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 Posted: Tue Feb 24, 2009 2:34 pm
The tall red-haired man dropped down on the bench with a sigh and looked out over the beach to the ocean. Everything here was... still. Peaceful. No cars rushing around, no men or women in expensive suits talking into expensive mobile phones. It was a good place to live.
Returning to the present, he opened the bag he had set down beside him and retrieved his lunchbox. Scrambled egg sandwich. Yum. As he unwrapped his own food with one hand, he lifted out a dish filled with diced fruit with the other and, flicking the top off, set it down on the bench beside him. Hopefully it would be enough to satisfy the bottomless stomach that was currently rubbing around his legs and purring at him. If it wasn't, he was going to lose some of his sandwich.
Well, it was about time. Ceallach hopped up onto the bench and started work on the dish of fruit. So far his day had been pretty average, dozing out in the sun while his human worked on something to do with wood inside another human's house. He thought it had been a new door, but hadn't really cared enough to check up on his human's peculiar habits. All humans were peculiar, he considered as he munched, but his human had to be one of the most peculiar. Perhaps he'd think differently if he knew other humans well, but then again perhaps not; the girls weren't quite as odd as their father after all.
"Hey, did you bring me anything other than this fruit?" Ceallach asked as he finished the last piece. "You'd better have done, because I'm still hungry."
The green-eyed man looked down at him with a raised eyebrow and, after some apparent thought, tore off a piece of his sandwich and set it down in the dish. Ceallach grinned and bit into it; weird or not, he had to admit that his human was pretty clever when it ame to working out what he wanted.
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Posted: Tue Feb 24, 2009 3:14 pm
Aurelie had been living on the island for several years, but she had never ceased to appreciate how the people who made Palu Island their permanent residence got by without many of the things most people tended to consider essential. There were those who didn't stay, who couldn't stand the sketchy mobile signal and the glacial internet, or the generally slower pace of the island, but Aurelie was not one of them. She was comfortable in this place, putting up with occasional technological inconveniences as they came up. She wasn't one of those who managed to do completely without contact from outside, since her career was based on writing books, which involved keeping in touch with publishers and editors. She paid exorbitant sums that she could easily afford to have the best that was available for her communication needs, and accepted it as part of the overall package that was life on Palu Island. But she did like the island.
She loved that she could leave her cabin unlocked and go out for days at a time with no one being any the wiser. What was even better was that she would return from such trips and find her home undisturbed. Not that she did this very often, since she had responsibilities to tend to, not the least of which was the extremely vocal palui she'd had for as long as she'd called Palu Island home. Sascher-tort, whom she called Sasha and a number of other things, was demanding and unafraid to make her wishes known, and to be singularly destructive when her demands were not met to her satisfaction. Because she was finishing her latest book, Aurelie had less time to devote to Sasch than the striped palui would like, and so she had begun to allow the palui to satisfy her curiosity by going Out, secure in the knowledge that Sasha wasn't adventurous enough to wander beyond finding distance.
Today, in celebration of sending off the final, totally-finished chapter of her book, Aurelie had decided to take her palui to the shore. She entertained no illusions that Sasha would enjoy sand or water, but she was confident that the palui could find ways to occupy herself in the new environment without having a nervous breakdown.
Sasha had ridden to the beach draped over Aurelie's shoulder, like Pyewacket from Bell, Book, and Candle, content to have her human's undivided attention. She'd not seen Aurelie pack any of the blocks of bound paper leaves that meant she would be ignored. Nor had her human brought the plastic hummer which made clicking noises as her human's dextrous fingers danced over the base. She hated both the bound paper leaves and the plastic hummer because Aurelie-human spent more time with them than she did with the most important being in the universe, Sascher-tort.
When Aurelie set her down on shifting, nasty ground she practically levitated, already aware that she would never get the granules completely out of her fur without the aid of a comb. It was an interesting sensation, but she didn't like it. And the deep growling of the ocean as it moved was unsettling. And the ground was hot! She shot a reproachful look at her human, who had settled into the sand without a second thought, and was not looking at her. Annoyed, Sasch stalked off, skittering up the beach whenever a wave came in.
The scent of the salty air was stronger than Sasch was accustomed to, but it didn't disguise the scent of a strange palui and a human. Perhaps if she discovered them, she could show them to Aurelie and impress her human, and they could all play. Or, failing that, maybe this human and its palui would play with her. That would be fine with her.
She danced closer to the pair, in part to catch their attention and in part because her soft paws were not used to walking on hot sand.
Hello! she called to the other palui. She knew the human wouldn't understand her greeting, but he would probably pick up on the spirit of her salutation.
My human is just around the bend. Would you like to join us? She's not doing anything! The last part came out as a little bit of a whine, and she wasn't pleased with that, but she made herself sit on the hot sand in a dignified pose to balance her complaint.
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Posted: Wed Feb 25, 2009 5:54 am
Ceallach, having finished his piece of sandwich just as the other palui appeared, looked up and licked some crumbs from his face. "Hey there," he replied cheerfully, hopping down from the bench and padding over to the unattuned, "I'm Ceallach, nice to meet you..." Humm. Well, he personally was always up for meeting new people and he had been lazing about all day, he hardly needed to take this break to sleep more. Besides, it would be nice to have someone who could comprehend him to talk to.
"Hey," he turned around and trotted back over to his human, untroubled by the heat of the sand and thankful not for the first time to be a flame-ear. "Hey, Red; let's go meet this palui's human." The tall man looked down at him with his head on one said, apparently not getting the message. Yesh, sometimes humans were a pain. "Come on," Ceallach put his paws up on Irish man's knee, "you need to meet more humans when you're not... err... well, doing whatever it is you do all day in other human's dens. You should make more friends, like I do... Come on!" he dropped back down onto all fours and started to trot away before glancing back meaningfully.
Apparently something was required of him, possibly something to do with that other palui that had just come over to them. Probably, actually. Well, whatever it was that Kel wanted of him, it required him to get up and follow apparently. "Alright, alright," Conall gave a snort of amusement and shook his head as he replaced the top on his lunchbox and put it away in his bag, "I'm coming, keep your fur on you great lazy lump." Kel actually volunteering to walk somewhere wasn't something that happened every day after all; whatever was going on had to be fairly interesting from the fire palui's point of view at least.
Sighing contentedly to himself, Conall got to his feet and stretched before grabbing his back and looking down at the pair of palui expectantly. "So, where are we going then, humm?" He had been planning to spend his lunch break just sitting around, but given how hard he'd been working all morning a walk to loosen up his muscles would probably do him more good. Besides, he had to admit to being curious now; clearly Kel and the strange palui wanted him to go somewhere with them, he wanted to know where that somewhere was, and why.
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Posted: Wed Feb 25, 2009 8:12 am
Sasch was thrilled to be greeted. She'd encountered a few other palui, but not recently. It was a little odd, actually. She'd been allowed Out more, but she'd met fewer palui than when she went out only rarely. Her shoulders twitched in imitation of a human shrug as she dismissed the thought as unimportant. Her forepaws seemed to dance on the hot sand as she tried to avoid the uncomfortable heat. She was more accustomed to the soft foliage which surrounded the cabin.
I'm Sascher-tort, she replied, pleased that this fiery palui was observing the social niceties for which she had so much appreciation. And it's nice to meet you, too.
She pretended not to listen as Ceallach addressed his human, though she could not help but understand him. From the way he spoke it was almost as if he expected the human to understand his specific words, rather than his general desires. She'd met one other palui who behaved thus toward his human, Abacus, but she'd not seen him for months and months. She still spoke to Aurelie as if she could understand, but she knew that humans just weren't smart enough to understand the intricacies of palui conversation. Besides, they lacked tails and had no control over their ears, which made many nonverbal shadings impossible for them to express.
How did you train him to be so responsive? she asked as she led the way back to Aurelie. My human's very intelligent, but sometimes she's still slow on the uptake.
Aurelie was totally relaxed, lying on her back in the warm sand, The sound of the surf was soothing to her, and she was almost able to ignore the fact that she'd probably have to shower three times to get the sand out of her hair and wherever else the pervasive stuff managed to get. It was like glitter's better-camouflaged ancestor. She'd noticed that Sasha didn't seem too thrilled with the location, which meant she would have to take the palui somewhere else shortly, but a few more minutes' enjoyment of the beach wouldn't damage the finicky creature indelibly.
When she heard Sasch's faintly siamese-sounding "paorru" coming closer she opened her eyes a slit, shading them against the sun with the back of a sandy hand, expecting to see her blue-eyed palui approaching and scolding. She did see the palui she expected, but also another one which had attuned to a fire element and...a human. Her eyes widened and eyelashes brushed against the sand on the back of her hand, which made some of the miserable little granules fall into her eye. She sat up rapidly and blinked, trying to dislodge the particle without much success as her eye began to tear up.
"Hey, Sasch," she greeted her palui. "What'd you find?" She hoped that the cheer in her voice would make it clear that she was not crying, since tears were leaking from the irritated eye and its sympathetic partner faster than she could wipe them away.
She pushed herself to her feet and brushed the sand from her hands off on the thighs of her jeans. She was probably the only person on the island who didn't wear shorts year-round, preferring to hide her under-exposed, fish-belly legs from view. The closest she got to shorts were capris, really, and her tan line proved it. Her hands and forearms de-sanded, she pushed her brown hair out of her face and turned to look at the person who followed the pair of palui.
"Hey," she said. "I'm Aurelie. That's Sascher-tort. I'm sorry if she disturbed you."
Most people on the island were tolerant of the eccentricities of palui, particularly those who had palui of their own, but she had been raised to be polite in any situation.
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Posted: Wed Feb 25, 2009 9:01 am
Ceallach grinned and flicked one ear in a shrug-like gesture. "He's pretty smart on the whole when it comes to simple things like 'feed me' and 'follow me' and 'pet me'. Haven't worked out how to make him give over more of my bed to me though; he seems to think it belongs to him for some reason."
Chuckling, the splotched palui shook his head. "I think all three of my humans think they own the den even though I was there first. Still, I suppose I don't mind too much given I can make them groom me whenever I want. They can be a bit weird about food though," he added as he spotted the human that must belong to Sascher-tort, "they only seem to want to give it to me at specific times of the day, not when I actually happen to be hungry."
Weird things humans. Sometimes you could swear they understood every word you said, and then there were the times when they seemed to be utterly deaf to your demands to have some of that fruit right now, not in a few hours time.
Ah, so they were going to see the palui's owner were they? Fair enough. As they approached, Conall paused for a moment to remove his sandals and roll up his jeans; he could put up with the irritation of trapped sand later on in exchange for the feel of sand under his feet now. Living on palu island was almost like being on a permanent holiday.
A moment later, the little plaui called out to her mistress, who started upright. It looked as though she was crying but... well she sounded happy enough. Not knowing whether she really was upset or not, Conall chose not to react; had she been a friend he might have said something but as it was... as it was she was oddly familiar. He crossed the remaining distance between them with a slightly bemused smile on his face, wondering where he could have seen her before. He was sure it couldn't have been here on the island... Aurelie. That was familiar too. Hu. Oh well, maybe he'd work it out in the end.
Putting the matter of the girl's familiarity aside, Conall smiled and extended a hand towards her. "She was no trouble," he assured Aurelie, "I wasn't doing anything important so I thought I might as well come and see what the pair of them wanted. I'm Conall, and that's Ceallach; nice to meet you." Aurelie. Aurelie. He was sure he knew the name. Blast. He hated it when he couldn't remember things.
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Posted: Thu Feb 26, 2009 8:20 am
Sasha twitched her ears in agreement. Aurelie takes up much more of the bed than someone her size ought to, as well. I know she's unconscious, but she's slender enough that she shouldn't need more than a third of the bed - a quarter if she'd curl up. The rest of the bed should, by rights, be mine.
She found a large, flat rock that was initially uncomfortable for its heat, but which was more bearable than the sand had been. She perched there and considered what Ceallach had said. He was there first? She couldn't remember a time before she had been with Aurelie. It was odd to think that there was such a time, though she supposed there must have been.
What do you mean, you were there first? Were you once feral? Her experiences with other palui had been limited, but the feral ones she had met had never shown any interest in being domesticated. Some of them were afraid of humans, and others simply despised them, but none had understood her fondness for Aurelie. One had even tried to "rescue" her. That one had been an idiot.
She couldn't really commiserate when it came to being fed only at certain times of the day. Aurelie didn't even feed herself at any set time. There were times when the human went for days without eating, engrossed in the plastic hummer or the bound paper leaves. Those days Sasch worried that the human might forget her palui's need to eat, but Aurelie always fed her at least once a day, and was always willing to share her food if Sasha evinced an interest. And those times of semi-neglect didn't happen very often, as Sasha reminded herself.
Aurelie obligingly put her hand in Conall's for the usual handshake. She smiled with practiced ease and repeated his name and that of his palui back to him, making sure she could pronounce them and pair them up with the correct face. It was a skill she'd developed when she was living with her parents and had been forced to recall many names and faces which were all introduced at once. Her memory wasn't really very good when it came to names and faces, but there were tricks she could use to help, and she felt no shame in doing so. It simplified her life a great deal.
"Conall and Ceallach. Right. I'm glad to hear that she didn't get into anything she shouldn't. I've been experimenting with allowing her to go in and out as she chooses lately, and she's brought back all sorts of interesting prey in various states of health. I believe this is the first time she's brought me either a human or a palui, though."
She flushed slightly. "Which isn't to say that you're prey or anything. Just...That she brought you to me."
Damn. She really had to get out of her cabin more. She was far more articulate in print. It was hard to believe that she had once been considered witty and glib. But that was college, and it had been several years since then. There wasn't much call for cleverness or mental dexterity on the island. In fact, on the few occasions she had demonstrated either, people had laughed at her and her urbanity. It had been an unusual and fairly unpleasant experience. She wasn't used to being laughed at. With, certainly, but not at. The only exception to this rule seemed to be the literary group she met with once a week in town.
Hoping to recover herself, Aurelie asked, "Have you lived on the island long?"
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Posted: Thu Feb 26, 2009 8:57 am
Ceallach grinned and nodded. "Yea, I used to be wild. I was a kitten not too far from where my den is now. I think my family was part of a coalition but..." he frowned thoughtfully and shook his head, "but I'm not sure, my memory isn't very clear that far back. At some point though I decided to strike out on my own and ended up on the fire mountain which is how I got attuned."
Ceallach paused in his story at that point, scratching an ear absentmindedly with a hind foot as he recalled his time living up there. "It was pretty nice," he went on eventually, "but I guess I got bored in the end and came back down here to see what had changed. I found a human den and since nobody was there, I moved in. Then after a while my humans turned up." That had been an interesting day. He'd been rather too full of food to bother much with the three strange creatures when he'd first seen them, and by the time he was less full they seemed to have grown very attached to him.
"I thought It'd be mean to leave them given they didn't have a smart palui to look after them, and besides; they seem to be able to find food really easily. Why give up a comfortable life, right?" Then of course there was the fact that he was very fond of all of them. If they decided to move to a different den someday, he'd definitely be going with them.
Conall chuckled and shook his head. "Don't worry, I knew what you meant." He did that sort of thing all the time; very embarrassing. "As for Kel," he gave a snort of amusement and looked down at the fire plaui, "I don't think he's ever brought anything home; he doesn't seem to care to go looking for food himself. He probably knows I'll just give him some eventually, and if I can't be talked into feeding him ten minutes after he was last fed then the girls might just oblige him."
How long had they been here now? It was almost hard to remember his old life; everything was so different now. Frowing, and feeling like a bit of a fool for not knowing off the top of his head, Conall tried to work it out. Okay, so there had been the week settling in, then the girls' first week at school, they'd gone to see their mother at the end of that week and then there had been... Two weeks? Three weeks? Ah, yes, three weeks, he was sure.
"We've been here just over a month," Conall said eventually with a decisive nod, glad to have reached a conclusion at last. "It's a big change coming from a city," he went on, "everything here feels so much more relaxed and happy." Perhaps it was a strange thing to say, but Palu Island did feel like a happy place to him... Blast. What was it about this girl that he recognized? The feeling of somehow having seen her before wouldn't leave him alone. It was frustrating to say the least, because he was certain he'd never spoken to her before in his life.
"So, have you lived here long Aurelie?" he asked after a moment, still silently trying to decide if he had seen her somewhere before or if he was just crazy.
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Posted: Thu Feb 26, 2009 9:31 am
Sasha was a little alarmed by Ceallach scratching because it had only just occurred to her that she might catch fleas being outside. She'd never had them before, but she'd heard they were miserable, and she was afraid Aurelie might not like her if she had bugs crawling in her fur. Just the thought of bugs crawling through her fur made her shudder mentally.
What's a coalition? she asked. She didn't like to sound ignorant, but she couldn't even guess at what a coalition was. She knew where the fire mountain was, and she'd always considered it much too far away to be worth visiting. Besides, the thing belched forth smoke occasionally and ash, and she didn't care for either thing. Smoke made her nose and eyes sting and ash made her fur very unattractive and tasted horrible when she tried to groom herself.
Yes, Sascher-tort agreed. Humans do need looking after. Sometimes I have to remind Aurelie to eat. I bring her lizards and things because she seems to like meat. I don't think I've ever seen her eat one of the things I've brought home, but then, I don't eat them either, so I don't blame her.
Aurelie's blush faded when Conall said he understood her. She'd no idea at what point she'd become inarticulate and awkward around other people. Probably in the year after her ex-fiance left the island. She'd been practically reclusive after that, turning out three novels in a single year and shying away from other human beings.
"You're not missing much. I don't quite understand why Sasch brings home prey, since palui aren't really supposed to eat meat, but she does, and it's usually in various states of not-quite-dead."
She heard him mention "girls" and wondered if that meant he had children, or something else. She continued to wonder as he spoke more and used the first person plural to talk about how long he'd been on the island. Since he didn't seem the sort to use the royal "we" she was forced to assume that he had come with family. She wasn't sure how she felt about that. Not that he was in any way inviting her to become part of the family or anything. She was just a little leery of families in general.
"The feeling doesn't wear off. That Palu Island is happy, that is. I've lived here going on three years, and I always get the feeling that it's a very happy place. The natives are friendly and coexist well with the people who come to settle, as long as their practices are respected."
She didn't mention that she'd come over with the original scientists who had followed Luke in hopes of investigating the new species on the island. It really had no bearing on the conversation, and she wasn't a scientist. Besides, the topic still stung. She did wonder, though, how she'd managed not to hear that someone new had come. There were newcomers at least once a month, but usually that was a hot gossip topic around the town, and everyone told her these things because they felt, for some inexplicable reason, that she would care one way or the other. She didn't, but she didn't mind knowing, either.
"If you don't mind my asking, why did you come here? Just to get away from the rigors of city life?"
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Posted: Thu Feb 26, 2009 1:14 pm
Ceallach blinked in surprise; she didn't know?... But then if she'd never been wild herself, why should she know? You didn't need a coalition when you had a human to look after you. "Well, basically it's just a group of palui who live together," he said with a nod. "They vary a lot of course; some of them are pretty loose, just a group sticking together and helping each other out, but some are really organized and different palui all have different jobs to do like guarding territory or gathering food or looking after kittens." His had been... somewhere in the middle. There had been three adults looking after all of the kits during the day whilst others had gone looking for food. That was how he remembered it anyway, perhaps he wasn't quite right.
"I've eaten lizard once or twice," Ceallach said thoughtfully after a few moments, "but it's not very nice compared to fresh fruit... Mind you, I like little bits of cooked meat every so often." In general he liked to have a bit of whatever his humans were eating, though in general he stuck to the fruity or vegetabley bits of their meals. Meat was pretty nice, but not too often.
"You've always lived with your human then?" Ceallach asked, tilting his head to the side. "That sounds sort of nice actually, I mean I liked being wild but I like living with Red and his kits more."
Why had he come here. Now that was a hell of a big question. He wasn't sure how much of the answer she'd want to hear, or how much of it he wanted to tell. Frankly it had been a bit of a last resort; he was just glad it had turned out so well... Would she really want to know? They were doing lighthearted getting to know you a bit conversation, not gloomy gritty stuff. Still, she'd asked so he might as well at least give her some basics.
"Well..." And now he didn't know where to begin. It was such a long story, hard to cut down into a brief explanation. "Well I was married," he said eventually. "My wife and I had two daughters... We had the first of them young, but it would have worked out if she'd got a job. She didn't though and..." He was heading towards telling her more than he felt comfortable with. She didn't need to know about Kate lying to him, gambling, never having loved him at all...
"Well, one way and another finances went bad, the relationship went bad and we split up. By that point though I couldn't afford to stay where we'd been and pay off all the debt we had so I sold everything and me and the girls came here." Even that felt like a bit too much to say, but everything here did feel sort of... communal. Everyone knew everyone sort of thing. Admittedly he himself didn't really know many people yet but he was sure he would eventually. Besides, he wasn't telling her anything the girls wouldn't already have told their friends.
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Posted: Thu Feb 26, 2009 7:23 pm
Sasch listened intently, her tail twitching as she digested the information Ceallach gave her about coalitions. It sounded like an interesting idea, but she wouldn't like having to be surrounded by so many other palui. She tended to feel overwhelmed when there were too many people around. This went for humans, too, though she was actually more comfortable in human company than palui company. She saw more humans when she accompanied Aurelie places than she did palui.
It sounds like a good idea for those who want to minimize the dangers involved with being wild, Sasha said tentatively. I don't think I'd like being left in charge of kits though. That sounds like thankless work. Taking care of my human is plenty of work as it is.
Sasch, too, had been known to eat meat, but only if it was the type she had stolen from Aurelie's plate, which was the best kind of food. She thought the thrill of theft made it taste better somehow. Of course, there wasn't too much thrill to be had, since Aurelie was much too slow to catch her when she didn't want to be caught. The only problem with eating human food was that it inevitably made her sick. But eating any kind of food made her sick. She threw up all the time, for no reason anyone could figure out. It was kind of embarrassing.
I know what you mean. Aurelie's easy to steal food from, or she'll just give it to me if I ask. Mostly. I've always lived with her, yes. It's lovely. She's very clever and I think she's very pretty for a human, and... she trailed off, recalling that not everyone was as fond of her human as she was, and had much less patience for her stories about her human.
Your human has kits? What are they like?
Aurelie waited patiently for Conall to figure out how he wanted to answer her question. She always left a great deal out when discussing her background, too. It was so abnormal, most people couldn't really wrap their heads around it. Especially not on the island. At college, since it was an Ivy League, they'd understood more, and the same at boarding school, but normal people didn't have ambassadors for parents and spend their youth gallavanting around Europe. She'd had such a privileged upbringing, and then she went on to become successful in her own right.
To be honest, her wealth embarrassed her, and she donated as much of it as taxes would allow to various causes, especially those which kept animals alive and built libraries and helped people who were abused by spouses. She was also very generous with her friends, though she had to work hard not to be offensive while doing so, since many people were no more comfortable accepting money than she was with having it. She'd never known what she considered to be real hardship. She knew better than most about the ills of the world because of her parents' work, and it shamed her when she had brushes with depression, because she knew she had no reason to be unhappy, compared with so many others.
Also, she rarely went into the failed engagement which had brought her to Palu Island to begin with. It was an ugly business at best, and it was also in the past, and unchangeable. She and Chester were split up, and that was that. Too many horrible words and actions had passed between them for reconciliation to be possible, and she didn't want to get back into that relationship, honestly. It had been a mistake that unfortunately seemed to have affected her ability to form new relatinoships. She kind of missed being a people person.
When Conall decided what he was going to tell her, Aurelie left off her internal musings and gave him her undivided attention, though not in a creepy, discomfitting way. He had been married, but wasn't anymore. He had two daughters. They'd had financial troubles and come to the island as a last resort. A lot of people came here for that reason, she'd found. It was a good place to escape from all sorts of things.
"It must have been difficult to uproot yourself, and I'm sure it's been a huge adjustment for your daughters," she said, wondering how young "young" was, and if she was actually closer to his daughters' age than his. It was awkward being in that in-between generation sometimes. Most of the people she knew were her parents' age or older.
"If you need any help with anything, my work allows me a lot of free time." A lot of free time. Being a freelance writer had a lot of benefits, including a lot of time to do as she wished, though mostly she moved from one project to another without taking breaks unless reminded to do so by her palui or by a phone call.
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Posted: Fri Feb 27, 2009 5:05 am
Ceallach nodded his agreement to that. "Yea, it's a lot safer to live in the group if you have to be wild. I agree about the kits thing though... I mean they're cute and all, but I wouldn't want to spend all day looking after a whole lot of them. The stress would probably make my fur fall out... Well, that or I'd fall asleep on the job and they'd all wander off and get lost." Probably the latter actually; he really hadn't been designed to live wild. The good life you got around humans; that was what he'd been born for.
"Sounds like your human's pretty cool," Ceallach went on with a nod, "mine are nice as well. The two girl-kits play with me when I feel like it but when I don't they'll just brush me or pet me. I've seen a lot of other human kits since moving back down here, and a lot of them are loud and rude and pull on your ears. My two are nice though; Nuala and Rachel. They have the decency to go out of the den when they want to be loud. Oh yea," he jerked his head over at his human, "his proper name is Conall, but I usually just call him Red. I think it's a pretty cute name for a human, hu?" He saw nothing wrong with giving his human a name he thought suited him. After all, he hadn't always been Ceallach. What had he been called before? Oh yea; Gold-Eye. Ceallach was cooler, he felt.
Conall shrugged, feeling slightly uncomfortable now he'd gone and brought everything up. She was being nice about it though, which was good; last thing any conversation needed was two people feeling awkward. Still, he'd needed to say something in response to her and he felt he'd cut down on the gory details pretty well. Cut down on quite a lot of details really, perhaps some of the less personal ones too. For a start, he hadn't even told her his daughters' names. They'd be very cross with him if they found out he'd spent a few minutes referring t them simply as 'the girls'.
"Well, I guess it wasn't all that easy," he said eventually. "I mean, they left their friends behind and everything. It was easier for me I guess; didn't really have anything keeping me there anymore; most of my friends I already communicated with by letter or email or whatever..." Now how did he smoothly slip the girls' names into the conversation? He really couldn't think of a way. Oh well; awkward it was then. "Ah, err, yes, their names are Nuala and Rachel; twelve and seven. They go to the school here now now course, and they seem to be making friends pretty easily." They were both pretty confident sorts. He remembered being like that; no better with words than he was now, but caring less when something he said came out sounding awkward.
"Anyway," Conall gave a sheepish grin, "thanks for the offer; consider it returned. I do carpentry and stuff so if you need anything fixed just give me a poke. Oh, and if you need anything really heavy hauled around I brought my cart horse along with me so I can take care of that too." It had felt extremely odd at first, the way services and goods were sometimes exchanged here. Sometimes, rather than money for a job, people who owned a market stall would pay in goods and so on; sort of trading he supposed. Once he'd got used to it, he'd actually started to rather like the system; he'd never been a big fan of money in any case...
Humm she had, a lot of free time. Well he supposed he had more than he'd had before too but she made it sound like she really did have quite a lot. "So what is it that you do then?" Conall asked eventually, wondering if perhaps her profession would help him to place her.
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Posted: Sat Feb 28, 2009 9:54 am
Sasch couldn't imagine herself allowing kits to wander off and lose themselves. She was far more likely to send herself into a panic trying to make sure she was aware of each one's exact location for the duration of her guard duty. She liked to be certain of things. Ambiguity and vagueness made her uneasy much of the time. Even when she played games at coyness, she always knew how she wanted them to end, and was subtlely working toward that end. She was not now playing such a game. She was too interested in learning what she could from Ceallach about things previously beyond her ken to play games. And besides, she'd learned that it wasn't safe to play games with males. They tended to misinterpret things.
They sound like decent sorts, the kits. Well-trained. She'd had a few brushes with monster children herself, though Aurelie had put paid to that as soon as she realized that Sasha was incapable of extricating herself from the situation. She'd sent the children off in terror. Later on, Sasha remembered, there had been visits from the children's parents in which she hadn't been able to understand the words, but the indignation in the parents and Aurelie's tones had made it clear that Aurelie was defending her actions and the parents failing to defend the actions of their offspring.
I think it's a fine name. And it fits him. It had never occurred to Sasch to give Aurelie another name. When she was younger she had referred to her as her Aurelie-human, but eventually it had occurred to her that it was obvious Aurelie was a human, and that the descriptor was unnecessary, so she'd dropped it.
Aurelie continued to listen carefully, thinking that she might have heard the girls' names before, at least. Her acquaintance with a school teacher on the island meant that she occasionally got to hear about the students. But then, maybe not. Conall's family had moved her too recently. She hadn't seen her teacher friend in over a month. Which reminded her that she really ought to do something about that sometime. She was being remiss. At any rate, the names were unfamiliar. She couldn't recall ever hearing the name Nuala before in her life, though Rachel was a common enough name.
"I did a lot of relocating as a child, myself," she said. "I got used to it, but sometimes it takes some adjusting. I'm glad to hear that Rachel and Nuala are making friend, though. That always makes it easier."
"Carpentry. Hopefully I won't need anything fixed or hauled, but if it's not an odd request, I'd love to meet your horse sometime. I haven't seen any sort of equine since before I moved to the island."
She used to be a fairly decent rider in secondary school, though she'd given it up after the car accident. She doubted a draft horse would be accustomed to being ridden, but you never know. Conall had daughters, and girls liked horses, so the horse might be used to having people lifted onto its back and being encouraged to plod around a pasture. It probably wouldn't know riding cues, though. Not that she planned to ask to take the horse for a spin. That would be all sorts of awkward.
"I'm a writer. Mostly fantasy, though I've a couple of noms de plume that I use for work I'd rather not attach my own name to for various reasons. Also, as a useful side effect of the job, I've probably got the fastest internet connection on the island, so if any of your family would like to come over and use it, feel free."
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Posted: Sat Feb 28, 2009 1:29 pm
Ceallah grinned his agreement. "Yea, they're well trained; though wish I could, I can't take any credit for that myself. They were a bit more excitable when thy first arrived but I suppose anyone gets exited coming into a new home." They'd chased each other around the house, over and under the furniture, around and around the house for hours the first day he'd known them. Still, after about a week it had settled down to the background level of playfulness you'd expect from kits for which he was grateful.
"I'm guessing you've not seen too much of the Island then?" Ceallach asked after a moment. "You should see if you can visit some bits of it sometime, maybe with your human if you can get the message through to her." It might take a while he supposed, humans as they had discussed weren't all that bright, but their pair were certainly chattering away to each other happily enough. You had to credit them with some brains, and of course those lovely useful hands they had.
Conall smiled and nodded to the young woman’s request. “Of course; ‘Pony always likes meeting new people. I could really do with getting her a companion of some sort; I think she’s a bit lonely without any other horses around.” Maybe when he had a bit more money he’d see about getting a pony, perhaps something Fell-typed that would be strong enough to carry the girls even when they grew up. Expecting them to ride a horse they couldn’t so much as mount - one too large for them to get their legs around properly even once they were up on her - was daft. Though he himself was big enough to be comfortable on the Shire, he doubted either of his daughters ever would be even though Nuala looked likely to be quite a tall girl in the end. At six and a half feet tall, he was definitely an exception...
Humm, hang on...
Conall digested Aurelie’s statement about her occupation carefully. After a few moments, he laughed at himself as the light dawned. “Of course you are,” he chuckled, shaking his head slightly, “I knew I recognized your name and face from somewhere; Rachel’s read some of your books, I’m sure of it.” Not anyone of the ones under the nom de wahteveritwas though, or at least not so far as he was aware. What was a nom thingie anyway?... A different pen name, right? He thought so, it sounded like it from what she’d said, be he wasn’t about to expose himself as an idiot by asking her...
So she was that young authoress; that ambassador’s daughter with all the good fortune. He couldn’t remember if Rachel had enjoyed her work or not; the girl went through so many books it was impossible to keep track, impossible for him at any rate. Kate had always been very good at that side of things... Oh, and she’d offered the use of her computer; he’d almost missed that bit.
“Thanks,” he added with a slight smile, “Rachel might appreciate that.” Perhaps his daughter would enjoy meeting Aurelie as well... though if she hadn’t liked the books, she wouldn’t be very polite about it. She never hesitated to make her opinions known, which could be extremely embarrassing at times.
She was that authoress. She’d only stuck out in his mind for that accident she’d been in. He couldn’t help but resent her a little for being pushed straight to the top of the list for transplants, no matter how unfair it might be. It wasn’t like she would have been conscious to decline special privileges or anything. Still, it rankled when he thought about it, he wondered who had been pushed down in favor of her. Someone like Kelly, perhaps. It was unfair of him, but he couldn’t help it. He was only human.
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Posted: Sat Feb 28, 2009 2:18 pm
Sasha nodded sagely, once again imitating a human expression. I would probably be very nervous coming into a new house. I hope Aurelie doesn't plan to relocate us. I like where we live.
The idea of visiting other areas of the island was exciting. She'd done a bit of exploring earlier in her tenancy with Aurelie, but had quickly given it up as a dirty, dangerous activity to which she was ill-suited. It had taken work on Aurelie's part to get her out of the cabin for weeks after her last adventure. But she'd been younger then, barely out of kittenhood. She was older and smarter now. And she didn't want to say straight out that she didn't like exploring.
I've seen very little of the island, Sasch admitted freely. But if Aurelie ever gets less busy I might be able to convince her to go about with me. She took me here, after all. I never would have made it this far from home otherwise.
She glanced over at her beloved human and her eyes half closed with pleasure. Aurelie was truly an excellent creature, even if she wasn't as clever as a palui. She was very close, for a human being. Even if she didn't cook as well as some other humans Sasch had met. She was definitely Sasha's favorite human. Which reminded her:
Is Red your favorite of the humans who live with you? She didn't know how she'd manage to divide her affections if Aurelie ever took up with another human. Not that it seemed likely to happen any time in the foreseeable future.
Aurelie's smile was genuine as Conall talked about his horse. She liked animals. With some exceptions. She didn't care for anything with more than four legs, and things with less than two made her a little uncomfortable. Spiders frightened her outright. The first time she'd seen one of the tropic spiders that lived on Palu Island she'd nearly fainted. It was the first time she'd seen Sascher-tort hunt. Of course, Sasch had brought her the corpse in her bed early the next morning, and that had been just as terrifying as her first encounter with the monster.
"I imagine it would be a little lonely, being the only one of your kind. Does she get along all right with Ceallach?"
She kept using proper names whenever she could conveniently fit them in, trying to set them into her mind permanently. It looked like Conall and his family would be here for some time, after all, and she'd like to be able to say that she was at least on friendly terms with them, even if they never progressed to being actual friends. She didn't like to be disliked. She wasn't used to it, and it made her feel as if she was somehow flawed, and though Aurelie was aware she wasn't perfect, she was usually content with herself.
"Oh, dear gods. If you could recognize me from the pictures they use for my books I'm incredibly impressed. My editor had a full team to make me over. It was actually really embarrassing, like how I normally look isn't good enough or something. But, thanks."
Her smile felt a little plastered on as she talked about her work. There was absolutely no reason she should be uncomfortable talking about it, but she was. Inevitably. It just sounded so...something. And whatever it was was not a flattering something. It leaned toward patronising, but that wasn't quite the term. She was better at talking about her work when she was actually talking to someone who related to it, like an editor or at a signing. Superior? Was that the term she was looking for?
"I mean it," she said, referring to the internet. "If there's anything I can do to be helpful, don't hesitate to let me know. I live...a mile or two north-east of here. Not to mention, the island's pretty small town. If you want to get ahold of someone and can't quite catch up with them for whatever reason, everyone else will be sure to let them know."
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Posted: Sat Feb 28, 2009 2:50 pm
Ceallach turned to regard the humans as well and chuckled to himself. “Yea, I wouldn’t come out here as much if I didn’t have Red to ride on. Well, him or his horse; it’s nice sitting up on her back; high up, warm, safe and the senary changes. Of course,” he grinned, “that’s only when she’s pulling the cart or something. When Red takes her for a ride things tend to get a bit more interesting. Mind you, so long as I have a good grip on something it’s quite cool to sit on her while she runs. Never gone so fast in my life.” Horses were even dimmer than humans, but if White Legs was anything to go by they were nice creatures all the same. Nothing at all seemed to worry the big horse, and she was very gentle too.
“As for my favorite... I’m not sure,” Ceallach frowned thoughtfully. “I mean, I like all of my humans and I guess I shouldn’t really go around picking one over the other but I guess I like him best, yea. I see most of him; tend to go around to other humans dens with him, he’s usually the one to give me food and that. He has the best lap for sitting in, too, and he knows just where I like to be scratched behind my ears.”
He also liked the big human best because he felt more needed by him than by the kits. He didn’t know why, but sometimes Red was very unhappy, and his presence seemed to make that better. It was hard not to like someone who made you feel needed and useful.
Conall nodded after a few moments of stillness, pulling himself back from thinking slightly unkind things about the young woman. “Yea, they seem to get on well. Kel likes to sit up on her back when she’s walking around the paddock and she seems to be quite happy to have him there.” Perhaps any four-legged friend was better than none at all. What an awful little rich girl Aurelie was...
No, no she wasn’t; she was perfectly nice and polite. Like a good little ambassador’s daughter; expert at being nice to the little people. Now that was going too far. Not her fault she’d been lucky in life, and no reason to think she was faking friendliness. Probably the only reason she’d managed to get so well known was because of her rich and famous Daddy. Damn. He was a better person than this.
“You still look pretty much like you in the pictures,” he went on eventually, “just a bit... Yea, a bit...” He knew what he wanted to say but he couldn’t think of the words. She was probably laughing at him inside. But no; she’d fallen over her words earlier, it was alright. “A bit like people had made a lot of effort at doing you up posh,” Conall managed eventually, fighting to keep his building tension internal.
Why her?
“Thanks again, I’ll be sure to look you up if there’s anything I need.”
Why had she been worth more than the people who would have got the transplants if not for her? Doubtless more than one person would have benefited if she hadn’t come along. People who might have been waiting years for the organ they needed. People who might have died before another chance came along for them. It wasn't her fault. Her father and the people who had allowed his money and influence to buy a ticket to the front of the queue for his little girl; they were the ones to resent. He did resent them. He just resented her too, her with her little speeches about adoption. Witch.
“So,” he shouldn’t bring this up, but he’d always wondered. “I’m sorry, this is a personal thing to ask you but... Well... I know you’ve said to the press that after your accident you can still become pregnant but can’t carry to term... Well I was just wondering if you’d considered surrogacy as well as adoption.” Oh she’d go for it. She would. Maybe a token orphan to look good, but she’d want to pass on her blood too and she’d have the influence again to get a surrogate with ease.
Damnit! He was starting to hate himself a lot more than he resented her. How could he think these things about a person he’d been getting on perfectly well with until he’d found out who she was? He shouldn’t be thinking this way; Aurelie didn’t deserve thoughts like these. She was just lucky was all. Perhaps she even felt bad about being put ahead of others. If Kelly knew he was thinking this way she’d smack him so hard his cheek would be red for a week.
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