† Kohryn & Era †
Moon's forest was one that vibrated, a forest alive, a single organism, brimming with magic and stitched together with vyra.
At some point in their path of travel the forest began to shift. Trees began pulling themselves through rich soil, leaving tills in their wake. The smaller flora of the floor rode up the turning soil ridges, making way for the movement of the giant trees.
Kohryn marveled at it all. The shifting forest and how her feet carried her so effortlessly in this dream world. It was the way she had moved the first time she had been there. One step, two step, not thinking about it. The confidence in her strides, nimble and quick, filled her with giddy headiness.
A massive root rolling underneath their feet pushed up soil and she used her newfound confidence to skip forward, jumping the sudden hill and jerking ahead of Era.
Era squeezed her hand, laughing at the sight of her pupils blown wide and exhilarated. He pulled them along faster now, feeding into Kohryns desire to run.
They were two bodies foreign to the cells of the forest, sprinting through whirlpools of woods and ferns.
Kohryns toes squished in the soft carpet of musky decay before sending out little sprays of debris, soles and toes propelling her forward. Era guided them over composting logs and mossy slopes. Through their mad dash in the forest his grip had remained, everpresent, calm, and soft. A warm presence that grounded her in the disorienting experience.
And then the forest slowed, reset in it's moving maze and Era slowed in tandem. The two came to a stop side by side, taking the moment to gather their breaths. Their hands stayed clasped, neither willing or ready to let go.
Kohryn could not recall having ever held anyone's hand like this. It was a gentle experience that filled her inner shell with a sweet kind of wind, a warm summer breeze in the shade of trees, belly full of berries and melon. It tickled some faint memory of a childhood and sun.
"Are we almost there?"
Era nodded, just as swept away in Kohryns presence. He lightly swung their arms back and forth playfully. "Yes we are close." His head swiveled from left to right scanning the forest around them. "The entrance to her home should be near."
"Ah, there it is." He pulled Kohryn forward, who could see nothing but forest.
Yet she trusted him as Era brought up his free hand and pressed it into the air. It lay upon the surface of the world, ripples waving from his touch, distorting the scene in front of them. With a thrust of his elbow the mirage folded into itself. Kohryn could hear it make a crumbling sound like thin metal being crushed.
The forest bent and folded away in its ruffles revealed a simple wooden door.
Era gripped the handle of the door and Kohryn tugged at him. "Are we just going to enter?" She tensed at the idea of just walking into someone's home unannounced.
"Trust me, if we knocked she'd never answer." He twisted the handle, pushing open the door and pulling the two of them inside a large entryway. As he shut the door behind them, the veil that concealed the abode fell back into place with the same soft metallic noise.
Inside, the entryway, tiled in deep green, led to a greeting room lavish in color. Contrasting, contradicting, and haphazard decorations and furniture came together in surprising collaboration. Beautiful and hand inked maps lined the walls in golden frames, couches of magenta, sage, and cobalt sat in formation fit for long discussions and crystal glasses of liquor. A collection of vases with floral decorations lined the mantle of an unlit fireplace and around the room various sculptures took up floorspace-mostly animals with ferocious faces. It was the interior of an eclectic individual, a lover of arts, well traveled and educated. Kohryn liked it.
As if on cue, across the room, entering through swinging double doors in lavish fashion, was a woman with cerulean curls and the large alert ears of some wicked dog. Their sandy pointed tips pulled backward and forward, taking in every little sound, twitching and beastly.
"Era darling!" Her voice chimed across the room bouncing off tiles and echoing. She flowed up to Kohryn grabbing her face in clawed hands. "I felt you traveling my trails. It has been so long since I last saw you." She delivered pecking kisses to Kohryns cheeks.
A button nose and a heart shaped face would have given her a delicate beauty if not for two round, large brown eyes, pupils ovular and squished like some deep sea creature. A secondary eyelid shuttering every few seconds. Her nose twitched as she took in Kohryn, a thin eyebrow suddenly arching. "Stange. You look so different since the last time I saw you." The long eared woman suddenly ran her hands over Kohryns chest, making her jump in surprise. "You're a woman now!"
Era chuckled, clearing his throat as Kohryn took a hurried step back.
The woman's eyes finally found him, widening in realization. Gaze darting between the moon eyed Kohryn and the flowery Era. "Oh… oh, wow."" Her body twirled around as she breathlessly trilled. It was behavior that was in no way human.
She spun around Kohryn, examining her up and down. The woman's body jerked and spasmed, sometimes lifting to float off the ground entirely, moving like a weightless attachment carried by the direction of her gaze. Kohryn went to balk at the odd behavior and Era squeezed her hand in reassurance.
"Miyami, this is Kohryn." Era introduced her.
Miyami took a step back, satisfied with her inspection, a canine grin plastered to her face. "She looks just like you."
Kohryn looked to Era with his luminous brown hair and pretty white flowers. Era, who was like sunshine and fruit, who she was absolutely sure she looked absolutely nothing like.
Era shrugged with a smile folded in layers before turning to Miyami. "You say the oddest things."
Miyami crossed her arms. "I only say truthful things. It is your ears that are odd." The eccentric woman with large jackal ears spun again, the bottom of a jacket stitched with ornate birds, fanned out around her. With a snap of finger, cupboards blended into the walls were popping open and a parade of china was swirling out of them. It all danced forward and came to settle on a crystal table laid atop the back of a carved dragon. Tea piping hot with steam wafting from its surface poured itself into three delicate cups.
The two followed Miyami to the sitting area, taking a seat on the couch across from her. Her eyes darted this way and that, body twitching as she repositioned herself every few seconds. When she did settle it was with an eerie stillness, posing like a statue, only her second eyelids occasionally strobing over her squished orbs.
"Kohryn, Kohryn, Kohyrn." She sang the name, "It is lovely to finally meet you!"
"Oh, it is nice to meet you too, Ms. Miyami."
Miyami waved her hand dismissively. "Just Miyami is fine. I've never been refined enough to be a Miss or a Ms. or a Mrs. So tell me darling, what do you do?" Miyami grabbed a cup and took a sip from the steaming tea.
"Pardon?" Kohryn asked, unsure of what the woman meant.
Miyami pucker her lips, speaking in poetry and rhymes, "Everyone does, so what is it that you do?"
"Um…" It was strange to have the otherworldly being ask her such a mundane question. "I work in a bakery."
Miyami clapped her hands together, her teacup tossed into the air and suspended. "Oh how quaint. Exactly what I'd expect."
"Do you like it?" This was a question from Era, who appeared oddly delighted
Kohryn tilted her head. It'd been the only job offered to her, and she had never given much thought as to whether or not she liked it. It was a way to contribute, when so little was offered to her, and that, being able to offer something, she did find she enjoyed. " Yes, I suppose so."
"What do you do to entertain yourself?" Miyami fired off another question.
Kohryn looked around a bit nervous and even more perplexed. She felt as if she were in some form of impromptu interview. "I embroider and I read books."
"Books about what?"
"Hmm. A little of everything I guess." She thought of her bookshelf at home, loaded with novels, textbooks, and tomes her father collected for her.
Miyami nodded and lazily snapped her fingers. "Tell me what else do you do?"
"Sometimes I help my father with his inventions."
"Ah, the daughter of an inventor? So that observation in your eye is inherited."
Kohryn felt herself blush.
Era cut in, "Do you travel?"
"No." She replied softly, her blush cooling and her head falling so slightly.
Era frowned. Her words didn't hold a lot of emotion but there still remained an edge of discomfort. Subjects she might want to avoid. "Why not?"
"I cannot."
Era's frown deepened.
Miyami clapped her hands again, clearing away any tension that had entered the room. Simultaneously stealing the attention, she sang, "Well, well, well, some things change and some things stay the same."
The woman gestured a hand again and a long pipe sailed across the room trailed by a lighter, a tubular bronze contraption holding oil and flint. Its flame was already lit, ready to burn tobacco and herbs.
She took hold of the pipe, a long thing carved of walnut wood and ivory, clipping it between her teeth. The flame of the lighter poured into the bowl. Dried pink and green leaves blackened and burned red as she took a heavy puff. Streams of smoke curled around the edges of her lips before funneling into her nose. She chattered to herself in incoherent mumbling.
Era leaned into Kohryn, soft voice low in her ear, "She can be quite the character, please don't let her behavior disturb you. I promise you she is kind and trustworthy."
Kohryn saw as Era beheld Miyami, a little sparkle in his eye as he looked toward the being who had the tendencies of a madwoman. Kohryn had seen the look before, not often, but here and there worn on the faces of some people she saw. It was a look of admiration. A look that felt like lava, bubbling up from the core of ones being.
Kohryn smiled, small and only for a moment, as she looked over Era. Of course a man like him would have mentors and idols. People he looked up to and modeled his behavior after, even if it was someone who seemed a bit crazy like Miyami. He had that look about him, like a beautiful hero on his journey of growth.
Miyami sat back into her rest, rolling her shoulders. Long and deep breaths had her chest rising and falling. Suddenly she didn't look quite as young as she had. A play of light, a tired sigh, her subtle regality, made her flawless skin look thin and her spirit look aged. "So where is it that we begin when the beginning has already happened?"
Era squeezed Kohryns hand before finally removing his fingers from her grip. He looked down at her for a moment before his eyes moved to Miyami. "For now I want to tether her to my location and get her remembering dreams. It won't be any good if she can't remember anything we tell her."
The secrets in their words didn't fly past her. She wasn't aware of what was hidden but she knew that silent conversations and meanings unknown to her were taking place.
"What is it that you must tell me?" Kohryn was used to being discussed while she stood to the side, not included in a conversation about her. It happened all of the time in the village. Like Sven openly talking about her while she had walked by. It had never upset her before, but now that it was Era, a knot formed in her stomach and she felt strangely small and shrunken.
"It.. It would be best to talk about it later when you'll remember." Era's beautiful brow crested.
"Why can't you just tell me now and then tell me again later when I'll remember?"
"Well…." Era chewed his lip looking to Miyami for some kind of guidance. All he got from her was a shrug.
Kohryn sat in the silence between his words, suddenly acutely aware that he was hiding something he didn't want to say and the why of it all had her curiosity peaking.
The big looming why lurked always just over her shoulder. Always there. The reason why the people feared her, why her family had fallen apart, why the strange aura followed her in every footstep. Why Era had been waiting for her in the astral realm.
Was this the why? The why of Kohryn. It had her riddled in anxiety, a thick limey mold that was eating through her composure.
"Please." She begged with a cracking voice, her throat swelling and her eyes becoming hot.
"I do not want it to find you." He said so quietly as he stared into her eyes.
It. She knew what he was talking about. The thing they had hid here from. The red sky- it.
Kohryn slowly nodded, disappointed but accepting his answer.
Miyami watched as they both brought their hands up to their hair. Simultainously grinding strands between fingertips in a nervous fidget. It happened in such synchronicity that she let out a bark of laughter startling the two.
"It's quite complicated, Kohryn, do not be too sad. We do not wish to trigger unsavory events." Miyami interjected, taking control of the situation. "Time moves very oddly here, and you may dream yourself awake at any moment now. So let's start with setting a tether? Is that alright?"
" A tether?" Kohryn looked at Era, worry that mirrored her own on his face.
"It will guide you back to me. In case we are separated in the astral plane." He scrunched up his brows as they made eye contact, a look between pleading and forgiveness.
She slowly nodded.
Era looked relieved as he lightly and slowly cupped his hand around her own again. The feeling of summer and fruit once more coursed through Kohryn and she let out a silent sigh.
Miyami clicked her tongue and lifted her hand, "Your hands, let me see them"
Era didn't let go, just lifted their clasped hands.
The jackal eared woman thrummed her fingers across their surface and down to their wrists. Her touch had made Kohryn jolt, only held in place by Era who tightened his grip at her discomfort. It was electric and somehow wet, sending little zaps tingling up and down her arm. Her breath caught in her throat as strings of light began to cling and thread their way through their skin.
When Miyami finally finished a mess of web, glowing and electric, encased their hands.
Era withdrew and Kohryn watched in fascination as the strings stretched yet refused to break. She wiggled her fingers and a tremor waved through the air almost in sync with her gesture.
Even when her fingers quit moving, the air continued to roil. Growing and stretching out from her body. Her image began to wobble and blur.
Eras' eyes widened, "I think that was the limit for today." He'd honestly been surprised the rolling forest had not woken her. He quickly took her hands into his one last time. "It appears you are waking up." The sensation of the webbing spell had driven the stimulation of Kohryns mind to its limits.
The roil in the air turned into a vaccum, her hair and clothes pulling upwards at the invisible force. Even though she flickered in and out of existence Era could still feel the warmth they shared between their touch.
Kohryns body was beginning to float up now while Era, Miyami, and the room stayed perfectly still. There was a muted fear in her stony expression that he understood well. "You'll tell me more next time?" She asked with a child like desperation.
"I will." Era gave her hands a squeeze and the tether of strings between them coiled in the invisible wind that sucked Kohryn towards the ceiling.
"You promise?" Her eyes were wide and her grip hard, searching for reassurance.
"I promise."
With a powerful draw the world pulled Kohryn up, her grasp slipping from Eras. The last thing she saw was Era smiling and the glowing strands stretching between them.
She flew away from the invisible house, away from Moon's forest and into the void.
"Try to remember me, Kohryn!" Era's words echoed as they carried after her.