Mistaking Clouds for Mountains remembered what it felt like to be pregnant though it had been a while since her last clutch. What a different mate she had chosen this time, an acha when her last was a bulky kimeti. Certainly there had been bucks in between, but none that had resulted in children since her first clutch. Still, she had chosen for strength and he had possessed it even though he expressed it in the form of a show. While she was fond enough of him, she did not miss him now that they had parted ways. That was her way, to find fondness briefly and then to let go completely.The last time she had been pregnant, she had sought out a legendary to bless her clutch. The time had come again for her to find a legendary. It was not that she doubted the helath of her line or that of Ode, but she would give her children the best chance hey had to survive though she was not the type to raise them and watch over them as they lay as eggs on the Swamp floor. She carried them as she ran, sometimes speaking to the children growing within her to impart advice, and she would find a safe spot to lay them down. Then, she had done what she had to do as a mother. the rest was up to them, their strength, their destiny.
She had heard whispers and rumors of a kiokote who had been chosen by the MotherFather to ascend, tow even. She sought one of them to bless her current clutch. Kiokote for kiokote, a runner to bless the hunter and the dancer. Again she had hunted an offering for the legendary and hoped to find one before the offering went bad. Clutch the large rox in her jaws, Illusion covered ground quickly despite her the swelling on her belly and the sucking mud.
She barely blinked when a cheetah with bright, glowing eyes dropped out of the trees and landed in front of her. She stopped, gave it a cursory glance, and realized between on breath and the next that she had found a legendary, or more accurately, a legendary had found her. She dipped into a low bow, respectful of the power that came with being Swamp blessed. She came forward, slowly, before placing the rox down before the cheetah. "An offering, Blessed One, though it would seem you do not need it for your form is swift and quick, a hunter's form.""Or a lover's," the cheetah responded. Illusion paused, but nodded. She did not quite see what the cheetah meant, but she would not presume to understand the mare better than the mare knew herself. The cheetah was the missing form the MotherFather had granted to her after all.
Cheetah and doe regarded each other quietly until the cheetah smiled. "Forms are mutable and mean what they mean what we see in them. The cheetah runs free and swift, but some choose to become companions to kiokote and other kin. Even then they are creatures of freedom. No kin can tie them down. That is love, to choose companionship and to learn a new side of yourself without losing yourself to another."
"But what I see is based on who I am, my experience. What you see is based on who you are. So tell me, who are you?" The cheetah queried.
Illusion was quiet as she considered the mare's question. She wondered what the mare was looking for, what answer she sought. "I am a runner, not for fear, but for love of speed. I run because life is moving and I will move with it. Things come and go, we all move on."
The cheetah nodded and smiled, baring sharp teeth without menace. "And what do you wish for your children?"
One question led to the next, so they must be connected. "For them to know themselves, to know what they want the same way that you and I have learned ourselves. Let them linger and to love if that is their nature and let them run and be free of all fetters if they so choose, so long as they are content in the lives they choose."
"Very well then," the cheetah responded as she gazed towards the sky. "May their knowledge of themselves be true as the sun even if their nature changes as the sun's position changes as it tracks across the sky."
With that, a quick smile, and an unnaturally high leap, the cheetah was gone, rox gripped in her jaws. Illusion murmured her thanks to the empty space left by mare that had gone as quickly as she had came.
