Light regular clicks sounded in the stillness of the ruins. It reverberated off the empty and dessicated buildings of the Others. Life was slowly finding its way back among the thick slabs of broken concrete and twisted metal. What was once solid and strong was made weak by disrepair and nature. The crunch of glass under foot broke the regular clicks as something living moved among the buildings. Skirting among the shadows, pausing to listen with head held high, large ears pivoted upon a slim and delicate head. A lone noulicorn doe.
Mielikki had been alone long enough now that she had trouble socializing with those like her. She was born to a lonely doe who lived on her own. Mielikki didn’t know anything about her father except that he was “a passing buck in the night”. A mere stranger who helped bring about the end of her mother’s loneliness, by creating her. Her mother taught her everything that she knew. A talented botanic, her mother instilled a love and knowledge of the plants that had been discovered and cultivated at the time. She also loved to explore the Ruins of Erli, a place that once house the Others, a place created by the Others and now a place abandoned by the Others.
It was here that Mielikki spent most of her foalhood and youth, exploring the ruins and collecting treasures while her mother investigated the plantlife and cultivated it. Looking back, her mother seemed to have a distrust of others, when having to socialize, she was curt and straight to the point. There was no happy banter or small talk, all business. This was the foundation of Mielikki’s social skills and the fact that she only ever really had her mother to conversate with. Going into the heart of Homewood, Mielikki was kept close and told to not talk to strangers. Everyone was a stranger here. There was no other family for them and her mother never made friends. But despite all this, she had a wonderful and close relationship with her mother. A mother who told her “you are all I ever need”.
Had. What a funny word, a word that meant past. Her mother was still here, whispering over her shoulder and guiding her. From outside of Mielikki’s “world”, one would see a lone doe. But to Mielikki, another doe walked beside her. You see, Mielikki’s mother had died, just as she reached the cusp of adolescence. They had gone inside one of the great hulking boxes that reached towards the sky. A plant had decided to grow high up the side and into a bank of windows, the glass long since shattered. They began the climb up to find it so her mother could see if it was a new plant or an already established species.
However, they never found out. Just outside the room where the plant was, the floor collapsed as Mielikki’s mother crossed it and she fell. Mielikki could remember standing there, eyes wide as her mother suddenly vanished from view. It was so quick that her mother never had time to even look back at Mielikki. She was just gone. A tentative hoof step forward sent more floor crashing down and a young Mielikki backwards. She remembered crying out for her mother and only getting the whistling of a wind picking up outside. Mielikki slept there through the night, well what little sleep she got as she tried to listen for sounds of life from below.
As sunlight streamed through empty windows and spilled into the hallway, her crusty eyes opened after a rough night. What she hadn’t noticed the day before in all her shock, was her mother’s bucket. An object made by the Others out of metal. Mielikki didn’t really know what it was or made from, just that it was her mother’s and that it played a role in their travels to the ruins. She stood up weakly and picked the bucket up by its thin handle. She knew enough to survive to adulthood now, just she had to now do it alone. Mielikki step from the shadows of the building and into the morning sun, the warmth heating up her back. As a breeze rustled leaves overhead, Mielikki heard the faint whisper of her mother and movement from the corner of her eye. She turned to look, excitement and hope rising in her chest. Mother?!
No, mother wasn’t there. It would be days before Mielikki would start talking to her mother out of the pain of grief. Nowadays, Mielikki still talks to her mother and in a way thinks she still sees her. The grief has lessened a lot and Mielikki understands that her mother is gone. When she finally had come to terms with that fact, she returned to the ruins, the building that stole her mother. Mielikki now stood before the gaping opening into the building, she took a deep breath, let it out and stepped inside. She remembered how many floors they had climbed, and being older, she understood that her mother went down to another floor. So she stopped climbing there and proceeded down the darkened hall. There was a faint hint of decay here, it tickled the back of her nose and it was old. In the limited light from above and from the doorways, Mielikki caught sight of the white of bone. Cautiously she approached, a noul skull, the horn broken from fallen rubble.
Mielikki set down her bucket and from it, pulled out a flower that she laid upon the skull. It was one her mother seemed to like the most. It was from a plant she had grown herself all those years ago and that Mielikki now maintains. She nuzzled the skull’s nose and caught sight of the other part of the broken horn. Mielikki picked it up and set on the skull, it held the flower down. She then picked up the bucket and carefully made her way back down and outside. She had considered bringing her mother’s horn with her, but why? Mother still walked beside her and they still talked.
Mielikki looked to her side and smiled and then she looked to the sky. “I’m going to Grandfather Tree, mother. Maybe I can become a great botanic like you.” She felt her mother smile.
Blending into shadow, Mielikki darted between buildings and away from her mother’s grave.
WC: 1,070
