The Gathandrian Trilogy 02 - Hallsfoots Battle

reverberations for the scribe, the ache, the shame of memory. That is all to the good; the stronger the knowledge of past failures in his opponent’s thoughts, the better his chances of success. He returns to the Legend.
    Before Sloth can answer the wolf, the animal captures his arm with its teeth. Not deep enough to draw blood, but strong enough for him to be held there on the bed until the wolf’s strange purpose is fulfilled.
    The question is asked again, this time with more urgency. Sloth answers in the only way he knows.
    “I want to be happy,” he says.
    The wolf lets go of his arm and laughs. The sound is surprisingly Gathandrian. “Happiness is not a want that can be achieved by itself; it is merely the by-product of other states of being.”
    A pause follows, during which Sloth understands he is expected to speak, but can think of nothing to say.
    The wolf takes several paces back, as if to allow Sloth time to recover his lost equilibrium. For him, however, it would take the absence of his questioner to obtain that end. When the animal speaks again, his words are whispered through the mind-link, alluring, almost seductive.
    “Do you not wish to know what those other states of being might be?”
    Sloth thinks for a while, remembering what his beloved sister, Prudence, has taught him, answers with her in mind.
    “The Spirit who created our land and us,” he says, “provides all our needs and we do not question its graciousness. We are happy simply to live under the shadow of its wings and be filled by its blessings. That is enough for us.”
    “And does this make you truly happy?”
    “Of course.” Still, in spite of his words, Sloth finds that the wolf’s questions are eating at the certainties he has carried for so long in his heart. He finds a shadow at the centre of his mind he has not known before. It troubles him.
    The wolf snarls a response. “You lie, although you do not know it. The life that the Gathandrian Spirit bids you lead is one of imprisonment and hardship, not of the body, but of the mind. You are forced to carry out the whims of a being you never see and whose purposes you do not know. You must harvest the land for your food or you do not eat. You have no help to store up supplies for the future and no time to do the things that please you or to discover what they might be. Neither can you travel, learn to connect with people of other lands that you have never seen. How can you be truly yourself or truly happy if you exist under this kind of captivity? There are worlds out there, worlds of the mind and of the soul, that you do not know. There is happiness elsewhere which is waiting to be discovered.”
    When the wolf finishes, Sloth’s heart is beating fast. He finds there is something about these strange words and thoughts that grips his mind, spins it through circles coloured like the animal’s eyes, gold and green, the shades of longing. But who he is now cannot be so easily altered.
    “But-but we have our ease here, my sister and I,” he replies. “Our lives are familiar and safe. Why should we wish to change them or have the other experiences you talk of? What good can come of it?”
    The wolf gazes at him quizzically, its head to one side and saliva dripping from its jaws. “And does your acceptance of such a life please the Spirit of Gathandria, do you think?”
    Sloth does not know. The question of the Spirit’s response to how they spend their days on the Gathandrian earth has never entered his thoughts. Neither Prudence nor he have ever sensed disapproval on the part of the being who made them. In fact, they have never sensed its presence at all.
    “Exactly,” the wolf whispers, its tones slipping through Sloth’s mind like a young snake through morning grass. “Have you never thought that the reason for the Spirit’s absence from your lives is because you have failed the test it has set you?”
    Sloth shakes his head, grips the blanket more firmly around his body. “What test do you speak of? I do not understand you.”
    The wolf settles down, lies on the stone floor with its great head resting on its front paws. The eyes are still fixed on Sloth, as if they will never leave him.
    “All life made by the Gathandrian Spirit is tested to see if that life is worthy of true happiness,” he says. “As I speak to you, you and your sister are in danger of failing the test by the poor shadow of life that you have settled for, and then you will be no more. The