Sentinel fic - Village Blair

[dimity_blue]

Another short, pretty silly, AU fic.

Village Blair
By Arnie

Once upon a time there was a Guide called Blair. But he was a very unhappy Guide, for he had no Sentinel. The village where he lived had no Sentinel either, so, one night, he left his village to travel to other villages to find his Sentinel. He walked a long way that first night and, when he was tired, he crept inside a barn and went to sleep.

When Blair awoke, he could see daylight filtering down through the thick planks that formed the walls and roof of the barn, and he yawned and stretched, hoping that today he'd meet his Sentinel.

Making his way to the door of the barn, he looked around. It had been very dark the night before and he hadn't been able to see much at all, but in the bright sunshine he could see that the barn had to belong to the farmer who was in the field.

Walking over, he hailed the farmer, and asked if he knew of any nearby Sentinels who were looking for Guides.

"Nope," the farmer replied. "Don't rightly think I do."

Blair thanked him for his time, and turned to leave.

"Well, 'cept Mr. James up at the hall. But his father is a fearsome angry man and he hates his son being a Sentinel. So I wouldn't go up there, if I were you. He'll as like as not set the dogs on you."

Blair stopped. "Mr. James is a Sentinel?"

"Oh aye. We couldn't understand how he came to be a Sentinel at first - Lord Ellison's always been dead-set against Sentinels. Said they were unnatural freaks. But then, as it turned out, 'is mother's family 'ad Sentinels in it. So that's where it come from."

Taking a deep breath, Blair tried to keep his excitement under control. "How will I recognise this Mr. James?"

"Aye, that'll be easy enough."

"Yes?" Blair leaned forward to listen.

The farmer stared past him. "'E's 'eading this way right now."

Blair blinked, then spun on the spot. Heading straight towards them, determination in every line of his figure, was a tall, military looking man with short dark hair.

"Wonder what's up with 'im?" the farmer added. "'E looks to be in a right old state. Anyone'd think the fox 'ad got into the chickens again."

Grinning, Blair tuned out the rest of the farmer's ruminations and headed over the field towards the Sentinel.

He met him at the stile in the hedge and smiled. "I'm Blair."

"Jim," the Sentinel replied, his eyes fixed intently on Blair's face. Suddenly his head jerked up and he glared past Blair. Grabbing Blair's arm, he helped him over the stile. "C'mon, we have to get moving."

"What?!"

Hauled along by his Sentinel, Blair threw a few confused glances around. What was going on?

"My father. If he catches up with you, he'll try to shoot you."

As Blair stared at him in shock, Jim continued, "Not that he'll hit you. He knows better than to shoot a Guide."

Well, that was reassuring. "I hope your father's a good shot," Blair muttered.

"Not that good," Jim retorted. "Which is why we're going."

Once they reached the road, Jim stared up and down the dusty lane. "Do you have anywhere you want to go?" he asked.

Blair grinned. "My village doesn't have a Sentinel. That's why I came looking for you."

"Great. Let's go."

Blair hesitated. "Don't you want to take anything with you?" he asked. Surely the man had possessions, belongings that were important to him.

"Nope. I've got everything I need."

He gave Blair a meaningful look and Blair blushed. "Let's go then!" Striding off down the road, they made haste to put distance between themselves and the irate Lord Ellison who could be heard bellowing at them in the distance.

By the time night fell, Blair was back in his village, his Sentinel by his side.

As they passed through the village, he could hear the news spreading already - the village had a Sentinel! Grinning, he unlocked the door of his little cottage and showed his Sentinel in. Shutting the door firmly on the curious villagers who had followed them.

"Hungry?" Blair asked. They'd stopped on the way to eat nuts and berries and drink water, but Blair felt as though he could have eaten a whole loaf of bread, to say nothing of the fatted calf.

"Sure." Jim smiled at him as Blair began to fetch things from the larder, then Jim knelt to build a fire.

"I wasn't sure how long I'd be gone - or even if I'd be returning at all," Blair commented.

Jim frowned at him. "Then you should have emptied your larder. You might have come back to find a family of rats had moved in."

Blair shrugged. It wouldn't have been the first time he'd shared an abode with rats. In any case, he was back. Less than twenty four hours after he'd left. And he'd brought his own Sentinel back with him.

Within fifteen minutes, the kettle was boiling over the fire, and the table was laid with enough food to satisfy both of them.

Once they'd eaten, Blair pushed his chair back from the table and stretched out his legs, watching *his Sentinel* do the same thing opposite him.

"Are you supposed to bond on a full stomach?" Jim asked, his tone delicately interested. "Or are we supposed to wait a couple of hours?"

Blair gave the matter some consideration. "No, I think we're good to go."

"Good." Leaping to his feet, Jim grabbed Blair's hand and dragged him through the door to the bedroom.

Pushing him down onto the bed, Jim growled, "I think I've been patient enough! I was this close to bonding with you in Farmer Giles' barn!"

Allowing himself to be pinned in place, Blair tilted his head back and remarked, "If you had, your father would undoubtedly have shot me."

Jim paused for a second. "That would have been annoying."

"I'll say!" replied Blair, his head still tilted invitingly back. "I'm allergic to buckshot." He felt Jim sniffing at his neck, and pushed his head deeper into the pillow.

"We couldn't have that, now, could we?" Jim murmured, the breath stirring Blair's hair. "You might have turned purple and swelled up."

"Jiiiiim!"

There was a chuckle, then the Sentinel bit down, marking Blair's neck, and causing endorphins to go rushing through the Guide's bloodstream and into his brain.

Blair gave a strangled cry as his barriers fell, and his Sentinel's mind rushed to meet his. Wave after wave of memories swept in, and Blair revelled in the euphoric tide. Finally, it retreated, leaving him exhausted.

As his eyes slid closed, he heard Jim mutter, "And the nearest doctor is five miles away in the other direction."

His last thought, as he fell into the darkness, was that his Sentinel was a complete nutter.

the end
3rd January 2005.