A/N: Here is chapter 17! My mom is coming home from India today! Yay! (But I don't get to meet her at the airport because I have a babysitting day that was scheduled like before her flight home day was scheduled. I didn't even realize it was the same day until a few days ago. Me: Ohh... Ah well... Thanks go to... Kathleen G. McCrory, mugglepirate, little cat, and Stormy Phoenix for reviewing the last chapter!
"You have good eye, but you hold the bow wrong, which is why your arrows always fall left of their target," William Sommer, the Herald-Weaponsmaster said and then he sighed, running a hand through his loose ponytail, "I never thought I'd see the day where I was teaching a four year old archery."
"I'll be five soon," Faolan pointed out peevishly. It wasn't quite true, but soon was a relative word anyway.
"Yes, you will," William agreed with the nonchalant sort of voice that said he'd didn't really care either way and he kneeled down, white breeched knees becoming dusty as they touched the sand of the outdoor training field.
It was sunny, with a slight chill to the air, reminding all those who basked in the warmth of summer that September was not quite a summer month anymore. William's strong hands moved to hold Faolan's shifting them and showing her how to properly aim and sight down the arrow at the target.
"Where did you learn to shoot, anyway?" William asked as Faolan relaxed her fingers and the string snapped back into place, hurtling an arrow at the target thirty feet away. It sunk into the edge of the target, just barely not flying off in the sand behind it.
"My Pa taught me some, but mostly I just practiced by myself," Faolan shrugged, plucking another arrow from the quiver thrust into the ground. Her own arrows had been abandoned as totally useless once William had looked over them, but he had given her bow the sign of approval- it wasn't high quality, but since they didn't really have any bows Faolan's size, it would have to do.
"That would explain the practiced eye and arm," the Weaponsmaster said with a wink in Fao's direction that she missed as she slid the arrow into place and pulled back the string.
FLASH!
An arrow whizzed by my head, just barely missing the skin of my cheek and I spurred my gelding into a quick canter. I had been seen! Damn, I thought vehemently, as another arrow missed me by a further mark. Cautiously I pulled the gelding in a direction different from my camp, but no more arrows fell beside me. Either way, I could still be followed, so I spent an extra four hours cantering and trotting and walking periodically through the trees, going in every direction but never anyway near the camp. When I came in I could smell the dawn on the air, and a few birds chirped restlessly from their perches, sensing the sun's imminent arrival as well.
"You're back," the Captain said as I tethered the gelding and gave him a flake of hay and a handful of grain to munch on.
I almost jumped- for I hadn't heard him approach, and by that I knew it was time for me to sleep. If my reactions were that down… I planned to sleep all day and all night and not get up until tomorrow morning.
"I'm back," I agreed, turning away from the gelding to look at him. He had the air of someone who has just woken from a refreshing sleep. I envied him- but of course he'd be back out on the borders soon as well, risking his life to tell the army where the enemy was.
"Have you had breakfast?" he said, and I saw to my indignity a smirk hovering about his lips.
"No," I growled, "Nor am I remotely hungry. I'm too tired to be hungry."
"Your horse is hungry," Raleigh chuckled under his breath and I looked at the gelding. He was entirely absorbed in his food and I leaned back against his side, looking up at the beautiful starry night sky above me and feeling the gelding take deep breaths beneath my back. He was warm.
"I'll join you for dinner then- I assume you'll be up?" he inquired, a curious light in his eyes when I looked at them and I felt a sudden sort of giddiness.
"Yeah," I said quickly, conveniently forgetting I had planned on doing no such thing, nodding in a breathless sort of way and I straightened up, patting the gelding on the neck. He didn't look like much but he was as surefooted as anything, which just went to show that no matter how good of a form a horse had it didn't show what they had inside, and that was what matter. Brains and guts.
"Good," the Herald-Weaponsmaster said and Faolan blinked up at him owlishly, not quite comprehending what he was saying and feeling an odd mix of young woman and child- something about Raleigh was haunting her now, but away from her memories it only confused her. He certainly didn't make her feel breathless now… It was like knowing you understood something once, but no longer being able to comprehend it. Frustrating.
"That was a good shot," the Herald repeated.
"Uh," Faolan said, then looked at the arrow protruding from the target, "Yeah. Should I try again?"
"Please."
"I heard you met my husband," Rathmir said one afternoon as she read to Faolan out loud from Horses of the Shin'a'in.
"I did?" Faolan asked, still thinking about horses and feeling Carry Rolf, itching to try some training exercise of some green horses, inside of her.
Rathmir smiled, looking at Faolan with teal colored eyes and said, "He's the Weaponsmaster."
"You're married to him?" Fao exclaimed and Carry Rolf started laughing in Fao's brain.
"Yes," Rathmir smiled and then shut the book, "Do you want to meet our kids this afternoon? You saw our room- well it's actually a series of rooms, one of which is the kids'. The Herald's take turns keeping an eye on them when I teach, but since William mostly teaches in the morning and I mostly teach in the afternoon it's not that often that we dump them on someone else's lap."
"Yeah!" Faolan leapt to her feet, excited and worried at the same time- what would she find real kids her age like?
Rathmir nodded and stood up, putting away the book and then leading Faolan down through empty hallways (everyone else was in class) until they reached a door that read Rathmir Sommer and then next to it William Sommer. Funny- she hadn't noticed it before.
Rathmir pushed open the door and stepped inside, peering around before calling out, "Kayin? Maemi?"
Two blond head appeared and two small bodies threw themselves at Rathmir, shouting a random bundle of words that Faolan couldn't make out and Rathmir kneeled down to meet their embrace, laughing at her children's exuberance. Then they noticed Faolan and fell quiet- and Faolan suddenly wished she was anywhere but here.
"Maemi, Kayin, this is Faolan," Rathmir said with a smile at Fao, and then, pointing at the taller one, a girl with her hair pulled back in a cute ponytail, she said, "This is Kayin. Maemi is her younger brother."
Maemi, also endowed with his father's gloriously colored hair, although shorter cropped, had Rathmir's teal eyes, while Kayin had blue. Maemi looked about Faolan's age, and Fao figured Kayin was probably a year or two older.
"Hi," Faolan said shyly, hugging her arms to herself.
"Hi," Maemi answered, while Kayin stepped sideways behind Rathmir and clutched at her mother's shirt.
"Faolan is a student of mine," Rathmir said, untangling her daughter's hand from her shirt and standing up.
"Is she a Herald?" Maemi asked in a soft voice, looking up at Rathmir.
"Well, she will be," Rathmir answered, "I brought her over here to meet you because most of the other Heraldic Trainees aren't her age."
"You have a Companion?" Maemi asked, his teal eyes wide.
Faolan nodded, glancing up at Rathmir.
"Well," the Herald said, and Faolan could have sworn she winked, "I'll leave you three to entertain yourselves… How were they?"
Faolan was confused for a second but then she saw the white outfitted human standing in a doorway to the right, from where the children had emerged and assumed that the question had been directed at her.
Faolan looked at Maemi and Kayin. Kayin and Maemi looked at her. Shy silence stretched between them until finally Maemi, the less shy of them, said, "Bears!"
Kayin grinned in agreement and the two of them ran off, shoving past the two Heralds to a part of the rooms that Faolan knew not of. Cautiously, she followed, peering past Rathmir and the other into what she saw to obviously be the children's room.
'Bears!' meant stuffed bears, several of which were scattered about the room and Kayin and Maemi were throwing onto the bottom bunk of a set of bunk beds, neither of which were made.
When all five or six were safely heaped in a haphazard pile Maemi turned to Faolan with a grin and climbed onto the bed, taking a bear and saying again, still a little shyly, "Bear!"
Then, taking that same bear, he climbed down again and handed it to Faolan, repeating once more, as if to cement it as a fact, "Bear!"
"Bear…" Faolan said slowly, looking at the stuffed animal. It was a teddy in style, all black with brown beads for eyes and a pink puffball for a nose. She ran her hands over its soft, (and loved), fur, figuring 'bears' had to be a favorite game of the kids.
Kayin and Maemi had climbed back on the bed and were rearranging the sheets to form what looked like mountains and caves. Walking carefully over to them Faolan kneeled down beside the bed and set the black bear on the edge of the bed.
"Ralph," Maemi announced, brandishing a white polar bear shaped stuffed animal at Kayin.
"Little Bear is gonna come an visit, kay?" Kayin inquired, brandishing a brown bear at Maemi.
"Kay," Maemi agreed.
Heavens of heavens… Faolan thought, climbing up onto the bed with them, feeling self-consciously not four years old, I don't act four at all.
Ralph wandered over to Little Bear and they fought some, shoving into each other with uncoordinated motions and then, to what Faolan could tell, they ate a cat stuffed animal and then took naps.
"What's this one's name?" Faolan asked Maemi, holding out her bear.
"Blackie," Maemi informed her with a proud delight.
"Blackie," Faolan repeated. It fit.
Ralph then bit Blackie, as far as Faolan could tell. So she had Blackie bite Ralph and got into a stuffed animal scuffle with Maemi, upon which Little Bear then joined in until all the bears were once more tired and had to go home.
"Can you speak in minds?" Kayin suddenly asked, once all three bears were safely under their blanket 'caves.'
"Uh…" Faolan said, "Yeah."
"Can you speak in my mind?"
"If I wanted…" Faolan said slowly.
"Please?"
:Hello Kayin: Faolan said, pushing it towards the five or six year old.
Kayin giggled, reaching hands up to touch her head and said, "That tickles! You sound funny in my head."
"Chase?" Maemi suddenly inquired and then, slyly, added, "Faolan's the monster."
Kayin screamed and dove off the bed, and the two of them disappeared into the other room. Not sure what to make of this sudden change in games, she crept off the bed and then stealthily crept into the other room, creeping along the walls until she found Maemi hiding behind the bed, upon which she leapt at him, growling, and he screamed in fear, running through another door and slamming it shut.
Am I that scary or is just the game? Faolan wondered, chasing after Kayin as she darted past her back into the bedroom.
It went on for several hours, chase, then hide and seek, then they looked at stories, had a pillow fight, and finally played bears again. By this time the sunlight was dying in the sky and Rathmir came in- she had been in the main room reading most of the time and announced it was time for Faolan to leave.
Two choruses of "Noooo!" rang through the room and Faolan heaved a sigh of relief- they were fun, but tiring, and all it had down was make her realize how not four she really was.
"Yes," Rathmir said and Faolan stood up, taking her hand and leading her out the door, "But she'll come back another day, right Faolan?"
"Yeah," Faolan agreed, and that she was sure of. If only to find her 'inner child.'
Rathmir left her to find her own way back to her rooms, which Faolan did with ease, finding them cool and somewhat empty after the mess and life of Rathmir's rooms- and her children. With a long look out the window she finally left once more, heading down to the Great Hall for dinner.
"Hey Faolan," Alaska said as she slid into an empty chair beside him. Keanu and Ranae were not in sight but Tobie was sitting on Alaska's other side, poking a fork with a sort of bored interest at a piece of steak.
"Hi," Fao answered, then leaning forward she grinned at Tobie, "Hi Tobie."
"Heyla Fao," Tobie answered and Fao thought of Aine, Dunne, Maura, and Danielle- and the way they had spoken of Tobie.
"I met Rathmir's kids today," Faolan announced as she served herself a pile of mashed potatoes.
"Did you?" Alaska asked, sounding uninterested but that was Christopher Alaska's way- Fao knew he wasn't ignoring her.
"Yeah," Fao nodded and delved into her potatoes.
"I burnt the practice shed down again," Tobie muttered and Fao felt a hint of depression in his voice- or was she imagining it?
"You the next Lavan Firestorm?" Alaska wondered, sipping at a glass of milk.
"I hope not," Tobie said with shudder and Faolan paused in her eating, looking over at the black haired boy with concern.
"Yeah, I hope not too. If you ever get out there on the front and have to start burning Karsites make sure Charan is out of the way, and try not to burn yourself down."
"I don't have firestorm power," Tobie muttered, "But what I do have is enough to get away from me."
"Tobie?" Faolan piped in and the trainee peered over her, curious at this intrusion.
"Yah Fao?" he asked, black eyes humoring.
"Don't worry about your Gift," she advised, wishing him happier days, "You'll get it under control, and the Heralds training you know what they're doing."
"Yeah, you're right Faolan," Tobie said, leaning back in his chair, "You have some surprising insight for a four year old."
Faolan winced. I do, don't I? she thought awkwardly, and busied herself eating mashed potatoes for the rest of the meal.