A Day in the Life [Miharu]

[Cadence]

“Hi! Hi! You must be Miharu! Miharu’s a nice name! My name is Barry. It’s not as nice as Miharu, but that’s what my mam called me, so it’s okay.” The excited voice came from slightly to the left of Miharu. Upon turning, Miharu would see a boy who looked to be no older than twelve years. His brown hair disheveled and his gray eyes open wide, he could only be described as an exited, young pup. Indeed, it would be quite obvious that the boy was a young Kelvic wolf. If he had been in his animal form, his tail would have surely been wagging. The boy was obviously trying hard to stay still, but not having yet acquired the grace and stature of older wolves, the exercise was proving quite difficult. He was constantly stepping from foot to foot, his hand running through his long, shaggy hair with the speed of a manic squirrel. “Alanis said I had to show you the way out of here, ‘cause nobody knows the city like I do,” he said, puffing out his scrawny chest. “I don’t know why you’d want to leave, though. Everything’s great here, especially the food. I love the food.” “You can follow me, now,” he added, starting toward the inn’s exit. Once they were outside, Barry turned to Mihary and said in a voice that was meat to sound gravely serious, but instead sounded eager and high-pitched, “It’s really easy to get out if you know the way like I do, but it's real easy to get lost if you don't. So you have to stay real close to me." The two started walking along a wide, cobblestone street. The buildings on either side of them were rather tall and stately, with large windows and even a few balconies. However, once they rounded the corner, the cobblestones turned to slippery ice. The single road branched off into five alleyways and trees appeared to be spring out of nowhere. A man wearing a top-hat and carrying a walking-stick walked straight through one of the trees and collided with the next one, throwing his arms around it to keep from falling. Barry shook his head with a degree of disappointment. “He’s one of the folks who can’t see the illusions. Everything’s messed up for him. Poor guy.” Barry rattled on as they strolled along, “So, where are you going to go if you don’t want to stay here? There’s no place better than Alvadas, you know.”

[Miharu Mindi]

"That's what everyone in Alvadas seems to think," she murmured as she followed Barry through the streets. She liked him, liked the familiarity of a form she could understand - she'd only met one other Kelvic wolf, and he hadn't been her kind of wolf. "I don't care how great the food is. Who's to say whether I'm really eating steak or shyke? I'd rather know for sure, thanks."

She watched as the man in the top hat gathered himself and started off again, golden eyes thoughtful for a moment. "Wait... you mean there are people who can't see the illusions at all?" she asked. Seemed like that would be a boon around here - but then again, he'd still slammed into the real tree. She wasn't sure why, but it hadn't looked completely painless. "And how is it you know how to navigate this place? Is there a scent trail I'm not catching on to? How do you tell the real from the made up?" It was all just making her head spin, and she followed so close on Barry's heels that she occasionally bumped into him.

[Cadence]

“Oh, sure! They’re the ones who’ve been cursed by Ionu. Real shame, too. Can’t see any of the pretty decorations the local illusionists put up during the festivals. And they usually get in a lot of danger around here too." Barry screwed up his eyebrows in thought, falling uncharacteristically silent for a heartbeat. “That’s a strange question to ask… I don’t s’pose I can really explain it. It’s just this feeling I get. Like I just know which way things are around here. The Gaping Maw – it’s got a certain kind of feel. I just know it’s close by and I can tell which streets will get us there faster. And you don’t have to tell the real stuff from the pretend stuff. I just see it all as belonging here. And when something feels welcomed and like it belongs, it doesn’t mind playing along and helping you out,” he said, skipping over a puddle that held no reflection. A few feet away from them, a middle-aged woman in a sensible dress and sensible shoes was staring intently at a dark, purple tree. “You’re not real. You’re not real. You’re not real,” she chanted, her eyes narrowed to slits. “Like that lady. She pro’ly thinks she can make the tree go away by not believing in just ‘cause it’s an illusion. But it-” Barry broke off abruptly to watch the tree extend one of its branches and swipe at the annoying woman. The lady jumped back with a startled scream and proceeded to run away, losing one sensible shoe in the process. “-it doesn’t work like that. Ionu can make illusions more life-like than real life. If you acknowledge the illusion and act accordingly, the illusions accept you, if you don’t… Well, people have here have been known to be eaten by ‘pretend’ tigers," he said with a large grin. The people who had been devoured by the tigers probably hadn’t found their predicament all that funny. The Gaping Maw was indeed close by. In fact, it was just around the corner. What looked like a giant face from the outside, looked like a simple gate from the inside. Except, it wasn’t really a gate at the moment…Groups of tourists and merchants clustered around the one and only entrance and exit to the city, exchanging nervous glances. Where there should have been a barred gate, or a door, or a draw-bridge, there was a gaping hole filled with fire. The flames licked the top and sides of the stone arc, effectively blocking the entire opening. The smell of smoke filled the air, with just a hint of charred flesh. Barry and Mihary drew to a halt a few steps away from the exit. Barry didn’t seem to be concerned by the flames in the least. “Don’t know what all those folks are so worried about. ‘S just fire,” he said with a grin, giving Miharu a gentle nudge toward the flames. “If Ionu can pretend that there are flames in there, all those folks can just pretend they’ve got the ability to get through them flames." “My mam always says you gotta go with the flow,” he added cheerfully.

[Miharu Mindi]

Miharu's knees locked when the boy tried to nudge her towards the fire, some deep animal instinct suddenly screaming to life. Fire was bad, really bad, and the knowledge of that was enough to keep most natural animals at bay should a man find himself stranded in the woods.

She scrambled backwards a step, tangling up with Barry and making a strange choking noise. "You said it was real," she murmured, the gold of her eyes less striking when her pupils dilated wide in fear. "You said a pretend tiger will eat you just as sure as a real one, so a pretend fire can burn me just as sure. I don't want to get burned," she said, panic threading her voice as she caught the boy by the shoulders and twisted so he was between her and the fire - not to throw him towards it, just to block her view of it. She was breathing harder, but without the flames filling her field of vision she was able to swallow down the worst of the terror.

[Cadence]

“Oh,” Barry said, staggering back a little as Miharu collided with him. He furrowed his brow in thought, obviously trying to understand what the woman found so frightening about the dancing flames. “Well, yea… I did say that, didn’t I? But that’s ‘cause the people who got eaten by the pretend tigers didn’t think they were real. They thought it was all a joke and they didn’t take the tigers seriously enough to protect themselves against them. It’s kind of like a paree-dox… or is that pora-dox?” He said thoughtfully, finally waving away the pesky word with his hand. “Doesn’t matter what it’s called. But it’s like this: You gotta believe in the illusion enough to respect it and you gotta treat the imaginary tigers like they are real tigers and then they’ll stop looking like real tigers and disappear. But if you treat the tigers like they are imaginary, the tigers will only become more real and eat you up. But if you think the tigers are so real that you are afraid to approach them, they'll think of you as easy prey and eat you up anyway.” “Same with fire. You have to make up a sort of protection for yourself. Believe that the fire is real and then convince yourself that real fire can’t hurt you. You can imagine you’ve got fire-proof armor on or that you’re really, really wet,” he concluded cheerfully. By the satisfied expression on his face, it was obvious that Barry thought his explanation to be crystal clear. The flames wove themselves around each other in an intricate dance, reflecting the fear and anxiety coursing through the veins of the onlookers. The fire taunted them, diminishing just a little – to the point that it appeared to be going out completely – and then flaring up like a warrior jumping out during an ambush.

[Miharu Mindi]

Miharu just stared at him, eyes bulging, as she tried to wrap her brain around those ridiculous statements. It wouldn't, though, since most of her internal monologue was reduced to gibbering about how bad fire was.

"Is everyone here mad?" she whispered, staring at Barry. "You are, aren't you? It's one big trick to trap people here forever." Golden eyes flickered back to the dancing flames, and then her face set in something stubborn, her lip lifting to snarl. "You do it. You go through it, if it's so harmless. Let me see you survive the lick of the fire, if you're so sure you can survive it."

[Cadence]

Barry let out an exasperated sigh, looking like a child who has just been refused the fun of playing an exciting, new game. “Well fine, if you’re going to be such a scardy-cat,” he pouted, his boyish face transformed into a mask of disappointment. “I’ll go through.” The young Kelvic squared his shoulders, puffed out his scrawny chest, and strutted toward the blazing flames. The throng of people parted before him, not one person reaching out to hold the boy back. Barry did not stop in his tracks even one, walking purposefully toward the fire until he was no more than a few feet away from it. One more step, two more steps… The flames should have started licking at him by now, burning through his hair and his skin, but they did nothing of the sort. Barry simply walked into the fire. The flames closed up behind him, and for a few seconds his silhouette could be seen through the red glare. Then, he was completely gone from sigh. A chime passed in stunned silence as everyone watched the fire intently. Just as the tension among the crowd was coming to its pique, Barry’s head popped out of the fire, a wide grin stretched across his face. Then, the rest of him appeared, walking back through the flames as if they were nothing more than air. He stopped and bowed theatrically before making his way back to Miharu. “See. Nothing scary about it at all. No burns on me or anything,” he said proudly, exhibiting his arms for Miharu to see the absence of burn marks. “It’s real easy. If I can do it, so can you. Come on, I’ll go through it with you if you’re really that scared,” Barry said, as he took Miharu by the hand and started to pull her toward the fire once more.

[Miharu Mindi]

Miharu watched the boy walk into the fire and just sort of sighed. There goes that one, she thought to herself, expecting him to be dead as a doornail on the other side.

...and then he reappeared. And was grinning like he'd just won something.

She just blinked at him as he approached and crowed his victory, and it wasn't until he touched her fingers that she jolted back to herself. She snatched her hand back on pure instinct, golden eyes still glued to the boy's face - but a moment later she took a calming breath and reached out to take his hand, staring at the illusory fire and nodding that she was ready.

"It can't hurt me," she whispered under her breath, audible only to the other Kelvic's heightened senses. "I am the Winter and the Snow. I am the cold that freezes men's blood in their veins and lulls them into eternal sleep. Fire cannot touch me. It's flames will turn to flakes of ice brushing against my skin. Just snow, like back home, and it won't hurt at all and will disappear the moment it touches me. It am the cold," she said, and then just repeated that to herself again and again as if trying desperately to make herself believe it.

As they stepped up to the portal, her eyes slid closed and she concentrated with all of her might, imagining that as she passed through the Gaping Maw the blazing, thundering fire balked at the cold touch of her skin, that the air spinning around her head was the cold, bitter wind that blew from the arctic tundra, that she was enveloped in everything cold and familiar and safe and not fire.

[Vetala]

Miharu Mindi

Rhetoric - 5


Lore:

Lore of Alvadas
Lore of Inou
Lore of how illusions can be to real
Fighting basic instinct

Ledger:
- 1 Silver
Notes:

I am sorry this ended the way it did. If you have any questions please send me a pm.