Andrick had not spent much time with his daughter, in the wake of all that had happened. She hardly felt like his own, in truth. She was like some part of him that had been amputated, cut off and given life of its own.
But looking in her face was so similar to looking at his own, and there was a devilish light in her eye that was all too familiar from Isolde.
In the fields, he found her...young, but not incompetent.
"You fight as if you've had some training," he said, by way of roundabout compliment.
"Well, she has," Bhaskar interjected, perhaps a bit irritable at being ignored. He knew that Andrick was not wholly fond of him, relationship with the boy's mother being what it was. Still, it irked him. No one should dislike Bhaskar. "I took her and the boy out to practice, when no one was looking."
Andrick turned a surprised look on the coatl.
"Look, fella. I don't know what you lot are up to, and I probably don't want to. But they're just kids. I won't stand here knowing that they're going to their deaths unprepared."
The guardian looked at him as though seeing him for the first time, and then smiled, a quietly appreciative smile.
"Look! There they are!" Bula cried out, pointing, and sure enough -- there were the enemies.
They did not fight like a well-oiled unit by any means. Andrick's stash of stolen potions was running low, and his healing abilities required substantially more practice to be of any use at all. They had to fight cautiously, frequently retreating...but they got along better than he could have ever hoped. Andrick at the front line, slashing and striking with abandon; Bula bringing up the rear, attacking where he left openings. And Bhaskar, running about the flanks, flinging spells and dodging attacks.
Andrick caught himself smiling, then laughing with triumph.
And then the bolt came down, striking Bula. She staggered with the impact.
Andrick was too far to do anything about it. He wheeled around, snapping at an enemy with his tail, eyes wide in horror as a second attack prepared to come for her.
Like a blur of violet lightning, Bhaskar closed the gap. The attack hit him square in the chest and he reeled, casting off a final spell as he collapsed to the ground. Andrick leapt forward to finish the battle, dispatching of the beast they were fighting.
He found Bula on the ground, gently cradling the coatl's head, smoothing back feathers from his face.
"Bhaskar! Bhaskar, you idiot, what did you do that for?" Andrick bristled, but his desperation hid the depth of his gratitude.
"Told you. Just...kids. Not gonna...stand...for that," Bhaskar mumbled, and his eyes slid closed with a grimace of pain.
It took a long while to get his body back, both of them as exhausted and battle-weary as they were. Andrick was sick to his stomach. He who had underhandedly secured the deaths of his own nest-mates without batting an eye; how had he grown so sentimental?
But it was different.
Kindness from someone who does not owe you any kindness -- from someone whom you have shown only contempt -- will change a person. Where grief had previously forced his heart to harden and grow cold, Andrick felt something unbearably warm seething in his chest.
