April 20
Last night I doubly confirmed with Selene that I can make a wall cancel out the sound that's coming in. However, sound is just moving air. But I also just left the wall doing that, like the portal just hung around. How did I do that?
I lift my pen up in front of me, and grab it with my hand experimentally. I can sort of feel myself letting go of the pen as I grab it. Like letting go with with one hand when you grab with the other.
Frowning, I tap my chin with the pen for a moment, as I really need something I can just let go of without needing to worry if it's going to get lost, or if I'm just afraid of losing it. I glance back at my physics text book that should be closed, as I'm supposed to be studying English Lit this morning. However, I've been thinking about the possibilities since I went home for training. Not that Selene's been much help, as she just said, "Well done, now work out how to do that with your telekinesis."
After a couple more minutes of trying to not drop my pen at the same time I let it go, I snap my fingers, "Paper airplanes!" I walk out of my room intent on grabbing some printer paper from dad's printer. As I do, someone calls over, "What are you and Big S cooking for lunch today?"
I eep and look over the meeting room, that is more than packed, with people standing around the walls, and dozens of chairs having been pulled out of storage. As the silence spreads across the room as people nudge each other I absently note that someone has brought a camping stove in, and is peeling potatoes in the kitchen. A second later I bolt back into my room and slam the door.
Behind me I can hear someone shout, "Oi Marcos, I think you scared her!"
Sarah's voice calls out, "Don't be idiots, she wasn't expecting all of you to be here. Don't forget January!"
A few seconds later, she knocks on the door and says, "Taylor, can I come in?"
Hesitantly, I open the door and Sarah slips through before closing it behind her. Before it does, I can here Marcos being ribbed by many of the men out there. "Taylor, are you ok?"
I nod my head a couple of times before changing my mind and shaking it.
"Would you like me to tell them all to clear off?"
I shake my head again, and I'm surprised at how small my voice sounds, "No, this is their building more than mine."
Sarah laughs, "That's not true, you're a docks girl, and you're actually doing something here other than scrounging off the heating."
"Why are they here?"
"Taylor, you're a damn fine cook, and you did a massive pie Tuesday. I think they got 20 portions out of it. They're all hopeful that you're going to pull another miracle out of nowhere and provide enough for everyone to have some."
"But it didn't seem so…"
"Crowded yesterday?" I nod. "Most of the guys that came in yesterday did so between patrols. They're all here today, and so are the guys that are waiting to go out. Taylor, do you have a problem with crowds, as you were the same outside Arcadia yesterday?"
I shake my head, "I don… I didn't think so."
"Girls at school?"
"If I ever get my hands on that red headed hussy I'll wring her fucking neck. Now, what were you coming out for, as it's a bit early for your lunch run."
"I, um. I was going to make some paper airplanes to test something."
Sarah nods, "I know where Lacey keeps the spare printer paper. Will you come out with me and we can get them to start making paper planes. I know they can be intimidating, they're rude and crude, but they're also the best friends and community you'll ever meet."
I nod and allow Sarah to take my hand and pull me out into the middle of the crowd of men.
After I've teleported back to my room a couple of times, one of the guys laughs and starts talking about the first Union cookout I went to and how I kept hiding between mum's legs whenever things got a bit rowdy. As I listen, surrounded by a crowd of men throwing paper airplanes at each other, I realize that this is something that Emma can't take away from me unless I let her.
With a smile, I start trying to get the airplanes to fly on their own.
═══════ ೋღ ღೋ ═══════
By the time Sarah and I go hunting, I think I've manged to get one doing laps on its own, and Sarah has managed to get her own plane to do a loop the loop.
The two of us appear at home with a dozen rabbits each as we chat together easily.
I trail off when I see Selene walking towards us with an upset expression on her face. "What do you two think you are doing with so much prey?"
I stammer slightly, "I-I, we're preparing lunch for everyone that turned up at the union today."
Selene shakes her head, "I bet you didn't even spread your hunting around, did you."
When the two of us shake our heads, Selene sighs, "How many people are you talking about?"
Sarah says, "Maybe 50 or 60."
Selene nods, "I had thought I had time to spare about the lessons of over hunting. For now, take your catch back to where you caught it and spread it around. Hopefully it will offset the damage the loss of so much prey will have on the other animals in the cycle."
I open my mouth to say something, and Selene interrupts, "Berenike, I am saying this as your master to my apprentice."
Reluctantly, I say "Yes Master" before I turn and take the both of us back to my old camp.
Sarah shakes her head, "Well that was uncalled for."
I sigh, "It's the first time she's ever done that too. I think there's more going on than we know, I mean I don't exactly know much about wildlife conservation myself."
Soon enough, the two of us have spread out our kills around the area of my old camp and returned to Selene.
By the time we return, Selene has a large two headed deer laid out by the stream, and we trudge over.
Once we're close enough, Selene looks up with a smile and the three of us and the animal appear by the lake. "I do not want to cook this near my home, as the smell of burning fur stinks for days. Sarah, would you gather the wood we need for a long fire while Berenike and I dress the kill?"
Sarah shrugs and starts to walk off, only for Selene to say, "From here, as I do not care to repeat myself, and you asked me to teach you how to hunt."
Sarah looks at the forest edge that's nearly 100 yards away, "I can't do that!"
Selene looks over at the forest with a calculating smile, "It will be difficult yes, but for someone that has reached this realm, that distance is well within reach. If we were a few worlds closer to the mortal world, it would be a different story. Like using a bow to throw a dart rather than an atlatl or your arm. Regardless, you have your training spear, that should help you with your accuracy."
Sarah nervously fingers her staff, "Um, I haven't worked out how to cut things yet."
I watch Selene roll her eyes, "Sarah, have you forgotten the most basic of lessons? Magic helps you do what you already know how to do. Or do you not use a knife when you're cooking?"
Sarah rubs the back of her head, "Yeah, but I'm not very good at it."
Selene laughs, "Then you can be not very good at cutting down a tree. We are going to be a while dressing the kill anyway."
Sarah's shoulders slump, and she turns to face the forest while Selene and I start to gut and dress the deer thing.
After a couple of minutes, Selene says, "When I was mortal, and my name was Mene, and before Meh₁not started to teach me, I lived in a small nomadic community. This was before the cities were built, let alone the land they claimed. We had a few oxen and some dogs to help us with hunting, but we mostly lived off of what we could hunt and scavenge. We would stay in an area for half a rotation of the moon, maybe longer if there was abundant prey or plants to harvest. In that time we believed that all places had a spirit, and that spirit could be damaged if you weren't respectful."
I look up from where I'm pulling out a string of guts, "Did they? Have spirits I mean."
Selene shakes her head, "No, not as such. Though they are alive in their own way, but because of the complex web of life rather than any inherent soul or spirit of their own. Though there were places where a soul or spirit did linger, there were none where we called home. As we traveled, we would occasionally encounter other families with their own oxen, where we would trade good bulls with each other, and occasionally a husband or a bride. Even more occasionally, we would miss another family. If we also missed the signs that they had been there, we could hunt and move on. When that happened, the place would become sick for years. Like we do, the world around us lives in a balance with itself. If you add to much of one thing, or take away too much, then it becomes sick. One of the fastest ways of sickening an area is to remove too much prey in a short period of time. This then leads the predators to seek out the remaining prey for their own food, and occasionally seek out more than they need to recover from their unsuccessful hunts."
I frown, "Wouldn't killing some of the predators balance it out?"
Selene nods, "It could do if you were careful, but it is easy to go too far the other way. Remember I said it was a balance. If you killed too many, or the wrong predator, then the prey would grow too much and ravage the plants in the area. One day I will teach you the stories about the wolf and the deer, and the fox and the hare. But they are best told around a fire with children. We had many rituals that we used to perform to help assuage a sickened spirit, and help us determine how it was sick. As, if prey was scarce enough, we or our animals could easily look like prey to the predators."
I finish cutting out a kidney and pull it out before tossing it over to the edge of dads fire pit. "So, you're worried that by hunting so many rabbit things we might have put that area out of balance?"
Selene nods, "Indeed. And inexperienced as you both are, you would never notice until the balance was so far gone that it would take weeks in the mortal world for it to return to a new balance."
Sarah looks back from where she's been trying to get a cutting power to work, "Wait, don't rabbits breed really fast?"
Selene nods, "They do, but they live in balance with the predators and plant life around them. If their population grows too much, predators will be more successful in their hunts, and their own young will survive to hunt too. This can then overwhelm the ability for rabbits to reproduce. Those predators will then starve, and the rabbits will be free to breed freely again, until they overwhelm the plants, and then they starve. By the time Athens was built, many Greeks had forgotten those lessons, and so there were many famines where they forgot that they lived on Gaia, not separate from her. Sarah, have you remembered the second lesson about magic?"
Sarah turns back again, "Um, maybe?"
Selene sighs, "Picture what you want to achieve, and then use your magic to make it happen."
"I'm doing that!"
"Are you? Or are you thinking, 'Cut damn it, why won't you cut?'"
Sarah turns back to the forest, "Taylor doesn't do that."
I flush in embarrassment, "Um, I do now. But when I started I tried to reproduce the feeling I had when I succeeded the first time."
Selene nods, "That is a good way for a novice to reproduce something they achieved accidentally. But for deliberate use of magic, it will not work, and I am not Athena or Hecate who would just teach you a spell to do it. Once you have learnt and understand the basics, everything else will come more easily."
I glance up once I've got the second kidney, and Sarah's no longer just waving her staff around, instead she seems to be staring at one of the trees intently.
I've just finished cutting the ears and horns off the deer when there's a loud crack from the forest, and I look up to see one of the trees falling over. Selene nods, "Well done, now bring it over here."
When Sarah turns round to look at Selene, I can see the sweat pouring down her face. A moment later, she nods and says, "Sure."
Selene holds out her hand, and a straight branch comes flying out of the forest, "It's good to know your limits so that you can surpass them."
Quietly, I ask, "What are my limits then?"
Selene smiles, "Where Sarah needs to learn she can do more than she believes she can. Your limits are different, and you are doing well enough at overcoming them without my help. Indeed, if I was to point them out, it would harm your progress."
I look pointedly at the fallen tree, "What about with stuff like that?"
Selene points out across the lake, "Stand on your fathers cabin and look across the lake. Then look further."
I swallow hard, "But that's too much."
Selene just smiles at me when I look back, "Tomorrow, you will bring Sarah here before you begin your mortal instruction. We will then hunt your food and you can take the menfolk to the jungle to cook their own food. You may come here for your own repast if they have not managed to cook for themselves."
"But…"
"Berenike, you are providing for your family, the least they can do is prepare the kill that you spent hours acquiring. You do not live in Greece, where the men are little more than popinjays living off the work of the womenfolk."
A little bit later, as the stink of fur rises into the air, I ask, "Why didn't we skin this animal?"
Selene retreats a little further away from the fire as she says, "It keeps the fat in and stops the flesh from burning."
═══════ ೋღ ღೋ ═══════
There's almost a party atmosphere going on across both floors of the union building by the time Victoria calls my name. Rather than go and hang out on the Boardwalk, or whatever, I glance up at my still circling airplanes and bring them to the union building.