From alt.pub.dragons-inn Mon Jun 19 22:59:05 1995 Xref: netcom.com alt.pub.dragons-inn:8514 Path: netcom.com!csus.edu!decwrl!pa.dec.com!nntpd.lkg.dec.com!leggy.zk3.dec.com!orb!not-for-mail From: hutch@agora.rdrop.com (Steve Hutchison) Newsgroups: alt.pub.dragons-inn Subject: [Party][FurEarth] Strange Visitations Date: 19 Jun 1995 08:03:29 -0000 Organization: Duchy of Wabesylvan Obspauk Lines: 605 Sender: news@Orb.Nashua.NH.US Message-ID: X-Mailer: ELM [version 2.4 PL23] Mime-Version: 1.0 Content-Type: text/plain; charset=US-ASCII Content-Transfer-Encoding: 7bit [ADMIN] This takes place the night of Lord Luthor Anside's annual party on the Genera's Birthday Holiday. Dark-clad figures are common enough in Generica, even the kind that are completely covered, head-to-toe, and cloaked and hooded, with only the infrequent glint of violet flame where eyes are usually found. This particular dark-clad figure carried a staff almost as tall as it was, and walked with a peculiar, almost inhuman rolling gait. It headed, in what looked like a random wander, towards the Elvish quarter. In the distance, fireworks bloomed over the darkening bay. Music came from a home near the center of the Elvish quarter -- a fenced garden, a huge house-tree in the middle, and jaunty elf-lights dancing around like tiny stars in clouds wherever the sound of song and laughter was heard. The dark-clad figure wandered into the garden, still randomly wandering. It passed a Great Ape, and a gypsy band, pausing to listen to the outlander music. After a moment, it stopped walking, planting the staff, and waited. >From the shadows that wrapped the deep foliage of a hedge, a gold-skinned man stepped out. He was average in height, and wore a cloak of impossible blackness, and his face and eyes had an angularity and structure that no human shared, and his ears were pointed, motile. He looked up into the hood, and in a voice that was almost song, he spoke. "I am Luthor Anside. Welcome to my home." The dark-clad figure inclined his head and in a deep resonant growl, replied, "Thank you. You can call me Lutra. Tell me, mine host, what is the purpose of this revelry through the city?" "A celebration of the birth of the legendary founder of the city, the Genera. Alas, this year it seems more placid than in past years, and I have fewer guests than in some years. Still, I offer you food and drink and the entertainments that I have been able to gather." "I am sure," Lutra said, pulling back his hood, "that this is the most interesting place to be tonight." Under the hood, the head was completely covered with a leather mask, which only opened to show glowing violet eyes. "Pardon my rudeness in asking," Luthor said, "but if you need any special arrangement for privacy in your meal..." "No need, my friend," Lutra replied. "I believe that in this place I can go un-masked." He stretched his hands out, and pulled the leather gloves off. The hands that were revealed were broad, with strong squarish fingers, but they weren't human hands. They were covered with a short dense brown fur, shaded to gold at the tips, and the nails were closer to claws, narrow and dark brown and sharp. He ignored Luthor's carefully controlled reaction, and reached behind his head to unfasten the mask. "Have you," he said, muffled by the mask coming off, "got any fish?" The head that was revealed was a peculiar blend of human and animal traits -- a large enough skull to hold the oversize brain that was the distinguishing human trait, but the muzzle, jaw, and ears belonged to an otter, as did the thick fur and the jet-black nose. "There might be some left," Luthor said. "We had a tray of something Etarusian, rice with raw fish and spices, but it was going fast." "Not a problem," Lutra said, looking off into the distance abstractedly. "It seems there's someone else bringing in meat, I believe they'll be here soon." "How do you know that?" the gold elf asked, blinking. "It's kind of a personal thing, but you have a friendly feel to you and ... you're a chaos worker, aren't you?" "The art of the Shade involves chaos, yes, but I don't work it particularly." Luthor looked closer at the otter, studying the stance and the sound of its voice and the smell of its breathing. "You," he accused, "are not truly here in this place." "Not completely," Lutra said, flashing teeth that were both human and animal. "I come here by entering a dream, leaving my true body behind in my own world. The body I wear here starts as an illusion, but it gets more solid the more I do. Leaving is going to be painful this time. Still, it's worth it." The otter unlaced the black silk tunic, and pulled it over his head. "I should have brought a host gift, and it occurs to me that this could fit you with only a few small adjustments. It's supposed to be worn loose, but as you probably know, there aren't a lot of very tall otters in Generica and I was only able to find one in normal sizes at the merchant's faire." "Excuse me," Luthor said, forestalling Lutra before he could hand him the shirt. "There's something twisting the ..." "Chao," Lutra interrupted. "The lines of karma are bending." "What?" "What were you going to say?" "Excuse me, Lutra." Luthor started to step back into the shadow of the hedge, pulling his BLACK cloak around himself. "Wait. Under that manhole cover," Lutra said, pointing to a huge cast-iron circle in the middle of the lawn that hadn't been there before. The otter dropped the shirt onto the pile of his staff and satchel and cloak, and walked over to the manhole cover. Luthor caught up with him as he bent down to listen. "There's fighting down there. Something about driders, I think, whatever they are." The brown-furred head went flat against the metal disk. "Driders are an obscenity that this world should not be forced to endure," Luthor answered. "The unholy merger of spider and dark-elf enslaved to serve a filthy demoness." "Something's trying to escape, I can hear them pressing on the underside of this... they're human by the smell." "You can smell them?" "Airholes in the manhole cover," Lutra indicated, and set himself in position at the edge. "I'm going to try to open this. Can you be ready to stop any of these drider things if they try to come out?" "I think I could manage that," Luthor said, drawing a bow from the BLACKness of his cloak, and stringing it in the same fluid motion. An arrow was nocked and ready before Lutra had even begun to lift. Cords of knotted muscle stood out under sleek fur as the otter heaved. Spt-TANG! -- a cracking noise and a flash of light was the first thing they heard, and a brown hand pushed up from below. A fluent curse in Elvish from below was followed by a faint twang and a meaty thunk, then a whistling scream. "Hurry, Rook can't hold out forever," came a baritone voice, speaking with a hint of Low City accent. Lutra stood, his long tail balancing him, as he lifted the disk completely then dropped it to the side. The bald head that poked up into the garden was adorned by an elegant scorpion tattoo. The man was pulling up a slight, even frail-looking human, dressed in an elvish style, with a web of gemstones draped across his chest. The frail man was unconscious, breathing with raspy, almost painful gasps. Below, a blue-green phosphorescence showed no shadows but a dark blur, where a third person took advantage of the poor cover of a pipe, while shooting some sort of hand crossbow down the tunnel. Lutra grabbed the human by the wrist, pulling him and his burden up from the hole. "You're safe now," he said, and set the two on the ground. "Rook, I've gotta go back and help her, she'll never hold out against those two. They been hunting us all over the tunnels last day or two." "SHE COULD HOLD OUT," Luthor said, with a strange echo to his voice. Lutra's eyes flashed bright violet flame as the Shadowmaker spoke. Below in the tunnel, Rook took aim, and with a will just short of desperation, *pushed* her luck. There was no way for the missile to kill both of the spider beasts, not with their unearthly skills at combat and murder. The forward drider's front leg came up, flipping a knife into position to deflect the bolt, while the elven hand fired a dart at the elven woman. At this range the driders never missed. So, when the drider's knife deflected its own dart, as half of its spider-feet slipped at the same instant, and Rook's bolt tore across its throat, coming to rest miraculously unslowed in the left eye of the second drider, leaving both to writhe in death-agonies, even Rook had to pause for a moment to make sure she had really seen it happen. "Get her out," Lutra growled. "Something else is coming." "Rook, topside, now," the scorpion-wearer snapped. The elven woman nodded, and with an amazing acrobatic leap she jumped up, catching the edge of the manhole. "There should not be an entry to the tunnels in my garden," Luthor observed, as Lutra shoved the cover back into place. He looked at the emblem -- Generica Department of Public Works, Azpiazu and Coyote, Contractors. "Pleased to meet you," Lutra said blandly, talking to the iron plate. "Now, if you don't mind putting things back, we could see about treating this fellow's problem." The airhole on the cover seemed to wink at the otter as it faded away, replaced by unbroken lawn. "He'll be OK," the bald human was saying to the elven woman. She was kneeling over the thin human, methodically checking him for wounds. "That won't work," the otter said. "He's unconscious from a curse, not from trauma." "What makes you think that, water rat?" Rook snapped, and then she saw Luthor's face. "Oh merde. Scorp, just how did we end up in Lord Anside's private gardens?" "How do you think?" the bald man said, rubbing his tattoo. "When you're working for a chaos god, you have to expect this kind of cruft, right?" She sighed, and looked at the otter's face. "What curse?" "Best as I can tell, it's something quick and sloppy. The threads are fraying even while we speak, it could break at any second." The otter closed his eyes. "It could have been much harder to break if the one who cast it were still alive, and even more if he'd spent any time in the wreaking, but it's so close to unravelling that any novel experience," and Lutra bent over and touched his black nose to the human's pink nose, "ought to break it." The man's eyes opened. He focussed on the otter's eyes, too close to his, and blinked. He would have vanished, too, but the otter was holding him by the jewelled web on his shirt. "Don't worry, you're safe among friends," the otter said, and fell over as Rook pushed him aside to plant a kiss on the disoriented human. Lutra moved back and watched as she finished the task of checking him for damage in a less than detached and professional way. "So, what was this about food?" Lutra said, looking across the lawn at Luthor. --- It was several hours later and Lutra found himself sitting beside a fire, slices of roasted forest deer on a platter next to him, and the storyteller's circle looking at him with deep interest. "What, my turn?" He sighed. "I suppose there is one I can give you. I wanted to sell it to A'arden the Story Buyer, but he won't buy it because I don't own it. Silly, that. It's from a book that was published in my homeworld, a travellogue. I'll read you a few chapters.." The otter slipped a set of reading glasses onto his snout and absentmindedly stroked the end of his walking-staff into light. He began reading in his peculiar growling baritone. Letters Home by Bryan Chaney based on the FurEarth world by Steve Hutchison and Fox Cutter '95 June 01 Dear Mom and Dad, Sorry I haven't written sooner, but between all that has been going on and how much you know I hate writing letters, I kept putting it off. Well after two months here in Tokio, I had a rest day, so I decided to FINALLY write. Yes, a lot has happened since the ship pulled out of King Pier in S'attel in Feburary. The six weeks on the ship is probably the longest period in my life. Fortunately there was a WeatherWorker on the ship so we made good time and the seas remained mostly calm. But you can only play shogi (that is Nipponese chess that I learned from Professor Kental; I lose most of time still) and cards only so many times. It got so bad I asked the captain, a coyote originally from Sands Of Dego, if there was anything I could do to help. He placed me in the galley, helping the cook. Well, at least I know the right way to peel vegatables. I was also able to practice my Nipponese more. There was never a more welcome sight then when I saw the resident sea dragon swimming outside of Tokio Bay. Later on the afternoon of March 15th, we pulled into docks and I was greeted by Professor Kentaro. He's a bear like you two, but he's not like any bear I've seen before. His fur is a light cinnamon brown all over with a white patch just under his chin. While we were talking, and finding out about each other, he mentioned he is originally from Sendai, which is a virtual city-state in the Tohoku region north of Tokio. That might explain why his Nipponese was so hard (and still is on occasion) for me to understand. We walked from Shinagawa Pier to his home near K.O. University, where I'm staying now. I was so worn out and excited from my traveling, I don't remember much of that evening (maybe it's because I also drank a couple bottles of beer; hey they offered it and I couldn't very well turn it down now could I?). What I do remember is I met Professor Kentaro's lovely wife, Yukiko, a very matronly tanuki. In case you're wondering what a tanuki is they look kind of like a cross between a raccoon and a badger, but with little more reddish fur. It's a little scary that my 5 foot 11 inches towers over most Nipponese, and I'm considered short of average for wolves. I think I'm even taller than Professor Kentaro. But I guess if your father is 7 feet tall, your perspective is a little skewed. Anyways, over the following week, Professor Kentaro, Yukiko, and Yuan, a female student from Xian who is also studying with Professor Kentaro, and I went to the various sights around Tokio. The first place we went to was the Imperial Palace and the goverment buildings. Professor Kentaro explained that while Tokio nominally controls the entire Japanese archepelago from Okinawa to Sakarin, in truth they only control the Kanto Plain from the Fuji-san ash flats up to Nikko and Utsunomiya, about a 100 mile stretch along the eastern coast of Nippon. The only real rival for power is Osaka, which basically controls the Kansai, far to the south. Still, Tokio has the slightly smaller cities of Yokohama, Kawasaki and Chiba under its control and about 2 million people under it's jursidiction, and it's probably the largest city left in the world. Or one of them at least. To the north, there is just Sendai and Sapporo left with the rest being wild lands. To the south of the ash flats, with the exception of Osaka are scattered city-states. Ah, the people! You know I've never really liked crowds, but it seems everywhere you go are crowds of people. Lots of tanuki, kitsune (foxes; you know me and foxes, rivalry), rabbits, cats (with their curiously shortened tails), even the occasional dog, bear, mouse, and deer, but not a single wolf, it seems like. As a result, combined with my height, I kind of stand out. It's frustrating at times. But I'm going off again. I guess that's why I failed the theoretical magic class. The Imperial Palace somehow survived the series of earthquakes that rocked Nippon in the middle of the last century. The way I understand it, most of the buildings, especially in the old downtown area (now underwater), survived the first one. It was the second and the third ones that did them in. All about the same strength. That was about the same time as Fuji-san started to spew ash again. It must have taken a lot to calm the Earth Dwellers. As a result, the moat has become an part of the Sumidagawa, the local main river, no longer walled in. The place has lots of history, streaching back more than 600 years. That is what I'm working on now, trying to write a history of the world before the Change. Sometimes when I look at the old books with the pictures of humans, sometimes I'm struck that I don't see anyone with fur. How could they have stood it? Anyways, back to the area around the Palace. Now, it is largely a museum as there hasn't been an emperor since the Disappearences. Some beautiful artwork and architechure has been preserved there. I wish I had the means the Old Ones had of reproducing pictures of places called "photographs". Then again, I wouldn't mind having many things but if it means all the bad things like poisoning the Earth goes along with it, I'll do without. Even today in Tokio, there is so much concrete and asphalt, even though there are also now large streches of grass and wood lands and much that is left is broken, that I don't how anybody could have stood it for long. On the other paw, the government district was bustling. We even looked on to a session of the Gikai, the local legislative body. Covering such a large administrative district is quiet difficult and times the various legislators were yelling, shouting and howling making their points. Imagine the S'attel board meeting multiplied about 20 times. All in all quiet interesting. The following day, we went to Shinjuku. By and large this is the heart of Tokio. It's quite far from K.O. and the older part of Tokio. Along the way, we were able to see most of the rest of Tokio. To this day, there are still places that you can't get into due to so much rubble from the earthquakes. Rumour is though, that there are people living in there, scavenging what artifacts they can find and selling them in the little carts that are everywhere in the streets. Just to the south of Shinjuku, there are two large parks. The larger of the two, Yoyogi Koen, every Sunday is filled with people and musicians playing all sorts of music. About a couple weeks ago I had the chance to go over there. I was even able to pick up a couple more songs and taught a couple songs I knew. My guitar playing is nowhere close to some of these people but I had a good time. Back to my first visit. We first visited the old Shinjuku Station. When the trains still ran, this was the largest station in all of Nippon. Now it is one of the largest collection of shops I've ever seen. Goods from all over Nippon and the world were made available for a price. I was tempted to buy an old silver disk which writing indicating it was for a Beatles album (one of my favorite writers from that era), maybe to commemorate it? Anyway, it cost more gold than I've had in my whole life. The rest of Shinjuku is a bustling district, alive with lantern light and wizard light after dark. Professor Kentaro said that Shinjuku was the only part of Tokio that never really closed down. Just the brief look I had, I could believe it. Pretty much after that, I settled down into a routine. About 6 or 7 in the morning I would get up, Yukiko would make me breakfast, usually rice, a soft boiled egg (no matter how many times I insist I want it hard boiled), and some fruit juice or tea. Then I would go to the library at K.O. and try to find books or write some from the books I have or discuss with Professor Kentaro any problems. Sometimes, I'll talk with Yuan about a certain point. She's a panda, black ears, muzzle, arms and legs, white elsewhere, and she's also working on a historical research paper, but of a different era. Then I would return home around 6 or 7 in evening for dinner, usually consisting of fish or shellfish prepared various ways; raw, fried, grilled, in soup stock. In addition would be some rice and maybe some vegatables, whatever is in season. I guess you making me eat my broccoli all those years ago is starting to pay off. Eating was a bit tricky at first, because I had to get used to using hashi. They are two long tapered sticks that you use to eat with. Professor Kental had some but I never used them that much. I guess I should have practiced before I left. Now I can at least eat the rice without losing too much. After dinner, I would do a little pleasure reading (not all the books that I find are heavy historical texts) or something else, like practice my music. Then just before going to bed, I will jump into the ofuro. It is nothing like baths back home. First of all you wash yourself outside the deep square tub. I usually heat the tub with that little heat cantrip I picked up. That way I don't have to mess with the smoke from the fire. After cleaning up, you enter the water, which is as hot as you can stand. Very relaxing. The only problem is I usually leave a lot of hairs on the surface (stupid shedding problem). I have to skim the surface before the next person can get in. And after I dry off, I'm usually fuzzy all over for the next hour or so. Oh well. I suppose you are wondering about the living arrangements. The house I live in is about a 20 minute walk from the university, dating from sometime in the late 20th century. About half the house is like what you are use to, furniture, wooden floors with small carpets, a combination kitchen and dining area. But there is one central area and the bedrooms covered with tatami, a woven rice straw mat. Also, you have to remove your sandals at the door and you can't wear them inside. Sometime I forget, but Yukiko always gently reminds me. The bedrooms don't have beds but you take out futon, a sleeping pad really, and sleep on the floor. I've gotten use to it by now. Also inside there are no swinging doors, except to the toilet, just sliding doors or curtains. Well the place is so narrow I can see why. Outside is a nice garden which I can see from my window. Maybe what brought on the Change was that humans forgot to keep in touch with Nature. I know I feel so much better when I'm around green and living things than all the concrete. About the only other highlight over the last couple months was there was a rumor that Gojira was spotted over the old downtown area, but there wasn't any damage. He is suppose to be this large reptile that rises out of the sea every once and awhile. I didn't hear a thing other then the occasional low tremble of an earthquake but those are constant and you learn to ignore them (up to certain level) after awhile. Getting that time of year now when the local fey folk make their presence more known. You have to be careful around dusk not to do anything offensive to them or they do things like cause ink to spill on papers (that already happened to me once) or tear holes in the shoji, the paper covered sliding doors. Well, I don't really have anything more to say. I miss all of you. I should be back sometime in Feburary of next year. I'll leave here just after New Year's. Give my love to Cat and Shel and their cubs. Hope Shauna makes it through Choosing all right. I'll try to write sooner but don't count on it. Your Son, Wilford **** '95 Jun 01 Dear Professor Kental, Are you healthy? The weather here is starting to turn to rain. I'm doing fine. Forgive me for not writing sooner but I've been very busy with researching and settling in. Thank you for recommending me to Professor Kentaro. He is just as kind as you said. He has helped me a lot in trying to find resources and work out inconsistancies in various texts. He even got me access to some of the more rare books. The collection of books is nowhere the size of Swallow Library at the University of S'attel, but they do have more books relative to my subject, which I finally decided would be the post World War II era between 1945 and 1973. That is such a strange and wonderous time in Nipponese history, very similiar in many respects to the rebuilding after the earthquakes in the 2050's. It is all quite interesting if sometimes some of the vocabualary is a bit confusing, in both English and Nipponese books I've been able to find. Fortunately, Professor Kentaro has been able to help me as much as he can. So far I have about 20 pages written, but I'm working on it just about every day. Hopefully I'll be able to finish it by the time I return. Your Student, Wil ***** '95 Jun 01 Dear Andii, I miss you so much. I'm sorry I didn't write earlier but I've been busy. That night we spent together before I left was very special to me. I had always heard cats were very amourous but...wow! Don't worry dear, I'll be back before you know it. Just wait for me! You are first girlfriend I've had for any length of time and you remain very special to me. Don't let the distance (or my lack of writing) come between us. I think about you every day. I hope you can finish that engineering test for journeyman. If you haven't taken it yet when you recieve this letter, good luck or ganbare! If you have already, well, hope for the best. The last 6 years I've spent studying, I couldn't wait to come to Nippon. But now that I'm here, there are days I hate it and there are days I love it. They do things I can never understand, like the constant bowing. I know it's suppose to be polite but it still annoys me. Or for breakfast, I usually have boiled eggs. That isn't bad (they have the spirit thanked beforehand, of course) but Yukiko, the wife of the Prof I'm staying with keeps cooking them soft, no matter how many times I say I want them hard. Argh! The thing that annoys me the most is all the people. It's bad enough having all the concrete remaining but there are also 1 million people living in Tokio alone not to mention the other cities nearby. It sometimes seems like I'm the only wolf and I wind up being taller than most of them. As a result, I'm quite visible. I don't like it. I feel like I need to get under some cover. Yeah, like I blend. Every once in a while some one will come up to me and try to speak English to me and I quiet politely answer them in Nipponese whatever query they have. You know I'm not that open. It just bugs me. Another thing that has shocked me is the openness of the sex trade. If you think that hookers down by the docks around Pike Market are bad, you haven't see anything. The third night after I arrived here, Prof Kentaro took me to Shinjuku, which is the heart of Tokio these days. After doing some shopping, around dark we went to find a bar to get something to eat and some beer. By the way, they have some of the best tasting beer here. Not real strong, but has a decent flavor to it. Anyhow, while we looking for a place to drink, the streets were filled with people in carts selling roast potatoes and takoyaki (grilled octopus balls), fortune tellers (paw reading and something called blood type fortunes, what it is I have no idea), storytellers and hawkers getting people trying to get into their shops. Most of the places showed drawings of nude females and a few nude males with signs promising sex. Even occasionally a scantly and alluringly dressed vixen or cat would stand beckoning outside one of these places. Not that I would ever enter one of these places. Not only would you kill me, I'd probably get fleas, too, if not worse. Remember how I used to tease my friend James about being a fox and how we do little things just to see which was better? It just a running gag between us, but seeing all the foxes (or kitsune to be more accurate) here, I keep thing about all the things I used to tease about, like how they all are inherently vain, that sort of thing. I think it's the tail. Of course looking at my tail, it's really not that much to brag about. Not to mention my flat feet. I guess that must come from my parents. shrug. One of things in the old folklore was that the more powerful kitsune had multiple tails. I guess if I ever see a nine-tailed fox, I'll assume he's a Wizard and not bother him. You know me and magic, can bearly do the heat cantrip. Oh well. Not everyone can be a Mage. Of course, I've found somethings I like. One thing I've discovered is manga. It's kind of like the comic illustrated stories they sell down at the bookstore, but the art is of a totally different style, most notable is the consistantly oversized eyes of the characters. Sometime the stories are humourous, sometimes they are serious and I even seen some erotic ones. The manga are sold fairly cheaply in just about every store, printed out on with wood blocks or maybe a hand press on low grade paper and glued together. But some are quite well done and gives me a break from all the real heavy and serious stuff I'm reading and writing all day. And it's quite popular too, with many people reading at least one of the many magazines usually by passing around copies. The more popular stories are performed in the streets by storytellers using illusions. Sometimes the illusionist's version of the story are even better than the manga that it's based on. I'll try to save a copy of one of these manga and show you when I get home. Even when I was digging around in the archives at K.O., I found some old, old manga, so this been around for a long time. A few weeks ago, I wandered over to Yoyogi Park. It was crowded but I still had a good time. You see, every Sunday musicans from all over Tokio gather together and perform for free. I brought my guitar and traded songs with a few people, performing stuff from before the Disappearences. It felt good to be out and have fun for a change. In one respect, Nipponese is the perfect language for shy people, because you have use a lot of hesistant noise and such to get people's attention. There was this one tiger from Indus and we had a long discussion on different types of music. He said he had come to Nippon to see if he could get some work but wound up performing in a strip bar. I think he just wanted to speak English for a while. I know I did. I've working on this history to get my masters for now 2 and half months straight now and I feel like I'm about due for an extended break. I'm starting to lose my focus. I'm sick of having to speak in Japanese all the time. I'm improving my speaking ability greatly, but I still have to think. I don't know. Maybe it's just stress. If nothing else, I need to break routine for a while, go exploring. Maybe I'll ask Professor Kentaro about a trip down south to Osaka. They got the Tokaido Road finally repaired not too long ago. My poor literary skills could never describe Tokio. It's just too big. All the sights of past glories, the crowds of people, the smells... I'll just say that it seems like it is constantly rebuilding. It seems like all along the route to school, there is at least one construction project going on or something is being torn down to make room for something new. I guess even after all this time, Tokio is still bustling. A book I found referred to Tokio as a Phoenix of a city, rising out of the ashes for rebirth. Just as long as I don't choke on the ashes. Never forget that I love you. I will be home before you know it. I'll think of you everyday. I hope you do the same for me. Love, Wil --- Bryan Chaney z9406052@cc.mita.keio.ac.jp bchaney@u.washington.edu wbwolf@u.washington.edu http://weber.u.washington.edu/~wbwolf "If I was a better person, I'd ignore her and go on with my rest of my life... But I'm not." - Slappy Squirrel, Animaniacs, "I Got Yer Can" ---- The otter coughed and swigged from the pewter tankard next to him. "That's the end of the first chapter. Someone else's turn?" He leaned back and curled his tail around his feet. This story is copyright 1995 by Stephen Hutchison, and the inclusion of the material by Bryan Chaney is by permission. All rights are reserved. Permission is granted for archive by the usual channels.