Apprentices

(Aurora, part 2)

"WHERE'S the number eight? I KNOW I've put it here an hour ago! WHEN will you learn to put tools where they belong? I bet you've been leaving it lying around, like, in the kitchen or whereever! You go right now and look for it!"
"And who made YOU my boss? I haven't even SEEN the number eight, let alone USED it! I've been READING! You go look for it yourself and leave me alone, you bitch!"
Before Frida could open her mouth again, Aurora stepped between them.
"Is there any reason to yell the house down?" she asked calmly.
None of them said a word, but they continued to glare at each other.
Aurora sighed and told Frida, "Let me assure you, Kyros is completely innocent. I'm the culprit who has been taking the liberty to use the number eight. I hope your majesty will be able to grant me forgiveness."
"Oh. Err... sorry. That's okay," Frida said, clearly embarrassed.
"By the way, there's a second toolset in the cupboard. Just for your information," Aurora added drily.
Kyros grinned and stuck out his tongue at Frida.
Aurora raised her eyebrows and looked at him. He looked back at her defiantly.
Aurora drew a deep breath.
"Now, let me tell you this one last time", she said. "Frida, you stop bossing Kyros around. Kyros, you stop calling her names and trying to provoke her. If these constant arguments don't stop, and stop right now, there will be trouble, for both of you."
She turned abruptly and went back to her work.

Later that night, when the children were in bed, Aurora sat at her desk and held her head in her hands. She seriously started to doubt the wisdom of her decision to take on two apprentices at the same time. Well, she hadn't really planned it - it had just happened.
After she had given word to Cassius, the head of the miners' guild, that she was looking for an apprentice, she had been overwhelmed by the response. For about two weeks, she had at least ten families dropping by every day, some of them from outlying regions of the colony, wanting to present one or even two or three of their children to her. She had devised some tests in order to find out about the children's talent at grasping how a simple mechanical construction worked, their practical abilities, their capability of understanding a calculation, a technical design, a text from a manual, and so on. She was a bit disappointed by the results. There was a number of children who were quite good at the practical stuff, but most of them had little curiosity or imagination, and little interest in theoretical matters. Perhaps she was expecting too much. These children had grown up on a remote colony, their education had been limited to learning how to read and write, and nobody had ever taken the effort to develop their talents or respond to their questions. Their parents simply didn't have the time, and there were no regular schools, just a few informal classes that didn't go beyond the primary level.
She had finally settled on Frida. About two thirds of the children presented to her were girls, by the way. This was because most miners needed their sons to work in the mines with them, a job that wasn't done by girls. Women, on the other hand, often worked with the ore sorting machines, so nobody would ever think of doubting their ability to become a mechanic.
Frida certainly wasn't brilliant, but she was quite intelligent, very practical, extremely patient, she wasn't afraid of getting dirty, and she really wanted to learn. As her family lived in a miners' colony about fifty miles from Aurora's home, they decided that Frida would live with Aurora and go home for the weekend once in a while. Aurora decided that she would need about two weeks to arrange everything - most important of all, put away Daylan's things and convert his room into a room for Frida - and told Frida to be back by then.

The task of sorting through Daylan's things wasn't pleasant, and she shed a lot of tears before she was finished with it. The whole cave was filled with memories. She was really looking forward to Frida's arrival, which she hoped would take her mind off things, but she also knew she needed the time to say goodbye to Daylan.

One week before Frida's arrival was scheduled, she was busy sorting through an enormous scrap heap that Daylan had accumulated in his working area when she heard a motorbike outside. She wiped her hands on her overalls and went to the door, where she saw a very small and very dusty boy climb from the seat of a motorbike that looked decidedly too big for him. She couldn't see anybody else.
She greeted him, and he greeted her back respectfully. Then he asked shyly: "I've heard... is it true that you're looking for an apprentice?"
"Well," she said, "to be honest, I've already found one."
He looked as if he was ready to cry, which made her feel bad.
"Have you come a long way?" she asked gently. "Haven't your parents come with you?"
"I've come from Wargla," he said, looking at her with big eyes. "My parents couldn't come because of the date harvest."
"Wargla???" she asked, nonplussed. Wargla was the remotest oasis on the colony. It took at least five hours to get there, and the way was dangerous. There were few tracks, no points of orientation, and the occasional bandit. There was no way that any responsible parent would let a little boy come this way alone.
She decided to postpone that issue and told him to get in, wash the dust off and have lunch with her.
When they were seated at the kitchen table, and he was hungrily munching bread and goat cheese, she asked: "What's your name, anyway? And how old are you?"
"I'm Kyros, and I'm twelve," he said.
She looked at him sharply. "Try that again, and better don't say eleven, 'cause I won't believe that either."
He blushed. "Okay...," he said reluctantly, "I'm ten-and-a-half. Look, I know that's a bit young to be an apprentice, but I can read and write and everything, and I'm really good with machines, and I do all kinds of work! Really, I'll do everything you say!"
She raised her eyebrows. "We'll see about that," she said, amused. Well, it couldn't hurt to have him do the tests. She supposed that she would have to bring him back to Wargla after that - she would definitely not let him go back alone. If it turned out, as she strongly suspected, that his parents hadn't authorized this trip, she would have to tell him a few words of choice about putting himself in danger and, quite probably, make everybody sick with worry.
She spent the next few hours having him do her tests, asking him questions and answering his. And he had lots of them. He had everything she had missed in the other children she had tried out so far - he was lively, curious, and he not only wanted to know HOW things worked, but WHY they worked. On the other hand, she got the impression that he could be quite a handful. He was very restless, and he had problems concentrating on one thing for more than five minutes. Aurora thought that he was apparently used to doing whatever he wanted, and whenever he wanted to do it.
In any case, she was sure that she wanted to have him. The conventional thing to do would probably be to tell him to come back in two years. But on the other hand, the sooner he started learning to concentrate on things, and the sooner she could start teaching him the basics of math, and all the other things he needed to know, the better. Well, she would have to bring him back to Wargla and talk to his parents anyhow before she came to a decision. She was just about to tell him to pack his things and fill his water bottles when she heard the sound of motorbikes again - this time, it sounded like at least three.
She stepped out of the door to find four men in long farmers' dresses.
"Good afternoon," she said. "You are not, by any chance, from Wargla?"
One of the man quickly stepped towards her when he heard this. "Then is my son with you?" he asked urgently.
"If you mean Kyros, yes, he is," she replied. "I've just been about to bring him back."
He heaved a big sigh of relief.
"You didn't allow him to go, did you?" Aurora asked, finding her suspicion confirmed.
"ALLOWED?" he asked. "I didn't know anything about his plans! Luckily, nobody had been this way from Wargla for a week, so we could follow his tracks until the big crossing near the town. We've been asking around for over an hour now, until one of us remembered what the trader had told us the week before last, that the new Professor was looking for an apprentice. So we asked for the way, and here we are. You can't imagine how relieved I am to have found him. Where is he?"
The new Professor... well, she would have to get used to the title.
"Please come in," she said. "I guess Kyros is lurking somewhere inside. He probably isn't too keen on meeting you."
"Why shouldn't he?" his father asked, astonished.
Aurora gaped at him. "You ask why he shouldn't? He... oh, there he is."
"Kyros!" his father exclaimed and hugged his son tight.
"Father! Don't be angry!" Kyros implored and looked at him with his big eyes. "I just wanted to make a short trip, and then I got lost, and I found a track and thought it would be better to follow it, and it ended up here, and Aurora was so kind to me ... Really, I only wanted to test the big motorbike. I know I'm not allowed to ride it ... I'm so sorry for that!" He cast a look at Aurora and gave her a wink. She couldn't believe he actually expected her to back up his story!
"I think, young man, that you knew exactly where you were going and what you were doing," she said coolly, "and I also think you know exactly that what you were doing was wrong."
Kyros' father looked surprised. His three companions, on the other hand, nodded grimly.
The scene she had just witnessed gave Aurora the strong suspicion that Kyros was used to getting away with everything, which explained a lot.
Well, at the moment she couldn't very well change that, but she certainly wouldn't put up with it if Kyros moved in with her.
"Kyros, please go and fill the tanks of the motorbikes," she said. "I have to talk to your father in private."
"But I don't want you to talk about me behind my back!" he protested.
She raised her eyebrows. "I know a young man who has just promised me to do everything I tell him a few hours ago," she remarked. "That promise sure hasn't lasted long."
He glared at her. She glared back. Finally, he shrugged and walked off.
"If you show us the well, we'll go and have a drink and fill up the water supply," one of the three companions said politely.
"Oh, we've got taps inside," she replied. "Wait, I'll show you to the kitchen."
Kyros' father was surprised, but apparently also very proud at Aurora's proposal to take on his son as an apprentice. He thought about it for a while and then asked her if it would be okay if he took Kyros back to Wargla and sent him to start his apprenticeship with the weekly trade convoy ten days later. Aurora agreed.
"But there's one thing I'd like to make clear," she said. "He's going to live with me, and that means I'll have to deal with him when he misbehaves. I need you to give me permission to exercise full disciplinary authority over him."
"What would that imply?" his father asked nervously.
"That would imply," Aurora said, "that I can take whatever means I deem necessary to punish him."
Aurora was pretty certain she had put the man in a dilemma. She suspected he didn't spank his son - not out of conviction, but because his son could apparently wrap him around his finger. Now, life was rough on Sitat, and there was hardly a man in the colony who didn't spank his children. Those who didn't usually didn't admit to it. Kyros' father was no exception.
"Alright," he finally said reluctantly, "but you have to promise me not to punish him unduly harshly."
"Oh, don't worry about that," said Aurora, thinking that she probably had a different view of what was unduly harsh than the man had, but not caring particularly.

Before the group left to Wargla - luckily, Sitat's four moons gave enough light to make it possible to drive at night - Aurora took Kyros aside. The boy seemed to be in very high spirits at his success and didn't seem to care at all about the worry he had caused.
"I'll see you in ten days," she said to him quietly. "I just want to make one thing clear right in the beginning. Your parents may put up with everything you do, but I certainly won't. When you come to live with me, you better don't even think about taking a motorbike without permission, going anywhere without asking, having people come after you, and then having the cheek to tell lies about it and expecting me to back you up! I won't stand for it, and you'll be in serious trouble with me if you don't change your attitude quickly. More specifically, you might end up spending some time over my knee, and I'm sure you wouldn't like that." She smiled at him sweetly. "Have a nice trip, and see you soon!"

Finally, Frida arrived, and Kyros a few days after her. Aurora had decided to let him her room, next to Frida's, and turn the pantry into a room for herself. She didn't need much space there, as she had the big working area in the back of the cave to herself.

The children's arrival was definitely a relief. The cave was filled with life again, and Aurora's sad memories were restricted to the hours before going to sleep.
Unfortunately, Frida and Kyros didn't get along with each other at all. Frida, who had expected to be Aurora's only apprentice, was jealous. She also didn't understand that Aurora had taken on someone so young. She didn't take Kyros seriously, and that wasn't helped by the fact that he sometimes behaved as if he was five years old, not ten. On the other hand, he was clearly more intelligent than Frida, which didn't exactly help the girl's jealousy. Even if they had been of the same age, they were still too different in character to really hit it off with each other. Frida was the oldest of seven children, very calm, patient and self-confident, and often quite bossy. Kyros was the youngest of nine, unruly, cheeky, full of mischief, and he resented being bossed around.

Aurora felt as if she barely had time for her own work any more. She had to teach the two, and their learning style was quite different from each other's. Frida always wanted to know the practical application of everything she learned, whereas Kyros could bombard Aurora with questions about the origins of the universe and read about it for days, but soon lost interest in a practical problem when he didn't find the solution quickly.

As if teaching the children wasn't enough work, Aurora felt as if she spent her day keeping them from arguing with each other. Yesterday, it had been so bad that she had finally sent Frida to work in the garden, which she hated, and Kyros to sweep the floor, which he had an equal aversion to. This morning, there had been a bit of peace and quiet for the first time in weeks, but of course it had been to good to last.
After Aurora had interrupted their squabble about the number eight, Kyros and Frida didn't talk to each other for the rest of the afternoon. Aurora felt that, although this was not exactly the result she wanted to reach, it was an improvement over the constant arguments, and she could at least finish the job she was doing for Cassius. She would start working with the children on a new project tomorrow.

When Sitat's red sun set and she had to switch on the lights, she called over from her desk in the back of the cave to the front, where she had set up her apprentices' desks: "Can one of you set the table for dinner, please?" Then she continued testing the electric circuits of the machine before her, oblivious at first to the suppressed noises from the front of the cave, until suddenly Kyros started to scream at the top of his voice. She dropped everything, jumped over her workbench and sprinted over to where she saw Kyros lying on the floor, Frida sitting on top of him and slapping his face over and over. She was so shocked that she stood stock-still for a moment, but then quickly grabbed Frida by the scruff of her neck and pulled her away from the boy, flinging her aside. Kyros howled loudly. When she looked at him more closely, she couldn't help feeling that he put it on.
"Dinner is cancelled," she said curtly, fighting against losing her temper, which would NOT help matters. "Frida, go to your room. Now."
Frida, in her usual pragmatic way, thought that this was probably not the moment to explain herself and obeyed without making a fuss. Aurora, mad as she was at Frida, was grateful for that.
"Are you hurt?" she asked Kyros.
"I don't knoooohoooww," Kyros cried.
"Well, for heaven's sake, get up and let me look if you are bleeding or if there's any other damage done," she said impatiently. "And stop this noise, you are not three years old."
That quieted him down a little. Aurora made sure that nothing was really wrong with him and then asked him what had happened.
"Frida tried ordering me around again," he whined, "and..."
"Before you go on, take that whine out of your voice," Aurora interrupted him. "It's absolutely unbearable."
He scowled, but continued in a much more normal, if slightly sulky voice: "She told me to go set the dinner table, and I told her that it was HER turn, and then she started hitting me! You know how she is!"
"Yes, I do," Aurora said, "and bossy as she may sometimes be, it's definitely not like her to start beating people up for no reason. Besides, as far as I remember, she set the table yesterday night AND this morning, didn't she?"
"Well... perhaps," Kyros admitted, "but I did it yesterday morning, and ..."
"Save it," she cut him off. "I'm not at all convinced that it happened the way you told me. Go to your room and try to think about your own behavior, instead of Frida's, for a change."
"But my face hurts!" he complained.
Frida had indeed slapped him thoroughly. His cheeks were red and a bit swollen.
"I can't help that now," Aurora said more calmly, "and I'm positive that you'll live. Now run off to your room, and cool your face with a cold washcloth if you feel you need it. I don't want to hear another sound from you tonight unless I ask you."
He hesitated, but finally decided to obey.
Aurora let out a deep sigh and stood thinking for a while, rubbing her temples. Finally, she shook her head impatiently and went to Frida's room.

Frida was lying on her bed. To her surprise, Aurora noted that she looked as if she had cried. She suddenly realized that Frida, in spite of the grown-up manners she often displayed, was still a kid, and her heart softened a little.
She pulled out the chair from under Frida's dresser and sat down on it, facing the bed.
"Tell me what happened to make you slap Kyros like that, Frida," she said quietly.
Frida sat up, sniffling a little. "Hasn't darling Kyros told you everything already?" she asked with a defiant undertone in her voice.
Aurora sighed. "This is not the time for misplaced jealousy," she said. "Kyros has told me his version of events, and now I want to hear yours. Go ahead."
Frida shrugged. "I don't want to tell tales."
"NOR IS THIS THE TIME FOR MISPLACED PRIDE," Aurora said much more sharply. "Tell me what happened. I'm not going to ask you a third time."
Frida hesitated and then said: "Okay, if you insist ..."
"I do," Aurora said impatiently.
"Well, when you said one of us should set the table? I told Kyros it was his turn. I really tried not to order him around like before, after you got so upset this afternoon. But it WAS his turn, and I told him politely. But he said it wasn't his turn, and even if it was, he was busy. I told him that wasn't fair, and he wasn't that busy, and besides, I had work to do, too, and then HE said," and here, indignation filled Frida's face, "it was my job anyway, because I was a GIRL."
"Oh," Aurora said softly. Now she understood a little. Kyros had grown up in a farming community, which had very traditional role models, whereas in the mining settlements, like the one Frida came from, women had a very strong role, and boys and girls were treated as equals. Aurora cursed herself for not having been aware of this problem. Of course Kyros resented being told things by a girl, even if the girl was right. He simply wasn't used to it. Neither was he used to doing household chores. Well, he would have to learn, and learn fast.
"Was that when you started slapping him?" Aurora asked.
"No," said Frida. "I told him he was a horrible brat, and that was when HE slapped ME, or at least tried to. And, well, I slapped him back, and he sort of kicked me, only I jumped aside, and we started fighting, and when I had him on the floor and he couldn't move any more, he suddenly started screaming bloody murder, just to get you to come over and be mad at me for hitting the poor boy, and that was so mean that it made me want to just slap him as hard as I could." She shrugged. "Which I did, until you stopped me. I guess I slapped him about a dozen times, pretty hard. And if you ask me, he deserved it."
Aurora shook herself to make sure she wasn't dreaming. It took her a while to digest the story Frida had told her. Incredible though it sounded, she somehow had the impression it was much closer to the truth than Kyros' version. Frida wasn't the type for lying. When she had done something, she would just own up to it frankly.
After a pause, Aurora said: "Frida, you will leave it to me to decide whether someone deserves to be slapped around here. And I don't know why you always seem to assume that I'm taking sides with Kyros, but I'm not. I'm taking sides with no one. It seems to me as if both of you are to blame here."
She got up. "I'm going to speak with Kyros again, and then I'll decide what I'm going to do about this. Stay in your room."

Aurora left Frida's room, leant against the wall and closed her eyes. When she had taken the decision to get herself an apprentice, she had never thought about the disciplinary problems that decision might entail - or, well, she had thought about it, but had never really imagined she would actually get in a situation like this. And then she had been stupid enough to take on a second apprentice, which made the situation all the more difficult to control. She knew she had to discipline the two in some way. And she also knew in which way Daylan would have handled this. She only wasn't sure if she could do it. Hell, she was only eighteen years old herself! Then again, if she thought she was to young to handle her apprentices, perhaps she shouldn't have taken them on? It was all a mess.

Oh, well, first things first. She went into Kyros' room and bluntly confronted him with Frida's account.
He completely denied that it had happened like that, but when Aurora asked him to specify the points at which Frida had been lying, he became very evasive.
Aurora sighed.

Luckily, she was, for now, saved the immediate necessity to deal with both children when she heard a loud voice call from outside: "HELLO? ANYBODY HOME?"
"You stay here. I'll deal with you later tonight, or in the morning," she said to Kyros and went to look for the visitor. She didn't have any clue who it might be.
Nighttime visits were unusual on Sitat, not because it would have been dangerous - the moons provided enough light even in the middle of the night to drive safely - but because most of the colonists were simply to exhausted from their hard days to go out at night. They spent their evenings with their families and mainly socialized with others on their free days.
Aurora went to the front of the cave and saw a tall, lean, black woman with very short hair standing there. She had never seen her before - the visitor must have arrived on the shuttle the day before yesterday. Now she remembered - it must be the new trade secretary! Daylan had told her that they were expecting one, but she had completely forgotten about it after his death and all the business with her new apprentices.
She greeted the woman and invited her in. "You must be the new trade secretary," she said. "I'm sorry I didn't come into town to meet you, but a few weeks ago, my master has died, and I've just got two new apprentices - it's been extremely busy."
"That's okay," the visitor said and smiled. "Cassius told me you were one of the most important people to meet here, and as I didn't have anything to do tonight, I decided to come out and see you. I must admit I was curious, after everything I've heard about you. Twain Silver is my name, by the way. I hope this is not an inconvenient time for you?"
"Well ..." Aurora said, "yes, and no. But never mind. Sit down. I've got some cold beer - just delivered yesterday. Or you can have tea, coffee or water."
They ended up having a bottle of beer each and chatting. Twain was only a few years older than Aurora. She came from Aquitaine, from a village in the Neven delta, which was halfway around the planet from Irshad, but, as Twain said, just as overpopulated.
"You'll find Aquitainians everywhere in the colonies nowadays," she said. "Living on Aquitaine is becoming more and more unbearable. Every year, thousands of people die in floods in the Neven delta, because there are so many people that more and more of them are simply forced to live at the river banks. I've been lucky I had a bit of an education, and I have an aunt who could get me a job in the administration. But I still had to live with my family because the housing situation is so bad. I like them, but the house is cramped - it's not only us, but also my grandmothers, my brother's wife, his kids, his mother-in-law, my sister's husband and so on, fifteen people in five rooms . Finally, I just couldn't stand it any more, and I applied for a job on a pioneer colony. I know Sitat is not the most exciting place in the world, and it doesn't have an inviting climate, but for me it's heaven."
"I've never seen it that way," Aurora admitted. "I've grown up in Amargant, and then moved here - I've never experienced overpopulation. When I came here with my father, who was governor of Sitat for a few years, I hated it. Now I kind of like it, but I know I don't want to spend the rest of my life here."
"Oh, neither do I," said Twain, "but it's a pleasant change for a while. I just wonder how long Amargant can uphold its visa policy and keep the masses from Aquitaine out."
"Well," Aurora replied, "luckily for the government, it's a bit hard to see how the Aquitainians could invade Amargant - it's not as if you can walk there!"
Amargant was the capital of the Colonies, situated on the planet of Corinth, which had only one habitable landmass. It was very humid there and rained half of the time, but apart from that, it was a lot like earth. Most of the early settlers in the Colonies had preferred Aquitaine, though, which was nearly identical to Earth with respect to its living conditions, except for the different species of animals and plants. When after several centuries, overpopulation, crime, pollution and other problems had arisen, the government employees in Amargant had become afraid that idyllic Corinth might become affected and they would be confronted with all the problems there were on Aquitaine, so they had restricted residence permits to Corinthians in the fourth generation and to government employees and their families. This was relatively easy to control, as space travel was relatively limited.
More and more Aquitainians were thus forced to move to one of the nine so-called pioneer colonies - planets that were habitable, but had by far less favorable climatic conditions for humans to live in then their home world.
Aurora and Twain talked for about an hour. Then Twain started to yawn. She glanced at her watch and said: "I'm sorry, but I'm still not used to a 27-hour-day."
"Never mind," Aurora sighed. "I've still got to deal with my apprentices."
"Why, what happened?" Twain asked.
Aurora told her the whole story.

They ended up talking for another hour. It was a tremendous relief to Aurora to have found somebody she could confide in. Of course, she hardly knew Twain, but the two of them liked each other immediately, and they felt as if they'd known each other for a long a time.
When Twain left, Aurora's anger about her apprentices had subsided a lot. She also felt much more confident about dealing with them, and had sorted out in her mind the things that had happened, and the consequences she would impose.

She promised Twain to drop by within the next few days and closed the doors behind her. Then she went to see what Kyros and Frida were doing. Kyros had fallen asleep over a book. She switched his light off and went to the neighboring room. Frida had already changed into her nightgown, but was still awake.
"Do you want to continue the discussion now, or do you want to wait until tomorrow morning?" Aurora asked her softly.
Frida hesitated a bit and then said: "I'd really prefer to do it now."
"Okay," Aurora replied and took her place on the chair again.
"Now... after all I've heard tonight, it wasn't your turn to set the table, and it was Kyros who started the argument by suggesting you should do it anyway because you are a girl. It was also Kyros who started the fight. Is that right?"
Frida shrugged and nodded.
"So," Aurora went on, "it basically wasn't your fault, but you reacted in a less than ideal manner, which, I suspect, is due to your negative attitude towards Kyros. When Kyros told you he didn't want to set the table, and you should do it, what could you have done, instead of insulting him?"
Frida looked at her surprised. Aurora looked back at her impassively, waiting for an answer.
Finally, Frida sighed. "Well, of course I could have run to you and told tales..."
Aurora shook her head. "I don't expect you to tell tales. You could have come to me and asked me to define the responsibilities for household chores more clearly, instead of just saying 'Someone please do it'. I would have done that sooner if I'd realized that this was such a problem, and I'm certainly going to do it from now on. You could also have ignored Kyros and waited for me to find out that nobody is setting the table because it's his turn, and he doesn't want to do it. Or you could have told him why his attitude towards girls is not appropriate here, without insulting him. There were plenty of alternatives to calling him an asshole."
Frida hung her head and nodded. "I know. I'm sorry."
"Well, you should tell that to Kyros, and you should also apologize to him for the slaps you gave him," Aurora stated.
"What?" Frida snapped, and her head shot up. "No way!" She glared at Aurora.
"Frida, I mean it," Aurora said firmly. "He may have started the fight, and you may have had a right to be angry at him for starting to yell like that in order to get you in trouble, but that is absolutely no reason to go about slapping him a dozen times like you did. You could have let him go after you showed him that you're stronger than he is, or you could have continued holding him to the ground, without hitting him. You will leave it to me to decide whether he deserves to be slapped or not, and you will most certainly leave it to me to deal out the slaps. - Now, I'm not saying I approve of Kyros' behavior, and I'm not saying either that HE won't have to apologize to YOU, but that doesn't justify the way you reacted, and you WILL apologize to him for that. Is that clear?"
Frida swallowed. "Yes, Aurora," she said quietly.
"Good," Aurora said. "Now, I think that you need to change your attitude towards Kyros. This stupid jealousy has to stop, which, I suppose, is the main reason you had to let off steam like that. If you have a problem with Kyros, we can always try to find a solution, but slapping him isn't a solution, and I won't stand for it. Come here."
Frida slowly climbed out of her bed and walked over to where Aurora was sitting.
"Tell me, do you think you deserve to be punished?" Aurora asked.
Frida chewed her lip. "Wellll... okay, maybe I didn't deal with the situation very well..."
"Maybe???" Aurora asked with raised eyebrows.
"Okay, okay, you're right, I didn't start this, but I still screwed up," Frida admitted.
"Well, at least you're honest towards yourself. Good for you," Aurora said calmly. "But you're still getting a spanking to help you keep your temper in check when something upsets you the next time."
Frida nodded, tears forming in her eyes.
Aurora quickly pulled her over her lap and raised her nightgown. She decided to spank her over her panties, like Daylan had nearly always done. They didn't offer a lot of protection, and she wasn't particularly keen on humiliating the girl.
She started with fast, hard slaps that had Frida squeal and wiggle on her lap. Aurora concentrated on the lower part of Frida's buttocks and the upper part of her thighs. At first, she spread her spanks until the area was rosy all over, as far as she could see it, and Frida was groaning in discomfort. Then, she concentrated half a dozen spanks on one spot, until moving on to the next. She knew from experience that this was very painful, and Frida's reaction showed her that she was right. Frida yelled more loudly with each slap, kicked her legs violently and finally started crying. But she didn't ask her to stop, and she didn't try to get away from her. Aurora spanked the girl until Frida was sobbing and the place where her bottom met the thighs was bright red.

She pulled her up, let her rest her head against her shoulder and let her cry it out for a while. Frida slowly calmed down a little. Aurora felt a bit uneasy. This was the first time she had spanked anybody, and she hoped that Frida wouldn't resent her for doing this.
"Everything okay, honey?" she asked, concerned, and stroked Frida's blond hair lightly.
"Yes," Frida sniffled. "I'm sorry I gave you so much trouble. I'm going to apologize to Kyros tomorrow." She wrinkled her nose. "But I won't like it."
Aurora smiled. "I can understand that, but you'll still have to do it. I promise you to take better care that the chores are divided equally between you two. And you can be sure that I will explain to Kyros thoroughly that girls get the same respect as boys around here."
"Thanks," Frida murmured. Then she looked at Aurora shyly and asked: "You still mad at me?"
Aurora shook her head. "No, honey. I think you deserved this spanking, but I'm not mad at you any more. I think you will try to deal with situations like these in a better way in the future, won't you?"
Frida nodded and put her head back against Aurora's chest. Aurora put her arm around her tentatively and was pleasantly surprised that Frida immediately snuggled closer to her. She is really still a kid, Aurora thought.
They sat like this for a while, until Frida yawned loudly.
"We'd better get you into your bed," Aurora said, lifted her up and tucked her in.
"G'night," Frida said sleepily.
"Good night," Aurora said, smiling at her.
When she left, she was relieved. She had managed to handle Frida, and she thought it had gone quite well. But she suspected that dealing with Kyros would be more difficult.

Kyros:
I could tell that Aurora was pretty mad at me when she sent me to my room. Sheesh, as if it was me who had done the slapping! Well, I thought I could talk my way out of it, as always. Give her the puppy look and everything. Boy, was I mistaken!
When she confronted me with Frida's story, I denied it, of course, but I suppose I wasn't very convincing. I probably should have been more specific about where Frida went wrong, but the problem is, Frida's version was more or less correct, only it sounded so bad I didn't want to admit that. Well, yes, I could have blamed her for starting the fight or something like that, but I couldn't really bring myself to do that. Whatever, suddenly Aurora got this visitor, and when she didn't come back for a long time, I thought I was off the hook.
I was reading a book when suddenly I heard her come back down to my room. I don't know why, but I decided in a flash that it would be a good idea to pretend to be asleep. Apparently, she bought it, 'cause she switched off the light. I didn't dare switch it back on, so I put away the book, and I guess I was just falling asleep when I thought I heard something from next door. But I wasn't sure - the walls are really thick here. I was so curious, I crept towards the door, and when I saw the corridor was empty, I made my way to Frida's room. The sounds were unmistakable - she was getting a spanking. She was really howling.
I was shocked. I mean, yes, Aurora had made a few vague threats in that direction - okay, even quite explicit threats, but so had my father, and HE had never spanked me. Besides, she is such a young woman - I just hadn't expected it from her. But the spanking she gave Frida seemed to be very real. I was nearly feeling sorry for Frida, but then I felt my face, which was still hurting, and thought, serves you right. I didn't dare get to close, so I went back to my room and fell asleep soon after that. I guess I was gloating a little about Frida's fate that night. Little did I know what was expecting me the next morning.

I was woken up really early by Aurora who shook me and told me to get up, wash and get dressed. I tried to stall a bit, until she became very impatient and told me she would be back in ten minutes, and if I hadn't washed and dressed myself by then, she would do it for me. I don't know if she was serious, but I thought she might be, and I didn't really want to find out. So I washed quickly, got dressed and finally got a little worried. What had she woken me up at that hour for? Gosh, I had hoped she'd forgotten about yesterday's incident overnight! Besides, Frida had already slapped me - hadn't that been punishment enough? Yes, that's what I'd tell her.

Aurora came back soon and told me to sit on my bed. She sat down opposite me, on my chair.
"Now, about this incident yesterday."
She really wasted no time in getting to the point, did she?
No, she didn't. She continued:"As I see it, you refused to take over your share of household chores, telling Frida she should do it because she's a girl; you started a fight with her after she insulted you; when you found out she was stronger than you are, you tried to get her in trouble by screaming the house down; and that's when she slapped you, is that right?" I chose to circumvent a direct answer and try to get some sympathy. "It still hurts like hell!" I complained. She actually felt my cheeks and said drily: "Well, I won't deny she slapped you good, but that's no answer to my question." Hmpf. I pouted. It was obvious from her look that she didn't like it, but she made no comment.
She just said: "Now, I'm not saying Frida had any right to slap you like that, but she did, and we can't change that, so we can as well consider this your punishment for trying to get her into trouble for something YOU started. So we won't talk about THAT any more."
"What?" I yelled, full of indignation. These slaps had been more than enough punishment for ALL of my sins - even more so because they'd been dealt out by this horrible girl! Aurora didn't pay any attention to my protests, though. She silenced me with a look (how does she do this?) and went on: "I won't get back to you on the matter of girls' and boys' tasks either. It's not your fault that you were raised in a community where women and men have very different roles. But I want you to understand that this is not the case around here, and that being a boy is not an excuse for neglecting you duties. Since Frida and you are obviously not able to share the chores among you in a fair way by yourselves, I'll have to define your responsibilities more clearly in the future. And whenever I tell you to do a job, I expect you to do it and not to find excuses, got it?"
I had no choice but to nod. I hate household chores. But now was not the moment to say so.
"Good," she said calmly. "That leaves the matter of starting a fight. And I'm afraid I take a very serious view on this. Fighting is not something I'll tolerate."
"But she insulted me!" I protested. "And I didn't even get to hit her!"
Oops. I shouldn't have said that last sentence, I guess.
"You shouldn't even TRY to hit her!" Aurora snapped. "You don't hit anybody as long as I've got a say in this, for no reason at all! And I intend to bring that point across. Come here!"
I didn't really want to. She looked so mad. Now was the time to make amends and swallow my pride. "I'm sorry, really I am!" I cried.
"You know what, I don't believe you're sorry for your behavior, you're only sorry you're going to be punished," she said coldly. "And if I have to come and get you, you're going to be even sorrier."
Oops oops oops. What had I gotten myself into? This didn't go according to plan, not at all. I could see it would do me no good to stay on my bed, so I slowly got up and dragged myself over to her.
All of a sudden, faster than I could think, she had me up over her lap, bottom sticking up in the air. "Hey! What do you think you're doing!" I yelled, when she pulled down my pants. "What do YOU think I'm doing?" asked grimly.
"But you can't... OUCH!" That had hurt!
"I can and I will," she said in a firm voice, "and you can't claim I didn't warn you. If you didn't take my warnings seriously, that's your own problem. Now, tell me what you're being punished for."
No way! I struggled to free myself, but I found that she was a lot stronger than she looked like.
WHAP! Another stinging blow landed on my bottom. I twisted my head around and howled in indignation when I saw she had this plastic stirring spoon from the kitchen in her hand.
"I'm waiting," she said in a tone of voice that made it clear she wasn't in a friendly mood. As if I hadn't guessed that by now!
She wanted me to practically ask her to spank me with this thing? I wasn't gonna survive a lot more spanks of the sort she had already given me! There had to be some way out. What was dignity in front of this imminent danger?
"Please! I'm sorry! I'll do everything I'm told! I'm really sorry! I'll be good! Please don't spank me!" I wailed, not caring that I probably sounded like a four-year-old.
"Yes, I suppose you'll be good. Especially after you've gotten this spanking," she replied, completely unmoved. "And I won't start until you tell me what it's for. Hurry up."
With this, she gave me two whacks that had me yelling out loud. I finally admitted to myself that this was real, that she was going to spank me, and that there was nothing I could do about it. I was defeated.
"It's because I started to fight with Frida," I said in small voice. "After she insulted me," I added, just to make sure Aurora hadn't forgotten about that.
"Frida's bad behavior is no justification for your own," she said coolly and then, without any more preliminaries, gave me five rapid blows that had me crying immediately.
She started to lecture me while continuing to spank, but to be honest, I didn't hear a lot of it, I was too busy kicking and crying and screaming. Well, it probably wasn't very original stuff anyway - I heard the occasional "won't stand for it" and "fighting is NOT a way to (blah blah blah)" and "rude and insolent behavior" and yadda yadda yadda, but I was beyond caring. It hurt so much that I was ready to do everything she said, I was determined never to misbehave again and I was even going to be nice to Frida - that's what I thought at the moment, at least. Everything to avoid getting another spanking like this.
When she was finished, I was so exhausted I could have gone back to bed straight away. On my tummy, of course. My bottom felt as if I wouldn't be able to sit for a year. I didn't even protest when she told me I would have to apologize to Frida during breakfast. I just cried and cried.

After a while, she suddenly pulled me up and into her arms. I was so surprised I nearly stopped crying. I had thought she was mad at me! I looked up at her through my tears and saw that she didn't look mad at all any more. Serious, but not mad. She put away that awful spoon and gave me a hankie. When I'd blown my nose and wiped my face, she said: "Honey, I'm sorry I had to be so hard on you. But I really need you to understand that you and Frida will have to get along with each other. That takes an effort from both sides. I wasn't pleased with Frida's behavior in this incident either; I punished her yesterday, when you had already gone to sleep." I blushed at that, but thought it wise not to reveal that I hadn't been asleep at all and knew very well about Frida's punishment.
Aurora stroked my hair and continued: "I want both of you to apologize to each other during breakfast and then try to be a bit more civil in the future, okay? You'll be spending many years together, whether you like it or not."
I sighed. "I guess I'll have to be a good boy then," I said.
She laughed and hugged me. It felt good. I was relieved that she didn't seem to be angry at me any more. That's the good thing about a spanking. When it's over, it's over. My father had always threatened to punish me in some way if I did this or that, but when I'd really done it, he had only ended up sulking for days.
At breakfast, I sat really uncomfortably, even though Aurora had put down a pillow for me. The next time I wouldn't try to put a punishment off until the next morning, that was for sure! Frida's bottom had at least had the night to recover. We apologized to each other. We both were embarrassed, but somehow the fact that we had both been spanked brought us closer together, like a feeling of companionship. After breakfast, we all sat together to make a plan of household chores and who would do them. I couldn't really see myself wiping the kitchen floor, but I definitely wasn't going to protest right now.

Frida and I tried to get along a bit better after that. At first, it was more in the polite way, but slowly, I found out that she had really good sides, and I suppose she discovered that I wasn't just an obnoxious brat. It was kind of nice working on a problem with her, as she was really patient and stayed calm all the time, whereas I tended to go into a flying fit when I couldn't figure out the problem right away. When she went on her first visit home - she had much more of them than I had, because she lived closer - I found I really missed her.

Aurora:
I'm glad that I found the resolve to spank the two. Not only because it made them try to get along a bit better from then on, but also because urgently Kyros needed to learn that when I told him something, I meant it. He gave me much less trouble after that first spanking. Of course, it would be exaggerated to say he didn't give me ANY trouble... but that's a different story.