Eulogy for a Tiger

Category:Grey Tiger Tong
Category:Shades of Grey
The Moonsilver family was not hard to find. Heath Moonsilver, Esq. owned one of the most widely respected tailoring shops in all of Auberdine. Centuries of culture had been woven into the trademark cloth the family had monopolized, effectively allowing night elves to wear a part of their heritage in the form of nature magic unique to their own family line.
While the shop had done well enough while their race was isolated, it had become wildly successful in the past four to five years, attracting dwarves, humans and gnomes in a trendy kind of way. The cloth meant little to the other races, but it was sought largely because night elves were so reluctant to reveal anything about their centuries spent apart from other races. The Moonsilvers were not selling their race secrets, they were merely selling something mysterious and novel, without having to explain it.
When Kya had located Lurne’s father, she’d had to wait for him to grace her with his presence for nearly six hours. She had not told his personnel why she was there after producing her business card. They’d just assumed she’d asked for a meeting regarding shipping without an appointment. And so she’d waited.
Lurne’s father was clearly cut from a different cloth than Lurne had been. If Kya was shocked at the diabolical difference between father and son, she kept it discretely to herself. There was no easy way to tell a man he’d outlived his only son. Kya watched his face closely after she’d explained the circumstances and answered his stoic questions. He didn’t hide the disappointment he’d felt for his son, nor did he hide the death of his hope that one day the kid would grow up and become responsible for his own actions.
Heath began to talk and Kya let him. He described how Lurne’s mother had attempted to convince Heath that lectures were not making any headway. Heath insisted on showing the boy how having a plan could save him. He had tried repeatedly to explain and lead by example. Eventually he learned that as long as he picked the boy up whenever he fell, he was enabling him to keep falling. So Heath had finally gone the route of giving the boy enough rope to hang himself, hoping the school of hard knocks would teach him where his parents had failed.
Kya had known Lurne to skate by with the least amount of effort possible. He had few responsibilities and he met the slim expectations of him for the most part. He did what he was told, but he wasn’t asked often. This was because Tai didn’t want to put the kid back out on the streets. He kept him because it was easier than dealing with the guilt he would have when Lurne finally did himself in. At least this way, Tai had provided a means of stability and earned sustenance in an honest way. There was no guilt to be had there.
But how did the son’s life make sense when it had amounted to essentially nothing? Lurne had done nothing but find the path of least resistance his entire short lived existence. What value remained as a result of a life squandered away? How does a parent ever accept that they cannot force a child to act in any way at all?
She’d given him Lurne’s claw pin - a meager token that the boy had been valued in any way. She did not lie, but she did enhance somewhat that Lurne’s skills had earned him claw status and an amount of respect. She allowed the father to believe that Lurne’s presence would be missed by her whole company. It was the least she could do, in the face of a father’s hope gone. She shook his hand as she left, letting him know her shipping company would honor any business from him with insider privilege.
All the way back to the office, Kya was lost in thoughts about the value of life and the loss of it. She thought of her own father and his demise and saw the parallels with the shoe on the other foot so to speak. It made her vow to try harder to get her father to talk about his life long ago... the parts he still remembered at this point. Maybe she’d finally find something to value in him that he once had accomplished - something her mind could cling to in outshining the waste as she currently saw it. It also renewed her own inner vow to strive to reach more of her potential and not squander her own life away by hiding from it.
Maybe it was time to seek out Moskau and ask him what he intended to do with the rest of his life. Not asking was safe, because it allowed her to hope. But not asking also wasn’t achieving anything.
Kya thought it was time to mention to Tai that Roms needed a promotion. While the accident had been just that, and not his fault in the least, he might be blaming himself and considering it an entire screw up. Little did he know that his actions had indirectly both wiped out Kya’s fear of race tracks and renewed her resolve to face life head on.