330 Inspiration
Lan circled a couple of times, sniffing the ground as he went, curiously picking up the scent of someone he hadn't seen in a while. The base of the tree extended a few meters across, which wasn't all that uncommon in the woods he lived. Odd, he thought, that this person would come to him now. Summer was in swing again, the ants and beetles having driven the old fox from his winter nest gave way now to mosquitos and other flying insects. It was the same every summer, and though he grumbed from time to time, Lan loved the lazy warmth and life that grew even in the shadiest spots of the forest. It had been three years since he'd seen the stealthy visitor. He paused and thought, had it really been that long? He considered for a second, calling out to his unseen guest, but smiled wryly to hiself and continued to sniff the long base of the tree instead.A leaf crackled under an unseen foot behind him, and Lan saw a shadow move across his as his visitor crept up behind him. Lan braced himself, watching the shadow form crouch and prepare to pounce. Just as it looked the figure was about to strike, the fox spun quickly and bellowed, "Rarrrgh!" Lan did his best to look fierce, his teeth exposed over half sneering, half smiling lips, his tongue lolling from his mouth. A young blonde boy infornt of him now, squealled nervously as he turned to run away from the snarling fox. Lan laughed loudly and chased the boy, who was now at the hight of hysterical laughter, around the tree. Four times the old fox and the boy went around the massive trunk before the boy finally fell down and curled up in the leaves of the forest floor, still laughing breathlessly. Lan pounced and pushed his nose through the boy's hands and licked his face excitedly.
"Toleran!" Lan stopped attacking the boy and jumped back to look at him. "Where have you been boy? I've missed you!" Tol sat up sheepishly and reached out to hug the old fox fiercely around the neck. Tol pressed his face into the soft fur around Lan's neck and smiled.
"I missed you too, Lan. Where is everyone now? I went back to the fortress and there isn't anything left." Tol looked a little pained as he pulled his head away and the fox looked at him serenely.
"It's a long, long story," said Lan, "one that I haven't quite worked the kinks out of." He looked around thoughfully and muttered to himself, "one that I'm not sure has come to the climax yet." His revery was broken as the blonde boy shifted and laughed, and patted Lan behind the ears.
"Still telling stories, old dog?" Tol deepened his voice as much as he could, in a silly imitation of what Lan thought was uncannily similar to Trynn's. Lan whipped his head around, baring his teeth and looking sideways at the boy, trying hard not to laugh.
"'Old dog' is it?" Lan started to circle the boy who tensed, giggling nervously. Lan walked slowly, low to the ground circling the boy. "You've not gotten any more respectful, have you boy." Lan leapt at Tol them, attacking the squealing child with his cold nose and slobbery tongue again. The two old friends wrestled in the afternoon shade until both were breathless and fell apart laughing. "I missed you boy," Lan said sincerely.
"But where is everyone else, Lan?" Tol looked slightly concerned at the old fox. The boy was strangely intuitive and sensitive, Lan thought, just like his brother. Lan tried to think back to the last time he'd seen the two together, and oddly couldn't remember. Instead he looked squarely at Tol, both sitting up now in the grass across from one another.
"Tali moved to the dessert outside the forest," he began matter of factly, sparing the child from the details of why the enchantress left the verdant forest. "Trynn is here still." With that he raised his nose in a gesture that made Tol look high up into the tree they had just played around. His eyes widened as he saw for the first time the house high up in the tree. "Xanth is there too, though he spends most of his time outside the forest now. He's taken to exploring, I guess. But Brant hasn't been seen in sometime. Not since the night of the fire. I don't know...." Lan's voice trailed off.
There was a brief pause that the boy sat patiently through, staring intently at the fox. Lan's eyes focussed again and rolled around slowly and purposefully, staring at the boy. "You have missed many adventures, my young friend. Of course, being somewhat of an avid traveller now yourself, you've probably heard these stories already. Or made better ones yourself, perhaps?" He looked quizzically at the boy, baiting him with a stern look.
Tol straightened, looking stern and quizzically back at Lan, imitating the fox as best he could. "Perhaps, perhaps," he said slyly. "Like what story do you suppose I would have heard alreay?" A smile played in the child's eyes as he tried to hold the fox's look.
"Oh," Lan said, staring off again, his tone casual, "say the one about the time Xanth met the giantess Mareesh?"
"Is she related to the other giants who lived here once?" Tol asked excitedly, forgetting his guise.
"No, I suspect not. I'd hate to spoil the story for you by giving too much at the outset," he said. "Unless of course, you've already heard it."
"No, no," Tol pleaded. "Please tell me the story, Lan."
Shortly after returning from the ancient lands across the sea, and the temple of the sun god, Xanth was walking in the woods. There was a gentle sound that drew him, like weeping, or a softly spoken sad voice. It called, not to him or anyone directly, but seemed to sing in sadness, "I am left alone, and have been misread by many whom I considered a friend. Would someone spend time with me, and drink with me and listen to my sad story?" Curious, and being familiar with the craving for companionship and understanding, Xanth followed the voice through the woods until he came to a shaded place. Sun filtered through the ancient trees and seemed to sooth to him. And there, seated in the moss, a tall, slender woman looked up at him and smiled softly. He smiled back, and sat next to her.
"I'm Xanth," he said politely. "I heard you speaking just now, about not having an ear to listen or a friend to comfort you. I'm a good listener and a fairly avid drinker, and if you would share your beer, I would stay for a while." Xanth knew from his days among people how it feels not having a companion. And so he sat, and she talked and told him her name was Mareesh and of the troubles she'd had recently, and she poured him beer and when the sunset and slept crept in around his eyes, Xanth stood and thanked her for her hospitality.
"Will you come back," she asked, somewhat again forlorn. "Meet me again, in the morning and let me again talk about the things that worry me." And she smiled so sweetly then and he at once agreed. And so it was that the next day and the days following for a couple months, the young man went to the tall slender woman and they talked and drank beer and over time, Xanth's affection for her grew, and so it seemed, did her's for him. "Stay with me," she asked late one night. "Watch with me the rising sun and in the morning I will look at you and love you."
Xanth said softly that he couldn't stay, and slowly go up to leave again. But she cried and his heart went out to her. "I can't stay tonight, but perhaps soon, and I will watch the sunrise with you." And again she cried, and his heart broke a little. "Please, I can't stay," he pleaded. But she wore him down, so tired from heartache and beer and long days of talking he gave in and sat down with her again. She put her head on his shoulder, and smiled sweetly at him, and he smiled at her, and soon she fell sleep. When the moon had set, Xanth got up softly and covered her with a blanket and slipped silently into the forest.
And so time went by, and Xanth returned to her and talked and drank and soon she would fall asleep and he would cover her and leave. But she became angry with him, because every morning when dawn came, he had already crept away. And as more time passed, soon he found that though she continued to ask for his company, she grew colder to him, and others also grew colder to him. Trynn councilled him, "better to leave her be. Read her body, listen to the way she talks, not what she says. There's something that doesn't fit."
And he listened to Trynn, but worried the old elf was simply suspicious. He watched Mareesh again, and she spoke softly to him from time to time, like she did before, but noticed the cold and harsh looks again when others came around. "I'm at a loss, Trynn," Xanth lamented. "She wants me for company until she sets eyes on me, and then seems to wish me away." Trynn paused and considered, and tumbled the runes.
Rising from the floor, Trynn went to the cupboard and brought back a cup. "Next time you go to see her, pour your beer into this and drink from it. It will dispell anything that might be used to cloud your vision." Xanth took the cup and left the elf to his meditations again. For three days and then a week he went there, and everytime she wasn't there. Perplexed and hurt, Xanth went back on his way about the forest.
One day Mareesh found him in the forest and again began to weep that she was alone. He walked with her through the forest and to the clearing and sat with her. She began to pour out a beer for him, and her pulled the cup from his bag and asked, for sentimental reasons to be served in it. Mareesh looked at Xanth in a strange way, suspicious, but he insisted. And so they talked, and she grew short with him and cold, as she had the times before and he smiled and drank, and tried to look past her abuses. Soon Xanth got tired and got up to leave, and this time Mareesh did not protest.
That night, Xanth dreamt strange dreams, though woke not remembering. What he was aware of on waking was Trynn's voice in his head, saying, "She won't be outdone. The conflit that other's experience, she creates in herself. She has made you an enemy secretly to those around her, thus when you are near is she cold and severe."
There was a clarity in the young man then, and he laughed and swore himself a fool for being blind. The old elf was suspicious and often wrongfully, but this time the pieces fit. Mareesh came to him a few times after, but Xanth was cold to her then. She grew angry and changed, and shedding her magic revealed herself a giantess. "You are not so clever," she shouted. "You have been before my people before and will be again, and by a giants had you will finally be undone. Becareful, Xanth, your distrust of people and suspicious nature will destroy you."
Lan stared off whistfully, as Tol stared. "That's it?" The young boy was incredulous. "What did Xanth do then?"
"Nothing," Lan said simply, staring at the boy, smirking. "Xanth is not the warrior that some of us are. He's kind, too kind sometimes, and understanding. He knows why she did what she did, and didn't hold a grudge against her."
"He didn't slay her, or fling magic on her or nothing?!"
Lan only laughed, "I'm afraid not."
