Welcome to Gaia! ::

It felt strange to be walking up to the Grandfather Tree on her own.

Well - she wasn't completely alone. That was an impossibility, around the Grandfather Tree, even if you didn't have a twin sister. There were always nouls here, seeking the Grandfather Tree's guidance, or help, or just admiring it. And though Cattleya had separated from her sister not too long ago, she was vaguely aware that Calelha, too, was somewhere in the vicinity seeking a vision quest.

But Cattleya's parents had explained it to them well enough. While Calelha had physically come here with her, they'd each need to experience their quest itself on their own. The Tree, too, would give her a gift to call her own. But before that there'd be a trial that she'd need to face without Calelha's careful attention to detail and endless reserve of patience. It was a little scary, and unfair, when she thought about it. They'd never be separated in the course of a real crisis, so shouldn't they get to be evaluated as a team?

Cattleya was no codependent little bud, though. She'd certainly bloomed into her own, and she had her own solutions to every problem. Sure, usually they involved knowing someone who knew someone - a bad framework for a solution when she was on her own. But she was a nimble, graceful doe, and the fact that she liked to gossip and always made the most of parties had never distracted her from her studies, or Mother wouldn't have let her out here at all. "I know I won't have Calelha with me," she told the Tree's root sternly. It seemed silly, to address an inanimate object, but any noul worth their salt knew that the Tree understood a noul's intent, and so it probably understood her words, too. "But while we're even stronger together, we're no shrinking violets on our own." She tossed her mane elegantly over her shoulder, prancing forward to press her hoof against the Grandfather Tree's root.

She wasn't worried about her abilities, or Calelha's. She'd been telling the truth when she'd told her mother that they could take care of themselves. All that remained now was to pass whatever test the Grandfather Tree wanted to throw at her, and Cattleya was sure she'd manage to do it with flying colors.

The susurrus of the leaves stretching out above Cattleya were close enough to a response. She looked up and smiled, only to see them suddenly begin to shrink, retreating into something greener, against a darker wood...

Ah. The vision.

Cattleya had known, from her parents' quiet tutelage, to expect something like it, should the Tree find her work acceptable, but it was amazing how real it felt. She knew the Homewood like her own hoof. She'd grown up there, and everything she saw, and heard, and scented on the air right now felt like home.

Well, with one exception. There was no soft-spoken sister at her side.

That was fine, Cattleya thought, though she wasn't sure what was supposed to be challenging about this. Did the Tree want her to navigate? She could do that easily.

She trotted easily through the Homewood, keeping an eye out for anyone who looked like they might be in trouble. That didn't really seem to be the case. Everyone was cheerful here; there was no swift movement of shadows in someone's fields, or crisp brown leaves mixed in among the green. "Hey," called a familiar voice at her ear, and Cattleya whirled around, surprised to be faced with the pale palomino hide of Sarud, a close friend of hers. Why him, and not Calelha?

"Are you in trouble?" Cattleya asked, eyes a little wide. Was this the plot?

"I'm offended that that's how you'd greet me," Sarud huffed, a little pout on his face. "I don't always bring trouble!" He laughed and shook it off, though. "Look - that doe over there gave me this." He puffed his chest out, where a shiny, well-polished wayfinder stone bounced forth, hung there from a string. Cattleya turned to see which way he'd indicated: in a little clearing filled with azaleas, an elderly doe was sitting, a large pile of similar stones arranged carefully before her.

Cattleya inhaled abruptly. "Now that's news," she said, grinning boisterously. She didn't recognize this doe, and she knew the face of anyone who might be remotely important in the Homewood. This scene, whatever it was, had to be what she'd been searching for. Though Sarud's presence here was clearly just dream-vision, she waited for his wink of acknowledgement and his own carefully-calculated hair toss anyway before she approached the doe.

She skipped over, though she took care to make the action graceful and dainty rather than overly eager. She didn't need to show how much she wanted this.

Only as she approached, she realized that the doe was not just elderly, but also clearly weak. Her limbs were nearly skeletal, and her mane was thick and coarse. The skin on her face sagged, and she had for Cattleya a very tired smile. She could barely lift her head in greeting despite that, though.

"Cervos...are you all right?"

She hadn't meant to ask, initially, but the doe's condition was worrisome. Cattleya didn't have any abilities, yet, but she did know people. This was no ascended noulicorn, of course, but she had vivid adept markings that swirled across her belly, and the magic that pulsed out from her felt strong, the marker of an accomplished wanderer. Saving her...was that what the Grandfather Tree wanted Cattleya to do? Was that why it'd put her here, where she had access, theoretically, to the resources which made her strong?

"My name is Adi, noulja, and I'm merely aged." The voice was husky and even, rasping into Cattleya's ear with no particular melody. She spoke slowly, too, and she needed to take a few breaths to continue. "No flame burns forever," she added, more softly.

Cattleya pressed her ears back, bending into a careful bow. "Of course, but - "

The doe cut her off, as though Cattleya hadn't spoken. "I have already accomplished so much," she said. The crowd of wayfinder stones around her legs was evidence enough of that, if the sheer sense of magic coming off of her was no indication. "What I want from a young noulicorn is for you to ensure that it has not been in vain." Adi bent her head, pushing one of the stones toward Cattleya. "This is yours, if you'll tell me your greatest accomplishment."

Cattleya stared.

It wasn't that she was at a loss for words. She hadn't spent her years idling; she knew how to rehabilitate plants and identify herbs. She had not spearheaded any great expeditions into the unknown, but she'd helped sick people, and had assisted in building barricades when dangers created by storms were discovered in the Homewood. But here in the Grandfather Tree's vision quest, where anything could happen...what did it mean that her task was, apparently, to talk, and not to do something?

Did it think she wasn't capable? No, that couldn't be the case - if she weren't capable, she wouldn't have been picked at all. The Grandfather Tree had that much discerning ability. Instead, perhaps, it was a message: play to your strengths. Sure, Cattleya was no incapable noul. But a noul didn't have to be out and about to be contributing to healing Vykeli, and perhaps this was how Cattleya could take her first steps to greatness. There was plenty that Cattleya was already doing, by ensuring that every noul around her was playing their part in a way that let someone else cover their weaknesses.

"Well - Cervos Adi. My name is Cattleya, and my greatest accomplishment hasn't happened yet," Cattleya ventured, looking Adi right in the eye. "But I can tell you where it's going to start." Her tone was matter-of-fact, because she really had never doubted herself, and it only seemed to grow more confident as she began to speak. "See, my life is only now beginning." She settled in next to the old doe. "And like any noulicorn, I've spent it learning how we can each contribute to Vykeli's healing. My parents have green hooves, breeding Vykeli's plants so that each successive generation can be stronger and help more people, and my friend Sarud's gentle manner can get any critter denizen of Vykeli to calm down so they can receive treatment without hurting themselves. My sister is quiet, but observant - her quick, creative mind finds important information easily, and she's a good scavenger, too. And I'm...their friend."

She was proud of this, too. She could've told Adi about the time she'd found a bird's nest knocked out of place, and put it back where it belonged, or the time she'd carefully helped her father comb through their family's orchards the year they'd realized there was a deadly mistletoe infestation. Instead she chose this: "I think the best thing about nouls is that we aren't alone. Every noul does something for society, and only when we each do our tiny little part does Vykeli really make progress. The thing I'm best at is being someone's friend. I know when people are lonely, and I know how to ease their worries. Sometimes, that'll help them get back to doing their part."

But she cocked her head, looking at Adi, who seemed so alone despite having given away so many gifts of wayfinder stones. "But if I only offered friendship to those who I thought might be useful, it would be no friendship at all."

"Maybe your time is coming, Cervos, but it won't come for a doe who's alone. Me, and - Sarud!" she called, nodding at her friend to come approach the doe again again. As he began to meander closer skeptically, she continued "...my most important accomplishment is going to be reminding others that there's no point in healing Vykeli if its community is gone. No noul, and no critter, should ever need to be alone."

The last thing she remembered was her friends slowly coming closer, filling the air with silly stories and the sound of laughter, as the long, idyllic afternoon stretched on...