#*slaps the top of the horse* this baby can hold so much symbolism in it | Explore Tumblr Posts and Blogs

rohad93 · 3 years

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Woth the Fight : Chp 2

Eda is shaking her awake before the sun is even really up the next morning and she groans, burying her face into King’s fur. He growled at the hand and Eda rolled her eyes at the giant lump of fur and her equal lump of an apprentice, curled up together on the bed. If she didn’t know for a fact Luz was human she would swear she was some kind of demonic wolf the way King had taken to her when she’d first started traveling with them, like she was his pup, even though she treated him like he was her baby in turn. At least the two looked out for each other when she was out on jobs.

“Both of you get up, we still have a lot of ground to cover, before we make it to town,” she said as she strapped her belt with her sword tied to it around her waist.

“I’m up…,” Luz’s groggy voice muffled out from King’s fur but she didn’t move until King finally stood up, sending her dropping, face-first into the bed with a grumble as he stretched out like a cat before jumping off the bed. Luz groaned into the blankets before finally pushing herself up onto her elbows and blinked tiredly before letting out a jaw cracking yawn as she sat herself up.

“Come on, if you wanna eat we need to get a move on, and I know you gotta be hungry,” Eda grunted, pulling on her own dark cloak. The moment she said it Luz’s stomach growled angrily and she grinned sheepishly at her.

“That’s what I thought…” Eda smirked. “Come on.” She waved, walking out the door, King trotting after her at the promise of food.

“Eda, wait for me!” Luz scrambled off the side of the bed and pulled on her sword belt and cloak as she hopped across the room, trying to pull on her boots with one hand and grab her book off the bedside table with the other at the same time.

Eda waited for her downstairs, where she’d already ordered food.

She stuffed her face with as much dried meat and bread as she could in the inns’ main room before they headed out on the road just as the sun was beginning to peek over the horizon.

Her feet dragged through the dirt by mid-afternoon and it was all she could do to keep her eyes open. Even the overbearing rays of the summer sun overhead were only serving to help lull her to sleep despite their blistering heat.

She’d stayed up much top late trying to decipher the intricate little runes that filled most of the pages in vain. Her knowledge of glyphs was less than beginner level, it was all but non-existent really. She could read, and write, and spoke two languages, but the tiny symbols witches used for denoting elements and the properties of magic had always escaped her, not that she really had anyone to teach her. Eda was a master at the practical side of magic, enchanting objects with power and then using them, but had never been big on the academic side of things, much to Luz’s dismay.

“You’re the most skilled witch knight in all the Boiling Isles, how can you not know any runes?” Luz’s hands dropped, book slapping against the tops of her thighs in defeat.

“I don’t need that book stuff. Magic is wild and free you just have to feel it!” Eda threw her arms out, gesturing to the wide blue sky above them.

“I literally can’t feel it, I don't have a bile sac.” Luz frowned and Eda blinked, bringing a hand back down to scratch her chin.

“Oh, right… Well, you got the book, right? You learned anything?” she cocked her head as she glanced at her and watched as Luz lit up.

“Most of it is in runes… but I did learn something, watch this!” She dug through one of her pouches and pulled out a piece of charcoal before unsheathing her practice sword and carefully drawing the small glyph on it, when she was satisfied with her work, she tapped it and the glyph burned away as the whole blade glowed with a bright incandescent light.

Eda squinted against the light.

“You really did do magic…”

“Yeah, a light enchantment!” Luz beamed at her mentor, still swinging around the glowing blade.

“Okay, okay, put that thing away before I go blind!” Eda shielded her eyes with her hand from the glaring light.

Luz sheathed the blade, smothering the light that would go out in due time when the energy of the glyph was exhausted.

"Pretty neat, huh?" Luz grinned as she sheathed the blade.

"It's bright…," Eda rubbed her eyes with her fists, trying to clear away the spots she was still seeing. "...not sure how good it would be in an actual fight though…"

"Well… maybe not… but it's still magic!"

"The point of adding magical enchantments to weapons is to do more damage in attacks, or create barriers...or other... stuff," Eda trailed off, rolling a hand. “What you have is a metal torch…”

“Well, what else is a dull blade good for? If I had a real sword maybe I could actually be useful,” Luz huffed, turning to look at the ocean sitting below the cliffside. At some point, the fields had given way to the shore and the far-stretching ocean. Eda frowned.

"You'll get a real sword when I decide you're ready, not before." Eda crossed her arms, they’d had this conversation before.

"It's been five years, how am I not ready yet!?" Luz frowned, throwing up her hands in exasperation. Eda had been saying that for years. It had taken her two years just to get the training sword.

"Look, Luz, you tend to get carried away, and I just worry you'll rely on your sword to get you out of trouble before your brain. Show me that's not the case and you'll get your sword," Eda promised and Luz slumped.

“How am I supposed to do that?” she grumbled. Eda just shrugged and she sighed as they continued on down the road, the conversation was over. She contented herself with looking at her book and half falling asleep until she’d stumble, almost eating it before catching herself. The sun was slowly but surely dipping closer and closer toward the horizon, lighting the ocean on their left aglow with glaring reds and pinks. After the fifth time of almost watching Luz trip face-first into the dirt, Eda stopped them in the thick of the woods.

“We’re gonna make camp here for the night,” she declared. “You can barely keep your eyes open, your gonna end up falling into a pit or something.”

Luz glanced around at the thick foliage around them. One of the first things Eda had taught her was to make camp in the open whenever possible, to avoid ambush or any creatures sneaking up on you in the dark.

“Is it safe to camp here?”

“Eh, it’s fine, and we wouldn’t make it out of here before it got good and dark anyway, just don’t wander off into the forest and it’ll be fine.” Eda pulled her sack from her back. “Go gather up some wood and we can get the fire going.” She jerked her head to the edge of the forest just off the path.

“I’m on it!” Luz shrugged off her pack and set down her book before trotting just into the treeline to pick up sticks, King trailed along behind her, her ever-present shadow, trying to snatch the bigger ones out of her hand.

“We’re not playing right now, King!” she grunted, trying to wrench the branch from between his massive jaws. “Let go!” she growled, and he did, sending her reeling back into the bushes with a yelp.

“Ow,” she grumbled to herself before rolling out of the bush, leaves sticking out of her hair as she looked up to find King at her side, and then his large wet tongue was on her cheek.

“Yeah, yeah, I’m okay,” she laughed, pushing his furry head away as she pulled herself to her feet. She brushed herself off and started picking up all the sticks she’d dropped when a loud screech filled the twilight sky’s air, making a chill go up her spine and clutch the bundle of wood to her chest, brown eyes darting across the ever-darkening woods.

It had sounded far away...

Again the blood-chilling screech echoed across the forest, sending an eruption of good-bumps across her arms.

What was that? She’d never heard a sound like that before in her life and she had heard and seen quite a few things in the years she’d been traveling with Eda and King.

“Luz!” Eda’s voice calling from just a few yards away jolted her out of her thoughts as she turned and jogged back toward camp with King at her side.

“Did you hear that?” is the first thing out of her mouth as she dumped the wood into the ring of stones Eda made while she was gone.

Her mentor nodded, as she looked into the woods with narrowed amber eyes, hands planted on her hips.

“Sounds like a cockatrice,” she hummed.

A cockatrice.

Luz frowned, she’d read about them, and all manner of the other strange and deadly creatures that called the Boiling Isles home. Eda had also given her lessons about them. They were smaller than griffins and manticores, with scaled, winged, lizard-like bodies, covered in feathers, and had the head of a rooster. They were pretty ugly in the illustrations she'd seen. Eda had fought a number of them for jobs over the years, but she had never taken Luz with her on those jobs, only told her the stories after the fact, she’d never seen one with her own eyes. She wasn't sure what she imagined it would sound like, but that hadn’t been it.

“Should we do something?” Luz’s brows furrowed with concern, running a hand up and down her arm. “Kill it?” she asked.

“Pfft, you mean, should I do something? And no, it sounds pretty far off, I wouldn’t worry about it… ‘sides, you’ve got a blunt training sword and you’ve learned one enchantment, Kid, and let’s be honest, not the most useful one either; so hold your horses.”

Luz frowned at that, shoulders slumping, which made Eda sigh under her breath and slapped a hand on her apprentice’s head.

“All in due time, Luz. Just trust me, okay?”

Luz glanced up at Eda, who was looking at her questioningly and she sighed before nodding.

“Okay…”

“Good, now, let’s get the fire started before the wolves come out,” Eda said, ruffling her hair with a grin before she walked over to the pile of wood Luz had collected.

“Please, no pack of wolves is a match for King!” Luz said, scratching his head. The great beast seemed to puff up at the praise, tail wagging as Luz scratched around the base of his horns.

“We don’t need wolf guts strewn out everywhere either, that would attract something else…” Another loud, distant screech filled the warm night air, sending a chill up Luz’s spine “...like that…” Eda deadpanned.

“Did that sound closer than before?” It was hard to tell, it was still quite far off.

A fire blazed to life, drawing her attention away from the darkening woods.

“A little fire will keep most things away, don’t worry,” Eda assured her

“I’m not worried, what would I be worried about?” She planted both hands on her hips, chest jutting out in defiance.

The screech echoed over the trees, making her jump, and Eda snorted in laughter as Luz’s face turned red, shoulders bunching up around her ears.

“It’s fine, Luz, now come sit down so we can eat,” Eda huffed, still grinning as she pulled their rations out of her own bag.

Luz plopped down into the dirt beside the fire, King at her side as Eda tossed her a dried chunk of meat, she wasted no time before she started gnawing on it while Eda tossed a chunk to King, who snapped it out of the air between his massive jaws before turning to nose Luz, whining.

“No, this is mine,” she leaned away from him, holding the dried meat just out of reach, but then he was practically crawling over her to get to it, stepping on her in the process. “No, King!” she yelped as he stuck his neck across her, tongue sticking out toward Luz’s dinner before she shoved the whole thing into her mouth and gave him a victorious look.

Eda rolled her eyes at the both of them and chewed silently on her own food, keeping her ears pricked to the occasional screech of the creature in the distance.

~ ~ The moon is high overhead when something woke her up.

She wasn't sure what woke her up, but all of a sudden, Luz was awake, eyes popping open suddenly. She glanced around from her place laying on the ground beside the fire, her eyes flickered across their roadside camp. The fire is still crackling brightly and King is laying beside her, curled into a ball at her side. The light from the quarter moon overhead casts everything outside the light of the fire in a faint silvery glow.

Nothing seems out of the ordinary, and she starts to close her eyes again before she realizes; Eda is gone.

She sprang up, knocking into King and making him jolt awake with a surprised, snort.

Eda is not laying nearby or is anywhere she can see, and that immediately worries Luz.

“Eda?” she called quietly, as she rubbed her fist against her eye, casting off the last bits of sleep still clinging to her consciousness.

Only the quiet ambient sounds of the forest, crickets, and the rustling of leaves answer her back.

“Eda?” she called again, climbing to her feet and staring out into the darkness beyond the light cast by the fire.

Nothing answered her back, not a voice anyway.

Suddenly she could hear something in the distance, the rattling of bushes and the snapping of twigs and branches. She tensed, listening to the sounds as they seemed to move about the woods, crashing and smashing.

“That the best you got?”

Luz knows that voice.

“Eda!” She scrambled to her feet and took off into the darkness of the trees, King jumping up and following after her.

She stumbled over roots and rocks, branches scratched at her face and arms as she rushed by them. She ran blindly through the woods towards the noises growing louder and louder; the sound of fighting. There's a dim light somewhere in front of her, a beacon in the all-encompassing blackness of the woods at night.

She cleared the trees and skid to a stop in the dirt, eyes wide and mouth hanging open as a high-pitched squeaking sound forced its way out of her throat.

Standing in front of her is a large, two-legged, draconic creature. Dark green, almost black in the darkness, and her noise of surprise had drawn its attention.

She knows the second it faces her what it is, with its large winged arms, tipped with three long talons and the large scaly head of a rooster.

A cockatrice.

It looks at her, head cocking to the side in jerky motions as it examines her.

“Luz!?”

Her eyes flicker to the voice and standing, back pressed against a tree is Eda, a dimly glowing lantern on her hip providing the only light other than the moon and her sword gripped in her right hand.

“Eda!” she yelped and the creature made a guttural hissing noise at her that stopped her cold, eyes going back to the creature, its pupilless yellow eyes staring into her and wings twitching, as if about to take off at any moment. King is growling, deep and guttural, black fur standing on end and lips curled back over long, white, curved fangs.

“Get out of here, now!” Eda yelled at her, but her legs are frozen, her muscles refuse to move despite the bloodthirsty creature looming over her.

Eda scowled. Luz is frozen and she knows it. She jolted forward and hacked at the creature’s back left leg, sending a spray of blood across the grass.

It made a loud screeching sound and whipped around to face Eda, its spiked tail slamming into the older woman and sending her slamming back against the tree.

“Eda!”

Eda sucked in a sharp breath between her teeth, holding her sword out to keep the hissing beast at bay as it snapped its razor-sharp beak at her, looking for an opening as she pressed her free hand to her side where she’d been struck.

Luz sucked in a breath when she saw the growing dark spot on Eda’s side that she cradled under her left hand; she was injured.

She had to do something!

Her hand gripped the handle of her training sword tightly, isn't this what she'd been training with Eda for?

She unsheathed the blade in one swift motion and raised it overhead.

Maybe it's edges weren't sharp, but it had enough edge that when she brought it crashing down with all her strength she severed the spiked end of the creature's tail from its body, blood splattering the ground as the still wriggling appendage fell to the dirt.

It spun to face Luz, eyes aglow and the blood-curdling squawk that erupted from its mouth at her made King spring forward with a roar, fangs sinking into the scaled hide of its neck with a squelching noise.

Its cries continued to pierce the air as it writhed, wings thrashing and body shaking until it flung the demon wolf loose, his body rolling across the ground with a hard thump before it turned its gaze to Luz, letting out another piercing shriek.

Luz screamed and bolted back into the woods, batting the branches away with her sword. She could hear it chasing her, it’s thundering steps beating against the ground as it ran, branches snapping under its feet.

Something, hot and sizzling, shot past her face, grazing her cheek, and it burns like fire! Her eyes water and she stumbles for a second but quickly rights herself and keeps running, heart pounding inside her chest.

Surely if not for the injury Eda had inflicted on its back leg and the tight quarters, it would already be tearing her apart by now.

She panted, zigzagging through the trees. She needed a plan, and quickly! What did she know about cockatrices’? She tried hard to remember Eda’s lessons, she can only remember bits and pieces in the moment.

They had acidic saliva, ate prey alive, and lived in dark places, caves, or other underground spaces, only coming out at night because of their incredibly sensitive night vision.

“That’s it!” she huffed, she needed a minute though, somewhere, anywhere she could get just a few seconds.

She made a sharp turn, heading back for camp, the creature still hot on her heels. She could see the light from the fire and ran, breakneck straight for it, never breaking stride as she leaped over the flames, but as enraged as it was, the beast didn’t see them and ran straight through the campfire, sending up a cloud of sparks and embers, it’s oily feathered wings catching immediately. It let out wild, hissing cries.

Luz slid to a stop, watching it a second before she shakily dug through one of her pouches as quickly as she could while the thing flailed and writhed, trying to put out the flames licking across it’s dark green and black feathers, what’s left of its tail whipping around.

She tried to still her shaking hand as she grasped the piece of charcoal and drew out the glyph from her book, forcing her hand still, as the smell of burning feathers and flesh filled the camp, making her stomach churn; it needed to be perfect.

The cockatrice screeched, having finally put out the flames and Luz dropped the charcoal as she took off back into the forest, the monster's angry cries behind her, farther behind than before, but not far enough.

Ahead of her are some fallen trees.

She drop slid under one, sitting propped up on a rock, and popped back up, barely breaking stride, even as she heard the cockatrice smash into the dense log as it tried to follow her in its blind rage, the heavy smacking and crunching sound told her all she needed to know as she bolted through the trees.

Her heart is beating wildly in her ears as she burst from the treeline to find herself standing on a stretch of cliff that jutted out over the ocean.

She slid to a stop just a few feet from the edge and turned to face the forest, sword clasped in her hand. It took only a handful of seconds for the beast to come sprinting out of the brush, screeching as it barreled toward her at full speed, angrier than ever, and ready to melt her face off.

Luz swallowed thickly, knees bent and body tense, waiting for the perfect moment.

‘Close, closer… just a little closer… now!’.

She slapped her hand against the flat of the blade and the glyph glowed before the entire thing erupted in a blinding light. The beast screamed in pain as it was blinded, and running too fast to stop. Luz dove out of the way as it ran headfirst off the side of the cliff, crispy, near featherless wings, flapping helplessly as gravity took hold of it.

She panted, whole body trembling with adrenaline as she laid face first in the grass, a white-knuckled grip on her glowing blade, but a few moments passed and nothing happened. She slowly pushed herself up from the grass before she crawled over to the ledge and looked down.

Laying sprawled out in the sand far below, with ocean waves gently lapping at it, was the cockatrice’s lifeless body.

“I… I did it…,” she breathed as a grin slowly broke out across her face. “I killed it!” she whooped, pushing herself to her knees and throwing up her fists, glowing sword still in hand before she gasped to herself.

“Eda!” She jumped up and ran quickly back to her mentor through the woods, glowing sword lightning her way, she found the witch making her way through the trees with King at her side.

“Eda!” Luz practically screamed as she ran up to the surprised witch. "Are you okay?" She looked her over, and there was a dark stain on her own dark red tunic, but not nearly as big as Luz had feared it had been.

"I'm fine, it just grazed me. Where is it?" Eda asked, looking around cautiously. Luz puffed up, chest jutted out

"I killed it!" she proclaimed, holding up her still glowing training sword

"Wha- seriously?" Eda blinked her wide amber eyes at her.

"Yeah!" Luz regaled her with the tale as they walked back to camp.

"You took out a cockatrice with a dull training blade and a light enchantment, color me impressed, Kid." Eda grinned at her and Luz beamed proudly at the praise as King laid his head across her lap while she scratched his head between his horns as they sat next to the fire. Luckily he wasn't really hurt either.

Eda hummed, leaning forward, eyes narrowed as she looked at Luz's face.

She reached up and touched her left cheek gently with her thumb, making Luz hiss with pain.

"Looks like it got you with its acid…," Eda mumbled. "That's definitely going to leave a scar.' she frowned, but Luz lit up further if it was possible.

"My first battle scar!" She cheered, throwing up a fist. King made a grumbling growling sound at the movement.

Eda blinked before chuckling to herself.

"Never change, Luz." Eda shook her head.

#worth the fight #Lumity eventually #Eda Clawthorne #Luz Noceda #King #the owl house #Medival AU

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redstarfiction-blog · 7 years

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Part 11 of Sonas/Happiness.

Hi everyone, I am so sorry that this has been so long coming. I came to a bit of a cross-road in the story and wasn’t sure how to continue so I left it alone for a little while but now I have found the thread again. In this chapter we first jump forward and then lean backward in time and this is how it will likely continue for a couple of chapters at least and through Brianna’s perspective.

I really hope you will enjoy it and thank you all so much for your kindness and your patience.

Han xxx

My Introduction to My Father and Re-Learning My Mother by Brianna Ellen Randall Fraser Mackenzie

1782

I couldn’t say for sure exactly when I began to feel like a Fraser. Da made me feel as welcome as he could from the very beginning, as did all of the Murray clan, and Mama of course, but my intrinsic willingness to be included did not kick in immediately.

I was, for want of a better word, overwhelmed.

I’d had plenty of time to come to terms with Jamie and the tale of his love for my mother, and her love for him which was, to me anyway, more important. Mama’s love for Jamie Fraser was what rocked my world and threatened to tip everything into a void of self-doubt and bitterness.

Seeing them together though … I understood it. I saw the way she touched his hand as she passed by him and the way his hand lighted on her hip as they walked together. I noticed the way her eyes sought his at the dinner table and the way he smiled at her, a little lift of the corner of his mouth that was warm and certain. In all these ways and more they each said ‘I love you’ perhaps a hundred times a day.

I had never heard Mama say ‘I love you’ to Daddy. Nor had I seen her offer the words in tiny, silent acts of adoration as she did with Jamie. I had seen her write it in birthday cards and on Christmas gift tags though and as a kid, I had thought that was proof enough. I had been wrong and that knowledge had made me fear that I was wrong about the way she loved me too.

Funnily enough it was Jamie who bridged that void too. I saw myself, my existence, through his eyes. I saw how he adored my presence and how he marvelled at various things I did. It was a bit much really, to go from being a beloved daughter to being an flaunted treasure but what made it a pleasure was seeing Mama's reaction to his joy.

She urged me forward and shared in his happiness in a way that I had never known her to do. Her pride in me was so obvious that I began to worry I would simply never live up to it…

“Bree?”

Roger’s head popped round the study door and Bree jolted in her seat, her fingers skittering across the page smudging half dried dotted ‘I’s and dashes of ‘t’s.

“Ach! Sorry love!”

Roger bit his lip abashedly, noting the streaks of ink, as he made his way in carrying a tray of coffee and gingernut biscuits.

“No problem, what is a dirty page in the face of such service?”

Bree grinned up at him, stretching her hands above her head and rolling her neck from side to side.

“How is the draft coming along?”

“Better. I feel like I’m finally saying what I want to say about them. About how they were together.”

“How they still are!”

Roger grinned and Bree nodded, snorting.

“Yes, though if Da tramps mud in through the house again Mama might kill him. You know how protective she is of the new rug.”

“Aye, but in your Da’s defence he was just trying to catch Mandy before she could carry the wee frog too far into the house and claim it to be a pet.”

Bree laughed and bit into one of the freshly baked biscuits sighing in pleasure.

“Did Aunt Jenny make these?”

“Aye, the main batch was to decorate the cake for Robbie’s birthday, these are the overspills.”

“I can’t believe my baby brother is about to turn sixteen! And take his first voyage too!”

Bree sighed and shook her head. Roger grinned and bent to place a kiss on the top of her hair.

“Ye should see the state of your mother, she’s cried twice today already and your Da hasn’t even brought the trunk down from the loft yet.”

“Poor Mama. I should go and distract her with something.”

“Unless you intend to help her bind the laddie’s hands and feet and bolt the doors and windows of his room to stop him leaving, I doubt you’ll find her easy to distract.”

Bree smiled in a distracted fashion and closed her eyes as Roger’s hands settled on her shoulders massaging lightly, giving herself over to the sensation and relaxing beneath his gentle fingers.

She let the motion loll her and carry her back through the years, across acres of memory to a time that seemed so desperately long ago and yet also so close that she could still feel the press of her brother’s heel against the palm of her hand, flat against their mother’s belly.

They had been sat in the kitchen, mere minutes after she had met their father for the first time, when Claire had gasped and beamed at them both in delight, gripping first Jamie’s hand and then Brianna’s and pressing their palms to her middle.

Bree remembered the awed look upon her father’s face, his eyes wide and almost disbelieving as the baby turned and stretched, pressing fists, feet and bottom against their hands. She had felt almost like an intruder on their moment, the moment that Jamie had never had with her, both parents feeling the proof of their love. She had begun to move her hand away, intending to leave them be, but Jamie had caught her fingers gently within his free hand

“Stay, Brianna. If ye dinna mind doing so.”

“Sure … I mean … If you want me to…”

“Aye, I do.”

“We both do.”

Her Mama had reached out and cupped her cheek so lightly that Bree had to look to make sure she was not imagining the touch. Her mother’s other hand had settled over Jamie’s, resting against her belly, connecting the four of them physically in a pose that was as symbolic of family as any that had ever been known.

Over the weeks that had followed, she and Jamie came to know each other. It made her smile still to think of the first awkward attempts at working side by side, hesitant and overly polite, neither wanting to spoil the sweet bubble of domesticity that had formed around them.

She had been eager to show her knowledge of guns, horses, and woodwork whilst he had been very happy to listen, encourage, and advise where necessary, but always with a studious respect of the newness of their acquaintance.

It had been a loose rock that had finally bridged the formality. She had been stepping out of the creek, barefoot from laying nets for trout, when the stone she stood on rolled out beneath her, turning her ankle sharply.

The joint had swollen instantly, Jamie’s quick thinking to remove her boot had stopped it needing to be cut off later as within minutes it was three times its usual size.

Jamie had carefully taken her foot into his lap and ever so gently turned it this way and that, biting his own lip at Brianna’s pained gasps.

“I dinna think it is broken but we should get ye back to the house, lass.”

Jamie was still hunkered down on his haunches before her, his brows knotted in sympathy and Bree slapped the ground in frustration,

“Yeah, you’re probably right. It really hurts.”

She had felt foolishly embarrassed, as if she was fussing about a little bump.

“Aye, no doubt. Let me get the bags and I’ll carry ye.”

“Oh! No, Da, really. I can walk.”

She had blushed furiously and struggled to stand, only succeeding in putting a fraction of her weight on the foot before crying out in pain and staggering into his waiting arms.

“Nonsense. Ye can barely stand.”

Jamie had smiled, steadying her and retrieving her boot from the ground.

“Bide here a moment, Bree. Can ye balance? Good.”

Bree had done as he said, wobbly slightly, most of her weight on the uninjured foot as she watched him gather the spare nets and poles, moving with that particular grace and elegance that she longed to capture in lines of charcoal and paint but had not yet built the courage to ask.

“Right, wrap ye arm around my neck, mo chridhe.”

“Da, are ye sure you can … I mean … I’m nearly the same size as you!”

Jamie had snorted at that and held his hand out before her face, long fingers spread wide and cocked an eyebrow in friendly challenge. Bree had placed her own hand against his and laughed at the size difference. Yes, she was big, but the startlingly obvious truth was that he was considerably bigger.

“I think I’ll manage, eh? Now, take a hold of me.”

Bree had done as he asked and besides a small grunt of effort as he had boosted her into his arms, her Da had shown no other visible signs of strain.

She had been amazed at the ease with which he carried her, she had known he was strong but even after nearly two miles his breathing wasn’t laboured and his stride was wide and even, careful not to jostle her and she felt safer in his arms than she had ever expected to feel.

Bree had found herself wondering what it might have been like to have been raised by this man, to have been lifted with familiar ease and sheltered by him from her first breath. With her wondering came a sense of absolute certainty that had she grown up with him, Jamie Fraser would have held her and carried her, supported her and tended to her injuries when they occurred with the same natural affection that he displayed now. She would never have had to feel vulnerable or ashamed.

Normally any such thought caused a stab of guilt over the Daddy she had lost but now, she merely felt a gentle pull of hope for the future, hope that she would come to know her father well enough that the need for imagining would cease and be replaced with more certainties like this one.

They arrived at Lallybroch within half an hour and as they made their way toward the front door, a low, rising scream reached their ears. Before either of them could react, Jenny’s face appeared at the window and she yelled

“Claire’s having the baby!”

To be continued ….

#Outlander #outlander au #outlander fanfic #fanfiction #outlander fandom #fanfic #fan fiction #redstarfiction #jamie x claire

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