The sun rose the next morning, warm and bright, as if nothing had happened the day before. Keladry of Mindelan and Masbolle woke to find a small troupe of sparrows staring down at her from the window sill. She groaned. "Go away," she muttered.
One of them chirped loudly. Kel smiled weakly. "You know its time to get up, don't you?" she asked. The bird, Char, so named for his ash colouring, peeped again.
Dom rolled over and looked at her. "How are you feeling?" He asked.
Kel smiled. "Never been better," she said, sitting up. "I suppose I should go practice. Care to join me?"
Dom raised an eyebrow. "Practice? I think not," he said with a grin as Kel stood up and stretched her stiff limbs. "I don't think it's time for you to get up at all." He grabbed her by the waist and pulled her back down onto the bed, kissing her.
She smiled. "I suppose I could stay here for just a little while."
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"Harder!"
"I'm trying!"
"Come on, Dom, you can do better than this!"
"Ow!" Dom landed on the ground as Kel's glaive hit him in the back of the legs. "No fair," he said, rubbing his behind as he stood up, "you were distracting me."
Kel rolled her eyes. "Come on, Dom. You're just as good a fighter as me. So use it!" She sighed. "You're just going to stop fighting until Neal gets back, aren't you. You just want someone you know you can beat."
Dom grinned. "Come on, archery competition. I know I can beat you in that. And besides, it doesn't hurt if I don't."
Kel laughed. "It's a deal."
Kel let her first arrow fly, feeling the familiar twang of the bow string. She was true to her aim and her arrow hit the innermost ring, just outside of the bullseye.
Dom's hit the bullseye. "Ha!" He said, thrusting his fist in the air. "In your face, Lady Knight!"
In response, Kel shot a bullseye. Their competition continued until they had both expended all of their arrows. "That was fun," Kel said as they trekked across the field to retrieve their arrows.
Dom grinned in agreement. "It was. And it appears to me that, oh my, I won!" He wrapped his arms around Kel's waist and lifted her off the ground. "Told you so!" He said.
Kel laughed. "That's wonderful, now put me down, you great oaf!"
Dom put her back on the ground and they walked slowly up to the palace, arm in arm. "I wonder what's going to come next," Kel muttered.
"Pardon?"
Kel looked up. "Sorry? Oh, I didn't realize I was speaking aloud. It's nothing."
Dom raised an eyebrow. "It's never nothing with you, love."
Kel shrugged. "I'm just wondering what my next ordeal will be. They just seem to keep coming."
Dom shrugged. "I don't know, maybe the gods have decided you've done enough. Think about it. Jon said he's going to be able to give out purses at Midwinter this year. You're going to get four, and I one. Neither of us would ever have to go on adventures again. Not like the ones we've been on. We could simply do what we've always done – protect Tortall. Without the drama."
Kel shrugged. "It's not like it's really our choice," she said. "I'd love to stop having so many people depend on me. But as long as I'm a knight, they will depend on me. And I don't plan on not being a knight any time soon."
"Speaking of dependence…" Dom said as they made it back to their rooms, "I was thinking…." He looked slightly uncomfortable. Kel didn't like where this was going. "You're not a green knight any more. And Raoul has been talking to me this week about promoting me to Captain. With these changes and the fact that I'm getting older I keep thinking… we've talked about starting, but it always seemed like a thing of the future. I just think, maybe the future isn't the future any more. Maybe it's now."
Kel didn't know what to say. "Dom, I… I don't know."
"I know you want to put your career first, and I understand that, but you can only do that for so long. And you said yourself that you don't want to keep going on these adventures. Maybe now is a good time for this break."
Kel sat down on the bed. "I don't know if I'm ready yet."
Dom bit his lip. "Kel, if you're not ready now, I don't know if you ever will be. You're already long past the normal birthing age. Most girls have their children in their early twenties. You're almost fifteen years past that. And I'm not so young myself."
Kel made a face. "Thank you for reminding me of my own mortality, darling." She sighed. "I just don't know if I can handle being a knight and being a mother. It will change the way people treat me, and the way…"
"Alanna did it. She has children. She's still a knight, as respected as she ever was."
Kel looked up at Dom's face. "You really want this, don't you?"
He sat down beside her. "I want it with you, Kel."
Kel closed her eyes. She had always said she wanted children, and she did. But the thought of having them now was frightening to her. She wasn't ready yet. But what if what Dom said was true? She would never be ready unless she made herself ready. She looked up at Dom once more. It almost made her laugh. If she had heard him say something like that fifteen, twenty years ago, she would have laughed herself silly. He was all grown up now. Maybe it was time for her to do the same.
She smiled and reached under her blouse, slipping her pregnancy charm over her neck and placing it on her end table.
Dom grinned and kissed her passionately, pulling her down onto the bed.
"When you said 'now' I didn't think you meant this moment," she said with a laugh.
Dom kissed her again. "Oh, shut up," he said with a smile.
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OMG! Yeah, that's all I really have to say. I haven't decided if this is the end or not. We'll see. I might continue it a bit more, I might leave it here… nah, I'll continue it. There's too many ideas buzzing around my head :P
PS. I am so sorry it has been so long since I updated!
Wake-Robin: I loved that one too…
Tortall Princess: thank you so much for the compliments! I am so glad that you enjoyed it.
Confusedknight: thank you!
Limegirl62: woah… I swear I didn't read your comment before I wrote this chapter…
DataFour: yeah, I've had a few people point that out… I forgot. :D
Totallytwisted: thank you!
Imakeladrygirl: thank you so much! Yeah, I should really get around to fixing that…
Lunaterra: thanks!
Ms. Aly: Ahh, she just can't talk during her Ordeal. She talked in the chamber in the books… just not in her Ordeal. And yes, Jump died, I have to change that, I made a mistake.
Mrs. Dom Masbolle: thank you! I do my best!
SarahE7191: I know, it's been forever… my schedule changed and my friends changed and now my school is changing and my writing just didn't really fit into the equation. I just found that I wasn't really into it. Plus I started writing some original stuff (total junk, I just enjoy it:D) and it really killed my drive to write fanfiction… but I'm trying to get back on track!
WhyshouldItellyou: Haha, I'm glad you got over it. It would be very depressing if it made you cry too much.
Alee: I liked that part too…
Balinnka: thank you so much! I was just rereading the story before I posted this (because I honestly can't remember what happened…) and I found a million editing mistakes… but is set up in a way that makes it very difficult to go back and change little errors. So I usually ignore the little ones. But I think it got better… and I'm so glad you are enjoying it!
"If you ever reach total enlightenment while drinking beer, I bet you could shoot beer out of you nose."
-unolimbo