Sword and Snow

Emery

Emery had a complex jumble of feelings bouncing around her chest as she stopped the fight entirely to step forward and offer her father a hand up. She was excited at having come anywhere near the idea that she had bested him, even if it was a two-on-one situation and they had maybe cheated a little, but she also felt a little weird about approaching his level of power in any way.

Vale had always been so far out of reach, that fighting him - even playfully - was a fool's errand. There was something oddly reassuring about that, knowing that her father was so unbelievably powerful that there was nearly guaranteed safety with him.

The fact that she had managed to trip him up proved that while, yes, she was gaining strength, it also meant he wasn't the all-powerful safety that had been a pillar for her for the majority of her life. And she wasn't quite sure how to reckon with that, despite the fact that he was still far, far beyond her reach in a real fight.

When he clasped her offered hand, Vale was laughing. It was a real, full bellied laugh that helped put her at ease. Not that she was worried how he'd take the 'loss', but rather his laughter pushed the worries about everything away.

When she went to pull him up, she found it like pulling against a mountain. And then he yanked her down into the dirt and quickly wrestled her into submission, laughing all the while. "You two did good! So good!"

Emery had completely given up the fight, surrendering to her father's good-natured, but completely overpowering grappling. She was at the mercy of his ruffling of her hair, which left her unable to see anything clearly. She could feel and hear Avuri's laughter, but her wife also took two steps back cautiously to avoid getting dragged to the ground.

"I can't believe we got you." Emery said, trying to bat his hands away from her head. He let her do as she pleased, and she was released to sit more normally in the slightly soggy dirt they had cleared.

"Surprise is a powerful weapon." Vale nodded, his faux-anger at the chase long gone. "And that's before you add your teamwork, ferocity, and everything else to the mix."

"You say that like we would've had any shot at you without being that cruel." Avuri said lightly. "Even with us hammering into you with everything we had, we only barely managed to knock you over."

"True!" Vale laughed. "Still, that's the first time anyone in the family has managed that."

"We've never had enough raw power to even make you lose your balance." Emery agreed. "Even when we had the six of us kids as teens going all-out at you, we all literally hung on your side trying to pull you over with our combined weight. And you just stood there unfazed."

"You guys tried that a number of times, and in variations, too." Vale nodded along. "If I recall correctly, Kota broke his leg when he tried to kick out mine."

Emery snorted. "Nope, that was me." She looked down at her right shin. "Kota broke a few bones in his hand when he punched you in the back of the head that one time, though. The leg was mine."

"I still feel bad about that. With all six of you crawling all over me I missed the wind up for the kick so I couldn't soften the blow at all."

"I kicked you so hard." Emery said, thinking back. "My shin hit the back of your leg just under your knee and I swear my vision went white with pain."

"How does that even happen?" Avuri asked, half between horror and laughing. "Like, Emery, I have watched you kick tempered steel with your shin and walk away after without a limp."

"Well, I imagine part of it is that it grew back stronger after the break." Emery shrugged. "But also, I think the difference was mostly that I was a teenager, and expected some give in a person's leg. So I really went in on that kick."

"I guess you learned your lesson, then?" Avuri asked, a small, knowing smile on her lips.

Emery snorted. "Of course not. After I healed up, the next time we tried to fight him I tried to get revenge and tried to thrust kick him with my heel in the back of the knee. I figured the position of my leg would be less prone to breaking, so I still went pretty hard."

"I remember that one," Vale said, "I let you get away with it and buckled my knee to stop anything too bad from happening and you still broke a toe."

"I did." Emery nodded. "Hit a weird angle or something and my little pinkie toe got bent weird. Lost the toenail at the same time."

Avuri made a face. "Gross."

"It was." Emery chuckled.

"Just how many times did you get injured as a kid?" Avuri asked, having never really asked for a distinct number before. She had heard enough of these sorts of stories to know the number was high though. And Emery seemed particularly injury-prone as a kid.

"I lost count." Emery shrugged. "It's high though. Dad always had strong medicines for us growing up, so even when I broke my leg, I think I was only out of training for a couple days. Everything was healed up and ready to go probably in a day, but I was forced into bedrest for an extra two after that."

Avuri blinked. "That's some medicine."

"It was." Vale cut in. "I probably went overboard with it. When they were all still young, I was terrified of them getting injured or, even worse, doing the injuring myself by accident. So I kept some very powerful, fast-acting, and expensive stuff on hand."

"I have to admit, it made training a breeze as a kid, though." Emery said. "I'd cut myself while smithing and the gash would be gone in minutes. One time I even took one of my fingers off entirely, and Vale gave me a paste that had it reattached and fully healed in a few hours."

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Avuri gaped at that, as it was one she hadn't heard before. "You took off a whole finger?" Something fell into place then, and she pointed accusingly. "Is that why your right index finger has those weird extra creases?"

Emery held up the finger in question and wiggled it with a silly grin. "Yup. For some reason the creases never healed or went away."

"That paste was worth a fortune, you know." Vale said flatly.

"A fortune?" Emery asked, curiosity getting the better of her.

"Yes. A Fortune." Vale reiterated. When Emery's questioning look never faded he sighed and added, "I got it from Eiry, actually, if I recall correctly, for around six hundred thousand tael."

Emery looked at Vale, completely stunned. It was mortal currency, sure, but six hundred thousand was an abhorrent amount of money. More than several times what Emery had probably spent all together since she and Avuri had started their family. Avuri was similarly stunned, her mouth opening and closing like a fish.

Vale just chuckled. "I got it from her before I took all you kids in, too. It was around when she first founded Flowing Dragon City and she needed some big injections of money to the city. The paste was something she made herself from some very potent ingredients, and I think she still sells some occasionally when she can. That stuff is magic."

"I wonder if she would let us buy some…"

"If she has any, I'm sure she'd be happy to sell it. Do you two have that sort of money, though?" Vale asked.

Emery shook her head. "No, she'd need to be feeling very generous and make a deal with us for it, and even then, it would wipe out most of our savings."

Avuri laughed. "It sure would. And I think the monetary safety net, even if it's mostly in mortal currency, is worth it over the magical healing paste."

"True…" Emery agreed.

The conversation lulled long enough for Vale to transition into a crossed-leg seated position, and he crossed his arms. "So," he began, "you both finished consolidating your dragonblood."

The sudden shift to the more serious topic made Emery's mouth go dry. "We did. Sorry we didn't tell you."

Avuri looked equally cowed, but remained quiet. She started scratching her arm, a nervous tic that she occasionally showed.

"I imagine it's also why you both ran away this morning?" Vale asked.

Emery glanced at her wife, then nodded. "It is."

"I take it you're not looking forward to resuming training."

"...No."

Vale clapped suddenly, only once, and the sound rang out over the space their fight had cleared. He grinned when both women's heads swung to face him, startled. He grinned. "That's fine."

"That's fine?"

"Sure is." Vale assured her. "I already discussed it over with the Elders. Somewhat, at least. The dragon training is less…demanding than what you had to do to form the Bond with us. Most of it will be more like traditional book learning in a way, where you'll be doing most of it on your own after a little bit of instruction."

Emery just looked confused. Hadn't Kord been going back and forth still, and returning entirely wiped out every day?

"The plan, right now at least, is for me to teach you both the basics at night. Here. Or in the Basin, rather." He pointed toward their home over his shoulder. "Then you'll both need to spend some time internalizing the lesson and getting used to your bodies' changes before the next major lesson. So it'll only be every two or three days with me."

"But Kord -"

"Is getting some serious sparring training with Ray. The Elder has really taken a liking to the boy, and has been teaching him everything he knows. It's actually rather disturbing, if anything."

"And what about my training with Lyn?" Avuri asked.

"Lyn said she would come visit periodically. The personal training you need to do with the one you're Bonded to is actually minimal. And she's dying to come see Mylo, so for her it's a win-win."

"I…see."

Emery met her father's eyes. He was being forthright and blunt, which was his normal way for the most part, but his eyes held a parents' warmth in that moment.

"Thank you." Emery said, looking down toward her feet to hide her joyful smile.

"Of course. For both of you." Vale said, before his tone changed to something far more warm and inviting. "Look, I've been back and forth a lot the last couple weeks, and it's as clear as day that you two want to just be home with your kids. It's so clearly shown on your faces since you've been back."

"The Elders all appreciate what you're doing and the risks you've taken on, ostensibly for both your own purposes as well as theirs, and I think they recognize that too. They don't exactly want to pull you away from your family, and you've both already hit the major milestone that was the main concern."

"So, really, there was no reason to run. I'm not dragging you two anywhere else for the foreseeable future." He smiled, then added, "Unless it's somewhere you want to go."

Emery jumped forward to give her father a hug. When she tackled him, even in his seated position, he barely moved when her weight crashed into him. She felt one of his hands rub her back comfortably, and she squeezed.

"Thanks, dad."

"Of course." He said, giving her a solid hug back. They stayed like that for several long seconds before she pulled back. Vale was eyeing her, a little bit of excitement in his eyes, and she raised a questioning eyebrow.

"What?"

"Well, before you two ran away from me like guilty children and then put me in my place, I smelled a rather delicious breakfast at home."

Vale had never gone from her respectable and reliable father to a child so fast in her eyes, and she couldn't help but laugh. All of the stress that had slowly been building up over the last several days as they got closer and closer to finishing their consolidation of the dragonblood and the assumed busy schedule again was gone in an instant.

"There's plenty of food." Avuri said, hiding a grin of her own behind a hand. "We got up early and cooked a whole bunch."

"Wait, it was the two of you cooking? Yes…" Vale basically hissed when he drew out the word. "You two haven't made breakfast together since you organized the new teams! And the culinary group is good, but they still can't touch the two of you."

"I'm not sure that's strictly true, but I'll take it." Avuri said. She had never been overly confident in her cooking ability, especially since Emery was the one who taught her most of the more interesting cooking techniques she knew. Emery was really the cook of the family, and she looked just as pleased at the compliment.

"I'm hungry, so let's go eat."

"Yeah, let's."