Page 105 of Upon Buried Embers
I get to Serah and smile, running my hand up her nose. “Hi.” She shakes her head playfully, and I laugh, sneaking her an apple from my waistband when I’m sure Calian isn’t looking. “Don’t tell the others.” She crunches it as I place hay in her stall.
“Rohan assigned me to you to make sure you’re training well.” I sigh at that. “Kaldar will help with hand-to-hand, but I will help with weapons.”
“I’ve never held a weapon in my life unless it was cutting vegetables.”
“Vegetable cutting still needs precision,” Tofa says, bouncing over to me, a smile on her face.
“I thought you were cleaning the leather?” Calian says, eyeing her, and I notice he gives her a once-over.
She shrugs. “Beau said he would do it.”
“It still needs to be done by you,” Calian barks at her, and her eyes dim a little at his tone.
“Fine,” she mutters, and stomps off, shoulders slumped.
I can’t help but feel sorry for her. The way Calian spoke to her seemed unnecessary.
He runs a hand down his face before he shakes his head.
“Anyway, hurting people isn’t hard, Short Stack.” I frown at the name. “It’s avoiding getting hurt that is the difficult part, otherwise you just point and stab.”
“I’m very easily hurt,” I gesture to myself. “And you can’t point and stab with an axe,” I point out.
“Have you seen Rohan train?”
“No. Of course not. I do my chores and then I go to the cabin or the den.”
“And the dragons let you stay there?”
“Yes, I think so anyway. Apart from Drogonah grumbling.”
“Humph. They kick me out after a while.”
My mouth drops open. “They do?”
“Yeah. Growl in my face and nudge me out with their feet.”
“But… they don’t do that with me.”
He eyes me for a moment. “So it seems. Follow me.” I place the rest of the hay down and follow Calian, peeking into the saddleroom where Tofa’s rubbing a saddle, angry little mutters coming from her as Beau eyes her warily.
“Ignore her, I will see to her later,” Calian says, though he looks back at the room himself.
Ignoring her is what’s got her looking so mad.
“I think she just wanted to spend time with you,” I whisper to him, knowing it isn’t my place.
He eyes me, and I expect him to tell me to shut my mouth, but he surprises me. “We spend enough time together.”
Not in the way she clearly wants.
“Maybe she wants more time. Isn’t it nice to have someone that wants to spend time with you?”
He thinks for a moment, but he doesn’t say anything else on the matter.
Calian walks me through the camp that’s quiet in the early afternoon, leading me to the east, moving further and further away from the tents and cabins. We crest a hill where people are standing or sitting, and then I hear shouting, metal on metal, more shouts and grunts.
I pant, trying to catch my breath, looking down at what I can only assume is… chaos.
