It is early afternoon, just before the time when many nobles make their rounds visiting friends and enemies for afternoon tea, when Macaire knocks on the servant's entrance of the house where Alexei lives. The servants there may find him puzzling enough to report his presence to the young man, for he will not say why he is there and the reason is not immediately obvious. He is a tall man, muscular and scarred and obviously foreign, but he is wearing a proper uniform still clean and neat enough to look new, and his cheeks are pink from this morning's enthusiastic bath. Nobbles be fussy about baths, he's learned, so he made sure to have one good as a proper wench'd require. He is also carrying a large package wrapped in canvas, with the sharp-edged look of books to it, and he has made hints to the servant that there is something in this package that is for Alexei.
And all of this any good servant might have ignored, but there is one detail more that might sway them: following behind the nervous guardsman, sticking his head into green things in the garden, is a little Guardian fawn. Young and gangly and cheerfully good-natured, the happy little thing wears what seems very similar to a pack-mule's burden, pouches that are strapped to its back and balanced evenly on either side.
Macaire will wait nervously wherever he is told to do so, bringing Cadence inside only if this seems expected: otherwise he has a bit of string, which he will tie to Cadence's packs and then to the nearest pole or tree.
Posted: Sun Sep 30, 2012 1:18 pm
The footman who had answered the door was too well-mannered to frown at the unusual visitor, but he did ask him to wait in the servants' area, which was attacked to the kitchen, while he relayed the message. The foreign twins were unusual, and at first the servants had not been certain what to make of them, but they grew on them. The young lord was scattered, but kind, and the lady was always fair, even in those first months when she had not been at all well.
The footman himself was fond enough of them that he would not have let Macaire in if he had thought the man a real threat. Perhaps Cadence had something to do with his acceptance. The young lord had one of those beasties, so perhaps the stranger was not so bad as he might look. Of course, it was difficult to think the man a threat when he looked like a nervous schoolboy waiting for a lecture. None of this would stop the footman from alerting the guard to the man's presence. Just to be safe.
He found the young lord with his sister in the first-floor sitting room that opened to the side garden. Anna lounged on a chaise, absently stroking her rook as she conversed with her brother, who had a half-forgotten book in his lap. The doors were open, letting in what they considered to be a pleasant breeze, though it might be a bit cool for natives of this country. The main reason the door was open, of course, was so that Sumerki could enjoy the sun, yet still be included in the company.
Alexei was curious enough about the visitor that he bid the footman to show him there.
Macaire leaves Cadence in the garden, where he will of course be happier, though he can be heard to whisper to the fawn just before he goes inside. " .. and bloody well dain't eat nothing, ye daft little bugger." The string attached to Cadence's packs is tied to a tree, remaining in place so long as Macaire is in sight -- the moment the door closes, Cadence simply turns his head and begins to chew determinedly on it.
Inside, Macaire holds his package awkwardly in front of him, and looks like he might bolt if someone so much as looked at him funny. He's not particularly comfortable in such elegant settings as this: it's all he can do not to gape. When he steps in after the footman, he recovers enough of himself to step forward and drawing a breath, carefully introduce himself:
"Milaird, m'lady. Me name's Macaire Draughn. Oi've been told by wee pretty thing named Rajani ye might be open tae .. tae .. " He trails off. The rook is one thing; it's well-cared for and pretty enough that it could be a pet. But outside he catches a glimpse of movement and his gaze locks onto Sumerki .. and his face falls with almost comic disappointment. " .. ach, bloody hell. Ye got one've them beasties tae?"
Posted: Mon Oct 01, 2012 3:47 pm
After nodding in greeting, Alexei eyed the stranger with interest. He was not put off by Macaire's appearance - the guardsmen in Belastrana often looked scarier than he. Instead, he wondered what this nervous soldier could want with him. Something to do with that package, perhaps? It did look rather like a stack of papers or a book, and if there was one thing the young lord knew about, it was books.
"Rajani?" He tested the name. It sounded familiar.
"The gypsy who helped you with Sumerki," Anna supplied. Her brother could recite whole paragraphs from ancient histories, but when it came to the present, he was a little less reliable. It was not the the knowledge was not in his mind, it simply tended to get buried behind other, more interesting things.
"Oh! Yes, of course," he exclaimed and smiled at his visitor. He frowned, however, when he saw Macaire's reaction to his guardian. Then, he shook his head and smiled wryly. If Macaire's experience with guardians was anything like his own suffering at the bossy whims of Sumerki, he could hardly blame him.
Anna simply raised a delicate brow, amused at the audacity of Macaire's language in the presence of a lady.
"I assume you have met one before?" Alexei said and then continued at the haughty look his doe sent him. "This is Sumerki."
Macaire hadn't exactly meant to be so foul-mouthed in front of Anna -- it had just slipped out! He turns scarlet, an interesting look for him, and appears to wish that he could sink completely into the carpet, unseen. However, now that he's here he can't just bolt, not without being dismissed -- and not without scaring the poor servants out of their wits if he moves too fast. Looking utterly miserable, he begs forgiveness of Anna with his eyes, and glances desperately over at Alexei again. " .. oh, ah, aye me laird. Got one o' me own. Wee little thing yet, not sae graceful nor loverly as yer lass. Jest were a surprise, seeing one here. Be all about, seems loike." And that fact for some reason depresses him.
He glances between the two of them, apparently not one to mistake Anna as being simply ornamental: he takes it as a given that she is every bit as much a part of this conversation as Alexei is. In fact, after a moment, a hint of confusion becomes plain on his broad face, and he tenders a hesitant question. " .. be she yers, m'laird, or m'lady's?"
Posted: Mon Oct 01, 2012 9:02 pm
Anna snapped open her fan to cover the smile she could feel tugging at her lips. What an amusing man, to be embarrassed so easily. Of course, it did always seem to be the big, brawny types who were. It was the foppish ones a lady need watch out for.
"We have seen more than we expected since coming to this country," she agreed. "Have they not always been this common?"
"Sumerki?" wondered Alexei, who had completely missed Macaire's social faux pas and the ensuing reactions. "I'm afraid she has blessed me with her presence. It is Aranka who has staked her claim on Anna." He gestured to the rook who was ignoring everyone in the room save Anna. Clearly, no one else was worth her attention. Sumerki flicked an ear back in demure disapproval of Alexei's explanation. He should express his honor, not make her sound like a mixed blessing.
Nobbles, Macaire thinks to himself, be a strange and terrifying sort. He'd swear that Anna is almost laughing at him, and he can't imagine why! Most lady folk be indignant over coarse words, and unable to fathom her amusement he's merely grateful that she didn't get angry at him. Maybe the lady jest be uncanny: when Alexei mentions the rook Macaire will take a better look at it and blanch. Oh, she's an uncanny sort, all right! He makes a fervent vow to never upset her; he always thought witches be low sorts, living out in the middle of nowhere! Best take care to keep her happy, else she could curse him!
(For Macaire knows only the stories of hedge witches -- just as he knows little of the truth of guardians, he assumes that many stories about hedge witches told are true. That they see Death, that they can curse or bless as the mood takes them, and that they can do what ordinary folk can't.)
So he answers Anna's question first, as carefully as he can. "Oi dinnae know, m'lady. Oi ainly lately came tae Sunderland meself. In Airelund they be sae rare 'tis thought tae be ainly a tale, what tae tell bairns at night." He tips his head to Alexei next, and continues. "Me lad be at the door. 'Tis small, he be, but mair trouble in a body than oi have e'er seen."
.. having circled around the house seeking items of interest or, failing that, some sign of his Chosen, Cadence is proving true to this description. He has caught a glimpse of Sumerki, and is delighted to find another Guardian -- surely she'd be glad to play a game with him! Macaire of late has been teaching him a new game, on the basis that he might one day need to quietly sneak away from someone, and so that is the game that Cadence plays now. He sneaks up on Sumerki, ever so silently creeping under, around, and behind bushes and trees. Unless her hearing is good, the first she knows of gangly little Cadence may be when his teeth close lightly on her tail, after which he whirls away, hoping for a game of chase.
Posted: Sat Oct 06, 2012 10:23 pm
Although Aranka took considerable amusement in Macaire's reaction, Anna could only be saddened. She never asked for her power, and often it caused more trouble than it was worth. However, she tried not to let it show and instead nodded when he answered her question - before her brother's, she noted.
Alexei was about to invite Macaire to bring the little one around for an introduction when Cadence decided to make his own appearance and in the process lose any chance of winning Sumerki's good graces.
"I see what you mean," he mused, watching the two guardans.
The doe snorted in surprise and she whipped around to face the perpetrator. Her ears flattened and her neck snaked out and her own teeth closed around a much smaller tail than her own before it could entirely escape her reach. Her touch, however, was not so light or gentle. She did not draw blood, but there would almost certainly be bruising. Perhaps Sumerki was usually a lady, but she had a temper on her and took exception to ill-behaved youngsters.
The smaller Guardian makes a little hoarse bark of surprise, and will immediately try to wriggle away, tugging and pulling to get himself free. He bounds just out of reach, looks back at his tail indignantly, and then once he's ascertained he's still capable of moving it promptly gets over the hurt. He bounces up and down once or twice, apparently to reassure himself, and then looks hopefully over at Sumerki again. Will she play chase now? He leans forward like a puppy might, looking incredibly unbalanced on his long, skinny legs with the heavy pack on his back, and then wiggles forward, then back, as if to entice her into chasing him, for all that she's already proved adept at catching him.
"Oy!" Macaire's shout seems to do no good at all, and the mortified Chosen covers his face with one free hand, apparently able this time to muffle the curses he's nonetheless thinking very loudly at his Guardian. It takes several moments for him to recover enough that he can speak without blaspheming the very air he breathes, and there's the sense that he's gritting his teeth a bit while he does so.
" .. begin' yer pardons, mi'laird, m'lady. Oi wear him out best oi can, but oi swear he's got more energy than a pack of pups, and more sense fer trouble than any oi've seen. He dain't mean nae harm, truly."
Posted: Sun Oct 07, 2012 2:02 pm
The doe flicked her own tail and snorted at the fawn in a firm reprimand. She would not play chase.
Anna giggled at the lot of them, amused at the expense of Macaire, who was so obviously embarrassed, and at the doe. It was amazing that such a young guardian could take Sumerki by surprise. Perhaps even her matronly ways could be thwarted...not that you would ever catch Anna letting Sumerki hear such thoughts. The doe thought of herself as a lady, not a nursemaid.
Alexei smiled, "I'm sure it will do Sumerki good." It was with, perhaps, a certain vindictive pleasure that he turned his attention away from them and turned bright eyes to the package still held in Macaire's firm grasp. "I assume you are here on some manner of business?"
After wiggling for a moment more, Cadence seems to realize that Sumerki does not want to run around, and looks at her for a puzzled moment or two. Then he straightens up, mimics her posture, and snorts right back. This seems very funny to him, so he does it again, this time accompanying it with a foot-stomp of his own. By the third time the repetitive action has made him sneeze, and after a small fit of sneezes he decides he doesn't like this game very much after all. Shaking himself as if to rid himself of the dangerous sneezes, he starts inching towards her again, apparently deciding that if she won't run, he might as well see how close he can get before he has to run from her teeth.
Macaire struggles to catch his breath, torn between Anna's amusement and his own embarrassment at his Guardian's undisciplined behavior. How does he even begin to explain class to the wee little thing? He can't even get Cadence to understand that there exists a person, Guardian, beast or thing that might not like him!
" .. aye," he says finally, licking his dry lips, casting his gaze hopelessly between the two of them. "Though oi donae know if it holds true now, if ye can still answer as tae what oi came here for. It could be, if'n ye cannae help me, m'laird, then m'lady will be sae kind." He steps forward gingerly, looking for a sign from them that it is all right for him to do so, and will hold his parcel out in front of them, just within an arm's reach. There he unwraps it, revealing a stack of leather-bound books, each a different size and color. "Oi dinnae know what me future holds, ye see. And it's a safe place oi'll be wanting for these."
Posted: Mon Oct 08, 2012 3:58 pm
Clearly unimpressed with the little one's display, Sumerki lowered her head to nibble on some foliage. Should Cadence venture too close, she would fix him with a stern eye. Should he ignore her generous warning, he would find a new set of teeth marks on his person. Should this continue to occur, well, she could hardly be held responsible for the consequences, could she?
Ah! He was right. Books. Alexei only barely managed to restrain himself from snatching them away from Macaire. However, good manners (and perhaps fear of Anna and Sumerki's retribution) prevailed. So, he politely relieved his visitor of the proffered literature and then dove into reading the first one. Unfortunately, any words that might have been spoken fell on deaf ears.
Anna eyed the stack and decided that she ought to be able to slip the second book out of her brother's grasp. She did so, forcing Aranka to move her perch to the back of the chaise, and then addressed Macaire.
"Do forgive my brother," she said absently. "He is a true bibliophile, I'm afraid." She ran a hand over the cover before opening it and skimming the first few pages. "What are these?"
Cadence squeaks with apparent glee when she glares at him, then goes tearing off a short distance -- only to realize she didn't follow, at which point he tries creeping close to her again. When all she does is tear up grass, he gives a little snort of frustration himself, stomps around for a moment, and then turns around and flicks his tail at her, wiggling his rump in her direction. If this does not entice her to give chase, he will wander off, apparently shortly thereafter forgetting her altogether and going in pursuit of a bumblebee.
When the very first thing Alexei does is bend over the book with an intense expression and apparently lose all contact with the world around him, Macaire can only gape at him. He'd figured there'd be some questions, maybe condescending ones, and that one or the other of them would flip through it --
" .. b'ain't naught that's important," he stutters, dragging his gaze away from Alexei to glance at Anna with a bewildered expression. "Leastways, tae any but meself. Me mam gave me a fondness fer scribbling when oi were a lad, but times as they is -- " He cuts himself off abruptly, and flushes, fully aware that not every Chosen regards their Guardian as he does: as a harbinger of war. It would be a particularly unwelcome subject here, he thinks. " -- anyways, b'ain't none would read it, from a soldier, not a scholar."
Alexei will find himself with a book of verse -- sort of. The first few pages are the lyrics to a ballad, a traditional Aireland tale not of Guardians, but of valorous acts in some war or another. Following it is a concisely worded description of the historical accuracy, local relevance, and probable origin of the song, as well as notable variations and a short discussion of the moral. The entire book that Alexei holds is more of the same; songs and traditional tales and then a discussion after each one, interspersed with detailed sketches that sometimes relate to the text, sometimes not.
Anna, meanwhile, has picked up a book entirely inappropriate for a well-bred lady .. something that seems to be personal accounts, taken from actual soldiers, of their experiences in battle. Drawings here are rarer and often are of just individual men; maps and diagrams of battlefields are more common.
Posted: Thu Oct 11, 2012 4:42 pm
Sumerki resolutely refused to give in to Cadence's taunts and chase him. However, the urge to teach him some manners was there and it was strong. She suspected that if she were to approach him, he would run off, but somehow she doubted that the subtleties of teaching by example would get through to him. Her tail flicked in irritation as she continued to graze.
Macaire was correct in his assumption that talk of a looming war would be unwelcome. In fact, it would probably be brushed aside entirely. Alexei never gave much thought to the existence of guardians in Sunderland. Perhaps because Sumerki called to him as soon as he entered the country, he took her as a matter of course; some unique curiosity of his mother's homeland.
As for Anna, well, if her nightmares happened to show dark things, she was happiest not thinking too hard about it. Violence was something to be abhorred, not embraced. She knew that she could not hide from the future forever, but right now, she did not know what to do about it.
When she skimmed those pages, it was as though Macaire's book was mocking her with its accounts of battle. She quickly shut it and decided to focus not on the content of the book, but on the conversation...
...where she had to ignore whatever it was that Macaire decided not to say.
"Apparently, my brother begs to differ," she observed lightly. Not that it necessarily took much from a book to capture his attention, but Alexei did tend to be very vocal if he was displeased with what one had to say. Thus far, he had been silent.
"Am I to understand that you wrote all of these?" She gestured vaguely at the books with her fan.
As for Macaire, these lot are the kind of kittens he'd just as soon protect from what he feels is an inevitable fall-out, so that they never have to learn how to talk about war, much less engage in the practice. It's why he'd come here in the first place: surely nobbles wouldn't be involved with it, and would hold themselves back from it -- surely nobbles wouldn't be Chosen! That way, his books would be safe no matter what happened.
Every time he thinks he's got something straight, somebody pulls the rug out from under him again! He looks almost mournful by now, clearly giving up on being able to understand Alexei's madness or the peculiar whimsies of fate.
" .. aye, milady. 'Tis foolishness, but oi cannae stop meself. Me brother says one day t'will halp me find a way tae get them copied out tae scholars and such, but fer now oi'd feel a sight better were they somewhere safe, is all. Pa told me nobbles has always got libraries, so when Missus Rajani said ye might list'n tae me, oi thought oi'd ask for them tae be kept safe."
Outside, Cadence has been gone for a long moment, perhaps enough to make Sumerki think that the little Guardian has given up. But all at once he comes trotting back, tail flickering with excitement and head held proudly high. In his teeth is the stem of a massive flower, absolutely the largest he could find, and quite probably off some plant which the gardener has been tenderly nurturing for some time. He trots directly up to the other Guardian to present Sumerki with this delicacy, and if the petals look just a little nibbled-on, the intent is still plain. He's brought her a gift, and he's so pleased with himself that he can hardly stand it.
(accent translation here.)
"Yes, my lady. It's foolish, but I can't stop myself. My brother says that one day he'll help me find a way to get them published, but for now I'd feel better if they were somewhere safe. My father told me nobles always have libraries, so when Miss Rajani said you might listen to me, I thought I'd ask for them to be kept safe.
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