"Hey there Shadow" Takal spoke softly. "Thank you for staying here to watch Nieka for me. I'm sorry I was gone for so long." The horse nuzzled him warmly "Did she ever attempt to leave?" he asked. Shadow whinnied and nodded. But you stopped her right?" shadow replied the same. "Good girl," he said, scratching her mane. "Oh, and I brought you something special." He held out an apple and a carrot. Shadow took the apple right off and Takal continued to stroke and talk to Shadow.
He wondered again if the girl would come back with them now. He could think of a hundred reasons she might want to stay and only one reason she'd want to go back with him, and that was her sister. Other than her acceptance as a healer, he had no good news to tell her, and he dreaded the pain her eyes would betray her strong posture. When Shadow was done with her carrot too, he told her he was going to go find Nieka's parents and talk to them but that they would be riding back home tomorrow.
When he turned to head to Nieka's house, he saw Torn heading up to him with a smile on his face. "You should have come into town with me; you should have seen Nieka dance. She is amazing. It's like nothing I've ever seen."
"She can dance?" he asked surprised.
"Oh yes, she can, it was amazing. Half the little town must have been gathered around to watch her, she's that good, graceful yet powerful at the same time."
"Well, I hope I get to see it sometime; that is if she still wants to come back with us."
"She already said yes, she was so excited that she hugged me and ran off to get her things."
"You already talked to her?" he struggled to keep his sudden anger in check and focus on the more important picture… not the hug that just might have been his.
"Yeah, she's going to get her things then meet us at the camp."
"She's not coming to our camp. We're going to pick her up in the morning."
"Why not?"
"There's no reason for her to sleep outside with a bunch of men she doesn't even know when her house is right there." he jabbed a finger at the town. "Not to mention I wanted to talk to her parents about her new job before we outright told her she could have it. Don't you think her parents will want to spend one last night with her before she joins a demon-fighting army?"
"Sorry Takal. I didn't think about all that and you didn't say a word about any of this the whole way and then you were more interested in talking to your horse." Shadow stomped her feet obviously insulted.
"Easy girl," he said to Shadow. Then to Torn he said "You're right I shouldn't have assumed you knew what I was planning. Now, why don't you go back to camp while I try to fix this. You realize that even if this is what she really wants her parents are not going to be pleased. They will be scared for her."
"I said I was, Sorry," Torn said looking at his shoes. Takal turned and walked away without another word. He felt a little bad about being so terse with Torn but he had wanted to give her the news, even if he was afraid she might have changed her mind, he still hoped to give her that one good news if she still wanted to fight with them. He had it all planned out in his head and now, to learn that it wouldn't happen at all that way because of his poor communication skills made him upset with himself and he couldn't help but wonder, if he had given her the news would he have gotten a hug or would it have been like before when she left and she shook Torn's hand and just waved goodbye to him, Twice.
He walked through the fields to where they met the backyard of the house that he had watched Nieka walk into with her parents after the attack. As he neared the house, he saw something move at the edge of his vision and when he followed it, he saw her. Her bright red hair was pulled back and she wore pants as before, but not ones from the castle. It did not surprise him that she had her own. What did surprise him was that she was shuffling along a beam two stories up. He had not gone through all this trouble only for her to get hurt doing something so stupid. She was going to get herself killed before ever joining the army.
~Neika~
With her over her shoulder and a detailed note on her pillow, she took one last look at her room. She wasn't really looking at the room itself though, she was envisioning how she would say goodbye to her family later that night after dinner and what their last expressions and words might be before she left for the unknown.
Sure of her plan, she took a deep breath, swung her bag over her shoulder, and sat on the window sill swinging her legs outside. She twisted her body around and dropped down holding the window ledge by her hands and forearms. She was starting to wonder how smart this was as her feet searched for the thin ledge below and she recalled a bit too late that climbing down is always harder than climbing up.
Too late now, she was already committed, she thought as she slowly slid her elbows off the ledge and lowered herself down. She was seriously regretting having packed so much. Then relief sang through her as her feet finally found perches of the extruding support beam. She inched her way over to the corner beam and away from the window below her. When she reached the edge she crouched down gripping the corner beam with her hands. She had just started to climb down when someone startled her from behind.
"What are you doing?" a familiar irritated voice insinuated her lack of sanity. She jumped and twisted to look for the source of the voice. All bad ideas when you're clinging to the side of a house two stories up. She scrambled to get her grip back. But it was too late, she was falling. Time slowed, she knew she wouldn't be able to latch back onto the house; her fingers just weren't strong enough, not to mention they were sweaty with fear and exhaustion.
So having concluded that catching herself simply wasn't possible for her and the impending ground was unavoidable, she decided that lessening the impact was the best she could do in this circumstance. Nieka thought back to what she knew about falling and what should be avoided. First, she didn't want to land on her head, which would definitely result in death. Nor did she want to land on her feet for that's how you break both legs. She leaned forward to adjust her fall as her feet were below her. What else could she do to ease her landing? Roll. That's right - rolling prevents your bones from absorbing the impact. And relaxing your muscles prevents further damage. That would be the hardest part, relaxing with the ground rushing up to meet her. So, she closed her eyes.
How so much went through her head so fast she'd never understand, but as fast as time slowed down it sped back up upon impact leaving her slow to register new information. The ground was softer and gave more than she expected. A little confused, she tried to roll but a hard object was in her way. Then she noticed her feet were dangling. She opened her eyes and looked around.
Her gaze stopped dead on the strangely familiar dark blue eyes staring back at her. Strange, she realized, because she had never noticed that they were blue. They were so dark and she had never seen them this close before. Strange because she couldn't even grasp at the unfamiliar emotions flashing behind them until they finally settled on annoyed.
"What were you thinking?" he chided. She looked down away from Takal's eyes to stare at her fingernails only to realize that the hard object under them that prevented her from rolling was his chest. She immediately ripped her hand away and started to squirm, but his hold was strong and it did nothing.
"Put me down!" she ordered him. Instead of just letting go, he bent and laid her down on the grass. She tried to get up to scramble away but he held her down with one strong hand.
"Are you okay?" he demanded more than asked.
"Yes, fine," she complained. "Now let me up."