01-16-2019, 04:00 PM
Healing had been a long, slow process for Kali, rife with setbacks and complications and none of them physical. Her body had long since minded, but it had taken her weeks to do anything but cling to the side of whichever family member was her caretaker at the moment, hiding her face in manes and burrowing against warm, familiar bodies until she could get close enough and small enough to feel safe. As safe as anyone ever really got in a world where gods rose up and consumed the land at a whim, set fire to places that had been home in the moments before destruction. Where volcanoes rose from nothing and fearsome beasts rose from fire and water alike to drive out or devour any who crossed their paths.
There was no such thing as safety.
But there was choice.
Somehow these last weeks, in cuddles and touches, in wandering and curling up in cozy places, in surrounding herself with people who loved her and would always do their best to keep her from harm’s way, Kali had begun to find herself again. She’d started talking, and she’d even decided that maybe it’d be okay to take a little tiny walk by herself once in a while. She’d used to love exploring, on her own or with her Khari or anyone who’d have her, used to make friends anywhere she went. Back when her eyes were bright and her smiles reached all the way to them instead of curling half-heartedly on lips that felt too heavy to turn up at the edges.
Today wasn’t the first day she tried wandering alone. It had been little trips at first, wandering around in sight and shouting distance of Mom or Dad or Khari mostly. But today was the first day she really felt brave enough to go farther. To be really by herself for once, somewhere that had been peaceful and safe since they’d arrived.
So naturally there was some kinda cacophony, shouting and screaming, and she should have run scurrying back to Daddy and hidden. But she was so, so sick of hiding. And that scream sounded all too familiar, like the sounds ringing through Taiga when it had burned and flooded and turned to hell. She’d been so useless then, only really able to run away from nightmare beasts and horrors, and the scream was enough to freeze her in her tracks, trigger another flashback and make her curl in on herself and start shaking as tears streamed down the soft grey of her cheeks.
There was no such thing as safety.
But there was choice.
Kali made one, heading toward the sound of the struggle instead of running away again. Maybe she could help, maybe this time she could do some good. She wasn’t completely stupid in her brief moment of bravery though, and kept quiet and hidden as she got close enough to investigate. Good thing, ‘cause what the everliving fuck was that? Massive and reptilian, with wings and claws and sharp, predatory teeth, it was like nothing she’d ever seen before, and fear surged through her, choking her, seizing in her muscles as a familiar stallion ceded their island home to...well. To something he couldn’t fight.
She understood that all too well, and for a moment bitter resignation weighed her down, threatening to crush her all over again. Nowhere was safe, and there was nothing she could do to change that. There was no point in trying, and they should all just accept it and move on. Leave, maybe, brave the plague and try and find somewhere else that was safe, or just stay and submit to the rule of someone who would come in and take the island by force. What did it matter, when something bigger and stronger could come through at any moment and take it all away from that one too? What did any of it matter?
Fuck that.
She was sick of feeling small and insignificant, sick of lying down and letting the world stomp all over her. Her eyes sharpened as she watched the monster turn back into a man, and something clicked inside her for maybe the first time in her life. She didn’t have to be small. She could be a monster too. She closed her eyes, remembering the shape of him, brow furrowing in concentration as she pictured those wicked teeth dripping in another man’s blood, claws that could pin and hold or slice and rend, the shape of those limbs, the horns and the way they shaped his face. Wings, but not like the bird ones she’d worn before, and not quite bat-like either, but something close. Scales and armor and a body that screamed predator. And she held that image over herself, trying to make it fit, trying to make it hers.
The shape in her head changed subtly, lines softening just a little, the harsh male angles gentled ever so slightly as she starts to shift. Not his dragon, but hers, a little sleeker, feminine and graceful, smaller than his, not yet fully grown. Soft lavender and white and shades of grey, built more for speed and agility than brute strength, but a dragon still, dark eyes flashing open, filled with defiance and rage.
This was her island, not his. Her family’s home, not some stranger who thought he could come in and take over just because it was beautiful. Just because he coveted it. She glanced around, but both of the men had left already, one to settle into what he thought was his new home, and the other to lick his wounds and heal.
This fucking battle wasn’t done yet though. She opened her mouth and let out a roar of her own, and followed the scent of stranger, using the time it took to track him to call out for Khari and fill him in on what she’d seen. Bring Daddy. Bring everyone. This isn’t fucking over.
It wasn’t hard to find him, and when she did, a rumbling growl started in her chest, building and tearing its way out of her throat in another roaring shriek. “Get. The fuck. Out,” she snarled, baring sharp new teeth and spreading her wings, drawing herself up to her full new height. “You think you can just come in and take this island? Think again. It’s not yours. It’s ours.”
There was no such thing as safety.
But there was choice.
Somehow these last weeks, in cuddles and touches, in wandering and curling up in cozy places, in surrounding herself with people who loved her and would always do their best to keep her from harm’s way, Kali had begun to find herself again. She’d started talking, and she’d even decided that maybe it’d be okay to take a little tiny walk by herself once in a while. She’d used to love exploring, on her own or with her Khari or anyone who’d have her, used to make friends anywhere she went. Back when her eyes were bright and her smiles reached all the way to them instead of curling half-heartedly on lips that felt too heavy to turn up at the edges.
Today wasn’t the first day she tried wandering alone. It had been little trips at first, wandering around in sight and shouting distance of Mom or Dad or Khari mostly. But today was the first day she really felt brave enough to go farther. To be really by herself for once, somewhere that had been peaceful and safe since they’d arrived.
So naturally there was some kinda cacophony, shouting and screaming, and she should have run scurrying back to Daddy and hidden. But she was so, so sick of hiding. And that scream sounded all too familiar, like the sounds ringing through Taiga when it had burned and flooded and turned to hell. She’d been so useless then, only really able to run away from nightmare beasts and horrors, and the scream was enough to freeze her in her tracks, trigger another flashback and make her curl in on herself and start shaking as tears streamed down the soft grey of her cheeks.
There was no such thing as safety.
But there was choice.
Kali made one, heading toward the sound of the struggle instead of running away again. Maybe she could help, maybe this time she could do some good. She wasn’t completely stupid in her brief moment of bravery though, and kept quiet and hidden as she got close enough to investigate. Good thing, ‘cause what the everliving fuck was that? Massive and reptilian, with wings and claws and sharp, predatory teeth, it was like nothing she’d ever seen before, and fear surged through her, choking her, seizing in her muscles as a familiar stallion ceded their island home to...well. To something he couldn’t fight.
She understood that all too well, and for a moment bitter resignation weighed her down, threatening to crush her all over again. Nowhere was safe, and there was nothing she could do to change that. There was no point in trying, and they should all just accept it and move on. Leave, maybe, brave the plague and try and find somewhere else that was safe, or just stay and submit to the rule of someone who would come in and take the island by force. What did it matter, when something bigger and stronger could come through at any moment and take it all away from that one too? What did any of it matter?
Fuck that.
She was sick of feeling small and insignificant, sick of lying down and letting the world stomp all over her. Her eyes sharpened as she watched the monster turn back into a man, and something clicked inside her for maybe the first time in her life. She didn’t have to be small. She could be a monster too. She closed her eyes, remembering the shape of him, brow furrowing in concentration as she pictured those wicked teeth dripping in another man’s blood, claws that could pin and hold or slice and rend, the shape of those limbs, the horns and the way they shaped his face. Wings, but not like the bird ones she’d worn before, and not quite bat-like either, but something close. Scales and armor and a body that screamed predator. And she held that image over herself, trying to make it fit, trying to make it hers.
The shape in her head changed subtly, lines softening just a little, the harsh male angles gentled ever so slightly as she starts to shift. Not his dragon, but hers, a little sleeker, feminine and graceful, smaller than his, not yet fully grown. Soft lavender and white and shades of grey, built more for speed and agility than brute strength, but a dragon still, dark eyes flashing open, filled with defiance and rage.
This was her island, not his. Her family’s home, not some stranger who thought he could come in and take over just because it was beautiful. Just because he coveted it. She glanced around, but both of the men had left already, one to settle into what he thought was his new home, and the other to lick his wounds and heal.
This fucking battle wasn’t done yet though. She opened her mouth and let out a roar of her own, and followed the scent of stranger, using the time it took to track him to call out for Khari and fill him in on what she’d seen. Bring Daddy. Bring everyone. This isn’t fucking over.
It wasn’t hard to find him, and when she did, a rumbling growl started in her chest, building and tearing its way out of her throat in another roaring shriek. “Get. The fuck. Out,” she snarled, baring sharp new teeth and spreading her wings, drawing herself up to her full new height. “You think you can just come in and take this island? Think again. It’s not yours. It’s ours.”
((Awww, I've been wanting Kali to get out of her damn funk! I think this might have actually helped with that, yay!))