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 Posted: Tue Sep 02, 2014 7:18 pm
Location: Quadrant 4, near the outskirts of The Overseer's eastern border
Timeline: Current; approaching the end of summer
Point of View: Kiade 
Up above remained nothing more than a looming shadow and Axcatia's safety was secured again. Maybe he'll be in such an agreeable mood, Kiade hoped.
The strangest thing about the Overseers was not strange at all. It was the sheer normality of their day-to-day that had taken her many sleepless nights to accept, and even now, she didn't necessarily embrace it. As a kitten, she had known this was her calling. But she always envisioned this to be a place where the animals were all-knowing, not burdened by flaws or inhibitions.
There was disharmony among them not unlike that of her birthplace — politics, bickering over domain selection, the occasional love spat. Less of it, but more than enough. She wondered what the outsiders that lurked around their borders would think to find Tolas' most votary, at their core, nothing more than mere mortals.
They would try to use us as the Timekeepers did our ancestors, Kiade thought. Or laugh at us. The world was a cruel place, of this she was certain.
She tried to speak to her people with this same conviction for all the good it did to conceal your emotions in the land without secrets. "Oxotl and I will discuss the matter of these outsiders and make our decision on if they are welcome here or not," she'd told them earlier, when the weather was fair and the morning young as she should have felt. All of them, gathered together around their sacred tree. "We won't fail you."
So far, they hadn't. Every problem they had encountered under her and Oxotl's leadership had been resolved to the best of any animal's ability. The skeptical looks were warranted none the less for an imposing array of reasons far from limited to the ability to read minds. Those closest to her could feel her discontent while others instead sensed Axcatia's contrast to it.
Though she had long ago been recognized for her gifts as a shaman, Kiade's dilatory nature plagued her still. She had waited, delayed, made excuses until it was obvious they could sit idle no longer.
When she heard the flap of wings, she lowered her head and turned to him. Oxotl was usually permitted his garrulous ways without challenge; Kiade would nod when she agreed, speak up when she did not. This was not one of those times.
"Axcatia will allow them whether we like it or not." Her voice cracked and perhaps Oxotl would be wiser to the tears she blinked away not having fallen from the sky.
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Posted: Tue Sep 02, 2014 7:49 pm
Kiade spoke, and Oxotl's head tipped, one maroon eye squinting downwards. His other eye, pointed towards the unruly sky, was closed. At first, he produced no answer, grunting and shifting, his little talons clicking and scratching on wood bark. Smart, unbelievably talented, and possessing a truly strong desire of purpose, Oxotl often admired Kiade. This admiration stretched so far as to produce a soft spot in his chest feathers which Kiade could tickle more than any other animal within Tolas.
It is a tree. Apparently, those feathers were out of reach tonight.
Oxotl had learned from the tree, was still more powerful near the tree, but he did not need the tree. To him, it was a glorified rock. It was useful, especially if you desired to speak with it for hours without expecting attitude back. In Kiade's case, she threw her heart towards it.
It is extending its roots. That is what a tree does. It was with great hypocrisy that Oxotl lectured on the unchangeable mind of a tree to a shaman with an unchangeable set of emotions. Kiade felt. That was what she did.
And what are you going to do? For as many seers at they had, no one had dared speak that question. Some premonitions were off-limits even to gods.
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Posted: Tue Sep 02, 2014 8:25 pm
What was she going to do? That was a ridiculous question. "What else can I do?" And that was a pointless one, as she sought no answer. Had he any to give, she knew what it would be and she had no desire to hear it aloud.
Kiade's astute memory was due credit for having predicted his prior response near word from word. Change the setting, the topic, the weather, and they'd had this conversation many times before. Common sense and some minor degree of familiarity with Oxotl would have been enough, though. He wasn't simple-minded, but he was simple. A crow absent insidious plans... Truly, the Overseers had everything. What you saw was what you had to work with when it came to him.
Kiade saw someone who would not understand no matter how hard she tried to make him. How could he? How could any of them?
— Unless.
A change of tactics was in order. "I know the other seers have been speaking about what they've seen." Some. Those who, unlike Oxotl, were adept in their mystical prescience. "They will bring war. Disease. They'll take the territory of our natives."
The Tolas animals do these things too. Oxotl had probably heard the stray thought, and she dreaded the possibility. Knowing him, he'd still see fit to argue with someone regardless of if they'd levy a distressing scrutiny upon themselves.
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Posted: Tue Sep 02, 2014 9:08 pm
Very good. Oxotl's reply was sardonic, lending to either her lack of impressing him or an aptitude for striking a chord. You have proved you have ears. His beak clacked thrice.
To him, there was nothing to understand. Animals were coming, fleeing in fact. They would be here. The future could be twisted, altered, and fileted like the belly of a fish, but it could not be escaped. Future matched the thought Kiade had practically handed to him--the act of attempting to hide its discovery would only draw attention to it.
All animals do these things, he thought towards her, the message conversational. The tip of his head leftwards then rightwards emphasized that Oxotl was musing.
They'll bring other magic. The implication was clear: sooner or later, someone would find them. "Will you behave like the tree or will you be a native? Oxotl had already decided, and as was characteristic of his speech patterns, he put what action he believed was right first. New minds were new knowledge, and Oxotl sought this to his own end.
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Posted: Wed Sep 03, 2014 6:44 pm
Without the leverage of her powers, Kiade would have ended up just another somebody in the rote of daily life. She'd probably have been a huntress and complained it was dull, too naive to realize how exhausting the alternative could be. Home was where her heart found solace, yet home was her everything: her living space, her duty, all this and more. There was no reprieve from this ongoing stress; plenty of time to gather her thoughts, but no real place in which to try. She wasn't just now realizing Oxotl was for the most part right.
Knowing was half the battle.
Only half.
If she couldn't make him understand on a logical front — something he had always bested her in, to her chagrin — then there were other means.
"This isn't that simple." Kiade was shuffling backward subconsciously, creating space between them, the muscles near her eyes and corners of her mouth twitching down. Her frustration, visible as it was, was far more potent when it encroached on his mind. He could feel the sense of panic, some of which was justified (What if they try to take the tree?) and some of which bordered on manic (What if they usurp us and have the others follow them?).
She hadn't meant for him to feel her personal dread, but as she couldn't accept it herself, she was equal parts helpless to filter it.
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Posted: Wed Sep 03, 2014 7:15 pm
As though it were a physical being, the emotions began to bloat Oxotl. Even the feathers around his throat, pushed outward only when exceedingly harassed, were raised and frayed. Oxotl's beak snapped shut, and he turned his head sideways, one eye fully leering at Kiade.
Logically, he understood that emotions prevented logical thought. Emotionally, he could not have a clue. He felt attacked, as though Kiade had grabbed him by the back of the neck and shook him. Thus, his mind promptly went still.
"They won't take the tree," he said. Of course, he had no proof for this. No vision had crossed his mind, and duress was never a seer's point of strength. Taking in a long breath, he forced all feathers down but those he used for warmth. Normally, Oxotl would descend into a diatribe about the foreign wolves being no worse suited to watch over a tree than themselves.
They may try to take the tree, he began again, his tone slow. The Overseers were bound by philosophy and dedication, not violence. We have already given up our lives, and what is a physical body? In his head, he could still hear his bird-heart beating rapidly. I do not like it, either.
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