Sons of Destiny Prequel Series 003 - The Shifter (22 page)

"Yes, but you make it sound like your kinswoman didn't have any other shifters in her life, just herself. You're fully grown, and I'll presume fully taught. Surely you'd be around to teach your own children?" she pointed out.

"I'd hope to be," Kenyen allowed. He hadn't seriously considered finding a mate and settling down before now, but her words stirred his thoughts. "I suppose, if I lived
near
the Plains, it wouldn't be so bad... Being able to visit would make things bearable. What about you? Could you consider coming to live among us?"

"I suppose..." Solyn admitted. It was only fair of him to ask her that, since she'd asked her own version. "Except I really do need to go learn how to be a better mage. And I'd like to travel. I suppose that could extend to visiting the Plains. But living in a tent three seasons out of the year doesn't seem quite as nice as living in a house for all four."

He shrugged. "It's not as bad as you might be thinking. Our
geomes
are soundly built, and we make them as pleasant as possible inside. Our homes in the winter are communal, everyone sharing a building, with each couple having their own sleeping rooms. If we
could
safely transport a bowl filled with fish, it wouldn't be a bad idea. Or stay constantly in the city year-round. But mostly we have hunting cats for pets. They get along with shifters better than dogs do."

As much as she wanted to stay on his lap, Solyn was aware of their surroundings. Sighing, she straightened on his lap. "I think we really should get back to waxing the cheeses. Actual waxing, that is."

Smiling ruefully, he let her rise. "Your mother has completely ruined that phrase for me, you realize."

"You're not the only one," Solyn muttered, settling onto her own stool. She draped the wax-spattered cloth back over her lap, then smiled. "But while we'll only have enough cheeses to wax today... we still have to come back for a few hours tomorrow, and the day after that, and a dozen more after
that
, to rewrap the fresh rounds in clean cloths. And then we'll have to wax
those
cheeses, too, once they finally stop seeping out the last of the whey."

His mouth quirked higher on one side. Kenyen reached for his own supplies, copying her movements. "Well, then, we'll have plenty of time for more twining as well as for cheese-binding, won't we?"

She blushed, but she still smiled. Picking up her fat-bristled brush, Solyn stirred the wax and started painting it onto the round sitting in her lap once again. Kenyen followed suit.

"You really are different, you know?"

The comment from Traver's younger brother, Tellik, snapped Kenyen's eyes open. No longer sleepy, he worried over what the boy meant. The candles had long since been blown out, leaving their attic room dimly lit at best from the glow of the hearthfire embers down below. Mentally checking his disguise, he asked in Traver's voice, "Uhh... how so?"

"Liking Solyn so much. Not complaining about your chores. And
cheese
-making."

The disgust in Tellik's voice amused Kenyen, relaxing him a little. This wasn't quite as serious an accusation as he'd feared.

"Maybe I'm growing up," Kenyen offered softly. Navigating the hazards of living another man's life was a difficult task. He didn't
want
to lie, but the real Traver's life depended upon it. He also didn't want to leave awkward questions behind, if he could escape with his deception undiscovered. And if it was...

Silence stretched between them. Kenyen felt the pull of sleep again, only to be awakened by another question.

"Traver?"

"Yes?"

"How do you get a girl to like you?" Tellik asked.

That question took him back a dozen years, back to when he was barely fourteen and his brother Kodan was a more worldly sixteen, almost seventeen, old enough to visit the earth-priestesses and start the courting rituals of the Plains. Only Kenyen's question had ended,
"... to like you, when you only have a few shapes?"

Many shapes were favored over fewer, since that was how a man displayed his strength down on the Plains. Constantly being in his brother's shadow, able to shape half the number that Akodan now could... At the age of sixteen, Kodan hadn't yet proven he could shape and hold ten pure forms, the requirement for a
multerai
, so his advice from back then had been less confident in such things, but more practical in other directions. Kenyen tried to shape his older brother's advice for Tellik now, since the real Traver wasn't here to play the part of the older and presumably wiser man.

"Women... girls young and old... want to be respected," he stated slowly, dredging up the right words. He didn't want to sound too Shifterai-ish, but there were certain things that surely applied to all cultures. "When you give a girl your attention, listening to what she has to say and respecting her ideas and beliefs, this is very flattering—it's like how you feel when someone gives
you
that same kind of respect."

Tellik snorted, shifting on his pallet. "I'd
like
to have more respect. I'm still just a kid in everyone's eyes—and that's another thing where you're different.
You
don't treat me like a little pest anymore."

Kenyen chuckled. "You still are, but if you think about it, whatever you expect of a person, they'll live up to it. Or down to it. If I treat you like a pest, you'll act like one. If I treat you like a young man, you'll try to act like one, too. Girls aren't that much different. They
do
think differently. More caring, more cooperative. But still human in the end. Um..." He wracked his mind, trying to think of other pieces of advice. "Don't be interested just in a girl's looks. She may look pretty, but her figure and her face will change as she ages. The thing that stays constant is her mind.

"Oh, and find a girl that makes you laugh," Kenyen added, remembering the waxing joke. The memory curved his lips in a smile. He shifted onto his back, staring up at the darkness of the low-raftered ceiling. "And if you can make
her
laugh, that's even better."

"I don't get it," Tellik muttered. "You say a girl's mind stays constant, but girls are always changing their minds about stuff."

"Ah, yes. That's the difference between their opinions and their intellect. A girl who is smart will always
be
smart, even if she can't decide whether to wear a yellow skirt or a red one on any particular day," Kenyen told him. "A girl who is interested in traveling will always want to travel. At least, until she's tried it and decided whether or not once is enough. If she still likes it, then you'll have to accept it as a part of her. Just as she has to accept the things that you prefer.

"Sometimes you can even discover something new, together. Or she teaches you something you didn't know before," he added, thinking of folding those paper birds. "Or you can show her something. Show you're interested in a girl—don't push too hard, but let her know you enjoy her company. Smile at her whenever you see her."

"Tarquin teases the girls a lot," Tellik offered. "I've heard him say to Mari that Juna is prettier, but that he'd rather be with Mari because her hands know how to touch a man. And then he'll say to Juna that her figure is great, but Pelonna makes him laugh. And then Juna tries to make him laugh, too, and Mari gets her hands all over him, and... well, he has a lot of girls fighting over him."

"Tarquin isn't the best role model on how to treat girls," Kenyen stated. "What Tarquin wants from them is only a small part of what women really are."

"So what
does
he want from them?" Tellik asked innocently.

Kenyen cleared his throat, face warming. Grateful for the dark, he replied honestly, "He wants to twine with as many as possible, but doesn't actually
care
about any of them. They're just, um... things for him to twine with."

"... Oh. Ohhh!" Tellik exclaimed softly. "So it's like he only cares for their pretty faces, but doesn't care about their minds, like what you said, right?"

Relieved, Kenyen nodded in the dark. "Exactly. You're very smart for figuring that out."

"Solyn doesn't like him, does she?" Tellik asked next. "He's rich and has a nice house, but she never has time for him."

That made him chuckle. "That's because she's smart enough to realize he only wants one thing from her, and she deserves to have
all
her different bits appreciated. Body, mind, heart, interests, and abilities."

Tellik stayed silent for several moments, then asked, "Do you think I might find a girl like that?"

"You might. She might live here in one of the local holdings, or she might be in the next one over... or you may have to go looking for her in a place that's farther away than you thought," Kenyen murmured, thinking of the distance between this valley and his homeland. "You can look locally first. And you should take your time making up your mind, if you have the chance. But..."

"... But?" Traver's little brother asked.

Kenyen thought of Solyn, with her bright hazel eyes, infectious laughter, and sneeze-inducing abilities. "But sometimes you just have to seize the moment and go with your instincts. Sometimes you just know. Or think you know. And then it becomes easier. Not always easy, but easier. Your heart and your mind will prompt you to do little things for her, help her with her chores, give her little gifts... You'll want to spend time with her, whatever you're doing. Or just holding her hand makes you feel warm all over. And when she says nice things about you, it might make you feel twice as tall as you already are... or
she
might feel these things when you share them with her."

Tellik mulled that over. Finally, he sighed. "Twining stuff is complicated, isn't it?"

"Yes, it is," Kenyen chuckled. "Take your time, Tellik. You don't have to rush out and find yourself a bride tomorrow... but you
do
have to be rested enough to do your chores tomorrow. Now, go to sleep," he ordered. "I have both chores and cheese-making to manage, myself, so I need my sleep, too."

"Do you twine with Solyn?" Tellik asked. "Like Tarquin says he does? He says there's a lot more to it than holding hands and hugging and kissing, but he only laughs at me and doesn't say what the rest of it is. It isn't like what the goats do with each other, right? 'Cause that doesn't look like it's all that fun, just noisy and weird, and I've never heard anyone human making those sorts of noises before..."

"Go. To. Sleep," Kenyen ordered. He was more amused than offended by the boy's curiosity, but made sure his tone stayed firm, with no room for argument.

Silence descended between them. Kenyen relaxed. Just as he started to drift off once more, Tellik spoke again.

"D'you think Ysander would take me on as an apprentice? I really like watching him work in the forge whenever I can, and Tarquin says he needs an apprentice," the youth added, interrupting the quiet of the night once more.

"Good night, Tellik!"

"... G'night."

Between the time he had left the cavern to go use the bushes and the time he had returned, hands freshly washed at the basin by the entrance, Solyn had set up a small but sturdy, kettle-style teapot on the three-flame heating stand. Steam roiled out of its spout, proving she must have used a spell to heat the water so quickly.

She had also laid a pair of clean linen cloths over the low table that served as their workstation when rewrapping the fresh cheeses, but the cheeses were not on it. Instead, she had placed a soup bowl, a small bowl, a glass vial full of green powder, an odd little spoon with a lump on the end of the handle, forming a sort of stand that permitted it to sit level on the table, and a strange, fringed wooden whisk. As he watched, she carefully uncorked the little glass jar.

"What are you doing?" Kenyen asked, curious. He debated releasing his altered face back to its natural form, but decided to refrain when she didn't respond, in case it meant they were being watched.

Solyn heard the question, but her focus was elsewhere. Gently tapping the vial, she measured out just enough powdered tea to fit into the bowl of the little spoon. Recorking it, she placed the powder in the larger bowl with a murmur and a pulse of magic. Predictably, he sneezed. Trying not to smile too much, she used another scrap of cloth to pick up the steaming teapot and poured some of its contents into the whisking bowl.

Another murmur of spellwords, focusing and shaping her powers, lifted the whisk and dipped it into the bowl. A final trio of syllables set the spell in motion. Free to relax, she watched as the whisk whipped the mix of water and powdered tea into a frothy foam.

"I'm making tea," she said, finally answering his question. A glance at his face provoked a wry smile. "We're still alone. You can look like yourself, again."

"Thank you." He relaxed his features with a smile, then peered at her concoction. "That doesn't look like any tea
I've
ever had," Kenyen confessed, eyeing the mint green mix in the cup.

"It's a special kind of tea, mostly used in important religious ceremonies," she told him. "It is also the best kind of tea to use for weather divinations, particularly when prepared this way."