| Subject: at long last |
Author:
Jeffrey, Gwen
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Date Posted: 15:08:32 12/04/05 Sun
In reply to:
Alexis
's message, "Nervous" on 22:19:24 11/07/05 Mon
Jeff looked startled, and then sheepish. "Well...you see, just after you left, on the mountain, there was this...this girl. Only she wasn't a girl at first, she was a bird - a hawk, I think - and then she was a Cheysuli girl and Michael...he knew her. She called him brother, and he knew her. And she...she knew me, too, and called me brother. Rujho, I guess. And I saw in Michael's face that it was true."
He sat down slowly, looking troubled. "I think I fainted, or something. And when I woke up, Michael and I talked about it, sort of. And I think...." He shrugged and looked at Alexis with a surprisingly strong smile. "I think I'm okay with it. I mean, it's not like I'm ever going back to my city, anyway, so they won't care. I thought about it a lot while Michael was hunting, and I guess it's not such a bad thing. I never knew any Cheysuli before I met...well, you, and Gabriel and Michael. And all three of you are, well...." He swallowed. "You're great people. You really are. I never wanted to say it to them because I was so afraid of them. I thought you were demons, but...you're all so brave and kind and noble. A lot better than most people I knew back in the city."
He blinked hard at the sudden tears in his eyes, not looking at Alexis. "I just kept remembering those things we fought on the western slopes, and how Michael saved my life. He didn't have to - he didn't know we were brothers and I know he didn't like me - but he did anyway, just because I was in trouble. And no one else I've ever known would have done that for me, not even the boys I thought were my brothers, not even the man I called father. And when I think about it, if I'm stuck in a land full of monsters, well, it's not so bad to be one myself." He smiled a little, twisting a blade of blue grass in his fingers. "Alexis, if I'm Cheysuli, does that mean...well, could I maybe someday...I mean, if Michael can be an eagle, then...."
But instead of replying, the girl just laughed, and pointed. Jeff stood, following her gaze northward, and saw a figure that he recognized as a Silent Paw loping toward them. Negasi called out in his own tongue and the newcomer answered in a high clear voice. It stopped a good distance away and Jeff could sense its scrutiny.
"Who is it, Negasi?" he asked, suddenly apprehensive.
"Just keep breathing," Alexis whispered from behind him, and a heartbeat later the stranger called out the boy's name.
"Jeffrey!" was the call. "Uriel - do you know me?"
Jeff was suddenly filled with a dreamlike sense of unreality. The voice he heard calling to him across the blue hills was a voice straight out of his childhood dreams - but in those dreams, it had always been his little cat who had talked to him, Gwennie with her calico fur and bright eyes. He realized with a pang that he had not even thought about her for a long time, who had been so important to him before.
But...Alexis had asked where Gwennie was....
And I am Cheysuli.
The realization hit him like a brick to the head and he fell to his knees as the Silent Paw approached, golden-furred with black points and pale mottling on her shoulders and back. The colors had shifted but the eyes in that feline face were the eyes of his little pet and constant companion. She stopped a few yards from him and there were tears in her eyes.
"Yes," Jeff managed to gasp, and found that he was shaking. "I know you, I know you...Gwennie...."
He closed his eyes, and when he felt her whiskers brush his cheek he began to sob and threw his arms around her neck, breathing in the warm familiar smell of her fur and hearing her voice in his ear for the first time in the waking world. And so was the last of Azrael's former spells undone, as the rift between warrior and lir was at long last healed. Negasi and Alexis were the only witnesses, but Gwenneveire's joy was enough for a multitude.
"Do you remember?" she asked, and licked the tears from his cheeks. "Do you know your family?"
Jeff shook his head and had to swallow several times before he could speak. "I don't...not yet. But maybe I will."
"We must hope that the damage is not irreversible." Gwen looked at him and smiled, and then laughed out loud, and swatted at Negasi like a kitten. She had never felt better, not since the carefree days of her kittenhood. As Jeff stood, a grin slowly spreading over his face, she shook herself and took a deep calming breath. "We have to hurry," she told them all. "Gabriel and Rio have gone to the defense of your sisters, Jeff, and Monet. They may have need of us." She looked at her warrior and laughed again. "Come, little boy. I am weary, but my heart is so light that I could catch the wind even with you on my back."
Jeffrey laughed then, as well, but waited until Alexis climbed onto Negasi's back. Then he sighed, and put his hand over hers, meeting her eyes. "Thank you," he said. "For never giving up on me. I...I think I'll be alright now."
A moment later two Silent Paw dashed north with their human burdens, hurrying to join the rest of their clan, their family. And while Jeffrey was still very confused, he felt a strange joy in his spirit that chased away his previous doubts and fears. Racing the wind on the back of a Silent Paw - his Silent Paw - he felt more at home than he ever had in the white-walled city.
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