All 00.2 - An Education

Tap and step with the left, spread and fold wing, crossover with the right, same with that wing. Hop and turn, crap! Watch the marigolds!
“Lu! Hey Lu!”
Both wings left, turning….both wings right…watch your rhythm. Stop and facing the sun, deep bow, shaking feathers.
“Luuu! Lucca! Hey!”
Both wings wide, now sweeping them up, reaching for it…clap. Pivot 180, two claps.
“Luuuuccaaaa! Come on!”
Sidestep and tur- Ow! Crap! Why is it always the rosebush!?
“SHUT UP YOU BUTTHEADS!! You made me mess up!” Growling, he inspected his arm for scratches, then rubbed at it grumpily.
“You shut up, nimrod! What are you practicing for anyway? The competition is like, what? Six months away? Quit being a loser and come on!”
“Yeah, you can do that stuff later; there’s a druid down at old man Lelouette’s! Rae says he’s tellin’ stories about griffons and stuff!”
A snide retort died on his lips and his expression lit up, “Wait, what? You serious?”
“YEAH!! Come on! Before someone takes him to bless their stupid petunias or something!”
“One second, I gotta tell Granny I’m leaving!”
Even as the words left his mouth he was sprinting back towards the cottage. Flinging the door open he stuck his head in, shouting, “Granny I’m going down to Mr. Lelouette’s with Matti and Rae! Be back later!” He spun on his heel and darted back down the path, her admonishing reply that Mr. Lelouette’s bar was no place for them to be playing falling on empty air.
Hurdling the small garden gate, he joined his friends and they sped off down the boardwalk with Granny Wakiya’s voice calling after; “Make sure you’re home for dinner!”
Teasing and cajoling each other, it wasn’t long before their trip turned into a race, and the three boys reached their destination in record time. Pushing open the door, they were greeted with the scent of fish and smoke, and sight of a rather dense crowd of people filling the building. Carefully worming their way between them, the sound of a man’s voice, muffled by all the bodies between them reached their ears.
“And so, I said to her ‘I know you don’t trust me, I understand entirely. But your kittens over there won’t stand any chance this winter, if you stay here like this. So I’m going to have to ask you again, please let me help you.’ And wouldn’t you know, she finally relented.”
There was a pause as he sipped his drink.
“I suppose because she realized that I knew where her babies were, you see, and that if I were going to hurt them I would have already.”
Squeezing between a pair of particularly burly fishermen, Lucca found himself at the front of the crowd, joined in short order by his companions. Giving himself a small shake, he turned his attention to studying the speaker, seated before him at a table with the establishment’s proprietor and one of the city’s three shamans.
Hands curled around a mug of beer, the stranger sat comfortably, a warm, friendly expression on his face as he spoke. He was a rather outlandish looking figure by Tsimshian standards, his pale complexion and cloud of frizzy reddish hair hinting of an eastern heritage. In spite of his weathered features and the tendrils of grey streaking his well-kept beard he was neither old nor frail looking. While his garments themselves were simple and fairly nondescript, if well-worn, his equipment was another matter, adorned as it was with fur, claws and teeth. A long, artfully carved staff leaned against the wall behind him, adorned with a variety of animals leaping amongst the swirling pattern, their eyes picked out with glittering stones, drawing admiring whispers from the boys.
“After that, it was all really quite simple, those sorts of snares aren’t terribly difficult to figure out; I let got her out, healed her up, and then she and her little family were on their way. It was just wonderful to see them all padding off through the snow together.”
The boys listened with rapt attention for hours as the man’s tales continued, fascinated by stories of far off lands and the strange creatures that filled them. Each time he finished speaking, someone would call for another story and as long as his glass was full, he showed no sign of stopping. A few times he was asked to come away and attend to some minor matter: someone’s cherry tree hadn’t flowered as it should have, a fisherman had been having poor luck and wanted advice, another had recently caught a strange fish and wanted to know what it was. But each time the druid declined, offering to have a look the next day, or later in the week.
As the afternoon wore on into evening, Lucca’s eyes began to dart towards the clock on the wall every so often, and slowly a sharp, determined look came over his face.
Elbowing Matti, the other boy nodded in Lucca’s direction, his voice a whisper “He’s gonna do it.”
“Ow! Do what?”
“He’s gonna bug that old guy to teach him druid stuff. Duh.”
“Don’t be stupid, he’s not-“
“Hey, can I ask you a question?” Lucca suddenly spoke up, projecting his voice and cutting off both the druid and his friends.
“Pipe down, kid, he was just getting to the good part!” Someone yelled from the back almost immediately.
“Shut up! It’s important and I’ve gotta go soon!” He shot back.
“Now now, let’s not be rude to one another,” The druid himself gently interjected, “The story won’t suffer from a short break, it’ll be right where we left it when we get back to it. There’s time for everyone.” With a kind smile he turned his attention to the boy in front of him, “By all means, you’re welcome to ask whatever you like. What would you like to know?”
“You don’t got a student right now, right?” the boy asked bluntly.
With a blink, he shook his head and chuckled, “No, no I do not. It’s been a few years since I last had any students under my tutelage. Why’s that?”
“Cool. So you could take a new one then, right?”
“Yes, that’s right. I could if I took the notion to.” He agreed, a knowing look beginning to suffuse his features.
“Awesome.” Lucca paused, gathering his nerve before continuing with a firm nod, “Well I think you should. I want to be a druid, and you could teach me.”
His brazen approach earned a good natured laugh from all three at the table, and a bunch of the other folks gathered besides.
Colour rising in his cheeks, the boy frowned and continued firmly, “I would be a really good student; I already know a lot! I’m the best in school in herbalismand biology, and I’ve read every book about plants the library has! ” He hesitated for a moment, “And the nature spirits already like me; they gave me magic already, you can even ask her!” He pointed to the shaman seated next to the druid, earning a startled look,  “She knows! Or I could show you….” He suddenly glanced around at the crowded bar, “But maybe not right now. Ask her later or something…”
A bit of laughter still dancing about his eyes, the druid replied, “That’s a very big decision to make, my boy! You certainly have some interesting claims! I’m sorry, but I cannot give you an answer right now. I’ll need to think hard on your request, at the very least; I really don’t know if I’m ready to take on a student at this time. And I would need to talk to your parent’s too…you look very young to be starting training…”
Looking crestfallen, he offered, “Please think about it? Please? It’s really important…” the clock chimed, pulling his attention away momentarily, “ Crap…I have to get home…” he turned back to the druid, “Look, please, please think about it, and maybe…how about you come have dinner with Granny and me tomorrow and we talk about it? Properly? Please?”
Answering the boy’s pleading look with a warm smile, the he nodded, “Alright, that sounds like a fair enough request to me. No harm ever came from discussing something. So sure, you tell me the time and place, and I’ll be there.” With a chuckle, he added, “ You certainly are enthusiastic. What’s your name anyway, boy?”
“Lucca…Lucca Wakiya.” he replied with a look of elation he searching his pockets for a pen, adding, “Uh…What’s yours?”
“I go by Copper Moon.”
“Cool!” Scrawling his address on a napkin, he handed it to the man, “I’m really sorry, I have to go…6:00 tomorrow, okay? Thank you!”
With a final confirmation from the druid he turned and wormed his way through the crowd and out of the bar, his companions in tow. Stepping out into the warm twilight, they scampered off towards home, the other boys setting upon him with good-natured teasing.
Less than a week and a half later, the druid Copper Moon left Tsimshian and set a course southwest into the depths of the great boreal forest. Although he had come into the city alone, he did not leave that way; a smallish boy of dark complexion with sparkling green eyes trotted along in his wake, his expression equal parts excited and determined. It had taken a great deal of lively petitioning on his part to sway both his grandmother and the druid, but eventually both parties had assented, the former with marked reluctance. So it was that with after tearful goodbye to Granny, Lucca set out to become a druid.
----
“But…what would it mean if an animal didn’t want to mate?” The boy asked, watching the rams circling each other, gearing up for another go. Though he tried his best to sound nonchalant, his tone still hinted at a deeper concern behind the question.
They were in the Seldarin foothills following the migration route of the Spotted Towhee, a small species of bird that had recently caught Copper Moon’s interest, when they had run across a herd of Bighorn Sheep. The animals were well and truly in the midst of the rut, the rams putting on an impressive display as they battled it out for a chance to woo the ewes. While they had stopped to watch the show Copper Moon had taken the opportunity to once more broach the topic of animal reproduction, prompting his student's somewhat unusal question.
“Well, usually it’s a case that she hasn’t come into season yet, that’s all. And then it’s just a matter of waiting until she does. Not a big issue.” Copper Moon explained offhandedly, his attention fixed on the animals. “Ooh ooh, here they go again!” His words were punctuated by the clattering crash of the rams came together once more, earning a delighted laugh from the druid. “Ah lookit that! Such power, such grace!”
Lucca frowned, his question far from answered. “But what if that wasn’t it? What if, like, the animal never did? Then what would that mean?”
“Well, it would mean that the poor creature was flawed somehow. Either the animal is sick with something and it’s energy is better used fighting for its own survival, or else there would have to be something seriously wrong in its makeup that didn’t have any interest in fulfilling one of its most basic drives, you know?” He replied flippantly, still watching the sheep. “And in that case, it really is for the best that the animal isn’t interested and doesn’t breed, because that’s not really a flaw you want passed on. It does no help to any species to not want to breed, that’s a recipe for disaster, survival wise.”
“…Oh…” The boy said quietly, looking crestfallen, “…that makes sense…I guess…”
Copper Moon finally pulled his gaze away long enough to ask, “Why do you ask, my boy?”
“…No reason...I just wondered…that’s all..” He replied with feigned indifference, shrugging and looking pointedly in the direction of the sheep.
Copper Moon regarded him for a moment longer before turning back to the show with a smile, commenting cheerfully, “Young minds come up with just the strangest questions! I don’t know where you get them from.”
Category:Advent of the All