Aidden grinned, “Do you really want to know? There is blood on it...”
Emily recovered her spoon and went to wash it, “Now I'm not sure I want to know, but go ahead...”
Aidden grinned and pushed the bag towards Theodore, “It's yours, spend as you need or want, but I'd recommend saving most of it for future projects... housing for example...”
Theodore poked at the bag and looked inside, “Um, there looks like well over a thousand in here! Where did it come from?”
Aidden grinned, “About a week after you got here, an interesting character arrived from offworld and got himself in a bit of trouble almost immediately there in Leicester. A pulse rifle, suppressed cartridge rifle and a few hand grenades later, he became very unpopular.”
“Well, save for the grenades, aren't the rest legal?” asked Theodore both confused and a little scared.
“Well, yes, if you declare them. And don't lie about them or lie to the constables in general,” replied Aidden evenly. “The grenades were moot by the time they were discovered, the guy was already in deep serious. Tried to draw down on Old Peter. That went poorly. Smoke cleared and the stranger was slightly dead.”
“Did they at least try to tend to his wounds? I mean even if he was a bag guy...” grimaced Anna.
“Um, 'slightly dead' is a euphemism from my dad for something truly horrific.”
“It was quite gruesome,” frowned Aidden. “Trying not to spoil breakfast here...”
Anna bit her lip and nodded nervously.
“It seems he showed up, armed for a fight with a map and a single name and address. And that was yours, son.”
“He came to kill me?” blurted Theodore nervously.
“Well, yes. And he didn't even make it past the first town. That is why you two came here: better security, right? You made a good choice; you had to figure whoever these people would try at least once...”
Theodore let out a long sigh and sat at the table.
“They sold his effects, weapons and all, back to the Altshea government. They pulled a small cut for Leicester's general fund as well as Marionsford's general fund. The rest is yours. It just took this long to go through all the channels.”
“Someone died...”
“Yes, and it wasn't you,” replied Aidden evenly.
Theodore finally permitted himself a smile, “Then the ultimate irony would be to make a light heart with this.”
“What were you going to buy?” asked Emily curiously.
“Bells, bells on rings for Meagan,” grinned Theodore.
Emily's face exploded with delight as she ran over and warmly hugged Meagan, and then Anna, and then both the girls at once!
“So, is there money and time enough to get Meagan a dress that matches mine?” asked Anna with a grin.
“Oh, they'll make time!” beamed Emily. “And I will pay for it! You three need to be saving your money for next summer!”
“I think we've been found out,” grinned Theodore to the girls.
26
Meagan giggled (her normal state of affairs) as the group started to stack wood for a bonfire down on the sandy banks of the river. Alice and Irene had joined them for supper earlier and now Séamus arrived with a picnic basket in tow and proceeded to help gather wood. Alice gave Séamus a playful hug and the group had a wonderful time laughing at the poor boy as his ears flushed and his fur stood on end.
“Hey, at least it isn't me this time,” laughed Theodore.
Séamus just grinned sheepishly, “Um, Alice, you are still coming to the dance this weekend with me?”
“Of course!” she fired back with a radiant grin.
“Okay, Theodore,” began Séamus. “How did you learn to cope with... well...”
Theodore just grinned, “Just roll with it. No matter how bad it feels, your ears will not, in fact, catch on fire.”
Séamus just grinned as he rubbed his ears, “Good to know. I could have sworn otherwise.”
“Okay, weird question from the outsider,” grinned Anna.
Alice laughed, “I don't think you get to claim to be an outsider! You have a set of bells with rings that say otherwise.”
Anna grinned and tried again, “Okay! Um, how about 'pardon my early education'?”
“That works,” grinned Theodore. “Now spill it.”
“We are coming up on a three day weekend. As in there is actually an extra day added?”
Theodore nodded, now understanding her confusion, “Yep. The summer solstice is a day unto itself. It keeps the calendar synchronized, all nice and lined up. We would have an odd number of weekdays otherwise. Every seventeen years there is a leapday that is added into the winter solstice weekend.”
“Well... that does make the days line up nicely on the calendar...” mused Anna.
“What about your calendar?” asked Alice.
Anna laughed, “Which one? We have three: one for the planet, one for the central government that spans twelve systems and one synced to the old homeworld.”
“Ick!” laughed Alice.
“The one back at the university was pretty darn close to ours. Well, for now it is. It is three days shorter so eventually our summer and their summer will drift relative to each other.”
“Oh, I am so going to stay on just one planet,” offered Séamus.
The other parties wholeheartedly agreed.
“Crap,” murmured Theodore suddenly. “I left our picnic basket back at the house. Stay here, I'll be right back!”
“You want me to come along?” asked Anna.
“Nah, stay here. Someone has to protect Meagan from Séamus's lecherous ways,” he grinned back.
That started a firestorm of laughter, but Séamus took it in stride. Theodore actually had missed Séamus off at college. Séamus was sort of new to town; Theodore had only known him these last four years, and two of that Theodore had spent off world. Not that he didn't treasure his new friends, but the old ones are still important none the less. He broke into a low jog to get back to the house quickly and made short work of it. First Mother laughed as he entered the house and sheepishly grabbed the missing picnic basket. Theodore had just barely made it back to the edge of the woods when he caught an odd voice.
“Willing to protect both girls are you?”
Theodore turned around and found no one. He had half a mind to assume he had caught a whisper on the wind from someone else's conversation when it came back.
“Whom does your Live Steel serve, Theodore?”
“Okay, fun is fun. Come out where I can see you!” he growled back at the voice.
“I can see you... obviously you should be able to see me... Whom does your Live Steel serve, Theodore?”
Theodore was getting mad at the teasing voice but he tried to hold his temper, “It serves Anna and Meagan, and any that may follow!”
“Excellent answer! Excellent answer indeed! If you wish to protect them, you must learn to not fear for them. Fear causes one to cower... Strength comes from the heart... use it, feel it, young Highlander.”
“If this is so important, show yourself so we can talk like civilized people...”
“But maybe there is nothing to be seen...”
Theodore went from angry to confused, the voice wasn't taunting him, rather it seemed almost resigned. “Are you a ghost?”
There was a polite laugh, “Not yet.... not yet... Guardian maybe, but not yet a ghost... ponder this, young Highlander: what do the Highlands mean?”
“What? What type of question is that?” Theodore started to shift back to annoyed, but the voice was gone. He stood there conflicted: he was glad the annoying voice was gone, but was curious what it was all about. It was kinda weird to be someone's version of a joke... Finally he gave up and started his jog back to his waiting friends.
Anna face lit up with concern as soon as Theodore made it to the beach, “What happened? Are you alright?”
Theodore laughed, “I guess I can never bluff can I? Someone weird in
the woods asking silly questions... Either that or I'm hearing things...”
Anna came over and gave him a warm hug. He needed that.
“Well, at least I got the rest of the food,” he finally managed to grin.
“Good, now can you help with the fire? Séamus is good at making smoke...” teased Alice.
27
The seamstress had made good work of Meagan's new dress with a half day to spare. It fit perfectly and matched Anna's dress down to the smallest button. Meagan and Anna giggled all the way back to the house. It was still a few hours before the dance would start so they sat in the kitchen and snacked while 'helping' Emily with the food they were going to be bringing.
“Not playing tonight, Meagan?” fished Emily.
“No, ma'am, just dancing!”
“Call me Emily, please...” she grinned back.
“Um, where is Dad?” asked Theodore suddenly.
“Oh...” began Emily with a bit of a frown. “He had to go take care of some things in town. He will meet us at the dance.”
“Did the Firemeadows need him again?” asked Anna slightly concerned.
Emily sported a practiced smile, “No, nothing like that...”
“Um, we're not kids, mom. What is wrong?”
Emily managed an honest laugh, “No, no, you're not. You are all growing up so fast!” She smiled as she returned to her cooking.
Anna looked at Theodore as if she was about to ask another question, but Theodore just shook his head. With a quick nod, Anna dropped the subject.
“So, Meagan,” began Emily with a grin, “you've chased poor Theodore for four years; now that you caught him, was it worth the trouble?”
That just launched Meagan into a giggling fit so Anna spoke for her, “I think that is a 'yes!'”
Two hours later, the merry band found themselves back in town. As before, the market square was cleared for dancing with long tables of food and drink of every type laid out in the wings. Unlike the previous dance, the food items tended to include the dinner fare rather than just finger food. Several of the businesses along the edges had their doors open to provide even more room and warmers to keep the food ready. Artificial lights were only to be found in the periphery while braziers burning bright made clean lines of the dance floor and added further decorative flair to the sidelines.
“Wow! It's gorgeous!” beamed Anna. “The firelight out on the dance floor is both spooky and comforting. That is just wild.”
“Just wait until the sun goes all the way down,” grinned Meagan. “As it gets later, they turn off the side white lights during the dances and there is only the firelight! Winter solstice is even prettier yet: same wonderful flames but with a backdrop of snow. Everything just sparkles!”
Anna laughed back. “Don't tease! Besides this is plenty gorgeous and I still get to go barefoot.”
Suddenly there was a blue flash at the far end by the town hall. A blue flash Theodore knew all too well: his father's burst of Live Steel armor. Rather than the simple blue sparkles and subsequent iridescent armor that most Highlanders could manage, it was the same towering wall of blue flames that Aidden had used back at the spaceport those long months ago. It was only a brief display, maybe ten or twenty seconds, but when it abated Theodore found himself holding Anna and Meagan tight.
The whole family had flinched, Rose tight up against Emily. But they held their place knowing whatever had happened was now over.
Theodore glared at Emily, “There was someone in town after me. That is what you didn't want to talk about earlier.”
Fiona spoke for Emily, which was not the normal state of affairs, “Father was asked to help to try to minimize loss of life. The constable had things well under control, they just wanted to explore... less extreme situations. You are growing fast and proud, son, but you will always be our son. Father will always do his part when he can.”
“See, here he comes now!” grinned Emily.
Sure enough his father came bounding over to the family with a broad grin, “Sorry to keep everyone waiting!”
“Um, Dad... You should have told me.”
“And have you get your stomach tied in a knot before the big dance? Not hardly!” scoffed Aidden. “Your attention was supposed to be on the two lovely ladies...”
Anna blushed and Meagan giggled but Theodore was conflicted.
A sudden cry from the crowd, however, recentered everyone's attention, “He has a gun!”
The crowd quickly parted at the far end of the plaza and a desperate looking Taik with his fur standing straight on end as he aimed a small pistol at Constable Sean Coldwell as the police officer was hauling his thoroughly rattled and bound prisoner off to be incarcerated.
Aidden swore under his breath, “He had a friend...” A low growl filled the air as Aidden's fur stood on end. “Alright son, next time we'll make sure you are warned.”
“So this is the third guy they have sent?” asked Theodore softly.
“Not hardly,” scoffed Aidden with an odd sense of pride, “fifteenth... your cut of their purse is still in the queue.”
“Fifteen!” blurted Theodore. “They've sent fifteen people to try to kill me?”
“They don't learn very quickly, do they?” grinned Aidden.
“I'm serious, Father, is this going to go on forever?”
Aidden offered a small grin, “If it helps your feelings, these are the first two to make it all the way to our town. Chin up, lad. The offworlders are quite involved. The point of trying to take these guys alive is so the Altshea and Trakvell governments have something to work with. It's not like...”
“Everyone just back off!” screamed the man with the pistol. “Let him go and we'll all leave peacefully.”
“You drop the gun and run like a rabbit, and you might go peacefully,” countered Sean evenly.
“He can soak that gun, right dad?” asked Theodore suddenly very nervous.
“Pshaw! Of course!” replied Aidden. He hesitantly added, “Well... I think...”
“Why are you people such fools to defend the stupid kid! This won't stop until he's dead. How many people have to get hurt before you backwater idiots figure that out?” came a snarl.
“Right now the only people getting hurt are you idiots trying to rough the young man up,” countered Sean. “If you don't want to get hurt, just put the gun down...”
“What is with you pagan peasants? He's promised himself to a human? What is that all about? Is that the people you are all about, defending some hedonist polluting the waters?”
Roland Redwood suddenly walked into the open and, with a minor stagger started to close on the pair in the standoff. Theodore gritted his teeth, Roland was a drunk and a braggart on a good day, a thug and a... well...
“Fool kid brought the ugly girl here... that's right! Brought her in amongst us...” bellowed Roland.
Theodore's blood started to boil as he held Anna tight. Anna was shaking nervously and was on the edge of going limp.
“Ugly as sin, that girl is... no hair save for her mop! But do you know what? The Firemeadow ladies say she's a damn good girl! Don't matter what she looks like, you stupid off world punk! If they say she's good, ain't none of us gonna say otherwise. She stays! She's part of us! We're Highlanders! We decide what that means! Not taking to some off world trash with a shaky gun in his hand trying to say what we are or ain’t!”
Theodore blinked, thoroughly astonished. While not exactly flattering, that was the closest thing to a compliment he had ever heard come out of Roland's mouth... But... but Theodore wasn't going to stand by while fools hurled insults at each other. “Meagan, hold Anna!” He took a step away from the girls and invoked his Live Steel long bow he had been using so well that summer. It was easily seventy meters to the man with the pistol, but the distance seemed to race by in his head as he pulled back the string in time to have an arrow appear out of the air, right into place with its normal blue sparkle. No wind. Nothing to throw the shot but him. Hitting
the target was all up to him. His shot to miss. Target? Was he just going to strike the man down dead? Could he really kill someone at such an impersonal distance with the constable so close and at the ready? Don't let the man hurt anyone... don't let the man hurt anyone... focus on the target... focus on the goal... the goal, not the method... focus on the goal... goal, not the method... slow down... watch your breathing...
The lessons of his father, those thousands of rounds of sparring and practicing, learning Live Steel and what was and wasn't all played back and forth in this mind. The countless hours, the long drills, the expansive lectures all repeated in his head and the noise inside was horrendous! But it faded, the sound faded and was at last gone. Not a thing to be heard but his own heartbeat... slow and steady... slow... He released the bow string.
The arrow was gone. Not hurtling down range in a lofty arc with a musically tight spin, the arrow was just gone in a puff of blue sparks that was Live Steel. The arrow now had the freedom it needed and it made short work of the target. In a blinding flash, it reappeared as it lurched through the thug's pistol and buried itself up to the fletching in the miscreant's hand.
There was a long collective gasp as the crowd drank in what had happened: not only was the assailant disarmed, but he had been done so with a truly majestic display of Live Steel. A display of such skill that few would even claim to be able to approach. The chief constable laughed softly while he and his men made short work of their new 'client.'
Roland stood in the street all but driven to tears with a deep belly laugh. He then made some boastful comments about Highlanders and Live Steel to the wounded man, and Theodore really hoped that Anna didn't catch the translation. Theodore also hoped she wasn't going to ask for help with that parade of colorful euphemisms later.
“Wow. Um...” Theodore permitted himself a small laugh as he saw Emily desperately covering little Roses ears.
“That, that was a perfect shot!” grinned his father.
Theodore nodded to his father and just sat on the ground as he tried to come to grips with what exactly he had just done. He hadn't fired the arrow... it just appeared on target at full speed and power. Heck, it was probably actually more power than the bow was normally capable of. Live Steel: it spanned their dimension. He had just pushed it out and back in again, right where he needed it.
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