Office max near me

I'm looking to purchase a new mini PC and trying to decide on the best options.
My budget is around £500-£600 max and I'm wanting something that's mid-high performance for daily use such as Plex, streaming, browsing, work (MS Office etc) etc.
I've most looked at the Intel NUC 11/12 and the Beelink Ryzen7 5800H, advice from the Plex subreddit was to go for Intel but the Beelink seems to have higher specs and cost less.
Any advice?
Thanks!

​
Have a 2015 Equinox. I got an engine light with o2 sensor 1 failure after replacing the same O2 sensor at my usual local mechanic. Tested the sensor and it's not defective or anything. Around this time the car began acting weird on startup. I can turn it over just fine, but if left idling before putting into gear it will eventually, 1-2 min max, begin to rumble around and then turn off/stall. It will do the same if I immediately put it into gear (reverse/Drive) and start driving. It'll start to rumble and try to stall/turn off within the first 500ft of driving but if I slam down the accelerator once or twice it'll come back to life, rev up, and then it's perfectly fine for the rest of the drive but will do it on any start up after even if the engine is warm. IT'S VERY WEIRD. This is my 4th vehicle, first Chevy, and have never experienced this nor has my usual mechanic even seen this issue.
Could it be O2 sensor related as part of the emission system? I've checked all fuses, plugged my computer in and shows only the O2 sensor error and nothing else. Up to date on all oil changes and basic engine work. Car has 136k miles on it and I usually throw in a fuel injector cleanse every 5-10k and like to run a tank or two of E85 (Flex Fuel model) to keep everything running smooth. Other than this it's been a super reliable car. Alternator and AC compressor went on me last summer but aside from new brakes last year as well, no major issues ever and i've had it since 80k.
​
any suggestions would be really great. My last resort will be the dealership where I'll be charged 4x what I usually do for anytype of service including oil changes, but i'd really like this issue to be fixed. Thanks.

I suck at Powershell so I appologize in advance but i'm trying to learn. Currently I want to write a script that will change the font style and size for all Office apps (mainly word, excel, outlook). Any script I find online, or have chatgpt write does not work and it looks like there's more then one way to do this. I've seen scripts that try changing this through the registry and through the dotm file. I'm not asking for anyone to write a script for me cause I want to figure this out myself, but to do this on a local machine, what would I need the script to modify to get this to run successfully?

...We will record this album ourselves, in different locations, and started with the piano in the South of France. We used the piano of my grandmother, which has a symbolic significance, being the first music instrument I ever played. Then we went to Goudargues, near my hometown Bagnols-sur-Cèze, to record some vocals in the church of the village. The reverberation there is just incredible and perfectly fits Alcest’s music. This whole area always has been a big inspiration for me so I was really happy to be able to record parts of our new songs there.

This is not strictly a health insurance question, but I’m not sure what other forum has as many people who are knowledgeable about the US healthcare system.
I have an HMO through UHC. In March of this year I visited my OBGYN (not my PCP, but treated as one from a benefits perspective on my plan) to see if an issue I was having might be related to the hysterectomy I had last year. She checked me out and everything was fine from her perspective, so she referred me to an appropriate specialist.
I saw the specialist (PA) for an office visit in April and paid my copay. Options that might work for my condition were discussed, and she thought I was a good candidate for one procedure in particular. She wanted me to come back and have a visit with another provider in the office (the MD who actually performs the procedure in question) and led me to believe that the visit would be a discussion with him, and that he might want to do a related scope on me but she wasn’t sure. The claim for this visit was paid without issue.
The follow up appointment was scheduled for May for - I thought - another office visit. I came in and was directed to a different area “for a scope.” I said that I was told the scope was only a maybe, and they replied that the doctor definitely did want to do it. So it was done and everything was fine and he said they’d call me to schedule the recommended procedure. At that point I asked whether they would take care of getting authorizations for the procedure and the person was like “oh it’ll just be covered as part of the office visit, it’s fine.”
I got the EOB for the May visit/scope and it was denied. Weirdly, the verbiage was for “out of network care,” even though the doctor is in network, but then it went on to say that the services had not been properly preauthorized. And of course I immediately realized my mistake. I’m just so spoiled by my PCP’s practice always taking care of everything that I forgot that this visit hadn’t started that way, and I should have asked him to do a referral to the provider I was going to see. But I was thrown by the fact that they paid the April visit with no issues. I filed an appeal and mentioned that, that the May visit was a continuation of the care begun in April, but no dice. They denied it again.
While I realize I could try to keep fighting this with UHC, I don’t know that I will ever be successful because clearly the appropriate authorization was not obtained in advance. I do feel some responsibility for this and it sucks that I made such a rookie mistake.
I feel like the appropriate path for me to go down is arguing with the doctor’s office. They had my insurance information. They knew I had an HMO and that HMOs require auths for everything. I’m also a bit put out by the fact that the PA didn’t just tell me the MD would want to do a scope. Making it sound like it was only a possibility made me think that it would just be another routine visit, and if the scope was needed it would be scheduled. (I had no idea it was something so easy that it would only take some topical numbing and less than 5 minutes.) I feel like we are pretty much equally at fault for the claim not being paid, and as such I feel like splitting it 50/50 with them is fair. I’m just not sure how to approach it. Has anyone ever been successful with something like this? What do you recommend? I appreciate any advice you have to offer. Thank you.

(background: im 22yo, 35w pregnant, unemployed, living with my husband in a 1bd apartment, husband works full time). So,ive always been on my mothers plan, and ive always had to pay 200$/month-ish. when i became unemployed we really struggled to be able to pay her on time. well, she deicded enough was enough for her and she cut us off of her car insurance plan because she "didnt want to help anymore". well i kind of begged for her to let us stay on but that did nothing so.
i stayed with the same company, and they had me paying $118/month for car insurance for both me and my husband.
well my husband just got his license suspended. because we cant afford his court fees and his ticket fees every month anymore. (he had a DUI for a very very small amount of weed in his car when he was 18, and has been paying court fees and shit for years. not only that but he got 2 speeding tickets since then and hasnt paid them off yet, and once i became unemployed all the money he gets from work goes to electric, food, and rent. thats it).
SO NOW just for ME to have coverage, its gone up to $350+ a month. ive gotten quotes from so many companies and theyre all the same. so its like, if you cant afford one thing then they just charge you more (make that make sense!).
​
so. um. now i have no car insurance on my car. and my husband cant drive. so i have to take him to work and home.... did i mention he works graveyard shift?
I work. SO. FUCKING. HARD. all day. every day. i started a side hustle and its gone NOWHERE. ive had 5 sales which is amazing but Etsy takes so much out for shipping + fees. i doordash. all fucking day everyday. and i get nowhere with it because theres no orders near me. ever. or the ones i do get are 2$ to drive 7 miles.
my husband got a .50 cent raise and now we only get 75$ in EBT. and we do have W.I.C but again its incredibly low amount.
god damn it man. im so tired of being stressed with money.

growing up both parents arguing, i remember my mom breaking my dads phone/landline when he tried to call her elder sister to intervene. My dad showing me where my mother would cut him and hurt him , the scabs. Then they decided with their shitty parenting to give birth to their son in 2009, bc me their daughter wasnt enough for their dum immature brains to handle. On top of this i dealt with a horrible skin disease (which after moving out abroad and cutting them off went away i realized it was probably caused by stress). This skin disease made my skin develop ugly dark scabs and dar circles and wrinkles on a little ass 8 year old girl. Dermalotigits said just use a non fragnance cream but nno these dumbos thought their olive oil and stupid homepathy wud help. Bc of them i became permantly scarred, permant skin color change from fair child to dark af and patchy skin with oddly fair patches on cheeks ears legs. i look like a vitigilo patient. I barely cud sleep sometimes i couldnt even walk bc the skin wud be so bloody dry and in pain. they forced me to study computer science even tho i had so many physical and depression problems. many of my female cousins didnt have to study computer science and the one who did didnt have parents shouting at eachother all the damn time. Now at near 25 finally i got out and abroad on my own, after starting my own business and being able to pay for education abroad all on my own money. But everyone will still say oh u got so far bc of ur parents not bc of ur own damn hard owrk. I dont ever want to return to India, such a dum country, so many parent worshipers no matter how shitty they are

Like I sometimes follow soccerball and just heard about some Pessi guy moving to a place near me, so who is he? Is he good? Is he friends with that Christian Ronald guy? Did he play for the Madrid Whites? btw is he married to the GOAT Christian Pulisic??????

I deeply am disgusted by myself and this feeling dosent seem to end. On medicine its been over a month but still crazy. Nearly EVERYTHING gives me urges to destroy myself. I lose my mind, punching, cutting, nail digging, and breaking way too many blinds.
​
I want to change, but my mind feels too messed up to ever repair. I feel like I am losing control. Need ways to really stop and think, I feel like I almost black out. What tf is wrong with me!!

I bought something for my daughter. After 3 days I messaged asking if she could ship it soon as it stated 3 days to ship and Mercari had said to check in with the seller.
Took them 2 more days to ship. Mercari even recommended I ask for a refund but I was trying to be understanding and give the seller time as they said it is difficult for them to get to the post office before closing. (They had messaged back on the 4th day shipped by the 6th day after purchase)
I gave them 3 starts for shipping time but left a great review as the product was exactly as described and didn't come broken which makeup pallets often do.
They even left me a 5 star rating saying I communicate well and am patient. Yet they blocked me from purchasing from them again.
This makes zero sense to me. They had a few products I was interested in. And now that I knew shipping could take longer I was prepared for it.
What the heck man guess they don't like money

I want to start by mentioning that the purpose of this post is not to diminish the progress many have made, because I know how hard it can be to rebuild credit, but I do believe it’s important for everyone to understand where they actually stand.
I’ve seen a trend of people posting their credit score progress, primarily using Credit Karma for their impressive before and after. Although progress, no matter how small, is something to celebrate, it’s important to understand what you’re actually seeing.
It’s been about six years since I began my own journey to improve my credit. My (at the time) girlfriend and I were looking into purchasing our first home, but I had poor credit (585). Knowing that I needed a score of at least 620 to receive approval on a loan, steps towards fixing my credit needed to happen. I spoke with a financial advisor, who created a plan to help improve my credit score over a span of a couple years.
It only took about three months before I began seeing a change in my score, at least while tracking it on Credit Karma’s app. Another three months had passed, and I was over the moon to see a score of 655. I couldn’t believe how easy it was to accomplish these positive changes!
Fast forward another 10 months or so and we were again looking at houses. I no longer had the fear of being rejected by lenders, as my score just kept going up. At this point, about a year and a half into my journey to fix my credit, my Credit Karma score was sitting at around 710. I was doing everything right, and it made sense to me (at the time) that the progress I had made was legitimate.
We found an amazing home, decided we wanted to make our first offer, and sought approval from a local lender. Within a few hours, we were informed that we were denied the loan, specifically due to a low credit score. It didn’t make any sense at the time, as I knew I had a 710, and my girlfriend had a score of 792. I wanted to look further into the issue, but another offer was accepted that evening. We were back to shopping the market for a house, and simply assumed the previous denial had been for a number of reasons, so I didn’t look into it as much as I should have.
Within the coming weeks, unrelated to the house search, I decided to request a balance increase to a credit card I have had with Bank of America for some time. It was only a $1,000 increase, so I hadn’t even considered any chance of a denial. Well, sure as shit, I got a letter in the mail a few days later apologizing for the denial of my request. There was only one reason for the denial, and it was “poor credit”.
At this point, I knew something had to be wrong with the information they had on me, because I could clearly see that I had a 700+ score. Curious if there was possibly an issue with Credit Karma’s app, I also downloaded Experian to compare the scores. As expected, the scores on the two apps were within 10 points of each other. I scheduled an appointment with my bank for the following day, and flat out asked why their systems weren’t updating my increasing score. This is, unfortunately, when I learned that the scores given on these apps are essentially irrelevant.
The account manager at my bank was nice enough to explain what was happening, and it was both eye-opening and upsetting. Someone’s credit score is determined by a number of factors, and this varies from lender to lender. When it came to a house, car, or personal loan, nearly every lender in this country calculates your score in a way different than what’s being seen on these credit score apps. They want you to continue using the app, because they’re a business and want users to purchase their services, see their adds, and use the lenders they recommend. So it’s obviously in their best interest for users to see impressive changes, which keeps them checking on a regular basis. Me account manager then asked me to open my Bank of America app, as well as my Discovery CC app, and check what they were showing my FICO score as. My stomach sank when I saw 611 on one, and 617 on the other.
As it turns out, Credit Karma and Experian had been giving me a false sense of success for over a year and a half, which was devastating. Although I could show fiends and family a high credit score, it meant nothing to the institutions I needed lines of credit from.
Although having the wind knocked out of my sails was rough, I stuck at it and continued strengthening my credit. It took longer than expected, but it’s now been years since I began this journey and the score recognized by lenders has finally surpassed 700. With that’s said, my Credit Karma account, which I never deleted, shows scores of 798 and 793. Although I’m now aware how little those scores actually mean to my overall financial success, it’s still fun to watch them rise.
At the end of the day, I don’t think these apps are evil or anything, I just don't want people getting ahead of themselves based solely on the information they’re receiving from them. Your best way to get a proper idea of what your credit looks like is to check your banking or credit card apps. As far as I know, all of them offer free FICO checks.
I’m sorry if this post leads to any of the same disappointment I once felt, but having a true grasp of your credit score, at least the one that lenders see, is extremely important.
TLDR; Credit Karma and Experian are fun apps, but the scores shown on there are often irrelevant to what’s needed when applying for a loan. For a realistic idea of your important credit score, log into your online banking or credit card app snd see what they show as your FICO score. This score is what’s being used when applying for a loan from essentially every financial institution in this nation.

I feel like I’m going crazy. He’s constantly accusing me of the most bizarre outlandish crap, and in turn I start lying to avoid more accusations. If that makes any sense.
For example, he’s always accusing me of hacking into his phone. I know it sounds crazy, and it is. Anything I do regarding technology (i.e. changing the wifi password to something shorter and less complicated) he thinks has to do with me hacking his phone.
Recently he was sick and sleeping all day, and we had no food in the house so I used his food stamp card to go to the store. Once I got to the store and rang everything up, I realized he changed the pin recently and I didn’t know the new one. I tried calling him but his phone was dead. So I called customer service and changed the pin back to the old one. I didn’t tell him this because I was afraid he’d think I was doing something sketchy.
Yesterday he started flipping out about his pin being changed and asked me if I did it and I said no. He called customer service and found out it was changed the day I went to the store. So that just made me look bad and gave him more reasons to accuse me of hiding something.
Another example. I recently received a notice in the mail regarding a fraudulent unemployment claim in my name. He had the same issue awhile back. He thinks the claims are connected somehow, and thinks his ex stole our identities. I told him I would call the unemployment office while I was at work, but I didn’t because I didn’t want to tell him about it later and have him accuse me of lying about what was said on the call.
He asked me if I called and I said yes. He asked to see the call log and then I admitted I didn’t call. He then accused me of faking the document and typing it up myself. And he thinks that’s tied into his phone and it’s all connected somehow. So I looked bad again.
These accusations are causing me to lie about completely innocent things and I feel like I’m actually losing my mind. I can’t wait until my lease is up and I can get away.
Has anyone else experienced something similar?

https://papercliff.github.io/redirect/?q=guard+officers+pakistani+taliban&tbs=cdr:1,cd_min:6/7/2023,cd_max:6/9/2023

Anybody else ready for Friday?? I feel like it’s been a long week.
I’m down to talk about whatever tbh I’m a pretty open book. Also down to play iMessage games if anyone wants? Prepared to get whooped tho ;)
I like to play video games (Xbox), workout, go hiking, hangout with friends and watch tv/movies. Harry Potter and Star Wars are my favorites. I’m kinda introverted so a lot of times I prefer to just chill at home lol.
I’m going on an international trip next year so give me recommendations!
Also, if anyone is from or near Ohio DM me it would be cool to make some friends nearby!

Deals for multiple items. Buyer pays +$10 for shipping since that's just the flat rate here, so if you buy one thing or a few it will be $10 for shipping.
Basic photos of everything, let me know if you need more! - https://imgur.com/a/BtwTekY
I'm really just trying to get everything out of storage ASAP and would love to sell everything all together, SO

$120.00 Shipped For Everything

Zelda: Windwaker HD Nintendo Selects WIIU [CIB] - $40.00

2x N64 Gray Controllers [Loose] - $12.00 Each

Black DualShock PS2 Controller [Loose] -$14.00

GBA Games

Lara Croft Tomb Raider Legend [Loose] - $12.00
The Sims Bustin' Out [Loose] - $10.00

N64 Games

WCW Nitro [Loose] - $10.00
Tetrisphere [Loose] - $10.00
Turok 2 [Loose] - $9.00

SNES Games

Metal Combat [Loose] - $9.00
Pilotwings [Loose] - $9.00
James Bond Jr [Loose] - $10.00
Adventures of Mighty Max [Loose] - $10.00
Rap Jam Volume 1 [Cartridge and Case] - $18.00

NES Games

Paperboy [Loose] - $12.00
Elevator Action [Loose] - $10.00
Bandai Golf Challenge Pebble Beach [CIB] - $14.00

PS2 Games

Sly 2 Band of Thieves Greatest hits [CIB] - $11.00

PS3 Games

Call of Duty Ghosts [CIB] - $5.00
Tomb Raider [CIB] - $5.00

PSP Games

007 From Russia With Love [CIB] - $10.00

Heyyy everyone! This is my first post here on this subreddit and i’d really like to get some advice from more experienced artists.
I’m a teen digital artist who does art commissions as my sole income (parents wont let me get a job yet), and I’ve been struggling with my art’s exposure and getting commissions for a few months. My main platform was instagram, however i’ve struggled immensely with their crappy algorithm and the fact that the only “commissions” i’d get were scammers. after over a year of posting religiously on there, i’ve gotten to nearly 2.5k followers, which is good but my posts still get max 100 likes and recently have been at around 60 likes, even when i do reels. Another thing worth mentioning is the fact that my only reels that end up being caught by the algorithm and getting over 10k views and 1000 likes are the stupid ones having practically nothing to do with my artwork. Its incredibly frustrating.
I’ve started becoming active on twitter and posting consistently and i have found it to be pretty good, given the fact i’ve gone from 40 followers to 130+ in around 2 weeks. However, i still haven’t managed to get a single commission, which is one of my main goals with my social media platforms. I’ve tried artfol but the platform heavily lacks engagement and feels like an offbrand twitter with a fraction of users.
I’m mostly sticking to twitter since most artists i see recommend it esp because of commissions, however, i still haven’t managed to get a commission. Idk if i’m being impatient or what but i post fanart for exposure, ocs to be interesting, and my commission sheet with a carrd and all info needed, yet i have nothing.
I’d really appreciate some advice <3

The local Taco Bell near me removed the ability to purchase the breakfast Crunchwrap Tuesday so they didn’t have to make them for the free deal. Not sure if this was allowed but it was a bit odd and I was still able to order it in store without the coupon

Guide available! Go here.
Series beginning is here.
[First] Prev/ Next
I took a deep breath and let it out. Looking up at Elizabet, I said, “Kilik-ma was curious as to the entertainment on my world. Liss-ran was apparently telling him about the breakfast we shared before we left on the hunt. The music we played through my phone. He wanted to hear some, but I’d left it here with you.
“Well, I was feeling better than I had any right to, and well, I decided to…sing a song,”
“You’ve never sang for me before. What gives?” Elizabet asked, sounding hurt.
“You never asked, and I’ve always been rather self-conscious about my voice. I don’t think it’s very good, and I don’t like to advertise that I actually can sing. Maybe four people back on Earth knew that I could sing and actually carry a tune. Now? Now, all of Haruma will know.
“Getting back to the matter at hand, I decided to sing a song about the winter and its beauty. I slipped into something of a trance, lost in the music apparently. Just singing and well, watching the song come alive in a field. I didn’t even realize that I was singing in the Ancient Tongue until the song was over, and I nearly passed out and fell off of Lola.” I took her hands in mine, and looked her in the eye, worry plastered across my face. “Elizabet, I made it snow. And not just a little bit, either. If you travel two or three hours back in the direction we came, the snow is up to my knees,” I said.
“You made it snow?” Blainaut asked, bewildered.
“Yeah. And… and that’s not all,” I said.
“What else did you do, Ivor?” Elizabet asked in exasperation.
“I might have let loose a new species of bird. A line in the song speaks of a bluebird, a specific, small bird from my planet, and a whole flock of them burst from a tree where there were no birds before. They flew off to the south,” I said, my head hung low.
Elizabet and Blainaut just stared at me. As Blainaut opened his mouth to say something, a voice piped up from the entrance to the city.
“Hey! We have visitors! Four of them. They’re small,” he said.
A crow swooped in from….somewhere and landed on my shoulder. This was going to be interesting.
I whipped around to face the possible threat. What I saw instead, were four canine pups. Realization washed over me as I realized what these were.
“The Dire Wolf,” I said softly.
“What? Dire Wolf? What do you mean, Dire Wolf?” Blainaut asked.
“I killed a female at the beginning of the hunt. She’d been in my Pack the entire time. Until this morning, anyway. I laid her in the cart to make more room for other prey we had taken. She was nursing pups at the time. I was worried they’d die, but it seems they didn’t and have followed her scent,” I explained quietly. “Back away from the cart! Don’t run. Move deliberately, and you should be okay,” I called out.
The Haarthuu slowly backed away from the cart, and the four pups approached in his stead. They pawed at the corpse of their mother, whining. Though large, they couldn’t have been more than two or three months of age. An idea struck me.
I shrugged off my Pack, and reached in for a parcel of meat from the sentry. I quickly cut some chunks from it, and slowly approached the pups, sliding the Pack back onto my shoulders. They began to growl at me, but I tossed some meat their way, and they snatched it up, obviously starving. One was especially quick about it, snapping up two to the others’ one. I continued, Duplicating and tossing meat at them until they seemed full. They began to walk off, so I halted their movement with a Wall of Stone, causing a large semicircle to appear around them. I walked in behind them and closed it off, trapping us all together.
“Ivor, no!” Elizabet yelled after me.
They immediately turned on me, growling and snarling. I tossed more meat at them, causing them to back away and spread out. One took a piece of meat and trotted off, away from the rest. The other three stood away, their hackles raised.
I took a chance and sat on the ground. As a precaution, I raised a Dome of Force over me, to ward off any attack that may come. The crow fluttered off before I finished, perching on the stone wall. One of the pups took hesitant steps towards me, sniffing the air.
“That’s right,” I said in a soft, low tone. “Come on. I’m safe. I may have killed your mother, and I’m sorry for that, but it was either her or my friends. I’ll help take care of your four, if you’ll let me,” I continued.
I could see the fear in their movements, in the way they paced and whined looking up at the wall. I racked my brain, trying desperately to recall some spell I could use to help these four pups calm down.
The one that had taken the meat and left raised its head and howled a low, keening wail. It was joined in by the others, and tears flowed down my cheeks. I knew they were mourning their mother.
As I sat there, the necessary spell flowed into my mind like water. “Call of the Wild, words of the woods, let them Hear me, let me Hear them.” I murmured, willing the five of us to understand the other.
“I’m sorry, kids. I didn’t know she was your mother,” I said softly.
The four of them snapped to attention and regarded me with suspicion.
“The two-legged pink ones lie. Always,” came a voice from my left.
“The green ones are little better,” this time, from my right.
“Strides-in-shadows is gone, and we are Nameless. Your fault!” directly in front of me, this time. The pup there was growling fiercely, slowly advancing.
“I will keep you fed. I will help you form a new pack. I will keep you safe. I will atone for the death of Strides-in-shadows,” I said solemnly.
“Fed? A new pack? Safe?” the pup that began the howl snorted and rose. It slowly padded over to me, its head cocked to the side. “How can a pink two-leg care for Wolf-kind? We hunt. We kill. We are strong,” it said.
“You will likely die without a new pack. I can offer definite survival,” I said softly.
The pup was standing at the very edge of the Dome. “Can you truly? We have our doubts,” it said softly.
I took a deep breath, my heart hammering in my ears. Slowly, I began to stand. Reaching the limit of my Dome, I dispelled it, and stood there in front of four pups. I held my hands out to my sides, open wide.
“I stand here before you. Believe me, or don’t. The Haarthuu will treat you as their own people, and I can promise you will have the attention of my three sons, should you wish it. You” - I knelt in front of the one I took to be the leader- “will never want for companionship and family for as long as you live, if you take my offer,” I said, slowly extending my hand out to him.
“Brothers? Sister? Do we take the pink one at his word? Do we kill him and feast? Do we leave?” he asked.
Three growls were heard as they advanced on me. I lowered my head, expecting the worst. I knew I would likely survive an attack, but I wanted to show trust. I head a snuffling to my right, feeling a cold nose press against my hand. I opened my eyes and slowly raised my head, only to find a yellow eye glaring into my face.
“We will trust for now. The moment we are harmed, we will tear through your people, rending life from flesh,” the leader said.
“Very well. I shall name you four,” I said. The pups sat before me in a line. “You, I shall call Speaks-with-honor. You can expect to be called ‘Speaker’ more often than not,” I said to the apparent leader, the one who had taken the meat and wandered away from his siblings, and he perked up. Turning to the fast one, I said, “You are Stings-with-wind. ‘Stinger’ will be your short name.” She, too, perked up, sitting a bit taller. I faced the calmer, quieter of the three and said, “You are Autumn Breeze. Autumn will be your short name.” He perked up, leaving the angriest of the bunch, who was pacing back and forth, a low growl coming from him. I faced him and intoned, “You are Heart-of-fire. Fireheart will be your short name.” I took in the entirety of the pups, and spread my arms wide. “It is time to meet your new pack! Come,” I said.
I turned to where I was pretty sure the crowd was, and slowly lowered the walls. The crow flapped back to my shoulder and rubbed her beak against my beard. Elizabet, Thaddeus and Blainaut were the first faces I saw. I smiled.
“People of Haruma! There are four Dire Wolf pups behind me. Please don’t be afraid, as I think I’ve made a deal with them,” I said loudly. “Speaks-with-honor is the eldest of the four. After him is his sister, Stings-with-wind. Their brother Autumn Breeze is next, followed by the fierce Heart-of-fire.” Each pup stepped forward with the announcement of their name. “They will hopefully stay with us for the rest of their lives, and we will cherish and love them as family. As long as they are not harmed, we will all prosper,” I said, the walls finally receding into the ground.
The pups sat behind me, watching impassively as the Haarthuu looked worriedly between each other. My boys slowly walked up to me.
“Mr. Ivor? What are we going to do with them?” asked Ahte-tan.
The crow, that I was now certain had to be The Great Mother, hopped off my shoulder and revealed Herself to the crowd of Haarthuu, who all knelt in reverence. Even the Dire Wolf pups showed their belly and neck to her. It seemed all life on Chaia knew her as their Mother.
She knelt in front of the boy. “You are going to love them, cherish them, and treat them like family, My Child. That’s what you’re going to do with them. I hope you will bond with them. They aren’t pets. They are family members. Remember that,” She said, seeing his serious face nod.
“Heart-of-fire? This is Ivor’s oldest, Ahte-tan. I hope the two of you will get along. He will take care of you, Fireheart. Treat each other well,” She said to the wolf pup.
Fireheart walked over to Ahte-tan, and sat before him, staring him in the eye. “Now, remember, Child. Fireheart is proud, strong, and lives up to his name. Help him focus that flame, and I am certain he will be a stalwart companion,” She said.
“Ahte-naah? This is Stings-with-wind. She is fast; faster than you, even. Help each other direct yourselves in your journeys, and I’m certain you will find no better friend than Stinger,” The Great Mother said gently.
Stinger padded over and sniffed and snuffled Ahte-naah’s face, then pounced on him, licking him all over. Ahte-naah giggled and laughed, burying his face in the wolf’s soft fur.
Speaks-with-honor padded over to my youngest, and cocked his head. “Speaker, this is Ivor’s youngest, Ahte-ukum. He is kind, soft-spoken, and rather timid. Help him find his inner warrior; his inner dragon, and you will have a partner to rely on for the rest of your life,” The Great Mother told the eldest pup.
Speaker walked over and lay down at my youngest’s feet, and Ahte-ukum sat, gently petting the gray fur.
Autumn Breeze trotted up to the goddess, butting her gently with his head. “Liss-ran?” The young woman gasped and covered her mouth with her hands. “This is Autumn. He is quiet, calm and attentive. Of all the Haarthuu, only you are able to properly understand him, I think. As you spend time with him, I think you may come to know yourself even better. Care for him as you would your own flesh and blood, and he will never leave you,” The Mother of All commanded. Once she had finished she turned to me.
“I certainly didn’t expect this, Ivor. You may have just begun to turn the tide for this city of My Children. As long as they survive, those pups will be a fierce deterrent to any seeking to gain entry. I am glad to see that you continue to exceed my expectations, dearest. However, I must take my leave. Stay safe, Ivor,” She said, then planted a soft kiss on my cheek before fading.
The pups, now sitting beside their respective Person, began a new howl. This was not one of sorrow, but of the joy of finding a pack.
[First] Prev/ Next
Hey! I’m also uploading my work on RoyalRoad! Here is my profile IvorFreyrsson
Join me over at Words_From_Ivor for more!
Master List