Winterbound, Part 15 - Plan

"So Kimo was right?" Tiu's eyes were round and huge, food forgotten on the plate loosely held in her hands.

Anaya had been telling them everything. That Kaneq was lost, that she needed an anchor. That Anaya was the anchor. That they needed to figure out how to do that.

"Kimo is never right," Anaya said. Kimo let out a sound of protest.

"He said the dragon wanted something from you. He was right," Tiu was grinning now. "I was right. You're the dragon's chosen one!"

"Kimo knows nothing about dragons. Like the fact that they not only don't eat people, we live together, dependent on each other," she looked at Kimo, very pointedly. "And he was wrong about pretty much everything else too. She wasn't in town for me. It was a coincidence."

"But the dragon chose you," Tiu said. Anaya sighed.

"Fine. She did," Anaya admitted. "Although I'm not sure it's about choosing or about fate or just matching chemistry or what."

Tiu's eyes were practically glowing with excitement.

"So, now what? We need to find a way to anchor you two? How do we do that?" Madiza asked, her voice tight.

Anaya stared at her for a moment, stunned. She hadn't had time to ask Tiu yet what the deal was with Madiza's notebook and necklace. She'd need to do that as soon as they had a moment alone.

"We won't do anything," she finally said. "Me and Tiu and Kaneq are going after the anchoring magic. You and Kimo are going home."

That earned an outburst from both of them, and for a while the air was full of shouted, incoherent words drowning each other out.

"...the one who got you away from the school..."

"...I told you first you..."

"...we came all the way..."

"...we have the right to see this..."

Anaya simply stared at them until they stopped yelling. It didn't take that long. They ran out of things to say quite fast when no one was reacting to what they said.

"Kimo, you're good at fishing. I'll give you that," she said. "But the only other thing you've done is give us wrong information about dragons, slow us down, and make us have to feel responsible for someone who can't take care of himself but who we can't get rid of. You're a net burden. And you're just a child. You're going home."

"And you're just teenagers!" Kimo started but was promptly cut off by Madiza.

"I'm none of those things," she said. "I've been useful to the trip."

"That's true," Anaya said. "But you don't need to go. We can do the anchoring without you. And Kimo is going to poison himself all the way to dead or get eaten by a crocodile if we sent him home alone. Someone needs to go with him."

"So why does Tiu get to stay? If the dragon only needs you, Tiu can go home with us!"

"Because she's my anchor."

The others stared for a moment.

"Not the same way. But as long as me and Kaneq aren't properly anchored, it's going to be exhausting for me to talk to her, to share her vision. The whole mind link thing. And I need someone here to keep me connected to the real world."

"So why is it Tiu who gets to say? I could stay, and she could go home with the kid?"

"I could stay and you two could both go home," Kimo interjected. Everyone ignored him.

"Because, Madiza," Anaya said through clenched teeth, "She's been my friend for almost my whole life. And I actually like her."

The striken look that flashed on Madiza's face almost made Anaya feel bad for her words. Almost. And then the look already was gone, buried under anger.

"You wouldn't even be here if it wasn't for me," Madiza said. "I have just as much a right to be here as she does."

"We would be here if it wasn't for you. It may have not been as easy, but we would be here. We wouldn't be here without Tiu. And you don't have as much right to be here as we do. You weren't there when we first saw Kaneq in town..."

"I was there for the first time," Kimo tried.

"...and you weren't there when we made the plan. You just tagged along."

"You're not supposed to be here any more than I am," Madiza said, her anger flaring through almost uncontrolled now. "You decided to go after the dragon, I decided to go after the dragon, here we are. Just because you happen to be the dragon's chosen one, doesn't mean you were supposed to be here any more than I was. You didn't know there was a mental connection between you any more than I knew there isn't one."

"Well. We're all here now," Anaya said, stern. "And it turns out that, oh, I'm Kaneq's chosen one." How she hated the phrase, it was pure nonsense, but if they insisted on using it, she'd use it to win. "I promised her I'd help her home. She doesn't need any of you. I need Tiu and only Tiu to do what I promised. I don't want the rest of you there as distractions. So here's the chosen one's plan: tomorrow morning, Madiza and Kimo, you two are heading home. Tiu and I will go with Kaneq, find a way to anchor me, and help her get home."

A long, silent moment followed. Anaya could feel the anger radiating off of Madiza, and the disappointment off of Kimo, but neither of them seemed to know what more to say. The look on Tiu's face was mostly that of concern now, battling with an underlying layer of excitement. Anaya stared at Kimo and Madiza until they both turned away.

"Good," she then simply said, turning back to her supper.

It was an awkward rest of the evening. The feelings ran hot in the group the whole time, right under the surface. But everyone stuck to silence, so it never boiled over again.

Eventually the awkward evening turned into a restless night for Anaya, as she lay awake in her hammock, trying to sleep, listening to the sounds of the firest at night.

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We've reached a point where I have very little control over these characters anymore. So that's.. probably not great?

The topic for tomorrow is Brink.