SciFi & Fantasy Fiction and Stories by Melia Arney

((What’s sad is that I USED to and now I’ve been away so long that I’ve forgotten.))

((i disappeared from Elfy for a good while, but my fingers remembered the coding as soon as i started typing it again. so is that worse?))

Aitha: What’s interesting about Pan is that she smells like magic, which usually makes her easy to track - she has a particular tint and the magic isn’t spread around so much. But there’s too much magic here and hers is blended with everything else.

Coyote: I’d help, but I’m not really much of a tracker. I was never taught so what I know I picked up for myself. I’m getting better, but unless it’s pretty obvious or a scent I’m familiar with, I’m not much good.

((But that was a joyful face!

((oh. the X eyes made it look dead and therefore unhappy.))

By the way, will wee Kethe and Rosa being on page freak Coyote out? I can shuffle them gently off, if so. ...I can’t really remove Tameron, though, and he has "Rosa’s" staff.

((i don’t think so. i don’t think she’s even noticed them, and without getting a good look at them i’m not sure she’d recognize them. as a human she can’t smell any better than the average person and i can’t say for sure if she’d pick up his scent as a coyote unless she’s right next to him. the whole site smells like Kethe to her. i think because of that keeping ghosts away seal he did when the place was new. to her that smells so strongly of Kethe that most everything else is blocked out.))

Hello Stephanie! *waves*))


Tameron: *waves his hand* Life is hard. It’d be harder still if we couldn’t talk about it with each other.

Eithne: This is true, but still they are not your wars or worries to be burdened with.

((nope. That’s a smile so big that your eyes go all squinty. XD

((or someone has poked you in the eye. ^_^))

Ok, good. ))

Tameron: *all trace of his usual smile is gone. The emotion he betrays is not sadness, exactly, but a kind of gentle seriousness* ...I think all wars belong to all livin. Maybe they belong t the dead, too. Folk like to break themselves off into little groups and say this or that ain’t a concern of theirs, but if you just turn your head the right way you see we’re all on the same battlefield fighten the same bloody war through ever age. Some day, there’ll be peace, but until that comes, there ain’t no civilians.

Eithne: I wish that were a more common view. I doubt there is anything you can do for my wars, but if there is something I can do for yours, I will do so gladly.

((Maybe? I feel bad for not remembering.

[waves emphatically] Hi, Anne!))

Aitha: ...I’d tell you what it smells like but it’d be like trying to describe what water tastes like. [still smiling] So, show me around?

Coyote: *smirks* After you’re pounced on.

Pandora: [pops up behind her sister, pretty much out of nowhere, and tweaks an ear] Hey, short stuff, what’re you doing here?

Aitha: [twitches] When are you gonna stop calling me that? [is a full head taller than Pan]

Pandora: [looks contemplative, then grins, which is identical to her sisters] Never, probably. [she cocks her head at Coyote and her eyes twinkle] Hi, I’m Pandora.

Coyote: *smiles back* Coyote.

[looks back at Aitha] You never answered my question.

Aitha: [sheepish look] No real reason, other than getting bored and wanting to get out of the house.

((That’s what glasses are for. ^_~))

((and tazers.))

Tameron: we’re just fighten the restless memory of wars.

Eithne: In many ways that’s a harder war to fight.

((Don’t taze me! ))

((how about Millace? i’m sure he wouldn’t mind, right?))

Tameron: You think so? ...there ain’t been a war in about 150 years, and the last one was short, if bloody.

Eithne: The memories of wars tend to be what start new ones in my experience. The common people remember the costs of wars, but those that start them only remember the injustices. I suppose because it is the common people who had to pay the costs.

((He wouldn’t mind being tazed or wouldn’t mind my being tazed?))

((no, no, the question was can i taze him? not if he’d mind. that part was sarcasm. i don’t really want him to throw ice water on me again. i seriously doubt he’d mind if i tazed you, though, or practically anyone else except Devan or one of his animals.))

Tameron: some wars are different. It was the common folk started our last one cause their rulers pushed ’em too far. The rulers themselves ain’t gonna remember, as they were killed to the last man. There’s not anyone left to fight or blame, and though the common folk carry the scars, they also have their liberty from tyranny.
No, when I said we fight the memory... it’s the memory that’s soaked into the rocks and trees. The ground itself remembers blood and death and twisted magic. That’s what we fight, and not all the wars remembered by the ground are wars we fought. There’re older ones, before there were human-folk between the mountains and sea.

Eithne: *eyes widen* You were not jesting when you said it was a harsh land.

((Ahh... not a good idea, but then you know that as well as I do. He would give a whole new meaning to "mad monk" I think. ))

((i’m not sure i’ve ever heard the term "mad monk" to begin with. bad idea, yes, but fun. i haven’t messed with Millace in ages.))

Tameron: *smiles a wry smile* I’m the literal sort. I call the sky blue when it’s clear and grey when it’s stormy. It’s a beautiful land too. It’s just tainted.

Eithne: I think I would like to see it someday. If your people wouldn’t mind a phoenix in your skies.

((It tends to conjure up insanity rather than ire, to me. You, my friend, love living dangerously. ))

((only where Millace is concerned. he’s just so much fun to annoy. and i haven’t annoyed him in forever.))

Tameron: phoenix is a legend to us, and an obscure one, at that. No one’d know what you are.

Eithne: That could be dangerous perhaps. If your people are used to twisted creatures, they might mistake me for one. I do not care for the idea of being shot full of arrows.

((poor monk and poor Melia. ))

((indeed. i have had to do without him and he has had to do without me. so very poor us. he probably misses me terrible, though he’d never admit it.))

Tameron: we don’t usually attack creatures just ’cause they’re twisted. We’d run out of bolts, and most of em are harmless. You might get shot at if you appear as a man with wings, though.

Eithne: You mistake me for the boy, there. I cannot do that form. I am either bird or man, never both. And according to legend, the man form is only as old as Akett.