Pride&Destiny - Chapter 8
Author: chickinwhite
Pairing: Kahlan/Cara
Rating: PG 17
Word account: 4500
Summary: End of Season 1 - And the beginning of an unexpected future for two sworn enemies, who have to learn to have faith in each other while trying to survive in a hostile world...
Disclaimer: Nothing of LotS belongs to me (such a pity!) - no business, just fan-fun
AN: Sometimes it is just a tiny little detail that holds sway over your fate... Remember Reckoning? Cara struck Richard, who was sitting close to the edge... Well, I asked myself how things would have turned out if not Richard but Kahlan had sit first in her way when Cara arrived...
Previously: Prologue, Chapter 1, Chapter 2, Chapter 3, Chapter 4, Chapter 5, Chapter 6, Chapter 7
********************************************
Dawn found them sitting around a small but warm fire in a cave that lay hidden between rocks and trees, far away from any road. Cara hadn´t seen any lights on their way, and she had wondered how the girl had been able to find the place in the almost darkness of this cloudy night. Not once had she hesitated. Her brown eyes had met her glare from time to time, and every time they did, she had tried a reassuring smile that only made Cara´s frown deepen.
Haron had stumbled behind them, in his arms he held Kahlan, carefully wrapped into a blanket, thoroughly taking care that her head rested on his shoulder, silently cursing every stone in his way that made him stumble, trying to keep her wound kept as steady as possible.
All their way the Mord Sith had watched out for traces of other humans, secretly expecting a trap. Though, when they had reached this cave, she relaxed slightly, appreciating the quiet comfort that Renée had prepared in here.
The cave was entered through an inconspicuous crevice between large rocks. It had the height of two men, though, and was just wide enough to let a horse pass, if the beast dared to enter. After a few meters it made a sharp turn to the left, so Cara was sure if someone would have found it, they would believe it a crack in the hills and nothing more...
Though, after stepping a short distance through a winded tunnel, the cave opened into a small hall with several niches along its walls.
Quickly estimating her surroundings, Cara nodded to Haron, who carefully put Kahlan to a makeshift bed near the fireplace.
Her brow rose as Renée stepped to one of the niches, pulling out some thick furs and throwing them towards them.
„We´ll have to stay a few days. Make yourself comfortable. My friends here...“ she pointed to the wolves, that had kept close to the entrance, „will do some hunting for us.“
And as much as Cara wanted to object that she wouldn´t let herself get nursed by some beasts, she inwardly liked the idea that wolves were to cede their prey to her.
Kahlan´s condition had changed to the worse after all. And, when dawn broke outside, her face glowed with fever. Her sweat covered chest held a shade of purple that looked as if burnt.
Haron was a mess. His shoulders sagged and an expression on his face that spoke of deep despair he repeatedly sat down on one of the logs around their fire, only to jump again when another moan fell from the Confessor´s lips. Murmuring words of guilt; begging his unconscious mistress to forgive him.
At one point Cara couldn´t bear it any longer.
„Will you stop your whining? NOW! I swear I shove my agiel down your throat if I hear another of your moronic gibberish.“
The chunky man crouched beside Kahlan, who murmered a few sillables and threw herself from one side to the other. Her habitually slightly curly, dark hair was a wet mat, a few thick strains glued to her face and chest. Haron cried. Tears streamed his face, painting lines onto his smudged cheeks.
„She dies... My Mistress dies and it´s my fault.“ His hand hit his chest a few times, harder and harder, as if he wanted to punish himself.
Rolling her eyes and clenching her fists to detain them from battering him, she turned around. Only to see Renée, who sat a few steps away, skinning the two rabbits the wolves had brought earlier, trying to hide the smirk on her lips.
Why in the Keeper´s name have I joined this damned journey?
Glaring at the girl, who dropped her head to avoid the acid burn of her stare, she grabbed the water-skins and knocked them into his chest, snarling:
„Your mistress needs more water. Get out and search a stream. And clean yourself. If you return and still stink like a putrefied skunk, I will surely advice her to leave you behind in a hole to rot when we leave.“
His eyes went wide. Beside the possibility that Kahlan could die, perhaps, this was the second worst threat in his life: that Kahlan would leave him behind. That he would lose her, that she would not want him to stay at her side...
Hastily he grabbed the water-skins and dashed out of the cave.
„I don´t like him.“
Curious, the blonde set her dark green stare on Renée. It had been the first words since hours.
„You shouldn´t be worried about him. He is confessed.“
„And he is one of Rahl´s men. They are capable of the worst perfidiousness, they would do anything to please their Lord. How do you know he is not just pretending?“
Watching her eyes narrow, the Mord Sith suddenly found it much easier to trust that girl. She was worried. She was honestly worried. And obviously, she had reasons, like some dark experiences, to fear Rahl´s men.
A small voice in her mind whispered, that she too had been in the service of a Rahl. That she too had done anything to please her Lord. A frown crossed her face and she looked at Kahlan, who panted, shaking her head as if in despair and murmuring stifled words that made no sense.
„You don´t know much about confession, do you?“
A slight shade of anger slid over the red-haired girl´s features.
„She vanished forty years ago, and she´s been the last of her kind. How would I, born only 16 years ago, know anything about confession? Except for the tales my father told me. Which put a rather glorious light to her powers, but have never been proved. And which did nothing to make life these days easier. All I know is that these men are cruel monsters. They should be killed each and every one. Without hesitation.“
Cara´s gaze sparkled with slight amusement as she tilted her head. Somehow she started to like that girl.
During day Cara decided to demand that Haron stayed outside the cave, watching out to keep his mistress safe while she´d recover. Of course the wolves were much better guardians, but she wasn´t sure how much more of his whining she could bear. And killing him would have led to heavy disputes with the Confessor...
Well, as soon as she´d wake up...
Renée was confident that Kahlan would. But Cara didn´t know if the knowledge the girl had of healing herbs and estimating a fever could be trusted.
The blonde´s agitation grew with every passing candle-mark.
Late in the afternoon, Kahlan cried. Between her panting and tossing and turning, there were sobs and a painful cry that burnt deeply into Cara´s chest.
“Damned!” she burst out. “Is there nothing else we can do? If she´s not calming down soon, she´ll hurt herself in her fever. Her wound will reopen again if she´s not getting calm...”
Renée looked up from her lap, where she held a leather piece of a bridle that she was trying to repair. She nodded slowly.
“I think her fever will cease this night. But you are right, she seems to be greatly agitated by her dreams.”
The girl raised her brows and gave Cara an expectant glance.
“May be it would help if you lay down with her and hold her.”
Baffled, Cara could feel how her jaw slackened and found herself gawking at Renée for a heartbeat, before she recovered from her suggestion and snarled:
”What in the Keeper´s... Are you insane?”
The frown under her red curls told the Mord Sith that the girl didn´t understand. She shrugged a little apologetically.
“I am sorry; it´s just....” she looked back at the Confessor, writhing in pain and fever.
“Sometimes the gentle touch of a friend holds more healing magic than any old healers wisdom does. “
Still staring angrily, Cara tightened her fist around her agiel.
“We are not friends. In fact, Confessor´s and Mord Siths have never been anything but enemies to each other. Besides... her powers... ”
A brow rose on Renée´s forehead.
“Oooh” and a shadow of regret flit over her face. But she didn´t go into it.
“I would lay with her myself. But she doesn´t know me, neither my voice nor my smell. It could possibly rather worsen her condition if she feels threatened by me.”
A small smile touched her lips as her gaze met Cara´s keen green eyes.
“I … could ask Haron to lay with her?”
That was too much. Huffing loudly Cara turned around and approached Kahlan´s camp. Shortly hesitating, she looked down at the woman, whose face still glowed with fever; her eyes were surrounded by a slight touch of crimson; her eyes flickered visibly under closed lids; some dark wet wisps of hair sticking on her cheeks, a thicker one wrapping around her throat as if trying to strangle her.
Cara gritted her teeth, staring at this streak, but finally she crouched down, not before disposing her agiel though, and came to lay stiffly at Kahlan´s side.
The Confessor didn´t seem to react to the body beside her. Her restlessness didn´t cease.
Until, finally, the Mord Sith lifted her arm and sneaked it around Kahlan´s waist, holding her, and awkwardly whispering a few soothing sounds.
“Ssshh,...It´s okay, Kahlan... I´m here... You are safe...”
It took a few heartbeats, in which Cara almost held her breath, while the Confessor writhed again as if wanting to fight her touch. The blonde didn´t dare moving, rigidly awaiting that the Confessor would suddenly grab her and release her powers. She could hear the agitated drum of her own heartbeat rumbling in her ears.
But then, with a deep sigh, Kahlan eventually gave in and lay still, her panting turning slowly from a jagged wheeze into a calm steady breath.
And Cara couldn´t help that small smile that twitched in the corners of her mouth, as she realized that, maybe, that meant that Kahlan had recognized her;
Kahlan was exhausted. She had run and fought, fled and struggled... She felt like she couldn´t bear another fight.
A fight were Richard turned himself against her, where the Sword of Truth glowed a deep red when it came down on her, the fury of its powers roaming through Richard´s eyes. The hatred he felt for her dripping from his mouth with words she had never assumed to hear from him. The odium she found in them ripping her heart open, leaving it a bloody mess of hopelessness and fear.
She felt the wounds he had caused burning under her skin, melting her flesh away; felt her world tumbling down while Darken Rahl´s roaring laughter filled the air.
A veil had been ripped open, a veil that had hidden Richard for so long behind the gentle mask of love and a good heart. Vaguely she remembered Zedd´s words, telling her that the Sword of Truth had its own power; the Power of Obliteration. That he had seen the darkness in Richard´s mind and that he feared that one day, the sword´s wrath would destroy the man she knew.
She didn´t know what had happened. All she knew was that this man was not the same she had come to know.
She had fought him, had tried to safe the villages, but too many had died. Rahl´s troops had slaughtered her people and she had been helpless...
Bitter despair would shatter her heart.
Until she had felt the warm touch of something familiar and consoling, holding her in a strong but soft embrace, a surprisingly merciful and mild breeze murmuring lowly into her ear; and somehow she had felt that she was allowed to give in, to fall into that gentle darkness that held no more dreams, no more fear...
A soft tickling made her nose wrinkle a little, and as it didn´t cease, her eyes fluttered open.
Widening. Looking straight into the face of a blonde Mord Sith, who was so close that her breath tickled her nose.
Cara.
Kahlan frowned. But didn´t dare move.
How...?
Another dream?
She felt Cara´s arm had sneaked around her waist, holding her tightly.
Kahlan smiled. A dream. Must be.
What else could be the reason for such an unexpected closeness to the blonde?
She was sound asleep, her features soft and relaxed. Showing an expression of calmness that made her face appear soft and almost innocent;
Beautiful.
The almost not visible, untypical curl of her lips at least convinced Kahlan.
This was just another dream. A rather comforting one.
Sighing, she smiled a little and closed her eyes again, committing herself to the soft embrace of her sleeping companion and falling back into her slumber.
When she finally came around, the Confessor felt as if having slept for a whole week. Her eyes still closed, she moaned lowly and carefully moved, testing her limbs and giving a small sigh as she felt their slight prickling. She stretched slowly, wincing when her shoulder shot a short pang through her body.
Taking a sharp breath she finally opened her eyes and looked around.
And immediately her heart skipped a beat as she found herself staring into a pair of dark yellow eyes that pierced her from a few steps distance, where the wolf lay, his ears cocked, watching her intensely.
Kahlan held her breath.
“It´s okay. She is just curious.” came a familiar voice from behind.
Kahlan dared a breath, wondering why in all spirit´s names a wolf would join them.
“You sure? … She... looks hungry.”
Hearing her own croaking voice she harrumphed. And saw a pair of red boots stepping between herself and the beast. Slowly her eyes traveled upwards and met Cara´s amused moss-green gaze. She wore her trademark smirk and reached out to help her up.
“Welcome back, Confessor. I already feared you would never wake up...”
“Mistress! I´m so glad you´re awake. I feared the worst...”
Cara rolled her eyes and jerked Kahlan carefully to her feet.
The Confessor was too perplexed to say something. Rather bewildered from the wolf that hadn´t stirred, the bully man who made a fuss over her awakening and the Mord Sith, who obviously very much enjoyed her confusion. Her eyes searched the wolf again.
“What...?”
“Oh, she´s awake!”
The joyous words made her turn.
In the entrance to the cave, there stood a young girl with bouncing red locks - and another wolf at her side.
Kahlan swallowed, not sure if she was really awake or if she perhaps had gone nuts...
Renée bowed her head.
“After all these years, you finally arrived! I bow to you, Mother Confessor. It´s an honor to meet you. I am at your service.”
The Mord Sith stood beside and watched, rather interested, how Kahlan´s demeanor changed from
being taken aback to a regal stand; ignoring the fact that she was wearing nothing but her corset and her pants and the over knee-high boots, she stood upright and showed a natural grace as if she were wrapped in the most precious garments.
It was something that happened so naturally, that Cara tilted her head in amazement. This woman was truly a majesty.
“Who are you, child with the wolves?”
“My name is Renée, Mother Confessor. I am just a summoner, sent from people who wistfully await you. I lived here to watch out for you. And now, that we found you, we will guide you to the Fox Den, where my people live. They will be overjoyed to see you...”
Kahlan´s gaze met Cara´s, asking silently what she thought of the girl.
The blonde gave a bored shrug.
“That´s what she´s saying all the time... She appeared with her wolves, helped treating your wounds and maundered of this Fox Den. She´s speaking of the resistance and that they are hoping you would come to support their fight against this new Lord Rahl. I think we can trust her so far.”
“We are not just hoping. It is your destiny, Mother Confessor. There´s a prophecy about you and your fight for your people. It is the reason why you came into our world, so many years after you have vanished. I can´t explain in detail. That is to our leaders. I am just the summoner.”
Her warm brown eyes held a fire that burnt passionately.
“Will you come with us? Will you hear what your people have to say?”
Kahlan regarded her thoughtfully. She could see that the girl was honest. She spoke truth. It wasn´t a trap. At least not as far as it involved this girl and her strange pets.
She turned hesitatingly and locked gaze with Cara, who raised a questioning brow.
“What about you, Cara? If I decide to go with her... will you join us?”
She didn´t say it out loud; but Kahlan wanted her to join them. She really wanted to have Cara at her side.
The Mord Sith held her stare, pursing her lips. Of course, they had intended to fight the Lord Rahl as soon as possible. Cara´s urgent need for vengeance was a blazing fire in her chest.
Though, the Confessor had repeatedly proven to be as worthy a “sister” as any of her former sisters had been. She owed her at least that little favor.
And, she was curious as to what this Fox Den was like. And what kind of people they would find there.
The blonde suddenly smirked.
Yes, she would join them. And she would have a watchful eye on them.
And, having held Kahlan while she had fought the fever, had stirred something in her. Something she hadn´t known was still alive...
t.b.c.
Pairing: Kahlan/Cara
Rating: PG 17
Word account: 4500
Summary: End of Season 1 - And the beginning of an unexpected future for two sworn enemies, who have to learn to have faith in each other while trying to survive in a hostile world...
Disclaimer: Nothing of LotS belongs to me (such a pity!) - no business, just fan-fun
AN: Sometimes it is just a tiny little detail that holds sway over your fate... Remember Reckoning? Cara struck Richard, who was sitting close to the edge... Well, I asked myself how things would have turned out if not Richard but Kahlan had sit first in her way when Cara arrived...
Previously: Prologue, Chapter 1, Chapter 2, Chapter 3, Chapter 4, Chapter 5, Chapter 6, Chapter 7
********************************************
Dawn found them sitting around a small but warm fire in a cave that lay hidden between rocks and trees, far away from any road. Cara hadn´t seen any lights on their way, and she had wondered how the girl had been able to find the place in the almost darkness of this cloudy night. Not once had she hesitated. Her brown eyes had met her glare from time to time, and every time they did, she had tried a reassuring smile that only made Cara´s frown deepen.
Haron had stumbled behind them, in his arms he held Kahlan, carefully wrapped into a blanket, thoroughly taking care that her head rested on his shoulder, silently cursing every stone in his way that made him stumble, trying to keep her wound kept as steady as possible.
All their way the Mord Sith had watched out for traces of other humans, secretly expecting a trap. Though, when they had reached this cave, she relaxed slightly, appreciating the quiet comfort that Renée had prepared in here.
The cave was entered through an inconspicuous crevice between large rocks. It had the height of two men, though, and was just wide enough to let a horse pass, if the beast dared to enter. After a few meters it made a sharp turn to the left, so Cara was sure if someone would have found it, they would believe it a crack in the hills and nothing more...
Though, after stepping a short distance through a winded tunnel, the cave opened into a small hall with several niches along its walls.
Quickly estimating her surroundings, Cara nodded to Haron, who carefully put Kahlan to a makeshift bed near the fireplace.
Her brow rose as Renée stepped to one of the niches, pulling out some thick furs and throwing them towards them.
„We´ll have to stay a few days. Make yourself comfortable. My friends here...“ she pointed to the wolves, that had kept close to the entrance, „will do some hunting for us.“
And as much as Cara wanted to object that she wouldn´t let herself get nursed by some beasts, she inwardly liked the idea that wolves were to cede their prey to her.
Kahlan´s condition had changed to the worse after all. And, when dawn broke outside, her face glowed with fever. Her sweat covered chest held a shade of purple that looked as if burnt.
Haron was a mess. His shoulders sagged and an expression on his face that spoke of deep despair he repeatedly sat down on one of the logs around their fire, only to jump again when another moan fell from the Confessor´s lips. Murmuring words of guilt; begging his unconscious mistress to forgive him.
At one point Cara couldn´t bear it any longer.
„Will you stop your whining? NOW! I swear I shove my agiel down your throat if I hear another of your moronic gibberish.“
The chunky man crouched beside Kahlan, who murmered a few sillables and threw herself from one side to the other. Her habitually slightly curly, dark hair was a wet mat, a few thick strains glued to her face and chest. Haron cried. Tears streamed his face, painting lines onto his smudged cheeks.
„She dies... My Mistress dies and it´s my fault.“ His hand hit his chest a few times, harder and harder, as if he wanted to punish himself.
Rolling her eyes and clenching her fists to detain them from battering him, she turned around. Only to see Renée, who sat a few steps away, skinning the two rabbits the wolves had brought earlier, trying to hide the smirk on her lips.
Why in the Keeper´s name have I joined this damned journey?
Glaring at the girl, who dropped her head to avoid the acid burn of her stare, she grabbed the water-skins and knocked them into his chest, snarling:
„Your mistress needs more water. Get out and search a stream. And clean yourself. If you return and still stink like a putrefied skunk, I will surely advice her to leave you behind in a hole to rot when we leave.“
His eyes went wide. Beside the possibility that Kahlan could die, perhaps, this was the second worst threat in his life: that Kahlan would leave him behind. That he would lose her, that she would not want him to stay at her side...
Hastily he grabbed the water-skins and dashed out of the cave.
„I don´t like him.“
Curious, the blonde set her dark green stare on Renée. It had been the first words since hours.
„You shouldn´t be worried about him. He is confessed.“
„And he is one of Rahl´s men. They are capable of the worst perfidiousness, they would do anything to please their Lord. How do you know he is not just pretending?“
Watching her eyes narrow, the Mord Sith suddenly found it much easier to trust that girl. She was worried. She was honestly worried. And obviously, she had reasons, like some dark experiences, to fear Rahl´s men.
A small voice in her mind whispered, that she too had been in the service of a Rahl. That she too had done anything to please her Lord. A frown crossed her face and she looked at Kahlan, who panted, shaking her head as if in despair and murmuring stifled words that made no sense.
„You don´t know much about confession, do you?“
A slight shade of anger slid over the red-haired girl´s features.
„She vanished forty years ago, and she´s been the last of her kind. How would I, born only 16 years ago, know anything about confession? Except for the tales my father told me. Which put a rather glorious light to her powers, but have never been proved. And which did nothing to make life these days easier. All I know is that these men are cruel monsters. They should be killed each and every one. Without hesitation.“
Cara´s gaze sparkled with slight amusement as she tilted her head. Somehow she started to like that girl.
During day Cara decided to demand that Haron stayed outside the cave, watching out to keep his mistress safe while she´d recover. Of course the wolves were much better guardians, but she wasn´t sure how much more of his whining she could bear. And killing him would have led to heavy disputes with the Confessor...
Well, as soon as she´d wake up...
Renée was confident that Kahlan would. But Cara didn´t know if the knowledge the girl had of healing herbs and estimating a fever could be trusted.
The blonde´s agitation grew with every passing candle-mark.
Late in the afternoon, Kahlan cried. Between her panting and tossing and turning, there were sobs and a painful cry that burnt deeply into Cara´s chest.
“Damned!” she burst out. “Is there nothing else we can do? If she´s not calming down soon, she´ll hurt herself in her fever. Her wound will reopen again if she´s not getting calm...”
Renée looked up from her lap, where she held a leather piece of a bridle that she was trying to repair. She nodded slowly.
“I think her fever will cease this night. But you are right, she seems to be greatly agitated by her dreams.”
The girl raised her brows and gave Cara an expectant glance.
“May be it would help if you lay down with her and hold her.”
Baffled, Cara could feel how her jaw slackened and found herself gawking at Renée for a heartbeat, before she recovered from her suggestion and snarled:
”What in the Keeper´s... Are you insane?”
The frown under her red curls told the Mord Sith that the girl didn´t understand. She shrugged a little apologetically.
“I am sorry; it´s just....” she looked back at the Confessor, writhing in pain and fever.
“Sometimes the gentle touch of a friend holds more healing magic than any old healers wisdom does. “
Still staring angrily, Cara tightened her fist around her agiel.
“We are not friends. In fact, Confessor´s and Mord Siths have never been anything but enemies to each other. Besides... her powers... ”
A brow rose on Renée´s forehead.
“Oooh” and a shadow of regret flit over her face. But she didn´t go into it.
“I would lay with her myself. But she doesn´t know me, neither my voice nor my smell. It could possibly rather worsen her condition if she feels threatened by me.”
A small smile touched her lips as her gaze met Cara´s keen green eyes.
“I … could ask Haron to lay with her?”
That was too much. Huffing loudly Cara turned around and approached Kahlan´s camp. Shortly hesitating, she looked down at the woman, whose face still glowed with fever; her eyes were surrounded by a slight touch of crimson; her eyes flickered visibly under closed lids; some dark wet wisps of hair sticking on her cheeks, a thicker one wrapping around her throat as if trying to strangle her.
Cara gritted her teeth, staring at this streak, but finally she crouched down, not before disposing her agiel though, and came to lay stiffly at Kahlan´s side.
The Confessor didn´t seem to react to the body beside her. Her restlessness didn´t cease.
Until, finally, the Mord Sith lifted her arm and sneaked it around Kahlan´s waist, holding her, and awkwardly whispering a few soothing sounds.
“Ssshh,...It´s okay, Kahlan... I´m here... You are safe...”
It took a few heartbeats, in which Cara almost held her breath, while the Confessor writhed again as if wanting to fight her touch. The blonde didn´t dare moving, rigidly awaiting that the Confessor would suddenly grab her and release her powers. She could hear the agitated drum of her own heartbeat rumbling in her ears.
But then, with a deep sigh, Kahlan eventually gave in and lay still, her panting turning slowly from a jagged wheeze into a calm steady breath.
And Cara couldn´t help that small smile that twitched in the corners of her mouth, as she realized that, maybe, that meant that Kahlan had recognized her;
Kahlan was exhausted. She had run and fought, fled and struggled... She felt like she couldn´t bear another fight.
A fight were Richard turned himself against her, where the Sword of Truth glowed a deep red when it came down on her, the fury of its powers roaming through Richard´s eyes. The hatred he felt for her dripping from his mouth with words she had never assumed to hear from him. The odium she found in them ripping her heart open, leaving it a bloody mess of hopelessness and fear.
She felt the wounds he had caused burning under her skin, melting her flesh away; felt her world tumbling down while Darken Rahl´s roaring laughter filled the air.
A veil had been ripped open, a veil that had hidden Richard for so long behind the gentle mask of love and a good heart. Vaguely she remembered Zedd´s words, telling her that the Sword of Truth had its own power; the Power of Obliteration. That he had seen the darkness in Richard´s mind and that he feared that one day, the sword´s wrath would destroy the man she knew.
She didn´t know what had happened. All she knew was that this man was not the same she had come to know.
She had fought him, had tried to safe the villages, but too many had died. Rahl´s troops had slaughtered her people and she had been helpless...
Bitter despair would shatter her heart.
Until she had felt the warm touch of something familiar and consoling, holding her in a strong but soft embrace, a surprisingly merciful and mild breeze murmuring lowly into her ear; and somehow she had felt that she was allowed to give in, to fall into that gentle darkness that held no more dreams, no more fear...
A soft tickling made her nose wrinkle a little, and as it didn´t cease, her eyes fluttered open.
Widening. Looking straight into the face of a blonde Mord Sith, who was so close that her breath tickled her nose.
Cara.
Kahlan frowned. But didn´t dare move.
How...?
Another dream?
She felt Cara´s arm had sneaked around her waist, holding her tightly.
Kahlan smiled. A dream. Must be.
What else could be the reason for such an unexpected closeness to the blonde?
She was sound asleep, her features soft and relaxed. Showing an expression of calmness that made her face appear soft and almost innocent;
Beautiful.
The almost not visible, untypical curl of her lips at least convinced Kahlan.
This was just another dream. A rather comforting one.
Sighing, she smiled a little and closed her eyes again, committing herself to the soft embrace of her sleeping companion and falling back into her slumber.
When she finally came around, the Confessor felt as if having slept for a whole week. Her eyes still closed, she moaned lowly and carefully moved, testing her limbs and giving a small sigh as she felt their slight prickling. She stretched slowly, wincing when her shoulder shot a short pang through her body.
Taking a sharp breath she finally opened her eyes and looked around.
And immediately her heart skipped a beat as she found herself staring into a pair of dark yellow eyes that pierced her from a few steps distance, where the wolf lay, his ears cocked, watching her intensely.
Kahlan held her breath.
“It´s okay. She is just curious.” came a familiar voice from behind.
Kahlan dared a breath, wondering why in all spirit´s names a wolf would join them.
“You sure? … She... looks hungry.”
Hearing her own croaking voice she harrumphed. And saw a pair of red boots stepping between herself and the beast. Slowly her eyes traveled upwards and met Cara´s amused moss-green gaze. She wore her trademark smirk and reached out to help her up.
“Welcome back, Confessor. I already feared you would never wake up...”
“Mistress! I´m so glad you´re awake. I feared the worst...”
Cara rolled her eyes and jerked Kahlan carefully to her feet.
The Confessor was too perplexed to say something. Rather bewildered from the wolf that hadn´t stirred, the bully man who made a fuss over her awakening and the Mord Sith, who obviously very much enjoyed her confusion. Her eyes searched the wolf again.
“What...?”
“Oh, she´s awake!”
The joyous words made her turn.
In the entrance to the cave, there stood a young girl with bouncing red locks - and another wolf at her side.
Kahlan swallowed, not sure if she was really awake or if she perhaps had gone nuts...
Renée bowed her head.
“After all these years, you finally arrived! I bow to you, Mother Confessor. It´s an honor to meet you. I am at your service.”
The Mord Sith stood beside and watched, rather interested, how Kahlan´s demeanor changed from
being taken aback to a regal stand; ignoring the fact that she was wearing nothing but her corset and her pants and the over knee-high boots, she stood upright and showed a natural grace as if she were wrapped in the most precious garments.
It was something that happened so naturally, that Cara tilted her head in amazement. This woman was truly a majesty.
“Who are you, child with the wolves?”
“My name is Renée, Mother Confessor. I am just a summoner, sent from people who wistfully await you. I lived here to watch out for you. And now, that we found you, we will guide you to the Fox Den, where my people live. They will be overjoyed to see you...”
Kahlan´s gaze met Cara´s, asking silently what she thought of the girl.
The blonde gave a bored shrug.
“That´s what she´s saying all the time... She appeared with her wolves, helped treating your wounds and maundered of this Fox Den. She´s speaking of the resistance and that they are hoping you would come to support their fight against this new Lord Rahl. I think we can trust her so far.”
“We are not just hoping. It is your destiny, Mother Confessor. There´s a prophecy about you and your fight for your people. It is the reason why you came into our world, so many years after you have vanished. I can´t explain in detail. That is to our leaders. I am just the summoner.”
Her warm brown eyes held a fire that burnt passionately.
“Will you come with us? Will you hear what your people have to say?”
Kahlan regarded her thoughtfully. She could see that the girl was honest. She spoke truth. It wasn´t a trap. At least not as far as it involved this girl and her strange pets.
She turned hesitatingly and locked gaze with Cara, who raised a questioning brow.
“What about you, Cara? If I decide to go with her... will you join us?”
She didn´t say it out loud; but Kahlan wanted her to join them. She really wanted to have Cara at her side.
The Mord Sith held her stare, pursing her lips. Of course, they had intended to fight the Lord Rahl as soon as possible. Cara´s urgent need for vengeance was a blazing fire in her chest.
Though, the Confessor had repeatedly proven to be as worthy a “sister” as any of her former sisters had been. She owed her at least that little favor.
And, she was curious as to what this Fox Den was like. And what kind of people they would find there.
The blonde suddenly smirked.
Yes, she would join them. And she would have a watchful eye on them.
And, having held Kahlan while she had fought the fever, had stirred something in her. Something she hadn´t known was still alive...
t.b.c.