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 Posted: Thu Oct 13, 2005 6:44 pm
0. A New Beginning...
Journal,
The Caravan! It is alive once more! The oxen are impatient and gypsies scramble about, packing their things and taking down clotheslines. My family is once again a family, and I am elated to be back.
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Posted: Wed Nov 16, 2005 10:31 pm
A little one toddles up to the door of PhoenixSong and carefully places a parcel on the mat. It is wrapped in a piece of deep purple cloth, and tied with a piece of simple twine.
Inside, on a black leather string, is a charm for Kale:
Her errand complete, the little one steals away to the rest of her errands.
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Posted: Sat Nov 26, 2005 6:01 am
A clink, and a small charm is sent scattering across the floor.
"Kale!" Marissa cries, "Be careful with it, copil vulpe, you'll break it."
Kale smiles up at her and crawls himself across the floor to retrive the bauble. Marissa strides over to him with a piece of stripped leather, threads the charm gently, and places it around Kale's neck as he watches her intently, his tongue poking out of his mouth and a frown on his face. "There, iubito, you look lovely."
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Posted: Sat Nov 26, 2005 11:42 am
If you'll kindly jump back in time with me...
I. Kale's growth: To Heal a Wound
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Posted: Sat Nov 26, 2005 11:45 am
A knock resounded on the wagon door of WhistleStick. A sniff followed, and Marissa wiped her eyes with her sleeve, adjusting her sleepy fox-baby in the crook of her arm. Her spirits were broken and she was weary, but she stood as politely as she could to where Val had called her.
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Posted: Sat Nov 26, 2005 11:50 am
The wagon was a mess- every corner was covered in charms and baubles that the caravan leader had collected on her travels. When the knock resounded from the door, Valelldia had just been clearing the charms off her candle table, and she sighed- oh yes, she had called for Marissa, to see how her quest was going. She hadn't realized Whistle Stick was so much of pit when she'd called the young gypsy.
"Come in, Marissa." She called to the door.
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Posted: Sat Nov 26, 2005 11:57 am
Blinking a few times to clear the last of her tears, Marissa entered. The wagon's mess fell on blind eyes as Marissa took a seat. The very seat she had taken before, so long ago, to transform her darling fox into what he was today. Kale sniffed the velvet-swathed table curiously, as if he remembered himself. His left paw, bandaged and limp, hung from his elbow, the arrowhead portruding slightly from the gauze. The sight weighed her heart even more.
"I couldn't do it," the girl croaked before Val had said a word.
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Posted: Sat Nov 26, 2005 12:01 pm
"Oh, Marissa..." Valelldia said in sympathy, clearing the seat behind her candle table with a swipe. The despair dripped from the woman in droves, saturating the air with disappointment. "It's alright, meh' wee one. Evil creatures don't exactly roam freely. I can give you something to help you. ...Don't despair yet. Is the spell I cast still working? Does Kale feel any pain?"
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Posted: Sat Nov 26, 2005 12:05 pm
Marissa looked up. "You mean..?" she asked quietly, the shadow of a smile cracking across her visage. "Oh, Val..thank the gods.."
She peered down at Kale. Taking his paw gently, she shifted it at the joint. Kale looked up at her, his head cocked to one side. "No, he's fine."
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Posted: Sat Nov 26, 2005 12:10 pm
Val felt the despair lift like a curtain, revealing a stage of hope, and it made her smile. "Of course, child. There is always a way. Kale is far from lost, yet. And as long as he feels no pain, you need feel no hurry. His wounds will not progress." She stood from her seat, edging around the table as she went.
"Damn gopherferrets," she said under her breath- for they were the source of most of the mess. Shelves lined the walls of WhistleStick, and cabinets that were loosely locked. Going over the prarieland, rife with gopherferret holes, every bump and clatter of the wagon's wheels over the potholes had caused her walls to shake, and everything to go... well... everywhere. Now she looked for something in particular.
"I can give you some things to help with your quest. Do you have any daggers? And I have some magical charms that should help you- there is a lasso I have around here..." she spied something over by Kale, shining through a pile of cast off cloths. "Oh, I think I see it there Could you have Kale pull that out of the pile for me?"
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Posted: Sat Nov 26, 2005 12:17 pm
Marissa listened with a swelling sense of relief and elation. Nodding, she lowered Kale to the floor with one hand. "The lasso, iubito?" She pointed and Kale complied immediately. He limped his way over to the object, just barely poking out from beneath a toussled mass of cloth. He grasped it with his teeth and pulled it out, inch by inch, dragging it obediently to his mother.
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Posted: Sat Nov 26, 2005 12:21 pm
Valelldia watched the fox pull the rope free... but as soon as the other half inched its way out from beneath the cloth, she realized that it wasn't the lasso. Instead, it was a rope belt, tied with a number of delicate bells. She recognized it instantly as the same belt that Caroline had worn that horrible night- but before she could tell Kale to drop it... the fox burst into flames.
Valelldia screamed, jumping back at the sight of the blinding light of the red and gold flames. She dropped to her knees to reach for the child, to pull him from the fire, even if it meant she herself would be burned... but in that instant, the flames subsided. And what sat in the midst of a pile of ash... was an infant with fiery red hair, fox ears, and mischevious yet loving eyes. Kale... had been transformed.
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Posted: Sat Nov 26, 2005 12:27 pm
Marissa dropped to her knees as well, a gasp resounding from her lips. She reached forward to help him, but suddenly than Kale was gone. No..Kale was still there, but he was so different. A baby boy, sitting innocently between two chouching women, looked up at her.
"Oh...oh gods..." Marissa uttered, tears now flowing freely down her cheeks. These tears, however, were so unlike the ones that she had cried all night before. The tears were of pure joy. She leaned forward to envelope her beautiful son in an embrace.
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Posted: Sat Nov 26, 2005 12:37 pm
The adrenaline that had rushed through her system at the first sight of Kale, immersed in flames, was still pumping throughout her system, and she dropped back into her chair, filled with wonder at the transformation. It wasn't often that the mystical woman was surprised, especially when it came to magic- or to the Fortunettes, which she loved with all her soul.
Why had Kale changed? She'd never known a Fortunette to change without first fulfilling the needs that were set by the quest. She didn't set the quests- they were determined by fate, by the elements that make up the magic that drives the Fortunettes to exist. Their will, enough, drives them to BE... but so much more magic and love from a parent is needed for them to grow in a healthy way. What had happened here? She'd never heard of a Fortunette taking their fate into their own hands.
But then... she caught sight of the bells, still laying in a line on the floor, and it all came rushing back to her. To help his friends... ....The sounds of the bells... To find the other Fortunettes. He HAD filled the needs of his quest.
"Oh, Marissa, he fulfilled his quest. That night that he helped us find the other Fortunettes.. was the night he made his greatest sacrifice. And those bells. Those are the bells that Caroline used- the enchanted belt, to draw the fiends away from the girls. ...Kale would have changed that night, but he never had a chance to touch the bells. They were retrieved and brought here, instead."
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Posted: Sat Nov 26, 2005 3:50 pm
Marissa picked her boy up, hugging him against her chest, rocking him back and forth as she listened. "Oh, iubito, I thought you'd never get here, I thought you'd never be healed..."
Actually, Marissa thought, was he healed? She held her son away from her. His left hand (compared to the rest of him which now seemed so animated, so alive) hung still. He made no effort to move it.
"Val...his hand..?"
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