From: rcb33483@uxa.cso.uiuc.edu (ArchTeryx)
Subject: Two songs for Arty...
Organization: University of Illinois at Urbana
Date: Wed, 30 Sep 1992 14:57:31 GMT

ArchTeryx, after looking for Feather, notices everybody (or nearly so) seems
suddenly to be in mourning.  He quietly enquires of Mike, and his face twists
into a beaky frown as he hears the news of Arty's death.

He turns to Callahan's to make a short speech.

"Friends, I really feel for you, especially those who are friends with Arty.
 Suicide always hits me very deep in the heart, in the soul. It does, because 
 I, myself, was almost a suicide victim, about 5 years back..."

ArchTeryx pauses, looking disturbed at memories deep within him, until a 
gently whispered, 'Go on...' from an unknown source drives him on.

"Suicide is wrong. It may be an end to lfie's problems, but it's permanent end;
 and without going into religion or theology about what happens after death, I
 will say that it is only the *beginning* of problems for those surviving the
 loved one. I realized this, just in time...to make a very long story short, 
 what was spawned from the crisis was my interest in birds, which ultimately
 evolved into ArchTeryx, the living embodiment of that facination."

ArchTeryx notices a soapbox under him, and kicks it away with a frown.  "I'm
really not up here for pretty speeches or such. That's not how I wanted to 
remember the Artful Dodger, another light gone into darkness. I wanted to 
give his memory, and Callahans, my gift of song instead...it's the way of my
kind anyway."

ArchTeryx snaps his claws, and suddenly a Avios keyboard workstation flashes
into place. He sets it up in front of the bar.

"Both of these are songs of a person I have known called Enya. Many of her
 songs come very close...almost touching...the singing of my kind, whose
 song for millenia wasn't just for it's own sake...it was our only method of
 verbal communication."

ArchTeryx clears his throat, waits for attention to focus on him to a 
reasonable extent, and begins to sing in a soft tenor voice...

Cold as the nothern lights, in December morning...
Cold is the cry that rings, from this far distant shore...

Winter, has come too late...too close beside me.
How can I chase away, these fears deep inside me...

I'll wait the signs to come...I'll find a way...
I will wait, the time to come...I'll find a way home.

My light shall be the moon, and my tears the ocean...
My light the morning star, as I sail home to you...

ArchTeryx raises his voice, singing a soft, deep flutelike tone in a kind
of haunting solo, in a language that has no words...

I'll wait the signs to come...I'll find a way...
I will wait, the time to come...I'll find a way home.

Who, then can warm my soul, who can calm my passion?
Out of thess dreams, a boat...

I will sail home to you......

ArchTeryx ends the first song, tears in his eyes.  But he continues, dispite
himself.  "The next song is actually sung in Latin, and dispite my efforts
I was unable to get a translation for it.  Any Latin buffs out there feel
free to post one. However, if you've ever heard this song in the Real World,
you'll know how beautiful...and appropriate...it is for this occasion."

ArchTeryx begins to play again.  It is a song that starts out very quietly.
Then he adds his voice to it, in a series of long, almost joyous musical
sighs, building it up slowly to it's beginning, where he begins to sing, quite
literally, in two voices at the same time (one of the things birds can do).
At different times, different sides of the song come to the surface, forming
a complex tapestry of music and words, blending, merging, one almost
indistinguishable from the other:

Mare Nubium, Umbriel.                         Suus cuique mos. Suum cuique.
Mare Imbrium, Ariel.                          Meus mihi, suus cuique carus.
Et itur ad astra.                             Memento, terrigenia.
Et itur ad astra.                             Memento, vita brevis.
Mare Undarium, Io.  Vela.                     Meus mihi, suus cuique carus.

ArchTeryx enters a solo, humming softly in his two voices, then continues.

Mirabile dictu.  Mirabilia.                   Suus cuique mos.  Suum cuique.
Mirabile visu.  Mirabilia.                    Meus mihi, suus cuique carus.
Et itur ad astra.                             Memento, terrigenia.
Et itur ad astra.                             Memento, vita brevis.
Semipervirent.  Rosetum.                      Meus mihi, suus cuique carus.

ArchTeryx then enters a longer solo, humming softly as before.  Then he begins
singing what seem to be soft musical nothings...but in reality...they are 
a language, in his Old Dialect, a dialect of song.  For about a minute and a 
half he sings this solo, then, he continues the rest of the song...

Afer Ventus.  Zephryus.                       Suus cuique mos.  Suum cuique.
Volturnus.  Africus.                          Meus, mihi, suus cuique carus.
Et itur ad astra.                             Memento, terrigenia.
Et itur ad astra.                             Memento, vita brevis.
Etesiarum, Eurus.                             Meus mihi, suus cuique carus.

ArchTeryx finishes the song with a long series of musical sighs that gradually
taper away to nothing.

He then quietly packs away his keyboard and goes over to an empty table, sitting
and crying softly, for himself, and especially for Arty.


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R. Cody Buchmann                             ^.^  
  "ArchTeryx"                          "Of *course* I understand you--I speak 
email: rcb33483@uxa.cso.uiuc.edu       1406 intergalactic avian dialects!"  
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