed a growl and sat beside her, taking out a long bandage and two small poles of wood Merric had whittled for a splint. He placed them on either side and started to wrap, a little less gently than he usually did.
"Ouch gods damn you that hurt!" Devon snapped, as he pulled a piece too tight. She scowled as he continued on without even looking up at her, crossing her arms over her chest.
Outside, Dom sat beside Kel, talking, until they heard a string of curses coming from none other than Neal. Kel cringed as they listened to the two yelling at each other.
"Mithros, just HOLD STILL!" Neal snapped loudly.
"I refuse to hold still when you're hurting me! I have the right to defend myself!"
"You're such a baby! Just stop wiggling like a helpless puppy and you'll be fine!"
"Don't' call me a puppy, you.you." There was a pause, "You fiend!"
"What?!"
"Venemous, conniving, evil."
Inside, Devon was standing behind the table, leaning heavily on her crutch as Neal watched her angrily.
"Look, if you don't want your leg healed, fine!"
"Healers aren't supposed to hurt more than help!" Devon retorted. Neal took a step towards her and she took one back.
"Come, on, stop being so childish." Neal sighed exasperatedly.
"I am not! You should stop being childish!" Devon retorted, nearly catapulting herself over a chair as she lost her balance and fought to regain it.
"Am not!"
"Are too!"
"Am not!"
"Are too!"
"SHUSH BOTH OF YOU!" In the doorway stood Dom, looking as mad as anyone had ever seen him. He pulled Neal over to the bench across the room from Devon's and pushed him until he sat down. He lightly urged Devon to her own bench and made her sit as well, because she was injured and it would be stupid to impose more of her healing on Neal.
"You are to sit right in these places until you can look at each other without wanting to strangle the other person." Dom looked at each of them coldly and then returned to Kel, who was outside.
"Thanks a lot." Neal hissed under his breath. Devon sighed and lay back on her bench.
"It would be easier if your mouth wasn't moving." She said scathingly.
"Easier for what?" Neal growled.
"For me to not strangle you."
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