How Familiar - 8. Larissa - Protector

Larissa Willow

"Oh!" Ronan dismounted from his Pegasus to investigate the sound of running water. Larissa sighed impatiently. She knew this mission would not be an easy one, but the young Prince was experiencing just about everything for the first time. He was excitable and inquisitive, and although it was a major inconvenience, she did not have the heart to stop him. He'd been a prisoner for far too long.

"It's only a waterfall," Larissa followed him, but when she found him, he was standing underneath the trickle, letting it soak his long, auburn curls and his oddly white skin with a huge grin on his cute, gaunt face.

"This is amazing!" Ronan giggled, using his fingers to catch the water as it trickled from the rocks above and letting it fall on his face. "Is all of Iralia so beautiful?"

Larissa couldn't help but smile at the boy's folly. Eager to be part of the fun, Lorcan splashed into the shallow water as well, getting his dirty green servant's outfit wet as he joined his friend in the stream. We are well concealed within the cover of the Forest of Night, she thought. We have been making quite a lot of distance, and it's tiring out both Peeta and Timi. They could use a rest, and frankly, these children could use a little bit of fun. Lorcan's Falcon had not found any pursuers nearby. The skies were clear. It was safe, she decided. Just for a little while.

"Shouldn't we keep moving?" Viv asked, perpetually terrified and her small grey cat purring on her lap. "What if she catches us?"

"If the Queen could catch us, she would have done so by now," Larissa explained, but she was not speaking the full truth.

The Queen and the Princess rode Griffins. The only thing stopping the Royal Family from catching up with Larissa and her children was the fact that they were well hidden. The reply calmed Viv, who seemed happy to stay by Timi the silver Pegasus. It wasn't as though Viv was just overly paranoid, though. If Queen Ninon managed to get custody of the four of them, all but Prince Ronan would be put to death. Warrick already suffered that fate, something that haunted Larissa both during the day and in her dreams at night.

"I think you could use a bit of a bath, too!" Larissa teased Peeta, who snorted through her nostrils.

I will use this time to sleep. If you want to bathe in a stream with those children, be my guest, she replied grumpily and turned her head away, closing her massive black eyes.

I'm sorry about this, sweetheart, Larissa gently stroked between Peeta's eyes - the place the rhinoceros loved it most, and she could sense Peeta's love for her. We are night and day, but we are still one. We'll get to Ulisse, and we'll be free. Timi can keep us safe.

Yes, yes, Peeta opened one enormous black eye to peer at her. Leave me be if you will. I would be grateful for sleep wherever I can find it.

Of course, Larissa kissed her and did as she was bid, walking along the wild grass and mossy soil underfoot to supervise the children.

Ronan was freshly sixteen, but he may as well have been six years old. Having lived vicariously through his brothers' beasts for so long, he was finding out for himself how big the world really was. Lorcan was but a child himself, nine years old, and the two had become fast friends. Previously, Lorcan would only serve Ronan his evening meal, and Viv would bring the midday meal. The Prince had never been free to make friends before. Larissa often became sad when she thought of Ronan's life thus far. He was locked inside a bedchamber for sixteen years. No windows, no visitors - aside from the servants who would empty his privy and serve his tray. Only Timi, who currently seemed agitated and frustrated that Larissa would not permit to use his wings. The Pegasus could not be seen if it could be helped. He would give us away, and Larissa firmly told Ronan and Timi that they were not to fly.

"Your hair will take until tomorrow to dry!" Larissa told Ronan, who could sit on the ends of his curls if he was not careful. She did not know whether Ninon neglected to cut his hair or Ronan grew it long by choice. It was beautiful, though. Any Princess in the known continent would kill scores of common folk to have hair so red and so flawless.

"Does it matter?" Ronan and his clothes were soaking wet by now. Perhaps that's a good thing, Larissa thought with a smile. We've been on the run for quite a while. We don't exactly smell like roses, especially as we head north and the weather gets warmer. Perhaps I could use a shower under the waterfall as well.

"Hey!" Larissa squealed when Lorcan, the cheeky devil, splashed her with a handful of cold stream water. "If you do that again, you're walking for the rest of the day!"

"Eep!" Lorcan covered his mouth with an amber-coloured hand, his dark eyes full of mischief, when Ronan followed his example and splashed him with the water from the stream.

"Oh, you boys," she muttered when it escalated into a war between the two of them, laughing and splashing, and eventually Lorcan tackled Ronan, the two of them briefly submerged underneath the surface. "I'll just be down here, Viv."

Larissa strolled a little way down the stream until she was far enough away not to be disturbed by the boys, hidden by shrubs, and she slid off her tunic, tights and boots, leaving her clad only in her brassiere and undergarments. She slipped her feet into the cold water and sighed, unpinning her long, chestnut hair and letting it fall over her shoulders. Although she had been saddled on Peeta's back during the journey, that did not mean it wasn't taking a toll on her. Peeta was not comfortable to ride upon, and sleeping without a feathered bed was something she wasn't yet getting used to. Lorcan and Viv, who slept on beds of straw in the servants' quarters, had no trouble drifting off wherever they were whether the ground was soft, hard or even rocky. Ronan slept in the wings of his Pegasus and always woke terrified and confused, afraid he would be alone, locked in that room once more. Larissa had to repeatedly remind him that he would never be a prisoner again.

It was nice to have some time to herself, no matter how brief. She was used to solitude. It was her and Peeta most often. Men courted her, and she entertained them out of respect, but she did not seek a husband. I have two children already, she thought to herself. Viv and Lorcan. They may not have come from my womb, but they are mine. Besides, Peeta is a handful already. If I birthed them, we would have two more rhinos like her! I don't believe I could cope!

She gradually submerged herself in the stream, one foot deep and the rocks underneath smoothed by the water, and she slowly began to wash. Her hair was greasy and unsightly, but it did not matter. She was committing high treason and escorting a stolen Prince to the northern Islands. She did not have to look presentable to do so, although her employer had expressed interest in perhaps getting to know her better once her side of the bargain was done. Maybe, she thought. He was a handsome Ulissen man.

Viv's loud scream alerted her. She did not know whether the girl skinned her knee or whether some bandit was cutting her throat, but she sprang into action immediately, not even bothering to get dressed. She emerged, dripping clear, clean water from her hair and clothes, picked up her trusty dagger from the ground and sidled around the shrubs to see what was happening.

What's going on? She asked Peeta, who grunted audibly in the distance.

Birds, Peeta grumbled back to her. Half a dozen.

That wasn't a good sign, Larissa knew. There were no animals in Ytia that were not Familiars bound by soul to Humans. If there were birds in the forest, then there were likely people not far away. Six or so? That was more than Larissa could handle on her own - although, Peeta would have little trouble skewering and trampling a few bandits or tribespeople. Timi, too, an enormous flying Pegasus, was more dangerous than perhaps he or Ronan knew. Lorcan's falcon had been using his keen eyes to forage for fruit and berries as much as scout for danger, but that Falcon was capable of killing some birds, no doubt. He was a big falcon, nearly a third the size of the boy he was linked to. We kill the birds, then their Humans die with them, and they won't be a problem. Ronan, sopping wet, was holding onto Timi's leg, and Lorcan hiding behind the Prince. Oh, Lorcan. Viv would be more apt to protect you than Ronan would. Viv was hiding behind the Pegasus. Larissa could not see any people, but she saw the birds. Doves. White doves. Five, she counted. Perhaps a sixth was lurking around somewhere.

"Lorcan," Larissa whispered as she approached, wary of an ambush. The Queen's soldiers? Bandits? Maybe other people fleeing from Iralia's harsh laws. "We need Jorge to scare those birds away. Whoever it is will not risk losing their Familiar to yours."

"Kay," Lorcan's eyes rolled into the back of his head, and he went very still.

Viv was weeping and Ronan trembling. Timi, the enormous great coward, was shaking as well, his giant wings curled around himself. If only I could have liberated Princess Melicent instead of this weak, broken boy. She would have sent her Griffin to devour any and all foreign Familiars and not given a damn who died in the process. Peeta was on alert, though. I can always count on her to do the dirty work. Jorge's angry battle cry inspired terror as he appeared from nowhere, shooting a million miles an hour from the sky and narrowly missing one of the doves with his great talons. The threat seemed to work, and the doves scattered, all fleeing to the east. I don't know who they belonged to, Larissa thought, but we're not safe here.

"Oh! My Lady!" Ronan spluttered, shielding his eyes with his hands when he saw her.

"They're just breasts, Ronan," Larissa rolled her eyes and straightened her back, loosening her iron grip on her weapon. She made no effort to cover herself - her brassiere was wet and clung to her, but she still gave nothing away. The boy's modesty was ridiculous. "Your mother had them, as did your wetnurse. We need to leave. We don't know who those birds belonged to. They may have been scouts from the Woods People or the Queen's eyes. I'll put my clothes on, and we'll be on our way."

I should have just gone in the stream naked, she thought sadly, realising how short-sighted she had been. There was minimal sunlight in the Forest of Night - that's where it got its name. Her clothes would take a long time to dry. Trees of varying heights blanketed the soft, damp ground underneath from the rays of the sun with a sea of leaves, and Larissa intended to exploit their advantage by travelling as far north via the Forest as she could. Although fruit grew plentiful in the Forest of Night and they were never short for food, Larissa was missing the meals Lorcan, Viv and Warrick would serve to her daily. Warrick. Poor thing. I couldn't protect him. Once dressed, Larissa took little time in hopping back up on Peeta. Again, both Viv and Lorcan opted to ride Timi, the much more impressive beast. I can hardly blame them, Larissa thought. Peeta isn't exactly a people pleaser.

"I feel like we're being watched," Viv complained, snuggling her cat as it mewed its displeasure. "I hate this forest."

"I feel it too," Lorcan agreed, Jorge circling overhead and acting as their eyes but catching nothing, it seemed. "We can't see anybody, but I know they can see us."

"No!" Ronan whimpered, clutching closer to Timi. Dear lord. All her life, Larissa had been a potential wife for Princes, both foreign and Iralian. She knew them only as gallant, brave warriors. Ronan was a weak, sad, lonely little thing. Ninon did him and Melicent both a grave injustice by treating him so horribly for so long. He was broken.

"We're quite safe, I assure you," Larissa lied. She could deal with dangerous people, but she could not deal with hysterical children. "Peeta, Timi and Jorge can keep us safe and well."

"What about Jeannie?" Viv asked, looking to her small, grey cat in her arms. Pfft.

"Jeannie isn't going to save us from an attack, sweetheart," Larissa told her, holding onto Peeta's saddle as they descended a slippery hill. "But she sure is cute." Larissa could feel eyes on her, too. It wasn't just the children being paranoid.

Do you see anything? She asked Peeta, who grunted in disagreement.

No, but we best be on guard, Peeta replied, ever the soldier. Keep your eyes and ears open. We are indeed not alone here.

As though on cue, Larissa heard something flying through the air, and before she knew it, a bolt hit her in the side. As she was without armour, it pierced the skin of her abdomen, and she fell off Peeta, who roared in a fury and the echoed pain from her Human's wound. The children screeched in terror. Larissa got to her feet, but there were bandits everywhere. Scavengers and heartless, ruthless people who would kill anyone for a mug of ale. She gripped her silver dagger, but her right arm was twisted behind her and the blade stolen. She used her left elbow to hit her attacker in the side of the head, but there was someone else in front of her. A woman, tall and strong with a look of fierce brutality in her green eyes. She attempted to slice with her machete, but Larissa used her forearm to bat the woman's attacking hand away and hit her face with the palm of her other hand. The woman's nose broke, and blood spurted from the wound.

She then twisted her body to the side and kicked the woman in the lower abdomen with the heel of her loaded boot. Many of the Iralian Ladies wore leather boots with steel in the heels and toes for just an occasion, and Larissa was pleased she had such foresight to wear them. The woman attacking her doubled over in pain, and Larissa sprung and kicked her in the face with the steel toes of her boot. That was it for her. The woman, bleeding from the nose and mouth, fell unconscious onto the cold, slimy grass of the Forest of Night. The other attacker, the same one she elbowed in the head, attempted to jump her from behind, but Larissa heard the attack and parried, grabbing the man's arm with her hand and twisting it, forcing him to turn around. She then used her closed fist to brutally bunch the man's face, then brought her knee up to smash the side of his head and he went down as well. Someone's fist of steel hit Larissa in the face just then, and she tasted blood from the cut in her cheek, her vision splitting briefly into two.

Dazed, she staggered, and the woman who punched her tried to do so again, but Larissa was trained in combat since she could walk. She instinctively parried her blow with her hand and grabbed the smaller woman's arm, twisted and threw her body over her own. The woman hit the ground hard, and Larissa retained her grip on the attacker's wrist, turning and snapping her arm over her shoulder, breaking the woman's elbow over her strong shoulder and eliciting a scream of pure agony from her victim. Another man swung his knife at her. Larissa dodged it and swung a roundhouse kick at his head, but the man ducked underneath her heavy boot and grabbed her, holding her arms prisoner with his own behind her. Larissa struggled and shouted, but there was no escape from this man's grip. She heard a feline squeal, though, and suddenly, the man weakened his hold.

Larissa took that opportunity to spin around. That cat, Jeannie, had leapt at the attacker and stuck her claws in, causing enough pain for the man to falter. Larissa gripped the man by the throat and kicked him square between the legs, and out of nowhere, Peeta charged with the speed of Jorge himself and stuck the man through the chest with her horn. When Larissa looked around, she saw that Peeta and Jorge had killed two of the bandits while she'd been busy fending for herself, and all the attackers were dead or knocked out - with exception of one. The remaining woman screamed, her broken arm causing her pain. Good!

"What the hell did you think you were doing?" Larissa screamed at the one woman who was neither dead nor unconscious. The Iralian Lady was bleeding from the abdomen and the mouth from the attack, and she was sure she had a slight concussion. For all that, this woman deserved to die.

"Fuck you!" The bandit screamed back in between cried of anguish.

"Oh, no!" Larissa grabbed the broken arm and shook it as best she could, rattling the broken bone and causing the woman to scream in pure agony. "Why did you attack us?" She looked to see the three children. Ronan, Lorcan and Viv. The three were fine, it seemed. The bandits attacked the one person who could pose a threat to them, and they'd paid a grand price for their idiocy.

"Stop! I'll talk!" The ugly woman begged, and Larissa let up on her arm. She found her dagger on the grass where it fell and held it to the woman's throat.

"Talk. Were they your birds we saw earlier?" Larissa threatened her, holding the sharp point to the jugular vein.

"The Queen has a bounty for your head!" The woman explained, gasping in pain with every breath. "We only wanted to collect and return the Prince! Gold and a position in the Iralian Guard for whoever brought Prince Ronan home!"

"Well, that wasn't very smart, was it?" Larissa taunted her, poking and breaking the skin of the woman's neck with the point of her dagger. Blood began to leak slowly from the wound. "Who else is coming for us?"

"I don't know! Many people!" The woman was beginning to cry. "Please! We thought we'd collect on the reward! This isn't personal!"

"Hmph," Larissa leered into the woman's desperate eyes. "You won't make that mistake again, I suppose?"

"No, my Lady!" The woman panted and begged. "Please don't kill me! I was only trying to do right by Queen Ninon!"

"Then you're as crazy as she is!" Larissa withdrew her weapon and got to her feet, wincing in agony. "Which of you shot me?"

"Quann, my Lady," she replied quickly. "But that beast killed her for it."

"Well, Peeta always does like to do things her way," Larissa thought aloud. "What am I to do with you?"

"Don't hurt her!" Ronan begged from behind, holding Timi tightly. "Please don't. She is no threat to us anymore."

"I'm not!" The woman agreed with him. "Please grant me mercy."

"If I see you again," Larissa breathed angrily into the dark-skinned woman's ear. "I will stick you in the spine. I will paralyse you and let Peeta have her fun with you. She has a wicked imagination."

"Yes! I'm sorry!" The woman scrambled away, her dove circling her, calling out in pain. "Spare us! I beg you!"

"You're lucky I'm not my Familiar," Larissa shouted after her, turning and hopping up on Peeta's back. She admired the blood staining the beast's horn. "She would so happily kill all of you if I gave her the word. Go and spread the word to any others who wish to claim the Prince. He is not in the Forest of Night. He has fled to Odesh to be with his distant relatives. Do you understand me? I do not wish to drain people of their life's blood, but Ronan is mine, and I will send anyone who seeks him to their graves!"

The woman fled, her arm dangling uselessly by her side. Did I make the right decision by letting her live? Peeta will not think so, she thought, but Ronan will. Peeta is linked to me no matter what I do. Ronan is not. He can fly off on that Pegasus of his the moment he wishes it. I need to keep his trust.

"She killed them!" Ronan's face was covered in his wet auburn curls, but Larissa could still see the fear in his deep blue eyes. "Peeta! She killed them!"

Naive little Prince, Peeta thought, blood coating her horn and face. This is Iralia. This is the way of things. Only the strong survive.

"She had to, young Ronan," Larissa did not address him as a Prince because she did not want him thinking he had any authority in this little party. She winced as she yanked the bolt from her body and cried out in pain. "They were... going to kill us... for you!"

"Here, my Lady!" Viv took off her outermost woollen coat and used it to stifle the blood flow.

Larissa trusted Viv. She had basic medical training. She was a valuable member of their party. All of us are, in our own unique way. Lorcan provides Ronan with almost a brotherly bond, and Jorge is ever valuable. Even Jeannie, the cat, proved herself of worth, harassing the attacker who managed to get the better of the Iralian Lady mercenary and allowing her to turn the tide against him. No person is without worth. No Familiar, either. We all serve a purpose, after all.

After the wound stopped bleeding and they had travelled several hours north from the stream, Larissa decided it was time to stop and make camp. Her sack of fruit, full of apples, berries, grapes and mandarines, filled the bellies of both Human and Familiar alike. Peeta had a big appetite, so she feasted mostly on the grass and moss underfoot, as did Timi, but each gratefully ate a small share of fruit as well. Viv's cat did not much like fruit. Ever since the eating of Human and Familiar alike had been outlawed in all of Ytia by decree of the Goddess herself, as far as the legends went, former carnivores made do with soup and broth. Ronan ate very little, though. In the very dim light of the Forest of Night after sunset, she could see Ronan scared and shaking with his Pegasus. Larissa felt a wave of compassion flooding her, and she went to him.

"I'm sorry you had to see that," Larissa told him, putting her arm around him. He was damp, and his long hair still wet from his bath in the stream earlier, and he was shivering with cold.

"They died because of me," Ronan wept, leaning into her and letting her cuddle him with her warmer body. "Why does it have to be me?"

"The answer is not to think about it," she brushed the hair from his face. "A tall order, I know, but you will soon be with Orion in the warm, free Islands of Ulisse. You will be safe and happy there. Ulisse is the safest place in Ytia. Ninon will never be able to to reach you there. Prince Soren will visit, too, and the three of you can finally be together. Think about that instead."