[Mkguild] Life IV: Everything in its Right Place - E

[Jack Moore]

AN: Last section of this chapter, I hope it goes over well

Life IV: Everything in its Right Place - E

“I ain’t gonna lie, it’s gonna be hard.” Ale said. “You done hard things
before I bet.” I shook my head. “Really? Never done one thing that took a
lot of work without arm twisting?” I smirked.
'Arm…'
“I learned falconry.” I said. “It was uh really hard to do. First time I
tried I thought the bird was going to maul me. I hated standing there with
my arm out all the time, holding chunks of meat.”
“Why’d you keep on?” He asked. I pulled my claws free from the table. For a
second I could see the gauntlet on my left hand again. I knew if I looked
up I’d see the bird fluttering down to land.
“At first because my father hated it. And I mean hated it, their were
falconry laws in place about what kind of birds you could and couldn’t
own.” I grinned, “I could own an eagle since I had royal blood. He
couldn’t.” His face barely contained his rage every time he saw me with my
birds. That made me happy..

“But that wasn’t why I continued. It was the first time I successfully
manned a kestrel.” I said. “Manning is when you train them to work with
you. You never own birds, you partner with them. And their is this intense
rush when you realize the falcon now trusts you.” I smiled.
“The moment I realized I’d done it was when the kestrel, it’s a tiny little
bird, spread his wings on the descent and aimed at my hand. And then he’s
clinging to me! He’s actually on my hand and I did it! I got him to land
and it’s so cool!” It was only when I stopped talking that I realized the
beaver was grinning.
“Yeah that’s awesome.” He said. “And it was hard but you did it.”
“But that was one thing.” I said. “One bird! My life is a flock of birds
now! What do I do?” The beaver licked his chipped tooth.
“Well, I guess you start manning ‘em all. You did it once, you gotta keep
trying. Just remember that, you did it before lizzy. You can do it again.
Won’t be easy, but you gonna feel so good when you do.”
“Mann my whole life.” I mumbled. “That’s going to take a long time.”
“You got time, you got a pulse, you can do it.” The beaver said. “This is
Metamor, this is where change happens.” I nodded. “You just gotta change
one thing. Anytime you’s starting to make your life? Don’t think about all
the times you failed. Think about that bird landing.”
“Why that?”
“Because you did it on your own.” He said.


I was still lost when I left The Gnawing Stick, obviously. But I was
finally thinking about something besides the boy I killed. I was thinking
about the first time I went with my Father on official imperial duty.

“I was miserable that day.” I said. “I was so bored and then I had to learn
this was going to be my life every day from now on?” Florizel, sitting up
in my pocket squeaked at me. “I didn’t want that to be my life, didn’t
matter what I wanted.” I turned and found myself heading up a hill.

By now the city was wide awake. People were entering and exiting buildings,
gliding all around me, a series of forms constantly changing and reshaping.
Maybe it was because I had just spoken to that optimistic rodent but I
finally took notice of them.

Walking beside me was an antelope man. His horns were short and black, his
fur tan on top and cream on the bottom. He had black lines along the edge
of the cream and white, and two black lines under his eyes. I don’t know
why but one thing I noticed was how his tail swung back and forth as he
walked and how he somehow maintained his balance on hooves.

His shirt was sleeveless and unblemished white. It was tucked into navy
blue pants with frayed legs. I looked from that at my own brightly colored
nightmare outfit. They like dark colors here a lot more than home I notice.
I paused and let the antelope get away from me. He probably had to learn
how to walk again with hooves. I’m going to have to learn how to walk with
my tail up. I stopped again.

But I am walking with my tail up? My tail was up, in fact it had been since
I left the resturant. After sitting on it twice and dragging it through a
puddle I had begun lifting it. I’d walked with it curled up the whole time
and not noticed it.

“I didn’t notice my tail.” I said to Florizel. “For the first time since I
got to this place. And a tail ain’t something you just don’t notice now is
it?” Florizel rubbed his paws together. “But I didn’t I just...I didn’t
want it wet again.” I resumed walking.
'I’m changing now that I’m here. I’m actually getting used to this. It’s so
strange, but I am. What do I do now though? I guess what he said, I gotta
make my own life.' Again I stopped. 'I know how to be a Lord. I’m not a
Lord here. So what do I do? '
My mind was blank. Completely blank. Then I saw all the times I had tried
to learn how to sword fight only to get beaten bloody. The times I had
tried to learn how to sail on a boat, only to vomit uncontrollably.
Numerous failures, false starts and poor ends all through my life until I
was the sad-sack twenty-two year old spawn of Leontes.
'But I’m not the sad-sack. I’m the guy who tames birds.' I smiled. 'I can
tame birds.' Again I started walking.
Metamor doesn’t have nearly enough falconers.
I made it to the top of the hill and turned to look at from whence I came.
>From up a hill all the buildings look like blocks made of fit together
shapes. I sat down on the ground beside a building, trying to keep out of
the way of walkers. I curled my knees against my chest and my tail around
my ankles.
“I still don’t know what to do.” I mumbled. “But that beaver was so
optimistic. His resturant didn’t have any plates, much less customers and
he still went at it full force. He wasn’t letting fear stop him.
“So what’s my restaurant? What do I do?” I shrugged. “His restaurant will
succeed because he won’t quit until it does. If I want to carve out a life
for myself, I can’t keep thinking about how I was going to be a lord and
now I’m not, can I Florizel?” The rat was asleep again in my pocket.
“I’m still alive. And I’m in a city of change. I can change with it.” I
smiled. “If I work like that beaver did I can change. I can...I can…” My
voice dropped away. All the people around me were just figures completely
seperate from me. But for the first time since I got here, I felt
something.
The spark of optimism.
I was still separate from these people but now I didn’t feel like it would
be permanent. Maybe I could change things. Though I still viewed them as
the enemy from Metamor, not yet people.
But that would come later today.
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