One is here

[Alira Drakrul]

"My wolf... I need ye..." Alira's plea reached Dar'eka as she leaned fully against the inside of her front door. The waves of calm were interrupted by sharp spikes of unease tainted with the faint bitter taste of fear. Alira's hands were splayed against its stone surface as if it alone held her aloft.


"One will come to you." he replied mentally. A moment later, the large black wolf came padding down the stairs, whining at the sensation. He whined sharply again as he came to stand with his length in front of her. She looked down in the direction fo the whine and sank to the floor. She reached out her trembling hands, her fingers anchoring themselves in the grizzled coat of the wolf. Delicate fingers entwined themselves in his thick fur as she pulled herself to lean against his back.


"One is here..." he sent reassuringly to her as he whined audibly as another jolt of unease and fear threatened to tear her blanket of calm asunder. "It will pass as it did before..." his mind touched hers attempting to dominate her emotions with his calm. He felt her weight begin to shift fully onto his back and widened his stance to support her light body. Her cheek rested against the far side of his ribcage as her long ivory hair spilled over and onto the floor. His solid frame easily supported the frail looking woman as he felt her body shudder against him as tremors danced along her skin. He turned his massive head to look at her hands as they clenched tightly into his fur. "One is here..." he repeated over and over as his warm tongue reached out licked her forehead.

"One is here..."

 

[Alira Drakrul]

"Can one translate scratches on paper?" the man asked the girl.

"Beg pardon?" she said looking up from her bench where she was fiddling with a broken clock. She wasn't beautiful. She wasn't a horror. Like the majority of the world's population, she was ordinary and unremarkable.

He sighed with a quick pair of flicks of his curled hand at his forehead. "Can you... " He pointed to her, speaking slowly "...translate... the..." He paused and looked around the workbench and then pointed to the numbers on the face of the clock, "... the scratches on paper."

She blinked at the oddity and then looked to the clock. "You are... asking... if I can read?"

"Yes. That's what one said... r-rea-d. Yes. Read."

"Actually you asked... erm... " she waved a hand dismissing her objection, "Yes. Yes. I can read." She put down her tinker's tools and turned to face him. "I am fluent in common and a smattering of goblin dialects."

"Flu... flue." he growled a bit in frustration at the foreign word. He snapped out his next question, "Can one make the scratches as well?"

She blinked again. "You... mean... can I write?" He stared intently at her, almost uncomfortably so. She then repeated her question with a scribbling gesture towards a phantom piece of paper in the air. "You are asking if I can write?"

"Yes. Yes, that is what one said. Write. Can one write?"

"Actually it isn't what you..." she stopped at the intensity of the stare of those amber eyes. "Erm... yes. Yes, I can write in common as well as some goblin."

"Are either of those what the..." he paused for a moment as if searching the words. "... the ones who fix your people understand."

She quirked her head to the side at the odd phrasing. "Ones who fix my people... fix..." She trailed off for a moment before exclaiming, "Oh! You mean a healer. Fix as when we are sick and broken, yes?"

"Yes, when one is broken."

"Then yes I can. They speak common."

He gestured dismissively as if uninterested in the details. "One needs... you... to make scratches on a paper. They must be... " He paused shortly as if he himself was translating from his odd speak to hers. "They must be... my... scratches for the life-bringers to understand."

"So you want me to write a letter to the healers for you?" she asked. She was looking a bit exasperated herself by this point.

"Letter?" he asked. His curled hand quickly scratched at the nape of his neck.

She pointed to a number on the clock face.

"One needs more than one and one needs them to be theirs." he said.

"Yes. Alright, let me find the writing tools." Nyx dug around in her nearby backpack, murmuring under her breath. She eventually retrieved the paper and an odd-looking stick. "I call it a self-inking quill. No more messy bottles being tipped over... you just..." she paused as she became aware of his hard stare.

"One's need for this task is great, little cub." his voice a bit harsh and gravely.

"Yes, of course. I'm sorry, mister." She situated the paper and quill and looked to him to begin.

He began to pace the floor as he spoke. He paused many times as he spoke. They danced linguistically until she was confidant she had written what he wanted to convey.

"And the letter is from?" she asked at the end.

"Erm... is that important?" he asked.

"Yes, " she replied simply.

He ran his hand through his hair a few times. Nyx blinked, but stayed silent as to not break the strange man's concentration. "Scratch that it is from... is from..." He traversed across the wooden floor a few times. "... this place... Moonglow."

She blinked at the answer before asking hestiantly, "You want it to be from ... Moonglow."

"This place is called this, is it not?" he asked with a grumble of irritation.

"Yes... but usually you put from *whom* it is from... not the place..."

He barked back at her, "You did not speak that. You said from..."

"I know, but it means..." she started.

"One cares not for what it means!" he exclaimed. "Why must words not mean the same as the words should. Why must two-leggers be so complicated? " he threw his hands up in the air as he stalked back and forth across the floor. She watched him stare at the floor as he briskly paced. "Then... It is from Dar'eka of this den." he said gesturing to the house around them.

"How do you spell..." she stopped abruptly as he shot an angry look at her. "Err.. Erm... I'll figure it out. "

"Get it to the life-bringers as soon as one can and wait for them to give scratching back, " he instructed.

She looked forlornly at the broken clock that would have to wait even longer for her expert tinkering. "Yes, of course. Right away." He nodded and strode over to the teleporter and disappeared. She looked down at the bottom of the letter, pursed her lips and made her best attempt at spelling his odd name.

 

[Alira Drakrul]

Nyx read aloud the response sent by the Infirmary as Dar'eka paced back and forth in the room.

"Well, none of that was useful, " he grumbled. "Something is wrong. It shouldn't be, but it is. They don't get sick. " Fingernails quickly scratched at his neck in short rapid strokes.

"Why wouldn't they?" she asked innocently.

"They aren't like you. They simply do not... can not... get sick." he affirmed.

"But... you said they were ill..."

"Yes... but... " Dar'eka started to object.

"... No but's... they are. Even if whomever shouldn't be, they are. Even though it doesn't make any logical sense... the fact remains... they *are* sick."

"They shouldn't be."

"Should not and can not are two different rules."

He paced a few times back and forth. "So they are sick even though everything I know says they should not be."

"Yes. This means what?" she encouraged.

"That means their body may not be the source or cause. Something else is."

"Or someone else, " she said quietly.

Dar'eka paused in his pacing and looked at her for a long moment. He grunted a bit as if in acknowledgement of her insight and headed back upstairs. The little tinker picked up the broken clock with a wistful sigh of relief and got back to work.

 

[Alira Drakrul]

"You can not keep this up..." his voice touched her thoughts

"I will kindly remind ye t'nae instruct on what I can and cannae' do." Alira said aloud without even looking up from the paperwork. She sat at her desk, her face was expressionless as her blue eyes skimmed down the page in front of her. "I am well aware ye are attemptin' t'bring me t'heel like a disobedient pup o' yers. I would remind ye, my wolf, that I am far from a pup. "

The wolf was lounging on the couch in the same room. His tufted ears pricked forward as his amber eyes watched her. "One is concerned over your health.

"I 'ave a job t'do. My responsibilities donnae' stop jus' because ye wish them t'."

"They'll stop if you are dead, " his voice touched her thoughts. He whined aloud still watching her. "What if the symptoms return and you are out healing the stupid two-leggers at that water place? What if you are in a tavern? "

Alira looked up at him. Her face was still emotionless, but he could feel the first spark of discontentment trickle across their link. He wagged his tail as if to appease any aggression at his questioning. "I am -well- aware o' the possibilities o' complication from these... symptoms. However, I am also aware t'at if'n I become a hermit t'at will also attract attention. The future o' Moonglow requires me t'solidify my relationship to other cities an' factions which means I -must- be 'round people whether I like it o' nae. The city stands precariously on the cusp of a forced revolution by the King and other cities. The citizens are content and happy, but the sour taste o' Penrose's actions are still tainting views. That taste can foul the palette o' anythin' t'do with Moonglow's future. One o' my most attractive qualities t'the new perspective governor is in my relations with others an' my promises t'help her with them. If I lose t'at, my value will drop in her eyes. "

The wolf took a deep breath into its barrel chest and exhaled out loudly through his nose in a deep sigh. "Our pack would be lost without you leading it."

"I intend t'lead it until the stars wink out o' existence." she said softly. Her face was still expressionless, but the discontentment along their link waned. Her face looked down to the paperwork again as her eyes began to read again. She made small notations periodically in the margins and above words. "I 'ave survived much worse be assured, my wolf. When I find out what ... or who... is causin' this annoyance... it will be most unhappy with the consequences o' its actions."

His tail kept lazily wagging, "The pack will stand with you when that time comes."

Alira looked up for a moment at his words and then grunted a bit in agreement. "I would accept nothin' less."