Old as Dirt: Trails and Tears
( Grantok's actually been managing to get some sleep since the incident. No vivid dreams, it seems as if Dirt has been occupied as of late. Innocuous comfortable dreams that are in no way prophetic, and easily forgotten, helping the port cat catch up on months of sleepless evenings. )
Tonight, the innocuous dream is just a bit more... vivid than normal. A bright desert landscape, the area Grantok hit before returning home on her long journey with only the tooth to accompiany her. Only a few weeks before, Grantok's narrow brush with death, at the hands of beasts in the skin of men still lingers, and sends shivers of memory. Its hot, everpresent sun high above blinding anything that look up into its gaze. There's hardly any life out here, beyond small shrubs and weedlike growth in the crags, and dust, thick dust in the air. Her thick fur more than a nuissance in this kind of weather, and her water supply dwindling after time out here alone.
There's a breeze today, which despite the heat, feels more like it's ripping meat from the bone with the dirt in the air. The light reflecting off the dust in the wind begins to take coherent shape. A familiar one now to Grantok, a coyote's grin, and then a second one. A smaller one this time. A cackling laugh echos in the quiet air. "Lonely little kitty cat. Even in your dreams you punish yourself." he smirks, tail bobbing with the dust. The other image is very quiet, just peering, unsure.
Grantok remembers actively, her thoughts vocalized. "Yes. I was in a bit of a rush around then to get back... and away from Fresno. Would have otherwise travelled at night in the cooler air. Wasn't thinking straight then either." The obvious change in the memory sparks a more vocal reaction. She squints. "How do you mean? I had reasons, even if they were hastily planned out. And plenty of questions then."
The smaller coyote just peers about for a long moment, before hesitantly striding forth from the side of the larger one. Her reddish pelt catches the light, and she slowly approaches Grantok, head casting this way and that as she takes in as much of the scene as possible, ears flicking this way and that to take in sounds and show emotion. Her gaze flicks between the other two beings in the dream, but she tries to offering a reassuring presence for the 'poor kitty cat', nosing at the woman's side.
The coyote chuckles, "You ask dumb questions. Dumb, dumb, dumb. I give you the truth, and point you in the right direction, and yet you still sit around pretending its not real." the dirt in the air swirls now, the coyote taking form directly next to grantok, and nudges her. "However. You did do one thing right." he noses in the air, almost like an arrow himself. "You wanted to ask me where the knife was, didn't you? Your friends however were too ignorant to ask, and choose to see instead."
Grantok appears a little confused about the situation, the second coyote that nudges her throwing off her preconceptions of what is going on. "I only did so when I was not certain who you were or rather who you were in league with. You gave no clear indication then as to who you were. And even after I did hear for certain from the others, I still don't want to believe that all that you show me is true. Not if it can be stopped, or changed." She folds her arms across her chest. "But yes, that is one of the more pressing questions that I have now. I suppose you know where it is or at least where to start looking for it, otherwise why go to all this trouble."
Redfur sits herself down beside Grantok, looking between the cat and the coyote. She remains silent for the moment, however, merely observing things with a questioning look, left ear canted at nearly 90 degrees, and right pointing straight up with her head angled just a little to the side. After a moment, she gives a canine shrug and merely leans lightly against Gran, continuing to try and be a reassuring presence for the moment.
A bark, and a laugh. "Open your eyes." he says, laughing, and chuckling. The sun really has made it hard to look around, but the details seem to sharpen a bit, a large stretch of water in the desert, almost a lake if it had depth to it, chalky white on the bottom isn't more than three hundred yards in the distance, though the sun reflecting off makes it impossible to look at for long. Then finally, he says, "Do you really think I do anything without a reason?" he's now rolling on the desert ground like a tumbleweed. "Anything at all?"
Grantok shields the tops of her eyes from the sun, the little good it does, and looks off towards the vision in the distance. "No. It's hard to think that anyone does such, even the ones that claim none often simply mask their own amusement. I'm just not sure what your line of reasoning is at any given point."
The coyote, now an illustrated tumbleweed, continues to roll in the breeze, carefree. "Why must you know? You must learn. Learn to make your future, rather than your future make you." And the sun shifts, the place turning to night in a matter of moments. The black sky is almost starless, a few sparkling lights and no moon to accompiany them the only source of light. It's chilling, and lonely, and the lake ahead now shimmers with the limited starlight, small points creating an odd image. "And the same place, changes depending on the audience." he practically trills.
Eithne tries to take Grantok's hand in her mouth, and gives it a light, careful tug toward the sharpened lake in the distance. Then she begins moseying on in that direction on her own, paying more intention to where she's going then how she gets there, head cast toward the heavsn on occasion to watch the stars, tail swishing this way and that and a playful strut in her step. She glances back after a few feet, and yips at the cat before continuing onwards.
Eithne tries to take Grantok's hand in her mouth, and gives it a light, careful tug toward the sharpened lake in the distance. Then she begins moseying on in that direction on her own, paying more intention to where she's going then how she gets there, head cast toward the heavsn on occasion to watch the stars, tail swishing this way and that and a playful strut in her step. She glances back after a few feet, and yips at the cat before continuing onwards.
Grantok, after a hefty amount of nudging and obvious hints, plods forward in the direction of the lake. Looking about for details of where exactly they are or where they are all headed, she keeps the vision of the lake clearly in her mind as the only dicernable location. "Then if I am to do as you suggest, would not the best course of action be to leave you behind? For clearly the future is what you provide me with, as you say that you don't lie. You don't make any sense." She pauses in her steps to await an answer.
Eithne scoffs, pausing in her tracks to glance back at Grantok. Then she speaks for the first time in the dream, her voice easily recognized; "The future is written but mutable. What will be, will be, unless changed. He's giving you the chance to change it. And don't you know how dreams work? The more you pay attention, the less mutable and flowing dream-time and -distance are. Enjoy the stars and enjoy the view ahead, but don't pay too much attention to where your feet tread." And then she romps forward again, raising her voice in an undulating howl of a tune, meandering lakeward.
"That- that's not what I meant. I don't mean for you to die. What you said just confused me." Grantok tilts her head at the redfur almost looking slightly offended, "I hadn't realized that there were laws guiding these at all, no. All of what I have experienced have been little like this and more what he has shown. This is /different/." She hurries a little more in an attempt to catch up.
The little footprints show rippling across the water, as the now invisible coyote treads on it, the rippling motion causing the lights to shift and shape, like thousands of years of moving earth passing. The lights take image and shape. A large warm light in the center area, and a few spots across the map, each glowing in their own shape. And then there are also areas of clear darkness, almost sharply cutting and just as bold. The coyote shakes as he becomes white again. "Can you see the shape of things my dear? Are you able to see what is real?" he grins very wide now.
Eithne focuses as Dirt speaks, glancing at the image in the water, even as she sends her voice floating back to her companion; "Everything has rules, Grantok. Everything. Even if they're obtuse and unintuitive, they're there somewhere. Reality, Dreams, Magic... They've all got some underlying pattern to them." She doesn't study it, or try to force sense out of it. She merely looks and takes it in for the moment. The shape ins't as important as the meaning, and that is what she tries to see in the greater whole of it all. Absently, she steps off the shore, paws heading softly down towards the water's surface as she tries to get closer to better see the contrasts between light and dark.
Grantok's eyes dart back and forth, trying to discern exactly what is going on, the look of confusion and mild frustration on her face easily shows her state of mind. "Real? I don't get... This is another dream though, isn't it? Errgh. No. I don't know. This is unlike what I am accustomed to and disorienting. I gather that this is important, I just don't see exactly how." She sighs as she leans down at the water's edge. "The lights trace out something, much like a view from high above. But I can't tell where."
The coyote yips, and presses his nose directly against the water, causing it to shimmer and bubble. Almost beating like a heart, black veins at its core and bright gold specs flickering out. "The great mother, heart of the earth." and his white eyes are filled with sadness somehow. "Her womb birthed him. He is of her, something that should never have come to be." He looks at Grantok, "You saw that night, the night he became a part of her, I made you see, and live, and feel it. The knife cutting his flesh, and it being drawn to her warmth. The knife like a razors edge, some even call it, the shadow's blood." He looks at the other Coyote approvingly.
Eithne ambles across the surface of the lake, until she's standing right beside that image, staring down at it as she traces the curves and contrasts, the pulse of black veins and flow of golden flecks. "Grantok." Her voice is low, now, but carrying. "Have you ever been taught meditation?" She sits on the water's surface, giving a quiet hum. "It doesn't help all that much with dreams, but it does have its uses for things like this. You're thinking too much. Observing too much."
Grantok ruffles her own fur with her claws, clearly only becoming more frustrated as she fails to understand all of what she is being told. "I recall the vision. The ritual. But I still don't follow your line of meaning? Is Shadow himself his own undoing in all of this then? Or-" Her voice trails off as Eithne speaks. "It goes against all that I have done thus far to just throw away the details. I been working harder and harder to be able to spot what I can of the other visions. I don't see how emptying my mind right now would do any good."
The coyote bows low in front of it. And then slaps a paw down on the water, letting it ripple out, the shadows spreading out to the other light on the map, each being engulfed in darkness as it spreads. Below his paw is stuck to it. He looks flustered as he pulls it a few times to get it unstuck. Below the once majestic heart is black to the core.
Eithne looks upwards for a moment to study the stars, thoughtful. "The Heart of the Mother, Gaia." Her words are musing, as if to taste them and the ideas they contain as much as communicate them. "It's a bastion of power, central and strong. If Shadow corrupts it, twists it to his own ends, then he spreads quickly, taking over the other bastions of the light in the darkness - other centers of supernatural strength?" She looks down again, a paw hovering just above the water as she traces the spread with it. "Or is thisshowing what was and will be, if we don't check Shadow somehow, of him starting at his point of release and slowly moving out in a tide of despair, capturing and consuming other dieties like he is doing to Hare and plans for Raven?" Her thought process with Grantok on meditation is completely lost with this display.
Grantok is slow to rise from what was/is the water's edge. She frowns, the confusion in her eyes fading only to be replaced with one of sadness, for what exactly is unclear. "So then, the question would be then how can he be stopped. Or better yet, where do we find Raven then?"
"You will dream of the path to take. You will build while I paint your evenings like the skies above." And then he turns to the redfur, "And you will help, as you already are. Can you show her yet where what she seeks is located?"
Eithne turns her snout skyward, eyes closed as she considers for long moments... Before she opens her eyes, and turns her emeralds to match Dirt's white. "... Sacremento?" It's a question, as she voices the thoughts swirling in her head. "... Grantok, though, could you come here please and join us?"
The creature known as dirt shakes his head, "No, that was where I was hoarded for so long, but it is not where the blade is found." He casually lets his tail point out a spot below in the map that is not reflected in the sky above. "The heart of the people, they took it and cared for it when Coyote returned to them. They carried it with them on the trail of tears, in their hearts and minds he helped see them through."
Grantok's expression shifts to one of perplexment once more as she haphazardly attempts to walk on the lake's surface, easily sending a few splashes and ripples of her own throughout it. "Do you mean the Aassahke then? Or am I still nowhere near what you mean?"
Grantok's expression shifts to one of perplexment once more as she haphazardly attempts to walk on the lake's surface, easily sending a few splashes and ripples of her own throughout it. "Do you mean the Aassahke then? Or am I still nowhere near what you mean?"
He sighs, and collapses into the water below, his lines spreading out like ripples in the water, drawing a map across it, showing the borders of rivers. The great mississippi running down the center of all the sparks, and not far to the west, a the flickering star he pointed to before. The very center of the united states, heartland. "Now is it time for both of us to leave you." he says, and the smaller illustration collapses apart into the water as well.
Eithne takes a long moment to examine the revealed map, the rivers and the sparks. She tries to burn the image into her mind, tries to hold it tight in her soul so that she can remember it when she awakes. When it vanishes into the water once more she moves to sit beside Dirt, raising a paw to wave it at Grantok in farewell. "Sweet dreams, Gran. May they be bright and hopeful." And, briefly, she tries to leave an echo of that wish in the dreamscape.
The area seems to flood with warm light, and the sunlight is just peaking over the horizon to greet Grantok.
Grantok looks on as both Dirt and Eithne fade off in the sunlight, slowly raising her gaze towards the sun as it rises. She shuts her eyes for but a moment, rubbing them with the back of her paw, then turns back to the newly risen sun, a basket of mixed feelings in her heart. She smiles despite it all and hopes that she will remember all that happened tonight.
