[Backup] Water and Earth, Prologue, scene 13.70 -- Debriefing

[JMR20190506: Backing up Water and Earth:
https://joelrees-novels.blogspot.com/2019/04/we-0-13-70-debriefing.html
(originally from https://joelrees-novels.blogspot.com/2019/03/we-0-13-5-wild-boars.html)
Original of this scene written February to April 2019.
]

Previous: To the Third  and Fourth Generation

Table of Contents

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From within the forest, four wild boars watch the group of students and their teacher leave. As the group disappears around a bend, the amber gilt nuzzles the ebony barrow's neck, and he nuzzles back. After a few nuzzles and nips, they back away, grunting, then turn to the other pair, who hesitate, then approach and join in nuzzling.

Shortly, four Xhilrans stand in the shade of the forest.

Earth Prince grins. "Nuzzling is fun."

Water Princess smiles shyly, looking down at the grass. "But staying in that form would be dangerous. I'm not sure I'd be able to control my, uhm, natural instincts."

"We changed back too soon?"

"Mom!"

"Animals have different rules." She pauses. "Sorry."

"Yeah. Much as I like your mom's ideas, I do agree with you, Dŵr. No" Earth Prince chuckles, and the four join in. He continues, "Just as well it's not yet rutting season."

"I shouldn't tease, honey. But I do like your new prince."

Earth Prince clears his throat. Water Princess squeezes his hand while reaching out to give her mother a hug.

"Maybe we should go see what we can copy from the markers," Water Princess's father suggests.

Earth Prince looks at the position of the sun. "I've still got an hour."

The four head back into the woods, retracing their steps.

"Well, I think we did a good job."

"Thanks Mom. We need to thank the real boars, too, if we can find their sounder."

Earth Prince holds branches out of the way as the others pass. "Yeah. I was a bit worried about the methods, but this avoided the appearance of magic. Magic would have caused problems."

Water Princess's father holds branches in turn. "I think at least two of their group are thinking there was magic involved."

The two men stop and nod to each other, then move on.

"Professor Parry." Earth Prince's expression turns a bit pensive. "She was one of my favorite teachers when I started the upper forms. She reached out to the students who didn't fit in."

Water Princess nods. "That must be disappointing. But I don't think she's a bad person, so much as confused."

"Yeah. But I think I need to visit her."

観 -- That is correct.

"She needs some kind of support. I'll go with you."

"If you need, we can too," Water Princess's mother suggests.

"Thanks. I'm not sure a crowd's a good idea, though."

使 -- It will likely require more than one visit.

"Should I go alone the first time?"

助 -- Water Princess can help you.

"It's a date."

They break through, into the gravesite clearing.

"There's Professor Parry's dagger."  Water Princess's father walks over and picks it up. He frowns as he examines it. "Can't leave it just lying around."

助 -- We can take care of that.

He thoughtfully hands the dagger, handle first, to the messenger. The messenger accepts it, removes her pack, pulls a long cravat from it, and proceeds to wrap the dagger. Once the blade is protected, she stores it in her pack.

助 -- When necessary, the blade can be returned to any of you four.

観 -- Water Princess, what are your opinions of the work you have just done?

"If I had been more prepared, I think I'd have just asked the boars."

観 -- Do you think you could have been sufficiently prepared?

"Good question. I was just following the ideas in my heart."

使 -- Could you have done better?

Water Princess and Earth Prince look at each other. Earth Prince shakes his head slowly.

"It's always possible to do better." Water Princess purses her lips thoughtfully.

"Until the job is done. It was sufficient," Earth Prince says with a wry smile.

使 -- Earth Prince is right. 

"And follow-up is always necessary, anyway." Water Princess nods in acceptance of her own words as she speaks.

助 -- To what object, the follow-up?

Water and Earth look at each other and nod, then speak in unison -- "To confirm Agnes's decision, and to try to help Professor Parry believe that magic is not the path she seeks."

助 -- Correct. You may now proceed with the business of the day.

Earth Prince looks at the sun through the trees, then frowns and pulls out his hand-held terminal to check the time. "Now I've only got a half an hour before I have to head in to the shop to open up. Let's start copying."

As the four spread get their notepads out of their packs, Water Princess's father says, "Speaking of your shop, I need a secure connection today. Can I drop by later?"

"Sure."

Water Princess's mother suggests, "Let's all head back, over to your shop, in half an hour. We can come back again when Ceri and Morris and maybe some of the other members of the ward can come with us."

"Good idea." Earth Prince laughs. "We need to dispel the rumors about the odd things that happen here."

A snuffling sound is heard, and Water Princess looks around. At the sight of a tusked, furry head, she holds out her hand and snuffles in return. The members of the sounder wander into the clearing, and the four Xhilrans snuffle their thanks them for help given, then turn to their note taking while the boars dig in the grass and around the stones for grubs.

---

Table of Contents

Next: Beryl

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[JMR2019: Backed up here:
https://joel-rees-economics.blogspot.com/2019/03/bk-we-0-13-5-wild-boars.html
]

[Backup] Water and Earth, Prologue, scene 13.60 -- To the Third and Fourth Generation

[JMR20190506: Backing up Water and Earth:
https://joelrees-novels.blogspot.com/2019/04/we-0-13-60-to-3rd-and-4th-generation.html
(originally from https://joelrees-novels.blogspot.com/2019/03/we-0-13-5-wild-boars.html)
Original of this scene written February to May 2019.
]

Previous: Wild Boars

Table of Contents

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Now fully clothed, carrying the implements of their interrupted experiments, a sobered group of youths and one adult begins the hike out of the overgrown graveyard as the morning sun breaks into the clearing they are leaving behind.

"So, Nest, you saw stuff? Uhm, visions?" one of the girls asks the erstwhile sacrificial victim while pushing through the vines and undergrowth.

"Yeah, Enid. First it was the scary stuff you always see."

"Scary stuff?"

Wild boars can be very stealthy when they aren't announcing their presence. Four boars, whom we know, silently track the group.

"I guess that's all they're good at -- making scary faces and noises, flying around, talking about dying or --"

"Or?" Enid prompts.

Nesta stares at the ground. "Stupid stuff. Like rape. Except what they say doesn't make sense. Or pretending to be my ancestors."

"Pretending to be?" the adult is puzzled. "Why do you say pretending?"

"My real great grandfather came and shooed all the fake ghosts away."

"Your great grandfather is dead," one of the boys points out as he holds tree limbs back so the rest can pass more easily.

"Of course, Alwyn. But there was a ghost pretending to be him, and a bunch of others pretending to be others. But I didn't really believe it. It didn't feel right. Then when my real great grandfather came, I just knew."

"Knew him? How?" Alwyn is curious.

"I could tell. He wasn't trying to scare me." Nesta pauses and thinks. "Or get me excited. There was something different."

"So you had a vision," another girl interjects. "I'm jealous!"

The whole group stops for a moment, looking expectantly at Nesta.

Nesta shakes her head. "It's not what you think, Efa."

We can see various expressions of puzzlement in their faces.

"We've been looking for magic. My grandfather told me we have all the magic we need inside ourselves."

The adult has stopped beside her. "All?"

"So how come I can't fly?"

"Why do you want to fly, Enid?"

"So I can fly at the window when maths get's boring."

Snickers circulate.

"What good would flying out the window do?"

"Be more interesting."

Murmurs of agreement.

"How about flying in your imagination?"

Murmurs of complaint.

The adult changes the subject. "You said I shouldn't let people define me. Why did you say that?"

Nesta turns to face her. "Professor Parry, my great grandfather showed me what he did to my grandmother. He said he had convinced himself he was trying to help her, but he was lying to himself. Then he showed me how she did much the same to my father, but worse, and then my father did it to me. Then he showed me some of what my mother and your mother did to you when you were a child."

Professor gasps, almost inaudibly, mumbling something.

"He said he was sorry. Said he really thought he was trying to help, but he messed up. And he said four generations repeating the same mistakes was four too many."

"You saw everything?"

"No, but I saw that they told you that you were to blame. That you were evil, so you didn't have any right to object. That you should like it because you were bad. You're not really a bad person, Professor Parry."

Professor Parry looks down, then starts moving forward. The  rest of the group starts moving again.

"But it's too hard, being good," she complains in a low voice.

The students stop again, and Professor Parry proceeds a few more steps, then stops, holding a tree branch out of the way over her head as she  turns to face the students. "I don't think I want to be good."

Nesta and Professor Parry look into each other's eyes, each querying the other.

助 -- Maybe she is misunderstanding what good is?

"What is good?" Nesta asks.

One of the boys offers, "You've told us yourself a lot of the hard rules society makes are hard to follow because they aren't good."

"Llewellyn, did I really say that?"

"You told me I had to learn which rules were good for me, and how. And you said you were still trying to figure the rules out for yourself. That's why we came here today isn't it? We wanted to know whether magic is good or bad."

"So now we know it's not something to play with, I guess." Professor Parry turns around again and the group proceeds on their way through the thinning underbrush. "I did say that."

One of the girls adds, "We're trying to figure things out as we go along. And that means we're gonna make mistakes. It's what you say. That's what you tell us. Mistakes that don't kill aren't fatal."

"Bryn, you have no idea how hard it is to believe my own advice right now. My plan failed. And I could be disqualified from teaching, if people know what we've been doing."

Nesta shakes her head. "You didn't force any of us. Not really. And we learned something from it. I don't think it's a failure. Experiment with negative results, isn't it?"

Another boy volunteers, "And thanks to a bunch of wild boars, hey, nothing really happened today beyond a little drama practice. That's what I'm going to say it was, and it's pretty close to the truth. Right, Nest?"

Nods and murmurs of assent are exchanged as the group breaks through the trees onto a small path.

Nesta shrugs. "Yeah, Dylan, the boars were very helpful. I'm going to offer a quick prayer to whatever deity were watching out for us, in my heart. If you guys want to do that you can too. And then I'm getting back to real world."

The group pauses for a short minute or two of contemplation before heading in silent agreement down the path.

(Short minutes — roughly twenty of your seconds. Sixteen hours to the day, sixteen long minutes to the hour, sixteen short minutes to the long minute. It is a coincidence that the Xhilran day is rather close to the same length as the day of your world, comparing entropic rates.)

---

Table of Contents

Next: Debriefing

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[JMR2019: Backed up here:
https://joel-rees-economics.blogspot.com/2019/03/bk-we-0-13-5-wild-boars.html
]