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

[cokane8116 at aol.com]

“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 a
lotof work without arm twisting?” I smirked.
'Arm…'
“Ilearned falconry.” I said. “It was uh really hard to do. First time I
triedI thought the bird was going to maul me. I hated standing there with
myarm out all the time, holding chunks of meat.”
“Why’dyou keep on?” He asked. I pulled my claws free from the table. For a
secondI could see the gauntlet on my left hand again. I knew if I looked
upI’d see the bird fluttering down to land.
“Atfirst because my father hated it. And I mean hated it, their were
falconrylaws 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..
 
>>>>Doing it for spite!





“Butthat wasn’t why I continued. It was the first time I successfully
manneda 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
rushwhen you realize the falcon now trusts you.” I smiled.
“Themoment 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
clingingto me! He’s actually on my hand and I did it! I got him to land
andit’s so cool!” It was only when I stopped talking that I realized the
beaverwas grinning.




>>>That must have been a cool feeling.





“Yeahthat’s awesome.” He said. “And it was hard but you did it.”
“Butthat 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’tbe easy, but you gonna feel so good when you do.”
“Mannmy whole life.” I mumbled. “That’s going to take a long time.”
“Yougot 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
onething. Anytime you’s starting to make your life? Don’t think about all
thetimes you failed. Think about that bird landing.”
“Whythat?”
“Becauseyou did it on your own.” He said.




>>>Now that's profound



 
 
Iwas still lost when I left The Gnawing Stick, obviously. But I was
finallythinking about something besides the boy I killed. I was thinking
aboutthe first time I went with my Father on official imperial duty.
 
“Iwas miserable that day.” I said. “I was so bored and then I had to learn
thiswas going to be my life every day from now on?” Florizel, sitting up
inmy pocket squeaked at me. “I didn’t want that to be my life, didn’t
matterwhat I wanted.” I turned and found myself heading up a hill.
 
Bynow the city was wide awake. People were entering and exiting buildings,
glidingall around me, a series of forms constantly changing and reshaping.
Maybeit was because I had just spoken to that optimistic rodent but I
finallytook notice of them.
 
Walkingbeside me was an antelope man. His horns were short and black, his
furtan on top and cream on the bottom. He had black lines along the edge
ofthe cream and white, and two black lines under his eyes. I don’t know
whybut one thing I noticed was how his tail swung back and forth as he
walkedand how he somehow maintained his balance on hooves.
 
Hisshirt was sleeveless and unblemished white. It was tucked into navy
bluepants with frayed legs. I looked from that at my own brightly colored
nightmareoutfit. They like dark colors here a lot more than home I notice.
Ipaused and let the antelope get away from me. He probably had to learn
howto walk again with hooves. I’m going to have to learn how to walk with
mytail up. I stopped again.
 
ButI am walking with my tail up? My tail was up, in fact it had been since
Ileft the resturant. After sitting on it twice and dragging it through a
puddleI had begun lifting it. I’d walked with it curled up the whole time
andnot noticed it.
 
“Ididn’t notice my tail.” I said to Florizel. “For the first time since I
gotto 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
wantit wet again.” I resumed walking.
'I’mchanging 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
makemy own life.' Again I stopped. 'I know how to be a Lord. I’m not a
Lordhere. So what do I do? '
Mymind was blank. Completely blank. Then I saw all the times I had tried
tolearn how to sword fight only to get beaten bloody. The times I had
triedto learn how to sail on a boat, only to vomit uncontrollably.
Numerousfailures, false starts and poor ends all through my life until I
wasthe sad-sack twenty-two year old spawn of Leontes.
'ButI’m not the sad-sack. I’m the guy who tames birds.' I smiled. 'I can
tamebirds.' Again I started walking.
Metamordoesn’t have nearly enough falconers.




>Cool - it needs more falconers and muffins





Imade it to the top of the hill and turned to look at from whence I came.
>Fromup 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
theway of walkers. I curled my knees against my chest and my tail around
myankles.
“Istill 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
hestill went at it full force. He wasn’t letting fear stop him.
“Sowhat’s my restaurant? What do I do?” I shrugged. “His restaurant will
succeedbecause he won’t quit until it does. If I want to carve out a life
formyself, I can’t keep thinking about how I was going to be a lord and
nowI’m not, can I Florizel?” The rat was asleep again in my pocket.
“I’mstill 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
voicedropped away. All the people around me were just figures completely
seperatefrom me. But for the first time since I got here, I felt
something.
Thespark of optimism.


>>>Cool





Iwas still separate from these people but now I didn’t feel like it would
bepermanent. Maybe I could change things. Though I still viewed them as
theenemy from Metamor, not yet people.
Butthat would come later today.


>>>All things come with time.



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