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 Posted: Fri Oct 24, 2008 12:40 pm
With her mother there to encourage her, Gale was feeling better about her journey again. She listened to her to mother ahead of her, chatting about nothing and anything as they walked. Sometimes Gale would get nervous when she felt rocks shifting under her paws but her mother paid no mind to her warnings and just laughed, hurrying along. Occasionally she would stop and describe the path ahead to help Gale, who was still reluctant to use her bracelets. Right now she was weaving her way around and over some rocks, using the stones as a ladder to reach a higher ledge on the mountain. It was a daunting task for Gale, who had no choice but to feel the rocks in front of her for footholds. A few times she disloged a stone, making her quills spike with fear. But she could hear her mother in front of her and it helped calm her nerves a little.
"Oh look, there's snow up there!" Gale couldn't look of course, but she felt the temperature dropping as they ascended. Snow on the mountain was not a surprise. Suddenly the earth under her paws changed as she felt the top of the ledge for the first time and quickly pulled herself up. It was thin, but it felt sturdy. Then she felt something brush against her side.
"You're all dusty. Pay attention to yourself!"
Gale snorted then continued brushing herself off. What a motherly thing to say. "What, you're telling me you aren't dusty after all of that?" She retorted, glaring a sightless glare in her mother's direction.
"Of course not. There's a cave over here. Come and rest."
Gale snickered and joined her mother in the cave, feeling the change in temperature around her when she was out of the wind. Up here the wind was stronger, but otherwise the weather didn't seem all that different from the weather in the forest. She curled up near the other warm body in the cave and fell into a peaceful sleep.
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Posted: Sat Oct 25, 2008 5:22 pm
Gale woke up slowly, the warm body of her mother making her feel more warm and cozy than she had in a long time. In her sightless darkness it was impossible to tell how long she had slept, and the eerie quiet gave her no clues either. With a yawn she raised her head, listening carefully with her flexible ears.
That's when she noticed something strange.
No breath came from her mother's lips.
Instantly her quills spiked straight up in fear, their tips brushing the top of the cave and sending dust showering down. Then she noticed that she couldn't feel a pulse, though her mother's body was warm. She backed away slowly, sand quietly raining down her back.
"Ehh, Gale? Where are you going?"
But Gale was long gone. She fled along the ledge, clicking her bracelets for the first time in 'days'. Her fear of a crushing landslide was nothing like that, that... thing lying in the cave! Tears streamed down her face as she ran until she could no longer run anymore. She flopped down where she stood, gasping and covering her face with her forepaws. What kind of sick joke was this now? Her mother was truly dead!
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Posted: Sun Oct 26, 2008 3:52 pm
"Gale, wait!"
The mini-kylan faced the voice coming towards her, her silver eyes glaring angrily. She felt both upset and betrayed by her strange companion, who had no life-giving breath or heartbeat yet acted and felt as alive as Gale herself. She growled, baring her teeth, before speaking.
"Go away! I don't want anything to do with you!" Gale cried, her fur bristling. Her tail thrashed back and forth in her anger.
"Gale, please..." Then her mother sighed, flopping down in front of her. "Yes I have no heartbeat and no breath, but I still exist."
Gale tilted her head to one side, confused. "How?"
"In your memories, dear," her mother said as warmly as possible, smiling. "You remember me as I was alive along with your memories of my death. That is why I exist how I am in your heart-world."
It was this heart-world things again... Gale thought back to her blinding illness, and what happened to her in her forest. Was it all a memory, manifesting itself somehow? She was once again reminded by the challenge of learning how to live as normally as possible afterward... It was almost like things were repeating themselves as she navigated the mountain.
"So... why are here?" Gale asked quietly, her anger dissipating into a kind of weariness.
"You needed a confidence boost. A guiding hand, kind of like when you were a cub. So here I am." She felt her mother lean against her side, nuzzling her neck. "I'm here to take you to the top of the mountain, and get you back on your way."
"I don't understand this place..." Gale muttered, sighing.
"Don't worry; neither do I."
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Posted: Wed Oct 29, 2008 10:02 am
It was definitely getting colder as they continued up the mountain. The pair huddled close together (after Gale got over her aversion a bit) to share body warmth. Gale's mother navigated, looking about the stones for ledges and footholds while Gale made sure they didn't happen to walk to close to anything, her sensitive quills spread over them both. Occasionally they would find a ledge that was comfortable to walk along, but most of the time they needed to climb walls of rough boulders. Going was slow.
They found a substantial ledge and decided to follow it a while. They went quietly, each absorbed with their own thoughts. Gale was thinking about the heart-world when she took a step forward and felt something wet. With an uncharacteristic squeal she jumped back, shaking her foot off in the air.
"Hahaha you afraid of a little snow?" her mother mocked good-naturedly, the sound of her voice telling Gale she was standing a few feet away. Suddenly the world was quiet except for a unfamiliar whoosing sound coming right at her...
Splat!
Snow dribbled down her horns onto her head and neck, making Gale shiver involuntarily. "Hey, no fair throwing snow at the blind one!" Gale shouted, wiping her ears before anything could trickle into them. Laughter answered her along with another whoosh, which this time she deftly dodged with a twist of her body.
So, she wanted to play dirty? Gale grinned and stalked forward, ears pricked and ready to listen for any sounds. Once she felt snow she made a ball on her paws then stood perfectly still, waiting to hear her mother's breathing to know where she should chuck the thing.
Wait... her mother didn't breathe.
Splat! This one hit her right in the rump. Gale whipped around and brushed her tail against something. Without thinking she leaped at the thing and was rewarded with a satisfying thump in the snow.
"Gotcha!" Gale beamed, pinning her mother in the white stuff. The second mini-kylan struggled free from her.
"Eww, Gale, I have snow in my ears!"
With that they both began to laugh, each rolling around in the snow.
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Posted: Thu Nov 06, 2008 9:23 am
They were getting close to the top of the mountain. It was a bittersweet realization for Gale since it meant she was almost over the frightening thing, but she remembered her mother's words...
I'm here to take you to the top of the mountain, and get you back on your way.
Did that mean that her mother would leave her once they reached the top? Gale was having trouble with the thought of being alone again. Sure she had been before but the going was so much easier when she had someone to talk to! Not to mention the precarious mountain would make navigating with her bracelets difficult. Shivering against the wind that seemed to grow colder the higher they went, she hoped that maybe her mother, even if she was just a memory, would reconsider and continue to travel with her. But the only thing she could do for the moment was to keep traveling.
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Posted: Sun Jan 25, 2009 10:01 am
"We're on top of the world, Gale! How do you feel?"
Her mother shoved her gently as she sat with her rump deep in the snow.
"Uhh... cold?"
"Wrong!"
Friendly banter passed between the mini-kylan as they celebrated their victory of finally reaching the mountain's peek. It continued for a while, and Gale wished that it would never come to an end. But end it did in a few moments, her mother suddenly giving a sigh.
"Gale, it's time for me to leave."
It was the moment Gale had been dreading since she heard her mother's words earlier. "But why? Why do you have to leave now? Can't we just keep going, together?" Gale pleaded, sightless eyes looking helplessly at her mother.
"No sweetie, I'm only a figment of your memories, remember? This is your journey, not mine." She laughed, then patted her daughter's paw. "You'll make it. I know you can."
"But I can't even get around! If I use my bracelets, the rockslides..." Gale didn't finish her sentence.
"Use your feelings, Gale! There are other ways to find direction."
"All I feel is fear, mother."
"Wrong again!" The older kylan snapped. "Not those feelings. Your feelings deep inside, in here." She placed her paw on Gale's chest, over her heart. "This is your heart-world. Use your instincts, darling."
"I don't understand..."
"You will. Farewell." Suddenly the warmth on her chest vanished without a sound and Gale was alone, utterly alone on top of the mountain.
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Posted: Wed Jan 28, 2009 6:13 pm
It took quite a while for Gale to pull herself out of the snow and start down from the peak. At first she clicked her bracelets tentatively, sending short bursts of sound to light the world in silver. But soon she became fearful again and stopped altogether, resorting to feeling along edges and using her quills to sense what was around her.
What did her mother mean, trust her 'feelings'? The only feelings Gale could name were ones like happiness or sadness. Nothing that reached deep down into her heart, nothing that could help her get through the heart-world.
After a time of shuffling along, Gale's paw suddenly brushed against something soft. She blinked her useless eyes in surprise and stroked the thing. It felt like silk, as light as spider's web. Curious, she tugged on it. The ribbon seemed to weave around the mountain like someone had tied it there. Carefully she began to follow it, tracing it's length with her forepaws. Perhaps it led somewhere?
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Posted: Thu Feb 25, 2010 9:06 am
If the silk had an origin, it sure wasn't revealing itself to her anytime soon. Once again Gale had lost track of how far she had gone, and the silk didn't give her any clues. At most she knew she was going down, though she couldn't tell how far the mountain stretched above and below her. At least the silk seemed to be held tight to the mountain so it wouldn't slip from her grip.
The mini-kylan didn't see any problem with following it, either. After all, her mother had appeared to take her to the top, so why wouldn't something else appear to help her to the bottom? Maybe it even led to the cave and, hopefully, the end. This gave Gale a bit more hope and she started to smile again as she shuffled along.
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Posted: Fri Feb 26, 2010 8:30 am
How much time had passed now? It was beginning to feel like the silk stretched on for an eternity and she would be stuck there forever. Gale had had a few close calls too; she had been so concentrated on keeping close to the fabric that she had almost misstepped on a small ledge and gone tumbling down. A few times she even risked using her bracelets to make doubly sure that a ledge was there. But no more than that. The sound of them clinking gently against each other and her own wrists as she moved was sometimes unnerving. It was so quiet that Gale's ears were starting to overcompensate, making every sound much louder in her mind than it actually was.
"Okay Gale, don't go crazy now..." She said aloud, just to break the silence. "You've got to be almost there, right? This mountain couldn't possibly grow or anything." She started to laugh, then stopped suddenly. Maybe she was already crazy. If someone could see her sightless eyes, they would have seen worry in them. She found herself checking to make sure she was still breathing, in case she had slipped into some kind of undead state like her mother. But her heartbeat remained strong.
"Maybe I should rest. Yeah, rest sounds good..." She reluctantly let go of the silk and felt a bit of pain. Kylan weren't meant to shuffle along on their hindpaws as long as she had been. She stretched, getting a kink out of her back, before curling up where she stood and resting her tail over her face. No doubt the silk would be there when she woke up. For now, she concentrated on getting some sleep.
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