Lucia grunted as she swung the dagger at the practice dummy. What was she doing? You don't swing a dagger, you lung and stab. She knew that.
"How old are you?" I barked, my arms folded against my chest.
"10" she answered unwavering as she continued to slash at the dummy.
"Then why are you fighting like your 8?" I demanded to know. I had been training her to fight, mostly in self defense, since she was 8. Skyrim was a harsh land and she needed to know how. For now, we stuck with a dagger, easier to use and quicker to strike. When she was a little older and stronger we would work on a one handed blade.
"I can do better" she shouted lunging towards the dummy. She lost her footing and began falling forwards but caught herself, rolling into the falling and landing on her feet. She popped up and took her stance, feet shoulders width apart and crouched, as she stared intently at the dummy while catching her breath. She lunged again from behind and stabbed it directly through the stomach.
"Ha!" she shouted proudly. She turned around, leaving the dagger in the dummy, and ran up to me. "Papa, did you see?" she asked, as her whole face lit up with excitement and pride.
"Yes. We'll need to work on that timing though. Go take a break." And she skipped off down the hill to the lake.
I had noticed Nelcara during practice. She was by the shore, sitting in the sand with her feet in the water and Karth wrapped in her arms. As I approached her she smiled, "There you are."
As I went to sit beside her I heard Lucia screech. We both turned to find her. She was in the water, kicking and playing. She had only screeched at the cold, thankfully. As I settled beside Nelcara, she turned to me and asked "Don't you think you're too hard on her?"
"No. She needs to know how to defend herself. She's not going to get that if you caudle her through training." I pointed out.
"I guess. She seems to enjoy it regardless." she relented.
Lucia had a warrior's spirit. Always wanting to do something and improve herself. And Gods, was she stubborn. As I looked over at Nelcara, I noticed Karth had dozed off in her arms. He had a touch of that spirit as well. Or at least a fighter's spirit. He had been born early. I thought I was going to lose them both that day. For weeks, every day was a fight for him to stay alive. But he was doing better now. There were still some problems, but nothing like it used to be. He was three months old and small. Were all infants that small? It was surprising that anything that size could live. He looked a lot like his mother with his tan golden skin and green eyes. But unlike her, his black hair was coarse and thick, and the top of his pointed ears were a dark green.
He stirred and started coughing, waking himself up. Nelcara turned him over and gently patted his back. "Poor things lungs still aren't well" she said as she pressed her hand to his back with a healing spell.
"Should he be outside?"
"The fresh air is good. His lungs need to acclimate."
It was about that time Lucia came running up with a mudcrab in her arms. "Mama...Mama!" she called excitingly as she came up to Nelcara. "Look what I found!", she exclaimed as she held the mudcrab out. "Can I keep him?"
Nelcara lifted Karth back up as she stared at the mudcrab for a moment. "If you mean in a cooking pot sure. Other than that no."
Lucia stood horrified as she clutched the mudcrab to her chest. "You can't eat him! He's my friend" she protested.
"Lucia, it's only going to pinch you. Mudcrabs aren't pets." I said trying to reason with her. But she wasn't having it.
"No he won't. Please let him stay" she begged.
Nelcara looked over to me to see what I thought and I just shrugged. "Fine. But do not cry when it hurts you." She'd learn quickly that keeping wild animals wasn't a good idea.
As she ran back off Nelcara said, "If nothing else she'll get bored with it in a few days. But by Talos, if it gets Karth I'm making steamed mudcrab legs."
She moved in closer to me as she sat Karth in her lap. "Alyan came by today while you two were practicing."
Another letter? "Did he deliver anything interesting?" That man was here every other month delivering letters. He's probably earned enough coin by now to retire.
"Just the usual letter from someone wanting me to solve their problem"
"Are you going?" I asked. She hadn't answered a single letter since defeating Alduin, well over a year ago. She'd even handed over her title as arch-mage to someone else, Onmund I think, so she could stay home. She always told Alayn to go back and tell them she was retired. It was a good thing his pay wasn't reliant off her answer.
She looked at me, smile on her face, "I'm staying here. There's nowhere else I'd want to be." She leaned over and kissed me on the cheek.