05-20-2015, 11:50 PM
Oh look, oh my star is fading
Author's note: Rain is a stillborn daughter of Scorch and Hestoni, Wrynn's full sister. Kora is the daughter of Kagerou, one of Scorch's few close friends. Rain and Kora were born a year apart, and their mothers bonded over their loss. So in the world of the dead, their daughters bonded too. Permission to use Rain granted by Sid. Permission to use Kora granted by Lydia. Also, cameo appearances by a pretty substantial mass of nameless stillborns from throughout the history of Beqanna, who have all met in the afterlife and bonded because I'm pretty sure children inevitably do that no matter whether they're dead or not.
They are moving, but the world is molasses. One step at a time, one step. It doesn't matter that it is stranger now, that it is slower, that it seems like it's harder. It doesn't matter, because suddenly the end is in sight –there is Carnage, and her little heart sings to see them reunited, the quest almost at an end. They spill out, and she looks back, seeing Gail struggle, and as the girl moves to help, the woman breaks through.
And then suddenly, there are no more steps. No more reunion. No more Carnage.
It is a world she knows, and not anything she knows. Because who is she to know of death or loss? She's so young, too young to have been spoiled by the world just yet, too young to know what it is to ache. And so she doesn't know what they are, as they gather around their little band, pressing close, pressing in. They are curious, and she is curious right back. She reaches out to touch noses with one, but Gail speaks just before they can touch noses.
Find someone you loved. She loved everyone, but there are so few who even know her yet, let alone love her. Her mother, her father, her brother, they're not here. Who else does she know? The press of horses around her grows thicker, and she starts to walk, looking for one friendly or familiar. She gives them each a smile, and notices as she does that she's starting to age. She is growing into her prime, starting to grey out, and she almost wonders what she looks like. But it isn't natural, this isn't right, she has to find someone who can help her stop this.
She sees a familiar-looking shade, and halts abruptly. "Brother?" the shade is roan, and in form so very like her own brother. It looks up at her. "Leiland!" there is excitement in her voice, and she starts to move toward what she thinks is him. It's not until she gets terribly close that she notices the shape is all wrong, it's not her brother, it's a girl. An Amazon girl, with the vine-and-bud trailing up her leg, a tiny fire tattoo flickering just below the bud, and a faint tattoo of flames where two of her ribs should be. The grin fades from her face and she collects herself in front of the small girl. "I'm sorry, I thought you were someone else." her voice is gentle, apologetic.
The girl's face is fixed on her, and although it's not her brother's face it's somehow familiar. It's only a moment before the girl returns Wrynn's gentle smile. "I'm not your brother, silly." her voice seems somehow far away. "I'm your sister." Wrynn isn't sure what to make of this. None of her sisters are this age. Almost as though the girl understands her thoughts, she speaks again. "My name is Rain. I was born twelve years ago, and I died twelve years ago." the girl's voice is gentle, childlike, but clearly she's come to peace with her situation. Wrynn's eyes go wide, suddenly understanding where they are, why she's aging, and why their predicament was suddenly so dire.
"Rain." the girl says, giving a smile to her older-sister-that-wasn't. "Wrynn and Rain." she says, delighted with how close their names are. She sobers then. "Rain, can you help us get home?" always us – Wrynn isn't thinking of herself. She isn't even thinking of herself and Gail. She's thinking of all of them. Her older sister frowns. "I don't know if I can do it alone." she smiles. "But maybe we can do it together." And suddenly Wrynn sees that Rain is not alone. Next to her stands a bay filly of the same age, and many more foals stand behind them. And in a flash, she understands – these are the unborn of Beqanna, the babies who never made it past the womb, the ones who died before ever knowing their mothers, their families, their homes. And she wants to weep for them, her heart breaks for them. She is stunned into silence.
"Don't be sad." Rain's voice is kind. "I have lots of friends, like Kora here." She smiles, indicating a bay girl who stands beside her. "Kora's mom is here too. Kagerou, our mom's good friend. Really, everyone ends up here sooner or later. We've got plenty of friends. It's not so bad, once you get used to it." Wrynn is still silent, trying to comprehend, and so Rain takes charge. "But you shouldn't be here. Not yet." Wrynn knows it's true, and she knows time is of the essence. "We're on a mission, me and some others. We were almost back, but then we slipped away." she doesn't know how else to describe it. She looks down the beach, down at the grey woman for whom they are doing everything. "She thinks that you can help us get back." The two ghost-fillies smile then, looking at each other before Rain speaks. "At the very least we can try. Family helps family, and we're all family here. Not just me and Kora, but all of us." she is speaking, Wrynn knows, of the vast mass of the unborn, all of them bonded by the sights they've never seen, the families they've never known. Rain speaks again, and this time her voice is sober, quiet and serious. "Besides, I don't…I don't want mom and dad to lose anyone else." The two sisters' eyes meet. "Thank you Rain." Wrynn says, because she doesn't have words to express what she really means. "Thank you all." Rain collects herself then, strong and every inch Scorch's daughter. The smile is back, and her voice is bright. "Let's go. We've got work to do." And she nudges her sister, and Wrynn has to work at not shuddering at the touch of death.
She heads back for Gail, and when she does it's not just Rain and Kora that follow. There are many more, baby ghosts, the tiny spirits of the unborn, and as she walks it's like she's leading a small army. Small in number, and small in stature. Wrynn herself continues to grow every minute, now a white mare in the prime of her life. They fan out behind her, the saddest of the dead, the youngest, those who never knew the world. They never knew it, and yet she will rely on them to return her to it.
It's only a moment before they reach Gail, and Wrynn touches the woman with her nose, reassuring her. "Gail, I found my sister." her voice is older now, but still sweet and gentle. "And some new friends." She pauses for a moment. "I hope we're enough." They'll have to be enough. She looks back and forth between Rain and Gail. "What do we do?"
Her ghost sister looks pensive for a moment, as though she's racking her brain for ideas. There's no magic in them, or at least, not magic like Carnage or like some of the others here who can do feats beyond her imagination. But they do have a magic all their own, the magic of the young, the power of the many who gather with a single purpose. "Think of Beqanna." Rain says to Wrynn. "Shut your eyes and really focus. Picture mom and dad, picture your brother. No matter what, don't stop thinking of them and don't open your eyes." The ghost girl pauses for a moment. "And when you get home, tell mom and dad I love them." Wrynn nods, eyes closed. She would love nothing more than to bring her sister home with her, but she knows in her bones that it just isn't possible. It will be hard enough to get the living out of here. To free the dead is a non-starter. "I will, Rain. I promise." Rain's nose touches Wrynn's shoulder again, and this time it isn't so cold and startling. She feels, rather than sees her ghost-sister move away, turning to the assembled children.
"We need to send Wrynn home." Rain is speaking to the assembled group now, leaving Wrynn to keep focusing on her parents as instructed. "Let's start by imagining grass. You might remember the feeling of it, during the short time that you were with your mother. You might know it by how she felt it. It's so green, so bright, and so soft." One by one, the small ghosts close their eyes, losing themselves in memories they don't have, feeding off of things in Wrynn's mind (and perhaps in Gail's mind too) while she holds the picture of where she needs to go. "Imagine the sun. It's so warm, warmer than it is here, and bright. In Beqanna, nothing is grey." There is something happening, Wrynn can feel it. She doesn't know whether one of them has power – who knows, they might – or whether it's simply that all of them have power. "Think of the rain," her sister is saying, and Wrynn can almost feel it, rain and sun and rainbows and the hum of something, she doesn't know what.
It is as though a crescendo is building, her sister's voice in a litany of Wrynn's own memories, her thoughts of her parents, the rain and the sun and the hard press of Beqanna on her magically aging body. Is she traveling? Is she on the broken beach, the real one, somewhere else? The sensation of it all makes it impossible to tell. Like a glorious symphony of cacophony it rises to a crescendo-
and then it stops.
Desperately curious, but oddly unafraid, she opens her eyes.
wrynn
Accidentally posted this as Evie, couldn't change it to Wrynn after the fact, and couldn't handle it not being posted by Wrynn so here we are.