You are visitor number
17 Heatblight: That night during her watch, Ruqayyah heard an owl hooting. She stalked it in cat form, and just barely missed pouncing on it before it took off.
18 Heatblight (Blood Moon): Al-Zaki prepared to leave to visit his friend in the Rift, to see if he would be willing to have visitors. He waited to change form until he was well out of sight of camp--he preferred to do that closer to prey animals than to his companions, because regaining his natural form always left him ravenous. He created a Mystic Mist to ward the camp during his absence.
The women spent the day practicing dances, acrobatics, and weapon skills, and studying the area immediately around their campsite. Darra left camp before dark to spend the night of the full moon in solitude.
That night, Laylah dreamed of a mother caracal and two kittens. The mother watched Laylah carefully as it washed one kitten. The other kitten bounced back and forth between Laylah and its family, until Laylah petted it. It climbed into her lap. The other two cats were gone when Laylah looked up again, but she felt she was still being watched. She sang a lullabye to the kitten, which calmed down, and purred until it fell asleep.
Meanwhile, Ruqayyah dreamed that she was a kitten, whose mother was washing her littermate. Laylah appeared, so Ruqayyah climbed up to be petted. Laylah's singing calmed Ruqayyah, so she tried to meditate. When she looked around again, the other cats were gone but she felt she was being watched.
When Laylah's watch came, Naima showed her how peacefully Ruqayyah was sleeping. Laylah was pleased that her dream-lullaby worked.
19 Heatblight: Ruqayyah woke at dawn feeling calm but very confused--she had not slept through the night during the full moon since puberty [when she acquired Lunacy], which disturbed her.
Darra returned, tired and thirsty, around midmorning. Laylah helped her into camp to sleep. That afternoon, the dragon returned. It landed on a rise a bit south of camp, and slumped to the ground to rest.
While they waited for the werehorse and dragon to rest, Laylah and Ruqayyah compared their dreams. Laylah suggested they try her lullaby while awake sometime; Ruqayyah agreed, but felt it would help more during her lethargic phase. Laylah guessed that the other kitten must have represented herself. (Ruqayyah later remembered her dream from about two weeks before, about being bathed as a kitten.)
Laylah talked with the dragon in the evening. He had good news: His friend, Yantos, hated necromancers, and was willing to help them because they were hunting one. Al-Zaki would stay in dragon form for the trip through the Rift, but among the Ranae only Yantos knew his secret, so he would shapechange as they left it. He would tell them more about Yantos in the morning.
Return to the Arcadayn Journal index page.
Return to the Arcadayn index. | Return to the Game Room. | Return to the Traumhaus Foyer.
This page last revised 5/4/2000. | © 2000 Timothy E. Emrick. | time@neu.edu