Keluan Tantivy

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border-top:1px solid #393939; clear:both; display:none; width:100%!important; position:relative; z-index:999999!important; height:90px!important"> <div class="adCenterClass" style="display:block!important; overflow:hidden; width:916px;"> <div id="footerAd_container" style="display:block!important; float:left; width:728px"> <iframe id="lycosFooterAdiFrame" style="border:0; display:block; float:left; height:96px; overflow:hidden; padding:0; width:750px"></iframe> </div> </div> </div> <table cellpadding=0 cellspacing=0 border=0 height="100%"><tr> <td valign="top" width=168 BGCOLOR="#000000" TEXT="#F7F7FF" bgproperties="fixed" background="01ff4f43.gif"> <bR> <div> Keluan's story is set at the </div> <div> <A HREF="http://moire.sphosting.com" TARGET="_top" TITLE="http://moire.sphosting.com"><U>Moire Protectorate </U></A> </div> <bR> <div> What about the other characters mentioned?  </div> <div> Read about:</div> <div> <A HREF="chamele.htm" TARGET="_top" TITLE="Chamele"><U>Chamele</U></A></div> <div> Saro</div> <div> <A HREF="http://www.freewebs.com/auroch/achthia.htm" TARGET="_top" TITLE="http://www.freewebs.com/auroch/achthia.h"><U>Achthia</U></A></div> <div> <A HREF="http://moire.sphosting.com/towers/tygirisbrood.htm" TARGET="_top" TITLE="http://moire.sphosting.com/towers/tygiri"><U>Derfegroeg</U></A></div> <div> <A HREF="rrknz.htm" TARGET="_top" TITLE="Rrknz"><U>Rrknz</U></A></div> <bR> <div> He is standing at </div> <div> <A HREF="http://www.geocities.com/ryslen_red/" TARGET="_top" TITLE="http://www.geocities.com/ryslen_red/"><U>Ryslen</U></A></div> <bR> <div> The outline for Keluan's portrait is available at www.wizards.com in their character portrait section.  Use it wisely!</div> <div> Portrait colored and modified by me!</div> </td> <td valign="top" BGCOLOR="#000000" TEXT="#F7F7FF" bgproperties="fixed" background="01ff4f43.gif"> <div> <FONT SIZE="5" COLOR="#FFFFCC" FACE="EraserDust" ><B>Paperloom: The Otherworldly Characters</b></FONT><FONT SIZE="1" COLOR="#FFFFCC" FACE="EraserDust" >    </FONT> |   <A HREF="index.htm" TARGET="_top" TITLE="Paperloom: The Otherworldly Characters"><U><B>home</b></U></A></div> <div>                                                   </div> <div> <IMG SRC="001f4010.gif" border=0 width="500" height="1" ALIGN="BOTTOM" HSPACE="0" VSPACE="0"></div> <div> Keluan Tantivy</div> <div> "Chamele, this is not a good idea," Cherishdd murmured.  "Lady Efellai isn't going to like this.  We've got enough foundling dragons, she's going to blow up, she won't keep him…"</div> <div> "She will.  She'll love him.  Efellai needs an heir, and this is her opportunity." Chamele made soothing noises as the tiny bundle in her arms set up a pitiful noise, a peculiar sound between a wail and a keen.  "He's perfect, Cherishdd."</div> <bR> <div> Efellai sighed as a bizarre composite sound started up outside her door.  Having her own private domain was all well and good, but she resented this much paperwork.  Even more than the paperwork, however, Efellai resented being interrupted in her completion of said paperwork.  </div> <div> Brows knitting, she rose, and with the strength of irritability wrenched her door open.  Her hard-shod feet almost came down on the neat basket on her threshold.  With a yelp, Efellai turned her momentum into enough of a dive to take her all the way over the basket, and managed to avoid it by crashing shoulder-first into the wall.  </div> <div> Limping a little, and resolutely not eyeing the halls for anyone who had seen her moment of clumsiness, she took up the basket and retreated to her office.  Once there, she indulged her curiosity.  </div> <div> "Oh, my…."</div> <bR> <div> "Keluan?  Keluan, didn't I tell you to put that away?"  His mother sounded tired as she pointed to the big bin filled with wooden figurines of riders and dragons.  Keluan blinked and shook his curly head, momentarily distracted by the silvery ends to those ringlets in view.  "No, Mama."  </div> <div> "I'm quite sure I did," she said with some of her usual asperity, and her turquoise eyes narrowed for a laser-look, straight at him.  "Right after Chamele visited, remember?"  </div> <div> He stared at her, frowning.  "Who's Chamele?" Keluan couldn't remember anyone by that name.  </div> <div> Efellai stared back at him, eyes getting narrower.  "Chamele.  Cherishdd's lifemate.  She was here last week.  She's very fond of you…don't you know her name?  She's all rainbowy, and she has big dog-things that follow her around.  She hooked them to your wagon, and told them to run that once."</div> <div> Keluan shook his head mutely.  He couldn't remember anything about <I>last week</I>.  That was a long, long time ago.  He could scarcely remember what had happened day before yesterday.  </div> <div> His mother's face grew suddenly tight.  "Keluan, do you remember your aunt Saro?  I took you to her this spring, after you got really sick.  You played with Teme's little boy on the beach.  Almost drowned yourself, too."</div> <div> A little afraid--she was looking so <I>very</I> grim--Keluan shook his head again.  "I don't remember anywhere but here, Mama," he said in a small voice.  He didn't understand it when she sank to her knees, gathered him up, and began to weep.  His mama never cried…did she?</div> <bR> <DIV ALIGN="LEFT"></DIV> <div> <IMG SRC="0adddc30.jpg" border=0 width="221" height="195" ALIGN="BOTTOM" HSPACE="0" VSPACE="0"></div> <bR> <div> Keluan never saw his mother cry again, but she looked unhappy more and more often.  She frowned when he outgrew his clothes within a week, when his skin cracked and peeled and <I>itched</I> as he grew, when he ate enormously one day and nothing for the following three.  She even flinched a little when he smiled at her.  Efellai was certainly not fond of his wings.  </div> <div> He was rubbing light oil that…someone…had given him into his skin when he spotted his mother and Chamele walking together, only a twist below him.  Keluan stopped short, leaning his dark-and-light head over the railing, and strained his ears to hear what they were saying.  His mother talked to Chamele often…he thought.  </div> <div> "Admit it, Chamele Worldwalker!  You are the <I>only</I> one who would think to create something like this.  He's clearly Old World dragon, and just as clearly human.  You took it upon yourself to give me what you thought I wanted, and damn it, you've messed that poor kid up!"</div> <div> Chamele jerked back as if Efellai had slapped her, and her shoulders tensed.  "Efellai, I…"</div> <div> "Whose genes did you take, Chamele?  Don't you think that they ought to know they have a child by blood?  Don't you think <I>he</I> ought to know who, and what, he is?"  Efellai's voice was strident, but there was a hint of pain there as well..  Keluan winced.  </div> <div> The worldwalker shook her iridescent head frantically.  "No.  No, I don't.  They are unfit…and he would be miserable."</div> <div> Efellai laughed bitterly.  "Chamele, if you kept him busy for a few days, he'd forget all about it.  <I>All</I> about it."</div> <div> The slender, delicately polychromatic woman flinched.  "I'm sorry…I didn't think.  But it can only mean that he's going to have their talents as well…"</div> <div> The color drained from Efellai's face, and the darker stripes stood out luridly on her cheeks.  But just as she opened her mouth, a hand closed on his collar.  With a yelp, Keluan twisted around.  Achthia's fearsome freckled visage came into sudden view, and he went limp.  </div> <div> "Keluan Tantivy, are you eavesdropping <I>again?"</I>  The coronal's scowl told him that she'd probably caught him doing this before.  He shook his head so fast his hair whipped his forehead, stretching surreptitiously for the ground.  Brown hands jerked him up in a hard shake, and he hastily changed it to a nod.  "You will <I>not </I>eavesdrop on your mother, the <I>leader</I> of this protectorate!  Do you understand?"  </div> <div> Nod nod nod. </div> <div> "Do you know that I will tan your purple hide if you do it again."</div> <div> Nod nod nod.</div> <div> "Are you going to do it again?" </div> <div> Nod nod nod--<I>shakeshakeshake. </I></div> <div> "Good."  Achthia's iron grip on his collar loosened, and he dropped to the ground.  "Straighten up, Kel.  Use your common sense, even if you can't remember that you've learned better.  </div> <div> He rubbed at his neck ruefully, pulling his tunic straight. "Yes, Coronal."</div> <div> "Hey."  A gentle hand pulled his chin up.  "You're growing up, kid.  Come by and see me and mine sometime, okay?  We've got to polish you up."</div> <div> He nodded again and smiled, close-lipped.  His needlelike teeth had disconcerted folk more than once.</div> <div> "Good lad, Keluan.  Now don't you have some classes you need to go to?"</div> <div> A lip curl got a laugh from the coronal.  "Yes'm," he sighed, retrieving his oil.  Frowning, he watched her stride away.  A distant part of his brain wondered if she had always been that short.  <I>Am I getting taller that fast?  If I can remember her being taller…</I>  His friends were a lot shorter, and a great deal less mature now.  </div> <div> Had they really been talking about him?  <I>Was</I> he half-dragon?  What was `Old World'?  Most important, what were those talents Chamele had been talking about?</div> <div> This was too important to forget.  But how to remember it?  <I>Ah. An actual reason for keeping those journals my writing teacher has been encouraging.  But I'll have to reread them often, too…  I'd best go find myself some paper.</I></div> <bR> <div> <I>Fall, after the historic bonding of Achthia to a second dragon.  I am five foot eleven now, and still growing very fast.  I have not yet flown; Efellai has not let me. Today I was examined, and told I needed glasses.  I don't know what good it will do.  They say that you are supposed to see a bird on the wing, or a leaf fall from a tree, but I never have…that I can remember.  How I wish I had started this earlier!  My earlier memories are lost to me.  </I></div> <div> <I>Bread and vegetables now make me sick to my stomach.  I've been eating more and more meat, along with some dairy.  One of the sea-division riders has been giving me funny looks over dinner.  </I></div> <div> <I>I had to be fitted for new clothes again.  Efellai is fretting worse than ever.  I wish she wouldn't worry so hard.  She'll work herself to an early grave.  I hope it isn't about me, as it has been so many times before.  I have been such a disappointment to her. I think that she meant me to be her heir, but how could I ever run Moire when I cannot remember who would serve me?  Damn my accursed memory...</I></div> <bR> <div> <I>Fall, three days after Achthia's bonding.  I have grown an inch since I last wrote.  This is insane.  My new clothes are already small on me, and I itch!  I have gotten my glasses, and it's amazing the increase in detail.  Just my luck to be myopic as well.  I have heard no more about my heritage.  Chamele has been gone for a long time.  </I></div> <div> <I>I talk to Alakamarth and Tygiri.  He tells me stories of the rise of Moire, and she speaks of the time before Efellai became an elf.  My mother has never spoken of these times.  I wonder if it bothers her.  </I></div> <bR> <div> Keluan sighed as he read the last line.  "Yes, Keluan, it does."  He had talked to her today about those times, or tried to.  Efellai had gotten more emotional than he'd ever seen her.  </div> <div> He was well over six feet tall now, and still growing.  In exasperation, he'd given up wearing shirts and shoes at all, and started wearing a wrap around his hips instead of pants.  He couldn't outgrow that as quickly, and it was less restrictive than the tailored leggings Efellai liked him to wear.  </div> <div> Absently he rubbed his head, closing his eyes to the cool breeze coming into his window.  He'd had a headache for as long as he could remember at this point.  There was a buzz coming in from somewhere, a low-level murmur all the time, and it was driving him crazy.  But at least here there was cool stone and a soft window seat.  He could open those windows, lean out into the blessedly chilly breeze, and feel as if he were flying… </div> <div> <I>Hah.  Why not fly for real?  The clouds are partly made of condensed water, they would be colder than this.  In the air, I could put some distance between myself and this accursed buzz. </I>Technically, Efellai still hadn't given him permission to fly, but he had been doing the same wing-exercises as the weyrlings, and he thought it high time that he get into the air.  <I>What's the use of having wings if you aren't permitted flight? </I></div> <div> The windows swung back delicately at his touch as his curtains slid along his lower back.  Beyond that ledge, there was the sky, clear and clean and inviting.  The ground seemed very far away and unimportant.  </div> <div> <I>What the heck.  </I>He jumped.</div> <div> For a few seconds, the sheer thrill of it made him forget that it was not falling he wanted to do, but <I>flying</I>.  Hesitantly, he opened his wings.  Indigo eyes flew wide at the instant wind resistance.  The ground was coming closer at speed; he opened his wings all the way in a panic.   </div> <div> A scream rose unbidden in his throat as the wind yanked him upward.  Locking tooth with needle-sharp tooth, he flapped the appendages that had never been any use before.  The dark earth decreased its approach perceptibly.  </div> <div> "Boy?" a weird polyphonic voice inquired, aghast.  "Ye gods, boy, what did you do, jump out the window?  There's no updrafts here.  Did no one teach you how to fly?"</div> <div> Panting with fear, Keluan shook his head.  A moment later, a tremendous downdraft nearly blew him out of the sky.  He was taking a breath to ask who it was when arm-length talons closed around his middle. </div> <div> "Relax," said the polytones, arrogance in every note.  "Stretch out your wings.  Feel the lift.  Tilt them so that they're cupped, not flat.  That's your flapping position.  Flap, boy."</div> <div> Still a little stunned, Keluan pumped his wings.  He was rewarded with the sense of lift against his `sails.  The giant claws unhooked with precision, and then he was flying unsupported.  </div> <div> It was a <I>lot</I> of work.  Somehow, he'd thought it would be effortless.  </div> <div> "That's gliding, boy," the voice--voices?--said tartly.  "And my name, or our name, is Derfegroeg.  You're the halfbreed with the memory problem, right?"  </div> <div> "I--yes, my name is Keluan."  He craned his neck.  "Um…I've never seen a dragon with two heads before."  </div> <div> "No duh," the metallic red creature snorted.  "As it happens, boy, I'm the only one here with two heads.   A hydra, they call it.  Here's the updraft.  Flatten your wings out, but do not tilt them, if you want to stop all that flopping."</div> <div> Grinning in delight, Keluan rose up like an eagle, turning on a wingtip as he spiraled up the column of warm air.  <I>This</I> was flying…</div> <bR> <div> "Hey, kid, I don't know if you've figured it out, but you're broadcasting like crazy.  I'm feeling all your emotions, and hearing the occasional thought, too.  You might want to tone it down a bit," Derfegroeg said in a growl that lacked any true edge.  </div> <div> "Projecting?  Me?  I mean--how, sir?"  Keluan lay out on the grass, back and shoulders aching.  He was quite sure he couldn't move an inch even should his life be threatened.</div> <div> One oversized head rose on its snake-supple neck.  "You're half-dragon, boy, how do you think?  With your lack of memory, I'd say you're likely to be highly empathic, if not outright telepathic.  Projective and receptive, I'd say.  You haven't noticed anything?"</div> <div> "I've had a headache for a while," Keluan admitted.  "I've been hearing this buzz…"  </div> <div> A staccato chuckle, just out of sync, erupted from Derfegroeg.  "Already?  You're going to have a problem, kid.  I don't envy you a bit."  Abruptly, he sprang to his feet.  White and red glider-wings thundered, and Derfegroeg disappeared into the sky.  </div> <div> That was odd…</div> <bR> <div> Within days, <I>everyone</I> was hearing Keluan.  It was unnerving.  More upsetting, he was hearing everyone else, mostly at once.  That <I>hurt</I>.  The constant battering of thoughts and emotions made it very difficult for him to think at all.  </div> <div> He'd noticed that the dragons were staying well away from him.  It probably hurt their heads, he supposed, but it still felt as though he'd turned into a pariah.  Efellai's angry lecture and his rather harsh punishment had distanced him from her as well.  </div> <div> So it was that when a graceful blue came right up next to him, stopped, and stared.  A wash of confused emotions emanated from the dragon--and then an intense wave of recognition and satisfaction.  Keluan started.  </div> <div> "Do I know you?" he asked dubiously, smoothing back his silvery-purple hair unconsciously.  However, once the rider dismounted, he was pretty sure that the gesture was wasted.  </div> <div> The bluerider was a brownish-grayish biped about up to his waist, unclothed and betailed.  Its skin was as smooth and hairless as the dragon's.  It was also, if Keluan was not mistaken, smiling.  </div> <div> "You, my dear boy, are perfect--absolutely perfect!--for Ryslen's sands.  Will you come and Stand, please?"  The creature spoke with a slight accent, and its words were very clipped.  It was as if it didn't want to speak the vowels at all.  As he stared, the other rider bowed. "Searchrider Rrknz, at your service, and this is my blue Chzarnth."  The feeling of excitement and discovery was still strong, and the searchrider's pleasure was unfeigned.  </div> <div> Choppily, Keluan nodded. "Will you take me?" he asked, frowning.  He didn't think Efellai would want to spare a rider.  In fact, he'd rather not see her at all until he came back with a <I>real</I> dragon.</div> <div> The lizardy creature bowed again. "But of course, ah…."</div> <div> "Keluan.  Keluan Tantivy," said the half-dragon boy, and he flew lightly up to land on Chzarnth's back.  </div> <bR> <DIV ALIGN="LEFT"></DIV> <div> <A HREF="http://moire.sphosting.com" TARGET="_top" TITLE="http://moire.sphosting.com"><U><IMG SRC="0b167880.jpg" border=0 width="103" height="136" ALIGN="BOTTOM" HSPACE="0" VSPACE="0"></U></A><A HREF="http://moire.sphosting.com/towers/keluan.html" TARGET="_top" TITLE="http://moire.sphosting.com/towers/keluan"><U><IMG SRC="0b059560.jpg" border=0 width="89" height="86" ALIGN="BOTTOM" HSPACE="0" VSPACE="0"></U></A></div> </td> </tr></table></body>