Another Rebirth

[Lyra]

Timestamp: Early Summer, 510 AV One moment everything was fine. The next she felt ice cold water enclosing her from all sides and darkness blurring her vision. The shock from the sudden fall into the liquid numbed her limbs. She could neither swim nor cry for help since the surface was disappearing at an alarming speed. Water was trapping her body; lack of air was confusing her mind … among other things that paled in comparison to the immediate desire to survive. Then, however, the first bright rays of her beloved Mistress cast a first glimpse of light upon her in the silent darkness. Syna had found her and was now caressing her bare skin with Her gentle light that turned a brilliant green and turquoise in the water. So she wasn’t entirely lost. Her Mistress hadn’t forgotten her and would care for her. She would make sure of her safety and comfort. Satisfied by that anticipation, she closed her eyes and smiled. Her body released the tension and drifted in the water. And with the struggling and the tension gone, the last reserves of air in her lungs dragged her upwards. The time she needed to ascend were not conscious – entire bells or mere chimes, she wouldn’t be able to recall later. Suddenly her head burst through the surface and her lungs filled with fresh air and fragrant sun light so rapidly that she choked in the next second. She felt the familiar thrill when Syna’s light touched her skin and lit the surroundings before her eyes confirmed the fact that she was indeed in the world of the living again. Yet her body was exhausted and limp from the panic in the black depths of the sea and already started to empty its last resources of power. Desperate for firm ground she started moving her limbs, combing through the water with screaming legs and arms in order to stay above surface. Squinting, she tried to discern some landscape beyond the blue and turquoise sea … and then she saw warm colors and knew that in that direction earth and rocks and forest had to exist. Closing the eyes from Syna’s too bright rays, she made the painful journey towards the lands. Again she didn’t know how long it took until her right knee hit hard stone and her hands brushed over dust and sand. The last few feet she made with extensive help of the tides letting her drift towards the shore. Her body realized that air weighed more heavily than water. Half-conscious, she carried herself onto cool brown earth and on rocks warmed by Syna’s golden light. A few steps she managed, but sharp edges cut into her feet and soon she simply tumbled to the ground and didn’t get up again. Rest, rest she needed and the calm of nature. The fresh air and gentle light she had once experienced, but that was a long, long, long time ago … How was it possible that she had returned to that world? The question appeared to her, but her dazed and confused mind didn’t find the answer. Everything that echoed inside her was the pale memory of a name she had just lost. Lost she had more than a name, but the name she remembered and didn’t remember. It was the same and at the same time it wasn’t. She was too exhausted, too empty to ponder over all those questions yet, but she knew that something had changed.

[Gossamer]

The watchrider actually saw her fall. It wasn't something that was totally unheard of. Another such as her had fallen once before, deep in the eddies of the north coast. They were like shooting stars of living flesh that plunged from the heavens and almost always landed in the water. Sival wondered why, where they came from, and how they even managed to survive the plummeting fall as he drew his rider's attention to the form streaking seaward and dove to intercept it. It was moving too fast or else the eagle would have snatched it from the sky, no matter how much Rigge objected. Rigge didn't like displays of bravado when safer actions could be taken. So when the eagle only halfheartedly made an attempt at a catch, the rider didn't comment on his mounts recklessness. Rigge's brother Akkae died in a mid-air collision with another rider. The other pair had survived, and now Sival was his mount. The accident hadn't been Sival's fault. The other bird was young and inexperienced. But he could have prevented it if he'd been paying more attention. Rigge paid almost too much attention. "Let's see if she manages to make it out of the water. If she does, we'll take her home and show her to the Valintor. Kaden will know what to do with her." The rider said and the bird hissed his agreement. So the pair tracked the air bubbles in the foaming surf - even though they'd trained for surf recovery - and watched as she clawed her way up onto the shore and dry land. They'd backwing next to her, land lightly and Rigge would bail off. He had already stripped a blanket from his emergency rescue pack and was quick to wrap it around the woman. "Miss? Miss? You alright?" The rider asked in Nari, then switched to common. "Miss?" He asked again. Gently shaking her, Rigge tried to get the Ethafael to respond.

[Lyra]

At the corner of her consciousness she noticed that something moved and someone called out to her, but her brain couldn’t comprehend what her ears heard. She was still lying at the ground, motionlessly. The grasp at her shoulders annoyed her. Why did they bother her with words she didn’t understand? Why was someone interested in her? After all, she had just fallen and was now lost.

She should find a way to get up and return to the peaceful unity with Syna.

Slowly, very slowly, her head rose, framed by messy, raven black hair. Citrine eyes looked at the Inarta with a dazed expression. Who was he? And what was the large, rusty brown thing behind him? Again she wondered why they continued bothering her.

Then a single word entered her mind, and this time she understood. A worried voice, an uncertain question about who and how she was. A mild exhale escaped her golden lips. Couldn’t he see how she was …? Snatched out of her home, fallen on the dangerous and empty world of Mizahar again, there was no doubt about how she felt.

Still, she noticed the blanket and the warmth it gave her. Eventually, perhaps because the person had been so friendly as to give her that little piece of comfort, she slowly formed words. What she wanted to say rolled over her tongue in a foreign language, a sound she hadn’t heard in centuries. Time was slowly infusing her thoughts and memories, she realized.

“I don’t know”, she said which pretty much summed up everything she felt. She didn’t know where she had landed. She didn’t know the reason. She didn’t know what to do or where to turn now. She didn’t know what to expect from and how to treat the red-haired guy and his brown thing that was still a blur for her vision.

She blinked once, twice, trying to see the large thing clearly. Then she gasped – a giant eagle!

The water she had swallowed while drifting in the ocean was suddenly forced up her throat and emerged in a burst of coughing. The delicate body trembled when several fountains of water escaped her lungs, but then she was calm.

Perhaps she also saw the world more clearly. Now her mind really started to work and was awake enough to voice another question: “What will you do … with me?”

[Gossamer]

Rigge raised an eyebrow, then laughed lightly. "Sival's already fed, 'Mam. He's not in the least bit interested in eating you, if that's what you meant. We're trying to help... that's all." The rider wrapped her carefully in a blanket and gently helped her to her feet. "Please, you need to get out of the water and out of those wet clothing. It's best if you come back to Wind Reach with us. There's healers there and people that can help you figure out what happened. Did you get lost over the side of a ship? A rider last year picked up one of those. He lived and now he builds ships for us here - happier here than he was heaving lines for a cruel captain." The rider said gently. "My names Rigge. Do you have one? A name that is? My eagle is Sival. Come on.. we need you to get on Sival and get you back where we can get you in front of a roaring fire. You'll catch your death out here of seawater and foam. Lady, I can't tell you how lucky you are. I rarely patrol this far north... today we were just stretching our wings on a whim." The endal said, helping the woman up and all but loading her like cargo on the back of his saddle. He kept her wrapped int he blanket and then put flying straps over her and tied her firmly down to the saddle. He then vaulted up in front of her and the eagle was off, winging heavily until it caught a thermal and began to soar skyward. The creature circled, caught a familiar wind pattern, and let itself be blown towards an enormous volcano in the distance. The volcano steamed, looking black against the violet sunset. Carefully he carried them towards the mountain itself. As soon as they got close enough, the strange woman could see other eagles carrying other riders in various states of coming and going - some landing on the inner rim of the volcano in what looked like massive caverns. Some dropped down to a courtyard carved out of stone near two twin lakes in the volcano's crater. That's where the steam was coming from. Sival, as if from some invisible signal from Rigge backwinged, spiraled downward, and landed near a dock that came out from the very mountain itself. The dock housed a building that was made entirely of stained glass. The eagle dropped off its passangers and took back to the sky to fly upwards and perch near one of the caverns. Rigge, still holding Lyra, carried her up a small stairway that lead from the landing area to the dock and knocked on a stained glass doorway on one side of the piered building. It was Kaden's abode, the Valintar's office. He'd know what to do with the woman.