The Orchard of Hope (3 page)

“What’s up, Squirt?” Megan asked
in a casual and familiar tone.

“I’m not a squirt,” Kelsey replied
flatly as she stepped backwards. She lifted her chin upward and
tried to look down her nose at the leopard, but Megan was too tall
and Kelsey was still looking up, even with her chin
raised.

“Look, when you’re 400 pounds,
everyone is a squirt,” Megan explained offhandedly. She turned to
Nicholas. “Hello, young man.” She offered a paw and Nicholas
graciously took it in both of his hands. He could feel the softness
of the fur on one side and the roughness of the pads on the other.
They shook hands firmly as they studied one another carefully for a
moment. Then Megan abruptly took her paw back and turned to Kelsey.
“Can he do any tricks?” Megan asked hopefully.

“No,” Kelsey replied coldly. She
glanced to one side with an annoyed expression.

“I’m kidding!” Megan laughed and
then turned to Nicholas. “You see, when I first met Squirt, she was
traveling with the king, but Squirt didn’t know it was the king,
and I did. So I asked Squirt if the king could do any tricks. We
still laugh about it to this day.”

“I’m not laughing,” Kelsey
said.

“I wasn’t talking about you,”
Megan replied dismissively. “The king and I laugh about it all the
time.”

“You’re just as annoying as you
always were,” Kelsey announced as she glanced up at the clouds in
the sky. They looked as wooly as Megan’s fur coat.

“Yeah,” the leopard agreed, “I am.
But we’re friends now, and that’s never going to change.” Kelsey
paused as she thought about her response. The giant cat was always
getting the better of her. She thought Megan was one of the most
annoying creatures she had ever met, but she had also learned a lot
from Megan and did appreciate many things about her. She even loved
Megan, but she didn’t like her all the time.

“Yes, we are friends,” Kelsey
finally replied. Megan smiled that odd grin that looked like
something between a snarl and a smile. Her upper lip was curled
back to show her fangs and Kelsey understood that Megan wanted a
compliment on her teeth. “And you have beautiful fangs that can
neatly rip the heart out of any living creature,” Kelsey said.
Megan was pleased with the compliment, and she sat down with a
thump that made the earth in the vicinity shake.

“I hear that you’ve become even
more expert at slaughter,” Megan said casually as she licked the
fur on the top of her white paw, carefully cleaning in between her
claws. The remark was her version of a compliment.

“I’ve been training with the army,
if that’s what you mean.” Kelsey folded her arms across her chest
as she peered into Megan’s eyes. Even if they were friends, Kelsey
still found the animal extremely irritating at times.

“Anyone can train. What I’m
talking about are the results, and I’ve heard that yours have been
excellent.” Megan continued to gently lick her paw.

Kelsey felt pride at hearing the
compliment and raised herself up, standing as tall as she could
make herself. She awkwardly unfolded her arms and then quickly
folded them again.

“Thank you,” Kelsey said. She
wasn’t sure what else to say. Megan finally stopped licking her paw
and turned to Nicholas.

“It’s good to see you again,” she
said politely to the boy.

“Thank you for coming here. I’m
looking forward to our training sessions,” he replied.

“So am I. I’m looking forward to
training both of you,” the leopard said.

“Both?” Kelsey asked.

“I thought you were staying here
to train me,” Nicholas said with a rather confused expression on
his face.

“I am. But Squirt here is going to
learn to talk with the birds, and I’ll be sending messages back and
forth to her as part of her training.”

“I thought the king was going to
do that!” Kelsey exclaimed with annoyance in her voice.

“We’ll both be sending you
messages. If you learn to interpret what only one person says, your
skills will be incomplete. You need to be able to interpret
messages from different sources and different birds.”

Kelsey shifted her weight from one
foot to the other. This quest was starting to be more trouble than
she had expected. All she wanted was to slay a few things and solve
the problem with the wolves. She didn’t care for all this
communication and interpersonal stuff. This quest wasn’t going to
be simple at all.

“So you’ll just be talking with
me? All I need to do is figure out what you’re saying and send a
message back to you?” Kelsey asked.

“No, I would never make it that
easy. You’re brave and smart, so I think you’re up to the challenge
of learning a bit of healing, too.”

“Healing? What for? I’m a killer!”
Kelsey exclaimed. She wished the king had told her about
this.

“Even killers occasionally get
wounded and need to heal,” Megan explained. “It’s only a little, so
don’t worry. It won’t make you go soft or anything.”

“I know it won’t make me go soft.
You’re one of the meanest – I mean toughest – animals I’ve ever
met. I just don’t know if I can take the time to learn to heal when
I could be working on improving my killing skills.”

“Everyone needs some knowledge of
healing. It won’t be that bad.” Megan waited for Kelsey to protest
again, but the girl was quietly brooding. “So if you’re OK with
these lessons, I’ll need you to sign some paperwork. You know, as a
formality.”

Kelsey put one hand on her hip and
shifted her weight impatiently. She reached up and stroked her
blond ponytail as she considered the situation. She could protest,
but she also knew that if the king had arranged these lessons that
this was important whether she liked it or not. On the other hand,
these lessons could be a distraction from the mission of saving
hope. She didn’t want to compromise the main mission. Kelsey
carefully weighed the situation and finally decided that since the
king was wise, then he must also have some plans for her that she
would learn more about later. It was best to agree to whatever the
king requested and then patiently wait to learn the reason for
it.

“OK,” Kelsey said.

“Good!” Megan replied as she
produced a satchel that she had been carrying on her back. “The
papers are in here. You’ll have to get them out yourself. I can’t
work the clasp on the bag since I don’t have thumbs.”

Kelsey took the satchel and, after
opening it, pulled out the stack of papers and pen. She glanced
over the printed words, but there were too many sheets to read the
whole thing and she was too irritated to see straight. She quickly
flipped through the stack of papers until she came to the last one
and saw the dotted line at the bottom. Kelsey snatched the pen from
where it was resting on the top of the stack and signed her
name.

“I’ll also need you to initial the
first 15 pages in the bottom corner,” Megan said after clearing her
throat.

“Initial them?”

“Just write your initials — the
letter your name begins with — in the bottom right hand corner on
the first 15 pages. Don’t worry about the rest.”

“I won’t,” Kelsey said with
disdain as she rapidly worked to complete the task. When she was
finished, she handed the papers back to Megan who took them in her
mouth.

“What?” Megan asked in response to
Kelsey’s look of disgust. “I don’t have thumbs. How else am I
supposed to carry these?” She nodded goodbye and trotted off with
the papers.

“You don’t like her, do you?”
Nicholas asked.

“It’s complicated.”

“I don’t think she’s that
bad.”

“We’re just very different. We
don’t like or appreciate the same things, and our natural talents
couldn’t be more opposite.”

“But you like Roland.”

“He’s the best,” Kelsey said as
she smiled. “He can kill things just by looking at
them.”

“Killing is a skill you
respect.”

“Of course. Who
wouldn’t?”

“Lots of people. Not everyone
thinks that killing is a skill that needs to be
cultivated.”

“What? Why not?” Kelsey was
genuinely shocked at the idea that someone would be opposed to
killing.

“Everyone isn’t exactly alike. We
all have different things we’re good at.”

“And what are you good at?” Kelsey
asked.

“I don’t know – at least, not
yet,” Nicholas confessed.

“Then how would you know what
anyone else values or if everyone values the same things or
not?”

“I’m only saying that you seem to
like people who are similar to you. I think we’re all this way. I’m
not trying to insult you. I’m only pointing out that we’re all
different, and because we’re not all the same, we might have
different values also.”

“I think I’ve figured out what
you’re good at,” Kelsey replied thoughtfully.

“What?”

“Being annoying.” Kelsey turned
away to leave when Nicholas called her name.

“Not everyone would think what I
just said was annoying,” he said.

“No,” Kelsey said in agreement.
“Some of us would think it was extra annoying.”

Several more hours passed before
Kelsey’s traveling companions arrived. While she was waiting for
them, Kelsey had organized supplies into three packs to distribute
the load evenly so that none of them would be carrying more or less
than the others and everyone would carry a fair share. She had
already decided that Maggie was going to shoulder her own burden on
this journey. If Maggie was going with them, then she was going as
an equal member of the group and would not receive special
treatment just because she was weaker than the other two. A lot
weaker, Kelsey thought.

Maggie arrived at the castle
shortly before Roland. Kelsey spent at least an hour in the study,
lecturing Maggie on the best methods for shouldering a pack. When
she began spouting some random survival tips, Maggie yawned
openly.

“I’m sure I’ll figure it out while
we’re traveling,” Maggie insisted lazily. As she nodded, her short
dark hair bobbed with her head.

“No,” Kelsey replied adamantly.
“If you wait to figure out how to survive until you need to
survive, then you’re dead.”

“Well, I’m not dead
yet.”

“But you will be!” Kelsey said in
a loud voice. She was finding it difficult to control her temper
with this girl.

“At some point we all will be,”
Maggie calmly said to counter the argument.

Kelsey folded her hands and brought
them up to her chin as she bowed her head. It looked like a prayer
for patience. She could see the host of problems she was going to
have with Maggie. Kelsey wanted to speak with the king about his
decision to send Maggie on this journey, but she didn’t know how to
address the issue appropriately. It was important not to contradict
the king or challenge his authority, but Kelsey could see that
Maggie was going to be a liability when traveling. Of course,
Kelsey knew there were a lot of things she had not yet been told,
but this decision to send Maggie on the quest appeared to make no
sense at all.

Kelsey closed her eyes and took a
deep breath. The fresh air calmed her, and once she had exhaled,
she felt less tense. Deep breathing often helped her to calm down
when she felt frustrated.

“Yes,” Kelsey agreed. “One day we
will all be dead. But our goal for today is to avoid it happening
right now.”

“Great! I’m glad we see it the
same way. Now let’s find some snacks. I haven’t eaten for hours,
and I’m starving.”

Kelsey rolled her eyes and then
told Maggie how to find the kitchen. Afterwards, Kelsey walked
outside to speak with the king, who was watching Roland approach
the castle. The red fox had just emerged from the forest and was
slowly trotting up the drive.

Kelsey walked up to the king
confidently, but as soon as she reached him, she knew she shouldn’t
challenge his decision. There was something about his regal
presence that made Kelsey respect his authority. Even though she
didn’t understand it, Kelsey decided that she would trust his
reasoning. She sighed loudly but didn’t speak.