Fiction as Mirror
Tofur’s voice roused her from her slumber. “Hey, do you think that maybe you could take ovah watching me full time, Rat Princess? I like you a lot bettah den dat gaffah.”
Lew groaned and rolled over, which was just enough encouragement to keep Tofur going. “I dunno if you can’t read ah what, but I figgah I’ll just tell ya the stories myself.”
Something above Lew growled. She glanced upward, and saw the pale, bearded face of Meden Rider scowling beneath his feathery headdress. “Kinkiller,” he muttered, moving his hand to his gryphon dagger. “You oughta be the one executed.”
Something above Lew growled. She glanced upward, and saw the pale, bearded face of Meden Rider scowling beneath his feathery headdress. “Kinkiller,” he muttered, moving his hand to his gryphon dagger. “You oughta be the one executed.”
Kallen’s casual disregard almost felt worse than his constant berating. Was this another punishment? Should she try to get into his good graces or be even worse just to force him to react? She wondered if she’d left anything in the hall and patted her shift. She gasped. The thin, flimsy book was still there in her pocket, and it changed everything.
“Do you think dem gaffahs gonna say,” he put on a haggard accent, “‘hey, dis feggah’s loined his lesson, let’s let him go.’”
Lew didn’t answer. Another several seconds of silence passed, and Tofur answered his own question. “I’m a dead man.”
“More chittering.” The man groaned. He made grand, incomprehensible gestures and spoke slowly as if to a fool. “Can you understand me? Chi chi chi chi chi chi chi. My name is Tofah Stro. Chi chi chi chi chi. I mean no harm. Just lemme leave and I’ll never bothah you again. Chi chi chi.”
The sweet, slightly rotten smell of burning seven-leaf meant that Lew was to skip the nearest adult and report directly to an elder. The lesson did not include why she should do this or what would happen to the bearer of the smell, but anywhere that adults left gaps, children would fill in the answers.
Lew put her foot in the stirrup and leapt onto Biffy’s back. He cawed and hopped from one hoof to another, eager to get moving. She patted his soft head feathers. “Ok, Biffy, let’s go!”
Kallen berated the riders while Lew tried to disappear into a corner. “Your job is to keep people out of the forest. When they get in the forest, you chase them back out. Do exactly what the Gryphons used to do. Fly in, make noise, scare them away. If they keep coming, then you engage. Fight them, kill them, do whatever you have to. The goal is for them to go away. It is not to capture them and bring them here.”
Father spent so much time honoring and celebrating Meden Rider that some people wondered if he should be Meden High Elderson. It left a sour taste in the mouth of Lewellyn High Eldersdaughter.
Samuel Munk 