Tales from the Striga Realm: Playing with Fire

Chapter 9

"Order, order everyone! Do I have everyone's attention?" Maris' voice rang out through the underground chamber as she stood on a high pedestal, overlooking the crowd before her. Next to her were Cross and Mackle, the latter being a lanky young owl-shifter with brown hair and matching eyes. Maris had met him in the Kingdom of Berg and, after learning his parents had been killed, had taken him and Cross under her wings and made them her second and third in command, respectively.

"Thank you." Maris said once the crowd fell silent. "Now, I'm sure everyone has a few questions about the recent arrivals in Fogo?"

"What on earth are they doing here?" An owl-shifter named Prudence piped up. Prudence was an owl-shifter in her prime years with short brown hair and eyes that were bright and inquisitive, and she just so happened to be on Fogo's Royal Council.

"Same here." Her brother Cyril asked. "Where did they come from and why are they in Fogo?" Cyril was a younger owl-shifter with the same eyes as his sister and a habit of hopping up and down when he was making a point, which was somehow very persuasive.

"Ah, yes." Maris replied. "I have answered this before, and I shall answer it again." She then said, now addressing the general audience, "Grayson and his company are Northumbrian refugees, and-"

A great clamour soon arose. "Northumbrians! Great Strig have mercy!" "Are they descended from Ruther?" "What if they're not refugees at all; what if they've come to kill us!" "If that were the case, Grayson wouldn't have pulled Coella from the lake." "If that is the case, they shouldn't even be here!"

This went on for about an hour, and it took shouts of "Order, order!" from both Cross and Mackle to settle everyone down. "Everyone, settle down!" Maris commanded firmly. "Now to answer your questions; yes, two members of the group are Ruther's descendants, the rest are indirectly related to him; Yes, they are, in fact, refugees, and no, they do not intend to harm us! All they want is shelter and protection, and as their neighbour and friend I don't believe that is too much for us to provide."

At this, a somewhat reluctant nod cane from the group. While none of them were at all convinced that holding Northumbrians was a good idea, Maris argued so well that it was hard not to agree with her. Within moments, however, a hand shot up amongst the crowd; this one from a young owl-shifter named Hope. "Yes, madame?" Maris asked.

"Do you think Grayson and Coella will get married?" At this, a sort of awkward laughter filled the room; by now, it was no secret that Coella had had her eye on her rescuer since he pulled her out of the lake. "It's too soon to tell, I'm afraid." Maris replied, slightly chuckling. "Either way, we cannot know what either of them are thinking at this moment." She then paused before adding, "Any more questions?"

When at last no one could come up with any, Maris cleared her throat and said, "Meeting adjourned.", signaling that the meeting had come to an end. She then turned to Cross and Mackle and asked, "What do you guys think?"

"I think they seem nice." Cross replied. "And Liv is very pretty." When asked what he thought, Mackle simply said, "I think Grayson and Coella are perching in a tree K-I-S-S-I-N-G this very instant." He then turned to Maris and asked, "What do you think?"

"I think you need a dip in the pond, Mackle."

*****

Monica stood guard, her eye never wavering from the horizon. It had been her job to watch over these fugitives, and she wasn't about to let Ruther destroy their souls the way he had nearly destroyed hers.

"M-Monica?" A voice stammered behind her. Monica jumped and prepared to shoot an arrow, only to come face to face with Viscose, who now had a sort of remorseful look on his face.

"What do you want?" She spat, still very upset over the evening's previous debacle. "I'm sorry that I yelled at you." Viscose replied. "I was scared that you were going to kill us, but it was still uncalled for, and I can assure you, I will not do it again."

Monica let out a sigh. "It's okay." She said. "I can't really say that I blame you." She then added, "I'm sorry I tried to kill your brother. It's just, when I saw him, I thought he was..."

"Ruther?" Viscose offered. Monica nodded. "It's okay, Monica. Lamiel, if Ruther had destroyed my country and killed everyone in it, I'd probably try to kill him too!"

At this, Monica chuckled slightly. "So, we're friends?" She said, reaching out her talons. Without any hesitation, Viscose nodded and clasped them with his. "Friends." With that, the two owl-shifters resumed their previous tasks, feeling a lot better than they did before.