Anthro In A Human World

The alarm clock was going off at 5:30am, it was time to get up and go to school. First preparations were using a small bit of magic to hide both his ears and tail. A normal routine of showering, eating breakfast, and catching the train.

I was always nervous about taking the train, there were so many people and I was scared that one of them would find out that I wasn't normal. Each day this fear came, each day this fear never came true. A walk from the station to his school, Hibiya High School, it was a great school and he planned on getting into The University of Tokyo when he graduated.

During classes I would sit in the back and, for the most part, not talk to anyone. Today was one of the days that would change. Kenji Takahashi, a classmate, came over. "Why are you always so quiet?" Of course it would be this I thought. That was always the question.

"It makes it easier to study." Of course he just laughed at me. After all, everyone needed a bit of fun in there life.

"You're so weird sometimes." Yep, that was me... weird. This just meant I would have a few more days of peace before I was bothered again. I was the weird kid, and no one liked talking to the weird kid.

At lunch I would make my way onto the roof. Most of the time no one else came up here. Yet again, today was odd. I didn't have a lunch, I lived alone so I got by on just breakfast and supper. It wasn't easy, but it had to be done. Now my lunch was going to be interrupted by the same person who always had, Ayaka Ibaraki. She was bringing me lunch again."Hey Ayaka."

"Haru, how many times do I have to tell you to bring lunch?" I knew she was annoyed with me, but at the same time just joking around with me. I was surprised she could even stand to come around.

"I know... I'm sorry." I smiled to her, she was one of the people I could trust at this school.

"Don't do it again." She handed me a lunch and left. That was her, briefly there to lecture me and give me lunch. Then it was always silence during lunch.

Then there was the after school time. Every once in awhile my magic would slip up and reveal my ears and tails. Yet another bad day today. I was getting chased down an empty street and through alleyways. Always the same with these people. Run long enough and they would give up. And when they did I could finally make my way back to my small apartment. By then it was usually time for band practice.

Band practice was the only part of this life I loved. I would grab my guitar and make my way to my friends house. We would practice for a bit and talk about gigs. Nothing really special. It was always ordinary when I got there. I didn't even have to hide my ears and tail. They knew about me and they didn't care. They kept my secret and we kept on playing our gigs. It was how I was getting by on my own. Gigs did pay after all.

There is a day in my life that I don't regret, despite getting chased. It was a good day. A day I didn't get caught and beat up. A day I could go to practice without my friends worrying. It was my life, and that's how I was gonna live it.

I have joined the Guardians.
With mixed emotions, I might add.
From the day Benito Sabatier took me off the streets when I was a homeless orphan of 12 years and raised me as his own, alongside the son of his own coupling, Raul, in the deep of my heart's core I only wanted to be a good man, live an uncomplicated life, love the woman who would be my mate, raise our children and find peace among the simple people of the plains of Spain.

My life has never been like that.

Not that I have regretted what it has been like, far from it, for the accepting of responsibility and duty has taken me to lands I would never have seen, afforded me the company of people I would never have known, bestowed upon me skills and honors I would never have deserved.
It just was not what I expected.

I have had the jaunts and pleasures of youthful discovery, as Raul and I journeyed to the desert lands of the ancient east, and those cut short by his tragic and untimely death there, with me returning to his father to tell of it, and accept the sonship that fell to me, heir apparent....the Marquis of Pantera, a.k.a., the Black Panther.

I have had the priviledge of education and subsequent schooling in the art of diplomacy, serving as First Knight and Diplomatic Liason to the Duke of Bradenford himself, becoming engaged as such to the Lands of Ashford and subsequently thereby being awarded a dukedom of my own after many years of service to Her Grace, Queen Keira, as the Duke of Benvenito, the title and ruling presence now passed on my son, Benjamen.

I have had my share of sorrow in the outliving of two wives, and the children I bore with them, with the exception of Benjamen, the divorce of a third, the rejection of my biological mother who never shared the knowledge of my biological father with me, and the passing of an adopted brother and father, now, in the demise of Raul and Benito.

And my attempts to return to Spain and my underlying dream of living that simple life of a farmer and horse breeder has been interrupted once again by the responsibility and duty I felt initially to a vow of honor made to a woman who is my wife, but has become, as I have and continue to discover, so much more than a bearer of my surname, the duty there also evolving into something greater, something higher, that calls to my soul and becomes that which I must answer.

And so I find myself in a foreign land once again, on terms that are not of my choosing, but those I choose to accept, in order to remain true to the Code of the Black Knight that I pledged to so long ago, sometimes as it seems so many lifetimes ago.

Yet there is more than honor that is my promise.
Along the way my faith has been strengthened, snuffed out, supported, tested and bested, and yet.....yet....remains at the core of what I am....of who....I am...reminding me that I am called, most of all, to be One with God, that I do not and never have stood alone, and that there is one pursuit above all that is worth putting aside every dream I ever had, to lay down my life in protection of, to strive in an attempt to become and receive, it is that thing which He is....was....and always shall be.....

Love.



All things are connected
Nothing stands alone
The Twins are Two together
The Six are Three and Three
Even the One has his Faith - and one and one is two.

The Trinity is the lesson
Past -- present -- future.
Give up your all for the Rose.
Truth -- perfection -- eternity.
Its beauty is in innocence
Hence the children had to die.
The Poet of the Soul writes
No stone is left untouched
The falcon cannot hear the falconer
Until spiritus mundi awakens in us all
The link between anima to corpi
Set in the Eye of Hades.
The past begets the future and only time regrets.
Chaos the result
Until the rose blooms on the Cross.

Now the fate of The Six
Matching courage against the odds
Walk to the edge and step again
Being shown the future
Or being taught to fly.
What can we do?
What we can.
Love.
Have compassion.
Without judgement.
Resist hurt and hate.
Respond -- vibrate -- feed back -- resonate.

Conspire.
Breathe together - the Six as One.


~ Sir Antonio Sabatier ~
Member, the Guardians of Rhydin
The Duke of Benvenito, Land of Ashford (TLoA)
First Knight and Diplomatic Liason to the Duke of Bradenford, resigned (Therazul)
The Marquis of Pantera, a.k.a., The Black Panther

The One of the Six....the Apostate

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