Rayne gradually woke as the sun’s rays pierced the back of the wagon and slowly worked Their way towards her. Half asleep still, she was purring, enjoying a nice sensation she wasn’t awake enough to fully register. Suddenly Shade moved and spoke in a slightly high pitched voice. “I… I’m… I’m sorry… I…” It was only then that Rayne woke more fully up. Apparently Shade was a toss and turn type person, because she had mostly reversed herself in her bedroll, her blanket tangled in her feet. “I didn’t… Sorry…” She finished somewhat lamely. Apparently much more awkward than was necessarily merited. In her tossing and turning Apparently her hand had found Rayne's fur and she’s started petting her while mostly asleep. Rayne wasn't perturbed in the least, though Shade’s awkwardness made her more awkward. She gave tired meow and shook her head to clear it.

After about 30 minutes she was fully awake. She’d decided not to worry quite so much and resume her normal (when humanoid form). She wore a medium length skirt and a loose blouse. She could hear Shade talking to Terin not far away. Their slightly hushed partly from distant voices confirmed her suspicion. “Relax Shade, relax. I highly doubt she’s mad or upset in any way.” “But i… I didn’t mean to…” “it’s fine I assure you. You’ve only been with us for a half year, while we’ve ranged somewhat into Antura and Elista, so it’s no surprise you're worried, but relax. I may have been borne on the road, but we spend most of our time in Raithal, which has far more kaetsu proportionately, and we pass through their settlements a few times a year” “Yeah but, she’s not just a cat and, she’s probably very upset and..” Terin sighed. “Calm yourself Shade. You don’t know kaetsian culture. You’ve probably not offended her, though you're probably making her awkward by being so awkward…. Look… kaetsu and, to a notably lesser degree, quitsun, don’t treat touch the same way we do. You haven’t seen it because kaetsian and, to a lesser degree quitsunian, culture doesn’t get received well with most people. Touch is more important in their culture. It’s in part a bonding thing… I guess I’d better explain before we get to the next town, as it’s an much more mixed race town…” Rayne did not envy him this. Rayne was awkward, but mostly because shade was. It was hard not to let anxiety get to her.

“Touch is.. More important in their culture. It’s generally not presumptuous. For example a very friendly greeting in Kaetsian culture may involve patting someone's head or back. Touch indicates a degree of friendship or desire to be friends or get along well. Lack of touch is itself significant. For example if a kaetsu were to pat you gently I the back of something, lack of touch in return implies distance, possibly coldness.” “But… her tail was up and her ears were up and alert and…” Terin sighed softly. “Kaetsian body language is different too, more feline even. Watch her cat. An upraised tail on a cat is a sign of greeting. If she has been angry or annoyed, her ears would have been bent back, almost flat against her head. I know it’s confusing, that's probably why you don’t know these things. Kaetsu who are familiar with typical human body language, taboos, and the like tend to adapt to our customs more than us to theirs.”

Rayne moved further away, and went to help get the horses ready and hitched to the wagons, partially just to avoid hearing the rest of the conversation. As she fiddled with the horses, somewhat distracted, she heard a sound behind her. Daku had jumped out of a tree and landed just behind her. Rayne jerked back, startled, and Daku grabbed her around the neck and hugged her playfully. Rayne blushed, and leaned into the hug, and smiled contentedly.

Rayne and Daku left Shade alone for a bit, to calm down if nothing else, and started the day riding with Terin and his wife instead of riding with shade. The day started in relative silence. His wife was sick, so it was just the three of them up front. They went on in a relatively companionable silence for a while. “Shade tells me, among other things, that she saw you shapeshift yesterday. She said it looked quite.. painfull.” Terin said not bringing up the other conversation. After a moment Rayne gave an awkward laugh. “It is, or well… was. I’ve gotten used to that now, but the first shift for our kinds can be as painful as it looks. If you listen closely you can even hear bones moving and such as it happens. I was terrified when it happened to me the first time, when I was 6 years old. My parents had to sit beside me and comfort me, it took longer the first time. But it gets faster and less painful the more you do it and the the older you get, well, until you get to your mid twenties. I highly value my ability to change my shape though, I love being in all my forms. So once I started to learn gotten how to force it, I began doing doing it quite frequently. By 8 I was rather stoic about it, despite the pain. But I’m… weird.” There was a silence a both Terin and Daku looked at herb for entirely separate reasons she guessed. “Wait… It actually hurts? I figured it was like magic, you probably didn't feel anything. Why keep doing it if it’s painful?” Terin looked both mildly shocked, and curious at the same time, assuming there had to be a reason. “I like it… or well… I recognize all my forms. This one. My feline form, and even, to a slightly less degree, my more human looking form, as me. So… for some, including me, it’s a self expression thing. I personally wouldn’t want to live entirely one way. So, even as a kid. I wasn’t terribly deterred away from doing it once I worked out how. My parents mentioned it gets less painful the more practice you have so… I kinda figured I'd just get the practice sooner… I don’t think my parents were thrilled.” Rayne gave a contented laugh.

Time passed at a decent pace, at one point Terin moved to take care of his bride, and someone else directed his wagon. People brought out instruments and started playing. Daku generally came along with Rayne wherever she went, with some exceptions. Sometimes Daku would just decide he wanted to privacy or alone time, and would head off to do his own thing. Rayne started learning to play the flute during one of these times, and she half imagined half the troupe never wanted her near an instrument again. This turned out to the the opposite of true despite how bad she thought she sounded. If anything more people wanted her to play. Rayne supposed playing instruments was so ingrained in the troupe life that they weren’t bothered by new players anymore.

Come evening they settled down, Daku emerged with an entire deer, minus the organs and half a leg. Before the group split off into smaller groups to sleep for the night, they enjoyed meat, and one of them took the rest to start drying, where possible. Before the group split though, they all sat and stories were told. A few just myths about one of the current favorite heros. It was a somewhat dark tale, and Rayne didn’t believe most of it. But after that, a type of hush happened. Markus started telling an older story, Rayne got the feeling it was something outright ancient. Some of her own people's oldest stories seemed to dance though it, connected through thin lines of evidence. The story talked of war and battle, but more than that, a battle the likes of which was inconceivable. Men tore each other apart with magics never seen since. They damaged the world itself with their might. Rayne had never heard it in quite so much detail, but it bore many strands linking it to an old legend the oldest member of her village had once told. An event called “The Ending Wars”, a story few knew, and no one knew the origin of, or if it could possibly be true.

Support the creativity of authors by visiting the original site for this novel and more.

“This might be the second time in my entire life that I’ve heard that one. Though it’s different from how I heard it, but there are so many strands. That seem like they fit with the story I heard. Where did you hear that?” Rayne asked markus curiously. Markus took a minute to answer. “I’ve heard tiny fragments of it, But the biggest came but a few days ago. I’ve been working on a song based on old legends, and I asked her if she knew anything about them. I got the biggest piece yet from her, that old apothecary woman.” Rayne took a momentous igest what he had said. “I think the mayor intruded her as councilman Jennings, but if I’ve heard her first name, I’ve forgotten it.” Daku said, seemingly to himself.

The troupe split up and went to do their nightly things. She saw The young girl running around playing, creating a pile of sticks in the process. In the end, adhering putting it off all day, Rayne had a talk with Shade. The next day progressed similarly. It was a rather pleasant trip so far. “Hey Rayne, Markus needs you. He’s in the wagon behind you, he said he'd be busy till around this time hence why I didn’t tell you earlier. Terin half-yelled from the wagon ahead of them. Slightly reluctantly, Rayne stepped hopped off the wagon and was being passed by quickly, and managed to grab and hoist herself up into the seat of the wagon as it went. Panting slightly, Rayne spoke. “Yeah Markus? What can I do for you?” Rayne said, settling into the seat next to him, on the other side was his boyfriend/fiance, Deern. “I was talking to Terin and he mentioned that you knew some artificing. In had an idea and I wanted to see if it was possible…” Rayne began looking more curious, and gently prodded him. “Yes..?” Rayne was quite curious now. She could use a project. “Would it be possible to take a barrel, and using magic, make the inside cold? Like, permanently.” He spoke thoughfully, examining some of the the contents of his wagon. “Yeah I can do that. But make sure it’s a good sturdy barrel that’ll survive a while. No point doing it to a barrel with rusted bands and such.” Rayne shrugged nonchalantly, glad to actually do something productive. “Wait, You can?” Rayne giggled for a split second before stopping. “I’ve done that before. My grandmother wanted to turn a chest into something similar. We called it the ice box, because it froze anything you put in it for more than an hour or so, depending. I had to go back and make the surfaces non stick to avoid meat freezing to the chest itself. It’s not a complicated thing to do.” Rayne said, shrugging. “Then why have I never seen one? I mean, if it can be made why doesn’t everyone have one?” Deern interrupted then with a laugh, nudging Markus affectionately. “You are the merchant. How much do you think you could get for something like that?” Markus lapsed into silent thinking. “So… Then… do you have the things you need? And how cold do you want it? I had to go back and fix my grandmother's, she's asked for something too cold, and most of said meat got frostburn. If you do have whatever you wanted me to turn into this currently, I could probably have it done in… 2 days? No… One and a half? For something the size and shape of a barrel that’d probably be enough.” Markus looked at her curiously. “And, the cost?” He said, half dreading it, half curious. “No cost… but, you know, if my chisel gets dull maybe you can sharpen it. This is part of why Terin wanted me here right? It’s not like you guys are charging me for transport. I mean, all I’d ask is basics, maybe if my tools get dull you can sharpen them, etc. Besides, I’m glad to have a chance to do something.. Productive.” In the end they agreed on a price, of sorts. It wasn't exactly a lot, but Markus didn't feel comfortable with it otherwise. “We’ll be arriving in Chide the day after tomorrow, but relatively early. If it could be ready by then… I could stock up on some more perishable things.”

Unfortunately that meant the next day and a half was less entertaining for Daku, as most of Their time together was spent while Rayne tinkered and piddled around with a large barrel. It wasn't necessarily easy work. A bad rune could do any number of unpleasant things. Daku in turn decided he’d use the time in his own ways, and he could be seen, at every break from the road, sharpening his knife, target shooting with his bow, and the like. The first half a day for Rayne was spent removing the metal rings from said barrel. “Why are you doing that?” Markus finally a asked once the rings were removed. Rayne, panting, replied: “engraving wood isn’t a great idea. What if something you put in there damages the runes. The best work around, is to remove them, put such things on the inside of the ring, then have them replaced. This way the work is much less prone to accidental damage. I don’t want my name out there represented as a shoddy artificer.” “Wait.. Your name? So artificer’s sign their work or something?” Rayne took a moment, stood, and stretched her legs. Engraving the inside of the rings was not easy. On the up side, it was clearly a quality barrel. “Yeah… artificing is perhaps one of the most ‘creative’ types of magic. By adding your name to work you’ve done others who are in the know and looking for a good artificer can recognize something by it’s creator. It helps someone judge whether it’s quality work or not… But to be honest, it’s often superfluous. Many people don’t recognize such a signature as a signature. In the end it ends up only being scholars and mages who know enough to look. But an experienced merchant who knows to look can find it helpful. If you’ve seen shoddy work done and then when trying to have something made, you know ‘maybe I don’t want to commission this person.’” Rayne said, before continuing. The next day things went more steadily. As they got ready for the night a few guys reattached the rings, which proved to be gruff, physical work. Rayne’s signature, in Qualat, was visible on the top and bottom rings. “Wait… That's it? I’ve seen your name written, that looks…” Rayne laughed mildly. “It’s written in Qualat, it’s a long dead language, and it’s horrifying tricky to learn. If I hadn't spent so much time learning it, I'd probably be further along as a mage, witch, whatever you want to call me. But it's pretty much only mages and scholars who know it, so it works very well for us, like a hidden language.” But things dropped there, as half the troupe got distracted by the antics of Daku and Terin, the latter suggesting Daku should put on a trick archery show, and Daku was having none of it.

As things finally settled down, they say together and Terin spoke. “Okay, so we’ll be arriving reasonably early, well before noon. I’m being told supplies will be needed, so we might as well figure out what's going on. Markus says he needs some minor blacksmithing work done, so Markus’ll head there… I’d prefer someone go with him, Rayne, Daku? Besides, Rayne might have need of something as well if she damaged any tools. The spare wagon wheel we keep under our wagon needs fixing, so we’d appreciate it if Deern would come with me and my wife to get that seen to. In general if you go anywhere, take someone else. We all know how suspicious townsfolk can get of people they see as ‘other’. I suppose it doesn’t help that Chide is a border town.. I’m not expecting any issues, we’ve been here before, but… I figured we'd clarify how we go about that for Rayne and Daku.” Rayne nodded and yawned slightly when he finished, not so much out of disrespect as tiredness.