The North (Closed)

[KieranSoares]

Finn Royer had gone from a clean-cut, lean and handsome young prince to a rugged highland warrior in the months since Delphine had last seen him. He was putting on muscle fast, and his short hair was growing shaggy along with a handsome beard. Dressed in leather and plate with a kilt and sash over top in his personal colors, he cut a fine figure. But as Delphine rushed to him, any bravado he kept up in front of his men was lost. He swept Delphine up off her feet in a bear hug, relieved to see her safe and away from Edinburgh.

"My darlin' Del," he murmured, placing her back on her feet with a kiss to her cheek. "Thank the Lord, I was worried you'd be lost in all this..." Lifting his roughened hands to her cheeks, he took a good look at her to make sure she was in good shape and hadn't been treated harshly. "Y'okay, lass? I heard what happened... They weren't too rough on you, were they?"

 

[heartofcourage]

"No. I'm fine." She answered truthfully. "If I hadn't been taken from the city, I'm sure I would have met a similar fate to my mother."

"Ramsey is in trouble though. I don't think any of us can save him this time." If there was anyone in the world that could save his brother, it was Finn. Finna had always been his brother's keeper in a way, even when they were full grown.

 

[KieranSoares]

"After what he did... I don' know if even God could save him from Clan Ghis," Finn sighed heavily, sitting Delphine down and taking a seat across from her. He still held her hands, knowing she had to be overwhelmed by it all. "I'll see if they let me talk to 'im in a bit... But when I heard Sam captured both o' you, I'll admit my first concern was for you."

 

[heartofcourage]

"I don't want anyone's pity or concern." Delphine muttered, shaking in her seat as she gripped Finn's hands tightly. "I was never in danger. He said I was in the wrong place at the wrong time and I believe him. He never wanted to hurt me."

 

[KieranSoares]

"You don' get to tell me not t'care," Finn told her with a hint of a smile, but it faded as he noticed her trembling. "It must've been terrifying either way... An' while I can't speak for what will happen with Ramsey... I can promise you that you'll be looked after. It might not be riches an' luxury... But I've started to build an honest place for myself an' I'll help you do the same. I went t'the North with Da's challenge thinkin' they were a bunch of power-hungry warlords tryin' to take back what a stronger warlord stole from them. But they're decent people, and they treat the common folk well."

Sighing, Finn shook his head. "Growin' up I never saw my Da roll up his sleeves an' chop firewood for poor people, never welcomed normal folk to his table t'hear their problems an' talk to them like he was one of them. He always called himself a man of the people, a true Scot... but the Ghis brothers taught me what that actually means. So I'm gonna help 'em get home. I'll have a place in the North once this war is done, and so will you. You won't be threatened by anyone back home or in France, not if I have anything t'say about it."

 

[heartofcourage]

"I've been poor before and money means nothing to me. I can work just as hard as anyone else." Delphine murmured as Finn told her about the life that he was building for myself. "What I fear is that Orkney can act on his threats now. You can't stop a dragon from burning me as he had my mother burned. You father believed every word that he had to say without hesitation. I'm in very real danger."

 

[KieranSoares]

"I can stop them, and I will. I've made myself a valuable asset to the North and they'll protect what and who I care about. Even if I wasn't here, they wouldn't abandon you to fend for yourself. You have Katherine Ghis's entire spy and bodyguard network around you, not to mention despite your fears, you have dragons on your side now. And when Katherine Ghis akes the throne back, Orkney won't have the sway or resources to come after you. He'll be too busy preparing to have his own throne seized. We just need to keep you safe til then. I have to believe that if Blair and Jane have been here untouched for this long, you'll be okay too."

Finn spent a long while with Delphine before he finally had to turn in, exhausted from constant skirmishes and hard travel. The camp remained quiet, everyone preparing for the coming battles. As soon as Hesperus was dealt with- assuming the Northern Riders and their Queen succeeded- Edinburgh was on the horizon.

It was late afternoon when Sam awoke from a long nap beside Fiona. They'd talked a little but hadn't really gotten anywhere when it came to his bloodlust and anger. He had been too tired, too defeated, and too angry at the world to think clearly. But as he woke, his eyes weren't so heavily shadowed and they seemed clearer. He reached out to Fiona, his fingers drifting gently through her platinum hair. It was moments like these that reminded him what he was doing and why, what made it all worth the pain.

"I love you," he murmured before sitting up, the blanket drifting off his broad chest. He stared ahead for a long moment, then rose and lumbered about their tent putting things in order that he'd just thrown aside haphazardly earlier. It was just like at home when he'd still be half-asleep doing his morning routine of stoking the fire and starting breakfast, like a great bear still sleepy from hibernation traipsing about the forest. When he was satisfied that everything was neat and orderly, he began to pull on his boots. "I'm gonna go see Riley..." he grumbled. "Must've scared the hell out o' her..."

 

[heartofcourage]

Fiona stirred as Sam shifted in bed, his fingers gently drifting through her hair. It made her feel better to know that he wasn’t so lost in his anger now that he had some sleep and distance.

Sitting up, she yawned and rubbed at her tired eyes, watching as he went about his set routine before he sat and started to pull on his boots.

“Loren was the one that came to get me.” Fiona told him softly. “He was worried for you.”

 

[KieranSoares]

"... Should probably stop and talk to him too, then," Sam murmured. "Probably terrified I'm gonna go off on him." Once he was dressed and ready to go, he paused a moment to come back to Fiona's side, leaning over to kiss her cheek. "Sorry I distracted you from yer training an' rest... Irresponsible of me."

 

[heartofcourage]

"I was due to take a day to myself. Your Da and his brothers put me through my paces. They finally decided that I was good enough to join the Axemen and gave me an axe they made." She said, pointing to the axe that she had left behind the night that she had dismissed him.

 

[KieranSoares]

"Should I be honored 'r scared tha' the first thing you did to it was threaten me?" Sam asked as a weak attempt at a joke, looking at the axe and recognizing his Uncles' handiwork immediately, as well as the traditional design of the Axemen.

 

[heartofcourage]

"It's only because I love you." Fiona murmured as she stood and wrapped her arms around his waist, hugging him tightly and pressing her cheek against his chest. "And if you do anything like that again, I won't hesitate to use it against you."

By the time that he had left the tent to find Riley, she was already hard at work in the river with Schaller and Dzana. While she wasn't strong enough to bang out large pieces, she could focus on the small fiddly aspects that were needed to complete items like her Ma's shield and gloves. As Andre and Jani worked on the shore to get the final design in place, she soaked in the water with the dragons, pouring molds and forming nails.

 

[KieranSoares]

After taking a moment to find Loren and quietly thank him and assure he wasn't in trouble, Sam came up on the scene at the river and paused to see the three working hard without him. He debated silently with himself whether to have a talk with Riley right then, or leave it for after their work was done. Knowing time was of the essence and he felt he'd already wasted some by letting his anger get the better of him, Sam sighed quietly and pulled back his hair, stripped off his shirt, and put on his leather apron and gloves. Soon he was wading into the river past Andre and Jani, each pausing to watch him go.

Seeing Riley putting all her strength into the smaller pieces, Sam became her assistant for a moment so not to interrupt her flow. When she went to get a piece Dzana was reheating, she felt her father gently take the tongs from her and he picked up the half-formed buckle. Bringing it back to the stone anvil, Sam knew exactly how to turn and help her shape the buckle in time with her swings and he silently did so until it was ready to quench. He wasn't going to simply take over when she deserved to see her part finished and take credit.

Once the buckle was finished, Sam dropped it into the quenching barrel and set the tongs down. "Well done, little love," he murmured, seeing all the work she'd already done.

 

[heartofcourage]

Riley glanced up at him as she pulled off the heavy leather gloves and placed them in the river to soak. “I think I still have it in me to make a few more. Koan and Jani are just about ready to start on the layers of the shield. All of the holes have been drilled. They’re just figuring the best way to cover the wood with scale front and back.”

 

[KieranSoares]

Sam nodded as she caught him up on their progress, his expression calm but a bit melancholy. "I only have a few big pieces left... If everything goes well, we can assemble it all an' do final fittings. Then yer Ma will have time t'get used to it all an' I can use whatever excess we have for some of us who'll be supporting her in the fight."

Sam looked down and met Riley's gaze, and she could feel guilt start to radiate off him. "... Are you okay, love?" He asked softly, reaching up to touch her cheek. He knew it couldn't have been easy to see Fiona pull a weapon on him, and even less so see Sam himself torture a defenseless man.

 

[heartofcourage]

"I told you I was your girl." Riley muttered as she shook water out of her fur, glancing up at him as he touched her cheek. "I would have done the same for Koah if I had the chance."

"Like I told you, I never knew the man you were before I was born. You were a different Samuel Ghis then. You have nothing to be ashamed about for wanting to defend your family against a monster." Riley said softly so that Jani and Andre wouldn't be able to hear. "I didn't expect Ma to pull a weapon on you, but I hope that you two have made up."

 

[KieranSoares]

"We still have plenty to talk about... things t'sort out. But there's no aggression there." Sam shook his head and hugged Riley close to his side. "I'm sorry you saw that... Even as a young man I never lost myself like that. I could always direct my anger to something useful 'r at least not harmful to others. I'm... I'm tired of people doin' awful things to my family..."

 

[heartofcourage]

Riley leaned her head against her Da's shoulder, knowing that he was fighting with demons that she didn't understand. She was protective of her family, but the depth of rage that he felt was new and it probably frightened him. She let out a soft sigh, glancing towards the quenching bucket as she sought to distract him.

"I worked on something this morning." She said as she left his side to pull out the inside of what would be the glove for her Ma. "I took your measurements and made the skeleton to give her support. It's flexible and should give her the strength that she needs when she's fighting with her more damaged hand."

 

[KieranSoares]

Sam took up the piece and looked it over. Being that Fiona's weakness was her grip strength, they'd come up with a way to both make the gloves less likely to slip, as well as an internal structure that would make Fiona have to spend less energy trying to hold on and dampen shocks. It would make the hand harder to open, but for this one battle, it was necessary.

"Good. This an' something to brace the wrist will be perfect," Sam murmured. "Yesterday I managed t' finish the sword..." He walked over to a trunk on the banks where he'd been keeping pieces, always under the guard of a dragon. If no one was at the forge itself, Schaller or Dzana would bring the trunk back to camp and guard it there. Under all the armor pieces, Sam drew out the sword. It already had a reinforced leather sheath. Sam would normally spend time etching and working the leather to make it beautiful, but they'd put function over form in the limited time they hand. Even so, as he brought the blade to Riley, even his basic work was beautiful. The leather was supple and smooth on the sheath, and the handle had been wet-formed with leather to allow Sam to use the metal underneath to form a solid, ribbed grip. Even if the leather came off or burned, the steel would still give Fiona a strong grip.

When Sam drew the sword, the metal sang in a way that typical steel did not. It almost had a crystalline quality to it, and reverberated longer than metal normally would. The blade was nearly white with a soft lavender tint, made from Margaret's original sword from Reven's scales, with the missing replaced by new steel and Schaller's scales. The blood channel was deep and wide, and the design was mostly inspired by Skol's heritage as a Norseman with a tapered end and a hand and a half grip. The hilt was simple, a crescent shape facing up the blade, but Sam had spared a moment to etch a simple design in the center of a tree that was very much like Fiona's prized tattoo.

As the sing of the metal finally faded, Sam offered it handle-first to Riley. "Yours'll be pretty similar," he murmured. The blade was half the weight of any steel sword of the same size, effortless to move and a little flexible, but tougher than any metal Sam had worked with before. It would be the kind of weapon to withstand immense punishment without damage, and slice through even reinforced armor given enough force.

 

[heartofcourage]

Riley took the sword and looked it over, a little in awe of the beautiful hue that the metal had taken on. She grinned as she hefted the perfectly balanced weapon and marveled before she looked back at her Da. "It's a true work of beauty, even if you had to make it for a disgusting reason."

She took the moment to go through a few simple motions, slicing through the air easily and knowing that the weapon would serve her mother well. "Grandpa can put her to work with it tomorrow."

 

[KieranSoares]

"The glaive'll be next when we finish the armor. Then I'll make swords fer everyone who'll be helpin' yer Ma get in close. Any of us who can hack off scales fer other weapons t'cause extra harm will be useful... We can't kill him with other weapons, but we can slow him down an' bleed him," Sam murmured, his brows furrowing in focus on his grim task creating tools for the downfall of the oldest dragon in the world.

"The glaive will be the most important piece of all of this," Sam explained quietly as he sheathed the blade. "I've gone through design after design... but I think I have one now that'll work best. It's a combination of a bladed hook an' spear. It'll be slim enough an' long enough t'pierce deep, an' it'll hook and rip on its way out. The hooks themselves will be sharpened so they don't just get stuck. Tha' way if yer Ma doesn't hit right on target the first time, or it needs a second go, we can try again."

Sam took the blade back to the trunk and tossed some more small pieces of steel into the stone-lined hole the dragons used to concentrate their fire into a furnace. Dzana watched Sam move about, but before he could just drown himself in work, she reached out and scooped him up and glanced to Riley. "Pardon us for a few minutes, small Fox." With that, she stepped away and into the woods but didn't go too far. Riley could feel her father's confusion at being taken away soon turn to deep melancholy. It seemed Dzana had taken him away for a moment to center himself much like Schaller sometimes did with Fiona.

Andre came to the bank, glancing to where Dzana had disappeared to, and then looked to Riley. He decided not to pry into Sam's business, instead offering an update. "I think we've got it figured out now. Just about ready to assemble once we've got the holes drilled. Jani's already working on that."

 

[heartofcourage]

"I have enough hardware for the both of you to work." Riley said as she wrapped an arm around Andre's waist and leaned into his side. "And then it comes time to place on the metal bands, it's going to take all of us together."

She watched after Dzana as the dragon retreated with her father to reconnect and center and she let out a long sigh. "I almost lost him, Koah. As much as he doesn't want to admit it, we all almost lost him."

 

[KieranSoares]

"He almost lost himself," Andre murmured, already having gotten some of the story. "And from what we've seen of Dzana... She may not know exactly what happened yet, but she recognizes it because she's been there too."

Andre looked down at his wife, his arm securely wrapped around her shoulders. "... It's got to be hard to see him this way. How are you doing?"

 

[heartofcourage]

Riley didn't answer as he wrapped his arms around her shoulders. She couldn't put into words how it felt to see her father so vulnerable. Many would have seen Sam as a lunatic, raving mad and wanting revenge. The sneaking through Edinburgh to find Ramsey Royer didn't bother her. The hunt had been cathartic for her. Seeing her mother holding her father at weapon point as he tried to crucify a man begging for mercy...that was much different. She pitied him. He wanted nothing more than to make him feel the pain that Fiona had felt, but it didn't feel the same. His heart wasn't in it.

"Not well." She said softly after a long moment.

 

[KieranSoares]

Andre drew Riley in tightly against his chest but said no more for the moment. There wasn't much anyone could do to make it better, save keep pushing on til the war was done and Sam and Fiona could finally have a chance to return to a sense of normalcy and have time for rest.

When Dzana returned nearly a half-hour later, she gently deposited Sam on his feet beside the makeshift furnace. Before she let him go, Riley saw her touch her nose to Sam's forehead. He reached up to touch her dark purple scales before taking a deep breath and picking up his tools. There wasn't time for rest just yet.

The four and their dragon companion worked through the rest of the day, assembling the scale shield and finishing the last pieces for Fiona. All that was left were the blades for those supporting Fiona. That evening when they all headed back to camp, Sam had Dzana bring the trunk full of armor and weapons back to his tent so he could spend a little more time assembling the pieces with leather before bed. It was already mostly assembled thanks to Riley, and straps cut and fitted for the rest. This was the scene Fiona came upon when she returned from training. An armor stand was set up in their tent, the streamlined white plates gleaming in the lantern light as Sam meticulously attached the shoulder pauldron on one side. His brows were furrowed in deep concentration as he sewed straps into place and added rivets where needed. On the cot beside lay the sword in its sheath and the newly-made glaive with a cover buckled over the wickedly sharp hook and blade.

Sam looked up as Fiona entered, pausing in his work for a moment. "Evening, love," he murmured softly, then looked back to the armor. She hadn't seen any of his work yet save his hammer. The armor wasn't as decorated and personalized as he'd normally do thanks to the time constraints, but it was still perfectly constructed for Fiona's measurements and while it was a full plate suit, it would end up actually lighter than her half-plate, half-leather riding gear, and just as maneuverable thanks to many interlocking plates able to shift and twist with her.

Stepping back from the armor, Sam asked quietly, "What do you think? A little plain maybe..."