"I'm telling you, if we don't get paid soon, I'm all for leaving"
"quiet fool, desertion is a quick death sentence around here."
"I've got a wife and three kids to feed.."
"and I'm telling you its all the Rebel's fault."
"and I'm telling you they give the cash from their raids back to the
people. I saw it with my own eyes. Except the last couple of
raids there hasn't been ANY money
in the wagons."
"then where is the money?"
"that's the mystery, now isn't it?"
"Rider comming in"..."soldier, ready your crossbow"..."HALT WHO GOES
THERE?"
a new voice calls out from the other side of the gate
"a message for McFadden"
"you mean the King don't you?"
"no McFadden....the Hills only bow to the true ruler, the Queen."
"TRAITOR!" the guardsman bellows "soldier perpare to fire"
"I come under truce with a message, and am threatened, this shows the
honor and intergrity of the current leadership...." the messenger chuckles.
"tell you king" the messenger sneers with contempt " that he has three
weeks to surrender to the Queen, UNCONDITIONALLY."
"We will pass on your message if you pass on ours" the guardsman replies
"fire"
as the bolt flies through the night the messenger merely jiggs his
horse to the side. As he does he draws his bow and fires all in one
smooth motion and the offending
guard dies.
"and maybe you guys should work on your aim." he calls as he rides
off into the night.
-------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Tanara stepped on path, a path she had walked many times before. Not
quite asleep, yet not awake either, but somewhere in between where mysteries
unfold and
truth is found. In the moon light it glowed a silvery/gold color as
though gold and silver dust had been spilt all over it. The path
started at the base of a cliff, but as she
walked the scenery changed. First a meadow of reddish grass,
next the shoreline of a great lake, and then a dense wooded area.
As she walked the only thing that
stayed the same was the path. Off the path she saw eyes following
her. Some out of curiosity, some that reminded her of people she
knew, and some just daring her
to step off the safety of that path.
As she passed through the wooded area, the moonlight was unable to penetrate
the dense foliage. She had to trust her senses and the faint sparkle
of the path. A
bright glow from above through the branches of the trees began approaching.
A large golden hawk floated gracefully on to path.
"What is the lesson for today, my teacher my guide?"
The hawk one-second was standing on the path watching Tanara. The next
was in the air, flying chest high above the path. She ran after the
hawk not paying
attention to where it was leading her. It didn't really matter
anyway as long as she stayed on the path. She trusted the hawk.
As she approached a clearing, she saw the hawk land in the middle of
a meadow surrounded by forest. As Tanara slowed down she saw why
she had been brought
here. Next to the hawk was a very large wolf.
"I see you found you're way, my little dove." The wolf bowed deeply to the hawk as if to thank it. The hawk bobbed its head in response and was gone.
"I know the path," as she points back to the path she had just left. "I have walked it for almost three years now. But you know most of this."
"Report on the pup and your view of the attack."
"The pup is not handling the fact that it seems that he was the only
guard that was with our group came out with few injuries, but everyone
else was decimated. His
grasp on his ability to change is improving."
"Anything else..." the wolf asks with a glint in his eye that she knew he was wanting 'details'.
Tanara thought to herself, "I'll give him 'details', but not the kind he is looking for."
"The King is highly concerned and completely underestimated what he
thought he was up against. Something had him so determined to catch
those 'thieves' that he
ignored council, did not send out scouts to check the area out first,
and INSISTED on leading the guard. Although I am sure you already
know this. The Saracens
are rallying behind the King and Crawling Chaos is rallying around
the Regent." She stopped and thought for a moment if there was anything
else... Something told
her she was missing something important, but what. So she added
his 'details', "I received a dart to the stomach, a slash on my left wrist
just deep enough to make it
look nasty but not to do any serious damage, the same kind of slash
to the back, a slash to the crest placed just so the scar will not show
in a court dress..." She
smiled and rubbed just above here wrists, "Oh yeah, and rope burn.
One of those bards decided it would be funny to tie me to a tree."
The wolf laughed at the last part for only a moment, then his face lost all humor. "The King is taking this personal is he. Ignoring council... Including K'Tai's?"
"Yes"
"That I did not know for sure."
"Master? I am lost as to what my part is. When I left I was coming
here to guide my pup to understand his new Gift and what it could mean
for him.
But now I am inside the King's compound without any idea as to where
my loyalties should lie. Are they with the King whom I have known
since I arrived in this
Kingdom? Or are they with my barony, but I don't even know where they
stand in all of this. Or is it to the House alone or self alone?"
The wolf stalks forward eyeing her as though he was looking for something,
then smiles, "I was right. You emotions betray you. Return
to the pup. And keep you
eyes open."
She acts as if she is going to say something and stops.
"Yessss..." the wolf asks cynically.
"How is the Baron...? Um... There are rumors that his madness has turned to insanity."
"Do not trouble yourself with what you cannot control." As he
passes her to head back into the woods, he smacks her on the butt with
the back of his paw. He is
rewarded with the expected squeal. "Besides the Barony could..."
He turns and stares Tanara in the eye as if he were looking right through
her..."use 75 Clu clones."
As the wolf disappears into the woods, Tanara hears a voice that is not the wolf's says, "Always remember 'What's in it for me?' Be safe and return home soon."
As she gets back on the path, the woods around her erupt with familiar
howling and she...
********************************
...Wakes. With the howling still echoing in her ears, when opens
her eyes the image of the path and woods are replaced by the sight of her
newfound distractions
sleeping face. She carefully lifts his arm from her stomach and
rises from the bed and walks over to the open window. The view is
spectacular. The sky is filled with
stars and the air is warm and sweet.
Sean stirs a bit drawing her attention back to him. Sprawled out under the light blanket with the most mischievous smile on his face.
"My creation and yet just as much my equal," Tanara thinks to herself
as the breeze blows through her long hair. "I am to teach him what
I am just mastering. Oh but
isn't he beautiful sleeping there. He could be the 'light in
the darkness' I am supposed to find."
Sean reaches across the bed and somewhere in his sleep clogged mind
notices that what was a soft, warm spot is now cold and feels like the
bed. He sleepily opens
his eyes looking around for what he lost and smiles when he sees her
sitting next to the window.
"Though you are lovely with the moonlight reflecting off your hair,
come back to bed where it is much warmer and the fire in your hair might
be replaced by the
warmth of the rising sun on your skin." Sean rises from the bed and
crosses the floor to where Tanara is seated on the balcony and stands behind
her and pulls her
close in both arms.
"I can't sleep right now. My mind is racing and I can scarcely sort my thoughts out."
As he pushes back her hair from her neck with his cheek, and runs a
single claw up the center of her chest to her mouth, tracing the contour
of her lips he says in a
low soft voice "Who said anything about sleep..."
*************************
The sun woke them both this time in each other's arms. She smiled at him and he kissed her softly.
"Another day. No telling what the King has in store for me or
those rebels for that matter," Sean says grudgingly as he releases Tanara
and reaches for his shredded
garment. "What do you plan to do today?" getting up and taking
a suitable shirt from the bedpost.
"I need to check on Korlys and then I have some business in town," Tanara
replies as she examines her shirt to see if it is salvageable. "As long
as I have no trouble
leaving or returning to the compound, I will be fine."
"If you have any trouble ask for me or Rockhound. I will leave
word with him and he knows who you are." Sean walks over to stand
behind Tanara and places on
strong hand on her shoulder, "See you tonight?"
"I see you in the back of my mind when I close my eyes, Let the dream once again be reality this night." Tanara says with a smile.
He kisses her cheek. And as he reaches for his tabard on the way
out the door he says, "Good. I was kind of hoping that you would
cook since I am presently
housekeepless." He winks and ducks in a single motion on his way out
the door just as Tanara's boot hits the doorframe where he was standing.
"HEYYYYY!!" Tanara can just smile at the setup she walked right into.
In the back of her mind she can still hear, "To survive the coming Darkness you must find your true light in the darkness and hold on to it with all your heart."