Welcome to Gaia! ::

Cat closed her own eyes and slowly let her own conscious self slip into the abyss that was her, or should I say, Cam’s mind. Here, Cat no longer had to assimilate and adhere to a human. She became nothing but an entity, a Rishikian woman. This was her true self. When she opened her eyes again she was no longer within the dorm room and still had the pen and paper in her hand. Cat knew that she would be able to copy down whatever she wrote in her mind to what was on the paper, but this came as a practice to do so for classes when it was Cam’s time to take over and do homework.

She stood up and looked down. The first sure sign she knew that she was in Cam’s part of the mind was quite simple. Most would think that one would enter nothing but blackness while searching the mind, but this was not so. Cat’s mind was set upon her own dorm room. Instead of the dorm room, she felt the softness of the reeds under her feet, and looked above to see the moon dancing among the millions of skyflies, or stars as they were called in the Ria High realm, and fairies floating and flitting about.

“Sister! Sister?” Cat called out. She thought she heard water and looked to the stream, seeing Cam cross legged with her eyes closed. She sat down next to her and looked at her.

“Sister, I have to ask you some tough questions for homework.” Cat said naively. She wasn’t sure how to word the questions anyway.

It was then that Cam opened her eyes slowly and put some stray strands of her long white hair behind her ear. Cam did not look to Cat, but looked out beyond the horizon. Cat took this as an acceptance and looked at the first question. “What is your greatest obsession or desire?” Cat asked her.

“Well, that really depends on the context of the question. Perhaps the obsession is positive, and the desire negative? Perhaps the obsession is the manifestation, or the remaking of the desire. In this sense, would the teacher that assigned this have a current obsession to find out, and a desire to read the answers when you turn it in?” Cam answered her sister. She blinked slowly and took a deep breath. Cam knew what her sister meant but she hoped it wasn’t what she thought she was asking.

“I…I don’t know. Please Cam, I don’t know how to word this. This is psychologically class.” Cat answered. She was getting used to the language still, and sometimes she switched words. Cam dreaded this
answered and sighed.

“Alright, I will tell you, if you must know. Rest assured, your teacher will be disturbed by this.” She warned. “My desire…” Cam started, “is to take vengeance upon those disgusting humans for the genocides of our people. Our ancestors, our gods and goddesses, our people have all been persecuted and killed by the thousands. For all these years, we protected them, we were even put upon that realm to protect the royal family. We were trained to be killing machines, and we were slaughtered and tortured.” Cam said, her crimson eyes becoming more intent as Cat wrote down what her sister said. “I was slaughtered too.” It was so simplistic [what Cam had said at least] that Cat looked at her in surprise.

“Well keep writing. I’m not done yet.” Cam answered. “Even though we spread our virus to those people, we would have to rebuild our people. My desire is to completely wipe out the human race with the virus that we are able to genetically spread. Those people don’t know that they have been infected, that they will give birth to one of our brethren, the same ones that they skewered and roasted like a swine on a spit.” Cam said. “This leads into your other question, doesn’t it.”

“Explain the back-story.” Cat answered absent mindedly, as she kept writing it down.

Cam nodded. “Yes, that is part of the ‘back-story’ as its called. You see, besides the genocides, it is what happened to you and I as well. You had been raped by a human, your dignity and shame impressed upon you as if you were at fault. For me it was different.” Cam had a bitter smile. “They found me, trapped me by using a small boy I had met when I was little. They killed him, their reason being that he was infected and had no use. I was the one taken and whipped, tortured.

“One day I couldn’t take it. I was only around eight when I killed one of their own. I became so angry, and my energy, my moon power…I lashed out at the man. I still remember how easy and quick it was. With one of these…” a moon vector appeared in front of her as well as a moon wisp. The vector looked like a long arm with a hand at the end. “With one of these I sliced through the man. Lukewarm butter; warm enough for the knife to slide easily, but cold enough to cause the knife to go at a slower pace. That’s how I killed him. Then they killed me. How I was not transported to the afterlife I do not know. At the same time, this was how I reunited with you, sister.” She said to Cat. "I believe I as re-directed back to the Earth either because I have not done my duty or that I must atone for those who I have killed, but I hope it is not the latter.

"I can see you aren't done yet. You do realize your teacher will not be pleased with this." Cam said softly.

"But I...I had no place else to turn." Cat stuttered as she looked at her sister with her own innocent, lilac violet eyes. Her gaze was as soft and gentle as the flower itself.

Cam sighed and went back to looking at the sky. Her white wings, glorious, and yet at the same time, cursed, stretched out behind her as if they were chasms of snow; ridged and vertical when viewed from the top, but detailed and beautiful when looked at close up.

“What are you willing to do to obtain your desire?” Cat asked.

“Destroy the whole human race by violence and genetics.” Cam answered. “If they are corrupt, I would easily kill other humans. They filled us with nothing but grief and anger. But we can infect them. This same vector that can slice through that man can deliver the virus. A part of me wishes to resolve this in peace though. I understand that the humans of this realm were not the humans in Arkiana, but I can still feel that same corruption.” Cam's eyes seemed to almost glow as she said this, giving off the true power of her being.

“What have you not done or tried yet to fulfill your desire?”

“Peace. Simple, elegant, peace. That is what I wish to change. Even though I will sacrifice myself for the greater good and kill whatever threatens me or my family, I wish for it to all end in peace. I wish that our people will triumph again and we would all go together to find a new land as one. Though that is an option I have not tried because even in the realms we live in, there is nothing but violence. It is sad that in both worlds, and seemingly all worlds, that language is spoken with bullets, and written with blood. At the end of the day, the sun turns red before it goes into purple and blue, a sign and symbol of life’s end and death. And yet, look at how beautiful night can be. If in death we can live among the skyflies and rest in peace harmoniously, then why can we not use that solution in life?”

Cat wrote as fast as she could and nodded. These words, although dark, had some hope peppered about in the answers. “Is this desire increasing or waning?” Cat asked.

“Desire always waxes and wanes just like the cycle of the moon. No matter what happens, the desire, like the moon, is always there even if it is not seen. For now, the desire wanes because here, nothing absolutely horrible has happened. However, at the same time, it waxes because I yearn to go back and take vengeance upon those that killed our people.” Cat was amazed at how her sister could relate the day's events though nature and her own powers. After all, Cam's elemental power was in par with the universe's. Perhaps she was a living angel, but Cat went back to her last question

“And finally, how does the desire manifest itself?”

“I will answer this like I said earlier before you asked me these things. The obsession is the manifestation of the desire. My obsession to kill comes from the desire to avenge our people, but again, my desire to find peace fuels my obsession to bring the Rishikians to a new land and live as one. Desire cannot exist without obsession and vice versa. That is my answer to you.” She finished.

Within a couple of moments Cat finished writing and nodded. She hugged her sister, understanding that though Cat wouldn’t understand what her sister meant that she knew how it felt to be in her situation. She got up. “Thank you sister.” She said simply. Cat closed her eyes and faded out of her sister’s mind.

Cam shut her own eyes to try and meditate, but it was hard to do so when tears forced their way from her eyes. She did not heave nor did she cry out. It was a silent hell that Cam herself would put through out of the happenings of her past and present life.

Cat looked at the paper, now that she was back in her actual world, and put it away quickly. She could not read it because her own eyes were tearful. She turned off the light and looked out the window to see the skyflies out, and understood what Cam meant by wanting simple, elegant, peace.