Honor and Blood: Fara'nae and Tarrin

[MISER]

Hello Fel.

I have always wondered about something from back in book 3 Blood and Honor.

When Tarrin was in kitty cat form and traveling through the Selani encampments at the big gathering before ascending the Cloud Spire to the home of Ariani, he overheard Selani talking about  him I THINK!

     """Tarrin was about to reply, but the Selani girl managed to find his submission spot, scratching him just behind the ears.  That was his favorite place to be scratched, and he became very compliant very quickly, closing his eyes and pushing his head up against her fingers.
     "Looks like she has your number," Sarraya teased.
     "Shut up."
     He lingered there a little longer than he should have, but eventually managed to get free of the girl with the pleasing fingers and get back on the path.
     After that, he was much more careful.  Sarraya led him around the fringes of each Selani fire where they had staked their tents, letting him move at a zigzagging route that kept him outside the grasp of most of the Selani.  Many tried to pick him up, but in the generally unpopulated areas between the fires,  he had too much room to maneuver, too many tents to hide behind, and he could see them coming.  But fortunately for him, the night was moving on, and more and more of the Selani were taking to their tents.  With fewer Selani to avoid, he was able to move more and more straightly.
     The Cloud Spire had seemed rather close when he had first seen it from the ridge, but that was scaled to his humanoid form.  For his cat form, it was like trying to travel twenty longspans.  More than within his ability, but a distance that would take time to traverse.  He moved on through the night with the sounds of the hauntingly beautiful Selani singing and the crackling of fires to keep him company as he made his way to his objective.
     He stopped to rest near a rather large tent, made of a curious material that smelled like plants, laying down on his belly by the edge of it and keeping his senses open as he took a break.
     "What troubles you, my heart?" a voice from inside the tent asked.  A male voice.
     "He is close," a female voice replied.  "I can sense it."
     "That dream again?"
     "It hasn't gone away, my husband.  The Holy Mother sings to me in my dreams.  Have you told our people to show him kindness?"
     "Of course I have, my heart," he replied.  "If he appears, he will be shown kindness."  There was a pause.  "Before we took to our tent, a runner from another clan told me that a tailed stranger was seen south of Gathering at sunset.  Could he be related to him?"
     "Has anyone else seen this stranger?"
     "Not that I was told."
     Tarrin was a bit startled.  Were they talking about him?  How did they know about him?
     The Holy Mother.  Of course.  She knew he was in the desert.  It seemed that she was taking steps on his behalf.  From the sound of it, the woman was shaman, one of Fara'Nae's priests.  It seemed a bit weird that she would be telling her children to be nice to him, but it made sense.  She probably didn't want any friction between him and them.  The best way to go about that was to make themselves as inoffensive as possible.
     Tarrin moved on before anything else came to light.  He wasn't sure he wanted to hear any more."""


I always felt you were going somewhere else special with this, and that, that was an unfinished bit of the story? Am I correct and if so will you kindly share where you were going and what was behind it all?

And if I am wrong I guess just blow me a raspberry.

Thanks in advance.

John...

(edit to change topic)

[Fel]

There wasn't much more to it, Miser.

Fara'Nae warned her children about him, and to be nice to him.  At that stage in his life, he was even more volatile than usual, because he'd lost his magic powers and was still trying to come to terms with his ferality.  The typical Selani reaction to a stranger would have been to challenge him, and with such a large number of Selani in one place, it would have made Tarrin even more violent in his reaction than usual.

Warning the Selani to show him kindness was simply a way to keep from losing a couple hundred of them.  Because right at that time in the book, Fara'Nae had a more intimate understanding of Tarrin's mental state than just about anyone else, given her prodding into his mind.

[MISER]

OK THANKS!

[Shadowhawk]

To admins: could you put this thread in FAQ/Firestaff Series section and change the title to more descriptive one, like "Honor and Blood: Fara'nae and Tarrin?"