The Story Begins!
Dec. 12th, 2014 12:23 pm![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
lissalysikanAfter years of telling you I have a story in my head, I put some of it into words.
A loud scream rent the air, then stopped as suddenly as it started.
Watcher Jarveth ran around a corner into an alley and paused.
Halfway down the alley a man in a Watch tunic lay on the ground writhing in obvious agony, his hands hidden in his crotch. Near him a small girl, maybe four and a half feet tall, was jumping up and down, her arms waving and her hands flapping like tiny wings; his dear friend Tinky. She was emitting an ear piercing squeal. A smell of burnt and burning meat filled the air as the little girl backed away from the man on the ground, never stopping her jumping or squealing. As he started running toward the girl he spotted another girl, more of a teen at about five and a half feet tall, approaching at a run from the opposite end. Jarveth recognized Tinky's friend Lee as he nearly collided with her, Tinky between them.
Jarveth bent over and lifted Tinky in his arms, cupping a large hand under her tiny bottom and putting an arm around her back as she wrapped her little arms around his neck and legs around his waist. The shrill keening stopped as she whimpered "rape". Holding her trembling little body tightly, he watched Lee approach the Watchman still writhing on the ground. When she pried the man's hands away from the charred ruin between his legs it was obvious what had happened.
"Get her out of here, Watcher." Leesa said over her shoulder.
Jarveth nodded and carried the little girl out of the alley. Tinky was light in his arms, seeming to weigh not much more than the chain shirt he wore under his tunic, as he hurried away before he interfered. He knew Lee was not about to give the man medical attention, and the rage in him wanted to watch, but he also knew he couldn't stand by and let it happen if he stayed.
Pulling a long hunting knife from a sheath on her thigh, Leesa sat cross-legged on the stone paving in front of the dying man's face. She looked him up and down, a vicious little grin on her face.
"Well, tough guy, we're going to tell you something before you die, just to make sure you understand how badly you messed up." She prodded at his face with the knife point until he looked at her eyes. "See, that little girl you just tried to rape is not really a little girl, she's a mage. An adult mage. You know, those people you are supposed to be killing? You found one! Probably the only one still alive." She smirked as the man's eyes grew a little larger. "Yes, that is what happened to you. You were so busy letting your perverted little cock think for you that you didn't do your job. Just imagine it. You could have been a hero, got an award and maybe a promotion, probably some bonus money. Your friends, if you have any, would have bought you a round of drinks.
"Instead, your little cock got you killed.
"You're dying. If it was up to Tinky, you probably wouldn't. She'd try to save you once she calmed down. She's a sweet little thing, isn't she? But we're here and she's not, and we aren't sweet." She grinned malevolently. "We are so very much not. I'd kill you myself, but I have to be able to tell your boss that I didn't and I never lie." She pressed her knife to his throat as she heard the soft thud of someone landing on the stone behind her. "You will never touch another little girl." She scratched the charred skin of his throat before standing up and heading up the alley after Jarveth and Tinky, watching the death of the Watchman through her sisters's eyes.
The Watcher looked over as Leesa sat in the chair beside him. Tinky wiggled, looking like a child on the knee of a giant, and he let her squirm over to sit on Leesa.
"Did you kill him?" Jarveth asked. He noticed she was shaking a bit, whether from anger or from what he suspected she had done he wasn't sure. Sliding his chair close, he put his arm over her shoulders.
"I didn't, no." Leesa kissed Tinky on the forehead. "But he ran into more trouble while I walked away." She shrugged, "I hope he wasn't one of yours. He won't be reporting for duty any more."
Shaking his head, Jarveth reached over to caress Tinky's back. "No. You can tell by the color of cord on their tunics. All my men wear dark green, to match my tunic, his was gray; his boss would wear a gray tunic." He stopped as he realized he was over explaining.
Tinky sniffled and shivered. "I never hurt anybody before." She wiped her nose on the sleeve of her leather dress, then wiped her eyes with the other sleeve. "I didn't mean to kill him. He scared me too much and I couldn't stop burning him." Her hands started to flap again.
Leesa gently pulled her hands down, then kissed her lightly on the lips, "don't worry, Baby, you didn't kill him. You wouldn't be a bad person if you had, he deserved it, but you didn't."
Smiling faintly, Tinky returned the kiss, then turned to look at Jarveth. "Now you can get us some ale. Something really strong and black, not that watered down pee you like." She turned her back to Leesa's chest and squirmed a little to get comfortable. "I could use a drink. That was the scariest thing, even worse than having Watchmen looking at me."
Chuckling at the pee comment, Jarveth went to the bar for drinks. Tinky liked watching him towering over the rest of the people lined up. At nearly six and a half feet tall with wide, strong shoulders, his size and shape was as intimidating as his office of Watcher and the sword and dagger he wore on his belt. The only people who wore weapons were the ones who could get away with using them without explanation.
"How did you find us?" He asked Leesa as he returned, setting two of the mugs in front of her.
"I just looked for the nearest pub that looked big enough to let you have a table away from the crowd." She sipped at one of the mugs and wrinkled her brow, "this one is yours, Tinky. It's concentrated pee."
Giggling, Tinky lifted the mug and took a gulp, wiped her mouth on her sleeve, and burped. "Ah. That helps." She looked at Jarveth smugly, "see? I told you you're predictable. It's a good thing." Peering over the top of the mug, she looked around the room. "Oh, I like this place, it's big and dark and people aren't all too close and loud."
Suddenly turning her face toward Leesa and ducking her head, she whispered, "uh oh, Watchman coming."
The Watchman stood inside the door for a minute adjusting his eyes, then looked around before heading straight for their table. Barely glancing at the two girls, he leaned over and whispered a few sentences to Jarveth. When he was finished he stood straight and looked at the girls. He smiled and wiggled his fingers at Tinky the way adults usually wave at small children and babies.
Tinky wiggled her fingers in return, keeping her head down as children are supposed to do, and murmured, "hi, sir." Keeping her head down helped her avoid detection, as the most obvious sign of a mage was found in their eyes. More than half again the size of a normal person's, the golden iris around the vertically slit pupils nearly filled them.
Jarveth shook the man's hand, "thank you. If you hear anything more, let me know. I'll be here a while longer, then back in my office."
The man nodded, waved at the girls, and headed back out of the pub. Once he was out of the room, Jarveth looked at Leesa with one eye raised.
"It seems a Watchman from some other district was found in an alley not far from here with his cord around his neck and some injuries to his," he paused, glancing at Tinky, then continued, "sensitive parts. Apparently the victim of thieves, his purse, weapons, and chain shirt were missing. I guess that must have happened after you left him?"
Leesa put on her most innocent look, "must have. He was still breathing, with all his gear, and holding his sensitive parts, when I walked away." She pulled Tinky's head to her and kissed her forehead. "But this is not a good time to have a discussion about such things. Tinky needs to stay calm."
Jarveth nodded, looking like he wanted to say more. He trusted Lee not to tell an outright lie, but he was pretty sure she knew exactly what happened. Not that he felt he needed to do anything about it. He'd been been Tinky's friend for over ten years and had no sympathy for anyone that might try to hurt her. He looked around the room.
"You're right, Tinky, it is a good place. We should come here again. Look up there, they've even got a balcony area with only a few tables so you wouldn't have to be crowded during a busy time."
The girls looked up at the balcony and the stairs leading up to it.
"Look, Lee, even got stairs at both ends, the way you like." Tinky elbowed the bigger girl gently.
"Ah yes. I almost forgot Lee's rule of always having two exits." Jarveth smiled at Lee. "Just teasing. I agree it's a good rule, just not one I associate with delicate little girls."
Tinky giggled again, "Lee is almost full size, you're just a giant! And she's not delicate, either." She sipped at her mug.
"True." He took a small drink, "if women were allowed in the Watch, I'd try hard to convince you to join."
Putting an arm around Tinky's waist and holding her mug in her free hand, Leesa shook her head. "Not a chance. I prefer the animals I hunt to have fur I can sell and meat I can eat." Looking at Jarveth out of the corner of her eye, she added, "and my acting skills aren't as good as yours."
The three of them sat sipping their ale, chatting as if nothing had happened, and watching the people come and go from the pub. It was the largest pub Tinky had seen that was not connected to an inn or brothel. The bar alone was long enough for ten stools lined up in front of it, and there were at least that many tables on the ground floor. Even with more than twenty people scattered around the room Tinky wasn't feeling the usual panic she got in crowds. She was enjoying the difference.
Jarveth put his mug down and nodded toward the windows, "First Dark. Time to get going."
Tinky pouted. "We can stay a little longer! I can get home in the dark."
Leesa pushed Tinky off her lap gently, "maybe, but that alone would get you in trouble. You know the rules. If you don't have a lantern you don't go out in the dark. People can't see in the dark." She stood up and took Tinky's hand. "We can come back other times with a lantern so you can stay later."
Huffing, Tinky wiggled her legs so her dress would fall down properly over her trousers. She knew that being able to see in the dark would make people suspicious, but she didn't have to like it.
"Better make it soon. I like this place. Watching the people is fun and they don't get suspicious like in the marketplace." She took one more look around the place and let Jarveth and Leesa lead her out. That it made her look even more like a child didn't occur to her, and wouldn't have mattered if it had.
Taking Tinky's free hand, Jarveth nodded. "People relax more in pubs. In the marketplace they're always on the lookout for cut-purses and other thieves, and about half the time the thieves are kids so looking like a kid doesn't make you look any safer to them." He glanced around, "if it were more crowded in here they would probably be more suspicious, too."
Out on the road, Jarveth dropped her hand and faced the girls. "You two okay to go on alone? I should get to my office."
Leesa nodded, "we'll be fine. We'll stay out of the alleys."
"Yup, I'm fine," Tinky added. "I'm not in a hurry to go into an alley." She gripped Leesa's hand a little tighter.
Jarveth knelt down and gave her a hug and a kiss on the cheek, "I can walk with you if you would feel safer."
Tinky let go of Leesa to hug him back, then took Leesa's hand again. "Nope, it's okay. Lee makes me feel safe, too."
Jarveth stood and watched them walk down the street a minute before heading for his office, which also served as the jail for the few criminals that survived being arrested, and the lower level of his home.
Leesa noticed Tinky guiding her to stay further away from passersby than usual, and walking more than skipping. She squeezed her hand and let her hurry them along.
Stopping at a door under a sign composed of a small hammer crossing a pair of pliers over a gear, Tinky shoved the door open, yelling, "Daddy, we're home!"
"No need to yell, Babygirl. I'm down here in the shop." Her father, Moran, stepped out from behind a shelf stand holding boxes of parts. He looked at Leesa questioningly, "Lee?"
"Leesa, Dad." It didn't bother Lee that Dad couldn't tell the Lees apart by sight. Of the few people that even knew there was more than one of them, none but Tinky could, and Leesa was pretty sure mage-sight was involved. She let him kiss her on the cheek, "Had a little trouble earlier you should know about." As he started to talk she shook her head. "After we get upstairs."
Moran nodded and returned to putting away his tools. "Why don't you girls go up and start getting ready for dinner. I'm nearly finished here."
The girls wound their way between workbenches, crates, tools, and the other paraphernalia of a tinker and metalsmith's shop to the staircase hidden in the back corner, then up to the house above. Pushing through the door, Tinky moved to the side to let Leesa in, then dropped her trousers on the floor and started taking off her soft-soled boots. Her father called them leather socks since the foot was all of a piece and fit her foot like a sock. When she was down to just wearing her thigh length leather dress she turned to help Leesa get off her much heavier boots. After tossing all the trousers and boots into a pile by the door, the girls went to the kitchen and started looking for something to prepare for dinner.
Moran stepped through the door and almost tripped on one of Leesa's boots. Shaking his head, he kicked it out of the way and made his way into the kitchen, his mouth watering at the smell of venison and potatoes. He walked past the girls to a cabinet and pulled out a bottle of mead and three cups and carried them to the table. After he poured the drinks, he sat down and watched them cook.
"The trouble?"
"After dinner, please?" Leesa looked over her shoulder at him and smirked when she noticed he was looking at her bare legs.
Nodding, he leaned back in his chair waited for dinner.
Tinky dominated the dinner discussion, talking about the fun things she'd done all day, sounding every bit like the ten year old she resembled. As usual, she avoided any topic that she didn't consider fun, including her father's work or any events that upset her during the day. She finished gushing about the pub they'd found where she felt comfortable just as they finished eating.
"Tinky, how about you go down and work on that lock you were fixing? You said you only had a little more to do on it. Your tools are still out on your bench with it." Moran gave her a quick peck on the cheek as she ran by to do as he suggested.
It never occurred to Tinky to say no to her father; it was something she wouldn't consider. Running down the stairs, she enjoyed the feel of the rough wood on her bare feet, then stopped at the bottom to enjoy the transition to the rough stone of the shop floor. She loved being barefoot and all the sensations that came with it. After a few seconds, she ran over to her bench and climbed up onto the stool and started working on the lock.
"I'm guessing you didn't want to talk about the trouble with Tinky listening." Moran sat in his favorite chair in front of the unlit fireplace and beckoned Leesa to sit with him.
Leesa sat on his lap, enjoying the feel of his hand on her thigh as soon as she was settled, "yeah, it's not something she would want to think about again. It was pretty scary for her." She put an arm around Moran's shoulders and leaned her head against him as he caressed her legs. "A man grabbed her in an alley." She described the attempted rape and Tinky's fire in the man's crotch. "It was mid day, so I thought it would be safe to let her race ahead of me. By the time I got there the man was already down. Jarveth must have heard something because he arrived just as I did. I sent him away with Tinky until Leeya arrived, then I left so I could tell him I didn't kill the man."
Feeling his hand gripping the slender thigh tightly, Moran tried to relax. "The man didn't get out of the alley, though?"
Leesa shook her head, "no." She looked up at him, "According to the Watchman that found him, some thieves must have got to him. He never managed to tell anyone how he'd been hurt."
Nodding, Moran let out a sigh. "Tinky would have let him live, even though it would have meant being discovered." His arm around Leesa's back squeezed her in a tight hug. "Thanks. Thanks for watching over my Babygirl."
"You know we love her." She shrugged and tilted her head to kiss Moran's cheek, "we couldn't let him get away to say anything. Or to do it again, to some little girl that couldn't defend herself."
Moran knew of Leesa's connection to her sisters and didn't get confused by her switching between 'I' and 'we' in a conversation. He often wondered what it was like for her, though, to be part of a group mind. The few times she'd described it he'd thought it would be awfully confusing.
Leesa held the skirt of her dress down with her free hand as Moran's hand resumed caressing her legs. "Anyway, we thought you should know. Jarveth and I sat with her at that new pub for a while to see how she was handling it and she seemed to let it go the way she does everything unpleasant." She sighed, "although she's probably bottling it up to explode when she goes out into the forest again."
"Can one of you go out there with her soon? I don't think it would be good for her to keep that one inside long." He caressed Leesa's back and side.
"Sure." She smirked at him, "we've handled enough of her explosions to not be scared off. Although lately she hasn't been having as many."
"I think she's learning to handle her feelings a little, instead of just holding them in until they blow up." He sighed heavily, again. "I suppose it had to happen sooner or later. I guess I've been fooling myself, thinking that looking like a child would always protect her. It's not like men like that are common, but I suppose more than I thought." He lifted his hand from her thigh and reached beside his chair for a glass that wasn't there.
Leesa slipped off his lap and adjusted her dress, then went to the sideboard and got a glass and a bottle and brought them back to him.
"She's not really a child, you know. She hasn't been for years."
"I know. I know your relationship with her." He smiled at her as he poured himself a drink. He drank half a shot in a gulp, then refilled the glass before settling back in the chair. "It's hard to think of her as an adult, though. In so many ways, she's still a child."
Leesa sat on the arm of the chair, "no, no she's not." She looked into the empty fireplace thoughtfully. "I think it would be better to say she's child like. She's had twenty years of life, she's not a child. She acts like one a lot, but she has to, to stay hidden. She never has to act adult, because if she did she'd be in trouble. But she has those years of education and thinking and experience; maybe sheltered a bit, but she has seen a lot, and still influences her. If you compared her to a natural ten year old directly, you'd see a difference."
"I guess I'm too close to see it. She'll always be my Babygirl."
"And I think she wants it to stay that way. You're her Daddy, her comfort. You don't need to change for her, she wouldn't like it." Leesa stood again, "she likes having things stay the same even as she knows they don't." She smirked, "how many other twenty year olds still call their father Daddy?"
Moran smiled and sipped at his drink. "Thank you for being my daughter's friend." He looked down at her legs, "and putting up with me being a dirty old man."
Leesa flexed her leg muscles, "hey, the way we look, the only men that look at us are dirty old men. Or a bit naughty, anyway. We know we still look sixteen, and according to Tinky we'll continue falling behind as she does. Not as much, but enough to be noticeable. The idea of looking twenty when we're forty is actually pretty nice." She smiled at Moran, "We don't mind you being a dirty old man as long as you don't push."
Moran smiled back at her, then looked into his glass thoughtfully. "I try not to think about the age thing. Don't even talk to her about it. The thought that she's still going to be looking ten when she's fifty is a little scary."
"Pft." Leesa patted his knee, "she's aging faster than that! She'll probably look at least twelve by then." She grinned at his smirk.
The sound of Tinky's feet on the stairs ended the conversation. Leesa went to the sideboard, got two more glasses and brought them for Moran to fill just as Tinky walked into the room.
"All done! End of serious 'might upset Tinky' talk." She took a sip from the glass that Leesa handed her and gasped as it burned her tongue and throat. "Daddy! You went and got the good stuff?"
"I got tired of that watered down pee that Jody sells."
Leesa smirked, "well, now we know where she got that expression."
Bye for now.
A loud scream rent the air, then stopped as suddenly as it started.
Watcher Jarveth ran around a corner into an alley and paused.
Halfway down the alley a man in a Watch tunic lay on the ground writhing in obvious agony, his hands hidden in his crotch. Near him a small girl, maybe four and a half feet tall, was jumping up and down, her arms waving and her hands flapping like tiny wings; his dear friend Tinky. She was emitting an ear piercing squeal. A smell of burnt and burning meat filled the air as the little girl backed away from the man on the ground, never stopping her jumping or squealing. As he started running toward the girl he spotted another girl, more of a teen at about five and a half feet tall, approaching at a run from the opposite end. Jarveth recognized Tinky's friend Lee as he nearly collided with her, Tinky between them.
Jarveth bent over and lifted Tinky in his arms, cupping a large hand under her tiny bottom and putting an arm around her back as she wrapped her little arms around his neck and legs around his waist. The shrill keening stopped as she whimpered "rape". Holding her trembling little body tightly, he watched Lee approach the Watchman still writhing on the ground. When she pried the man's hands away from the charred ruin between his legs it was obvious what had happened.
"Get her out of here, Watcher." Leesa said over her shoulder.
Jarveth nodded and carried the little girl out of the alley. Tinky was light in his arms, seeming to weigh not much more than the chain shirt he wore under his tunic, as he hurried away before he interfered. He knew Lee was not about to give the man medical attention, and the rage in him wanted to watch, but he also knew he couldn't stand by and let it happen if he stayed.
Pulling a long hunting knife from a sheath on her thigh, Leesa sat cross-legged on the stone paving in front of the dying man's face. She looked him up and down, a vicious little grin on her face.
"Well, tough guy, we're going to tell you something before you die, just to make sure you understand how badly you messed up." She prodded at his face with the knife point until he looked at her eyes. "See, that little girl you just tried to rape is not really a little girl, she's a mage. An adult mage. You know, those people you are supposed to be killing? You found one! Probably the only one still alive." She smirked as the man's eyes grew a little larger. "Yes, that is what happened to you. You were so busy letting your perverted little cock think for you that you didn't do your job. Just imagine it. You could have been a hero, got an award and maybe a promotion, probably some bonus money. Your friends, if you have any, would have bought you a round of drinks.
"Instead, your little cock got you killed.
"You're dying. If it was up to Tinky, you probably wouldn't. She'd try to save you once she calmed down. She's a sweet little thing, isn't she? But we're here and she's not, and we aren't sweet." She grinned malevolently. "We are so very much not. I'd kill you myself, but I have to be able to tell your boss that I didn't and I never lie." She pressed her knife to his throat as she heard the soft thud of someone landing on the stone behind her. "You will never touch another little girl." She scratched the charred skin of his throat before standing up and heading up the alley after Jarveth and Tinky, watching the death of the Watchman through her sisters's eyes.
The Watcher looked over as Leesa sat in the chair beside him. Tinky wiggled, looking like a child on the knee of a giant, and he let her squirm over to sit on Leesa.
"Did you kill him?" Jarveth asked. He noticed she was shaking a bit, whether from anger or from what he suspected she had done he wasn't sure. Sliding his chair close, he put his arm over her shoulders.
"I didn't, no." Leesa kissed Tinky on the forehead. "But he ran into more trouble while I walked away." She shrugged, "I hope he wasn't one of yours. He won't be reporting for duty any more."
Shaking his head, Jarveth reached over to caress Tinky's back. "No. You can tell by the color of cord on their tunics. All my men wear dark green, to match my tunic, his was gray; his boss would wear a gray tunic." He stopped as he realized he was over explaining.
Tinky sniffled and shivered. "I never hurt anybody before." She wiped her nose on the sleeve of her leather dress, then wiped her eyes with the other sleeve. "I didn't mean to kill him. He scared me too much and I couldn't stop burning him." Her hands started to flap again.
Leesa gently pulled her hands down, then kissed her lightly on the lips, "don't worry, Baby, you didn't kill him. You wouldn't be a bad person if you had, he deserved it, but you didn't."
Smiling faintly, Tinky returned the kiss, then turned to look at Jarveth. "Now you can get us some ale. Something really strong and black, not that watered down pee you like." She turned her back to Leesa's chest and squirmed a little to get comfortable. "I could use a drink. That was the scariest thing, even worse than having Watchmen looking at me."
Chuckling at the pee comment, Jarveth went to the bar for drinks. Tinky liked watching him towering over the rest of the people lined up. At nearly six and a half feet tall with wide, strong shoulders, his size and shape was as intimidating as his office of Watcher and the sword and dagger he wore on his belt. The only people who wore weapons were the ones who could get away with using them without explanation.
"How did you find us?" He asked Leesa as he returned, setting two of the mugs in front of her.
"I just looked for the nearest pub that looked big enough to let you have a table away from the crowd." She sipped at one of the mugs and wrinkled her brow, "this one is yours, Tinky. It's concentrated pee."
Giggling, Tinky lifted the mug and took a gulp, wiped her mouth on her sleeve, and burped. "Ah. That helps." She looked at Jarveth smugly, "see? I told you you're predictable. It's a good thing." Peering over the top of the mug, she looked around the room. "Oh, I like this place, it's big and dark and people aren't all too close and loud."
Suddenly turning her face toward Leesa and ducking her head, she whispered, "uh oh, Watchman coming."
The Watchman stood inside the door for a minute adjusting his eyes, then looked around before heading straight for their table. Barely glancing at the two girls, he leaned over and whispered a few sentences to Jarveth. When he was finished he stood straight and looked at the girls. He smiled and wiggled his fingers at Tinky the way adults usually wave at small children and babies.
Tinky wiggled her fingers in return, keeping her head down as children are supposed to do, and murmured, "hi, sir." Keeping her head down helped her avoid detection, as the most obvious sign of a mage was found in their eyes. More than half again the size of a normal person's, the golden iris around the vertically slit pupils nearly filled them.
Jarveth shook the man's hand, "thank you. If you hear anything more, let me know. I'll be here a while longer, then back in my office."
The man nodded, waved at the girls, and headed back out of the pub. Once he was out of the room, Jarveth looked at Leesa with one eye raised.
"It seems a Watchman from some other district was found in an alley not far from here with his cord around his neck and some injuries to his," he paused, glancing at Tinky, then continued, "sensitive parts. Apparently the victim of thieves, his purse, weapons, and chain shirt were missing. I guess that must have happened after you left him?"
Leesa put on her most innocent look, "must have. He was still breathing, with all his gear, and holding his sensitive parts, when I walked away." She pulled Tinky's head to her and kissed her forehead. "But this is not a good time to have a discussion about such things. Tinky needs to stay calm."
Jarveth nodded, looking like he wanted to say more. He trusted Lee not to tell an outright lie, but he was pretty sure she knew exactly what happened. Not that he felt he needed to do anything about it. He'd been been Tinky's friend for over ten years and had no sympathy for anyone that might try to hurt her. He looked around the room.
"You're right, Tinky, it is a good place. We should come here again. Look up there, they've even got a balcony area with only a few tables so you wouldn't have to be crowded during a busy time."
The girls looked up at the balcony and the stairs leading up to it.
"Look, Lee, even got stairs at both ends, the way you like." Tinky elbowed the bigger girl gently.
"Ah yes. I almost forgot Lee's rule of always having two exits." Jarveth smiled at Lee. "Just teasing. I agree it's a good rule, just not one I associate with delicate little girls."
Tinky giggled again, "Lee is almost full size, you're just a giant! And she's not delicate, either." She sipped at her mug.
"True." He took a small drink, "if women were allowed in the Watch, I'd try hard to convince you to join."
Putting an arm around Tinky's waist and holding her mug in her free hand, Leesa shook her head. "Not a chance. I prefer the animals I hunt to have fur I can sell and meat I can eat." Looking at Jarveth out of the corner of her eye, she added, "and my acting skills aren't as good as yours."
The three of them sat sipping their ale, chatting as if nothing had happened, and watching the people come and go from the pub. It was the largest pub Tinky had seen that was not connected to an inn or brothel. The bar alone was long enough for ten stools lined up in front of it, and there were at least that many tables on the ground floor. Even with more than twenty people scattered around the room Tinky wasn't feeling the usual panic she got in crowds. She was enjoying the difference.
Jarveth put his mug down and nodded toward the windows, "First Dark. Time to get going."
Tinky pouted. "We can stay a little longer! I can get home in the dark."
Leesa pushed Tinky off her lap gently, "maybe, but that alone would get you in trouble. You know the rules. If you don't have a lantern you don't go out in the dark. People can't see in the dark." She stood up and took Tinky's hand. "We can come back other times with a lantern so you can stay later."
Huffing, Tinky wiggled her legs so her dress would fall down properly over her trousers. She knew that being able to see in the dark would make people suspicious, but she didn't have to like it.
"Better make it soon. I like this place. Watching the people is fun and they don't get suspicious like in the marketplace." She took one more look around the place and let Jarveth and Leesa lead her out. That it made her look even more like a child didn't occur to her, and wouldn't have mattered if it had.
Taking Tinky's free hand, Jarveth nodded. "People relax more in pubs. In the marketplace they're always on the lookout for cut-purses and other thieves, and about half the time the thieves are kids so looking like a kid doesn't make you look any safer to them." He glanced around, "if it were more crowded in here they would probably be more suspicious, too."
Out on the road, Jarveth dropped her hand and faced the girls. "You two okay to go on alone? I should get to my office."
Leesa nodded, "we'll be fine. We'll stay out of the alleys."
"Yup, I'm fine," Tinky added. "I'm not in a hurry to go into an alley." She gripped Leesa's hand a little tighter.
Jarveth knelt down and gave her a hug and a kiss on the cheek, "I can walk with you if you would feel safer."
Tinky let go of Leesa to hug him back, then took Leesa's hand again. "Nope, it's okay. Lee makes me feel safe, too."
Jarveth stood and watched them walk down the street a minute before heading for his office, which also served as the jail for the few criminals that survived being arrested, and the lower level of his home.
Leesa noticed Tinky guiding her to stay further away from passersby than usual, and walking more than skipping. She squeezed her hand and let her hurry them along.
Stopping at a door under a sign composed of a small hammer crossing a pair of pliers over a gear, Tinky shoved the door open, yelling, "Daddy, we're home!"
"No need to yell, Babygirl. I'm down here in the shop." Her father, Moran, stepped out from behind a shelf stand holding boxes of parts. He looked at Leesa questioningly, "Lee?"
"Leesa, Dad." It didn't bother Lee that Dad couldn't tell the Lees apart by sight. Of the few people that even knew there was more than one of them, none but Tinky could, and Leesa was pretty sure mage-sight was involved. She let him kiss her on the cheek, "Had a little trouble earlier you should know about." As he started to talk she shook her head. "After we get upstairs."
Moran nodded and returned to putting away his tools. "Why don't you girls go up and start getting ready for dinner. I'm nearly finished here."
The girls wound their way between workbenches, crates, tools, and the other paraphernalia of a tinker and metalsmith's shop to the staircase hidden in the back corner, then up to the house above. Pushing through the door, Tinky moved to the side to let Leesa in, then dropped her trousers on the floor and started taking off her soft-soled boots. Her father called them leather socks since the foot was all of a piece and fit her foot like a sock. When she was down to just wearing her thigh length leather dress she turned to help Leesa get off her much heavier boots. After tossing all the trousers and boots into a pile by the door, the girls went to the kitchen and started looking for something to prepare for dinner.
Moran stepped through the door and almost tripped on one of Leesa's boots. Shaking his head, he kicked it out of the way and made his way into the kitchen, his mouth watering at the smell of venison and potatoes. He walked past the girls to a cabinet and pulled out a bottle of mead and three cups and carried them to the table. After he poured the drinks, he sat down and watched them cook.
"The trouble?"
"After dinner, please?" Leesa looked over her shoulder at him and smirked when she noticed he was looking at her bare legs.
Nodding, he leaned back in his chair waited for dinner.
Tinky dominated the dinner discussion, talking about the fun things she'd done all day, sounding every bit like the ten year old she resembled. As usual, she avoided any topic that she didn't consider fun, including her father's work or any events that upset her during the day. She finished gushing about the pub they'd found where she felt comfortable just as they finished eating.
"Tinky, how about you go down and work on that lock you were fixing? You said you only had a little more to do on it. Your tools are still out on your bench with it." Moran gave her a quick peck on the cheek as she ran by to do as he suggested.
It never occurred to Tinky to say no to her father; it was something she wouldn't consider. Running down the stairs, she enjoyed the feel of the rough wood on her bare feet, then stopped at the bottom to enjoy the transition to the rough stone of the shop floor. She loved being barefoot and all the sensations that came with it. After a few seconds, she ran over to her bench and climbed up onto the stool and started working on the lock.
"I'm guessing you didn't want to talk about the trouble with Tinky listening." Moran sat in his favorite chair in front of the unlit fireplace and beckoned Leesa to sit with him.
Leesa sat on his lap, enjoying the feel of his hand on her thigh as soon as she was settled, "yeah, it's not something she would want to think about again. It was pretty scary for her." She put an arm around Moran's shoulders and leaned her head against him as he caressed her legs. "A man grabbed her in an alley." She described the attempted rape and Tinky's fire in the man's crotch. "It was mid day, so I thought it would be safe to let her race ahead of me. By the time I got there the man was already down. Jarveth must have heard something because he arrived just as I did. I sent him away with Tinky until Leeya arrived, then I left so I could tell him I didn't kill the man."
Feeling his hand gripping the slender thigh tightly, Moran tried to relax. "The man didn't get out of the alley, though?"
Leesa shook her head, "no." She looked up at him, "According to the Watchman that found him, some thieves must have got to him. He never managed to tell anyone how he'd been hurt."
Nodding, Moran let out a sigh. "Tinky would have let him live, even though it would have meant being discovered." His arm around Leesa's back squeezed her in a tight hug. "Thanks. Thanks for watching over my Babygirl."
"You know we love her." She shrugged and tilted her head to kiss Moran's cheek, "we couldn't let him get away to say anything. Or to do it again, to some little girl that couldn't defend herself."
Moran knew of Leesa's connection to her sisters and didn't get confused by her switching between 'I' and 'we' in a conversation. He often wondered what it was like for her, though, to be part of a group mind. The few times she'd described it he'd thought it would be awfully confusing.
Leesa held the skirt of her dress down with her free hand as Moran's hand resumed caressing her legs. "Anyway, we thought you should know. Jarveth and I sat with her at that new pub for a while to see how she was handling it and she seemed to let it go the way she does everything unpleasant." She sighed, "although she's probably bottling it up to explode when she goes out into the forest again."
"Can one of you go out there with her soon? I don't think it would be good for her to keep that one inside long." He caressed Leesa's back and side.
"Sure." She smirked at him, "we've handled enough of her explosions to not be scared off. Although lately she hasn't been having as many."
"I think she's learning to handle her feelings a little, instead of just holding them in until they blow up." He sighed heavily, again. "I suppose it had to happen sooner or later. I guess I've been fooling myself, thinking that looking like a child would always protect her. It's not like men like that are common, but I suppose more than I thought." He lifted his hand from her thigh and reached beside his chair for a glass that wasn't there.
Leesa slipped off his lap and adjusted her dress, then went to the sideboard and got a glass and a bottle and brought them back to him.
"She's not really a child, you know. She hasn't been for years."
"I know. I know your relationship with her." He smiled at her as he poured himself a drink. He drank half a shot in a gulp, then refilled the glass before settling back in the chair. "It's hard to think of her as an adult, though. In so many ways, she's still a child."
Leesa sat on the arm of the chair, "no, no she's not." She looked into the empty fireplace thoughtfully. "I think it would be better to say she's child like. She's had twenty years of life, she's not a child. She acts like one a lot, but she has to, to stay hidden. She never has to act adult, because if she did she'd be in trouble. But she has those years of education and thinking and experience; maybe sheltered a bit, but she has seen a lot, and still influences her. If you compared her to a natural ten year old directly, you'd see a difference."
"I guess I'm too close to see it. She'll always be my Babygirl."
"And I think she wants it to stay that way. You're her Daddy, her comfort. You don't need to change for her, she wouldn't like it." Leesa stood again, "she likes having things stay the same even as she knows they don't." She smirked, "how many other twenty year olds still call their father Daddy?"
Moran smiled and sipped at his drink. "Thank you for being my daughter's friend." He looked down at her legs, "and putting up with me being a dirty old man."
Leesa flexed her leg muscles, "hey, the way we look, the only men that look at us are dirty old men. Or a bit naughty, anyway. We know we still look sixteen, and according to Tinky we'll continue falling behind as she does. Not as much, but enough to be noticeable. The idea of looking twenty when we're forty is actually pretty nice." She smiled at Moran, "We don't mind you being a dirty old man as long as you don't push."
Moran smiled back at her, then looked into his glass thoughtfully. "I try not to think about the age thing. Don't even talk to her about it. The thought that she's still going to be looking ten when she's fifty is a little scary."
"Pft." Leesa patted his knee, "she's aging faster than that! She'll probably look at least twelve by then." She grinned at his smirk.
The sound of Tinky's feet on the stairs ended the conversation. Leesa went to the sideboard, got two more glasses and brought them for Moran to fill just as Tinky walked into the room.
"All done! End of serious 'might upset Tinky' talk." She took a sip from the glass that Leesa handed her and gasped as it burned her tongue and throat. "Daddy! You went and got the good stuff?"
"I got tired of that watered down pee that Jody sells."
Leesa smirked, "well, now we know where she got that expression."
Bye for now.
no subject
Date: 2014-12-13 03:55 pm (UTC)For some reason it was not down loading over dial-up at the Live-Journal site, so I read it here.
Found Unicorn
no subject
Date: 2014-12-14 01:53 am (UTC)no subject
Date: 2014-12-19 07:31 pm (UTC)Part 2 is coming today! Let me know what you think.
I prefer Dreamwidth over LiveJournal, but keep both so I don't lose old friends. :)
Wonderful World
Date: 2014-12-30 09:23 am (UTC)Dude (Philip)