Spring the 23rd, 520 AV
Light rarely filtered this far down through the thick foliage of the Falyndar canopy. Not to say it was pitch black or even dark, but the light that made it this far down was hardly ever whole. It was light, but not quite, more like an idea of light, an almost sourceless luminescence. Only the fact that it came from above made Adeliz think it came from the sun. Right now, Adeliz was cautiously tracking those rarities, actual sunbeams that skillfully wove their way past the seemingly infinite leaves that littered what constituted the jungle sky.
She’d not forgotten the jungle was a dangerous place, but ever since her and Ines’ encounter with the tower in Bala’s Bowl, Adeliz had wanted out of the place. Time and time and time and time again, she’d tried to warn her sister that there was something off about the place, but Ines never listened. In fact, Adeliz was certain her stubborn sister was planning on making the place her home. Thus far though, that hadn’t yet happened, and Adeliz took every opportunity to find herself as far as possible from the tower and the thing inside the tower.
In comparison, the jungle didn’t seem so bad. It didn’t watch her. It didn’t know she was there. It didn’t reach out and touch her. She couldn’t explain it, but that was what the encounter had felt like. Her soul had been violated by the thing, and Ines practically wanted to move in with it.
Out here though, she was the thing unseen. She was the intangible force. Or she would have been, if she wasn’t so afraid of everything. Rather than flit merrily from sunbeam to sunbeam, Adeliz hovered in the shadows, half submerged in trees and bushes in some gesture reminiscent of her time marked by Caiyha. This was different though. Even sharing the same space of existence, Adeliz wasn’t as close to them as she had been before. In pained her to admit it, but the jungle didn’t feel like home anymore. It felt as if as soon as Adeliz had died, her Goddess had abandoned her. She was no longer Goddess touched, no longer marked, no longer wanted. There was no longer any familiarity to the wild. Plants were just plants, and none of them cared at her passing.
So rather than revel in the light, Adeliz stuck to the shadows while she watched the things that moved through the light. Most of them were small, inconsequential things, moths and butterflies and many-legged insects. More seldom, the smaller mammalian creatures of the jungle would scurry through the beams of light, some of them in search for food, some just busy moving from one safe place to the next. If she still had her connection to Caiyha, Adeliz might have understood the motion of the many creatures, how all of them connected together to drive the forward coursing energy of life. As it was though, they were just creatures, animals and insects, moving and milling about with no part to play in the greater whole.
As she flitted warily from the periphery of one sunbeam to another, something else passed along with her, both unaware of the other’s presence. It was the same way that two shadows moved with the light, sometimes crossing each other but never aware of the existence beyond themselves.
Eventually though, the thing that followed the same path as Adeliz lost its unanimity. In a surge of boredom (ghosts were almost always bored, Adeliz had found), she had burst forward, drifting aimlessly beyond several sunbeams, convinced they could be no different from the last, only to find herself curious as to what she may have missed. Turning back, she caught movement just beyond the third sunbeam back. It was there, just for a moment, but dappled coat met dappled light and disappeared entirely.
The illusion of being alone had been broken though, and Adeliz was a creature of caution, above all else. Quietly, shrinking deeper into the nothingness ghosts inhabited, she watched for any signs of its reappearance. Here, on the cusp between existence and extinction, Adeliz found her awareness of the world and its many intricate details heightened. With her eyes focused and soul ready, Adeliz caught it much more easily this time. As if it was birthed by the shadows themselves, a lithe creature slinked down the game trail, not necessarily hunting but stalking quietly in case an opportunity presented itself. It was definitely a cat, but it was large, as long as Adeliz was tall.
Though its occasional stops to sniff-taste the air almost made it disappear, Adeliz had it. It wasn’t going to escape her now. Slowly, she waited for it to approach and pass her.
Rather than pass her though, it stopped, instinctual senses tingling at the presence in their midst. It was a predator, but even predators knew they could be wounded. Liquid muscles shifted beneath the dappled hide, and its stance changed subtly, almost imperceptibly, to make it ready for whatever might come next. When nothing did, it lifted its head tasting the air for whatever might be laying in wait. Finding nothing, it growled into the empty shadows and began to stalk forward again, and Adeliz fell in behind it, the unseen witnessing the invisible.
