Dragon Kin 2

18

Carmen

After breakfast, I repacked my patient's wound. The wound and Alicja appeared to be much happier with the world at large this morning. Of course I could have been projecting my own mood. "You can move around, but the only time we really heal is when we are asleep. So, get as much rest in as you can." I told her.

I found Vlad waiting in the outer area near the throne room. The Manor's size teased the mind because it seemed so much larger inside than what you see when you approach. This is a trick of the architecture, as the structure spills back over the edge of the eastern side, into a four story building going down the hillside.

"Anything you can show a new girl that won't get her in trouble?" I asked.

He smiled and bobbed his head, "I believe we can entertain you for a time. Not everything is secret here." He wrapped his arm around me and guided us out into the city.

Walking with his arm around me was a new and wondrous thing. I had never before had a man claim me like this, on any level. It felt like everyone else would see us and know that I was his. And that felt good. To my grandfather I was an add-on. An added name after introductions were made. When introductions were made with Vlad, I was the only one of import.

We went down into the city. We couldn't go too far because I needed to check my patient after lunch and that night as well. It was nice to get outside and to see the place alive. Bright colors were everywhere, mostly canary yellows and hummingbird reds. Festive blues waved over primary pinks. The wind supported kites and flags, and the people wore a spectrum of colors. From somber to bright. Wearing cloth from heavy to sheer.

It was difficult to place them as a society into a time line of my earth. They had and used gas and electricity to good effect, though they didn't seem to have much interest in automating or mechanizing their tasks. He told me about the gun issue, and now that I had time to think of it, that bespoke of how they looked at other advancements in living. It truly seemed to be a society that looked before it leaped, but when it leaped, it committed.

Of course I was just walking down the street on flagstone paved roads, having no idea of the history it took to pave them.

Looking up to Vlad I asked, "What is it you want? There is quite a life here, on the surface. Where is it you are going?"

He looked puzzled and then uncertain.

I leaned against him and chided playfully, saying, "What? Haven't given that much thought?"

"Actually," he said, "I was up all night thinking about the answers to those questions."

"And what would the answers be if I wasn't around?" I asked.

"Before you?" he asked.

"Yes, the day before you met me, what were your plans?" I asked.

He lifted an eyebrow and his nostrils flared for just a moment. I wished I could sense him like he seemed to know me.

"I planned on doing one-hundred years in the service and then gaining my own baron-keep. From there into sciences I believe. That's where my interests have taken me several times now."

"Oh," I said, doing the math, and knowing I would be long dead beyond the first military service years. "What kind of sciences?"

"Physics, for starts. The math is an issue. But I'm learning," he said.

"Huh," I grunted, "so, you're doing this already, even though it is a hundred years away?"

"Well, yeah, I mean, that's the fun part, right?" he said, giving me a grin. "The learning and figuring."