Nirrin (Forestfolk, Book 3)

Chapter 1a

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My two closest friends are heroes. I don't mean I idolize them (although, truthfully, I kind of do). I mean both of them have literally saved the world. When Siena was only fifteen, she saved everyone from a tyrannical madman. And last year, when Sember was sixteen, she saved everyone from disease-ridden extinction. Yet here I am at nineteen, and the most heroic thing I've done is to keep Benzi from shoving seeds up his nose. Speaking of which...

I turned away from the kids playing tag among the trees and surveyed the commons. Rough-hewn tables and benches were scattered around the clearing. Scarred food-prep tables sat here and there near fire pits. In the center of everything was the giant cauldron used for stews and sometimes gruel.

Being a refuge for the persecuted and the lost, Foresthome had a sizable population of orphans. I used to be one of them, but now I helped watch over them.

I heard a small, echoing snicker.

I turned toward the noise. "Benzi! Get out of the cauldron! Are we eating you for dinner tonight?"

The small boy peeked out of the huge metal pot, his brown hair half covering his eyes, and a finger up his nose.

Bren chuckled and leaned on her cane, fixing her twinkling eyes on me. "Remind you of anyone, Nirrin?"

I rolled my eyes. "That was just the one time. And for the record"—I lowered my voice to a whisper—"I never stuck anything in my nose."

"You were still a handful."

"Admit it. I was your favorite."

Bren sniffed. "I'll do no such thing."

"That's okay." I grinned at her. "I know the truth."

"You were the biggest pain in my backside." She shuffled past, her hand pausing on my shoulder for a motherly caress, and my heart squeezed. "You might want to see where Benzi has gone to."

"What?" My eyes snapped to the cauldron, but he was nowhere in sight. "How does he do that? Are you sure he's not Gifted?"

"Not as far as I can tell. Then again, neither are you, and you were always disappearing."

The corners of my mouth turn down at the reminder. Nope, not even a little bit Gifted. I think I would've enjoyed being able to turn invisible. Imagine the trouble I could have gotten into then!

"Did you guys lose something?"

I turned my head at the familiar voice, my pout dissipating, and found Sember walking in my direction. She guided Benzi in front of her, both hands clamped on his shoulders. Her red hair frizzed out of its usual braid, and I smoothed an involuntary hand over my own brown waves.

"There you are!" I said as I took the boy from her. "Maybe we should eat you for dinner after all. Sember, you can cook him, right?"

Benzi inhaled sharply, and Sember's brows drew together as she frowned at me.

"I'm kidding! Come on, Benzi, finish your breakfast." I cast a nervous glance at Sember, while I ushered the boy back to one of the tables in the Foresthome commons. She was a hero after her escapade in that cave, yet she was still as sensitive as ever about her ability to scorch things with her bare hands.

When the boy resumed his seat, Sember came over and hissed under her breath, "I don't need you reminding the kids that I'm dangerous."

"They're not scared of you anymore. You know that."

"Which is a recent development. It's been less than a year. Don't forget I spent most of my life being looked at as a mon—"

I stopped her with a raised finger. "What did Siena say about using the M word? You are not, nor have you ever been, a monster. Whoops. I used the M word."

Sember smiled a little despite herself, and my anxiety eased. Bren had warned me to be careful about saying insensitive things, but I swear, my mouth had its own little brain and zero inclination to ask permission to speak.

To further clinch her good mood, I said, "Come on, let's get snow cones from Jastin."

"I know what you're doing." Her green eyes cast me a knowing look, but the defensive edge in her expression melted anyway.

"What?" I projected my most innocent self. "I just feel like a snow cone is all. Don't you want to watch your ice-man boyfriend in action?"

"Don't you need to watch the little animals?" She eyed Benzi, who was now poking his own foot with a stick.

I strode over and guided his hand so the stick drew lines in the dirt. The boy's attention then went to drawing circles around himself. Satisfied, I turned to Bren. "You'll be okay here, right?"

"Of course, girl. I've been doing this since before you were born." Bren shuffled to a nearby seat and sat with an audible grunt.

She hid it well, but I could tell she was tired. She seemed more and more exhausted these days. Her hair was mostly gray now, and it worried me that her age was catching up to her. Her whole life was dedicated to caring for these parentless children. Was this to become my fate too? Was I to grow into an old spinster, shackled to a thankless job where nothing ever happened?

The staggering monotony of it nearly overwhelmed me, and I grabbed Sember's hand. "Come on! I'm free to go."

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