When she sparred with Harou was the only time she harbored any regrets for being born as a townie. Had she been born in the pack, she would be a much more experienced fighter by now.
The pair of wolves lay in the leaf litter beneath the trees after their practice and allowed themselves to cool off. If they shifted back to human form while still hot and worked up, they would start sweating. Calista didn’t want the fact that she was training to fight to be common knowledge, so they always tried to cool off before shifting back. She felt being underestimated worked in her favor right now. But if the day ever came that she could take Harou down, nothing would be able to stop her from bragging about it!
When they were ready, they shifted, dressed, and headed back to the house. Harou swept and dusted the house while Calista made rolls to go with the fish stew, and they waited for the rest of the family to come home.
Fridolf Hemming returned home with his eldest son to be greeted by his youngest son and youngest daughter and fresh, hot fish stew and rolls. He was overjoyed!
“Where is Ulva? Orfilia?” he asked.
Calista shrugged. Fridolf sighed.
“Ulva is probably with her fiance. She should be home soon in that case, as it’s important they not appear unseemly to the humans. Orfilia should be home shortly. It’s not safe for her to be out past dark when the lycan pack has been targeting young females,” Fridolf said, giving Calista a sharp look. Calista shrugged again.
“I don’t go out after dark. If someone is sick or injured, they must come here.”
“Good. I don’t want anything to happen to my girls,” Fridolf said, cupping Calista’s face, his amber eyes meeting her hazel ones. He brushed a stray strand of her silver hair and sighed. He raked his hands through his brown hair, streaked red from the sun.
“You look so much like Daciana,” he whispered. Calista looked away, and swallowed a lump rising in her throat.
“I miss her. And I wish I could’ve met Chann,” she said quietly. Fridolf pulled his daughter into a hug.
“You blame yourself, but you shouldn’t. You were just a child, and had barely begun your training. There was nothing you could’ve done to help your mother and little brother. Women and babies die in childbirth sometimes, even if everyone does their best. Even if they’re lycans.”
Calista took a deep breath and let the tension out of her shoulders and relaxed into her father’s hug. It was always hard for her to talk about her mother. Her father was right; she blamed herself for not being a skilled enough healer to help her mother with the difficult birth. He was also right about the other part; there was nothing a ten year-old girl could reasonably have done about it. It was just hard to get her logical side and her emotional side to sync up.
Calista turned towards the kitchen when Fridolf released her from the hug. She moved to serve supper, but paused, hearing voices at the front door. She moved past her father and opened the door, just in time for her two older sisters to come in.
“Oh! What smells so good?” Ulva asked, sniffing the air.
“Harouuuuu!” Orfilia ran to give her big brother a hug.
Bardoul put his hands on his hips.
“Just ignore me why don’t ya?” he quipped.
“I’ll hug you, big brother,” Ulva said, pulling him into a hug.
“I’m sorry, Bardoul,” Orfilia said, genuinely contrite. “I didn’t see you behind Papa. But I probably would’ve hugged Harou first anyway, because I don’t get to see him as much!”
Bardoul chuckled.
“I’ve hugged my big brother, now I want to hug my little brother!” Ulva said, grabbing the much taller lycan and dragging him down into a hug that was deliberately uncomfortable for him. Harou put on a patient smile and let her ruffle his hair.
“Should I pull on your lovely brown curls, since you ruffled my hair?” He teased. “I think you’ve spent too much time in the sun, you have red streaks like Papa does.”
“I always have red streaks,” Ulva sniffed, pushing Harou away. “My red and brown hair matches my wolf fur!”
“The humans don’t know that.”
“They also don’t care,” Orfilia interjected, fluffing her chin-length red hair. “Most human women wear their hair long, but they compliment my short cut. They don’t consider it normal, but they don’t seem to mind.”
“They care about my hair color,” Calista added wryly, running a hand down one of her long, silver braids.
“At least you’re not the only one with silver hair,” Ulva offered sympathetically.
“Many of them remember Mama. They don’t think poorly of it,” Calista admitted. “It still makes me feel singled out, though.”
“They single you out because you are beautiful!” Fridolf insisted.
“How about we have that fish stew now? Calista and I spent all afternoon working on it!” Harou said, giving Calista a wink.
“Sounds good to me!” Bardoul said, brushing past his siblings towards the kitchen to help serve. Harou headed for the dining room with Calista to set the table. Fridolf took Ulva and Orfilia on each arm and walked with them to the dining room to sit, doting on them all the while.
The next morning, Calista hesitantly approached Fridolf.
“Papa?”
“Yes, my beauty?” he looked up from his book and smiled fondly at her.
“I’ve been feeling… a bit overworked lately,” she began, “Ulva is busy courting, and Orfilia is busy, um…” she trailed off, unsure what her middle sister was actually doing with her time.
“She’s been busy,” Fridolf nodded. “One of the human matrons has taken her under her wing and has been teaching her womanly… things,” the senior lycan shrugged awkwardly. Calista sighed softly.
“Yes, sure, that. But with you and Bardoul traveling for business, and Harou away for military duty, I’m home alone a lot. I’m having a bit of trouble keeping up with the cooking and cleaning, on top of my duties as healer and maintaining the garden.”
“Ah, I see. Well, that’s alright. Prioritize your duties first. As long as you remember to eat, I don’t mind if the cooking and cleaning fall behind a bit,” Fridolf said, pulling Calista down so she was bracing her arms on his leg, so he could stroke her silky, silver hair.
Calista frowned. She wasn’t sure what she was expecting. She looked up at him.
“Don’t you think Ulva and Orfilia should practice cooking and cleaning? They can’t hire human maids, so they’ll have to tend to those responsibilities in their own homes.”
“Oh, don’t worry about your sisters. When the time comes, they’ll make it work. They don’t enjoy domestic work like you do. I want them to enjoy themselves while they can,” Fridolf dismissed her concerns and fondly patted Calista’s cheek.
Calista sighed and got to her feet. She gave her father a strained smile.
“Very well. I’ll do my best.”
“Yes, you always do,” Fridolf beamed. “I’m so proud of you! You have so much of your mother in you! Your brothers and I will do some extra chores when we’re home, so you just focus on what you need to focus on.”
Calista ducked her head and left her father’s study. She sighed and massaged her temples. He didn’t understand, and she didn’t know how to explain it to him without sounding whiny. He was married to her mother for nearly two decades, yet he somehow didn’t realize the house needed to be pristine since sick and injured lycans came for treatment. If she cooked only for herself, her sisters would whine and moan about being hungry, and insist they couldn’t cook because it would dirty their fine dresses.
The house was big! Calista had trouble keeping up on cleaning all of it on her own. She couldn’t even skip the empty guest rooms, as sometimes the sick and injured needed a bed until they healed. The house had been specifically built to serve that purpose, and so the guest rooms all opened into a hallway along the outside wall of the house, rather than the main hall in the center of the house. The outer hallway had doors leading out into a nice courtyard adjacent to the room where she made and stored her herbal remedies. It was as much a clinic as a house.
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