The Two Winds

by **Kamilla** on November 30th, 2019, 4:20 pm

52nd of Fall, 519AV

Having made good time with the animation process, Kamilla was surprised to find that sunset seemed a good while off, peering out in the direction from the Suvan from within her cave revealed the sun to be a good distance above the horizon. That was good, after sitting still for such a long time she was eager to get some fresh air and stretch her limbs… and her gills.

Since obtaining her Konti form, swimming had become an almost daily pastime for her, despite the bad experiences she'd had in the ocean quite recently. It seemed besides requiring water regularly if she didn't want to begin feeling dried out, Konti also had an indescribable pull toward the ocean, though she supposed it was akin to the pull caused when using one's own soul as a template for a golem… she was very glad that she had used something else for the snake golem, she did not want to have a spiritual link with the corpse of something she already disliked greatly.

She did not check to see whether the newly animated golem was functional, it hadn't moved since its activation but she'd seen and created it's soulcore herself and had no doubts that it was at least awakened. The golem had been directed to spot the movement of small rodents and then hunt them and she figured that since it had yet to see one, it was simply 'lying in wait'. The thought of the sort of undead serpent waiting for its moment to strike made her very uncomfortable. Thankfully the snake's head was pointing in the opposite direction that she was standing in and she'd was not about to bother it. Gently, Kamilla shut the door to her storage room, locking the snake inside until she returned. The locked door hadn't seemed to pose a problem for the rodents so she sure she'd be able to see the results of her golem's work, or lack thereof, when she returned.

"I'm going for a swim, who's coming?" Even as she spoke, Kamilla grabbed the leash from her counter, an eager Yennefer already winding between her legs.

"Of course I'm coming. What kind of question is that!"

Kamilla chuckled, amused by Roo's response, as well as warmed by the constant company her two pets provided. "Let's get going then, we only have about a bell or two before the sun sets…" Wish Yen's leash now fastened and Roo under her arm, Kamilla stepped down thr stairs leading up to her home and out into the sun.

It was warm, as expected of Syka, but thankfully, not unpleasantly so. Fall had provided some much needed relief from the sweltering heat experienced in spring and summer, but it had also brought with it the occasional thunderstorm, not that she minded too much. In fact, she quite enjoyed them and she knew Roo did too, especially the short lived ones that seemed to pass by late noon. Yennefer on the other hand…

A rumbling sound filled the air coming from behind her, almost as if on cue. Kamilla turned her gaze to the skies behind her spotting a small cluster of dark clouds.

"We made it just in time!"

The talking flower's excitement was palpable, Kamilla watching it sway happily from side to side as she took a seat in the soft sand, placing the plant beside her and still holding Yen's leash in her other hand while the cat attempted to shelter herself from the approaching rain, green eyes wide with panic.

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by **Kamilla** on December 1st, 2019, 2:04 pm

Kamilla heard the approaching rain before she felt it, a sudden shower falling over her and her two companions. Her grip on Yen's leash tightened as the yowlwing desperately tried to escape the downpour, though she'd anticipated the feline's behaviour and was already working on a solution. Lavender res had already begun to form a ball above the mage's free hand. "Relax Yen…"

"Yeah! Just enjoy it! It's good for you!"

As intelligent as Roo was, it was often apparent that it didn't quite understand the difference between plant and animal, often assuming their needs were the same.

While Yennefer continued to tug at het leash frantically, Kamilla guided her res toward the ground, forming a thin stone dome shape with a piece of one side missing as an entrance. The shelter hadn't been in existence for two ticks and the gray yowlwing was already taking refuge within it. "There you go…" She let out a laugh in response to the glare the cat gave her. "You're the one that wanted to come along, Yen."

No longer needing to worry about Yennefer's attempts to escape, Kamilla sat back on the sand and allowed herself to enjoy the pleasant sensations caused by the rain. She shut her eyes and took in the sound, feeling and smell of the precipitation joined by those of the nearby ocean waves. In that moment she felt completely and utterly content with her life and how it had turned out.

It had been many, many years since she'd fled Sunberth, leaving everything and everyone she'd ever known… her home and her family, beginning a very long and lonely search for her place and purpose in life. While the latter still seemed to be eluding her, Kamilla was beginning to feel as if she'd found the former, in the form of Syka alongside her new friends and her two pets that undoubtedly filled the place of a 'new family'.

By the time the rain stopped twenty chimes later, Kamilla and Roo were both drenched although neither had made any attempt to move for the duration of the light shower. The rain had been deeply refreshing to Kamilla who had spent it's entirety simply calming her mind and entering a state of meditation. Even in her peaceful state it seemed images of her mother and gran continued to fight for her attention and it had reached a point where the Konti felt it was a necessity that she find a way to acknowledge the lives of the two women that had raised her… the two winds that had continued to push her along in life even after their deaths.

While the idea of doing something in memory of their lives was something she'd already decided on, but clues on exactly how she should go about doing it were lacking greatly. Kamilla had spent years hiding her history in Sunberth, she'd lived like someone on thr run, secretive and constantly moving and now that she finally felt somewhat settled… in a place that seemed to accept her, magic and all, keeping her loved ones secret seemed kind of silly. No one in Syka had treated her too differently when they discovered that she was a mage, nor did their attitude toward her change when she'd become a Konti… therefore learning a little about her past was unlikely to change anything, not that she was too eager to tell anyone.

Eyes searched the horizon, noting that the sun was beginning it's descent toward the sea, she measured a good ten fingers worth of space between the two. She decided to remain in the peaceful moment a bit longer. Lavender gaze wandering between the beautifully vibrant purple flower named Roo and the, now silently slumbering in her stone shelter, gray yowlwing known as Yennefer.

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by **Kamilla** on December 1st, 2019, 5:46 pm

A few chimes later, Kamilla decided she'd best return to her cave home before it started getting dark, since the sky had now begun to turn a bright orange colour. She was still stumped for ideas on how to commemorate the lives of her mother and gran which was somewhat frustrating. The feeling was akin to an unpleasant twisting sensation where her heart was located, though she still had no clue as to why the two ghosts from her past seemed so intent on haunting her.

The Konti let out a heavy sigh, "I wish they could have been here to see this beautiful sunset." She recalled the view of the sky from their home in Sunberth, which was mostly obstructed by the other ramshackled houses surrounding theirs.

Surprisingly, Roo was speachless, the dewy purple flower simply looking between the sunset and Kamilla.

"Well, time to go… Let's see if that snake golem has scared the rodents off yet."

With that said, Kamilla got to her feet with Roo under one arm and Yen's leash wrapped around the other. She gently coaxed the damp cat out of its stone dome and began making her way back home, a short trip.

Once they'd arrived back in her cave, Kamilla placed Roo on his spot on the counter, unhooked the strap of Yen's harness, allowing the yowlwing to find a comfortable spot on the bed, where she would wait until dinner was served. With her clothing still damp, Kamilla was surprised to find that she felt a little cold something she hadn't experienced since arriving in the tropical paradise that was Syka.

Making her way over to the round table she usually ate at, recalling a particularly enjoyable dinner with a winged Jehu earlier that season, Kamilla used the flint and steel to light the tabletop brazier, the magic item instantly spreading a pleasant warmth throughout the cool cave. Looking into the flame, she was reminded of being a young girl who was amazed by her grandmother's talent for making fires.

In winter, when it was too cold not to be sitting around a fire, Kamilla's mother would get to gathering up the blankets while her gran sat near the fireplace 'trying' to start the fire, but for some reason, it would only ever catch light when Kamilla was not watching, almost as if by magic. Of course, she later found out that it actually was magic that her grandmother had been using. Afterwards, the trio of Gordon women would spend the evenings sitting around the fire sipping tea while either her mother or her grandmother told her stories from their own childhoods. Her grandmother's stories had always seemed a lot harder to believe than her mother's but she enjoyed both all the same.

Another deep sigh escaped her lips as she was warmed by the memories. Despite being quite poor she'd had a great childhood. Even without a father figure.

Snapping back to reality Kamilla decided it was time to check on the snake golem, she'd been gone for at least a bell, so surely a rodent or two had crossed the dead serpent's past. Besides, if she was being honest, she had always wanted to see if dead creatures made for good golems, something she'd been curious about ever since her time surrounded by the shambling corpses known as nuit, on Sahova.

Eagerly, Kamilla made her way over to the door to her storage room, source half of the animation circle still visible on the floor, though the spider that had once been trapped within it had been thrown out over the cliffside. Her hand rested on the door handle, suddenly uneasy at the thought of there being a snake on the other side of it, if course that was to be expected. If there was anything the Konti had discovered about herself since arriving in Syka, it was that she did not like snakes. In fact, it was more accurate to say that she had a fear of the unsettling legless reptiles.

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by **Kamilla** on December 2nd, 2019, 12:08 am

Opening the door as slowly and cautiously as she could, Kamilla began to realise that she'd left the golem in complete darkness and had no idea of how capable it was when it came to being able to see in the dark. Once the door had passed the halfway mark, the light pouring in from the main cave began to slowly reveal more and more of it's yellowish brown diamond pattern until the entirety of its scaled body was visible, Kamilla instantly noticing that it had moved since she last saw it and was now facing the door with its hazy dead eyes. The sight truly unsettled her, emphasised by the odd sensation of a drop of water from her wet hair, running down her spine.

Since the golem had moved, it was clearly active, but that didn't mean that it was completely functional and Kamilla certainly wasn't going to take any kind of risk when it came to dealing with the potentially venomous snake's corpse. Thankfully, she'd added several directives, some of which were made to prevent any accidents.

Raising her palm upward, Kamila moved her thumb inward and outward, giving the serpent the signal to cease all movement and activities except for sight. The directive would leave the golem intact but unable to do anything other than wait for the next signal, or at least that's how it was supposed to work.

The moment Kamilla's palm had reached its desired height, the snake's corpse lunged toward Kamilla from the far end of the store room, only managing to fling itself about halfway, while the startled Konti found herself stumbling backward and landing on the hard stone floor with a loud thud. Lavender eyes were wide with shock, not budging from the golem's location on the door in front of her as she watched it slowly return to a neutral position just like before.

"Kam! Are you okay? Why are you on the floor?"

Roo's voice was greatly unwelcome unwelcome but the mage did not react at all, simply tensing every muscle in her body out of fear. She had no idea what happened, her heart was thumping in her chest, the creature about two meters in front of her while she was laid out on the floor. After half a chime of simply staring at the golem without any movement on its behalf, Kamila began to make the cease signal once again, before slowly and warily getting back to her feet.

This time the golem did not react to the signal at all, which was what it was supposed to do, but once the Konti reached her full height, the serpent lunged towards her again, this time landing much closer than before, though Kamilla was already franticly jumping away with the lunging serpent hot on her heels.

"Watch out!"

She managed to dive onto her bed beside Yennefer, grabbing the startled cat to prevent it from darting off and into the golem's line of sight.

Once again, as soon as the movement had stopped, the golem returned to its neutral position, but this time Kamilla didn't waste her time om attempting the signal, she didn't dare risk it.

The Konti was out of breath because of the miniature pursuit she'd just survived against the malfunctioning golem. Clearly something was wrong with the golem and since she was fairly certain she hadn't made any major mistakes during the process, Kamilla reasoned that the problem must have been with the golem's physical she'll… the corpse.

She pondered the circumstances for a second, lavender eyes reluctantly gliding over ever inch of the golem's form in search of anything that might have caused this problem. Could the brain have been interfering with its directives? It was a possible problem with animating corpses instead of golem's built by hand, though she felt there must have been a better answer.

The snake could not hear and she'd animated it to function slowly on vision… and, under close inspection(from a distance) Kamilla noticed the glazed over appearance of the creatures eyes. "Maybe…" she whispered quietly to herself, despite being certain that the golem was deaf.

To test her theory, Kamilla took a silent breath and began to slowly produce res in a ball behind her back, transmuting a small amount into stone while keeping it's innards unchanged. The stone was then guided to float close by the serpent, which, with surprising speed, launched itself at the small rock with great accuracy, fangs biting it with no effect.

So it was the vision. She hadn't taken the dead eyes into consideration… it took only a moment more for a bigger rock, formed from res, was guided and dropped onto the failed golem, ending it's reign of terror.

"Well, another thing my gran taught me was that failure is just a tip on how to succeed… Next time, I'll try replacing the eyes." As well as not using such a dangerous corpse… if there even was a next time.

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