Score, with Helaine a half-step behind, found Pixel and Crow in a dirty, sweaty mess, fighting azaleas just outside the courtyard. The azaleas, it seemed, were winning. Score's skin tingled pleasantly in the warm late afternoon sun, and he surveyed his muddied friend with a grin. He was about to toss a terribly witty (at least in his opinion) barb when Helaine poked him.
"Does Crow seem...older...to you?"
Score looked, and blinked. The short hair was longer, the movements more certain, and whatever trace of baby fat had clung to the ribs of the skinny orphan appeared completely gone. Crow seemingly had aged two or three years in the last handful of hours. Before Pixel or Crow looked up to notice the two, Helaine pulled Score back into the shade around the corner of the wall. Her face was flushed and mottled and she spoke with undertones of urgency.
"How long has she been with you two?" She prompted: "I was gone a little over a week... can't be more than that. I was wondering...the goblins, they have short life spans... maybe she'll age like they do?"
"No" Score shook his head "because she looked the same for the entire time, until just now. It's almost like something triggered it. I think maybe -" Score didn't finish his thought, because Crow rounded the corner and faced him.
"Hello Score, Hello Helaine. I trust you had an enjoyable journey?" Her lips curved around the words in an almost sensual manner, sans the childish pronunciation she'd previously displayed.
"Er..." Score's jaw bobbed a bit.
"I was thinking, I don't believe we were introduced under perhaps the best of circumstances. I am Helaine of Ordin." With an unusually gracious smile, Helaine extended a callused palm and shook the younger girl's hand.
"I was once called Crow, by my runner. It fits." Crow's eyes flitted bashfully down to the ground.
"Runner?"
Crow looked up all at once brimful of sorrow and fear. "I... I... he..." she stammered, sliding in and out of her peculiar dialect. Helaine firmly grasped Crow's shoulders and stared intently. Score fumbled about by himself, catching the edge of what the girls were trying to convey, but unable to understand what exactly Helaine was sharing with Crow.
At last Helaine released Crow's shoulders, and the smaller girl looked up with her wide almond eyes. Score coughed a little, and both turned to him sharply, as though he was intruding. He reached out to Helaine in his mind. *Is everything okay?* he asked hesitantly.
*No! The poor girl! I can't even imagine the... misery. Did you know?*
*I guessed. Pixel wouldn't believe me. I don't know how to help her.* Score sighed mentally.
*I do.* Helaine didn't look at Score as she thought, but down at the top of Crow's thin indigo hair. *She's never had a mother.*
Something in the way her thoughts came across gave Score reason to pause. With a surprising jolt of intuition, he replied *Neither have you.*
Now Helaine looked up at Score, with a softness he'd missed in all the other thousand times he'd gazed at her face. She smiled, and said aloud. "That is why I understand." She turned her face to Crow, and gently touched the girl's blue-purple tangles. "Can I braid your hair?" Helaine asked, with a sort of gruffness that passed, for Helaine, as friendly. After slight hesitation, Crow nodded, and Helaine led her away towards the castle, talking about some princess with hair so long it was hung out a tower window and a prince climbed up it.
Score pinched himself. Helaine, his Helaine, dirty, fighting, cussing, passed-as-a-boy warrior Helaine wanted to talk HAIR? He pinched himself again. This second pinch was not followed by a third because he realized, after a little application of logic, that Helaine wasn't really interested in braids and princesses. She was caring about a lost and lonely girl. Score gingerly reached for his newest piece of information, and wrapped his mind around an image of little-girl Helaine, growing up under the heavy hand of a father. Somehow, it didn't surprise him.
Pixel, at this point curious as to why his returning friends had not yet come to greet him, bumped into a deep-thinking Score as he rounded the corner. 'Score', 'deep', and 'thinking' were typically not words he strung together, so he stopped and shook the other boy's shoulder.
"Score?"
"How is it Crow looks ten instead of seven?" The earth boy asked bluntly.
"You noticed it too, huh? It started as soon as you made contact with me from that council meeting, the one with Bryndis, and stopped when I broke the contact. Very strange. We could hear her bones expanding and muscles stretching."
"Like she tapped into some Miracle-Gro when we opened that channel. But she wasn't part of it, was she?"
"Miracle-Gro?" Pixel shielded his eyes from the slanting rays of the sun and then stepped into the growing shadow with Score.
"Never mind. The question is, why? I don't suppose she said anything to you."
"Of course not. All of the sudden, she's asking me where to put the next azalea with proper grammar. I wish she would open up to us."
"Relax, Pixel, it's only been a week. Besides," Score hazarded a glance up towards the castle, "I think Helaine may be taking care of that." He quickly summarized Helaine's encounter with Crow, and the conclusion he had reached.
"Interesting, isn't it?" Pixel asked, finally, stepping out of the shade, back towards his azaleas.
"What's interesting?" Score demanded.
"You told us your mother was dead. Helaine's apparently is as well. I spent more time picking dirt out of my fingernails than with my mother."
"So?"
"The three of us. We're all motherless. Now Crow too."
"I don't see what you're getting at."
"Hm. It was just an observation. But now I have a question for you." Pixel's frowned in thought before offering up his query. "What about Destiny?"
"What about our favorite psycho bitch?" Score leaned against the wall casually.
"Well, if the reason why the Triad could be reborn again and again was because they were soulless, then how did they do it with Destiny?"
"I wouldn't put it past her to not have a soul. Let's not forget she killed her own sister."
"I don't think so. She said the Triad was experimenting with the person-to-baby form, remember?"
"She was probably lying, Pixel."
"Maybe."
"Pixel, snap out of it. Destiny was super-insane, stop trying to defend her." Score paused, and added mischievously "Besides, I thought you'd gotten over her when she tried to murder you."
Pixel flushed hotly at the memory and cleared his throat. "Whatever. I just don't think Bryndis is telling us the whole truth." He shrugged indifferently and turned back towards his azaleas. Score watched his retreating friend from the cool shade of the courtyard wall, fingered the stubble on his chin, and decided it was finally time to shave.
In the reflection of the porcelain framed mirror, Helaine could see Crow perching stiffly on the bed, hands flitting on her lap. After searching through many drawers in her trunk, she had recovered only a no-nonsense horse curry comb and a string from one of her rabbit snares. Helaine snorted in dissatisfaction. Finding trousers comfortable and embroidery mind-numbing should not be a death sentence for her femininity. And yet, she realized, as she took mental inventory, not a dratted bit of pink or lace lurked anywhere on or around her person.
"Well, then." Helaine muttered, turning to reveal the curry comb and twine treasures she'd found. Crow looked blank.
In a flash of inspiration, Helaine remembered something, and used her sapphire to nab a few items from Score's room. A worn black comb and a squat blue jar bobbed in and settled themselves on the bedside table. Helaine tossed the jar to Crow, who untwisted the lid and made a face at the goo inside.
"I always knew that boy spent more time at his toilet than I." Helaine smiled. Crow dabbed her finger in the hair gel and stuck and unstuck her fingers in admiration.
"What is it?" she asked, sniffing her fingers. "Can I eat it?"
"I don't think so. Score...puts it in his hair..." Helaine mimed the actions she'd seen the earth boy do while preening in front of a mirror. "And it sticks up." She wrinkled her nose. "An odd thing."
Crow wiped her hands on her pants and handed the smelly ointment back to Helaine. "Show me?" She inquired timidly. Helaine stared down into the jar. It, rather impolitely, stared back.
"Oh, all right." She muttered, almost to herself. It was smooth and cool to the touch of her fingers, and she rolled a glob of it around before dispersing it along a small strand of her long blonde hair. Helaine attempted to make it stand straight up, like a unicorn, but the strength of the goo gave out and her horn flopped halfway through, smacking her wetly on the forehead.
Helaine cussed mildly, and heard a strange titter. She looked up.
Crow laughed.
In an apparently entirely unrelated incident in a musty, forgotten corner of the Diadem, something beautiful bloomed.
*****
A/N
After the "BLIZZARD OF 2003!!!" (as they like to call it in these parts) I happily settled into writing this chapter. It's sort of a sleeper, I'll admit, but it's important in the long run. Crow's nature is very deliberate, on my part, and all will be revealed in good time. As for Helaine, she's inadvertantly healing herself, instead of Crow, but ALL IN GOOD TIME. I promise. Pinky-swear, even.
And, briefly, I'd just like to say that I LOVE my reviewers, you are all AMAZING and you've really kept me going. And to the other authors in this section: Keep writing, you're beautiful, don't let your stories (and the struggling Diadem section) stagnate and fester. If anyone needs a beta or help with a creative block or just some encouragement, I'm always on the other end of an email.
Aroo!
"Does Crow seem...older...to you?"
Score looked, and blinked. The short hair was longer, the movements more certain, and whatever trace of baby fat had clung to the ribs of the skinny orphan appeared completely gone. Crow seemingly had aged two or three years in the last handful of hours. Before Pixel or Crow looked up to notice the two, Helaine pulled Score back into the shade around the corner of the wall. Her face was flushed and mottled and she spoke with undertones of urgency.
"How long has she been with you two?" She prompted: "I was gone a little over a week... can't be more than that. I was wondering...the goblins, they have short life spans... maybe she'll age like they do?"
"No" Score shook his head "because she looked the same for the entire time, until just now. It's almost like something triggered it. I think maybe -" Score didn't finish his thought, because Crow rounded the corner and faced him.
"Hello Score, Hello Helaine. I trust you had an enjoyable journey?" Her lips curved around the words in an almost sensual manner, sans the childish pronunciation she'd previously displayed.
"Er..." Score's jaw bobbed a bit.
"I was thinking, I don't believe we were introduced under perhaps the best of circumstances. I am Helaine of Ordin." With an unusually gracious smile, Helaine extended a callused palm and shook the younger girl's hand.
"I was once called Crow, by my runner. It fits." Crow's eyes flitted bashfully down to the ground.
"Runner?"
Crow looked up all at once brimful of sorrow and fear. "I... I... he..." she stammered, sliding in and out of her peculiar dialect. Helaine firmly grasped Crow's shoulders and stared intently. Score fumbled about by himself, catching the edge of what the girls were trying to convey, but unable to understand what exactly Helaine was sharing with Crow.
At last Helaine released Crow's shoulders, and the smaller girl looked up with her wide almond eyes. Score coughed a little, and both turned to him sharply, as though he was intruding. He reached out to Helaine in his mind. *Is everything okay?* he asked hesitantly.
*No! The poor girl! I can't even imagine the... misery. Did you know?*
*I guessed. Pixel wouldn't believe me. I don't know how to help her.* Score sighed mentally.
*I do.* Helaine didn't look at Score as she thought, but down at the top of Crow's thin indigo hair. *She's never had a mother.*
Something in the way her thoughts came across gave Score reason to pause. With a surprising jolt of intuition, he replied *Neither have you.*
Now Helaine looked up at Score, with a softness he'd missed in all the other thousand times he'd gazed at her face. She smiled, and said aloud. "That is why I understand." She turned her face to Crow, and gently touched the girl's blue-purple tangles. "Can I braid your hair?" Helaine asked, with a sort of gruffness that passed, for Helaine, as friendly. After slight hesitation, Crow nodded, and Helaine led her away towards the castle, talking about some princess with hair so long it was hung out a tower window and a prince climbed up it.
Score pinched himself. Helaine, his Helaine, dirty, fighting, cussing, passed-as-a-boy warrior Helaine wanted to talk HAIR? He pinched himself again. This second pinch was not followed by a third because he realized, after a little application of logic, that Helaine wasn't really interested in braids and princesses. She was caring about a lost and lonely girl. Score gingerly reached for his newest piece of information, and wrapped his mind around an image of little-girl Helaine, growing up under the heavy hand of a father. Somehow, it didn't surprise him.
Pixel, at this point curious as to why his returning friends had not yet come to greet him, bumped into a deep-thinking Score as he rounded the corner. 'Score', 'deep', and 'thinking' were typically not words he strung together, so he stopped and shook the other boy's shoulder.
"Score?"
"How is it Crow looks ten instead of seven?" The earth boy asked bluntly.
"You noticed it too, huh? It started as soon as you made contact with me from that council meeting, the one with Bryndis, and stopped when I broke the contact. Very strange. We could hear her bones expanding and muscles stretching."
"Like she tapped into some Miracle-Gro when we opened that channel. But she wasn't part of it, was she?"
"Miracle-Gro?" Pixel shielded his eyes from the slanting rays of the sun and then stepped into the growing shadow with Score.
"Never mind. The question is, why? I don't suppose she said anything to you."
"Of course not. All of the sudden, she's asking me where to put the next azalea with proper grammar. I wish she would open up to us."
"Relax, Pixel, it's only been a week. Besides," Score hazarded a glance up towards the castle, "I think Helaine may be taking care of that." He quickly summarized Helaine's encounter with Crow, and the conclusion he had reached.
"Interesting, isn't it?" Pixel asked, finally, stepping out of the shade, back towards his azaleas.
"What's interesting?" Score demanded.
"You told us your mother was dead. Helaine's apparently is as well. I spent more time picking dirt out of my fingernails than with my mother."
"So?"
"The three of us. We're all motherless. Now Crow too."
"I don't see what you're getting at."
"Hm. It was just an observation. But now I have a question for you." Pixel's frowned in thought before offering up his query. "What about Destiny?"
"What about our favorite psycho bitch?" Score leaned against the wall casually.
"Well, if the reason why the Triad could be reborn again and again was because they were soulless, then how did they do it with Destiny?"
"I wouldn't put it past her to not have a soul. Let's not forget she killed her own sister."
"I don't think so. She said the Triad was experimenting with the person-to-baby form, remember?"
"She was probably lying, Pixel."
"Maybe."
"Pixel, snap out of it. Destiny was super-insane, stop trying to defend her." Score paused, and added mischievously "Besides, I thought you'd gotten over her when she tried to murder you."
Pixel flushed hotly at the memory and cleared his throat. "Whatever. I just don't think Bryndis is telling us the whole truth." He shrugged indifferently and turned back towards his azaleas. Score watched his retreating friend from the cool shade of the courtyard wall, fingered the stubble on his chin, and decided it was finally time to shave.
In the reflection of the porcelain framed mirror, Helaine could see Crow perching stiffly on the bed, hands flitting on her lap. After searching through many drawers in her trunk, she had recovered only a no-nonsense horse curry comb and a string from one of her rabbit snares. Helaine snorted in dissatisfaction. Finding trousers comfortable and embroidery mind-numbing should not be a death sentence for her femininity. And yet, she realized, as she took mental inventory, not a dratted bit of pink or lace lurked anywhere on or around her person.
"Well, then." Helaine muttered, turning to reveal the curry comb and twine treasures she'd found. Crow looked blank.
In a flash of inspiration, Helaine remembered something, and used her sapphire to nab a few items from Score's room. A worn black comb and a squat blue jar bobbed in and settled themselves on the bedside table. Helaine tossed the jar to Crow, who untwisted the lid and made a face at the goo inside.
"I always knew that boy spent more time at his toilet than I." Helaine smiled. Crow dabbed her finger in the hair gel and stuck and unstuck her fingers in admiration.
"What is it?" she asked, sniffing her fingers. "Can I eat it?"
"I don't think so. Score...puts it in his hair..." Helaine mimed the actions she'd seen the earth boy do while preening in front of a mirror. "And it sticks up." She wrinkled her nose. "An odd thing."
Crow wiped her hands on her pants and handed the smelly ointment back to Helaine. "Show me?" She inquired timidly. Helaine stared down into the jar. It, rather impolitely, stared back.
"Oh, all right." She muttered, almost to herself. It was smooth and cool to the touch of her fingers, and she rolled a glob of it around before dispersing it along a small strand of her long blonde hair. Helaine attempted to make it stand straight up, like a unicorn, but the strength of the goo gave out and her horn flopped halfway through, smacking her wetly on the forehead.
Helaine cussed mildly, and heard a strange titter. She looked up.
Crow laughed.
In an apparently entirely unrelated incident in a musty, forgotten corner of the Diadem, something beautiful bloomed.
*****
A/N
After the "BLIZZARD OF 2003!!!" (as they like to call it in these parts) I happily settled into writing this chapter. It's sort of a sleeper, I'll admit, but it's important in the long run. Crow's nature is very deliberate, on my part, and all will be revealed in good time. As for Helaine, she's inadvertantly healing herself, instead of Crow, but ALL IN GOOD TIME. I promise. Pinky-swear, even.
And, briefly, I'd just like to say that I LOVE my reviewers, you are all AMAZING and you've really kept me going. And to the other authors in this section: Keep writing, you're beautiful, don't let your stories (and the struggling Diadem section) stagnate and fester. If anyone needs a beta or help with a creative block or just some encouragement, I'm always on the other end of an email.
Aroo!