Yeah, yeah, Radulf's always like that :p. How can you not like an old knight with a sense of humor? As for the cliffs in the previous chapter, of course they're important, in some small way, but you'll have to wait to find out why. ((Side note--updated the previous chapter to fix a few grammatical mistakes.))
As to the question every original character fanfic writer gets asked--will the canon characters make an appearance? Well obviously, Lavitz and Albert already have. The others...well... Let it suffice to say that they're definitely not going to show up any time soon, if they ever do. It's not like I have anything against them, they're just not the focus of the story.
Anyway, moving on. Prepare for a long chapter. Time to talk a bit more about Niira...
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Niira had slept in one of the downstairs rooms that night. She had curled up on top of the blankets, not even bothering to change out of her day clothes, and soon fallen asleep. She was so exhausted by the day's events that she didn't even move during her sleep, waking to find herself in the same position. Curled up on her side like a scared kitten.
She didn't wake fully at first. With a growling sigh, she managed to grab one side of the blankets and pull it over her head, attempting to fall asleep again. She could hear people talking elsewhere in the house, and she decided to ignore them. Somewhere outside, a dog was barking incessantly. Groaning, Niira rolled onto her stomach, wrapping herself in a blanket cocoon. Warm...sleep...
The dog kept barking. As the noise brought her mind to full awareness, Niira came to the realization that it wasn't a dog at all. Canine yes, but not a dog. Wolf...? Alakyl?
Oh! Niira quickly sat up, blinking away what tiredness remained. She pawed at her tunic, smoothing it back down. Looking around for her boots, she scrambled to pull them on as she half-hopped out of the room.
As she staggered past the dining room, she was greeted by her grandmother. "Good morning dear!" Maeja called cheerfully. "I was beginning to wonder if I should wake you."
"I wouldn't have done anything," said a strange voice. Niira paused just long enough to glance into the dining room, where a man sat at the table with what Niira assumed was his wife. She idly wondered who they were, what had brought them to Bale, but she quickly pushed aside those questions.
"If that beast out there," the man continued, waving his cup-bearing hand towards the window, "couldn't wake her, I doubt you could."
"Would you like some breakfast, Niira?" her grandmother asked.
"Er...no, I'd better...um..." Go make Alakyl shut up. She tried to think of how to explain that.
But explanations didn't matter. Her grandmother just smiled and shrugged. "Well, if you must...perhaps I'll see you later then?" The woman was accustomed to people coming and going very quickly--even her own family. Being the only woman in a family of knights for as long as she had, it was a necessary adaptation she had been forced to make.
"Of course," Niira said quickly, still attuned to the sound of Alakyl's barking outside. Stepping forward to give her grandmother a quick hug, she rushed out the front door into the bright sunlight.
Almost immediately, she was confronted by her irate wolf-sister. Alakyl glared up at her, pale purple eyes narrowed. When she didn't say anything, Niira herself grew irritated. "What?" she snapped.
Alakyl let out a string of growls almost too fast for Niira to keep up with. "You worried all them...very upset... What...? Wuff!"
"I know! You don't have to lecture me." In a huff, Niira turned and started stalking along the street.
The wolf followed, her claws clicking softly on the stone-cobbled street. "Where you going?"
"Don't know. Don't care." Niira felt like lashing her tail back and forth in frustration, but then she remembered her human form didn't have a tail. "What are you doing out here anyway? Don't you think an orange-ish wolf walking around in the middle of a city in broad daylight is a bit, I dunno, suspicious?"
"No. Why?"
Niira sighed. Alakyl was not always aware that the people of Endiness were not familiar with the Northland island wolves, or that the humans were used to the wild, sometimes violent, forest wolves of their own continent. Alakyl still didn't understand that after her near-death encounter with Coen weeks ago.
"Why you sleepin' over here?"
"It's my grandmother's house."
"Oh. Why?"
"Because she's the only person who didn't flip out after seeing me."
"Oh." The wolf was silent for a few steps. "We gonna stay here?"
"Yeah. At least, until Shining Claw figures out where I am. Again."
"Grr."
"You aren't the one who had to live with him."
"Hmm. What we do here?"
"I don't know." Niira hadn't thought of that. It's not like I can just up and abandon Serpent Mother and the others. I mean, it's my fate, isn't it? I just couldn't live there anymore. But just sitting around and waiting to be called by her to fight is boring. "Well..."
"Mrrf?"
"My mother never got a chance to complete her task. I guess it's kinda on my shoulders now."
"You talk to Serpent Mother?"
"No...don't you know anything about the Seventh? I mean, Serpent Mother kinda raised you and all..."
"No."
"Well can't you ask her?"
"No. Can't talk. Not that good. She can't sense Seventh anyway, not exact. Only through help."
"Like my mother, yeah." Niira couldn't remember her mother very well herself, but she had heard plenty of stories from Marach, Happy Tail, her uncle, and others. Her mother was one of the few Northlanders who could sense, and to some extent manipulate, magic naturally. She traveled to Endiness to act as focusing point for Serpent Mother's own powers. Whether or not Niira had these powers, she didn't know. The mysterious demi-goddess Serpent Mother would not tell her.
The Seventh and the Three...they have to make things so damn complicated right when we don't need complications. "I don't think we'd be able to do it on our own, anyway. So I guess it's a moot point."
"Hmmph? Were you not watching?"
"Watching what?"
"Last night. When you were talking to them. Feel it?"
Niira didn't answer at first. "No, I can't say I was paying any particular attention to anyone else."
"That's your problem."
"Shut up." She said this as they walked by a man sitting in front of his house. He gave them a suspicious look. Yes, I am talking to a wolf. Just ignore us and get on with your life.
"Maybe it was after you left...yeah...Rff."
"What?"
"Not on our own. They help us."
"Who? What are you talking about?"
"There are dragoons here."
Niira paused in her walking. She had heard stories from the guardsmen in the Northlands about the human dragoons. Ancient warriors that fought against the winglies, and who were awakened recently to fight once more. Much like us... They had been the cause of the disappearance of the Moon That Never Sets; even though the Moon had always sat low on the Northlanders' horizon, they had come to accept it as just another part of the scenery. Its disappearance caused quite a fuss among them. "What makes you think there are dragoons here in Bale?"
Alakyl hummed to herself for a bit. "Resonance."
Resonance? She idly fingered the chain that hung from her belt, tucked into her pants. Resonating with what? None of our dragoons are in Endiness. So...human dragoons? And if Alakyl felt that in the room in Indels, then...
Someone in the room is a dragoon. Niira froze with that realization. Only Coen, Albert, and her father had been in there with her and Alakyl. Which mean that one of the men was a dragoon. Someone she knew. I think my brain just exploded.
"Wuff?"
Bringing herself out of her mini-trance, Niira shook her head slightly. "We shouldn't go around involving others in our war."
"Agree. Hmm."
"So...neither you nor I can really talk to Serpent Mother easily, and we need to let her know we'd like to search for the Seventh." Once again, my plans are foiled.
"What...dog-face?"
"Huh? Oh...Bead Pouncer? Marach?"
Alakyl nodded.
I do remember him being pretty fanatical about following Serpent Mother. At any rate, I don't think Happy Tail could fly fast enough back to her. "Well...might as well ask him if he can. We don't have many other options. Do you know where he is?"
"Wuff. No. We go find!"
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The one place Niira remembered Bead Pouncer staying at the most was the forest just beyond the knights' training grounds at Indels Schloss. She could recall him just sitting there, watching the knights, or staring off somewhere. He disliked being around humans unless he had an important reason to be among them, but he couldn't exactly just leave Niira's mother, or Niira herself, in Bale and travel by himself. So he stayed as far away as he felt he could get away with, usually only coming into Bale at night or when he had to talk to Niira's mother.
He hadn't changed. He was sitting in one of the trees when Niira and Alakyl finally found him. He was leaned back against the trunk, his legs stretched out along the branches, sharp toe-claws holding him in place. He didn't even look at them as they approached.
"Marach?" Niira called up to him. "Can you help us with something?"
"What?"
"We need to talk to Serpent Mother, and...um...yeah, neither of us is really any good at it..."
"What for?"
"Wuff!"
"We were going to let her know we're ready to search for the Seventh."
He snorted, turning his white-furred head so he could look at them. "You think you could find the Seventh?"
"I don't know."
"What makes you think he could be convinced to fight for us again anyway?"
"...I don't know. But Serpent Mother obviously thought my mother could get him to."
Marach shook his head. "So you've just come back, and now you're going to run off again? Feh." He stretched briefly. "No, I'm not going to help you."
"Marach!"
He turned his ears back, scowling. "I may not be a genius at these sorts of things, but it's not going to be to anyone's benefit to have you running around Endiness when you've just come back after being 'dead' for thirteen years."
Neither Niira nor Alakyl replied. Niira only looked to the ground, toeing the grass. He was right, of course. But I'm so scared...look at all the hurt I've caused already.
"Maybe once you get those things figured out, I'll help you. The Seventh can wait until then. War isn't here just yet."
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The Three? Serpent Mother? The Seventh? A war? WTF are you on, Dino? (too little sleep and finals week stress, that's what!)
It is so hard to talk about these things without revealing too much too soon.