LYRANNA COULDN'T TAKE IT ANY MORE! Her father couldn't protect her from everything! She had slammed the behind her. Her woki-half took the shape of an angry bull. The red-furred kind from the red wastes of a world "simply" called the Land of Dust and Sky, LoDaS to the Gathering.
"You are not ready!" Her father had thundered. But the part that hurt the most was, "You may never be ready."
"But it chose me..." Was her weak response with tears in her eyes.
She needed to calm down. Her woki-half couldn't stay in this form down the hallways. The bull form was much too large. The black smoke that he expelled from his nostrils was noxious. Lyranna performed her breathing exercises that her father had taught her when he'd discovered she had a short temper.
Eventually her woki-half, stopped breathing smoke. But not before passing by some cleaning ladies who gave Lyranna a look of shame. Stupid earthlings! Don't know how to show their emotions. Pity them that they wear their woki-half inside their bodies. Lyranna thought. Her woki-half assumed the form of a blue monkey with eight arms. It cackled loudly and began stuffing its fingers in its big ears, its eyes, and mouth. The cackle had caught the maids' attentions and the message was clear. Lyranna was not the least bit ashamed of her attitude. Being the commander's daughter she knew she wouldn't suffer any scolding from mere maids. She wished they would challenge her. She wanted someone to direct her anger at.
Lyranna stomped down the hallway towards the Metal Room where what was rightfully hers was held. Her woki-half, calmer now, more determined, became a small blue songbird, she thought it was an Earth variety. Odd, she thought. I've only been there once. Maybe it was subconscious because of her run-in with the earthling maids. Who knew why woki-halves became what they became?
She could hear the clop-clop of heavy shoes upon the floor! She grew excited. A warrior! She hurried to see who was coming around the corner! She didn't know who it was, but he was clad in armor from head to toe! Lyranna's eyes basically bugged out of her head! She couldn't believe what she was seeing! Her woki-half became a cluster of brightly colored butterflies.
"Wooooooooow," she whispered.
The soldier was a summoner she knew. Earthlings hadn't worn armor suits like that for hundreds of years. The summoners could call creatures that they call animentals to the physical realm and they could perform amazing things, like becoming a suit of armor! Lyranna was awestruck. She needed a suit of armor like that!
She added an extra skip in her step as she rushed towards the Metal Room. Is there anybody there? She thought excitedly as she got closer. Thorin's not here? She peeked over the counter. There was a door that led into the arms room where all the weapons and protective gear was held. Her breath caught in her throat as she caught sight of a glaive...But she calmed when she realized it wasn't what she was looking for.
"Your father told me that I'd see you today."
To her horror, Lyranna turned to find Thorin directly behind her. Dammit! She cursed. "It's been moved, Little One." Thorin explained. That's why I couldn't feel it, Lyranna thought. Her woki-half had flown to the counter top and become a snake, coiled and hissing.
"Think of me what you will," Thorin said. "But your father is my commander and they were his direct orders."
Lyranna felt a little betrayed. Thorin was usually on her side. Her eyes knit together in anger, "It chose me!"
"True it did. And they don't choose lightly." Thorin knelt down.
"Well it's mine! And I'd like to have it!" Lyranna stepped past the counter towards the arms room in the back.
Before she could get to the threshold there were suddenly two Thorin's standing before her. One of the Thorin's duplicates held a tarot card between his index and middle fingers. He smiled, which stood out more because of his dark skin. Thorin was what the Gathering called a panmaegi, which Lyranna knew to be a complicated term that meant he knew a lot of tricks. This being one of them: The ability to multiply himself with the use of that card held between his fingers.
"Where is it!?" Lyranna shouted.
"I can not tell you, Little One." Thorin said as he pulled his copies together. There had been three, two blocking the doorway in front of her and the one still behind her on the other side of the counter. Lyranna guessed that the one beyond the counter was the real one. But as she's seen him display before, he could pull his copies back into any of the existing copies, and this time he chose one of the two standing in the doorway.
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