Completed The Awakening of Memories

[Rohka]

3rd of Fall, Past Midnight

She wandered, her body aching. In a forest, dark and cold, owls hooting in way that seemed to be more cliché than real, but her internal voice felt calm and at peace. As if she belonged here. In this fresh, earthy, strangely eery midst of the woods. Her vision flashed to a clearing in the woods, and there appeared a table, similar to the one she sat at every day, at the Malt House. The sybil walked over to it, as if by memory knowing that she usually walks towards it, and found herself slipping off her pack from her shoulders and beginning her usual routine.

She placed the silk cloth over the table, the dark green and orange patterning bringing a warmth to the otherwise cold, cool-toned space. She set up a candle, lit the wick with her flint and steel, then walked over to the chairs that appeared on the sides that they usually sat.

Rohka wore her silk headscarf—it matched the table. She sat, taking out her cards and her dice, spreading them out.

She waited. As she usually did at the Malt House.

But there was no one around here, in the clearing, and all she could hear were crickets chirping in the grass.

[Dash]

The red haired Kelvic looked confused to be there and his pupils dilated to mere pinpoints. His distrust was written plainly across his Inartan features. He stood still for a very long chime, sniffing the air and looking all around him. If Dash could swivel his ears in human form, he would have.
'Where am I?' he thought, very puzzled.

The green natural smells were something he knew well, identified easily and liked very much. Dash smelled candle wax, fire, silk and Rohka. She smelled female and human but then a hint of something else teased the olfactory senses and made no sense at all. The Red Wolf Kelvic smelled snake scales and his nostrils flared suddenly.

But it was all wrong. All of his dreams before this one were always in Red Wolf form and the colors were never this vibrant. Dash was not fond of the unknown unless it was a scent.

Cautiously he approached the table, his bright, golden eyes scrutinizing each and every detail. He wasn't sure what to say, so he didn't speak.
His posture was cautious and he didn't yet look relaxed enough to sit in the presence of a stranger. Wary eyes lingered between the cards and the dice, wondering what game was about to be played. And by whom..

[Rohka]

Looking into golden eyes that flashed before her, Rohka was stunned. In one moment, she was alone—in the next, a young man began to approach cautiously closer into the warm light emitting from the candle that Rohka always lit during her work. The reflex to invite him was instinctual.

“Hello,” she began, a gentle smile breaking through the pain her body was feeling. The pain was hard to pinpoint. It was on the surface of her skin, pulsating, the vibrations subtle and imperceptible. Rohka chose to ignore it as best as she could. In front of her was a guest, a potential partner, and she wanted to reach out and see if he would be interested in her perhaps ill-chosen occupation.

“I’m Rohka, welcome to the—“ it was here that she paused and realized her habit. She looked around at her environment and the initial curiosity on her face turned to a measured care. Where were they? What was this place? She tried to see clearer, to know where she was, to try to remember whether she’d been here before…

But habits are hard to break.

“Welcome to my table.” The sybil’s mind found a sentence often spoken and said it aloud, the smile returning to her face. “Your eyes, they’re so bright,” she said, staring into them, a part of her wondering if he was real, yet believing he must be there for a reason. The statement was as much an observation as it was her way of complimenting. But it wasn’t the first time that she’d used an observatory compliment to bring a guest to her table. It was, again, routine.

“Are you interested in a reading? Feel free to ask any question you like, about anything you would like to know, and I would be happy to bring you some insight. Fair warning, I am indeed still an apprentice. Some questions are harder than others. If you’d like to take a chance on me, I will certainly work with you and we can discover your answers together. However, if you wish to speak with Lelia, my employer, and a Konti master of telling fortunes, I will let her know and leave a note for her upon your request.”

The sybil folded her hands together and set them on the table, her tail swishing out and finding its way onto her lap. The resting limb gave her some comfort amongst the pain that washed over in waves. The truth was that she’d never known what type of tail she’d been blessed with by Rhysol. She wasn’t sure what animal she would liken it to. The scales were tiny, shiny, and tended to refract a rainbow of muted colour when light touched at different angles. Were they snake scales? Were they butterfly scales? Were they scales of a creature unknown to Mizahar? The sybil figured only Rhysol would truly know, but the prehensile appendage brought her a comfort and a strength that she was still learning to understand.

Rohka waited, her wish to listen and understand as present as it was when she was awake. There would be some, including her father, who may think that this was simply a game she enjoyed playing—a game she managed to make into a paying profession.

In this dream-like reality… what purpose would any game serve?

[Dash]

Her scent heated the air around her, increasing tenfold rapidly and Dash took it in. She was in pain. He couldn't explain that when a mammal is in pain, the pulse goes up, making the temperature rise and breathing increase. The Kelvic only knew that it was the scent of pain; a surprised pain at that in its sudden intensity. The woman's pupils had changed in reaction as well as her increased breathing, clearly illustrating that she was nearly as unsettled as he. She wasn't Inarta, and that was all he knew.

The woman spoke but soon paused and Dash's head tilted to the left in curiosity, his red hair swinging at his usual gesture. Golden eyes watched as she looked around her, abruptly looking lost.

Rohka's smile was nervous and more out of a fear grimace than a greeting to him. Or at least that's how a wolf Kelvic interpreted human behavior to wolf traits.

'Is she afraid of me? It must be that she recognizes I'm not human.' he thought, his head returning to its normal position.

Of it's own accord, his head tilted to the left again, confounded by her statement of the obvious. Yes, his eyes were bright--he was a Red Wolf Kelvic and an Inarta. Had he not been a Kelvic, his bright eyes would have shown great promise and even greater potential status to become an Endal. Was that what she meant?

"I'm a Red Wolf Kelvic Avora, not Endal." He answered quietly, as if this would clear up an unasked question. Dash's head lowered and red curls got in his eyes as he pulled out the chair next to her and sat. She didn't have the mannerisms of an Endal and appeared nervous around him. Rohka must be of a lower caste and it set the young man at better ease in such a strange situation.

'Reading? Apprentice?' the man's thoughts were swift and confused at her peculiar statements and questions. 'She is no Yasi Apprentice, not at her age. Chiet apprentice maybe?'

"It's good to work hard and learn more. What is a reading?" Dash asked her as his yellow eyes took in everything about her he could see. The young man gave her a very long appraising look that seemed to border on downright rude. But Dash didn't know that. Bright things dangled from her ears in a colorful array and moved with her. Her hair was brown, shiny and gleaming with good health.

'She has a nice coat.' Dash thought in passing. Bright cosmetics colored her eyes, cheeks and mouth but he wasn't sure about what she was trying to achieve. Why did women wear colors on their faces? Was it like decorating Bryda with glass beads and feathers? Her skin was the most interesting of her appearance.

In Wind Reach there were only two choices on the color spectrum of hair and skin. Red and white. Her skin looked the color of smoothly polished gleaming wood but much softer. Dash's evaluation of her appearance was that of someone admiring an exotic bird, not a man leering rudely. But it certainly would look that way to someone who didn't know him.

He watched her with intense yellow eyes, looking at her face as she folded her hands on the table.

"WHAT THE PETCH IS THAT?!" he yelled in sudden terror.
Something long slithered up on her lap and Dash fell backwards out of the chair, ass over teakettle and feet in the air!

[Rohka]

A chill breeze picked up around them, moving strands of her dark hair around her collarbone. The sybil brought a hand up to push it back, a shiver running down her spine as the young man sat down, introducing himself quietly as a Red Wolf Kelvic, seemingly far more at ease now than he’d been when he arrived. She wondered for a tick whether she’d missed something important about what she now saw as a foreign creature.

“Kelvic,” she began, memories of the kind and devoted Calico slaves appearing in her mind’s eye. Most were bought from Ravok’s slave market, while there were some that her uncle had been bringing in recently from the Kelvic Research Institute. Rohka nodded in welcome as the young man took a seat next to her. She listened to his comment and smiled when she heard his question.

“Yes, working and learning keeps one busy and growing, I find. Especially Kelvics. I’ve never met one of a red wolf variety. That explains your eyes, and your reddened hair. Quite lovely, really.”

Rohka’s tone had become almost analytical, appraising the creature just as much as he was doing to her, but more so as if he was a unique shirt at one of the shops in the merchant ring or a fascinating performer on stage. She was taught to see Kelvics this way. To see them at a distance, as simply something that beautifully mimicked a human. From a young age, she was encouraged not to become too attached to a Kelvic. To never see them as her own. The young Calico had been inhibited from bonding to Kelvics as well, her mother making sure of it. Vida knew exactly how much a bond can change a human’s behaviours.

You’re my daughter, Roh. The first great grandchild of Leonara Calico. You belong with us and you’re meant to lead us someday, to heights that your grandfather could never reach. If you bond to a Kelvic, that bond will stunt you. Kelvics can be your friends, but Kelvics are not human. Don’t you dare ruin us, Rohka.

It was almost as if those words rushed through her ears on the wind that carried through the trees. The sybil felt the pain pour like rain over her skin once more and she gritted her teeth, focusing on the bright eyes sitting next to her now. She put on a gentle, apologetic smile and continued.

“Well, hey, I’m not surprised that you don’t know what a reading is. I can show you, if you like, if you have a question about yourself or your life that you would like answered. I use these—my cards and dice, and other means,” she said, gesturing to her table. “To interpret signs and symbols. Many are either uninformed or disillusioned about fortune telling, and I can only imagine what you’re still growing to learn.” Although the young man did indeed look her age, she was almost sure that his experience in this world was made up of a lower number of years. “Do you have a name? A master? I don’t believe I’ve ever heard of the Avora family, nor the Endal. Where are you from?”

Before she could hear an answer, the young man screamed. The sudden yell made the sybil wince, her already pulsing pain suddenly doubling.

“Goodness! What are you—“ and then he watched his gaze fall on her moving tail and the man fell over.

Rohka burst out laughing.

“It’s,” she started, between a fit of giggles. “It’s my,” she offered the man a hand but then let it fall as she laughed. “Oh Gods. It’s just a tail, okay? Look,” and she made it wave in the air, her full face beaming, the pain suddenly gone but the sybil never noticing it.

“Here,” she offered her hand once more, and if he took it, she would use her prehensile tail as well to wrap around the leg of the wooden chair and pull it back up. If the man refused to take her hand for whatever reason, Rohka would simply wait until he found his bearings once more.

The air cooled down once again and from the sky, sparkles fell, slowly, floating down, fluffy and white. It was snow.

Yet somehow, none of the snow fell within the area of the lit candle.

Flurries continued to fall, faster and faster. If the two of them looked up, which they most certainly could, they would see a ceiling. The ceiling would look familiar to Dash but not to Rohka: it was made of glass, in a variety of colours, stained and beautiful. Would the Kelvic want to stay despite the weather? Would he still want a reading after the explanation? Why was the Kelvic here in the first place?

Rohka asked none of these questions. She sat. She waited.

She wished only to listen and learn.

[Dash]

Instinct rolled his body to the path of least resistance-to continue the backward roll to his shoulders, the momentum of his knees rolling to move and bear all his weight onto his toes. Or what used to be toes. Dash's form shimmered in protective reaction to potential injury, allowing him to push back into a wolf's sitting position.

Ears flat to his skull, he bared his top fangs, but carefully covered his lower teeth with his tongue, licking the air repeatedly.

Secret :

He didn't want to hurt anyone but he would if he were forced to. He displayed and postured his feelings the best he could. Dash was overwhelmed and confused at so much stimulus all at once, he didn't know how to react. So he withdrew, tucking his tail between his legs and lowered his head, keeping his yellow scared eyes averted to show only the whites.
'I won't hurt you unless I have to! I'm being nice but you're scaring me!' he thought.

It was simply too much to take in all at once. With a mere four years of life experience to draw from, there was no jurisprudence to set store by. Much like a busy market day in harsh weather, it turned his relaxing place into sheer chaotic bedlam. Matching his inner turmoil, the Kelvic's form shifted back and forth and Dash struggled hard to keep to one or the other in a kaleidoscope of over stimulation.

Unfamiliar words, phrases and sounds, sudden movements, unidentifiable scents, abruptly unnatural snowfall and winds. His eyes showed white and his tail wagged low just twice, rigidly and nervously. He backed away from the snake that erupted from the woman and all his senses strained to take in too much. The Red Wolf was blatantly scared, torn, and he didn't know if he should charge at the snake woman to kill the threat or run far away fast from this dangerously unknown situation.

She'd spoken words he didn't know, asked if he had a MASTER like he was a petching slave DEK, waved around what he could only identify as snake scales and laughed at him! How could she be so calmly amused?!

** I'm sorry it's brief, but Dash is overwhelmed and I can't get a lucid thought or lick of sense from him at all right now. He's a scared wolfie atm**

[Rohka]

Dash's wish :

In DMs on Discord, Dash's writer let me know that the thread isn't working and that Dash isn't doing well, so I was told that there is no longer a desire to continue the thread. I've simply reminded myself that it's okay if things don't work out between you and a thread partner... just keep on writing

The Kelvic shifted at once, and Rohka gasped, pushing herself up from her seat and stepping back to give the wolf its space. The sybil didn’t recognize the feelings that the Kelvic creature displayed but her instinct had been to freeze all her movements.

The pain returned in full force.

Rohka stood, eyes wide, mouth gaping, and her vision seemed to blur and clear, in and out, watching the Kelvic shift between its human and animal forms so quickly. It took more than a few ticks for the sybil to finally realize exactly what emotion the creature was feeling:

Fear.

The space between them widened further until Dash was but a small speck in Rohka’s vision. The widening of the space had increased in tandem with the pulsating burn all around the sybil’s body, the snow now storming all around her, since she’d stepped out of the candlelight’s perimeter. This place had turned into an insanity she couldn’t comprehend. She turned to the flame she’d lit in practise and reached for the glowing stick of beeswax. In an instant the storm of snow vanished within the light while the forest around her darkened dramatically.

Rohka tried to look out into the distance for the Kelvic that had joined her at her table—the Kelvic that had seemed so curious, almost kind in his comments, his eyes having reminded her of bonds she’d been forced to cut. Bonds she knew she would always cut.

Seeing the wolf in its full form, with his fangs out and his tongue bared before he shifted into a human, naked and afraid of her… it was like she’d been a monster to the creature. As if her very existence was a threat to the Kelvic’s being. Rohka’s chest started to heave as she remembered both the face of the wolf and the face of the human, both of which were now gone from the sybil’s immediate vision. She never wanted to scare him. She never wished to provoke the complete chaos that surrounded her now, despite the small sphere of security that the stick of light offered to her, as if by magic.

Rohka gripped the candle tightly in her hands. She closed her eyes and began to pray:

Rhysol, what have I done? What caused this? Why have I been made this way?

She looked up, wanting to look to the sky for answers, and at once she noticed the beautiful patterned glass of all different colours. Her sight upon the ceiling seemed to bring forth more light through the glass, washing the space around her table with a multitude of shimmering shades.

The sight made the sybil start to sob. Tears fell, uncontrollably, until Rohka woke up in her bed, shivering—the dried salt stains still on her cheeks.

It was a dream she’d soon forget.