<P> A Time For Adventure (Ankou/Isidore)

[midnight_medea]

"Oh." Well that certainly sounded different to Xun. He secretly hoped they would get to see a dragon. He would bet his sisters hadn't seen another dragon. Then he could tell them the story of his adventure with dragons.
"What are we doing now?" he asked his father, looking up at him with pale eyes.  

[A Wandering Esper]

Isidore seemed to have explored his direct surrounding to his liking, and ready to move on, so they did. Ankou would step toward a direction, seemingly at complete random.

"We are looking." He would say. "Can you hear anything ? See anything ? Feel anything, even ?"

There was the warm wind, of course, the rustle of leaves in the tree. But they were not alone. The souls nearby had picked up on their presence, and were slowly making their way to him.  

[midnight_medea]

Isidore looked up at his father. Feel something ...

It was true that Isidore represented a rather human side of death, though still to many cultures Funeral was less about lamenting one's own loss and more about allowing the soul to pass to the other side. Celebrating life, praying for the soul and preserving the body. It didn't matter that his father was the one to guide them through, the mortals used funerals to ensure their percieved passage. Sixpences on eyes, burning paper goods to use in the afterlife. Isidore's feet were very firmly planted between both worlds a bridge.

Now he concentrated hard allowing the new world to fade a little. Yes, yes he could see things, perhaps not as clearly as his father could but they were there, little disturbances in the world around him.
"Oh yes, there." He pointed to one of the patches. "And there."  

[A Wandering Esper]

So some measure of perception, then. Good. This would make explaining quite a bit easier. "Those are souls. Not many people can see souls, once they are separated from their bodies. Some mortals have that ability, though they might not always understand it. Some souls are strong enough to make themselves be seen, but not all of them do."

The children always came first. Ankou sometimes did wonder why. Their innocence, perhaps. They innately knew what he was, but Isidore was a new factor. They would come close indeed, close enough for Isidore to try to touch them if he wished, though the young god would not have much luck on that regard. They seemed to hold Funeral to the same kind of curiosity as the boy held them. They would continue to walk with them, lured by the Spirit Guide's voice.

Ankou saw no reason to stop them unless his son got frightened.

"The humans bury their dead. Some, mostly sailors, ask their families to toss their body back into the sea they so loved." He knew these customs, because he had walked among them, seen them. "The elves are immortal to time, so death is a rare thing among their culture. The family of the departed mourn for seven days and seven nights, then finally the body is burned and scattered around the outskirt of the city they lived in."  

[midnight_medea]

Isidore watched the little blips in the atmosphere as they came closer, held his hand out, though as he father thought he could not touch them. They fascinated him though, these tiny things were once people, they once belonged to a body, a family, like he did.
"Yeah, because they want to belong there." replied matter of factly. "Their city or with the sea. They don't know that there's nothing there, just ash, just a body. They belong with you, right?"  

[Himiitsu]

"They do. Their soul do, at least. They have to go with me so the cycle can continue." Children really were smarter than most would give them due for. "But they care for the bodies because it is part of them. It was theirs. Souls are known to linger on or cause unrest if their dying wishes are not fulfilled." If they were left to linger, that is.

"Knowing that their body is safe helps them accept their deaths a little better. They rest better, knowing that what they wished became reality." It was still easier to deal with peaceful souls than those who lashed out, even if he could subdue them.  

[midnight_medea]

Isidore nodded again and tried one last time to try and touch the little spirits.
He knew that, that his father took the souls to the Underworld and then they were reborn as new people and the cycle continued over and over.
"I bet they're angry, if they don't get their wishes." He looked up at his father again. Maybe they were dangerous then, the angry ghosts.  

[Himiitsu]

"They are. And that is when they become dangerous." Haunting. Possessions. That kind of thing. Things he would certainly not prefer to have his son see a demonstration of.

"When that happen, I have little choice but to subdue them by force." Hopefully before too much damage was done, but it was not always the case. Beings died all the time, after all - and he did not always get to them just as they did.

"That's when they rest for a little while, down in the Underworld. Being reborn angry does little good. It follows them all their lives."  

[midnight_medea]

"Okay." It all made sense and obviously his dad knew more about the subject than anyone. After all it was him that took them to the underworld. Helped them move on.
"It's important. your job." He nodded and looked out across the landscape. Though arguably they were all important.  

[Himiitsu]

"All of them are important." Ankou would answer without hesitation. "Even if they seem small, or if you do not quite understand them... Every god work together, or against each other, in one way or another. Even if they do not realize it." There was more than life and death. There was happiness and sadness. Hope and dreams. Cities to builds and destroys. War and peace.

Many things were circles in themselves. "They are all important, simply different. Some have to be close to mortals. Some have their path takes them toward the unseen. Some things cannot be felt, or touched, but they are still just as important."  

[midnight_medea]

Isidore as always listened carefully to his father and nodded enthusiastically.
"Yes, I want to meet them all, or the nice ones. Are there bad gods? Angry ones like the angry spirits?" He asked, it stood to reason that there would be. "Are they dangerous?"  

[Himiitsu]

That was a very interesting question. The moral aspect of 'good' and 'bad' were very mortal concepts, in themselves. for what they preferred and disliked. What they preferred and the things they would rather avoid.

"No one is wholly good or completely bad, Isidore. Every god can be dangerous if angered." There was a balance in every one, perhaps. Some tilted to one side of it, and others to another. "But there are gods who rule over the aspects mortals consider to be bad. Are they always bad, or evil ? Not necessarily. It depends on how they act." Plague came to mind, and he wished he knew where the god was. He would have been a good example. He represented an aspect the mortals disliked, saw as bad or evil, but did not always act such.

Greed, to him, was the example of the opposite, but that was neither here or there. "The concept of morality is an interesting one. Some mortals would say I am bad, given what I do. Am I ? I do not feel so. Mortals tend to fear what they do not understand, and death - and what follows it - is one of those things."  

[midnight_medea]

Isidore frowned at that. He did not like people thinking that hi father might be bad. He was not bad at all he was very very good man. He was the bestest dad ever.
"But you're not bad, you help the souls and you look after them and you look after me and Cae and Kyr and momma." He breathed in deeply. "Will they think i am bad too?"  

[Himiitsu]

"Yes, I do that. But do the mortals see it ? Most of the time, they do not. It is hard to understand for them. I do not blame them for it." They did not, most of the time. It was a very abstract thing for them to understand, especially if they had no perception of the dead at all.

"You... Well, it is different." Ankou admitted. The Spirit Guide paused, thoughtful. "You represent something they understand. Mortal customs, rites. A part of their cultures." He figured it was likely the same with Akakios. The two young gods were not things the mortals looked forward to, perhaps, but they were things he could understand. What happened after death ? Not so much. Souls rarely did communicate with the living in any clear way.

They had reached a small meadow, with a stream coursing through it. It would be a nice place to rest and have Isidore sit and eat a little bit. Ankou would settle near the stream, watching it flow for a moment before turning his attention back to his son.

"Ultimately, though, Isidore..." Ankou frowned to himself. He was tripping over his own words again. "What truly matters is that you do what you feel is right. What you feel you must do. What others think is ultimately irrelevant, as long as you are true to yourself. Those who believe in you and what you do will find you."

He had spent one life and part of the second doing his best to please everyone else. He has stumbled many, many times - against what his brother expected of him, against what the mortals expected him to be. If he could steer his children away from similar pitfalls, he damn well would.  

[midnight_medea]

Isidore took a seat on the soft grass and rummaged in his bag for the half eaten cookie he had stowed earlier. He was a little hungry and his dad was giving him a lot of information, that made him just as hungry.
"I want to be myself." he said in response to his father's advice. "I'm the only me."