The "Galiard's" Tale.
Well on ye, brothers and sisters!
Hi. The name's Kathryn O'Connor, But You Can
Call Me Kate. Though I should properly introduce
myself as Raven Curious Moon. I don't lie to the Caern
Guardians, I WAS born to Connor Calms the Storm of the
Fianna when the Galiard moon shone high in the skies
above the prarie dog caern in Manitoba. The
assumptions they make based on that aren't *my* fault,
are they?
Like so many others, my story begins with my ma and my
pa meeting at a wild fianna moot. She caught his eye,
and one thing led to another, untill in the hight of
passion, my ma changed forms, and my da assumed that
he had broken the litany, and the thought broke his
mind. He fell into the killing sadness of harano, and
hasn't yet come out in these 18 years. When my ma
brought me to him 9 months later, he grabbed my
bundle, without even looking, and raised his claws
over it to do me what he thought was a mercy. Lucky
for me, and the rest of us, he couldn't bring
himself to it, and left me with his sister and her
husband, good fianna in-the-know kinfolk. They
couldn't understand why thier brother regected such a
seemingly perfect homid baby, but when they tried to
ask him, he wouldn't acknolegde my exsistance. For
seventeen years, he's thought himself the father of a
metis. Maybe someday, I'll take the name of
Kishajoten, and pay him a visit....
Anyway, my aunt and uncle raised me, and taught me all
I needed to know about being fianna kinfolk, and maybe
someday fianna, that they could. When I was nearing my
16th birthday, and no change in sight, they started to
look nervous, and I knew there was something they
weren't telling me. Maybe they knew about the strange
dreams I'd been having, of a desert I'd never seen but
felt like home, of strange green hills with fae
dancing in them, but mostly of a woman whose face
seemed wonderfully familiar....
One night I had a dream of that woman and I in the
desert, and she tuned, not to a wolf, but a coyote,
and looked at me to chase her. I did, and we ran for
what felt like hours. eventially she stopped, and
waited for mr to catch up. When I did she turned and
spoke to me, plain as day, "What is your name,
Kitling?"
"I am Kathryn O'Conner, uh, ma'am."
She laughed a canid laugh at me. "You could use
another one. I name you Curious Moon. Wake up, Curious
Moon."
And I did, only to discover that I was five blocks
from home, in my pajamas, five minutes before dawn
when my aunt would come into my room to check on me!!
I ran like I'd never ran before, and while I was
running, I began to feel very strange, first as if I
was much taller, and then as If I was much shorter,
and running on four legs instead of two. I seemed to
fly down the streets and made it home and through my
bedroom window just when I heard my aunt knock on the
door. That's when I looked up and saw her, sitting on
my dresser; the woman from my dream. She looked at me
and said, in the same voice the coyote had, "Whatever
they tell you, they're wrong. And whatever you do,
don't tell them about me. I'll be back to straighten
you out. Good luck, Curious Moon, my daughter." And
then she walked into the mirror. Looking in after her,
I caught a look at myself. I'd been wondering why the
room had seemed much smaller....
By this time my aunt was pounding on the door
"Kathryn, Katie lass, open the door"
"Don't come in! I'm a monster!!"
"No, no, yer not a monster, just let me in and I'll
explain."
I finally let her in (It took a while to work the door
nob with those claws on.) She sat me down, and
explaind what had happend, how my father was a
were-wolf, and so was I, and the long proud line of
Fianna I was from, and about the Bard, Oisen, and how
I was a galiard like him, and that they'd find my
Father or another Fianna to teach me all about bein' a
were-wolf.
You can't blame her. As far as she knew, she was
right.
Anyway, much later, after she left me to get my head
sorted out, the woman in the mirror returned. And
*she* told me what really hapened. What she was, and
what I really was, how she had lured my father away at
a moot to teach him a lesson, and how she had
discovered that her little stunt had had an unexpected
side-effect: me.
I probably should have hated her by this point. If I'd
bred true to me dad's side, I probably would have. But
the fact that I didn't, and that I could understand
why she did what she did, proved more than anything
else to me that she was tellin' the truth about what I
really was. She also warned me that while I was a
true child of Coyote, I had a few.... quirks from my
Fianna heritage. One good, one not so good, both could
be worked to my advantage. First off, my war form was
much bigger than it was supposed to be, I looked like
a were-wolf instead of were-coyote in manabozho.
Second, because of my mixed (up) heritage, my soul
couldn't decide what moon I was. Coyote said I was a
no-moon, because of luna's curse; my fianna blood said
I was a galiard, because of my birth and line. Both
being genial folks by nature, they compromised. I was
a no-moon coyote to the spirits, my gifts and such
would reflect that (this being why I bred true to my
ma). On the other paw, I would have the temperment of
a galiard, without the rage and gifts. She said folks
like me were called "the Bad Moons" and we sometimes
had a hard time of it. This would cause me problems
with other Coyotes, but it would help me to fit in
with garou, if I wanted to do that. It seemed like a
fair bargain to me. I have fun this way.
Anyway, long story short (I know, too late), she took
me away to finish my training. My poor aunt! She had
the entire sept running around winipeg searching for a
poor lost cub!! (It didn't occur to any of the
brilliant Children of Stag to try looking in the
umbra. Oops.) Anyway, ma taught me everything, and
dumped me in a realm to start my totem quest. By right
of passage, I had to find the Tunnel, and pick a face.
Most of you've been through this, so I won't
elaborate. Suffice to say that while Kokopelli spoke
to my galiard nature, I liked Raven's way of
whispering in the ears of others. Seemed a good thing
for a "Fianna Galiard" to be doing. And I had some
built in tricks for it allready, so I went back home
to pull off the scam of the century...
When the lost cub came home, (fell out of a
moon-bridge, accually, I love grand entrances!!) they
was a grand fuss made over me, and I put my galiard
nature to work spinnin' the grandest tale you've ever
heard of my adventures in the "spirit lands". If
Prairie Dog hadn't remembered back to the time when
she was a Kiba-Totem, I would've been sunk, but she
allways was a mischevous one. Anyway, I got my
training (again!) and went through a rite of passage
(again!!) and emerged a full blown Fianna Galiard.
(not!!!) (The Fianna rite of passage is no pic-nic, by
the by. I figure I get some bragging rights for
succsessfully passing TWO different rites.)
So that's the tale, and I hope it was a good'un. Now
lets go down to Shamrock's Tavern for a drink after such a
long yarn, and you can all tell me *yer* tales....
***
Well on ye, brothers and sisters!
Hi. The name's Kathryn O'Connor, But You Can
Call Me Kate. Though I should properly introduce
myself as Raven Curious Moon. I don't lie to the Caern
Guardians, I WAS born to Connor Calms the Storm of the
Fianna when the Galiard moon shone high in the skies
above the prarie dog caern in Manitoba. The
assumptions they make based on that aren't *my* fault,
are they?
Like so many others, my story begins with my ma and my
pa meeting at a wild fianna moot. She caught his eye,
and one thing led to another, untill in the hight of
passion, my ma changed forms, and my da assumed that
he had broken the litany, and the thought broke his
mind. He fell into the killing sadness of harano, and
hasn't yet come out in these 18 years. When my ma
brought me to him 9 months later, he grabbed my
bundle, without even looking, and raised his claws
over it to do me what he thought was a mercy. Lucky
for me, and the rest of us, he couldn't bring
himself to it, and left me with his sister and her
husband, good fianna in-the-know kinfolk. They
couldn't understand why thier brother regected such a
seemingly perfect homid baby, but when they tried to
ask him, he wouldn't acknolegde my exsistance. For
seventeen years, he's thought himself the father of a
metis. Maybe someday, I'll take the name of
Kishajoten, and pay him a visit....
Anyway, my aunt and uncle raised me, and taught me all
I needed to know about being fianna kinfolk, and maybe
someday fianna, that they could. When I was nearing my
16th birthday, and no change in sight, they started to
look nervous, and I knew there was something they
weren't telling me. Maybe they knew about the strange
dreams I'd been having, of a desert I'd never seen but
felt like home, of strange green hills with fae
dancing in them, but mostly of a woman whose face
seemed wonderfully familiar....
One night I had a dream of that woman and I in the
desert, and she tuned, not to a wolf, but a coyote,
and looked at me to chase her. I did, and we ran for
what felt like hours. eventially she stopped, and
waited for mr to catch up. When I did she turned and
spoke to me, plain as day, "What is your name,
Kitling?"
"I am Kathryn O'Conner, uh, ma'am."
She laughed a canid laugh at me. "You could use
another one. I name you Curious Moon. Wake up, Curious
Moon."
And I did, only to discover that I was five blocks
from home, in my pajamas, five minutes before dawn
when my aunt would come into my room to check on me!!
I ran like I'd never ran before, and while I was
running, I began to feel very strange, first as if I
was much taller, and then as If I was much shorter,
and running on four legs instead of two. I seemed to
fly down the streets and made it home and through my
bedroom window just when I heard my aunt knock on the
door. That's when I looked up and saw her, sitting on
my dresser; the woman from my dream. She looked at me
and said, in the same voice the coyote had, "Whatever
they tell you, they're wrong. And whatever you do,
don't tell them about me. I'll be back to straighten
you out. Good luck, Curious Moon, my daughter." And
then she walked into the mirror. Looking in after her,
I caught a look at myself. I'd been wondering why the
room had seemed much smaller....
By this time my aunt was pounding on the door
"Kathryn, Katie lass, open the door"
"Don't come in! I'm a monster!!"
"No, no, yer not a monster, just let me in and I'll
explain."
I finally let her in (It took a while to work the door
nob with those claws on.) She sat me down, and
explaind what had happend, how my father was a
were-wolf, and so was I, and the long proud line of
Fianna I was from, and about the Bard, Oisen, and how
I was a galiard like him, and that they'd find my
Father or another Fianna to teach me all about bein' a
were-wolf.
You can't blame her. As far as she knew, she was
right.
Anyway, much later, after she left me to get my head
sorted out, the woman in the mirror returned. And
*she* told me what really hapened. What she was, and
what I really was, how she had lured my father away at
a moot to teach him a lesson, and how she had
discovered that her little stunt had had an unexpected
side-effect: me.
I probably should have hated her by this point. If I'd
bred true to me dad's side, I probably would have. But
the fact that I didn't, and that I could understand
why she did what she did, proved more than anything
else to me that she was tellin' the truth about what I
really was. She also warned me that while I was a
true child of Coyote, I had a few.... quirks from my
Fianna heritage. One good, one not so good, both could
be worked to my advantage. First off, my war form was
much bigger than it was supposed to be, I looked like
a were-wolf instead of were-coyote in manabozho.
Second, because of my mixed (up) heritage, my soul
couldn't decide what moon I was. Coyote said I was a
no-moon, because of luna's curse; my fianna blood said
I was a galiard, because of my birth and line. Both
being genial folks by nature, they compromised. I was
a no-moon coyote to the spirits, my gifts and such
would reflect that (this being why I bred true to my
ma). On the other paw, I would have the temperment of
a galiard, without the rage and gifts. She said folks
like me were called "the Bad Moons" and we sometimes
had a hard time of it. This would cause me problems
with other Coyotes, but it would help me to fit in
with garou, if I wanted to do that. It seemed like a
fair bargain to me. I have fun this way.
Anyway, long story short (I know, too late), she took
me away to finish my training. My poor aunt! She had
the entire sept running around winipeg searching for a
poor lost cub!! (It didn't occur to any of the
brilliant Children of Stag to try looking in the
umbra. Oops.) Anyway, ma taught me everything, and
dumped me in a realm to start my totem quest. By right
of passage, I had to find the Tunnel, and pick a face.
Most of you've been through this, so I won't
elaborate. Suffice to say that while Kokopelli spoke
to my galiard nature, I liked Raven's way of
whispering in the ears of others. Seemed a good thing
for a "Fianna Galiard" to be doing. And I had some
built in tricks for it allready, so I went back home
to pull off the scam of the century...
When the lost cub came home, (fell out of a
moon-bridge, accually, I love grand entrances!!) they
was a grand fuss made over me, and I put my galiard
nature to work spinnin' the grandest tale you've ever
heard of my adventures in the "spirit lands". If
Prairie Dog hadn't remembered back to the time when
she was a Kiba-Totem, I would've been sunk, but she
allways was a mischevous one. Anyway, I got my
training (again!) and went through a rite of passage
(again!!) and emerged a full blown Fianna Galiard.
(not!!!) (The Fianna rite of passage is no pic-nic, by
the by. I figure I get some bragging rights for
succsessfully passing TWO different rites.)
So that's the tale, and I hope it was a good'un. Now
lets go down to Shamrock's Tavern for a drink after such a
long yarn, and you can all tell me *yer* tales....
***