Chapter 18 #4
Tarnk grinned and tossed his wife a very awkwardly executed wink that made her laugh once more.
“Again, I am so sorry, and so are they, aren’t you?” Mina bit out as she gave her little ones a stern look.
“We very sorry,” Lottie replied contritely. Her smile was sweet, but it was too sweet. It felt practiced.
“Dancing Krampus very soft fur,” Mina’s son blurted. Veck nudged him. “I not scareded. I Berk. Berk a warrior. No mean make mad.” Hesitating, he added, “I sorry.”
Kehl nodded.
“She frends the Candy lady Mama no like. She bad too?” the small male asked Veck in growl-speak.
Veck rumbled down at him in Lo denaii, “Kehlor and Kehlor Purred-roo ‘stand Lo denaii.”
The small male’s eyes widened. He blushed as he turned to us. “No mean no ‘fense,” the little boy pointed out.
“My Purr-roo goot female. Dace goot frend my Purr-roo,” Kehl rumbled out defensively.
“I have no idea what Veck and Berk just said,” Mina muttered, her gaze darting between them, “but I have a feeling another apology is in order.”
“Berkr likes Canny,” Lottie chirped. “Berkr likes Canny lots, even I hear she say leave me the ‘lones,” Lottie emphasized with wide eyes. Swishing from side to side, she smilingly told me, “My favorite dolly is named Canny. Mama likes her. It makes her smile big and laugh.”
It was Mina’s turn to blush. She was blushing so hard in fact, I had to wonder at it.
“Well, it was super nice to meet you, Pru. Dorothy, Dougie, Carrie all speak highly of you. Even Berkr… when he’s feeling generous,” she said with a nervous little chuckle.
“Kunkle Berked-nerd say you not ‘nnoying,” Berk corrected his mother with a frown.
The feeling was not mutual.
Kehl let out a chuff at that but otherwise kept quiet.
“What goes on here?” Kirch came rumbling up to us, got one look at Lottie’s super sweet innocent look and his son’s overdone bug-eyed stare and frowned down at them. His voice got gruff as he rumbled in his native tongue. “Ey. What you two do now?”
They pointed at each other, which just made me laugh.
Kirch looked to me sharply. One hand over my mouth to cover up my laugh, I waved him off with the other. “I’m sorry but it’s kinda funny.”
“Kehl not ‘fended,” Kehl rumbled out with a shrug. “Kirch naughtier when small.”
Kirch gave him a look to rival Rek’s dramatic nostril flarings. “What mean Kirch naughtier? Kirch good boy!”
Veck let out a loud snort.
“Not from you!” he snapped at Veck.
Veck grinned like Kirch’s teeth baring glare was nothing more than a tiny dog yapping at him.
“Not you two too,” Mina muttered.
“Tarnk good. Tarnk on best ‘havior, like Bia,” Tarnk chirped.
“Bia almost always naughty,” Kirch grumbled.
Mina grinned at that, an inside joke I was just fine not being privy too.
“It was nice meeting you. We’re still making the rounds,” I admitted.
Mina nodded, forced a smile as Kirch started to heckle Veck and Veck blew him off, and motioned for her little ones to come along.
“Oh! Mama! We go dance too?!” they asked excitedly as they spied Dorothy dancing with Rosa’s brood and little Orrie.
“Ask first, and no more funny business or you’re stuck with me, you got me?” She struck me as firm but fair as a parent.
“Best ‘haviors!” they chorused as they took off.
“No running! It’s muddy!” she called after them.
“A doll named Candy?” I murmured.
Mina blushed once more. “It’s a long story.”
“No like Candy,” Kirch rumbled.
Eyeing me, Veck cocked his head. “Purred-roo knows story?” he asked.
“I do,” I stated simply, trying not to sound defensive.
Sensing me tensing up, Kehl moved in closer and wrapped an arm around me.
“Rek say you goot frend to not good Candy. Rek say she try all the times be good. Sad all the times,” Tarnk chimed in.
Mina blew out a long breath. Scrubbing at her eyes, she pinched them shut, like she was fighting something. “I know. I know she is… I just…”
“You don’t have to explain anything to me.” My shoulders lifted in a shrug. I’d admit I was curious though.
Mina peeked an eye open. “She told you everything-everything?”
“Everything,” I replied quietly.
Mina’s throat worked and she grimaced. “I don’t like Candy-”
“Dace,” I gently corrected.
Mina stopped herself, nodded, and restarted, “Dace. I don’t like Dace. There’s bad blood. You have to believe I didn’t honestly think she’d do it! I mean, Rosa told me about it and I- I felt- I still feel horrible.”
My eyes narrowed, nostrils flared.
Mina spoke faster. “She swore Rosa to secrecy. I finally got it out of Rosa that Candy- Dace told her she was worried that people might hear about what I’d done and judge me for it, and she couldn’t even- Because of everything that’s happened between us and I just-”
“No need say no thing,” Kirch growled out softly.
Mina shook her head. “I need to. It’s been eating me alive.”
“You’re the reason she cut all of her hair off. You tricked her into it,” I surmised.
It took everything in me not to growl out loud at the news.
Mina paled. “You didn’t know.”
“She wouldn’t tell me who but I knew someone had tricked her into it,” I admitted.
“I don’t like Cand- Dace- Sorry, I’m trying. I don’t like Dace. I don’t want anything to do with her, but I don’t want others hating her on my behalf. I heard what it’s doing to her, and that’s not fair either.”
“I’m glad you see it that way. Maybe tell the others so they’ll stop trying to get me to hate her. It won’t work.” I was rumbling unhappily as I spoke. Realizing this, I cut the sound off abruptly.
Mina looked more startled at how quickly I hid my ire than the fact I was rumbling unhappily at all.
“I don’t want to make things around here hell for anyone else.
Dace is trying. I’d have to be blind not to see she’s trying and has no intention of leaving.
” With a growl under her breath, she shook her head.
“I can’t believe I’m actually saying this but I’m a little worried about the way she lets Berkr treat her.
” After the longest pause, she muttered, “No one should tolerate being treated like garbage.”
“Like being tricked into cutting all of your hair off?” I tacked on quietly.
Mina’s face reddened but she nodded. “Like some asshole tricking you into cutting your hair off, and then acting like it’s no big deal, like you think you deserved it, in a way that’s horrifying and unsettling,” she agreed. “I don’t want her doing that in an attempt to make amends.”
“Like ask Tarnk, Tarnk wants hit Candy with Tarnk arrow, say they even with the Stevens,” Tarnk rumbled out quietly.
Mina looked freaked out as she nodded. “It’s just… it’s getting out of control. What’s next? What if someone agrees to any of the madness she’s offering up?”
I was a bit worried and horrified myself to hear this. Dace never said a word about offering herself up to an arrow from Tarnk to make amends.
“She’s not my ex. He shot Tarnk. He picked up that gun and fired. Not Candy,” Mina muttered, her brow furrowed, mouth pulled into a grimace.
“If she hasn’t told me about this, I can’t exactly go to her and talk to her about it without giving away that Tarnk told you what happened and then told me. Unless you told others?” I ventured hopefully.
“We haven’t, but there have been others who were offered a chance at something similar from her.
She offered herself up to Berkr’s wrath first. He told Kirch so we’d be prepared if and when it happened,” Mina admitted.
Running a hand through her long, reddish brown hair, she mumbled, “This shit is actually keeping me up at night.” A small, incredulous laugh escaped her.
“I mean, is that why she hacked off all her hair? I know why she said she did it but… I can’t help but wonder. ”
“She won’t talk about it. As far as she’s told me, she did it for a book,” I said simply.
Mina wasn’t a bad sort. She just did a shit thing and she sees it.
I can see that. Despite her extreme dislike of Dace, Mina truly seemed worried about Dace’s attempts to make amends for the crazy that happened in the past among the villagers affected by it.
“Just… please, if you can get through to her, try and find some way to talk her down from that ledge, huh?” Mina turned her worried, green eyes on me.
“If I can, I plan to,” I said simply.
“Thanks.” Mina nodded.
It was right about that time that the first caterwaul rent the air. Then, another one, followed by a third, a fourth, slowly devolving into child-like growls.
“That us,” Veck grumbled in way of excusing himself to take care of whatever madness was brewing.
“We should go help. They can get a little rowdy when they get going,” Mina murmured. Lifting a hand, she motioned over her shoulder.
“We go,” Tarnk rumbled out in what I took as a good-bye.
Turning as she started off with Tarnk, Mina tossed me a small smile. “I’m happy for you, for the both of you.” To Kehl, she teased, “I always wondered about you. This,” she mimed his horns, then the extended length chin hair and the thickened shoulder fur, “it suits you, Grumpy Mc Fabric Wizard.”
Kehl rolled his eyes at Mina, an action that made her laugh, grin, and point. “See! Kirch said you could do it! I knew he wasn’t funning me!”
Kehl rolled them again, making her crack up.
“Loving this new side of you, Kehlor! Celuk was right! Your Pru brings out the best in you!” she called out as she hurried off.
“Celuk say Kehl’ Purred-roo bring out beast in Kehl,” Tarnk mumbling corrected.
Mina laughed like Tarnk had just said the funniest thing. “Same thing, beast boy!”
“Meanie likes the eye rolleds. Gives them for Kirch,” Kehl told me. “Kehl watch, learn, do to Kirch too, ‘nnoy Kirch.”
“He’s very Rek-like, isn’t he?” I murmured.
Kehl nodded and let out a rumble that said and how.
Laughing, I turned to my mate. “Should we finish up here and head out?”
Kehl scooped me up, curled me close, and let out a roar loud enough to encompass the beings loosely gathered.
It was like a giant, Thanks for coming, bye now!