A/N:Writing ficlets easy. Sustaining an actual narrative arc hard. Sigh.

Disclaimer: Tamora Pierce's characters, my sometimes-twisted take thereon.

49. Furious

Numair and Daine clash rarely but spectacularly, with raised voices and heated words. Neither has ever struck the other, but the possibility has loomed more than once.

When Daine is angry, she is angry with all of her being; Numair, whom she loves with everything she has, can make her angrier than any other creature in all the realms. She is dimly aware that even when she has completely given in to her fury, when she has reached the stage of shouting incoherently and of saying things for which she will later have to apologize, he still manages to retain some measure of control over himself. Perversely, this makes her more furious still.

50. Dreaming/Waking

Rikash has a recurring nightmare in which he is a Stormwing (which is bad enough, though perhaps inevitable) and must fight, over and over again, another Stormwing, who wants to take from him something precious that he has vowed to defend. The dream always ends the same way: he falls and falls until he wakes, gasping and afraid to go back to sleep.

What the something is he never discovers, until one day, when he is seven years old, he happens to hear a minstrel ballad he has never heard before, a particular tale from the famous Battle of Legann. It is a long and violent and bloody one – but it isn't quite as bad as the dream.

51. Conveniently Forgettable

"Is this really necessary, Magelet?"

"Believe me, it is. Have you forgotten what happened the last time?"

"Perhaps I have. I'm an old man, you know."

"Not old. Oblivious, more like."

"That was unkind."

"But true enough. Perhaps if your father had paid more attention—"

"Very well: stand back, then. Sarra! Rikash! Come and look at me—yes, that's right …"

52. Home

She worries about what will become of them—of her, in particular—when he is gone. Not whether they will still have a place to call home, but how any place can be called her home without him in it.

53. Precious

It is an old book, but so clean and unblemished that it looks almost new. Spelled, of course, she realizes. It is Ma's most prized possession, and now Ma and Da have finally deemed her old enough to use it.

She takes a deep breath and opens the volume, almost at random, to a finely detailed drawing of a bat's wing. And stares at it as though it will somehow help her understand her mother.

54. If/When

"I'll only be gone a few days," he tells her.

"We'll miss you," she says. "I'll miss you."

"I know."

"I wish you'd tell me what it is you're going to do." Anxiously.

"If I could—"

"I know."

"When I get back, I'll tell you all about it," he promises.

"Numair?"

"Yes, Magelet."

"If you get yourself killed—"

"I know: you'll never forgive me." He smiles wanly, thinking, Isn't that my line?

"I might," she says. "But you can be sure the children won't. Don't do anything stupid."

55. Whispers

Hearing more is easy: Sarra learned the trick of bat ears years ago. But sometimes it would be more useful to hear less. Unfortunately, there are no ears duller than her human ones.

Instead, therefore, she learns to use rumour to her own advantage. She isn't proud of it, some days; but doesn't Ma always say, "We all do our best with what the Gods give us"?

56. Promises, Promises

"Let me up!" Rikash pleads.

"Are you going to tell?"

"Well—"

"Are you?" Her face looms closer, threateningly.

"Ow! No – I won't – I promise. Will you let me up now?"

"Fine. Get up, then, cry-baby." She lets him up and turns her back on him, arms folded, nose in the air.

"Am not a cry-baby."

"You are! You're crying this minute."

"Am not! You're mean!" He is hardly crying at all, really. Considering.

"You started it, cry-baby."

"Didn't! It was you, you – you—" It's infuriating, the way all the dreadful insults he thinks of in quieter moments desert him when it counts.

"Ha!"

"Chicken-legs!" This is better than nothing, but not very satisfying.

"Curly-locks!"

"Stupidhead!"

"Worms-for-brains!"

"Two-legger!"

There is a sound, and the air blurs for a moment.

Rikash blinks at the snarling wolverine. Then he takes off running. "I'm telling!" he howls.