Kinderling 43

 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..

A very nervous Mizzy was waiting for us when we finally reached the Outcropping.  She looked well, and had lost most of the gauntness that was left over from her captivity.  She looked like she was almost back to the old Mizzy, except I could tell she had been biting her fingernails, and wasn't taking care of her hair as well as she normally would.  Both things completely unlike Mizzy.  She seemed stiff when put my arms around her, but after a few moments melted into my arms.  I don't know which of us was crying more.

"Young Tandy!  How nice you have finally arrived!"

"Watcher?! How are you here?"  I exclaimed.  "Flower and I have been out looking for you!"

"I see you found -grumble-!  Good!  Did you find any more of Flower's lost tribe?"  

"Yes, I'll let Daisy tell you about it, I haven't been able to communicate so well, so I couldn't tell you who we found or who might still be missing."  I told him.

"Daisy?"  Watcher asked.

I indicated Daisy.  "Her, I didn't have a name to call her, Daisy seemed appropriate."

Watcher almost fell over laughing.  As everyone stared at him, he would try to get  his laughter under control and say something, only to start laughing again.

When he was finally able to control himself again.  puff puff  "And she didn't bash your skull in?"  The laughter continued.  Everyone still stared, but the Kinderlings present all stepped back a few steps.

"Well I didn't call her that to her face!"  I cried,  "I just needed a place-holder in my brain till I find out what her name is, I didn't mean to let it slip out!"  I started to get worried when I saw the fur on Smoke's back start to raise, and her ears start to edge back.

Watcher finally got himself under control.

"Don't worry young Tandy, I'll have a word with...  Daisy..."  Watcher chuckled a few more times, "We'll get this all straightened out."

Watcher pulled Daisy aside to have a talk with her.  At one point, Daisy looked my way with a rather angry look on her face, but stayed over there with Watcher.

"That looks like trouble."  Mama said from behind me, almost startling me out of my skin.  Mama has a way of walking up so quietly, you don't know she's even there.  I suppose everyone's Mama can do that at times.

"Apparently I said something wrong."  I replied.  "I think it's one of those cultural differences."

"Ah!  I worried about that sending you off with a bunch of Gorfs."  Mama said.  "Who is this Kinderling you brought with you?  He looks familiar, but I can't place him, but he seems apprehensive and he seems to be trying to avoid me."

Dobbo!  I looked around to find him talking to Bez and Tilly.

That was a surprise.  Mama never forgot a face.  Although this case I suppose could be an exception.  The last time she saw Dobbo was pretty long ago, and he has been in chains, working as a slave for the Gorf Mountain King for all that time.  I could see how that could change a person.

"The baby stealer."  Mama hissed,  "Dobbo."

Well, I guess Mama is still Mama.  When I looked at her I almost had to agree with Dobbo.  Mama looked like she was about to murder someone.  Someone named Dobbo.

"Now Mama.  I wasn't stolen, so is baby stealer really fair?  Did he steal some other baby I don't know about?"

"No," Mama admitted,  "We were tipped off that he had orders to take you when you were barely a week old.  Nobody said who those orders were from, but Baot is about the only possibility.  When I went looking for him, he was nowhere to be found and hasn't been seen since.  We didn't have any direct evidence of anything, so we had no way to confront Baot about it.  When Dobbo didn't come back, and nothing seemed to happen it all blew over.   Now Dobbo shows up right when Baot has taken over the village?  Seems too much like a coincidence to me."

"Mama, if what he told me is true, he's innocent and has been in chains all this time because he wouldn't go along with Bout's plans.  I think you need to talk to him before you do anything.  Maybe have Father talk to him."  It felt like a betrayal asking Mama to do exactly what Dobbo had said he hoped would happen, but I told myself I wasn't doing it for Dobbo.  I was doing it because I thought it was right.

To my surprise, Mama looked at me and her face, her stance, everything softened.

"You're right, we should let your father have a talk with him."  Mama said and seemed to think for a bit.  Then her look hardened again.  "But don't think you're doing that piece of dirt any favors.  Your father will know if he's lying.  If he is, and he's working for Baot, he'll wish you had just let me finish him.  It would have been over quick."

That gave me a chill.  My parents have always been some of the nicest people I knew.  Of course, most people wouldn't describe Mama as nice because of the way she is, but they just don't understand Mama.  I started wondering if I still understood them.   Until now, I didn't think Mama would ever hurt a fly, let alone a fellow Kinderling, and Father has always been all about talking through our issues rather than resorting to violence.  It was a particularly harsh blow to him when I was caught going after the bullies that tormented me.  He wouldn't talk to me for weeks afterwards, and it took months for our relationship to get back to the way it was.

Watcher and... Daisy?..  walked up.

"Young Tandy, -grumble- has agreed that you may call her Daisy."  Watcher said.  "Once I explained that Kinderling names aren't intended to be as descriptive and defining as Gorf names are, and explained the concept of a name of endearment, which is a concept that isn't known among the fallen. She relented.  Besides, your name, Tandy, has a similar flavor to it as a word we have for a type of stone, -grumble-, that is only found deep within the earth.  How could the name of that stone have anything to do with a Kinderling?"

"Is it pretty?" I asked.

"Is what pretty?" 

"The stone, the Tandy stone."

"Well, while not traditionally considered pretty, it does have a certain sparkle to it when light hits it that is attractive in a way."  Watcher admitted.

"Seems fitting to me."

I figured that I had won, so I decided to switch tactics.

"Descriptive and defining you say."  I asked, confused.  "What about Mouse?  His name doesn't seem very descriptive or defining."

"Have you ever noticed how little Mouse says?  Or how quietly he can move through the forest?"  Watcher reminded me.  "His name in Gorf describes those things."

"What does Daisy's name in Gorf mean?"  I asked.

"You might not want to know Tandy."  Watcher said,  "Some things don't translate well."

Mizzy, who had been quietly trying to strangle my arm to death.  Or maybe just holding on tight enough to make sure nothing could drag me away from her, whispered  "Tandy, let's go inside and get you some food and a bath.  You smell awful."

"Well Mizzy, at least that is something we can agree on."  Watcher told her.

After food, and one of the stranger baths that I can recall ever receiving, with Mizzy insisting in scrubbing every part of me and demanding answers for every little scratch bruise or abrasion.  Most of which I had no idea what to tell her.  Who keeps up with such things?  Life in the forest is rumble-tumble.  Sometimes you might get a scratch or a scrape from a branch or rough piece of bark or something, or you fall and get a bruise, and you just move on.  I could tell Mizzy didn't like that answer, but eventually had to admit I wasn't horribly wounded and let me off the hook.

I hated telling Tommil about the destroyed go-stick.  I know him and Adiz worked hard to get the wood just right for me to make it.  

"You did WHAT?!"  Tommil cried, "You jumped off a cliff with your go-stick to save a Gorf?  Why would you do that Tandy?"

Adiz gave him a funny, exasperated-wife-like, look.  "Of course we'll work on getting you a replacement piece of wood Tandy.  It sounds like that one fulfilled it's purpose and now you have come safely home to us." 

I smiled at her.  See, Adiz understood.

Then I looked over at the ever-present Mizzy, who was seriously not letting me out of arms-reach yet, let alone out of sight, and she was giving me an almost exact duplication of the exasperated-wife-look that Adiz had given Tommil.

"You didn't tell me anything about jumping off a cliff!"