Cave Geeks II, Chapter 34
Title: Clan of the Cave Geeks Book II: The Warrior of Honor
Author: Taylor Dancinghands: taylor@tdancinghands.com
Characters/Pairings: Zelenka/McKay, Beckett/Lorne, and eventually Sheppard/Weir, plus: Teyla, Ronon, Stackhouse, Markham, Miller, Kavanagh, Cadman, Halling, and Jinto, and a big ol’ pile of OCs
Category: slash, drama, action/adventure, h/c, AU
Warnings: Sloppy Paleolithic history, anachronistic technological leaps and funnied up names.
Rating: NC-17, explicit M/M and eventually M/F sex depictions!
Summary: So what does a bonafide genius do in an era of stone knives and bear skins?
Spoilers/Season: none
Disclaimer: Don't own 'em, never will, not claiming to. Just wanna play with 'em a little. Can't I, can't I, huh?
Beta:Many thanks to my most worthy betareader
smingus for her encouragement and feedback. We loves our betareaders we does.
AN: I tried, I really did, but as it turns out this isn't the very end, quite. There's an Epilogue, of course, and I'll likely post it tomorrow or the next day. But it is finally, really, done, at last!
Chapter 34
"It's not so much that I've meant to keep it a secret," Caresn began when they had all finally settled into their respective beds. "It's just that there's not so much to tell and actually, no one's ever asked before, how I came to Lakeside."
"Well," Rodne said, snuggled warmly with R'dek under the furs, "you've always said that Turtur sent you and honestly, that's kind of a conversation killer."
Beside him, Rodne heard R'dek give a snort of laughter, and Rodne felt the warmth of his breath fall on his shoulder -a contrast to the chill air in the hut. They'd built up the fire when they'd come in, but it was dying back now as they prepared to sleep, creating more shadows than light -the largest of these being Rodne and R'dek's bulging packs, standing ready by the door for the morrow's journey.
"Aye, you might be right about that," Caresn replied. "But it's true nonetheless, after a fashion. Ye see, the village I grew up in sat at the base of a mountain, above a small river. We raised sheep and cows and tried to avoid getting caught up in the feuds that other villages nearby got involved in, and I never thought there'd be much more to my life that lookin' after my flock." In the shadowy quiet, Rodne saw a movement that might have been the shaking of a head, and a sound that might have been Loren drawing his lover a little closer.
"So it was one spring, my ninth, I think," the healer continued, "that I began to dream of Turtur. He didn't speak at first, but... I knew things, when I dreamed of him. I knew that when I touched him I could fly... and those were wonderful dreams." Caresn's sigh seemed one of fond remembrance, though there also seemed a dark portent. Rodne leaned his head to rest against R'dek's, feeling his lover do the same.
"Sometimes we flew where I wished to go," Caresn continued, "and sometimes we went where Turtur wanted to go. One night he took me up over our village, and then further up the mountainside... and then he took me in to the mountain and showed me something terrible.
"It had been a terribly rainy spring, but our village was up on a cliff over the river, so we had no worries about floods. We never thought to look for danger from above, but what Turtur showed me that night... He showed me that the soil above our village was so heavy with rainwater... the roots and rocks that held it in place weren't going to be strong enough... Then, when we flew back up, above my village, and Turtur showed me just how the mountain was going to come down on it." The breath that Caresn drew now was a little unsteady, and Rodne wondered if Caresn had ever told this tale to anyone before.
"It was still raining when I woke from my dream that morning," he went on after a moment. "And I knew I was going to carry on all that day. I knew that what Turtur had shown me was true, and that everyone had to leave the village right away if they were to live, so I ran to tell them..." When Caresn trailed off Rodne knew suddenly, and horribly what had happened -or rather what hadn't happened- next.
"Not a soul believed me." Caresn said with a heartbreaking sigh. "The very idea of the mountainside coming down... well it seemed absurd. No one could imagine it, and I was just a boy. By the end of the day I was terrified and desperate. I couldn't get anyone to come, couldn't make myself stay, but I went one last time to me mum and dad's, to try and convince them. I begged and begged... but I'd five brothers and sisters, and they couldn't just up and go with all of them, not so late as it was then, and they wouldn't leave them behind. They said I was free to go if I wished -I was oldest, and I'd been away from home for the night before- but I'd soon see that it was all foolishness. It was the last words me mum said to me..."
"Oh, gods..." Rodne heard Loren choke out, and he too remembered the words Loren had spoken so long ago, that had made Caresn grow so pale, You'll see... when morning comes, everything will be fine. Really.
"Caresn I never..." Loren murmured, sounding shattered. "Gods I'm sorry. I accused you of jinxing us... but I cursed us far worse."
"No, no, no, love," Caresn comforted. "Ye had no way of knowing, and I knew it even then. I just... it came at a bad moment."
"I should've trusted you," Loren countered, sorrowful. "And it's a mistake I won't make again, I swear."
"I know that love, I do," Caresn assured him. "Ye musn't ever doubt that." A calming silence fell over the space after that, until Rodne felt R'dek shift awkwardly against him.
"Forgive me," he said hesitantly, "but I am not sure if I am not missing something..."
"Aye, of course," Caresn said. "The two of you won't have any idea what we're talking about."
"Actually," Rodne said sheepishly, "I kinda heard..."
"Yeah, I doubt you're the only one," Loren grimaced, "and that's no one's fault but ours."
"True enough," Caresn said, "but I don't mind explaining it to you, R'dek. And truly, the tale's not quite finished yet. What my mother said to me as I was departing was, 'don't you worry, we'll see you in the morning and everything will be fine.' It wasn't, of course. That night I went well up river, to a place where Turtur told me I'd be safe, and when I came back the next day... it was as if there never was a village there."
Caresn sighed and fell silent for a moment, and Rodne took the moment to explain to R'dek the nature of Loren's accidental faux pas. R'dek shook his head and swore quietly as he came to understand.
"And what Li'bet said this evening, it was close as well?" R'dek asked.
"Not so very much, truly," Caresn answered, "but those words were in my mind, from our argument, and because I had promised to tell the tale, but hadn't yet. Now that the tale is told, I've reason to hope that they'll leave me in peace."
"Surely they will," Rodne heard Loren say softly, sealing his promise with a kiss.
"At any rate," Caresn concluded a moment later, "I let Turtur guide me from then on, from one village to the next. As I traveled, he showed me some of the healing herbs and ways of healing, and he sent me to meet others who taught me as well. In all my travelling, though, he always promised me that the day would come that I'd find a village that would be a new home to me, and where I'd find friends and family to fill the terrible empty place in my heart from when I'd lost my old village and family."
"And when you finally came to the village with the cranky, sick old basket maker, and the even crankier slightly crazy man caring for her," Rodne said with a smile, "did you tell him he was nuts?" Caresn's responding laugh was good to hear, Rodne thought.
"I've always trusted Turtur, even when he told me things I found hard to believe," Caresn said. "I knew it would take a bit of time to find my place in Lakeside, but you, Rodne, I could tell you were special from the start."
Rodne felt a blush heat his face, and heard a gentle chuckle from R'dek, beside him. "He makes a strong impression when you meet him for the first time, that is certain," the toolmaker said.
"You definitely said a mouthful there," he heard Loren agree from the far side of the hut, and Rodne decided it was time to put a stop to this new, uncomfortable turn in the conversation.
"Okay, story time's over," he interrupted, "and we have an early morning tomorrow, yes? Sleep time now."
"Once again, we must all bow before superior intellect," R'dek smirked, even as Rodne smacked him on the head with one of the furs while he settled himself down in the bed.
"Aye, well, good advice is good advice," Caresn acquiesced reasonably. "There's no use arguing with it."
"Especially if you don't want your head bitten off," Loren quipped amid the sound of rustling furs from his side of the hut.
Rodne had to struggle, briefly, between to impulse to make a retort and following his own advice, but the irrefutability of his advice won out, and moments later, he was sound asleep.
***
The morning did dawn clear, if chilly, but Rodne and R'dek were prepared with the proper garb, and were both eager to begin their journey. Trinka personally presented them with two hearty egg and cheese breads for the journey, as well as a stack of fresh flatbreads that might keep for a few days, and Rodne thanked her most sincerely. Her expressions of adoration might make him uncomfortable, but her support of him had never wavered during his recent difficult times, and he was grateful for it.
Teleya and Fenilly were ready by the south entrance when Rodne and R'dek arrived, and Rodne was surprised to see Shef'hred there as well. He was holding out a small, cloth wrapped bundle to the woman from Twin Groves, his eyes on the ground as he offered it. Curious, Rodne stepped close enough to see what it was without intruding on their conversation.
"It's just some rings and hair ornaments," he was saying as Fenilly opened the bundle. "I gave all my, ah, stuff to the people here, but they decided that some of it should go to you -to your village."
"These are gold!" Fenilly exclaimed, holding up one of the rings in shock.
"Just a couple are gold," Shef'hred confirmed, hand reaching around to scratch at the back of his neck uncomfortably. "The rest are copper or bronze. I don't know what good they'll do you for now, but when any traders come in the spring, you could maybe get some good stuff for them." Shef'hred glanced up to meet her gaze for a moment then, but could not hold it.
"I, ah... I guess saying I'm sorry at this point is pretty useless," he want on awkwardly, "but... but I am. What happened to you... to your village... it shouldn't have happened, and I shouldn't have had any part in it... but I did, and so if there's anything I can do to help put things right again... just let me know."
Fenilly closed up the bundle and slipped it into her shirt front, then looked up to meet Shef'hred's gaze with a directness that Rodne could not help but admire. She held his gaze for a long time before she spoke. "My son and my man were still alive when you left Twin Groves," was all she said, turning away after a moment. Shef'hred said nothing at all, but Li'bet was at his side soon enough, admiration and approval shining in her eyes to challenge the self-loathing in his as she gathered him into his arms.
Rodne hummed thoughtfully to himself as he returned to R'dek's side. The toolmaker had crafted them each a stout walking stick -necessary when carrying such heavily laden packs, and was chatting with Kadam, who had come to see them off, along with Li'bet, Shef'hred, Caresn and Loren, and a fair handful of others. It was a little surprising to Rodne, though he supposed by now it oughtn't be.
In his previous time as a resident of Lakeside, Rodne had striven to keep to himself, not really wanting to become a part of village life, and he had succeeded, to some degree. What with one thing and another, however, his recent stay had drawn him inextricably into the fabric of Lakeside, and now he found himself unable to regret it. He'd learned, to his surprise, that allowing himself to become part of the village did not mean changing who he was -not even his cross-grained, solitary nature. Just as R'dek could love him in spite of this, it seemed that Lakeside could accept him too.
It was an odd thing to try and wrap his head around, but Rodne had a long journey ahead of him with which to contemplate this. It was a journey he found himself more than eager to start as he and Radek disentangled themselves from the last fond hugs and handshakes. Setting out at last, Rodne felt his heart lift, so that even his heavily laden pack felt light.
Glancing to his left, Rodne saw that R'dek too stepped lightly, with a deeply contented smile on his face. The light breeze blew his untamable hair every which way, and carried the sound of Teleya and Fenilly chatting pleasantly behind them. For his part, Rodney was content to walk in silence, and R'dek seemed to feel the same as he kept pace at Rodne's shoulder.
After a while the two women took to singing, tentatively harmonizing with each other on songs they both knew, but knew slightly different versions of. R'dek, who loved music, smiled with joy as their voices lifted behind them, even when their music stumbled and the harmonies dissolved into laughter. Rodne kept his enjoyment to himself, though he had a feeling that R'dek was not fooled.
They arrived at Twin Groves around mid day, and though it had been nearly a moon since the Raiders' attack, the village was still largely in ruins, half burnt huts standing here and there, with a sense of despair and apathy hanging over the whole place. Rodne exchanged somber looks with R'dek, thinking that without a great deal of effort, many of the remaining survivors -women and elders all- would not last the winter.
Their arrival was greeted neither with joy nor hostility, but with suspicion and scepticism, and Rodne saw now that Fenilly's decision to travel to Lakeside for the singing contest had been regarded dubiously at best. Teleya they remembered as being the person who had warned them of the coming dangers, and whose warning they had dismissed out of hand. Few would meet her eyes now.
Teleya had a way with people, however, and she and Fenilly had brought their own heavily laden packs with food and other supplies which were gifts from the villagers of Lakeside. Slowly and patiently, she and Fenilly had drawn the survivors of Twin Groves out of their huts to join them in an impromptu feast -to which Rodne and R'dek ended up contributing one of their egg and cheese breads- and had them listening, and agreeing, to Teleya's plans for securing the village for winter.
Folk were already headed off in small groups to begin work on various tasks by the time lunch was done and Rodne and R'dek had their packs on again, ready to recommence their journey. Teleya left Fenilly overseeing things to see them off with a heartfelt hug.
"I hope to see you both at Midwinters?" she said drew back from having nearly crushed R'dek
"Probably," Rodne said, diffidently in order to cover for his own ruffled dignity. "I, ah... I usually tell stories then, too."
"Then I shall look forward to this very much indeed," Teleya said with disarming sincerity. "May I tell those from Twin Groves that they may be welcomed to this festival as well?"
"To Midwinters?" Rodne replied. "Oh, sure. We've always, that is to say, Lakeside has always welcomed, um, our neighbors, whenever there's a festival. I guess not too many people from Twin Groves have come in the past..." Probably because they had a festival of their own, except that this year they might not have even the little bit of excess needed to have any kind of celebration. "...But, you know, they've always been welcome," he finished, realizing that Teleya had probably been thinking just that when she'd asked him her question.
"That is good to hear, Rodne," Teleya answered, "and it will be my pleasure to make this known to the people of Twin Groves. But you are eager to be on your way, I can see." Her smile was fond as she placed her hand on Rodne's shoulder one last time before stepping away.
"Pleasant journey to both of you," she called as Rodne turned to stand at the head of the path with R'dek. "And fare well, until we see you again."
Rodne and R'del both waved in reply, glancing back over their shoulders only briefly as they strode away. Teleya was a unique and remarkable person, if just a touch intimidating, Rodne mused to himself, and he supposed he was glad she seemed to think of him as a friend. He supposed he thought of her as a friend as well, and that contributed to an odd stretchy feeling in the part of his thoughts he reserved for those he called friends.
He'd never needed that part at all until he'd come to Lakeside, and even after that he'd never had more than a single handful of people there, but now he had to expand it to make room for more than a dozen people, it seemed. It was all relative, though, for near that part, there was another, even larger part which had only ever encompassed one person, and it got bigger all the time. Rodne reached out to take R'dek's hand now as they walked, and his lover took it with a squeeze, glancing over to meet Rodne's gaze with a look of such affection it almost made Rodne weak in the knees.
Naturally, Rodne was looking forward to being able to have sex with R'dek whenever and wherever they happened to be, which was one of the solid benefits of their solitary lifestyle, but that wasn't what he had missed the most, Rodne realized. What he was really looking forward to now was having R'dek all to himself, with no one else to share his time or his mind or even his quiet, solitary labors. Now, at last, his lover's quick, quirking smile, the sparkle of his pale blue eyes, his low, secretive chuckle, were Rodne's alone, and Rodne felt a simple, selfish joy at the knowledge.
It was quite possible that R'dek felt the same way, for his expression was one of pleasant contemplation as he walked along side Rodne. It was almost a relief not to have to talk, or even to hear words. Some part of Rodne remained the creature of utter isolation he had been for so many years, and one of R'dek's most precious qualities was that he understood that.
What Rodne understood about R'dek was that there remained, for him, a special joy in journeying, a habit that he had given up at the same time that Rodne had given up his solitude. There was the real beauty of what they had found in each other, Rodne mused, for both had given up the thing they had thought they cherished the most about their old lives when they had come together, and then both had discovered that they had sacrificed nothing. Rodne found his solitude even more pleasant when shared with R'dek, and R'dek was more than pleased to share his journeys with Rodne, and took all the more joy in it.
It was this quiet joy that Rodne delighted in seeing in his lover's eyes as the two of them climbed the winding path into the foothills. The open plains and grasslands fell behind them as the afternoon wore on, and soon they were making their way through sunny forests of snow-bark and wingseed trees. The cold had touched the leaves of many of these trees, so that the drifts of firey orange and sunny yellow could be seen among the green, and flocks of birds of all sorts flocked and fluttered through them, foraging for the food they would need to sustain them in the winter to come.
Many would depart, Rodne knew from long experience, to spend their winters elsewhere, presumably where the food was more abundant, while others would find safe haven and shelter here, as would Rodne himself. These birds and other forest creatures felt an urge, at this time of year, that Rodne was no stranger to, in spite of his clearly superior intelligence. This urge drove him homeward as much as any other motive, and Rodne thought that maybe R'dek felt it too as they approached their usual mid-journey bivouac.
The lean-to shelter Rodne had built many summers ago and the pile of firewood he always kept there awaited them, just as expected, though mice had had their way with much of the bedding they had abandoned there in Rodne's desperate flight to Lakeside with R'dek. Some of it was salvageable, however, and they were glad of it, for the night was far colder here in the foothills than it had been down in the valley.
Rodne was glad, too, to share his warmth, curled close to his lover under the furs, as content as any forest creature in his shared solitude. They rose together in the morning, with the welcoming warmth of the rising sun falling on their faces, and prepared for the day's journey with subdued but joyful anticipation.
"You know," Rodne reflected as he settled his pack and took up his walking stick, "Spitt is going to be impossible for the first few days we're back."
"Do you think she will be angry with us for leaving her alone so long?" R'dek speculated, starting up the trail.
"Are you kidding?" Rodne replied. "She'll think we've left the place to her, and she's going to be pissed as hell when she finds out she's going to have to share it again."
"Indeed, I believe you have the right of it," R'dek laughed. "But I look forward to seeing her just the same, for I have missed her as well."
"Yeah, me too," Rodne admitted.
They came to chat a little, as they drew closer to familiar haunts, of what would be needed, tasks and chores to be completed before full winter was upon them. In truth, there was a lot to be done, and they would be getting a later start than most years, but Rodne didn't really mind so much. After three winters together they both knew the routines well, and for Rodne, the memory of having to accomplish all these things alone was still relatively fresh.
It was late afternoon, as they were drawing close to their destination, that it dawned on Rodne that he had never been away for so long before, and the strength of the longing and joy in his heart surprised him. He reached out to catch at R'dek's hand and found the tool maker reaching for him as well, a joyful light shining from his eyes.
"You feel it too?" Rodne asked. "How... how good it is to be back?"
"Of course," R'dek answered. "You are surprised to see this?"
Rodne shrugged and looked away. "It's been my home for years -more than a double handful of them, but you..."
"I never had any home, not since I was a boy," R'dek finished for him. "That is true, and it is true as well that I never thought I would want such a thing. But I have been here more than three summers, and now..." Now they came round a copse of trees and there it was, the rocky hillside, the little clearing with the firepit, and the narrow opening into the hillside closed with a large ox hide.
"Now," R'dek said as they paused to take in the sight, "I feel it. This home has a place in my heart, just as you do, and it was you who showed me just how precious a home can be."
Rodne's only reply could be a kiss, warm and heartfelt, and then the two of them walked hand in hand up to the only true home either of them had ever known.
***
And this could be the end, sure, but Spitt has to have the last word, right?
Author: Taylor Dancinghands: taylor@tdancinghands.com
Characters/Pairings: Zelenka/McKay, Beckett/Lorne, and eventually Sheppard/Weir, plus: Teyla, Ronon, Stackhouse, Markham, Miller, Kavanagh, Cadman, Halling, and Jinto, and a big ol’ pile of OCs
Category: slash, drama, action/adventure, h/c, AU
Warnings: Sloppy Paleolithic history, anachronistic technological leaps and funnied up names.
Rating: NC-17, explicit M/M and eventually M/F sex depictions!
Summary: So what does a bonafide genius do in an era of stone knives and bear skins?
Spoilers/Season: none
Disclaimer: Don't own 'em, never will, not claiming to. Just wanna play with 'em a little. Can't I, can't I, huh?
Beta:Many thanks to my most worthy betareader
smingus for her encouragement and feedback. We loves our betareaders we does.AN: I tried, I really did, but as it turns out this isn't the very end, quite. There's an Epilogue, of course, and I'll likely post it tomorrow or the next day. But it is finally, really, done, at last!
Chapter 34
"It's not so much that I've meant to keep it a secret," Caresn began when they had all finally settled into their respective beds. "It's just that there's not so much to tell and actually, no one's ever asked before, how I came to Lakeside."
"Well," Rodne said, snuggled warmly with R'dek under the furs, "you've always said that Turtur sent you and honestly, that's kind of a conversation killer."
Beside him, Rodne heard R'dek give a snort of laughter, and Rodne felt the warmth of his breath fall on his shoulder -a contrast to the chill air in the hut. They'd built up the fire when they'd come in, but it was dying back now as they prepared to sleep, creating more shadows than light -the largest of these being Rodne and R'dek's bulging packs, standing ready by the door for the morrow's journey.
"Aye, you might be right about that," Caresn replied. "But it's true nonetheless, after a fashion. Ye see, the village I grew up in sat at the base of a mountain, above a small river. We raised sheep and cows and tried to avoid getting caught up in the feuds that other villages nearby got involved in, and I never thought there'd be much more to my life that lookin' after my flock." In the shadowy quiet, Rodne saw a movement that might have been the shaking of a head, and a sound that might have been Loren drawing his lover a little closer.
"So it was one spring, my ninth, I think," the healer continued, "that I began to dream of Turtur. He didn't speak at first, but... I knew things, when I dreamed of him. I knew that when I touched him I could fly... and those were wonderful dreams." Caresn's sigh seemed one of fond remembrance, though there also seemed a dark portent. Rodne leaned his head to rest against R'dek's, feeling his lover do the same.
"Sometimes we flew where I wished to go," Caresn continued, "and sometimes we went where Turtur wanted to go. One night he took me up over our village, and then further up the mountainside... and then he took me in to the mountain and showed me something terrible.
"It had been a terribly rainy spring, but our village was up on a cliff over the river, so we had no worries about floods. We never thought to look for danger from above, but what Turtur showed me that night... He showed me that the soil above our village was so heavy with rainwater... the roots and rocks that held it in place weren't going to be strong enough... Then, when we flew back up, above my village, and Turtur showed me just how the mountain was going to come down on it." The breath that Caresn drew now was a little unsteady, and Rodne wondered if Caresn had ever told this tale to anyone before.
"It was still raining when I woke from my dream that morning," he went on after a moment. "And I knew I was going to carry on all that day. I knew that what Turtur had shown me was true, and that everyone had to leave the village right away if they were to live, so I ran to tell them..." When Caresn trailed off Rodne knew suddenly, and horribly what had happened -or rather what hadn't happened- next.
"Not a soul believed me." Caresn said with a heartbreaking sigh. "The very idea of the mountainside coming down... well it seemed absurd. No one could imagine it, and I was just a boy. By the end of the day I was terrified and desperate. I couldn't get anyone to come, couldn't make myself stay, but I went one last time to me mum and dad's, to try and convince them. I begged and begged... but I'd five brothers and sisters, and they couldn't just up and go with all of them, not so late as it was then, and they wouldn't leave them behind. They said I was free to go if I wished -I was oldest, and I'd been away from home for the night before- but I'd soon see that it was all foolishness. It was the last words me mum said to me..."
"Oh, gods..." Rodne heard Loren choke out, and he too remembered the words Loren had spoken so long ago, that had made Caresn grow so pale, You'll see... when morning comes, everything will be fine. Really.
"Caresn I never..." Loren murmured, sounding shattered. "Gods I'm sorry. I accused you of jinxing us... but I cursed us far worse."
"No, no, no, love," Caresn comforted. "Ye had no way of knowing, and I knew it even then. I just... it came at a bad moment."
"I should've trusted you," Loren countered, sorrowful. "And it's a mistake I won't make again, I swear."
"I know that love, I do," Caresn assured him. "Ye musn't ever doubt that." A calming silence fell over the space after that, until Rodne felt R'dek shift awkwardly against him.
"Forgive me," he said hesitantly, "but I am not sure if I am not missing something..."
"Aye, of course," Caresn said. "The two of you won't have any idea what we're talking about."
"Actually," Rodne said sheepishly, "I kinda heard..."
"Yeah, I doubt you're the only one," Loren grimaced, "and that's no one's fault but ours."
"True enough," Caresn said, "but I don't mind explaining it to you, R'dek. And truly, the tale's not quite finished yet. What my mother said to me as I was departing was, 'don't you worry, we'll see you in the morning and everything will be fine.' It wasn't, of course. That night I went well up river, to a place where Turtur told me I'd be safe, and when I came back the next day... it was as if there never was a village there."
Caresn sighed and fell silent for a moment, and Rodne took the moment to explain to R'dek the nature of Loren's accidental faux pas. R'dek shook his head and swore quietly as he came to understand.
"And what Li'bet said this evening, it was close as well?" R'dek asked.
"Not so very much, truly," Caresn answered, "but those words were in my mind, from our argument, and because I had promised to tell the tale, but hadn't yet. Now that the tale is told, I've reason to hope that they'll leave me in peace."
"Surely they will," Rodne heard Loren say softly, sealing his promise with a kiss.
"At any rate," Caresn concluded a moment later, "I let Turtur guide me from then on, from one village to the next. As I traveled, he showed me some of the healing herbs and ways of healing, and he sent me to meet others who taught me as well. In all my travelling, though, he always promised me that the day would come that I'd find a village that would be a new home to me, and where I'd find friends and family to fill the terrible empty place in my heart from when I'd lost my old village and family."
"And when you finally came to the village with the cranky, sick old basket maker, and the even crankier slightly crazy man caring for her," Rodne said with a smile, "did you tell him he was nuts?" Caresn's responding laugh was good to hear, Rodne thought.
"I've always trusted Turtur, even when he told me things I found hard to believe," Caresn said. "I knew it would take a bit of time to find my place in Lakeside, but you, Rodne, I could tell you were special from the start."
Rodne felt a blush heat his face, and heard a gentle chuckle from R'dek, beside him. "He makes a strong impression when you meet him for the first time, that is certain," the toolmaker said.
"You definitely said a mouthful there," he heard Loren agree from the far side of the hut, and Rodne decided it was time to put a stop to this new, uncomfortable turn in the conversation.
"Okay, story time's over," he interrupted, "and we have an early morning tomorrow, yes? Sleep time now."
"Once again, we must all bow before superior intellect," R'dek smirked, even as Rodne smacked him on the head with one of the furs while he settled himself down in the bed.
"Aye, well, good advice is good advice," Caresn acquiesced reasonably. "There's no use arguing with it."
"Especially if you don't want your head bitten off," Loren quipped amid the sound of rustling furs from his side of the hut.
Rodne had to struggle, briefly, between to impulse to make a retort and following his own advice, but the irrefutability of his advice won out, and moments later, he was sound asleep.
***
The morning did dawn clear, if chilly, but Rodne and R'dek were prepared with the proper garb, and were both eager to begin their journey. Trinka personally presented them with two hearty egg and cheese breads for the journey, as well as a stack of fresh flatbreads that might keep for a few days, and Rodne thanked her most sincerely. Her expressions of adoration might make him uncomfortable, but her support of him had never wavered during his recent difficult times, and he was grateful for it.
Teleya and Fenilly were ready by the south entrance when Rodne and R'dek arrived, and Rodne was surprised to see Shef'hred there as well. He was holding out a small, cloth wrapped bundle to the woman from Twin Groves, his eyes on the ground as he offered it. Curious, Rodne stepped close enough to see what it was without intruding on their conversation.
"It's just some rings and hair ornaments," he was saying as Fenilly opened the bundle. "I gave all my, ah, stuff to the people here, but they decided that some of it should go to you -to your village."
"These are gold!" Fenilly exclaimed, holding up one of the rings in shock.
"Just a couple are gold," Shef'hred confirmed, hand reaching around to scratch at the back of his neck uncomfortably. "The rest are copper or bronze. I don't know what good they'll do you for now, but when any traders come in the spring, you could maybe get some good stuff for them." Shef'hred glanced up to meet her gaze for a moment then, but could not hold it.
"I, ah... I guess saying I'm sorry at this point is pretty useless," he want on awkwardly, "but... but I am. What happened to you... to your village... it shouldn't have happened, and I shouldn't have had any part in it... but I did, and so if there's anything I can do to help put things right again... just let me know."
Fenilly closed up the bundle and slipped it into her shirt front, then looked up to meet Shef'hred's gaze with a directness that Rodne could not help but admire. She held his gaze for a long time before she spoke. "My son and my man were still alive when you left Twin Groves," was all she said, turning away after a moment. Shef'hred said nothing at all, but Li'bet was at his side soon enough, admiration and approval shining in her eyes to challenge the self-loathing in his as she gathered him into his arms.
Rodne hummed thoughtfully to himself as he returned to R'dek's side. The toolmaker had crafted them each a stout walking stick -necessary when carrying such heavily laden packs, and was chatting with Kadam, who had come to see them off, along with Li'bet, Shef'hred, Caresn and Loren, and a fair handful of others. It was a little surprising to Rodne, though he supposed by now it oughtn't be.
In his previous time as a resident of Lakeside, Rodne had striven to keep to himself, not really wanting to become a part of village life, and he had succeeded, to some degree. What with one thing and another, however, his recent stay had drawn him inextricably into the fabric of Lakeside, and now he found himself unable to regret it. He'd learned, to his surprise, that allowing himself to become part of the village did not mean changing who he was -not even his cross-grained, solitary nature. Just as R'dek could love him in spite of this, it seemed that Lakeside could accept him too.
It was an odd thing to try and wrap his head around, but Rodne had a long journey ahead of him with which to contemplate this. It was a journey he found himself more than eager to start as he and Radek disentangled themselves from the last fond hugs and handshakes. Setting out at last, Rodne felt his heart lift, so that even his heavily laden pack felt light.
Glancing to his left, Rodne saw that R'dek too stepped lightly, with a deeply contented smile on his face. The light breeze blew his untamable hair every which way, and carried the sound of Teleya and Fenilly chatting pleasantly behind them. For his part, Rodney was content to walk in silence, and R'dek seemed to feel the same as he kept pace at Rodne's shoulder.
After a while the two women took to singing, tentatively harmonizing with each other on songs they both knew, but knew slightly different versions of. R'dek, who loved music, smiled with joy as their voices lifted behind them, even when their music stumbled and the harmonies dissolved into laughter. Rodne kept his enjoyment to himself, though he had a feeling that R'dek was not fooled.
They arrived at Twin Groves around mid day, and though it had been nearly a moon since the Raiders' attack, the village was still largely in ruins, half burnt huts standing here and there, with a sense of despair and apathy hanging over the whole place. Rodne exchanged somber looks with R'dek, thinking that without a great deal of effort, many of the remaining survivors -women and elders all- would not last the winter.
Their arrival was greeted neither with joy nor hostility, but with suspicion and scepticism, and Rodne saw now that Fenilly's decision to travel to Lakeside for the singing contest had been regarded dubiously at best. Teleya they remembered as being the person who had warned them of the coming dangers, and whose warning they had dismissed out of hand. Few would meet her eyes now.
Teleya had a way with people, however, and she and Fenilly had brought their own heavily laden packs with food and other supplies which were gifts from the villagers of Lakeside. Slowly and patiently, she and Fenilly had drawn the survivors of Twin Groves out of their huts to join them in an impromptu feast -to which Rodne and R'dek ended up contributing one of their egg and cheese breads- and had them listening, and agreeing, to Teleya's plans for securing the village for winter.
Folk were already headed off in small groups to begin work on various tasks by the time lunch was done and Rodne and R'dek had their packs on again, ready to recommence their journey. Teleya left Fenilly overseeing things to see them off with a heartfelt hug.
"I hope to see you both at Midwinters?" she said drew back from having nearly crushed R'dek
"Probably," Rodne said, diffidently in order to cover for his own ruffled dignity. "I, ah... I usually tell stories then, too."
"Then I shall look forward to this very much indeed," Teleya said with disarming sincerity. "May I tell those from Twin Groves that they may be welcomed to this festival as well?"
"To Midwinters?" Rodne replied. "Oh, sure. We've always, that is to say, Lakeside has always welcomed, um, our neighbors, whenever there's a festival. I guess not too many people from Twin Groves have come in the past..." Probably because they had a festival of their own, except that this year they might not have even the little bit of excess needed to have any kind of celebration. "...But, you know, they've always been welcome," he finished, realizing that Teleya had probably been thinking just that when she'd asked him her question.
"That is good to hear, Rodne," Teleya answered, "and it will be my pleasure to make this known to the people of Twin Groves. But you are eager to be on your way, I can see." Her smile was fond as she placed her hand on Rodne's shoulder one last time before stepping away.
"Pleasant journey to both of you," she called as Rodne turned to stand at the head of the path with R'dek. "And fare well, until we see you again."
Rodne and R'del both waved in reply, glancing back over their shoulders only briefly as they strode away. Teleya was a unique and remarkable person, if just a touch intimidating, Rodne mused to himself, and he supposed he was glad she seemed to think of him as a friend. He supposed he thought of her as a friend as well, and that contributed to an odd stretchy feeling in the part of his thoughts he reserved for those he called friends.
He'd never needed that part at all until he'd come to Lakeside, and even after that he'd never had more than a single handful of people there, but now he had to expand it to make room for more than a dozen people, it seemed. It was all relative, though, for near that part, there was another, even larger part which had only ever encompassed one person, and it got bigger all the time. Rodne reached out to take R'dek's hand now as they walked, and his lover took it with a squeeze, glancing over to meet Rodne's gaze with a look of such affection it almost made Rodne weak in the knees.
Naturally, Rodne was looking forward to being able to have sex with R'dek whenever and wherever they happened to be, which was one of the solid benefits of their solitary lifestyle, but that wasn't what he had missed the most, Rodne realized. What he was really looking forward to now was having R'dek all to himself, with no one else to share his time or his mind or even his quiet, solitary labors. Now, at last, his lover's quick, quirking smile, the sparkle of his pale blue eyes, his low, secretive chuckle, were Rodne's alone, and Rodne felt a simple, selfish joy at the knowledge.
It was quite possible that R'dek felt the same way, for his expression was one of pleasant contemplation as he walked along side Rodne. It was almost a relief not to have to talk, or even to hear words. Some part of Rodne remained the creature of utter isolation he had been for so many years, and one of R'dek's most precious qualities was that he understood that.
What Rodne understood about R'dek was that there remained, for him, a special joy in journeying, a habit that he had given up at the same time that Rodne had given up his solitude. There was the real beauty of what they had found in each other, Rodne mused, for both had given up the thing they had thought they cherished the most about their old lives when they had come together, and then both had discovered that they had sacrificed nothing. Rodne found his solitude even more pleasant when shared with R'dek, and R'dek was more than pleased to share his journeys with Rodne, and took all the more joy in it.
It was this quiet joy that Rodne delighted in seeing in his lover's eyes as the two of them climbed the winding path into the foothills. The open plains and grasslands fell behind them as the afternoon wore on, and soon they were making their way through sunny forests of snow-bark and wingseed trees. The cold had touched the leaves of many of these trees, so that the drifts of firey orange and sunny yellow could be seen among the green, and flocks of birds of all sorts flocked and fluttered through them, foraging for the food they would need to sustain them in the winter to come.
Many would depart, Rodne knew from long experience, to spend their winters elsewhere, presumably where the food was more abundant, while others would find safe haven and shelter here, as would Rodne himself. These birds and other forest creatures felt an urge, at this time of year, that Rodne was no stranger to, in spite of his clearly superior intelligence. This urge drove him homeward as much as any other motive, and Rodne thought that maybe R'dek felt it too as they approached their usual mid-journey bivouac.
The lean-to shelter Rodne had built many summers ago and the pile of firewood he always kept there awaited them, just as expected, though mice had had their way with much of the bedding they had abandoned there in Rodne's desperate flight to Lakeside with R'dek. Some of it was salvageable, however, and they were glad of it, for the night was far colder here in the foothills than it had been down in the valley.
Rodne was glad, too, to share his warmth, curled close to his lover under the furs, as content as any forest creature in his shared solitude. They rose together in the morning, with the welcoming warmth of the rising sun falling on their faces, and prepared for the day's journey with subdued but joyful anticipation.
"You know," Rodne reflected as he settled his pack and took up his walking stick, "Spitt is going to be impossible for the first few days we're back."
"Do you think she will be angry with us for leaving her alone so long?" R'dek speculated, starting up the trail.
"Are you kidding?" Rodne replied. "She'll think we've left the place to her, and she's going to be pissed as hell when she finds out she's going to have to share it again."
"Indeed, I believe you have the right of it," R'dek laughed. "But I look forward to seeing her just the same, for I have missed her as well."
"Yeah, me too," Rodne admitted.
They came to chat a little, as they drew closer to familiar haunts, of what would be needed, tasks and chores to be completed before full winter was upon them. In truth, there was a lot to be done, and they would be getting a later start than most years, but Rodne didn't really mind so much. After three winters together they both knew the routines well, and for Rodne, the memory of having to accomplish all these things alone was still relatively fresh.
It was late afternoon, as they were drawing close to their destination, that it dawned on Rodne that he had never been away for so long before, and the strength of the longing and joy in his heart surprised him. He reached out to catch at R'dek's hand and found the tool maker reaching for him as well, a joyful light shining from his eyes.
"You feel it too?" Rodne asked. "How... how good it is to be back?"
"Of course," R'dek answered. "You are surprised to see this?"
Rodne shrugged and looked away. "It's been my home for years -more than a double handful of them, but you..."
"I never had any home, not since I was a boy," R'dek finished for him. "That is true, and it is true as well that I never thought I would want such a thing. But I have been here more than three summers, and now..." Now they came round a copse of trees and there it was, the rocky hillside, the little clearing with the firepit, and the narrow opening into the hillside closed with a large ox hide.
"Now," R'dek said as they paused to take in the sight, "I feel it. This home has a place in my heart, just as you do, and it was you who showed me just how precious a home can be."
Rodne's only reply could be a kiss, warm and heartfelt, and then the two of them walked hand in hand up to the only true home either of them had ever known.
***
And this could be the end, sure, but Spitt has to have the last word, right?