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And then somehow that voice, carried on the wind is gone, and suddenly the essence of what Tastes Like Summer is is gone as well: she (or what 'she' has become) is swept up on the wind and flung somewhere, somewhere unknown--

Until she wakes up with a huge breath in, surfacing from her dream the same way one might surface from being held underwater for a time. There is a searing pain in her eyes, and as she opens them, bits of dust and dried grass fall from her sockets, and Tastes Like Summer can look down at herself.

----

She still wasn't sure if she was ready to face anykin, but it had been long enough; long enough spent sleeping, long enough spent walking around getting use to a new skin and new skins that lay in that half-asleep realm that mixed instinct and knowledge. Knowing what she was capable of was certainly different from the actual, conscious execution and so she left that to instinct while trying to memorize the steps. It takes her very little time to learn to control the ebb and flow of changing from one form to her other, until she can be kiokote, cheetah, and kiokote again from one step to the next; what is difficult about the endeavor is learning to feel comfortable.

So Starburst walked around for a long time, relearning the swamp, experiencing it anew in the form of a cheetah. She learned the supple lines of her back and tail and the way the squishy swamp floor feels underneath soft, silent paws. And she runs. She does a lot of running, both as a cheetah and a kiokote, reveling in her new found speed that is much quicker than she had ever seen anykin run.

It is while running as a kiokote, leaping impossible distances over roots and underbrush, that she finds a companion, or rather a companion finds her. Cheetahs are generally aloof, but this one sought her out and ran with her, matching the thundering of her hooves with the torrent of his paws. And they ran as the sun walked its journey across the sky. They spent their first night together as cheetahs, high up in a mangrove tree where they can lounge comfortable as companions. She names him after the sun they chased, Leading Light.

And now it was much later, days even. Starburst knew that she was as ready as she ever would be to face Waltz transformed. She lead the way with Sun following her companionably close. They walked silently as cheetahs over roots and brush towards the place where Starburst had been inexplicably drawn away from, though now she knows it had been the MotherFather calling her to a different place in her dreams. When they came upon them, Waltz and Shadow, they are far enough away that she can only smell them. She stopped but Sun continued on, probably drawn by the scent of new friends that his master had undoubtedly been leading them towards. And so, the first form to break out of the brush is one like a summer sky only broken by the the barest wisps of clouds. Immediately, he goes forward to sniff at his fellow cheetah, cautious but friendly.

It is a long, long drawn out moment until the brush breaks again to reveal another cheetah. This on with strokes of summer, but mostly is soft clouds. Starburst stands gingerly on her paws, not approaching, almost shy as if she were not a different kin than the one who had experienced love for the first time with a buck that tended his garden with such affection and care. She shifts minutely, but is otherwise still as she watches Sun greet Shadow.