Just Another Day

Shanku she set her bowl and cup on the table and plopped down heavily on a bench in the dwarves' dining hall after a long day of work. The sun was setting behind the mountains and she looked forward to a restful evening. She was now welcome among the Highland, but she wasn't comfortable around them. Being much smaller and having a preference for her natural form, she always felt judged around the larger kurach. Most of her suppers she preferred to take with the dwarves. Here she was also judged, but dwarves made allowances for other species as they deemed them all inferior. Tonight there were a few other young kurach here whom Shanku recognized as not some of the best and brightest from the training fields.

"My first hammer was so lopsided it made bent things more crooked!" laughed one young smith at a nearby table.

"I thought he was going to throw me out of the forge one day when I dropped the half-heated block on his foot" another said.

"Oy, that's nothin'," said a third who just joined them. "Today I nearly cut me trainer's beard off! He'll keep his shield raised tomorry!"

"I yanked a few feathers off of my trainer," one of the young kurach added sheepishly.

Shanku listened as the young dwarves and kurach around her bragged of their failures and mistakes. Of how they had disappointed their instructors. She couldn't believe how they could be proud of such disgraces. Anything below perfection was a mark of being unworthy of the time spent on your education. Was that not what she was taught as a pup when learning to hunt back in the Nyre? And yet, here they all were. Imperfect, accident-prone, and all well on their way to becoming smiths of their own forges, great warriors, scholars, or craftsmen someday. She stirred her soup sluggishly. Part of her was disgusted with how sloppy they were in their work, and yet, a part of her was jealous at how relaxed they were allowed to be. Why couldn't the rest of the clan have been as kind as her mother?

"I hear you've found work," Sigrid said behind her, unknowingly interrupting Shanku's thoughts.

"Yeah, hunting of all things!" Shanku laughed. Sigrid was a welcome distraction. "The visit from the giant ambassador tomorrow has kept me busy."

"I'll bet," Sigrid chuckled. She looked Shanku up and down a moment, noting the tunic she now wore beneath her pinafore. "More clothes?"

"Aye," Shanku nodded. "Tunics are the style of my people as the pinafore is yours. Got a pair of breeches made for when I leave."

"Returning to the lesser form?" Sigrid asked suspiciously. Her ears lowered and she did not hide her disdain.

"It's warmer in the valley and fur is much too hot!" Shanku said matter-of-factly.

"There is no hope for you," Sigrid sighed and shook her head. "Do you really wish to leave? It isn't safe for kurach to travel alone. We need our clans."

"I don't have much choice in that, now do I? My clan is on the other side of the plains!" Shanku chuckled. "If anything, I'd imagine you would encourage me to go home."

"Hardly," Sigrid said. "Barely a fledgling and expected to survive gryphons all by yourself."

"I'll take a gryphon any day over minocentaurs," Shanku shuddered. "I remember one rogue bull who attacked the den when I was very small. Ma was trying to hurry us inside when the bull suddenly broke from the warriors and charged at us," Shanku paused and furrowed her brow. "Something odd happened... Granny Misen grabbed me and Hilael and dove into the den, but my Ma turned and growled something loudly at the bull. He stopped in his tracks and went to attack the warriors again. I still don't know why he did that."

"Quite an event," Sigrid nodded. "Perhaps he knew not to bother a dam's cubs?"

Shanku shrugged. It had been more than that, but she couldn't put her finger on it. She stood and stretched.