Crossing the Sun (Dor)

[Haeli]

Haeli smiled. "No, I'm not a kelvic. Brig is though. I found him wandering the woods too. He's helped me set up my place so its comfortable for wild things, creatures like you. He comes and goes as he pleases, so I don't know for sure if he will bring you things, but if he gets to know you and likes you, he will. I'm certain. He likes to see the joy in people's eyes when he gives them treasure. He knows things I don't too and has a great many stories too." She added, thinking things over.

"No, what I do is not god magic. It's called Morphing. People have always been able to do it like making fire or water. I have god magic too, but its from Caiyha as a caretaker of one of her natural domains. I am a swamp witch only recently come here to this mountain. I wouldn't mind you in my place. Is there a reason I shouldn't want you there? Are you prone to stealing things or breaking things? Are you dirty? I like to keep things clean and that means going outside when you have to move your bowels. I don't like my trees covered in bird droppings or the bases of them littered with pellets if you spit up mice bones. If you see it, you'll understand why. People come there to buy things and expect it clean for their purchases." Haeli said, emphasizing the clean part.

She didn't mind that the woman asked questions, but she decided she'd better know her name. "I'm Haeli. Do you have a name you go by? Something I can call you?" Haeli asked, admiring the girls fiery red hair and her flashing almost dangerous eyes.

[Dor]

“Dor,” she offered while frowning over Haeli’s answers. They were patient answers and that was a quality she had long since learned to appreciate, recognizing vaguely that from time to time people required a great deal of patience to interact with her. It was not understood entirely save, of course, that she was irritating. Duvalyon had always thought so. Her full name was a thing that had been spoken but twice, given shape and set loose upon the world so rarely over the course of her years. It had never been uttered by her, but rather by her mother and later by the Duvalyon, offered forth like a gift or a wish to keep secret and safe. It was too precious to entrust to the light of day and strangers with smiling faces. “I’m not going to poop on your stuff,” she added after a minute, ruffling a bit; but all the while she continued her study of the self-proclaimed swamp witch, dark eyes prying at the details as if with enough effort she might see past any masks that were being worn. “Steal? No. I hunt,” she hedged and curled her toes. Heartbeats ticked by as she continued to mull over the not-an-egret’s offer. “And I wouldn’t steal from you in your own place. That would be wrong.” Finality edged those soft spoken words. This clearly was a firm belief of hers. “Alright,” came the decision at length, the corners of her mouth lightening in a semblance of a smile. “I’ll come stay with you for awhile and you can look at me.” It would save her money, she thought, and that could make all the difference. “Who’s Caiyha?”

[Haeli]

"Nice to meet you Dor." Haeli said politely, maybe because it was the thing people did in Lhavit, not really because she was actually sure it was nice to meet Dor or not. But Dor did understand what she was saying, and that caused Haeli to smile. She didn't mind birds. Bird poop she did mind. Thieves, well, she'd met a few she'd enjoyed, so she didn't mind them. Thieving she did mind. Haeli studied the girl, offered a smile, then nodded.

"Hunting I understand. I can hunt with you too if you'd like. Both Brig and I do so." She added.

"Thank you. And I'll see about teaching you how to take more than the falcon form you have now. It might work and you might be clever at it since you can already shapeshift as it is." Haeli said, looking thoughtful. She shook her long hair and brushed it out of her eyes. Heali wasn't like Dor. She wouldn't burn in the sun like Dor would. She'd ran wild outside for a long long itme.

The next question was harder. "Caiyha is THE Goddess who fills up the world with all things wild. She gave us nature and plants and animals, all the reasons we survive and thrive. Caiyha is my mother and patroness. She gives us a universal language you can talk to everything with, even to the point that I can talk to your falcon if you've a mind to listen. She lets you talk to plants too. They are more wise than you might think." Haeli said, glancing around. "The world we live in is Caiyha. When you are in the sky, you are in Zulrav's world, but here, on the ground or even in that tree you are in Caiyha's arms." She said softly, her eyes glittering with passion. Her voice was strong even in its softness, stressing her belief in what she was saying and her passion in the life.

Haeli was relieved that Dor wanted to come with her for a while. That made her day because it was a rare circumstance where a flying thing would let her study her thoroughly. It would not be without price, but Haeli didn't mind so much. Dor seemed.... wise in many respects. Like perhaps she'd traveled or cared not at all about humanity whereas Haeli really did want to know humans.

"Where are you from? I like to know about places beyond this one. Do you know any places you could tell me about?" Haeli said abruptly, settling down in the grass of the stream bank in a comfortable spot where she could look up in the tree. "We can start back in a little while, but I need to rest first. Flying is hard on non-kelvics who are getting fat from living easy in a city. We could walk, but it would hardly be welcome here if we walked back to the city without clothing." She said, wrinkling her nose in disapproval.

[Dor]

While Haeli talked, Dor began an intense study of the tree in which she was perched. Heavy branches bowed towards the hazel brush and golden grass like an old man’s gnarled arms. A hand that was as deceptively fragile as the rest of her spread against the rough bark, scratching lightly into the softer outer shell and not doing nearly as much damage she would have with claws. “Caiyha is like Virates,” she determined by the completion of the swamp witch’s explanation. Awkward grace carried her upright, one arm hooking against the crook of a more slender tree limb. “Not here, but everywhere. In the tree. In the veins.” And did she ever know veins, could recite them sing-song in Symenos’ alphabetical order. S is for Spider. “Do you think trees have veins? I’m only starting to get to know them,” she explained. There had been no trees in her childhood. It might have been that Haeli was a woman, or perhaps that Dor’s first sight of her had been with wings emblazoned against a soaring sky. Regardless, the singing line of tense guard relaxed until with a rustle of leaves, some sent floating down in a torn flurry, she dropped herself straight down to land in a crouch. The crouch crumbled, leaving her scooting backwards until the prodding roots of the sentinel oak bumped against her bare bottom. “The places I know aren’t where I’m from,” she confessed at the end of a thoughtful silence. “They aren’t where my veins are from,” or were they? It was for Duvalyon’s belief in their shared blood that she was beneath the sky now. “Only they are,” she finished lamely, aware that despite her only somewhat fumbling attempts with language she was still failing to communicate well. It was a life long problem. “Up,” she began, opening hers hands like a book in indication of the sky. “I know Up, but so do you. Denval,” she worked her way backwards, “That’s the name of a place I know. There is an unfinished road that begins at a wall and goes into nowhere. The water comes there too, and there’s this incredibly nasty seagull who is very, very rude.” The corners of her mouth twitched. “But funny.”

[Haeli]

Haeli smiled, then laughed, nodding. She rested a moment more, then climbed to her feet and moved beneath the tree to its trunk. "Yes, exactly like that. They do have veins. They put their roots deep into the ground and pull water from it and hold themselves to the earth, then their veins carries the water upwards, nourishing them and turns it into sap which is like their blood. Sap flows all through them. When you pull off a bit of bark, they bleed, just like we would if you pulled a bit of our skin off. Sap and blood, it is the same. They have feelings too, thoughts and emotions. If Cayhia marks you, then you can hear their feelings." Haeli said softly, glancing up at Dor, amazed by what she was and what she thought.

Dor continued onward with her dialog, Haeli only half paying attention, because she had laid her hand on the trees trunk and was feeling its health with her gnosis mark, stretching out her awareness and for a moment being the tree. It was vaguely amused by Dor being up in its branches and confused as to whether Dor was a bird or a girl. Haeli knew the feeling and sent sympathetic thoughts back at the tree, reassuring it that it wasn't the only one confused.

Her eyes turned upwards again as she released the tree trunk gently. She took two steps back and stared at Dor. She sat down again, rubbing her arms, and looking thoughtful. "I've never heard of Denval, but I do know up. I've been to Kalinor though, but I wore the skin of a trader and the guise of a man to be safe to go there. Otherwise, I've only known the swamp. Do you like swamps?" Haeli said thoughtfully, almost hopefully.

Haeli frowned at herself, rubbing her arms and looking wistful. She was getting soft in the city, not flying as much as she used too. That would have to change. She had to make the trip from Lhavit to the Gyvaka regularly to restock her supplies, so it wouldn't do that she was getting out of shape so badly.

"I'm almost ready... are you?" She asked, stretching out her long legs and waited. Daily. She'd have to start flying daily again.

[Dor]

“Why would a goddess want me to hear the feelings of a tree?” Perplexion was clear on her face. Suspicion crept in around the edges, twisting her mouth with doubt. “Getting marked doesn’t sound good. Marked how? People mark belongings. They mark slaves, Haeli.” It was concern that pressed her lips together as she stared back at the swamp witch, and that concern increased exponentially with the mention of Kalinor. Black eyes went round as Mizahar’s moon and she scrambled to her feet in a flash. The light sparked off the murder of her hair as she stepped out of the tree’s shadow to come to a halt toe to toe with the egret-who-was-not-an-egret. “Don’t go there,” she said this very seriously, hands gesturing firm intent against the air. “To Kalinor. Never go there even if you’ve skinwalked. Okay?”

[Haeli]

Haeli blinked, confused, and looked at Dor with new eyes. The combination of the two women was a little unsettling. Dor was a wild thing, a kelvic, but she knew so much more about humans than the witch did who'd never been around them ever before she'd come to Lhavit. "Slaves? Dor, what is a slave?" Haeli asked, confusion written all over her face. "Why would people mark things, Dor, that doesn't make any sense. You know something is yours or not just by looking at it. Why would a marking change that?" She asked, suddenly wondering if the Kelvic was normal. Haeli would have to touch her to completely understand, to speak to her in the language of wild things that all living breathing children of Caihya knew, even if they didn't know they knew it.

"Caiyha marked me so I could share in her power, a little, and do things she wants me to do to help the wilds, Dor. It is something I do because I want too. It is not forced. I can touch things and talk to them - birds, plants, animals of all sorts... even trees. If this tree was being strangled by ivy, I could touch it and know its plight. Then, if I chose too, I could untangle it from the ivy that was killing it and help it survive. That happens in Lhavit a great deal. They love to see ivy grow up trees, but do not understand it hurts the trees. I free them so then they live and creatures like you will have places to roost at night." Haeli said, somehow wanting - no needing - this kelvic to understand that she wasn't forced to do what she did. She wanted too.

Dor's reaction to Kalinor surprised her. "But I already went. I have a friend there. He invited me. I know it is a scary place. He told me what they do sometimes. But he wasn't like the others. Not all of them are. Have you been there Dor? How do you understand so much otherwise. You must have been there. I know... I know what you mean. I didn't know when I went, but I did know afterwards. I didn't think my friend would ever hurt me, but I know the others there would. I learned going there though, Dor. I learned that not everyone is like those they were born too. Do you know what I mean? You don't have to be what others say you must be. You only have to be what you want to be... what you can get away with being depending on where you are." Haeli said.

"Thats why I am in Lhavit... to learn about humans. To try and understand them. I was born of their blood, but I know nothing of them and am trying to understand." She added, looking Dor over. She wanted to ask her a hundred questions. Haeli needed someone to ask. She just didn't know if Dor would trust her enough to let her and then answer some of them.

[Dor]

“They mark them not so that they won’t forget,” the falcon struggled with language, fighting it like a fishing line that had been tangled long ago with dying words flopping about on the other end. “But so that the marked person won’t. So that ownership will be permanently on them,” and she smacked her hands together as if in attempt to demonstrate. “If you want it, that’s.. Okay,” she exhaled, her scowl not fitting doll like features. “It’s probably different if it’s a god or something and if I could hear what the trees say when I roost in them it’d be fascinating. Has this one said anything?” A tilt of her head back, face up to the green shadows of leaves so that the spilled on her cheeks like Caiyha’s tears. “Is it happy? Its pretty here and there’s a lot of Up all about, so it should be. Right?” Uncertainty entered her expression as she looked back to Haeli. “Haeli,” she spoke slowly, wondering perhaps if her Common was worse than she had already imagined. “All of them are bad there. They wear,” and here and idea occurred and she lifted her hands again to spread them in front of her face. “Faces. Sometimes the faces are true and sometimes they’re lies. Like if I learned how to change my feathers as you said and went egret rather than falcon. The egret would be a lie, just something I was wearing for awhile. The problem is that its not easy to tell which face is their real one or how many real ones they have or if there’s a real one beneath a lying one and,” she was frustrated, working herself up into a ruffle. “And don’t go,” she finished. “In any face. Down there, even the real faces will trap you.”

[Haeli]

It pained her. It physically pained her to listen to Dor and not understand her. It was neither of the girls' fault, really. Haeli's common was coming along nicely, but the concepts Dor knew about were not in Haeli's experiences. She didn't understand what ownership of another person was. And she didn't understand about the up in terms of the tree. And above that, she certainly didn't understand Dor's frantic warning about Kalinor and the faces. And well, in regards to the tree, that was impossible to explain.

It was like trying to talk to a Whisperwing without Nura.

Haeli rose, frustration practically oozing off her, and climbed the tree in a few graceful motions. It was easy to do, naked and barefoot as she was. The swamp witch loved trees and knowing about snakes and birds and all the things that loved to climb them by nature, she was up in the branches almost before Dor could speak.

Enough was enough.

The witch reached out and touched Dor's bare foot - the closest part of her Haeli got to the quickest - and tapped her Gnosis Mark. Nura. The language of all creatures, both plant and animal, flooded her. It required touch to use, but it could bridge gaps that Haeli and Dor otherwise couldn't cross. The language was a lot like music - a song of life - that flowed not only from Haeli but to her.

Haeli couldn't force Dor to use it. She couldn't force Dor to not shake her foot off. But she could show Dor what she asked about the tree. Through Haeli, the tree's voice became clear to Dor in that moment. Its awareness and delight of both girls being up in its branches flooded Dor's senses. It liked where it grew, but then again wasn't that obvious? It had picked out the spot as a seed and had thrived there ever since. It liked birds, but had been surprised when Dor turned out to be a bird that wasn't a bird. It knew owls mainly, most of which perched in its branches at night and told it stories of what they'd seen while hunting. It liked the sky too, and the wind that brought it things unexpected and startling. There was water beneath it, a cool clear underground stream that nourished its roots. It made them aware of the other trees, slumbering and awake around them, like voices in a crowd though the language the trees whispered in was more like that of gently shaking leaves blown by the winds.

Life flooded her senses, giving her a glimpse into the world as Haeli saw it. So too, touching Haeli while she tapped her gnosis, gave Dor insight.

"Lets start again. I am Haeli." The message was clear. The name in common was just a name, but in Nura it was so much more. Dor knew, in that instant, Haeli's age, her demeanor, and more importantly her nature. Haeli was a wild thing, brought up to think of herself as one of the snake people. She changed her form as easily as most people changed clothing. She was lost and alone in a world of humans, struggling to fit in, and yet at the same time a light in the darkness because she meant well in all things she did. Not unlike a healer, Haeli was there to help because of Caiyha. And through Haeli's touch, and her introudction, Dor suddenly - if she chose to accept the knowledge - would see Caiyha's hand in the world and how Haeli saw all life as the same, plant and animal both, without the prejudice of hardship coloring her view. The witch had never known hardship, pain, abuse, violence, and had no idea what a lie was. Such things were alien to her, far beyond Haeli's understanding because she'd never seen or felt them. Talking her about the faces of Kalinor was like trying to describe the color blue to a person who couldn't see. Unless, of course, she used Nura back, which was possible with Haeli's mark active.

All that Dor knew in an instant. What she chose do to with it was up to her. Haeli was offering to open a dialog in a language all creatures could understand. But at the same time she had no concept of privacy and that Nura allowed for none, though Dor would realize it almost instantly.

The witch waited... letting Dor react.

[Dor]

It was as if the bowl of the heavens upended when Haeli's hand made contact with Dor's foot. The sky turned itself inside out in an explosion of clouds that sailed the currents of extoic Ekytol and sprawling Sylira, swift footed winds out of Cyphrus and humid vibrancy from Falyndar. The snow kissed breeze had come by way of Taldera and together with the rest settled both bright storms and dark dawns over Kalea which woke beneath Caiyha's call. Intimate understanding of the egret girl flooded Dor's senses and all barriers constructed by culture and language fell on their tongues with swords. How it felt in the breast to dance beneath the heavy vines and color saturated growth of the swamp was not just a history she knew, but now a story she could tell. It was a world without masks, where paper faces crumpled beneath an unforgiving onslaught of nature's brutal truths. She had gone still as the tree in which they were perched, black eyes wide in the dappled shadows. Tangles of hair drifted and fluttered in tune with the flickering of the leaves and in listening she realized the asylum housed in the kneeling roots and far flung branches. The tree welcomed her into its shelter regardless of the confusion over be she girl or bird. It was unconcerned in the end with labels and possessed of a profound empathy for those words and names others tried to adhere to her. Other defining, boxing, cutting right to death with a blindness that prevented them from even so much as stumbling into the sheer depth of reality -- she was both. The skin of her could walk into feathers, and plumage could tuck itself beneath the flesh. These were not mutations or masks. Masks she had, as the vocabulary of the Up lined itself into syllables to spill into the waiting consciousness of the swamp witch. Her masks were barriers, defensive attitudes and merciless demands upon herself. This was a bird who allowed for no leashes, no jesses or hoods, collars or tethers, but since escaping a devouring black, lit with fire like blood lights in last recollections, she put such things upon herself. There were few in this world to be trusted, and of who could be she could not run the risk of trusting herself with them. The pit of her soul pulsed with an unsatisfied ache, an anguished need for company, for connection, for bonding that time and again, day after day, she cruelly denied because even this state of interminable want was better than getting the wrong thing. The wrong company, the wrong connection, the wrong bond. Air escaped her in a gasp and the breeze flown off the water took it into its arms as she sagged against the tree trunk, hanging onto balance by the tips of skinned fingers and drawing up her foot from Haeli's touch. Bare toes curled, almost protectively.