It's a bit shorter than I wanted it to be, but there's no point having
this lying around on my harddisk, so here you go. For anyone who still
cares: Comment, or I'll aim an ICBM at you...
On different notes:
http://ranira.wordpress.com
I've put the first four installents up, so you might want to have a
look. The map's there as well, although, by the look of it, I'll have to
revise that one. The positions of Bonia and Pala are somewhat off
track.
***
The first few rays of bright sunlight filtered through the windows of
the tavern, promising another brilliant morning and a glowing hot day.
Dust danced in the spotlights, swirling and swaying to the music of an
orchestra only they could see and hear, oblivious the gloom that
surrounded the table in the middle of the room. The table in question
had laid out and a hearty breakfast was almost begging to be eaten,
the smells of crispy beacon and scrambled eggs mixing with those of
fresh bread and honey.
The three people sitting around it, however, didn't seem to
take notice and even the large mugs of steaming hot tea had hardly
been sipped from. In fact the only reason Aleana had made breakfast,
was Jesij having told her to; why, she couldn't begin to fathom.
'This might not be the best of times to tell you,' Jesij
started, having finally come to the conclusion that anything was
better that this continued silence, 'but Isrin says things have taken
a turn for the worse lately. There's rumours of werewolves in the
forest even...'
Laiva's father flinched at these words, but then decided to
make a point and slammed his fist on the table, miraculously avoiding
to knock anything over in the process. There was a reason Jenn was
said to be considerate - you could pretty much see him doing it. Not
that he was slow in any way, he just wasn't rash, if he didn't have
to.
'She is all right.' he followed his gesture after a little
pause, putting enough emphasis for a whole sentence on each word. Be
renowned for having a voice that easily silenced a room full of drunks
and half drunks, Jesij right next to him almost fell off her chair.
She almost missed the imploring look he cast his wife.
Aleana stopped watching the patterns forming and dissolving on
the surface of her tea and faced him. There was a softness in her eyes
that was usually reserved for Laiva.
'She is all right.' she said, with a certainty in her voice
that completely startled Jesij, but Jenn seemed to have longed for.
There was a hint of bitterness in it as well, that seemed even more
out of place.
'There's something you haven't told me.'
Jesij didn't need to make that a question; she had been
running the village for too long to ask that kind of thing. Well,
technically Isrin was the village warden, of course, but as long as
nobody reminded him of it, he more than gratefully let his wife deal
with the day to day issues and concentrated on the important aspects
of the office, as he paraphrased it. It was better that way. He would
never have noticed.
'Anyway,' Aleana started hastily, pushing her chair back at
the same time, 'I should be going. To reason to put it off any
longer.'
By the time Jesij realized what had just happened, Aleana had
already closed the door behind her. Slowly she turned towards Jenn and
looked into his large, dark eyes. Just now, with the right words,
Jesij could make him tell everything, Aleana hadn't.
'Shouldn't she at least take her coat with her?' was all she
came up with.
'Probably just gone to fetch her sword...'
Jesij knew she could trust her ears, but she was staring to
worry for what was between them. She had known Aleana ever since her
and Jenn had taken over the village pub, almost ten years ago.
Picturing her with anything as martial as a sword was... wrong.
'Her sword.'
Somehow those two little words did an astonishing job at
conveying her thought on that matter. Jenn, on the other hand, somehow
completely failed to see.
'First thing after finding the letter and writing the message
for Isrin was fetching her sword from the broom closet. Said it needed
sharpening, so she naturally brought it over to the smithy...'
'Aleana keeps a sword in the broom closet... Wait, what
letter?'
Laiva braced a foot against the tree and pulled again. The arrow came
free with a yank and she landed with her back on the ground, right
next to Mynor who had precautionary moved to the side.
That had been the last arrow. The ones she'd used as fire
arrows were in astonishingly good shape. The fire had consumed the
fabric she had wrapped around them completely, but it had only singed
the shafts.
Of her improvised silver arrows, on the other hand, only two
were in a usable state still. In addition to the one that had been
already broken by the werewolf's struggle, she had had to snap another
one in order to pull it out. She had recovered all of the arrow heads,
though and that was the important bit. Shaft and feathers she could
replace herself, but the arrowheads costed serious money; over half a
copper each.
Laiva put the arrow back into her quiver, shouldered her
backpack and set off, Mynor walking along on her right. She wasn't
going to complain, she enjoyed the company, but she couldn't help to
wonder. He was a wolf, there was no doubt of that; dogs and even
wolfhounds looked different. Not in any way she could describe, but
different nonetheless. Different from Mynor. Yet he didn't behave like
a wolf. He even barked and Laiva had never heard of a grown wolf doing
that. They yowled, growled, snarled, but barked? And then there was
the collar. It was as if she was meant to find it, as if it was
intended for her. 'CALL HIM MYNOR' - more an instruction than anything
else. Maybe old Tubby was right after all: It was a strange world.
--
emmel <the_emmel*you-know-what-that's-for*@gmx.net>
(Don't forget to remove the ** bit)
Official AGC feedback maniac
"God is playing creatures - and we're the norns."
"A hundred dead are a tragedy - a hundred thousand are statistics."
"I guess you can call yourself lucky." -
"I could, but Linda suits me a little better...
Things called lucky tend to get hit by trucks."
Hi, I'm a .sig virus. Just copy me to your .signature. And don't worry.
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