Secrets and Lore: Gayther and Marelyn's Story

Before Gayther realized Liatha was gone from the Lodge, he spent two days scouring the Lodge and its surrounding forests and mountainsides for her. He tried to stop in and say hello every couple days, and the thought that she'd disappeared without him being able to say good-bye bothered him. The idea of her having wandered off and getting hopelessly lost, unable to look after herself in the wilderness, bothered him even more.

However, because of his thorough search, he realized at the same time that the dragons of the Bonding Society had also vanished. Something, he thought, was wrong with that. Where would the Bonding Society mothers have gone that required they take young Liatha? The beastly ladies didn't even like Liatha, and avoided interacting with her even more than they did with other goprin. The very things that made her supposed employment with the dragons strange made her disappearance when them even more suspect. Worrying wasn't really in Gayther's nature, but he couldn't help it when it came to the poor, simple kitten.

At last, it was Marelyn-- sly, knowledgeable, impossible Marelyn, who had hadn't even been aware had followed him until she made herself known to him the day he realized Liatha was missing-- who finally solved the mystery for him. Unfortunately, that only brought about more questions, more worry, and more certainty that something rather wrong was afoot. It also made him entirely certain that someone had to be done, even if it was just making sure the people in authority knew. Which meant, since Gayther still didn't feel comfortable imposing on Mykha directly after how suspicious she'd been of him from the start, finding Naoryn.

It took several frantic questionings of several confused people, but Gayther finally tracked down Naoryn. Unfortunately for politeness's sake, he also barged in on him when he was in the Lodge's public eatery-- during an off-hour when most people weren't trying to eat-- with a smugly amused Marelyn trotting along behind him and cornered the young man at his table so he couldn't get away. Two very large cats could very easily corner one very small human.

"They took Liatha off-world!" he exclaimed withouth preamble, both too worried for the poor kitten and what the horrible dragons had in store for her and too inexplicably angry at whatever that fate might be to bother with pleasantries and small talk.

Naoryn paused with the fork halfway to his mouth, looking surprised at the abrupt introduction. He looked back and forth between them briefly-- Gayther's worried face, Marelyn's calmly smiling one-- and looked away again, down at his meal. Despite Gayther's impatience, he poked at his food once before slowly putting down his fork. "And this is a surprise?" he asked at last. "They left about a week ago."

"It's a surprise to me!" Gayther exclaimed. "Do you have any idea what they're doing with her, at this-- this 'Star City' place? It sounds so fishy to me."

"The Bonding Society is hardly the sort of organization I ask questions of," Naoryn admitted. "Even Mykha has very little influence on them. I don't know exactly what they're doing, but I do know that Liatha didn't go unwillingly." Gayther didn't even need to point out what weak reasoning that was, given poor Liatha's simple, overly trusting nature: Naoryn seemed to have realized it as soon as he said it. He asked, to cover the slip, "What do you think they're up to that has you so worried?"

"I don't know," Gayther fretted. "That's the problem. I was hoping you did. I can't even imagine why they'd take her anywhere-- you know she's only of use to them as a babysitter. There must be some other reason, and I don't know what it is. That's why I'm worried. Those dragons are terrible people, and I don't trust them with a kitten like her."

"They're not all that bad." At Gayther's skeptical look, Naoryn winced and amended, "Catrice admittedly isn't the most ethical of them, but I know Sylira wouldn't let anything terrible happen." Considering the river-dragon reminded Gayther strongly of Marelyn, that really wasn't very reassuring. "And there's not much you can do about it now. What are you going to do, run off to Star City and confront them?"

"If I could, I would," Gayther said, defensively.

"You've been off-world," Marelyn put in suddenly, giving Naoryn a steady, measuring look.

"And what exactly is your interest in this matter, Marelyn?" Naoryn asked bluntly. "I don't for a minute believe you're concerned for Liatha's well-being."

"I have many interests," Marelyn said with an enigmatic smile. "Not the least of which being I would prefer not to let Gayther wander in some strange, unknown place unescorted. Forgive me," she added, when Gayther eyed her in confusion, "but in some matters you are just as naive and overly-trusting as the kitten you wish to track down."

"I wouldn't call myself naive, Marelyn," he protested.

"Wouldn't you?" she asked, eyes half-lidded with amusement. He briefly considered being offended, but quite honestly, he thought he might need her inflappability and smooth talking to deal with the dragons. She was pretty formidable, after all.

Naoryn interrupted impatiently-- he caught the boy rolling his eyes, as well-- "Honestly, Gayther, even if you did make it all the way to Star City, what would you do? They left us absolutely no contact information, and let me tell you, Star City is not the sort of place you just wander into in the hopes of finding the person you're looking for. It makes the Lodge look primitive."

"You've been there?" Gayther asked in surprise, and sudden hope.

"Well, yes--"

"And you know how to get there?" he continued eagerly.

"Yes, but it's not that simple--"

"I don't care if it's strange or crowded or big," Gayther promised. "I want to at least try-- and unless the place is made up of giant, pastel-colored cats, Liatha ought to stand out, right?"

"I have a few ideas that might narrow things down, as well," Marelyn added, surprisingly enough that he actually looked at her with a blink.

"Such as?" Naoryn asked with polite skepticism.

Marelyn smiled slightly, but at least she answered rather than trying to stay mysterious. "I have it on good authority that each of the dragons who left with Liatha has been forced to stay fertile for the past months, leading up to this... excursion. I believe that the dragons, at least, will be somewhere that deals with reproduction. And where we find the dragons, will we not also find Liatha?"

"Reproduction?" Naoryn repeated softly, obviously thinking. "Well, there is the dragonry, and the destiny." The destiny? What was that supposed to mean? "But what could a group composed entirely of females do about reproduction--" He broke off, eyes widening as, obviously, something occurred to him.

"What, what?" Gayther demanded excitedly, wide-eyed himself, as Naoryn shook his head.

"The destiny does synths where they take genetic information from dragons who can't breed." Gayther froze, a horrible idea crossing his mind. "But they wouldn't need to be fertile for that...."

"It's entirely possible that Catrice does not know this, however," Marelyn pointed out. "I cannot imagine much is known about this procedure here, yes? But why would they want Liatha along? She is a hindrance to them at the best of times--"

"They're going to try and make garyki," Gayther interrupted, feeling positively ill. No wonder they put up with poor Liatha-- she was going to be a means to an end, a tool to make more powerful offspring, which, if he wasn't much mistaken, would then be used as tools against their council. And Liatha herself wouldn't know any better, probably wouldn't even understand that the resultant children were hers....

"Make what?" Marelyn asked, looking at him sideways.

"Dragon-goprin crosses," Gayther explained. "In mythology, they have magic and can shape-shift even past adulthood. I cannot believe those dragons'-- arrogance!"

"Wait, why would making garyki be such a bad thing?" Naoryn asked, looking bewildered.

"It isn't, at the heart of it," Gayther sighed, sitting down and lifting a forepaw to ruffle the fur of his forehead unhappily. "It's the method they're going about doing it, and what I can guess of their motives behind it. It is one thing for a garyki to come about through a love between two people, when both understand what is happening-- but to take advantage of a kitten who has no idea what the things asked of her mean-- to create little pawns to use against their council or even just to make themselves more important...." He shook his head. "It makes me sick."

"But the destiny--" This must have been a place, of some sort, the way Naoryn spoke of it. "--doesn't send the babies home with the parents. They adopt them out or allow them to bond to candidates who volunteer to care for them."

"All of them?" Marelyn asked, flicking an ear in interest.

"Well, I'm pretty sure the parents are allowed to take one home with them," Naoryn admitted.

"I still think it's disgusting," Gayther muttered. "Even if they wanted to create garyki for noble reasons-- which I doubt-- they should have asked someone who understood what they were doing."

"That might not even be their intent," Marelyn told him, as kindly as he'd ever heard her speak. "Naoryn, would you be willing to come with us to this... destiny place, to investigate this?"

"If they're really making garyki," Naoryn said reluctantly, "I don't think Mykha would forgive me if I didn't at least investigate."

"Thank you, Naoryn," Marelyn smiled, looking pleased.

"Yes," Gayther sighed. "Thank you. I hope we're wrong."