"Just be patient then, Jesmind," he told her.
"Were-cats aren't known for patience, my mate," Jesmind said archly. "Now is all that matters to us."
"There will be plenty of time for now later," he told her. "Right now, I need you to be here and keep Jasana safe."
"She's my daughter. She'll be safe."
"Good. I'm sorry to have to do this to you, Jesmind. It seems that every time we're together, we completely screw up each other's lives."
Jesmind actually laughed. "I guess it was your turn this time."
"Guess so," he smiled in agreement.
"It must be a sign that we weren't meant to be together."
"Only if you believe in that kind of garbage," he said. "I believe in something else."
"What?" she asked curiously.
"That the wisdom and guidance I get from my Goddess will see me through," he said. "She wouldn't have brought me back here, brought me back to you, if there wasn't a good reason for it. So we are meant to be together. At least for now."
Jesmind smiled lightly. "I think I'll give this Goddess of yours a kiss," Jesmind said with sudden cheeky grin.
"She's probably be overjoyed.
"Goddess, you say? How practical."
"What do you mean?"
"That you follow a woman. That's the ordained order of things, you know."
"Don't press your luck," he teased, seeing it for the jibe that it was.
"Feel better now?"
"Much. You?"
"Not exactly happy, but I'll manage," she admitted. "That daughter of ours certainly defused us in a hurry, didn't she?"
Tarrin chuckled. "She seems to have a knack for it, I've noticed. I find it very hard to be angry when she's touching me."
"Me too," Jesmind agreed. "You certainly managed to overcome that, though."
"I had a very good reason," he sighed. "I can't believe that she'd do something like that."
"I would. Jasana is very willful, Tarrin, and she'll stoop to almost any level to get her own way. She's almost impossible to manage."
"You should have warned me."
"I did. You just weren't paying attention."
"I guess that's my fault," he grumbled.
"The fight is over. Shall we kiss and make up now?"Jesmind asked with a wink.
Smiling in spite of himself, Tarrin leaned across the table and did just that.
To: Title EoF
Chapter 25
The first of the people they'd been waiting for to arrive was, of all people, Ariana.
She swooped in about an hour after Tarrin and Jesmind made peace, when Tarrin happened to be outside patching a hole in the stillery building; he knew that his father would kill him if he didn't seal that up before it made the whole stillery fall down. It had been a while since he'd seen Ariana, and he had to admit that the time had been good to her. Her blue hair was tied in a tail behind her, and she wore a tight-fitting vest and breeches that wouldn't flap in the wind as she flew. She had a crossbow hanging from her belt, a curiously small crossbow with what looked to be a metal bowstring and bow arms, and a quiver with bolts hung at her belt from the other side. Her face was still just as brown as he remembered, browned from the sun and wind, and she wore a tinted crystal visor of the same design as what the Selani wore. "Tarrin!" she called with a raised hand. "I told you we'd see each other again!"
"So you did, Ariana," he called, setting down the hammer and coming over to her.
"What are you doing?"
"Patching," he replied.
"Strange occupation for someone who called for an Aeradalla scout," she laughed. "Why in the four winds are you doing that?"
"Because it needs doing," he answered calmly, looking down at her. "Was your flight safe?"
"Boring," she complained, reaching back and smoothing some of the feathers on her wing. "When the message reached us for one of us to come here, I had to do some negotiating to keep Darius from coming instead of me."
"Darius?"
"He was closest," Ariana admitted. "But then I told them I knew you and you were rather tempermental, so it would be best if I was the one to come."
"That actually was a pretty reasonable argument," Tarrin chuckled in agreement.
"They thought so too," she grinned. "So, now what?"
"Now? Now, we wait," he replied. "We're waiting for a few others, and we're leaving in the morning."
"Anything you need scouting before then?"
"Aren't you tired?"
"Naw," she said, adjusting her vest. "I caught a tailwind almost all the way over here. That's easy flying."
"Why don't you come in and have something to eat?" he offered. "You can meet my mate, Jesmind."
"You're married?" she asked curiously. "I never thought you were the marrying type."
"I'm not married," he said. "My relationship with Jesmind is what you'd call purely physical."
"So she's your mistress," Ariana reasoned.
"Whatever makes the most sense to you," he shrugged. "You wouldn't understand, even if I explained it to you."
"Alright," she said, letting it drop. "I'm glad you were outside. I wasn't sure I had the right place. It doesn't look what I was told it would look like."
"It's changed since anyone in Suld has seen it," he explained, leading her to the house.
Jesmind was busy carving up the deer when Tarrin led Ariana into the house. The rabbits were already skinned and cleaned, cut up and waiting to be either stored or eaten. The deer was about halfway ready, for Jesmind was cutting it up into small portions. She glanced towards the door, took one look at Ariana, and immediately turned around and assumed a slightly hostile posture.
"Jesmind, this is Ariana," Tarrin introduced as he stepped in behind her. "She's the Aeradalla scout I had mother send to help us."
"Oh. For a minute there, I thought you were an invader," Jesmind said in a gruff voice. "Come in and make yourself at home. Tarrin, we're going to need a larger pot or something. Thean and the others are going to be hungry when they get here."
"You want that stove now or later?" he asked.
Jesmind seemed to consider it. "No, that would be cheating," she said, mainly to herself. "But I think maybe we should build a firepit outside. We'll roast it there. I don't want all those people running around our house anyway."
"It's good to meet you, Jesmind," Ariana said. "Tarrin said you was your, ah, mate."
"He is," she affirmed with a nod. "Don't bother asking. You're not Were, so you won't understand."
"He said the same thing."
"Sometimes, even Tarrin says something smart," Jesmind shrugged. "Go find a place to dig the pit, my mate. I'll start bringing the meat out in a bit."
"Alright. Come on, Ari, you can help," he said, filing her right back out. Jesmind was in a pecky mood, so it was best to remove any kind of negative influences on her at the moment.
"She was a bit pert," Ariana said with a slight frown after Tarrin closed the door and led her off the porch.
"She's not in a good mood," Tarrin told her patiently. "She lost a fight with me earlier, and it's starting to gnaw at her. It's natural. Give her a while, and she'll be more friendly."
"Things must be interesting for you two," Ariana laughed.
"Usually," he agreed. "If we're not fighting, we're making up. Then we're fighting about something else."
Ariana laughed. "That almost sounds like me and Andy."
Tarrin looked around, and decided that it would be best to dig the pit beside the garden they'd planted earlier, for that ground was always marked for plowing anyway. They wouldn't be tearing up any grass that wasn't meant to grow there for long in the first place. "Do me a favor and fetch the spade from that building over there," he said, pointing to the old shearing shed, which was now a smaller barn.