Moments later, for the third time that day, the ball rose again into the air. The whistle screeched, making morphs with movable ears cringe, and it was on again. This time the pace slowed: most were tired and knew there was nothing they could do to dislodge it, and half-expected the unexpected to happen and solve the dilemma.
Cope was out of ideas, though, and his fellow Rhinos were avoiding him just in case he got one. The giraffe taur, who had most likely been one of the few to already learn the taur form, galloped forward. He tilted his neck down in preparation, not only intent on defeating the die ball but in the same motion all but ending the game. At least the Bears knew what to expect this time, and even though they were up against a taur – one sizable taur at that – the situation could have been a lot worse; had the polar and panda bears become beartaurs it would have been a catastrophe.
Kershaw rubbed the emerging bruise on his shoulder. It hadn't occurred from contact in a clash but from when he fell on the hard dirt during a 'human' pyramid attempt. 'My claws for a field of grass', the red panda thought, and then turned his attention to the gazelle on his right, Mell, Bell, Well or something, who appeared to be weaving an imaginary object.
Fell casually walked forward and stood before the approaching monstrous giraffe, the taur signaling the Blue Bears' impending defeat. Everyone else just watched. The gazelle patently finished whatever it was he was doing and looked up from the taur to the ball. The giraffe drew his neck back, starting to swing just as Fell tossed an invisible rope in the direction of the taur's target and pulled.
The ball shifted down and just barely out of the way, and the giraffe taur swung with an audible 'whoosh', hitting nothing but air.
Every one of the Blue Bears laughed as Fell reeled in his prize… but something was wrong: it wouldn't move any further. He tugged again, then gritted his teeth and strained to move it. And move it did – the other way.
Slowly at first, then faster, it began to drag him, and he gave an animalistic cry of terror as the magical strands plucked him off the ground. Fell suddenly felt a large object clamp around his hooves. With one great paw, Meredith held him in place – at least at first – then the Long Scout, too, started to feel his foot paws drag.
His fellow Longs held him down, and soon more Blue players joined in to bring the gazelle back to the earth. Eventually even Red players joined the tug-o-war and tried to tame the ball. It wouldn't budge, the players wouldn't give in, and eventually the ball began to compress under the pressure of the struggle…
The massive 'BANG!' with which it ended was heard all the way to the Keep itself
The Die-Ball, now defeated (or did it defeat them?) withered to the ground as a useless inanimate pile of rune-covered leather. The players stood around and scratched their heads. An AR approached the deflated ball and began to inspect it. The former ball had a huge rupture along one side that would have taken a considerable amount of force to achieve.
The youthful 'Rhino' picked up its remains, and then moved forward at a slow pace. The Bears flinched at this, causing the child to become swift and evasive, and it was on once again. The two teams fought over the pile of leather, their faces showing a mix of determination and confusion. Mostly confusion.
DeMule slammed his hoof-like fist on the bench, "Stop! Stop, you idiots! That ball is no longer in play!"
A small mouse keeper far above cursed himself at going too far in teasing the players with his little levitation stunt. 'Luckily, I was prepared for this,' Kindle thought to himself while he dug out a spare Die-Ball. The rodent-mage tossed the replacement from his place high up in the stands.
The Castellan caught the ball with one hand and cleared his throat. "The ball has been caught, play will re-commence when I throw it back in…"
Everyone gathered close to the side-line at the centre and tried to gain some height over each other. Jack reached back and threw it in, past the throng and into the hands of …the giraffe taur.
Once again, the situation seemed hopeless. The taur had been standing and waiting patiently at the back of the crowd, and he now had a clear path to the blue goal, not that he really needed to worry about anyone bringing him down. Suddenly a brown lop-eared bunny ran out and leaped straight up in the giraffe's path. Padraic grappled the ball, placed his large feet on the taur's chest for stability and yanked the ball out of the Red player's hooves.
He propelled himself off the taur, made a back flip and dropped gracefully to the ground, and then ran underneath the giraffe taur. He had lots of room, yet the taur's limbs were still close enough that the lop eared Long decided to boot the ball forward so he could jab the pressure points of the fore legs and then the hind legs. As Padraic cleared the tail and took up the ball once more, the towering taur cried out and collapsed to his knees. Fortunately he didn't fall onto the players in front of him yet the multi-limbed morph still created a massive barrier for his fellow Rhinos.
Padraic ran out of room to move and slid under the polar bear trying to block his path. With that maneuver, he lost all momentum and passed the ball to Meredith. Meredith did what he does best; act like a raging bear. The Long tore up anything in front of him and advanced, leaving a pile of dazed Reds in his wake. That is until two other bears, a bull, and three other big, tough people finally tackled him.
But with all eyes focused on the fallen brown bear he managed to roll-pass to Hector who soon passed to Julian, then Goldmark, to Elliot, and finally to Sir Saulius. The proud knight of the Steppe ran under a few legs (a weak point of having so many large morphs on the Rhino team) but then got in trouble when he ran under Cope and failed to clear the lizard's thick tail. Like anyone in the game who'd been holding the ball for too long, he gathered too much attention and had to resort to a fighting retreat, pushing people back who tried to take him on and attempt to steal his 'maiden'. The rat fought hard to break through but he simply couldn't get past the defense and with every attempt to weave his way around an opponent he just lost more and more ground. Ack! He was doing the Red team's job for them!
The rodent looked around and glimpsed at a suitable candidate. "You there! Spotted one! Have at thee!" he shouted and threw the ball at Stealth, who caught it and gulped.
He instinctively took off- the feline instinct to chase a moving object hadn't been triggered. Instead, the cheetah took flight to evade a charging lioness, a creature that his instincts remembered killing other predators to eliminate competition.
Stealth failed to clear the throng and ran straight into the thick of it! AR upon TG upon morph came at him. The cat darted, weaved, ducked, dodged, spun, and slid before he even realized the situation. He felt alone in a sea of red yet he cleared the worst of it… and then he remembered the taur.
The giraffe already appeared in front and quickly headed towards the cheetah. The mammoth creature had been decked out in blood red bands all over his taur-body, since the last play and appeared very menacing as he approached. He swung his neck down at the cheetah, a move that had to be against the rules, but Stealth managed to roll out of the way and kept going. The taur tried again, this time attacking from the side.
Stealth soon found himself trapped between a rock and a hard place. The sidelines loomed close on one side, while the giraffe thundered close on the other. He tried to run underneath the taur but the huge galloping strides of the hooved creature made that far too dangerous to attempt, coming from the side. Suddenly the large Red player cried out and lost balance as Meredith grappled his sizeable torso and brought the tall-as-a-tree taur to the ground, eliciting the cry of "TIMBER!" from another of the Blues.
Away from the fleeing feline and standing before the falling giraffe, Michael felt the tinge of deja vu. The beaver stood unmoving as the towering creature fell toward him. At the last moment, he stepped out of the way while the giraffe and bear crashed to the ground. "Not this time," he said with a grin.
Meanwhile, realizing that he would no longer be troubled by a monstrous taur, the cheetah took the morale boost and turned it into speed as he entered a wave of Red stragglers close to their goal line. The opposition prepared a reception for the tiring morph. Stealthy scanned the defense and out of desperation tried for a tiny gap… he just slipped through. Now the cheetah had a clear path all the way to the goal, and the opposition couldn't catch up.
He crossed the line and dropped to the dirt in exhaustion, holding the Die-Ball in a clenched hand on the ground no less. With just two or three minutes to the hourly bell that would signal the end of the game, the Rhino's simply couldn't have caught up to even things out. Spectators and players waited till the bell tolled to release their breath all the same.
Jack just had to shout out one last time, "Ehem, uhum, grunt! Okay, the score! Rhinos one, Bears two! …The winners!" He pointed in the general direction of the winning team and coughed a bit. People cheered. Those on the field and up in the stands celebrated the odd experience. The Duke rose from his seat, scratched his head, and applauded the two teams' performance. It had been a hasty and somewhat unofficial match so there would be no need for a follow up ceremony.
"I WON!" Misha shouted for all to hear.
"Yeah, just two to one," the morph sitting beside the fox mumbled.
Misha rose above his friend and bared his fangs. "It was a spectacular victory. It was a momentous victory. The bards will sing of it for ages hence! And now for your part…"
"Now?" the wolverine asked.
"Now what?" Jenn asked as she looked from the fox to her husband. "Did you two make another silly bet?"
"It's not a silly bet, and YES right now," Misha answered the two wolverines.
Andre dropped to his knees – not an easy motion given the wolverine's disability. "My armies of blood have been vanquished!!!" he shouted to the sky, fists clenched and shaking. "The tyrannical taurs shall walk all over us!" He stood up and announced to the spectators as well as those on the field, "I am but a dog to serve my master; Misha Brightleaf, ruler of the known world!!!"
All noise ceased. All eyes were on Misha's friend, the wolverine morph who for some reason had just made a fool of himself.
"TAURS RULE!!" Misha shouted. "But I am a merciful ruler. So your punishment is to buy lunch for us all." The fox and the wolverine solemnly shook hands and then sat back down, ignoring the stares of the crowd throughout.
Jenn and Caroline shook their heads in amazement. "Sometimes I worry about you two," Jenn said.
"I always worry about these two," Caroline added.
Players began to remove their team colors and disperse from the field. Meredith gave his son and daughters a big bear hug and kissed his wife. Fell and his friend, Alex tried to give each other noogies. Michael basked in the defeat of his fellow woodcutters Lance and the chief… but mostly Lance. The Keep's resident mischief of rats attempted to boost Brennar the tabby in some sort of miniature body surf while Kindle, the small mouse got his ball back from Stealth, the big cat. Padraic left in pursuit of his bells. Kershaw just shook his head and laughed.
Stealth was shaking hands with the other players when he heard a familiar jingle. "Heh, hello Pad… raic?" The cheetah turned after exchanging praise and pleasantries with the lioness. Instead of the expected rabbit, though, he found himself face to face with an ocelot holding some pouches.
"There are my bells!" the brown bunny said and took the offered pouch from the smaller cat.
"Elisha got our possessions back from DeMule," Meredith pointed out, placing an arm around his wife.
"Is that a good idea? Holding all that stuff on your own with pickpockets about, I mean?" the cheetah asked.
"No one would harm family or friends of the Longs!" Kershaw chipped in.
"Remember, that includes you and your friends now," Elisha said, and offered a paw.
The cheetah blushed, and then took the offered paw and introduced himself. "I'm Stealth. It's nice to meet you." With that, the two felines shook hands, clasping at the wrist for the sake of Elisha's retractable claws.
"'Stealth', hmm? We'll need to work on that too," she added.
"Huh? What?" The cat appeared perplexed.
"You should have a much nicer name… like say, Michael," she offered.
"Ugh." The cheetah liked his name.
"You weren't too stealthy out there," Padraic added while sorting out his clothing.
"Well I hardly needed to be," Stealth pointed out, a tad grumpily.
The ocelot giggled and looked up at an approaching morph. The cheetah caught her gaze and turned around to see a lumbering dragon. "Oh, this is Rugger," he said, answering Elisha's unasked question, but he didn't add the fact that the reptilian morph had been out of commission for the game.
Rugger took her paw. "Tis a pleasure, Milady."
Stealth turned from the small ensemble and saw two more figures approach from the stands. Now that the game ended in their favor, the previous disappointment faded away.
"Very well done, my friend!" Edmund called out as he approached with a female reddish wolf.
"Thanks, Ed." He smiled tiredly.
"You won… without cheating!" the Knight joked.
Stealth glared but smiled back. "That we did."
"N-nice game, I had… fun," the woman piped as best she could.
"Thank you, Bridgette. I'm glad you did," he answered politely.
Stealth felt that with another cheetah on their team, the now disbanded Blues could have racked up the goals. He kept that thought to himself, though, respecting his friend's oaths even if he didn't understand them. Besides, Bridgette needed Edmund far more. And beyond all that, having Edmund onboard would have diminished his final victory!
"You didn't need my help," the Knight said softly and patted him on the back. "You did well out there, all of you!" Edmund turned to the small throng. He knew the Longs and Stealth's friends, so Kershaw just made brief introductions for him and Bridgette to Elisha.
Then the red panda finished by finally introducing the ocelot to the woman and gazelle, "…And Alex, Fell, and, oh…" The plaid beaver had already left the field along with the other lumberjacks. So had the tabby.
Indeed, most of the players had left the grounds, which were already being prepared for other games. The three Longs, their family and new and old friends began talking between themselves as they left along with other small groups.
Stealth began to walk away too when he heard someone call out to him. "Stealthy," Padraic said, getting his attention. The rabbit was half distracted while trying to get the bells on his ears on right, but continued, "There's a big party tonight in Long Hall, why don't you come by? I'll tell the boss you're coming."
"Uh, thank you." He felt very humbled and grateful for the invite, but what was 'Long Hall'? …That's where the Longs mingled, he guessed.
"I hope to see you there. It starts at seven, and dress nice!" Padraic added, and fumbled with his shirt as he walked away.
The cheetah stood there for the moment and reflected on the whole experience of the past hour when he heard another call out.
"Hey cat! Why are you still on the grounds?" an AR or a real child asked. A bunch of them began to set something up on what used to be open, level ground.
"Thou mayest wish to follow me and take thy leave of the field, lest thee wishes to participate in the next contest!" Sir Saulius instructed Stealth. With that, the cat left with the rats.
After an hour of helping Wolfram and Xavier, Drift got pushed out onto the street into Alexis' laughing embrace. "Thank you very much for your assistance," Xavier said quickly as he started to shut the door out the side of the stall, "but there's really not enough room for three people in here."
"But-"
"Especially one whose tail wags into things whenever he tries to make a sale," Wolfram called from the front.
"But-"
Xavier ignored him and continued, "You two go have fun, and don't worry. We'll take good care of things."
The door shut on Drift's despairing reply. "But…"
Alexis giggled, and then stood on her tiptoes and kissed him on the cheek to soothe his pride. "C'mon, handsome. They'll be fine." She laid a finger on his lips to stop another 'but', and her eyes sparkled. "Let's go have some fun," she said with an infectiously mischievous smile, and then hauled him away.
As a matter of fact, she didn't stop hauling until he was all the way down Metamor Ridge, through Euper, and out to the common grounds, where the more athletic portions of the Festival were held. A handful of merchants too slow or luckless to get their stalls set up in the main fairgrounds in Metamor hawked their wares here, but they were raindrops in an ocean compared to the food vendors. Lured by the prospect of hungry competitors, the food stands jostled each other for space, the scents of food of every type and description overlaid by the smoke of many small cooking ovens wafted through the air, and vendors tried every trick they could think of to draw customers to their stall instead of their competitors'.
"Fresh fish fritters!"
"Cinnamon custard! Get it here, get it now!"
"Candied fruit and nuts! Won't find a better buy anywhere else!"
"Hot tea! Cold tea! Sweet tea! Any way you like it!"
"Don't buy that! Tea is for children and sickbeds! You want a nice, strong ale to keep you up and moving!"
"Don't you listen to that slobbering drunkard! You want tea to refresh you, keep you sharp for your next game!"
"That haggard old granny wouldn't know 'refreshing' if it came up and bit her! You want ale! Hey! Wait!"
"Come back!"
"Don't go buying from him!"
"Blasted wine merchants. Tea! Cup o' tea!"
"Hey, you, how 'bout an ale?"
Alexis was in her element. Drift kept busy ducking and dodging wild gestures as she haggled ruthlessly over everything she bought, enjoying herself immensely. But whenever she wasn't bargaining (or loading her boyfriend's arms with purchases), Drift led her west, his black nose sniffing the air. "Where are we going? Aren't you going to get anything?" Alexis finally asked, a little petulant. "You can't possibly be following a scent amongst this crowd."
Drift pulled Alexis out of the path of a noisy group of children that chased each other in a wild game of tag among the stands, and then paused, his brow furrowing. "Damn. Lost it again." He gestured in frustrated explanation toward a pennant above a stall, which flickered fitfully in the wandering breeze. "It comes and goes, but I know it's off in this direction."
Alexis slipped her arm through the crook of his, her blue dress showing well against his brown vest and bare white-furred arm. "So what're you supposedly smelling through this mad craze?" she asked, sweeping her hand to indicate all the stalls and people around them.
"My dear," the Samoyed replied as he sniffed at the air, eyes closed and ears back to try to minimize the crowd noise. "We both know you see better than I do, but that doesn't mean you smell better."
Alexis huffed in mock offense. "Well, really! And I thought you liked
my perfume!"
Opening one eye, Drift checked for the telltale twinkle in her eye that meant
she was joking before closing it again. "Very cute," he said dryly.
"You know what I mean."
The she-bat giggled. "Yes, but straight lines of that quality don't come
around that often. It was an absolute imperative."
Drift resisted the urge to ask what an 'absolute imperative' was, and put all his concentration into the hunt. A flicker of breeze brought the scent back to him: bread and cooked tomatoes. He pointed, "That way," opened his eyes, and made it two steps before a new voice called out to him from behind.
"Sir? Master Snow?"
Drift and his stomach both growled. Still, he flicked his ears amicably forward before turning to see who had called for him. "Yes?"
The problem was… nobody was behind him. The samoyed looked left and right, his ears twitching akimbo in confusion before a sharp, metallic squawk brought his attention up to a sparrow the size of a large hawk, perched on top of a stall. The double-barred cross of the Lothanansi hung on a cord around his neck. "I don't mean to intrude," he chirped, "but I'd hoped to talk to you last Wednesday and must have missed you at the Temple."
"Hello, Dorian," Drift said, shading his eyes from the sun to better see the sparrow-morph. "I've been working on getting my icehouse finished and prepared for the upcoming winter, and had to cut my hours back at the Temple. What did you want to talk about?"
The sparrow-morph Keeper drooped a bit, disappointment written in his sagging plumage. "Oh," he chirped. "You're busy. I'm sorry to hear that. I'd hoped to commission a table setting for my upcoming marriage."
Drift's stomach growled again, loud enough to startle the sparrow and set Alexis giggling, but the challenge of designing dinnerware for a pair of avian-morph Keepers intrigued him. "How about this?" the samoyed asked after shooting his girlfriend an admonishing glance and flicking his ears to hide his slight embarrassment. "Come see me Monday morning at my forge and we'll talk things over."
After Dorian had agreed and flown off, Drift turned his attention back to the job at hand. "Eli willing," he said, sniffing at the breeze, "I'll be able to find this place before the other half of the Keep tries to interrupt me. White dog needs food… badly!"
Drift finally tracked down the scent he was hunting halfway across the common grounds, bread and cheese and cooked tomatoes and meat, at the stall of Johann Maus.
The plump little gray-furred mouse-man lit up in a broad, familiar smile when he saw Drift and his lady love approaching. "Mr. Snow! Ms. Alex! It is good to see you again! Welcome!"
Before either Drift or Alexis could reply, two mouse children darted from the booth with the gleeful chorus of "Taur rides! Taur rides! Yaaay!" and seized Drift's legs with the vigorous tackle usually reserved for favorite uncles. Though the two children only came up to his knees, the force of their combined surprise welcome nearly toppled the samoyed, and food and parcels went flying as he tried to regain his balance.
Propping her boyfriend up with her right arm, Alexis reached out with her left and scooped a jar of strawberry preserves, a bottle of wine, and a small wheel of cheese out of the air with the broad wing leather of her right. "That would have been expensive," she said, tucking the wine and the preserves under her arm. "Good afternoon, Mr. Maus."
A third child, an older daughter who had come chasing after her two siblings, picked up a tied bag of candied walnuts and a carved wooden puzzle that had survived the fall well, and two small loaves of bread that hadn't. She rounded on her younger brother and sister, holding up the two soiled loaves. "Wilhelm! Isabela! Look what you did!"
The two children, twins by the look of them, dipped their ears. "Sorry," Isabela apologized, scuffling a white-furred toe in the dirt. "We didn't mean to," Wilhelm added, his pink nose and black-tipped whiskers twitching. Neither let go of Drift's knees, their eyes still pleading shamelessly for rides.
"All right, you two, that's enough," their father, Johann Maus, said from the vendor stall as he took four loaves of bread from a small oven and set them to cool on a high shelf where their smell could be carried by the afternoon breeze. "Let go of his legs and come back here. Arietta, run and tell Stefan that we need more sauce."
"Yes, father," said the older girl, and she handed off the candied walnuts, the bread, and the puzzle to Drift before disappearing into the crowd with a flick of her pink tail.
Drift watched Arietta go, and then reached down to give both children a rub behind the ears. "If there were anyplace for me to change, and I hadn't already planned lunch with Alexis, I'd have said yes. If you want, though, I can come back tomorrow."
Alexis, who had pondered the scene with a knuckle rested thoughtfully against her lips, spoke up. "I have an idea that could suit everyone's wishes," she said in her silkiest negotiating voice while she fingered the tasseled red cloth that Johann had laid over the counter of his stall. "Your children get their ride, and if you have another of these…" She waited until Johann nodded, and then whipped the cloth from the countertop with a flourish, extending her right wing full out to catch it so it draped folded in two across her arm with the embroidered 'Hole In The Wall' name and crest showing. She smiled, her eyes sparkling. "…then you get a big, attention-grabbing sign wandering the fairgrounds. We can use this as a saddlecloth."
"I am not wearing a saddle," Drift interrupted.
Alexis waved his protest off. "You know what I mean."
"An interesting offer, Ms. Alexis," Johann Maus said, running a claw along his chin while his children gave imploring looks to all and sundry. "What's the catch?"
Alexis rolled a disarming laugh in her soft soprano, twining her fingers through the tassels of the blanket. "A catch? Why, Mr. Maus, you wound me! I was just going to suggest a free meal for my dearest, and the entertainment of watching him and your children. Perhaps sometime in the future you'll think of me if there's something you want that it seems nobody else can get for you."
A filling meal was eaten and then a private spot to change found while Alexis talked Drift into another idea. As word spread of taur-back rides for children for a copper penny, so too did visits by their parents to the 'Hole in the Wall' stand while they waited. By the time evening rolled around and the two lovers bid the merchant a good evening, both Johann and Alexis were humming merrily and tucking away full coin purses. Alexis split her take evenly with Drift as they walked hand in hand back up Metamor Ridge to the main fairgrounds.
Just past the gate, Alexis paused to haggle with a jeweler over a lacquered oak box the size of Drift's hand. Drift himself paused to admire how she looked in the rays of the setting sun for a few moments before following his nose over to the next stall. "Mmm… that smells good! What is it?"
The large brown rodent behind the counter smiled as he dusted his hands on his apron. Drift couldn't quite figure out what he was: too large to be a rat or even a beaver, but it didn't really matter. What mattered was the lovely-smelling bread he lifted up toward the samoyed's nose. "Applesauce nut bread," he said cheerily, noting his customer's widely wagging tail. "Freshly baked just this afternoon. For you, a single copper penny."
Flush with copper pennies after the afternoon's events, Drift bought four. Two went into the brown leather backpack he'd purchased earlier in the day, and he unwrapped the third. He was just about to bite when Alexis snatched it away, leaving his teeth to click shut on empty air. "Hey!" he protested, making a grab for the purloined purchase. "That one's mine!"
"You can't have this," she said, evading his first grab and blocking a second with a deft and graceful twist of her wrist that lightly whapped the edge of her wing against his nose. When he covered his nose with his hand, she swiped the other loaf from the crook of his other arm. "Or this one, either."
"Alex!"
A mischievous sparkle in her eyes, the she-bat set both loaves back down on the baker's counter. "What happened to your vaunted sense of smell, dear?" Turning to the baker, she asked, "Could we exchange these for something that doesn't have nutmeg in it? He reacts very poorly to it. Thank you." She took two loaves of honey bread in exchange, handed them to Drift, and then picked up her box from the counter where she'd set it. When the samoyed rather sheepishly offered her one, she tucked it into his pack and fished out one of the apple bread loaves instead.
"Are you sure that won't make you sick?" he asked, unable to suppress a look of longing at the denied taste.
Alexis reached out and tickled him under the chin. "It's sweet of you to be concerned, but in the time we've been together, have you ever known me to leave something important to chance?"
"I seem to recall a certain rooftop incident…"
"That was fun. Food poisoning is not."
"You call nearly getting… shot at… fun?" Drift's head turned as he spoke, following the path of an oddly garbed vulpine Keeper, his speech slowing down as he noticed something else unusual. One of his ears dropped quizzically to the side, and he asked, "Alex, am I seeing things, or does that fox have three tails?"
Alexis turned to look, and her eyes widened slightly. "Interesting," she purred as the stranger passed out of sight, a smile twitching her lips. "Very nice."
Both of Drift's ears shot back. "Very what?!"
Giggling, Alexis patted Drift's arm and then stood on tiptoes to kiss him. "Yours is better," she whispered in his ear, and then burst into laughter at the ears-back, almost scandalized look Drift gave her in reply. She laughed until she drew stares from passers-by, until she had to lean helplessly against her boyfriend, holding her ribs with one arm. "You… How do you do it?" she finally gasped.
"Do what?"
"How do you remain so delightfully tease-able? I could have absolute eons of fun driving you to absolute distraction."
Drift rolled his eyes at the hyperbole. "Eons, huh?" he asked as they started walking again, lacing his fingers back into hers. "I think I'd get rather boring long before then. There's the whole 'mortal lifespan' thing involved."
"Ha! Speak for yourself," Alexis said with a defiant toss of her head and one of her most infectious grins. "I plan to live forever."
Leaning over to kiss her, Drift replied with a soft smile. "If it meant
the chance to spend eternity with you, then I'd take whatever torment you could
dish out without complaint."
Alexis slowed to a stop, her grin fading into a strangely thoughtful look, as
if he'd said something else entirely. "You know, I think you would."
Drift slipped his other hand into the curve of her waist, curious at this strange behavior, and was about to comment on it when someone bumped into him from behind.
"Hey! Watch where you're-" The speaker, a dark tan furred canine Keeper, startled suddenly in recognition and broke into a well-practiced smile. Large, pointed ears swept up and forward and rings glittered on his fingers as closed fists opened. "Well, well, if it isn't young Edward Snow," he said, spending a few moments smoothing imagined wrinkles from his fine clothes. "What a surprise to see you here. I've heard things have been looking up for you lately. Good, good."
Drift turned a wary eye on this new person. With his sharp, angular lines and short, close fur that suggested an origin in the depths of the Southland deserts, this canine Keeper contrasted sharply against Drift's own shape, though of almost exactly the same height and general build. He contrasted in manner, too, cool and aristocratic, and a disappointed frown came easily to his muzzle when he saw Drift did not recognize him. He tilted his head up slightly, looking haughtily down his long muzzle at the samoyed, though he maintained his polished smile. "Arkos Linafex. Tinsmith of Metamor. Your competition." He offered his hand to Drift, who shook it after some hesitation. "So sorry to hear about your sister and brother-in-law. Hard workers, both of them. A shame the way they went." The canine Keeper looked Drift over with a critical eye. "As for you, the last time I saw you was at your father's funeral. You've clearly rebounded well since then. Why, you look as fit as your father did in his prime, dear boy. Very good."
Fighting to keep an amicable expression on his face, Drift subtly nudged Alexis into a shielded position behind his left shoulder. Maybe it was the too-bright smile, or maybe it was just all the reminders of his lost family, but the man set his instincts jangling. Whatever the reason, Drift was relieved when a young boy came up and tugged on Arkos' sleeve, insisting in a voice too mature and too obviously exasperated for his seeming years that Arkos was needed elsewhere. The samoyed nodded farewell to both as he turned away, letting the boy's irritated glance in his direction pass unremarked, and then focused on wiping the man and the memories he'd stirred from his mind.
Arkos maintained his smile until Drift was out of sight, but inwardly he was fuming. Once the samoyed was out of sight, he snarled, "Upstart whelp! Misbegotten mongrel brat! I should-"
"You should keep your voice down, Master Linafex," said the boy. "You also should not have come here at all. My Lord told you to stay away from that boy until the time was right. And if you had bothered to ask me, your advisor," he added pointedly, "you would have known that he would be here."
Arkos snarled, but said nothing as he turned for home.
Alexis ran her hand soothingly down Drift's back as they walked, but it didn't help much. He was still rattled from that unpleasant meeting and, with the stage only a block away, he didn't have much time left to settle his mind. Thankfully, a welcome distraction presented itself as the tiger Oberon flagged the pair down.
"Ah, Drift. I had hoped I would see you today," he said as he lowered the awning of his stall. "I'd meant to have the prototype of your battlestaff ready for you to test this weekend, but there have been some challenges in constructing it that have put me behind schedule." He paused. "Are you all right? You look unsettled about something."
Drift ran his fingers through his neckruff. "Yes, I'm all right. Just somebody in the street that brought back some bad memories." He fidgeted, his tail held uncharacteristically low and his ears twitching in annoyance and anxiety, and then blew out a sigh while Alexis stroked his arm. "Rot that man. This is not what I need to be thinking about right before performing in the talent show tonight."
"What happened?" the tiger-man asked, and his brow furrowed when Drift explained. "I see." Oberon stroked his jaw thoughtfully for a moment, and then spoke. "Drift, I'd like to tell you something my father once told me, something that he learned from his father, and he from his. Warfare is not restricted just to contests of weaponry or strength.
Conversation itself can be warfare, and I believe that is what this Linafex person was attempting. Indeed, some of the most vicious and desperate battles are fought here," he reached out and tapped Drift's temple with the tip of a claw, "in the mind. Judging by your expression as you approached, I would say he was successful in his attempts to shake your nerve." Drift's ears started to drop in anger, but Oberon forestalled him with a raised hand. "Do not be angry because of this. A quick temper is a weakness that is easily exploited, something I've heard your friend Wolfram knows well. I would say you have come off well in this exchange with Linafex: now you have the measure of him and know to keep a watch on him, while he gained little more than a moment's irritation." The old tiger tucked a bundled trio of swords under his arm, bid farewell to Alexis, and said, "A bit of advice, if I may: if you must be angry, harness it and direct it rather than letting it harness you. Have a good evening."
As the day wore on, Kendrick and his family wandered the stalls all throughout the Killing Fields. Emma and Sofie dragged him to so many different games and booths, he thought it a wonder that they still had money left by the time the sun reached the western mountains. After deliberately making himself look like an idiot at juggling, while both Brigitt and Sofie seemed quite good at it, he distracted them yet again with a pie eating contest a few booths over. Unsurprisingly, Barrick won that one after scarfing seven cream pies. Still, his plan worked: both girls were so full afterwards that they were perfectly willing to sit and watch one of the plays.
Halfway through, Emma fell asleep snuggled in Brigitt's lap. Kendrick's brother held her like a mother might. Sofie curled in Barrick's lap, her eyes drooping the whole time. The bear looked a bit sleepy, but he managed to watch and chuckle at the ridiculous acting on the makeshift stage. The players were from the Midlands, and they were acting out some scene from the Lothanasi legends. Kendrick wasn't sure if he'd heard this one or not, but being Followers, he didn't pay much attention to tales of false gods.
But the play was enjoyable apart from the outrageous performances. Barrick, Brigitt and he all applauded at the end, as did the rest of the audience. Both Emma and Sofie were asleep at that point. Along the many streets, lamplights came and set flame to the many torches arrayed on tall poles well away from any of the tents. Soon night was upon them, though with so many about, it didn't even feel cold.
"Well," Kendrick said as he stood up and stretched his arms. He wiggled his claws in the air and then lowered them back to his sides. "What a wonderful day! I think we should head back home now. Looks like the girls are ready for bed."
Barrick yawned, arms stretching wide even as he cradled Sofie in them. "They're not the only ones."
"You always want to sleep," Kendrick pointed out, but with a smile.
"So says the one who never wants to get up in the morning," Brigitt replied, a sharp grin on his lips.
"Hey, I read in the library that pangolins are nocturnal, so I have a good excuse for that."
They all laughed and started back home. Several other Keepers were also heading back into town, but there were a few coming out for nightly revelry. Kendrick knew that most of the merchants had retired by sundown, but there were others of a less reputable nature that started their business at the dusk hour.
By the time they returned home, even Kendrick felt tired. His legs ached, and he rubbed their insides with his palms, careful not to cut himself on his bony plates. Their mother waited for them at the door. "And here they come," she crooned, which sounded silly coming from a barely teenage girl, "my little troop of angels! Did you all have a good time today?"
Kendrick nodded and smiled to his mother. "It was a lovely day. We managed
to wear out poor Emma and Sofie by the end. Good thing, otherwise I think we'd
still be there!"
"Well, your father hasn't returned yet, but I expect him home soon. I have
some dinner ready if you're hungry."
Barrick waved his free paw. "Thank you, but nae. I don't think I could
eat another bite."
Brigitt patted his brother on the back, while Kendrick explained. "We were
in a pie eating contest, and boy did we eat!"
Mavis Urseil put her hands on her hips and gave them a motherly glare. "Are you telling me you ruined your dinner with pie?"
"Aye," Kendrick replied, patting his stomach. "And boy, were they good!"
She laughed and shook her head. "Well, since it is Festival time, I suppose I won't punish you. Go on in and take the girls up to bed. And then say your devotions."
"Yes, mother," the three of them replied. Kendrick added, "I think I'm going to take a little nap too."
Their mother walked back into the house and they followed. Over her shoulder she added, "Don't stay up all night reading again, Kendrick. It'll ruin your eyes."
"I won't." Well, he hoped he wouldn't.
It was dusk, the sun had just set, and the moon had yet to rise.
Wanderer, acting as the Master of Ceremonies, stood on stage introducing the next act, and swept his arm wide. "And now, without any further ado, I give you a lovely pair, the drumming dragon and his cavorting kitty!" He quickly whisked off stage amid the groans and polite laughter from the crowd before anything could be thrown.
A dragon sat on the large stage. His legs were crossed, his thick tail extended behind him, his wings folded at the sides of his serpentine body. A large fire burned on a raised stone platform in the middle of the stage, and its light reflected from the polished, dark-red and grey scales on his chest as the black mane that extended down his back fluttered in the light breeze. Between his legs sat a large mushroom-shaped drum. The wood was a deep mahogany color, red cord tied in mesmerizing patterns around the thicker top half of the drum helped to hold the head, made of a black hide, in place. As he sat, his eyes closed, his right hand drawn into a fist, he lightly tapped the skin near the rim of the drum with the back of his hand, producing a slow steady rhythm. Bum… Bum… Bum… Bum… He raised his left hand, and quickly slapped the rim with the dull backs of his claws creating a higher pitched, sharper tone.
Ba Bum… Bum… Bum… Bum… Ba Bum… Bum… Bum… Bum…
His tempo increased, both hands slapping the rim with the backs of his claws, alternating slaps and the fuller tones created with the back of his hand.
It worked its way faster and faster, a beat one couldn't help but move to.
Suddenly he opened his right hand as far as he could, raising his curved claws out of the way and firmly struck the center of the drum with his palm.
BOOM!
His tempo began to slow, returning to the steady rhythm it started with.
Ba BOOM Bum Bum.. Ba BOOM Bum… Bum… Bum… Bum… Bum…
Smiling, he opened his eyes. The piercing, tri-slitted blue pupils seemed to glow in the light of the fire. It had taken quite a while to relearn how to play without shredding the drum with his claws, but it was worth it. He continued the slow, steady beat as he spoke to those who had gathered in the audience to listen, and to those who were slowly passing by. His voice was as low as the beat of the drum, "In my homeland, it is said that the Djembe contains three spirits within it, which influence its sound, its beat. The spirit of the tree from which it was carved, the spirit of the beast who's hide is its head, and the spirit of the one who crafted them together to form the instrument."
The dragon's muzzle lifted in a wistful smile. "The Dryad who graciously gifted me a piece of herself to carve my instrument is named Dimba. By the grace of Dvalin, she was still growing strong when we parted."
He looked around quickly and, seeing none in his audience, continued, "The zebra, I hunted through the savannah of the mainland, and took with naught but a spear after an exhaustive three day chase. A very worthy creature indeed."
"And the third spirit, my own." He placed a clawed hand over his heart, the other keeping the steady beat alive. "That the drum still beats is proof enough for me. Proof that though our bodies may have changed, our souls are still the same." He paused for a moment. The only sounds were the steady beat, and the crackling fire. "Now, my lovely wife and I would like to share with you a ceremonial dance of our homeland. Many ages ago, when our ancestors first discovered this power, it was not understood how it worked. So our people used dances and songs to call forth our creatures. Later, our most revered mages discovered that the outward display was not needed. It was merely an aid, a way to focus the mind and spirit. Today we are taught to summon in silence, through meditation. The dances and songs were kept in memory of our ancestors, and are still performed at festivals and celebrations such as this."
The beat changed, remaining slow but becoming more complex, just begging the listener to move. A woman stepped into the light of the stage, her lithe feline body swaying seductively as she walked into the light of the fire. She was dressed in a cloth skirt, freely wrapped around her waist; the cloth was black with gold lace around her hips that accentuated her fur and spots. Another cloth of the same design was wrapped around her chest, only barely preserving her modesty. Her ears were pierced at the bottom and she wore a pair of exotic earrings, each was gold with a single ruby set in it, connected by a slender silver chain to a golden clasp which was attached to the tip of her ear.
She wore a translucent purple veil over her face, and a purple silk sash about twice as long as she was tall, was draped across her shoulders, as she slowly stalked forward her arms fluttered upwards, entwining with the sash.
The silky white fur of her belly glistened in the guttering firelight as her tail twitched in time with the slow beat of the drum.
The tempo remained steady, her arms wove fluidly through the air above her head, moving together, and then apart, lowering until her hands framed her eyes. Her hips moved to the slow beat as her tail flicked in counterpoint. The sash entwining her arms began to emit a soft glow.
The drum let out a BOOM, and the cheetah threw her upper body back, nearly parallel to the ground. With fluid, feline grace she slowly straightened like a wave cresting, first her belly, followed by her chest, and finally her head straightened in a single fluid motion, the sash flowing behind her.
The drum still slow, she stretched her arms out and raised them to shoulder height. Her fingers splayed, the tips seemed to stroke the air. As her fingers moved the sash seemed to stir with its own life, flowing down to embrace her body like a lover's arms. Her hips moved left and right, her chest remaining completely motionless as the sash slid around her. Her hips moved in slow circles, her right hand coming up to slowly brush through her hair. The beat remained steady as her hips began moving in half-circles, left, forward, back. Right, forward, back.
The beat changed subtly, and her hands lowered to her hips. Moving slowly,
tireless, as if she had all the time in the world, her chest began to move.
In, down, forward, up, a rolling motion. As she moved, the sash flowed to wrap
itself around her right arm.
The tempo picked up again, and suddenly her whole body began to undulate, beginning
with her chest and ending with her hips. The sash flowing with her motions,
she bowed forward with fluid grace, her arms reaching up above her head. The
sash flowed out beyond her arms, the soft glow seeming to gather at its tip.
With a BOOM from the drum, she suddenly threw her upper body in the opposite
direction, her arms flying back to remain above her head. A hushed gasp came
from the audience as the tip of the sash snapped like a whip, the glow that
had formed there suddenly flashed, as the sash flowed back across her chest
to again extend beyond her arms. A point of light a little larger than the cheetah's
fist remained suspended in the air where the tip had snapped, clearly seen over
the light of the fire.
Again the low bass BOOM sounded amid the intense beat of the drum, and her upper body flowed up and spun to the right, pivoting on her hips. The tip of the sash snapped behind her with another flash as it was pulled along by her arm, leaving another glowing point opposite the first. BOOM! Her body spun to the left, the tip again leaving behind a glowing point, this one to her right. With one final BOOM, the cheetah's body flowed upright, and the snapping sash left a fourth glowing point in the air.
The drum beat a fevered pace and her stomach began to pulse as she raised her arms from her hips to brush through her hair, lifting it above her head and letting it fall back as she spun on her toes, the sash flowing around her. Her arms moved in intricate patterns around her body as she manipulated the sash in a dance of its own, and as it moved, radiant lines appeared on the plane bounded by the four glowing points, always staying within their boundary.
As she moved with the sash, it became apparent that the four points outlined a shimmering threshold filled with runic symbols drawn by her movements with the sash.
When she finished, the sash had lost its glow. She tossed her head back and sultrily glided forward around the fire, her eyes hungrily searching the audience.
When she reached the runic doorway she raised her left arm before her, her right trailing behind, the sash flowing from it, and she stepped through. As she pushed through, the glow seemed to cling to the tips of her fur, covering her body. As the sash was pulled through, the doorway seemed to collapse and fold around it. By the time it was all the way through, the portal was gone and the sash again glowed with a soft light.
The glowing cheetah continued her dance around the fire. As she completed the circuit, she spun in a circle, her hands came together, and the particles of light suddenly scattered from her body to drift through the courtyard like a glowing fog. The fog coalesced into a swarm of small lights, like a thousand fireflies, flittering just above the heads of those watching. A number of children, who had so far been rather bored, began jumping after the lights trying to grab them.
The cheetah lowered her body, the sash flowing off her shoulders to drape over her arms, and ended kneeling cross-legged facing the dragon, her head bowed to him, her arms out, offering the sash.
With one last BOOM, the fireflies of light flared and vanished, and the drum fell silent.
Amid the scattered applause, Drake gently placed a claw under Dimalya's chin and lifted her head, removing the veil. Both smiled as the cheetah panted. The dragon lowered his head and she draped her sash around his neck, using it to pull him forward into a kiss.
As applause thundered through the audience, the two walked backstage.