[Authors Note: Hey, hey! This is Chapter 5! You'll find it's a bit more serious than previous ones, and a teeny bit shorter, but hey, I thought about doing more and the story just said NO. ::holds hands up in defeat:: So, there you have it! LOL.

Anyway, I hope you guys are enjoying this series, and thank you for the reviews! PLEASE continue with them! I'd love to know what you liked, what you hated, what you'd like to see...and so on! Thanks! ^_^
I'd also like to thank Lari, for being my 'beta-girl', lolol ^_^
On with the story!

**Disclaimer - Numair, Daine, Alanna, King Jon, and all the other characters are Tamora Pierces. Also the wonderful land of Tortall and surrounding world. I have no claim to them! Just like borrowin 'em, ^_~

Email: Mstryhrs98@aol.com
Website: www.geocities.com/mstryhrs
Archives: If you'd like to add my ongoing story, please just ask and you shall receive!]

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And There?
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Daine inhaled deeply and closed her eyes in contentment. The scents worked themselves out...salt, seaweed, fish, ocean. She had never ceased to be amazed at the majesty and largeness of the sea, although she lived right near it half the year at Numair's tower. It was disheartening though, to be deaf to animal voices. Yet, there were those, mostly inquisitive dolphins, which would speak to her. Daine would then have Kitten relate a reply to them. Though Daine sometimes wondered if Kitten told them exactly what she had said...

It had been a relatively uneventful trip thus far, and Daine was told they were only a day or so out from the Carthaki shore, and would put in sometime the next afternoon.

The dusk was fading slowly into night when Daine had came out to the rail, weary of the small cabin below decks she shared with Numair. The purples and reds were blending into a dark blue, which she knew would soon turn to a pitch-black sky dotted with literally millions of stars. This spot had become one of her favorites to lean on and just relax.

Daine could see no land in either direction, and hear nothing but the waves lapping the side of the boat, and the constant swish of the stern cutting through the water. Occasionally a shouted order or inquiry would come from one of the Tortallan sailors, but it was rare in such calm water as they were experiencing.

And yet, even as she was thinking this, a strange wind blew her curls into her smoky eyes, and she felt a prick of alarm but also of excitement, run through her veins. She turned quickly to the source of the wind. Just before she shape-changed her eyes to see the coming storm better, she quickly restrained herself and squinted. As any other human would be forced to do. Daine bit her lip and concentrated on discerning how bad a night they may be in for.

The clouds did look ominous, though a far off yet. But she knew this could very well be the storm she had heard sailors boasting would visit them before they met with Carthank's land.

"Lady, if ya please, I don'ta tink ya want ta be out 'n 'bout in 'dis one." a man said at her elbow quietly. She nodded, thanking him. With one last look at the coming storm, did as he suggested.

Making her way through the corridors below she smiled shyly at those she passed, though she and Numair were the only nobles aboard the vessel. Daine! You’re a noble now, huh?"The young woman blushed slightly and mentally kicked herself. I may not be a noble...but who else on this earth has lesser gods for parents?"

Daine felt slightly better at this thought, though for some reason it still made her a little nervous to think of her ma as a goddess. She supposed it would just take getting used to.

Daine's parents had visited a number of times since she and Numair had returned from the Divine Realms. Daine cherished every moment she had to make up lost time with her mother, and to get to know her father. Numair also seemed to enjoy these visits, though Weiryn and he had gotten into their share of spats over numerous things. Daine actually thought it quite funny to see her father and tall mage squabbling over theology.

She paused outside the thin wooden door of their quarters and smiled. She could hear Numair muttering to himself about something, as he was wont to do. She opened the door quietly and closed it again just as silently. He had been at his books for hours now, jotting down various things on small pieces of paper before flipping book pages again. She was glad he was so interested in trying to help her, but she just had a feeling things had to work themselves out...and nothing they tried to do would help. But she wasn't about to stop Numair from doing something to help her, for she knew it made him feel better. In a physical way as well as emotional. Numair was not one to take traveling well and it helped to keep his mind occupied.

He was hunched over a small corner desk, books stacked near him on the floor and covering the small bed. She swept the room further with her eyes and spotted Kitten curled up in the opposite corner on a pile of pillows, nose to tail. Daine smiled. She didn't expect the dragonet to awake any time soon, even during the storm. Kit had been running to and fro on the boat all morning and afternoon, causing quite a ruckus until Daine had found and admonished her, locking her in the room; with Numair to stand guard of course. It appeared she had given in to her weariness. Or her boredom.

"No wonder we feel so crammed in here, Numair, your books take up half the room!" she announced jokingly, trying to clear the bed off a bit for a place to sit.

He startled and craned his neck to her. "You could be very right," he said with a wry smile. He turned toward her on his stool and stretched. "Where have you been?" Before she could answer a roll of the boat made him clutch the side of the bed near her leg to keep from falling on top of her. Face to face they looked at each other, blinking in surprise. Daine quickly recovered and fought not to laugh at Numair's expression, and calmly said, "The storms almost here, moving faster than I thought it would."

"Storm?" Numair's voice cracked and she grinned. She patted his hand when he straitened back into his seat. "Don't worry, dearest, it's only a little squall, I'm sure. Well, almost sure."

"Almost? I don't like the sound of that." As they had been talking the boat had begun a much fiercer bobbing and swaying than it had in calm waters.

Books began toppling from their stacks and sliding across the cabin. Numair watched them do this and said, "Maybe I should go check with the captain-"

"Do you think it would help?" Daine asked before running quickly to stop a particularly heavy book from ramming the still slumbering Kitten. She slid across the planks and snatched it up, meeting the wall with her shoulder. She continued. "Remember when we tried to ask him about moving closer to that pod of whales the other day?" Numair nodded absently. "He didn't seem like a very obliging man, did he?"

Daine shook her head with a frown. "I talked to one of the sailors before I came down here, he didn't make me feel very reassured, but I think they have things in hand." The tall mage looked thoughtful for a moment and shrugged. "You win. But perhaps we should secure everything in here, I don't want either of us to get brained or trip over one of these dratted books." he suggested, his voice now raised. The ocean sound and creaking of the boards had gotten much louder.

Daine nodded and began quickly gathering up books and stuffing them under the desk as he did the same for the ones sliding along the opposite wall. Soon they were all there, secured with Numair and hers heavy packs at the desks chair opening.

The boat gave another buck, this one causing Daine to clutch wildly for Numair before she pulled them both down on the floor. They both groaned and Daine began to quickly get off of Numair's arm, which she was sure she was squishing. Her face was red with embarrassment, she should have been able to keep from falling! And here she had pulled Numair down with her.

And yet he was laughing?

"Daine, come here!" he hauled her back down next to where he was sprawled on the floor. Daine's stomach did flips with the sporadic movements of the boat, made worse by lying flat on the planks.

"What is it? That was funny! If only you could have seen-the way you looked-arms flapping..." he started laughing heartily again and she couldn't help but join him, turning her head so it was hidden in his strong chest.

After they had both calmed down, Daine turned her head and remained where she was, head rising and falling with Numair's breathing with his arm tight around her shoulders. The water had a soothing rhythm to it, and lying on the floor, they were less apt to be thrown about.

Daine felt her eyes began to droop and she heard Numair quietly say, "Let's bring our bed down here tonight, I don't think we would get much sleep falling off every few seconds, do you?" She smirked and shook her head. Working together, though Daine wasn't as much help as she could have been, being slightly drowsy; they soon had the mattress on the floor in front of the bed and again covered with blankets.

They pulled off boots and belts, not bothering to shed day clothing in case they would need to jump up quickly in the night. Daine curled up at Numair's side, fighting not to roll on top of him at the next wave, and not succeeding. Daine was about to apologize and laugh but when she saw the look in Numair's eyes, a look of heat and desire, she choked on it and quickly rolled off of him.

Turning from him, she closed her eyes tight and tried to ignore the answering feeling she was experiencing.

"Daine?" the man questioned softly with concern, looking over her shoulder.

Daine took a deep breath and plunged on before she lost her nerve, like so many times before. She rolled over to face him and spat out, "Numair, do you ever regret it?"

He frowned. "What, Daine? Regret what?"

She looked down, afraid to meet his piercing gaze, afraid of what she might see. "Not-not being able to-you know...with me-with anyone..." And she had a terrible thought. Daine didn't know where he was every second of the day. "Or, do you-" her words seemed to be punctuated with another hard roll of the boat which threw Daine away from Numair but he caught her arm and pulled her back onto the bed.

"No, Daine, I don't. You, and only you are the one I want to bed. It has been so from the time we made our feelings clear and on. Even before that, it would make me think I was doing wrong, that I was missing something...I loved you for a long while Daine before I truly admitted it to myself. Don't ever believe I would do such a base thing." he sighed, passing a hand over his eyes as she held her breath for what he might say next. "I won't lie to you, it is hard to see you every day, touch you every day, kiss you ever day, and not be able to show you how much more I love you...but I can handle it, Daine. Truly, I can. And to answer your other question, no, I don't, won't ever regret it. Ever."

Daine smiled at him happily, exhaling. She felt very relieved to have talked it out with him, and with the answers she had gotten.

"Thank you, Numair, for loving me so much. I wish you knew how much I love you-" he put a finger on her lips and shook his head, the while steadying her for a particularly rough jump of the boat. "I know, Daine, I know. Do you remember when I said, that you weren't much good at disguising your emotions?" She nodded, thinking back to that long ago day in Carthak... "Well I was speaking truth, not merely trying to placate you." he smiled and pretended to be hurt when she punched his arm lightly.

Daine yawned and they both settled back down on the blankets. She turned her back to the mage so she was spooned against him, and he put an arm around her middle, sighing in her hair contentedly.

"You know, if we were to get married, we could do whatever we like, couldn't we?" Daine said with a small smile, as quietly as she could, but loud enough that he could still hear her above the storm.

"Ah, yes..." Numair said near her ear with carefully studied nonchalance.

Daine looked over her shoulder at him from the corner of her eye. "You still want to marry me? Even after living with me all these years and seeing what I'm truly like?"

Numair smiled and kissed her nose. "Yes, Magelet, even after that." she snuggled back down next to him and grinned. "That's good to know." Then she frowned. "Give me time, Numair, if you could just wait, a little longer..."

Numair stroked her cheek and whispered in her ear, "I'll wait for you forever, my dear."

Neither of them were conscious when a slightly swaying blue form joined them on the floor, sprawling next to Daine before falling back asleep.