[Mkguild] Life V: Everything in its Right Place - D - my comments

[cokane8116 at aol.com]

Here are my comments!


Chris
The Lurking Fox




*******************


 
LifeV: Everything in its Right Place - D
 
'Thewhole thing?  He carved that sign withhis teeth?' I looked back at
therodent.  I could see him through thewindow, his back was to me.  He
wasarranging all of his vegetables, more I hadn’t seen, into different
basketsfor easy grabbing.
“Howlong did it take?” I asked.
“Awhile, few weeks.  Every night before bedI’d use my front teeth, it’s
howI chipped righty.  I was so worried itwas gonna look so crap, but I
kepton om-nom-gnawing on it and I think it came out all right.”  I laughed.
“Sir,it doesn’t just look alright, it looks fantastic.” I said.  “I mean,
it’sso detailed.  I can’t believe you carvedit without looking at it”  I
frowned,“If you thought it was going to be terrible, why’d you keep
going?”  The beaver shrugged.




>>>He should get into carving not tavern owning.





“Iwanted it, so I gotta carve it.  Yeahit’s hard work but that never
killedno one, just stick with it and you’ll love it.”
“Stickwith it is something I’ve never been good at.” I said. Ale pulled
outa strop and began to run his longer tooth against it.  “Most of-of uh
areyou busy?”  Ale paused and shook hishead.
“Onetooth longer than the other means a dead beaver.  Go on, listening
here.”
“Alright…”I raised a brow, “Where was I?  Oh right,most of the time if
somethingwas hard, I quit.”
“Mostof the time?”
“SometimesI didn’t have any choice.” I said.  “Ihad to learn military
commandand how to understand tax ledgers.  Inever wanted that.”
“Whynot?” Ale  asked.  “Being a military commander guy is the bestguy to
bein battle.”
“Becauseit was hard,” I said, “And I didn’t want to. And I was miserable
doingit.”
“Wellthere’s the problem.” The beaver said. “You didn’t have fun and you
weregonna be unhappy and stayed unhappy.  Yougotta find the positive in
it.”


>>>There is some wisdom in that.





“What’sthe positive in studying ledgers and collecting people’s taxes.”
 The beaver laughed.


>>>Now that is all too true.





“Wellit’s...collecting taxes?” Oh right, little thing I had forgotten to
mention.
“UhI kind of, sort of am nobility.” I said. “My name is James and I am the
futureLord of the city of Isenport in the Sathmore empire. I mean, I could
beright? Or was I?” Ale blinked. “I ended up trapped in Metamor.”
“Dangthat’s a big change.” He whistled, “You changed more than most I
reckon.  You ok with it?”  My tail curled around my leg.  “Never mind, none
mybusiness.  So what you do for work inMetamor?”  I shrugged.  “Shrugging
paywell?”  That got a laugh.
“Uh,I don’t have a job.” I said.  “Haven’treally looked.”  The beaver
nodded.
“Well,what you wanna do?”  Another shrug.  “You gotta stop doing that or
yougonna shrug your arms right off.”




>>>LOL





“Iguess.” I said.  “But I really don’tknow.  I know I need to find
somethingbecause I am running out of money.”  Thebeaver nodded.  Slap!
 “What was that?”
“Flatteningstuff.” He said, still running his tooth over that strop.
SLAP!  “I gotta big flat tail, gotta use it.  Tween us, I hated being a fat
ratat first.  Then I got to tail slapthings, that was so cool.”
 Slap-slap! “What you learned to do?”
“Welllet’s see.”  I sat down in one of thechairs, sitting on my tail.
Butrather than admit I was in pain I dug my nails into the table.  James
don’tbe a fool, it hurts.  You wouldn’t expecta falcon to perch in a
painfulmews.  I slid my tail out and into thegap in the chair.
“I’velearned military tactics, but no one here knows me and I’m not fit to
commanda parade.” I said.  “I’ve learned one onone combat, but the only
weaponI wasn’t horrific with was a glaive.”
“Ibet they need a guy with a pointy stick.”




>>>The Swiss did well with all sorts of pointy sticks





“Yeahbut I don’t want to be a soldier.” I said. “I learned how to oversee
taxcollection and how to collect taxes and funnel them into your own
pockets.  That’s probably not a skill most people wouldask for.”
“Iknow a few.” He said. Now he was washing potatoes in a bowl while he
talked.The whole time I realized he had never quit working.
“Iknow how to intimidate people and keep them scared of you.” I sighed. “I
knowhow to be a Lord. I was trained in being a Lord.  And now I’m not, I’m
justanother guy.”
“Yeah,wonderful ain’t it?” Ok now I was confused. “You whole life you been
toldyou gonna lead a city. Now you can do whatever you want!”
“Butthe one thing I’ve been prepared for I can’t do.” I said.
“Solearn a new skill err two.  Yeah it’ll behard but you can do it!”  I
shookmy head.
“Tryingnew things or learning new anything isn’t what I want.  I don’t
want...Imean, I want to go back to the way things were.”
“Youmean when you were unhappy and collecting taxes and shit?”  That
stoppedme cold.  The beaver gave me asympathetic smile with his now
smallertooth.  “You scared cuz you not justfinding a job, you finding a
wholenew life.”  I nodded.


>>>A Good point!





“Imiss my city.  I don’t know anyonehere.  I mean, what do I do?  I’m so
usedto having everyone know me at a glance.” I laughed.  “I used to go
intothe city with a chest full of jewels and ribbons you know?  And now
I’ma stranger.”  The future chef put hisstrop away.
“Iain’t gonna lie, it’s gonna be hard.” Ale said. “You done hard things
beforeI bet.”  I shook my head.  “Really? Never done one thing that took
alot of work without arm twisting?”  Ismirked.
'Arm…'


-------------- next part --------------
An HTML attachment was scrubbed...
URL: <http://lists.integral.org/archives/mkguild/attachments/20170806/b528691d/attachment-0001.html>