"How the heck did you do that??" Jae growled, watching as Keigharia slid' the door closed easily, giving what would have been the equivalent to a leopard's grin as she moved about the room. Items began to rise from the stands and tables about the room, and it wasn't but moments later when she'd lifted' the cream color sofa closest to her, spinning it around slowly before setting it back down, ignoring him. Ijael was not impressed in the least, as he attempted time and again to even open the door. So intent was he on opening the sliding glass that he failed to notice Keigharia's departure from his vision until he heard water running. Fighting back his natural instinct to avoid the sound of the babbling liquid, he padded to the bathing room, sniffing as smells he'd not noticed before jumped out at him, distracting the cat, who had little pleasure in water other than a sustenance of survival.
Satisfaction greeted him in the form of a five foot, seven inch brunette, striding towards him, her bodysuit conforming to her as it had before, with only a long, chocolate hued, black spotted tail to prove that she had indeed been the black leopard he'd seen only little while ago. "Are you still stuck??" she asked glibly, raising her eyebrows in amusement. "I'll take it then that you still can't port anything, or you would have been able to shift back as well. If you need me," and as this, the tail that had been there began to shrink, until it had become non-existent once more, "I'll be in the tub, soaking muscles tired from the weights, jogging, and shifting." A smirk crossed her lips as she turned, shaking her head at her brother. Ijael jumped in front of her, though, blocking her path, a snarl on his face.
~Funny, Ari, real funny. Liking you're doing anything while I'm still a leopard. Guess again, sis. How'd you get out of this??~ Keigharia shrugged, still smiling. "The same way I opened the door, rearranged the ornaments and various decorations on the stands, and moved the sofa, of course." Her words were spoken as though it were the simplest thing in the world, that even an idiot could master, which infuriated her brother to no end. ~Keigharia Seibutsu, I'm warning you, I need to know how to undo this right this MINUTE!!~ Raising an eyebrow, especially considering his predicament, Ari refrained from replying as she moved to her room to gather robe and other necessary items for her bath, Ijael on her heels.
"You know, I could get used to this, Jae, I mean, it's not often that I'm able to look down on you, be the taller one." She scooped up a work of science fiction, about, of all things, a unicorn girl, along with candles, a book of matches, and her favorite bath salts, all the while with the large, blackish brown leopard on her heels, muttering. ~Ari, I'm serious, this has gone on long enough. I want out of this cat's body, and back into my own NOW!! Tell me!!~ Keigharia grinned, leaving the room as she noted the familiar traces of sienna that seemed to glimmer as it had when she'd shifted back the first time.
Shutting the door behind her, she removed a large scoop of aromatic ocean from the salts box, releasing it into the stream of running fluid. Turning off the water, she lit the candles, undressed and slid into the steaming pool that was a large Jacuzzi-sized tub. She sighed as she lowered herself, immersing until all but her head was beneath the caressing heat, her robe hanging on a hook on the wall, her book on the table beside the bathing unit. Keigharia breathed in, letting the heat draw the tension from her body, relaxing enough to allow the water to support her limbs. I'll just lay here a few minutes, just close my eyes... then I'll read some... her mind drifted off as it settled back for a slumber, oblivious to the fact that she only intended a few moments rest. Unconsciously, she slid her arms into the grips that were there in case one did in fact fall asleep, though had she been conscious, she would have wondered why she'd done that when she was only closing her eyes.
It was only mere minutes before scenes started passing before her eyes. Two red-haired women, whom had to be her mother and aunt, if she weren't mistaken, were in a clearing with... a violet gold dragon?!?! Weren't... wasn't that... the raven-tressed young woman was at a loss for thoughts to describe what she was seeing. She watched as the scene unfolded, as the younger woman, how do I know she's younger?? shifted, a reddish-brown leopard, a bit smaller than Ari's own black cat, took the place of the younger woman. Keigharia realized, as the clouded leopard explored the area, that she knew her mother by feel, by the way she held herself, perhaps not erect at all times, but with the look of gently firm authority. As the younger woman, whose name she did not know, shifted back to human form, Keigharia began to pick up snatches of conversation, the first of which an inquiry as to her sister's liking of the place.
"What do you want from me??" The question, backed with no sarcasm, resentment, or anger, was simply put forth, an innocent inquiry made by someone who had been viewed in the past few months as someone either to be despised or pitied. She peered at Ari's mother, trying to figure her out, it appeared, to understand why she would matter to... how do I know what she's thinking, or at least understand part of it?? Keigharia was a bit taken aback, wondering what would have caused the young woman to give such question as that.
"Nothing. Simply to get to know you." The younger woman turned away from her, then asked, "why should I mean anything to you?? I know nothing about our father, you've never known me, and you've really no reason to burden yourself. Besides, what makes you think I'm staying here?? I don't mean to disrespect you, or to appear ungrateful for your hospitality in allowing me a place to stay, but really, can't you see?? I've never belonged anywhere. What makes you think I will now??" Keigharia could see a look of pain cross her mother's face, as the elder woman sighed.
"Do you think I have no idea what it's like to be different?? At least you had a family, or so Tritifac tells me. I was born in a hold, brought to a small weyr where I was a weyrbrat for a while, and then shipped off to one hold and weyr after another when it was discovered that I was a shifter. I didn't learn to control my gifts till I was ten, and so every time I got scared, which was often, I would shift, and then be forced to leave wherever I was staying. And the places that I wasn't forced to leave, I was exploited, yes, I can say that now, exploited so severely that I would seek refuge in some other place, though it would never last for long. I know you were exploited, but at least you had your brother to look out for you. I had no one." Tritifac?? Weyr?? My mother was exploited as Jae and I were??
"Had a dragonrider not found me when I was fifteen, I don't think I would have been alive today. He said that the Lord Holder of the hold I was currently residing had slammed a large board into my head, and had been about to do far worse when he showed up. The strange thing is, while I'd seen dragons before, I'd never seen one that was so coppery, and the silver wings were something else entirely. Ton'loran saved me, and he's the only family I've had. I don't care that you don't know who your father is, or that I've never known you. I feel as if the One who is greater than us has sent you to me, so that I'll have someone to help me look after my child, someone who my child can call family." The One?? Ton'loran?? Questions whirred in Keigharia's mind, so many that she knew only the woman could explain to her. The black leopardess felt tears come to her eyes, even in the midst of her vision, and closed them briefly to prevent... prevent what?? Who can see me here?? Certainly not my mother. Peering at the woman, she noticed for the first time that she shared her clear nose with her mother's freckled one, making her grin in want to be around that woman. Another thought hit her, and Keigharia shuddered as the word child came into play.
"Child?? You're... you are pregnant. I should have seen it when we first arrived." The younger sister's face took on a thoughtful gaze. "A child... like us??" Ari's mother nodded, a soft smile on her face.
"Like us, with Ton'loran's gift of premonition, or feelings of the future, and possibly my telekinesis. There's no telling, but I don't want to bring this child into a world without family, Aureliane, and I don't want him or her here if you're not going to exist in their life... and mine." Rising from where she reclined, she walked until she stood face to face, eye to eye, with her younger sister. "Aureliane, please, if for no other reason, do this for me. I want family, someone to depend on, who is my own blood, so badly. When you showed up, I know it was strange, but I wanted to give you time to yourself, time to think about everything. But I need you... whether or not you think you need me." Aureliane's eyes softened, and she murmured something that human ears would not have been able to discern. Keigharia, as well as her mother apparently, had finely tuned ears, more sensitive than humans, and distinctly heard,
"It's Liane, not Aureliane." Aureliane?? My aunt is called Aureliane?? And premonition... Jae's gift!! We both shift, and have telekinesis... Ton'loran's our father!! She put a hand to the side of her face, feeling as though the wind had been knocked out of her. The man with the black hair, in the first vision... Ton'loran. The name rolled about in her mind, refusing to leave, and she thought her heart was going to stop from shock of learning his name. Where... where did post-cognition come from then?? However, the vision moved on, giving her no time to think, as it played out Umrinc's first intrusion on her parents' lives.
At Umrinc's mention of Eyrlass, Keigharia felt her legs buckle beneath her. My mother... no, she dismissed the thought, somehow knowing that this was not her name. Umrinc rattled off some riddle or rhyme:
Two to unite the people,
Two to keep the peace.
Brother and sister are they, and yet they increase.
Apart they are strong, together, one power,
Kept together, trained, for that very hour.
When the world shall scream and the darkness prevail,
From the world long forgotten, from the place the two hail.
Together apart, they are joined from the start,
And together they must stay, not matter come what may.
Keigharia repeated what she'd heard, to imprint that within her memory, for a later time, as she knew that she'd need it against him. Already, her mind was working on how to get home... wherever that was. The wizard mentioned locations, obviously where they were, and the four places were like gold to the leopardess: Lao Daemia, Pern, Danach, and Alskyr. I know where we need to start looking then, tears that had threatened to spill over during the last portion falling in waves of both gratefulness and pain, the former for the final places where her parents could be, the latter at being apart from them for so long, and for what they must have gone through when Umrinc took she and Jae from them.
Words fell from her mother's mouth, which she missed as she mused such things, and she grimaced for having done so. She heard lies spew from Umrinc's conniving lips, and her mother's accusation of the wizard's evil shook Keigharia, though she couldn't for the life of her figure out why, when she already knew the man was. Perhaps it takes someone to actually put those words into a sentence for them to have such an impact. Regardless what she'd heard before, one sentence stood out, making the rest of the vision fade from her sight as she ran the Wizard's sentence over and over in her mind: You don't seriously think that you're the only Analyn, do you??
A noise brought her back to consciousness, a banging on the bathing room door. Keigharia shook her head, tears running down her face, as her body registered cooler than when she'd first immersed herself in the water, and she groaned at her sore neck. However, then was not the time to think about that, only to figure out what the loud knocking was. It was accompanied by the sound of her brother's voice,
"Ari, what are you doing in there?? Do you realize that you've been there over two hours?? Thank goodness we have more than one bathing room. Are you even awake??" Her brother broke off, and Keigharia struggled to pull herself out of the vast tub, its water now lukewarm, and into her robe. She eyed the book on the stand, and noted how some of the candles were low, others no longer burning. Wiping her eyes, she tied the strap that held her mint green robe closed, and opened the door to face Ijael.
"Ari?? What's the matter??" Keigharia was about to answer when an alarm sounded within their living room, loud, vociferously letting them know that it wouldn't be ignore from the moment it sounded. "It can wait, Jae. Let's go see what the matter is." A bad feeling deep in the pit of her stomach turned over, making her feel as though she had cramps. She simply grabbed her stomach, slowing down a bit. Ijael made it to the tele-screen first, which he powered up to receive what could only have been from Umrinc.
Interweaving
