“You still want me to stay?” Kaleo asked with a frown on his face.
“Why would that have changed?” Reven answered. “You didn’t set anything on fire, you took my bed for two days. I took Liam’s. It worked out in the end. Would you rather not stay?”
“No!” Kaleo answered quickly; perhaps a little too quickly. He bit his tongue and looked at the blankets again before speaking, afraid to look at the bard. “No,
I want to stay. I don’t really have anywhere else to go anyway.”
“Good,” Reven said, pushing off the chest of drawers just as the woman with the cerulean eyes came in with fresh rags in her arms. She wore no clothes. Kaleo averted his eyes so fast he swore his head would spin right off, cheeks burning so hot he had to shut his eyes. “Oh, don’t bother. She hates clothes. If you’re going to stick around, urchin, just get used to the strange goings of this place.”
Kaleo cracked an eye open to peek and winced, face so hot he swore he would fall into another fever.
“What?” the woman said, looking down at herself. She set the rags down on the table with the ceramic bowl and looked again.
“Nothing, love, perhaps we can revisit very simple coverings now that we’re adding to our number? We just got the boy well, I don’t need you putting him into another fever because you abhor pants…”
The conversation continued even as the bard guided the woman back out of the room with a look of apology thrown in Kaleo’s direction. Kaleo grinned once he’d gone, feeling that lump in his throat slowly vanish.
***
Kaleo sat out in the garden, hands over his ears as the two olven men inside the house argued at full volume about him. Mere hours had passed between Kaleo’s return to coherency and the raging battle of words being fought in the small living room. Hours of staring at a man that wore his father’s face but was entirely opposite of who Gannon Oenel was. Reven Si’ahl was brash and cantankerous. Not that Master Roe was much better. The thief-taker did not like Kaleo. He glared and muttered under his breath. The argument was now a full hour in with Master Roe throwing accusations that Kaleo was lying to Reven, that he was after something and needed to be sent to the cartels. The counter argument was not much better. Reven liked Kaleo, wanted him to stick around, and would not allow anyone to tell him what to do with his urchin. But, there was more than just argument over Kaleo. There was argument over division of duties, of things that were clearly long over due to be discussed; Kaleo just happened to be the unfortunate catalyst that set off the explosion of heated words and shaking fists.
“… can’t remember wha’s bottom from top but yer gonna believe this winged brat at face value!!” Liam roared. “Li’l shit’s not worth the trouble yer puttin’ in ‘im!”
The comment made Kaleo look up from where he sat. The women of the house remained upstairs, pointedly ignoring the arguing men. Kaleo liked the two women. They were both unique in their own right, both lovely without being beautiful. They also seemed to know which battles to fight; this was not one of them.
“Why do you care! I will be the one paying for him; I will be the one feeding him; I am the one doing everything! He doesn’t affect you in the least! In fact, he’s going to help make you more money!” Reven threw back. Liam sneered in disgust, shaking his head.
“Wake up, mate. He’s not who he says he is - and neither are you,” Liam snarled. Reven punched him.
Kaleo took that opportunity to leave, listening to the shouts chase him out into the desert.
Kaleo walked until he was so far from the small row home that he could barely make out the light in the windows. The desert called to him, the fine white sand hiding its own secrets. A few odd trees that had no bark or leaves stood in random groupings. There were stiff-looking shrubs with poky needles all over them and bright blue blossoms at their tips or the occasional mound that looked like a bunch of matted fur rather than an actual plant. Kaleo made sure to steer clear of those, just in case. Instead, he walked until finding a small oasis. The pond was mostly dried up with only a tiny puddle of water left at the center. But there were a few of the not-trees, and one or two stunted palms that might offer respite from the sun in full daylight. In the dark of night, they were just nice to lean on.
All right, little one?
The chimera was not far, coming into the tiny oasis mere minutes after his initial question. The beast towered over Kaleo, his double wings tucked against his sides. He walked up to Kaleo and bumped the young avian’s brow. Kaleo threw his arms around the chimera’s neck and cried.
What happened?
“Nothing,” Kaleo said through his tears. “Just… I dunno I guess I expected… more? Liam hates me. He knows something but…”
Kaleo’s attention was diverted by an orange-blue flame that lit up the night sky briefly and then alighted on Fionn’s head. The chimera seemed to arch a brow - if he had brows - but did not fight the small phoenix. Kaleo’s tears of loss turned to tears of anger.
“And where have you been!” he hollered, voice cracking. “You were supposed to protect him! To make sure things like this don’t happen! Did you decide to take a holiday! Why haven’t you told him! Helped him! That’s
