138 - Fashin' klunk!

Hara lay on the bed with her arms crossed over her head, Tizzy snuggled against her neck, while Ky paced.  It was a tiny room so he had three steps next to the bed, a turn and another three steps.

“Kyrus Talain,” she said finally after he brushed the bed a half a hundred times.  “Your da... He didn’t hit you when you said those awful things to him, so why would he hit you now? He’s a warrior and outside of war they tend to be kind of allergic to hitting people or other creatures.”

“Maybe he should hit me, I mean he was right to yell at me for not listening.  I’m so not used to having a da with authority over me, other than stepda but I don’t get angry at him the same way.  Why why why do I get so raging hot mad at my real da?”

“Probably because you’re very justifiably angry at him for abandoning you when you were a child.”  She took her arms down and propped herself up on her elbows.  Tizzy rolled into the spot behind her and uncoiled, yawning.  “That doesn’t mean you should be nasty or rude to him about other things.  This talk you have should clear that up.”

He stood with his back to the door of the tiny cubicle they’d gotten, probably because they’d take up less space with the two of them in the one little bed.  “I really said some unforgivable things, Hara.  He has every right to beat me black and blue for mouthin’ him in front of everybody.”

“You sound as if you’d almost be glad if he did beat you.”

“I deserve it.”

“I’ll bet you a back-rub that he doesn’t.”

“All right.”

“I’ll see you when you’re finished talking.  It’s not like we have anywhere to go.  This storm has to stop soon.”

Ky shrugged and got up so he could open the door.  “I... thanks Hara.”

**

Da had asked to meet him in the reservoir, though a couple of kulu were walking the pump and didn’t wave, concentrating on their work.  Da looked pretty grim, what Ky could see.  “Come along, son.  We should check on our birds and see how the seep is flowing on the way by.”  There was no other place that had even a chance of privacy.

He doesn’t need a lot of room to smack me around.

The village had actually transformed the temporary bridge into a permanent one over the past few days, with stocks they’d had before, and stone pulled out of the rubble piles where excavating materials had been stored.  It wasn’t terrifying to sway out over the reservoir any longer and you could check the filters all the way up.

Ky focussed on his father’s heels as he walked behind him, the water rushing under the bridge and then to the brand new steps where the seep had blown him out.  Apparently there was enough of the nasty puddle oozing out that the freshwater fizzed down the rock still.  I won’t think about what I said.  He did abandon us.  He even said so when I yelled at him.

It was still a bit of a scramble through the water-route and up to where the birds were still trapped in the hide.  It was dark enough that they didn’t need to be hooded and he and Da scooped water into the trough that someone had made in the sand in front of their beaks.  I guess the storm makes everyone groggy.

After the hissing and beak clashing they did, the birds settled down into their half-stupor, the way they would have tried to weather the storm if they’d been stuck outside, head under protective wing, feathers fluffed to the fullest, with only the tips of their beaks showing, settled down on their leather and horn covered feet.

Da sat down, knelt down really, hands on his thighs. “Sit down.” Ky nodded and faced him.  His chest was in a roil.

“Da—“

Kyrus threw up his hand, stopping his son before he could speak.  “Yah klunk.  Fer whatfor yeh thinkit tah smear me?  Fear me?  I’dda smacked yeh.” He sighed and shifted to his normal way.  “I understand that you were angry with me, for yelling at you.  I trust that you also understand that anger from an old injury is a bad fuel for a present argument.”

“Da... I... you said... I had a point.”

“For an old argument, yes.  One that I am currently trying to make good on.  It was a distraction tactic that we cannot afford.  You were trying to deflect my justified anger at your disobedience by hurling deadly insult at me.  If I’d reacted then and hit you, you would have felt both deservingly punished, and justified in your anger, and where exactly would that put us?”

“Um... I don’t know, da.”

“At odds with one another.  I understand it.  I’m supposed to be the tempery old guy and you’re supposed to push me till I smack you.  I’m not playing that game.” He rubbed one finger up under his veil, thoughtfully.  “I really, truly was so angry I could have.  But that’s the kind of thing that bad fathers and bad generals do.  They let themselves be goaded and distracted from reality.”

“Yeh mean... sider sliders? Squeak out mudge ‘n slip on by?”

“Exactly.  If you can get someone angry enough they might forget the core of what started the disagreement in the first place.”

Part of me is ticked wicked, da yer being too dang reasonable.  But he’d seen enough weasely fellows insert a word or two into a tense situation to blow it into a full-on fight and then slide right through the chaos they caused without a scratch, or without raising their own hands or knives to fight.  Weasels.  Human oyuks and pitters lying in wait.  “I... guess I see.”

“As I said to all those Milar... and as I’m going to say to all of Lainz... I did not do them right.  I did wrong for a number of reasons.  I can only try and fix that wrong now, since I cannot go back in time.”  He leaned forward and put a single sharp finger into Ky’s chest.  “I will thank you, son, for not shiving me in the back in front of other people in the future.  You can choose your actions there.” Ky didn’t move though that finger was a point of pain on his breast bone, frozen in his father’s stare.  “I don’t CARE if you are still angry with me.  Yell at me all you like.  IN PRIVATE.  We will deal with it.  IN PRIVATE.”

“S...sorry, da.” For a long moment Ky and Ky were nose to nose, veil to veil.  Then da leaned back on his heels, looking very tired.  “Sorry.”

For a few moments they just knelt across from each other, Ky looking at their knees and the darkness between them in the dim hide.  The birds hissed and whistled in their sleep slightly.  “Da.  I think I’dda preferred if yeh’d clouted me inta last week.”

That got a snort out of his father.  “Yeh.  It would have just been easier to hit and settle nicely into that prickly ‘father/son’ struggle we Lainz set up.  My da and I have... had... that.  It still grieves me.”

Another long silence with the storm pounding at the roof over their heads, howling as strongly as it had days ago.  A handful of cracks and booms made it impossible for either one to say anything to each other.  Then it subsided to the electrical crackle that cut through the hiss of sand, turning it all into one steady keen.

“Da... we’re heading into Lainz in a way that we’ve gotta be on the same side, don’t we?”

“Yes, son.  If we’re not together then we’re in trouble.” He sighed.  “I’m not sure I’m the best candidate for this.  I’m still struggling with them calling me Brilliance.  The generals I might handle but the Hive Lords?”

“Da... jes talk to them this way, wit’out the Basin slang and they’ll be running in circles biting theyselves like a salt-poured peacock snake!”

“You mean confused and thinking?  We can hope.”

“Da... Father... I’m so sorry I said those things to you.  I mean I’m still mad but... I don’t know how to make it better.”

Kyrus’s veil twitched.  “Like this,” he said and caught Ky’s hand in his and dragged him into his arms.  “I don’t care yer a fashin’ klunk and too big for this.  I’ve a lotta lotta kid noggin to catch up on!”

Ky resisted at first but then burrowed his forehead into his father’s shoulder.  “I’m too big for this!”

“Na.  I won’t tell anyone... even yer war-momma bed chick my stepdaughter.”

“DAAAAA...”