A/N: "It's funny how day by day nothing changes, but when you look back everything is different." -Bill Watterson
TheRanger'sDaughter: Mara is adorable, isn't she?
Disclaimer: I'm not John Flanagan. Neither is Raider.
Robin stood in the middle of her room. Her walls and shelves were now bare. A few items lay scattered in half-decided piles. Robin had worked thoroughly to clean it out, but this was the first moment her apprenticeship with Aunt Lucy became a reality. She took a deep breath to calm her whirling emotions.
"This is how time works, Robin," she sighed aloud to herself.
She didn't notice her father step into the doorway behind her. "And how does time work, Robin?" he asked with a slight grin.
She jumped when she heard him, a little embarrassed for her musing out loud.
"It simply goes," she said, breaking her gaze from the piles and her new trunk. "It's constant and it's up to you to get the most out of it."
Kane walked carefully into her room, avoiding strewn items. He hugged her. "And I've gotten the most out of this."
Robin didn't break the embrace. "Me too."
Robin broke the embrace to point to a pile. "This pile is for the ward." She gestured to old clothes that were folded, but still in a messy pile. Then she pointed to a stack of books and a few trinkets saying, "This pile is for the cousins."
Kane only nodded. She turned to her father again.
"I've left some clothes and a few things I can't bring with me that I'd like to keep." Robin's drawers were open and Kane saw a few dresses left in a closet. "It'll be nice to wear these things when I come home."
"Of course," Kane nodded, getting choked up with the nostalgia of bidding his last child goodbye. "They'll be here for you."
Robin nodded. "Thank you."
She meant it in a lot of ways—thank you for keeping my clothes here, thank you for this room, thank you for…everything.
"Anything for you."
A light rapping sound came from the doorframe. Kane and Robin both turned and saw Gabby with Frey standing beside her.
He waved and peered around Robin's room. "Almost done packing, I see," he said with an excited grin.
Frey didn't even try to hide of his enthusiasm when it came to Robin's apprenticeship. Everyone knew he missed the ocean and perhaps some of the more eventful days on the sea. Every chance he saw Robin, he would pass off one or two tips when it to live on a ship.
"Yeah," Robin replied with a grin. Frey's excitement doused her feelings of anxiety and reminded her of her own excitement. "I just need to figure out where the rest of this stuff goes."
Kane left the room to speak with Frey and Gabby as Robin quickly finished up divided the last of her items. Robin finally decided to leave the majority in her room. Who would use her bow modified for her exact reach anyways? And she knew that when she returned she might be less attached to the items she ought to give away.
Kane and Frey's low voices trickled to her room. She heard her mother's laugh.
Robin let out a sigh. She had done a good job up to this point doing what needed to be done, and avoided the existential 'what ifs.' In her heart, Robin knew there would be no regret. She made this decision every night before she went to sleep, counting up the pros and cons, and in every scenario, this apprenticeship was the right decision—and it was an exciting decision. It was all she thought and talked about.
But that didn't make leaving home easy.
Robin knew she would miss things that she hadn't considered yet. Obviously she would miss her parents, Russ and Holt, her bed, and the castle. But would she miss the comforting sound of her mother's cane, or the fire her father sometimes lit before bed?
Robin sighed once more, then firmly promised herself she wouldn't do that again.
Robin took one last look at her bedroom, hoping she didn't forget anything. With finality, Robin put her knapsack on top of her trunk and walked into the kitchen. The conversation stilled.
"I'm ready to go," she said with a grin.
Kane stood up, a package in one hand, "You've forgotten to pack one thing," he said with a grin and handed her a wrapped package.
Robin unwrapped it carefully noting the lightly patterned brown paper and ribbon. It was a knife.
Robin looked up in confusion—she already had a knife Holt gave her. "Thank you, but Holt already.."
"You can leave Holt's knife here. This one is better," Kane said as Robin unsheathed it. Her eyes widened and she recognized it as a saxe blade. Russ had one. She glanced at Frey, who gave her no help.
"This was Daideo Halt's."