Everything about this meeting had felt unnatural and unreal from the beginning.
This stony coolly unloading such crushing news on her could only exist in a bad dream.
Yes.
Supper did not sit well with her last night.
It was only a bad dream.
The powerful feeling of shock, the tremor of her body, the thrumming of her heart-it was all enough to start someone awake in a cold sweat a hundred times, but Miss Nalini felt nowhere close to waking up.
She was stuck in this awful dream.
There was nothing for it but to confront the nightmare.
"This isn't you," Miss Nalini said, her voice breathless whisper.
"Why?
It's only been ten years.
Why would you make a decision like that so soon?"
She tried to focus her swimming vision on his eyes.
Those quiet pools of warmth and comfort had frozen over, their lively glint supplanted by a cold gaze.
A clenched jaw and a suddenly unmoving body gave the impression he had become a stone statue.
"To tell the truth, Miss Nalini, the king does not have any control over whether the battle occurs or not.
Nobody does."
He responed.
If his tone was controlled before, this was paramount to listening to a pre-recorded recitation.
"The books appear on their own every one thousand years.
We know nothing of where they come from.
We ignore who makes them-and there lies the problem.
Whomever created the books also created the device that sends animals to the Human World,
the Gloden Book, the White Wand, and most importantly, the King's Privilege- the gratuitous power to kill.
The most powerful animal in Animal World history cannot produce such extraordinary constructs, yet this entity can.
We cannot predict what this enity-possibly a god-would do if we simply choose not to assign the books at the turn of the next millennium.
The possibilites could be catastrophic and too great to risk.
We have therefore judged wisest not to interfere with the tradition."
As soon as began speaking, the chill of morning air, the leafy scent of tea, the saccharine smell of sweets on the tablw, the tension of her muscles, the very feeling of weight, the table, the surrounding landscape-everything vanished.
Only and his voice existed.
Miss Nalini listened, entranced, to the words that revealed the so-pregnant reason that had apparently compelled to break a promise of a lifetime.
Miss Nalini scrutinized the words, putting every ounce of her being into understanding what he ment.
Gods, extraordinary constructs, tradition- how did it all fit into this outcome?
How did it fit on the scheme of the battle's occurrence?
She tried, for her friend's sake, to understand.
She coulden't.
"That...that is...that doesn't matter!"
she got out, voice shaking.
"Isn't the purpose of it all to choose a leader?"
As long as it's fair, it shouldn't matter how it's done."
Miss Nalini's breathing was heavy, and even though she wasn't raising her voice, or at least trying no to, her throat felt sore, probaly from holding back all the whines and whimpers that threatened to break from it while she listened.
"The battle...it's so senseless.
How can anyone think it a good way to choose a leader?"
"The battle is certainly flawed," replied, body still rigid and eyes cold, though his mechanic tone had relaxed enough that he sounded somewhat thoughtful.
"I've questioned its logic as well.
Why must it be a battle at all?
Why must children fight it, and not young adults?
Even if that were somehow a solution, winning does not mean one's doctrine is superior.
The battle-"
"The battle allows violent, evil animals to come into power!"
Miss Nalini blurted out.
Ther was a delay before she realized she had just interrupted -and rather loudly, at that.
It was probaly the first time she'd interrupted someone in her life.
instantly went quiet, which he didn't have to do.
Miss Nalini gulped in spite of herself, a part of her urging her to say sorry.
She somehow ignored it.
If she had spoken out already, she might as well finish her piece.
The moment of self-consciousness served to moderate her tone.
"It blinds animals with the desire to win and encourages them to cheat and backstab and to take advantage of the weak.
Animals become heartless that way.
They learn violence is an effective way to settle differences.
