Coyote: The Packmind/Elaine's Dream

Elaine twitches, scratching in her sleep at an ear, passed out next to the wellspring. She's pleasantly dreaming about hunting, a focus she's been working on since Spar left her. She wakes slowly, being pelted by rocks slowly changes to being prodded by some sort of hand. Her eyes open and in front of her Carson is hunched over breathing weezing. His drawl is harsh and choked as he says, "There ya are child..." he pauses for a moment to cough into his hand, blood flecks on it he quickly hides rubbing against his flannel shirt. "Ya are a hard one to wake."

Elaine yawns big and toothy before sniffing around sleepily at Carson. "Grandfather...you sound unwell. It was a good dream, but you're more important than that right now." She wags slowly, anticipating bad news.

Carson's breaths are laboured as he says, "I am not your grandfather, not anymore. Coyote passed the last of himself ta wake his daughter, leaving me fuck all." He spits blood onto the ground, not an angry motion however, “Once tha last of his power fades I will pass from this world, again." He then collapses onto the ground, his jeans sending up a small cloud of dust around him.

Elaine yips dismay and coldnoses at Carson's hand. "Left you me, brother of my grandfather! I am sad to see you go, but won't let you be alone at the end. Sparhawk says that's the worst way to end your life."

"Yes, it is... However, if it were my choice I would be with Harry in the end..." He trails off, coughs up a chunk of something that smells awful and looks black, and then pulls out, "His last command was ta ask ya child, something I'm not sure ya will want ta do."

Elaine cringes away a little from the black thing, reminded of other black things. And not wanting to do the request already. But she asks, "What did he want, before he left?"

There's a long time of him sitting, staring off into nothing, before he says, "He wants ya ta devour me." his voice is quavering, clearly, not comfortable with even the thought.

Elaine sits up and bumps her head against Carson's hand. "Oh, is that all?" The lightness of the words do not entirely cover the sadness in her eyes. "I was thinking if that might...save you, old friend, and trying to come up with how a polite person would bring it up."

Carson looks surprised by the response, and shivers a little bit, "I did not expect that short of reaction from ya." He goes quiet for a short while and then says, "He said he left a gift for ya inside me."

Elaine grins, but it fades back into general sadness. "I remember Sorien borrowing one of my fingers that Harry was enjoying. Might not fit into your flannel, but you wouldn't die? I don't like people dying." She licks at Carson's hand but is unable to hide the shiver at the taste of sickness.

Carson idly pets the child, "I'm not sure if I can even continue living if I wanted ta, I'm already living on time I did not have. I died already." He frowns, "But tha worst part is leaving poor Harry alone, she loved me. Me, not Coyote-who-walked-in-my-skin." He brings a callused hand up to wipe at an eye.

Elaine firmly says, "Not alone. Without you, maybe. She has friends who visit, and a friend who will live here." Coyote eyes cannot cry, but she feels like they ought to from the memories of watching those who lived inside her.

Carson begins to cough violently, and then his innards find a way onto the ground. He's beginning to fade quicker now.

Elaine yips alarm and runs around in a little circle. "I haven't done this since I learned how to think! How do I ask permission to eat someone?" She stops, and places her little fangs around Carson's rasping throat. Her eyes look up from under expressive eyebrows, pleading for some sort of permission.

He says gruffly, "Make it quick... Please."

The prickling of fangs gives way to sharpness as Elaine bites down as hard as she can, twisting and tearing at the veins that pump less well than they ought to. She plants a paw on Carson's chest to push against, willing her nanites into Carson's failing body as hard as she can remember from being inside Spar.

Carson bleeds, not changing at first, his lifeblood pooling on the stones and dirt below him. His eyes staring off into nothingness. He slumps and twitches, and it looks like he's dying. Elaine's so caught up in the not changing Carson she misses a faint golden glow as the blood seeps into the ground. His breaths stilling as he drains dry. At the same time Elaine's teeth itch.

Elaine whimpers, releasing the death-grip on Carson's neck and desperately biting on shoulder, arm, lower arm...the diseased flesh disgusting to taste. As the last breath bubbles through the tear in Carson's neck Elaine closes her eyes and gives a mournful yipping howl to the sky, breaking off in the middle when the itchy teeth demand a scratching with her hindpaw.

The itching sensation grows into her mind, Elaine's very mind feeling like it needs to be scratched. Carson's not reacting or even flinching at the further bites, and she doesn't feel him as a part of her, like she remembers from before, the joy of new life missing. Nothing but cold silence and itchy head.

Elaine scratches vigorously! Her ears flop around and a paw gets into the pooling blood, causing another whimper and a pause before she shifts to scratch at the other side of her head. This is confusing and not at all comforting!

The blood below Carson seeps off, flowing down rocks and vents in the earth below. Elaine's mental scratching finally ends like a balloon popping. Like the feeling of waking for the first time. Carson's body suddenly begins to dust off in the gentle breeze, turning to ash and dust.

Elaine yawns again, working on the feeling of different pressure inside the ears than out, then stares down at the pile of ash. She watches for a moment, then howls some more with a barely-recognizable tune from a German song she heard inside Spar's head occasionally.

Elaine feels like she's going to be sick, almost like she has a hairball, except she's never had one of those before. The dust has blown off into the wind, and the blood is gone, Carson having left Elaine alone, all alone.

Elaine howls through the discomfort for a while but stops when she can't remember the Rammstein melody anymore to hack a bit, padding to the former bloodpool and shaking the dust of Carson off her paw. She curls up on the verge, shivering despite the heat.

Elaine is overcome by the desire to sleep again.

Elaine is sad, but tired and feeling weird, and the bare rock she rests on is sufficiently soft for her eyes to drift closed. Only the occasional whimper still comes from the small canine.

Elaine's slumber and dreams come fast, except she's in a dream, in the same place, in the same body, she looks around, and then notices the wellspring full of life, red and familiar. She watches a creature crawling out of the wellspring, a coyote. It shakes itself off spattering Elaine with some of the flecks.

Elaine sniffs at the newcomer dubiously, padding around to look at what seems to be a finger of hers. "I hope we're not dreaming each other, that would make this an awkward greeting," she says to it.

The new coyote hears a voice, her own voice, and is startled looking up. "What?" Elaine's voice says coming out very clear, but Elaine doesn't feel her sister in her mind.

Elaine sniffs around some more, stretching the senses of dream to feel the mood of the wellspring's location before she tries to exert any control on it. "Because every argument about 'I'm real you're not!' in videos was boring. I'm Elaine, who would you like to be?"

A cold wet nose presses up against Elaine, snuffling and almost prodding her to see if she's real, the voice answers cryptically, "I would answer like an echo, but it would ask are you dreaming me, or am I dreaming you?"

Elaine snickers and counters with a coldnose on the newcomer's shoulder. "See what I mean? Same question every time. I suppose we could fight over a bone if that's important. Did you just crawl out of our old home, though?"

Elaine too shakes the goo off herself, and says, "I guess I did, which answers that question. So if I'm not me, than what am I?" She moves the wandering nose toward herself, taking in the scents.

Elaine sits and wags. "Probably...an individual with the ability to define yourself? You're certainly not me, though you feel and sound like me on the outside. I don't want to keep people from being individuals anymore, not least because they can do this!" And she begins licking at the itchy spots behind the second Elaine's ears.

"But I remember being me, and remember being multiple things, if I'm new, then why the memories?" Elaine too says idly, appreciating the scritching, and nuzzles Elaine. "I suppose perhaps I should try to wake up, and see if I exist!" Elaine nuzzles around a bit, then hops away and crouches with forelegs spread like a dog ready to pursue a thrown ball. "You remember Taggart? And Dream? And especially Spar, who annoys death whenever possible?"

Elaine too yips happily, "Of Course! And you remember Grandfather saying he gave me a gift? Am I the gift?" She wags happily.

Elaine leaps and wrestles around a bit with her mirror image! "Maybe! Nothing else interesting has happened lately!" She gnarrs at an unguarded ear and murmurs, "Do we think it's a good idea to wake? Can you take us to the City from here?"

Elaine too wrestles back, and says, "I have no idea! But I am going to try to wake first. I shall see now see if figments can sleep."

Elaine scratches at her ear thoughtfully, then says, "Race you to the real world!"

The dream fades, and Elaine wakes up to the cold nose pressed right against her. "Not-a-figment!" the voice chirps excitedly.

Behind the mirror twin, the wellspring is glowing, it's light golden and the waters pristine rather than the gory mess, or the silty hotspring after it died.

Elaine glances quickly at the pool she used to occupy, then stares. "I don't remember planning that... do you remember it glowing? Also, that's Coyote's gold colour, I get to make fun of Spar for once!"

Elaine hops about excitedly, "It most certainly wasn't, unless Grandfather is playing another trick on me." She immediately transitions into, "If there are two of me, can there be more?" she wags, "Maybe this body doesn't feel so small anymore."

Elaine tilts her head. "It'd feel bigger if I could hear you thinking. If you and I are both Elaine, why are we separate instead of fingers? Or are we going to be a lot of Elaines all over Oregon?" She turns to sniff around the golden glow, not letting it out of her sight to keep it from sneaking off.

Elaine too mirrors the expression and tries really hard to sense the other. When the other Elaine walks toward the light, both of them feel the songs of nanites from the golden pool, and then their minds connect briefly through the song, but in the way they felt Spar in the past. Individuals.

Elaine grins wide enough to split her cheeks and bundles up the other Elaine in a big mental hug, joy washing through the nanites' link. "We're gonna need a lot more nametags if this keeps up, Elaine Walker Clevergirl Coyoteson!"

The second Elaine shifts, changing herself male. "This should work for now!" the new he says. And as he does the songs from within the pool grow wide, and both can hear their distant friends from all over, including Spar. At the very tips of their hearing Spar is humming a tune.