hardened warrior that could possibly rip a small hole in your continent by himself and then come give us all a hug and we'll be on our way to set up your nice little prezzies.” His grin was sudden and disarming.
Gray froze for a second, a darkness behind her eyes lifting, then she sighed, as if horribly put upon by the world. She finally smiled a bit, but the look was off somehow. Not as focused as what he was used to seeing in his mother. A little dreamy perhaps. Like a person in love might have.
“Tsk. That Green charm. I never could resist it. Fine then. I apologize for my lapses, please forgive me. I'm old and sometimes forget that I don't actually rule the whole world. Even though, clearly, I should.” She swept them a low bow and before anyone could say anything rushed forward to hug him.
“Take the letter anyway?” She asked, her mouth pressed nearly to his ear. He nearly shook her off then, since he could feel the dampness of her breath on his skin and that was way too intimate an action coming from a family member. He was already going to have to have a fight with Burks about this whole mess. Possibly a physical one, which would mean a beating for him of course. He didn't want to mention it out loud, because it was all so embarrassing. Sure, the patterns were different, but Lara was essentially Burks' sister. Maybe not by blood, but close enough. She definitely was Tor’s direct grandmother though and she was holding him like a lover.
Gah.
“Fine, but same as I said last night. Only if I can deliver it safely. I also don't guarantee the time perfectly either. Could be two months, could be eight years.” Tor Shrugged.
She handed it over and started making the rounds of everyone else with hugs. Well, at least it wasn't him anymore, he decided, as she managed to press up against all the others the same way. Maybe that was just how they hugged here? He hadn't seen anything like it, and the one he'd gotten the night before from her had been far less cuddly when she'd though he was Burks, so Tor didn't know what to think.
Mutta, dressed in brown work clothes that looked a lot like his own student browns from school, drove up in a large wagon heaped with evenly sized boxes, bare wood crates. Two strange and huge animals pulled it all, like cows only about five times heavier and with massive horns coming out of the sides of their heads. They were a pleasant dark brown with black on the underside and looked really sturdy.
She waved at them as she hopped down. She half hugged the blue haired woman as she walked by.
“Tor, this is my mother Fiaria Mutta. Your niece. Everything went well then? I don't see any blood. Here, I brought food for the week!”
It didn't look like a enough to Tor, having recently tried stocking enough food for the trip. It had gone just as fast as he'd thought. There was a little waste, but not much, since the big people were always at least a little hungry it seemed. Mutta assured him that these high energy rations would sustain them all very well. Tor grinned. It sounded like they'd taste horrible when she described them, bars of animal fat pressed with nuts and seeds, dried meat and a bit of dried fruit added for flavor. Yum. Everything you needed in a hot desert environment.
Well, he'd eaten giant sea insects so these couldn't be psychologically harder to eat at least.
He pulled one of the magic chests out and resized it to match the wagon, then he and Rolph started unloading. Kolb moved to help, but apparently Lara wasn't done apologizing to him, since she took him by the arm and held him in place. It was fair enough, since of everyone not related, she'd been rudest to the large bald man.
Playing with maps and nattering?
God. That was the entire plan he'd had on the table and if Kolb hadn't done half the work plotting the actual river courses alone it was because he'd done more than that. The Ancient woman almost managed abject when talking to him in particular. Good. At least the bald and scared man wouldn't have to go to war with these people by himself.
The scary part there was that he just might be able to win. Against an entire people.
That could explain the extra effort Tor realized. Lara not wanting to risk something like that. She knew that he wouldn't get mad at her and then attack her people over it, probably as well as anyone knew anything about him at all. She'd grown up with Burks after all hadn't she? The Prince she'd kind of dismissed for some reason, as foolish as that was, since Rolph could probably take on her continent too, but Kolb, he could do anything, couldn't he?
Everyone else started working too, even Karina, who wasn't lazy by nature. Still, loading and unloading carts seemed like a place she'd have drawn a line really. Just about the lowest manual labor possible. At least in the world of a Noram royal. She didn't even blink, just getting to work instantly. The boxes weren't big, but must have weighed forty pounds each, the raw wood giving them all splinters, he could tell, because everyone kept stopping to try and pull them, working at them with their teeth or fingernails. The work went quickly, there were only about twenty boxes, and the trunk he'd expanded let them all fit easily enough. He had to climb inside to organize things, but… a tiny wizard in a box, who didn't like that? Karina mentioned it, but with that wicked grin she used when she plotted some kind of sexual misadventure for him.
He pointed at her. Rudely.
“Don't. Whatever you're thinking, no.”
“No promises. The girls on the ship are getting restless.” She kept working and looking at him with a grin when she thought he couldn't see. He could feel it though.
Fiaria talked with Mutta as they worked, commenting on everything in that way only mothers and people that didn't know you understood them could. So, Tor reflected, honestly, but without a lot of tact? That sounded about right.
“So the pretty one with long hair is my uncle? Good thing you told me, I don't see the family resemblance at all. He does look a bit like mother, that lovely pale look, and their hair is the same. If you hadn't mentioned it, I would have made an offer for him. You need a husband to care for you too dear, you work too hard. The big one isn't bad either, either of them, though Gray seems to be trying for the one with no hair. What kind of price do you think we'd have to offer for the copper haired one?” With a head nod she indicated Rolph.
Mutta lifted a box and then stopped to pull a splinter after handing it off to Tor.
“Honestly? Well, if he wasn't already spoken for, I think I could pass myself off as being royalty from here, even though we don't have that. Close enough really, our ranks are about the same, actually I'm probably equal to the girl there by their system of thinking. Second in line. They wouldn't require anything of us then, but I'd have to move there. He's to run the whole land one day. Not for a time though, the rulers of Noram tend to step down when the heir reaches forty or so, as a tradition, and he's only eighteen, I think.”
The mother clicked, a unique thing that had taken Mutta half a day to teach him to do properly, It required causing suction at the back of the mouth and then freeing the tongue from the roof. In this case it basically meant something was funny, like a chuckle, Tor thought. That had been a little hard for him to pick up, since there was no direct analog in Noram.
“Crazy! I suppose we should make an offer then, if the large boy isn't married yet. They'll need someone sensible like you to help him if that's all they have to lead them. A man… hard to understand these tall people.”
“Mother! He's spoken for already. I don't know, but that may be unbreakable there… not like here where anyone could come in with a better offer up to the day of signing.” She didn't seem put off by the idea, she just didn't know what the rules were.
Tor kept a smile off his face and answered in Afrak, the language a lot easier now that he'd heard others speaking it so often. It felt like he should have known it all along almost, which just pointed out how stupid he was, taking that long to learn it.
“Well, It's not impossible, so an offer might be a good plan. After all, if you point out that Mutta is that high ranking here, which I don't think anyone knew before, it will improve the deal, and you're certainly pretty enough. His current betrothed is already married, but to a man that doesn't exist. Technically Alphonse and Ursala can't be married until that man dies, which should be any time now honestly. If you act fast though there’s a time window for you, a few months. If you're serious, write up a letter and I'll take it to his mother.” Tor held up his hand.
“And yes, the part about her being married to an imaginary man is real. There was a problem and they needed a fictional marriage to fix it. It's no longer a problem though, so I wouldn't wait too long.” That had been Ursala's pregnancy, but she'd lost the child due to poison.
Austran poison.
They chattered back and forth excitedly for a bit, the tone alternately playful and serious. Well. It wasn't just idle chatter then? Good enough. He loved Ursala, but Mutta was family. If he could help her out he had to.
It was a rule.
