Louis, who had already taken off Kay's gloves and stood near the door of the kitchen, heard the shouting (as did the others). "Friend of yours?", he asked Kay.
A small-but-warm smile crossed her face as she replied "Aye ... an' more so as well ... 'tis my bredu Gwenn MacConal". She sighed, then added wistfully, "'tis a poor shame for him to see me in such a sorry state .... but he'd likely worry himself half-to-death if barred from entering -- and likely attract more attention than I wish".
Louis walked to the main door and pushed it opened. "Hi...You must be Gwenn, right? I'm Louis...come in, they're in the kitchen."
Gwenn frowned at Louis and said, "Aye." He almost added, "Who're you?" but stopped himself in time -- it was obvious from his clothing that he was Terranan. "Well met," Gwenn finished, hurriedly brushing past the man.
Anwyn looked up in curiousity as the boy entered the kitchen behind Louis. She noted that he looked exactly as Kay had originally decribed him to her. But right now she was more more interested in Katie (especially since Kay seemed to be mostly ok -- except for being tired and bruised).
Melissa was about to reply to Kay's odd statement about nightmares, when she felt Alan's touch on her mind, looking for her. Just as she focused on him for a moment, Gwenn burst in, looking like a rabbithorn being chased by a pack of wolves.
Amadaine had cried out in surprise at the small human charging at her. Abruptly she pushed upwards with her legs and used her good wing to guide her to a very awkward landing on the table. The other wing mostly hung limply, a small clot of blood now visible among the feathers. With a series of indignant squawks, she began to scold him. Small humans were always the worst in terms of being dangerous. This one obviously belonged to mummy-human -- but why hadn't she taught it to behave in a less disturbing manner ?
Melissa was confused. When Gwenn had hurried into the room and saw Kay, he had rushed to her side. Then the little bird had apparently come out of nowhere (Kay's crumpled cloak hadn't looked large enough to be more than just a bundle of fabric) ... now Melissa sunk herself into the conversation with Alan while chaos seemed to erupt in the room around her.
Dani watched from where she stood as she let out a sigh. Silently she prayed for the bird while she wished she could do something else to help. She knew she could always call of Connor if she needed, but doing so would ruin what trust she had......
"Kay, breda!" Gwenn exclaimed, then added a more controlled, "Domna," to Melissa. He promptly began to examine Kay without removing any of her clothes.
"Och laddie", Kay exclaimed, feeling overwhelmed, "I'm nae off tae the Land of the Dead yet. It's good that ye care sae much, but ye're scarin' the poor wee bairn with all yer fussin' and worry ... why not help me back on with my shirt and sweater instead ?".
Without waiting to see if he'd blush, Kay paused to softly coo at the little hawk, reassuring her that it was ok to settle down. Amadaine's golden eyes regarded Gwenn skeptically, but at least she stopped scolding him.
Gwenn had ignored the little hawk until Kay mentioned it. Then he saw that the wing appeared to be broken, or at least out of joint. He immediately calmed down. "Aye, breda," he said, blushing to think that she'd be in a room with so many non-family in it dressed in such a state. He picked up the cloak and shirt, held the cloak in such a way as to block her from the man's view, and tried to figure out how the shirt worked.
The boy's obvious embarassment distracted Anwyn from her grumbling about how unfair it was that nobody was telling her anything important. She grinned at Louis and then giggled "Boys are the same _everywhere_. They all say they want to see more bare female skin. Then they blush when they get their wish".
Anwyn then walked over to be helpful. "Not like _THAT_", she stated firmly to Gwenn, abruptly tugging the cloak out of his hands and draping it around Kay's shoulders, "if you can't stand the sight of bruises, then hide them like _THIS_ instead". Kay gave her a warm smile of thanks -- it was good to be warm again.
"An' _who_ are _you_ to tell a brother how to dress a sister?" Gwenn asked angrily (not realizing that Anwyn is Terranan). "'Sides, 'twasn't the bruises I was trying to hide." Gwenn wondered what Darkovan would be so dense as to be oblivious to Kay's state of dress.
Louis raised an eyebrow. Brother? He wondered what that meant...The boy was certainly Darkovan, his manners told him that. And relations were certainly a complicated thing on this world -- there was kin-by-blood, kin-by-marriage and kin-by-shared-oath. Kay had earlier told him that she was the only child of a pair of Terran bureaucrats, so that left the latter two cases as possible. Hmmm .. there was likely an interesting story there.
Anwyn was somewhat dissapointed when Gwenn didn't react too kindly to her. What was wrong with him anyways ? She'd only been trying to HELP. "For YOUR information", she told him indignantly, wondering what he'd been trying to hide, "I'm her apprentice". Sometimes guys just didn't make much sense. Feeling somewhat disgruntled again, Anwyn decided to distract herself by going over to pet the little cat. Sure, she _could_ have kept arguing with that annoying boy -- but Kay would almost certainly have dissaproved.
The word caused Louis his natural gesture of raising an eyebrow. Apprentice? It made one wonder what Kay was teaching her. He wondered lightly if there was more to their relationship than he knew. A sudden idea crossed his mind. Perhaps she had that...gift...too. THAT would certainly explain why she'd behaved so oddly in Kay's quarters, before they had come to Leaves. It seemed to be far too much of a coincidence that Anwyn had been thinking about a flurry of leaves that had book quotes written on them. And since Kay seemed quite comfortable talking about her weird talent around these people, perhaps they all...
Abruptly, he pushed the thought aside, leaving it unfished. There were more important things at the moment.
"Mmm, aye," Gwenn said, wondering what kind of Darkovan apprentices Terranan had, and what type this young girl was. "Well," he said, somewhat embarrassed, and turned his attention back to Kay.