Fan Fiction ❯ Lord of the Wild ❯ Chapter 3 ( Chapter 3 )

It took him a moment, but as soon as he got over the new exotic looks, he frowned. They were all looking at him with an expression of mingled disbelief and fear, although he couldn't figure out why they would have a cause to look at him like that. Looking from one to the other, his frown deepened when none of them would meet his eyes.

Sure, none of them had been particularly interested in him yesterday, but they all, excluding the dwarves, had been willing to talk with him if he initiated the conversation. Their behavior now was as different from yesterday as night and day.

Sighing, he ducked his head, focusing his gaze on Kweli's scales. He couldn't figure out what he had done wrong, but maybe it was something from last night? Gale was going to teach him, did he do something wrong during this teaching? He must have gotten at least something right, to be able to see these new looks instead of the previously fuzzy illusions, but there was just so much that he could have done wrong, and why couldn't he remember?

He was well on his way to working himself into a miserable depression when he heard a frustrated huff from one of the others, and light, almost inaudible footsteps coming towards him. Brown leather boots entered the edge of his field of vision, topped with mottled green leggings.

"How are you feeling this morning?" A soft, yet impish voice asked.

Kini glanced up long enough to notice it was the young elf named Willow before looking back down again and giving a non-committal shrug.

"You had a rough night last night, I just want to make sure your feeling alright now." The elf persisted.

Kini shook his head, his answer a bare whisper of noise, most of his concentration still on wondering what he did to make them all look at him like that. "I don't know, my head hurts, but I don't remember much besides Mr. Gale saying he was going to teach me something."

There was a moment of silence, before Willow spoke up again, not sounding concerned. "So how is the dragon today?"

A smile curved Kini's lips as soon as the dragon was mentioned. "Kweli is fine. Why wouldn't he be?" He finally looked up, meeting the other youth's eyes. They were green, like his own, but a pale green, like new shoots during the spring as opposed to Kini's deeper forest green.

Willow laughed. "Well, he was only born last night after all."

"Last night? I thought Kweli was older for some reason. I feel like he has been with me for a long time…"

Willow smiled at him, then blinked and held out his hand. "We never really introduced ourselves, I'm Willow, no last name as I'm an orphan."

Kini smiled faintly, noting there was no hurt in the announcement of being an orphan, before taking the offered hand. He paused a moment, startled by the appearance of a rope of brown hair with feathers braided into it swung into view with Willow's movement, it must have been hidden under the traveling cloak before. "Kinirchar Welatic." He named himself belatedly.

Willow's grin was infectious as he opened his mouth to say something, but paused as Mist called his name in a frustrated voice.

"I'll be right back," he winked at Kini, earning a small laugh, before standing from his crouch and padding back to the others. The group whispered furiously among themselves for a moment, the dwarves and Rore appeared to the arguing in favor of one option, while the others seemed to be undecided.

As the argument went on, Willow suddenly raised his voice enough that Kini was able to make out the words. "Just back off and leave him alone already! He doesn't remember! Let's just break camp and get going all right?!"

The others stared at the young elf in disbelief before Gale nodded his agreement, Questirna and Mist quickly following his lead.

Willow glared at the two dwarves until they stomped off to begin loading their gear onto their horses, muttering to each other. Then the elf turned and picked up the lead lines for Marmalade and the brown mare with black spots along her flanks that he had been riding yesterday, leading them over to Kini.

"Sorry about that, friend Kinirchar, they must have slept on ant-hills last night to be so grumpy, yes?"

Kini grinned at the thought, his depression evaporating in the presence of the young elf; the same as it had earlier.

"The dwarves don't like me anyway." He shrugged, moving off the bedroll and pulling the still sleeping Kweli into his arms at Willow's signal to move. "And Kini is fine, Kinirchar is too much of a mouthful."

"They don't like anyone." Willow shrugged. "If you ask them, they don't like us either. But we know they do so we just ignore what they say. That's dwarves for you." He laughed and efficiently stowed Kini's bedroll into the compact traveling bag. "They are just a bit sore that you, a nobody," he grinned and rolled his eyes, showing that those weren't his words. "Knows more about traveling and horses then they do. I think you impressed them, though again, they will never admit it."

Kini started to stand up, trying to juggle Kweli into his arms so he could help stow the gear on the horses, but fell back into a seated condition as he met Marmalade's concerned eyes. Concerned? How could a horse be concerned?

He experienced a surge of dizziness, and by the time it cleared, Willow had finished loading the gear, and had apparently been talking the entire time. "It's a good thing Fwel and Marmalade get along, and that Kweli doesn't seem to bother them. I intend on riding with you from now on, it will be nice having someone my own age to talk to you know?"

"Fwel?" Kini asked as he shook his head to clear the last of the dizziness.

Willow blushed faintly but laughed. "It means mud in elvish. She was given to me when I was really young, you see. It had been raining, and when she was foaled I got the idea of bringing her out into the rain to wash her off instead of giving her a bath. We both ended up covered in mud so I named her mud. I guess we were lucky that her coat was mud colored as well, right?"

Kini found himself laughing outright at that tale. "Right." He told his new friend.