Role

Chapter 5

*Late at night, surrounded by the cold stones of the Fortress, Bazz
sits at a scribe's work station. He has been staring at a piece of
paper placed on the desk before him.*

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| |
| Mother, |
| |
| I am very...different...than I was when we last hugged goodbye. |
| As I seem to have a talent for it, I've joined the shapeshifter's |
| guild. I know. When I realized this talent I was as surprised as |
| you are. |
| |
| With extensive study, I can gain insight into some manner of |
| animal and take its shape. I never know which of nature's many |
| creatures will make sense to me, but I have found them to reflect |
| who I am at the time. At first I was afraid of the world and my |
| circumstances, and wrapped myself in a shell. Then I went to a |
| darker place. I hid everything I truly feel from those around |
| me - when shaped as you remember me, I was outwardly happy, and |
| inwardly a creature of ice, emotionless - only when my outward |
| form became a denizen of the coldest places did I start to know |
| peace within. Protected by my fur, hide, and claws, I felt safe. |
| And then I was welcomed as a Scribe into the Fortress. Have I |
| simply found another shell to wrap around myself, to protect the |
| warmth within? |
| |
| My latest animal insight has been into the vile Komodo Dragon, a |
| being of filth and disease. What must I think of myself now? |
| |
| These thoughts are wrong. I know it. I am a good person. |
| Deserving of love. I feel the fire within me rise up whenever I |
| help someone in need, and I yearn to wrap myself as a shell |
| around all that is good in the world. I may not be a Maran, |
| burning away the darkness, but I dearly cherish the Light where I |
| find it. I can nurture it, grow it, and in time I believe it will |
| shine out against the darkness on its own, wiping it away as if |
| evil and pain were little more than the shade of a passing cloud. |
| I cannot trust myself, but I respect and love those who surround |

(continued in pt 2)