Tweak

ONE: I WILL NEVER WITHHOLD A CHAPTER FOR REVIEWS. EVER. I will "withhold" chapters because I'm: pissed, sick, dead, tired, studying, working or if I forget.

TWO: You will have noticed that I deleted all author notes for the story. If you want a detailed description as to why, you know where to find me.

Three: apparently my asking for notice of people being interested in future stories via the same world is not allowed. Thus if you want to know about new stories, worlds or have imput (we all know I love writing stories that you guys enjoy, reviews or not) I'm sorry but email or facebook only. Both are on my profile.

The only affect that saying the above has had on my possibly updating future stories is the two hours I spent wandering around wanting to find a text based answer instead of asking the question. Just means I'm behind a little but having something that resembles hypergraphia really helps in these situations.




Shin sat on the main branch that had been his home for ninety years. His hands shook just slightly from weakness in his joints and his eyesight had dimmed to the point that he could not recognise the faces of his own children and grandchildren and great-grandchildren. Hearing and scent of smell was good as ever, however.

“Mei,” he grunted as the younger elder settled on the branch beside him, “how are you this day?”

“Good, great-elder,” Mei responded mirthfully, “I visited Ash, as you asked me to.”

“And?” he turned his face towards Mei, hoping to see something through the fog that was his vision.

“A sapling is growing up out of his grave. Tame land surrounds the area now. It looks like the sapling that we started with fruit from our home,” Mei murmured, “Mysh came with me. He thinks it’s time to split the tribe, he’s begun making the preparations but…”

“But?” Shin growled.

“He needs your blessing. You know how the younger ones are. Mother speaks more clearly to you, even your denying being able to hear her voice just reinforced their beliefs. Mysh cannot split the tribe without your word.”

Shin turned the ring on his finger.

Ash had died in the spring, taken quickly by a lung infection. One day he was coughing, the next he was gone. Ash had been only the third death in the tribe. The first had been Aei and the second Nalla. Bri was getting on in age but was holding together as well as a third generation could be expected. She had been given some sort of trial genetic material that extended her life. Or, so they guessed.

Layaent had come to visit every fall except the last. His son, Ashin, would take over the visits. The tribe would be well looked after.

Three days previous, Shin had awoken and bathed, as he always did, and had found the ring moved on his finger. He could only assume it meant one thing.

He and the elders had spoken at length about who should take the ring after his death. The others had left the choice of who mainly up to Shin. He had, in turn, chosen Mysh and Taya’s youngest child, a boy just barely sixteen who had been born when it had been thought that Taya could no longer carry children. He didn’t fit in with the others and Shin couldn’t understand why. Something about how he looked, apparently. Shin was all but blind when the boy had been born.

“Get the boy.” Shin murmured, knowing that Mei would know which child he meant.

“Great-elder?” Mei murmured, setting a hand gently on his shoulder, “we were not talking about the boy, we were talking about Mysh splitting the tribe.”

“I am blind, not daft, Mei, get the boy.” Shin snapped.

Mei left immediately, almost silently. Word would spread quickly, Mei was not well known for keeping his mouth shut. Soon there would be busy bodies and gawkers crowding into his little home. They would all want to know what the ‘great-elder’ wanted with a young boy.

Great-elder, they called him. He was not the oldest of them all. They called him that because of the ring, because he could tell them the best course of action. It had begun when Ash had learned what a Grasheld was, a priest of God. Ash had called him it teasingly and Mysh had overheard it and misunderstood the word.

Ash.

Shin breathed out and closed his eyes, changing fog to darkness.

They had become mates and had four children on the older Mally before she found a male that interested her. She was happily mated and had gone on to have another five children by him. Ash and Shin had raised their four children and watched them find mates. Had helped raise twenty grandchildren, fourteen great-grandchildren. So far.

When Ash had died, it had been like someone had reached into Shin’s chest and tore out his heart. He had gone on for the sake of his living family but nothing seemed to interest him any more. The pair of them hadn’t had sex in almost ten years, not since Ash had dislocated his hip up in the branches. Mysh had made a comment, only one, about how Shin seemed so much quieter at night, after that.

“Thinking about Ash?” Mysh asked dropping beside Shin, startling the younger man, “all red in face.”

“Mysh, why are you here? I asked for the boy.”

“As male contribution of boy, is business-full of what great-elder doing to young men. Have fun, ride like young thing again?”

“No,” Shin responded calmly, not allowing Mysh to get a rise out of him. The alpha often poked those who were not sexually active, including his youngest son, “no, Mysh. It is time.”

“Just because is called great-elder, not actual oldest. Not time to go.”

“Everyone’s time is different, Mysh,” Shin murmured, “my time is soon. Have I ever been wrong about this? It is my time and thus it is the boy’s time. He is no longer a child and it is time that he takes on his responsibilities. Now, tell me, for the sake of an old man, what does this boy look like?”

“Like Taya, slender and taller than everyone else. Eyes are slits across slits. Like, intersection of two things crossing over one another. Colour of tropical oceans, ridges of midnight sky. Hair like Ash’s. Fine skin and features. Is eyes that problem. Has good hearing and sits for hours listening. So knows lots about lots and everyone has problems like this.”

“With this,” Shin corrected without thinking, “he sits thinking carefully before he makes a decision, this is one of the reasons I chose him. He knows so much, that is another reason. My duties have become to work with conflicts amongst the people of the tribe. That he knows so much will aid him in his decision making.

“His removal from the rest of the tribe will not only give him a reason to be a part of the tribe, it will smooth out the ruffled feathers of some of the cranky males. He does not make decisions based on his own emotions-”

“Not sure he has emotions,” Mysh muttered, “not liking hot end of female swinging past him. Not like advances of males.”

“They are all related to him, Mysh. I have told you many times, speak with otter or snake to get a mate for him. The others take mates from the other tribes as they see fit. You may have to bind him to one. He has sexual desire but does not know what he wants. Remind you of someone?”

Mysh was silent for a moment, “Shin?”

“Yes?”

“Is Shin who not want?”

“Oh, yes,” Shin chuckled, “it was me. Sometimes young men and women don’t know what they want and need to be told. Take the initiative, Mysh. Just because someone is a great-elder, does not mean that they are above everyone else. As Ash would push me, as you have pushed me, do the same to him.”

“Great-elder?” a young voice, a hesitant voice.

They had not told the boy about their choice. They had decided to keep it from him to allow him to grow up as normally as he could. Shin had taught all the children about the ring, had told them that when his time came, he would pass the ring on to one of them. Thus all know what the ring was and how it worked. The adults had agreed very quickly that everyone needed to know about the ring, every aspect of it. Just as everyone would learn about power, whether they had it or not. The more widespread knowledge was, the less children could claim about stronger or more capable people.

“Come in,” Shin said, turning his attention towards the direction of the river. He could feel the life that the water contained, washing down and carrying life to all who would drink its waters.

The boy settled on the branch beside Shin but several feet away, a respectful distance away. He let out his breath and was quiet, ready to listen to what Shin had to say. The boy smelled clean, not like the adults who still smelled of metal despite years of living in the wilds. He smelled like the wind and the tree, like he had just walked through a patch of wild flowers.

Perhaps he had.

“Do you remember all that I have ever told you of the ring?” Shin asked.

“Yes,” was the quiet response, the respectful response. He could hear the question at the end, though, the desire to ask what Shin had not shared in the past.

“Go ahead, ask.”

“Where did the ring come from?”

“Your father will explain the history that we have put together since coming to the wilds. The ring itself came into my possession when I stole it from a museum, do you recall what a museum is?”

“Yes, great-elder, a museum is a place where old things of historical importance were stored so that everyone in the world could view and learn their history. A place that we will never have to keep our history, thus we must memorize our history and pass it on absolutely correctly to the next generation for forgetting our past is to open ourselves to making mistakes in the future.”

“Good. This museum was going to destroy the ring and the ring called out to be saved and so was answered.”

“By you.”

“By Elder Mally,” the younger one had taken to being called ‘Mother Mally’ by all the children, “she set it up, you see, she made it possible for me to steal the ring and deliver it to her. But she didn’t count on me putting the ring on. Didn’t count on any of what happened later. No, no she did not.”

“Because the ring bonds with a perfect user.”

“And destroys an imperfect one. By the grace of the ring, the bearer lives or dies. We think that it may sleep for a time, that I may have imparted on it the importance of not killing those who wear it. But there is a problem, you see.”

“Which child to try this on.”

“Goodness no. What happens if the child I chose turns out incapable, what happens if the ring decides that the child is useless? Hmm? Death all around, I suppose. This is a problem, not just for the bearer, but for the whole tribe.”

“You want to try it on me, because no one likes me. I understand.”

“For all you know, you are still just a fool of a boy,” Shin muttered, “blinded by your own fears and your own dark secrets. Get past your own wounds, boy, what do you see then?”

“You,” the boy paused a moment and swallowed, “want me to be the next ring bearer?”

“Yes.”

“But, great-elder is still alive! Should he not still be alive to teach the new bearer more about the ring, to teach the bearer how to tell yes from no, to understand the complex answers that the ring gives?”

Shin sighed out, “boy, we are uncertain how the ring will react to you, how you will react to the ring. Nothing I tell you could prepare you for the burden, duty and glory that it is to wear the ring. When I first put it on I was barely twenty. Then, I saw it only as a burden. As the tribe grew, I found it to be my sole duty to keep everyone alive and deliver the message of the ring. From the time I was fifty until my mate died, I saw the ring as a glorious thing to have.

“I probably could have healed my eyes, gotten rid of the misery in my joints, prolonged my life indefinitely. But what would be the point, I ask you? I cannot, you cannot, extend the healing powers of the ring to other people. The protection of the ring from physical harm, yes, but only to a person you are touching. Healing. No.

“If I had chosen to extend my life, I would have lived it without my mate and my love. I would be forced to watch my children grow old and die and their children. And their children. What more misery could I feel, than to watch my family die, one by one. To watch my civilization fall?”

“Fall?” the boy asked.

“You’ve heard the drums, haven’t you?” Shin said quietly, “the beat has changed. It is no longer the drumming to keep alive, that, my boy, is the sound of war brewing. A sound that has not been in the lands in many centuries. Not since the emperor fought the last battle. And how, how will our people in the tame lands protect themselves from the short people.”

“Technology, all the elders talk about it.”

“Talk about germ warfare, the fight with biological creatures so small that one cannot see them,” Shin huffed out, “these people out here have immunities different from our own. Do you know what an immunity is?”

“The capability to keep out infection, disease or illness via one’s own bodily functions. Some people have more, some people have less. Immunity also plays a factor in choosing a mate, because if your immunity is the same as another person’s, you will not enjoy their company, nor will you find them attractive. The point of mating is to find someone with good blood and to make a better blooded one, someone with a better immunity.”

“Correct,” Shin paused for a moment and considered the fuzzy shapes and dappled sunlight before him, “our people do not have weapons any longer. We have knives, but only because we use them in a kitchen. We have hammers and axes because some people still live like that. Power is all we have and the power users will not fight. Those without power are too busy fighting those with it to realise what is happening. The people are pacifistic, do you know what that means?”

“To not want to fight, the opposite of aggressive or militaristic,” the second word came out funny, but then, the adults had spent a good deal of time trying to recall what the Emperor had called the lords around him, “but the other boys fight all the time.”

“The other boys were raised in the wilds,” Shin huffed, “ever given a choice between fighting your own people or fighting the short people, chose the short people. We. We can win. We are silent death, they already mutter behind their hands when they come to the tree. They revere it and so they are afraid of us that reside in it.

“Look at it this way. Which would you be more afraid of, a wild wolf, or a lap dog? You recall what a lap dog is, yes?”

“Wolf,” the boy responded, “but why don’t the people outside of the forest protect themselves?”

“Because they are civilized, or so they think. They would rather try to reason with one another than slam heads into walls. They believe that violence begets nothing more than violence and that if they open their arms to accept the short people, everyone can just get along. But it’s not going to happen.

“The short people are banding their tribes together. They have lived in the wilds their entire lives, generations and generations of them. They are not a timid people, they are not shackled by what we call civilization. It is best to think of them as nothing more than animals who imitate some of our behaviours. They want new land and our people are on that land. A land of milk and honey, their idea of heaven on earth.”

“I … think I understand.”

“Good,” Shin removed the ring from his finger. For the first time in decades, his hands were bare. He felt so naked without the ring there, but he took the boy’s hand and slid the ring onto the middle finger of his right hand. “You are now the ring bearer.”

The boy was quiet a moment, then he said, “nothing happened.”

“You won’t notice any changes for a while,” Shin murmured, “it takes time for the ring to get through to you. Try taking it off.”

Again, a moment of quiet, then, “it won’t come off!” in a panicked tone.

“Good, that means my decision was the right one,” Shin said calmly, “now, if you would both excuse me, it is my time to die and I would rather be near my mate when that happens.”

Neither of them tried to stop him. Mei actually helped him find his way to Ash. No words were said, no protesting or tears.

And for that, more than anything else, Shin was thankful.

***

Ash lazed under the golden sun, beneath a tree that was forever green. He lay atop grass that was soft as silk, in nothing more than a pair of shorts. He was content, he was at peace with himself, with the world.

Until the shadow of his caretaker fell over him, that was. He had grown accustomed to the scars on her face, to the burn marks on her arms and chest. He understood that these marks had faded over time, just as his own aged body had reverted to a younger version of himself. Some wounds went deeper than others, some souls scarred and couldn’t quite let go of the pain that had been their life.

“She wants to see you,” the woman said quietly, calmly.

“I thought today was a rest day,” Ash murmured sleepily in response. He had no plans but to laze under the tree all day and maybe trying to find that river whose water tasted like honey.

“It is,” was the steady response, just barely edged with annoyance. She wasn’t used to having people question her lady, “but She has a surprise for you. One that She says you would not want to wait to see.”

Ash bit back the sigh and opened his eyes, managed to meet her empty eye sockets for the briefest moments before he had to look away. He hadn’t known the woman, hadn’t even heard her mentioned in any history books. Had no cause to know her besides as his caretaker in death. But he hoped the bastard that had done that to her had died a slow and painful death.

And then was promptly thrown into the worst kind of hell that existed.

He stood and motioned for her to lead the way. She flitted them from the tree to a stony path, the path that all souls travelled on, on their way to the after-world. Souls trudged past, dim looks in their eyes. And there, standing beside the path was his caretaker’s lady.

God.

She stood, proud and tall, hair flowing thickly down her back as She watched the souls filtering in eagerly. One hand was by her heart, just below the neck, the other was laid firmly over her well rounded belly. The colours of Her hair and eyes, even of Her skin, shifted every day, and so Ash paid little attention to those things. She looked ever so pleased with Herself and She was wholly and entirely focused on the glowing entrance.

“You called for me, lady,” Ash said respectfully as his caretaker did a stiff bow and backed away. The caretaker changed Her form into that of a butterfly and flew away as God pointed and spoke.

“There, look there, Ash, what do you see?”

Ash turned his attention to where She pointed. There was nothing there for a moment and then Shin appeared. Not like the others, he stopped at the entrance and looked around him, intelligence burning keenly in his eyes. Shin spotted Ash very quickly and approached the man, smiling just slightly.

“Ash. Is this…”

“Real,” Ash murmured, he had asked himself the same question so many times that he had lost track, “I think so. Shin, may I introduce…”

“God,” Shin murmured, lowering his eyes and head immediately in submission, “I never thought I would see you, let alone that you would smile upon me.”

“Of course I would smile upon you. You, Shin, who I gifted with my most precious object, how could I not smile at you. You’ve done so marvellously with my gift with hardly a selfish desire of your own fulfilled.”

Shin looked up, startled, “the ring is yours?”

“Not one of your people has ever been strong enough to manipulate metal like that, to shape metal into a form. To empower it with the very essence of Mother. No, that, that is the power of a god alone. The star ring is mine and I have given it to five others throughout history to direct the people down the paths that I needed or wanted them to follow. Four of those five ignored my presence and used the ring to their own advantage. One still did as I wanted, in the end. One, the one you call the Emperor, he did as I asked him and I rewarded him greatly for his efforts. Eternity in paradise.

“But you, and Ash, I have plans for the pair of you that require you to live again. You two shall direct your people as I need them to move. I have a good deal that I need to share with you and a limited time in which to teach it. You will need to learn quickly and adjust as you go along. My children are stirring in my belly and it is soon going to be their time to rule the world.

“I need your people to hide, to keep quiet and pretend to not exist as you go on living. I will never forget you and the ring, that ring will be the promise to your people that I will never leave you behind. For all eternity you and I are bound. Your tribe, your family and their descendants will be my blessed people, my special people.

“Come, there is much we need to speak about.”

“But God-”

“God?” Her eyes grew round, then She laughed, covering her mouth with a hand, “Oh, I forget so easily that your people call me that. Please call me by my true name. Harella-shay.”



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