Blood [Freedom]

[Eliam]

Wandering was an old game to Eliam. He'd been wandering his whole life, never settling down, never staying in one place very long. He just didn't fit in. Anywhere. But that was alright, because one day he'd change that.

It was getting dark, and Eliam had set up camp. The tent was up, a fire was burning, there was a rabbit on the spit and the weather was nice and warm. It promised to be a comfortable night.

[freedom]

x x

In the House in a Heartbeat

Two things draw monsters:

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[Eliam]

Suddenly giant wolf.

Eliam wasn't stupid enough to try and get his rabbit back. He merely sat there and watched, keeping a careful eye on the wolf while it fed, and then meeting its gaze when it was finished. After a while, he smiled faintly. "Too smart to be a wolf, too polite to be a wolfos. I would have shared it with you if you had asked."

[freedom]

x x

In the House in a Heartbeat

The beast looked at the monster,

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[/color] He raised a paw, a single claw sliding out of it, and picked some bone out of a tooth idly. "None of this was your choice. You lost your power in the moment you let me come here and take your food and your fire."[/size][/ul][/blockquote]

[Eliam]

This was a truly interesting creature. At a glance, it seemed to perfectly embody everything Eliam was trying to change in the world. He considered his reply carefully, holding his hands out to the fire in the mean time as if to point out that the fire still warmed them both equally.

Finally he asked his question. It would be interesting to see how Eliam's message would affect this wolf. "Then have you come here for power or food?"

[freedom]

x x

In the House in a Heartbeat

The beast did not speak for a long time,

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The beast still didn't move, watching the troll from across the fire. Its scent filled his nose, offensively. Few races but the monsters had such a distinct smell, particularly the troll group among them. It was thick in the air, radiating out of him, even if few other races would be able to detect it. A human might never know what trolls smelled like.

But Freedom did. Trolls smelled like blood.[/size][/ul][/blockquote]

[Eliam]

At the wolf's response, Eliam simply nodded. Doing something simply because it had the power to do so. He could understand that, sadly. It was in his blood. "My name is Eliam. I'm a teacher of sorts."

Eliam had gone hungry before. In his heart, he gave the rabbit freely, and thanked the goddesses for giving him a chance to speak with one such as this wolf. "What is your name, friend?"

[freedom]

x x

In the House in a Heartbeat

Again, the predator laughed,

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[/color] He shrugged his shoulders, his large shoulder blades very noticeable, drawing attention to just how much of his body was adapted to movement, to running and leaping and striking. "Unless that counts as friendship for you."

He thought for a moment, before he spoke again.

"My name is Boundless." Somehow, the inflection of his speech made it clear that he was not describing his name, but stating it outright. "Tell me, teacher, what is it that you teach?" Boundless asked, surveying the cloaked thing across the fire, entertained by it. For now.[/size][/ul][/blockquote]

[Eliam]

"Peace, Boundless. I teach peace. We are equals, you and I, as is everyone in this world." He smiled fondly, an expression that didn't fade or flicker. His eyes were no longer a cold counter to the wolf's challenge, but now looked upon him lovingly. "All you say you have taken, I have given you freely. If I must go hungry so that you will not, you are welcome to my food. If you are cold, there is no reason why you could not share my fire. This place, like any place, is a place of peace."

[freedom]

x x

In the House in a Heartbeat

Boundless laughed again,

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[Eliam]

Eliam didn't flinch. He didn't even blink. He simply sat there as Boundless threatened him, completely unflappable. If Boundless decided to attack, he would only be hurting himself. "Victory through violence is not victory," he told him calmly. "The only purpose of violence is to perpetuate the illusion of dominance. One equal cannot dominate another through any kind of violence or assertion of power. If you take by force, you are saying 'I can be taken from by force.'"

Eliam brought his hand up to the side of Boundless's face and stroked it gently, a gesture of affection. "The end and the means are one and the same. The food, the fire, all of these things and more are my gift to you as a friend and an equal, and so there is no debt or grievance between us."

That, and Eliam couldn't die. He kept that last part out, though. It was usually much more effective as an object lesson.

[freedom]

x x

In the House in a Heartbeat

Boundless was unmoved.

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He stalked around the troll slowly, walking behind him, sniffing the air, moving closely. His claws were retracted, and his teeth had not yet been bared in combat. This was an entirely different sort of battle. The kind that was pointless, and yet the kind that was entertaining. Boundless lived for nothing else than to be entertained.

"One does not need to say that they can be taken by force. They can. Everyone can. That is the way of things. The world does not care for what we say to one another. Only what we do. All your delusions mean nothing. I can feel your blood. I can smell it. Sense it. It boils. You want to come at me. You want to attack the intruder. Why not do it? Words in your head?" Boundless' voice was still as cool as ever, still as unyielding as a stream, as unbroken as a mountain.

"The means are nothing. All that matters is the end." He was behind the fire, now, still circling the troll, as the flames cast monstrous shadows of the huge, bizarre creature that was Boundless, that was Free, that was in absolution unchained.[/size][/ul][/blockquote]

[Eliam]

Eliam's hands trembled. They wanted the wolf's throat. He folded them in his lap and kept them there. "Blood is just blood. We are more than blood," he said. He finally had an opportunity to give voice to the ideas that he had been working so long to find the right words for. "The earring you wear," Eliam started. "If I want to deprive you of it, I will have to fight for it. If I want to buy it, I will have to pay for it. If I want it as a gift, I will have to ask for it. According to each of those means I employ, the earring is stolen property, my own property, or a donation. The means used to obtain an end are wrapped up in and attached to that end. Therefore, an end reached through fair co-operation and agreement is permanent, while violence is fleeting. If I fight you for your earring, you can and most certainly will fight to get it back. If the earring is a gift given freely or through fair transaction, you cannot justify taking it back through violence."

[freedom]

x x

In the House in a Heartbeat

The beast laughed,

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He walked closer, his mouth coming within inches of the troll. His breath again became an active intrusion, invading the peacemaker's space.

"But if you just kill me and take it," he said, his voice a low whisper, "Then that becomes the truth. That becomes the reality. Not what you think or believe or want to know. But what you do. You can feel the power in your hands, coursing through your veins. You want to let it free. You want to destroy me, to take this antithesis of all that you are and deny it existence by the power of your arm. Why not? What keeps you from doing it but lies?"[/size][/ul][/blockquote]

[Eliam]

The nihilism of Boundless's words was stunning. It actually had Eliam scrambling for an answer, contemplating his words for a long time. "We are more than our blood," he repeated. Those were the words that kept him from cutting Boundless's head off and eating him for his blasphemy.

"My blood is howling for your death," he said honestly. "My heart is racing. You can probably hear it. I want to break every bone in your body and suck out the marrow and eat your corpse and wear your skin. I have ever since I first laid eyes on you."

Instead, Eliam simply smiled. "And yet I will not harm you. Ever. We are more than our blood; my restraint is proof enough. I treat you as a friend and an equal, and by your own logic that becomes truth. That becomes reality. Your life is given value equal to mine through my actions. The simple action of obtaining your earring would thus give it value."