Claymore and Dagger Pt.2

[heartofcourage]

"None claim allegiance to a country, save Fiona. I think she might be the only one who has a permanent home." Kate said, watching as in the distance, Fiona transferred from Invah's back to Gaiann, the male dragon diving sharply to test her out. "They won't even tell me where the dragons are being housed that have come here for sanctuary."

Kate glanced down at Brogan as he finished his meal, looking up at her in confusion as if asking if that was it. She soon had him on her shoulder, quickly burping him so that his belly would settle and not cause him pain. He was soon fretting as she turned him to face the rest of those gathered as they started their meal.

"Little one, until you get bigger, that's all you get. Your belly can't handle any more." Kate murmured as if explaining to an infant was something that happened all the time.

 

[KieranSoares]

Little Brogan squirmed in annoyance as the skin of broth was taken away, until falling still with a dark look on his face, slumped against Kate to pout. Kell chuckled at his son with a shake of his head. "You may be a prince, cub, but your mother is the Queen."

 

[heartofcourage]

Kate chuckled as she looked down at her son, watching as he pouted in her lap until Qira passed her one of the honeyed drops that the little cub loved so much. She soon had it pressed between Brogan's lips, watching as he perked up almost instantly at the treat.

"All better?" Kate asked as his little ears shifted forward and he seemed much improved.

The quartet ate their meal as off in the distance, Fiona sat on Gaiann's back, resting before they started their next maneuvers. It felt good to be back at her training, working on skills that would serve her well in the saddle.

"I'll ask that you not allow Sam to do this. He'd probably scare himself senseless." Fiona called to the dragon, feeling him chuckle beneath her.

 

[KieranSoares]

"He's already started, little one. And if I don't let him, another dragon will. I'm afraid your Samuel is dead set on overcoming his fear of heights and Danica is all about helping him."

 

[heartofcourage]

"Then perhaps I'll have words with the both of them later on." Fiona said as Gaiann banked to the left and they drifted back beside Invah. "I can be just as stubborn as he is."

 

[KieranSoares]

"I know you worry for him, dear, but young Samuel is capable, brave, and willing, not to mention well-suited for these tasks. His military training keeps him from freezing, and he's got such a strategic mind that he understand maneuvers and flight patterns before he even tried them. Why are you so set on stopping him still?" Gaiann asked.

 

[heartofcourage]

“Because I don’t want to see him hurt.” Fiona said softly as Gaiann asked her why she was so set against it. “And this is dangerous business.”

 

[KieranSoares]

"Everything you two do is dangerous. And he feels much the same about you. He's waiting for the day that someone will tell him Invah crash-landed and you were badly injured or outright killed. But he leaves you be because he knows this is what you feel you need to do. Your husband feels that his own skills as a Rider are important too, my love," Gaiann explained.

 

[heartofcourage]

"I suppose a long marriage and old age won't change that about him." Fiona said as Invah got into position for her to try another transition. "And nothing I say will make him feel better about me being a rider or a caller."

Fiona unbuckled herself from Gaiann and stood, stepping to the edge of his body before she jumped, landing in Invah's claws without a worry. From there, she climbed back into her saddle and let her dragon drift for a long while. She looked out over the scenery, admiring the way that the highlands looked in early autumn.

 

[KieranSoares]

"As someone who's been with the same fool for a century, I can promise you they never change, and you never have to either." Invah smiled over toward Gaiann, who simply chuckled and banked away and began rising higher up.

 

[heartofcourage]

Fiona took the advice from a couple that had been together far longer than she could ever imagine. That evening as she curled up with Sam in bed, she found that she had trouble sleeping. Looking around his rooms, she realized that she had never thought to bring any of her items into it. The rooms at the keep were solely his own which seemed so odd because they shared nearly everything without hesitation.

"Your aunt wants to paint our official portrait starting tomorrow. She's going to do the same for Kate and Brogan to send on ahead to Edinburgh." Fiona said softly, her arm wrapping around Sam's chest securely. "You need to make some time. She's worried about your Uncle Ashien being out there on the front lines."

 

[KieranSoares]

Sam took in a deep breath, having been quietly waiting for sleep to come. "I can make time," he muttered. "Dylandra won' need us t'stay fer hours like some artists." He tucked an arm behind his head, the other draping over Fiona. "... Havin' trouble sleepin'?"

 

[heartofcourage]

"Lots of things to think about." Kate said as her mate held her close. "Why have I never brought my own things into this room? Everywhere I look, everything is still yours."

 

[KieranSoares]

"I don' know..." Sam muttered. "Yer certainly welcome t'bring anythin' y'like. I know y'used t'prefer keepin' away from th'keep, if only t'avoid attention. An' maybe y'don' feel like this is home yet. It all jus' sort of... happened. We never talked about you movin' in, really. Y'jus' started sleepin' here and clothes got left here an' ended up in th'dresser."

 

[heartofcourage]

“I never had much to bring, I guess.” Fiona never as he mentioned that she could decorate however she liked. “Let’s go tomorrow afternoon and buy a tapestry from the village. Our first big piece together.”

 

[KieranSoares]

"It's a date," Sam kissed her forehead at that. "We'll go see Telma. There's plenty t'do around 'ere, but nothin' too pressing tha' we can't enjoy th'village a while."

 

[heartofcourage]

Fiona was quiet after that, simply enjoying the warmth of Sam and his sure embrace. He might have rarely told her how he felt, but she knew when he held her that she meant the world to him. It was almost as good as hearing the words from his lips.

 

[KieranSoares]

The next several weeks all the way into the first snow were quiet, filled with training and preparing for not only winter, but the certain return of threats in spring. Sam sent fresh soldiers to Normandy while the veterans of the front returned home, and gave a good sum of money to the construction of defensive machines for the front.

The first day of December, a Chinese trader arrived with a trunk full of materials, notes, and ingredients for Alex and Valentina. The trunk contained what Alex hoped was an answer or at least a better treatment to the illness that plagued members of the Ghis family. And considering the issues Kate's cub was facing, Alex believed he not only had the same illness, but a harsher version and these new items might help.

Little Brogan had improved slowly but surely, though his bad days mimicked those of his grandfather, when he was in pain and exhausted for seemingly little reason. With the care of his parents and Rissa and Qira, the cub was in a fairly good position and while he was slow to grow as of the moment, he was still going forward.

There was, however, some sadness as longtime patriarch Vincenzo was fading. Most days he was bedridden, not sick but simply weak and old. He was still putting up a fight, sticking around for Valentina most of all, but also for his grandchildren who didn't want to lose another grandparent.

 

[heartofcourage]

Fiona had been helping to prepare for her upcoming wedding to Samuel. They had fallen into a partnership when it came to ruling, each taking responsibilities to lighten the load of the other. She had given up her cabin officially to Will, the young man finding a roommate in the form of a friend in his ranks. They seemed to be doing well and he seemed happy to be finally treated like an adult.

It was starting to snow as Fiona watched out the front windows of the keep, expecting Invah and Gaiann to be returning any moment with her family from Norway. She so desperately wanted to see her family again that she had a hard time sleeping. Sam had simply laughed in his own way at her, letting her be as he tended to his work with those that had come from the front, including his Uncle Ashien.

Vincenzo was resting by the fire in the great hall with Owen beside him, both men conversing softly about various things. Fiona’s father still struggled with pain from old wounds and some days he simply couldn’t function beyond sitting next to a roaring fire. Little Brogan was in his great-grandfather’s arms, asleep after a harsh bout of stomach pain. Kate and Kell had been pulled away for meetings with advisors, especially in light of information brought to them from returning soldiers.

Fiona nearly jumped as someone kissed her cheek and she turned to see Sam with a small little smirk on his face. “You scared me.”

 

[KieranSoares]

"Well, y'didn' answer me." Sam wrapped his arms about her waist, glancing out the window as well. He'd grown a bit softer of late as both good and sad things seemed to be happening around him that early winter. Despite Vincenzo's fading, the old Italian had been insisting on the seasonal celebrations and the wedding plans regardless. He had told them all that if his time came soon, he wanted it to be among feasts and festivals as he believed in celebration over mourning. He had been working his own little corner of the family through his final wishes and the grief that came even before an expected death, and he had found time to spend with each family member of the clan as he finally gave the very last of his work over to Alex in the form of his herb garden at the keep. Everyone knew Vincenzo would be gone soon, likely around Yule with how often he stayed in bed now.

News from the front in Normandy had been a bit grim though expected, with casualties running a bit high after the Empire's final push before fortifying their position for winter. Without one hell of a strategy, France would remain locked in their grasp for the season. Sam, Kell, Kate, and their allies were trying to come up with a way to use the cold conditions to cut off imperial supply lines and force them back to retake the land as far as Paris.

And then there were the holiday and wedding plans. Sam had made his first proper address to the people in regards to said plans, telling them in a stoic but kind demeanor that Yule and Christmas and the Solstice would go on regardless of the troubles the north faced. He held the common sentiment of his military, that a soldier didn't just mourn for his fallen comrades. He drank and celebrated them too. There would be days and times to remember those lost and ceremonies separate from those for the ancestors.

Despite all eyes on him for how he'd navigate the touchy subject of celebrations around mourning, Sam seemed to have found his foothold and was beginning to seem a lot less like a Tamblin, and more like a Brogan as king. He had begun to lose a bit of his rigid military public personality, in favor of an easier, more welcoming, but much more powerful and graceful appearance. Fiona had seen it first hand when he spoke to his subjects. Instead of the at-attention and perfect stance of a soldier, often with his hands clasped behind his back, he'd slowly changed to shifting his weight to one leg, his shoulders more relaxed as a hand rested casually hooked over his dagger at his side. And now being more approachable, he was beginning to get the reputation of friendliness that no one had expected from him.

 

[heartofcourage]

“What was the question?” Fiona asked as he wrapped his arms tightly around her, her head leaning against his. “I’ve been watching for the dragons for hours. I wish they would get here soon.”

 

[KieranSoares]

"Then stop watching. Da asked fer you, he's up on th'battlements. It's windy up there, so bundle up. It's his favorite thinking spot outside th' hearth an' the garden."

Brogan was known to disappear on occasion up to the battlements that were rarely used anymore as lookouts frequented the walls and towers instead. Now it was a secluded place, the battlements high enough to obscure and give privacy to anyone pacing around the ancient stonework.

 

[heartofcourage]

"It's be so much warmer down here." Fiona murmured as she kissed Sam's cheek and finally moved from the window to bundle up in her fur coat, gloves, and hat to meet with Brogan up on the battlement.

As she mounted the stairs to get there, the wind was bitterly cold and biting at her exposed nose and cheeks. Her face was red by the time she found her father-in-law, seemingly unaffected by the cold wind and threatening snow.

"Sam said that you wanted to see me." Fiona murmured, pausing beside him.

 

[KieranSoares]

"Hiya, lovely," Brogan smiled kindly to Fiona, his weather-darkened skin only mildly flushed from the cold. "C'mere, I'll block th'wind for ya." He drew her close to his side, his broad arm wrapping around her along with his huge bearskin cloak. Against this furnace of a man with the wind blocked from her almost completely, it was almost pleasantly warm beside him.

Brogan's gaze turned back to the grey skies, and it seemed he was waiting for something like she had been, but he was staring south, not east. "Must be pretty anxious t'have yer folks here. Hope they get in before this snow hits. Looks like it'll be a proper blizzard."

 

[heartofcourage]

"I hope so too. I want to hug my grandparents and never let them go." Fiona said as she looked to the south at what Brogan had been staring at, seeing the dark clouds brewing that direction. "I'm sorry about Vincenzo. Sam has been working hard to make sure that everyone gets their time with him before he finally passes. He just simply keeps saying that it's time and he misses your mother."