Dark shadows, deeper during the lunar eclipse over Haven. The houses are shut for the night, and only a few lights flicker in the windows.
Michael tosses in his sleep, murmuring unintelligibly, flailing with his arms and legs.
"Monster! Ahh! Run!!"
Lights come on in the windows. People start gathering. "Someone get the priest!"
A candle appears in the window of the stone house, a dark figure looking out.
Michael rolls over onto his side, then back again.
People are advancing down the street towards the house. Lit torches, looking fearful and nervous.
"Burn him out!" "Monster!" "Where's that priest?"
The flame disappears, back into the darkness of the building.
Michael sits up suddenly, sweaty and jittery from the disturbing dream.
"Monster!", the cry goes up, somewhere in the distance.
Michael walks, shakily to a window, looking out into the streets.
A crowd is gathered at the end of the street. "Where's the priest?"
Michael stays back from the window, watching the crowd.
The crowd mills about, gaining in strength, looking uncertain.
"Did you see it?" "Wasn't somethin' normal, I tell you.."
Michael steps back from the window and reaches out with a slightly glowing hand, pulling at the air; His form becomes as dark as the shadows as he does so, then he returns to the window.
"Did you see the light by the house?" "What?" "Yeah, I saw it.." "Go check it out." "No, you check it out.."
An admittedly smaller group of townsfolk, armed with various farm implements, move cautiously towards the house.
"Hey, who asked you, kid? You're a little young for this.." From the main crowd: 'Where's the priest? Old lazybones..' "Don't speak of Father Allbright that way.."
A vaguely familiar voice. "You're lookin' for a monster, ey? In that house?"
Michael steps out of the front room and giggles slightly, pulling at the air again...He looks as normal, aside that his golden armor now appears to look more like pajamas. He returns to his sleeping chamber and waits.
Muldoon stands with his back to the house. "Look, there's nothin' ta be afraid of. He's just a guy, mebbe a little strange. I don't know what give you the monster idea."
"Huh? What're you talking about? Citizen Michael's a quiet sort, but he's a good fellow. Run along home, child." 'Father Allbright. At last.'
Muldoon puts his chin up. "You're looking for a monster, right? Big thing, gold shiney?"
"What? No, we're looking for..." 'AA! There it IS!'
Father Allbright's voice. 'My word..' Assorted yelps and growls.
Muldoon's voice. "Don' worry, Padre. Got any holy water?" 'Yes, actually. A small libation..' "Gimme."
Michael sighs deeply, wondering why people are bickering outside his door, instead of pounding on it. Masking his face to sleeplessness (the sweat and tussled hair from his dream helps), he moves towards his front door.
Muldoon says, "Ah seen these things before. Thems ghosts, an' holly water gets rid of them.""
-zing!- High pitched whizzing sound. *SPACK!* Something vaguely glasslike shatters against Michael's door.
Muldoon says, "Gar. Missed. Gimme 'nother.""
Scilly hisses back, "I's only got one more, Muldy."
Father Allbright: "Be careful with those. Those are the Creator's work. Who're you, little one?"
Muldoon grins. "Hey partner. Got your slinger?" -pause- "Looky. A ghosty. Neat, eh?"
Scilly blinks once or twice and scoots back a little. "Yah, alwuz got my sling. Good thing I caught up to ya... ghost??"
"Kids. We're letting kids stop monsters. Why don't you go home?"
Michael was about to open the door when something shatters against it, causing him to step back.
Scilly snorts a little, "Yah, an tell me where that might be, flattop. Betcha I'm a better shot than you."
Muldoon snorts. "Eh. I don't see you doing anything." "Hey ghosty! Give up! We got holly water an' we know how to use it!"
Michael leans against a pillar inside his home and listens.
Scilly mutters to Muldoon, "Who brought th'guy in his bedclothes anyway?"
Muldoon elbows Scilly gently. "That's Padre Allbright. He may be a dunce sometimes, but he's a sun of a something-or-other. One of dem religious people."
Scilly wrinkles up his nose a little then sticks a hand out. "Gimme one of those things."
Muldoon hands over one of the vials.
Scilly loads it up in his slingshot then looks about. He then lines it up reeeeeeal carefully then lets it fly.
-spack!- Something else shatters against the wall near the door.
Michael smiles in amusement and curiosity, but patience rules out.
Muldoon hrfs. "Not bad, but it didn't do a thing."
>'Healer! Healer Greytail, wake up!'
Muldoon yells, "Hey, Michael-- you know how to deal with ghosts?"
Michael straightens his face, removing the smirk, and waits a few moments before going to unbolt the door.
>Pathwalker Twopaws wakes muzzily. "She's not here. She went to
the hills to collect herbs."
Michael opens the door slowly, peering out at the crowd sleepily.
Michael is greeted by an apparition-- a translucent, ghostly panther, poking idly at the rain barrel.
Michael blinks at the specter, looking a bit taken aback.
"Look out!" -zing!-
Michael ducks behind the door.
Scilly shoves Muldoon to throw off his aim.
-spack!- More broken glass on the porch.
>A head pokes into the tent. "Oh. It's only you, Pathwalker.
Well, maybe you can help. It's Dreamer Windwalker. She won't wake
up."
Michael peers back around the door. "What are you people doing here, so late?"
Muldoon oopses. "Sorry, but you gots a ghost.."
Michael looks at the panther, nudging some of the glass of his front step with a sandal. "Is that what it is?"
Father Allbright steps to the fore. "Citizen Michael, sorry to disturb you.."
Scilly wrinkles his nose. "Mebbe I can get rid of it, Padre."
Michael says, "No bother...this is interesting."
Michael steps over closer to it.
The ghost, a young panthress with darker spots of shadow, wanders about the porch area, not seeming to see anyone or hear anything.
Michael tries to prod the figure with a finger.
>Pathwalker grumbles, something about them never waking up his
brother like this as he stumbles over to Dreamwalkers tent.
Father Albright comes closer, the silverhaired badger brandishing his holy symbol in front of him. "Don't touch it, Citizen Michael."
Michael cocks his head and looks up, "Why should I not?"
>Pathwalker pauses at the entrance and calls in, "Dreamwalker?
Dreamwalker?" Wanting to see what her response is, he feels a bit out of
his depth, and wishes his mother, the true healer, was here instead.
>One of the other tribespeople looks up. "Have you brought the
healer? Oh..", he says, hiding the disappointment in his voice. "Well,
maybe you know what this is. She's not waking up, and she's barely
breathing."
Father Allbright holds up his holy symbol. "Tis a revenaunt, a thinge from beyond the grave. To touch death is death."
Michael smiles softly and raises an eyebrow. "This does not look like death...This looks like a lost pantheress."
Muldoon pads up. "Yeh? How come we can see through her, then?"
Michael says, "Maybe she can see through you, like you can see through her."
>Pathwalker gives a look and thinks . o O (They get me up for
this, then are disappointed. Hmmm, what did my mother say about
Dreamwalker? Something about a deep sleeping for her visions?)
Muldoon circles, warily (avoiding the glass). "She don' see nothing."
Michael leans against his door, calmly watching the figure. "Well, not the same things we see."
Scilly whispers really soft, "Maybe it's a ghost of a person who got locked 'way in the dark a very very long time ago, like when they were yer age Muldy, and because they couldn't see any light at all they faded away till they were almost nothing but shadow. All flimsy an wind. S'what happens in the closets, you know."
>Pathwalker kneels down as he enters the tent and examines the
young panthress. Feeling first at her throat to make sure that the beat
of her life is still strong, while looking for signs of bites or wounds
on her body.
>The fur motions Pathwalker over. "It's strange. She keeps
poking her paw out, and licking her muzzle, like she's thirsty."
Muldoon hmms. "I see her. She can't see us. I don't wanna touch her.." He hmms at Scilly's explanation. "Hey! Shadow! Got it, dem's the darkies in the nights or something. Do that light thing again?"
Michael says, "It could happen...But why were you throwing water at her?"
Scilly rubs at his nose, "didn't ya call it a boogerman or something?" A bit of a blink and he scrunches up his face in apt .. er.. concentration. A bit of a fizzle goes out over his head and finally a lightball of purple blue light fizzles over his ears. It bobs waywardly.
>Pathwalker nods, "I can find no sign of bite or other wound to
cause this. It must be one of her visions or dreams again. So she seems
thirsty? Or maybe reaching for something? Odd. Get me a small amount of
water please."
>Pathwalker hopes they don't realize he's stalling for time,
noting even his mother often has troubles dealing with Dreamwalker, and
he knows far less than her.
Father Allbright gestures with his holy symbol. "The thinges of the undeath cannot abide by the blessed water."
>The brave nods, and gets some water from the pitcher at the far
end of the tent. "Here."
The spirit reacts to the light, turning abruptly to focus on it. "Light?"
Scilly says, "Hssst... Muldoon. I can't get it to move. Whack it that way with the stick?"
>Pathwalker kneels by Dreamwalker's head and pours a small amount
of water into his paw and gently wets her lips with it.
Michael says, "It seems this pantheress is not a 'thing of notdeath, then?"
Muldoon shakes his head. "I'm not gonna whack the ghost."
The ghost starts moving towards Scilly, purposefully.
Michael peers at the pantheress' reaction, curiously.
Muldoon says, "Scilly, look out.."
Scilly looks over with an expression of annoyance, "Not the ghost.. the ball of light." Completely oblivious.
Father Allbright interposes himself between Scilly and the ghost. "Not this child, you don't!", he says, but his voice is shaking.
Scilly says, "eh....?" He turns to look see. The light flares silver as adrenlyn shoots through the ferret and all he says is, "Aaaaaay!" The light ball, with that mind of it's own, shoots forward."
>Dreamer Windwalker doesn't drink the water, the liquid beading
on her whiskers. "Light?", she mumbles.
Michael tries something...he reaches out a glowing finger and pulls at some air, creating a second light, apart from the first.
Muldoon looks up at Michael. "Hey, do a light thing--never mind."
The spirit pauses, turning her head slowly to focus on Michael's light, since Scilly's light is blocked from view. At the same time, the badger is hit from behind by the tiny fireball... "Aie!"
>Pathwalker frowns, then motions to the tribemember, "Start a
fire at her hearth, she may need light to fight off something she's found
in her dreams."
Father Allbright yells, running around in circles with his robes smoking.
Scilly stops screaming to start giggling at the guy in bedclothes.
Michael makes a slightly irritated look at the smoking person with the important bauble, and keeps the light steady.
>"Right. A fire. I'll get to it.", the brave says, starting to
gather the wood. "You know, maybe what they say about you is wrong. You
do know stuff from your mother, Twopaws."
The panthress-ghost pads steadily towards Michael. "Light.."
Michael moves the light slightly to the side.
Muldoon sprints the short distance to one of the watching townsfolk. "Gimme one of those torches. Better yet, two."
>Pathwalker growls to himself and looks through the small pouch
of his mothers herbs that he grabbed before coming over to Dreamwalker's
tent. He finally finds the pouch of very pungent dried flowers. The ones
he's seen Dreamwalker often enjoying, and crushes them in his paws before
running it carefully by her nose.
The panthress keeps focusing on the light, swaying to one side, casual in her feline pace. "Go to the light..", she murmurs.
>Dreamer mumbles.. "..go to the light..'
>The panthress sneezes, but doesn't otherwise stir.
Scilly's eye catches the ghost's movement again then wrinkles up his nose. Light attracts it, but it's whisperwind so it can't hurt him. So, what's a kid to do when he's without a good weapon? He trods up and tries stomping on a foot.
Muldoon says, "Here, Padre..", Muldoon says, shoving a torch into the priest's hands. "Hold this.""
>Pathwalker purrs, "Dreamer Windwalker. Listen to me, this is
Pathwalker Twopaws. We'll have light for you soon. Listen to my voice,
use it to find your way back if you can." All the while thinking . o O
(And, with my luck, it'll just be the under
cooked roots she ate at dinner and I'll look the total fool.)
The ghost somehow manages to step aside at the last moment as Scilly tries to step on its foot. "Must reach the light.." She pauses, noting more than one source of illumination.
Michael furrows his brow, using both hands, glowing, to control the light into a luminescent copy of himself.
Scilly says, "Huh.. hol' still." He tries to stomp again, "Ya ain't supposed to do that."
Muldoon looks so startled he almost drops the torch. Father Allbright stares. "Citizen Michael.. I had no idea you were a magician.."
This time, Scilly connects-- and the spirit vanishes, abruptly.
>Dreamer Windwalker blinks her eyes open with a start.
"Wha??"
Scilly says, "Yeeeeee! It's got me, it's got me. It's got me!... eh?"
Muldoon pauses. "What happened?"
>Pathwalker breathes a silent sigh of relief, and rubs the back
of Dreamer's neck soothingly, "Welcome back to us Dreamer."
Father Allbright stares at the glowing carbon copy of Michael, then at Scilly the ghost-stomper.
Michael twitches his bald nose and drops his arms, all glowing and light ceasing.
Scilly has his eyes covered and his tail tucked close to him in back. All the fur stands out.
>"Well done. She's awake.."
Muldoon says, "Ya got it, Scilly..""
>Dreamer Windwalker looks up at Pathwalker. "..I know you..",
she says quietly. "Where's the light?" She looks around worriedly.
Scilly pulls his hands down and blinks. "You're pullin my tail, Muldy."
>Pathwalker nods, "She seems fine now. I'm not sure if anything
we did helped or not, but she's back. Oh...finish getting the fire
started. She may need the light to calm her down."
Father Allbright finds his voice. "You wield the power of magic, Citizen Michael? I never knew.."
>"Got the fire going, now." The dim flicker of flames light the
tent.
Michael blinks and regains realization of his surroundings, "Oh, yes."
Muldoon padpads up to Scilly. "No foolin', partner. Ya destroyed the ghosty with your sacred foot!"
Michael says, "I know a little."
>Pathwalker nods and helps move the disoriented panthress to a
sitting position, so she can see the fire. He then works on making a
small bit of the calming drink his mother uses.
>Dreamer shakes her head, absently leaning on Pathwalker. "No..
not that light.. not right.."
Father Allbright nods solemnly. "Perhaps you might stop by for services sometime. We could all use a little miracle now and again."
Scilly shakes out his fur and after a moment looks down at his foot. "Sacred foot? S'that mean 'm not supposed to walk on it? I'm hungry."
Muldoon grins, a bit fangily. "Hey, Padre, it was my partner 'ere with the sacred foot that did the deed, I think.. worth somethin' perhaps?"
>Pathwalker offers Dreamer some of the drink, "Which light? And
where were you? You had us worried." He motions to the tribemember that
he'll stay and talk with her a bit, hoping that will calm her down.
>Dreamer Windwalker shoves the drink away, getting angry. "No,
that's not the light. Not that at all."
Father Allbright looks seriously at Scilly. "I'm sure we could do something for a child that dispels ghosts, I suppose. Would you come to temple with me?"
>Pathwalker shakes his head and looks at the tribesmember as if
to say, 'See, she's back to normal already.'
Scilly looks down at his foot again and says, "I wonder what made it so sacred. Maybe the mud I jump.. temple??"
>The brave shoots a look back of bewilderment. "There's only the
one light."
Michael just smiles at the priest.
Father Allbright hmms softly. "Yes, yes, all are welcome at the temple."
>Pathwalker sighs inwardly as he realizes this was too easy,
"Dreamer. Which light are you looking for? Do you see lights now? Maybe
something affected your eyes?"
Muldoon pads over to Michael and stands up on tiptoe to whisper quietly in the human's ear.
Michael looks around for that pantheress some more, even trying bringing back the light.
Scilly says, "Uh.. Uh. I think I'm too hungry to go to Temple. I'd probably faint before I walked there. Dead onna ground."
Father Allbright smiles. "The All-father provides for all. I can carry you if you wish."
The badger has that look of, 'Oh, a new convert!' written all over his face.
Michael hmms? at Muldoon.
>Dreamer grabs Pathwalker by the shoulders, claws out. "You don't believe me, do you..", she hisses.
Michael blinks at Muldoon, "What flute?"
Muldoon rummages in his bag. "This flute."
Muldoon holds up a silver flute. "But we'll talk about this later.", he says quietly.
Scilly says, "Uh... uh.. " He glares over towards Muldoon for a moment then mutters, "I ain't 'lowed in there. Too too dirty."
Michael says, "Er...alright."
>Pathwalker growls and pulls the panthress's hands off of (and
out of) his shoulders, "Believe what? I'm just trying to figure out what
happened, and clawing me isn't the worlds best thanks for my help."
Muldoon ahs. "I see. We'll talk later." He hmms. "Well, okay. C'mon, Scilly, let's go.."
Father Allbright sighs as his quarry seems to be escaping. "Well, the door's always open to you."
Scilly whispers to Muldoon, '..and the last time I was there, they threw me out."
Michael yawns and proceeds to clean the glass off his steps.
>Dreamer shakes her head, but removes her claws. "Fine, fine.
But I know what I saw."
>Pathwalker, very tempted to go back to bed, after making SURE to
slip something annoying into his brother's sleeping blankets, says,
"Fine, WHAT did you see?"
Scilly rubs at his stomach, complaining again. "I'm hungry, Muldy... it's that light thing, ya know. We've gotta catch us some food... not at the Temple. Where we goin?"
Father Allbright wanders back out to the crowd, telling folks the show's over, and to go home. "..and attend church this Lastday Week, yes? Never know when a revenaunt might come visiting you.."
Michael waits for the crowd before his house to disperse, before going back inside, muttering in his own language as his golden armor begins to shine again.
Muldoon grins and pats Scilly on the shoulder. "I'm sure we'll find something. Lots of folks out still looking for the 'monster', after all..
>Dreamer Windwalker looks at Pathwalker, and says simply.
"..there were -four- lights."