Red Twilight the Weaver chapter 17

Chapter 17:

The whim of a Father

Preston marches enraged up to Odidimus on his throne, his hand thrust off to the side in abject frustration "I can't believe you just did that!" his hands run through his hair and pulls back on it to inflict only the slightest pain to help him keep his focus "Jessica! Your mate, first you have her banished from the kingdom but still have her written into our history as a messiah, and when she returns home you have her thrown in the dungeon within a night! That is disgraceful!"

Monty steps in front of the king to protect him from Preston "did you not hear the way she spoke? She had gone mad."

Preston steps into the wizard leading forth with his fingertips delivering in explosive shock to his chest thrusting the mage onto his back with a powerful palm strike. "I will hear those words from the mouth of my king, not you, conjuror!"

Penelope stands back shaken by the rage of her captain. Preston steps over the fallen wizard and kneels before his beloved monarch "I beg of you sovereign, do what is right, and welcome the queen back into your court. Have we not seen enough hardship already?"

Odidimus eyes roll back and forth between Preston and Monty as Monty is refinding his footing and coursing his chest. Monty mouths a hand full of words to Odidimus who then looks at his captain with hard eyes "Jessica made her chose when she turned her back on Kari. It is not her will or intention to be a part of our world."

Monty smiles and bows as Preston stands tall before the king with a bitter look on his face and an unsatisfied twitch to his nose "How can you know that?" he chokes down a growl.

Monty retakes his place in front of the king standing nose to nose with Preston "how dare you? such harsh words in the company of our king. You should be shammed…"

Preston draws his sword from his belt. There is a shocked jump from most everyone in the room and a gasp. Preston punches the hilt of his blade at Monterey handing him the saber "I am. You and I Monty, we are better than all of this." Preston turns his nose up at his friend then turn's tail to walk away.

Monty looks to Penelope "stop him!"

Odidimus holds up his hand "I did not give that order."

Penelope whispers with a fellow guard a moment then with a nod from both parties run after Preston calling to him "Captain!" in short order the two of them are walking side by side "I've never heard you talk like that." Her tone changes to a much more feminine and soft one.

"I got angry, even when you and I were kids there was always this hero worships in our tribe, and no tales were spun more-so than that of the grace and wisdom of our queen. Everything we are was built on her shoulders. We all know that, and here we finally see her, and we can see clearly, it is all true. She is a child of the moon, timeless, flawless…"

"She is a conjuror, a juggler just like Monty." Penelope cuts in.

"No, that cannot be. I can feel the ancient power rising from outside."

"She is no doubt a strong and competent mother I am sure but nothing more. And as Monty told you, she is mad. She does not believe in Kari."

"But why do you? Have you seen Kari? Have you spoken to her? Has she done anything for you?" Preston leans against a pillar.

Penelope places her hands at his sides "she leads us out of the underworld and into the light, she gave us the wisdom of the lost recesses, built our city…"

Preston takes Penelope by the sides of her muzzle and touches their foreheads together offering a whisper "did Kari do all that? Or did we do it for ourselves?" Preston starts to tip his head taken by a moment of weakening lust and goes to take Penelope's muzzle into his. But the moment is shattered by the sound of clattering objects only a few doors away.

** *

Two knights descend upon Pepper and the others shortly after Garlic explains how the king's men attacked Jessica. Pepper takes a blade off the wall and swings it at the knights to threaten them, Pepper ends up hitting the dining-room table knocking a number of the decorations off of it. Salt grabs a flag off the wall and stands by her brother holding the other back and between them.

One knight runs at Salt, Salt jabs him with the spearhead on the flag, the second reaches around her grabbing the staff of the flag and her arm. Clumsily Pepper falls forward swinging the sword knocking the knight down. The first knight swings his shield at Pepper sending the small boy flying across the room and onto the table. The knight then jumps onto the table with Pepper resting his arm across his neck to restrain him.

The second knight lunges at Salt picking her up "aren't you the sweet little thing?" the knight's voice swooning with a hint of deviances. Mint picks up the soup caldron threating to throw it at the guards as Preston charges into the room.

Preston points at the knights shouting "set the girl down! And you!" he looks to the other "get that boy back on his feet! This is not how Justice is dispensed when I'm around."

"they attacked us!"

"Are you saying you feel threatened by a 40lbs boy dressed in a hemp robe and five farm girls? You are OLP's go fight a loin somewhere, I'll handle things here." Preston orders

"Monty told us to…"

"Monty is not the Captain of the Honor Guards I am." Preston commands.

Penelope adds in "You have been given in order." The two guards drop what they are doing and walk off

Preston looks at Mint and the soup boll. "you weren't going to waste good soup on the likes of him, were you?"

Pepper takes the sword off the ground and jumps into position to protect his sisters, holding the sword in front of him with both hands. "You attacked Jessica. Your men attacked my sisters and… and…" he stumbles, the blade too heavy for him to hold straight.

Preston holds his hands slightly up watching the blade "take it easy. You're all right." Seeing the poor footwork Preston brings his hands together folding them around the blade one hand slightly off center form the other as he sifts his weight to the outside, the shock brakes Peppers grip and sends the sword rolling along the ground. "I don't think you're ready for a sword like that one. Could I get you a lighter one?" the kids huddle around one another.

Cream speaks up "what is going on. We came here for Onion and now…"

"Who?" Preston asks

Butter finishes "our other brother he is with the Medicine mouse Parma, sick with Consumption."

Preston tips his head up "I think I remember you. Corn's children." He snaps "you fathers name was Edge, wasn't it? he went to school with me; rumor has it he went AWOL after a hunt some time ago." He tucks his hands behind his back and strolls over to a window. He points "you see that house with the spotlight in the tower? That is my place. I'll find Onion and bring him there. Then I'll get Jessica and you can all be on your way if you so choose." Trusting the leader of the knight's the children nod.

** *

Preston waste no time making good on his word, he makes his way to the medicine house, a small hump in the ground with a door on it and a lonely window. As most of the kobolt were overjoyed to live above ground the family of healers felt it was safer to stay much more hidden. "Willy!" Preston calls into the house.

Shortly he is met with a call back "do you need to call my name so." Parma the Medicine mouse come into sight, a short shaggy Kobolt mostly gray fur with black and white strips on his nose dressed in a watery green mantle. "I haven't gone by the name Willy for ages." he shakes his head in frustration "tell me you didn't get stabbed in class again, you need to stop studying so hard before it kills you."

"You react how you train my friend. So, I need to train hard."

"You call it training, I call it silliness. Every day I need to run a fish wire through someone I know to stop them from bleeding to death. There must be a better way to practice catching bladed thingies" Parma thoughts his hands up in lament.

"I'm looking for someone."

"You found someone"

"A boy called Onion."

"I know him."

"How does he look?"

"I have seen worse, but not many, many that pull through any who."

"what is the condition?" the two of them start walking through the house filled with bloodstained beds and worn tools. "Consumption, his siblings claim."

"Yes. Onion gets sick a lot, most of the time eating some moss with hot water and honey will cure him. As he has been getting older he has been getting stronger, I was starting to think that all this was behind him but then this came up."

They step into a secluded room where a pail kobolt boy is lying on a bed. his fur is yellowed, it's original color nowhere to be seen. The pink of his ears and tail have given way to a green-gray white muddy mess; four puncher wounds can be seen on his hip just above kidney level, the wounds are blistering black and white with a crawling appearance, leaches line one arm and bruises tarnish is skin with blue stripes.

Preston claps his mouth shut and turns his head. Relatively unmoved by the sight Parma explains "when he came in his airways were swollen shut, his eyes were discolored, and he could not eat. His weight was down dramatically for his age. his mother tried to treat him at home."

"What are those marks on his side?"

"Some sort of a combat scare, I'm sorry to say I don't know form what. I packed the wound with fly eggs to eat out the infection, and I have been bleeding him to stabilize his temperature. He's not healthy, but he is better them before." Parma tips his head back mumbling to himself for a second as a free-floating thought seems to run through his head "Spiders make marks something like that but I have never seen a spider large enough to overpower a boy."

"Fly eggs?"

"yes, an inspiring new idea one of my friends from out of town told me about. We have been trading back and forth notes for some time, in fact, I was just telling him about this idea I had for curing Anemic Dysentery, you see you force feed your subject pinecones and then take fresh composts and inject it into the inflicted…"

Preston cuts him off "that is very interesting, but what about Onion."

"I don't think it would help him at all, but we can give it a try."

"No, I mean is he safe to move."

"Protect him from sunlight, don't let him drink cold water and yes I think so, but why?"

"His family wants to be with him."

"Well, I don't think he is up for a walk quite that long."

"We are going only as far as my place."

"Ok, I'll clean him up and then you can go." Parma closes the curtain to the room and pulls out a spoon to clean out the fly eggs, salt water to remove the leeches and some wire to close the wounds. Preston steps out not wanting to watch the display.

After what seems like forever Parma walks outside to show off the now cleaned up boy. He hands Preston a bag of assorted herbs "boil one leaf and one comb into a pot of water with a spoon full of the green moss here and have him drink it before he eats anything, day or night. If he starts wheezing or shaking uncontrollably bring him back here at once. Also, don't go out after dark." Parma kneels down and pokes Onion in the ribs "and whatever caused this, don't do that either" Onion starts to giggle, but this stops himself gripping his chest in pain. "are you sure you're ready to go?" Onion lifts his head with a smile and nods.