Mind Fluff

Why you should always Keep Watching the Sky

2009-02-28T02:38:23Z

My camera didn't do it justice. Conjunction of the Moon and Venus.

TGR Part 2: Conclusion

2009-01-07T16:36:03Z

Augh! I was SURE I had posted this... sheesh...

Chapter 60.
Seen and Unseen

They will go to Perinc, surely!” Mignette shouted as the entire group cantered ahead. “I know where we can get down and get across the river. But shimeyu legs will not like it!”

“Thanks for telling us that, Mignette!” Yre shouted grumpily.

A hannu riding in front of her, and two riding behind, Mignette did not answer but kept cantering ahead. Three annual also rode, one in front, and two behind Rumau. Yre and Emma both pulled short cart trains. As many of the hannu for whom there were plates were vested and armored.

The group continued due east, passing north of the city of Perinc, and straight toward a line of trees in the distance. “It has been told to me,” Mignette shouted, “that the shimeyu of the city had the chiyaha plant that line of trees there deliberately. It was sad to me that the shimeyu believe that the trees keep away the wasps. And I think maybe it just hides the steepness of the cliff. Shimeyu are not fond of heights, I’ve noticed.”

“Wasps,” Rumau barked. “I forgot all about wasps. Mignette, I’m very allergic to wasp stings. All madhai are. I don’t know what to do about this. Maybe I shouldn’t go this way.”

“No need to worry about it,” Mignette said. “Once we get where we’re going, that can be taken care of.”

“I hope you’re right,” Rumau said doubtfully. “Say, what’s that up ahead? I thought you said no shimeyu would come up this way. Yre, you can see far ahead, what is that?”

Yre had been paying no attention to anything more than a few steps ahead of him, as he was treading carefully in order to both pull carts behind him and keep his cat comfortably on his back. At Rumau’s question, he slowed down somewhat and peered ahead. Then he stopped altogether. “It’s Dar,” he nearly growled.

The others stopped as well. Aurrigne pulled Rumau’s blanket more tightly around himself.

“Why are you stopping?!” Mignette said, galloping in a circle around them. “Understand this, if they get to the bottom of the cliff before we do, armor will not protect us! Even without armor, those higher up are vulnerable! Run like fire! We have to stop them for they will surely stop us if they can!”

Without waiting for the others to move, Mignette galloped ahead, shrieking. All the hannu jumped from Gadrin or their carts and went pelting after her.
“Perennet, watch out!” Rumau shouted, and she too went galloping after Mignette. The others soon followed.

Perhaps it was the noise, the terrible beat of galloping horses. Perhaps it was the sight of the horses, and all these strange creatures, racing toward them as fast as they could, that brought Dar and what remained of his family to a halt. When he saw Mignette and recognized her, it was Haneiwep who gaped and shouted.

Dar spun around them silenced his son with a glare. The rest of his family were very much inclined to take at least a few steps back, but Dar stood his ground, all his feathers on end, and all his ranks displayed.

Mignette rode right up to him. “You are not welcome in my land,” she said. “Go back to your keep and study someone else. You are not welcome in my land, and will be even less so once I have told my story. You are not welcome in my land. Begone!”

“I am Dar,” the old shimeyu said quietly. “I am the master of the Ye Jwu City Archaeological Society, and Judge in two other societies. Head of my family and a prince in my old lands am I, and no one tells me where I may or may not go.”

“I tell you this,” came a new voice. Yre now stood beside Mignette, without ranks, for he had lost them long ago, but with tremendous dignity. “I, Yre, Master of the White Rock Dike Academic Society, and friend to Master Mignette of the same society, and Master Rumau and Master Emma, of the same society. You have no right to be on these lands. You are not on the road, and there is no safety here. As for your family, Haneiwep I see, and Hejirjeb also I see. Where is the third son? Where is his mother’s favorite?”

The crowd assembled behind Dar began to murmur, and Dar quickly quieted them again. “His mother’s favorite is dead,” he said. And the crowd muttered once again.

“You are absolutely sure?”

“My beautiful son,” Dar said, his eyes wide open yet unfocusedm his voice beginning to crack, “is dead! And what right have you, you of whom so many stories are told; you, Yre, whose name the hens only utter in bitterness?”

“Perhaps you should turn back now, and go find his mother’s favorite and see what you have done,” Mignette said.

Dar was shaking. “My son is dead!” he shouted, one moment staring ahead and the other scanning wildly all around him. And then he stared, focused at last, on something.

In front of him, his ranks gone, half of his feathers missing, one leg swollen, perhaps permanently now, but his eyes keen, stood Aurrigne, the blanket now dropped to the ground.

His father did not recognize him.

But the others did.

“Go back and find your son,” Aurrigne said very quietly. “Go and look for him and learn what happened, for there is much to see.”

And still, now trembling, his father did not recognize him. “My son is dead,” he said.

Mignette rode up so that she stood between father and son. All the hannu, somehow taking the hint, circled the entire group of shimeyu, arrows nocked and aimed.

“You can not escape my family,” Mignette said in measured tones. “You can choose to return now to your home, and we will let you go. Or we will kill you to the last. Choose.”

Dar began running around the perimeter of his group. His family chattered among themselves, and one or two of the boldest ones even tried to block his way. “Take them, take them all!” Dar shouted, and one of his family did raise a bow, and shot directly at one of the hannu.

And the arrow skidded on the plate of clay, and fell to the ground with a clatter.

All the hannu shrieked with delight! Mignette shrieked as well, raised high a bow and let fly. Her arrow pierced the chest of a large shimeyu, dropping him to the ground, screaming. Once again she stood directly before Dar. “You have no defense against us! You are not welcome in our lands! What will it be?”

Haneiwep and Hejirjeb grabbed their father and held him back. Into his ear, they said something. And after a while, Dar said, “We go to Perinc.. We leave at once.”

Mignette waved a hand, and the hannu on the south side of the circle parted.

Dar led his people through the gap at a walk. Once all were clear of the circle, they took off at a run. No one looked back.

Mignette walked back to the others. “Once again,” she said, “they will find a way across a delta.”

“You think they are definitely going to try to make the crossing,” Rumau said as hannu climbed back up around her.

“Absolutely,” Mignette said. “There is much too much at stake. But you, Rumau, has given us a powerful advantage. Let’s go on. It’s just a short way now.

They all began to walk off again. Aurrigne was last. He looked hopelessly at Emma, who was busy lining up the carts she was pulling, as everyone else had already gone ahead. “He didn’t even recognize me, I’m sure of it,” he said.

“I recognize you,” Emma said cheerily, and patted him on the shoulder. “Come on, let’s go.”

In another half hour, they were past the line of trees, and standing at the edge of a great cliff, at the bottom of which flowed a deep river. On the opposite bank, stretching before them as far as the eye could see, the land was blanketed to the horizon in a single forest of Great Rose.

End of Part 2.

To Be Continued...

(c) 2008 Fara Shimbo

A new law that needs to be added to the Wargentin Charter:

2009-01-03T01:52:19Z

Woe unto sahn who puts anyone's audiobooks on "shuffle," for they shall be given to satamuri as a toy.

Stuff, things, more things...

2008-12-23T15:10:54Z

Hi, everyone, Happy Merry!

Sorry for the lack of posts, been working all day, and playing far too much Spore.

I now have 15 new rose seedlings in the greenhouse, all open-pollinated. I'm beginning to despair for my deliberate crosses. Not a hint of activity from any of them, alas.

And started knitting socks. Realized at long last that the only way to get knee socks that will actually fit is to make my own, so...

Jotting down notes for Trail of the Great Rose part 3.

Other than that, not much is new.

Back to playing Spore!

Too good not to share...

2008-12-04T18:26:14Z

more animals

TGR Part 2...

2008-11-28T20:58:53Z

Chapter 59.
Dash to Perinc

Many helpful hannu and a warm dry wind helped Rumau to get plates made and loaded into the kiln in about four days, which, in Rumau’s estimate, had to be a world record.

Perennet made pinch pots with clay scraps, and soon all the hannu were doing it. They made exactly the same thing, all of them, until Rumau stepped in to try to encourage some creativity.

Yre stayed around to help with the plates, and gave himself the job of kiln-monitor by day. By night he sat up, looking through his lenses, and drawing stars.

Aurrigne began to take long walks on his mending leg, “to strengthen it.” Each day he went further and further afield.

On the fifth day, when the kiln was firing, everyone at the Rose heard a distant, keening shriek. Odd noises were commonplace, and everyone thought that it was probably just someone who’d crossed the path of some predators. But Yre knew better; he got up and began to race toward the sound, off to the east. Curious, Emma followed.

... b ...

“By all the stars I’ve ever seen,” Yre whispered, “this is most terrible.”
He and Aurrigne were standing in the middle of a group of shimeyu, one still dying, and a dozen or so already dead. Emma circled the group, looking thoughtful and treading most carefully.

“I know these people,” Aurrigne said, nearly shaking. “That one, that is my third cousin on my mother’s side. And that one is my grand-nephew. What happened here? I see no scratches on these others, only on my kin! What happened, and who are these?”

Yre was walking among the dead. “These are all members of the Merm Historical Society, Master Adhuashu’s people. I recognize the ranks. And no, they were not killed by kicks. They were arrow-shot.”
“But there are no arrows here.”

“I imagine they were taken away. Arrowheads are not easy for our hands to make. But here are the holes, that arrows would make. See you? Here, and here?”

Aurrigne leaned down and examined one of the corpses. “They will have seen,” he said, in awe. “These will tell no one, but if there were others, they will have seen. They will know. So much for our secret... What do you think passed here, Master Yre?”

Yre stood up and looked all around himself. “It is impossible to say,” he said after a while.

“Very brave of them,” Emma said in Common Tongue. “Useless what they did, but brave, I guess.”

Yre and Aurrigne suddenly realized that they’d been speaking to each other in shimeyu-speak. “What did they do?” Aurrigne said.

Emma paced around on all-fours, then stood up and examined the field from a higher vantage. She walked around and looked even at the ground, which confused the shimeyu somewhat as there were actual tracks on the dry earth.
“These shimeyu,” Emma said, grabbing one of the imped feathers that all of Dar’s group wore, “saw the others on the road.”

“That is quite an assumption,” Yre said.

“Not at all,” Emma said. “They must have done. Dangerous not to be on the road, yes? So, they stay where they belong. Now, the two groups. They were far from each other, probably.”

Again, Emma noticed, Yre and Aurrigne looked doubtful. She smiled proudly. “Or else, no reason to use bows, bows would be seen. So, far enough away to see arrows fall but not see bows, but then you shimeyu see very well, so here maybe I am wrong. But...

“These shimeyu, Dar’s people, I think you said, shot at these other shimeyu. Here I am confused. Why would they so do?”

Yre had an idea, but didn’t want to propound it. Nevertheless he was pleased when Aurrigne confirmed it by saying, “Because Adhuashu was at the meeting my father called, of all the Masters, a while back. So was the Master of Five, and many other Masters as well. There was no consensus reached on whether they would as one go to the Madhai; and I suspect that was because each of them got the idea of sending their own people.”

Emma, still learning Common Tongue, got the gist. “Yes, that makes it clearer.” She walked around and examined things anew. “Your father Dar wishes to be the first to reach Rumau’s people. He can do this in part by making sure no one passes him on the road. So he and his people tried to do by shooting... Adhu... whatever the name is.

“But Adhu-whatsit would have the same want. And maybe realized the advantage of bows. So, sent some people to catch them, maybe delay Dar too. So, the fight, as you see here.”

Aurrigne raised his crest, which was as much expression as he could muster. Yre was astonished. “Such a weapon is worth sending people to stop?!”

“Rumau thinks so.”

Aurrigne turned to Yre and nodded.

“Enough for shimeyu to fight one another over? That’s absurd!”

“Yet it happened,” Emma said.

“And you know all this just by looking?” Aurrigne said with some astonishment.
“By looking. By thinking. By knowing why people do what they do. I love this kind of thing. It’s very useful.”

Yre shook his head aggressively at the others. “We must hurry now,” he said. “The more I think, the more trouble I see in my mind. Let’s go back.”

... b ...

“There are more of them?!” Rumau stood up so fast that even some of the hannu were taken aback. “how many more? How many groups are heading back to my home, and how many of them are archers?”

“To the best of my knowledge,” Aurrigne said, “only my father’s group are archers.”

“But the others have seen this now. They’re not stupid. Obsessive, maybe, but not stupid! They’ll learn what you did, and you can bet that pretty soon they’ll be doing it themselves! This is horrible!”

Rumau walked up to the kiln, and began to shove additional fuel into it. If things started blowing up now, she really didn’t care.

“In truth, Rumau,” Aurrigne said in a somewhat tremulous voice, “I don’t think they will. using bows and arrows would after all make them Toolists. Nobody wants that... well, very few people want that anyway.”

“Is that what you think?” Rumau said. “I don’t know what your argument against the use of tools is, but one thing I do know is this. Even the oldest, grumpiest, most intractable old-timers will take up something new, no matter how reviled it is, if it gives them the advantage of power over someone else. Trust me on this one. No,” she said in response to doubtful looks from both the shimeyu. “You’ll see. Someone told me once that the purpose of all these societies is to enlarge and advance the family line. Now tell me, what do you suppose will, in the long run, advanced a family line faster than being the only family line around?” Rumau snorted and got back to the kiln.

“You take a very dim view of us, Rumau,” Yre said. “We shimeyu are an honorable people. honor and respect, especially for our betters, that is the cornerstone of everything we do. Is that not true, Aurrigne?”

“Absolutely, it is most certainly true.”

Rumau simply huffed.

“And if I may be so bold, I will tell you what it is we have, as you say, against Toolism.”

By now, Emma and Mignette were listening as well. When Aurrigne did not go on, Rumau stood up and stared at him.

“It is from watching all the chiyaha that we have learned this most valuable lesson. It is this. When a society starts using tools, it becomes dependent upon them. If you were to put a group of chiyaha back into the wild, without us, and without their silly little towns, would they survive on their own? No, they would not. We’ve seen this happen, over and over again. The first thing they tried to do when they are on their own is make tools to make shelters. They seem to be unable to live without shelters anymore. Yet shimeyu like Master Yre and I, we have not lost our independence like that. You could drop one of us anywhere, is that not correct, Master Yre? put us in any wild place and we will survive. The Masters altogether have decided that we must never lose our independence. Never.”

Rumau tilted her head and folded her arms. “Yet you and your brothers and your father are very good with bows, and apparently are not hesitant about using them.” She turned and went back to fiddling with the kiln. “I have to think for a while. Leave me alone.”

... b ...

Rumau stayed up with the kiln until very late at night. In between adjusting airflow and adding fuel, she began making notes about what she was doing, jotting down ideas for improving the armor. At one point, Yre tried to urge her to get some sleep, but he got nowhere, only chased away and snapped at.

Rumau had nothing to say to anyone all the next day. The firing had finished and all that was needed was for the kiln to cool down. Apparently it wasn’t happening quickly enough.

Emma was confused, and the two shimeyu just plain irritable. But Mignette seemed to understand what was going on. Every now and then, she would look over Rumau’s shoulder and make some small comment, or point something out. Rumau would erase something with a piece of leather, or make some new notation, but otherwise carry on as if no one else were there.

At about midday, Mignette gathered Emma and the shimeyu together, as well as all the hannu, and gave them orders to go out and gather as much food as they could. Yre ran, and Aurrigne, expecting a long walk, went more slowly and tried to save his energy. The hannu rode on horseback. Mignette herself stayed behind and repaired the cart-train. Nobody saw Cookie anywhere.

Rumau began dismantling the kiln that evening, and the next morning the entire group was off at a gallop. Aurrigne who could not yet run at speed, rode in one of the carts. they headed due east, straight for Perrinc. Even at night, they stopped only long enough for the horses to eat; The hannu scurried about and gathered up fruits and leaves, and last year’s grains, for them so that the horses would not have to wander too far.

Rumau brooded the entire time. She leaned down onto Gadrin’s neck and said, “Writing, bows, armor... my world is breaking apart, my dearest.”

Gadrin ran for a while with her head raised, so that Rumau could lean her head on the mare’s soft, thin mane, and nickered quietly from time to time.

... b ...

They stopped, days later, when they came to the River Di. Where a tributary joined it, the river became wide and flat and the perfect place to ford; but the Western Mares and their foals were tiring and needed a days’ rest. Owán and Gadrin, fit and proud, nevertheless appreciated the halt.

The actual town of Di was somewhat to the south east, and just visible from the ford. Yre was loathe to stop there, and without any embarrassment whatsoever, Aurrigne just hid from sight under one of Rumau’s blankets, after giving everyone stern warnings not to reveal that he was with them, or that they had even seen him along the way. Soon some chiyaha were seen heading toward them, so Rumau had Gadrin and Owán chase them off.

Rumau took the opportunity to all but disappear herself, but this time into the cool water of the river. So it was Emma and Mignette who found the tracks.

“Three toes,” Emma observed. “Meyyeh shimeyu, like Yre. Chao have only two toes. Not runners, tracks are too small for runner-feet. They crossed the river quickly, without even slowing down. See here? Their strides haven’t shortened. They ran right into the water. And they probably ran right out again.”

Mignette had seen Emma make deductions from tracks like this before, and was quite amazed by her skill. “How long ago did you think they were here?” she asked.

“Not more than one day ago,” Emma said. She dipped her hands into the water, and then touched some prints in the mud of the river’s immediate bank. “Perhaps as early as this morning, the river is flowing quickly and I do not expect that the mod would have remained so compressed underfoot for very long.” She broke away one of the highly sides were much had been displaced by a flood, washed her hand again, and felt the mud that had been exposed by the break. She shook her head. “As early as this morning, but no later. All the mud is the same temperature. Nothing is colder from having been exposed overnight.”

“Now you just show off,” Mignette said, knowing a thing or two about mud herself.

“Mignette, there was a sky lion, too.”

Mignette walked over and examined a print at which Emma was pointing. It certainly could have been Cookie’s... “I’m not surprised, really,” she said, “Sky lions need to drink.”

Emma said no more, and after a while Mignette headed back to the camp. Emma stayed behind and followed the tracks. The sky lion went into the water, was chased out by shimeyu... seems to have tried to fly away and was brought crashing down... ran some ways down a gully...

And there she found it. A sky lion carcass, feathers strewn everywhere, only bones remaining.

She decided not to tell Mignette.

... b ...

When at last they were ready to move again, the western mares would not go. The lead mare (a position Gadrin had tried to take but failed) had had enough, or perhaps had no further wish to risk the foals. Owán called loud and long for them, well after Rumau got them all underway; Gadrin finally bit him on the rump to shut him up, and galloped on ahead of him.

In the afternoon of the next day, Perinc was in sight.

(c) 2008 Fara Shimbo
Part 2 To Be Concluded...

TGR. Very close to the end of Part 2!

2008-11-22T14:19:10Z

Chapter 58.
Last Slow March

Rumau was willing to wait until the next morning for Cookie to return and show them where the next Rose was. But the next morning, a cold rain was falling outside the Rose, and Cookie had not returned.

“I don’t know what to do, Yre,” she confessed. “Do we just go straight toward Perinc and stop at any Rose we happen to see? I know Mignette didn’t want us to wait but... I don’t know what to do.”

Yre rubbed his face against Rumau’s shoulder and pecked at her sleeve. “I think that yes, that is a most sound suggestion. You can smell those Roses from quite far off, you know.”

“You can smell those Roses from quite far off, Yre. I can’t.”

“There you are, then. You can leave it to me to find them.”

“Aurrigne, have you been up this way?”

Yre looked up at Rumau. He stood a little straighter but said nothing.
“I have been as far as Em only,” he said. “My brothers have gone farther. They’ve told me much.”

“Any Roses between here and Em?”

Off a ways, Gadrin sniffed the air and whinnied for Owán. No answer came, but the western mares took up the cry.

“Yes,” Aurrigne said. “Many. I remember there is one just north of Em. You can smell it in the city. And there is one a way north of that, that you can smell when the wind is coming from that way.”

“Which one is closer to Perinc?” Rumau asked.

“Neither, Rumau-Master. Opa, they say, is due northeast of Em, and Perinc east-northeast of Opa. The Em Rose is south of Em itself. I cannot say exactly where the more northerly Rose might be, but it cannot be far, if the scent carries so.”

“And how far is Em from here?”

Aurrigne considered. “From Dô to Em is, I have heard, as from Myo to Mermi. One syllable is as far from one syllable as two is from two, that’s how I remember it.”

Rumau huffed. Having been to none of those places, she had no idea how far that might have been, although she approved of Aurrigne’s mnemonic. “How long would it take us, do you think, to get there from here?”

“I regret I cannot say.”

“Yre?”

Yre looked up from his paper. “I have never travelled this way,” he said. “I am a more southerly wanderer, you see.”

Rumau tried to picture it all in her mind. It sounded as if a wrong decision would leave them quite far off the trail.

Then Gadrin neighed again, and suddenly Rumau knew exactly what to do.

... b ...

Two hours later, they broke camp. There were not as many carts, as there were fewer hannu and many of them rode. Some of them willingly obeyed Rumau’s instructions to ride in the cart-train and make sure that none of the plates, nor any of Rumau’s remaining possessions, were lost. The rest rode and shot, as Mignette had commanded them before they left.

They rode northeast, and in as straight a line as Rumau could muster. By late evening there was another river to cross, and on the opposite bank, a chiyaha village, long deserted. Rumau ordered a halt there; it was a perfect spot.
All signs were that this village (and Rumau had to use the term very loosely) was perhaps only half-finished to begin with. The central fire had been used a few times, judging by the amount of debris; but it had been rained on and seen at least one fall of leaves in its time. Only one of the cabins was complete, or as complete as chiyaha buildings ever are when not built under constant supervision. The workmanship started out, its seemed, quite well. Then it became ever more rushed until the outermost and hindmost parts of the building were simply thrown together so the whole could be pronounced complete, and a new, and thus far more interesting, project could be started. Still, that cabin was quite large, and warm once one was inside. Even Gadrin came in and laid down.

“I recover my strength,” Yre said, sitting down close to the horse. As he arranged his feathers neatly, Tsf, the cat, who had ridden on Yre’s back all this way, nestled in the particularly warm spot on Yre’s breast.

Rumau stood between horse and shimeyu. After a long moment, she lay down between them, with her head on Yre’s back and her feet on Gadrin’s, and cuddled up close. Perennet, who had been convinced to remove her armor for the trip but refused to remove her vest, sat close to them all and just stared. The rest of the hannu eventually gathered in the room and found places to sleep.
Aurrigne decided to stay by himself in another of the cabins.

Many times during the night, Yre desired to get up and check for himself whether Aurrigne was still there. But Rumau was so comfortable, and looked so happy and peaceful, that he could not bring himself to move. It was the happiest he’d seen her since the lost of Heyu and the filly. And watching the hannu, and thinking of Aurrigne, and Dar, and remembering what Mignette had said about her world, Yre was only too happy to let whatever moments of happiness they could get now last as long as possible.

Yre reached down and nuzzled his cat. The loyalty of the cat, he reflected, was the most wonderful of all since there was no need for it. Tsf could live both on his own and alone all his life in perfect happiness. Yet he had chosen to remain with Yre, though Yre never fed him, nor, in recent days, paid much attention to him other than insuring that he didn’t fall from Yre’s back.
Outside the cabin, the western mares began neighing. Strange thing to do, Yre thought, with all the predators about; though Rumau had told him once that horses could see as well at night as in daylight. Gadrin awoke and rose, and went outside to see what was going on. Rumau turned over and made herself more comfortable with her face buried in the feathers of Yre’s wing.
Yre finally put down his own head and slept.

... b ...

Rumau awoke the next morning, very early, to the sound of horses carrying on outside the cabin. When she tried to get up, she noticed a terrible crick in her neck, grumbled a bit and began to rub it. She noticed Yre looking at her with some concern, and was about to say something when she heard a familiar whinny. “Ahhh!” she said instead, her mind now completely at ease, and outside she went.

Owán Had reappeared. Rumau smiled very broadly, and walked up to greet him, giving him a few hearty pats. “Good to see you again,” she said. “Mignette may be nice, but I didn’t think you would pass up an opportunity to get back to your mares if that opportunity arose.”

Owán gave Rumau that most horse folks would have said was a look of great pride, but will now thought was just stupid. She looked him over for signs that he had traveled a great distance, and indeed he had sweated some under the remains of his winter coat, now almost completely shed out. But whether he had come a long way, or had come a short way but at speed, she simply couldn’t tell.
Horses. At times a total mystery, at times laughably predictable. She stood tall and stretched, and called, “everybody up! We are on our way after breakfast! Everybody up!”

The hannu wroth immediately, as if they had never been asleep. Rumau couldn’t stand people like that. Heyu had been like that... great, now she was going to start the morning all depressed.

Yre and Aurrigne came out as well, though more properly bleary. Yre Greeted Aurrigne with a silent nod and, and Aurrigne, as it had become his habit, said, “Good day to you, Master Rumau and Master Yre.”

“Morning, Aurrigne,” Rumau said. “You’d better find yourself some breakfast, and then I’ll need you two to help me hook up the cart-train. I think this will probably be the last time we’ll need it.” Rumau looked around. “I don’t know how they did it, but I think the hannu grew some more last night.” She shook her head, and walked to a nearby stream, and let herself fall in to the refreshing waters.

Yre and Aurrigne watched. They didn’t say so, but they both realized that finally they had found something upon which they could heartily agree: deliberately getting one’s self wet was insane.

... b ...

Once everyone was on their way, Owán led the mares to the northeast. It took most of the day, travelling at more speed than Rumau would have liked, to reach the Next Rose. Emma and a small group of hannu came running out to meet them, and they stopped well away from the cloud of wasps that still surrounded it.

When the hannu who had come with Rumau saw the Rose, still with many blossoms on it, they raced their horses to it and jumped from their backs onto the branches, gobbling up flowers and hips as fast as they could.

Mignette herself soon appeared, and came running to Rumau, waving and calling.
“Where’s Cookie?” was the first thing Rumau had to say.

“She was with you, was she not?” Mignette said.

Rumau narrowed her eyes. “No. I thought you were going to send her to us, but she never came.”

“But surely that was days ago.”

“She’s not here?”

“No. She and the other Sky Lion took off when I told them too, but I have not seen them since then.”

“This time of year, I’m not surprised,” said Aurrigne, very delicately, as he was still afraid that offering an opinion unasked would cause offense.
“Why do you say that?” Rumau asked.

Aurrigne brightened a bit. “This is the time of that sky lions pair and nest, is not that the case? Only, I once overheard a great Master who was visiting my father mention this.”

Mignette shrugged. “I was under the impression that cookie would be too small for this. Sky lions do not breed until they reach a certain size, or that is what I have always been told and observed.” Mignette looked around at them all. “She would not leave me for a mate, would she? I, whom she has known all her life, since an egg? She would build a nest right here if she were going to do that, I’m sure of it.”

“Well these things happen,” said Rumau. “She’s probably at that age where nobody does anything that makes sense. Give her a couple of days, they’ll probably both of them come back.”

‘At least, we can hope that’s what’s going on,’ Rumau said to herself as she began to unhitch Gadrin from the cart train.

But Mignette caught her up. “Not yet!” She said. “I have something to show you! Come, you must see it!”

Rumau unharnessed Gadrin and let the mare wander off to graze. Mignette grabbed her hand and began to drag Rumau to a spot to one side of the Rose.
There, before them, neatly made and almost exactly, to the stone, like the one Rumau had built at the last rose, was a kiln.

Rumau went up to it and examined it minutely. She even reached down into the log well where fuel would be introduced and felt around for imperfections. There was one stone. That was all.

“The hannu you took with you did all this from memory?!”

“I helped!”

“But...”

“Hannu remember exactly everything they see. It’s a trade, I think. They trade the Rose that grows them the ability to speak for this gift.”

Rumau stood and sputtered for a moment. “And you use them as shields and fighters?!”

“Yes, of course.”

Rumau turned around and faced Mignette correctly. ”I can’t believe you’ve would waste such a talent! What a civilization you could have!”

Mignette turned to Aurrigne, and the latter translated. Hearing the translation, Mignette snorted and said something to Aurrigne.

“Mignette says that beruliy already have a remarkable civilization. You just haven’t seen it yet.”

“I’m sure that’s true, and I’ll see it soon, I hope. But nevertheless a I think you are wasting an incredible resource.” She turned back to the kiln and looked it over. “I don’t suppose you have clay...”

“We have some clay, yes. but it is of a different kind, I think. We could not find any of the clay that was at the last rose, and we had to go far to find this.” Mignette grinned. “And now I would like to see how my daughters look all dressed up!”

“You’re assuming it worked,” Rumau said.

“Of course it worked,” Mignette said flippantly. “If it hadn’t worked, you would not have been pleased with the kiln. You would have whined and said, ‘Too bad we’re not going to need it’ and such!”

Rumau chuckled. She went ahead and dressed up Perennet in her armor, and Mignette, Emma and all the hannu who had yet to see it were amazed.

Early the next morning, they all found themselves making more. And making some for Rumau and Emma as well, at Mignette’s insistence. Yre and Aurrigne both flatly refused.

(c) 2008 Fara Shimbo
To Be Continued...

TGR Chapter 57

2008-11-17T00:53:24Z

Chapter 57.
A Setback

“I will never, ever forgive you! Not you, not anyone in this city! Not ever! And just to show you—”

Dar wheeled around and grabbed a bow from one of his nieces, nocked and arrow, and let fly at the leader of the City of Em. The ancient meyyeh, wisest in the town and revered by all, shrieked and stared... looked down at the shaft in his breast... wobbled a bit... “I will see you burn!” he mumbled. He took a couple of steps toward Dar... and then he died.

Both Dar’s company and the citizens of Em stood in stunned silence. Dar’s people dared not question anything their leader did. The citizens of Em could not believe that anyone could, by any means, kill someone from so far away.
For hearing that Dar was coming to Em, they had all taken council together. They heard about the nightmares, the long and senseless trek, the way Aurrigne, “the beautiful son” of whom legends were told, had been left behind to die. Runners, another species, not bound by oaths of secrecy, told what they’d heard, and these stories had circulated as fast as the runners themselves. The people of Em would not allow Dar in their city, nor within its territory, nor on its roads.

As far as Dar was concerned, the people of Em might think whatever they pleased of him. But roads, no matter who maintained them, or to which city they led, were free passage, and no one on a road might be hindered. Where they were going and why they might be going there were irrelevant. The roads were free, and protecting them unthinkable.

So now they stood here, staring each other down, neither side believing what they were seeing.

Very slowly, two or three of the citizens of the town crept up on their leader and examined carefully. One of them pulled out the arrow, and study it closely, and there they all stood, and looked from the arrow to the bow which had shot it.

All at once, in a fury which overrode any reasonable thought, the citizens of Em began to run toward Dar and his companions, shrieking as they ran.
In a flash, Dar realized what he had done. He dared not fight; they already had an arrow to study, it would be treasonous in the extreme to allow all bow to fall into their hands.

“Follow me! Everyone! Now!” Dar grabbed the people nearest him and ran off down the road, southward, as fast as he could possibly go. The rest of the group followed him, running for their lives.

The citizens of Em ran after them for quite a way; but eventually they seem to feel that they had chased chased their targets far enough, or else they themselves didn’t want to get too far away from their home.

Whatever it was that made them stop was good enough for Dar. He stopped and ran to a clear spot off the road, signaling his family to gather ‘round him. They did, though not as quickly as he wished. He hushed them with a flick of his crest.

“My family, my friends, we have done too much today.”

He saw some of them glance at one another.

“We must give no one any further opportunity to learn our secret. From here, we go straight to Perinc. No more stopping in cities. No more runners. We will walk and trot each day.”

“And Haneiwep?” said a youngster, strong but still so immature and impetuous.
Then something happened that Dar had never before experienced. Someone else said, “Yes, Vio is right.” And three other people flashed their crests in agreement!

Haneiwep was supposed to be meeting them in Opa, or Jmych.

Dar ruffled his feathers. “If I recall the laws of our kind...” he began. But then he reconsidered. “I’m sure he will understand. Go now and hunt whatever food you may. No one will be feeding us anymore.”

Dar turned and began to walk away.

He had never before killed another shimeyu.

No matter what the midwives said.

If he could kill them...

Dar began to tremble. But he would not let the others see. He pondered how much more slowly they would travel, but how much safer their knowledge, the knowledge that would save his failing line, would be. It was a very comforting thought, that he was doing his best to guarantee his family’s continuance.

But he did not sleep well that night.

And neither did anyone else.

When Dar awoke the next day, it seemed two of his number were unaccounted for.
Sky lions, someone explained. Yes, that must have been it.

(c) Fara Shimbo, 2008
To be continued...

TGR, Chapter 56

2008-11-16T18:40:45Z

It just gets longer and longer.... hopefully it's staying interesting. There's an illustration but it's not finished.

I've been having a lot of problems with the Mac version of Naturally Speaking. It does not allow you to type in a word and say, "This is how it's pronounced." You are allowed to select a word from a text file and add it to the vocabulary -- and then guess how the program would pronounce it. So instead of Rumau being "Roo-Mao" she is now "Rum-aww" and hannu rhymes with ham instead of calm... and Yre... it still has no idea how to pronounce Yre (maybe I should have spelled it "Yirreh"). But it got Mignette and Aurrigne immediately. Go figure...

Chapter 56.
Knights

“Do you require us all still?” Mignette asked.

In front of them, the kiln was firing with an almighty roar. Flames burst from the top, and the heat was so great that the kiln could only be approached for a few moments. Rumau considered this a miserable, apprentice’s fault. But she had done the best she could.

She was sure she’d heard several things go “pop!” but tried to tell herself it was just her imagination, combined with the great roar of the fire itself.

“RUMAU!”

“WHAT?” Rumau grabbed Mignette by the arm and pulled her away from the kiln, to a spot where they could speak normally. “What? Sorry I snapped at you, what did you want?”

“I have an idea.”

“Oh?” Rumau turned around, and waved a “Yes!” at a hannu who was asking (via gesture) whether to keep adding fuel to the kiln. “What is it?”

“The hannu and I have watched you carefully. The hannu remember everything they see. Everything, no matter what details. They can build a kiln and—”

“Oh, no, oh no! There’s a lot more to it than just what you see watching!”

“Time, Rumau! We have so little time! Let me take some of them ahead. You said yourself we don’t have enough armor, and some will break. Let us go ahead and build a kiln. You fire here and meet us there. If can fix what you find when you get there. They can find clay and have it ready.”

“I’m going to need everyone, Mignette. This stuff—” was that another pop?
“Who’s going to carry all this stuff!”

“I wasn’t going to take everyone.”

“Mignette... I’m not even sure if this is going to work. Why should you run ahead and build another kiln if I open this one and nothing worked?”

“I believe it will work.”

Rumau looked down. She had no idea whether Mignette was sincere or not.

“If it turns out we don’t need it, then it will just have been an exercise,” Mignette went on earnestly. “But what if it works, Rumau, and we do need it? What then! Think about it!”

Rumau sighed. “If it does work, Mignette, it needs to be done right! That’s what makes it work!”

Mignette put her hands on her hips. “Well, I’m off, then, and I’m taking Emma and half of the hannu with me. Kaukiy will lead you to us when you’re ready.”
Rumau hung her head and swished her tail. “Fine. Whatever you want. We’ll see you when we’re done here, then.”

Mignette patted Rumau’s arm. “I’ll see you then! Good luck!”

“Fair going to you,” Rumau said. “And leave Perennet here!”

Mignette waved without turning around, and began rounding up hannu.

... b ...

The fire roared on, so hot that the stones of which the kiln was made began to show signs of melting. Rumau could tell by the color of interior how hot it had become. She was only guessing the necessary temperature for these wares, not having had the time to do a proper series of tests for this clay. But Rumau had been at this for a very long time, and was reasonably assured her guess would be correct.

The hotter the kiln became, the more carefully Rumau coddled it. More and more frequently, she pulled a plug, a very long piece of hard quartz that one of the hannu had found at the last Rose, out of its hole and peered into the kiln. Cherry red, then scarlet, then a pale orange, and finally, when it reached a very pale yellow, Rumau decided that the firing was done. Calling together all the remaining hannu, and Yre, who had stayed behind as well, she covered the top hole of the kiln with large slabs of sandstone, and poured more sand on the top of that to deprive the fire of air. She hadn’t really wanted to do it this way, as this method ensured that there would still be some heating even after she’d wished it to stop. Heating like this often darkened the clay; but in her experience, often made the clay somewhat stronger. On the other hand, sometimes it had far less desirable effects on clay depending on the type. No point wondering about it now would just have to wait and see what developed.

After about an hour, Rumau pulled the plug from the spy hole again, and was very pleased to see that the color within the kiln had cooled to a dull brick red. Normally, she would now go away for at least a day, and spend an inordinate amount of time making sure her students did the same. Patience did not become a virtue to them until, in their enthusiasm, they opened a kiln too early, and something in which they had invested a great deal of time and effort immediately cracked and fell to pieces. Now, Rumau found herself in a position of knowing that not only would she have to open the kiln before she would rather have done so, but that she would have to let rapidly as well. Rapidly cooling the kiln him was something about which she had railed so very often in her lifetime that she felt miserable about having to actually do it herself now – especially since, to tell the truth, she could no longer remember the best way to do it.

She resigned herself to getting some sleep that night, explaining to herself that after a good night’s sleep, it would all come back to her.

Problem was, the next morning, nothing had come back to her except a very eager group of hannu, who somehow seem to expect that the killing was going to be open today. Perennet in the lead, they descended upon her the minute she had woken up, and tried to drag her off to the kiln.

Blearily, she pulled out the plug from the spy hole, peered in, saw that all was black, and noted carefully how much heat came out from the hole. It was still quite hot in there. She insisted on breakfast first, but afterwards, she gathered a bunch of long grass and twigs, out of which she made a broom, and began sweeping off all the sand she had used to stop the firing. As soon as she did so, she could really feel heat rapidly leaving the kiln through cracks in the stones which made up its walls.

She got the feeling though that she had not actually fired this kiln very high.
It should have been quite a bit hotter than it was. Perhaps the color she had seen was just the result of the kiln heating unevenly, which could hardly be helped considering how quickly it had been made. “Honestly,” she said to Perennet, “if anything from this film turns out correctly, I, for one, will be very amazed.”

As she waited for the kiln to cool, Rumau gave more thought to the armor that was (hopefully) cooling, uncracked in the kiln. One thing of which she was sure. It was going to be uncomfortable. She had tried to make it form-fitting, but still, it was unglazed clay. Hannu had short coats like horses. Had they had thick coats like Mignette’s, Rumau would not have been concerned.

It was really too bad that Mignette had taken Emma with her. Emma probably didn’t really know how to make the blankets she had brought with her, but she had probably seen it done often enough to have enough of an idea to give Rumau an idea where to start. Ideally, Rumau thought what she really would like to use was leather. But again, it was a matter of time. There just wasn’t time to prepare leather, much less make anything out of it.

Though she did have some leather blankets with her.

And, after all, it was getting warmer.

And if it didn’t get warmer, she could always cuddle up against Yre...

With some trepidation, Rumau pulled out her least favorite blanket, and began to cut it into vests for the hannu.

By that evening, the heat coming from the interior of the kiln was notably less than it had been in the morning, so, very carefully Rumau began to remove some of the outer slabs which made up the kiln walls. The hannu were definitely no lovers of heat; thankfully, they stayed well out of the way of the hot stones which she occasionally threw down.

No point trying to do anything else tonight, Rumau thought. She pried off one, then another, last slab from the kiln, reckoning to let it cool naturally overnight and open it in the morning.

A small voice in her mind rebelled. She snarled at it, and it went off somewhere into its own corner to sulk.

Rumau went out to check on the horses. The hannu were already able to approach the western mares, so long as they didn’t try to touch them. Rumau was impressed. They might indeed make horsemen someday.

Gadrin was lying on the ground resting. Her stomach, and the foal inside, were beginning to become a burden. Rumau sat down beside her. “For your sake, and for the love of you, my prize, I really should leave you behind.”

Gadrin turned her great head and placed her nose on Rumau’s stomach, nickering softly. Somehow, Rumau could almost hear her say, “Where you go, my friend, I go. My foals are strong and swift.”

Rumau very earnestly hoped that were true.

... b ...

The two of them were laying there companionably when the stars—and Yre—came out. Yre had actually spent most of the day sleeping, or playing with Túo. Tonight he came out with his lenses and sticks, and paper.

Rumau got up and went to him once he’d settled down. It took some effort not to say, “Ahh, took my advice, did you?” But he did notice that she was glancing at the paper.

“You would like to see what I have done, yes?” Yre asked with a hint of a snicker.

“Yes, in fact,” Rumau said.

“Well, look you here then. What do you think this is?” He pointed a long, tapering finger an oval shape with a dark, horizontal line through its center, surrounded by many notes made in Heyu’s alphabet. Some of the notes had already smudged.

“Really, Yre, I couldn’t say. What is it?”

Yre looked up and pointed at a particularly bright star. “That one,” he said. “Not always. But just now and then. I get a clear glimpse of it, and, you see, it looks to me something like that. Do you know, it looks to me something different, whenever I see it, and I say to myself, ‘Does it change then? Or are my lenses...’ Well, you can see, they are not in the best shape. I don’t believe they were made this way. I think perhaps you know that they were all clear throughout when they were made. Like the glaze on your pots, all clear.”

“It took a long time to figure out how to make that all-clear glaze,” Rumau said.

“A shortage of time,” Yre reflected, “is not possible in the long run. There has always been time, and there always will be. Anyway, look you at this. Here is the Moon’s Dog.”

He pointed at an oblong he’d drawn. There were no markings on it, but some scribbles around it which seemed to indicate that it tumbled end over end.
Rumau asked him about this and he agreed that this was indeed the case.

“But this is not what is impressing me right now,” he said eagerly. Look at this. I have drawn the moon, you see?”

It was not at all a bad drawing, showing the light and dark areas where Rumau recognized them, and a few dark flecks added here and there.

“Now this to me is very curious. I have wondered about this from the egg, you know. Why is it, that, at night, when you see the moon, it is white and grey? And during the day, when you see the moon, why, it is never a color darker or less blue than the sky? You have noticed this, yes?”

Rumau tried to think back. “I probably did, yes, but I never really thought about it.”

Yre smiled broadly (or as broadly as he could). “I think I know why this is!”

“Oh yes?”

“Yes! Do you know what I think? It is that the sky is in front of the Moon!”
Rumau considered this and realized that she could not have cared less about the sky or the moon. But it was good to hear Yre speak so eagerly.

“I have always wanted to touch the sky. I have always wanted to know what it’s made of, and what it feels like, and why it’s there. Has it ever occurred to you to say to yourself, ‘what is that doing there’?”

Rumau did not admit that such a question had never occurred to her, not even fleetingly. But she did know what it was made of. “ The sky is made of smoke, I know that much.”

“You do? How did you learn this?”

“Well, it’s obvious, isn’t it? Whenever you burn anything, you get a lot of smoke. You can see it, and then it dissipates, and it just... well, I’m not exactly sure about this part, but it... it dissipates, and it goes up and becomes the sky.”

Yre Looked quite dubious. “So how does it become blue?”

“I regret, Yre, that I just don’t know. But when we get home, I’m sure you’ll be able to find all sorts of people who’ll be able to answer that question for you. In much, much more detail than you could ever want.”

“That will be impossible,” Yre laughed. “You have taught me well to want to know everything!”

Rumau leaned down and snuggled next to her friend. “You don’t mind me resting here, do you?”

Yre made a noise that Rumau had never heard him make before. It didn’t sound threatening, so Rumau made herself comfortable.

Yre got on with his map of the stars, purring in his way.

... b ...

The next morning, Rumau was once again awoken by the hannu. Rumau wasn’t sure they had any idea that what was in the kiln was for them, but they had seen her pay so much attention to it that they seemed to realize how important it was, and were eager to keep up with what was going on. Even Yre and Aurrigne were up early to await the opening.

All the outer sandstone slabs were cool to the touch, more or less. Clambering around the kiln, Rumau simply picked these up and toss them away. The next layer gave a little more difficulty, as it seems that in places some of the sandstone slabs had fired together. these needed to be cracked or pried apart, and Rumau did this carefully to prevent anything from falling into the kiln and breaking anything that, by some miracle or other, had not itself exploded.

As more and more slabs were removed, Rumau was able to get a peek here and there at the armor plates in the A few had, indeed, exploded. That was pretty much unavoidable. But remarkably, most were intact.

The clay had fired a grayish pink color that Rumau really didn’t like. nevertheless, once she had finished deconstructing and unloading the kiln, she had full sets of armor for four hannu and partial armor for at least another eight.

“Perennet!” Rumau called, “Come here! Aurrigne, please bring some of that string you made.”

When Perennet appeared from the crowd (Rumau could only recognize her by a purple stain that Rumau herself had “accidentally” gotten on the on the hannu’s hand), Rumau went to work carefully putting first the leather vest on, and then carefully tying the plates together until Perennet was wearing a full set including helmet.

The other hannu stared in amazement! They didn’t speak, and Rumau was beginning to believe that ultimately, hannu couldn’t speak. But they made noises redolent of wonder, and jealousy.

“This will stop an arrow, you think?” Aurrigne said as he examined Perennet carefully.

“I certainly hope so,” rebel set if nothing else, it will stop the first and maybe the second. We’ll just have to hope that that will be enough. In any case the way I made this, should a narrow break one of the plates, there is another plate under it and anyway the broken plate can be easily replaced.”

“I will be very interested to see if it works as you say,” Aurrigne seemed to mumble.

“I think we should test it,” Yre said.

“Absolutely not!” Rumau said. “There isn’t enough of it, and besides, nobody’s shooting at any of us!”

“Just test it on a broken piece,” Yre said, taken aback.

“No,” Rumau snarled at both shimeyu, “and I’ll tell you why. Do you really want the hannu to imitate us, as they always do, and start shooting at these plates, while other hannu are wearing them?”

Almost on cue, other hannu brought plates to Rumau and clearly, though wordlessly, asked for them to be fitted to themselves.

Perennet mounted one of the foals, and all had to admit she looked quite stunning there, in her armor. The other hannu clamored even more loudly.

“All right, all right! I’ll get you all dressed up and then we’ll be off to the next Rose!” Rumau gathered up more vests and started outfitting Túo. “Say,” she said, suddenly stopping and looking up. “Cookie was supposed to come back and show us where the next Rose is. Anybody seen her?”

“Not since Mignette left, no,” Yre said.

Aurrigne shook his head.

Rumau decided not to think about how disturbing this news was.

(c) 2008 Fara Shimbo
To Be Continued....

Oops: TGR Chapter 50

2008-11-15T14:06:51Z

I need to pay more attention.

Chapter 50.
Stars

By nightfall everyone was glad to stop. They had passed the road to Bara and were now on the road to Sho. Mignette assured everyone that there was a wonderful Rose just another day’s travel to the north. The rose grew, she said, beside a lake, which Yre seemed to think was the Tavu Lake, Tavu being a very large chiyaha city. When asked if he had ever visited it, Yre only shrugged.
The moment they had stopped, Yre dislodged all his lenses from his rump feathers and began to set up to study the stars.

He didn’t get very far. With the setting of the sun the hannu became active and swarmed over everyone in the group. Yre found himself being climbed on by at least six of them. They helped themselves to his lenses and setting-sticks, and one of them grabbed Tsf by the tail and got swatted.

After only a very few minutes, Yre gave up trying to do anything astronomical and set to watching the hannu at play. They tussled and fought like young chiyaha, even though they could not yet do more than crawl. But the fact that they could crawl, and so young...

Yre sat down and let the hannu satisfy their curiosity about him, and yank on his feathers and stare right into his eyes. And then he heard it.

Or, he thought he did. A yell, perhaps? Or a cry? A shimeyu sound. They were on the road and therefore guaranteed passage but “speaking” shimeyu were not the only kind out there.

Yre stood up and looked around. The horses had heard it too; Owán stood in front of his mares, ears back, nose held high, sniffing. Yre walked up to where Rumau, Mignette and Emma were working on a fire. “There is something out there,” he said, very quietly.

“What is out there?” Mignette said, motioning to Cookie.

“No! Don’t!” Yre held his head high and sniffed, and listened. “Runners! We have to get off the road!”

“Off the—”

“We don’t want them to know where we are!” Yre began rounding up the hannu, putting some of them on his back and some of them in carts. “We especially don’t want them to know we have the hannu! They’ll tell everyone they see and word will get back to Dar! Get off the road! Now!”

Rumau, Emma and Mignette jumped up. Aurrigne, still in much pain from his injured leg, looked up with some excitement; but was soon almost cowering under the glare of Mignette’s gaze.

Mignette made a trilling noise and all the hannu seemed to snap to attention. She pointed at the carts and hissed, and the hannu began crawling toward them. Everyone either grabbed hannu in their arms, piled them on horseback or tossed them into the carts. They ran to the west as quickly as they could go.

They finally slowed again when they reached a small stream, which Yre seemed to think was far enough away from the road so that passing runners, returning to their own towns, could not pick up their scent.

But an interesting thing happened when they did: those hannu who had been placed on horseback would not come down.

By the light of the stars, the adults could see on the hannu faces looks of the most astonished bliss.

Owán shook mightily, and most of his hannu fell off. But they played and slept under his legs that night, and when he lay down to sleep himself, many more cuddled up against him.

... b ...

Very early the next morning, Mignette and Cookie went out in search of a new route to the next Rose.

The hannu, very much to Rumau’s surprise, had ingratiated themselves with not only Gadrin and Owán, but with the western foals. The mares were more suspicious of them, but none of the mares moved to keep the hannu from their offspring.

As the sun rose higher, the hannu fell asleep one by one, and Rumau and Emma were able to place them in their carts, reassemble the train, harness Gadrin and Owán, and gather a little bit to eat.

Rumau watched the little things sleeping.

They were no longer quite so little. And no long silent, when they were awake.
When Mignette and Cookie returned, they all began northward. They couldn’t go at more than a brisk trot, since Emma had taken her role as cart horse very seriously and would not allow Yre, who could keep up with the horses at a gallop (if only for a short way) to take her place. But the road was smooth, for the most part, and only a few wheels fell off and had to be replaced (and one unravelled so badly that one cart had to be abandoned). By late afternoon they saw, in the distance, a sparkling lake, and an enormous Rose.

Rumau and Yre, and all the horses, stopped where they were. The Rose was almost the size of a city, having its roots deep in the lake, no doubt. It was in full bloom and surrounded by clouds of wasps and birds.

Mignette looked about to scold; but after a moment’s thought she shook her head and changed her mind. She unhitched the trains from Owán, Gadrin and Emma, and tied them all together into one very long one. Then she patted Rumau on the arm and said, “We will make it safe,” shot a stinging glance at Aurrigne, and carefully pulled the whole long train behind her toward the Rose, minus the two carts which held Rumau’s possessions.

... b ...

They had stopped so far from the Rose that it was about half an hour before Mignette and her children disappeared inside it.

Rumau made a fire, and the others gathered around. Emma stretched blankets into a tent.

Yre pulled out his lenses and set them up, delighted that the hannu were not around. He then lay on the ground, peering through the lenses, every now and then giving them an adjustment with just the lightest flick of his finger.

“You should look, Rumau! And you also, Emma and Aurrigne, you should look. What there is to see is just amazing. Look at this star! See how red it is! I never knew stars were red, but look at this!”

Rumau lay on the ground beside him. “That must be a very close star, then,” she said.

“Must it be?”

“Well, it’s what you said about fire, remember? The red drops out first, then the yellow...”

“Stars are not all ... just ... there?” came Aurrigne’s voice.

Yre explained again his ideas about stars being fire, and fires looking more yellow and then more white the further one went from them.

“Then they cannot be very far away,” Aurrigne said.

“Why do you say that?” Yre said, almost distractedly.

Aurrigne didn’t take it that way. He lowered his head and looked away.

Rumau gave him a hearty pat that made him jump. “Aurrigne, all members of the White Rock Dike are not only encouraged, but required, to give their opinions whenever they have them.” She thought for a moment and added, “to any other White Rock Dike member who wants to hear them at the time and is awake.”

Aurrigne ruffled his feathers. “If they were very far away you wouldn’t be able to see them at all.”

“Good point,” Rumau said. She leaned over and tried to look through Yre’s lenses.

Whatever it was he was seeing, Rumau could see only very fleetingly, and only when she leaned just... so. Shimeyu eyes, though, were much keener than madhai eyes. “Yre, why don’t you draw what you see through those lenses? I can’t see it.”

Yre snorted. “I can’t draw.”

“When was the last time you tried?”

Yre hissed and moved his lenses.

Rumau lay down beside him with her head on his back.

(c) 2008 Fara Shimbo
To Be Continued...

NaNoWriMo, sort of. Chapter 55...

2008-11-15T02:32:55Z

is behind

Chapter 55.
Pinch Pots

Rumau had thought she would spend all her time exploring the inner pond of the Rose; Emma had found it and pronounced it quite excellent. But early the next morning, she went outside the Rose, Perennet at her side, and there along the bank of the river was clay.

Rumau had not touched clay for far too long. She sat down on a stone and gathered up some of the yellowish-grey clay in her hands, and ran it through her fingers. It was a very fine fire-clay, with a beautiful grain and an excellent feel.

Perennet watched as Rumau began to gather drier clay from here and there, and she carefully copied everything Rumau did with it. After a while, when she had a huge pile, Rumau noticed this. She sat down again and said, “Perennet dear, would you like to learn to use clay?”

The hannu beamed at chirped, and then nodded.

Funny, Rumau thought. She had never yet heard a hannu speak. She was sure that ability would come in time, and they certainly made speech-like sounds from time to time, and readily imitated words, but...

“This is clay, Perennet. Say, ‘clay.’”

Perennet listened carefully.

“Say, ‘clay.’” Rumau touched Perennet’s chin and lips. “’Clllaaaay.”

Perennet said, “khhe...iiih.”

“Very good!” Rumau said. But she didn’t think it was, in fact, all that great. “Now, watch me carefully.”

Rumau cleared off a nearby flat stone, brushing off dust and debris with a handful of grass. Then she took a fist sized lump of clay and began to kneed it on the stone into a pliable form. Perennet watched intently, and soon began to copy what she saw.

“Excellent!” Rumau shouted. “This is called ‘wedging,’ you see. The more you wedge clay, the more plastic the clay becomes.”

“Kriii’...” Perennet tried to say.

“Good, good!” Rumau said, trying to sound as encouraging as possible. “Now. Watch me very carefully, yes?”

Other hannu, who had been practicing riding and archery some distance away, stopped what they were doing to watch. Some wandered a bit closer.

With Perennet’s big eyes rivetted on her hands, Rumau rolled the clay into a ball. She then made a large dent in the middle, and slowly formed the rough lump into a small cup.

Perennet watched enraptured. She made cooing sounds and soon picked up her own lump of clay and began to try and make a cup of her own. Her hands were small, but her fingers nimble and very quick. Rumau stood behind her and showed her how to refine her technique somewhat, and soon, Perennet, too, had a rather decent little cup.

“You did it!” Rumau said, thrilled! “Excellent! Well done, Perennet, you’ve made a pinch-pot! When it’s dry and fired, you can keep things in it, or use it for drinking! Watch!” Rumau scooped up some water from the river in her own cup (which had already hardened somewhat), and took a drink.

With great glee, Perennet did the same—again and again until her cup began to dissolve.

“Too much water!” Rumau said, laughing. “The clay is too wet. You need to let it dry some. Come on, come make another one. Pinch Pot. Come on.”

By now, many of the other hannu had come close to watch. “Clay,” Rumau said brightly to all of them. She punched small lumps off her own pile, and rolled them toward the hannu. “We’re making pinch pots!” She sat down and began to make another one.

Perennet eagerly made another pot, but decided she didn’t like it and smashed it on the rock.

“That’s okay. You can try again,” Rumau said.

But one of the other hannu, who had been standing behind Perennet, took the arrow she was holding, and stabbed Perennet’s pancake of clay with it, making a noise that was surely a derisive laugh.

Rumau shot up. “BAD HANNU!” she roared. “Don’t you dare do that again!”
The hannu in question glared at her and Rumau glared back. The other hannu stood around their compatriot and glowered as well.

Rumau sighed, and yelled, “Mignette! Come and talk to your daughters!”

From beside the Rose, Mignette came stalking, calling, “Hannu YEH!” as she walked. All the hannu, Perennet included, suddenly looked like cornered rats. “Go and practice! All of you! You too!” the latter aimed at Perennet, who turned momentarily to look at Rumau, who (somewhat ruefully) nodded, and went off the practice her archery with the others.

“What was going on here?” Mignette said, as she looked down at the masses of clay, one pierced with an arrow.

“Oh, I was trying to teach Perennet how to make a pinch pot and—”

“Rumau!” Mignette said with exasperation, “Please! Don’t waste their time with that kind of thing, they need to learn!”

“They need to learn more than just archery and riding, Mignette!”

“No they... Rumau, remember, they were bred for a reason. You are getting attached. You will rue it. Trust me.”

Rumau leaned down to be on eye level with the beruliy. “I don’t care if they were bred to be rugs, Mignette, everybody, but everybody, needs to learn as many things as they can!” She stood up and pointed to the remaining pinch pot. “All learning is worthwhile! And look what the others did, it was just jealousy, it was just plain, ornery...”

Rumau stopped.

Her jaw dropped.

“Forget it,” Mignette said, turning to leave.

“Mignette...” Rumau said, with a growl that not only made Mignette stop, but Yre, Aurrigne, Emma and even some of the horses take notice.

“What?”

“This was absolutely, positively, NOT worthless!” She was staring at the clay patty with the arrow in it.

Mignette looked up at Rumau almost pityingly.

Rumau picked up the arrow, and flashed it in front of Mignette. “When you go to fight someone who is shooting arrows at you, how do you protect yourself?”
Mignette went to speak, and then looked a bit startled. “We stay behind Rose boughs. Or we stay behind the hannu.”

“Ah!” Rumau snapped. “So the hannu are shields then. You breed to them take arrows for you. And the other side, the people you’re fighting, they have hannu too. What are the hannu for, then? Just to waste arrows on? What if you and your hannu were wearing something that arrows could not penetrate?”
Mignette just stared.

Rumau marched to the Rose, and brought out of her sack of possessions a small, already fired plate. She set it on the rock, took the arrow, took a bow from a hannu, and shot the arrow at the plate at point-blank range.

The plate cracked.

But the arrow bounced off.

And suddenly, Mignette understood. The look in her eyes said it. She gasped and held her breath.

Rumau stood up and called to the others. “We’re not staying three days. We’re staying a whole week! Some of us are preparing clay, and some of us are gathering eggs to help build a kiln! Starting right this minute! The hannu will help, they learn quickly and I told you that all learning is worthwhile!” With a smile of delight, Rumau began to marshall hannu and give instructions. Mign-ette backed them up with constant barks.

Emma began to clear work spaces.

Yre turned to Aurrigne and grinned.

... b ...

Rumau was in her element now, as she hadn’t been in months. She divided her companions up into several teams. Emma led a group of hannu who gathered clay and removed debris from it. Normally, the clay would have required slaking and other extra preparations, but there simply wasn’t time.

Mignette and a second group brought Rumau stones of a kind she (Rumau) thought good to make a kiln from, there being neither time, nor a ready of eggs, for making firebrick. Yre gathered wood for fuel, and seemed to relish being able to run around freely again.

Aurrigne was still unable to carry very much, so to him was assigned the task of going about the Rose, and all the plants nearby, finding any type of vine or runner that could be braided into straps with which to attach the armor plates. It took Aurrigne rather a long time to get to the point where he could braid easily, but once he got into his rhythm, he became very good at it.

Rumau questioned Mignette at length regarding how big the hannu were going to get, and how fast, using this information to determine the lengths of braid that they would need.

... b ...

By the next day, Rumau was able to start actually forming the clay into plates. Perennet happily stood and allowed Rumau to use her as a model against which to mold chest plates of various kinds, arm plates and greaves.

The hannu learned quickly, just by watching. When the clay began to run out, many of them went off on their own to gather more. The kind they gathered wasn’t always exactly the right kind, but it was always clay of some sort, and not simply river mud. Soon they were fashioning their own armor. Two or three of them even tried to fashion armor for Mignette.

Rumau, as soon as she was able to get a moment to concentrate alone, also made armor for herself. To be perfectly honest, she thought, she had no idea how long such armor would last. Clay was, after all, notoriously brittle. It might take one hit, or several, but it would not last very long. If only she could make it from something else... but she had nothing else, and even if she did, clay was what she knew – and she knew it well.

By the end of the second day, Rumau had a full set of armor for herself. She also had made, though she had not dared try to fit (given his scorching refusal) a set of armor for Yre. She had fit it instead on Aurrigne, who was willing, due to his lack of feathering, to be a model. She hadn’t told him that this armor was in fact for Yre; not because she thought Aurrigne would object, but because she felt she knew Yre would not wear it if Aurrigne had worn it first. Shimeyu were very like children. She would make armor for Aurrigne too. Eventually.

Another problem arose. Rumau had insisted that she alone actually make the plates, and was fairly certain that in doing so she had eliminated any bubbles in the clay in which steam might form during firing. But she worried, as she had, of necessity, to dry and fire everything so quickly. Wet clay, especially in so quickly built up a kiln, was pretty much a recipe for explosions. It was simply a risk she was going to have to take. If this worked, even as a concept, then she would have something truly worth bringing back home.

All the plates were sent out in the sun to dry, and three of the hannu work given the job of constantly turning them over so that one side did not dry more quickly than the other, which would warp them. They did this eagerly and fastidiously, especially after Mignette gave them the nod (literally) after Rumau had told them what to do.

Rumau’d intended to stay up the entire night that night, doing the same. But by now she was just exhausted from all her mental effort. Yre volunteered to stay up and do it for her, since in truth he needed very little sleep.

And he did so.

Until all of them were asleep, when he pulled out his lenses and sticks and settle down to study the stars.

(c) 2008 Fara Shimbo
To Be Continued...

fara_shimbo @ 2008-11-07T07:44:00

2008-11-07T14:54:51Z

More Chapters of TGR...

Chapter 51.
New Rose

Rumau was awakened the next day by a wasp buzzing around her head. At first she panicked—the last thing she needed was to be stung—but then she wondered, what is a wasp doing this far from a Rose?

A Rose!

Rumau got up, ran over to where Gadrin was grazing, climbed onto the mare’s back and stood up.

The Great Rose, spread magnificently out over the lake, which yesterday had been covered with blooms, was today almost bare of them. She could no longer see the cloud of wasps and birds that usually hovered over a rose.

Rumau let herself fall down into a sitting position on Gadrin’s back, and turned the horse back to the camp. “Wake up! Take a look! I think we can go to the Rose today!”

Emma awoke with a start and a broad grin. She looked out toward the rose and let out a yelp of glee. Yre just stretched. Aurrigne looked, as usual, a little lost.

Rumau began gathering up her belongings and loading them onto one of the carts. She hitched the cart to Gadrin, and walked off toward the Rose.

She was not ready for the sight that greeted her once she got there.

Climbing all over the Rose, clutching at all the remaining flowers, were the hannu; their tails, legs and arms now long and their fingers fast and agile.
When Rumau called, “Mignette!” one of the hannu let go of its branch and came toddling toward her, whistling happily and flailing her arms in welcome.

“Oh, dear little Perennet, how good to see you!” Rumau scooped the little one up and held her high over her head. Perennet whistled and shrieked in delight.
Amazing how much they’d grown, Rumau thought. Amazing how one could come to so love something so very alien in so short a time...

And over by the Rose, Mignette was looking on. She allowed the happy reunion for some short time, but soon called, “Hannu-thein!” in a commanding voice.

And when Rumau let go, and Perennet, and many others, clustered around their mother, Mignette smiled very happily, and nodded to Rumau. She then dismissed the hannu, and Perennet and her sisters ran off to play elsewhere.

... b ...

The new Rose was a warm and inviting as could be wanted. Even though it was a much larger plant than the one in which they had lived before, somehow, this Rose seemed to be a much more intimate space. The roof of the bower was lower than the roof of the previous rose had been, making the space seem cozier even through, on the ground, there was just as much if not more. And once again, there were no flowers. This time, the hannu had eaten them all. They had evidently done so in rather a hurry, as all around the Rose, everything showed signs of having been torn up quickly.

The hannu had grown so much, Rumau noticed. They were walking quite well, and many were running. They were climbing all over the Rose, heedless of branch and thorn, eating, and eating, and eating. Every now and than, Mignette directed them to another part of the tree with a bark, and they all moved to that part, immediately, eagerly and en masse.

The first thing remount wanted to do was run to the middle of the Rose, or at least crawl to it which looked more likely, and see if there were any more aquatic animals living in the center. The only thing Yre had in mind was a long nap. Aurrigne didn’t even stay awake long enough to decide he wanted a nap, but just flopped down on the first wide patch of grass he could find.

Emma acted as if she had not made any kind of journey; she actually took off toward the center of the Rose. Unfortunately for her, and everyone else, Rumau thought, Mignette immediately grabbed Emma’s arm, and waved to the others to gather around her. She even woke Aurrigne up, and glowered at him until he appeared to be paying attention. She chirped a bit, and within moments the entire hannu entourage was circled around her, listening carefully and watching closely.

Mignette spoke, with occasional translations from Yre:

“While you all were coming to us, I and Kaukiy flew ahead to find our next staging point. We know from finding Aurrigne that Dar and his people have taken the shore route. As I expected, this has put them several leagues ahead of us even considering the delay at the delta. They also have sent runners ahead to set up a relay of runners in the next town, and the next. We can not afford to dawdle any more.”

“Dawdle?!” Rumau snapped. “After all that work to make the carts? That was hardly dawdling, considering the work we did, and we were forced to go slow or—“

“Please, Rumau, allow me to finish. Yes, I know we went slowly. I know it was because we had to. We cannot anymore. Dar and his people are riding, and runners are almost as fast as horses; probably faster, when not carrying someone. At this rate they will get to my country a week before we do. Unless we hurry, or delay them, or both.”

Mignette looked over all her spectators. She looked longest at Aurrigne, who looked back at her through eyes he was holding open only with the greatest effort.

“I was under the impression,” Rumau said, “that if they continue on their present path, they’ll just run into your own archers, who will outnumber them, yes? By a great deal. Fine. Let them go on ahead and your people will take care of them for us.”

Now Mignette stiffened in a way that none of them had ever seen her do before. “You don’t understand,” she said darkly. “My people are archers, yes. My people know the shimeyu, yes. But my people know that the shimeyu are not archers. Or were not archers, until my family was taken.”

“And they will think it your fault that ...”

Mignette nodded. “I must make them understand.”

Rumau cocked her head. “Make your people understand that you didn’t teach them willingly, yes, but—“

“But I did teach them willingly,” Mignette said.

Rumau and Yre stared at her, and then at each other. When they turned to Aurrigne, he nodded, and then lowered his head.

“Mignette,” Rumau said carefully, “why?”

Mignette considered, then sat down. “I wanted them eventually to get me back to my people. I needed a tribe. There was no one else, not then.”

“I thought you lived at the edge of the forest,” Aurrigne said, seeming to be slowly waking.

“A scouting party lived in the Rose you destroyed,” Mignette said in a resigned voice. She sat up and her demeanor slowly hardened. “My clan lives further inland. By a good deal. Before we can reach them we must pass the Monottnets, and the Ukammerrs, and skirt the territory of the Frugrims and two or three other clans. We were allied with the Frugrims for a while when I was young. That may have changed. We’ll see.”

Emma sat up. “ what you’re telling us,” is that you will not be welcome by any of those clans in the first place. But if they think that you have made for yourself a then there will surely be far greater trouble.”

Mignette nodded.

“You didn’t know you would have us at your side, so you took who was available in order to get you safely home. I understand that.”

“I don’t,” Aurrigne said. “You made it so hard for us to learn! You made it so hard for us to get the information from you!”

“Yes, I did. And you learned much better, and much more quickly, by having to pay such a price for the information they knew what have had I given it freely. You are much better archers now because of the price you have to pay to learn the skill.

“If I am there when all the foreign archers arrive, it will be easier for the other clans to understand, if nothing else, that I am only trying to make my way home with whatever means are at my disposal. That I am not traveling with all of you to make war on them, but only to get back to my own people. They will give us less trouble that way. But they will still give us trouble. And there are other considerations, which I don’t feel I have the time to explain right now. Let me finish, and on the way I will explain more if you wish.”

The others all sat back ready to listen, and doodle and fishwife leaned a little closer to each other.

“The best policy, I think, is as follows. Kaukiy and I will fly at head to the next Rose, taking with us as many hannu as Kaukiy can carry. As soon as she is able, she will come back for more, it is the fastest way. But in the meantime, everyone must ride. Those who can ride Gadrin and Owán must do so. The rest can ride the Western mares. The hannu are light enough to ride the foals as well. You must follow us as quickly as you can. This way cookie will not have so far to go each time.”

“Yet, there’s something you’re not considering here,” doodle said. “The western mares are not trained horses. You can’t just get on them and ride. You have to train them first; they don’t understand. Gadrin and Owán are a special kind of horse, they are very smart and they understand a great deal. The new mayors don’t understand any of this. Whatever horses don’t understand, they decide is terribly frightening. And trying to write a frightened horse is just plain dangerous.”

“The Western mares are different,” Mignette said. “But we are different, too.”
Mignette stood up and began to walk away. “Gather as much food as you can. We can only stay here one night.” In a flash, she was lost amongst the branches.
Rumau looked questioningly at Yre. Yre just shook his head. They both turned to glower at Aurrigne. “What do you know,” Yre asked, “about these clans she speaks of?”

Aurrigne fluffed the few feathers he had. “That they fight, mostly. That there are many, many beruliy and that they are very defensive of their boundaries.” He thought for a long time. “I once got an idea, you see,” he said almost timidly.

“Aurrigne, Novice of the White Rock Dike Society, please tell us your idea.”

Aurrigne seemed to brighten. “I once got the idea, from listening to Mignette talk... she used to, every once in a great while, start talking at an alarming rate, out of sheer boredom, I think... Anyway, I’ve got this idea, you see, that the reason there are so many battles among these people is that there is such a small space available for each group to live, but there are so very many of them. Sometimes, it occurred to me, sometimes I think perhaps they go to their battles because there are too many of them for their land to support, and this is how they cope. This way, they get to have as much fun breeding and rearing as they want – Mignette says they do rather enjoy doing this – and when they become too many, they can get rid of the excess by claiming heroic deeds and epic struggles and so forth.”

Emma leaned forward. “That can’t be true,” she said. “For if that were true, there would be no need to make all these hannu, would there? For certainly, there would be enough of them already.”

Aurrigne seemed to shrug. “When I had this idea,” he said, “I had absolutely no idea that such things as hannu even existed. I am in awe of this, absolutely. How is even possible I cannot imagine. I have heard of such a thing as magic, but of course it is outside my purview.”

“There’s no such thing as magic,” Rumau said. "There is nothing without explanation. The explanation is there, and will find it, someday. There’s nothing wrong in not knowing it now. But there is something wrong in not acknowledging that it exists now.” She stood up and brushed herself off. “I want to see the center of this Rose. Then, I guess, we had all better do as we’ve been told.”

Chapter 52.
Khizhir Ahoy!

“It’s not very big,” the Master-of-Five said disparagingly.

“It is what it is,” Khizhir said in a huff.

What it was, in fact, was a bizarre, hybrid thing. One half of it was the spine and rib cage of the dead whale. On the long end of the spine, where there were no ribs, a set of false ribs made of wood had been fashioned an attached to the spine. The whole thing was held together by the dead whale’s skin, which had been sown onto the ribs mostly by Khizhir herself, and later by the Toolists, using sinew which the shimeyu would not eat. Khizhir had begged the shimeyu not to eat the brain. She seemed to remember that Rumau had once mentioned that one could preserve skins by rubbing brains on them. But the Shimeyu were getting hungrier by the moment. They had smashed the skull with stones and gulped down the brains before anyone could even think of reasoning with them. At that point, Khizhir knew that no matter what she did, she had to get the shimeyu away from her grandchildren. They showed no intention of trying to catch another whale. They were lousy fishers. What was left?

The Master-of-Five shrieked for attention, and the entire community, such as it was, snapped to.

“It is very small,” she said. “All of us will not fit. Therefore, I have come to a decision.”

The shimeyu all looked at each other eagerly. The chiyaha looked at everyone with trepidation.

“I am going in this boat. Quite frankly, it stinks.”

This was literally true enough.

“I do not have much sense of smell left, so I will get used to it very quickly. I am going in this boat. And with me I am taking one chiyaha, my biographer; two of my clan, Odote and Fnneh, and one Toolist, Hiyyi, to row and to help Khizhir maintain the boat.”

No one in the crowd said anything, and Khizhir did not like it at all.

“I charge the rest of you to arrange in what ever way pleases you, a boat of your own. Those who wish to follow us may do so. We sell in the direction of the moon’s dog as he rises in the morning. Those of you who wish to sail home may do so, but remember that you will be expected to explain your presence, and my absence, when you get back. You should consider very carefully whether you actually want to do this.

“Those I have called, help me into this boat. We leave now.”

Khizhir stood up and said, “we leave now, but we have just finished the boat. Let us... let us now rest, and appreciate the work!”

“Nonsense,” theme Master-of-Five said. “I know what you want. You just want to stay here and raise your grandchildren. That’s totally unnecessary. You are my biographer, and you are coming with me.” By this time, other shimeyu were lifting the old hen over the side of the boat. She settled down in the very center, on a pile of woven mats which Khizhir had taught some of the others to make. Odote and Fnneh got in next, one sitting in front and one sitting behind the master. Hiyyi got in next, and made herself comfortable at the bow, against a pile of wooden ribs which she had made particularly strong.

Khizhir Looked back at her family. The young ones seemed to take no notice of anything. But the adults were terrified. They knew, as did Khizhir, that assuming the shimeyu ever did make it off the island, they themselves, by that time, would be only a memory.

Khizhir shrugged. That was the way it was with predators. Nothing you could do. Stay here, and she would be hunted and eaten with the rest.

She got into the boat, sat at the bow, and did not look back. Not as the other shimeyu pushed the boat into the water. Not as Odote and Fnneh began to row. Not as the sun set many, many long hours later.

Chapter 53.
Relay

What command it was, exactly, that Mignette gave to the hannu, Rumau never knew. But in an instant, some had mounted the Western foals, and were riding... or something.

Two of them could ride a foal quite easily. Three of them at a time managed to scramble onto a mare. They got throws a few times, but after Rumau rode off on Gadrin, and Owán followed, the mares followed their herd leaders, and seemed to mostly ignore the hannu on their backs. Perennet made it onto Owán’s back and looked over at Rumau, very pleased indeed.

Mignette and Cookie took off with three of the hannu aboard. The hannu were, it seemed, incongruously lightweight. Nevertheless, when Rumau started the group of after them, she went at an easy canter, and not the gallop that she knew Mignette was expecting. She wasn’t going to risk the foals over... over... there was so much to think about.

Nevertheless, as on she went, she found herself riding harder and harder. One idea came more and more to the forefront of her mind.

She had to get home, and soon.

... b ...

Around mid-afternoon, Cookie and Mignette reappeared. They were not alone; another fiu, larger than Cookie by almost twice but rather more skittish, was with them. Mignette hurried two of her daughters onto Cookie, and five of them onto the other fiu, and took off again without saying a word, which annoyed Rumau rather.

It annoyed Emma even more. “Did you see that? She said not a word to us! Not a thing! And I thought we all mattered to her.” She gave a mighty snort.

“Don’t worry about it,” Rumau said. “I’m sure she’s thinking about us, she just has a lot on her mind.”

“You have to understand,” Aurrigne said, “Mignette can be very determined, and very focused. I’ve seen that about her before. Sometimes, she can put almost unimaginable concentration into a project. I’ve seen this. I don’t know whether I should respect it or be frightened by it.”

Yre turned to Aurrigne and snorted. “Why don’t you do both? It will save you the trouble of having to make a decision and pick one.”

Emma stopped. After a moment, Aurrigne did as well, as did Rumau and all the horses. Yre did not. The others looked at each other curiously for a moment, and then went on.

... b ...

Mignette and the Sky Lions made one more relay trip that day. On the way back the beruliy rode the larger of the two, and did not ask cookie to take on any more passengers. Rumau noticed that cookie didn’t seem to be flying as enthusiastically as before. The recently healed wing was probably troubling her.
There were no Roses anywhere near where they stopped for the evening. Rumau wondered what the hannu who were left, about half of the crew (and she was pleased to see that her favorite, Perennet, was still among them), were going to do overnight. She fell into a deep sleep, and only found out the next morning, from Aurrigne and Emma, that Mignette and the larger Sky Lion had come once just before dawn and taken a few more hannu away.

... b ...

By midmorning the next day, all of the hannu had been brought to a new Rose, which Rumau could just see in the distance.

Yre was they are already when, slow shortly after dusk, Rumau and the horses arrived. He curled up next to Rumau to sleep, but still, he had nothing to say.
Rumau gave him a desultory pat and looked around. “Does anybody know where we are?” she asked at length.

Aurrigne, rubbing is swollen hock, chirped. “From the lay of the land, I think we are about half way between the cities of Myo and Mermi. We are maybe... half way between, say, Tichi, where you came to us, and Perinc.”

“And how far is Perinc from the Rose Woods?”

Aurrigne chirped again. “The Rose Woods, as you call them, are on the other side of the cliff. There is a river, you see, at the bottom of a great cliff just north of Perinc. The Rose Woods are across the river. At least, that is what I am told, for I’ve never been to Perinc.”

Yre, who all thought had been sleeping, said, “You doubt the words of those who told you this?”

Aurrigne blinked. “I... no. That is to say, I mean, that... that I have heard Rumau use this form of speech and...”

Yre was about to say something but Rumau burst in with, “You thought you would do so to, as a matter of common politeness.”

“Yes, exactly,” Aurrigne said. He made a small bow to Rumau, for it was not what he had in mind at all. He had been doubting, lately, and that doubt both frightened and thrilled him.

Yre huffed and said nothing.

Rumau made herself comfortable against him.

... b ...

The next day was much the same, and the next, and the several days after that. Getting the Western Mares to cross a river, when they came to one, turned out to be little more than a break in the monotony for all the work they put into it.

Whenever they stopped, Mignette bade everyone practice their archery. The hannu were good.

Rumau asked several times whether Mignette, in her flights with Cookie, had seen any sign of Dar and his group. Mignette said only that from up that high, it was impossible to say. But there were runners aplenty.

When they finally reached a spot where there were Great Roses on either side of a river, Rumau steadfastly ordered a three day camp. The horses, she said, were losing weight and needed the rest. And she did not want Gadrin overworking and losing her foal.

Mignette, to everyone’s surprise, did not argue.

And so Rumau went about setting up a camp, with much more enthusiasm than she had done anything the last few weeks.

Chapter 54.
City of Dô

He had been sleeping.

Now he was wide awake, and hundreds of shimeyu, and many frightened, but curious, chiyaha, stood in a wide circle around him.

Another nightmare. Dar shook his dishevelled head and pounded a fist on the ground. Another nightmare, and this time he knew the cause.

Slow.

It was all because of slow.

He was slow in so many things in life, and now he had been travelling many, many, many days and only made it as far as Do. He had to get to the Madhai. Knowing what they knew would elevate him beyond recognition and his family would grow and prosper and then that incident...

... that incident so long ago...

... would be just a minor mistake in a long and glorious career.

“Get up! All of you! Get up! We leave now!”

The older shimeyu obeyed at once. One of the younger said, “But uncle, we’ve had only four hours’ rest...”

“GET UP! For the sake of our people, there is no rest! You don’t understand! The need is great! Get up, and let no one stop us! Where are our runners?”

One of the onlookers, a chieftain of the Runners Society, flashed his crest. “We do not run at night, as very well you know. I will rouse no one. Go back and let your people rest, Dar-Master. Whatever your ... intentions ... no goal is worth risking being taken by a Sky Lion in the middle of the night.”

“Nonsense, we are not near Sky Lion territory.”

“We are indeed. They are far more numerous of late, and we have heard two, one of them very large, passing by regularly. When a large one is about, it is not wise even to leave a city. So go back to sleep, and quietly this time, please.”

Dar began to shake. He had no idea why.

“GET UP!” he screamed. “All of my family, up, you laggards! Follow me! Now!” Dar ran around the camp and dragged everyone who was not already standing onto their feet. Then he ran off to the east.

The family followed him as soon as they could gather their supplies.

The city of Dô cheered their parting, but not for the reason that Dar, still just within earshot, thought.

(C) 2008 Fara Shimbo
To Be Continued.....

NaNoWriMo

2008-11-02T17:02:56Z

Hiya, all

Work's keeping me busy, but I need to get TGR2 done. Not doing NaNoWriMo officially since this isn't a new novel, but got two chapters done this morning. Trying to train a Mac dictation program (since I don't have a running Windows version and there isn't one for Linux), so it's getting a bit bogged down. Will post the new chapters if anyone's interested.

Fatal Dumbness Strikes Again...

2008-10-12T17:30:06Z

Hi all,

been working 10 hour days and not getting much of anything done. Do any of you have a copy of The Terrible Two .pdf file? I lost all the original text files of the Klysadel stories. Won't bother telling you how...

Help!!

Too funny....

2008-07-31T13:12:31Z

http://www.forward.com/articles/13868/

Klaatu Barada... gevalt...

2008-07-26T16:54:32Z

I knew I shouldn't have looked.

They're "remaking" (I use the term loosely) what I still consider the best SF movie ever made, "The Day The Earth Stood Still."

Trailer's on IMDb if you want to see it.

Feh!

-Fa

I will never laugh at that commercial again....

2008-07-15T00:54:12Z

You know the one about "I've fallen, and I can't get up?"

Last night I found myself in exactly that position.

What caused it?

Dog drool.

Wnated to make sure all the cats were in for the night (only two of them go out). Was already in pajamas, and barefoot, and was trotting down the hallway (Pergo, slippery at best of time). Didn't see the puddle of dog drool in the spot where Naomi usually sleeps.

You know how you fall when you're skiing or ice skating and you go straight down on the butt?

Back is arthritic from scoliosis as it is. Well.... now it's worse. EMTs had to scoop me off the floor with this weird surfboard kind of thing.

Three hours and seven x-rays later, they sent me home on pain meds that are making me extremely loopy. And the certain knowledge that bikes, moped and horses are forever off-limits.

As my friend Ilene says: Getting Old: It's Not For Wimps.

Enough For One Lifetime

2008-07-13T02:12:54Z

Enough air travel, that is.

I used to love to get on a plane and fly places. Always got a window seat so I could look out the window and take pictures. Didn't mind airports, knew my way around most of the big ones and a few smaller ones in the US.

Just cancelled my last gig where I'd have to fly. Enough is enough.

I was never looking forward to it in the first place. The security checks are absurd; they're trying to prevent a crime that's already happened and is vanishingly unlikely to happen that way again. Last year when I went through Hartford CT, the security line was 1.5 hours long--at 6 AM! Then once you get on the plane it's worse. It's never been good: my knees have always hit the seat in front of me. Now I'm older and (a lot) bigger and it's far worse. But I could live with that if it weren't that people shlep their screaming kids everywhere and make no effort whatsoever to shut them up... and now they're talking about allowing cell phones?!

I could go on, but....... okay, that's it, that's enough for one lifetime.

Maybe soon there'll be some decent rail service out here, like there sort-of is back East. Until then, if my electric moped doesn't go there, I don't either.

It's kind of a relief, really...

New Toy!

2008-07-13T02:04:19Z

Alas, I had to give up my little Linux laptop. The backlight was failing , it was cryingly slow, and worst of all, even the Beta version of Flash 10 for Linux doesn't work correctly. Since I need Flash for my job, it seemed time to get a new computer.

Ended up with an iMac 24. Got a huge screen, dual core, what will probably turn out to be enough memory, and not-too-shabby speakers. So this will end up being my Work Computer.

Still like Linux better, though.

You don't have to tell her. She KNOWS.

2008-06-22T23:53:27Z

I wake up to this image every morning. Good thing she's such a fabulous cat or I'd be well and truly traumatized by now.

Maybe You Had To Be There...

2008-06-17T23:13:10Z

Some of you will understand why I laughed until I hurt when I first saw this... For the rest, what can I say. Boro Park. You had to be there...

http://youtube.com/watch?v=y1zJxyPPK8c

Long time, no write

2008-06-17T22:39:09Z

Well, actually, I've been doing an awful lot of writing, but all of it's been quest scripts for HorseIsle.com. Can't complain about that, best job I've ever had!

My fiction output other than that has been nil. But the fall of an even-numbered year is coming!

The roses are two weeks late, but the garden is finally getting into gear. Hope to have some pictures for you soon.

Holy-Moly! My name's been trademarked!

2008-06-17T22:37:01Z

Cool, nu?

http://www.roguevalleyroses.com/product_info.php?products_id=895

Funny and Cruel and not interchangeable...

2008-06-10T17:19:42Z

Generally, I love the site ICanHasCheezburger.com But just fired off a very angry letter (restraining myself with much duct-tape) over a picture up there now titled, "Escape Plan: FAIL." It shows an orange cat with his rear end stuck in a partially open window or sliding door from which he cannot extricate himself. The fact that someone was so blitheringly stupid to run for a camera rather than save the cat is unthinkable enough; but to put something like this up on a comedy site? Look a little more closely and you'll see the cat's tail is limp and his paw-pads, which should be pink, are now black--in other words, his circulation has been cut off and his back end has probably died.

Please, those of you who love cats, check the site and if the picture is still there, register your protest. Whatever this, it's not funny.

You know, you click links, you find things like this....

2008-06-05T13:46:04Z

How to Paint With Smoke

from wikiHow - The How to Manual That You Can Edit

</a>Fumage 1937, mixed media on wooden chassis, by Wolfgang Paalen. Image copyright the Paalen Archiv, and is used here with their kind permission. May not be used elsewhere without permission from the Paalen Archive.Beginning with Wolfgang Paalen, visionary artists, including well-known surrealists such as Salvador Dali, practiced the fine art of "painting with smoke," otherwise known as "fumage." More delicate than charcoal, providing intriguing textures and patterns, fumage can serve as a standalone media or as an innovative approach to guiding the application of other media.

Steps

Protect your workspace. If you do not have a work area that you can afford to mark with wax drippings, lay out a covering (such as an old tablecloth) to catch the dripping wax.
Prop up your board or paper (hereafter referred to generically as "canvas") so that you are looking up at it. You'll need to work from beneath the canvas most of the time, so you may want to hang it from an elevated position, but if you can manage to hold it with one hand, you can use your non-dominant hand to change its angle as the candle's flame moves across the surface.
Light your candle. Slender candles work best, but feel free to experiment. It's helpful to keep a pillar candle lit nearby to quickly re-light the one in use.
Begin dragging the candle flame along the underside of the canvas. As you guide the candle just beneath the canvas, you will see dark shapes forming on the surface of your canvas.
Vary the motions of your candle and the angle of the canvas. The best way to "learn" fumage is to experiment with it. See what effects you can get by using tilting the canvas or the candle slightly, or by moving the candle at different speeds or in different patterns of motion. For more information, see the "tips" section below.
Blow out the candle and spray the surface with fixative. When you are satisfied with your design, apply the fixative (a stabilizing or preserving agent, such as varnish) to keep it from smearing. Before you do so, you may wish to intentionally smear some of the soot marks with your hand, a brush, or some other implement.
</a>Taches solaires, 1938, fumage/oil on canvas, by Wolfgang Paalen. Image copyright the Paalen Archive, and is used here with their kind permission. Image may not be used elsewhere without the copyright holder's permission Experiment using fumage in combination with other media. Wolfgang Paalen, the father of fumage, quickly progressed toward using fumage as a catalyst for his artworks, the seed from which the whole work would spring forth. With the fumage work providing his starting point, he would then add layers of oil paint, for example, to fully express his artistic vision. You can apply other media to the canvas either before or after you apply the fixative.

Tips

Vary candle width/length and wick length. Longer wicks allow for more fluid patterning. Short wicks are good for darker applications, filling in certain areas.
Vary the speed at which you drag the candle flame. Try quick, short movements versus slow, long ones.
Vary the angle at which you hold the candle. For example, when the flame is directly perpendicular to the surface, it will make a circle.
Vary the distance between flame and surface. The closer the flame is to the surface, the darker the resulting color on the canvas will be.
Try holding your canvas at different angles and coordinating the movements of the candle with this. The pattern made depends a lot on the movement and the angles of both the candle and the canvas. For example, a sideways flame will 'lick' the surface with a light line.
Try creating a 'candle palette'. Have different sized candles with varying lengths of wick on hand to use.
Before you apply the fixative try using different-sized erasers to create patterns in the smoke design. Using this apply/erase method, detailed layering is possible.

Warnings

Keep flammable items away from your work area.
Spray fixative in a well-ventilated area, away from all flames.
To avoid fire or scorching, do not hold a flame to canvas for a long period of time. If you are using paper, you'll need to be especially careful.
Always be aware of how close the flame is to the surface. This is why it is best to work from below, or at an angle where the surface is always visible to you. Otherwise, you can easily burn the surface.
As always, when working with fire, be careful of flames as you run a risk of getting burned.
Never attempt fumage without adult supervision.

Things You'll Need

Fire Extinguisher
Candles
A "canvas" or base of some sort: paper (at least 100 lb. weight, preferably heavier,) illustration/Bristol board, masonite (gessoed to make the surface more receptive), wood, or fiberboard, etc.
Fixative (Fixatives used for charcoal or pencil drawings are appropriate, and may be purchased at your local art supply store).
Matches/lighter
flame retardant floor covering/work bench

Related wikiHows

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