[Fiction] Parting Sorrow

[Wakinyan]

The sun rose on Inyana Kara and Wakinyan sat watching it rise like he often did. An ear twitched and he idly brought a rear paw to scratch it as the long shadows of night shortened with the glory of the rising sun.

The warmth felt good on his coat. Opening his wings he collected more of the warmth into him. Despite the warm feeling he could not help but feel something amiss within him. Something that had always been amiss since the day he had erupted. Procyon, Long and so many others had tried to show him the way to grapple with it and he admitted he was improving yet it was slow and painful. Too many falls that hurt himself and those around him. Ptesan-Wi most of all who was trying to be her own creature while trying to support the weight of himself and all the baggage he carried.

There were too many distraction here, he thought gloomily. Too many other Novas who could manipulate him or influence him. Of course that was just an excuse wasn't it? It was his mistakes to make and on one else.

It wasn't enough to call himself a god. It wasn't enough to call himself a husband. Too many things he did kept him from being the best he could be at it. He had to learn what it meant he had to focus but how would he do so? Move to Alaska and become a hermit? You couldn't be a hermit when you could circle the earth in a few hours. Plus once word got out the people would begin following him. He mulled over this information until the sun had separated itself from the horizon and had begun it's ascent into the sky. He glanced skyward and realized suddenly this wasn't the only sky he could learn under.

Before her Chrysalis and being wanted by Utopia she had offered to take customers to other worlds as exotic as a vacation could be. He recalled that Long had mentioned to him the fate of Shen-Kahn as well. That she had banished him to some world where he could harm no one. He wondered if she would take him as well. Somewhere he could learn. But where? If she took him to a deserted world he might go feral that side of him with no one around would be hard to fight. A world with no Novas? Still he would have the people trying to cling to life. Yet still he wanted the people in his life. If she could pick anywhere along the threads of reality then maybe she could take him to a place free of Wasicu where he could learn the old ways and come back richer for it.

The idea excited him and scared him. It wasn't like he was thinking of a camping trip. He was thinking in seasons or even longer. A hard knot began to form in his throat. He knew he had to talk to his wife on this. With a few hops he found himself in the valley nestled by the sheltering mountain home. The garden that his wife had worked so hard on since winter was now in harvest and this was where he found his young loving wife.

She had stopped working and had been waiting for him to arrive. His eyes felt moist suddenly as he knew she had been following along with his thoughts. His voice was almost as quiet as he could make it as it rumbled out of his body.

"Should I do this?"

[Ptesan-Wi]

Ptesan-Wi gently set down the woven basket, it's cargo of carrots and onions losing their importance. His thoughts had been hers for over a year now; no words needed to be spoken beyond his question: "Should I do this?"

Regarding her mate with sadness in her eyes, the young psiad walked over to the huge nova that she had taken as her husband, laying a hand on his shoulder in the familiar way that had become their equivalent of holding hands.

"If it is what you need, Wakinyan, then yes. I've been worried for some time now about what would happen when you realized that you weren't getting where you need to be here. You're right, I think, that part of the problem is the world we live in. You are trying to become a god for your people... but your people have long since lost what is needed to teach a god. The Wasicu world calls to you, and because of some of the changes that Taint has brought to you, you follow its call. If Timeslip can really take you to a place where the People still live as they once did, without the Wasicu...."

Despite all effort, tears started to streak down her smooth cheeks. "I'm going to miss you, mihinga ki," she managed to choke out before flinging her arms around his neck in a tight embrace.

[Wakinyan]

"They still need you. I still need you." He rumbles quietly as a shake runs through him. "When I am gone I want you to be happy. Do what it takes for you to be happy. Just always keep a place in your heart for me. I hope one day I can return to you." A large arm enfolds the young girl and lifts her against him holding her tightly.

He had only the briefest of time with her. A year almost to the day. He had spent the winter alone from her and now was saying goodbye to her again this time willingly, this time perhaps forever and his heart cracked. Clouds gathered overhead blocking out the morning sun. Rain began to fall every drop warm and like a million tears the sky wept upon the earth.

"I will contact Long and tell him. He will be able to reach his wife even if she is in hiding.. I hope."

[Ptesan-Wi]

Still crying, Ptesan-Wi pushed back far enough to look Wakinyan in the eye. "Don't hope to return. Just return. And know that I will be here, waiting for you."

Finally, she could take no more; one last kiss, and she walked away with what dignity she could muster, through the forming mud and to the home where she would dwell on her own until the day that her husband, her mate, her mihinga would return once more.

Behind her, standing in the rain next to a garden he had cleared by hand, Wakinyan felt a hollowness. It took a moment for him to realize what it was: for the first time in a year, even the shadow of her thoughts was gone from his mind. For the first time in a year, Wakinyan was well and truly alone.

[Wakinyan]

He had watched her go. She understood as much if not more than he did why he had to go. I will return he spoke in his now empty mind. He watched her walk away until she disappeared up the trail he had made for her. He wanted to pursue her and tell her this was a mistake or ask her to come with him. He knew better however, this was something he had to do. If it took six months or six years.

With a careful jump he landed at the long row of colums that detailed the history of his people. At the end of the row was long staff of metal that Endeavor had made him. Atop it was adorned the fangs of the sabertooth Prodigy had given him along with the his own feathers. He walked inside his home inhaling deeply the familiar scents the home sick feeling already twisting in his gut. Picking up the cloak that Hugin had given him he made his way to the back of the room the shelf that held his grandfather's cane was here. He picked it up and made his way to the bedroom and looked at the nest bed he had shared with his wife. Tugging a handful of feathers from his wing he placed them atop the pile of furs. She would have use for them he thought as he made his way back out of the cave.

Minutes later with his few precious belongings in hand he landed atop the Devil's tower. Inyan Kara was far on the horizon. With a whir and click the Opnet device opened in front of his eye and he made his message.

Master Long,

I have need of your help or rather the help of your talented wife. She was once offering vacations to other worlds and I recall also banishment for those who should not be here in the judgement of others.

I have decided I should not be here. Not right now anyway. I cannot focus with distractions that lead me astray. I cannot be to my people what I need to be. I need to understand what once was. I am asking if she will take me and deposit me in a place like my home before the White Man came. A world like this one except 500 or so odd years before this moment.

I know this is out of the blue. I want to say I appreciated studying under you. But I would like to do this soon, by tomorrow at the latest. If I do not I will likely lose my nerve and not allow myself to do it. I hope to hear from you soon. I await you and your wife atop the Devil's Tower not far from my home.

Sincerely,

Wakinyan

With that message done and sent Wakinyan opened his journal and began to write.

[Timeslip]

Wakinyan's wait wasn't a long one; within an hour, the familiar votex formed, and Long stepped out of it, looking warily around before nodding back through the portal. Then, a cosmos taken female form stepped gracefully through, onto the stony ground of the Devil's Tower to her husband's side. "Thank you, love," she said in her hauntingly alien voice, kissing him on a furry cheek before turning back to the huge griffin.

"So, Wakinyan, I understand that you are wanting to take a trip. Long gave me the rough details you had given him, and I've taken the liberty of poking about the streams a bit to find something appropriate. I found what looks to be a likely candidate; the Black Plague took out a much larger portion of the European population there, so the Age of Exploration never really took hold. There's a small Chinese foothold along the California coast and the Moors hold the Caribbean and Florida, but your tribe is living as they would have lived without any foreign intrusion. Now, there are two more things I need to know. How often do you need me to check in on you, and are you certain you want to do this? Once you're there, you're there until I make my scheduled visit, so you need to be certain. All thinks considered, I'd like it to be no more often than once every six months or so, unless you are planning for this to be a rather short trip."

[Wakinyan]

Wakinyan looked out over the rolling plain and turned only slightly when the portal had formed. Timeslip was taking a risk by being here he realized. After all her husband was known to come here. However it was safe for the moment and what he was asking of her would not take long to do.

"Am I certain? No. All I know is I have been trying for three years to be more than what I should be to not be governed or swayed primality and passion. To understand my heritage and I am not succeeding as I had hope. This might seem desperate but I simply am running out of options."

The large indigo eyes look forlorn. "I feel like I am abandoning everything I worked hard to accomplish thus far but I want this to be the right thing. If you could check on me on the night of each solstice I think that would be a good thing."

Then as if to build his own nerve he takes a deep breath and releases it quickly. "You need me to be smaller I am sure." Even as he speaks his body is adopting a human form melting and flowing until he is the young native man he might have been before his node had awakened.

He made his way closer across the rocky top of the volcanic formation next to a bundle of the small possessions he had brought with him.

"Let's get this over with."

[Timeslip]

"OK, then."

The starry blackness roiled forth from Timeslip, her starfield wrapping around the tiger-man and the resigned griffin-man almost lovingly; a cosmic embrace that closed out the world beyond.

With smooth efficiency, the master of time crossed the trans-temporal skein in search of a very specific thread; thankfully, she already knew the way.

Darkness melted away in morning sun, and the three stood atop a Devil's Tower so near and yet so far from where they had been just a moment before. The air was a bit sweeter, the sky somehow a touch deeper in its azure glory, and the web of highways that crossed the countryside around the landmark monolith of volcanic rock was simply gone.

[Long]

Long nods as he takes in the surroundings. It was a world barely scathed by human hands. He turned to Wakinyan and smiled.

"What you're doing may be the best thing for you. Here you can just simply be without worrying about which of your peers is watching you. There's no one here save yourself that can stop you, absolute freedom, Wakinyan, absolute responsibility."

His blue eyes glow softly as he speaks. "Be true to yourself and be as you choose to be. From there, things willwork themselves out." His words hint at the possibility that he knows what he's saying is true, that he's already seen it.

"Take care of yourself Wakinyan. Truly become Wakinyan."

[Wakinyan]

Some would not realize the world was different. Some would have to see the lack of roads or the washing away of mankind's doings. But Wakinyan knew the moment the starfield receded he was in another place. The air was clear and fresh, no hint of the artificial. But there was more and on a fundamental level he felt it. Quantum felt different as well he could not say exactly how. Flavor might have been the best way but even that did not truly explain how he felt about it.

"Thank you both." The young man says as he moves away his form growing back into the huge form of his true body. Unconsciouly he felt he had to test his power here. Of course it still worked but he had to ensure that it could.

"If I could ask you both to keep tabs on Ptesan-Wi. She is strong and can take care of herself still.. I want her to be safe, if she ever needs me.. Do not hesitate to return here for me. Otherwise I will see you here, atop Bear's Lodge on the Longest Night."

[Timeslip]

"Until Winter Solstice, Wakinyan, take care."

The Thunderbird watched a sudden burst of night sky envelope his friends... and then, he was alone in his world.

[Long]

When they reappear in Prime Long's tail snakes around Timeslips waist and he pulls her close to him. For at least a minute he stands there holding his wife, knowing that it could be awhile before he sees her again. "I've missed you, and so have the children."

He kneels down, bringing his head level with hers. "As I told him, Take care of yourself. Know that I am always here for you should you need me; that our home is exactly that." There's a sadness in his voice, one born of a lifetime of losing things that were important to him.

[Wakinyan]

Wakinyan took stock of the few items he had brought with him. Then looked to the distant mountain that was the spiritual center of the Lakota universe.

She was right over in one or two hops from here he could have been with her. But it was only a few miles and countless universes away. Pain caught in his throat slightly before he grabbed his items in one paw and set off for his new/old home upon Inyan Kara.

As he departed two large ravens cawed to one another loudly as the perched on one of the hexagon rock outcroppings. They seemed lively and interested in strange goings on that had occurred on the sun bathing rock. Taking flight behind the giant griffin they followed him carefully.