Alder's Grove

Eighth in a series of character-building vignettes following a bunch of characters through their time at Addergoole & beyond.

Basalt shows up in Addergoole: Year 9 as Ahouva's rescuer-slash-Keeper; Thorburn shows up as Ceinwen's Keeper, and Brydan and Indigo have passing mention through the series.

---

"Oh, Bry, he's something else."

Basalt hadn't been aware he'd dazed out until the voice brought him back into consciousness. Being around Brydan seemed to do that to him, especially in the last week. Since the dance. Since he'd kissed her, and told her she was an angel and...

...the rest was a little fuzzy. Basalt had drunk more than he ought to, but the booze had been flowing freely, and he'd always been able to hold his liquor before that.

He blinked up at Brydan. He hadn't been told to move yet, but he didn't really mind. Kneeling with his head on her lap was one of the more comfortable ways he could think of to pass the afternoon.

She was frowning, however, which wasn't as good. "Indigo. I don't recall inviting you in."

"You gave me a blanket invitation, remember? And I wanted to show off mine, but you've beaten me to it, as usual."

Even where he was, Basalt could hear the growl from the doorway. His shoulders tensed. He didn't mind being in Brydan's lap, but it was going to be hard to defend her if he was stuck here.

She patted his shoulder. "It's all right, sweetie. You can move."

He didn't want to, not really. But he did, standing, stretching, and getting into a nice bodyguard position looming just behind Brydan's left shoulder.

He didn't want to look at the other people in the room, either, but he did. There was something about the woman's voice that made what he and Brydan were doing sound dirty somehow, instead of just right and proper. And the growl...

Yeah, he'd been afraid of that. The woman was the blonde-and-sometimes-blue girl, Indigo, one of Brydan's friends and in the same Mentorship as Brydan. The other... yeah. Basalt met Thorburn's eyes and shrugged.

The other guy showed all his teeth, in something that was definitely not a smile. Basalt just shrugged again. It could get embarrassing, sure. But if Brydan was anything like Indigo...

"He's pretty awesome, isn't he?" Brydan patted Basalt's shoulder.

He straightened up a little bit and smiled at her. "So are you, miss."

Basalt: His First Year
Nyyrikki: Her First Year
Orliath: Her Second Year
Cynara: Her Second Year