Aidan

The Realms

Fifthday, 4th week of the 7th month, Godless Age 597

Mid-afternoon

Near the Starchaser Village, Mistvale Highlands

Aidan followed Brighid out of the village and into the surrounding hills. They walked along a trail beside the river and then into a side-canyon about twenty minutes' walk from the village gate. The sun was already kissing the western peaks, and soon the pair were engulfed in lengthening shadows. Aidan had the distinct sensation of being watched, although he couldn't spot any watchers.

Then, the wolf appeared in front of him. It didn't lunge out of the shadows or jump down from above. One second, he was walking down a trail, his hand on Brighid's flank, the next a reddish-brown furred wolf was standing across the path. It waited a moment, then turned and walked deeper into the valley for a few paces before stopping and looking over its shoulder at them.

"I guess we are supposed to follow?" Brighid proposed.

"After you, milady."

The redhead laughed. "As if there are no more in the shadows behind us." She moved ahead of Aidan, regardless, and he followed close behind.

The wolf led them a half-mile further down the trail, then took a turn into the underbrush. Aidan could only locate it by the shifting of bushes and rustling of leaves, but Brighid maintained a steady pace, so he continued following her. At last, they came to a cave; the wolf lay down and curled up off to the side of the entrance.

Aidan and Brighid looked at each other, then he called out, voice tentative, "Um, Anwn, may we talk to you?" To Brighid, he said, "I sure hope we didn't just follow a random wolf to its den."

"You did not," Anwn answered, but her voice did not come from the cave. Aidan jumped in surprise, and even Brighid whirled in place. Anwn stood behind them, arms crossed below her bare breasts, her grey hair damp and darkened almost to black. "Here I am. Speak, or leave. I care not which."

"Ah, yes." Aidan cleared his throat. "I have spoken to the other Councillors, following my trial, and I did not want to leave you out. I know we have not seen eye to eye in the past, but I see no reason that we can't work together—or at least, not at cross purposes—in the future."

"You are an outsider. You will always be an outsider. There is no need for us to speak on this because you will never be Starchaser." There was no animosity in Anwn's voice; she was stating cold facts as she saw them.

Aidan took in a deep breath and let it out with a sigh. "I will be an outsider wherever I go, Councillor. I am not from these lands and cannot return from where I came. I may be human, but I do not share a history or culture with any other humans you know. I'm not the only one, though. Councillor you may be, but you are an outsider, too, aren't you? You live alone in the wilderness, with no one to speak to but your wolf friends—and you like it that way. From what I hear, you only come into the village for Council sessions. You and I are not so different." Aidan stopped, waiting for a response from Anwn that did not come. After an awkward silence, he sighed again and said, "I do not wish to force my presence on you. We will leave. Please accept my apologies for disturbing you."

They were only a few yards past Anwn when she said, "Wait." Aidan turned around to look at her. She held her head low and still faced towards the cave. "You are... perhaps not entirely wrong. And, you have come this far to meet with me; I will not refuse you hospitality. Come into my home and share a meal with me. We can talk." She looked back at him then, and some of her earlier steel returned to her voice. "Understand that I still do not believe that you will ever be one of us in spirit, even after the Council votes again."

"Thank you. All I want is to make a place for myself, as you have." Anwn snorted—whether in disgust or mere disagreement Aidan couldn't tell—but led the way into the cave. The interior of the cave was smooth, finished stone, to Aidan's surprise, and had much the same furniture as any other Starchaser home.

"Did you think I lived in the dirt like a savage?" Anwn's voice was bitter. "Just because I choose not to live in the village does not mean I am uncivilized."

"Of course not, I apologize. It's just that from the outside, it looks like any other natural cave. I guess I didn't put much thought into it."

"It shows. Bah." Anwn swiped her hand through the air. "It is supposed to look natural from the outside. I have forsaken the protection of the village by living here, so I camouflage my home."

Aidan took a moment to examine Anwn's house while she stepped into a side-room. It was more spacious than any Starchaser home he had been in before, and while the shape of the original cavern was clear from the irregular dimensions of the rooms, she made good use of the nooks and crannies as storage spaces. The entry hall branched off to several additional chambers, all without doors. A wolf emerged from one, loping silently past Aidan and Brighid and out of the cave.

"You are in luck," Anwn said, reemerging with several small, fat birds in her grasp. "The pack ambushed a flock of capercaillie; they are usually too wary for a wolf to catch." She headed towards another doorway, saying only, "Follow."

Aidan and Brighid shared a glance and a shrug, then followed. Anwn led them into what appeared to be a combination of kitchen and dining room. Aidan raised his eyebrows and said, "The chimney for your fireplace could not have been cheap. You put a lot of thought into your home, I can tell."

"There is another in the pack den. There were natural cracks leading partway to the surface, but you are correct. Ceirios ate well off my hunting for a year in exchange for the work she did turning this cave into a home."

Something in her voice and demeanor gave Aidan a thought. "You really do mean your hunting, don't you? You didn't use any of the wolves' kills to pay her."

"Of course not," Anwn replied without inflection. "I pay my debts with my own labor." Even as she spoke, the huntress quickly and efficiently cleaned and dressed three of the fowl, then stuck them on spits and placed them over the fire. The smell of roasting game birds quickly filled the cavern, and, one by one, half a dozen wolves slipped in behind them and made their way over to a low table-like outcropping. They sat on their haunches around its edges, eyes trained on Anwn as she cleaned three more of the capercaillie. These, she did not bother cooking. Instead, she broke them into their component pieces, put them on a wide platter, and set it down on the wolves' table.

Stolen from Royal Road, this story should be reported if encountered on Amazon.

"They already ate, but they like to share my meals even so, the gluttons," Anwn explained with a hint of a smile. Indeed, while the wolves eyed the food, none of them made a move to start eating. She turned back to the fireplace, rotating the spits. "So, what is it you wanted to speak of?"

Aidan gathered his thoughts for a moment. He was beginning to get an idea about who Anwn was, and he would have to approach this differently from how he would talk to others. "As I said earlier, I will be an outsider wherever I go. My homeland is too far away for me ever to expect to return, and from what Brighid has told me of your neighbors, only the harpies might give me any welcome. Even then, I would still be the strange, lost human from far away. I have no desire to live in the human kingdoms to your south, given that their mere presence stirs such hatred. And, most importantly, I have found love and a Companion here." He smiled at Brighid, who smiled back.

"I only want to make a home for myself. I am not a Starchaser by birth. I have no control over that. I almost wish I was; it would make some things far simpler." He stroked his hand along Brighid's flank. She leaned into his touch. "And it may be that you are correct; I may never be a Starchaser even in spirit. It takes time and effort to assimilate into a culture, and sometimes it isn't possible to do so entirely. What I can do, however, is be a Starchaser in practice. I have gifts and talents which I am fully prepared to use for the good of the tribe."

"And are you prepared to be taken advantage of for those talents, then discarded until the time comes to use you again? Are you willing to suffer that, time and time again, until people accept you for who you are? And, if that never happens, are you able to bear that burden for the good of the people?" The young huntress's voice held a hard, brittle edge.

Aidan thought through her questions in silence for a few moments before responding, "It depends on the context. If I'm lied to and manipulated into doing things? I'm not going to lie down and take that anymore. If people are honest about what they want me to do and why, though? I don't object to that. We all use other people. If I can be of use to the tribe, I'm happy to help."

"It is one thing to say that and another to live it." Anwn withdrew the spits from the fire and set them aside to cool down. "There is a new Lair a few hours east of the village. Mites. They cannot be allowed to establish a foothold so close to here, but with the call to arms, I do not have the resources to do anything about it. We are stretched too thin on the borders as it is. Clear the lair, and I will give more thought to your place among us." She poked the roasted game birds with her finger and, apparently satisfied that they were cool enough to eat, slid them off the spits and onto another platter.

Quest: Aiding the Pack Anwn Wolfsister has asked you to clear a lair of mites that emerged too near the Starchaser Village. This task would ordinarily be her responsibility, but she is short-handed due to the call to arms. Success: Defeat the boss of the Fetid Lair. Failure: Do not complete the quest before leaving for Ceallach Macht; death of any party member. Reward: 5,000 experience; Increased relationship with Anwn Wolfsister. Penalty: Reduced relationship with Anwn Wolfsister, reduced relationship with all Starchaser centaurs. Optional Goal: Destroy all mite eggs. Reward: 5,000 experience; +1 bonus Attribute point for all party members. Optional Goal: Destroy all mite larvae. Reward: 5,000 experience; +2 bonus Attribute points for all party members. Optional Goal: Defeat 5 or more Hive Guards. Reward: 5,000 experience; 4 increments of 25% advancement in the Skill or Skills of their choice for all party members. Optional Goal: Defeat the Lord-Consort. Reward: 10,000 experience; increased quality and quantity of Dungeon loot. ACCEPT/REFUSE?

Good Lord that is a lot of experience, Aidan thought. He left the quest un-accepted, though; he needed to talk to Brighid about it before committing to it, and the penalty for failure would be a harsh blow.

Anwn set the platter down on the larger, centaur-sized table, then settled down on one of the cushions. "You will have to eat with your hands. I do not have many visitors, and I loathe cleaning dishes."

"That's alright, roast or fried fowl is considered finger food in my homeland." Aidan retrieved one of the capercaillies and tossed it back and forth in his hands for a moment. It was still hot to the touch. Brighid had no problem with hers, of course; her fire resistance was much higher than his. Aidan set his food back down to let it cool for a moment longer, busying himself with watching the wolves instead. Now that Anwn was seated with food in front of her, they each seized a wing, breast, or thigh and, well, wolfed it down. Two of them, males by their size, finished earlier than the others and trotted over to Anwn. They rubbed up against her then lay down to either side of her, pressed against her flanks.

Aidan tore a leg free from his capercaillie and took a bite. The skin was thin and crispy, while the meat was savory, with only a hint of gaminess. Grease dribbled down his chin and fingers as he took another bite. "This is delicious. Lucky, indeed. Thank you for sharing this meal with us, Anwn, and thanks to the wolves as well."

"It was more than I could eat," Anwn deflected, seemingly embarrassed by the praise. The rest of the meal proceeded without further conversation. Once they finished, Aidan and Brighid thanked Anwn for the food again and made their exit. The same reddish-brown wolf led them back to the main trail, then vanished into the underbrush.

"How sad," Brighid said once they were alone once more. "None of that was about you at all, was it?"

"Very little," Aidan agreed. "Only the very beginning, I think."

They walked hand-in-hand back to the village, absorbed in their thoughts. Once they reached their home, Aidan broke the silence. "Well, at the very least, that gave me a direction. I didn't get a quest from Eilwen or Gerwyn, and the one from Fionn doesn't offer any guidance on how to achieve it. This one, though, is crystal clear. I need to defeat the boss of the Fetid Lair before we leave for Ceallach Macht. Will you join me?"

"As if I would let you go alone!" Brighid scoffed. He smiled at her. "We have some time before then, though. You should ask Fionn to train you. He is much better at it than I am, and I still have too much work to do in the forge. Besides, maybe that will help with his quest?"

Aidan nodded. "Good idea, love. It can't hurt, at least. And, yeah, it'd be a good idea to improve my Skills more, both for the Lair and for Ceallach Macht. I don't want to be a liability."

"You will not be. But more practice will never hurt, especially when you cheat." She stuck her tongue out at him, and Aidan had to laugh.

Neither of them felt frisky after the conversation with Anwn, so they made small talk for a while longer, then cuddled together in bed. Once he heard Brighid's breaths grow slow and deep, Aidan thought to himself, System: Log Out. Confirm.

ERROR: As you are wholly present in the Realms, the system can no longer return you to your world of origin.

He closed his eyes and let the tears come.