Newsgroups: alt.pub.dragons-inn
From: li@Data-IO.COM (Phyllis Rostykus)
Subject: [MG] [AU] Looking for Housing
Message-ID: <1993Jun5.173822.19140@data-io.com>
References: <1993Jun5.172906.19013@data-io.com>
Date: Sat, 5 Jun 1993 17:38:22 GMT

	After her breakfast, Kardia went up to her room and packed
everything.  Kardia left the Inn with her bags, her harp case, the horse
bow and quiver of arrows, and her walking stick.  The shawl and scarf were
packed away, after some thought.  With the requirement of her healing
throat it was better not to wear the articles.  She was pretty sure that
'Raelf was all right now; but it had taken a little weighing on her part
to decide to put away the shawl and scarf.

	She turned to the Ceru and walked over it on the bridge.  The Mage
Guild still amazed her and she took an extra ten minutes to study the front
hallway.  Then she strode in and got lost.  She managed to find her way
back out and then asked the front receptionist, "Uhm... how do I find the
door to 'Raelf's house?"  A light lit on the wall.  She followed it and
came back to the portal that she'd exited the other morning, and popped
through into the fragrant garden.

	There was a newly planted tree amid a mound of soft earth.  The
rain fell gently around her and she looked up at the sky with a smile.
Familiar, the touch of the water lightened her mood.  The grey skys were
comforting.

        She moved through the arch to the front door of the beehive shaped
house.  The grating clanged softly under her footsteps.  Kardia scraped her
travelling boots off there, and then knocked on the front door.  She'd half
expected someone to answer it before she even knocked, but no one did.  So
she knocked again.

	A boy child trotted up to her from the Garden, half covered in dirt
and a grin.  "Hiya."

	Kardia blinked.  "Hi.  I'm Kardia..."

	"I'm Kev."  he put out a very brown hand.  Kardia shook it, doing
her best not to laugh.

	"Is 'Raelf around?  I need to talk to him."

	Kev nodded vigerously and made a come-hither gesture.  Kardia
grinned and followed.  As they went around the building, Kev looked back at
Kardia and put one finger to his lips in a universal quiet sign.  Kardia
nodded to acknowledge the sign.

	Kardia had never seen a satyrlion do a staff kata before.  Of
course, she'd never seen a satyrlion before the other day in her life, so
it wasn't that surprising.  She kept very, very quiet and sat down,
crosslegged where Kev stopped.  Kev grinned at her and ran off.

        The feline grace that Kardia had glimpsed behind the human form was
now highly evident.  It wasn't only the smooth furred sleekness of the
lower half of his body, clad now in a brief pair of runners' shorts, with a
hole behind for his cat's tail: it was also the liquid grace with which he
moved.  'Raelf's concentration was a palpable thing, and Kardia found
herself breathing consciously with the slow, relaxed control Alistair had
taught her at seven.  Strike and block, precise and flowing both, a string
of positional pearls with little stasis and no dead spots.  The kata flowed
like water over earth, struck like fire and she could see and hear how his
breathing synched with the flow of power.  He was very good.  So Kardia
simply sat and enjoyed the show.

	At the closing movements, she reluctantly stood up.  She waited
until he closed and breathed and the concentration dropped away before
approaching him.  When he looked at her, she unconsciously bowed, putting
one fist in one hand and then blushed when she realized what she'd done.
'Raelf returned the movement precisely and with no embarrassment.

	"Very nice." she said.

	"Thanks.  Not quite my best, though.  These legs are tough.  More
thrust, but the balance is bogus.  Tail helps though."

	Kardia blinked and realized that he had the rear legs of a feline,
with the paws, longer ankle, shorter and slenderer calf, with a rotated hip
and huge thigh muscles, "Oh, wow."

	"Yeah..."  'Raelf hesitated then asked, "What's up?"

	"Uhm... two things.  First, I noticed, last night, that Dasham
still had a curse on her, so I guess I'm here for the job.  The second is
news about Andrea and Sheryl.  Andrea left a notice in the Inn to all the
folks she'd gotten together for the Housebreaking that she needed some time
off."  Kardia frowned, "It said something about her needing to get into the
great open spaces."  Kardia was a touch relieved to see that 'Raelf frowned
at that phrase as well.  "Not much like our city thief, is it?"

        A shake of the head. 

        "I'm a little worried about her.  The night that I finished
Sheyrl's cover, someone got into Andrea and Sheyrl's room and tried to
throw a huge curse on Andrea.  She'd gotten a ring from somewhere and
combined with Sheryl's horn Andrea seemed to have reflected the curse so
that it hit the caster; but something had changed in her, nothing
curse-like that I could see, though.  Thing is that I wasn't able to figure
out what had changed in the time that I got to examine her; and she'd said
that she felt fine.  But then this..."  Kardia shook her head.

         "Hmmmm... the power behind that curse on Sheryl...  I'm ashamed to
say that I copied it when I was out of my head last night, but at least I
didn't erase anybody."  Kardia gave him a sharp look.  "Oy vell.  Anyway,
Andrea's pretty capable."

        "Yeah.  I know.  The main reason I didn't try and round up a posse
from those that had already volunteered for the Housebreaking."  Kardia
grinned, "I can just imagine how she'd look at me if we charged in on her
in the middle of a job...  Yeah.  I guess I'm just enough worried about her
to tell you about what happened; and if after the Dasham job she still
doesn't show up then you'll know where I went."

        'Raelf nodded and then quirked one eyebrow.  "You need a place to
crash with her gone?"

        Kardia grinned a slightly abashed grin.  "Yeah.  I do.  If it's not
too much trouble..."

        'Raelf muttered, "Just as well..."  At her confused frown 'Raelf
shook his head and said with a grin, "Your room is ready for you if you
want to dump your stuff there."

        "Cool."  Kardia hesistated and then said, "I'm really rusty and
completely untested, so I don't know how to communicate what level I'm at
in any of the arts; but if you want a student at all... I guess I'm asking
if you'd want to teach me something after I dump my stuff?  If not, no
prob, I got plenty of spinning still to do with Dasham's job coming up." 

        "I'd love to practice with you.  You figure out how much you're
gonna need to spin, and we can start.  Anyway Karl wanted to learn some
of this stuff too."  He grinned at her puzzled expression.

        "Remember last night?  Rhythm Song?  The satyr band?  Well, they
didn't start out as satyrs, but they do NOT want to go back, so I have
acquired, how you say, houseguests, for a while.  Had a fun time getting
all their stuff out of their townhouse.  If it wasn't for the twins and
that log drum, the landlord would have called the guards on us."

        Kardia laughed in delight.  "Fantastic... Sounds like there'll be
interesting company.  Most of the spinning can wait 'til tonight, you have
the light for me do that; and it's been too long since I've been physically
active.  I still ache from the dancing last night..."

        A look of dismay crossed the satyrlion's face.

        Kardia suddenly realized why she felt like crying. "Hey.  It wasn't
your fault.  I..." she sighed, "I know what it's like being raped, and it
looked to me a lot like you were messed with, big time, by someone really
nasty.  It's taken a long time... but I finally can honestly say that I was
innocent.  You can't blame yourself for everything you did then.  I'm glad
you're taking the responsibility of fixing what you can.  From what I've
seen, you're doin' the best you can; but this blaming bit just can't be
helping you *do* that.  That make any sense?"

        "Yeah, I don't blame myself, really, but I don't like the things I
did anyway.  The band ... all the folks who _chose_ to remain morphs, even
though they know they may not have children now?  Well, not human children,
anyway.  I did manage to untangle some of the snarls.  Oh well.  Enough
moping.  If you want to stretch out and get in some practice, I'm going to
be out here exercising for the next hour or so."

        "Cool then... I'll be back after a change..."  Kardia grinned and
said, "Thanks for the foot..." and she bounced on it and ran for the house.
This was going to be fun.

-- 
Liralen Li           | "Looking down on empty streets, all she can see are
li@inigo.Data-IO.com |  the dreams all made solid, are the dreams made real."
aka Phyllis Rostykus |  - "Mercy Street" by Peter Gabriel