[Mkguild] MK- Interruptions

[Hallan Mirayas]

My sincere apologies for not sending something to the Lists for so long.  The story I'm currently working on has given me endless trouble.  The story you're about to read started out as part of my first attempt at the next story in Drift's saga, but wound up on the cutting room floor when I junked that attempt and started over.  Still, it was too good to stay there, so I've resurrected it as a quickie for you.  I hope you enjoy it!

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Interruptions

by Hallan Mirayas

 

   Drift
stalked the hallways of Metamor as the voice taunted and laughed at him.  "Stupid boy," it said.  "You'll never catch me."  Then came the sword through the chest, and he
snapped awake.

 

   Confusion
reigned for a moment, and then the librarian tweaked his fur with her beak
again.  "Wake up, Mr. Snow,"
she said, fixing him with an appropriately owlish stare while he sorted
nightmare from reality.  Seeing he was
awake now, she said, "The library is closing for the evening."  After a moment's pause, she asked a little
more kindly, "Are you all right? 
You looked like you were having a nasty dream."  Once he assured her that he was okay, she
nodded, turned, and winged soundlessly away.

 

   Books on
engineering and siege mechanics lay spread out on the table before him, and a
slate and chalk with half-finished notes lay smudged under his right arm.  He swore and reached for the chalk, hoping to
salvage four hours of frustrating work. 
Instead, his reaching fingers managed to bump the chalk off the edge of
the table, and he ducked under the table to search for it.  To his complete non-surprise, it had rolled
under the edge of a bookshelf, against the back of which the table rested..

 

   Wolfram
found him there a minute later, just starting to back out after successfully
retrieving the chalk.  The ram, never one
to pass up an opportunity, picked up the largest book Drift had been working
with, closed it, and dropped it on the table directly above the canine Keeper's
head.  The thwack of skull hitting table
followed closely on the heels of the thud of the book, and a long string of
curses followed immediately after.

 

   "Dammit,
Wolfram!" Drift yelled, rolling over so he could see his tormentor, who
promptly held a finger to his playfully smirking lips in a 'shh!' gesture.  The samoyed replied with a single-finger
gesture of his own and a kick that Wolfram deftly sidestepped.  "Damn it, Wolfram!" Drift repeated
more quietly, holding one hand to the back of his head.  He shuffled out from under the table and got
to his feet.  "That hurt!"

 

   Wolfram
smiled wider, moving one measured pace back to stand just out of range of
Drift's strong right arm.  "Your
fault for doing so much heavy reading," he replied sweetly.  Reaching out to flip through another book
almost as thick as the one he'd dropped, he asked, "What in the world are
you working on, anyway?"

 

   Drift
yelped as if Wolfram had cut him and lunged for the book as the pages
turned.  "Don't lose my
place!"  Elbowing Wolfram aside, he
flipped back to the proper page and tucked in a ribbon for a bookmark.  "The librarian won't let me take these
books home, so knowing where I left off is critical.  Just… sit down for a minute and wait, would
you?  I need to try and finish this
before she kicks me out."  Without
waiting for a reply, he started looking between the books and his smudged
slate, rubbing out the smudges with the side of his right thumb.  Tracing his way through a paragraph of text
and its accompanying illustration with his left forefinger and reading it aloud
under his breath, he rewrote his notations on the slate.  When Wolfram asked him what he was doing,
Drift silenced him with an impatient wave of his hand while he checked what he
had written for accuracy.  Finally, he
replied, without looking up, "I'm trying to teach myself engineering.  Some of the things I'm working on right now
would be a lot easier if I knew this stuff. 
Right now, I'm usually stuck with trial and error when I'm working on an
idea, and that could get a lot more painful than I feel like enduring."

 

   The chalk
clicked on the slate as Drift tried to solve the problem he'd written, and the
samoyed's brow furrowed in frustration as the equation rapidly fell apart into
error.  "This -should- have
worked," he grumbled under his breath as he looked back over what he'd
done.  His ears twitched in annoyance as
he found a mistake and scrubbed it out to try again.  "I just wish the math wasn't so
hard," he growled, rubbing weary eyes with the back of his wrist so he
wouldn't get chalk dust in them.

 

   "You
know," Wolfram said, resting his crossed arms on the table and leaning
forward to look at one of the other books Drift had left open, "you could
always ask Misha for help."  His
voice carried a hint of envy at his friend's relationship with the leader of
the Long Scouts.  "I heard he was a
siege engineer once."

 

   Drift shook
his head sharply, just once, his focus still on the equation that was
obstinately refusing to be solved.  His
whiskers and ears twitched back in an angry canine frown.  "Misha is a busy man," he
replied.  "He's got more important
things to do than help me figure out why two and two isn't adding up to
four."  The chalk screeched a
protest on the slate as he tried again. 
"I just need to work harder. 
Hey!"

 

   Wolfram
finished the modified disarming move he'd just used on Drift, and tucked the
samoyed's chalk into his pocket. 
Ignoring his friend's protests, the ram flipped closed each of Drift's
books and stacked them on the far side of the table.  "I know," he said as the books
thumped into a tall pile, "that Alexis has been out of town these past few
days.  Xavier's out of town visiting
family, so-"  Blocking a grab, he picked
up Drift's slateboard and pushed it firmly into the samoyed's hands.  "Hold that.  Without those two to distract you and rein you
in, I guess it's up to me."  
Leaning forward on the stacked books, he declared, "You are done
working for the day.  I am imposing a
sanity break."

 

   "But-"

 

   "Now,
come on.  It's time for dinner.  You do remember what dinner is, don't
you?"  He walked past Drift as he
spoke, heading for the door.  When Drift
didn't follow, Wolfram reached back, grabbed, and pulled the samoyed along.  "Come on!"

 

   "Dinner
can wait.  I have too much to-  Ow! 
Wolfram, let go of my tail!  This
isn't funny!"

 

   Wolfram
waved goodnight to the owl librarian, who had (in between gales of laughter)
thoughtfully opened the double doors too wide for Drift to grab.  Ducking a wild claw swipe from his
dog-in-tow, he grinned and walked a little faster.  "Yes, it is."

 


 		 	   		  
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