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Originally posted October 9th, 2004

Pantalai muttered as he walked through the trees, on the path to Kyendi. Funny, not too much of the outside world seemed aware of the giant tree hidden in the forest... probably some magic, or somesuch nonsense. "Best left alone," the crane snorted, twitching his wings.

The bag by his side sloshed a little, the fish-shape inside darting quickly from side to side.

"Don't freak out on me," Pantalai grumbled, twitching a little more. "You have to be alive and well for the little swan princess, yes you do..."

The fish squirmed, though, slapping its tail against the thick plastic.

"Don't you DARE," Panta said severely, glaring at the fish. "It took me so long to get you, you're perfect, so KNOCK IT OFF."

The fish cowered in the bottom of the bag, then slowly flipped over, wriggling a bit in an exaggerated death parody.

"Not funny," the crane muttered, stalking through the trees with much more force, stomping a bit on the gravel and moss.

"Oy. Sosi."

Sosiqui leaned over the edge of the shelf, the rope net pressing into her stomach as she did so. She peered at Pantalai, who was standing on the platform below. "Yeah?"

"You coming down anytime soon? This fish is gonna get fried if you don't hurry it up, and it was expensive..."

She turned around and looked at Odilen. The little Ieldi was curled up in the papasan chair, flipping through a picture book with interest. "Odilen? Do you want to go dow-"

Odilen's hair whipped her face as she shook her head violently. Sosiqui sighed, then shook her own head at Pantalai. The crane man threw up his hands and turned around, heading back towards the Phoenix Nest.

Sosiqui stood up again - then heard the sound of beating wings behind her. Odilen's eyes grew wide and her grip on the book tightened so much that one page tore.

"PANTALAI, GET THE HELL-"

"Now, my dear, there's no reason to scream," Pantalai said smoothly, landing on the shelf, folding his wings around him, looking directly at Odilen with a gentle smile on his face. The little Ieldi was trembling. "Hello there, sweetie. My, you're a pretty girl. I'm your Uncle Panta."

Sosiqui facepalmed. "Panta..."

He held out one hand to Odilen, but she shrank back.

"Fine." Figuring she had to make the best of a bad situation, Sosiqui pasted a too-bright smile on her face and hugged Pantalai around the waist - a bit harder than was REALLY needed, but she wasn't particularly pleased with him. "How NICE-" squeeeeeze- "of you-" piinch- "to COME-" step on foot- "UNCLE PANTA."

"You're a b***h, you know that?" Pantalai groaned in her ear.

Sosiqui beamed, and turned the smile on Odilen, too. "He's nice. It's okay, he's uncle to Rhumba and Solstice too. Friends, yes. It's okay, Odilen. Really."

Odilen quietly uncurled a bit from her ball. then held out one shaky hand. She poked Panta's hand with one finger, quickly, as if it might bite her. When nothing happened, she looked up questioningly at Sosiqui, who merely kept nodding and smiling. Then she poked again.

"Hi," Pantalai said with a grin. "What are you reading?"

Odilen mutely turned the book around, and Pantalai read the cover. "The Ugly Duckling. That's a good book. Does it have pretty pictures?"

Shyly, Odilen turned the book again so he could see the watercolor illustrations. "Oh, nice, very nice," he said approvingly, crouching down a bit closer to her. "That's a pretty swan there, like you." He pointed.

Odilen beamed.


Sosiqui stepped back, and shook her head.

"There." Sosiqui handed the last taped-up box to Pantalai, who grunted and half-fell off the shelf, catching himself with his wings just in time to land on the platform below. Satisfied, she brushed her hands together and turned to look at Odilen. "Okay?"

Odilen clutched at her spirit-plushie and looked up with wide, round eyes. Sosiqui ruffled her hair, gently. "It's okay. You'll be a lot warmer at night down there, don't think I haven't felt you shivering... and you'll be with more friends. Won't that be nice?"

The Ieldi scooted over to the tree and wrapped one arm around a branch, looking pitiful. Sosiqui sighed. "Okay. We'll take it easy, alright?"

Pantalai came back up to the shelf with a flutter of feathers, with Rhumba flitting behind and Solstice tucked in his arms. Odilen held out one arm and flailed at the kyunru, so Pantalai put the baby in her lap. The Ieldi quieted down immediately, carefully stroking the little kyunru.

"Can you watch her again?" Sosiqui asked Pantalai, pulling him aside. "Just for a bit?"

"I gue- hey! Why are you already going down the ladder?"

"Because I knew you would. You're a sucker for cute girls, Panta," Sosiqui grinned, ducking quickly below the shelf level before he could start yelling at her.

"Pat-a-cake, pat-a-cake, baker's man... bake me a cake as fast as you can..." Sosiqui clapped in time with Odilen as they sat crosslegged on the shelf. The very EMPTY shelf. Everything save a few blankets, pillows, and plush toys had been moved down to the platform below, tangled up in a carry-net that Pantalai would fly to the Keeper's Quarters. Once he felt like it, that is - currently, he'd decided he was feeling quite abused and was like as not off the common room of the Phoenix Rest, drinking.

It was just as well. Odilen still refused to move. She was happy, if a bit uneasy with nearly all her things gone, but any time Sosiqui made as if to lift her towards the ladder she kicked and flailed, eyes wide as saucers.

"Ready to go down yet?" Sosiqui tried, just to see. Odilen missed the clapping rhythm and shook her head, violently.

Sigh.

"Look, there's nothing to be afraid of. See?" Sosiqui waved at Odilen from the platform below. The little Ieldi was laying down on the shelf, her face peeping out just barely over the edge. "And I promise other Ieldi have been down here. In fact, some of them went on a trip the other day and actually walked on the ground-"

Odilen shrank back.

"- and nothing happened!" Well, something had happened, but the fact that Ieldi had set foot on the ground hadn't had anything to do with that. She didn't think, anyway. "So come on, sweetie, Uncle Panta will carry you down, and you can have hot cider and sit by the fire in the Phoenix Nest with Solstice. Won't that be fun?"

Odilen peered over the edge again, her eyes very wide as Pantalai spread his wings and leapt up to the ledge, landing easily next to her.

The little Ieldi shrank away, and Pantalai winced. "She KICKED me!" he yelled down. "Little..."

Sosiqui quickly climbed back up the ladder, only to see Odilen wrapped up in her blanket, sulking. "No."

She blinked.

"No." The voice was very quiet, very small, but clearly coming from the Ieldi. "No."

Sosiqui blinked again, eyes filling with tears. "Odilen..."

"No go. Beast." The Ieldi curled tighter into the blanket. "No."

"Sweetie..." Sosiqui quickly knelt next to Odilen, gathering the Ieldi's stiff, shaking body into her arms. "I won't make you go, it's okay.... we would be HAPPY if you came down, but I won't FORCE you...."

"'Kay." Odilen looked up, then traced one small finger down the side of Sosiqui's face, stopping when she felt a tear. She put that finger in her mouth, tasting the salt of it. "Wet."

"Only because I'm happy, sweetie."

The wind rustled the tent canvas, sending ripples down the sides of the tent and making the windchimes sing wildly. Odilen grinned as she scooted around the tent, smoothing cloth and adjusting the position of stuffed animals.

After setting the tent up the day before, they'd slept that night all helter-skelter... but today, Odilen had decided her project would be to set up what she called the 'cloth house' properly. The Ieldi had taken pains to make sure all the posessions still remaining on the shelf were brought in and organized precisely. She hadn't wanted Sosiqui in the tent while she was working, either, so her Keeper had gone off somewhere else for the morning. Odilen wasn't sure where - but she hoped Sosiqui would come back soon to look at her handiwork!

Now the tent was as cozy as an old tent could be, at least in Odilen's opinion. The 'beds' (made of sleeping bags, pillows and a pair of old roll-out foam mats) were pushed against the sides of the tent, leaving a sort of aisle between them. Odilen thought the bare canvas floor was icky, so she'd folded one of the spare afghans and stuffed the edges under the beds, making a sort of extra-fluffy carpet. She'd hung the smallest of the paper lanterns from the plastic lantern hook in the middle of the tent, along with the glass windchimes. The slippery old sleeping bags were covered with the remaining two afghans, and Odilen had lined up her stuffed toys carefully at the top of her bed. The water bowl had been moved to sit between the two beds, atop her toybox, right against the top 'wall' of the tent.

Odilen was immensely pleased with herself as she wriggled her books into one of the canvas storage pockets set into the side of the tent. She unzipped the tent and slipped outside, putting one hand up reflexively against the wind. Carefully, she circled around the tent, eyeing the metal tent pegs that Pantalai had insisted on pounding into the shelf, and making sure the funny velcro window-covers were stuck down tight.

Then she padded quicky over to the edge of the shelf and lay down, peering over the edge, her hair blowing around her face. "Mum? Muuuuum?" she called out, waving her feet back and forth.

Sosiqui emerged from the blue-roofed pavillion below, looking a bit windblown. "Are you done, then?"

"Yesyesyes," she said, nodding quickly. "Come look! Come loooook!" The Ieldi vibrated as Sosiqui climbed up the ladder, and stood up immediately as the human reached the top. "Ta-da!" she trilled, throwing the tent flap aside.

Sosiqui crawled obediently into the tent, pausing to kick her shoes off first. "Oh... this is nice, very nice," she said approvingly, although she bumped right into the windchimes. "Very cozy."

"You like it?" Odilen clambered into the tent after her, zipping up the tent flap like an expert, wriggling with eagerness.

"I love it. You did a very good job, sweetie." Sosiqui grinned, sitting down on her own bed. "Your toys look very cute."

"Thank you," Odilen said, shyly. "Wingy-" she indicated the blue winged cat plushie- "and Odi-" the spirit beanie- "like it too."

"Oh they do, huh? That's good to know."

Sosiqui yawned, rolling over in her bed, the tent wall rustling - when the branch lurched. Hard.

"What!" Sosiqui sat up, limbs flailing as she woke up. She hit the lantern with one hand and cringed as part of it crumpled in. "Oog." Next to her, Odilen blinked sleepily, looking with tired eyes. "It's okay, lovey, mom just had a bad-"

The branch moved again. Sosiqui heard one of the tent pegs rip out, and her eyebrows arched. "What on earth...?"

"Sosiqui!" Pantalai's voice came from outside, suddenly, and Odilen sat up. The Ieldi clutched the nearest toy to her chest and looked worried as Sosiqui crawled out of bed and unzipped the tent flap. Pantalai stuck his head in immediately. "Listen, you have to get out!"

"Get out? You get out, I'm... whoaaa....." Sosiqui's eyes widened as the branch tilted again, making Pantalai stagger. "The hell is going on?"

"That's why you have to get out!" Pantalai said urgently. "Something's wrong, something's attacking the tree, we HAVE to get away! Now!"

"Gods!" Sosiqui whirled and stuffed her feet into her shoes, standing up unsteadily. "Come on, Odilen..."

The Ieldi blinked at them, fear slowly filling her eyes, and shook her head wildly.

Chronos climbed the ladder quickly, cloak seeming to buoy him as he looked up and let his ears p***k up at the sound of begging coming from above. "Get her down... NOW!" he called up, finally making it over the edge of the shelf and looking towards the tent that was set up at one side of the shelf. "There's no more time. If she won't come out, bring her out by force. She'll die if she stays here!"

Sosiqui staggered as the shelf tilted a bit. Pantalai's wings flared, but still no sound came from inside the tent. "Come ON, Odilen!" Sosiqui begged. "Come ON!" She reached inside the tent and pulled at something, and suddenly the Ieldi was out in the open air, her eyes wild, limbs flailing. "Nononononono!" she babbled, like a very small child.

Chronos moved quickly, casting an apologetic look to Sosiqui. Perhaps it would help if one of the deities was there. "Odilen, it's alright. There is danger here, we have to get you to safety." He scooped up the little girl, glancing to the two others there. "Safrinni and Imriel are still out there. You two, take what you can and RUN. If you see anyone else who needs help, get them out of the tree quickly."

Odilen flailed, her arms and legs beating at the deity. "NO!" She squirmed and wriggled and tried her best to get out of Chronos' grip. "Odilen, PLEASE!" Sosiqui wailed at her.

Pantalai's wings flared again. "I know. Odilen, you have to get down or... um... the beast will eat you."

"YOU ******** MORON." Sosiqui yelled at him as Odilen froze, then began to SCREAM.

Chronos didn't seem to mind the screaming.. he'd been expecting it. "I won't let any harm come to her..." he said, fixing Sosiqui with his gaze. "I'll die before I let any of them be harmed."

Odilen kept screaming. Very loud, very long, with only tiny gaps for little, panting breaths. At least she'd stopped flailing, but...

"Grab the tent, you IDIOT," Sosiqui hissed at Pantalai, looking enraged and hurriedly zipping up the front flap. "Carry it like a giant bag. I don't care if you break your wings doign it. If you get it down maybe I won't barbeque you and feast on your remains."

Pantalai looked startled - and a bit angry in return - but he grabbed the tent poles and fabric in his hands and strained, wings beating. Slowly the tent rose off the shelf, and Pantalai kept his grip even as the tent poles snapped under the weight.

Tucking her into his arm, Chronos made a soft soothing sound as he moved to descend the ladder with her. Imriel would be easy enough, the girl generally didn't put up too much of a fuss about anything. Safrinni, however... would be just as difficult as this. If not worse. "Get out as quickly as you can... the tree will fall, and I want NO ONE still within its branches when it does."

Sosiqui pelted down the stairs, trying to run and stay close to Odilen at the same time. "Baby, baby, stupid Uncle Panta doesn't know what he's on about..."

"I feel him!" Odilen wailed. "The Beast!" A huge branch near them cracked and fell, smashing through several empty shelves on the way down. Odilen's pupils dialated and she began to scream again, and resumed kicking and flailing.

Chronos brought up one arm, turning away from the falling branch and feeling it smack against his back before it clattered to the wooden planks beneath their feet. "The Beast can't hurt you, Odilen... Siff is making sure he never hurts anyone again. It's too late for hte tree, however, and we need to get away from it before it falls down." He pulled Odilen to face him, trying to get her attention. "Little one... little one, listen to me. I won't let you touch the ground. I promise."

Odilen just kept screaming. "I can hold her," Sosiqui said, "she's my responsibility...."

"I've got her for now," he said, Chronos eyes searcing for the other two. "I wont' let any harm come to them. Valesti is furious that they survived... if he turns his attention on her, you won't be able to save her."

Sosiqui stepped back, stopping her questions, then stumbled again as the tree rocked. She could hear more branches snapping through Odilen's unceasing screams. She couldn't see Pantalai anymore.

"RUN!" Chronos shouted, narrowing his eyes slightly. "You wanted me to teach you. The first step is listening." He turned then, bolting for Imriel's shelf with Odilen held tightly against him.

"I can't leave her," she began, then stopped as Chronos bounded away with Odilen still in his arms. "W-wait..." Her voice trailed off, and it was unlikely Chronos even heard that last word, what with all the noise.

She ran, then, stumbling down the tree, falling several times as branches lurched beneath her, once dodging a tumbling mass of wood and leaves, until she hit the ground and staggered away from Kyendi.

Sosiqui was leaning against a tree with Odilen curled tightly in her arms, feeling utterly exhausted. A strange noise behind her didn't even urge her to move. "Panta? Izzat you?"

"Yes," the crane grumbled, coming out from behind the tree, clearly annoyed that his attempt to startle her hadn't worked.

"Did you save the stuff in 'tent?"

"Yeah, I saved your stupid tent, as well as something else you seem to have totally forgotten about," Pantalai muttered, coming into view. His skin was bruised, there were half-rotten leaves caught in his hair and feathers, and his formerly beautiful fingernails were cracked all to hell, but he seemed otherwise okay - and there was a kun-kun tangled in his hair, and a sling of torn cloth dangling across his chest with Solstice the kyunru and Odilen's penna egg in it.

Sosiqui covered her mouth with one hand. "Gods, I did forget... thank you so much, Pantalai...."

Pantalai grunted. "At least somebody remembered. S'alright, I guess. You had the little one to worry about." Rhumba flitted out of his hair and landed on Sosiqui's head, peering worriedly at Odilen.

"Thanks," Sosiqui repeated, reaching up her one free hand to pat the kun-kun. Pantalai carefully untied the sling and put it down on the grass. Solstice yawned and batted one paw at him as he retreated. The kyunru didn't look too much the worse for wear, and she fell asleep again as Sosiqui watched. The egg had some dust smeared on it, but to Sosiqui's relief it was not cracked.

"And here's this," Pantalai grunted, going back around the tree and dragging out the remains of the tent. The poles had all splintered and there were several long rips in the canvas, but the remains of the tent bowed inward to form a very large bag that clearly had stuff in it. "Nothing fell out. I deflated both the air matresses. No time to do it nicely, so I had to stab 'em with twigs."

"At least you got some familiar stuff. Here." Sosiqui staggered to her feet, still carrying Odilen, to peer more closely at the things thrown together inside the tent. It was a mess, covered in bits of twig, wood dust, and leaves, but a bunch of stuff was still there.

Pantalai held one of the larger rips open so she could see better, and she took inventory, mechanically.

Air mattresses both gone, no patching up the long, ragged tears that Pantalai had made in them. No big deal. Paper lanterns an utter loss, crumpled up with no hope of recovery. The water bowl was still whole, if chipped - good thing there hadn't been any water in it last night, or everything in there would be soaked as well as dirty.

Sosiqui finally reached in with one hand and extracted the spirit plushie, Odi. She carefully brushed off the leaves and dust, and snuggled the toy into Odilen's arms. The Ieldi twitched but did move her arm to pull the toy close to her chest, before coughing a bit again. Sosiqui carefully dabbed away the blood.

"What happened to her?" Pantalai said, looking at Odilen and the bloodstained handkerchief in Sosiqui's hand.

"She screamed full-out for at least six hours, that's what happened to her," Sosiqui hissed at him. "Screaming which started, I might add, when a certain ******** moron decided to get smart and scare the daylights out of her..."

"She would have started to scream anyway," Pantalai muttered, but he looked striken. "I... didn't think she'd do that."

"Since you saved the tent... and the others... I guess I can't in good concience roast you," Sosiqui muttered. "For the rest of your penance, you can organize and clean up our remaining posessions. I can't let go of Odilen."

"Fine," Pantalai grumbled. He set about removing items from the tent and hanging up blankets on nearby tree branches, as Rhumba flitted around giving little kun-kun orders.