Gift

GiftWhen she woke, it was in a familiar bed in a familiar cabin, tucked beneath the quilt she’d grown inordinately fond of.Across the room, by the fire, Scout was bent over something, sewing with a large needle. Leather, then, probably. Nearby was her sword, bow and arrows, and several daggers. Like she was preparing for war. Lily’s breath hitched.Scout’s head snapped up, face intense but inscrutable as she stared at Lily. "Feeling better?"Lily flushed hot. "Yes. I’m sorry for acting like such a silly—""You acted like someone who had been betrayed and traumatized, like someone who was about to be raped and murdered," Scout said sharply, all but throwing aside whatever she was working on before striding across the room in that brisk, confident way of hers that Lily always caught herself staring after. "I’m sorry I added to that. Truly.""You didn’t," Lily said, looking at her before it was too much, dropping her gaze to where her hands clutched tightly at the quilt. "You have a right to privacy. Your reasoning was more than sound. I did take the news badly, after all. So you really are a wolf?" She shook her head, still hardly able to believe it."One hundred percent wolf, not a drop of human in my blood," Scout said with a sigh, sitting next to her on the bed as Lily swung her legs over the side. "My pack is not a nice one. Years ago, my father was meant to be married to a wild mage, but… well the short version is things went wrong, and the poor mage was wrongly thrown out. When that mage returned years later, bound to a different pack, drama ensued. My father rightfully lost the fight, and in the aftermath was even more rightfully left disgraced and humiliated."I was born some years after all of that, and by then the pack was even worse, instead of learning a single damned thing. One night he got so drunk and violent that my mother…" Scout’s mouth flattened. "She didn’t survive. She might have, if anybody at all had stood up to him, helped us. I was recovering for weeks after that, and I spent still more weeks off in the woods, hiding and training. When I returned I challenged him, ripped out his fucking throat, and then told all of them to go fuck themselves before taking my meager belongings and leaving. I was seventeen.""Still so young…" Lily said, looping her arms around Scout’s arm and leaning into her, offering what pathetically little comfort she could. Still a child. No adult should have to endure so much pain and anguish, let alone a child. "What did you do after that?""I wandered, down into the lowlands and across the continent. Honed my skills hunting and tracking, eventually found myself a royal knight in the kingdom of Barden, the land of the Black Mountains. Was there for nearly eight years, after five of travel. Retired after a rather nasty encounter with an ogre that took me six months to recover from, traveled again until I settled here about two years ago."That would make Scout at least thirty-two. Lily was twenty-three. So Scout was at least nine years older than her, and probably more like eleven or twelve.Why did she care? What did that matter? It didn’t matter, she was just focusing on stupid little details to avoid the greater issues."I’m so sorry," she said softly. "No one should have to endure so much pain, and now if the rest of those stupid wolves learn of you they’ll come after you explicitly, not just because you’re still stuck with me.""I’m not stuck with you," Scout said with a huff.Lily rolled her eyes, but didn’t budge from her cozy spot, though she wouldn’t mind wrapping around more than Scout’s arm—Nope, not doing that. She had enough impossible problems to handle without adding hopelessly pining and lusting after a wolf-knight-woodcutter who was most definitely stuck with her."So how did you come by the name Scout, Lady Farahild?""Away with that nonsense," Scout said with a snorting laugh, pulling free and playfully pushing Lily down on the bed, twisting slightly to be able to look at her. "I was a good tracker, always being sent out on scouting and retrieving missions. Eventually it stuck. No one has called me Farahild in years. Even back when they did, they shortened it to Fara."Lily smiled as she pushed to rest on her elbows. "Fara. It suits you. But I can see where you probably want as little to do with your old pack as possible. But if you’re going to match name to profession, you should pick a tree. Oak. Maple. Pine."Scout rolled her eyes and dropped one of the pillows on her head before standing. "I see you’ve recovered just fine, princess. Come on, we need to pack. I want to head off at first light.""Head off for where? Not the palace, surely.""Really?" Scout asked.Lily huffed—and then rolled her eyes at herself. "The ruins. I finally am going to be permitted to go to the ruins, mistress?""Someone clearly slept well to be so feisty," Scout drawled. "Get up and help me pack." She sighed as she stood over the open space in the floor, hands on her hips. "This will take days of work to fix, those stupid clods." She scrubbed her hands through her hair. "They couldn’t just open the door, they had to take a fucking mallet to my floor? Do they have any idea how hard it is to lay a floor?"Lily giggled and at the exasperated look Scout sent her dissolved into outright laughter. "That’s what has you annoyed? Not the kidnapping, not them bringing up your past so rudely, your floor. I will pay for your new floor, I will hire people to come out and do it for you, so you can just stand here scowling and telling them everything they’re doing wrong." She pushed to her feet, but just wound up sitting right back down she was laughing so hard."Brat," Scout grumbled. "I’m going to go check on the horses. Make yourself useful."Still snickering as Scout vanished from sight, Lily stood more successfully and braided her hair back before smoothing out her rumpled clothes and setting to work. There wasn’t much she could do around where the floor had been destroyed, especially since beneath the gap was a not insignificant drop, but she worked around it tidying up the rest of the mess the wolves had made, and looking over what Scout had already taken out for the trip. Which looked like it would keep them for several days. Surely they wouldn’t be trekking through the woods that long? How far away could the ruins possibly be?The door opened and Lily whipped around, heart in her throat—and relaxed, inwardly rolling her eyes at herself, as she registered Scout entering and walking over to her. "How are the horses?""Fine, happier than with their former owners, that’s for sure," Scout said. "Not that improving on those reprobates would be hard. But here, with one thing and another, I forgot I bought these for your while I was in town. Not suitable for a queen, I know, but…""Of course it’s suitable for a queen," Lily said, taking the beautiful, soft leather bag that Scout held out. It was worn, clearly secondhand, but beautifully stitched with flowers along the sides and edges of the flap, the kind of satchel favored by messengers, runners, other people who delivered papers and small packages all over the city and kingdom.It was also filled with something. Opening it, Lily pulled out the neatly folded clothes within. Shirts that were closer to her size, a beautiful skirt, the kind with slits in the sides to allow for more movement, riding horseback. Hose and even a petticoat. Sturdy boots that would actually fit her."I also saw this." As Lily looked up, Scout held out another bundle, this one wrapped in delicate tissue paper and tied with ribbon. Not secondhand. This had been bought at a fancy shop. Lily looked at Scout, then sat to properly open the gift.Opened, the tissue paper revealed a beautiful shawl, woven from soft, delicate green wool and embroidered all over with lily of the valley and delicate blue butterflies. Lily’s vision blurred."Oh, no, is it that bad—"Laughing softly, Lily wiped her eyes and carefully set the shawl aside before surging to her feet and throwing her arms around Scout. "It’s the most beautiful thing I’ve ever seen.""I sincerely doubt that, princess," Scout said gruffly, hugging her back, "but I’m glad you like it. Made me think of you, for some mysterious reason."Lily laughed again, hugging Scout tightly before tilting her head up. "Thank you, for everything.""It’s my honor, my queen. Now come on, lots to do before we head out for your ruins and get you back where you belong."