DreamLyrics™ Play-by-Post Forums Hall of Fame - Latest Top 10 completed games HWD: The Heartwood HWD: Lady Yurisdotter's Quest

Keiko

She smiled, she stretched, she opened her eyes.

“Good morning, my friend.”

Then Keiko sat up and accepted the dish of food from Tomomi. As she ate a bit of the breakfast potatoes, she watched her friend worry. She listened to the words and the fear behind the words.

“I think I understand, Tomomi.” She sat oh so quietly, searching for the currents, waiting for the waves... but on this morning, there was only Now. “And I don’t know, my friend.

“Lady Bekkah prayed for a powerful blessing on the Forest Kin so that any of the Mice — or other Kin, for that matter — would have souls if they stopped serving the Dwarves. And I know that isn’t a big help at all when faced with feeling so lost and alone. I do understand this, Tomomi. But with souls — well, the Lady Krysta would accept them if we can’t help them all and I have to believe it is some tiny comfort, even when saving each and every one of them is what our hearts want us to do. I know this, too.”

The Rhoni ate bits of potatoes and vegetables and bread as she gathered her thoughts, plate balanced on her lap while one hand was captured by a delicate mouse paw.

“They were originally creatures of the Forest and Mother Nature once knew them. With souls, if they are willing, if they choose it, they could serve Her. I don’t know how to explain that to them, except to say what I just did. But surely that would give some of them purpose and hope. I don’t know anyone who serves the Mother, but such a person might help the Lady see Her children again. I am willing to help in any way that I can, just as I helped you. But how can I convince a Mouse she has worth if I don’t know how to tell her she is important to me... even if I have only just met her that moment?

“Because I know all the Mice who have come to the Market, I know that you have in common a... a kindness, I think I would call it — and goodness, politeness, and quite a bit of cleverness. But I, too, am afraid. I’m afraid that I will not be able to speak to them of their worth in their first moments of freedom and those moments of great fear. I am only one small Rhoni girl who is hardly bigger than a Mouse.”

She sighed deeply.

“Yes, I am scared. I will admit that. But I am a Rhoni — so I believe differently than many folks. I believe we all have our Paths to walk, our Waves to ride. Some journeys and rivers are long. Some are short. Like those who follow the Coven Goddess, I know that death is only a part of life. All journeys end someday.

“And yet... Well, I want to run away, too, but I know that isn’t my Path to walk. To choose that Wave if it came my way would be dishonorable.

“We are only two, Tomomi. But two is better than none, isn’t it? Our friend Lyric... she will help, too, if she can. I believe this. And so will Lady Bekkah. I believe this as well. Maybe there will be so many scared and lost Mice that there is not enough Soft and not enough Lady and not enough Lyric or Lady Bekkah or Tomomi or Keiko. We have to try, though. You are absolutely right about that. We have to try.”

There was another long silence as Keiko nibbled on her cheese.

“I don’t know exactly what we can do to help. But we can help. I believe we can make a difference, even if I don’t know how to do that right now. We must believe. And if soft words and gentle hugs and lullabies are not enough... Well, then I will ask our friend Lyric to help me fill the mines with music.

“Music helps. It heals so much. It would help them, Tomomi. I believe it would. Music is a kind of magic, at least I’ve always thought so.”

Bright violet eyes peer across the small space to delicately whiskered face. Keiko remembered Tomomi’s tears when she had first come to Home, to the Little Home. She remembered how horribly sad Tomomi had been.

“I would even share the last of my ribbons. If it would help.”

Lyric

Whoever was up first mattered little to Lyric. She had found a place to sleep somewhere in the depths or heights of the the Home Tree. It was a quiet nook where she could settle in and feel the tree itself and the attachment that it provided, the sense of Home without the words or the derived meaning. It just was. It was a place where she could find the quiet and solitude she needed. Her life and her ways were not those of the others with whom she travelled. She had certain 'traditions' or rituals that had to be followed. It was her way and no matter how far from her home, no matter what the circumstance that sent her away, she didn't dare risk the consequences should she grow lax in these matters.

So when the 'morning' came and Lyric finally found her way back to the group, they were already mostly gathered for a morning break in the fast.

She smiled, hands gliding across surfaces, touching things and feeling them and experiencing. No matter how many times she did this though, she wanted to feel them in each moment as they presented themselves as if for the very first time. She greeted Mouses, and Wuffs, and the Raccoons and the Rats and every other Forestkin she met along the way as if they were a long lost friend and the most important person she would meet that day.

This was her nature and her way. She wanted to experience everything, even the spaces between moments that made time seem endless and full of promise.

The Heartwood
The Dirkwood Forest
Home
Hasday, the Seventh Day of Yrick

Bekkah, Cesare, Kadri, Keiko, Lyric, Pietro, Broke, Dominic Korie, Miss Emerald, Lady, Soft, That Rat, Miss Tomomi, Wuff-Wuff, and Others

It was neither Mouse nor Wuff that joined the three at their breakfast. It was That Rat who approached Kadri, Cesare and Pietro. He carried a small bowl, filled with his share of potatoes and vegetables, which he slowly picked at with his fingers. The bowl itself was black metal and a thick cloth kept his other hand from being burned. He wore a heavy patchwork tunic over which hung his travel cloak. The hood was down, of course, but he was ready to leave as early as they might wish.

“Have you had a chance to think about the morning’s tasks?

“This …”

He nodded to the right, where on the other side of the commons Bekkah was being offered a rather sumptuous breakfast.

“… is Lady Yurisdotter’s quest, after all. Will she be joining us?”

Conspicuously missing was the Pack. They weren’t in the commons. Nor were they in any of the larger rooms. It was Lyric, in her wandering, that found them. They were at the base of Home, on the piers that stretched out into the swamp and the surrounding Dirkwood. They were preparing for the day’s work. It was very pragmatic, as they checked their armor, their weapons – all of them that distinctive black metal. Two of them were gathering a set of small, flat-bottomed wooden boats. Travel today would be much less makeshift.

One Fang was checking his arrows while Soft simply stood at they end of the pier, looking into the Forest. She seemed deep in concentration. Her head tilted, she stretched out her arm and then snapped out a long set of talons. Feral and sharp, they wee much more dangerous looking than any claws that would normally be found on any mundane wolf.

She looked at them, as if she were equally surprised by their appearance.

She shook her paw and they vanished again.

“Huh.”

Elsewhere, Keiko and Tomomi sat on their window bench. Behind them the grays of morning were slowly becoming a soft pale green.

“I don’t think you can, forever-friend.”

Tomomi reached out and placed her hand upon Keiko’s.

“To be able to give every one of them worth, that is more than any one person could do. And I think, I think that if one person could do that for so many at once, well, it would make them less worthy, wouldn’t it? It would seem small and trivial.”

The little mouse looked up, her eyes sparkling.

“But they are going to be very scared, being asked to do things they don’t know how to do, to go places they have been forbidden to go, they will panic, they will freeze, they will do the wrong things. I mean … for me? Left and Right stuffed me into a sack and they only let me out when I was far away and safe and Soft was there.

“I don’t think we have enough sacks.”

But then, then she tilted her head and just looked at Keiko, eyes wide. She clapped her hands together.

“Ribbons. Ribbons. Ribbons! That … that just might work. Because they can be all colored to stay together, and getting one would be special. In the mines we had nothing, we only had rags. We had nothing of our own. Ribbons would be treasure!

“That might be a wonderful idea!”

Pietro


His mouth full and working, the squire tapped the left side of his chest with his right fist in greeting of the unnamed rat they'd talked with the night before. He finished chewing his over large bite, swallowed and took a swallow of his morning beverage.

"I think all of us planned to join in on the... mission," Pietro said.

"And yes, I thought about it before I fell asleep last night."

Pietro frowned and thought for a long moment.

"I think that I and perhaps a few others could serve as a distraction, driving straight ahead and attacking the dwarves while the rest circle around and try to flank them."

He turned to look at Cesare, one eyebrow quirked upward in a questioning expression.

Kadri:

"I am good as a distraction" .she says, holding up one hand , "on the other hand if he is to circle around unnoticed I am good at that as well.."

She mainly seems to be thinking and mulling over the map and whatever details the others had filled her in on earlier.

She also thinks to herself, glancing towards a nearby shadow.

"Lady mine, if from time to time you looked this direction, I think you would find many here to greatly amuse you, and all the more so this day. Only this day they also face danger for freedom."

Cesare

He looks up from his bowl of food and actually stops eating, a real sacrifice for him.

"I thought this morning was just for us to get a good look at the situation, so we could make our plans. I still have a lot of questions that need answers. Like can the dwarves see in the dark? Can the forest kin? This goes to when we go in. And Pietro, I think you are more suited to a rescue role if things go wrong. Our best weapons are subtlety and surprise. This will go easier if we can get in without being seen. And we have various stages to this job as I see it. Rescue forest kin, get forest kin out of the mines and away - not as easy as it sounds - destroy the forge and anything else we can do to prevent this from starting again and then get away. All of these will be really hard."

He pauses for a moment, before restarting.

"A diversion could be really useful if we can get the dwarves out of the mine.. or most of them.. in a way that doesn't put the remaining ones on guard. And sneaking is going to be best way in I think so Kadri you will be needed at the start for certain."

He grins, a grin with an edge.

"A fight we won't win, we have to find another way."

He goes back to his bowl, watching the others for their reaction.

Pietro


By temperament and mission, the squire tended to be a direct action, straight ahead kind of fighter, but Cesare's statements did make sense to him.

"You think more... complicated than I do, Cesare," he said with a smile and a nod of acknowledgment for the Rhoni. He held up a hand, palm toward Cesare.

"And that is not a bad thing. You come up with details which tend to elude me."

Cesare

He finishes his breakfast.

"The Rhoni tend to look for patterns, to find ways to ride the waves to get to where they want to go and ideally to avoid trouble where possible. I guess I'm just trying to do that.. but I miss Mikal. He had strategy. And another of our past friends, Darian. She always looked for every angle. Maybe I had good teachers? Let's hope some of it was well learned."

He hadn't thought of Darian for quite a few days. It had almost become a fond memory, rather than a painful one. All things change.

Kadri:

"I miss both dearly. They are family."

She chews her lip a moment.

"I am better at planning tactics around people instead of things, truth be told. And as for dwarves .. let me see ... Small and compact, they weight being muscle, and a lot of that - almost impossible to knock over. They burrow, they like the underground. The dark does not bother them and they can sense your footstep on the earth as if you were walking at them dressed in bright colors. As for their minds ... they do not view good, bad - right and wrong like you. Everything is a tool, good or bad only in its use and function. If a sword kills it is good, whatever it may be that it kills. If a tool breaks, a new one is made. Many things to them are tools. They are by indelible nature what makes a man evil if it is by choice. Or at least that is how I would understand what I have been told."

She pauses briefly.

"Thought I would put that it there, for what it may be worth in planning."

Keiko

“I know, Tomomi. Even if I wanted to help every single Mouse, even if I wanted to convince each one that they had worth... well, I think that would just wear me out. And then what good would I be to anyone?”

The Rhoni nodded at the clear and pragmatic response to an equally simple but far more immense problem. No, there probably weren’t enough sacks available between Home and the Big Village. And then she smiled at Tomomi’s happiness, a slow smile coming to her face as well.

“I certainly don’t have any more ribbons than Home has sacks — far fewer I would think, as I have given many of my ribbons to a very special friend of mine. But if my very special friend wouldn’t mind sharing her ribbons with frightened Mice, I would find some of the prettiest ribbons the merchants have on Marketday and give up most of my pennies to make sure my very special friend always has lovely ribbons.” Keiko grinned. “And Mice surely wouldn’t need the lengths of ribbon it takes to bind up my hair... I can cut most of them into smaller, more manageable pieces for frightened Mice.”

Keiko finished eating her her breakfast, thinking the whole while about the frightened Forest Kin they were to rescue. There would likely be other Kin, wouldn’t there? Perhaps Rats and Racoons? Maybe it was only the Mice who had such a difficult time.

“Tomomi... if you would tell the story, I would like to hear of your... escape, rescue, abduction, whatever it seemed to you. Perhaps knowing how you felt and what you thought will help me understand those we’ll find in the mines.”

Cesare

He looks around to see if there is any chance of more breakfast. He seems particularly hungry this morning, all that dancing probably!

"That's interesting Kadri.. and the sort of information that we will need. Seeing the place will give us a lot more. This is going to be tough. I really want to know what this forge is. How it is made and out of what materials. Rat, do you know? We are going to have to find a better name for you.. how about Clever? Because you are, you know."

He grins at the rat.

Lyric

Lyric was deft and moving quietly, maybe not so much by training but more by nature. Being in a forest was comfortable to her. This forest, even with the sadness, was not as alien as she might have first believed. It felt like coming home.

She stepped lightly out onto the docks, following the paths to where she saw the wolves. Their efforts to ready themselves seemed ritualistic, practiced, and that too was familiar to Lyric. In her home, Kethy's Woods she called it, preparing for the Hunt was a normal thing. ...a way of life. ...an honor to be included. So, to see the Pack preparing for their Duty and readying to fulfill their purpose and job within this family or clan structure also felt normal to her.

She came closer, bearing witness to Soft's surprise and that was curious. Not so much the fact that she had the claws, because she was a forged creature, but because Soft either didn't know she had them, or was surprised that they had been extended when they did.

Still closer she came... Minstrel among the wolves... and she had no fear. In some ways, ways she preferred to keep private, she shared certain characteristics with them. Music was the softer side.

"Is all well?, " she offered quietly to any who might hear. Of they would hear, they were wolves.

The Heartwood
The Dirkwood Forest
Home
Hasday, the Seventh Day of Yrick

Bekkah, Cesare, Kadri, Keiko, Lyric, Pietro, Broke, Dominic Korie, Miss Emerald, Lady, Soft, That Rat, Miss Tomomi, Wuff-Wuff, and Others

The air was still in one particular area of the commons, where Pietro, Kadri and Cesare sat and talked. Like a boat becalmed on a lake, it rested heavy and unmoving. About them the Forest Folk finished their breakfasts and began their morning chores. Cleaning, taking care of their bowls and platters and all the other mundane tasks that normal families do. Some pulled on travel cloaks for fishing in the swamp and tending the gardens they maintained on the Forest’s edge. There was also hunting to do and the gathering of other portions of the Forest’s bounty. Only those few newest to Home did not have a task assigned but instead were herded by Lady to spend their day with a companion, to help find what they could do to fit in with their kin.

“How much do people remember of the time before they were born?”

That Rat answered Pietro’s question with a question. He was indeed clever and thus his new name quite apt.

“But then, we were not born.”

He closed his eyes for a moment before continuing. And when he did his words were quiet, so they would not carry. They might disturb the most fragile of them. Rats, however, were fairly tough.

“We believe the Flesh Forges are above the mines. Our first true memories are stairs, going down them to the cells where we are kept and instructed in our tasks. What little that is remembered of our creation is that the forges are large and ordered, like walking down a line, a line strung along the circumference of the Shaft. You start at the Cages, where we are kept before we are broken. Then there are the rank upon rank of vats and the anvils, which grow progressively larger and larger as they get closer to creating a finished tool. The vats are stone, the anvils, darksteel. There are no lamps in the forges for they are not needed. The Crafter’s Runes glow and they are everywhere. They provide the light to do their work. Not just illumination, but the proper kind of magical light. Near the end of the line there are the shackles, for when we are big enough to panic and run.

“On the walls are the tools for forging. At the end, they keep the tools for teaching us our place. Dying for disobeying is just another lesson we learn. Die and we are simply returned to the vats to be rebuilt.

“The Forges are much larger than Home. Renyard says they are as large as a high Talantal ring, but I do not know what that means.

Clever shrugged his shoulders.

“Once we leave the Flesh Forge, we never go back. After entering the mines, our end is just the refuse shaft, returned to the compost to get some final use out of our spent shells.”

Tugging at his travel cloak, Clever words focused on the day’s task.

“This will make more sense when you see Loch Faast Keep.”

On the Piers the wuffs just looked up as Lyric arrived. They had not stepped out into the Forest proper, in fact there was quite a distance between them and the Dirkwood. If the minstrel strayed too far in that direction she would have been quickly herded back.

“The Forest is always hungry and it is not a picky eater.”

One Fang would make sure she stayed safe. Though it was Soft who answered her question.

“I think - I think - I may be a priestess.”

It was another odd statement. Soft’s look was also a bit odd in a surprised kind of way.

“I always offer a prayer before a hunt. Of course I never expected an answer. But then, none of us are the same as we were yesterday. Today, it seems, I got an answer.”

Elsewhere, Tomomi leaned her head on Keiko’s shoulder. She smiled. That she helped with an idea, that was new to the Mouse. She had traded and knew what she traded helped make wonderful things. But this was like when she helped draw that simple map. It was the two of them.

“Ja! Ja! That will work! And Lady has ribbons and others do and the Two Not-Sisters also!”

The she answered Keiko’s other question.

“When…”

Tomomi’s voice became very soft. She wrapped both her arms tight around one of her friend’s, to anchor herself to the here and now. To remind her she had worth.

“When it happened, I didn’t know what it was. It was scary, all was black and when I could see again I had no idea where I was except I was being held without being beaten and everything was soft.

“You see, when your world is only the Mines, there are things you just don’t know. Like trees. Like a sky above you. Like night and day. Like we didn’t know packs. The Masters had made that mistake with wuffs before I was made and they never make the same mistake twice. So they made lone wuffs, except lone wuffs eventually always go mad.

“That was never good.

“We were disposable. After the mad wuffs got put down they just make more of us.”

“Being a Mouse, I had a cell. We were kept alone. When we were made they worked us, to find out how we moved. If we couldn’t move, we were rebuilt. I can go anywhere I have been. So I got put in places, made to remember where they were. Mine heads. Copper Room. Rat Cells. Food Room. Tool Room. If you were a really good Mouse you might learn of a room high in the Keep. I was a good Mouse. The Copper Room was where you got messages to send into the mine. There was always a Boss Rat who they taught how to read. Mice, well, we didn’t need to know how to read.

“But mostly, everyone else lived in the mines.

“There are no doors to the mines; just gates, gates that can only be opened from the outside. Mice bring instructions. Mice bring tools. Mice bring food. So the gates never need to be opened. Only Mice go in and out. Everyone else, once you are in mines you are there until you are disposed of.

“Mice aren’t trusted. Especially after they lost their Executioner.”

Tomomi bit her lip.

“A Mouse who is the Lockpick found me. Showed me places where only a Mouse can go. Told me to go. I was a good Mouse. When I was told to go somewhere, I went. Once I was on the other side of the black bars, they put the sack over my head. I got tossed.

“They must have had a Rat with them.”

She was very quiet then.

“We reached a point where we had to run. I heard growling, I was bounced back and forth. I heard metal smashing metal. I was so scared. I was told that Blaze fell to a Weasel and the Forge Masters caught The Rat Who Could Throw Very Far.”

She swallowed.

“When I was learning how to make lace I found out that the Pack went back. There are stories about Broke and Wrath when they are angry. Horrible stories. Never hurt each other, that is one of our lessons. And seven times, seven times never hurt one of the Pack. That is another.

“They came back with Wuff-Wuff.”

Tomomi bit her lip.

“Tell us what to do and we have been taught to do that without question. That is not the problem. The problem is getting scared and becoming panicked. Then things go wrong.

“Rescuing wuffs, rescuing Rats, rescuing the Masked Ones and the Deer and others? All different. You have to get past the gates. But there are ways. The Rats are most important, figuring out those ways. They mine, after all. And nothing is tougher than what they mine.

“A way in only lasts until the Old Masters figure it out. Then it doesn’t work any more. However the only way to discover if a way isn’t good any more is...

“… when the Rescue fails.”

The little Mouse wrinkled her nose.

“The real problem, the real problem…”

Tomomi was not able to finish her sentence, however. It was answered from a nearby shadow. Dommi’s words were followed by the distinctive whump of a Mouse arriving. The youngest Korie stepped out of the shadow and Emmi stood at his side. He then finished Tomomi’s thought.

“The real problem is that they’ve never tried a Rescue at this scale. Usually a Rescue is one at a time – not only because it’s safer and easier - it’s that one of the Kin usually isn’t missed until it is too late. Mice are the easiest to Rescue for obvious reasons but a Mouse vanishing and never coming back is harder to hide.

“The Dwarves can not be under estimated. Consider. They were able to separate me from my Cloak.

“It took a very special Mouse to bring it back.”

Lyric

"Then you should be very careful Priestess of Divine Beings... and be vigilant. Today is a new day. And remember that the one before is gone. ...when Divine Beings hear your plaintive words and grant you their favor. ...when divine beings can see you and hear you... then perhaps so can the Forest. Please be careful. It would hurt my heart to learn that this day was the last day I would see you. Be safe. More safe than you have ever been. Watch all things because maybe today all things can watch you."

Lyric looked to One Fang. "Come back, friend... and I will do the same."

Pietro


The animation left his face as the clever rat explained the situation to him and Pietro slowly shook his head.

"It is perhaps impressive that the dwarves were able to create the process, it shows a darkness in their spirit surpassing their ingenuity that they continue to use other living beings in such a despicable way."

"They should do their own work."

Pietro glanced at Cesare and then back to the clever rat.

"When could we view the Keep?"

Cesare

"Thank you Clever."

He is quiet for a time after Clever explains what he can. He is quiet as he is trying to contain his anger. An anger that reinforces his desire to put a stop to this. But he also knows that anger must be suppressed, controlled, otherwise it takes charge.

He takes a deep breath, desire for more food gone.

He takes a few moments to consider the Forges. Darksteel. What might destroy that?

Keiko

Tomomi’s happiness of being able to help with the Problem of the Ribbons was energizing and it allowed Keiko a few moments of true joyfulness for her friend. Keiko had always known her own worth; from her earliest memories, there were always elders remarking about her eye color and her future as a Card Reader. So for Tomomi to learn so recently of her worth and to offer excellent thoughts to help craft the best means of helping the Forest Kin they would attempt to rescue...

Keiko was very proud of her friend.

As she told her story, however... as Tomomi’s arms continued to tighten around hers... Keiko turned enough in the window seat so she could wrap her other arm around the brave Mouse.

It was not an easy story to tell, nor was it an easy tale to hear. Both of them needed courage for that task.

When Tomomi faltered and couldn’t go on, Keiko hugged her friend tightly. “You’re so brave, my friend.”

That the Young Master seemed to have been listening from the shadows didn’t really surprise her. That Miss Emmi stood with him was simply a given, something obvious to be accepted — like the predictability of Her rising and Her travel across the sky each day, like Her setting beyond the western horizon so that all Her daughters could be seen in the night sky.

Keiko closed her eyes for a few moments, thinking through the words the Young Master had shared. It was an enormous task they were preparing to undertake, against a foe she didn’t fully understand. Yet Lady Bekkah’s Goddess had demanded this sacrifice for the blessing She had bestowed on the Forest Kin. That implied that their mission was not a hopeless one, for a Goddess of Mercy and Compassion would not require that the rescuers dance with Krysta... would She? Could they call on help from any of the other Deities in this battle? Very few, she suspected... for even if They found the actions of the Dwarves abhorrent, it fell to Their followers who do Their bidding.

She opened her eyes to look at the Noble and his Mouse.

“How then, Shadowlord, can we have affect such a rescue as this? Does giving a Mouse or a Rat or a Raccoon or any other Forest Kin a soul make our task more or less difficult? For the way they have all been treated, perhaps only the Weasels might remain souless... but that does not mean the Kin will not still be fearful.” Keiko paused, then shook her head. “Our dear friends, Tomomi and Emerald, believed they had worth before they had souls... because we believed they did, each for our own reasons.”

Keiko smoothed out the still short and jagged hair Tomomi had cut off when she had become Lost.

“The Mother would find this whole enterprise by the Dwarves a true sin, I don’t doubt, but how many of her followers are still alive after the persecutions of the Imperial Lords? Perhaps Her Consort, too, would find offense... but all the tales of this Age say that He is still mad with grief. She Who First Stood Against Chaos might find this situation abominable, as well. But I see none of Her warriors among Dama Kadri’s... retinue.”

She sighed. The Dama’s constant insistence on referring to the people in her company prior to her arrival here as ‘family’ rankled the Rhoni and she wasn’t sure why. Perhaps it was because the Rhoni people had such a strong sense of Family that it was difficult to countenance the dilution of the word.

And had Lady Bekkah not said her sister was a follower of the Sun Lady? Well, it was foolish to wish for something that was not possible. Would one warrior more or less make a difference in this Rescue anyway?

“How much humor will your Lady find in this Rescue, Shadowlord? Well, perhaps the undoing of the Dwarven mines would be so great a thing that only a Deity could see the humor in it,” she mused. “And have any of your compatriots considered what effects this rescue and the potential destruction of the mines will have on the Dragons whom the Dwarves bleed to mine their blood?” Keiko shuddered. “They must not awaken.”

The Rhoni felt for the currents and the waves of the world and could find no sure wave to catch, no certain path to walk.

“Beyond working with Tomomi to help calm the frightened Forest Kin being rescued, I see no reasonable way to assist in this grand task. Perhaps I might Dance to protect myself and the Kin, but I have a greater task set before me by my Elders.” She bit her lip as she tightened her hug around Tomomi’s shoulders and looked at Dommi.

“That is a Wave on which I must remain balanced until I am able to return to my Family.”