Turning Point

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Saelen watched from the canopy as Xander swam through the surf. He marveled at how easily the younger siv moved through the water. Most siv didn’t swim, and none that he knew of were as good as Xander was. When he’d asked the youth about it, Xander had shrugged and said he’d always swum. Then he mentioned something about a weird swim team, but Saelen had no idea what he was talking about. Xander had offered to teach him and Pairdra how to swim, and even though they’d declined, he promised that the kids would know how. He was planning to take Mai’zi out after the building spree slowed down. For now, Xander went out into the sea to relax.

“He’s still out there?” Pairdra said, settling down next to Saelen.

“Yeah,” He murmured. Pairdra moved closer, leaning against his mate.

It had been several months since their unusual conversation with Xander regarding his place in their home. Since then, the youth had made every effort to act ‘normal’ around them, but they could tell that relations were strained. It saddened both of them that they might lose Xander as a friend and companion. The entire situation still confused both Saelen and Pairdra, and the few further attempts Xander had made to explain just garbled the situation even further.

One thing that Xander was adamant about was the kids. Both Hainien and Mai’zi were attached to all three of them, and Xander insisted that each of them take responsibility. In his mind, since the other two had accepted him taking them in, they were now their responsibility as well. It didn’t bother either Saelen or Pairdra; they loved all kids and these in particular. Xander was teaching them his peculiar dialect of human along with siv, which Saelen and Pairdra made sure was the same type that the Avrel mak spoke. Now that the three of them had adopted the kids, they were of their tree. It didn’t matter that they had been born into a different one; none of their parents’ family remained to claim them. That meant that the two were now fully a part of their new family.

Saelen and Pairdra had been spending more time with the kids lately, since their work had slacked off a little. Collecting raw materials was much faster work than building structures, and some of the most important types could only be stockpiled a little while. What the two of them were collecting, however, could be stored for months, and they’d built up quite a stockpile of the lumber they’d been working on. Xander, however, was still busy building. He’d promised, though, that he’d be getting a reprieve.

Actually, that was why Saelen was sitting at the edge of the forest, watching Xander swim up and down the shoreline. Xander had commented that today was the last day of work for him for more than a week—his long-awaited break had arrived. He’d told Saelen that he had a surprise for everyone, so he and Pairdra had decided to meet him here instead of waiting in the refugee camp.

Xander swam for more than an hour longer before finally leaving the water for the tree line. Saelen and Pairdra held back an excited Mai’zi as Xander clambered up to their perch. “Heya, kiddo. What’s up?”

“Nothin’,” Mai’zi answered with a giggle, mimicking Xander’s speech patterns.

“How was the swim?” Pairdra asked, shifting Hainien around to the other arm. The infant was getting heavy.

“It was fine, and yeah, we can go get the surprise now,” Xander said, knowing exactly why they were waiting for him. Sometimes people were so predictable.

Saelen grinned and followed Xander through the trees. They didn’t move very far in from the coast as they headed back toward the hold. Eventually they started seeing various building projects here and there, both above and below them. They left the more crowded areas, turning back toward the sea before stopping in front of a mostly-finished house.

“Well?” Xander said expectantly.

Pairdra looked up at the house. It was braced on three tall chzoel mak, wrapping partially around their trunks. Flowering vines crept around the house, adding color here and there He could see walkways built around the outside, coming together to join with one of the main trails that came out this far. “It’s very nice; did y’build on it?”

“Yeah, come on,” Xander replied, leading them into the structure. The inside was as impressive as the exterior; a large front room led to several smaller chambers and a set of stairs. Saelen was particularly impressed with the multiple floors; while they were common in Shaen, most of Ieccra had been single-story dwellings.

“Is this what y’ve been working on for the past month?” Saelen inquired, watching carefully as Xander moved with practiced ease through the house.

“Yup. Home sweet home,” Xander replied, looking around the room they were in.

“Home? Y’re going to live here?” Pairdra murmured. It was certainly large enough…for a lot of siv.

Xander looked at them out of the corner of his eye. “Um, yeah. There’s lots of room for the kids, y’guys…I like having a lot of space, y’know?”

Saelen looked back at Pairdra. Neither of them had been expecting Xander to want to live with them anymore, and had been waiting for him to find somewhere else to stay. “Yeah, I know,” Saelen replied softly.

Xander sat back, watching the other two silently communicate. When he’d started building the house, he hadn’t consciously decided to live in it with them. He hadn’t even started out building it for him or them; it was just another in a long line of houses he’d been working on. Eventually, though, he must have decided that that was what he wanted, because he found himself designing the structure just like he’d want a house. The place ended up far larger than even they would need, with at least six bedrooms tucked here and there. What Xander really liked was how it was out of the way, away from the traffic of the newly built hold, and close to the sea. He could go swimming whenever he wanted, and climb up the chzoel mak to the canopy and look at the sun setting over the water.

“It still needs a lot of work…doors, windows, furniture…” Xander muttered, pointing here and there.

“Not all that much,” Saelen said in return. “No more than, what, another week or two?”

Xander nodded. About that, yeah. Do y’think the kids will like it?”

Pairdra looked over at Mai’zi, whose eyes were wide as she looked at her new home. “Yeah, I think so.”

“Why don’t we just stay here, then? Even without doors or furniture, it’s better than sleeping in the trees, or with a few hundred others piled in the meeting hall,” Saelen suggested. Xander nodded his agreement. Sleeping in the trees had become a real pain, and camping out with the others in the great hall they’d just finished was equally unpleasant. Luckily, one of the first things they’d finished after the aqueducts had been the bath houses. Xander had wrangled and argued until the elders agreed to use Shaen’s designs for the siv equivalent of indoor plumbing. If he was building on his new home, he wanted a shower right there, not halfway across town.

The decision made, Saelen left to gather up the few belongings they’d acquired since arriving in Shaen. Pairdra helped Xander find a place to deposit the kids so that they could look around a little and decide what they needed. Xander would end up constructing most of it himself, since there weren’t many good builders around. And it wasn’t like there was a furniture store around the corner. Nope, they were lucky to have water.

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Xander watched in amusement as Mai’zi smeared Hainien’s food into Pairdra’s fur. The black-furred siv swore softly and handed the girl to Saelen while he tried to wipe the sticky mash off. The little girl laughed gaily at the mess she’d made. Xander had a strong suspicion his adopted daughter was going to be a little hellion when she got older. At least her infant brother was calm. He rarely even cried.

Things had generally improved once they’d moved into the house, and had gotten even better when Xander finished the place, which had been about a month ago. He was still busy building, and both Saelen and Pairdra were also working all the time, either on building or on other organizational aspects of Caildin, as the hold had been named. “Adyeta!”

Xander responded to the nickname Mai’zi had given him and took her from Saelen. “What?”

She grinned and shoved a piece of fruit in his mouth. “Y’should eat!”

Xander chewed up the fruit and swallowed. “I already did, baby.”

“But she didn’t see y’eat,” Saelen reminded Xander. The only lingering effect of the horrors of what had happened in Ieccra that any of them could see in Mai’zi was that she always made sure everyone ate plenty of food. She had to watch them eat, not confident that they were doing so when she wasn’t there. They’d gotten her to the point that she didn’t throw tantrums anymore, but it would be a while before she stopped trying to feed them.

“Of course, I am supposed to wear the food,” Pairdra muttered, giving up on picking the stuff out of his fur. He stomped off to the bath house to wash off.

“She only does it because she likes him,” Xander murmured. He was of the opinion that Pairdra was Mai’zi’s favorite of all of them. She was almost as darkly colored as the older siv, and Xander’s theory was that he reminded her of one of her parents. Hainien was as light as she was dark; his fur was a soft peachy color, almost a bleached out shade of Saelen’s. The infant preferred Xander and Saelen to the easily irritated Pairdra, although he didn’t fuss much for any of them.

Xander left a few minutes later to convince Mai’zi to go to bed. She liked to stay up and listen to the adults talk. Tonight, though, she went to sleep rather quickly, tired out by a long day of playing with other children. It had been a great relief when some of the less construction-oriented siv had started a school for the children. There weren’t many good teachers, but simply having day care helped.

When he returned to the front room, Saelen had already put down Hainien and Pairdra had returned from getting cleaned up. “So, Adyeta, is the little troublemaker asleep?”

“Yes, she’s out.” Xander grinned at Pairdra’s use of Mai’zi’s nickname for him. She’d started using it when he’d taken her out to the sea. She’d spotted a huge fish out in the surf and had asked what it was. Saelen, who was also with them, had identified it as an adye. The little girl had combined the name with the siv word for father, aheta, to get Adyeta. Xander was her fish-father. It so amused Saelen and Pairdra that they’d also started using it.

Saelen rubbed Pairdra’s back soothingly. His often taciturn mate had been irritable the last few days, and he thought he knew why. Considering what he thought was the reason, it was probably best for them all to just go to bed. “Why don’t we get some rest? We’ve all got work tomorrow.”

Xander nodded his agreement and headed up to the room he slept in. It was on the top level of the house. Saelen and Pairdra stayed a floor below him and on the other side. He’d picked the room on purpose; it was as far from them as he could reasonably get. The kids had rooms that didn’t require steps, leaving the top floors for the adults. Xander hadn’t been kidding when he said he needed his space.

Saelen watched as Pairdra curled up in bed. After digging out another blanket, he joined him. His mate was frustrated with Xander. They young siv probably didn’t realize just how confusing he was, despite their best efforts to communicate that to him. Xander was comfortable and casual around them in their home, acting like they were a family and sharing the children he’d taken in with them as though they were all the kids’ parents. For the siv, this meant that Xander wanted to be part of their home, in pretty much every way. It didn’t make sense for him to act the way he did, particularly when he was getting more and more familiar with them as time passed.

Saelen felt the same as Pairdra did, although he expressed it differently. The warriors had never been in better shape than they were now, due to Saelen’s relentless drilling and training schedules. He’d found that if he tired himself out, the frustrations of home didn’t bother him—he was too tired to care. Of course, that also meant he rarely had much time to spend with Pairdra, although is mate was also keeping busy to distract himself.

What was really odd to Saelen was that he got the impression Xander was doing the same thing. He was throwing himself into his work, planning, advising and building all the time. True, there were many things that needed doing, but they were past the critical stage, and there was time to rest. Xander didn’t slow down, though. He just kept on going.

While Saelen and Pairdra were trying to sleep downstairs, Xander lay in his room, looking out the windows at the stars. He was content, suspiciously so, and it bothered him. For the first time in his life, he had everything he wanted; a job that meant something, a home he was proud of, kids that loved him, and a family to come home to. While he wouldn’t have wished on anyone what he’d gone through to get those things, he was happy…well, except for that last part. He’d been thinking about Saelen and Pairdra for a long time and was still confused.

It had taken a while to get over his initial shock. After all, he’d been raised to accept that behavior in others, not in himself, and even the idea of being thought…well, it kept him up nights. Eventually, though, he got over that part. A lot of that had come from watching the rest of the hold. Saelen and Pairdra hadn’t been exaggerating when they’d said that no one cared.

What was bothering Xander now was how happy he was with the two of them. He often caught himself thinking of the three of them as a unit, like he used to think of himself and Anya. They planned their days around each others’ schedules, passed off the kids, and delegated chores. Actually, other than the sex thing, they were pretty much married. The sex thing didn’t even bug Xander that much anymore, which in and of itself bothered him. He’d hung around with siv of both genders for some time now, and had found that he didn’t really have a preference. Unlike with humans, at least when he was human, he didn’t get definitely turned on by just females, or find himself unable to really appreciate guys. Maybe it was the fur. Xander wasn’t sure what that meant, though.

Did he find Saelen and Pairdra attractive? Had he lost his sex drive? That didn’t seem likely, since he still wanted sex, even if he wasn’t getting any. He couldn’t rule out the first, though, since thinking about the two of them together didn’t bother him any more. The more he thought about it, the more confused he got, and subsequently the harder he worked. Physical labor was still the best way to drive away bad thoughts.

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“Duck!”

Xander did as Saelen ordered, narrowly escaping a staff that was swung at his head by Pairdra. The three of them were practicing with several other warriors. Xander had fallen behind and was not doing very well.

“Y’have to move faster than that, Adyeta, or y’re going to get your head bashed in,” Pairdra said sharply. “Either that or stick to building.”

Xander winced. That had hurt. “I know, I know.”

Saelen glared at Pairdra briefly. It wasn’t that he disagreed with his mate, but Pairdra was losing his temper. “Try it again. I’m not warning y’ this time.”

They took their places and Xander started out again, trying to hit Saelen with a practice dagger. Pairdra would come up behind him, and Xander was to avoid being bludgeoned. It wasn’t easy, and Xander had the bruises to prove it. This time was no different, although Pairdra aimed a bit lower and struck him on the upper arm instead of giving him a concussion.

“Damn it!” Xander swore as he fell to his knees. Pairdra wasn’t pulling any punches today. That was going to hurt for a long time.

“Y’re still focusing too much on what y’hear, Adyeta,” Pairdra said. “And I’m better than that. Y’won’t hear me behind y’, y’ve got to feel me in the branches.”

Xander nodded. He knew what he was supposed to do, but he just couldn’t get the hang of it. He hadn’t gotten there in Ieccra, and he wasn’t there now. He was still too used to relying on his eyes and ears, as he had as a human. They were still very useful, but not the only, or necessarily the best, sense to use in battle.

They got in position yet again and began. Of course, Xander didn’t quite avoid Pairdra, but at least this time he felt him and managed to partially blunt the blow by swiveling a little and catching it with his leg. “Still too slow,” Pairdra said.

“And y’always go the same way,” Saelen criticized. “And anyone can use that against y’. Predictability will get y’killed. It’s lazy.”

Xander growled under his breath. They were really laying into him today. Fine. They thought he was predictable? He’d show them. When they began again, Xander immediately jumped up, grabbing the branch above him. He shifted his weight and swung around, catching Pairdra on the jaw with his foot. He then dropped down, grabbing the staff from Pairdra and swinging it at Saelen. The siv narrowly avoided it, but couldn’t escape the practice dagger that struck him on the chest before clattering harmlessly onto the platform he was on. Pairdra tried to stand, but found himself pinned down by Xander.

Furious, Pairdra used his tail to pull at the staff, distracting Xander. While the younger siv was trying to regain control, Pairdra knocked him down and pushed him back toward the edge of the woven branch platform they were on. Xander dropped the staff and fought back, scraping his short claws down Pairdra’s arms.

Saelen stepped forward to separate them, but jumped back when Xander struck out at him. Pairdra answered that with a slap, knocking Xander’s head sideways. Xander pushed Pairdra over onto his back and banged the siv’s head hard against a branch. “Spontaneous enough for y’?” He hissed.

Pairdra growled and shoved Xander away. Saelen caught him and held him back, motioning for Pairdra to stay away. “What was that?” He snarled at Xander.

Xander pulled himself away from Saelen. “Y’wanted variety, I gave y’variety. Y’two have been riding my ass all day, and I got tired of it. Lay off, ok? I’ve been doing other things besides practicing war games for the past few months, so give me a break.”

“Y’re a warrior, this is what y’do,” Pairdra said, stalking closer to Xander. The younger siv stood his ground, watching as Pairdra stared him down. “Avrel mak are warriors. We fight and protect. We have duties we don’t shirk or run away from. The region, the hold, the tree, the family.” The last word was hissed at Xander.

“And I do that! All of it. But there are other things that have to be done. Y’should know, y’spent months helping build this place too!” Xander yelled back.

Saelen knew this wasn’t about being warriors, or fighting. They’d been tiptoeing around each other for months. The last four had been even worse, ever since they’d moved into their own home and had been given the double-edged gift of privacy. He should have seen this coming; after all, they showed signs of strain after only a month alone together.

Pairdra growled at Xander again and picked up his staff. “Y’re no warrior.”

Xander launched himself at Pairdra, knocking aside the staff. They rolled on the platform until Xander pinned Pairdra down, holding his arms over his head and keeping his legs trapped and useless. Snarling, Xander bent down to look directly in Pairdra’s face. “I am a warrior. Never forget that. I was a warrior before I was ever a siv.”

Pairdra struggled to get up, but couldn’t. Xander laughed and tightened his grip. Pairdra growled a couple of choice slurs and tried to wrap his tail around Xander’s neck, but Xander just caught Pairdra’s tail with his own and held it down. Then he bent down further and sank his teeth into Pairdra’s shoulder, stopping the elder siv’s struggles. After a minute, Xander let go of Pairdra and got up, turning to face Saelen. The red-furred siv just stared at Xander, not knowing what to say. The young siv’s aggressive behavior was something of a shock.

Xander walked off toward the sea, needing some time alone. He had a lot to think about.

Saelen reached down and helped Pairdra up. The siv rubbed his shoulder where Xander had bitten him. “Are y’ok?”

Pairdra looked at him oddly. “I guess. Do y’think he knows?”

Saelen looked at Xander’s quickly retreating branch. “Yeah, I do.”

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