It was Leslyn who peered back at Erin as he slowly pried her hands apart, eyes wide with concern. She fought him half-heartedly, so embarrassed now that she was starting to feel much too warm, and the floor under her feet seemed to sway as vigorously as it had on the ship. The panicked response had been completely instinctive, and it’d taken a shamefully long time for her to remember: The scars are GONE, stupid! STUPID!
She wanted to cry, but preserving what little dignity she had left was suddenly the most important thing in the world.
“Fur and feathers, girl,“ an older man snapped from behind her. “Get a hold of yourself.”
Leslyn’s grip tightened on Erin’s hands, and he shot a sharp look over her shoulder.
“Ah, I see introductions are already underway,” Koben said, sounding as unflappable as ever. “Leslyn, Erin, this is Captain Tannoran. And you’ve already met his son, Kaleit.”
For some reason, Captain Tannoran and Kaleit both startled and looked at Erin when Koben said her name, sending her into an immediate state of staring at the floor.
So that was his name. It sounded just right. And he was just right. Exactly as Erin had drawn from her dream. He was exactly the same, right down the the dimples. I wish I had known he’d be here. I would have been ready.
In the introduction she’d imagined, she would have been confident and wearing pretty clothes. Maybe a dress. Not salt-stained slacks and an old blouse that both smelled like ocean. She would have smiled at him and given her name, and perhaps she would’ve shaken his hand. He would have liked that. He might even have smiled back. He had an amazing smile, she was sure.
Instead, when she finally dared to glance his way, he was peering at her out of the side of his eye with that grossed-out look that people made when they thought someone was crazy and might do something really weird at any moment.
The Aeriemaster shooed the gathered crowd from the room with a firm, "Out, all of you. She needs privacy." After checking Wrath—not Erin—and finding all to be well, he went back to stand with Koben and Tannoran to admire the griffin.
“So you finally managed to capture the beast,” Tannoran was saying. “You’ve been at it three, four years now?”
“I have,” said Koben. “As I was just telling our dear Aeriemaster before you graced us with your presence, I’ve also procured this youngling for our workforce, a shipwreck survivor plucked fresh from the sea five days out.” He gestured proudly at Erin.
“Five days?” Aeriemaster Gunu faced Koben and crossed his arms. “Impossible. No ships have left since yours. How did she get out there?”
This tale has been unlawfully lifted from Royal Road; report any instances of this story if found elsewhere.
“I thought it was impossible too, but she claims to be from some place called Lutendel… off the map.”
Now the men’s eyes were collectively scanning Erin so intently that she struggled to keep her hands at her sides instead of over her face. Please wake up, she miserably thought. This is worse than the fight with Wrath.
Leslyn stood next to her, and she was glad to see him glaring razors at everyone in the room.
As if they’d heard some cue that was silent to all other ears, Koben, Tannoran and Gunu faced each other and lowered their voices. Arlis completely ignored them, while Kaleit’s eyes narrowed with focus, perhaps attempting to lipread. Leslyn and Erin looked at each other.
“What do you think they’re saying?” Leslyn whispered.
“I… I don’t know,” she admitted. “Things haven’t exactly gone the way I expected.”
“What makes you think things are supposed to go the way you expect?”
She winced at the accusing hiss. “I wrote the lore so far, so I know a lot about the story. More than you, at least.” She gestured vaguely at the others in the room. “These new characters, though—I haven’t written their profiles, so I have no idea who they are, or how they’re going to act.”
Saying it out loud made Erin’s heart sink. She was definitely ready to wake up and correct that deficiency with all swiftness.
“It’s settled, then,” came Koben’s cheerful voice. “The boy stays with me. He’s proved his worth as a squire. The other’s too much of a liability. Bit of a nit, thought she was being sneaky following us out to the nesting site and then practically offered herself to Wrath as dinner.”
“I’ve room for her,” Tannoran said, “so long as you’re willing to give her work, Gunu.”
Wait… WHAT? The sting of Koben’s insult faded quickly as it’d struck, and Erin grabbed Leslyn’s wrist.
“Orphan girl, you need a sponsor if you plan to stay here and gain citizenship,” Tannoran said patiently, “or else you can dive right back into the sea where you came from. Your choice.”
Erin’s feet went dead cold. Since when was that part of the canon? And why hadn’t she woken up, yet? This was the second time the dream had continued on past the moment she wished. A slimy worm of fear wriggled through her insides as she suddenly wondered if this were really a dream, after all. She tried to put on a brave face, but couldn’t help but squeeze Leslyn's wrist a bit tighter than before.
“She’s scared just enough to be telling the truth, I think,” said Koben. “If she was a merling, she’d be all too pleased to go back home.”
“Merlings, up here?” Kaleit snorted. “That’s even more far-fetched than the shipwreck story.”
“Shut your mouth,” his father snapped. “Address your prince like that again and you’ll be waiting another year to serve.”
“But my friends are already—“
“I said, shut it.” There was a glint of hard light in his eyes. He sternly held his son’s gaze until Kaleit looked away. “Terribly sorry, Koben.”
“So you say, Tannoran. I’ll accept it, I suppose.” His tone was serious, but the faint hint of a grin never left his face.
I’m glad Leslyn gets to work for him, was a distant comment in Erin’s mind. Her more urgent thoughts were a mess of dread and desires to be any number of places other than where she was just then. It was beginning to sink in that she was going to be living under the same roof with Kaleit.
A wave of nauseatingly awkward scenarios rushed through her head, each one more humiliating than the last. She might have thought them fun, were she the all-powerful Author, poised above her Tablet of Doom to cause her character every pain, embarrassment and challenge before electing to reward the poor creature for her suffering.
She never expected to be that character.