[center][h3]Soleira[/h3][/center]
“So…I think they just don’t understand what love really is, you know.” Soleira ended her long, and rather winded explanation to a squirrel eating a nut she had cracked open for him. Squirrels, however, had no concept of lying. So he told the truth: he didn’t understand a word of what she had been saying. With a small smile, she dropped her head and pulled her knees up to her chin. “I know, I barely understand what I’m talking about myself.” She had gone over what the Neiyari, especially the saint, had said. How the land was sick, decaying, and chaotic. The four-winged angel couldn’t see it though. Before her stretched the Luminant in its wonderful, vibrant light. She looked at the squirrel beside her. “Do you think you’re blind to Neiyara?” She asked. 

The squirrel looked up as if she just said an insulting word. It turned its head a bit sideways. He was confused. “What is a Neiyara?” It simply asked.

“Well... She’s like Oraeliara. But not. She’s…mean. I think.” Was she? She never met her. Yet somehow she knew she was mean. Dangerous. “She’s a goddess, you know. Like you have a goddess of light and then you have Gibboura, who is the goddess of the moon. They help us.”

The squirrel took another moment to process it all. Then asked: “What’s a goddess?”

“Right.” Soleira realized there was just no point in discussing divinity with an animal like a squirrel. She gently petted her friend as she crushed another walnut with her hands and offered it to him. The tiny animal quickly continued eating. “It’s not important. Not to you at least.” She gently said. And it wasn’t. An animal had other worries: to eat and survive. “You’re not blind. Nobody made you to see in the first place.” She mused. Knowing full well the squirrel wouldn’t understand.

The only problem with all of that was that it meant that everything about what the Neiyari said was wrong. Which she found impossible. There had to be a side to them. A side that was right. A point that was just reality. Something that was undeniable to them. She laid down on her back and closed her eyes. Her mind wandered to the black, corrupting mass she has felt within the Saint. Her body shuddered in response but she closed her eyes, willing herself to delve deeper into it. It wasn’t wrath or anger. It was an obsessive thing. Claws that would take and never let go. Something so tight and so binding that it left room for nothing else. There was only the possessive grip.

She shot up. Gasping for air like she had been underwater too long. Her fingers were still shivering. A coldness ran through her spine as she gripped her own arms. She wasn’t fond of the memory. No, no she hated it. Her own natural urge to survive wanted her to forget it all. To just forget the entire day. That would never happen though. She would never let it happen. It was the only thing close to an answer she had. The closest she had ever been to Neiyara and her reasons. None the less it all made her feel pale.

It took a moment in the sun to recuperate her strength. No matter what, Oraeliara’s sun managed to make her smile again. But she had wasted enough time in the morning. She should be tending to the land! So once more she began to gather some berries from the nearby bushes. She helped squirrels break open nuts to eat and offered some roots to a handful of deer passing through. Both were grateful, in their own ways.

As she was digging some holes to plant some roots in again, she suddenly heard something move in the bushes. She turned around and a tiny wingless one came running at her, giggling and laughing and looking behind her until she bumped into Soleira and fell back. For a moment she looked up with a face Soleira knew meant either awe or fear. Depending on what would happen next, she’d know which one it was.

Instead of crying though, the child giggled continued on giggling. Soleira, with her own smile, squatted down in an attempt to be face to face with the child that was getting up now. However, she was still a bit larger than her. “Hello, little one.” She said as she held out her finger. The child took it with her entire hand. It said something that sounded like gibberish. Then Soleira realized she was speaking another language.

She pointed at herself and said. “Soleira.” Then she pointed at the child.

It didn’t understand what Soleira expected. So the four-winged angel repeated the exercise. The child said only: “Mahaka.”

“Mahaka.” Soleira repeated with a bright smile. Which only made the child jump a little and laugh as full as only a child could. Though then she heard “Mahaka.” Being yelled from somewhere else. Soleira looked up. From the bushes the child had come, a wingless woman had come now as well. Yelling: “Mahaka!” The moment she saw her child with Soleira she pulled her knife and yelled something.

Soleira held her hands up. “No! No! I’m good. I’m good. Soleira.” She said, pointing at herself. Trying to explain it. The women kept yelling something in a language she didn’t understand. She held out her hand at Mahaka, the girl. Who quickly realized things were wrong and ran to her mother. Soleira, meanwhile, slowly backed away. The woman kept getting closer until Mahaka held her hand. She then looked at her girl. She didn’t seem hurt.

Soleira, afraid but still trying to talk, just kept repeating her name. The woman pointed her knife at herself and said: “Tenerifé.” Soleira, realizing she was introducing herself, pointed at her and said: “Tenerifé!” and then she pointed at the child and said: “Mahaka!”

The woman seemed to relax a bit. Soleira took a few steps forward. Though she kept her distance from the woman named “Tenerifé.” She held her hand out, willing to transfer her own intentions of peace and aid. Tenerifé, for her part, seemed brave enough to get closer and touch Soleira’s hand. The four-winged angel didn’t overwhelm the human. Instead, she slowly radiated her intentions. The more Tenerifé felt, the more she dropped her guard.

For half a day Soleira was busy learning words from Mahaka, who herself was still learning many new words, and Tenerifé. She learned her own kind were called ‘Lasa Whei.’ Which apparently meant wingless ones with wings. The little Mahaka was a playful child though. She constantly ran around and sniffed the flowers. Soleira managed to stop her from eating a berry that would make her tummy ache. She herself had been laying in her cave for half a day before she had to heal herself. Instead she offered the little one several roots and berries she could eat without getting sick.
[center]~[/center]
“You mustn’t help us so much, Soleira. You are Lahoha’s daughter. We are blessed even with your presence.” The old lady of the tribe said to Soleira, who was sitting in front of a heap of clay she had desperately tried to shape like a pot. Sadly the result was an uneven blow with a hole in the middle. Yet she was still trying her hardest to push the clay into the right shape. Stains of clay covered her upper body. Even her cheeks and forehead. Eventually, she let go.

“I’m sorry Opaka.” She said to the man sitting beside her, who was comfortably coiling one layer of clay over the next one.

“Not a problem.” He said, as he got up and took her clay and threw it back on the pile. It probably wasn’t worth salvaging but Soleira had hoped that at least some part of it could be kept. Alas, if the master decided it should return to the pile, she wasn’t about to question it.

“I’ll gather berries then.” Soleira said to the elder of the tribe. Before the old lady could tell her it wasn’t necessary, Soleira had already grabbed her basket and ran into the forest. There was simply no stopping her these days. She had grown happy around the wingless ones. Though she still chose to return to her cave from time to time. Spending a week or so to help the animals. She made sure nobody felt abandoned. It was daunting at first but she managed it. Now she even managed to convince the predators in the forest not to attack the wingless ones. While she convinced the wingless ones not to hurt any of the predators or their younglings. It was a tentative peace but it held. And it made Soleira happy.

In the forest she was in her element again. Clay wouldn’t bend or be formed by her fingers but she knew which berries were the most tasteful. During her stroll through the forest she said hi to just about every animal she met. Some stopped for a chat. Others were too busy. It wasn’t a problem to her. Not until a bird, slightly in distress, came at her and told her to follow him. The bird led her to a small clearing the forest. Where a man and a woman were yelling at each other.

“I love you!” The man yelled. He was enraged. How was he in love when he was so angry?

“But I don’t love you!” The woman looked like she was pleading with him. “I’m sorry Leihoha but I don’t! I like you but I don’t love you.”

“I can’t just let you go!” Soleira recognized the sudden forcefulness in his voice. She had heard it before. He took a step forward. Soleira reached out with her hand. The crystalline barrier formed in front of the woman, who took a step back and looked at the man with wide eyes. The man slammed his fist into the barrier. Soleira winced for a moment.

“What’s going on?” She asked carefully. Was the wingless one secretly one of her siblings? Maybe he was one of their followers? What if he was? What would she do? She didn’t want to fight him but she also didn’t want anyone to get hurt.

“It’s nothing.” The woman sheepishly said. Soleira didn’t believe her but she looked a lot more clear of mind and heart right now than the man.

“I will show you my love!” The man called Leihoha said.

Which prompted Soleira to turn towards him. “Move away from the girl.” Memories of her darker siblings flooded in. She sounded more forceful than she wanted to. Still, the man did so. “Thank you. Walk away now. There’s nothing more left to say.” Her voice was calmer now. He huffed but then walked away. The moment he was out of sight, Soleira dropped the barrier. The girl began to sob in her own hands.

“Hey no, everything is okay.” Soleira moved in and hugged the girl. Who return the hug.

“I’m sorry. He’s a good person but sometimes he’s just…” The girl said.

Soleira patted her on the back. “It’s okay. It’s okay. He doesn’t love you. That wasn’t love.” That wasn’t love. Not to Soleira. It was anger and possessiveness. The same things she had seen in the eyes of her brother a year ago. They were vile and evil and mean. Love was none of those things. Love didn’t hurt.

“No I- He does love me. He just…wants me to return that love and I can’t.” The girl released her and rubbed a tear off her cheek. “I’m sorry. Really, he means well. He just wants me so badly and… I love someone else.”

It was wrong. It felt wrong. Did this wingless one also not understand love? If Leihoha loved her, he should be letting her go. Let her be with the one she herself loves. Instead of hoping and forcing her to be with him. Yet she couldn’t shake the thought. Like it was somehow lodged inside of the back of her brain. She tried to shake it away but it wouldn’t go. For now though, she stepped next to the girl and took her by the shoulders. The two wings on her side wrapped around the girl for extra protection. “Let’s get you back to the village, shall we?”

[hider=Summary]Soleira talks to a squirrel about the Neiyari and how they seem to perceive the world. The squirrel, because it’s a squirrel, doesn’t understand anything about love or divinety and just wants to eat the nuts Soleira cracks for him. After her contemplation, a wingless one child bumps into her. Soon the mother finds them as well. After a moment of tension, the two calm down and the mother teaches Soleira the local language.

Aftera  year Soleira is busy helping the tribe now. Though she still works in the forest for the animals as well. As she strolls through a forest a bird brings her to a couple fighting in the woods. The man is in love with the woman but she doesn’t love him back. He’s going full obsessive but Soleira manages to stop him and get him away. Then the girl explains what happened. That he loves her but she loves another. Soleira learns of another side of love which she doesn’t totally agree with.[/hider]

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[b]Post Length: [/b] +10K Characters
+5 Prestige >> Soleira
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