New Hope (Kel/Dom FanFic)

Chapter One

Lady Knight Keladry of Mindelan sat at her desk in her new office at New Hope. She sighed shuffling through papers in front of her. Right now she was reading a letter that Lord Wyldon had written her a couple of days ago, telling her about the new things that were happening with the war. Things were slowing down, and King Maggur was loosing control over his armies, and Wyldon said that with any hope the war would by completely done by the next summer. 

Putting the letter down, Kel should have been happy to hear this, but she just couldn't bring herself to celebrate in that fact. Thankfully, a knock on her door snapped her out of her daze. "Come in." She called. The door swung open to reveal Tobe ushering Neal into the room. "Did you need something?" She asked giving him her usual smile. 

Neal strolled in quite casually and sat down in one of the chairs that were on the other side of Kel's desk. "I didn't see you at breakfast." He said leaning forward and placing his elbows on his knees and eyeing Kel down suspiciously. "Is something wrong? You've been skipping a lot of meals lately." 

"Did you need something?" Kel repeated with an angrier tone. 

"Kel, you can't be skipping meals, it's not healthy." Neal said leaning back running his hand through his hair. "Especially since you do a lot of training." 

Kel restrained herself from snapping at her friend, so she took a deep breath and stared up at Neal. "Since when do my eating habits concern you?" She asked controlling her breathing. 

Standing up and throwing his hands in the air, Neal started pacing. "I am the camp's healer, and you are the camp's commander, so your health is one of my top priorities." He stopped and glared down at Sal. "I've also heard that you are waking up in the middle of the night with nightmares." Kel scowled over at Tobe, who cowered in the corner. "Don't be mad at Tobe, he was just doing what he thought was best for you." 

Kel clenched her jaw. "When my sleeping and eating habits effect my work, then you can worry." Kel snapped. "In the meantime, leave me be." 

"Kel-" Neal pleaded. 

"You are dismissed." Kel interrupted him. Neal opened his mouth to argue with his friend, but Kel glared up at him. "You are dismissed Sir Nealen." She said with a growl in her throat. Neal stood up, and stalked out of the room and slammed the door as he left. 

There was a long silence as Kel sighed and leaned back in her chair. Tobe shifted on his feet uncomfortably, and glanced up at Kel through his shaggy blonde hair. "I'm sorry, milday." He said in a whispered voice. "I thought he knew." 

Kel stood up and grabbed a stack of papers and started to arrange them. "It's okay, Tobe." Kel murmured. "You were just doing what you thought was best, I can't blame you for that." Kel grabbed her glaive that was on the wall. "I'm going out to practice." 

"I'll come!" Tobe said about to run off to get his staff, but Kel raised a hand to stop him. 

"Not this time Tobe." She said, almost regretting say that after seeing the look of sadness on his face. "I need to be alone right now, I'm sorry." Tobe looked down, but gave a soft nod. Kel walked out of her office. Along the way, Jump joined her at a trot, and Nari and a few other sparrows flew around her. As she walked through the yards, people came up to her, some of them came to chat, while others came to complain, but Kel just gave them short curt answers until she walked out of New Hope into open greenery. 

She started off her practice with slow deliberate moves, and then she started to speed up her motions until her glaive was just a silver blur. All that went through her mind as she went through her exercises was the faces of the people she had lost. After her mind ran out of victims, she started to remember her dreams. The dreams that were riddled with Blayce and Stenmun. 

 Sweat trickled down her forehead and dripped into her eyes making her stop her movements and wipe her forehead with the back of her arm. Jump walked over with her flask in her mouth, and Kel grabbed her flask that held her water, she started to chug it down, until her belly was full. "Thank you." Kel said.

Kel's eyes started to blur, and she went to wipe away the sweat, but her forehead was dry. She then rubbed her eyes and realized that she had been crying. With a cry of frustration, Kel took her glaive and threw it like a spear, and it sailed through the air until it hit a tree and stuck in it like a quill. The sparrows, who had been watching her from the tree, peeped loudly in protest.

"That was a good shot, Kel." Merric said trotting up on his horse as the rest of the patrol stayed off. However, once Merric was close enough, he saw the tears in Kel's eyes and he stopped his horse. "Kel, are you alright?" He asked jumping off his horse, and then motioning for the patrol to go back to the camp. 

Keladry wiped away her tears quickly before Merric turned back around and faced her. "I'm fine." She said stiffly while walking up to the tree and grabbing her glaive and yanking it free. Merric stalked forward, and looked straight at Kel.

"You are most definitely not fine." He remarked. "Your eyes are bloodshot, but I've noticed they've been bloodshot a lot lately, and I've also noticed you've been staying up later than you usually do." 

Kel backed up, and started her routine again with her glaive. "Since when has everyone started caring about my well being?" She hissed spinning her glaive in a full circle, and then twisting it behind her. "I'm fine, and anyone who says otherwise needs to stop." 

Merric backed up with hurt in his eyes. "You have to let people in Kel." He stated angrily. "We all saw horrible stuff too. You're not the only one who was effected by this." Merric turned and stalked off and jumped onto his horse, which he made made go into a cantor until it was back in the camp. 

Nari came flying over and landed on Kel's shoulder and cheeped quite loudly, snapping Kel from her thoughts. "What?" Kel growled. Nari took off from Kel's shoulder and hovered in front of her face. Even with her tiny beady black eyes, Kel could tell that her bird friend was angry with her too. "Are you really made at me too?" Nari peeped again, and flew off along with the other sparrows. Kel then looked down to see Jump who whined, and then walked off back to the camp too. 

Neal, Merric, Nari and the other sparrow, even Jump were mad at her, and for what, because she was being a bit cold. She was the one who was haunted by the Nothing Man and his Dog for over nine months, the people she saw die were some of her closest comrades, she was the one who faced and killed the men who were a key part to the Scanran war. None of them understood the hardships she had to face, the things she had to sacrifice. 

"I don't need them care." Kel huffed stopping her exercise and stomping back to base. "They just don't understand."