A/N: Hey all! I know this was a longer update time than usual but what with NaNoWriMo I've been busy... Anyway, thanks to:
Night Owl and Fireblade K'Chona for reviewing the last chapter! I hope you enjoy this one too!
No one ever asked me anything- except to ask me to help out with chores. Within a week, (and another snow fall), I had learned how to care for the animals and could have done it myself, and I was learning the lore of cows and horses. The next day they set me to milking- something they had previously done before I'd gotten up, and I quickly learned that cows, like horses, are prone to kicking people they don't like.
For some reason, cows don't like me. Oh, they liked me well enough when I was giving them hay, but to have me reach under and touch them with hands I considered gentle… No, that they didn't tolerate. And I found that now I was human, I was a bit more delicate, and after the fifth cow knocked over her bucket and landed a good kick on my thigh I stood up and kicked her back, a nice solid thump in her side and gave her a good glare- if I could have laid me ears back I would have.
To my surprise, she complied and decided to ignore me as she had never cared and began steadily chewing through some hay. I sat down again, a bit put out and annoyed and finished milking her. There was a laughing snort from behind me and I turned to glance back, ready to aim annoyed words at Yael or Dash, but Yael was somewhere else and Dash was shoveling manure in another pen, his eyes off of me, and serious and with a eerie feeling I turned back to milking.
"Interesting way of dealing with a cow," a voice commented and I whirled around, but once more Dash appeared to be totally ignored me, yet the voice sounded like his. I shrugged and answered, "It's their language."
"It is," agreed Dash, throwing a pile of steaming manure into a wheelbarrow. After that I decided that Dash was just creepy.
Once the chores were finished we returned to the house and Teryl said she was going to take Lucy into town to do some shopping- we were running a bit low and if the weather kept up like this we'd be completely snowed in, in no time. The cellar had seemed quite full to me, but then again, I'd never been raised on a farm, not in any of my recent lives anyway.
I immediately saw this as a chance to talk to Teryl about coming to Haven with me, how I'd broach the subject I hadn't a clue but I had to take this chance. So instead of pulling off my boots I said, "I'll come too. There are a few things I need to get myself." Like a warmer coat.
She nodded and I waited by the door while she bundled up, her quick hands neatly lacing up sturdy boots and tightly securing several scarves around her head, letting only a few trailing strands of reddish blond hair wisp out.
"We'll take Lucy and Jack," Teryl said as she pulled open the door, letting in an icy wind. We quickly stepped through and shut the door firmly. I squinted in the bright sunlight and winced as the wind bit at my open skin and wormed its way through the seams in my layers.
I followed her to the barn and helped as we gave the two horses a quick brushing and then saddled them up. It was strange to be the one doing the saddling, instead of being saddled, and I thought longingly of my warm winter coat and my beautiful blue saddle, the cozy Companion's stable and the herd togetherness.
Teryl took Lucy's reins and led her out of the stable, so I supposed I was getting Jack. The bay followed me placidly out into the snow, the wind apparently not bothering him with his coat, although his eyes dropped down a notch. I shivered and curled my hands up inside my clothing as much as possible.
"We go this way," Teryl said mysteriously, mounting up on the piebald plow horse and nudging her into a walk along the shoveled and trampled area between house and road. I hoped the road was at least partially clear- otherwise it'd be a long ride in uncomfortable weather.
I had little time to talk at first while we rode- it was too cold and there was just enough room for the horses to plod slowly along single file, a situation very hard to converse in. Yet Teryl assured me blandly that the town was only five miles away, and never before had five miles been so long.
This town was small enough to be more of a village, without walls or fortifications. It was really just a few homes and a few stores all lined up alongside the road. Teryl halted Lucy and then tied her up at a hitching post just inside the village limits and I copied her, realizing as I did so that horses emit enormous amounts of heat. The moment I was off Jack I was shivering again.
And so I followed her around the village, stopping at the grocer to buy what foodstuffs they couldn't get from the cows or their calves- all of which would keep indefinitely in this weather. I didn't really get a chance to confront Teryl at all about going to Haven until three hours of trudging around from store to store in the snow after a girl who didn't seem to feel cold. Did she have any other Gifts she wasn't showing? I snorted under my breath- cold immunity wasn't a Gift, although it'd be a damned useful one if it was!
My chance came when Teryl was tying bags to Lucy's saddle with fingers much too nimble through gloves much too thin to possibly be keeping her warm. By this time my own fingers were feeling thick and clumsy, as if my blood was freezing slowly into mush and stiffening my joints.
"You have something on your mind, yes?" Teryl asked, looking across Lucy's back at me, her brown eyes inquiring and curious.
I shrugged, then realized now I could ask her about Haven and I quickly nodded and said, "Well, yeah. I do actually. Have you ever been to Haven?"
She shook her head, "I've been too busy helping out with the farm. Why? You from there?"
I nodded sheepishly and shoved my hands in my pockets, "I am. Born and raised."
"You do a fair hand with a farm though," she said with a slight smile and I blushed at the praise.
"Thank you," I said, glancing at Jack, tied up behind me, "But I was thinking… it's winter, and I'm sure your father can handle himself for a few weeks- if you'd be interested in coming up for the midwinter festival? I try not to miss it myself and I think you'd be fascinated."
It wasn't really lying. I mean… I suppose I made it sound as if she'd be coming back, but there really wasn't any other way to get her back to Haven. Yael would receive compensations and Dash was there to help too. I didn't want to hinder them, they were truly nice, if a bit odd, people.
"Dash too?" she asked, perking up, a few more strands of hair escaping from her scarf as she tied a sack tight and then moved around Lucy's head to untie the mare now encrusted with snow flakes blown around in the wind.
"Uh," I said, "Well… I wasn't sure if you could spare…"
She gave me a look, one that I couldn't quite identify and then mounted up onto Lucy so she was looking down at me with her sweet face and then said, "I'm not free you know."
"Free?" I echoed, for what, Heraldic duty? I frowned at her.
She frowned back at me and then pulled off her left glove and waved at me what I hadn't noticed before and said, "Dash is my husband."
"Oh," I said quietly, my mouth forming a ring like a fish gasping for air and suddenly I felt like that- like I needed air.
"Oh," I repeated once more. That explained a few things… Like how Dash never moved away from her- and where he slept. And now, thinking over it, I saw too how he moved towards her as well, how he looked at her. How could I have not noticed, even if my Companion oriented brain had missed the rings?
"That's right," she said smartly, kicking Lucy around and trotting out of the village, leaving me and Jack alone in the wind, snow swept landscape.