The Book of Mortals

Kalani

The following are journal entries from a Scholar named Denna Axefel.

Kalani, Innocence

I watched, still young and new enough to enjoy the wonder of it all, as a young woman with sparkles in her eyes knelt to receive a brightly burning flame from the hands of her teacher. Grinning, I pushed my way to the front of the crowd and, ignoring decorum and procedure, threw my arms around both teacher and student. I was, after all, very proud of them. Playfully shoving me out of the way, the younger druid stood and admired herself in the light of her new possession. Friends and family gathered close, smiles and laughter floating around in a wonderful world I thought would never end. And in the centre of things, as she so often was in the years to come, was the young druid. She was my colleague, my confidant, my friend. Kalani.

Afterwards, sitting with Kal and a few other close friends in a spacious gazebo, surrounded by a lush garden, we talked of things to come. I watched her, stretched out on a white garden swing, and let the slim possibility of marriage enter my own mind. Then again, I hardly possessed the innocence and sparkle Kal did.

I glanced across the room, towards Kalani's lover, Sairon. A so-called protector of innocence and goodness, as he and he associates paraded themselves, he looked appropriately outraged. And I didn't doubt his dedication to Kalani .. just his group's commitment to good. My eyes wandered further, to find Kalani herself. Her pregnancy was showing .. just. Enough to add, rather than take from her presence. That was perhaps why I was so angry .. like all druids, I got fiercely protective of new life, even more than other forms. Partially because of this liason with Sairon, Kal had been at least officially expelled from the group of scholars I owed my allegiance to. I say officially, because not one of us that I knew of regarded her as anything less than a friend of the closest sort.

Dragging my mind back to the present, I studied Kal anew. I thanked whatever powers might be listening that the zest for life had not fled her eyes as a result of her ordeal. That mitigated my feelings of helplessness a little, and I was quite calm when it came my turn to speak of what had happened.

Kalani, Love

It was therefor an uneeded shock when I heard of Clarissa's death, at the hands of a madman known as Shiver. This lunatic was claiming that I and my friends had "killed his parents before he was born". Besides the obvious humour in that statement, as we were completely nonviolent, and the resultant jokes of if his parents were dead before his birth, who or what actually carried him to term, we had more or less ignored Shiver's antics. This seemed to be the worst folly, as it had cost the life of Kalani's daughter. Hastily gathering up my belongings, I set out on the long trip back to civilisation.

Turning back, I spied Kalani smiling at a shadowy figure in the corner. I smiled in turn, and gave Sephiroth a quick hug .. I knew him, was fond of him, but didn't seek out his company. But I felt a small premonition as the flickering torchlight played over his features. What was on his face as he drank in the sight of Kalani wasn't simple friendship. I grinned to myself. Kal had attracted more than one suitor since her breakup with Sairon Elarid, and I knew she had a soft spot for Sephiroth .. something else to keep my eye on, since my own husband insisted on travelling so much.

When I heard tell of Kalani's pregnancy, I was overjoyed. I remembered the look on her face at Clarissa's death, and had known that it would be some time, if ever, before Kal would attempt a family again. That she was secure enough in this marriage to do so was enough for me to call down all the blessings I knew of upon Sephiroth's head. I felt a little foolish for worrying, after all Kal was much more experienced in those sorts of things than I was, but I had felt protective of her for so long now, it was second nature. I had mothered all of them mercilessly, but Kalani had put up with it more gracefully than some.

I made up my mind to not disturb the happy couple, no matter how much I wanted to waltz in and begin ordering things to my liking. Perhaps for the first time in my life, I entrusted the care of someone I loved completely into the hands of another.

Kalani, Strength

I looked up, the thrashings in the trees warning me of someone's approach. A smile lit my face as a large, familiar figure wandered out from the treeline, and my feet barely touched the ground as I flew to meet my favourite contact with the world outside, Barsby. I was hungry for news.

I didn't think I could bear to make that trip.

After Sephiroths disappearance, I had been relieved to hear Kal was taking the children to live with her father. All seemed to be going well, if quietly, and I'd heard little other than Sephiroth still had not shown his face. Now .. well, now it was too late for more things than I could count.

The groom was an old friend, Etheous by name, and I knew his blushing bride, Javan, well enough to like her. Though they'd never know I was here, I didn't want to miss their union. Or, I grinned to myself, at least as much of it as was decent. Peering from the canopy, I watched the newly married couple rush off to do whatever it was that they were going to amuse themselves with.

Well satisfied with that, I stretched out again, ready for a nap until I was able to depart unseen. As I did so, though, my eyes flicked across a dear and familiar face .. Kalani was not too far away from where I lay, talking animatedly with a lawman I recognised as Gunther. Elven eyes enabled me to see her face quite clearly, and the smile I saw curving her lips had me laughing anew. Kal had set her sights again, even if she didn't know it yet, and there wasn't a chance in a billion that she would fail.

Kalani, Survival

Absently burying my fingers in the shaggy hair around his neck, I murmured a small healing chant over him, feeling his breath come more easily and watching him stretch, enjoying the new lack of arthritis.

It was poignant, and I hated poignant. Spot's death had come in the same year as Kalani's daughter's birth, and though I had all the hope in the world that Lalita's life would be everything she wanted, I was reminded too much of the constant companion I had lost. Word came less frequently, now, and my trips to civilisation were fraught with the worry that when I came back, my other little puppy would be gone. I wasn't dealing at all well with that thought.

Of Kalani herself, I could find no trace. Though her husband, Gunther, had returned recently to look after their child, my friend had vanished. Then again, looking at my own situation, it wasn't at all impossible that Kal'd simply seen to her own privacy. I was a little concerned, but I refused to be drawn out of my cabin, and so I would wait for what news there was.

However, it seemed some substantial changes had occured in her life. Kal had, at least for now, abandoned the path of the druid in favour of a career as a sneak thief. I tried, but couldn't imagine what had driven her to do such a thing. It was also apparently at odds with her newly chosen goal to become a crusader. Curious. This time, the lure was too strong. I began to throw things into a pack, mentally already planning my path to where Kalani had last been seen ..

So I brooded, now, upon the whereabouts of a friend I'd not let see me for years on end, and what the destination of the ship had in store for her. Perhaps one day, I would follow, and find out ...