"Good evening, pretty healer."
Startled out of her reverie, Leetah looked up to see Ekuar standing in front of her.
"Good evening to you too," she smiled.
The aged elf nodded in acknowledgment and looked around. "Where is Cutter tonight?" he asked.
"He told me he was tracking a small group of humans who have come too near the holt." She put a hand on the ground next to her, inviting Ekuar to sit.
The rockshaper did so with a slight smile. "Do you believe him?" His sad, worried eyes searched hers. Leetah sighed.
"I believe that is what he is doing. I do not believe that is all he is doing." Ekuar nodded understanding. "This isn't easy for him," she continued. "I'm sure some time to sort out his feelings would help."
Ekuar put his hand on hers. "This isn't easy for any of us, is it?" he asked her gently. His sympathy touched Leetah unexpectedly and tears slid down her cheeks. "I miss him, healer. So much." Tears glittered on his wizened cheeks also.
Leetah sniffed and nodded. "Me too," she whispered. "But I cannot share it with Cutter. He cannot see past what Rayek did. I cannot bear to see anger or scorn or—or betrayal in his eyes."
Ekuar leaned over and put his hand on her shoulder. "The others can't miss everything else that Rayek was. Maybe you and I could comfort each other, yes?" Smiling softly, Leetah nodded. The two elves talked together much of the night, sharing their love and their memories. In the end, it brought Leetah much comfort to be able to comfort Ekuar in that manner, for though Rayek was her dearest friend and she could no more stop loving him than she could stop loving Cutter, her talk with Ekuar reminded her that he had lost someone much dearer. He had lost his son.
"He was always like sunshine and shadow," she mused to Cutter one day. They were quietly watching Tyleet teach Rayek some new bit of Wolfrider lore. "More shadow than sun, truth be told. This new Rayek broods too but… I have to say, there's more sun in him now. I wonder why."
"Who cares?" Cutter grunted. "At least this one has no magic yet."
Leetah's eyes saddened. I hope one day you can be fair to him, she sent, filling her sending with all her love and compassion for her lifemate, her old friend and the child her friend had become.
Cutter was silent. He wasn't ready for her to be right. Leetah sighed and changed track. "Skot should apologize to him."
"It was just a little prank," he said, shrugging it off.
"It was more than that and you know it," Leetah said sternly. "What will it do to the tribe if they tear each other down in front of their chief and he laughs?"
"They can settle things between themselves."
"Is that what you would have?" Leetah shot back. "A tribe that is always 'settling things between themselves?'"
Cutter scowled. "Would you rather I have a tribe that came crying to me at the drop of a leaf?"
"I would rather you have a tribe that trusted you to stand up for them when they could not," Leetah said quietly.
Silently, Cutter mulled over Leetah's words. He trusted and acknowledged his lifemate's wisdom. The sight of Skot standing threateningly over little Rayek had been satisfying but also appalling. Reluctantly, he admitted to himself that knew which side he should let win.
Predictably, Skot had already forgotten the incident. "Why are you making such a big deal?" he asked, scratching his head. Cutter shrugged. Leetah, who knew her lifemate's limits and had no desire to push them, spoke up instead. "Because it's the right thing to do. Isn't it Rayek?"
Rayek, who looked as if he were barely accepting the Go-Back's apology, narrowed his eyes disdainfully at Skot. He said he was sorry. What's his punishment going to be?
"Punishment?" Cutter growled, not liking Rayek's commanding tone.
Rayek scowled. He wasted food! He should have to get more or something!
"I have an idea!" Leetah broke in. "Skot will replace the lost greens and Rayek will go with him. That way," she continued, "Rayek can learn what greens in the forest are good to eat—"
"None of them," Skot muttered. Rayek sniggered in response and they both froze, shocked at this discovery of common ground.
"—and Skot can learn to be more careful," she continued, valiantly ignoring the commentary.
Tyleet went with them, ostensibly to help keep an eye on Rayek but she thought Skot could use some help keeping himself out of trouble as well. "Look there!" she pointed. "Some yellowfrond!"
"Ick," Skot grimaced. "That stuff sticks in my throat."
Mine too, Rayek sent, making a face that made Skot laugh.
"Then why are you helping her gather it?" the Go-Back teased.
Because you don't turn your nose up at food, Rayek responded grimly.
"Why not?" Skot stretched his arms wide, indicating the whole forest. "There's food all around, ready for the taking!"
You're spoiled.
Skot burst out laughing. "Spoiled? How?"
There isn't any food in my home. There's never any rain and nothing grows.
"Aww, sure there is! I've heard tales of the Sun Village! You don't get much rain but you get some. Then you have this big festival! Sounds great to me!"
Rayek shook his head and continued pulling up yellowfronds. Tyleet held out her basket and he dropped them in there. There hasn't been any rain for-- he paused, thinking. Ten years. Before I was born.
"That's crazy," Skot said. "What do you eat?"
Squatneedle root mostly. Rayek grimaced.
Skot tilted his head curiously. "What's that taste like?"
Rayek sent him an impression of the taste. Skot choked then knelt down and started pulling up yellowfronds. "Even THESE taste better than that," he muttered. Rayek laughed agreement and Tyleet smiled, glad to see them getting along.
"Looks like you're raising another Strongbow," Pike joked to Tyleet as the tribe relaxed by the stream some time later. "I can't remember the last time I heard him speak two words together."
Tyleet smiled fondly down at her little charge. Rayek was inching himself reluctantly into the cold stream. "He wants to be good at Sending," she said to Pike.
"What have you told him?"
Surprised, Tyleet turned around. She had hoped that her chief and his lifemate would continue past her to a different part of the stream but they hadn't. Cutter stared coolly down at her. Leetah, the one who had spoken, looked down with more warmth but it was still a tense scene. Not wanting to be part of it, Pike slipped away.
"Told him about what?" Honestly confused, Tyleet's gaze flicked from Leetah to Cutter and back. She made a small motion with her hand and Rayek reluctantly returned to her side. She put an arm around his shoulders like a mother woodhatcher tucking her young under her wing. Little Rayek frowned up at Cutter, not liking the big, furry one who made his friend uncomfortable.
"About his arrival here," Leetah said. With a quick glance at Cutter, she knelt down on the bank to be closer to them and less intimidating. Cutter huffed and looked away.
Tyleet blinked, flustered. "Oh! Um… He hasn't asked."
"He… hasn't… asked…" Leetah repeated dumbly. Almost she was tempted to laugh but it made no sense to her. The Rayek that she had known wanted to know everything about everything and NOW. She couldn't imagine him NOT asking so obvious a question. She shook her head. "I shall have to ask him myself then," she said, forcing a smile. "Come here, little one." Tyleet whispered something encouraging to Rayek who shook her arm off and stood defiantly in front of the healer. "How did you come here?" she asked as gently as she could.
Rayek shrugged sullenly.
"Do you know who we are?" Leetah pressed.
Instantly Rayek's face split into a grin. You're the Rootless Ones!
Everyone who had been politely ignoring the incident snapped to attention.
"The Rootless Ones," Cutter repeated flatly.
You live in the green, growing place, Rayek shrugged. He clearly considered this to be ample proof.
"Well," Leetah said cautiously, "I guess you could say we are like the Rootless Ones. You remember your parents, don't you kitling?" The child nodded. "Can you tell us their names?"
Jarrah and Ingen, he admitted with reluctance.
"And they are Sun Villagers?"
Miserably he nodded.
Leetah looked helplessly over at Tyleet who shrugged back in confusion. "For Freefoot's sake," Cutter snapped, "just answer the question. How did you get here?"
Rayek shook his head in a flurry of blue-black hair. I don't know, he sent without looking up.
"You can't lie in sending," growled Cutter, dropping down to glare at Rayek. "Why. Are. You. Here?" he ground out.
Rayek had been pushed far enough. He raised his eyes and glared fiercely back at the wolf chief. They traded me for a plant-shaper! he shouted.
Confusion. Rejection. Anguish. Cutter's unprepared mind reeled. He groped for his lifemate's hand. Leetah squeezed back, overwhelmed herself. All the time she had known him, Rayek had been distant from his parents. She had never understood why but she couldn't believe that he would believe them capable of such a thing.
Cutter, more experienced with sending, recovered faster than Leetah. "Don't be stupid," he frowned, shaking his head in an effort to clear it. "We wouldn't trade a plant-shaper for you!"
It was like watching Strongbow shoot prey. The terrified widening of the eyes as it realizes what's happening. The hiss of indrawn breath as it prepares to flee. The strangled sound as the barb hits home. Cutter watched all that wash over little Rayek's face in one, slow, horrible moment.
"Wait!" he shouted at the boy's fleeing form. "I didn't mean it that way!" High Ones help me, I DIDN'T. Leetah had been right. Touching minds with the child had helped him to see this new Rayek for who he was and the pain he had seen in the boy's face brought him no joy.