confusingly written story set in my daydream world
I couldn’t help but get fired up. To see this creepy stranger walking away with Viva, I had to follow.
He came to our town two days ago, this oily, ragged lone messenger bird. I wondered why he wasn’t with a flock- perhaps he’s not from the flock of this region, but there are others farther away, right? What would have possessed him to leave?
Red also left his flock, but with the aura of a bright traveler. He came back here with a group of performers, happy with the new friends he made and his new place in life.
There have been others, over the generations, but for the most part only messenger birds with a strong dream or drive leave their flocks.
This bird has certain way of holding his feathers. I’m sure they’d be fluffed out in lethergy or anger if they weren’t covered in his strange oil.
I’ve been following him around for the past two days, even after the villagers realized he wasn’t too interesting and left him alone.
Now something races through my veins that is the exact opposite of the fairy I used to be. I care about this bright, yellow child, and I won’t let anything happen to her.
I peer around the corner at the relatively small messenger bird facing the child.
“There’s a favor I’d like to ask of you, if you don’t mind,” the stranger says.
Viva blinks innocently, and I can tell she’s jumping at the chance to help someone.
“Sure, no problem!” she says brightly.
“There’s a place I’d like you to go, to retrieve something I’ve lost. I’m unable to walk in those lands, but you would be perfect.”
“Show me the way! Do we have to fly?” Viva asks.
“I can carry you. I’m a dark messenger bird, which means I’ve changed my feathers several times. I can fly far and am strong. I’m sure it will surprise you.”
I can’t let them fly. But what am I supposed to do? While Viva is extremely young and naive, she’s not so young that it’s out of the question for this bird to ask her for help. My gut says that this is bad, and I’m inclined to trust my gut after countless generations of experience.
But I can’t stop this before I know what’s going on.
Viva climbs between the bird’s wings, awkwardly gathering her tail up onto his back and wrapping her paws firmly around his neck.
He angles himself so she’s firmly on, then makes a running jump into the sky.
I can’t go after them as I am now.
Despite all the time I’ve had to learn, I never learned Dream’s trick of flying without wings. I just feel like I should have them in order to fly, it makes sense to me like that.
I glance around to make sure nobody’s watching, then burst into the first form that comes to mind and shoot after the retreating black shape in the sky.
Despite the bird’s oily appearance, he flies well. Still, being an immortal who is far superior than most mortals at flying, I have to intentionally lag behind.
I’m in a familiar form, but everything else about my body is unfamiliar. Instead of being filled with icy calm, I’m filled with a firey drive. I will protect this member of my town. I will keep the peace.
The bird eventually lands at the edge of a familiar forest. A magical spell was cast on this forest, so that only an inner form could enter.
As the bird and Viva talk, I agonize over what to do. The cat used to be my inner form, but it’s grown into simply being me. I can either abandon so much of my power and leave my body behind, or keep it and follow the bird.
The bird turns around, and a small fairy radiating goodwill, but also cunning, a selfish side, and the barest hint of something far darker steps out of Viva’s outer form.
She flies into the forest and I hide myself under a tree, then leap out of my body and bound after her, again a small cat.
It doesn’t matter to me what the black bird does. What matters to me is that Viva is kept safe.
It’s been so many years since I’ve been in this forest. Giant mushrooms and green winding trees and vines tower above me, and I thread my way between thick, wiry roots, avoiding snakes.
The last time I was here was when we decided on the last guardian of the Item. I guess they must still be in charge of it, if I haven’t been called back here. Unless it happened in the last few years, but that’s unlikely.
Viva flies quickly, warily eyeing the snakes that seem to have no interest in her.
She’s scared of this place, radiating uncertainly and the wish that someone could be here with her, but is also fascinated by the strange, ancient place.
Did the bird send her in here for the Item? Does he know it’s guarded?
Viva comes to the clearing, where the item is barely visible undeneath thick brown roots and leaves.
She can tell there’s something different about these vines, even if she’s not sure what it is. She hesitantly comes closer, reaching a hand toward the item to try to pry it from under the root.
I’m about to stop her, the fire inside me roaring, when the root closes over the Item. It rises up, tearing and breaking, and, with reluctant violence to itself, breaks the natural plant parts to become a face.
“Why do you come?” The guardian says with the annoyance of one woken from a deep sleep.
“I- I- I’m sorry,” Viva says, shrinking back, “I just wanted that blue flat swirly thing you’re holding.”
The face blinks, slowly. Viva readies herself to dart away.
“I would give it to you.”
What? You’re the protector! You can’t let a child become immortal without knowing what they’re getting into, let alone carry off an Item so powerful!
“But you’re not immortal, so you cannot keep it,” the plant says regretfully, sinking down in a sigh.
Viva’s eyes narrow as she starts to grasp her situation. I can’t tell what she’s going to do with this understanding yet. Has her father taught her not to mess with Immortal business?
“I’m afraid I don’t know what it is I’ve come to find. I’ve been misled,” Viva explains.
Is this problem going to so easily resolve itself? But what is the bird doing now? Is my outer form okay? Is Viva’s outer form okay?
“This will give you immortality,” the plant says, looking around with his new eyes, “I will allow you to touch it if you desire.”
No! That’s not what we told you to say, you idiot! You’re supposed to ask questions, you’re supposed to test their resolve!
We definitely need to get a new guardian in here.
“Immortality…” Viva says, fluttering closer, “I feel that I’ve wanted it for longer than I can remember. I have no idea why, though!” she laughs brightly, in contrast to her contemplative tone.
“Are you here to take over my role?” the plant asks, their eyes landing on me.
Viva turns to me, surprised.
I look a little different from my regular cat form. Flowing with fire and patterned with darker fur, I wonder if she recognizes me. I hope not.
“I’m not here to take your role, but trust me, someone will. You’ve forgotten how to do what you were assigned to do.”
The plant sighs.
“The questions. Yes. Living forever, do you understand that it will be hard? All your friends and family will die around you, and you’ll be left alone.”
Viva blinks, taken aback. She radiates an internal conflict. I don’t know why a child like her would want to become immortal, but I can understand why she’d want to live the same life as the creatures she knows and loves. Even if Dream is around and she sees other immortals sometimes, she’s not close to one of them. They would seem distant and grand to a mortal like her.
“How do the immortals deal with it?” she asks.
She’s smart, I’ll give her that. Maybe she does understand a bit of what it means to be immortal.
“We change form. We meet new mortals and we keep up with other immortals. If you get really bored, you can even take over watching the Item.”
“I don’t think so,” Viva says, dissappointing the plant.
I don’t understand what’s driving her. Her form is flickering, showing a shining, immensely cold light as though there’s another hidden force driving her on.
“You don’t want to become immortal. Not now. You can do it when you’re older if you’re so inclined, but even in a short mortal lifespan, there’s so much more time to consider this,” I tell her.
“You’re immortal, aren’t you? Why shouldn’t I have that?” she asks.
I blink, trying to figuring out if I see a glowing ball of sheer light or a small fairy before me.
“Besides, it won’t change anything between me and everyone. They don’t even have to know! And I won’t have to face it until I’m alive longer than I would have been,” Viva says, stepping in front of the now exposed Item, its shining blue light playing patterns on her face, merging with her white light.
“She can die anytime she wants to,” the plant groans, pulling their roots out of the ground sluggishly.
They’re slowly shrinking, taking another form.
That’s true. Magic is intention after all, and with enough intention, it can even scatter its consciousness into nothing.
“I don’t like you doing this without telling Mar or Rain,” I say, shaking my head.
“How do you know about them?” Viva asks.
“I talk to Dream. That’s besides the point,” I snap.
She can see I’m hiding something. With the sense of familiarity and protectiveness I’m radiating toward her, she might be guessing my true identity even now.
“You’re right,” Viva says, “I don’t like the idea of keeping a big secret like this from them. And distancing myself from them by becoming something they’re not.”
The fairy stands looking at the Item before her, something inside her tearing apart.
“I… I know that, and yet, I’ve always been fascinated by this. When I heard of it, I knew I wanted it. I didn’t want to be mortal. I didn’t want to be like them! I wanted to know what it was like to be pure magic. The immortals would never let a person like me take it, but I knew if I got the chance…”
The ball of white light flares up, cloaking the fairy in a bright dress, illuminating her skin, reflecting off her hair.
She’s not the Viva I’ve known. Bitter instead of sweet, jaded and closed off instead of open and naive.
Yet somehow she still radiates that famliar aura. I’m stuck in place with confusion as though the earth has flipped beneath me and up is down, something I haven’t felt for thousands of years.
The bright fairy touches the Item and the wave of powerful converting magic sweeps through her in an instant.
Viva smiles, but there’s a bitterness and unresolved anger in it.
“Who are you?” I ask, wanting some information, to know what to do next.
Viva shakes her head.
“I haven’t decided that yet,” she says, turning away from the plant, which is now a tangle of vines struggling to become a dragon.
“Don’t let that bird become immortal,” I snap at the dragon as I rush back to my body.
I creep close to Viva in time to hear the tail end of her conversation with the bird.
“I’m afraid I wasn’t able to get the Item for you,” she says, putting a big yellow paw on the bird’s wing, “but you’ve done me a great service. How about we become friends?”
What does that mean to her? Her tone is so different from what it would have been before this, but now that she’s in her outer form, I can’t tell what she really means by friends.
The bird studies her for nearly a minute. She looks back evenly, and finally he nods.
“That’s okay. There’s time left for me. If we’re friends for a while, maybe you’ll be able to help me?” a note of pleading sounds in his voice.
Viva nods,
“We shall see. For now, I’d better get to town before someone is wondering where I am.”