Zion: Light of the New Moon, Ch 5.3 Myre
Zion - Light of the New Moon Chapter 5.3
Myre The Silver Gate
Considering how Liam and Leijh were the focus of the last post, it seems only fair to give some attention to other characters. We're taking a break from Leijh's journal and exploring a more generic viewpoint. This post will revolve around Anor-Roc and Josh along with Valda and Agnes.
Valda reclined on a plain, wooden bench, her back resting against the stone wall of the central guest room while Agnes and Josh sat on an enormous bear skin rug nearby; Josh was teaching the human girl how to play Phases. Anor-Roc was seated on a single step leading down from floor level to the slightly sunken 'play area'. His gaze was focused mainly on the young ones, though occasionally they did find their way to the squirrel. Valda's eyes were on the child and the cub, but her gaze seemed much more distant.
While Josh explained the fine points of choosing where and how to move one's pieces, Anor-Roc rose up from his seat and moved over to Valda. She looked up as he approached, "Any space available?" he offered with a smile, motioning to the several feet of unoccupied space on the bench.
"Only if you answer a question." she noted in a non-committal tone.
"Sounds fair." he answered, taking a seat beside her.
Valda went back to looking at the two youngsters finally starting their game of Phases, "What's with your bracelet?"
"My bracelet?" the coy-wolf inquired, ears perking with in a mischievous manner, "Oh... well it's made of mixed metal thread for durability, and alchemically silvered for aesthetics." he smiled pleasantly.
"I meant the charms." Valda answered.
"Hmm..." Anor-Roc nodded thoughtfully, and the two sat in silence for nearly a minute and his gaze migrated back to the young lion and the human girl.
"Well?" the squirrel questioned.
"Well what?" the coy-wolf turned to regard her once more.
"What's the deal with the charms on your bracelet?" Valda inquired, scowling.
"You said I could sit here if I answered -A- question..." Anor-Roc flicked an ear mirthfully, "You didn't say I was going to be the subject of an interrogation."
"Just answer the damn question." Valda stated, "I don't usually see grown men wandering around with charm bracelets... that's usually reserved for cubs and gray-furred old biddies wanting to relive their cub-years." she looked him over appraisingly, "And don't say 'they're nothing', because I've seen what you can do with them."
Anor-Roc adjusted the bracelet on his wrist, pulling one of the charms free. He held it up, "Each of these charms represents an animal that--"
"I've noticed." Valda interjected, "That looks like an otter... and I saw you with a bear and a jaguar, and the bat that you had Agnes hold for you. But what's the point of--"
"I was getting to that before you interrupted." Anor-Roc smiled patiently, and looked down at the small silver charm in his paw. The coy-wolf began whispering, his emerald eyes illuminating with an inner light as he tossed the charm to the floor; before it could hit the stone, however, an otter replaced it, landing silently on the ground. It about-faced, curling back on itself to regard Anor-Roch, and then Valda. "Ms Corwin... this is Lutra." the coy-wolf introduced the otter.
"She's pretty." Valda noted casually. The otter's tongue stuck out, whiskers perking as it raspberried her.
"Lutra is a he." Anor-Roc clarified.
"I didn't think to check." she answered flatly.
"All of my companions are he." the coy-wolf noted, "That's the way spirits work."
"All spirits are 'he'?" Valda asked.
"For male summoners, yes." Anor-Roc responded, "For a female summoner all spirits she can summon are female." he closed his paw, and opened it again; a small-sized glowing fish filled it, "Spirits don't truly have genders, as such, so they take that from their summoner." He held the glowing fish in his open palm. Lutra hopped up onto the coy-wolf's lap, eliciting an 'oof' from the summoner. The otter snatched the fish from him, laying down on Anor-Roc's thighs, and began eating.
"You summon fish too?" the squirrel asked, "You don't even have a fish charm." she pointed out.
"Summoned spirits require upkeep, Ms. Corwin... what I created was a manifestation of magic that could be channeled into Lutra here." he stroked the otter's back as it ate; the otter churled happily in response. Anor-Roc looked back to the squirrel, "Lutra is absorbing the mana in a way that makes sense for his physical form he has while manifested... hence, he's eating the fish."
"That sounds like some crazy man's view of the world." Valda responded, a smile spreading across her muzzle, "I like it."
"Well, Ms. Corwin," the coy-wolf noted, "When it comes down to it, we're all a little crazy in our own way."
"I don't meet many people with such an open mind when it comes to 'crazy'." she chuckled, her tail flicking once.
"Sanity and insanity are opposite ends of a very straight-forward scale." Anor-Roc explained, "Balance must be maintained because if you go too far toward insanity you fail to see the world as it is... but, if you slide too far into sanity then you fail to see the world for what it could be." he smiled, leaning back as Lutra stood up then hopped off the coy-wolf's lap and back onto the floor.
"It's almost eerie how much sense you make." Valda smirked.
"I had a good teacher." the magus replied, looking down to casually finger the silver wolf charm attached to his bracelet. Lutra chittered at him and the coy-wolf glanced to the otter, "No... I'm sure she doesn't hate you."
"I-do-what-now?" the squirrel questioned, confused by the one-sided conversation.
"Lutra is used to being doted on and petted and loved and adored." Anor-Roc motioned to the large, dog sized otter, "He just pointed out that you haven't tried to shower him with adoration even once." Once the coy-wolf had spoken his piece, the otter chittered at him, to which Anor-Roc replied, "I KNOW it's not a direct translation, but you DO have to admit that you can be a LITTLE demanding."
The otter stood up on its hind legs and chittered again. "No..." the summoner answered, "and you have to admit that she had no way of knowing you were male... she's NOT a shaman and it wasn't like you were wagging your hips in her face."
It chittered at Anor-Roc again and the magus signed "Well I'm certain she didn't know you were expecting an apology." the coy-wolf glanced to Valda, "Do you mind?"
"Do I--" she paused, then looked at the otter then back to Anor-Roc, "Oh... of course not." she lowered her head, leaning forward as she held out a paw toward Lutra, "I'm terribly sorry, Mr Lutra... I suppose I didn't think before just assuming you were a lady... I mean... your fur is so smooth and shiny, and your whiskers are such an eye-catching silver, I guess I just automatically assumed that any creature so visually ASTOUNDING must take forever to cultivate such an attractive form-- and I know among squirrels that's usually the female."
The otter remained on his hind legs, watching her as she explained herself. Once she said her piece, Lutra leaned forward and touched his muzzle to her fingers, whiskers twitching forward then back as he made a very audible kissing sound. "He knows you don't understand him," Anor-Roc noted, "so he wanted to let you know you were forgiven." he leaned closer to her and whispered quietly, "And, for the record, that was complete bunk, wasn't it?" the coy-wolf inquired with a smirk.
"I have no idea what you mean." Valda responded with false indignation.
"You thought was a girl because his name ends with an 'a'." Anor-Roc pressed.
"I had no idea I was going to be the subject of an interrogation." the squirrel responded with a grin, and she stood, moving over to where Josh and Agnes were playing, just in time for the young cub to make an 'aaaawwwwww!' as he suffered his third loss to the little girl. "It looks like you two are having fun." she smiled, taking a seat beside the Phases board. The coy-wolf would have continued observing the game, if not for something else drawing his attention away.
"You miss your family, don't you?" the voice manifested in an otherworldly tone beside Anor-Roc.
"Yes," the coy-wolf responded, "but I'm doing this for them." He turned to regard the ephemeral, translucent visage of a silver wolf adorned in the armor of a soldier, "More than anyone else, I'm sure you can understand."
The wolf nodded, "Of course, Son... but..." the wolf glanced toward Valda and the two youngsters, then back to Anor-Roc, "but trying to do right by your family also means being able to return to them."
"You came back." Anor-Roc pointed out.
"Not in all the ways I wanted." the wolf's ghostly visage became downcast, "I'm doing what I can now, but I gave up a lot in an attempt to gain a little."
"This is important, Dad." the coy-wolf noted, "The caravan needs me."
"And so does your family, 'Roc." the spirit noted.
"I'm doing this FOR them." Anor-Roc reiterated.
"And that's why I went to war." the spirit countered, "To do for MY Family... but eventually the time came when my duty required sacrifice." the wolf lowered his spectral muzzle.
"We don't hold that against you..." the coy-wolf spoke quietly, "we never did... not once."
"But -I- hold it against me." the transparent wolf looked back up at him, "I died... and I can't begin to count the number of times I wished that things could have turned out differently. I refused to put down my duty so I let my family down instead."
"I won't let either down." Anor-Roc stated with confidence, looking back to where Valda was helping the two youngsters reset the Phases board.
"And if you have to make a choice?" the ghostly wolf questioned, "Would you choose the caravan over your family?"
"I chose the caravan BECAUSE of my family." the coy-wolf pointed out.
"And I chose war because of my family." the wolf's ethereal voice noted from beside him.
"I--" Anor-Roc began, but paused, looking back to where his father's spirit had been... but was no longer.
"Hey!" Valda called, pulling the coy-wolf's attention away from the empty spot on the bench next to him.
"Hmm?" the summoner asked, looking back to her.
"Would you mind controlling your otter?" the squirrel requested.
Anor-Roc flicked an ear when he saw Lutra bouncing back and forth between Josh and Agnes; both of the youngsters were squealing with delight and ticklishness, but it was obvious that the poor teenage lion was completely embarrassed by the sounds he was making. "Lutra..." the coy-wolf called calmly. The otter bounded off of Agnes' back and landed on Valda's knee. It leaned forward and stole another 'kiss' from her paw, and then romped over to the summoner. Anor-Roc held a paw out, and Lutra sprang into the air, disappearing in a flash; the coy-wolf caught the silver otter charm.
Reattaching the charm to his bracelet, Anor-Roc regarded Valda, "Are you going to be okay watching these two for a little while?"
"Of course," the squirrel replied, "Is everything alright?"
Anor-Roc nodded, "Yea... I think I just need to go for a walk... gather my thoughts."
Valda nodded calmly, "Alright... just make sure you get back before Josh loses too many more times." she grinned and winked at Agnes.
"I'm going easy on her!" the cub defended himself indignantly.
The coy-wolf smiled bitter-sweetly, exiting the room as his thoughts returned to his own family. It had been weeks since he had seen his wife and his son... how much longer until he would see them again? Would he ever see them again? As the vices of emotion gripped tighter around his heart, Anor-Roc made his way down the hall, mind jumbled with thoughts and little or no way to sort them. If his father was right and the time came where he had to make a choice... then what?
* * * * * *
Taking a break from Leijh's journal narrating, this Myre post focuses more fully on Anor-Roc, Valda, Josh, and Agnes. Hopefully this will give readers a chance to experience a little more of the characters before the Milestone-- I certainly enjoyed writing it.
Enjoy post 3 of Chapter 5, folks... it's only going to get more interesting real soon! In the meantime, how about a vote? You may vote for one of the following:
1) Liam is able to forgive Leijh and they continue on together as a couple.
2) An as-of-yet undeveloped romantic connection may start to form!
3) Keeland discovers that Cornelius' interest in his is more than just professional.
4) Anor-Roc loves his wife very much, but that devotion is put to the test when Valda takes an interest in him.
Contributing readers have until Friday the 9th (yep! Friday again!) at midnight to cast their vote.