[BRP] The Future I Choose (Cosmic Traveller & Breach)

[doomsayer]

Cosmic Traveller had had her head in the clouds for as long as she could remember. Always looking up at the stars that reflected the patterns on her own back. Rarely looking at other kin but mostly looking through them, seeing them mostly though the dreams she gets of their potential outcomes.

Everything changed when she met Gathering Wings. Even though it was part of her name, she never really got around to travelling much on her own. Yet now she's never felt more moved about--and more sore from the walking. But it's a happy soreness, one that she's willing to experience again and again with him. He's shown her more places in the last few weeks of moving around than she's seen over most of her life. Each place is a new sensation, a new food, a new view, a new quality to the air.

They've grown much closer during their journeys. Much, much closer. The experiences he showed her weren't just limited to the places they've been to, but extended to the time they've spent together. Helping each other, laughing together, watching sunrises and sunsets, sleeping in the same places, sharing in each other's warmth...

"It was bound to happen. I wonder how he will feel when I tell him." She smiles to herself as she feels the unfamiliar, yet recognizable swell starting in her belly.

[anemosagkelos]

The voyage from sea to swamp never seemed to be easy, but it was familiar and it was an important task to undertake. She'd done it so often as a kin that she could no longer fathom how many times it had been done, but the journey was different for other forms. This time she was studying the land to find the most direct and easiest to manage for the creatures she had found. As a rugged whale, the more unruly of the two, it was imperative that the trek allowed less chances for them to flee in a favored game of chase. Which was why the glowing-eyed whale floated above the ground as it made its way further into the swamp.

Research, a silence to complication, and the inevitable meeting of a kin who needed something that only a stag or mare could offer. It was felt, stronger as the whale closed in. A keening cry erupted from the sharp-toothed mouth, calling out and making the stranger aware of its presence. They'd have found each other without it, but it never hurt to give out some direction.

[doomsayer]

Hearing the keening cry made her jump a bit. Her curiosity was typically limited to what she would think her visions would show her of the world or of other kin, but her recent gadabouting has made her more comfortable with taking the occasional risk to satisfy her curiosity in a more direct way. ANd in this instance, she really wanted to know what was making that sound.

Slowly approaching the direction that the sound came from, she turns a corner and makes direct eye contact with the glowing-eyed whale that floated above the ground. She let out a startled yelp as it was the first time she had seen such a creature. It didn't seem hostile, nor did it seem immediately dangerous for her to be near it.

Cautiously, she tries to talk to it, "Um, hello? Are you able to understand me?" She cocks her head to the side slightly while keeping eye contact.

[anemosagkelos]

The whale gave a quick, harsh slap of its tail in the air and then Breach shook herself to return to the form of a mare. Around her the forms of whales, now translucent swam with ease in the air, and a watersnake curled around her right foreleg. It didn't last long, it was more trying to have more than one of her alternate forms out and she had to focus on not disappearing herself.

"I can understand you, perhaps not as well as you might understand me when the whale song comes, but none the less," she smiled. It'd taken her time to become comfortable in this position. Time that filled holes and stretched out who she was into an ever growing kin. She hummed, at the thought, then stepped forward.

"You're expecting," an observation, "what do you hope for your children?"

[doomsayer]

Shock and awe were the emotions she felt as the being before her transitioned between forms and finally shifted into a mare. She had inevitably heard of them before--kin who ascended into a higher state and were granted special abilities. Everyone had compared her dreams and visions--delusions to them--and deemed them impossible as only the ascended were granted these mystic powers.

She was even more astounded when the mare spoke to her of her state. She hadn't even told anyone yet!

Her mouth is left agape for a moment as she stammers for a reply before her thoughts are directed to her future offspring. As though the very presence of the mare was clearing her mind, she thinks on her wish for the future of her children.

With a hopeful smile, she replies; "I only wish for them to be healthy and happy. And that none of them inherit my curse."

[anemosagkelos]

Healthy and happy, she could do. It was perhaps the easiest of all the things she had been asked for, that she thought she might ask for if their positions were changed. She was about to nod when the doe mentioned a curse and she felt the chill of sorrow, disgust, hatred that accompanied all of a mother's convinced flaws and inadequacies.

She considered approaching for a moment and then she did, moving so that her chest is near the doe's cheek, before she stretches her neck over the kiokote and presses her chin against the doe's head. It is perhaps one of the only failings that the Motherfather has made bodies that cannot so easily hug like lemurs and bunnies and otters. They make do, she makes do.

"And what curse is it that you possess?" she asked, gentle.

[doomsayer]

She felt the sentiment of the mare as the latter wrapped her neck around her own. She's told the story many times before. She could bare to tell it at least once more.

Ever since she was a foal, she has had these dreams and visions. When she asked other older kin about them, some laughed, and some treated her with derision. No one ever really helped her shed any light on why she was seeing these things and what the nature of these things actually were.

She looks up at the stars because her nights are filled with dreams. She cannot remember the last time she had a full night of restful slumber. Sometimes the dreams are fantastical; showing her things beyond the swamp, her kin, their culture. Sometimes the dreams are of daily life; showing what could be and may have been. Sometimes the dreams are just colors; splashes of vibrance in motion, refusing to let her mind be still.

And then sometimes the dreams are terrifying: views of the swamp burning; kin eating each other from starvation; monsters from the deep climbing from the sea and dragging kin under; creatures she's only seen in her dreams coming from beyond the mountains or the sky and taking and killing kin. No, she can't remember the last time she's had a good night's sleep.

She does not know if what she sees will come to pass, but she knows that if some knowledge of the future can at least help others, she will not stop using her gift. So she tells anyone who bothers to listen about her latest dreams. She focuses her vision on any kin who would approach her to see if she can see their fortune--even if most of those who do act with ulterior motives.

But as much as she views it as a gift, she also sees it as a curse. Something that makes her different in a way that ostracizes her from others. Something that takes away from her sanity and peace of mind. Something that prevents her from easily making long lasting relationships.

She doesn't notice as tears flow freely down her cheek onto the mare's fur, her emotions taking the opportunity to overflow.

[anemosagkelos]

"Oh, you poor," she whispered, hesitating only a second when she found she did not know what to call the kiokote. Dear and child seemed wrong, she was about to be a mother herself, this kiokote. At the moment, though, she was emotional, rightly so, combined with the addition of pregnancy. It was an understandable state and she'd be lying if she had not felt similar, thought for entirely different reasons, when she'd experienced the coming of motherhood.

"I cannot claim to know what the Motherfather has bestowed upon you nor what it means," she reluctantly admitted. "There are kin who have visions or dreams or see things other cannot, you are not alone in that, but I cannot say what the mean. That does not mean that they are not real, though," she smiled. She waited, offering comfort, until she sensed that the doe was ready to stand on her own.

"Health and happiness are easy enough, and I can allay your fears that your children will have your same gift. Is there anything else you wish for them?" The thoughts were already forming in her mind, but she liked to give the parent as much input as possible.

[doomsayer]

She realized that neither of them have introduced themselves to each other, even if it felt they related to each other so much. It felt wrong that she would be given a blessing by someone she could not personally thank.

The mare's words gave her much hope for a future of which she is so uncertain.

"My name is Cosmic Traveller. And if it isn't too much to ask on top of health and happiness, I would love for my children to have an easy time making friends--something I never really had for myself. And if it also not too much trouble, I would like to know your name as well."

[anemosagkelos]

"My name is Breach, and if you like, you can call me friend. I, too, struggled making friends when I was young," she smiled.

She centered herself, "Your children shall be healthy and happy. They shall be amiable and form relations with all they meet. They shall be without visions and dreams that trouble them but find the gifts that are meant to enrich their, and their mother's, lives."

A smile, that would work out nicely, she thought.

[doomsayer]

Hearing the mare's blessing lifted her spirits and gave her a feeling of relief that she's so rarely felt before. With a smile in return, she gave her thanks.

"Thank you Breach, my friend. I am glad to have met you and am happy to receive your blessing. At least the future of my children is something I can undoubtedly look forward to."