To Fear the Bear (Syllke)

[Galio Keln]

Timestamp: Season of Fall, Day 42, 511 A.V. It had been a strange week. Since the events of the festival Galio had been avoiding all of the people he had met, along with his close friend Syllke. Which was why he now stood outside of the Lyceum. He knew of Syllke’s fear of bears, but it had never occurred to him that Syllke would be afraid of him. After everything that happened Galio felt as if that had been the worse thing. His first friend since coming back to Denval and he had scarred him. He didn’t know how to handle it or how to approach the Vantha about it. He spent half the day thinking of how to talk to him, how to apologize. In the end he just decided to wing it. Entering the Lyceum Galio drifted between classrooms, asking where he could find his friend. It wasn’t uncommon for him to go searching for him during his work hours as he usually got bored being alone and often watched Syllke work in the Lyceum. Today was like any other, students and teachers directed the kelvic on his path. Once more Galio found himself at war with his own mind. He was outside the door that Syllke was apparently behind, at work. Should he knock? Or just walk in? Questions as to what to do bubbled up, threatening to force him from his goal completely. Pushing away his questions Galio decided to check if Syllke was even inside first, starting with a knock on the door to announce his presence. “Syllke? Are you in here?” Galio poked his head in, not focusing on anything in the room outside of whether or not Syllke was in it. Spotting the familiar shape of the Vantha he stepped inside, closing the door behind him. “Sorry to interrupt you…but I think we need to talk.”

[Syllke Skyglow]

It had been a weird few days – very weird indeed. A bit more than a week had passed since the festival, and all that had transpired there. Syllke had been feeling quite unsettled since then, for a number of reasons. Life in Denval had retunred to some sense of normalcy, but – really? Being visited by gods was slightly unnerving. Morwen was different. She lived in Avanthal pretty much all the time. Syllke was used to that – to her. But this? Syna and Leth popping round for a chat – mystical riddles and the overture itself – kelvics gone wild and magic working in reverse – it was all just a bit too much. Syllke had found himself uneasily reliving the experiences of that night, one in particular that brought him nothing but guilt and shame. Had he been avoiding Galio in the past week or so? Possibly. The young artist had thought he had pretty much conquered his bear phobia. But seeing Galio that night, his huge form hulking over the crowd, his seemingly as huge mouth with teeth the size of Syllke’s hands, his rage and aggressive behavior – well, yes, possibly all that had gotten to Syllke. All he knew was that as soon as he had heard that familiar growl, every ounce of terror that bears seemed to inspire in him had come flooding right back. What progress he had made with Belgar had been obliterated. Had he been avoiding Galio? Yes, if was honest, he had been. He wasn’t sure exactly why. But when he thought of the boy – no – when he thought of the bear, he could feel the sweat on his palms and that tingling rush of adrenalin, a shiver down his spine and the hair on his forearms standing upright. Syllke knew it wasn’t rational. It never had been, this intense sense of doom he felt when he thought about being anywhere near a bear. When he heard the knock, he was about to call out for whoever it was to come in – until he heard that voice. He had been copying out some ledger entries, for course fees, and his hand actually jumped, skidding across the paper and leaving a trail of ink in its wake. Without having the time to even think about not answering, Galio’s curly brown head was already poking in the door, his eyes quickly lighting on Syllke. Forcing a smile to his face, Syllke replied as evenly as he could, though with a slight tremor in his voice. "Oh, Galio. What’s that? You want to talk? Well . . . “ He eyed the ruined ledger entry and furiously tried to come up with a good excuse not to talk. “I . . . um, I’m kind of busy right now.” His color shifting eyes were swirling with an alarming bright red, alternating with a melancholy indigo. Those eyes remained firmly fixed on the book before him. “But, well . . . sure, um – what did you want to talk about?” Maybe it would be something easy and quick, Syllke thought, with a stab of both guilt and relief.

[Galio Keln]

Galio had half expected Syllke to not be in the room at all, or at least there be something to distract him or give him reason to put off his goal. At first thinking that he could put it off until later since Syllke was busy, Galio noticed the changing colors of Syllke’s eyes. It was something he was used to seeing, but he couldn’t remember a time when they had been so red. Syllke wasn’t meeting his stare, so Galio could only assume that he must be very busy with his work. Though it seemed he wouldn’t be able to put this off. Taking a deep breath Galio continued, his eyes now dropped to the ground, staring slightly ahead of his feet. “I wanted to talk about what happened at the festival…About what I did.” The words hung in the air around Galio like a death sentence. He didn’t know exactly how to go about explaining and talking to Syllke about it, but he did know that he had scarred Syllke and that he had to do something about it. oocSorry about being gone so long, Thanksgiving seemed to go on a bit too long.

[Syllke Skyglow]

Syllke had a slightly hard time hearing Galio above the roar of the blood rushing through his ears. His vision was getting a bit blurry, and he tried to focus on the ink blot, but that made it worse. The scraggly outline seemed to take on the shape of a snarling muzzle. Syllke squeezed his eyes shut tight. What had Galio been saying? He wanted to talk about that night? Of course. It was no secret how Syllke had acted – how he had reacted, when his friends were in trouble. He had gone after Murphy, but really . . . hadn’t that just been an excuse? To desert the others? Seodai – Galio – Lucy. Hadn’t he really just turned tail and run away? And now Galio was here to call him on it, to ask for an explanation, an apology. Syllke owed him that much, at the very least. Swallowing hard, though his mouth was suddenly dry as dust and his throat felt parched, Syllke stammered, “The – the festival, yeah . . . I – I . . . “ He wanted to explain. He wanted to say he was sorry. But he made a fatal mistake. His eyes finally turned to Galio, but instead of the curly headed boy, his eyes saw only the huge, ferocious, angry, snarling bear. Syllke’s mouth sagged open, the spots swirled and intensified before his eyes, his ears were filled with a tremendously loud buzzing. Without warning, his body collapsed, slumping to the side as he slid off the stool he was perched on and fell to the floor with a loud clunk!.

[Galio Keln]

Galio swallowed empty air. He still wasn't sure about what to say, but he had decided he had to apologize. He couldn't bear to think that he had caused his friend so much distress. Then he looked up. It was only for a second, but he caught Syllke's eye. His own dark brown eyes stared back into Syllke's ever changing swirls of color. He couldn't quite tell what color it actually was, but it obviously wasn't good. Syllke seemed fearful for a split-second before falling from his stool to the ground. Galio stared in horror, not knowing what to do. The his animal nature told him to run. Something bad was going on and it was his instinct to flee from it. The itch to shift and escape the room roared in his ears. Yet Galio did not. “Do not abandon the gift of reason.” The words rung about his head, clearing his head of his animal instincts. The need to change was gone, there was no fear or horror as Galio moved. He shot forward to Syllke's side, dropping to one knee. He could still hear him breathing, but he wasn't moving. “Syllke! Syllke are you okay!?” Galio had no idea that he had actually been the cause of Syllke's sudden loss of body control, nor did he have any idea on what to do. If Syllke wasn't okay or had fainted completely he would have to find someone who could help the Vantha.

[Syllke Skyglow]

Syllke was only out for a few moments. The worst part was that he had fallen onto his face and busted his lip so that it was a bit bloody. When he came to, he could taste it in his mouth. He flopped over onto his back, and saw staring down at him those brown eyes framed by that bear like hair. It didn’t matter that the face was kind, funny, friendly Galio’s. Syllke bolted upright and scuttled backwards on his hands and feet, like a crab. He raised a hand and stuck it out, palm facing the kelvic. “G-Galio! Stop! Don’t – don’t come any closer, please!” His voice clearly reflected his panic. There was no way the boy could have mistaken his friend’s words as stemming from anger. There was only raw, undiluted terror in his voice, and his eyes were blazing crimson. OOCSorry to be so slow. RL got a bit wacko. My apologies

[Galio Keln]

Then Syllke was awake again. Galio felt a wave of relieve rush over him. Yet it was quickly replaced. Had he done something wrong? Why was Syllke so loud? Was he angry? No. There was no way the Kelvic would of missed the panic and terror fueling Syllke's words. He was no longer just hearing it either. He could see the crimson color of his eyes and he could smell the change in the air. Yet what could of scarred Syllke so? Realization came slowly as Galio backed away, keeping his eyes on Syllke. “...O-Okay.” He knew that he had scarred a lot of people at the festival. There was no denying that. He had come to see Syllke so he could assess just how bad it had been and try to fix his friendship before it fell apart. Yet now he wasn't so sure. Here he was, his mere presence scarring Syllke away. How could he ever make up for something that could make his friend flee before him? “I didn't mean to scare you...I just wanted to make sure you were okay...”

[Syllke Skyglow]

Galio’s words tore at Syllke’s heart, as did the anguished concern he saw in the boy’s face. It wasn’t Galio’s fault that Syllke had fainted, but that fact did nothing to still the wild hammering of the Vantha’s heart, the gasping of his breath, or the sweat that had broken out on his back and neck and forehead. His hands felt clammy and his ears were still buzzing slightly. Syllke only wished, fervently, that somehow Galio would just vanish – or at least go away. But he knew that was his irrational fear talking inside his head. He knew the boy was there for some good purpose, and really was not responsible for any of these horrible feelings of panic. Not responsible at all. Trying to speak past the huge lump in his parched throat, Syllke stammered, “G-Galio, p-please. Don’t – don’t worry. It’s not y-you.” Syllke forced his hand to drop, and his head did as well, his eyes slipping away from the other boy to stare down at the floor. He brought both hands to his face, rubbing them over it as if he could rub away this vision that so terrified him. He drew a long breath, hoping to steady his nerves, and let it out with a sigh. He swallowed, and then looked once more at his friend. His friend – just a young boy – not a big, huge, snarling angry bear. Yes, but he had been that way, just a few days before, hadn’t he? Syllke shoved that thought away. With a very sad, tremulous, tiny smile, he said, “It’s not you, Galio. I – I was born this way, I guess. I’m terrified of bears. Before – before the festival, when I saw you in your – other – form, I guess, I guess I was able to control my fear. I knew you were my friend. But . . . the other night, when you shifted like that, and I saw . . . I saw . . . “ Syllke put his hands over his face again, covering his eyes, trying to block out that image. “I’m sorry, Galio.” He said, his voice strained to breaking. “It’s me, not you. I’m the one with the problem.”