Claymore and Dagger (closed)

[heartofcourage]

"I like the sound of Uka." Fiona said with a soft laugh as Oleg told her that his other grandchildren called him various things. "It makes you seem less frightening."

 

[KieranSoares]

"Frightening? An old Fox like me? Hardly. My days of wreaking havoc and scaring children are far behind me."

Rhett had to stifle a laugh, earning a look from Oleg. "They ended when you lot came along, so consider yourselves lucky," Oleg told him, and Rhett just smiled and shrugged.

 

[heartofcourage]

"Ma told me that you were a warrior. One of the hardest and fiercest fighters that Sweden had ever seen before." Fiona said as he mentioned that he had calmed considerably in his old age. "She said that your temper could still be seen from time to time."

 

[KieranSoares]

"I was once a warrior captain... Then I handed that over to three others, including Voluun. But Voluun let go of his rank when his little one came along. Now he's simply a veteran warrior. He didn't want to miss anything with the little kit. But I was a warrior because back in my prime, the Voya were always being bothered by one group or another. Constant war only ended about... ten years ago. This is the longest peace we've had in a century."

 

[heartofcourage]

"She was proud of you." Fiona said, looking at her grandfather as she paused in her eating. "She was proud of her heritage. She loved being the decendent of warriors."

 

[KieranSoares]

"She might've become a warrior herself," Oleg thought aloud, smiling to himself that his daughter had been so proud of her heritage. "She had never been quite sure if she wanted to join the warriors with Voluun, or take up a trade like Yul and Juno."

 

[heartofcourage]

"And that's why you didn't like it when Da came along? Because he was taking her away from her future to something uncertain." Fiona said, her heart aching for her grandfather as he admitted that her ma might have been a warrior.

 

[KieranSoares]

"That was... Perhaps the biggest reason," Oleg admitted with a nod, glancing to Anya. "Tatianna fell for him almost immediately, blindly in love to the point that she would forget about her dearest friends, and run off all the time at the simplest hint that he wanted her attention. When he asked her to go to Scotland with her, I put my foot down. I was so afraid that she'd ruin her life..."

 

[heartofcourage]

"She was always a stubborn little creature. I think she was the most stubborn out of all of our children. Being the baby, all I wanted to do was coddle her and she wanted none of that." Anya said with a fond smile as she thought about Tatianna. "She wanted to do the same things her brothers did. She wanted to hunt and fish and rough house."

"She liked to coddle me." Fiona said softly, looking to her grandparents as they thought about their little girl. "On cold mornings, she would hold me tight and rock me by the fire. She said she never wanted me to grow up. I needed to stay little forever."

Her Ma always spoke with a sadness in her voice. She had never really understood why she was always so sad, but she could see that she desperately missed her family.

 

[KieranSoares]

Rhett was listening as they spoke, and he was the first to catch the glint of tears in Oleg's eyes. He set his meal aside, coming to comfort his father with a gentle embrace just before Oleg broke.

"My little kit," Oleg whimpered as tears rolled down his face. "I told her never to come back... She would... She'd still be alive if..."

 

[heartofcourage]

Fiona felt horrible as her grandfather started to cry, mourning the child that he had lost. Her Ma had been dead for 18 years, but for her grandparents, the hurt and ache was still very real.

"Uka, don't be sad." Fiona said softly as she placed aside her meal and moved to join Rhett in comforting him. "There's nothing anyone could have done. People tried to help her, but she didn't want to listen. Grandpa offered to send her back home many times, but she didn't want to leave me behind."

 

[KieranSoares]

Oleg drew Fiona in weakly as all strength seemed to have left his form, but he hugged her as tight as he could as if having Fiona there could make some of the regret and pain fade away. As he began to get hold of himself again with Anya, Rhett, and Fiona all there around him, he looked up at Fiona with the most heartbroken gaze. "Little kit... would you help me...? I want to give her a proper sendoff..." He drew the little locket with a tuft of his daughter's fur from his robes. Owen had never given Tatianna the proper Erygonian funeral pyre, though he had made a small bonfire over her grave, as Ephriam had told Fiona.

 

[heartofcourage]

"Of course I will." Fiona said softly as her grandfather pulled the locket she had given him from his robes. "You don't ever have to ask if I'll help with something like this. It'll be good for everyone to say goodbye to her."

 

[KieranSoares]

"At sunset, then... So that there's time to gather the wood and make the arrangements," Oleg murmured, and then looked to Anya. "Is that alright with you, te'ah?"

 

[heartofcourage]

"It'll be good to give her rest." Anya said softly as Oleg looked at her for her permission to continue on with the planning. "We never got the chance."

Fiona reached over and took her grandmother's hand, squeezing it tightly. "She would have liked having a ceremony here."

 

[KieranSoares]

Though it took Oleg some time to recover, the family eventually emerged to find Invah at the center of attention among a large group of children. She seemed right in her element with them. Another group was listening to the other dragon telling a story. He was a muscular, stone-grey beast with bright amber eyes and squared, hardy features, about Invah's size but not quite as lithe, though Invah herself looked incredibly powerful.

 

[heartofcourage]

"Who's your friend, Invah?" Fiona asked as she came up to the dragon, a smile on her face as she hugged her tightly when she was drawn to Invah's chest.

 

[KieranSoares]

"Glaynviahr, he's the Voya's resident dragon, and a friend of my brother's," Invah told her, turning to look at the battle-built beast. He was stone grey with brilliant amethyst eyes, his features solid and squared and his body heavily muscled. Invah was powerful looking as well, but far more lithe and athletic. Glaynviahr looked like he was born and raised to crumble advancing armies and castle walls.

The grey dragon heard his name and glanced over, finishing his story before approaching Invah and Fiona. "Well met, dragon-caller," he rumbled in a deep bass.

 

[heartofcourage]

"I only call the ones that won't terrify me." Fiona said with a smile as the grey dragon approached, speaking to her in a rumbling voice. "So far the one that I raised has treated me like her own fledgling. I suppose that's all I can ask for."

 

[KieranSoares]

"You happen to have woken a loving soul," Glaynviahr murmured with a smile to Invah. "As much a mother to her own fledglings as my own when they were young."

 

[heartofcourage]

"I come from a long line of dragon callers." Fiona said with a grin. "I never thought that I was anything special before I managed to wake Invah. However, I suspect she was about ready to make herself known with out me."

 

[KieranSoares]

"It was far less problematic with someone to introduce me," Invah insisted. "It's not exactly calming to the local populace for a dragon to suddenly emerge from the loch."

 

[heartofcourage]

"I was disappointed to learn that the kipper eggs were useless though." Fiona said with a laugh as Invah insisted that she had waited for the introduction. "She was pulling at swimmer's legs for ages. I don't believe her story for a moment."

 

[KieranSoares]

"They aren't useless, they're just not for waking dragons. Kipper eggs were named after me, they have nothing to do with other dragons. Those are for granting wishes."

Glaynviahr chuckled, settling in the grass. "There are similar traditions in some places, but Invah's is the most famous for how she gave her last egg to the Queen of Inverness, and how every wish the Queen seemed to ask from it came true. That's all legend, of course."

 

[heartofcourage]

"Hmmm...." Fiona said softly as she thought about that legend. "I could certainly use a kipper egg right about now. Especially one that grants wishes. I have a few that I would love to have come true."

As much as she was loving time with her family, she still thought about Sam. She wondered if he was still angry with her or if he had moved on by now. She hoped he hadn't. She still thought about him every minute, the look in his eyes as she tried to explain what had happened. It all haunted her.