LiLY's WaLK WiTH GoD'S eYe (LiLY'S FieLD PaRT 1)

He looked at the inquisitive fox. Her fur, red and black, lines of white so bright but covered carelessly in mud and so much man’y majick. He hated man’y things. He reached down to Lily, and her eyes brightened as a fox’s do when they display their fangs. Then he scowled down at her and looked into her dark brown eyes. She was trapped in his black ones.

Lily, I know you don’t understand me. But you do now.

I do. I do. I want you to. To show me how. I wonder now. Please show me how we speak.

You’re speaking now.

No, no not so.

I understand.

He reached down to the fox and pet her.

“Come along, then. We’ll get you something that will help you speak and listen and hear the things we have to say.”

The fox was curious about the sleek and gentlemanly man in black. His face was calm but powerful, his nose was pointy, and his eyes were black. His eyes were large though, like they could see the distance and beyond and beyond that, as well. There was something quite calming about the fellow, and Lily followed. She was just happy to be in his presence. She knew who he was. Her mother knew who he was, and hers before. He could have changed back and their conversation could continue, but this here, this be Munin, and Munin does what Munin does. Proud and powerful old Feather Black, Odin’s Left Eye. Or was it right? Lily couldn’t remember all the stories about him. Only that he liked to taunt and play and that, someday, he may play with her. He did quite often. He would poke and prod her on occasion but never like this. She’d never seen him change into the manish type.

He walked with her among the broken and burned wood. The forest of green was now brown and gray.

“The dead things here have not yet had a chance to resurrect. Have you noticed, Lily?”

She agreed. Did she? This old raven, Odin’s Left Eye.

“Ah, don’t worry, Lily. We’re not walking that far. Notice again how the grass is scorched. ‘Twill be some time ‘fore the grass grows again.”

She pounced up on a tree and looked further up and then back. Her field was far.

“It’ll be there when you get back.”

Lily wondered where oh where in despair, but Munin was calm and light on his feet. He seemed to have a stride like none of the manish. He almost floated over the clumps of mud left in tracks between the trees.

Munin stopped and looked down and saw a huge puddle of black on the ground. Lily stopped beside him and the smell brought tears to her. It wasn’t of the forest, but it was of the earth. But it was manish manish manish.

“Don’t worry about it, fair hair. It’s oil. It leaks, I think, from those monsters that took our trees.”

She tilted her head to the right, then the left, then straight. Her eyes were wide again.

“Yes, I’m learning. I remember this from an earlier time. See, when I–wait.” Munin crouched on his hands and knees. Lily looked off in the direction he was looking but didn’t see anything.

“Later today, they’ll be back to clean up more of their mess. Yes, I know. Sometimes the future spooks me when I see it the way I do. I… I forget a lot, but things catch up with me. And when they do, they spook me. I’m a bird, after all. Aren’t I, little fox?”

They traveled on until they came to the Ivil River. It wasn’t babbling until Lily showed up. Munin stripped down out of his black attire. His skin was pale as snow in some places, but he still had smallish feathers on his forearms and back. His hair was more feathers than strands, but he covered it in the cowl he wore. He dipped down in the water and felt around with his feet.

“Ah yes, I think I’ve found it.” He lowered himself into the water for a moment. Then two. Three? Was he a fish now? How lucky. She liked fish. She liked fish a lot. Munin rose from the water and came out of it. He held in his hand a tiny fingernail clam. He walked over to Lily and crouched down beside her and then sat cross legged and pet her down her back and her tail.

“Lily, I’ve a present for you. It will help you along the way. I’ve got to go away for a time. I need you to find out about these man’y things, but I need you to eat this clam. Well, not the clam itself.”

He bit the clam between his sharp teeth, and it produced a small shiny rock.

“This pearl is precious because this clam made it. Clams don’t make pearls.”

Lily’s head tilted left and right.

“Swallow it, silly Lily.”

She still didn’t understand.

Munin whistled loudly, and a fish the size of his hand leaped out onto the bank. Lily was surprised and excited. She hadn’t had a fresh fish in days and days and more.

Munin walked over and slit its belly, releasing the yucky parts, but slid the pearl inside. He handed Lily the fish, and she took it in her fangs, but she guarded those yucky parts too.

“Greedy girl,” Munin grinned.

He sat and watched as she ate the fish.”

“Good, so good. Fish, fish, fish, all day.”

“Yes, teach a man to fish,” Munin said. “I did that once.”

“I can understand you,” she said.

“And I you, Lily Red Hair.”