Preparations had to start, Reisx echoed as she howled forth, but as she came to the clearing in the grove, there was silence. She peered around and saw nothing, no one, and heard no movements. Cellen wouldn't be this far, would he? She wasn't sure, but she had to inform him about the fighter, about Imnir, now that Reisx knew his name. She smiled though, as she let her muscles ease and closed her eyes, letting the wind gently caress her body and she sighed. Tension was high with this Imnir, but as Reisx opened her silver eyes, determination and confidence grew strong like the flames of an ever-burning hearth. Feeling the earth beneath her, she stretched out her toes, felt the grass as it was damp, no longer warm from the day's sunlight. As night continued to age, so did the sky, fading from twilight to night and stars glinting like the lam lights that were far in the distance. Scrunching her nose she raised it to the wind, but caught nothing. She had been called, she had heard the howls, but why had they gone, why had they left when she had been summoned? Had someone else come, was the message for another? Or, perhaps, she wondered, had Cellen answered the call and he was with them now? Confused, Reisx sat in the clearing, she looked to the sky above her, the constellations and the moon's bright face. It shone bright on all beneath it, lighting the way for all those caught in the night's darkness, or the darkness dwelling within oneself.
"It is time," a voice spoke suddenly, and Reisx immediately came to stand, her fur did not bristle at the words, instead, her ears were at attention, trying to hone on the speaker's location. She heard a soft laugh, and a rumble of approval, "Good, you are getting better, embracing it, yourself."
"Why did you call me?"
"Why did you seek us out?"
Then there was silence. The trees creaked as the wind gusted around her, and as Reisx tried to see what might move, leaves sprang up from slumber and surrounded her in a cyclone, and then settled with a sudden burst out of energy and rested to sleep once more. For a moment, Reisx believed she saw eyes glint in the night, then disappear with a simple blink. She waited, body unmoving, undoubting, she did not raise her head or her tall, she did not want whomever this was to feel threatened. She wanted acceptance, allegiance, for whatever plan they had. It did seem, she noted, like there was some sort of plan. Were they training her, without telling her? Was this part of some greater purpose, or part of a game?
"You've so many questions you want answered," the voice spoke again, "but it is time you settle the ones that already plague your mind. Settle it, and once you let the past rest, can you look onto the future with strength and pride," Reisx swore she saw the glinting eyes again, then gone, "and all you wish to become, may come true."
Reisx went to speak, but stopped.
"You hesitate, why?" the question posed, airy, on the wind.
"What if I don't know what I want to become?"
A dark figure half revealed itself in the shadows, staying dark, just as she normally did. Was it instinct, or, something more?
"Then it will be revealed, you must merely give it a chance."
Then it was silent again, and Reisx was left alone to listen to the wind moving the leaves, making the trees and earth speak. She heard water nearby and headed for the sounds, the streaming water, rippling around rocks. Soon she came to rocky terrain where the earth was minimal. She shook herself, stretched her legs and pressed on. The terrain was touch, but doable, and the scent of these others was wafting from this way. Suddenly, Reisx stopped. She closed her eyes, inhaled and thought back. Images, remembrance flooding her conscious. The compound, the settlement, the wall, the gate, the fence…the fence. Her eyes opened and she looked around, but again, no one. One of these others, unfamiliar faces had been there investigating, but why? Was she being followed? She grit her teeth and pressed onward, coming alongside the stream that rushed over rocks and made them rough, not smooth as she preferred the stones which she collected.
As followed the roots of a tree that leaned over the stream that roared through a fissure in the rocks, and stopped at the edge looking down. The water seemed to glow in the moonlight. The water roared with strength, unbiased and unstoppable by any natural force here, and kept flowing down and out of sight in the night. It rippled and surged like fire, but had a life of its own. It wasn't destructive, but it was alive.
The rocks and stones, everything here, was like her, everyone, and nothing at the same time. The water was the world, everything within it she could not help, could not stop. The rocks, obstacles that could be overcome but could halt some of the water, halt some aspect of life, but, it could be passed with some difficulty. The debris of trees, leaves and other detritus ware other mishaps, other darknesses that clouded the once crystal clear water. Reisx tried peering at the bottom, but it took time for the debris to be washed away. Only then could she see the stones at the bottom, intertwined, interlaced, bound together, concrete and holding to one another as a foundation of security, like Cellen, like Ai, like those she cared for.
"Do you understand now?" the unfamiliar voice spoke.
Reisx looked up to see the dark figure on the other side, out of reach, out of sight still shaded in the shadows. Reisx looked down to the pool, then back up to the darkened figure and nodded.
"Yes."
The figure, though darkened, seemed to smile.
"It will take time, but you will overcome the debris that has affected you so, but," Reisx watched as the shadowed mokai pushed a stone into the water, breaking up the debris letting it fall in pieces downstream, "sometimes, you need to make the first strike, the effort, to wash it away."
The mokai was gone again, without a name, just an other, and Reisx looked down at the water again, clear once more, and she smiled.
She would break the darkness in her waters, and set her strength free.
