The Tsuki Saga
Stakes at Dawn
At the north wing Kinella took first watch while the other four slept. She sat, silently, waiting for the sound that she would hear so much before anyone else. Smotty and Sven tried to sleep but could not. They lay for a while saying nothing, but then got up. They paced around for a while. Kinella smiled and spoke. "Nervous?" she enquired. "A little," Sven conceded. "Very" Smotty was visibly worried. Kinella looked at him. "What is your problem, my friend?" Smotty reddened, "Well," he coughed, "It's just, I tend to, er, smottify spells, when I cast them." Kinella laughed, "how, what goes wrong?" she asked. "Well, I," smotty reddened more, "I tend to cast peas instead of flames. I cast warm breezes instead of hurricanes, it hardly ever works." Sven butted in, "But when it goes right, it really goes right!" he went on to explain some of Smotty's more successful attempts at spellcasting. Once the tale was finished, he asked her a few polite questions. Then, "So, how exactly are you related to Tsuki?" Kinella shook her head, "I'm not able to say, only Tsuki and her mother know exactly how she became. Whether she was bitten, born or what we don't know. Perhaps one day she will tell us." After this they decided to try to sleep a while, and so Kinella woke Krallay for second watch.
On the East wing, in one of the small rooms with a door leading to the outside, Mann, Calder, and the two elves were sitting. Lienad was on watch, but was chatting to Shirrol. "I'm not sure about this," Shirrol began, "We shouldn't kill, but it's just..." Lienad interrupted, "It's just that we owe something to these people. And we all have something in common. We are all outcasts, you, me, Ginny, just not wanted by our people." He shook his head, not so much sad as lonely-looking. He gazed out of the window. "I wonder what it's like to be an elf?" he sighed and shook his head again, "Go to sleep Shirrol, I'll wake you later." Then he wandered to the other end of the room. Shirrol watched him for a few moments and then settled down, it was no good reasoning with a stubborn elf!
Tsuki told Shalnek she would take first watch. They were in the alcove over the main doors. He sat in the corner and tried to sleep. He couldn't. Like everyone else, he was nervous. Tsuki smiled at him. "Don't worry," she said calmly, "They won't do much for now. There's something odd about this. I think father may be involved." Shalnek looked up in interest. Tsuki continued. "Mother was meant to kill father. I don't think she did. I think she got scared. He's not that strong, but then neither is she now." She looked at Shalnek again. Her eyes were a placid peach colour and she looked quite sweet. She looked back at him. "Mere humans. They're interesting folks. I had never met a real true-blooded human before I met you and your knightly counterpart." She sighed. "weak, uncomplicated for the most part. But not you, you are different than what the books said. You are just as complex and intriguing as any of my vampire and shape-shifting friends, even the evil and clever ones." Shalnek looked as if he may take offence at these words so Tsuki silenced herself. But then she could not stop one more offer, "I could make you strong. I could make you...but...No, I shouldn't have offered. I, I'm sorry." She turned her back on him. "Go to sleep." She told him bluntly.
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