the call. [closed]

[Tabarnac]

the call. Timestamp: 45th Fall, 511 A.V., predawn Characters: Haeli; Karhu, NPC Purpose: Gnosis Quest A dirty hand pressed against the pane of glass, followed by a pale face, nose smashed up against it, turning to get an eye close as close to the glass to peer inside to where the pale moonlight diffused among the slumbering plants. A small noise startled whoever it was, a woman, perhaps, and her head popped up with alert readiness, nostrils flared and eyes wide. Still as a startled deer for a moment, she did not even pause to turn and see herself reflected darkly in the pane. It was of finer glass than most in Mizahar, this planetarium cum orangery, but such things mattered little to her, and she moved on, suddenly a predator again. Akajia Herself would have grudgingly admired the woman's stealth. The darkling visitor stalked the orangery as if she scented some delectable treat within and would have it or die trying. The door she tried; she was not entirely ignorant of civilization. Next she was climbing the walls like some tropical gecko, pausing at the sleepy chirruping of birds in a nearby tree. Her head cocked for a moment as if listening, and then she responded with the sleepy trill of a dreaming skylark and a rustle in the trees produced a trio of birds, beady eyes staring at her in avian astonishment. After a brief exchange, the brave, feathery souls launched into the air to batter their frail, light bodies against the landing window as the woman continued her climb at a more sedate, careful pace. Her messengers, old hats at games of chicken with reflections in glass, called out in their own language a warning, a welcome: "She comes! She comes! She comes!"

[Haeli]

The swamp witch was something of an enigma like All Things Wild was itself. Wilderness in the heart of civilization, she too was something wild dressed up as something civilized. And no matter how hard she tried to be human, she had grown up dhani which was something she'd not really shared with most. It left her with a love of sleeping in trees, growing scales and moving about with coils instead of legs, and generally discounting herself in her own space as part of that space rather than master of it.

Haeli blended in. All Things Wild was a sanctuary of sorts, a bit of swamp and jungle thrown into glass and perched on a mountain. In early fall the windows at the top of the structure were still opened allowing in a cool breeze and granting the birds and remaining insects free passage into and out of the glass complex. It also kept humidity in, though the place was most comfortable for humans up on the loft next to the hearth. Haeli slept sometimes in her bed, sometimes in the trees themselves using whatever form she chosen to work in that day. It was not uncommon for a Man to fall asleep on the couch and wake up a blond haired witchling. Nor was it uncommon for a dhani to slither up a tree and partway through the night as she relaxed and drifted in dreams, she'd fall asleep and eventually return to her own form.

Haeli ghosted about the place, tending this, linking that, always encouraging plants to thrive. And thrive they did, blooming sometimes out of season and sometimes far longer than was required because the witch fussed over them and talked to them like they were people. She never seemed alone, not at all, when she was surrounded by the lush vegetation and animals that came and went at all hours. An astute observer, one that knew Haeli, would know differently though. Sometimes her eyes strayed to the glass and beyond that to the street. She'd see families laughing and playing, people walking hand and hand, and small children chasing down after their parents.

Haeli didn't want kids, not in the usual sense, but she did want a family. And that as what she was trying to make in All Things Wild... a few friends she could learn from and lean on and most importantly do things for. She missed acutely helping Ozantha, answering her needs and pleasing her with surprises. Since Emeric had arrived, she'd taken to making him treats - mostly of raw foods because she was a terrible cook - and gifting him things like a new cloak far finer than the one he'd hacked off a length of for bandages for her wounds. She didn't overly bother him, giving him his privacy, but she'd often choose to spend time with him in the evening by the fire. She kept her distance and kept her clothes on, knowing finally, that intimacy and nudity bothered him. She told him stories of the swamp and answered questions and in turn asked of him things she herself wondered as well.

Haeli never stayed long or outwore her welcome even though the home was her own. Emeric was a pensive man, stoic and one that liked his privacy even as Dor did who sometimes perched in the boughs of her trees. Haeli often invited Dor down for time by the firelight, though she never asked questions of the kelvic and kept her distance. What had transpired between them with the Nura had been shock enough to her system and had made her wary of the Kelvic in ways she couldn't begin to explain. She kept a window open as well in her bedroom, one Brig could come and go if he pleased through. He'd left sometime ago, but she'd always hoped he'd return. One never knew with kelvics... but there was always a chance.

So she was slumbering in a tree when the birds flew in crying their warning. Waking abruptly from a dream, Haeli threw her head around and swung up to her feet to perch on the large branch.

"Where? Who... who comes?" She cried to the circling feathery denizens, waking almost instantly and standing upright on the branch of one of the trees.

[Tabarnac]

"I come," the woman growled from behind the swamp witch. Haeli had come to walk through nature as a part of it, but this one was even more deeply a part of Caiyha's green dream. Her heralds had not betrayed her, nor betrayed the keeper of the trees, but if she was consciously aware of the dramatic nature of her entrance, it was only to be an instrument in the hand of the goddess, a part of Haeli's testing. Nature tested constantly, and what failed died and its substance returned to the green dream. She was tall for a woman, and thin, though the bulk of furs and ragged clothes cast off by others and picked up by her added substance to her. The presence was heavy and hers alone, only realized when she revealed herself. Blue lines marked her face, too dark to be woad, though the witch would recognize a fungal scent if not the actual type. Her eyes were too bright, the hollows dark. Whatever flesh had been her own had long since boiled away to fuel her travels, her marvels, and her work. Haeli had left her windows open and Nature had come inside in the form of this woman. Looking Haeli over, it was impossible to tell what she was thinking, whether she found the swamp witch acceptable or lacking in any way. The time for judgment was not yet at hand, however. For now... "It is time to go. She calls." With that, she turned to go, seeking a door this time. But there was no need to pack, no farewells to be said. Caiyha's chosen needed nothing that nature could not provide, and while they were sometimes required to put down roots, at other times they had to fly like birds.