[Cyril Darkcloud]

ooc: Before we conclude – a tip of the hat and a very large THANK YOU to Larry for all the work he put into making this such an enjoyable roleplaying experience. You da man!

He extends his hand and Whisper flies from her perch upon his shoulder to rest upon his palm. With his other hand he lightly brushes the grey feathers of the small owl as he steps to where the young ranger stands. It is good that she has found again this one whom she had feared lost. Stretching out his hand, he places the owl upon her shoulder. “My thanks,” he says softly and then turns to the woman whose throat is banded with silver, she who knows the words of ancient songs. He bends a moment and that he might brush his hand along the coat of the wolf seated at her feet. Rising he stands still before her and simply looks, memorizing the lines of her features and noting the cadences of her breath. The sun-warmed air moves slowly between them and he leans forward to kiss her upon the runic mark within the skin of her forehead. He whispers as he does so, his words borne first to her ears before dispersing outward along the winds which stir in this valley:

“Take this kiss upon the brow,
and in parting from you now
this much must I avow:
All that we see or seem
is so much more than merely dreams,
and the beating vigor of a living heart
and the stormy breathing it imparts
is enough to bear the dark
of our faint and distant dreams
into the bright and wakeful dawn of being.”

[With apologies to Edgar Allen Poe, whose Dream Within a Dream I modified here.]

The burning light of the sun fills the sky and the harsh and cold freedom of the wind thrills his skin. There is an expansiveness about the sky today and he would move within it. He smiles, then, as he steps forward into the free and living air and surrenders to its movement. The gusting currents carry him upward and the grim lines of his face soften. It is the life of a stormwalker, the only life he knows, and it is more than good enough.

THE END

Roll the credits, Larry.