As I walked through the dense forest back to The Order compound, Kara had a surprisingly difficult time trying to keep up with me, even though I wasn't using Presence to boost myself.

“Ullir.” Kara said from behind me. “ULLIR!”

“Yes?” I asked without slowing down or turning around.

“Aren't you going to apologize for what you did?” Kara asked.

“Why?” I asked and chuckled. “You wouldn't appreciate me lying, would you?”

I could almost hear her scowl as she started to lecture me about paying the proper respect to my elders and a bunch of other nonsense. I tuned her out for the most part and quickened my pace to a light jog, to see if giving her more exercise would quiet her down. I started to get further away from her and I felt her start to use Presence to boost herself so she could avoid the bushes and branches I was intentionally sending her way.

“Hey! Are you even listening to me?” Kara asked several minutes later.

“No.” I responded.

“UGH!” Kara grunted in frustration, and she heard me laugh. “It's not funny to ignore a council member!”

“You know, you're kinda cute when you're angry.” I said absently, then I felt her Presence falter. I stopped jogging immediately and turned around to catch her as she tripped over a tree root and fell. I used my Presence to cushion her and carefully held her in my arms as if we had been dancing and I was dipping her. She wrapped her arms around my neck automatically and stared up at me with wide eyes.

With her hanging down like that, her shoulder-length pink hair had fallen back and revealed her slightly pointed ears that looked just like mine. I was surprised by this, considering the only other people besides myself that had them were my parents. Now that I had an up close look at her, I saw that her eyes were a deep brown with little gold flecks in them.

“Yeah, definitely cute.” I said with a smirk to tease her, and her face flushed to a deep red.

“G-get your hands off of me.” Kara said and let my neck go. “You shouldn't touch me with such impunity.”

“Oh, sorry.” I said and let her go.

“AHH-what?” Kara yelled and stopped when I dropped her to the ground, barely six inches away.

I tried not to laugh at her confusion, then stopped fighting the urge and laughed.

“It's not funny.” Kara said, not very convincingly. She sat up and looked at the hem of her robes. They had small rips and tears in them from running through the forest. “Dammit, these are my new robes.”

“I can fix that for you.” I said.

“Really?” Kara looked up at me with doubt on her face.

“Sure.” I said and held my hand out and used Presence to lift the edge of her robes, then in a flash I had activated my Light sword and swiped it across the cloth and removed six inches from the hem.

“HEY!” Kara yelled.

“What? It's fixed, isn't it?” I asked. “No more pulls and tears.”

“You were supposed to repair it, not cut it off!”

“I'm not a seamstress.” I said with a grin.

“UGH!” Kara grunted in frustration.

“You shouldn't be lazing around like this. Don't you have work to do?” I asked and started to jog again.

“You... you...” Kara started to rant at me.

I ignored her of course, then I felt her gather Presence around herself and she started to run after me. I let her get to within a few feet and covered myself with Presence and started to run myself. She kept berating me and lectured me on proper protocol as we ran. She couldn't quite reach me, despite her attempts to boost herself past her limits.

I led her on a merry chase through the East Forest Glade and all the way back to The Order compound. I popped out of the forest and the strong Presence feeling the forest granted disappeared as I met open air. I stopped ten feet away and waited for a moment, then Kara burst out through the underbrush, covered in leaves. Most of her robes had little rips and cuts in it now.

“You... rotten... little...” Kara panted.

“Shouldn't a member of the council have a little more decorum than this?” I asked with a grin.

Kara closed her eyes and took several deep breaths as she meditated for a moment and calmed down. She lifted her wrist and tapped the com code for the guard station.

“Is the room prepared?” Kara asked.

“Yes, Master Moor.” A voice responded. “Main building on the third level. Section A, second door.”

“Thank you.” Kara said and looked right at me with angry eyes. “You heard that.” She said and pointed. “Now march!”

I quickly gave her the guard's salute, much to her surprise, then I shocked her as I did a perfect about face and started to double-time march away from her towards the main building.

“Hut. Hut. Hut.” I chanted as I quickly crossed the central courtyard and several people turned to look at me. They started to laugh when they saw Kara running after me to try and keep up. I entered the main building and stepped into the closest lift, double-time marched in place, and the doors started to close before Kara could get close enough to stop them.

“Dammit!” Kara exclaimed.

I didn't laugh at her expression, even though it was pretty funny. The leaves still stuck to her are a nice touch, too. I thought in amusement. The lift doors opened and I double-time marched out and down the hall and stopped at the stairs. A second later, Kara came out the door and glared at me.

“You did that on purpose!”

I lifted my hand up into the air as I jogged in place. “I swear to god that I did nothing to influence the events that have transpired within the last hour.”

Kara caught her breath at my casual use of a swearing oath. I knew that she couldn't detect any disturbance in the Presence around me, since I didn't lie, so she pointed down the hallway.

“Your room awaits.” Kara said, and we went down the hallway to the second door and I opened it.

“Ha.” I said as I stopped double-time marching and stepped inside.

“What's funny now?” Kara asked.

“This is the room I stayed in when they kidnapped me eight years ago.” I said and looked around. “At least they didn't change anything since then.”

Kara made a kind of whimpering sound and I felt a massive disturbance in the Presence around her. I was beside her in an instant and caught her as she fell unconscious. I picked her up and carried her to the small bed that was there and laid her down on it. I touched her forehead with a fingertip and used a little bit of Presence to check her.

“Well, no need for a medical team.” I said out loud. “You just fainted.”

I gave the room another quick glance and realized that I didn't have anywhere to sit down. I sighed and looked at the bed, gently lifted her head and shoulders, then sat down on the bed and rested her head on my lap.

“Nothing to do but wait it out, I guess.” I said and looked down at her. She had a kind of shocked look on her face, and I had no idea why. I sat back and leaned against the wall, then felt kind of tired. With nothing else to do while I waited for her to wake up, I closed my eyes and relaxed, then drifted off to sleep.

*

“Do you think it's going to work?” The first woman asked.

“Only time will tell.” The Wise One said, then chuckled. “It was quite the reaction when she realized who Ullir really is, wouldn't you say?”

“Is this why you never objected to her visiting him when he was a child?” The woman asked.

“I cannot confirm or deny that this was my intention all along.” The Wise One said. “Although, if it was, wouldn't it have been a brilliant plan?”

“Do you really need me to stroke your ego?” The woman asked, and he laughed.

“All right. I have to admit that at the time, I only saw a lonely teenage girl that needed someone to take care of, and a scared little boy that needed someone to take care of him.”

“It must have been quite the surprise for you when he accepted Emari as a guardian, then.”

“Oh, it was.” The Wise One said. “Even more so for Kara.” He said. “She desperately searched for him for quite some time before being accepted as an apprentice.”

“You arranged for her to be sent away?” The woman asked, surprised.

“It would do neither of them any good for her to have stayed around.” The Wise One said. “Although, I will not claim credit because she excelled in her apprenticeship and became a Master in record time.”

“That's magnanimous of you.” The woman said, and he laughed.

“Now, like Ullir just said, all we can do is wait it out.” The Wise One said. “Will our wild child be tamed by our latest council member, or will he frustrate her into ambivalence like he has the rest of the council?”

“What are you hoping for?” The woman asked, curious.

“Honestly, I hope for a nice even balance between the two.”

“Really?”

The Wise One nodded. “If both of them calm down and can accept each other for who they are and their place in the universe, then we will all be better off for it.”

“You just don't want any more animal dung brought into the building.” The woman said with a smile.

“He must have been saving it for a while, because the cleaning robots have been cleaning each other all afternoon and still stink of it!” The Wise One said and laughed. “Oh, that reminds me. Call administration and have them order new cleaning droids.”

The woman couldn't help herself and laughed, too.

*

Kara started out having the most wonderful dream. She had been walking around randomly and her eyes caught sight of the most prettiest dirty blonde hair she had ever seen. She followed that hair all over and then it was locked in a room. That proved no obstacle for her when she returned that night in her hooded cloak and she quickly made her way inside. Her whole body shook as she saw the face of her prince for the very first time.

She ran to his bed and quickly perched on his bed and let him rest his head on her lap, as all good princesses did for their princes. She sat there for hours and hours just staring at him and stroking the beautiful dirty blonde hair, and her heart was full of joy and happiness.

She was interrupted by the ogres and had to leave before her prince awoke, and she vowed that she would come back whenever she could to let him use her lap as his pillow. She came back, time and time again, always hidden and at night, and none of the ogres suspected that she was sneaking in to spend time with her prince practically every night.

Unfortunately, her dream turned into a nightmare when she approached the room her prince had been kept in. She had finally decided to reveal herself to him and declare her undying love, and when she opened the door, he wasn't there! She searched for him frantically all over, then the royal family decided that she should be sent away for more advanced training. She tried to deny them and pleaded to stay, only to be refused and sent far away from her prince.

“I will come back to find you!” She exclaimed as she was whisked away to a far-off land. “My lap will always be yours, my prince!”

*

Kara opened her eyes as the dream faded and as she looked up, she saw a handsome and chiselled face with a strong jawline, and long dirty blonde hair. She could see his slightly pointed ears that matched her own and she knew that he was who she had been looking for all this time.

“My prince.” Kara whispered and reached up to stroke his hair like she had when he was a little boy.

“Hm? What?” Ullir blinked his eyes as he woke up.

Kara snatched her hand back before he noticed what she was doing. “Ullir! What are you doing?” She asked to try and distract him from her own actions.

“Huh?” Ullir looked down at her. “I was sleeping. What did it look like I was doing?”

“Never mind that.” Kara said in dismissal. “Why are you holding my head in your lap?”

“There wasn't anywhere else to sit.” Ullir said with a chuckle. “I sincerely doubt that you would want me to sit on the hard cold floor while you sleep in my bed.”

“Wh-what?” Kara quickly sat up and glared at him. “I'm not sleeping in your bed!”

Ullir held a hand out and then pointed straight down. “You. Bed. Slept.”

“I... I wasn't...” Kara started to become flustered, and he chuckled again.

“I'm just kidding.” Ullir said. “You fainted when we entered the room and I put you on the bed.”

“I don't faint.” Kara said and turned away for a moment, then she stood. “You are to remain in this room, and you are not to leave until someone comes for you.” She said and walked over to the door, then turned back to glare at him. “Do you remember your promise?”

“What promise?” Ullir asked.

“You said you would accept this punishment and would do what I told you to do this time, without retribution, because you were giving me a 'freebee'.”

“Oh. Yeah, I did.”

“Good.” Kara said and let a smile spread across her face. “I've decided what your punishment is going to be.”

“Oh, this should be good.” Ullir said and crossed his arms. “Is it gathering vegetables from the greenhouses? Pruning the flowers in the gardens? Oh! Are you going to make me scrub the council chamber?”

“Nothing so mundane as that.” Kara said, and her smile turned wicked. “From this point forward, you are my apprentice.”

Her statement was met with an open mouth and a blank stare from him, and she held in her laugh.

“You have a week to gather your belongings and to get your affairs in order, then you are all mine.” Kara said, and her predatory instincts kicked in. “Before you start complaining or trying to worm your way out of your promise, you said no retribution, and that includes trying to nullify becoming my apprentice.”

“Goddammit.” Ullir swore and sighed.

“I need to go and deal with council business, so you can sit there and think about all of the horrible things you've been doing to everyone.” Kara said and walked to the door.

“I don't think making people laugh is horrible.”

“What people?” Kara asked.

“I'm people, so me.” Ullir said with a smirk.

Kara rolled her eyes. “Do not leave this room unless someone comes for you.”

“I know.” Ullir said.

Kara stepped out of the room and shut the door, then hit the button to secure it. “You better stay in there.” She said under her breath and walked down the hallway to the lift. She went down to the ground floor and left the main build to head to the administration building to talk to her old guardian, Enelle. If anyone could tell her everything about her new apprentice, it was her.

When Kara had been old enough, she did a lot of research and discovered that she was a member of a very rare and long lived race of humanoids whose name was lost to time, and they had a much stronger ability to use Presence than normal humans. She had always had pride in herself at being able to use her abilities so well, and after discovering that her whole race was the same, it had given her the drive to start looking for them.

Unfortunately, electronic records from most worlds were sorely lacking for genealogy research, so her search for more members of her race was glacier slow in its progress. Kara put those thoughts out of her mind as she entered the administration building and heard her guardian greet her with enthusiasm.

“Kara! You're back!” Enelle exclaimed and gave her a hug.

Kara chuckled. “I was here only yesterday.”

“It's always enjoyable to see one of my children.” Enelle said. “What can I do for you today?”

“Well, I was wondering if I could get some information on my new apprentice.”

“Oh? You've found one already?” Enelle asked. “Who is it?”

“His name's Ullir and...”

“WHAAAATT?!?” Enelle yelled and several people in the lobby turned to look at her. “Excuse me!” She said and waved to them, then turned to the door behind her. “Janelle! I'm taking the rest of the day off!”

“Okay!” A woman's voice said. “I'll be right out!”

Janelle came out and took over the desk duties, and Enelle grabbed Kara's arm and pulled her out of the administration building and over to the small park that the office workers used to relax.

“Are you serious?” Enelle asked as they sat down. “You're taking Ullir on as an apprentice?”

“Why is that so surprising?” Kara asked.

“I helped you compile that huge list of offences, remember?” Enelle asked. “Don't forget that those are just the ones that have been reported.”

Kara took a breath and let it out. “I know he's going to be a handful...”

“Kara dear, he's been many, many handfuls for the council since his graduation.” Enelle said. “You can't honestly think that you can reform him.”

“You raised me not to be a quitter, Enelle.” Kara said and smiled. “Don't worry. I've already got several plans in my head on how to straighten him out and put him on the right path.”

“Kara, I raised you to be smart, not delusional.”

Kara laughed. “Enelle, I don't think...”

“That's right. You're not thinking.” Enelle said. “Let me tell you all about him, and then you can decide if you want to waste your time or leave him be.”

“All right.” Kara said, then her eyes widened as her old guardian Enelle started to tell her the whole sordid tale from the very beginning.