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 Posted: Mon Apr 28, 2008 2:45 am
 It was not a particularly strange or ominous evening. The moon was not full, and no thick cloak of mist had descended to shroud the dangers of the mountain from unwary travelers. The only sounds which broke the silence were the buzzing of crickets and the screeching of owls. This was as peaceful and ordinary as it ever got in the Kitsusagi lands.
Kajik was glad of the peace.
The bobtail had located a circular clearing atop one of the tall hills near the Kitsusagi Mountain, and he intended to make full use of it while the stars were still out. He leapt and twisted in the air, muttering names and angles to himself, trying to commit them to memory before he fell back to earth. He had arranged a ring of twelve stones around the perimeter of the clearing, and occasionally raced into the brush to retrieve a new one when he needed to mark a place within the circle.
To an outsider, Kajik's peculiar nightly ritual might resemble some sort of arcane rite. But he knew better. The variables came to him by instinct. They were as simple as inevitable as destiny.
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Posted: Mon Apr 28, 2008 11:34 am
 It was far later than Morgan normally would have been out at night, but she had taken to random naps in the afternoon and she simply hadn't been able to sleep. She'd made sure to leave a note for her parents if they went looking for her; she might be grown but she didn't take that as an excuse to worry her family. Her father had some very real enemies, after all.
Strange to think this was the first time she'd really gone out on her own just for the sake of going out on her own. Normally she'd tag along with Aurum to visit Endless, or go out to get potion stuff or study something or other with Will. Sometimes she'd go just to visit Uncle Al. But she'd never really done anything that was... just her. That might have been why after taking the shortcut through the magic doors and the Fierra Place she'd headed up to the Mountain rather than wandering over to Realm HQ.
She wasn't really on the Mountain yet. It was sort of peaceful down here on the border between craggy peaks and plains. Hilly enough to be a challenge, not so steep and rocky that she needed to worry about falling to her death. Not that she wouldn't enjoy a little rock-climbing... she'd just rather do it in the daylight. Being adventurous didn't necessarily mean being stupid.
The small Elric was only half paying attention to her surroundings when she trotted into a clear area with a hill in the middle of the trees. There was a flash of color in the air above the hill then, a glint that might have been gold hit by moonlight; her mind also registered the rather deliberate spacing of the rocks on the hilltop that she could see. What the...?
Curiosity getting the better of her as always, Morgan padded up the hill to stand just outside the ring, watching for a moment as the young bobtail fiddled with the placement of some stones before finally asking. "What are you doing?" She was familiar with alchemy, but not really astronomy; the arrangement of the stones intruiged her, for it reminded her of a transmutation circle in its complexity, but she didn't recognize the pattern. It was rather interesting.
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Posted: Mon Apr 28, 2008 6:44 pm
Kajik flailed, squeaked with surprise, and completely flubbed his flight path. He would have fallen back onto his rear end if it weren't for the muscle memory that endless hours of training with Alcyone had ingrained into his reflexes. As it was, the bobtail instinctively twisted to land on the pads of his feet.
Not that he planned on staying in one place for long.
Morgan barely had a chance to catch a glimpse of downy blue fur and gilt number markings that shone softly in the moonlight. Kajik wasted no time to dash off and hide within the tree-line.
"H-hey!" He stuttered. "I- um, I checked here, no one was trying to s-sleep nearby, y-you don't have to- I'm not hurting anyone, s-so just stay there!"
Oh, oh, oh, this was no good, this was no good, he hadn't finished his reading so he had no idea what would happen tonight, and this very large kitsu had come drifting up through the dark to investigate him, like law enforcement, or a vigilante like Alcyone. Did Kajik look suspicious? He wasn't sure he knew. It was awfully cold out here, crouching in the underbrush.
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Posted: Mon Apr 28, 2008 7:03 pm
Morgan, well, sat there. What the hell? It was... well... strange for someone to find her intimidating. Well, someone that didn't know her. She didn't have quite the same level of famous temper around the house that Ginny and Cedrella had but she could be formidable when she wanted to. Right now she really wasn't trying, though.
She knew the kid was a bobtail; there was one that lived at Trel's place, though she hadn't ever really talked to her much. Morgan's mother herself really wasn't that much larger than a bobtail, and her father was... only just a bit taller than her mother. "Short" was not a word used around most of the Elrics with any good outcome. So Morgan was, well, small compared to most kitsusagi. Though she had to suppose she seemed pretty big to a kid bobtail.
"Uhm?" The black-furred female continued to just... stare at where Kajik had disappeared. "I wasn't trying to sleep... I was out walking, and I walked by, and I wanted to know what you were doing. It looks interesting. It's not anything like alchemy is it? It reminds me of a transmutation circle." Hopefully that would help. Though... it might just confuse him further, too, since not that many kitsu outsite of the general Trelweny/Fierra group and their close friends and family seemed to know anything about it.
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Posted: Mon Apr 28, 2008 8:24 pm
A small blue head peered out from behind a tree. The bobtail's patterned ear were spread outward, as though he were listening hard for any ill-intentioned approach, and the moonlight pooled in his wide pink eyes.
His parents must have died in this country. The dark, the quiet, the oppressive cage of trees - it all reminded Kajik of being frightened and alone, with fragments of his shell still clinging to him. He wouldn't be here if his mission weren't very important.
This, um, person seemed friendly, but she could be one of the ones that got to his parents. Kajik just didn't know! It was best to stay nice and safe behind his impromptu shield.
"Trans-mu-tation? I don't understand what you're saying." Kajik rubbed his paws together nervously. The teen's voice had only recently deepened. He hoped desperately that it would not crack. "I'm not a mutant. I'm not! I was born like this."
D-did he really look that weird? His adopted big sister had some funny features herself, but Kajik knew she was really a normal kitsusagi.
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Posted: Mon Apr 28, 2008 10:13 pm
Poor kid seemed scared out of his wits. Morgan remained where she was so she wouldn't frighten him any more. She was almost tempted to just leave him alone, but she still wanted to know what he was doing... If he didn't calm down soon, though, she supposed she'd have to.
"Transmutation. It's what I do with alchemy. I have to draw the proper circle before I can do it, though. And there's different circles for different things. I can show you if you want?" If he was willing to come any closer, anyway.
His final set of comments make her curious stare turn back into suprise. "Mutant? I didn't think arranging rocks in patterns qualified people for mutant status. Most people don't get into this much detail but I've done a little rock arranging myself." Obviously... the fact that he might be talking about what he was had gone over her head.
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Posted: Wed Apr 30, 2008 3:39 am
Kajik bit his lip. He- um, he wasn't very brave. No matter how many laps that big sister made him run, or how many rocks she made him carry, or how often she told him he needed to be a man and face his anxieties head-on, Kajik couldn't get over the fact that the world was very big, and he was very small. Kitsusagi were so insignificant compared to the vast heavens above them.
"Th- that might be okay. But first-"
The bobtail's ears perked.
"Would you m-mind answering a question? It's a little personal."
Kajik glanced abashedly at the ground.
"Not VERY personal. But- um, a LITTLE personal. It's important."
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Posted: Wed Apr 30, 2008 7:23 am
Morgan was small, but she had a big personality. And a different outlook on life than little-r Kajik. Maybe it had something to do with growing up with the family she had. Or maybe not. It was one of those things that you'd just never know because the other circumstance simply was not capable of happening.
Morgan's ear flicked before she tilted her head. A personal question? Well, one, she lived in a very open family, and two, she didn't have anything to hide that she knew of, so she figured that was all right. She couldn't imagine this skittish kid bobtail coming up with a personal question that would actually make her uncomfortable, especially with the "little personal" bit he added. "Ask away." She gave him what was supposed to be a reassuring smile and hoped he didn't think she was going to eat him or something.
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Posted: Wed Apr 30, 2008 4:50 pm
Kajik felt a wave of relief wash over him. This lady seemed- um, very nice, and she wasn't going to be unreasonable. He would have felt terrible if he'd brought misfortune upon her by getting close to her without knowing their compatibility.
It was a good thin that the stars shone down to serve as guides in this big, bad, scary, unnavigable world.
"When were you born?"
The crickets chirped between them.
"A- um, a day is fine! If you have the time that's best, but it's not necessary. Um."
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Posted: Wed Apr 30, 2008 5:47 pm
Another ear flick followed by a headtilt. Well... this was a bit strange. It wasn't really something she minded telling people. The circumstances of him asking, and specifically wondering if she knew the time... that was the strange part. But the kid did seem to be calming down, and she figured the best way to find out what the heck was going on was just to go along with it. Diving into things was pretty much the Elric way.
"January twenty-third. I don't know the time exactly, just that it was daytime. Does that help any?" She didn't know precisely what was going on, and she was hoping to get some answers soon, but all in all this weird little encounter was proving to be a bit entertaining.
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Posted: Thu May 01, 2008 4:44 am
"January the Twenty-Third, year two thousand and eight of the anno domini calendar," Kajik recited, catching Morgan in a firm analytical stare.
All his worries seemed to have abandoned him. Or perhaps it was he who had abandoned his worries. His mind seemed to have fled somewhere else entirely.
"Sun in three degrees Aquarius, element of fixed air. Rising at twenty-two degrees Taurus, fixed earth, Moon at seventeen degrees Leo, fixed fire."
Kajik strolled out into the clearing. The night breeze ruffled his bangs, and caught at his curiously stunted tails. His numerical and astrological markings glinted in the moonlight, and if Morgan were very observant, she might note that the circle he had marked resembled a crude version of the charts set out on his own body.
"You are boisterous, opinionated, and self-assured, with an open mind for new ideas. Friends are important to you, but you have the kind of detachment that makes you suited to the study of technical, scientific, and pseudo-scientific subjects. Outwardly you seem to be a free-spirited individualist, but in truth, you're tied down to earth by enjoyment of the creature comforts in your home."
Kajik reached up to ruffle the fur at the back of his neck. This time he seemed more embarrassed than afraid. This lady probably didn't want a full analysis, down to the positions of stars in minor houses. Alcyone always told him it was creepy.
"I could do a better if I knew the time. B-but that's okay! You're an Aquarius! I was worried. I- I'm an Aries, you see, s-so if you were a Libra, or worse, very bad fortune cold have come from our meeting."
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Posted: Wed May 07, 2008 7:27 pm
Morgan found herself staring yet again, but this time it entailed a quizzical head-tilting and an expression of suprised confusion with one ear up and one ear down; something she'd picked up from Endless at some point during the many visits she and her sister Aurum had made to see the starry male.
It was like Kajik had turned into an entirely different person once he started his little analysis. Though, perhaps not... perhaps this seeming confidence he'd gained was simply because he no longer felt as out of his element as he had. But then the analysis was over and he seemed to revert somewhat to what she'd come to expect of him and she relaxed into a friendly posture again and grinned. More to this kid than met the eye, that was for sure.
The funny thing was, that little description was actually pretty accurate. She'd taken a look at some star-charts before out of curiosity but she'd never really delved into the realms of astrology. It seemed kinda crazy that one could infer things like that from the positions of stars, but stranger things had happened.
Heck, stranger things happened around her house every day.
"I'd tell you the time if I knew. That was pretty neat. Pegged me pretty good, actually." She looked around at the circle again, and this time she did see the similarities between the markings on his fur and the arrangement of the circle. "This is an astrological circle, then?" It must have been in the kid's blood, to do and know things about astrology just like that. It almost seemed peculiar, except that she was a little bit of a witch and a little bit of an alchemist, and while she had to learn things about both the talent and the ability was something she just had. She knew too many creatures with inexplicable abilities to be thrown for too much of a loop.
"My name is Morgan Elric. What's yours? At least I figure we ought to introduce ourselves if we're on good terms now." She smiled a bit more and wagged her tails. "Do you live near here? Seems pretty far out for a kid bobtail to be alone."
There was a pause, and then. "Oh! I was gonna show you a transmutation. Let's see... Aries is the ram, right?" She looked at the dirt at her feet for a moment contemplatively and then began drawing a circle, adding a few symbols here and there. Then she dug around in her pocket for a small stone she could be sure wasn't part of Kajik's calculations and set it in the middle before slapping her paws down. One flash of light later there was a little stylized stone ram in place of the lumpy rock she'd started with.
"I'm not really good enough to make one with lots of little realistic details so I went for something more styled..." She padded over and set it in front of him, grinning again. "There you go, one transmuted ram."
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Posted: Mon May 12, 2008 10:05 pm
Kajik stared at the transmuted ram with an expression that was fascinated and terrified in equal parts.
Then he darted off behind one of the rocks that lined the clearing. Um, um, um, not that it would provide any protection at all from a rock-wielding person, but it made him feel more secure to have something solid and still between himself and Morgan's strange magic. What should he do? That was, um- very alarming!
"Um- wh-what did you, why did-"
But his predictions about another kitsu's character had never, ever been wrong. He knew this like he knew the beating of his own heart. If only his big sister would listen to him and get away from that horrible Knives, she would see it too.
"I'm Kajik!" He squeaked, peering over his protective rock. He was shaking like a leaf. "Um- that's, um- very nice. P-please don't do anything dangerous!"
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Posted: Wed May 14, 2008 7:44 am
It was about the time that Kajik peered back over the rock that Morgan face-palmed. Her parents, her entire family, tended to warn them about using their powers unexpectedly around strangers. Most kitsu outside their group of family and friends didn't understand magic or alchemy the way they did. "Ah, crap. Sorry, I should have warned you. I haven't talked to that many people outside the family, we do that kind of thing all the time, I wasn't thinking about it..."
She picked up the ram and walked as non-threateningly as she could over to Kajik's rock, though she stayed on the other side, and set the figurine down on top of it. "That was alchemy. You can use it to fix things, or make things, or under the right circumstances make something into something else. They have to have the right element make-up, though. It's equivalent exchange, you can't get something for nothing and you can't do something if you don't have the right materials to start with. That circle I drew to do it was one of the transmutation circles I was telling you about. I said I'd show you... right?"
She flopped down and over onto her back then, displaying a rather goofy grin partly out of sheepishness and partly for Kajik's benefit. "And you're not in any danger from me. Alchemy is dangerous if you mess around with it and you don't know what you're doing, but my parents drilled "safety first" into my head from early on. And it's not like you're going to attack me or something so I don't have any reason to do anything to you anyway..."
She poked at the little ram. "Well... I made it for you, if you want. I think I screwed up my gesture of friendship there..." Her father had gotten better about the whole "leap before you think" thing as he got older and learned things the hard way, but Morgan definitely seemed to have taken after him on that score.
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Posted: Wed May 14, 2008 7:05 pm
"Oh. U-um-"
Kajik didn't know what to say. He was still a little leery, b-but- he had never had a gesture of friendship before! He didn't know what to do.
He poked at the little stone ram with an outstretched claw, then snatched it quickly back. But the figure didn't leap up and bite him. That was, um. A good sign?
"Th-thank you. I'm not-"
He looked bashfully at the ground.
"I don't really understand why circles change the dirt around, but thank you. I'm not a very good Aries. I should be bolder. The kitsu who took me in keeps trying to toughen me up, b-but- it's hard, you know? There are a lot of frightening things here. And when I was a baby, I was all alone."
Running from every little thing had been the only reason he's survived at all as an outcast kit with no parents to his name and no understanding of the world.
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