4.
What is the most complicated Pattern conjuration Robin has ever
attempted? Was it a success or a failure? Why?
A pegasus.
Robin wanted a mount, something she could ride alongside of Morgenstern
with pride. Something that would tell the world -- here is
Julian's heir. But something that would also speak of
Robin. Therefore, a winged horse.
Robin actually researched this project. She went far into shadow,
learning and riding, reaching to understand the magics, the beauty, the
airborne majesty of the pegasus. And when she thought she was
ready, she used the Pattern to quarantine off a small chunk of Arden,
totally secure and totally secret.
There, in a secluded glade, Robin brought the foal into
existence. She named her Cloud for what she hoped the foal would
grow into and, for one perfect moment, Robin knew joy. The foal
was beautifully white, tintings of cyan and storm grey in the depths of
her pinions. Golden light in her eyes. The wildness of the
wind in her childish neigh.
But almost immediately things went wrong. The foal's wings were
too heavy and kept tripping the small pegasus up. After watching
pinion after pinion snap under the baby creature's clumsy hoofs.
After watching tumble after dangerous tumble threaten Cloud's spindly
legs, Robin tearfully tied the pegasus' wings back.
But the added weight to the pegasus' back made it ungainly and
awkward. Robin watched in growing dismay as Cloud's gait grew
into a stiff-legged lurch.
In addition, Cloud almost immediately began to fail healthwise.
Robin wasn't -- and still isn't -- sure if it's because she incarnated
Cloud as a grain-fed creature. Robin knew that most large aerial
beings were carnivores, needing the energy of a meat diet to support
the effort needed to launch a heavy creation into the winds. The
decision to feed Cloud on a ungulate's diet was one that weighed
heavily on Robin's mind before the conjuration. And she suspects
that giving up the glaring carnivore's fangs and teeth for basically
esthetic reasons may have been a fatal error.
Or was the fact that she was even thinking in terms of practicality for
a creature born of passion an indication that Robin did not have faith
enough in her creation to sustain it? The pegasus was a creature
of dreams and Robin was trying to engineer it. Perhaps her entire
approach had been wrong...
Regardless, after a miserable two months it was obvious that Cloud was
a complete failure. The pegasus could no longer walk at all, her
colors had become leaden and dull, her eyes milky and near blind, all
of her pinions, primaries and secondaries were broken and
lifeless. Constant diarrhea had left Cloud's hindquarters raw and
infected. Her gums were red and her teeth were falling out.
Her mane and tail had shedded away to mere trailing whisps of harsh
dull hair.
None of this prevented Cloud from fondly nuzzling Robin's hand as the
young Ranger came to see her one last time. With tears in her
eyes, Robin put down her finest creation and her first child.
Once Cloud was no longer suffering, Robin burnt the body and the grove,
crushing it all completely with the Pattern.
Since then, Robin has limited herself to less ambitious projects.
Until such time as she can gain the stomach to kill her
creations. She knows that her failing was not in the attempt, but
in the inability to deal with the consequences. Robin thinks that
she let Cloud suffer far too long, that she knew Cloud was not viable
and yet forced the creature to live on in pain as she desperately
attempted to salvage her pride. No Ranger and certainly no
daughter of Julian's should be afraid to kill something suffering,
something that they love, just because it's painful.
