Daine winced as her fingers snagged in her hair, tugging at her scalp. "You aren't going to have any hair left if you keep doing that." Onua sighed and stopped shoveling manure, leaning on her pitchfork to frown at the girl. "You've been fidgety all week youngling...come on, out with it" she said.
Daine exhaled slowly. She didn't particularly know what was wrong with her, and she told Onua so. The K'mir snorted. "Well if you ask me, it has something to do with your missing six-foot four-inch shadow." Onua picked up her pitchfork and began mucking out the stall again. "Your foul mood basically coincided with the minute Jon sent him away, and if I had to guess, it won't get better until he comes back." She laughed and Daine scowled in response.
"I am not in a foul mood." Daine paused realizing she was about to run her fingers through her hair again. "I'm just...I'm just worried Onua" she whispered. "The man has no common sense," she stared at the piece of straw stuck to her left boot lace. "He gets in so much trouble without me."
The older woman paused again, this time leaning her pitchfork against the wall of the stall, and stepping over to lean on the door of the stall Daine occupied. "You know he will be fine Daine." She squeezed the girl's shoulder reassuringly. "He's just gone to the City of the Gods. The only people he will be meeting will be just as 'common senseless' as him. Ultimately, he would be much more powerful than them if anything did happen."
Daine bit down on her lip, but nodded just the same. "I just wish I could have gone with him." No matter how much Numair had tried, he couldn't convince Jon that Daine would be of any use in a meeting of "desk bound scholars." So Daine had been left behind, and Numair had ridden Spots off to the City of the Gods to spend a fortnight researching barrier spells.
"I don't know what the two of you are going to do if the other ever settles down and marries" Onua said. "You are utterly lost without one another...it's rather pathetic." She laughed when Daine scowled again. "Don't worry youngling, your mage is just as possessive of you as you are of him. I hear he's already sent Jon three speech spells to make sure you are still in Corus. Thayet said he threatened to turn Jon into a tree if he sent you out alone." The older woman's eyes crinkled as she tried to hold back another laugh. "You're right that the man has no common sense...to threaten his king" she lost her battle and gave into another fit of laughter.
"You aren't exactly making me feel any better Onua" Daine said reproachfully, though she couldn't hold back a small smile. "I 'spose I am being fair ridiculous. I'm sorry." She heaved a fresh pile of straw onto the stall floor.
"He will be back before you know it Daine," Onua smiled sympathetically, and moved to pick up her pitchfork again. Daine knew she was right...but she couldn't help but wonder about something else the woman had said. "I don't know what the two of you are going to do if the other ever settles down and marries." That thought, Daine realized, did put her in a foul mood.
