I cannot help it but that I smile back even as my face grows warm with embarrassment.
I shake my head. ::No…:: I hesitate a moment before sighing and revealing myself to be ridiculous. ::August. ’Tis an utterly foolish infatuation that half the w…
I take the break as a good sign and close the distance to one more intimate. When she looks back I sign,
::Not because of you. All of you are second in my heart only to my own chil… my niece and nephew.::
I pause thinking, searching my own heart…
::Have they changed such in six months that my nine years of knowing and care is so unreliable? I know the Arrows. Even you. More than that, I know pain, for we are old, old friends. But soft that, I will answer your questions, if you vow to answer …
I nod. My gaze doesn’t leave hers and I let my own tension, fear and worry… even anger, come to my face. Carefully removing the calm mask of the healer for her to see. I take an ennerved breath steeling myself to take the only path I think might hel…
Cujo has always been agressive but it has grown, I think, since the loss of her hearing. There was a time when her aggressiveness did not have the dangerous edge, the ferocity, that it does now, but rather a more jocular tone. She had a celebratory …
I nod, turn, and follow Cujo's unsubtle trail into the forest. Dog is most like Nee, true, but I suddenly think that many of the Arrow Pack share her qualities. She would have been a superb Arrow, unlike myself.
I look after Cujo and sigh. Then around at the others. Then I look at Dog again.
::Her old wounds are aggravated. She lashes out in pain. I will go after her?::
I go down with a slight yelp, though I was expecting something of that sort. The grass is not that soft. My wind is shaken hard if not completely fled and I will have at least a couple of bruises due to stone and stick. However it is the words that…
And my own face seemed so mobile but a moment ago. I almost feel it set into calm impassivity. I shift my kit on my shoulder, just a small one, and begin the walk toward her.
::And I do not wish your name upon me, do not be foolish.::
Cujo is rarely without bruises, of course, but she has outdone herself. One only has to look at her tattoos to understand that she believes marks are valuable thing. With my own tattooing, I can hardly disagree. She tends to resist letting me work…
Dog is wise. I think of August again.
"No. They are not fair at all, are they? Nor often wise for all that." I murmur. My heart, Shy's, makes no difference. I'm quiet for a few moments, assessing the lay of the land, picking out the way water drai…
It has been a long time since I had been on a bike. I had forgotten the simultaneously terrifying and exhilarating speeds, the feel of rushing air on my face. There is that moment of familiarity, of unity, with us all riding together that fills som…
I watch him talk to Joey for a moment before following him. I've positioned myself in his path when he turns towards the door. After a moment I hold out a hand, look him steadily in the eye.
"Until we meet again, then. I would be honored if you wo…
I'm not looking for something so exotic as a finished bed. Getting such a thing would be much more expensive. No I'm looking for the materials to make two frames, pipe, perhaps, metal or plastic or wood. And thin but strong rope, woven out of fibe…
I can't help but smile at Seatac's epithet for H.M. "Mox and I. Valentine arranged to hire Gate's followers to carry things, and people too. I do not think H.M. intended it. Hope, who I hear he has now given to Admiral, came to see me and asked me t…
I nod. I am grateful for the effort to move on, it is a chance to let the raw nerve rest, and perhaps begin to heal. I look out toward the infirmary.
"No, we are, in general, less crowded. We accompanied the expedition to the harbor to relocate the…
How I must look. Seeing Mox is the incintive to compose myself again. How frightening it must be to see me so uncontrolled. I smile, taking a final wipe at my cheeks. I hug Mox to me. It will be only a short time, indeed, before he is as tall as I.
…
I listen, though I do not look at him. My eyes are hot and the tears have not yet stopped.
His description is surprisingly familiar, differing only slightly from my own experience. He was taught to be a bullet and I a scalpel.
I am all sniffs a…
The weapon trembles with my arm.
The armor drops to the floor. Then his words. ’Tis the look in the eyes though that does it. That bleak look. A speaking look. A look I know well from the inside.
What is this madness? I have never drawn a weap…
The man is threat incarnate. Towering and strong where I am diminutive. His voice and aspect become harsh. My own fury holds me fast in the face of it, though the wiser part of me wishes to quail and flinch away from so formidable a foe.
The worst…
I go still, staring at Joey. His words creep into me, the malevlolent invisible brothers to Vignette’s creature, and I stand helpless. I start shaking my head slowly to deny the them entrance. Sound seems diminished, distant and it is far too hot.
…