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 Posted: Wed Dec 13, 2017 3:14 pm
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"Ah, hey, good timing." It didn't much matter to Aprife that Keionx hadn't approached him, nor that they hadn't made any plans to meet near the Training Trees when they did. It was dumb luck, and it wouldn't really have mattered who it was, but he'd take it. All he needed was a set of hands.
It always felt like they were a bit short-handed.
"Can you do me a favor? I just got word of a new shipment in and I need to take care of it." He pulled a clipboard from a large messenger bag slung over his shoulder and held it in her direction. "The Trees need some upkeep, though. S'why I was here.
"Exercise equipment needs checked, cleaned, marked for repair if it needs it." As he spoke, he pointed down the list for Keionx to see and keep up. He hadn't yet stopped to make sure she was actually available to help. "I heard some kids were ******** around in the library, too. Made a damn mess. All the props for the reenactments are probably a mess, too, but I can't even blame the kids for that one."
Waving the clipboard a bit to coax her to take it, Aprife raised an eyebrow and gave her a trademark grin. "Got it?"
Only DraconicFeline may post in this growth. Please quote the mule if you need assistance or when you're finished!
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Posted: Tue Jan 16, 2018 11:36 pm
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“It shall all be done!” was the exact wording of Keionx’s booming response to the intelligence master of the rebellion. The clipboard was soon in her hands, and moving away to the tune of her heavy footfalls.
Aprife and his clipboard may have caught Keionx off guard, but there was no other option for Keionx but to enthusiastically accept his challenge. She had been given a task, after all, and it was now her duty to perform that task to the greatest reach of her ability. Or beyond. That was what she had been taught to do, always.
Plus, the Training Trees were important – vital -- and it was not as though chores and upkeep were too far out of her way. In fact, she already been on her way to check, clean, and repair the exercise equipment anyway. The props and the library were not her domains, and she had no idea what she would do with them… But that merely meant that they were an additional challenge – one that Keionx would rise to. After all, no matter how unpleasant any of the chores were, they were needed. They were a key part of the Rebellion. They were necessary.
This is needed. This is necessary. This is essential.
That was what Keionx told herself, over and over again, a few hours later when the words on the pages in front of her blurred together in their tedium. She rested her jaw on her hand, a hero near defeat in her boredom and desire to drift away to something else, to somewhere else. To anywhere else but the stack of paperwork that loomed precariously over the desk.
But it was necessary. There were books to be returned to the library, books to be added to the list, skilled trolls to officially recognize and record, curricula to sort and all of it – all of it – to be put away. She had been muscling her way through Aprife’s list – the equipment, the props, the cleaning – with ease. And then the library and its needs came along. She’d have skipped it or ignored it ordinarily – not her domain, not her business, not what she wanted to do. But, she had been asked to do it, for the sake of the Swamp, and… well, she was a hero. She couldn’t back down. So, Keionx grit her teeth and, with all of the flair and drama she could muster, took a paper and filed it. There. Another thing catalogued.
But there was so much more to go. Keionx stared dejectedly at the piles and felt an ache grow behind her eyes, a dull pain that made her rub her forehead in frustration. Would that she could be hitting things. Would that she could be moving.
At least lifting boxes of books – once catalogued – gave her arms some exercise. Otherwise, mayhap, I would go mad, She mused, hefting a box of ‘new’ books over to the shelves that would be their home, And none t’would blame me for doing so.
“Do you need any help?” Keionx turned at the murmuring voice, her face breaking into a grin.
“Father!” she greeted, putting the box down to give her lusus a hug.
She and her lusus had lived increasingly separate lives as of late -- he’d gone off on his own a lot more than before, sometimes for himself, sometimes as a companion for a rebel excursion. He always come back, of course, to his child, but she, conversely, was often on the move. Meeting each other had been rare. Keionx missed him sometimes, but the separation felt right. A part of the natural order of things. Still, it did feel good to hug him again.
The hug was tight, muscular, and warm – as always. Keionx returned the hug in kind, and then pulled back, still beaming. “What brings thee here, Father-mine?” He had not, to Keionx’s knowledge, come to the Training trees before. “If it be for training, as yon name implies, then alas, tis not the day for such. Instead, tis a day for preparation, as I organize this place that it may train ever more.” And when she said it like that, the paper pushing did sound heroic! A good thing that I am doing it, then.
“That’s all right – I just wanted to see you. I wanted to see the training grounds, too. They’re marvelous! Have you used them yet?” He said, excitedly.
“I built some of yon, and hath just returned from cleaning them.” She said proudly, “Tis a place of wonder and strength – twill benefit, methinks, from more trainers, but I have yet to ask upon it.”
“You should!” Beastdad said excitedly, gesturing.
“And so should thee!” Keionx replied, “Thy training would make more heroes out of these young swamplings!”
“Hmm!” Beastdad considered it. Of course, he had trained Keionx because she was his child, but beyond that, he did like the idea. Teaching, after all, was a chance to show off his strength and create more strength in turn. Plus, more children to teach meant more children to bench press. “So what are you doing right now?” He asked.
Keionx turned, perhaps with some reluctance, back to the box of books. “I’m… organizing and sorting.” She lugged the books to their shelf and began – with exaggerated gestures – to put the books away. “Tis a chore – quite necessary to the pride and glory of yon Initiative. Tis what I have been ordered to do, and so shall I complete it! To the last paper!” another exaggerated gesture, ”To the bitter end!”
Beastdad clapped at her performance and then beamed with pride at his wonderful daughter. “Then I’ll help you!” He said, caught by her enthusiasm.
Keionx took him up on the offer. Though his sorting skills were lackluster, even just having him assist with his incredible strength made things easier. Faster. Better. There was truly something to having his help and spending this time with him that made the work less miserable.
She’d missed this, Keionx realized, this camaraderie and friendly work. In the future, maybe she could find time to work with him more? Or, perhaps, she should do more things with Alexin, or Ephias, or Cerpin or Tevini. Or – stars forbid – Etsali, even. But maybe that would come, as the rebellion grew more used to her presence and her skills. It would come, in time.
“Kei?” Keionx looked up from the cataloging – how much smaller the pile was now!
“What is it, father?”
“I’m bored.” He said, huffing and pawing at the floor with a hoof.
Keionx smiled softly. “I am too.” She said, “But tis necessary, and so I must complete it.”
Beastdad knew that. He knew. But she could see in his eyes that he was done. “Lets leave this place, Keionx.”
“No, Father-mine, the task is not yet done.”
“Can we have an adventure, Kei? I know this place not too far away – it’s a ruin, half eaten by the swamp. Perfect for exploration – there might be treasures there.” He was leaning on the desk now, the waterlogged wood creaking under his weight, his voice just shy of begging her to go with him.
And oh, by sword and star, did she want to.
Adventure… the taste of the word was tantalizing on Keionx’s tongue. Adventures meant excitement, sometimes battle, always a reward of some nature, if only in the story that could be brought back. They were the call of the unknown, a resonance deep in her blood. She had done so much of the necessary chores already – she could get up and leave and go on an adventure with her father. Someone else could finish it… But…
“But…” she said, hesitating, as she looked at the to-do list.
“Please? It’s been so long since we’ve gone on an adventure together.” He said, beady eyes hopeful, “I’ve missed it. Please? It will be just like what it was like before.” Like before… when she’d lived in a fantasy. A hero slaying monsters, saving damsels, taking trophies and treasure. When her only obligations had been to herself and her pride, to others only when it involved great deeds and better stories.
“I… I can’t.” she said, looking down and away. She had obligations – true obligations – to others now. She couldn’t adventure for herself. She couldn’t selfishly build her own story. Others relied on her now – the old ways could not be indulged in so much anymore. “Father, I cannot go on an adventure right now. I’m sorry.”
“But Kei… This is boring. This is unheroic. I know its needed but you don’t need to do it. Come and explore with me, Kei…” Beastdad said, flushing in frustrated confusion.
“It is, Father. This is heroic… in its own way.” Keionx said, looking at the papers yet to catalogue and the books yet to shelve, at the parts of the to do list yet to do – a hero’s list. “They need me to do this. Maybe I can go later -- Maybe with a child, or one of mine students?” She offered, “Is that not what thou hast always said? That tis the more the merrier?”
“Yes…” He said. Keionx sensed the disappointment in his voice.
“Or… it could just us. If that be what thou wishest.” She came out from behind the desk and gave him another hug. “But later, Father-mine,” she said, “it will have to be later.”
He slumped into her arms. “All right.” He said, hugging her for only a moment, before trudging away.
Keionx ached at the disappointment in her father’s face, his stance, and in every clop of his hooves echoing through the halls of the Training Tree. Dearly – oh so dearly -- she wanted to go with him – to run up to him and catch up and decide to go with him right then and there…
But responsibility, true heroism, needed her here. She knew she would regret letting him go alone and she did.
But, she knew, it was the right thing to do.
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