"Just let the wind blow through your spirit,
Let the sun shine on your face.
Let's look into each other's eyes
And sing Amazing Grace."
---The Choir,Circle Slide
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At noon the party stopped near a grove of trees on a grassy hill for lunch. Cloaks and blankets were spread on the ground, and creatures chatted happily as they ate their picnic lunch.
Erin smirked with the irony of fifty or so well-armed warrior beasts sitting around having a picnic.
Evvey sighed with contentment and leaned back in the soft grass, picking his teeth with a claw. "This's the loife, mytes!" he said. "Cleah blue skoiy, sun's shoinin', a pleasahnt breeze, an' a noice picnic lunch on the grahss. Just lovely!"
Reshat flicked a crumb at the wallaby's nose. "You could be happy in the middle of a battle if there was food, you big glutton." He purred amiably.
Evvey rolled onto his side and stuck out his tongue at the genet. "Speahk foah y'self, y'big feedbahg. Y've got jahm on y whiskahs, boiy th' waiy."
Reshat wiped his face self consciously. "I do not!" he pouted.
Erin had listened to the bantering of her friends only distractedly, her mind was still on the task before her. These creatures acted like this whole mission was just an outing in the countryside. Didn't they feel the foreboding sense that they might be walking toward their deaths?
Erin's reverie was broken off as Apollo sat down beside her, giving her an apologetic look. "How's it going?" he asked.
Erin shrugged. "I dunno. I'm just thinking about things." She sighed.
"I was waiting for a chance to give this to you." Apollo pulled out from his belt a red rose. With a disarming grin, he got up and walked away quickly, leaving Erin completely dumbstruck.
That night, they camped in an uncultivated field, blanketed overhead by a sky full of stars.
Along the way, Apollo had told Erin about his life, what little there was of it. Actually, what he mostly told her was how cruel life had been.
"It can't be that bad," said Erin. "You need to look for the good things."
Apollo gave a short, humorless laugh. "Yeah right."
Now, they sat close together by a campfire, built more for light than warmth, talking even more.
"What I don't understand," said Erin, "Is, if you only came here, well, to the castle, I mean, less than a year ago, how is it you became a knight so quickly? I thought that sort of thing took years."
Apollo cleared his throat. "Ah, well, for one thing, I'm not really a full knight yet anyway."
"You're not? But you said-"
"I never said anything. You just assumed it." The hare sniffed. "But anyway, I almost am. I might as well be. See, in the old days, you had to be an apprentice before you became a knight and do all those apprenticy things and stuff, but now, all you have to do is pass a series of tests that they've set up. They're hard tests, though."
"But you've passed them?"
Apollo shrugged. "Almost all of them. The only thing I have left to do is go on some kind of quest... which I'm doing now." He smiled to himself. "But to pass the tests, you have to be well-trained anyway. I was never actually an apprentice, see, but Bratis trained me for most of my life." His voice sank.
Erin could tell he was thinking about Bratis' death again. She decided to get the conversation moving again. "So if anybody can become a knight just by passing a few tests, then what's the point? I mean, it's not like the knights now have a king to serve or anything."
"Well, it's the title that's the thing!" said Apollo defensively. "Any ol' hack with a sword can call themselves a warrior. But if you're a knight creatures look up to you and respect you. It's a noble thing to strive for. It's not an easy job."
Erin was silent for a moment. Apollo spoke confidently, but she could sense the fear and hurt in him. "Nobody really likes you very much, do they, Apollo?"
Apollo swallowed. Erin could smell the anger. "No," he muttered. "But that's their problem. I try to be nice to them."
Erin didn't say anything. He tried to be nice? Well, maybe. He could be friendly, even charming when he wanted to, but his arrogance, and condescending, pessimistic, self-centered, and generally immature attitude surely didn't make creatures want to be around him. He was depressive, she could tell. Did he really try? It seemed to her that what he really wanted was for creatures to cater to his whimsy and treat him like more than an equal.
A thought struck her. Perhaps this was because of who he had been born as? Looking at the young hare, Erin could easily see a spoiled, princeling. But the spoiling also seemed to have been augmented by emotional neglect, maybe even mistreament. If the things he said were true, his siblings had not been very kind to him. She would have to remind herself of that whenever he got to be too annoying.
But she wouldn't tell him about it. Not yet, anyway.
Apollo looked at her. "What are you thinking about?" He asked.
Erin snapped back to reality. "Oh, nothing." She looked up. "About the sky."
Apollo looked up for a moment, then looked back down. "Huh?" he asked.
Erin glanced at him sharply. "Doesn't the sky make you happy?"
"Not really. The stars are pretty, but-" He shrugged.
Erin could sense him shifting into the moody, depressive mode. She would have to be careful. "Doesn't anything make you happy?"
He shrugged.
"What about rain? And sunhine, and birdsongs, and fresh air?"
"No."
Erin scowled.
Apollo sighed. "You wanna know what makes me happy?"
"What."
"You."
Erin rolled her eyes. "Great." She muttered. Now she was starting to feel moody and depressive. She glanced over at where the Reshat, Evvey and Tikkcik had fallen asleep. "Y'know, I'm going to get some shuteye. You go over there." She pointed with a paw to the other side of the fire.
Looking hurt, Apollo obeyed. "You don't trust me at all, do you?" He grumbled.
Erin ingored him. Flicking her tail, she turned around three times as she said her prayers:
once in thanks - for the earth,
once in petition - for the sky,
and once in praise of Ni-Elat who made them both.
Then, she curled up with her tail over her nose and went to sleep.