kitsune_wolf (kitsune_wolf) wrote in lg_chronicles, @ 2007-08-04 13:40:00 |
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Entry tags: | royal sisters |
TCoLG: The Royal Sisters. Chapter 3
The Chronicles of Lowerground – The Royal Sisters
Chapter Three – Arrows Cloaks and Daggers
Word Count – 4845
In which Mace has a Secret.
Age of Darkness 4116 - 8th Day of Thawing
Viril moaned as light suddenly invaded his eyes. Someone had pulled back the leather flap that served as cheap shutters.
“Time to get up, lazy!” said a too-bright, too-cheerful voice.
“Rilly.” Viril pawed at his eyes and regarded his littermate. “What time is it?”
“A little before first meal.”
Viril flattened his ears against his head, and glared at his sister.
“So why are you walking me up, even though I said that I wouldn’t be partaking in first meal?”
“Because I want to know why you were out so late.” Rilly said cheerfully, toying with her black hair.
Viril fell back against the bed, throwing a black and white arm over his head, blocking his view of the stone walls of his sleeping chambers, with their brightly painted banners, and more importantly blocked his white furred, black haired sister from view.
“You wouldn’t believe me if I told you.”
Viril’s bed depressed as his sister sat on it.
“Try me.” Viril lifted his arm long enough for his brown eyes to meet his sister’s amber ones, before sighing and blocking the view again.
“What would you say if I told you that…a couple of rogue mages have enlisted my employment?”
“I’d say ‘Eww Mages, you know they are bad luck!’ You’d better make sure it doesn’t rub off on you.”
Viril bit off a laugh- he’d been expecting that.
“And don’t let Granddad find out.” Rilly added. “You don’t want to spoil your chances of leading the guild one day.”
This time, Viril did laugh.
“Rilly, I’m not going to be leader; your boyfriend is much more suited to the task.”
Rilly made a choking sound.
“That pompous, selfish, opinionated, egotistical jerk is not my boyfriend!” She shouted. “And if you want me to make sure no one knows that you’re working for mages, you had better not insinuate as much again.”
Viril grunted as Rilly punched him on the arm that wasn’t covering his face.
It was good to know that his sister didn’t mind him working for Tasha, too much. The day before, when, somehow he had agreed to work for the renegade princess, Kel’at had shown him what was going on under her house where the shrew and the rabbit had gone. They were giving out free food to the poorest of the people in exchange for labor, but that was only one side of it. They were building shelters, teaching non-mages how to use mage stones, teaching other people how to fight or heal, and they were even growing some food down there.
And the happy, teasing mood was a mask, the workers hiding their fears and morose thoughts behind teasing and false smiles.
Viril knew that they were preparing for war.
“You’d really keep Grandfather off my back?” Viril asked, sitting up.
“Of course.” Rilly smiled. “I’ll even make you a charm to ward off the bad luck, if you want.”
“That would be great.” Viril looked to the corner of his room, where his bow and quiver of bone arrows rested. “Rilly, I know your time is best spent making…err…what ever it is you make with the animals we bring back, but will you let me teach you how to defend yourself?”
Rilly blinked. “Why would I need to be able to defend myself?”
“Rilly, we’re cats, and in hunters clan at that! Just say I’m being paranoid.”
Rilly looked at Viril, and he knew she didn’t believe that he was just being paranoid.
“Okay, Viril, I’ll learn how to fight.”
Viril nodded. “Good. Well, since you got me up early, I had better go and get ready for work. I don’t want my new bosses to get angry- they might turn me into a rock or something.”
Rilly laughed as she turned to leave her brother’s room, with its animal skins on the walls and bone ornaments, some of which she had carved herself. She fingered the leather flap. There were no tin doors for the hunters’ home base; they had sold them to cover the cost of living between hunts. She turned back for a moment.
She really hoped her brother knew what he was getting into.