[Mkguild] The Harvest Festival (7/20)

[Hallan Mirayas]

-------

 =


   After an hour of
helping Wolfram and Xavier, Drift got pushed out onto the street into Alexi=
s'
laughing embrace. "Thank you very much for your assistance," Xavier
said quickly as he started to shut the door out the side of the stall, "but
there's really not enough room for three people in here."

 =


   "But-"

 =


   "Especially
one whose tail wags into things whenever he tries to make a sale," Wolfram
called from the front.

 =


   "But-"

 =


   Xavier ignored him
and continued, "You two go have fun, and don't worry.  We'll take good care=
 of things."

 =


   The door shut on
Drift's despairing reply. "But=85"

 =


   Alexis giggled, and
then stood on her tiptoes and kissed him on the cheek to soothe his pride. =
"C'mon,
handsome. They'll be fine." She laid a finger on his lips to stop another '=
but',
and her eyes sparkled. "Let's go have some fun," she said with an
infectiously mischievous smile, and then hauled him away.

 =


   As a matter of
fact, she didn't stop hauling until he was all the way down Metamor Ridge,
through Euper, and out to the common grounds, where the more athletic porti=
ons
of the Festival were held. A handful of merchants too slow or luckless to g=
et
their stalls set up in the main fairgrounds in Metamor hawked their wares h=
ere,
but they were raindrops in an ocean compared to the food vendors. Lured by =
the
prospect of hungry competitors, the food stands jostled each other for spac=
e,
the scents of food of every type and description overlaid by the smoke of m=
any
small cooking ovens wafted through the air, and vendors tried every trick t=
hey
could think of to draw customers to their stall instead of their competitor=
s'.

 =


   "Fresh fish
fritters!"

 =


   "Cinnamon
custard! Get it here, get it now!"

 =


   "Candied fruit
and nuts! Won't find a better buy anywhere else!"

 =


   "Hot tea! Cold
tea! Sweet tea! Any way you like it!"

 =


   "Don't buy
that! Tea is for children and sickbeds! You want a nice, strong ale to keep=
 you
up and moving!"

 =


   "Don't you
listen to that slobbering drunkard! You want tea to refresh you, keep you s=
harp
for your next game!"

 =


   "That haggard
old granny wouldn't know 'refreshing' if it came up and bit her! You want a=
le!
Hey! Wait!"

 =


   "Come back!"

 =


   "Don't go
buying from -him-!"

 =


   "Blasted wine merchants.
Tea! Cup o' tea!"

 =


   "Hey, you, how
'bout an ale?"

 =


   Alexis was in her
element. Drift kept busy ducking and dodging wild gestures as she haggled
ruthlessly over everything she bought, enjoying herself immensely. But when=
ever
she wasn't bargaining (or loading her boyfriend's arms with purchases), Dri=
ft
led her west, his black nose sniffing the air. "Where are we going? Aren't
you going to get anything?" Alexis finally asked, a little petulant. "You
can't possibly be following a scent amongst this crowd."

 =


   Drift pulled Alexis
out of the path of a noisy group of children that chased each other in a wi=
ld
game of tag among the stands, and then paused, his brow furrowing. "Damn.
Lost it again." He gestured in frustrated explanation toward a pennant
above a stall, which flickered fitfully in the wandering breeze. "It comes
and goes, but I know it's off in this direction."

 =


   Alexis slipped her
arm through the crook of his, her blue dress showing well against his brown
vest and bare white-furred arm. "So what're you supposedly smelling
through this mad craze?" she asked, sweeping her hand to indicate all the
stalls and people around them.

 =


   "My dear,"
the Samoyed replied as he sniffed at the air, eyes closed and ears back to =
try
to minimize the crowd noise. "We both know you see better than I do, but
that doesn't mean you smell better."

 =


   Alexis huffed in
mock offense. "Well, really! And I thought you -liked- my perfume!"

Opening one eye, Drift checked for the telltale twinkle in
her eye that meant she was joking before closing it again. "Very cute,"
he said dryly. "You know what I mean."

The she-bat giggled. "Yes, but straight lines of that
quality don't come around that often. It was an absolute imperative."

 =


   Drift resisted the
urge to ask what an 'absolute imperative' was, and put all his concentration
into the hunt. A flicker of breeze brought the scent back to him: bread and
cooked tomatoes. He pointed, "That way," opened his eyes, and made it
two steps before a new voice called out to him from behind.

 =


   "Sir? Master
Snow?"

 =


   Drift and his
stomach both growled. Still, he flicked his ears amicably forward before
turning to see who had called for him. "Yes?"

 =


   The problem was=85
nobody was behind him. The samoyed looked left and right, his ears twitching
akimbo in confusion before a sharp, metallic squawk brought his attention u=
p to
a sparrow the size of a large hawk, perched on top of a stall. The
double-barred cross of the Lothanansi hung on a cord around his neck. "I
don't mean to intrude," he chirped, "but I'd hoped to talk to you
last Wednesday and must have missed you at the Temple."

 =


   "Hello,
Dorian," Drift said, shading his eyes from the sun to better see the
sparrow-morph. "I've been working on getting my icehouse finished and prepa=
red
for the upcoming winter, and had to cut my hours back at the Temple. What d=
id
you want to talk about?"

 =


   The sparrow-morph
Keeper drooped a bit, disappointment written in his sagging plumage. "Oh,"
he chirped. "You're busy. I'm sorry to hear that. I'd hoped to commission
a table setting for my upcoming marriage."

 =


   Drift's stomach
growled again, loud enough to startle the sparrow and set Alexis giggling, =
but
the challenge of designing dinnerware for a pair of avian-morph Keepers
intrigued him. "How about this?" the samoyed asked after shooting his
girlfriend an admonishing glance and flicking his ears to hide his slight
embarrassment. "Come see me Monday morning at my forge and we'll talk
things over."

 =


   After Dorian had
agreed and flown off, Drift turned his attention back to the job at hand. "=
Eli
willing," he said, sniffing at the breeze, "I'll be able to find this
place before the -other- half of the Keep tries to interrupt me. White dog
needs food=85 badly!"

 =


   Drift finally
tracked down the scent he was hunting halfway across the common grounds, br=
ead
and cheese and cooked tomatoes and meat, at the stall of Johann Maus.

 =


   The plump little
gray-furred mouse-man lit up in a broad, familiar smile when he saw Drift a=
nd
his lady love approaching. "Mr. Snow! Ms. Alex! It is good to see you
again! Welcome!"

 =


   Before either Drift
or Alexis could reply, two mouse children darted from the booth with the
gleeful chorus of "Taur rides! Taur rides! Yaaay!" and seized Drift's
legs with the vigorous tackle usually reserved for favorite uncles. Though =
the
two children only came up to his knees, the force of their combined surprise
welcome nearly toppled the samoyed, and food and parcels went flying as he
tried to regain his balance.

Propping her boyfriend up with her right arm, Alexis reached
out with her left and scooped a jar of strawberry preserves, a bottle of wi=
ne,
and a small wheel of cheese out of the air with the broad wing leather of h=
er
right. "That would have been expensive," she said, tucking the wine
and the preserves under her arm. "Good afternoon, Mr. Maus."

A third child, an older daughter who had come chasing after
her two siblings, picked up a tied bag of candied walnuts and a carved wood=
en
puzzle that had survived the fall well, and two small loaves of bread that =
hadn't.
She rounded on her younger brother and sister, holding up the two soiled
loaves. "Wilhelm! Isabela! Look what you did!"

 =


   The two children,
twins by the look of them, dipped their ears. "Sorry," Isabela
apologized, scuffling a white-furred toe in the dirt. "We didn't mean to,"
Wilhelm added, his pink nose and black-tipped whiskers twitching. Neither l=
et
go of Drift's knees, their eyes still pleading shamelessly for rides.

 =


   "All right,
you two, that's enough," their father, Johann Maus, said from the vendor
stall as he took four loaves of bread from a small oven and set them to coo=
l on
a high shelf where their smell could be carried by the afternoon breeze. "L=
et
go of his legs and come back here. Arietta, run and tell Stefan that we need
more sauce."

 =


   "Yes, father,"
said the older girl, and she handed off the candied walnuts, the bread, and=
 the
puzzle to Drift before disappearing into the crowd with a flick of her pink
tail.

 =


   Drift watched
Arietta go, and then reached down to give both children a rub behind the ea=
rs. "If
there were anyplace for me to change, and I hadn't already planned lunch wi=
th
Alexis, I'd have said yes. If you want, though, I can come back tomorrow."

 =


   Alexis, who had
pondered the scene with a knuckle rested thoughtfully against her lips, spo=
ke
up. "I have an idea that could suit everyone's wishes," she said in
her silkiest negotiating voice while she fingered the tasseled red cloth th=
at
Johann had laid over the counter of his stall. "Your children get their
ride, and if you have another of these=85" She waited until Johann nodded,
and then whipped the cloth from the countertop with a flourish, extending h=
er
right wing full out to catch it so it draped folded in two across her arm w=
ith
the embroidered 'Hole In The Wall' name and crest showing. She smiled, her =
eyes
sparkling. "=85then you get a big, attention-grabbing sign wandering the
fairgrounds. We can use this as a saddlecloth."

 =


   "I am -not-
wearing a saddle," Drift interrupted.

 =


   Alexis waved his
protest off. "You know what I mean."

 =


   "An
interesting offer, Ms. Alexis," Johann Maus said, running a claw along his
chin while his children gave imploring looks to all and sundry. "What's
the catch?"

 =


   Alexis rolled a
disarming laugh in her soft soprano, twining her fingers through the tassel=
s of
the blanket. "A catch? Why, Mr. Maus, you wound me! I was just going to
suggest a free meal for my dearest, and the entertainment of watching him a=
nd
your children. Perhaps sometime in the future you'll think of me if there's
something you want that it seems nobody else can get for you."

 =


   A filling meal was
eaten and then a private spot to change found while Alexis talked Drift into
another idea. As word spread of taur-back rides for children for a copper
penny, so too did visits by their parents to the 'Hole in the Wall' stand w=
hile
they waited. By the time evening rolled around and the two lovers bid the
merchant a good evening, both Johann and Alexis were humming merrily and
tucking away full coin purses. Alexis split her take evenly with Drift as t=
hey
walked hand in hand back up Metamor Ridge to the main fairgrounds.

 =


   Just past the gate,
Alexis paused to haggle with a jeweler over a lacquered oak box the size of
Drift's hand. Drift himself paused to admire how she looked in the rays of =
the
setting sun for a few moments before following his nose over to the next st=
all.
"Mmm=85 that smells good! What is it?"

 =


   The large brown
rodent behind the counter smiled as he dusted his hands on his apron. Drift=
 couldn't
quite figure out what he was: too large to be a rat or even a beaver, but it
didn't really matter. What mattered was the lovely-smelling bread he lifted=
 up
toward the samoyed's nose. "Applesauce nut bread," he said cheerily,
noting his customer's widely wagging tail. "Freshly baked just this
afternoon. For you, a single copper penny."

 =


   Flush with copper
pennies after the afternoon's events, Drift bought four. Two went into the
brown leather backpack he'd purchased earlier in the day, and he unwrapped =
the
third. He was just about to bite when Alexis snatched it away, leaving his
teeth to click shut on empty air. "Hey!" he protested, making a grab
for the purloined purchase. "That one's mine!"

 =


   "You can't
have this," she said, evading his first grab and blocking a second with a
deft and graceful twist of her wrist that lightly whapped the edge of her w=
ing
against his nose. When he covered his nose with his hand, she swiped the ot=
her
loaf from the crook of his other arm. "Or this one, either."

 =


   "Alex!"

 =


   A mischievous
sparkle in her eyes, the she-bat set both loaves back down on the baker's
counter. "What happened to your vaunted sense of smell, dear?"
Turning to the baker, she asked, "Could we exchange these for something
that doesn't have nutmeg in it? He reacts very poorly to it. Thank you."
She took two loaves of honey bread in exchange, handed them to Drift, and t=
hen
picked up her box from the counter where she'd set it. When the samoyed rat=
her
sheepishly offered her one, she tucked it into his pack and fished out one =
of
the apple bread loaves instead.

 =


   "Are you sure
that won't make -you- sick?" he asked, unable to suppress a look of
longing at the denied taste.

 =


   Alexis reached out
and tickled him under the chin. "It's sweet of you to be concerned, but in
the time we've been together, have you ever known me to leave something
important to chance?"

 =


   "I seem to
recall a certain rooftop incident=85"

 =


   "That was fun.
Food poisoning is not."

 =


   "You call
nearly getting=85 shot at=85 fun?" Drift's head turned as he spoke, followi=
ng
the path of an oddly garbed vulpine Keeper, his speech slowing down as he
noticed something else unusual. One of his ears dropped quizzically to the
side, and he asked, "Alex, am I seeing things, or does that fox have three
tails?"

 =


   Alexis turned to
look, and her eyes widened slightly. "Interesting," she purred as the
stranger passed out of sight, a smile twitching her lips. "Very nice."

 =


   Both of Drift's
ears shot back. "Very what?!"

 =


   Giggling, Alexis
patted Drift's arm and then stood on tiptoes to kiss him. "Yours is
better," she whispered in his ear, and then burst into laughter at the
ears-back, almost scandalized look Drift gave her in reply. She laughed unt=
il
she drew stares from passers-by, until she had to lean helplessly against h=
er
boyfriend, holding her ribs with one arm. "You=85 How do you do it?"
she finally gasped.

 =


   "Do what?"

 =


   "How do you
remain so delightfully tease-able? I could have absolute -eons- of fun driv=
ing
you to absolute distraction."

 =


   Drift rolled his
eyes at the hyperbole. "Eons, huh?" he asked as they started walking
again, lacing his fingers back into hers. "I think I'd get rather boring
long before then. There's the whole 'mortal lifespan' thing involved."

 =


   "Ha! Speak for
yourself," Alexis said with a defiant toss of her head and one of her most
infectious grins. "I plan to live forever."

 =


   Leaning over to
kiss her, Drift replied with a soft smile. "If it meant the chance to
spend eternity with you, then I'd take whatever torment you could dish out
without complaint."

Alexis slowed to a stop, her grin fading into a strangely
thoughtful look, as if he'd said something else entirely. "You know, I
think you would."

 =


   Drift slipped his
other hand into the curve of her waist, curious at this strange behavior, a=
nd
was about to comment on it when someone bumped into him from behind.

 =


   "Hey! Watch
where you're-" The speaker, a dark tan furred canine Keeper, startled
suddenly in recognition and broke into a well-practiced smile. Large, point=
ed
ears swept up and forward and rings glittered on his fingers as closed fists
opened. "Well, well, if it isn't young Edward Snow," he said,
spending a few moments smoothing imagined wrinkles from his fine clothes. "=
What
a surprise to see you here. I've heard things have been looking up for you
lately. Good, good."

 =


   Drift turned a wary
eye on this new person. With his sharp, angular lines and short, close fur =
that
suggested an origin in the depths of the Southland deserts, this canine Kee=
per
contrasted sharply against Drift's own shape, though of almost exactly the =
same
height and general build. He contrasted in manner, too, cool and aristocrat=
ic,
and a disappointed frown came easily to his muzzle when he saw Drift did not
recognize him. He tilted his head up slightly, looking haughtily down his l=
ong
muzzle at the samoyed, though he maintained his polished smile. "Arkos
Linafex. Tinsmith of Metamor. Your competition." He offered his hand to
Drift, who shook it after some hesitation. "So sorry to hear about your
sister and brother-in-law. Hard workers, both of them. A shame the way they
went." The canine Keeper looked Drift over with a critical eye. "As
for you, the last time I saw you was at your father's funeral. You've clear=
ly
rebounded well since then. Why, you look as fit as your father did in his
prime, dear boy. Very good."

 =


   Fighting to keep an
amicable expression on his face, Drift subtly nudged Alexis into a shielded
position behind his left shoulder. Maybe it was the too-bright smile, or ma=
ybe
it was just all the reminders of his lost family, but the man set his insti=
ncts
jangling. Whatever the reason, Drift was relieved when a young boy came up =
and
tugged on Arkos' sleeve, insisting in a voice too mature and too obviously
exasperated for his seeming years that Arkos was needed elsewhere. The samo=
yed
nodded farewell to both as he turned away, letting the boy's irritated glan=
ce
in his direction pass unremarked, and then focused on wiping the man and the
memories he'd stirred from his mind.

 =


   Arkos maintained
his smile until Drift was out of sight, but inwardly he was fuming. Once the
samoyed was out of sight, he snarled, "Upstart whelp! Misbegotten mongrel
brat! I should-"

 =


   "You should
keep your voice down, Master Linafex," said the boy. "You also should
not have come here at all. My Lord told you to stay away from that boy until
the time was right. And if you had bothered to ask me, your advisor," he
added pointedly, "you would have known that he would be here."

 =


   Arkos snarled, but
said nothing as he turned for home.

 =


   Alexis ran her hand
soothingly down Drift's back as they walked, but it didn't help much. He was
still rattled from that unpleasant meeting and, with the stage only a block
away, he didn't have much time left to settle his mind. Thankfully, a welco=
me
distraction presented itself as the tiger Oberon flagged the pair down.

 =


   "Ah, Drift. I
had hoped I would see you today," he said as he lowered the awning of his
stall. "I'd meant to have the prototype of your battlestaff ready for you
to test this weekend, but there have been some challenges in constructing it
that have put me behind schedule." He paused. "Are you all right? You
look unsettled about something."

 =


   Drift ran his
fingers through his neckruff. "Yes, I'm all right. Just somebody in the
street that brought back some bad memories." He fidgeted, his tail held
uncharacteristically low and his ears twitching in annoyance and anxiety, a=
nd
then blew out a sigh while Alexis stroked his arm. "Rot that man. This is
-not- what I need to be thinking about right before performing in the talent
show tonight."

 =


   "What
happened?" the tiger-man asked, and his brow furrowed when Drift
explained. "I see." Oberon stroked his jaw thoughtfully for a moment,
and then spoke. "Drift, I'd like to tell you something my father once told
me, something that he learned from his father, and he from his. Warfare is =
not
restricted just to contests of weaponry or strength.

 =


   Conversation itself
can be warfare, and I believe that is what this Linafex person was attempti=
ng.
Indeed, some of the most vicious and desperate battles are fought here,"
he reached out and tapped Drift's temple with the tip of a claw, "in the
mind. Judging by your expression as you approached, I would say he was succ=
essful
in his attempts to shake your nerve." Drift's ears started to drop in
anger, but Oberon forestalled him with a raised hand. "Do not be angry
because of this. A quick temper is a weakness that is easily exploited,
something I've heard your friend Wolfram knows well. I would say you have c=
ome
off well in this exchange with Linafex: now you have the measure of him and
know to keep a watch on him, while he gained little more than a moment's
irritation." The old tiger tucked a bundled trio of swords under his arm,
bid farewell to Alexis, and said, "A bit of advice, if I may: if you must
be angry, harness it and direct it rather than letting it harness you. Have=
 a
good evening."






_________________________________________________________________
See how Windows connects the people, information, and fun that are part of =
your life.
http://clk.atdmt.com/MRT/go/msnnkwxp1020093175mrt/direct/01/
-------------- next part --------------
An HTML attachment was scrubbed...
URL: http://lists.integral.org/archives/mkguild/attachments/20080914/a4906c=
df/attachment-0001.htm