II. The Beginning
Ursula heaved an irritated sort of sigh. Nino noticed immediately, and suddenly felt an urge to inquire as to the why.
"Ursula, why are you upset?" Nino asked innocently, her blue eyes wide. "You've been so moody since everyone left!"
The two were outside in one of Sonia's small gardens, Ursula sitting on a small bench while Nino played with her dolls. She only had two, both painstakingly crafted from twigs and old bits of clothing. Her mother had charged Ursula with looking after the child, which the Valkyrie had not been pleased by.
"I do wonder why," Ursula said in what might've been a pleasant tone if she hadn't been gritting her teeth.
Brendan and his two sons had left for Thria, to rid the world of yet another greedy lord. But that had been three weeks ago and they were due back any day now. Legault and Jan had pleaded terribly busy and consequently unable to watch after one active little girl. Ursula griped. As loathe as she was to leave Lady Sonia's side, she would have preferred to go with the three Reeds and their group than babysit Nino.
"I've learnt Elfire!" Nino informed her, changing the subject with a whim. "Thanks to you!"
"That's wonderful Nino," Ursula said absently. So that was where her spare tome had disappeared to.
"I hope Mother will talk to Father about sending me on missions soon!" Nino said cheerfully. "Uncle Legault says I'm still too young, though. What do you think, Auntie Ursula?"
"Don't call me auntie," Ursula cringed slightly, rubbing the skin around her eyes, as if words could cause crow's feet. "I'm not so old."
"But you aren't really a sister-type person," Nino pointed out. "You act much older! So you are an auntie."
There was a long bit of silence.
"Auntie Ursula?"
"Yes, Nino?" There was a tinge of irritation in the older woman's voice.
"Which of my brothers do you like best?"
"I dislike them each equally."
"But if you had to choose."
"I don't know." A sigh.
"If I had to choose, I'd choose Lloyd. He lets me win at cards. Linus doesn't."
"Ah . . . I guess I'd choose Linus. Not as smart. Easier to push around."
"Don't you like either of them?"
"No."
"That's not true," Nino sang happily.
"What?"
"You like Lloyd better. You heal him first after missions and you're always looking at him and sighing and stuff."
"What?"
"It's true then! You aren't saying anything!"
"Shut up," Ursula snapped, losing her patience.
"I know who Auntie Ursula's in love with," Nino told her two dolls, snickering. "Heehee."
"Lovely," Ursula muttered, looking to the sky wearily. "When those brothers of yours come back, I'll--
"You'll what, Dame Ursula?" Linus asked, appearing from behind. Nino shrieked happily and ran toward him, arms wide.
She stopped just short of him and held out her fist. "Rock!"
"Paper!" Linus held out his fist.
"Knives!" they both called.
"Rock smashes knives!" Nino giggled happily. "Say it!"
"I . . . I'm weird," Linus said, narrowing his eyes accusingly. From behind him, his brother laughed.
"Finally, a statement I can agree with," he said good-naturedly. Nino waved excitedly.
"Lloyd! You'll all here!" she said. In a burst of energy, she leapt up and wrapped her arms around Linus' neck. He gagged.
"N-nino, easy there!" he tried to free himself of the little girl, unsuccessfully.
Ursula zeroed in on Lloyd like a pegasus on a noble carrot. Her eyes were narrow.
"You are going to take that . . . girl, and you are going to keep her from my sight for the next few hours," Ursula warned him, her face almost impassive. She gripped his shirt and pulled him close, to make sure he understood completely. "If I see her, hear her, i sense /i her in any way possible, I shall hunt you down and i castrate you and your brother with my Mend staff /i ."
"And I have no doubt that you could do that," Lloyd nodded, somewhat frightened. This was a side of Ursula that many prayed never to see again. He gently pushed her aside. "I'll go attend to your request. Nino! Linus! Let's go, the psychotic lady doesn't like us any more!"
"Okay," Nino cheered. Ursula glared daggers behind a deadly, sweet smile. "What does psychotic mean?"
"It means that she's attractive and kind and very very forgiving," Lloyd supplied quickly. Ursula, taking enough abuse for one day, skulked off, presumably to find Sonia.
"Oh, okay," Nino nodded. "Then you're psychotic, too, Lloyd!"
Linus rolled his eyes. "What about me?"
"I guess you could be psychotic if you wanted to," Nino conceded. "But you'd have to work at attractiveness."
"What?!" Linus exclaimed.
"Let's go," Lloyd chuckled, turning. Linus and Nino followed.
"Hey, Lloyd?"
"Yes, Nino?"
"Was Auntie Ursula threatening you?"
". . . no."
"Oh. Okay."
"Lloyd?"
"Yes, Nino?"
"What does 'castrate' mean?"
"Help! For the love of St. Elimine, God and Uncle Jan's chicken and dumpling soup, help me!" Linus shrieked, peeking through one eye. "Hey! C'mon now, I'm the princess, why isn't anyone helping me?"
"Because!" Nino said mock-crossly. She giggled helplessly. "I'm fighting the evil monster!"
"Rar," Lloyd laughed. "You'll never rescue the princess!"
The lake was one of those clear blue mountain lakes that were only swimmable in the dead of summer, when the water was just a tad bit not as cold as every other season. The hill the brothers and sister Reed had chosen boasted the only tree around, until the evergreen forest started, not a great distance away. The rest of the landscape was grassy and hilled.
Linus had chosen the tree as his tower, although he was merely sitting at the base, watching Lloyd and Nino fight at the lakeside with thin strips of driftwood. Nino, were she not a mage, would've made a decent myrmidon.
"Ha!" Nino cried, knocking away Lloyd's weapon. She knew perfectly well he had let her, but she pounced on her chance. "I have defeated you!"
"How?" Lloyd exclaimed, shocked. He fell back on his knees.
"I cut off your head," Nino explained, smiling as she rested her piece of driftwood at his neck. "Thwap."
"Oh," Lloyd said. He fell over, 'dead'.
"Hey! Hero!" Linus yelled, tired of being ignored. "Get over here, I need to be rescued!"
"I'm coming," Nino giggled, dropping her 'sword'. "Just wait a moment!"
Nino ran up the hill to the tree. She dashed to Linus' side and hugged him. "I've rescued you!"
Lloyd followed soon afterward, bearing both pieces of driftwood. He was grinning, watching in amusement as Linus tried to peel Nino's arms from his neck again.
"Oi, I'm tired now," Lloyd said, sitting down next to the two them. "This monster must be getting old."
"Are not," Nino protested. "You're not so much older than me and I'm not even tired, not even a little bit!"
"Nino, I'm at least ten years older than you," Lloyd replied seriously. "That's old."
"Is not."
"Is too."
"Uncle Legault's older than you and Linus and he's always saying, 'Nino, I'm not old, I'm not even thirty yet! Why do I get put with Uncle Jan? Stop calling me uncle!'" Nino imitated Legault's patronizing voice. Both of her stepbrothers laughed.
"Okay, I guess I'm not old," Lloyd allowed. He pulled a flask of some kind of liquid from his coat. "But I'm still tired. Linus, do you want some?"
"What is it?" Nino asked, crawling around Linus to see.
"Hard liquor," he replied.
"Can I try?" she begged. "Ursula was always drinking it every night you were gone!"
Linus and Lloyd glanced at each other. On the one hand, it explained a lot about Ursula. On the other, there wasn't that much in the flask to go around. Lloyd took a calculated risk.
"Okay," he said, removing the stopper. "Try it."
Nino guided the flask to her mouth and took a sip. She swallowed.
"Yuck!" she made a face. "It's nasty, how can you drink that?"
Linus laughed. "With a practiced and steady hand. Go play."
"If you two won't play with me, it's no fun," Nino whined, still wiping her tongue. "Yuck. It's no fun to play alone."
"Tell you what," Lloyd said, leaning forward and pointed to a more colorful patch on the hillside. "I saw a pretty bunch of flowers growing on that hillside over yonder. Why don't you go pick some for Sonia? I'm sure even she's not above flowers."
Nino brightened immediately. "Yeah! That's a great idea!"
She leapt to her feet and ran to find flowers for her mother, waving excitedly behind her.
"Be back in at least within two hours," Lloyd called. "We'll start a fire or something and eat!"
The two brothers heard an echoing "okay!" Smiling, Lloyd turned to Linus and offered him a drink.
"You think she heard me?" Lloyd asked, doubtfully.
"Hell no, now give me that," Linus said, snatching away the flask and taking a swig.
"Hey, leave some for me, now! Moron," Lloyd frowned, swatting his brother and taking the drink.
Now a ways away, Nino stopped running, exhaustion getting the better of her. She leaned over, resting on her knees, panting. She looked up, glancing around. Yes, just like Lloyd had said, there were flowers here.
When Nino had a decent handful of columbines, the last of the bleeding hearts and some pinks, she began to think about heading back. Her brothers must be getting at least a i little /i worried and she was getting hungry. The sun was low in the sky, casting an orange glow on the lake. She gazed out at the water, taken by the beauty.
As she turned back to the tree Lloyd and Linus were waiting at, she caught a glimpse of something blood red, peeking through the pink, green and magenta. Intrigued, Nino veered off course to see. Nestled in the dip between hills, in the center of ring of mushrooms.
Now Nino knew something was off, mushrooms didn't start until autumn. The flower, however, was unlike any she'd seen before.
Waxy in texture and red like blood, it rose perfectly from the ground, just the right length. It was just too tempting. Although even Sonia advised against stepping into fairy circles of toadstools and mushrooms, this flower would make a wonderful centerpiece.
Nino stepped into the circle, and then stepped out, glancing around. She closed one eye, and then the other. The lands around her looked the same. She tried peeking through the corner of her eye. No little people, no monsters, no trolls were coming to snatch her away. Reassuring herself of this, Nino re-entered the ring, one foot outside the border, confident that her brothers would come to her aid if she screamed loud enough.
She reached out to the center of the fairy ring, grasping the stem of the perfect flower at its base. Nino grunted. This one was a particularly stubborn flower. Unconsciously, she stepped entirely inside the circle and set down her bouquet. She began to stab the stem at its base with her fingernails, being careful not to damage the flower too much. With a snapping noise, it came loose.
Hours had passed at the tree. Lloyd stood up and stretched.
"I'll let you carry the empty bottle," he told Linus, cracking his neck. "It's your birthday."
Linus frowned at the flask, now devoid of any contents. "My birthday's not for the next few months."
"Exactly," Lloyd confirmed. He scanned the hillside in the fading light. "Where's our lass?"
"Nino?" Linus scratched the back of his head. "Haven't seen her."
"Of course not," replied the swordmaster irritably. "She hasn't come back yet. If Sonia doesn't care, father will be furious and that's not fun."
"Okay, why don't we go look for her?" Linus glared, exasperated.
"That's what I'm i saying /i ," Lloyd sighed. "You are an idiot sometimes."
"Me?!" Linus said, standing.
There wasn't much of a conversation after that. Lloyd set off close to the tree line of the forest, whereas Linus combed the lake.
"Nino!" echoed throughout the area in two voices.
Linus began to get nervous, something unusual for him. He gritted his teeth, trying to not think of all the ways a little girl could meet her death at the arms of a lake. There was drowning and the hypothermawhatsit Ursula and Uncle Jan were always warning about, as well as selkies and the cucumber-lovers and nereids with grudges against human girls. Many people discounted these, but the Reed family knew better than that. . . yes, it was possible to meet your death from these causes.
Lloyd did not let those possibilities haunt him. Nino wouldn't be so stupid as to wander into the lake or not be able to recognize a selky straight out, not when they'd painstakingly described one to her. As if to assure him, the wind picked up, causing Nino's favorite blue cloak to flap in the wind, a distinctly different color from the grass. He sighed in relief.
"Linus!" he called down to him. "I found her!"
Linus appeared to be relieved as well and made his way up the hill to them. Lloyd approached his stepsister to find that she was sleeping within a fairy ring. He clucked his tongue.
"Nino, lass, you're just begging for the fair folk to take you," he said, touching her shoulder to wake her. He jerked it back. "God, you're cold as ice. Are you sick? Nino? Nino?"
Asleep. Nino made a "mmm" sound and breathed out. Lloyd removed his coat and wrapped it around her freezing body. Linus finally arrived, panting.
"St. Elimine, that's a steep hill," he said. "But it's a blessing we found her. I was getting worried."
"Yeah," Lloyd said, picking her up. "Look, she's fast asleep. Must've had more to drink than we thought, huh?"
"Yeah," Linus said. "Let's get home."