Sun & Moon

Chapter 28 - Rio

After Bianca's exit, Guru offers us to stay in the upper floors of his house that he hasn't had use for in years. He employs his son, Ganzorig's help to set up the room and get the heating going. I send Alex to help him along and to set our bags into our respective rooms. Valentina sits on the sofa Bianca left her in, once again contemplatively twisting the daylight ring on her finger.

Meanwhile, Astrid feigns a smile and small talk with Guru, though her eyes give her away. She asks the old man about the history of Sanctuary and the culture of the tigers, being as she was raised in wolf culture. The distraction seems to take her mind off of Bianca for a while.

"Are there other places like this?" Astrid asks.

"Not as far as I'm aware," the old man says. "Though small families, I'm sure, are dispersed across the continent. Did you say your mother is a tiger?"

"Yes, but her parents died when she was young," she answers sombrely. "So, all I really know is Silver Bow."

I soak this information in and ponder of my destined's struggles with identity, if any. Does she feel torn between her nature and the environment that nurtured her? From the little heated argument she had with the witch Helena, Astrid was quite defensive about her heritage, though there truly was nothing to be said about it, as she is thoroughly a part of the Mighty Five.

Speaking of which, Astrid brings up the little border issue that the witch posed to us that day.

"We do the best we can with what we have," Guru replies vaguely.

"Why don't the tigers unite?" she asks as Guru grimaces slightly. "You know, like the wolves."

"What do you think might happen when, say, a toddler goes through his or her first shift? Well, to us, tigers, this is normal, but to humans, this is a superstitious threat. Most prominent of all is the myth of the demon rakshasas. Many of us have grown up with the collective psyche that we are abnormal. It has taken us years and years to work through our inner prejudices to come to this point. And many more years would it take to finally unite."

"Much like the wolf's wild counterpart," he continues, "they have the pecking order to keep checks and balances. And much like our wild counterpart, we tend to stay together while the cubs grow up. After that, it's every man for himself. That's what we're trying to evolve away from. It gets harder when those outliers fall in love with humans until a mysterious tiger baby is born. Then what?"

Astrid nods solemnly at this and I wish there was more I could do to help.

"Maybe Rio and I can do something about it." She looks at me with a glimmer of hope in her warm eyes. "Our union could be the start of something great."

Our union.

I can't stop my face muscles from beaming at that. And I thank the Goddess up above for sending her to me, this ray of light who is destined to be my lover and my best companion for life. And as much as I cherished the time we spent in our small airplane cabin, I wished I could have shown her more just how much I appreciate her.

Ganzorig and Alex announce that the rooms are ready. Over the course of our conversation, Valentina seems to have dozed off on the sofa. Guru sighs at this and asks us to keep an eye on her during our stay as most of the tigers will not be happy to discover a vampire among them. Just to be safe, he orders his son to watch her and Alex is a little relieved that he now has a vampire-sitting partner.

"If you'll excuse me, I have to go see to Bianca's training." Guru announces. "It's all we can do to prepare at the moment. Perhaps you might join us, too, Astrid?"

"Of course," she nods.

Astrid looks at me expectantly, not for my permission or approval, but just to let me know that she'll be fine. Perhaps she wants to take out her anger on her friend in a healthy sparring session. I suppress a grin at the thought and take her warm hand to kiss it, sending her off with my blessing.