Disclaimer: Pounce/Faithful is not mine. The cameo OCs, Chiyo and Rania, are mine, but I don't care if someone wanted to take them. Actually, if you do, I'd want to read the story, so let me know.
Pounce/Faithful: Warrior Women and Thief Kings: I've been the guide and companion of many girls over the years, but no two have ever been quite like Beka Cooper and Alanna of Trebond. Beka's fierce loyalty to the people no one else bothered with, Alanna's natural defiance of tradition to become what she wanted to be, both of them changed the world around them without even trying. They would have understood each other, I think, but then, I could be wrong. There is one thing they have in common, though, that cannot be denied.
I still remember when Kora, Aniki, and Rosto moved in. I knew they'd be good for my Beka, or at least, the women would. I suspected that Rosto would be trouble. He was interested in Beka from the start and didn't make a secret of it. She, of course, would have none of it. But she liked him too, and all that kept her from admitting it was the memory of what a rusher did to her mother and the fact that a Dog sleeping with a rogue destined to rise was not smart. But stubbornness and logic pale next to emotion in humans, and Beka was no exception. The Terrier and the Rogue were a couple for years. They avoided their careers tangling when possible; the Watch Sergeant wasn't foolish enough to make Beka collect the Happy Bags from the tavern where she'd once lived, where the Court of the Rogue had taken over, and Rosto made sure to never be caught by anyone, much less his lover. They managed, until Rosto was killed by a rival who got lucky. Beka was never the same, though few really knew it, and her little boy grew up without a father.
Then came Alanna. Oh, there was a girl between them, the Yamani Chiyo Nakiru, and I don't discount her. Chiyo was a different kind of girl than they were, though. But Alanna... I hadn't dealt with Tortall since I left Beka, and Alanna sometimes reminded me of her. Still, I almost immediately loved the redhead with eyes as brightly purple as my own for herself, just as I always come to love my charges. Then she took me to the tavern called the Dancing Dove, to meet her friend George. I knew where we were immediately, though the name had changed. Beka's old boardinghouse, the headquarters of Rosto's court. It had never happened before, that one charge made me confront the ghosts of another.
I still didn't expect George to be who he was. I'd heard that his name was Cooper that first night with Alanna, when she spoke to the Goddess, but for some reason, my mind didn't make the connection. When I saw him, it did. He had the catlike grace and air of mischief that Rosto had, and his loyalty to the Rogue and his duties was Beka through and through. I caught him eyeing me once or twice, and I wondered if he knew me as Beka's cat, through some family story. But if he did, he kept it to himself. I saw both of them in him, and wondered how such personality traits could come down the generations and still be recognizable.
Alanna's stubbornness when it came to love crumbled first for Jonathan. I supported it, because they both needed it, but I would have supported George, had she turned to him first. I saw the end coming before it did, even though I scolded Alanna for it later. I couldn't have her knowing just how perceptive I am, could I? And I saw George too, and I knew, even when Alanna had her affair with Liam Ironarm, who would have her heart in the end. Another thief king, stealing the heart of another warrior woman.
It's never happened, that two of my charges have any kind of connection. And yet, now, things are even more intertwined. Because my latest charge, Rania Haiming Balitang, is the great-granddaughter of Alanna and George, the eight-times great-granddaughter of Beka and Rosto. Like most women of the raka – especially their queens, as Raina will one day be – she is a warrior. She's dark, like the raka, but her eyes are bright violet and she hears the voices of the dead when pigeons fly near her. She is yet another ghost, but I actually look forward to being her guide. I wonder if she too will have her heart stolen by a daring thief king.
A/N: OK, this isn't really an introspection, I know, but I thought it was likely that our favorite WC (short for Wandering Constellation) would muse on his past charges when he's about to take a new one, particularly if there's a connection. Plus, this thing's been playing in my head for a while, so I had to write it, didn't I?