The Way Home

Writers: Avery
Date Posted: 27th March 2014

Characters: Corran
Description: Corran escorts a young boy home
Location: Amber Hills Hold
Date: month 5, day 26 of Turn 7

It had been chilly all day, and now it was just after dusk. Usually by now all of the children were inside their homes with their mothers. So it was rather a surprise for Corran to see a young boy wandering inside the stables, peering into all of the corners with an intent look on his face. He cleared his throat so as not to startle the boy. "Do you need some help?"

The boy startled and windmilled his arms to keep from falling. "I wasna doing anything!" he protested immediately.

"I'm sure." Corran kept his tone as neutral as possible as he stepped closer to the kid. The e couldn't have had more than 10 Turns. "What were you doing?"

"Looking for kittens," the boy responded, stepping out into the light so that Corran could see him better. He had a gap-toothed smile and wide brown eyes.

"Kittens?" That wasn't the answer Corran had expected.

"Yeah." The kid nodded solemnly. "One of the rat-catchers is pregs and I haven't seen her for a day so I wanted to see if she'd had her kittens because this is a barn and barns have food and kittens need food, right?" He took a big breath after all of those words.

"They do," Corran said. "Do you want a kitten?"

"'course I do," he said with a tone that made it sound like he expected that everyone wanted a kitten. "But I don't think Ma would like it. She says felines are for working and not pets." The boy's tone was a singsong replica, and then he made a face to show what he thought of that. "I don't see why I can't have a cat as a pet who also works."

Corran smiled, impressed by the young scamp's leaps of logic. "What would you have the kitten do, if you got one?"

"Catch mice?" the boy guessed hopefully. "Or tunnel snakes?"

It was a good answer. "Do you think you could train one to do that?"

"Well, we've got trained canines, right?"

Another question in response to his question. Corran wondered if the boy answered everything with a question. It was a pretty good trait.

"Trained canines like Karhal's?" he asked. When the boy nodded, Corran continued. "Those are very hard to train. And canines are very intelligent, but they're also good at being obedient."

"But there are felines who catch mice, so didn't someone train them?" the kid pointed out.

"I think they must train themselves. They're good predators." Corran certainly hadn't heard of professional feline trainers, anyway.

Apparently bored by the train of thought, the kid turned away from him and went towards another unoccupied stall. Corran cleared his throat, and the boy turned.

"Just lemme check one more?"

Corran pressed his lips together to avoid smiling. "You should be getting home to your ma. Won't she be upset that you've been gone so long?"

"You should walk me home," the boy suggested. "Then she can't get mad at me."

Guards were supposed to safeguard the innocent. Besides, he liked the kid, and he rather wondered about the family who had produced this intelligent kid. "Alright. Where do you live?"

"Main Hold. My ma helps watch the littlest ones so it's easiest for us to be there." The boy came over to walk beside Corran, his ability to keep pace made easier by the guard's lack of height.

"What does your father do?"

"He works in the fields all day. Really likes it out there with the crops." The kid's last word was inflected oddly.

"What do you want to do?" Not work with crops, Corran assumed.

"I wanna be a Beastcrafter! It's the best job on Pern." Then the kid looked up at Corran. "I guess being a guard is a pretty good job too," he said, as though humoring his companion. Some of you get canines. Do you have a canine?"

"I don't." But Karhal might let him into the program…if he got better. That wasn't an issue Corran wanted to think about.

"That's a shame." They walked a bit farther in silence before the kid opened his mouth again. "Do people take you seriously even though you're little?" the kid blurted out.

"Want to hear a secret?"

"Sure." The kid grinned again, stopped walking, and turned to face the guard head-on.

"Because I'm little, people think they can overpower me. So they don't expect me to take them down fast and hard."

"You're like the surprise runner! The one nobody expects to win."

It wasn't the worst thing he'd ever been compared to, Corran thought. "That works."

"I bet you'd be even tougher with a canine," the kid said. "I bet he'd be bigger than you."

"I'm not sure canines grow quite that big," Corran told him.

"Aw. I want a canine the size of a green dragon," the boy declared as they entered the Hold building. "That way," he added, pointed down a corridor.

"I thought you wanted a kitten?" the guard asked as he escorted the kid in the indicated direction.

"I want a kitten now. Then I can take care of it and teach it and prove I can have a canine."

"That's fair." Corran liked the young boy's ambitions and self-confidence. He'd been like that at the kid's age, convinced he'd be a guard captain and famous across the land by the age of 30. His twin hadn't been nearly that cocky.

"This one."

Corran obligingly knocked on the door. A man with a tanned and weather-lined face answered. "Can I help you, guard?"

"Is this your son?" he asked, gesturing at the child beside him.

"Aye," the man said after a quick look down. He opened the door and gestured for Corran to come in. "Tavis, were you bothering the guard?" he asked sternly.

"No," the boy said.

"Not at all," Corran added, reluctant to see the boy get in trouble. "I just wanted to make sure he got back safely from the stables.

"What were you doing out there?" the man asked his son.

"Looking for kittens. But it was fine because he found me!" The boy pointed back at Corran.

"Thank you, guard…"

"Corran." The guard extended his hand.

"I'm Islan," the man said. "Thank you for bringing my son home."

"It was no trouble at all," Corran assured. "He's very easy to talk to. Quite a bright child."

"He speaks like he's twice his age," Islan said, glancing at his son in a way that was both fond and exasperated. "I'll have to keep a better eye on him. I appreciate you humoring him. Can I get you anything?"

"It wasn't a problem. I have to go back to my patrol, but I'm glad I brought him home safe."

As Corran left the Hold and went back to his patrol, he couldn't help but sigh wistfully. Tavis had been a nice kid. Maybe his mother was right, and it was time to settle down and find a wife. He wouldn't mind having a nice, bright son like that one day…

Last updated on the April 13th 2014

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