A Bear of a Tale [Rivin]

[Sivan]

61st of Frost, Year 122 of Steel
Kalzasern Territory, Northern Wilds

"Sorry," he said slowly in Rivach, trying to help his friend and student keep in touch with whatever Dratori culture he might desire. "Even though I know it is you under the seeming, it is strange to see you thus." His smile was apologetic, but he wasn't sure that he had ever given Rivin offense. What might offend another man, it didn't occur Rivin to mind. Sivan did seem to connect with the other people who did not fit into their place of origin. His "Magus'" glamours were fantastic; if Sivan hadn't known it was Rivin, he likely wouldn't even have picked up on it. He had already looked for signs of magic, but the illusion itself was flawless to his eyes, and it had all been inverted so even his aura gave no sign. The elf supposed that, given enough time, he could break through the inversion and then, possibly, the glamour itself. But perhaps not...

His gaze turned toward the western wall of the rocky valley they had found. Nostrils flared, his Wolf-blessed olfactory sense alerted him to the faint trail they had been following. He supposed there were more broken branches in the shrubbery hereabouts, which would make sense if a large creature had lumbered past months ago. Dratori were generally close with nature, but he had relied more upon his affinity with nature's spirits to get things done than to develop actual survivalist skills.

Sivan had already explained how he planned to do this: the spirits had told him of a bear that needed help; Bear spirit would be grateful; another animal to absorb into his Rune.

When they found the mouth of the cave, Sivan pointed and they stopped.

"I am going to meditate. I will speak to Bear, as her to keep this one asleep while I work. I should be fine, but... will you watch my back?" He smiled shyly. In Kalzasi, he had learned to depend on other people, to be all right with depending on other people. Despite Exael's prejudice, Rivin had become one of those people. Exael could have guarded him, but Exael was a celestial spirit and his manifestation might cause too much excitement in the wild spirits, which could wake the bear, enrage the bear, and end badly. Sivan didn't want that.

[Rivin]

The excursion out into the natural places around the city had been the type of idea that Rivin should have considered himself, but he never had. Even having been out before with Sivan. His own lack of initiative when outside of a specific task, usually one given him by another, was an aspect of his personality which particularly irritated the Lysanrin when he was able to see it. Seeing it was, of course, the problem. Without specific goals of his own, even realizing that he was doing the equivalent of sitting around waiting to be told what to do was difficult.

His only real personal goal was trying to figure out what Ilex's true intention had been with his decades of experimentation. Though, it could be said that he wanted to learn from Aurin as much, and working on that goal caused considerably less stress. In fact, when he wanted to work out some stress he went to the Magus and asked what he should be practicing next, if he did not already have a task or 'homework' to teach his body.

The walk in the crisp air was as comforting and good as the first time, though he was hoping that no strange mystical women would accost them a second time. Well... Sivan seemed to have appreciated it.

Sivan had been sunk into his tracking for some time, so, when he startled to find Rivin, looking like someone else, close behind him, his startlement was not wholly unexpected. The soft, deep tones of his friend's voice were pleasant in his ears after more than an hour of moving through the forested area in silence together.

Stepping closer he leaned in close and pressed his mouth to Sivan's, a quick, light gesture that both accepted the apology and said that it wasn't necessary. Leaning back his smile was soft and happy for a moment before his eyes widened and he said,

"I should have asked before I did that. I am sorry. I feel good out here, so free that I did not think before I did. You are kind to me and..." He shrugged as if to say the mysteries of his own desires were as foreign to himself as anyone else, "I wanted to. This face makes me bolder than the others."

If the elf was offended he would say, and Rivin could fix it, so they would be alright. Turning to look around the area they were moving through he considered that it might be a good idea to learn some woodcraft, at least how to make a fire without magic and how to navigate by sun or stars. When Sivan had asked him to come he had been excited, even with the wariness that crept in when he learned they were going looking for a wounded bear. Now they could see a cave nearby, where, presumably the animal was hibernating.

When he was asked to watch for trouble while Sivan meditated, a nod accompanied by a look that said it seemed like the danger, if it came, would be from inside the cave, was his answer. While the elf settled he did a quick wander around a circle of the area, checking for anything even he could recognize as danger, before returning to stand over his friend.

"I will watch, you will be safe." He promised.

[Sivan]

The elf nodded, acknowledging that this could all go horribly wrong, but he had faith in the spirits he had been communing with since he was a boy. The kiss wasn't forgotten, but it had just made him smile as well. His two main friendships were his only maps for where he was going with Rivin; with Torin, it had led to sex and a strange sort of romance he had neither read about in books nor heard in a minstrel's song; with Destyn, while betimes he did marvel at the beauty of his friend, the feeling was largely fraternal—more fraternal than with his own half-siblings in Dalquor.

"I know I will be safe, my bold friend," he said in Common; though fluent, he was less artful with that. Then, archly—at least for Sivan—he added, "You might practice your meditation while you watch my back. The better to prevent unwanted red rages."

His words hadn't once been harsh with him, though, not even with his aidolon demanding a blood sacrifice of demon-tainted Lysanrin.

But he sat down, folding his legs, and sat calmly with his hands on his knees, back straight, and let his eyes drift down to slits. Sivan had been meditating for longer than he had been speaking to the spirits—consciously anyway. It had been drilled into him even earlier than most Dratori as he had been living in Silfanore and the Hytori would look unkindly on a mongrel misbehaving.

I could safeguard you without disturbing the local aether, Exael pouted.

I know, soul-brother. But if we are to arm him against his aidolon, we need mutual trust.

I will safeguard you against his aidolon.

And then Exael was only a presence of which he was aware. He was more aware of Wolf and of Bear than Exael at the moment. He grounded and centered his awareness, and requested of Bear that she keep her child slumbering while Sivan did his work, and she agreed.

[Rivin]

The trust he was being given made a part of him soar, and another part hyper vigilant. He could not fail at this task, however unlikely it was that anything might happen to them in the woods in the middle of the day. Animals could kill, but most would not attack humans unless they were starving or rabid. It was other sentient creatures one needed to worry about, and none seemed to be anywhere close. Still...

Reaching first through his rune and then out in a wide net he cast for a watcher spirit. It seemed none was nearby, at least not enough that he could feel them, so he selected an air sprite that seemed calmer than the others zipping about. Forming a quick contact, simple aether for a few hours' work he set the thing to circle the clearing and the cave and alert him if anything with a physical form approached. This was done almost thoughtlessly as Sivan continued to speak. He had been making tiny pacts like this since he'd first gotten his rune. The reference to his blackouts, or red-outs, he supposed, drew him up short, yanking his attention back into his body.

That the elf felt the need to ensure Rivin did not harm him hurt, rather significantly, particularly when he'd been feeling so buoyant and free, but the warning was fair. Rivin was dangerous, he hurt people.

Physically he had frozen, even his tail going still at the chastisement. Body slowly coming back to movement he have a short nod,

"Yes. I will do this thing." His over-use of words in Common was a sure sign that he was off balance, but he settled down with his back to Sivan, not quite close enough for them to lean on each other. He could watch the area with the air sprite's eyes, his own were not needed, so he closed them and began the deep breathing meditation required. While he tried to settle his nerves and let the hurt wash out of him with his breath he also bound a minor spirit of earth and one of water. As cold as it was, finding a fire spirit would be difficult and a water could protect just as well. Ice could be sharp, and suddenly dropping an enemy's blood temperature would stop them just as well as boiling it.

[Sivan]

Perhaps Sivan had been too excited to commune with Bear, but he didn't notice how the misinterpretation of his words had stung. Perhaps they had been interpreted correctly, and the weight of them still hurt. Perhaps he would recognize the traces of it when he came to, but for the moment, he was lost to Rivin.

Bear was pleased with him for coming. Bear was in pain because one of her children was in pain. She promised to keep her child asleep while Sivan took care of the injury.

Still half tranced, Sivan rose and walked carefully into the cave. Though dark, he could get a sense for the place with only his nose and ears; he also had his Semblance. The bear slumbered, a great golden grizzy. For the middle of winter, her body had cannnibalized far too much of her stored fat dealing with an injury that had become infected. Blind, he knelt beside her, working in the dark. Khal burned away the infection with a subtle touch of his Fire, working under Sivan's direction. Zin flushed the wound out, and then set about rehydrating the body. Meanwhile, Sivan applied his alchemical poultice. He used quite a bit, as it would harden until the wound was mostly healed, and then begin to disintegrate as the wound needed to breathe.

It didn't take all that long, and Bear was pleased. Sivan's scent would remain, and the bear would know her savior. But for now, Sivan mere placed his hand on her brow and communed with Bear, ran aether through his Rune and into hers, creating a loop. Between his shoulders, his Rune tickled and itched as he felt some pattern of essence duplicated without taking anything away from her.

"Sleep, Sister Bear," he said in the language of bears, and then he rose and carefully walked back outside.

He could feel her dropping deeper into a proper hibernation as he blinked at the sunlight reflecting off of the patches of snow. All seemed right with the world, as he knew it would be. Rivin was trustworthy, and Sivan just enjoyed having him around.

"That was simpler than the first time," he noticed aloud, voice quiet so as not to disturb the sleeper within. As he studied Rivin's guise, he wondered how long it would be before he could handle the seemings of other races. He wondered whether Rivin would be offended or glad to share a bit of himself so Sivan could look like him.

[Rivin]

Rivin remained still, trying to maintain a meditative peace and calm until he sensed Sivan moving. Eyes coming open, the Lysanrin rose with the elf, though, when he realized where he was going, he hung back. Hesitating, unsure, balancing on first one foot and than the other, unable to chose a course of action as the elf disappeared into the lair of the bear, Rivin remained where they had been sitting.

After several minutes of waiting thus the urge to know what was happening to his friend became more than he could stand. Moving as quietly as he knew how, creeping along, he peaked into the entrance to the cave, but his eyes could see nothing. His other senses, both racial and runeborn, lit up, however, and showed him a sort of outline of what was happening. Sivan's various bound spirits were working on the body of an enormous animal, that, even from where he peered into the darkness, he could hear breathing the deep breath of sleep. It was relieving that it did not wake during the process, but still, Rivin was significantly uneasy.

The height of his encounters with animals throughout his life before escaping his captor had been brief acquaintances with the house cats who kept the mice and rats away. To say that he was uncomfortable around animals would have been entirely fair if speaking of the domesticated beasts to be found within the confines of Kalzasi. Wild animals made the hair on the back of his neck and arms stand up just thinking about. At least, any large enough to do him significant harm. He supposed squirrels and the like were acceptable.

After a time that felt long, though the analytical part of Rivin told him it hadn't even been half an hour, Sivan stepped back out into the Frost-bright sun. Seeing that the elf seemed to still be a little dazed, or still in his trace, Rivin did not grab at him or make any other sudden or unexpected movements, but he felt as though he would very much like to.

"All is well?" He asked, though Sivan's words seemed to imply the answer.

[Sivan]

Sivan smiled and put a hand on Rivin's shoulder. Only a little weight rested there, as if he wasn't entirely sure of his balance, but he seemed all right.

"Disorienting," he said, "so I'm glad I did my work before the rest of it. My hands would be shaking now."

The elf inhaled through his nose and exhaled through his mouth a few steadying times.

"Not nearly so disorienting nor so transformative as the first time, but I feel... deep-seated changes. Here..." He doffed a few layers of clothes—cloak, coat—and tossed them onto a bare rock, then pulled up his tunic and shirt as he turned so Rivin could examine the Rune between his shoulder blades. It had changed, incorporating Bear into itself. Sivan could sense it, but he couldn't see it. Perhaps he would look in the mirror when he got home. Before long, though, he began to shiver. Winter in northern Karnor was sharp-toothed.

"When I come back in Glade, I will check on her. But I will be able to speak to her then. Part of the Rune... it allows for communication. Torin's dog is actually a wolf and we have rather interesting conversations sometimes, or otherwise I will explain some nonsensical—to her, anyway—things the humans do."

Rivin liked to study things, examine at length. Sivan respected that, but he was also quickly feeling his heat being stolen by the Frost air. His teeth chattered a bit as he managed to speak.

"L-let me know when I can put my clothes back on." He laughed, though it was short, cut off by the shivering. He would show Rivin again in the warmth of his tower, or even in the garden which never seemed quite cold. The elf had let the plans go dormant; they needed the cycle of the seasons. But it was protected from the worst of things, even blizzards. And Khal thought it a great game to dance around the shape of a person, keeping them warm as he enjoyed his obstacle course.

"W-we can h-head back to town unl-less there's anything you w-want to do still."

[Rivin]

The lysanrin's arm came up around the elf's waist as a hand was placed on his shoulder, taking a little more of Rivin's friend's weight without giving the act conscious thought. His body was beginning to respond to Sivan's as though it were his own, almost. As though it were a part of him that he responded to as he might a limb; when it was weak he compensated for it, or if it ached he tried to move to soothe it, warm it if it were cold, etc. It felt natural, as though a part of his mind had expanded to include the other body in his own somehow.

It didn't quite make sense when he tried to apply logic to it, so he had stopped trying to do so.

In this same vein, as Sivan began peeling off layers of clothing Rivin pulled a little aether through his Rune and offered it to the air spirit he had made contact with in exchange for warming the air around them. It was not so good at this as a Frost-illusive fire sprite would have been, but the change was still noticeable. It was another thing he did with little or no conscious thought, he'd been making tiny, wordless contracts with similar ones for so long that it was more instinct than reason. Thankfully so, as his mind was pulled immediately into examining the changes in the Rune that had transformed. Not entirely, but it had changed when Sivan had bonded with Wolf, and it appeared to have done so again now that Bear had summoned the elf to its aid.

Deft fingers placed themselves on soft skin as a doctor might examine a patient. He nodded along to the conversation, having spent several different occasions observing from hiding (spying...) on the runesmith and his family. The wolf was rather obviously a wolf, and he'd even bothered to look up what sort at a bookshop. He wasn't supposed to know that, however, and hoped, belatedly, that the nodding would be taken for a sign of listening before realizes that, as he was still behind the elf, it likely hadn't even been seen.

The appeal of being able to discuss 'nonsensical' things that 'sentient' beings did with an animal had instant appeal to Rivin. As Sivan knew, a lot of what people did didn't make sense to him.

Stepping back abruptly, his warm hand pulling back to his own side at the realization that the slight warming of the air was, of course, not as much to the near to naked elf as it was to him he said,

"Of course, please, dress. I had thought that, perhaps, as you can now do so, you would be changing into an Ursine form, which would, inevitably be warmer." Sivan had turned into a canine form seemingly as soon as he'd connected with Wolf, and though the prospect had alarmed him, he had prepared himself to observe the same this time. That his friend might have stripped down in the freezing forest just to show Rivin the changes to his Rune had not occurred to him.

[Sivan]

A warm hand on cold skin was a nice sensation, but he was also glad when he was able to let his shirt and tunic drop, the former tucked into his trews. He pulled his coat back on, and then his cloak. He shivered a bit, but knew the heat would be trapped soon enough and so he didn't bother calling Khal from Kalzasi proper.

"I suppose that only happened at initiation," he postulated as he dressed. "I can't even really manage a full body transformation yet. It was a taste of what is to come, I suppose. I can talk to Torin's wolf in her own language. I can enhance my senses and... grow fur, elongate my teeth, harden my nails." He examined his hand for a moment before pulling his mitten back over his hand.

"At least the shadows aren't bothering the wildlife," he considered quietly, glancing back toward the cave. Then he picked up Torin's lamp and slung an arm around Rivin's shoulders—for warmth and companionship. His steps were steady enough now, and he could feel Bear's approval for the service he had done and a sort of welcome as he had taken some of Bear into his Rune. The elf still felt somewhat torn between his two races, though now he was accomplished enough in arcane pursuits that both peoples found admirable. He was closer to the natural spirits than most Dratori, and more accomplished a magus than most Hytori, and yet he remained in the more cosmopolitan city where he had finally, against all odds, made friends.

"Eventually, I will just be able to sneak up on you in the basement and a great bear will lay upon you, keeping you warm and keeping you from escaping." He laughed, his poor attempt at maleficence.

[Rivin]

When Sivan was fully dressed again it was easier to concentrate on his words rather then the changes to his rune. Surely it was the scientific that had been distracting Rivin.

"That is interesting." After a pause to think about it, "It does make sense, if the body must learn how to use the magic instinctively before it can do it intentionally." That a body even could 'learn' to change its shape, organs and mass via as little aether as was held inside it. Even, he had read, doing so multiple times in a short period of time was possible. Though he longed to understand how the magic worked, what allowed it to work, his education in such things was woefully limited. Even now, when he'd purchased an entrance tile to several reputable libraries in the city, it was frustrating to know that he did not even know enough to understand most of what he read. He needed a teacher with a greater grasp of the concept as a whole before any of the minutia would be viable areas of study.

The mention of the dangerous shadow beings that had come with the Eclipse pulled the Lysanrin right out of his head, dropping him back into the chill of the quiet forest.

"Yes, I agree that it is good, but the implications are... troubling." He said no more, as, based on his ignorance, he had no more to add. It was troubling though, it meant that the things went after... what? Conscious thought?

Without thinking about it he returned the casually comfortable touch, slipping his arm loosely about Sivan's waist so it would not impede their walking. His tail poked out and wrapped more tightly around his friend's thigh, but, considering the layers, he doubted it would be actually felt.

A laugh pushed from him at the idea of the elf, in bear form, trying to trundle down the stairs to the basement in a sneaking fashion. The idea of being held under by the weight and strength of such a form did not frighten him, though perhaps it should have. It made him feel warm in ways that had nothing to do with the season.

"I think I would not complain, if you were to do so." He tried to make it part of the joke, but his success was marginal, too much of the warmth saturated his voice.

"When we reach again the city, may we go to the drinking establishment that makes the mulled honey wine? It would be nice, after this, do you think?"