There he sat again, alone and away from his brood.So much time had passed. They were growing, and they were ready to leave.
The thought... it made him lighter, it made him feel more at ease with the world. Yet nothing could wipe away the consequences of what had caused his children's existence in the first place. No, they were not an accident, but were far worse than that.
He didn't think of his children in a negative way. He was there for them, he wished to provide. But that was all.
He could give nothing further, else sink in to a hole of turmoil and conflict. They were his children, but that was all.
He needn't feel anything else, for that was what his domain entailed. To feel anything else was to be at odds with himself. That was how things worked, and that was how the god worked since he was born into his world.
He continued sitting there, staring at the stars. Bast always brought in the nice things at night. The twinkle in them... They brought out hope, but not in the god. It was for the mortals, who bathed in their desires and worries. That was not a way for the god of obscurity.
She, too, was alone. The wild dog had left her multitude of siblings many moons ago, and she was not to return to any of them. None of them were to return to anyone else, for that matter. Ahh, they were all free spirits, wandering to all ends of the world to meet others.It had been a little enlightening to run into other wild dogs just like her - leaving their family to make their own story and print their own paw tracks on the earthen ground.
It was just a little lonely at times. Family to her was more important than anything, even if they all left. Everyone would reside in each other's hearts all the time, though, wouldn't they?
Ereshkigal said so. Ereshkigal, though sometimes one of the more fanciful and wistful ones, was right, though. She had a purity in her heart that made the wild dog believe so.
She walked on, trudging through the grasses with her white and silver paws. Ahh, where would she walk to the next day? She did not know.
Blue eyes spotted a wild dog trekking across the grasses. She seemed burdened, sorrowful, and yet, there was some hope emitting from her. But what was that for, and why was she alone? He knew why he was, but another... Another being, alone. What travesties did they suffer to go through such a phase?
He slipped out of the shadows, walking alongside her. She was a small wild dog, he had to say that. Definitely smaller than that boastful and bold black one he had seen some while ago.
"Where are you going?" he asked after a few minutes walking alongside her.
"AH!" she squeaked, falling backwards as the voice came out of nowhere right beside her.
Who had been walking next to her that whole time?! She didn't notice!
The voice wasn't menacing, however, and it was definitely not inviting cruelty or harm towards her, so she shifted position and looked at the figure. It was big... It was black, and it had the looks of an owl and the wings of an owl, and yet, the body of a lion? And there must have been a mane in there somewhere, too.
"What are you?" she asked.
"Ah, my apologies, mortal wild dog," he spoke, "I am Mushkeli, the god of obscurity."
He didn't realize he had been that fully cloaked until he spoke those words. But her walk was ever so curious, and he wanted to know. Perhaps it was a part of keeping only to himself and to the children, but another adult soul lost and alone seemed like a decent thing to speak with, if not walk alongside with to see where they were going.
"A... god?" she spoke, tilting her head in curiosity.
She had never seen one of these before. She thought one of her siblings brought up lion gods at one point, but she never really took it into consideration.
"So what do you do?"
...Ah, a wild dog that did not know of gods. That was unsurprising, for wild dogs had none on this plane that he knew of, nor any that Bast had spoken to or dealt with. Surely these canines had their own businesses to attend to, such as that large black one.
"I do many things, mortal, but none that concerns you or would find to be favorable to you... I simply am, for now, and exist as I do."
This guy was pretty cryptic. But it didn't really matter for her, because she wasn't supposed to be out here looking for some god of a lion.
"Oh..." she spoke, taking one more good look at him before she decided to move on her walk.
"I'm going nowhere, but somewhere," she decided to return her own cryptic words.
"My family all left each other. On good terms, mind you. And we will set on our own paths, so I am looking for mine."
How interesting. Her words rang to him, yet he was not one to embrace it, especially if it came from a canine. Despite the two being away from their own family, it seemed that both were still unified in some way.
"We all must find our own path someday, be it alone or with others. I choose to be alone, mortal, and that is how it should be for some to truly attain peace with oneself. May your travels take you... to somewhere that you want, and not a path you will regret."
Those were his parting words as he had stopped walking to the mortal wild dog. He had only given them because her being intrigued him to walk with her for the time. She was truly a personification of "alone" now, like him, and so spoke to him.
She nodded, not wanting to spend her time in dealing with these lions. Sure, she was trying to find her own path, but lions were not the answer. It was somewhere with her own kind, where she could find unity in them and in a family. She was a wild dog, and wild dogs stuck together as family.
