The kitten was exploring, once more, more of the cave. Her pawsteps were gentle, careful, picking her way through the marsh. If her paw sunk too deep, she pulled it back with great effort and settled it somewhere firmer. She did not want to become one with the swamp, as she pressed forward into the blinding mist. Everything became white, grey, dark, impossible to see in. Her twisting fur blended in neatly to the mist, her body disappearing. The only flash of color in the white was her pale, pale dandelion eyes, wide and watching.
Whatever this place was, she felt that it belonged to another. The All Mother's presence was lacking here, though why this was she had no idea. Something was wrong, something disconnected her from this place of smoke and mud. She froze as her feet found a root that was growing steadily larger-- yet she could not see the source at first. She stepped forward, one paw in front of the other, using the sturdy plank of a root as a walkway... Until the mist gave way to a large, grey shape.
It was a tree, she knew, as she approached it. Yet, the closer she got, the more she realized-- it was too big to be any tree she had ever seen. Like a sister to the Monarch, the All Mother. She approached until its full form was visible to her, and she found she could not see the top of the tree-- only the widest, most gnarled and knotted bark she had ever seen. She stopped there, sitting on the root, and stared at the Divine, eyes wide as she recognized horrible, haunting shapes in the tree.
Tal'at was hunting, though for what, he wasn't quite sure. He wasn't built to hunt cave mice or anything-- so finding a sacrifice for Aquarian was difficult to say the least. He had found some alone time, and the urge to look for life in the cracks and nooks of Cetus had got to him. He wanted to explore, to get to memorize his home. It would make him feel safer.
He also, funnily enough, wanted feathers.
As of late, he had been getting better at detecting not just heartbeats, but life itself. It was a weird sensation, a pull towards an idea more than a color-- and as he searched blindly, flying around trees that he could barely dodge-- he detected the faint hint of an idea. It pulled him close. Golden. Warmth. The idea reminded him of the vision Dark had shared with him, the one of him eating a mango. The idea was condensed from that, a memory of the shaft of lamp light through the trees. Light. That was what it was. He could sense it, bellow.
He dropped down towards the feeling, letting out a small, quiet clicking sound. "Hello hello there?" He asked, expecting a response from the gem-carrier.
The kitten froze as a sound caught her ears, followed by a greeting. Her head snapped up, pale eyes scouring the white landscape above. A small shape formed through the land laying clouds, until she could make it out-- some kind of strange, featherless bird.
"Oh, hello there! I'm Dovefeather, who are y--"
She started to call up as the creature attempted to attack her face. With a screeching yowl, she stumbled off of the root and into the mud, her fur globbing up in the dirty, thick marsh.
"Ack!! Hey, watch it!"
She tried to scramble out, managing to get herself more stuck than anything else, claws dug deep into the root of the tree as she tried desperately to haul herself out of it. She glared up at the bat, having no idea what it was, and abruptly realized that it had no face. Instead, the leathery thing had a huge orb with scores of golden sheen in the black-brown base of the gem, a mouth hanging off of the bottom of it. He had ears, poking out of either side of the gem-- but the majority of his face, where his eyes should be, was completely orbsorbed..
That shut her right up.
Tal'at fumbled on to the root as his landing perch dodged out of his way. He was used to gembounds sort of just... Letting him be a hat, that he didn't realize how tiny she was. Tal'at was actually somehow bigger than this runt of a kitten, and he realized it as he peered towards her, getting a sense of her from her voice and his own magic. It was at this point that he switched to his more familiar sense, the radar-heartbeat of Red.
"Pardon me please," he spoke, his voice faltering as he found it impossible to tear away from his sense of her Light-filled Gem, unable to see her heartbeat. "I am looking... For nest supplies. Feathers I think. Or perhaps birds. I am Tal'at." The creature before him began to buzz and he found himself feeling rather out of place-- he wasn't sure exactly what was about to happen, but he had a feeling that he was about to be incredible confused by what was about to take place.
It was not a sensation that he wanted to experience ever again. He was reminded of the boar made of plants-- how he could see the Green and feel the beast's Plants and thought he was an actual flora instead of fauna. Except this creature was perhaps made of something untouchable, and worse, he didn't know if this one was safe. Dragon was not here to reassure him, nor Eve.
The feline began to purr as the leathery creature began to speak. Her body built up with the energy of a thousand bees, realizing she had found something incredibly important. He was in Likeness of the All Mother, something she couldn't ignore. She let him speak, of course, murmuring to herself;
"Who is this? Why does it have an orb for a face? Is this a sign from the All Mother? One who does not See-- but Sees? How did it find me? What of this tree? All Mother, what is happening..."
And then one of his words tipped her over the edge.
"-- You're looking for a feather?!"
The kitten couldn't take it anymore-- she burst with excitement-- this weird, nothing-like-a-cat thing knew of the All Mother, although he was likely disconnected from her. At this, she tried to dislodged herself out of the mud and threw herself at him, but her paw was stuck deep and she thumped on the bark, smacking herself into the side of the root.
"By the All Mother, how much do you know? Have you seen the others? I am Dovefeather! What has come over this place, cast ing the blinding white? Do you know? Tell me, tell me!"
Dovefeather demanded, staring up at him from her pathetic position clinging to the root, trying to wiggle her foot free.
Tal'at had no idea what was wrong with this feline, but it was starting to really freak him out. He didn't know what she was talking about, so he fell dead still and hoped that she couldn't see him so long as he didn't move. She seemed nice enough, but she had also lunged for him, he heard her claws on the root and the struggle of her body-- he was scared, tempted to fly away, but...
"Dovefeather you said? Do you have... Have some feathers? Can I have... Just a few... If that's okay..." He begged timidly, a bit shaken by her sudden outburst. He held his ground, even then, despite all urges to fly away his body felt locked into paralysis by his fear.
"I am sorry-- I don't know... What you're saying. I just need... I need feathers. Please help me. I don't know-- I know nothing--..." He hoped his point was getting across to her, but it was hard to tell with her loud, buzzing voice. It sounded like she had hundreds of small insects trapped inside her, and that alone was frightening enough. He had never heard such a sound, and he never wanted to hear it again.
The kitten paused, drawing back into the mud, settling her rump into the cold, sticky earth. She stopped, staring up at him with her pale eyes, and comprehended his words. Even he was cut off from the All Mother-- even one who was blind, one who had the potential to See as she did-- and such a thing puzzled her. He was looking for a sign from the All Mother anyway... But his name was decidedly "Tal'at", whatever that meant.
"If you do not know of the All Mother, yet Seek her sign... Hm. There is something truly wrong here, in this place. I'm sorry, if I scared you, friend. I mean no harm, truly. I will help you find your Feather, if you like?"
It seemed like a fair thing to offer. She stared at him, batting her eyes. There was something more to this, but she couldn't See it yet. Purring her whiskers off, she silently focused, trying to See what she could in the foggy mist, without the All Mother's guiding Eyes. There was something more here, and she knew it.
Opening her jaws to speak, a glisten of multicolored light appeared to dance in the mist, just briefly-- enough so that she could catch it, but not long enough that she could understand it. With a disappointed, muffled mrrow, she tried to get out of the mud once more, waiting for Tal'at's reply.
The kitten seemed to come back to a reasonable state, but that didn't do much to ease the concern of the blind, shy bat. Perhaps it would do him more good to fly away while he had the chance-- but she did offer to help him find some feathers. Dipping his head, he gave her a cautious sniff, his ears laying back against the flat of his neck.
"Um yes good, that sounds good. Go find feathers. I can fly-- you follow bellow?" He offered, hoping that was reasonable as he started to make out the shape of her heartbeat-- small, racing, in her tiny body. Just as he thought, she was quite little, though this did nothing to worry him. He had heard the noises of her claws on the bark and knew the danger. Plus, all those buzzing sounds that came from her. Whatever they were.
Frankly, Tal'at didn't wait for a response. He flew up into the air, hovering above her a few good feet-- hopefully out of reach-- and waiting for her buzzing noise and red heart to move on his radar of magic and hearing sense. He hoped he wasn't making a mistake, trusting her with this, but perhaps it would do him some good to be a bit more adventurous once more.
Dovefeather nodded, before abruptly realizing her mistake. He couldn't see her, duh! Purring her head off, she went to say her action out loud, for his sake.
"Oh- um- I nodded,"
Did he even know what that meant? What nodding was?
"I agree-- let's go, okay?"
Grunting, she tried to wiggle free of the muck of the marsh. She had three paws stuck, as she tried to wiggle free, managing only to get herself deeper and deeper into the bog. Thankfully, she could feel something under her paws-- perhaps another root, she didn't dare assume anything else-- but she was having the worst time getting free and now she was quite afraid the swamp was going to eat her.
"Um! Excuse me, mister Tal'at! I think I'm stuck! How do I get out! Tal'at!! Help! Please? Oh no, oh dear, I can't get out-- I'm sinking!" She wailed, panic taking over her despite the fact she had a sort of sturdy base under all of the thick mud. Her muzzle was drenched in mud as she tried to wiggle out, one paw struggling to move-- but the suction cup nature of the mud was getting to her, making it harder and harder to breathe.
She was stuck in the mud? Tal'at fluttered back down to the root, listening to her struggles. He cocked his head, trying to understand what she had done-- he never sunk into the mud like that, but he also spread out his weight very evenly, unlike her condensed, tiny paws.
"You must calm... Stay calm please. Panic'll worsen it. You will sink." He wasn't sure, but he didnt want to go down in to the muck with her, so he tried to calm her down first. "Listen to me. Stop and breathe. You'll get out. Just trust me." Okay, maybe the blind bat had literally no idea how bad she was doing, but flailing seemed to make it worse since she was panicking more and more. Get her to chill out, and then fix the situation. She hadn't drowned yet.
"Then I will.. Help you out... Pull you out... If I can." There was doubt in his tone, but that was to be expected considering he was a tiny ass bat. I mean honestly do you expect him to do much? Probably not let's be real. But he had to try, he couldn't just let this weird, delusional, scary cat drown in front of him. That'd be a bit much.