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

Bekkah, Cesare, Kadri, Keiko, Lyric, Pietro, Dominic Korie, Miss Emerald, Miss Tomomi and Others

It was good seeing what could be accomplished when one had a definitive task set. It wasn’t even noon before the benefits of their work started to take shape. If they took their horses, Cesare and Pietro could cover enough ground to collect long branches. That was a nice quality of the lands they were in. True, it was mostly given to fields, but each field was accompanied by a small copse of trees. They were like little islands of woodlands, and many of them were young growth, perfect for the task at hand.

In the Village, Dominic accomplished his part, which meant dealing with his three small farmer’s families, not only collecting enough canvas, oil, and leather but making sure all would be properly taken care of while they were gone.

Leather was actually easy to find; it seems there were benefits trading with the Forest Folk. Certain goods came easily to them.

Once branches and cloth were collected, the basketry task began. Everyone who could tie a knot could help, which meant that all of them could work productively. Around noon, Keiko and Tomomi returned, bringing with them a simple map of the Forest, Lake, and Home. While the distances seemed great, Keiko and Bekkah knew that that the Forest Folk’s homestead could be reached in an afternoon. River travel tended to be faster, even up stream. The fact that the Blackwater was sluggish and wide would help greatly as they learned how to pole their odd little boats.

She had just fallen a little past zenith when Dominic leaned back on his haunches, looking to the Squire.

“M’lord Pietro! I present to you your Fleet! By all the powers vested in me – which means I can do pretty much anything as long as it doesn’t annoy Father and Elder Brother, which takes away all the fun stuff – I hereby vest you with the title of Grand Admiral of the Duchy of Talantal...”

The Young Master then blinked and pounded the ball of his palm to his forehead once, hard, and then shook his head.

“I keep doing this.

“Last time I made such a proclamation I ended up married!

“Sea and Stars, my best brother Tray is right, as always. I never learn!”

All that was left was for each to gather up their gear. They had room only for was what could be carried in a single pack. For most, this was not too difficult as most had spent more time on the trail and then in a town. Tomomi had her travel cloak and thus was ready. Miss Emerald was elsewhere, off on a task of her own.

“She’s gone ahead to announce our impending arrival. It isn’t often that Talantal’s grand fleet makes port. In fact, it’s a first! It is something that has never happened before in the History of the Duchy! It is a matter for celebration, feasting and... and...

“Don’t look at me like that...

“Fine.

“It’s really, really, really, really bad idea surprising Broke.”

It took a bit to learn how to maneuver a coracle. It was different than a proper boat. Boats cut through the water, coracles skimmed on top of it. Every now and then, the short saplings they used as poles needed to bat away far too curious fish. Staying to the shallows near the banks was wisest, and a rope was used to link each small craft to the next in case one slipped towards deeper water.

And aye... some were damper than others.

For many – Kadri, Lyric, Bekkah, Keiko, and Cesare – this was something entirely new. Thus, Dominic set himself at the end coracle with Pietro in the lead.

“Remember thine promise, Young Master.”

That was all that Missus Heatherson said, offering Lyric and Bekkah a pair of baskets, warm and meat pie-scented, upon their debarkation.

“Or I’ll set Missus Miller on ye.”

To come back in one piece – it was a very laudable goal, one that seemed much easier said than done as they entered the Dirkwood Forest.

Slowly the treeline approached the river’s banks until roots and underbrush finally stepped into the dark water. The canopy stretched overhead, Her light stained green, shadows now a constant companion. Even looking at them the woodlands cast a malevolent air.




For Keiko and Bekkah, this was a very different manner of travel. Broke had escorted them in a rather straight line. The river took its lazy time, bending this way and that. Beneath the branches, the river earned its name. The water indeed looked black, as if some cleric had spilled their ink.



It soon became comforting that they had taken the river route, or as comforting as poling through a haunted Forest could ever feel. Looking to the shore, the nature of the woods was disturbing. It was at once beautiful, primal and disturbing. The underbrush was thick; the forest floor seemed treacherous and spongy. It was not just lush, it was sultry and humid – especially for the season. The warm breeze that haunted through the branches was more like a tortured hunting beast breathing than any pleasant zephyr. There was always movement and sound around them – branches crackling, soft footpads, the whuffle of unseen creatures – and they were not the benevolent reminders of a sylvan copse. No, they were beast-things prowling, the shadows of predators searching. Even the trees seemed malevolent – bark contorted, thorn-covered, branches reaching and slashing as though they drank blood and not water; as though darkness nourished them and not Her light.

Indeed, the trees were successful hunters.

Bones, pale and white, stuck out here and there, the forest having grown around them.

And bodies did hang from the canopy.

Some were skeletal, hanging together by thin vines and arboreal creepers. Some were pale and mummified.

Some were older than others. One seemed to be more recent, perhaps some Jvrillian guard who had had too much to drink, or lost a bet, or had been dared to walk too close to the woods between the Forest Folk market and his merchant’s wagon.

But most were far, far older.

These wore faded surcoats, and whatever heraldry that was emblazoned on them fell into two categories: too faded to be identified or just bold enough to ensure they were not recognizable.

They were of no house, clan or guild known on the mainland.

Eventually, it was inevitable, matters got worse. Because the sun was falling almost to sunset, and while it might be still light at Waveriders Watch, in the forest it was starting to get very dark. And they seemed to be shadowed. Tall, dark figures were glimpsed following their approach, on the shore, in the trees. But anytime one tried to get a good look at them, they melted back into the Forest. Finally, however, the shore started to break up, soften, as the river turned into a swamp.

Then the swamp opened up, as swamps in woodlands were wont to do.

It was very shadowy. It had become night.

But ahead there were hints of light.

The Forest Folk place rose up from the swamp before them. It was safe here, in the middle of the green-choked pool, out of reach of the trees. Its lights glowed a soft yellow, something actually warm and welcoming in this black place.



There was a dock and handful of folks were waiting for them; they all wore travel cloaks. There were bigg’uns, lil’uns, and some in between. One was recognizable to all; Miss Emerald waiting at the end of the dock. She immediately latched on to Dominic once the boats were tied up and he disembarked onto the wooden pier. Interestingly, theirs were not the only boats. The Forest folks had a handful of punts tied up, too. Obviously, they had fishermen among them and used the waterways to get through the Forest.

One person was recognizable to Kadri and Cesare: the tall, dark, grim form of Broke, accompanied by her unknown companion guardians. They were probably the shadows that had followed them the last portion of their trip. The rest were only known to Bekkah and Keiko, who had been here before. Without a word, one of the tallest and most graceful of them beckoned the others to follow and lead all into Home.

In looping stairs, balconies, and porches, Home rose in a ramshackle manner. In a way, it was like the Talesan Citadel — rooms and places to sit and sleep and talk were scattered around a chaos of steps and ladders. About halfway up, there was what served as a Commons, a gathering hall — a big wooden room with crystal lamps and a Darksteel hearth. It seemed this was where their food was made and served, tended by a bevy of bigg’uns and lil’uns. Some hid behind others when the real folks walked into their place, some had travel cloaks on but most were in colorful country homespun.

The tall one slowly pulled back the hood of her travel cloak. Long red hair flowed out, framing an elegant muzzle, poked through by two gorgeous triangular ears. This Forest Folk was definitely easy to look at, with sparkling eyes and a voice as soft and sultry as a gentle caress. This was a creature about whom songs would be sung, of romance and love and beauty, in both Highland Path taverns and the small village Lyric came from.

“We have guests.

“They have come to help those of us still trapped in the mines.”

The lovely vixen turned to her guests.

“My name is Lady.”

One by one by one, travel cloaks were shed. These were the Forest Folks. Some looked dangerous and untrustworthy, but perhaps that was because they had been crafted from Rats. There were those who bore Raccoons’ banded eyes, there were more Foxes. It was strange seeing Foxes stand comfortably next to a pair of Rabbits. There was even a couple of Harts.

And of course, there was Broke. The Forest Folk’s boss guardian drew down her hood to shake out her tawny hair, streaked with all the various shades of brown. She was black as night, with a long sturdy-looking muzzle, tall ears and when she grinned, which she did, it was very toothy and very definitely fanged. It explained a lot about her gruff voice and nature. She was not just a warrior. She was not just a hunter, not just a predator, not just a protector. She was — or used to be — a Wolf.

The rest of the guardians were her pack.

At the start there was silence; not a sound from all those gathered as in the shadows behind, more and more and more entered — looking from the window sills, from the rafters, and a few lil’uns on the shoulders of bigg’uns. Some just seemed to appear out of nowhere.

And some definitely appeared out of nowhere. Miss Bekkah was suddenly surrounded, almost vanishing beneath a sudden flurry of lil’uns, all of them reaching for a part of her to hug. The Healer found herself buried under a pile of happy Mice.

Except for Tomomi.

She just hung onto Keiko’s arm and giggled.

Lyric

There were a couple times, during the journey along the black river where Lyric paused in her poling, and it was only the rope line that interlocked her coracle to the others that kept her with the group.

The first was just moments after they entered the Dirkwood and no shaft of light from She above touched them that didn't filter down through the poisoned, cursed canopy above them.

Lyric seemed overtaken with emotion as she held her pole and stared out into the darkened wood. Tears streaked her face forcing her to wipe them.

This would happen a few times when the starkly beautiful yet malevolent wood revealed itself to them as they travelled. Her reaction seemed deeply visceral as though she felt an anguish and a sorrow.

For those tied close they might hear her whispered words of grief.

"I'm sorry , so sorry that you must endure this..."

Or,

"This is not who you should be..."

And this,

"I hope... I hope I can find a way to heal you..."

Those episodes of emotion were brief enough but powerful for the young minstrel from a place called Kethy's Woods. No one could console her while they traveled in their coracles and she did her best not to make her emotions a detriment to the journey. She would resume her share of the poling to keep others from having to tow her along. But her sad eyes seemed laden with sorrow for the depths of the terrible beauty all around them. Still she poled onward to keep some slack in the lines that linked her coracle to others.

Her mood didn't lighten, even once they were docked and landed at the Forestkin place called Home. The horrors visited upon the poor creatures were linked somehow to to the ravages wrought on these once beautiful woods. It was haunting her as she lugged her pack and followed the others.

Kadri:

The boat ride was new for her but it was pleasing as were most new things; she had a small smile despite the grim surroundings and enjoyed the feel of the boats on the water.

"It is sad to see beauty in chains and oppressed."

As they arrived she took in those present. The fox, for her own reasons held some special meaning.


"Lady."

She said quietly, and for her own reasons, essayed a deep bow to her, crossing her arms.

"An appropriate name, for a beautiful being. I have much appreciation for what you are."


"Broke. "

She said in a neutral tone and with neutral expression, lacking any inherent hostility but not exactly filled with the most eagerness for contact. She still found much of her earlier mein and actions unconscionable. Still, she nodded courteously and offered a slight bowing nonetheless. She had disagreements with her, and and her behavior towards her friends - but this was neither the time nor the place to bring that up.

Pietro


The work was not overly tiring considering the company and pleasant talk which lightened their labor. When the coracles were completed, Pietro took a moment to attend to the edge of his war axe which had cut so many of the withes and branches used in the construction of what he now took to be his navy! His to command?



The squire could not help but laugh at the overly grandiose promotion he had received from Lord Dominic and executed a sweeping, Throckmortian bow in return as he replied.

"I accept the honor, My Lord, if you will serve as fleet commodore."

The levity did not last long, however, as they poled their way slowly up the sweeping oxbows of the rather turgid slow river. The air became heavy and Pietro found it almost difficult to breathe deeply enough. The barely seen spectres which appeared and quickly faded away into the dark, ominous looking forest lining the sides of the river tended to cause his eyes to dart one way and then the other and the difficulty in getting one good look at the... whatevers caused his heart to race a little and his nerves to act up.

After all, regardless of the humor in Dominic's pronouncement, it was obvious that the Korie lord expected the squire to lead the group.

And that meant that Pietro was responsible for the success of the mission and the safety of his companions. He looked around at the others and murmured a prayer for the assistance and protection of Lord Rames during the upcoming dangerous action.

And then, almost suddenly, they were there... the home of the Forest Folk and Pietro could not help but smile at the loveliness of the one called Lady, nod his respect at Broke, whom he saw at once as a formidable pack leader, and laugh at the transformed mice who swarmed all over Bekkah.

Pietro stood back and waited for an introduction of sorts. He knew that Mikal had somehow incurred the displeasure of Broke and he did not want to hazard the same unintended result.

Cesare

He is watchful through the forest, his crossbow at his feet, as he poled the small craft along. He is silent through the journey, his eyes watchful and taking in all the details of this dark haunting forest. It should be free and open to travel.. a shame it is not. But much would have to change here before that might occur.. and it might not be possible.

The freedom of the forest folk is their goal and he is determined to achieve it.

At the Home, his eyes are even more active. The construction seems haphazard but has its own harmony. He likes all the different methods of accessing the levels and the freedom that provides. And the variety of forest folk too is interesting and he can see where their origins stem from. They would likely have some great sills and natural assets from their humble beginnings.. just like Emerald.. quiet, quick, always finding her way unobtrusively. They would need that.

He smiles at all the introductions but does not push himself forward. This time is Bekkah's.

Keiko

A pleasant morning passed for Keiko and Tomomi in the making of their map. First, a fair sized bit of parchment was obtained from Thomas — a piece he deemed “too dirty” and “too wrinkled” and “too ragged around the edge” for his purposes. Lines were lightly sketched; only when Tomomi was satisfied that their lines delineated the best possible outline of the Forest and the lake within it did Keiko set ink to the paper with a fine brush. Once completed, the most enjoyable part of the project began — color!

The Rhoni demonstrated how she mixed the various pigments to achieve the colors she wanted, using several of the gifts her Mouse friend had brought over the past couple of months. Creating the map was as much a lesson in painting as it was the creation of a useful guide. Light washes of color were built up to give the impression of depth to the waters of the lake and texture to the vastness of the Forest. The new white pigment from the chalky cliffs themselves outlined the edges of the lake to show their locations.

“A charred ravine and a Darksteel pipe? Those seem so strange that I don’t even know what questions to ask about them yet.” Keiko smiled at Tomomi as she set the completed map aside so it could dry completely. “And yet, I don’t doubt that Renyard has many inquiries he could pose to help me find both questions and answers!”

Sorting through the items in her pack took enough time that the map was dry by the time she finished. The obvious stuff was there — all the miscellaneous things she would need on a journey away from her temporary home with the Millers, a change of clothing, and her pigments and brushes. Well, not all of them, of course! But enough to mix a variety of different colors. It might have seemed strange to anyone else that she considered them essential. There were times that she thought it was peculiar, too. She didn’t know what to expect from their trip to the mines, so all she could do was bring along the things she found comforting. If splashes of color on small pieces of pasteboard could give others a bit of cheer as well? Well, there was no question then of bringing them along. She tucked her remaining ribbons in the pack, too, down at the bottom — all except one.

It was wider than most and a shade of blue that was so pleasant to the eye that Keiko generally wrapped all the other ribbons with it. But it didn’t look good tied in her hair — the blue was almost a soft teal and wasn’t bold enough to stand up to the red streak in her black hair. She smiled as she held it out to Tomomi.

“How fine would this look edged with some of your lace and stitched onto a longer piece of cloth? Why, it would be the fanciest belt anyone has ever seen! Even the Nobles of Dawnview Vale would envy it, I’m sure.”

Making sure that the map was dry, she rolled it into a tube. Then, taking a deep breath, she looked around her little room. It was neat and tidy, with her sleeping roll tucked against a wall and her remaining belongings piled neatly in the corner beside it. She was taking only a single change of clothing, so extra socks and her best tunics were folded, the gifts her brother and sisters had given her tucked in their folds. Anything in her pack could be replaced; gifts from her family could not. The only thing of exceptional value she had with her were the Cards... and she would lose her life before she gave those up. Her daggers were in their sheaths at her waist as they almost always were; her cloak was over one shoulder. She nodded with satisfaction before turning to Tomomi.

“Well. It is time for this adventure. I won’t lie and say I’m not scared, but knowing that I have a forever friend with me will remind me to stay brave even when I’m the most scared.”

Today when she left the Millers’ home, she remembered to tell Missus Miller that she was leaving.

“I don’t know how long I’ll be gone, but I hope it won’t be for very long. I’ll be very, very careful. And the Young Master will be with us. A lot of folks would be quite vexed with him if he didn’t come back out of the Forest in one piece, and he’s an honorable man — he’ll make sure we all return safely.” Keiko smiled as she accepted the packet of travel bread and dried meat from the woman who tried to be so stern and gruff. “Better to have blessed neighbors than cursed ones... better still that they be free and happy, ja?”

The work of constructing the little boats had been completed by the time Keiko and Tomomi returned to the field. In fact, the Young Master was just putting on another performance of proclaiming Pietro to be the admiral of the little fleet. Keiko giggled softly as she set her pack down and draped her cloak over it. And after Dommi finished explaining where Miss Emmi was — indeed, a wise and sensible precaution it was to warn Broke — Keiko presented the map to the Squire with a deep and quite a proper curtsy.

“My Lord Admiral, may I present to you the finest map of the Forest you are ever likely to find... and the fact that it’s the only map of the Forest you’re ever likely to find does not diminish its beauty in any way.”

Her mood was definitely far more radiant now than it had been earlier in the day and she chuckled as she made her way to the edge of the river where the Young Master was explaining the use of the coracles. They were strange contraptions, but she’d trust Lord Tone-Deaf that they would get them safely to Home. After all, he had promised Missus Heatherson. And even the Young Master would wilt if Missus Miller decided he needed a truly baleful look.

Once underway, though, it didn’t take long to adapt to the movement and to the poling. It was a moving vessel and movement was a natural thing for a Rhoni. These little tubs required a different way of balancing, but one did not become as proficient in the Dances as she was without having a good sense of balance.

For all the cursed nature of the Forest, it still held an ineffable beauty. Keiko didn’t care at all for the fish of the Blackwater, but the trees were clearly just as dangerous. Bodies and bones were a gruesome sight, and she found it odd to have so much compassion for the Forest even as it presented its fearsome nature to them.

From her place behind Lyric, Keiko could hear a few words drifting from her friend. While she understood more than most the pain and sadness, she worried more for Lyric than the environment. She wished there was some way to console her friend, but these boats... well, it wasn’t possible.

As Her light found it more and more difficult to penetrate the Forest’s canopy, Keiko noted the shadows along the banks and sighed with relief. The were the right size and shape to be the Guardians. Hopefully, that meant they were close to their destination.

At last, they did indeed arrive at Home. It was just as beautiful as she remembered it to be. She recognized those at the docks and was happy to be out of the little boat. Miss Emmi quickly found her Tone-Deaf Lord, and Lady ever so graciously greeted the newcomers. There was disharmony in Dama Kadri’s greeting of Broke. Keiko knew Broke and, therefore, understood why Broke behaved as she did. She did not know Dama Kadri and, therefore, did not understand the difference in the Dama’s greeting for Lady and Broke. However, Keiko would not worry over it for there were so many other things vying for her attention.

Home gave her a chance to walk and stretch and hug Tomomi and many of the other Mice they came across as the group made its way to the common room. She smiled and made a point to greet Mister Rat.

And finally... finally, Keiko laughed as Tomomi giggled when Lady Bekkah was buried in a huge Mouse group hug.

“You were so right, my friend. Never has any Healer been so loved, I think.” She looked around, looking for Renyard and seeing familiar faces. “It feels like coming home, Tomomi. I know it’s your Home and far too stationary to be a proper Rhoni home, but I can’t help but feel that I’ve... well... come home again.”

She looked over at Lyric and stretched out a hand. “Come feel the joy, Lyric. You see how happy the Mice are to see Lady Bekkah? Terrible things may have happened in the past, yes. We don’t know what tomorrow will bring to us. But there is still joy to be found in the Now. If a person as different as a Mouse or a Rabbit or a Wolf or a Fox or a Rat can find peace and even joy, should we — who are said to be real people — not also see the peace here?”

The Rhoni’s eyes held a hint of a shadow to them, but it was as if she consciously chose to be here in Home, in this Now of joyous reunion... chose to be in this place of unimaginable diversity and hold no judgments of any feelings or corresponding not-feelings.

Whatever sorrow or fear or anger she felt had to be put aside while here at Home. There would be more than enough time and far too many opportunities for those emotions as they ventured out to rescue the Kin in the mines.

Her gaze wandered over to Cesare, a stray through flittered through her mind and a sparkle of mischief glinted in her eyes before she looked back at Lyric, her hand still outstretched.

Pietro


This was obviously Bekkah's time, so the squire moved to a nearby tree, carefully extracted the map Keiko had given him back at the small village they'd left, eased down and, using the tree as a backrest, started to examine it.

He made a subdued head gesture toward Cesare to join him, but was not sure whether the Rhoni had caught the invitation.

Cesare

During his scrutiny of Home, his enjoyment of the haphazard nature of the buildings and their access evident in his eyes, he catches a gesture from Pietro. He misses little, choosing mostly to stay in the background observing as he has realised that you learn more that way and also attract less attention, allowing the tides of life to flow around you, rather than inserting yourself firmly in their currents.

He makes his way over, nodding and smiling as he does, an extra large grin in Bekkah's direction.

Pietro


The squire gestured for Cesare to sit and nodded toward the map he was holding.

"Help me see if we can make sense of this."

Cesare

He looks at the map, taking a few moments to take in the details before commenting.

"Good map. So it looks like we have almost as far to go again as we have come already. There are things on the map that we would need more explanation of.. such as this charred ravine. Why was it charred? Is it navigable? Is the darksteel pipe large enough for humans? This could provide a back way in.. maybe? At the front there is a wall. Can it be climbed? Or a waterfall.. same question. How guarded are the bridges? We need to talk to the forest kin.. or to Tomomi who drew this.. someone who knows the most about the place and ask our questions so as to decide our approach."

He is generally quiet but that is often because he doesn't have much to say. Occasionally he does.

Pietro


Impressed despite himself, Pietro looked at Cesare for a long moment before smiling and nodding to the younger man.

"You ask very good questions, my friend," he said.

"We will have to see how satisfying are the answers we are able to obtain to them."

Lyric

Slowly a smile formed, thin and wan, but Lyric's eyes seemed haunted still, maybe even a little lifeless... lost in some deep angst... more than ennui or malaise, this was an existential melancholy.

Lyric offered her hand to the Rhoni girl and let her fingers entwine with Keiko's. At first there was little strength in the grip. That weak smile, all the life she could muster, had to be enough to let her friend know she was still 'alive' in this place of unimaginable sorrow. But there was the glimmer of life and hope burgeoning among the denizens around her now and that also mattered to Lyric. The mouses were overjoyed and even in the grimmest and bleakest landscape of a dark-magic devastated forest... the Forest... these little ones had hope.

Her hand tightened a little and her smile warmed. For the briefest of moments there seemed to be a hint of light in her eyes as though those pale blue irises became vibrant again.

"Forgive me friend Keiko... My sadness is weight in this place... The people are happy and have hope, maybe for the first time in all their lives, and that is reason to be joyous. I see that..."

Still holding Keiko's hand, she glanced around at her other companions, Cesare and Pietro huddling to look at the mouse inspired Rhoni drawn paper, Bekkah been covered in adoration and child-like love and honor and respect, and Dommi who watched it all himself while Emmi and he were reunited.

"I am far from my home... and yet I feel closer now than I have ever felt in my life... To see this forest like this tears at my heart and soul. I feel grief and I feel regret... I wonder what might be different if different choices had been made... If I had not left my home when I did, what might be different, who might I be?"

Keiko

“I understand... about the Forest, anyway. The World Forest should be...”

The Rhoni paused, her eyes searching Lyric’s pale blue ones as if, perhaps, inspiration for the right words could be found there. But she found only the reflection of her own imperfect words.

“It should be as it was meant to be. But friend Lyric, we cannot change what was. And to burden our hearts with what might have been is a deep current that leads to the darkest places of a soul. It matters who you are, here and now. Only by being who we are in the now, and not worrying about who we might have been if different waves had been ridden, can we affect what might yet be.”

Keiko smiled at her friend and gently squeezed the musician’s hand. “You left your home when you did. You are who you are. I like who you are. All that remains is for you to ask yourself if you like who you are. And for you to remember that the wonder you have found in all the new things you have found on your journey still lies in the familiar. The World Forest, though cursed to bear the name Dirkwood, still holds wonder, Lyric. It’s just harder to see through the pain the Forest feels.”

Lyric


"Oh friend Keiko, you do have my gift for feeling and sensing what others need to hear..."

That was a purposeful understatement of what Lyric did in terms of reading people, but for the point she was making it served in the poetic sense of things to state it as she did.

"Let not doubt hinder your path. This empathy, blended with your own Gift, must mean you are destined for the very things your elders saw and believed when you set out upon your own journey."

Lyric squeezed her friend's hand again, and offered a hand to Tomomi. It was a bold step, for the Mouse friend had clung closely to Keiko.

"We WILL free the forestkin and we will then find a way to end this terrible curse upon the Forest. Those who have tried to break her spirit and poison her soul will be broken themselves."

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

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

The vixen woman turned to face the guests. It was as if she simply couldn’t not be graceful... as if elegance and beauty had been the most important facet of her forging... as if she had been specifically made that way — which was both an alluring and a very, very disturbing thought.

“Here we have One Law, One Teaching, and One Rule.

“My One Law is simple: to always help each other. Kindness has no limits.

“Renyard’s One Teaching is just as plain: to learn a new kindness every day. Even a little kindness is to be treasured.

“Broke’s One Rule I suspect you already know: No fighting. Never raise paw, hand, talon, claw, or teeth to another with the intent to do harm. Do not fight. Protect.”

Lady smiled then and offered her guests a formal bow.

“We are a simple folk, with only three tenets to guide our lives. Please, be patient with us as we are not used to guests. We have now had more in the last three days than we have had since we first built our first room. It is almost time for our evening meal, and we have yet to invent formality.

“Welcome to Home.”

She then blinked once, then twice, and placed her hands on her curvy hips.

“Fine. Two more things. The only hands most of us know of your kind are harsh and cruel. So do not be disturbed if some of us are shy.”

Her brow raised, as she glanced to the side where somewhere beneath a pile of Forest Folk there was a Healer.

“Not all of us are Mice.”

In truth, there was something different in the character of the hugs that suddenly enveloped Bekkah. Yes, the Kin were happy, thankful, wanting to give back a kindness in return for the one that had been granted them. But there was also a sense of desperation to not lose that gift — to prove by touch that it was real and sure, and to hold on to it for as long as possible as if it was something that could be taken away in a heartbeat.

Lady’s attention then fell on Kadri, her pretty eyes catching the slightest hint of the Noble’s discomfort. She looked between the Amber Princess and her Guardian.

“There is a difference between fighting and protecting. Fighting you do for yourself, protecting is a kindness you offer to others at a bitter cost that you then take onto yourself.

“Let me ask you something. Have you ever seen one of our Guardians draw their Darksteel blades first? The answer — one I believe in — is no.”

She then held up her hand, summoning a brief pause before she continued.

“Last, anyone — anyone — tonight who gives Broke and that Korie lad enough beer to get them singing will be tossed in the swamp with the two of them.

“That’s a kindness to us.”

That got a bark from the big black wolf and wide eyes from Dominic Korie. Dominic’s response was sudden, blurted out and panicked, very much like a younger lad getting caught with his hand in the cookie jar.

“But, Mother!”

Lady waggled her finger.

“Aw, you never let me have any fun.”

The vixen-woman smiled.

“Welcome back, Young Dominic.”

True to Lady’s word, the Forest Folk dinner began. There must have been some kind of magic associated with dinner as tables slid out by themselves and there were suddenly many lil’uns here and there, setting out plates and bowls and then platters of meat, cheese, and bread. Preparing for the meal finally brought Bekkah some respite as her Mice slipped away to begin their chores — though she was never without a handful. From the common room hearth, just like any other great hall, the stew was ladled out from a big black pot. The rest was a celebration of homespun bustle. There was no formality at all; one merely found food and partook.

There was, however, an oddness. There was a scarcity of iron and silver within Home; indeed, it seemed that most metal items, from spoons to knives to cooking pots, were made of Darksteel, even to the hinges on the doors.

As for food, there was fish to be had, pies stuffed with vegetables, and venison. The Guardians went for the venison, and it wasn’t a pretty sight. Two of them started to wrestle over the biggest piece — a white Wuff and a tawny one — and it wasn’t long until the piece of venison was forgotten (actually taken by a second black wolf just an ear shorter than Broke) as the first two got lost in their life and death tussle.

It seemed hypocritical at first until what was happening became evident. It was obvious to the Forest Folk, who let them tumble past as if it were a regular occurrence, something normal and not to be paid attention to.

They were definitely not fighting.

They were very definitely playing.

For the others now, matters were much simpler.

Dominic had found a chair and with Miss Emmi sitting on his lap, an oddly perfect fit, they were sharing a bowl of stew.

Tomomi nodded quietly, listening as Keiko spoke to Lyric. The Mouse’s head swiveled back and forth between the two, until she finally reached up and tugged at the minstrel’s tunic.

“Hey, Miss Lyric.

“This is our Home. And I know. We’ve been real people for a day, but even so? We... we would get lost if we didn’t have a Home. I almost got lost. Friend Keiko saved me.

“Now this is her Home, too.

“Can’t you feel it? Safe and warm. Lady and Renyard to teach us. The Guardians to protect us. Soft to... to... to...”

The little Forest Kin blinked as her action matched Lyric’s, that of hands reaching for each other.

“Keiko! She needs to meet Soft!”

Snaring both their hands, Lyric’s and Keiko’s, she led them to a table where a short guardian sat with a taller one. This Wuffess perked her ears as she watched the three approach. She was all browns with white highlights and a thick fur that looked more gentle than velvet or merebeast. Definitely female, this guardian wore a light tunic over which was an open hauberk of leather and black metal.

“Miss Soft... this is Miss Lyric, and she looks like a Rat that’s come here for the first time! She looks better now but even so, she needs to know about Home!”

Next to her the short guardian spoke up.

“Wuff.”

At that single word Tomomi nodded.

“See, Keiko! See, Miss Lyric! Even Wuff-Wuff agrees.”

Soft looked up at Lyric, lifting a plate of bread and meat from her lap.

“Herrre. Firerrrrst, we fi’hh yourrr tummy. Don’t worrrrry, it’s good. And as you nibb’hhe, ‘ook around you.”

It seemed the Guardians, as a whole, had real problems with their Rs and Ls.

“See.

“Nothing but smi’hhes. Nothing but warm hearrrrts. Ja... the Forrrest is currrsed. But Home is not.

“Do you not have a Home of yourrr own?

“If so, you underrrrstand.

“If not, take a chance.

“No harrm, no hurrrrt, no demands. I prrromise.

“Sharrrrre ourrrrs for a night. For herrrrre, it is not imporrrtant who you werrrre or who you arrre suppposed to be. Herrre, it on’hhy matters who you arrrre.”

Elsewhere, Pietro and Cesare could find their tree to lean on; not that there was much choice. It was the central tree that rose from the swamp, the tree that supported Home, its trunk and branches providing the structure for the ramshackle residence.

As they looked at the map it appeared they had collected a shadow. At first, it was an uncomfortable shadow – not a lil’un or a bigg’un but somewhere in the middle. He had the large ears of a mouse and the long tail of a mouse sweeping out from under his long tunic skirt — not a Mouse, but a Rat... a Rat with extremely long whiskers. Rats, in general, were hard to get used to and especially hard for a very, very large one. His tunic was sturdy but like most of the Forest Folk garb, it was a patchwork of different pieces and different materials.

“That’s how they get the sap from the First Tree to the forges...”

From the side, the Rat reached out and pointed to the line labeled ‘Darksteel pipe.’

“I guess if you could cut Darksteel you could get into the pipe. You’d drown before you get to the Old Masters’ place... but because it’s the sap of the First Tree, you wouldn’t die. I don’t recommend it, though. It hurts real bad.

“The Old Masters keep that portion of the woods burned out, so the Forest doesn’t eat the pipe. It’s not long so it’s actually doable. But it means it’s probably the only place you’ll run into the Old Masters above ground.”

He then crossed his arms.

“The bridges... it depends. If things have gone bad in the mines, there will be Weasels, as they’ll need to make more of us. When there were still Men in the mines the Bridges were watched; now less so. Otherwise, the Old Masters care little about what happens above ground. Below ground is a different matter.”

Beady eyes peered at the map.

“The waterfall is not too high, and it would be easy to get you to its base. Otherwise, you will be daring the Forest’s wrath. You will need at least one Mouse to get in, but it all depends on where you are going. Mice can only go to where they have been before, with one exception.”

The rat also supplied the answer to Cesare’s final question.

“That would be me, Wrath and Lockpick. Wrath is the other black Wuff and Lockpick, well that’s what she is. Our lockpick.

“Most of us don’t have names. Just what we do.”

Pietro


He had noticed the rodent-looking Forest Kin observing him and the Rhoni lad, but he could not discern any threat from the Rat, so he said nothing for the moment. Then Lady began to speak and something drew him to his feet where he listened respectfully.

Lady was Dominic's mother? That both tended to answer several questions yet, at the same time, was difficult to believe. Pietro glanced at Cesare to see if his newly met companion had heard the same thing he had.

When Lady finished her welcoming oration and the feast began, the squire turned and listened as the Rat began answering Cesare's questions, nodding slowly and frowning in thought.

"My name is Pietro Keir Hansson of Talantal," he said, "in service to Lord Dames and this is my friend Cesare."

"I would be honored to know how you are called."

Lyric

She accepted the proffered plate humbly, and bowed her head as a 'remark' of gratitude. It was not time for her to speak, even in reply, for she was a guest and the Guardian had wisdom to impart for which she given to do for others before Lyric. So Lyric could assume because Tomomi wanted her to meet Soft for a reason.

Lyric ate and looked around and accepted that the Guardian Soft was indeed true to her word in that there was a sense of peace and safety carved out of the middle of such anguish and sorrow. And then Soft asked a question that none had ever asked her before. Surely they had asked where she came from and she answered them after a fashion. But Soft asked her if she had a home. She felt compelled to answer that question, but the Guardian continued to speak and made her own question somewhat rhetorical. No doubt she posed the question to give Lyric reason to pause and consider the answer only in her heart, but not speak it aloud.

Tears welled up in her eyes though. Take a chance.

No harm, no hurt, no demands.

A promise.

The answer to Soft's question died on Lyric's lips, but the weight of the admission did not fade so easily. But it softened as the invitation, heartfelt in it's offer, whispered peace and hope to her soul.

Lyric let slip her heavy pack from her back, sliding it off one shoulder first, freeing her arm, the one that held the plate, and then letting it ride down her other arm until it's weight was stopped by the floor between herself and the table. It was as much a real act of relaxation as it was a metaphor in reply to the Guardian.

"You have done me a kindness... Who I am, In The Now, is Lyric... a Minstrel. I am grateful for your hospitality and your openness to offer me the safety of Home... for both my body and my heart."

She exhaled deeply, another gesture of her parting ways with the angst she carried that had been stirred by this dark forest.

"I would return that kindness to you and to all here with a song. That is my nature. If you do not like my song though, then I would not resist being thrown into the swamp."

At that last she summoned a shrug and chuckle, trying to slip back into her Minstrel's ways of performance.

"But maybe it will be the first of a few songs, if my voice is pleasing, that is..."

Cesare

He nods when he is introduced but gets back to business without much delay.

"So the pipe is out as a way of entry. So it sounds like the waterfall and possibly the bridges are our way in. It has been suggested that this is a sneak mission.. which is fine by me."

He grins thinking that if he had been forest kin he might have been a rat or a mouse.

"We will need to know what it is that the dwarves do to you. If we are to change that we will have to destroy what they use. Sorry if this is a sensitive topic but the more we know, the better job we can do."

He nods to the rat.

"Appreciate your help."

He wishes Mikal was with them. They could do with his sage advice.

Kadri:

She pauses, not interrupting before speaking again, calmly and without rancor.

"I do not wish to bring hostility into this gathering, Lady; but neither did my friend when he was unduly accused. His being ready to do something if the situation demanded is by no means the same as actually having done it. And I find little good in gratuitously besmirching the honor of a good man. I accept your guardian's role here. I laud your ethics. I do not, however, accept the unjustified insults to my friend's honor easily. I can and will work with Broke for the good which is helping those whom she protects. That is a good thing, a worthy thing, a thing which would make me happy, make others happy. I would willingly risk a dance with Krysta for such a good thing. But my friend is my friend - and as far as I am concerned is family. Just so you understand why I might find myself less than gregarious with your guardian while things stand as they do."

She looks at the map reaching much the same conclusions as cesar.

"Yes, climbing and sneaking I am good ATM both."

She nods.

"And I too am interested in Cesar's questions."

Bekkah

She smiled and graciously took the time to hug every mouse who came to her. She had smiles and words of encouragements for each of them. She seemed to have an endless amount of patience.

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

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

“Stak an stehn...”

Lady returned Kadri’s remark with a simple phrase in Forestalk. While she answered the Amber Noble, her words were obviously for those gathered around her, to calm expressions of concern, confusion and perhaps even a little fear.

“Gevtsa nin en knisse jemanstvu, er de forde deknisst fevts kun.”

As she straightened herself, Lady’s words met with nods by her kin. Then, with a single graceful paw she reached out and over to the side and, by just knowing where her Guardian would be, closed her dainty hand into a fist and very lightly rapped Broke on the nose, to which the black wolf went cross-eyed for a heartbeat. Then Broke blinked and gave Lady an almost stern look before returning the favor, but definitely not as lightly.

Lady rubbed her muzzle and then smiled.

“That was not fighting. That was a lesson. Lessons are important. It is also why that one over there...”

She nodded to the Guardian conversing with Lyric, Keiko, and Tomomi.

“...teaches our newly rescued. We do not call her Soft because her fur is fine. Imagine being a Mouse and having to look up to Broke or Wrath. They are, by who and what they are, rough around the edges.

“You come into my house and bark at my Guardian. Should I instinctively growl back or should I instead try to understand your true nature? Should I expect you to be like me, a forged vixen? Should I expect you to be like the majority of real people we have met? Should I come to know who you appear to be, who I think you should be, who I have convinced myself you are or instead should I try to learn what sort of person you really are?

“The last takes patience, time and kindness.

“Which would you prefer I do?”

Cesare and Pietro were involved in a very different manner of conversation. Their discourse was much more focused. Pietro’s question was met with a most curious non-answer.

“Well met Pietro Keir Hansson of Talantal. I don’t have a name. I am just the One They Come To When It’s Time To Do A Rescue.

“That Rat Over There.”

The short rat-person shrugged his shoulders as if it were just a matter of course.

“Rats can get you up the waterfall. Easy. It is what Rats do. And yes, the longer and farther you can go without alerting the Old Masters the more successful you will be; our Rescues end when we are discovered.”

The Rat then closed his eyes.

“They break us. They hammer us. They kill us over and over, but because of the sap we cannot die.

“Do you think we are not telling the truth when we say we are forged? It is precisely that. It happens in a smithy, just like metal. Instead of boiling metal there is the sap, liquid flesh, and mush of bone. Where a sword maker casts magic to strengthen and change ore into a blade, so it is with us. Close your eyes and imagine being a billet of steel; that is what they do to us.

“Just like any other tool.”

He opened his eyes and looked at the map.

“The mines are deeper than the forges.

“It will be difficult for us.

“Do you understand? There are no smiths among the Forest Kin. Our crafted metal is made in the Village beyond the Watch.

“Knowing what it is to be forged...

“How could we do that?”

By then, things had changed a bit. Broke had wandered over to join Dominic and Miss Emmi, sitting down next to the young lord after snaring up a big hank of venison for herself. When she roughly claimed her spot, she and Dominic exchanged some elbowing, punches to the shoulders and a few cuffs. However, the roughhousing ended suddenly after a sharp squeak from a Mouse. There was a moment of silence followed by laughter from all three.

The other black wolf took the space on Broke’s other side. While she and Dominic were playing, he took half of Broke’s venison.

“Hey!

“That’s twice for you!”

Those sudden light words came from the Mice who had swarmed the Priestess of Attera. Indeed, it was a fair accusation, as several of the Mice about her merely circled around to get another hug and greeting from Lady Yurisdotter. An endless amount of patience was thus matched by an endless cycle of Mice.

Though she was surprised when suddenly the sea of Mice parted and Bekkah was suddenly lifted up from her feet in a very, very strong embrace. The Mice all giggled as Bekkah was snared from behind by a large, handsome figure, whose broad shoulders and sharply carved face was cervine-sculpted, and between long tapered ears rose a dashing rack of antlers.

A big buck of a deer had just taken over the hugging.

To the side, Soft looked between Keiko and Lyric. She still slurred her letters as she spoke again. Large brown eyes met the Minstrel’s as if she were reading cues of stance and expression, as if the Minstrel’s quiet was clear and loud.

“One of the hardest things we have to teach the new Kin is that you don’t have to answer every question.

“That it is fine to just hear, as long as you listen.”

Tomomi nodded at those words. And in return, she just held onto Keiko tighter, stronger, resting her head against the other’s shoulder, as if it were perfectly fine not to speak. Until... until Lyric made her offer. Then Tomomi’s eyes flashed open wide, bright and surprised for a heartbeat or two. Without a word she looked at Soft, as Soft was her Elder and one of Home’s Important Folks. Her gaze was far too easy to read: happy, hopeful and cutely pleading.

Soft just chuffed out a rough wolfish laugh and returned her attention to Lyric.

“Does that answer your question, Minstrel Lyric?

“Melody is rare to these rooms and stairs, for who would teach us?

“It would be a very welcome gift.”

Tomomi then tugged at her forever friend’s sleeve.

“And Miss Keiko has a whistling potato!”

Pietro


The squire cocked his head to one side and gave the Rat a long, appraising look and then nodded.

"If you would like to have a name, we - Cesare and I - could search for a title worthy of your talents, then." He made a slight gesture, vaguely apologetic.

"If that would be allowed, of course."

Pietro paused and looked from the Rat to Cesare, then to the map and then back to the unnamed Rodent-kin.

"It is good that you survived such harsh tempering. I think that we will work together well."

Cesare

"I am a smith. I forge things - but I would =never= forge creatures. That must stop."

He takes a deep breath, forcing his anger down as Rat paints him a very vivid picture of what these creatures are put through.

"So there might be two ways to stop this. Either we stop the sap or we break the forge. Do you think either of these is possible? Or is there a third way?"

Bekkah

She continued with the hugs from the mice when she was suddenly swept up. She squealed with surprise, then laughed. Harm was something that never crossed her mind.

"You're welcome. You're all welcome. But I'm nothing more than the person who asked for help." she said still laughing.

Pietro


Pietro glanced at Cesare with a quick, if small, smile for the Rhoni lad.

While the squire had been doing his best to be diplomatic, Cesare had come forward as the practical one. Perhaps they would make a good team.

Lyric

The Minstrel closed her eyes and nodded. She would play, but she would do more than that. If there was no melody in this place, then she would give them that, and offer them a way to feel the music and make it their own.

Music was the soul's way of expressing itself. And those of Home, these ForestKin once forged for grim purposes, had been imbued with a soul now. It was as though a kinder and gentler Mistress of the Forge of Life had taken up these 'tools' and given them a new purpose and the means to achieve it. No longer just 'tools', their souls could now empower them to be everything their rules, laws and aspirations guided them toward. And those souls had to be fed, nourished, and nurtured.

Lyric finished that nod with a direct gaze in Soft's direction. She smiled and then glanced sidelong to Tomomi and winked as she knelt beside her pack and let slip the knot that tied her mandolin secure.

With the instrument in hand she made a gesture for those nearby to gather more closely. She sat upon the end of a bench and made the gesture again for those who might be timid and shy.

"Then we will share this together, and let your hearts and souls be filled with emotion and melody. This gift to all, once received, is yours forever..."

She tuned her mandolin in the same way she had done before. She held the instrument still and silent and it was as though she were 'listening' to it through her hands. Then, with a single pluck of each string she twisted the tuning key a bit in one direction or the other and nodded again.

"This first tune has many names, as many tunes do. For today, in this place... we shall call this The Dirkwood Lasses..." She winked again at Tomomi.


The Dirkwood Lasses

As dance tunes were inclined to be, the song was upbeat and quickly paced. Jig time to be exact, but that might be a lesson for a later time, if there was such a time to come.

"Friend Keiko... join me with the Ocarina. I am going to play a tune I leaned some while back. I think I heard it known as The Talantal Faire... and for those of you gathered. Listen and feel, most importantly... feel the rhythm of the song. I want you to join me as well. When you feel the rhythm, and it touches your heart. I want you to clap along."

Lyric demonstrated the 'clapping' in a silent rhythm. She did it slowly and made facial gestures as if there was a tune in her head to which she was hearing and feeling and acting upon. She turned a little for others to see her more clearly. She continued to clap as she spoke, matching the cadence of her words to the rhythm of her clapping.

"Perhaps Friend Keiko, and any of my other companions, can also help you find it and join with it... This is a 'kay-lee'... a party of song and dance... where a village gathers and shares in happiness and joy. It doesn't matter if you have rhythm, it doesn't matter if you can play a tune, or even whistle one... all that matters is you have fun and you try... If I may be so bold, let that be the Rule for this night. Have fun and try..."

The Talantal Faire

Lyric let out a 'WHOOP' as she finished one tune and went right into the next without preamble or description. That sound she made somehow signified the changing of the tune and it 'amped' up her own energy as she stood up, with her mandolin and started to move around a little. Her steps were light and lively, like the music itself were taking her away and dancing her about.

A few bars into the music, she called out, "This is Toss the Feathers... and I want everyone up... everyone... Yes, even the Guardians... Dance and strut. Who cares if you know how... clap and holler. Have fun."

Toss the Feathers

Lyric wasn't done. In fact, she had only just begun. She was determined to have her audience participating in whatever ways they could and would. She moved around the forestkin and through their little collectives, stirring them to join, to pay attention, to be moved, and to feel the music in their new souls.

The Dawnview Reel

and she would play many more, as many more as was needed...

But there came a point where she paused, and like any proper Ceili there came a time for a song of reflection. As she had been playing and performing, and giving life back to her own beleaguered soul, she was taken by a remembrance of a song she had written some time ago, not In the Now, but not in the Way Back Ago either. It had particular poignancy for her after leaving her own home to make her way across the High Tarn and along the Rhoni Trail along the Dirkwood's edge. It was a song of hope for those who felt lost and broken, for those who needed to know they were loved... It was something that Lyric didn't realize how much she needed until she too had been stripped of Home and sent away... She had been broken and needed someplace to call Home. Sometimes Home was a place and sometimes Home was a people... or a Person.

Just one friend could make all the difference. She glanced first at Pietro, who had found her and cared for her when he certainly didn't have to do so. He endured her quirkiness and even found amusement in it. He fed her and gave her company. Little did he realize how important that was to her. She felt an immediate attachment to him, as if she had real kin for the first time in her life. He offered safety and acceptance in a world that might not otherwise be so kind. He was all Order and Law and Honor and Strength and might have every reason to shun her in all her weirdness and chaos, but he didn't. He was the first sign of Hope.

Then there was Keiko. The Rhoni girl who accepted her without question, who probably saw more of her than she dared admit in words or let show in self. She too was on a Journey of Self, and Lyric sensed there was more of a common bond between them in how these journeys began, and that was evidenced in how they had been brought to meet each other. The path of her Cards might blind Keiko to her own Destiny, and Lyric might find the Cards a strange curiosity, as she did this girl who could read them, but one thing was clear. They were drawn together for a purpose. For better or worse, the Rhoni Card reader was stuck with Lyric now.

Bekkah, whose selfless kindness didn't cloud a keen sense of wisdom. They hadn't spent many words together, but Bekkah accepted all who came to her. There was confidence and strength there. Bekkah hid herself within her trappings though, for she served a Divine Being and wanted everyone to accept that she was simply a servant and a messenger. But, Divine Beings chose or created their servants carefully and Bekkah was anything but simple, by the design and purpose of her Goddess no doubt.

The Rhoni Boy, whom Lyric found so attractive... and yet so forbidden. Where an attraction to Dommi might be something for amusement, the Rhoni boy stirred her more deeply. But she had not had more than a few words exchanged between them. She was dangerous to him though, and she knew it. He was kindness and honor... brave and true. His heart held a quest... it was a fire that Lyric could see in his eyes.

Kadri, aloof and proud. It was in her nature not to be cowed before anyone. She was brusque and defiant, but that was a mask for a soul who tried to wrestle the bindings of both the Order and Chaos within her. She was royalty that longed to be common, for her heart carried the weight of the needs of those less fortunate... and yet, she was quick witted and sharp tongued and that caused her troubles. She knew this as well... And because she knew it, Lyric knew it... Lyric could read it.

"Gather 'round again, have seats, on benches or the floor."

Lyric returned to the end of that bench from where she started the 'kay-lee' and rested the mandolin's bowl in her lap, against her belly. She gently held the neck and smiled something of satisfaction. Music eased her own soul. The trip to Home had deeply affected her, but,as Soft had told her would be the case, she found the peace here amidst the darkness that hope held at bay.

"I would like to sing for you now... It is a song that I had written in the Before. But never finished it. It was a song that spoke to feelings in my own heart, back then, and more so recently. I thought this song was about Who I Was when I didn't understand Who I Was Meant To Be. But coming here has shown my heart that this song was not just for me. What I didn't understand in the Before, has become so much more clear now. I want to share this song with you... This song is for YOU, the People of Home. I want to share it with you. From my Heart and Soul to yours. I would be grateful and honored if you would listen."

Lyric bowed her head, closing her eyes, and slowly began to strum the mandolin and when she sang, her voice was haunting and powerful despite the quietness. It was immediately clear that this song was different than any song she had played and maybe even any song that her companions had ever heard before.

Like a gravity well, that power in the quiet drew energy toward the center. The ethereal nature of her voice was layered and natural sounding. There was also an earthiness to it that carried the personal nature of this song as though the words came right from personal experience.

Wrapped up, so consumed by all this hurt
If you ask me, don't know where to start
Anger, love, confusion
Roads that go nowhere
I know there's somewhere better
'Cause you always take me there

Came to you with a broken faith
Gave me more than a hand to hold
Caught before I hit the ground
Tell me I'm safe, you've got me now

Would you take the reins
If I lose control?
If I'm lying here
Will you take me home?

Could you take care of a broken soul?
Will you hold me now?
Oh, will you take me home?
will you take me home?
will you take me home?
will you take me home?
will you take me home?

Hold the blade to my heart, count 1, 2, 3
If you walk away then it's what I need
Every minute gets easier
The more you talk to me
You rationalize my darkest thoughts
Yeah, you set them free

Came to you with a broken faith
Gave me more than a hand to hold
Caught before I hit the ground
Tell me I'm safe, you've got me now

Would you take the reins
If I lose control?
If I'm lying here
Will you take me home?

Could you take care of a broken soul?
will you hold me now?
will you take me home?


And time will make it heal
I won't be lost forever
And soon I wouldn't feel
Like I'm haunted, oh, falling

You say space will make it better
And time will make it heal
I won't be lost forever
And soon I wouldn't feel
Like I'm haunted, oh, falling

Would you take the reins
If I lose control?
If I'm lying here
Will you take me home?

Could you take care?
will you take me home?
will you hold me now?
will you take me home?
take me home?
take me home?
take me to Home.

*** Take Me Home ***

Cesare

The music starts behind him somewhere but his foot picks up the beat almost of its own accord.

"Pietro, Rat, I think it would be rude not to join in. We can continue this important discussion just a little later."

With a grin Cesare turns towards the music. Rhoni can rarely resist music, particularly where there is dance involved. His feet light he starts to dance on his own, weaving around the folk so gathered. He will happily dance with anyone, companion or kin, even showing steps or just accepting what each contributes. Keiko, in particular, would be a target as she would know the dances he is also familiar with. More probably as she has spent more time and with a larger group of Rhoni. For him, it takes him back to his small Rhoni family, to the happy times they had, bringing those memories back to the here and now.

Joyful laughter bubbles from within as he abandons himself to the music and the rhythm, encouraging others to join in. In some ways these are the only times he truly feels free.

And when the dance music subsides, he sinks to the floor cross-legged and listens as Lyric sings from the heart.

At the end, eyes bright, he seeks out her gaze, holds it for a moment.. and mouths 'thank you'.

Pietro


The squire frowned for a moment and then shrugged. He was not much of a dancer and the ones he did know were of the more formal, Talantal variety which he did not think would fit with the mood or the music.

So he moved in closer to the frolicking group and clapped his hands in time with the music.

Kadri:

"Oh, I have no intention of not trying to know anyone better - including Broke. I thought it only fair however that you knew the source of any tensions I have - and that they are limited to that one thing. If I never tried to get to know further anyone who had once annoyed me, then my circle of acquaintances would be narrow indeed - I merely wish that Broke had been able to try to know my friend better - because I think she would have found much in common. For now though Lady - the dance and the music calls. A language I think we all speak."

She says, as the music plays.

"And when the dance calls, I must answer."

She removes her cloak and throws herself into the music, whirling, ducking and moving - releasing tensions and stresses into the motion, moving and twirling with the music. Definitely nothing formal. The lithe almost boneless grace she shows while riding and fighting translates well to dance as well.

She also sits when Lyric starts to sing her final song - and listens.

Bekkah

Most of her friends had seen her at the celebration in Talantal, so it was to nobody's surprise when she began to dance. She moved from partner to partner both big and little, smiling and laughing as she went. She made a point of taking Pietro by the hands, moving him about, hoping to help him relax a bit more. She only stopped when the music stopped.

Pietro


The squire smiled and nodded as the Lady of Attera took his hands and moved him into the steps of the local dance.

While Pietro was not an accomplished dancer, he was lithe and agile and moved well enough not to look foolish.

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

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

“Names are a gift, given but never asked for.”

Lady had walked up behind Cesare and Pietro, looking over That Rat’s shoulder.

“Wrath, Broke and I were named by the Dwarves. They were not kind names, but we made them ours. Renyard is the word for Fox from the Dwarven tongue.

“So is it acceptable. Of course, it is. But don’t expect any of us to ask.

“Emerald’s and Tomomi’s names were given out of honest love.

“The Mice named Soft. It’s the only thing they have all ever agreed on.”

She took a step backward.

“He’s a good Rat. He deserves a good name.”

Next to them the Rat wrinkled his nose. He just shook his head at Lady’s kind words, grumbling a bit.

“Lady has always been too kind. But to answer the other question...”

Rats, it seemed, were utterly pragmatic.

“Breaking the pipe would be temporary. The dwarves would just repair it. Stopping the flow of sap? It would probably harm the Forest more than it already is.

“As for the Forges, the problem would be not only to break the Forges but to prevent them from ever being used again. That is a question we have never asked. It may not be a question that can be answered here. It is like talking about mining Darksteel without ever having seen a dragon bleed.”

Perhaps there would have been more planning but then, across the hall, one of the small company of visitors asked those around her to gather close.

For a moment there was absolute silence, a silence that was filled with the notes of a brightly plucked melody. It took a moment, it took two moments before the smiles started. Even Bekkah was set down at the onset of the music, strong hands on her shoulders, as Lyric became the center of attention.

Except perhaps for Tomomi, who tugged on Keiko’s sleeve very gently. She looked up at her friend with an imploring smile. She echoed Lyric’s request.

“Please... your magic potato? It sounds like sparkles.”

Eventually, Lyric had a circle of Forest Folk around her, lil’uns and bigg’uns both, watching and listening. It was very different from her previous audiences. Large or small, those she previously sang for all knew what a minstrel was, knew that music and beat could be something more than marking the rhythm of hard labor, knew that tales romantic and mysterious could be woven in notes and harmony. Here, in Home, either they didn’t know or it was something very rare.

And thus, without a breath of power, without gifts divine, Lyric brought a bit of true magic to Home.

When it came to dancing, however, things were much less magical, and it was something their own little group had much more skill in than any individual Kin. Pietro and Bekkah, once Bekkah was freed from buck and mice, cut the most graceful path across the rustic hall — be it a fast-stepped court Pavane or a country Branle — so much so that their hosts gladly cleared a circle for them, clapping to the music’s beat.

For Kadri, it was something rare and unexpected. She had never danced with a Rat before but it was kind of nice not having to partner with someone two heads taller than she. The Rats were surprisingly light on their feet and, for some reason, they made her also feel a bit bouncier.

Cesare found himself in the instructor’s role for perhaps the tallest mouse he had ever seen and a second lass with a raccoon’s mask across her eyes. Now this created two problems for the Rhoni lad. First, it kept him away from Keiko and second, it was a major juggling act dealing with two partners at the same time — not that they seemed to have any problem at all with sharing.

The surprise, however, was Dommi and Miss Emerald. They crossed the floor with a country grace to challenge Pietro and Bekkah, all twirls and quick steps. But mostly, it was because they seemed to just fit together — black cloak and travel cloak, a dashing matched set. Of all those on the floor, they were not just dancing to the festive music but were actually dancing for each other. This lasted until the Dawnview Reel when Broke cut in.

And that was something that just could not be explained in words. It had to be seen, an absolute calamity of misdirection, poking and conflicting steps.

“Hey, that’s my foot!”

“Wuff! I lead!”

“Who says!”

“Me!”

“I’m the GUY!”

“Shorrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrt!”

“So! I’m the.... Hey! Put me down!”

“I’m Pack Leaderrrr!”

“Careful furrball... I’ll say it...”

Now by then, Miss Emerald was sitting down in the middle of the floor, her hands over her mouth trying not to giggle. Lady had her face in the palm of her paw and the rest of the Pack, well, they were less subtle. Even Flower and Snow had stopped playing to point and laugh.

“Don’t darrrre!”

“I will!”

“Don’t even think it, shorrrrrtstuff...”

“MOUSE!”

And the mismatched pair immediately vanished beneath a horde of Mice. It was a pile of Forest Folk, Guardian, and Noble with Miss Emmi sitting on top looking very satisfied.

...all before Lyric made it to the reel’s final chorus.

Which left her last song.

Could you take care of a broken soul...

The words brought quiet across Home because they struck so close, so deep, into the hearts of these crafted people.

At the end, when her melody fell silent, there was a shadow at Lyric’s shoulder. Someone was standing at her back.

She had never had that before — someone watching her back. It was something unheard of in her small village.

It was the dark gray wolf, the archer, and he offered her two things: a goblet of cool water... and a single word.

“Ja.”

Pietro


"Then we will have to think of a suitable name for Master Rat, Cesare and I," Pietro said with a slight bow and smile for Lady. The smile disappeared to be replaced with a frown of concentration as the Rat discussed strategies.

A question occurred to him.

"Can the dwarves be defeated... dissuaded, convinced without the necessity of killing them all?" he asked but, before the Rat could answer, he was drawn into the dancing.

He found Bekkah a pleasant armful and a skillful partner in dance, but, in his opinion, they could not compare with the antics of Lord Dominic and his Little'un partner.

Pietro had been to many parties, but they all had one thing in common when compared with this one...

Proper and lavish and... dull.

Lyric

Lyric, eyes wet, smile soft, heart young as a new day, soul as old as time itself, accepted the goblet as she stood to reveive the gifts from the 'Wolven' Archer.

Goblet in one hand, she set the mandolin down where she had been sitting. Her eyes had never lost contact with those lupine orbs. Once her other hand was free, she reached upwards to his face and leaned in to place her cheek against his... well, his snout for the want of cheek. hand to the far side, face to the near, she 'trusted' that he would accept this gesture as a kindness and that 'trust' itself was what she offered for the fierce Guardian after he showed compassion.

"You offer me a kindness beyond compare, beyond measure, beyond price, and you do this without knowing who I am. Or anything about me save from what you see before you, save for what your ears hear about me in the words I sing. Please know I can not return to my Home. I am banished. Oh Gentle Heart, my path is still before me. And I can not stay here... my path is still before me."

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 small pile of Mice suddenly collapsed a bit as if the inside suddenly become less. A few breaths later, the top of the pile was shorter as Miss Emerald took her leave, vanishing on a personal hunt. They might not be predators, but they were very good at finding things in hard-to-find places.

This, of course, left a black ex-Coven Wolf still under assault. Broke’s response was to simply lean back and try not to be seen smiling as she became an impromptu piece of furniture. The Mice certainly enjoyed the opportunity to clamber over the Guardian. At times, there was a certain benefit to being one of the biggest of the bigg’uns; she could hold a lot of Home’s smallest. This was reinforced when a pair of smaller black wolves decided to join their pack leader in the informal gathering, and fewer Mice found perches.

If there was any contradiction in the after dinner company, it was one particular Forest Folk who did not partake in the dancing — that was their most elegant. Lady preferred to watch from the back wall, sipping her drink from a simple clay cup. However, she genuinely seemed to enjoy the music as much as everyone else did. And every so often, she’d snare one of her kin, walk them across to another, and push them both out to dance.

For Pietro, it was definitely pleasant as he swept and, in turn, swept away with the fair Lady Yurisdotter. And while there was something right about two Imperials dancing together, he was correct: Dominic Korie and his partner shared some secret ingredient that set them apart. He wasn’t the only one who noticed, either. The shyest of the Forest folk were also transfixed as if their dance was a promise of something just as miraculous as waking up with a soul.

If the Executioner could find someone to care for, maybe they could too.

Lady’s smile was a knowing one as she watched. Off to the side, Tomomi didn’t look up. Instead, she just reached out, not even looking, finding Keiko’s hand as they twined their fingers together.

Perhaps one day Pietro and Bekkah would also be dancing in the same manner as the Young Master. Perhaps it would not be with each other. But that was somehow still a very good thought, not a melancholy one. Even if it turned out that way, would it be a stranger occurrence than being in a treehouse full of reforged forest critters?

These were all thoughts that might have occurred before Dominic had summoned the horde of Mice and subsequently vanished. It was also well after That Rat’s pragmatic reply to his question.

“That would be very clever — to destroy the forges and the mines without taking lives.” His reply followed him as he joined the festivities. “We are taught that our lives are precious. It is a hard lesson to learn, and even harder to unlearn when necessity demands it.”

Now, however, the music had ended and Lyric’s mandolin had been set down. Cesare found himself between a dark-haired Mouse and her companion. The companion’s hair was bound in a ponytail by a red ribbon that was tied in a bow. The companion’s hair, streaked dark and light in descending rings, was bound in a ponytail by a red ribbon that was tied in a bow. Of course, they didn’t have names, but that didn’t seem to be a problem for either of them.

“I saw him first!”

“And you stepped on his feet many more times than I!”

“Just proves I was closer than you!”

“Hah! There’s nothing of yours that I can’t take!”

“Speaking of which...” The dark-haired one reached over and playfully tugged at the other’s ribbon. “That’s mine.”

“Bah. What’s yours is mine...”

They both laughed, each of them eyeing the Rhoni lad. Now, one had to consider that if these Forest Folks were unique and exotic, then it would be reasonable that he would be equally exotic to them.

“...and what is mine, yours.”

They sounded like sisters, although they obviously weren’t. There were many ways to find one’s worth — Tomomi had a friend, the Guardians had their Pack, Lady had... Well, all the Forest Kin were her children. These two were their own little family.

The Forest Folk didn’t have much, but they made the most of what little they did have.

Kadri ended her dance with a twirl and a spin, her cloak flaring out playfully and dramatically. There was food and drink still to be had. Lady watched her with curiosity, delicately sipping at her drink and looking over the top of her cup at the Amber princess.

On the other side of the room were Lyric and the Guardian. His muzzle was softer than expected for such a rough appearance. Perhaps the Mice did know something that others didn’t when they used the Pack as furniture.

“None of us can ever go back to what we were.”

Those dark lupine eyes met hers, both bright and soft.

“You can’t even go back to where you were before your first song. So it’s easy to get lost.

“Your path goes elsewhere? So what? That’s not what Home is about. Go. Shoo. But guess what? You can’t get lost. Not anymore. If you think you are, just remember... you know how to come up the river.”

How they finished the night was up to them. Morning would come far sooner than one would like. And come morning, they would need to move forward with Lady Yurisdotter quest.



Somewhere high up in Home, on one of the many balconies that looked out over the swamp and beneath a starry night there was the soft whump of air being displaced.

“Caught you, Shadowlord.”

Where there was one, now there were two, all wrapped together beneath silver moonlight.

“Ja. You have. And I think for once, for you, My Lady doesn’t mind.”

The wind rustled through their hair not playfully, but softly.

Pietro


He smiled, nodded and gave a half-bow to Bekkah, pleased and not a little bit surprised at how well they had moved together. The squire looked around and, once Lyric's entertainment had ended, moved over to the where the repast had been laid.

Never one to gorge, he picked over the food, eating lightly but enjoying the meal.

While he ate, Pietro looked around and enjoyed the interplay between the Forest Kin and their guests.

He wished that Djinni was with him.

Kadri turned to her rat partner and essayed a deep sweeping flourish.

"... it is good to have a partner who can keep up with me. I find not many who do."

She moved and acquired both some food, and a cup of drink, paused for a moment, and moved deliberately towards Broke.

"Broke. I have been thinking, as I often do when I am not trying to.. You are protective of your pack. I am protective of mine. I do not think either of these things will cease to be true. With that in mind ... "

Her voice still was not warm, however it was also not frozen.

She raises a cup briefly in her direction.

"Freedom and life's great chase. May they ever be to you and yours."

Cesare

He laughs at the antics of the mouse and raccoon.

"No need to fight. There is enough of me to go around."

It is very easy to feel protective of these kin. Their attitudes are delightful, especially considering all they have been through. He feels more at ease here than he has for some time. They have a way of easing the soul.. and the music helped too.

He sees Pietro at the food table and is reminded of their earlier conversation.

"Need to eat now."

He holds out a hand to each of the two creatures in invitation.

Pietro


Eating bread, fruit and cheese, Pietro slowly turned, his gaze moving across the group as he took in the activities of the varied group. He caught Cesare looking his way and lifted a drink in a toasting gesture toward the Rhoni lad.

Lyric

Lyric stroked the muzzle of the Guardian Archer, looking up at him with gentle eyes.

"I will always know where Home is, just up the river, and a part of Home will be with me wherever I go now. No matter where I go I am never really lost though. Because wherever I go is where I am. One day, not this day and probably not the day after, or even many more to come, maybe I will see my own home again. I will save my people, even if they don't want to be saved... This place, your home... Home... has given me a renewed strength... even when the world around you seems bleak and broken, there is always hope."

Lyric would spend time wandering around Home, following the bridges and imagining new songs for all the feelings she had. However long this might take was of little concern to the Minstrel though. As long as there was something to see and thus something to feel, she would explore.

Keiko

Keiko had played her ocarina when Lyric had asked, playing along through the first two pieces after that — because Lyric had asked, and even more, because Tomomi had asked... because Tomomi thought the sounds of the little instrument sparkled. But watching the festivities was not as easy to do when she played, and so she put the small object back in her pouch to sit perched beside her friend and to watch the others dance. Lyric was a joyful sight, and the Rhoni always appreciated joy. There was considerably more enthusiasm than skill on the part of the Forest Kin in their dancing, which was an absolutely fantastic way to enjoy an evening.

She could certainly appreciate the skill Lady Bekkah and Squire Pietro showed; some of the country dances were not nearly as easy to execute as they made it seem. But it was Dommi and Emmi who held her attention the longest. They had a grace and beauty that went far beyond the skills they possessed. There was certainly something more here; it was plain to see for anyone who recognized what they saw. It brought memories of the Festivals from her childhood to mind — watching Dommi and Emmi was like watching her mother and father dancing together.

Keiko smiled softly as they glided and spun and twirled around and then across the room. Some people had that sort of connection, be it two Rhoni of the Nakano Caravan... or a Noble of the Korie House and a Mouse Person once known as the Executioner. It was beauty in motion. And it was so much more.

With an arm draped lightly around Tomomi’s shoulders, she watched the Mouse and Raccoon girls dancing with Cesare. Giggling softly at the show they put on, Keiko had to admit to herself that, while he might be Lost, he displayed the good humor and patience a true Rhoni lad would at a party such as this. But like Lady, Keiko was content to simply watch the dancers. Few Gaija would know the Rhoni-style dances — although if anyone at Home would be familiar with them, Keiko would have guessed Renyard would and he was nowhere to be seen. Perhaps the young Tone-Deaf Lord would know them, as well, but she would never consider coming between him and his Emmi.

The solo dances she had been taught would not really be appropriate in this place, at this time. They were for performances, for coaxing coins from the Gaija — they weren’t a celebration as much as an exhibition. And, of course, the Dances... well, she wasn’t sure those would be well-received even if they were nothing more than practice sessions. They might be playing, but they were too close to fighting for this space. No... it was better to simply enjoy the joy of Home.

Keiko had no idea there were so many Mice here! They completely buried Broke and the Young Master. It was fun, it was silly, and it was wonderful! When the gathering sunk in on itself, it wasn’t difficult to imagine that a Shadowlord might have some magical way of disappearing. It wouldn’t help him hide from Emmi, however. The self-satisfied look on Emmi’s face before she, too, vanished was a good clue.

Tomomi’s goings and comings — one moment here, the next not, and suddenly back again — were still startling for Keiko. Perhaps one day, she would become accustomed to the way Mice traveled. Perhaps she would not. Either way, Keiko did hope it was something that would continue to fascinate and amuse her. They nibbled cheese and different kinds of bread and whatever else Tomomi brought. The fact that her friend was disinclined to let Keiko fetch anything for herself brought out more giggles from the young Rhoni.

A comment of, “Honest, Tomomi... I can fetch something for us,” merely caused Tomomi to disappear again, leaving behind only her light laughter.

The residents of Home — mostly the lil’uns who came to market each week, but some of the others as well — came by to chat, some sitting a while with Keiko and Tomomi and some dancing in place with excitement. From moment to moment, the conversation flowed like a mountain stream... twisting around bends, leaping over rock, and rushing ever onward. For a Rhoni, this was peace.

Eventually, though, Keiko was yawning — not from boredom, that was certain! — but from weariness and what seemed to be a longer than usual day. Tomomi was still trying to hide her yawns but was becoming less and less successful at it. Finally, one of the Mouse boys said, chuckling, “You two ought to find your nook. Tomomi could probably get there in her sleep, but we don’t want our Keiko falling out of Home, now do we?”

When presented with such a sensible argument, how was one to object?

Still giggling, the Rhoni and the Mouse made their way to Tomomi’s little space off the stairway. They laughed themselves silly as they tucked themselves into the window seat — blanket here and cloak there... no, no! Cloak here and blanket there! Then cloak here, blanket there and here. But between one breath and the next, both had fallen asleep.

If anyone happened by, something not unlikely given that they were just in a nook off the stairway, they would see a Mouse’s small paw-like hand curled lightly around human fingers. The human girl’s sleeping expression could only be described as serene.

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

“Ah’ost.”

As with the other members of his Pack, the grey wolf speaking with Lyric had troubles pronouncing his Ls. This made the word ‘lost’ have a breathy air to it, adding a touch of loneliness to its sound.

“Forrrr us, lost is not when you do not know which tree you stand next to, not knowing which way you have to turn or where the bridge over the creek is. It has to do with where you are in here.”

Reaching out, the Forest Kin tapped a finger upon Lyric’s chest, directly above her heart.

“Lost and alone are companions. When you are lost you are alone. When you are alone you are lost.”

He smiled, a very fierce and wolfish smile, showing off a perfect set of sharp canines.

“I’m One Fang.”

This was an odd name for the tall archer, because he obviously had all his fangs. He then explained.

“It grew back. “

Still grinning, One Fang continued.

“Now, there we were, sitting around, the pack of us, trying to chose our names. I should have figured something was up, because Broke, - who had been given her name by the Masters after they had beaten her - had already nipped the twin’s ears so we could tell them apart. So she looks at me, cuffs me so hard one of my teeth pops out and proclaims me One Fang.”

One Fang shrugged his shoulders in a very philosophic manner.

“Fine, it sounds bad, but it was actually pretty funny. What it means is that every time I think of my name I can’t forget Broke giving me to it, the fact that I then bit her tail so I could call her Bob, which obviously didn’t work and she just bit me right back and we didn’t stop playing until Wrath sat on both of us. It means I’m not alone and not being alone makes it real hard to get lost.

“I have been on long hunts deep into the Forest, all by myself. Never lost, never alone because I know my way up the river. ”

Looking across the commons, as the dancing ended and the Forest Folk settled into their dinner, what One Fang spoke of could actually be seen. There were as many Forest Kin within this sprawling tree house as people living in a small or middle sized village. While there were definite groupings within their numbers, not only were the Forest Folk a single community, it was certainly a matter of the whole exceeding the sum of the parts.

Home was truly well named.

Lyric’s subsequent wanderings only reinforced that feeling of belonging. There were many private places scattered throughout the rambling structure, but these places were created by the turn of a hall, an offset of a room or just the way the space had been shaped. There were very few doors. One could be by one’s self, but if one needed to be with others there were few, if any, barriers. Until yesterday, they had not had souls. Even in Lyric’s small village that single truth would have branded them as things without worth. But there was none of that here, not even a hint of that manner of darkness could be felt.

They had found their worth. They found their worth with each other. This is where their hope came from.

Lyric often found herself turned around and misplaced as she explored the chaotic arrangement of balconies, nooks, overhangs, stairs and rooms of Home. But she never once felt lost.

Elsewhere, beneath a pile of Forest Folk, there was a stirring. Being very careful not to dislodge those piled atop her, Broke sat up and stretched. Eyes narrow, ears perked forward, she listened to Kadri’s words. The Guardian was silent, for a long while, until she answered a now all too familiar gruff manner. The wuffess reached out, snared a Forest Kin by the scruff of the neck – actually the collar of a sturdy travel cloak – and lifted the lill’un up and unceremoniously plunked her at Kadri’s feet.

“Herrre. Have a Mouse.”

Considering how much Broke seemed to secretly enjoy being used as a piece of furniture, it was definitely a peace offering. It was also very beneficial. All Kadri had to do was ask and her new companion would scamper away and reappear with a drink, a bit of food and she was an excellent guide for finding a little bed niche for sleeping. Of course this Mouse did not have a name. She was smaller than the rest and a bit shy in her movements. She had short brown hair, near black eyes and except for ears and tail almost indistinguishable from a lass from a poor village. She seemed quite happy guiding Kadri around, as if being given such a task actually helped build the Mouse’s confidence. The niche she eventually chose was higher in Home and one of many that opened to a single room with its own central fireplace.

For herself the Mouse claimed a pillow and a spot of floor next to the small bed nook. The quilt there was sufficiently large to fall out of the nook and cover them both. The communal nature of the room was strange to the Amber princess, where sleeping was always done in some manner of privacy, even if it was a tent shared by her sisters.

“Oh. We always sleep together like this. Well, except when someone has the sneezes or the shakes.”

The Mouse’s statement was completely innocent.

“Well, except for Lady. And that’s because the Masters hurt her differently than the rest of us and because she’s a Fox and usually stays up all night watching over us so we’ll be safe.”

Bekkah understood this from her previous stay at Home. Once again she was offered Lady’s bed, in that special room. Lady’s room was one of the few with a door. Lady made sure the Atteran Priestess was settled before going off on her evening rounds.

Back in the commons, of course Cesare’s invitation was accepted. His two companions helped pick out a good dinner selection. Perhaps even too good, piling his plate with more food than the three of them could eat. Fortune smiled upon him, however, as Pietro invited the three over and thus the feast could be shared. The two lasses settled themselves down quite happily, making sure the men were between each of them in a boy-girl-boy-girl circle.

“Nothing’s wrong…”

The Mouse spoke first.

“… with sharing.”

The Raccoon lass finished her friend’s sentence.

This went on until That Rat joined them. He stood just outside the circle, nibbling on some bread and meat from a plate he carried.

“You two. Don’t keep them up too late. They have work to come in the morning.”

The two girls pouted, but they didn’t interrupt. Rats were not just pragmatists, they were also, most often, correct when it came to making sure things got done.

“Your map is a good one. Come morning, we can take you to the lake. Finish up your planning tonight and we’ll take you wherever you wish to go. If it’s a place where the Forest is a danger, let us know exactly what you want to see and we’ll send someone that way to look for you.

“If you can get that straight, and we can move just after dawn, we should be able to get back around noon and decide how to carry out a Rescue of this size.

“Be wary. Usually we are happy if we can rescue one or two of our Kin.

“There are many of our Kin in the mines.

“Enough, maybe, to fill a second Home.”

Talking was something that could easily finish off the night. In that way Home was like any other village. After dinner and when Her light was gone, for most it was time for sleep. In pairs or in little groups the Forest Folk made their way to bed. It was a very informal matter. Any little corner could become a place for sleeping.

Eventually Home was quiet. Very few stirred. One of the few of the restless was Lady.

Lady made her way through the sleep filled tree house. Her pace was silent, it was serene, it was graceful, like an angel come to the mortal realm. She’d grin, seeing the Pack sprawled together. They were always accompanied by a collection of lill’uns. Once the lill’uns learned that the fierce wuffs were there to protect them, those that were having nightmares or needed to feel safe were always welcomed by the Pack come sunset.

Lady held a small conversation with The Rat That Watched The Stars, both of them enjoying the Forest’s night. She giggled and watched as a pair of raccoon Kin investigated Lyric’s mandolin while the minstrel slept. She waggled a finger and they blinked innocently. They didn’t need words to know what Lady meant. Look but do not touch.

She tarried at an upper balcony. Beneath the midnight sky two slept, buried in a cocoon of blankets and quilts. The Executioner was the first of the Forest Kin to be given a name out of care and kindness. The young Korie Lord was the first completely blind to their heritage. Nodding to the black shadow that watched over the two, Lady continued on her way.

She paused at a window bench, head tilting at two clasped hands.

The vixen hugged herself, smiled and continued up and down the stairs of Home.

Home had never been filled with so much hope.

Attaday, the Eighth Day of Yrick

Home woke to yawns and stretches. It wasn’t much longer until the yawns turned to bustle. The fires in the hearths were stoked and the task of creating breakfast began. Breakfast, it seemed, was a communal matter, everyone helping in some way or another.

Well, to tell the complete and actual truth, almost everybody.

Keiko woke to the sound of sizzling, that and the delicious aroma of potatoes and vegetables. A pillow had been stuffed in the Rhoni lasses arms, so she’d have with something to hold.

The sizzling was proceeded by the telltale whump of a Mouse returning. Tomomi appeared on the window bench, settling down in their blankets and cloaks quite comfortably. She held two breakfast plates in her small, simple hands. The potatoes had been very finely cut, along with the vegetables and had been pan fried into a delicious and warm breakfast. In addition Tomomi brought a couple pieces of bread – also still warm – as well as two small pieces of cheese.

“Good morning!”

Tomomi smiled and when she did it was bright, clear and honest. Just as Keiko hoped she would never get used to the coming and goings of Mice, Tomomi felt the same way about saying good morning to her forever-friend. She offered one of the plates to Keiko. For herself, she looked down a bit, just nibbling at her breakfast.

“Down in the commons they are talking about going on a Rescue.

“It sounds very scary. Scarier than going to Marketday.”

She looked across, and shyly wrapped a paw around Keiko’s. She closed her eyes.

“I remember getting lost. Being Homesick. I remember being in the Little Home.”

The Mouse girl then smiled the softest of smiles. She squeezed Keiko’s hand tight.

“I got saved.”

She then turned her head to look Keiko in the eyes.

“Being free is the hardest thing in the world. I am so scared, Keiko-friend. There will be so many of them. They won’t understand, there will be more than Soft can hold and tell them things will be all right, there will be more than Lady can talk to and we won’t need Mister Renyard to tell us what they are thinking.

“They will be all alone, they won’t have anyone to tell them what to do. And if they remember who they were they’ll get lost and not want to be us anymore.”

Tomomi swallowed.

“I’m scared, Keiko. This is scarier than when I was in the mines. This is scarier than Weasels.

“I’m so scared I want to run away, but I’m also so scared that I know I can’t.

“But I don’t know what to do to help. Except know that I have to.”

It took a moment to untangle Tomomi’s words. Then it became obvious, that there was a subtle but so important difference in what the Mouse was trying to say.

She wasn’t scared for herself.

She was scared for all those working in the Mines.

“I’m just one little mouse.

“Keiko … what can we do?”

Pietro


By nature and habit an early riser, the squire was among the first to wake. He sat up, stretching right and left to loosen any tightness which may have settled into his neck and back, yawned and looked around.

Pietro wished Djinni was here. One of his favorite morning activities was to feet and groom the mare, murmuring softly to her and settling his mind for the needs of the coming hours.

There certainly were a lot of these Forest Kin. He smiled to himself as he watched the smaller ones - the Mice - scamper around, attending to their busyness, and the larger ones moving around in slower, perhaps more stately steps.

There was much to be attended to today, but Pietro did not want to worry about that. Not just yet.

He'd start worrying when Cesare and the others woke up.

Kadri:

"If you have no name to speak of, I think I shall call you Nou'Sha, unless you have another name you like. Means 'nice ah - pleasing'."

She smiles.

After a good sleep, she too is up early to greet the dawn, disentangling herself. She straightened her clothing and moved up behind Pietro in near silence, for when she wished and often when she was not thinking about it, she moved as quietly as, perhaps, a mouse.

"Good morning, Pietro."

Pietro


He started slightly, hand reaching instinctively for his battle axe, but managed to calm himself as he recognized her voice almost immediately. Pietro got to his feet, turned and nodded a polite acknowledgement.

"And She smiles on another lovely lady," the squire said, trying out a bit of the gallantry more often heard among the nobles where he'd been raised long ago than here in more rustic surroundings.

Cesare

"Morning."

The Rhoni appeared from just around a corner, a smile on his face.

"You know I think I could live here myself.. but it is likely to become more crowded if we have any success. Seen our Planning Friend yet?"

He refers to that rat they talked with last night.

"Sounds like we have an early start today."

He sniffs appreciatively.

"Hopefully time for breakfast first though."

Bekkah

She knew better than to argue with Lady and accepted the offer of her room once again. She slept well, falling asleep once again after replaying the interaction with her Goddess in her mind. That amazing experience led her to a peaceful sleep.

She arose, and did as best as she could to find a quiet spot where she could spend time in communion with her Goddess. Once done, she rejoined the others. There was so much activity and as soon as she was spotted, she was dragged, smiling and laughing to a table for breakfast. She ate, but couldn't eat anywhere near as much as she was given.

Pietro


Cesare's smile was infectious and Pietro returned it in greeting the Rhoni lad.

"Haven't seen him yet, but I could handle a bit of breakfast myself."

He turned to Kadri.

"Would my lady wish to join us to break our fast?"

Kadri:

"Morning to you, Cesare."

"... I think I could eat a mountain right now. And Pietro ..."

She winks at him.

"Perhaps if you have the time later you can introduce me to whomever this lovely lady is."

A wide grin.

Pietro


"I would be pleased," the squire said with a grin.

"The first mirror or piece of polished silver I run across."

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.”