A/N: I don't own The Book of Night With Moon or any of the characters in
it. That's why it's called fanfiction :)
A note to the reader
While the town described in this work could be any number of towns in Northern Canada or Alaska, it is not any of them. The town in question was made after an idea of a small, back woods town north of the Arctic Circle and not after any actual town. Readers are encouraged not to take out their atlases or maps and search for Raurr and Uae's town, for you will not find one. While there may be several that fit the description almost perfectly exept for several details, the reader is asked to pay attention to those exceptions and shut their atlases or fold up their maps.
****
One
The feline population called it "Snowed In" and the ehhif population declined to argue with that name since majority of the year it was. The People are associated with warmth and a small tundra town North of the Arctic Circle seemed an odd place to find them. But where people of any species are somewhere for long enough the minds packed together start to wear at reality creating a thin spot. This thin spot is known to wizards as a worldgate. And, cats being the only species that can see the strings that make up the gate, take care of them and repair them when they need it. Not just any cats, though, feline wizards. And Uea was one of them.
She knew that there were no accidents and when her ehhif moved from that other cold spot halfway around the world to this house whith a worldgate in the backyard she knew that the Powers That Be were subtly indicating that she was needed here. And was she ever. There was a shortage of wizards this year and she was the only Person who was past her Ordeal and therefore the only one that was taking care of the gate. Her Seinor wizard, Raurr the wolf-houff, helped her as best that he could. Several kittens who were on their Ordeals had been "assigned" to Uae, but for one reason or another they had kept disappearing.
Please Iau, don't let Iliahh be gone today, Uea thought as she rolled off of her ehhif 's bed and streched. She was fine boned and delecate, with long silky white hair. She licked her mussed-up back fur into something approaching order and thumped down the stairs to the kitchen to get some food. When she got down there her ehhif and her brother were getting ready to go to school and her ehhif's mother was trying to feed them and keep the family's houff off of the counter at the same time.
"Settle down, Grrrahh," Uae said as she came into the kitchen, there was no need for her to use the Speech because Grrrahh spoke perfect Ailurin.
"Can't... too... happy.... it's... morning!" Grrrahh said and punctuated each word with a bounce then bounded over to Uae and stuck his nose in her ear and before Uae could smack him he had gone snnnnniiiiffffffff! and then ran off. Uea shook her head and hopped up onto the counter to get her breakfast.
"Morning, Sasha kitty," her ehhif's mother said, "hungry are you?"
"Yes, very much so, you have no idea what bad a day I had yesterday. Too many things happen when you're with a kit on Ordeal," Uae said in Ailurin even though her ehhif couldn't hear her. She could have of course used the Speech since everything understands the Speach, but ethics strictly forbid doing so unless it was nessecary.
"My,my,my we are hungry," her ehhif said having heard what Uae said as a soft purr. She got out a can of cat food and put it in a dish in the window sill behind the sink, "There you are," she said and turned her attention back to her children.
"Thank you, Ah'hrihah," Uae said and started to eat. Half-way through her bowl she glanced out into the backyard and choked on her food. The gate was gone.
Au! she thought, The vhai'd thing is gone again! Raurr isn't going to like this! She hurridly ate the rest of her breakfast and ran out the dog door towards the end of town where Raurr lived with his ehhif as fast as her four paws and the elements would allow.
On her way she tried several times to get in touch with Iliahh using the private thought that goes from Person to Person.
Iliahh! Iliahh where are you?
There was nothing. Nothing at all, not even a feeling that Iliahh was there but asleep. It was like she'd dropped off the face of the earth.
She got to the out-skirts of SnowedIn and trotted up to the back of the little ranch-style house where Raurr and his ehhif lived. Raurr was where she thought he'd be, a large shaggy grey shape lying on the back deck all leggy and sprawled with his head on his paws. He saw her coming and lifted his head and said in Ailurin, "Hunt's luck, Uae, what brings you here so early this morning?"
" 'Luck to you too, Senior, and are we ever going to need it," she said coming up to him, not worrying if his ehhif saw her or not, he knew her and wouldn't think it odd to see her around.
"The gate's gone again isn't it?" Raurr growled in his raspy voice, "Rrrr, I knew something felt wrong."
"Yes it is. And so is Iliahh, I don't feel her around," Uae said sitting down and washing a paw idly.
"Well," Raurr said gently, if gentle was possible from a voice that was all growl,"She was on Ordeal, and not all of us survive our Ordeals. They are called Ordeals for a reason."
"Yes I know, but she is the fifth one to go missing! The fith! In an area so in need of wizards you would think that the Powers would let at least one survive!" Uae said fluffing up slightly.
"You know as well as anyone that not all of the Powers like wizards," He said, his voice level,"You know of Who I speak. Now let's go find that gate, time is wasteing." Raurr stood up and trotted off in the general direction of Uae's backyard. Uae got up and followed him, not bothering with being invisible, the chances of someone spotting a white cat against the snow were not all that great.
When they got to Uae's backyard, Raurr's hackles stood up. Uae tried to use her wizard's senses but didn't sense much besides a vague feeling of distress.
Something happened here, She thought to herself, Something bad...
Raurr walked stiff-legged over to where the gate was normally and then let out a growl which sounded very much like his name.
"What is it?" Uae whispered, starting to tremble a little.
"There's blood in the snow," He said simply, then licked his nose and slipped sideways and through without moving into the world of the invisible. Uae glanced at the window in the kitchen without need for everyone was gone by now then followed Raurr's example and also sidled. The tangle of hyperstrings when you were invisible made the things in bright sunlight hard to look at, but above the Arctic Circle there are six months of night in the winter and six months of day in the summer, and now, in the winter the most light one ever saw was a little twilight during midday and so, being sidled was not an unpleasent state to be in.
Uae looked after Raurr and saw he a pretty fair distance away and even though he couldn't be seen by anything non-wizardly he still was being extremely cautious. Suddenly he perked his ears and trotted off. Uae ran to catch up to him and as she did so she saw the dark patches in the snow. Blood, her nose and common sense told her and she wrinkled her face and ran faster. After a second she caught up to him and slowed down, panting a little. Then she felt what he must have and perked her ears as well.
"The gate! It's out here again?" Uae said, "It must have gone back to where it used to be." The first problem that Uae had to deal with when her ehhif had moved her here was to move the gate back to her yard after it had gone back to it's original location. It had been near an old, rotted out dead tree - in the trunk near the upper branches actually - which was not only an inconvienient spot but also dangerous. The tree's wood had been so dried and rotted from all these years that branches had started to fall off of it and they were big branches, not small ones. So the gate had been moved to her backyard which was much safer. But aparently the gate didn't think so for every now and again it would dis-locate and end up either in the middle of SnowedIn or in the middle of the tundra or back in it's original location. Anytime it went somewhere it was always a pain to get back in place and then it had to be watched to make sure it didn't do it again and just when you thought it was behaving it would dis-locate again.
Now though, what was worrying Uae was not getting the gate back in place, but that the trail of blood in the snow was going in the same direction that the gate was in. As they approached the tree Uae could see a shape crumpled at the base of the tree and her hackles began to rise and she began to tremble again. Raurr stopped and stood there for a moment.
"Stay here," he said," I want to check it out first." Uae flicked her tail in agreement and sat down in the snow, her ears swiveling every which way nervously, and watched Raurr cautiously walk up to the tree. Suddenly he stopped and stood stock still and Uae could see him start shaking even from this distance, "Uae," he said, turning his head to look at her, his eyes wide with fear, "I think we found Iliahh." Slowly, carefully, Uae stood up and walked over to the tree and the crumpled shape underneath it. She stood next to Raurr and looked down at the shape which was once a little chocolate colured kitten, it's eyes wide with fear, it's mouth frozen in a half-hiss half-yowl and all it's hair was standing on end. Uae yowled in fear and lost her breakfast all over the snow. They had indeed found Iliahh.
A note to the reader
While the town described in this work could be any number of towns in Northern Canada or Alaska, it is not any of them. The town in question was made after an idea of a small, back woods town north of the Arctic Circle and not after any actual town. Readers are encouraged not to take out their atlases or maps and search for Raurr and Uae's town, for you will not find one. While there may be several that fit the description almost perfectly exept for several details, the reader is asked to pay attention to those exceptions and shut their atlases or fold up their maps.
****
One
The feline population called it "Snowed In" and the ehhif population declined to argue with that name since majority of the year it was. The People are associated with warmth and a small tundra town North of the Arctic Circle seemed an odd place to find them. But where people of any species are somewhere for long enough the minds packed together start to wear at reality creating a thin spot. This thin spot is known to wizards as a worldgate. And, cats being the only species that can see the strings that make up the gate, take care of them and repair them when they need it. Not just any cats, though, feline wizards. And Uea was one of them.
She knew that there were no accidents and when her ehhif moved from that other cold spot halfway around the world to this house whith a worldgate in the backyard she knew that the Powers That Be were subtly indicating that she was needed here. And was she ever. There was a shortage of wizards this year and she was the only Person who was past her Ordeal and therefore the only one that was taking care of the gate. Her Seinor wizard, Raurr the wolf-houff, helped her as best that he could. Several kittens who were on their Ordeals had been "assigned" to Uae, but for one reason or another they had kept disappearing.
Please Iau, don't let Iliahh be gone today, Uea thought as she rolled off of her ehhif 's bed and streched. She was fine boned and delecate, with long silky white hair. She licked her mussed-up back fur into something approaching order and thumped down the stairs to the kitchen to get some food. When she got down there her ehhif and her brother were getting ready to go to school and her ehhif's mother was trying to feed them and keep the family's houff off of the counter at the same time.
"Settle down, Grrrahh," Uae said as she came into the kitchen, there was no need for her to use the Speech because Grrrahh spoke perfect Ailurin.
"Can't... too... happy.... it's... morning!" Grrrahh said and punctuated each word with a bounce then bounded over to Uae and stuck his nose in her ear and before Uae could smack him he had gone snnnnniiiiffffffff! and then ran off. Uea shook her head and hopped up onto the counter to get her breakfast.
"Morning, Sasha kitty," her ehhif's mother said, "hungry are you?"
"Yes, very much so, you have no idea what bad a day I had yesterday. Too many things happen when you're with a kit on Ordeal," Uae said in Ailurin even though her ehhif couldn't hear her. She could have of course used the Speech since everything understands the Speach, but ethics strictly forbid doing so unless it was nessecary.
"My,my,my we are hungry," her ehhif said having heard what Uae said as a soft purr. She got out a can of cat food and put it in a dish in the window sill behind the sink, "There you are," she said and turned her attention back to her children.
"Thank you, Ah'hrihah," Uae said and started to eat. Half-way through her bowl she glanced out into the backyard and choked on her food. The gate was gone.
Au! she thought, The vhai'd thing is gone again! Raurr isn't going to like this! She hurridly ate the rest of her breakfast and ran out the dog door towards the end of town where Raurr lived with his ehhif as fast as her four paws and the elements would allow.
On her way she tried several times to get in touch with Iliahh using the private thought that goes from Person to Person.
Iliahh! Iliahh where are you?
There was nothing. Nothing at all, not even a feeling that Iliahh was there but asleep. It was like she'd dropped off the face of the earth.
She got to the out-skirts of SnowedIn and trotted up to the back of the little ranch-style house where Raurr and his ehhif lived. Raurr was where she thought he'd be, a large shaggy grey shape lying on the back deck all leggy and sprawled with his head on his paws. He saw her coming and lifted his head and said in Ailurin, "Hunt's luck, Uae, what brings you here so early this morning?"
" 'Luck to you too, Senior, and are we ever going to need it," she said coming up to him, not worrying if his ehhif saw her or not, he knew her and wouldn't think it odd to see her around.
"The gate's gone again isn't it?" Raurr growled in his raspy voice, "Rrrr, I knew something felt wrong."
"Yes it is. And so is Iliahh, I don't feel her around," Uae said sitting down and washing a paw idly.
"Well," Raurr said gently, if gentle was possible from a voice that was all growl,"She was on Ordeal, and not all of us survive our Ordeals. They are called Ordeals for a reason."
"Yes I know, but she is the fifth one to go missing! The fith! In an area so in need of wizards you would think that the Powers would let at least one survive!" Uae said fluffing up slightly.
"You know as well as anyone that not all of the Powers like wizards," He said, his voice level,"You know of Who I speak. Now let's go find that gate, time is wasteing." Raurr stood up and trotted off in the general direction of Uae's backyard. Uae got up and followed him, not bothering with being invisible, the chances of someone spotting a white cat against the snow were not all that great.
When they got to Uae's backyard, Raurr's hackles stood up. Uae tried to use her wizard's senses but didn't sense much besides a vague feeling of distress.
Something happened here, She thought to herself, Something bad...
Raurr walked stiff-legged over to where the gate was normally and then let out a growl which sounded very much like his name.
"What is it?" Uae whispered, starting to tremble a little.
"There's blood in the snow," He said simply, then licked his nose and slipped sideways and through without moving into the world of the invisible. Uae glanced at the window in the kitchen without need for everyone was gone by now then followed Raurr's example and also sidled. The tangle of hyperstrings when you were invisible made the things in bright sunlight hard to look at, but above the Arctic Circle there are six months of night in the winter and six months of day in the summer, and now, in the winter the most light one ever saw was a little twilight during midday and so, being sidled was not an unpleasent state to be in.
Uae looked after Raurr and saw he a pretty fair distance away and even though he couldn't be seen by anything non-wizardly he still was being extremely cautious. Suddenly he perked his ears and trotted off. Uae ran to catch up to him and as she did so she saw the dark patches in the snow. Blood, her nose and common sense told her and she wrinkled her face and ran faster. After a second she caught up to him and slowed down, panting a little. Then she felt what he must have and perked her ears as well.
"The gate! It's out here again?" Uae said, "It must have gone back to where it used to be." The first problem that Uae had to deal with when her ehhif had moved her here was to move the gate back to her yard after it had gone back to it's original location. It had been near an old, rotted out dead tree - in the trunk near the upper branches actually - which was not only an inconvienient spot but also dangerous. The tree's wood had been so dried and rotted from all these years that branches had started to fall off of it and they were big branches, not small ones. So the gate had been moved to her backyard which was much safer. But aparently the gate didn't think so for every now and again it would dis-locate and end up either in the middle of SnowedIn or in the middle of the tundra or back in it's original location. Anytime it went somewhere it was always a pain to get back in place and then it had to be watched to make sure it didn't do it again and just when you thought it was behaving it would dis-locate again.
Now though, what was worrying Uae was not getting the gate back in place, but that the trail of blood in the snow was going in the same direction that the gate was in. As they approached the tree Uae could see a shape crumpled at the base of the tree and her hackles began to rise and she began to tremble again. Raurr stopped and stood there for a moment.
"Stay here," he said," I want to check it out first." Uae flicked her tail in agreement and sat down in the snow, her ears swiveling every which way nervously, and watched Raurr cautiously walk up to the tree. Suddenly he stopped and stood stock still and Uae could see him start shaking even from this distance, "Uae," he said, turning his head to look at her, his eyes wide with fear, "I think we found Iliahh." Slowly, carefully, Uae stood up and walked over to the tree and the crumpled shape underneath it. She stood next to Raurr and looked down at the shape which was once a little chocolate colured kitten, it's eyes wide with fear, it's mouth frozen in a half-hiss half-yowl and all it's hair was standing on end. Uae yowled in fear and lost her breakfast all over the snow. They had indeed found Iliahh.