Kinderling 32

 In case you are interested in starting this story at the beginning, Kinderling 1 can be found here:

The Tricycle of Thought: Kinderling 1

Please don't judge the story or the writing too harshly, this story is written with little to no editing.  It is just meant to get me writing regularly for practice.  

Now back to our story, already in progress...

I was in bed for days.  I would try to get up, only to get dizzy.  Smoke quietly kept me company and we had a private little war over who could nap more.  I think Smoke won.  I would have been worried by all the sleeping, but during the few times we were both awake, Smoke was obviously doing much better than I was.

At first, I was amazed by how nice the room was.  Who knew that the garrison had such nice accommodations.  I quickly learned that a lot of it was due to Tommil who oversaw the renovations.  Sure, the rooms and the beds were here already, but Tommil worked wonders to make it all seem like home.  

A couple days into the ordeal, Mizzy shuffled in.  It was very unlike Mizzy to shuffle like that.  Mizzy always walked with just the perfect - in her mind - amount of bounce in her step to convey to her (perfect) husband, that she was the perfect, energetic, productive, Kinderling wife.  She had been practicing that bounce for as long as I've known her, and I have to say it at very least worked to make her seem very energetic and productive.  

No bounce this time though.  Just shuffle shuffle, stop and wait for a bit to muster her energy, and shuffle shuffle some more.  She made it to my bed, laid down next to me and was asleep before she even got her feet off the floor.  That position couldn't be comfortable.  So I, very  slowly, got out of bed and started to make my way around to lift her feet in to bed so she wouldn't wake up sore from sleeping in such an awkward position.  I didn't manage to get even to the end of the bed when Adiz showed up, straightened Mizzy out on the bed, put me back in the bed, and had us both tucked in so quickly I was exhausted just from watching.

"Now Tandy, you know you shouldn't be out of bed yet.  You aren't ready!"  Adiz scolded.

Ready...  I'd show her ready... right after my nap, getting up like that was exhausting.

The next few days passed much faster.  Mizzy and I ganged up on Smoke, and between the two of us we out-napped that kitty by half!  Hey, when you can barely walk across a room, you take your victories where you can find them!

"Tandy," Mizzy said, her voice just a whisper.  "Smoke saved me.  I think Daggi gave up on controlling me with the harness, so he left me there to die.  Smoke brought me brought me bits of food and even managed to drag a water skin to my cage.  I could barely move, but I managed enough to keep me going.  I knew I had to be ready in case you came to get me."  Mizzy looked down at herself and started crying, "Oh I am ruined, nobody will want me now."

I put my arms around her, it was the only thing I could think to do.

"Mama, If I'm as bad off as I feel, how did I even make it to the Fern cave?"  I asked on day five.  Really by day five I was starting to feel a lot better and was able to make my way to the latrine by myself without help.  It helped that it wasn't far.

"I don't know kiddo." Mama answered, "Sometimes when someone gets hurt, they don't stop long enough to realize how bad it is.  Once they finally do stop, they crash like you did in the fern cave.  I'm just lucky Flower, Watcher, and Mouse showed up when they did.  I was just about to set the kitchen Gorf loose, and come home.  I was just trying to decide if I could make the trip carrying both you and Mizzy."

Would Mama have left Mizzy behind?  I didn't know if I wanted to know the answer to that.

The next week for me was spent moving around, working the stiffness out of my joints and getting my muscles moving again.  I couldn't stand being cooped up, not going anywhere.  At first, it was short walks down to the kitchen, then it was longer walks around the garrison.  Then walks outside to the end of the Outcropping.

During my exploration I found a wheel barrel, so once I was strong enough, in spite of her complaints I put Mizzy in it and wheeled her outside.  The fresh air and sunshine did wonders.  After that outing, Mizzy started eating better so we spent most days outside, either on the hidden terraces where Bez had his above-ground gardens, or out on the outcropping.  We even went down to the briar tunnel to pick berries.  We only did that once, because the climb back up was exhausting.

Soon Mizzy was able to get around on her own, but we stuck together.  I think Mizzy was a little afraid of being outside the village.  She was never one for adventure or danger.  I couldn't blame her though, I didn't want her to be far away either.

The place was settling in.  It didn't take long for the rescued villagers to start a community of sorts.  The garrison was quite a bit bigger than I expected, and there were a couple different kitchens.  The kitchens eventually were claimed by various cooks as their own domains, and a gentle, healthy, competition arose over who could feed more people, or who had the better food.  Various workshops were opened and craftsman started crafting.  Mizzy and I made our rounds taking it all in.

"It's almost like having the village back."  Mizzy said with almost a smile.  It was beautiful.  Mizzy hadn't smiled at all, not even almost, since Mama and I rescued her.