Chapter 4

 

All I was aware of was darkness… darkness everywhere.  I could see myself, as if lit from all directions, but there was nothing else; or if there was, I couldn’t see it.  Was I dreaming?  I was pretty sure I was, but I couldn’t say for sure.  It was all so surreal.

Then there was knocking.  Loud, arrogant knocking that just would not quit.  I don’t know how a sound such as knocking could seem arrogant… it just did.  Suddenly everything was spinning… or rather, I was spinning around in the pitch blackness… and I heard voices.   One was distant and unknown, one was close and familiar.  I heard my name, but it didn’t sound like my name.  It sounded like a foreign tongue, that I knew once upon a dream.  My head was pounding as words started to float into my not-quite-consciousness.

“When?” the close, familiar voice asked.

“Tomorrow,” came the unknown voice that was now close as well.  Something about it rubbed me the wrong way… my hair was standing on end, and I felt like running.  “I don’t know where, yet…”

“I don’t think she’s going to like this.”

“I don’t know her as well as you obviously do, so I couldn’t say.  I think it’s too soon, myself, but you know him.  Still don’t see why–”

“Marcus.”

“Right, right, sorry.  Anyway, you’re supposed to go later today into town and get her ready… apparently Aurelias thinks she deserves some rings after all this.  I don’t see why, but then again, I’m not–”

“Marcus!”

“Sorry, again,” he sighed.  “Later today, go into town, she’ll get pierced and she’ll be fitted.  Tonight there will be a rehearsal and tomorrow it will become official.”

There was a sigh from beside me and I looked around in the darkness, searching for its source.  I could only see faint shadows, which irritated me but I couldn’t do anything about it.  I tried walking towards the sound, but something held me in place, preventing me from moving.

“Sometimes I wonder if Aurelias really knows what he’s doing.  We’ll be there, though, after she wakes up.  She’s had a hard past couple of days, so I’m not going to wake her up unless I need to.”

“Alright.  Do you have a specific message I should tell him, or should I just pass on what you just said?”

“Do whichever you think is best.”

“I’ll be taking my leave, then.  We’ll see you two tonight.”

There was the sounds of movement, and then silence again.  Before long, the lights that had been illuminating my body seemed to die out, and then there was nothing but darkness.

 

I awoke to the warmth of Nir’s rays on my face, and Pyrrhus prodding me.  I resisted growling… it felt like I hadn’t slept at all and I was still exhausted.  I rolled over to face him with a scowl.

“What?” I asked, irritated.

“Come on, get dressed.  We need to leave,” he replied.

“Leave? Why? Why can I not sleep?”

“Because Aurelias has something planned for you.”

“What’s he got planned?”

“If you get up,” he said, obviously growing irritated himself, “you might just find out.”

“Why can’t you just tell me?”

“Because I can’t, now come on, get up.”

I glared at him.  ”No.”

He sighed. “Are you always this stubborn?”

I didn’t deign his question worth an answer and instead rolled over so that my back was to him once again.  All of a sudden it got quite cold and I realized Pyrrhus had just yanked the covers off.  ”Hey!” I shouted at him, sitting up and facing him.  ”I was using those!”

“And now you’re not,” he said, leaning towards me and slipping one arm around my back and the other under my legs.

“Hey, no, Pyrrhus, don’t!” I protested as he picked me up.  What, is he going to carry me wherever he wants or needs to go if I don’t want to, now?

“You left me with no choice.  Now, shall I carry you to the village like this, or do you want to get dressed first?”

“Will you set me down if I say I want to get dressed?”

“Only if you mean it and then follow through.”

I sighed and mumbled a little.  ”Fine.  I’ll get dressed.”

“Good,” he said, setting me down onto my feet in front of the closet.  I gave him a small glare before entering, making sure to slam the doors behind me.

I yawned and stood there a couple minutes, wondering if I go could back to sleep comfortably in the closet where I was before deciding it wouldn’t be a good idea.  I really don’t want to go anywhere today, though… I just want to go back to sleep.  I sighed, knowing I wasn’t going to be able to, at this point; instead I started looking through the clothes, trying to find something suitable to wear.  I don’t even know what we’re going to do, much less what to wear.  He said Aurelias had something planned for me, but… I don’t want to be the only one dressed up.  Then again, I don’t want to be the only one not dressed up, either.  There’s gotta be some middle ground here somewhere…  Eventually I found a long, black dress that seemed to have red dragons and gold gryphons permanently engaged in fight and flight printed on it.  Well… This should work.  I put it on then opened the doors of the closet, causing Pyrrhus to glance up from his seat on the bed.

He must have left the room at one point, because he’d changed clothes.  Now, he was wearing blacks slacks and matching bracers on his arms, and a dark green shirt that had the first few buttons at the top undone, leaving most of his upper chest visible.  There was a scar barely visible near where he’d started buttoning his shirt, leaving it mostly unnoticeable.  I couldn’t stop staring at him, but at least the sentiment was returned.  I was the first to bring myself to look away.

“So I guess I must’ve dressed appropriately, after all, huh?” I asked, not making eye contact.

“Yeah, you did.  At least, as far as I can tell, I mean,” he said, sounding a bit nervous and standing up.

“As far as you can tell? Don’t you know?”

“Well… what Aurelias has planned, the last time something like it happened, it was about a couple hundred years ago.  I wasn’t really old enough to remember much.”

“Oh,” I replied.  Pyrrhus’s mentioning his age gave me pause; I’d thought he was around my age but now I doubted it.  ”Um, how old are you, anyway?” 

“238, why?”

“Because when I first met you I’d thought we were about the same age, for some reason, but when you mentioned you weren’t old enough to remember something that happened a century before I was born, I wasn’t sure.”

“How old are you then?”

“113,” I answered, looking down in shame.  ”Old enough for rumors to start going around the village about me being cursed since I haven’t grown a tail yet…”  There was a few moments of silence before I felt Pyrrhus embrace me.  ”Um, Pyrrhus?” I asked nervously, unsure of what he was doing.

“I… You’ll grow one, I’m sure.  Some people… they just age a bit different than others, you know?”

I knew he was trying to comfort me with his words, but it didn’t even sound like he believed them himself.  For that moment, though, I chose to believe them anyway; it was better to me than considering the truth.  I rested my head on his shoulder and just let him hug me until he thought I was okay, breathing in his scent and enjoying the feel of his silk shirt on my fur.  He must be wearing something… he smells different now than he did before.

“We should be going,” he said as he pulled away after a couple minutes.  ”Um.  Do you feel better, at least?”

I nodded slightly.  ”Yeah, a little.  Thank you, Pyrrhus.”

He smiled slightly.  ”Let’s go, then,” he said and lead the way out of the house.

 

The market was busy again today and while I still got some strange looks, it wasn’t as bad as yesterday, and I had less time to notice them if I wanted to keep up with Pyrrhus’s brisk pace, as well.  He led me deep into the market center, where fewer and fewer people who weren’t shopkeepers were.  Eventually we stopped at a place and he held open the curtain that served as the door for me.

Inside the shopkeeper’s whole face lit up upon seeing us enter.  Surprisingly, even though I didn’t recognize her personally, she was of a tribe I actually did recognize:  the Fifth Tribe.  We’d come across her kind before in our trades.

“Ahai!” she shouted out in greeting, then the little feline-like person bounced up from her stool and landed in front of us.  The Fifth Tribe and mine hadn’t always gotten along the best but there were times we were quite friendly towards each other, and from the stories they were the closest to being like ours.  Seeing a Fifth Tribesman after all that had happened was a nice change, if nothing else.

“Ahai!” I greeted back, and I couldn’t help but smile.

Pyrrhus had came in behind me and was now standing beside me.  He shook his head a little as if in disappointment or something similar, although I could see the smile playing at the corners of his lips.

“You must be Stidolph Kristi,” the shopkeep chittered away happily in the higher-pitched, rapid-paced way of her Tribe.  ”I am Gatti Mayako, and I am the shopkeeper here and will be piercing you today!”

“Pleased to meet you, Mayako,” I said, then the rest of the words sunk in.  I paled.  ”Wait, what?  You’re going to be doing what?”

She tilted her head to the side and looked up at me, her eyes squinting and ears drawing back slightly, before exclaiming, “Oh, dear! You were not informed!”  The little cat-person turned on her heels to face Pyrrhus, looking quite irate.  ”How did you not tell her? Why did you not tell her?  You know my policy!  Fully-informed, consent must be given!  These are requirements!  Why are you trying to worm your way out of my policy?  Do you not want my business anymore, Mr. Voss?”

Pyrrhus was taken aback and almost looked scared.  ”I, no, Mayako, I,” he managed to stammer out before she laid into him again.

“You and your gods-be-damned brothers!  All alike!  Always dragging your girlfriends or what-have-you in here and trying to get me to mark them as yours!  That is why I had to change my policy to begin with, and until now you at least had complied, but now!  Why must you people be so difficult?  Why must your family act as you do?  One would think you would have brains since your family has been the Elders for centuries, but no!  Just as foolish as the little kits that come running through here not knowing what they want but wanting it anyway!”

“Miss Gatti, please!” Pyrrhus tried pleading with her.  ”This isn’t my doing, believe me!  I was just told this morning by Marcus what Aurelias wanted, and I was told to keep it from her, and that is just what I did!  I haven’t been in here since Dad died, you know this!  How could I have known about the change in your policy?”

“Marcus told you what?” she asked, her tone changing, turning a bit icy.

“He told me what Aurelias wants, and he told me not to tell Kristi.”

“That little mongrel!  You two will stay here, I will return with the hellion!” she said then stormed out quickly.

“Um,” I started, but Pyrrhus interrupted and just shook his head.

“You don’t want to know.  And neither do I.”

 

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