Post by Athena Fire-in-Snow on May 30, 2013 10:01:58 GMT -8
Athena lay sprawled, too exhausted to move, while Joshua, Walks-Both-Worlds and Mary ducked out of the smoky, muggy interior of the lodge and into the fresh mid-morning air. She honestly couldn’t remember the last time she’d been so tired. Five Triatic Balancings in four days, each lasting 12 hours – it was all a sort of hellish blur…
The first had been to restore Walks-Both-Worlds, so that she could assist with the rest. That had started Sunday at dawn; she had completed the Rite in mid-afternoon, long enough to grab a nap before starting again at sundown. She’d intended at first to do each of them at dawn, but the pups were still being Changed by the corruption they’d been exposed to, and she just couldn’t afford the chance that even twelve hours might make the difference. So she started again that evening at sundown, chanting and dancing the painstaking, tiring rite for the first pup, carrying well past dawn and into mid-morning. Then it was 12 hours until the next sunset, and the next rite. She carried through that one okay too, but by the time she rose again to attend the final pup her body felt like she’d fallen into a whitewater river and been battered against scores of boulders. Still she went on, forcing her stiff, sore muscles into obedience. But the last rite, to cleanse Mary, had been by far the hardest. Athena was tired, her head ached, her throat was raw and bloody from chanting and breathing sacred smoke, and Mary’s Wyld-Taint was unbelievably strong. It took all of Athena’s concentration and skill to feel out the deep tendrils of Taint, guiding and focusing the Rite to root them all out and burn them to ash, then Sing the whole back into Balance. But despite everything, she had pulled it off.
The heat of the sacred fire was miserably warm against the fur of her muzzle, but she just couldn’t bring herself to move one more inch. Instead, Athena closed her eyes and let blessed sleep claim her….
The first had been to restore Walks-Both-Worlds, so that she could assist with the rest. That had started Sunday at dawn; she had completed the Rite in mid-afternoon, long enough to grab a nap before starting again at sundown. She’d intended at first to do each of them at dawn, but the pups were still being Changed by the corruption they’d been exposed to, and she just couldn’t afford the chance that even twelve hours might make the difference. So she started again that evening at sundown, chanting and dancing the painstaking, tiring rite for the first pup, carrying well past dawn and into mid-morning. Then it was 12 hours until the next sunset, and the next rite. She carried through that one okay too, but by the time she rose again to attend the final pup her body felt like she’d fallen into a whitewater river and been battered against scores of boulders. Still she went on, forcing her stiff, sore muscles into obedience. But the last rite, to cleanse Mary, had been by far the hardest. Athena was tired, her head ached, her throat was raw and bloody from chanting and breathing sacred smoke, and Mary’s Wyld-Taint was unbelievably strong. It took all of Athena’s concentration and skill to feel out the deep tendrils of Taint, guiding and focusing the Rite to root them all out and burn them to ash, then Sing the whole back into Balance. But despite everything, she had pulled it off.
The heat of the sacred fire was miserably warm against the fur of her muzzle, but she just couldn’t bring herself to move one more inch. Instead, Athena closed her eyes and let blessed sleep claim her….