More Meteor Showers Bring Even Stranger Powers. (O/A)

[PixelMuse]

Rikki Tikki Travi

She craned her neck sideways so she could look at Trinity. "Shomethins up. You look mad. Hol' up. Didja say pretty boy was your ex now? Fuuuuuuck, Trin. What'd he do? I'll break his fuggin' legs."

Trinity sighed sharply. She did say she would talk to her after talking to Theonis about it. "Please don't. It would make matters worse… In order for us to have this conversation, you are going to need to sober up and I'll need to sober down sorta speak." They start heading to the bar since she saw Legio and the cafeteria last and she thought another interaction with him would not be good.

On the way she texted Gidget and Theonis indicating she needed to clear her head and take the day off. Also that she found Fenris, training would not be happening today with Fenris' current state. And also shared with them that we need to make preparations for the next new moon regarding Fenris which is in the next 19 days.

After texting, they arrived at the bar. She requested a Monster energy drink for Fenris and to keep it coming. She asked for wine for herself.

After a few drinks and things have balanced out, Trinity tells her why she broke up with him. She sighs to herself. "So early on in our relationship we shared with each other we weren't the types we'd normally date. I thought for sure he’d be the one. Yeah, that is until we met Liv Crystalion.” She rolled her eyes as she mentioned her name. “Checked all the boxes of the girls he’d would normally go for. His eyes were literally glued on her making me feel insignificant. Remember how I almost lost control before going to the floating island? He wasn’t following protocol by respecting her privacy as she change. He didn’t take his eyes off of her and she was teasing him to keep his eyes on her. Just the way he looked at her then was the same look he gave me when we were about to ********. That was the last draw…”

“Then a lot of s**t happened. Theo brought these kids from the future. He told me one of them is our son from that timeline. Not long after that a girl that looked a lot Liv and him called him ‘Daddy’ and that was when I broke up with him. It was crappy cause I did that in front of our son from that timeline. Just couldn’t take it anymore.”

“I broke up with him so he could be happy. So that I don’t have to be around when he eventually cheats on me with Liv as the future has pretty much spelled it out.”

“Cheers to Theonis’ happiness and my misery.” She finished the remaining of her glass.  

[Rikki Tikki Travi]

Fenris had problems drinking from a can with a muzzle, even with her more flexible "were" lips. The bartender was more than happy to comply with any assistance she needed after the earlier snafu. The monsters were poured into extra wide cocktail glass which were normally reserved for large frozen daquiris. From there, Fenris was able to lap up the monster.

Fenris' eyes would wander as Trinity spoke, but her ears maintained their positions so that she could always hear her. She started to sober up around the time Trinity got around to Theonis' wandering eyes. She stayed silent as her student spoke. It wasn't the time to interject with her usual shenanigans. She waited patiently until Trinity made her barbed toast.

Fenris huffed in a canine fashion and grumbled, "Men are ******** morons."

She waved the empty glass, signifying that she needed a refill of her energy drink. She hated the flavor, but between the caffeine and massive amount of sugar it was sobering her up while it kept her inevitable headache at bay. It didn't do much for her stomach though.

"Even the best of them can't keep their eyes off of a set of curves or a set of doe eyed baby blues. Well, except maybe that Alec kid. He could barely keep his eyes off of Kerana. They're an item, right? I think I remember Mama saying something about that."

"The ******** was I saying? Oh right, my bad. That's a lot of s**t to deal with, for sure. Undoubtedly he spent most of his time trying to explain away his actions and convince you that you were making a mountain out of a mole hill. Trying to tell you why what you were feeling wasn't right. Plus the damning presence of his A.U. 'I love to ******** trophy' staring you right in the face. I can't blame you for breaking it off with him. But..."

The glass was placed in front of front of her. She groaned and took a few more laps at the drink before she continued, "Now, I'm obviously no expert when it comes to relationships, but maybe I can play devils advocate here. Kinda give you an alternate view of things. Something my father told me to do when I was wicked pissed at someone. I'm not trying to convince you of s**t, that isn't my place. I totally back your decision to end things. I'm just tossing out some thoughts."

"Now, there's no doubt that he should've kept his ******** eyes off of her, and she shouldn't have been doing that slutty s**t when she knew what your relationship was to him. He definitely ******** up there. But, didn't she pop in like a week before I was knocked into that coma? A coma where, apparently, you lost yourself to the de- Silhouette a few times and became a soul sucking uber slut yourself? He stayed with you through that, right? That sounds pretty ride or die to me. He could've jumped ship then and hopped into bed with blondie."

"Speaking of blondie, Rydia told me that Liv and the dragon girl are crazy for each other. Hell, Freya saw the way they were trying to swallow each other's tongues on the beach a few days ago. Theonis might be a stupid kid with a divining d**k, but he doesn't seem the type to break up a relationship just to get his peter wet."

"Then there's the future kids. Do you know what went on there? Was there a dragon girl to be with other Liv? When and how did other Trinity die? How did other Theonis react? How much of an age gap is there between shadow boy and light girl? There's a lot of unanswered questions there."

"But there is one question that is more important than any of those."

Fenris sat up and looked directly into Trinity's eyes with the utmost sincerity. "Do you still love him?"  

[PixelMuse]

"Yes!" it was a knee jerk reaction as she asked the question and she could picture Theonis in bed with her. She winced after her response GAWD, DAMN IT! Was it too soon to answer such a question? She broke up with him not that long ago so the cut is fresh but deep. "... but I can't go back to him. No matter how I feel. I just dread the eventuality."

"Yeah Liv and Heather are an item, but for how long? Plus who knows maybe they want to add Theo to become a thrupple the man did joke about having a three-way with Liv. Believe you me I did not find it funny, not one bit." She sighed to herself, "On the one hand I know he wants me back. Managed to talk to him this morning about it as I mentioned. Rare enough this did not devolve into an ugly fight. he admitted that he disagreed with my reasoning for the breakup and kind of left it at that. We were able to maintain a working relationship in a sense. So there's that."

"I suppose I could ask about AU Theonis and the rest of the AU selves. I know that in that alternate timeline I died defending the group from these biomass creatures from Legion that I couldn’t manage to stop there. Our son, Leo in that timeline was 3 when it happened.” She rubbed her arm with that failure in mind. A failure although logically she had nothing to do with but at some level, she couldn’t help but feel at fault. “Don’t know much more than that.”

“As for how he reacted… that’s where it hurts the most. Despite whatever the immediate reaction was he moved on like my death didn’t mean a damned thing. He moved on to Liv and had a child with her.” She took a sip of a freshly topped off a wine glass. “What justification is there for that?” She whipped the tears from her eyes. “How does one make up for that? Every time I look at their child the sting resurfaces. How could he do that to me?” She sighed to herself looking. “Yet I feel like such a jerk and none of this is her fault.” She takes another swig. “Don’t know how many years apart they are… why would that even matter though?”

“As for Liv, yeah that seems about right regarding the timing. Though with the time I spent with her she kept going on and on about how she would go after Theo. While in my head I thought ‘he’d be a hell of a lot happier with her than me’. Was pretty much drilled in so much so that my subconscious took notes along with what else Theonis likes. Couldn’t help but get the sense he wished I remained in that impractical body but be myself. There were times during that month it felt like I was competing with two women, way out of my league in the curves department that I ended up going hard on the lovemaking. Even there I kept thinking he was picturing Liv.” she sighed it was rough for her without her powers that month. “Everyone seemed to focus on how he stuck with me through all of that. Granted he did good at keeping it a secret. Don’t think anyone knows unless I told them.” She blushed a little and took another sip of her wine as if to drink it away.

“I dunno, why can’t he be a little like Alec in that sense. Doubt Kerana could ever imagine him cheating on her. Yeah, they are totally an item.” She sighed to herself. Part of her wanted to go back to him yet the other part seemed to point to Dawn, the inevitable. She asked for a shot of whiskey. She didn’t want to get totally drunk this early in the day but those thoughts needed to be silenced.

“I dunno, part of me wants to go back to the way things were. Yet can’t help but think about where things end up. Ugh, just don’t know…”

"Even if I did go back, he'd probably have that smirk on his face that says 'I knew it'… here here men are morons." she raised her glass and clinked with Freya's.

She was a little tipsy to loosen up but not beyond that at the moment. If you were to ask her anything she would tell you her honest thoughts were and what she thought was truth.  

[Rikki Tikki Travi]

Fenris laid her head down, upright, on the bar top as Trinity spoke. The headache was coming. The bartender opened his mouth to protest the inevitability of shedding, but quickly stopped when he saw the look in the wolf's eyes.

She clinked her glass with Trinity's, picked up her head, and took a few more laps of the overly sweet drink. "I dunno, Trin. When you go into a fight, you go in prepared to get hurt in the process. In addition to that, the best way to go in is with the mindset that you're going to come out on top, or else you've already lost. If you're still afraid, you gain intel to put things in your favor. Strengths, weaknesses, exploitations, trickery if necessary. But then there're times where you think you're doing the right thing by not fighting, but that just makes both fighters miserable, so no one feels like fighting until some other...fighter...s**t, I'm not smart enough to keep this metaphor going. Plus my head hurts."

"My point is that you still love the dumbass, and from what Rydia told me you're gonna have to get along with your polar opposite if you and the others are gonna do this thing. That means learning to get along with blondie before the big day comes, and you can't do that if you resent her for taking pretty boy's eyes off of you."

Fenris turn in her stool to face Trinity and rambled, "Also, I've never known you to back down from s**t. If he's what you want then go and get that pretty boy d**k. If he steps out of line be all like, 'Hey, ********! Eyes on the prize!' 'Cuz that's what you are, Trinity! A Goddamn prize! You're more than what your Mom gave you. You're a bonafied, certified, genuine badass!"

She took a few breaths and realized her heart was beating faster. "I think the Monster's getting to me. Look, like I said, I've got your back no matter what you wanna do with your love life. I just know what I know, which really isn't much. I just know that we have things here that the future peeps didn't have when things went tits up. s**t, there may even be another universe where you didn't go with Teshoumaru that day. There's probably one where Freya didn't go to fight Eclipse alone just to end up as me. There's no 'where things end up.' Nothing is set in stone, kid. You make your own destiny. ******** ups and all."

She let out an uneasy sigh, "But, like I said, I've got your back. You wanna drink your pain away, I've got no room to talk. Let's just make sure we do it together from now on, 'kay? Maybe we can keep each other out of trouble."

She took a few more laps of her drink, winced, and put it down. "Feel better getting all that off your chest, Trin?"  

[PixelMuse]

Trinity sighed with a small smile, “Yeah it does.” She took the last swig of her drink and asks the bartender for a pitcher of water and bread. “Keeping each other out of trouble may not be bad idea. Will admit after getting blacked out drunk last night I ended up waking up in Theo’s bed.” she sighed to herself. “Which was what led me to talk to him this morning.”

"As for destiny, if you looked at my ancestry you may think otherwise. Every generation of my lineage when their power was awakened, they had a prophesy/destiny to fulfill, some form of saving the world from darkness. Those, whose power lay dormant were lucky enough to live their own lives as they chose. Those that were awakened were lucky that the gods allowed them to choose who they loved. So forgive me if you will for finding what the future spat at me as something not fixed." her eyes lowered part of her wished she could let that go. Part of her wished she was in that timeline where Freya didn't go fight Eclipse and end up as Fenris. She sighed again and drank some water.

"I know I'll have to play nice with Liv and all… it's just going to be harder to do when she's in my head." she slouched a bit. "It's not just that I've already got two other voices in my head, now I have to prep for a third and also find a way to keep security intel away from her. A heck of a lot harder when she's going to be taking residence in my head." she sat up and took a drink and a bite of bread.

With her mouth full, "mai mow " she swallows, " I think I know what you were getting at with the metaphor. It seems like whenever I enter a relationship I end up getting hurt. So I guess I'll have to go into it knowing I won't be unscathed. Why, why can't I be in a relationship where I could just enjoy the ride? Something always has to come along and ruin it and now I'm just supposed to assume that, that will be the end result. No happily ever after for me huh? Just a world of hurt and betrayal, I have to be prepared for with every relationship." she took another bite of bread and swallowed. "I dunno, a good part of me wanted to be done looking when it came to Theo." she drank some water and took another bite of bread and chewed and shook her head.  

[Nova Blancke]

Legio observed the interaction between the two. It was an interesting display of affection. Back and forth.

"You mentioned I might feel bad for hurting her on a personal level. Perhaps yer right." Legio responded.

"Emotions are....inconvenient."

"You're right. I think it would."

She couldn't help but smile as her girl basically ran up to her to run her hands through her hair.

"Well they do say redheads get all the fun. Figured it'd look good with my eyes."

Liv wrapped her arms around Heather's waist, pulling her in close.

"So, what do you want to do now? Shopping, café or....me?" Liv said with a playful smile., putting a twist on the classic anime line housewives use.

Theo whistled a bit at Theresa's performance. If she weren't lethal before, she sure was now.

"You mean a sparing match? Hmmmm, I dunno...it might be good for us both though. Though I am kinda scared that would flip a switch in you and you just go for the kill because of well...how you were 'trained'." He pondered.

"As for the shaping of metal, I think our mechanics should have plenty of scraps laying around. Otherwise, I am sure we can go to a scrapyard. Plenty of metal to go around there."  

[Rikki Tikki Travi]

"Ain't gonna get no argument from me on that one, Slim. They can be a sumbitch, but they can also be wonderful. Boy I tell ya what, ain't nothin' sucks more than gettin' yer heart broken. That happened with the last boy I went out with before Mark. He broke up with me when I changed into the badass bovine beauty sat here in front of ya. Yeah it sucked, but after I thought about it, I was also kinda happy that somethin' could make me feel that sad. It's like...it made me feel alive, y'know. It made me feel human. The only way I coulda felt that sad is if I felt somethin' real good before. So ya gotta take the bad with the good. If I had to put it in fancy words, I'd say felt like a beautiful sadness. Then a few weeks later I met Mark, and he loved the lady past the cow. Boy howdy, Slim. I was happier n' a pig in mud."

She wiped her brow, being careful not to catch her hand on her small horns, and huffed, "Hoo doggy. Jus' lookit me ramblin' on about my own borin' self. So, ya feel bad about hurtin' Fenris' feelins. s**t may be inconvenient, but that's the human condition.

The final question is, what are ya gonna do about it? Ya jus' gonna let her stew in that anger while you wail on about how hard bein' a person is, or are ya gonna go an' say yer sorry fer puttin' her in that state. If ya choose option two, then ya'd better mean it. An apology don't mean jack s**t unless ya know what ya did wrong, and yer honestly sorry for hurtin' her. 'Cause if ya pop off with, 'I'm sorry ya got mad.' I can guaran-damn-tee ya she wont be aimin' fer yer face."

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

Heather gasped at Liv's suggestion and blushed deeply. She could feel the heat in her face run through her whole body. She couldn't help but grin and look to Liv with hungry eyes.

She turned her neck as far as she could toward the remaining staff and demanded, "Take us to the sauna. I'll pay each of you double to make sure no one bothers us for fifteen, no, thirty minutes."

Less than five minutes later, Liv and Heather found themselves in the sauna, alone, with only a pair of towels to keep themselves decent.

"I made sure the temp is at a decent level. I can probably take whatever this thing can throw at me, but I can't have my firefly shriveling up on me."

Heather poured one ladle full of water over the hot stones to get a decent steam going. She then sat on a low bench, faced Liv, spread her arms over the seat of the high bench, and crossed her legs provocatively.

"So, Red, you ready to work up a sweat?" she asked with a come-hither motion of her right index finger.  

[BeaMichelle]

"Oh...right." she said sadly. She had not even considered that a sparing match was somewhat similar to her sessions on the playground. But there was one key difference between the playground, and Valhalla.

"But, I mean, you wouldn't actually try to kill me, right? Gidget said a sparing match is something friends could do to see how strong they are, and where they need to improve. When I fought in the playground, me and the others would try our hardest to kill one another. That's how we found out that the best way to do that is to take our heads off, or else we just keep rebuilding ourselves until we run out of materials. Well, that was for me and my sisters. The boys were a lot easier to kill."

Memories of the playground flashed through her mind. So much pain. So much more blood than one person should be able to shed.

"I want to know how I can be better. And Gidget also said it'd be good for you to...what did she say? Square up? That's it! Square up with someone that isn't so easy to beat with air and wind. I'll do my best not to hurt you, if you don't try to kill me."  

[Nova Blancke]

It was slightly unnerving hearing her talk about casually killing her sisters and the boys. But did she think that he would actually try to kill her?

He sighed and chuckled a bit."You misunderstand Tes, I'd never try to kill you. I was just concerned by might if you got into the rhythm again, that's all." Theo said and put his hand on her head.

"But yeah she's right. It'd be.....something else to go against someone like you."

Legio absentmindedly nodded.

"Saying that you are sorry because of how someone else feels makes little sense to me. I cannot control someone's emotions." Legio paused." I can."

"But I will not enslave her feelings." Legio stated before closing his eyes and sensing her in the bar drinking with Trinity. A faint smile showed as fast as it left. "She is currently drinking with her student. I should not intrude on that." Legio froze as he did before as a thought occurred to him. Two stones with one bird. Or was it the other way around?

"I believe I have an idea. They say actions speak louder than words." He got up from his seat with his tray in hand. It was only proper to return everything after all.

"Thank you Willa. You will be a wonderful mother." Legio gave her a small bow and walked off. Returning his tray he made his way to Freya's mother.


Liv couldn't help but grin a bit smugly. Got her.

It didn't take them long to get into the sauna. It has been a hot minute since she'd gotten into one of those. It felt ...different than before. Perhaps an effect of her being Ascended.

"Oh? you'll find that this firefly can take a lot." She said while standing across the sauna looking at her girlfriend. The next comment had her in action however. She strut towards Heather, sat down cross legged on her lap, one arm around her shoulders, looking into her eyes.

"You know...that's not saying much in a sauna."  

[Rikki Tikki Travi]

Willadene couldn't help but grin at the compliment. She waved him off and said, "Go on now, 'for some looky-loo goes and gives Mark the wrong idea."

She watched him leave, and with a shake of her head Willa sighed to herself, "Gonna be a long trail for that guy."

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

Heather grinned, bit her bottom lip, and replied, "Well, we could do it the normal, slow, and boring way. Or, we could try some things we couldn't do in the tub."

She reached out with the hand closest to Liv, craned her neck up, and gently pulled her girlfriend into a passionate embrace as she explored Liv's neck with her lips. She was going to make those thirty minutes count.  

[BeaMichelle]

Theresa smiled happily. She was glad Theonis could still pat her head, even after she'd grown up. "I know you wouldn't. I trust you and I want to be someone you can trust, too. Also...could you keep calling me 'Tes?' I like it."

No one else was using the sparing center at the time. Most everyone was tasked with either rebuild, recovery, or volunteer work. Theresa didn't want to ruin the new clothes Gidget picked out for her, so she changed into a battle suit made in her size.

She stood about twenty yards across from Theonis and explained, "I don't want to hurt you, so I'm going to shoot chalk. Who goes first?"  

[Rikki Tikki Travi]

"Given what we know now about the Ancients, I'd say that was less destiny and more ******** from the gods. Destiny doesn't have a face that can be punched, but the gods do. Believe me, I met them. They're dumb as hell, and I doubt their kids are any better."

That caused Silhouette to speak up for the fist time since the day before. "What?!" The outburst was quickly finished. She'd listened to Trinity's words, and she did not wish to add anymore to her host's plight.

"There's got to be a way to keep out of each other's heads. I doubt that even the lovebirds would want to have someone peeking on their most private thoughts at all times."

"Also, I highly doubt happily ever after exists. I don't know about your folks, buy my mom and dad were about as in love as any one could be. But, oh man, were there times I thought they might not make it. Between the training, our curse, and their differing opinions on how children should be raised, they could fight. Hell, there was a moment where Adam and Kaelonni almost split up because she wanted a kid, but he didn't. They didn't think they could have one, and he refused to adopt."

Fenris became silent for a moment. Most of the people she spoke of were dead. Freya had not taken the time to grieve. Fenris had also been busy during her short life span. She looked toward the wall of liquor and sighed.

"Yea, there was pain, but they were together to the end. Nothing good comes without a little pain. Happily ever after is a nice idea, but it's a naive one. Heh, if there's a heaven, I bet Adam is making Kaelonni roll her eyes with his stupid jokes, and Dad is still barely approving of the hobo that caught his daughter's eye. And Tesh-"

Her ramble trailed off as her eyes glistened, and the tears became caught in her fur. It hit her all at once. Her siblings, her brother in law, and the people she was died in just a few days. Soon, her mother would pass away. Her mother? No, not hers. Freya came first, then Okami a little later. She was them. Right? Two souls as one. One soul with two memories. They were technically dead. She was born of their death. She was dead. She should be dead...

That's when she heard the light fluttering of wings. A familiar sound, but it wa accompanied by voices. Her ears turned toward the sound. Her head pivoted once she had pinpointed the location. A butterfly? But it was speaking. Voices she, no, Freya had heard. Other butterflies moved into view. Other voices, including ones that were from Okami's past. They triggered memories and their associated visions. She could see that no one else in the bar saw them. The pain in her head became worse as the voices grew louder. Like her very being was going to splinter and break.

"Something's wrong." she moaned with her ears folded back. She looked down and clasped her head in her hands. She steadily began to hyperventilate as her thoughts descended into a downward spiral. "They...I need a...I need to get out of here!"  

[PixelMuse]

Trinity nodded as Fenris suggestion about a way of keeping out of one another's heads. She made a mental note to ask Kerana and Alec if they figured out a way to do that.

As Fenris continued with her thoughts of 'happily ever after' she frowned a little knew it … what's the point of it all? All the struggle and pain … nothing good comes without a little pain, makes sense I guess … Fenris went on about Freya's family then stopped at the mid mention of Teshoumaru's name. "Fenris …" she then there was something wrong.

"Noah, you've saved your job for now. Next time if you sense one of the clientele is a threat consult your manager, he has access to a harmless tranquilizer that should have been covered in your job orientation. The tranq is far less damaging than the poison you served my sensei you're lucky her body was able to take it." she did not wait for an apology nor excuses.

They dropped into the Shadow Realm. She could tell there was an internal struggle but she wasn't entirely sure what it was about. She noticed things were starting to go down hill at the mention of Freya's family. She stopped at her brother's name Is she too dreading what will come next for him or is there something more? She remembered something Tesho had said when he was teaching her about meditation, the voice of her ancestor had gotten so loud and critical at the way they were teaching her about shadow manipulation, "Here in darkness, everything's okay. Listen to the thoughts and let them fade like waves." Just like Freya trained her on her first day Trinity was able to connect with Fenris' mindscape within the darkness of the Shadow Realm. A technique Sill had taught her last night. She could see the butterflies and hear them too. Before asking she tried listening first.  

[Rikki Tikki Travi]

The voices were so loud, scattered, and numerous that trying to parse which butterflies they came from would be a near impossible task. There were, however, a few that stood out from the rest. There would be a few that Trinity could recognize.

"Why does father love you more?"

"Don't turn your back on us, Freya! We're your family." That one was Kaelonni. The queen Trinity had met only a few days before.

"Listen to your sister, and take care of your mother."

"Okami?! What happened?! What did you do?!"

"Penny for your thoughts, Freya." Adam Crescent. The captain of the guard and husband to Kaelonni.

"You knew my parents? What were they like?"

"Freya, please don't push her too hard." Trinity's mother.

"You know he hasn't been the same since Sara died. Why are you helping him? Don't you know how wrong this is?"

"I know you're angry, but Father wouldn't want this. All this bloodshed? For what? For Father, for Allines...for you?" Teshoumaru.

"I can give you what you've always wanted. To be free from the sins of your father."

"Please, Freya. Don't do this!" It was Okami.

"Shut up! Shut. Up! I never wanted you! You've made my life Hell! Get out! Die!" Freya.

"Do you love me, Freya? Truly? Even knowing that I would never leave her? The mother of my unborn child?" It was the same voice of the man that offered Freya freedom.

"Even she has defied me, now. I do this for her, for our child....for Sara. I...I need you. I need your rage, Freya. Prove your devotion to me, and you will have the love you desire so desperately." The same man.

"Do this for me. Kill. Kill them all. So that we can stand atop the ashes of humanity together." Him again.

"You see, daughter, butterflies represent the souls of living and dead according to my people's culture. We believe that the souls are carried to heaven in the form of butterflies once our journey on earth ends. But it is also often used to symbolize..."

The final audible words are drowned out by the sounds of screaming, pleading, moaning, wailing, and death. Among those are the cries of familiar voices calling Freya's name in desperation, rage, or despair.

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

Ilex played with Hailey, and some of the other children, for a few more minutes before she remembered what she had initially come to do. She waved down her new acquaintance and explained, "My sincerest apologies, Hailey, but I must depart."

"Deep-heart. That means you're leaving, right?" the young girl asked.

Ilex smiled and replied, "Precisely. It was joyous to relive my youth after so long asleep. Thank you."

"Where're you going? Whatcha gonna do?"

"Not far. I shall be communing with Mother Earth and guiding another to do the same."

"Comm-yune?"

"I will be listening to, and sharing my thoughts, with the Earth." Ilex explained patiently.

"Ooooooh. I get it. I like to talk to flowers and trees sometimes, too."

"Splendid! More children should be like you, young Hailey. I bid you farewell. May your days be pleasant until our paths cross once again."

"Bye-bye!" Hailey said with an enthusiastic wave.

Ilex waved in return and trotted up to Kerana. "Thank you, Kerana Carter. That experience was most satisfactory. I would like to return here in the near future, should time allow. Shall we go?"

Natalie looked to Kerana with confusion and amusement. "Heh. You're little sis is, like, really well spoken."