The hybrid had heard of the events and celebrations going on within the tunnel, and truly, he had no idea what they were. why they were happening, what they did exactly, but he knew they seemed to make many people VERY happy. and the idea to him was oh so sweet!
he hadn't been to this tunnel in seemingly forever, if any times at all. if he had, he didn't remember.
he kept hearing a name, though, about a creature that performed such ceremonies, named momma bolormaa. the name struck an odd cord in his brain, the feelings of an oncoming episode were strong yet they never came. he wanted to remember, he truly did. his heart ached imagining the possibility of why this name was so familiar. had he loved someone before? had they done a ceremony, only for him to forget and leave? he hoped not, but the worry didn't leave his mind.
he padded to the union pillars, the floral scent of the area hitting him strongly. he smiled, though. it was pleasant. you could feel the love of countless gembound here long after they've left.
he cleared his throat, reluctantly calling out. "h-hello? Momma Bolormaa!" he called out, hoping someone was there.
Her brow was drawn in focus--trying to remember, where had she heard that voice?--as she came around the corner. "Oh, that's me, I'm--Oh! Shengxiao?!" she cried, and her eyes popped wide.
She hopped a little, surprise bringing her little paw-hands to her cheeks, in the process dropping the little mortar, pestle and incense she'd been carrying. She started to scramble to pick it up--"Oh no--Oh, never mind it--" and quickly abandoned it, in favor of rushing over to inspect Shengxiao.
A cloth was draped around her waist, apron-like, smudged with charcoal and herbs, and she wiped her paws on it as she approached, and then sat up. "My, you look wonderful! Healthy! How have you been, dear?!" she cried.
@Shengxiao
The hybrid could only stare wide eyed for a moment at the woman. what was he supposed to do..?
she knew him. she knew his name. she recognized him, he meant something to her, and what could he do? he didn't remember her. he knew her voice, her name, he knew what she looked like, even, atleast now, but for the life of him he can't remember anything else.
so he did the only thing his body seemed to WANT to. he just... started crying. and then from there he tried to speak.
"o-oh dear-" he started, sniffling, "im sorry- i-i've been doing well! i- oh goodness how do i say this-" he wheezed, trying to gather his thoughts.
"u-uhm- okay, i-i don't remember? you? or what happened- i-i-i just- i dont remember anything! p-past my hatching its just- all gone!" he explained, but he tried to smile. "b-but i remembered your name! k-kinda! i had to be told it but i knew it sounded familiar!" he said shakily, trying to stop crying, but that didn't seem to work. "h-how've you been! a-and also- what happened..?" he asked.
This was awkward, given the fact that Shengxiao was nearly horse-sized, and Momma Bolormaa perhaps the size of a big dog--but she tried, anyway.
"Oh, my dear, shhh-" she offered, and her tone was both reassuring and distressed, as a worried mother's might indeed be; "Oh, don't worry about me, by the stones-! No, no--let me get a look at you, hold on--there's a good dear," she added, and sat back on her haunches. The loose skin between forelimbs and hind stretched some as she reached up, patting him here and there as if checking to make sure he was well and truly intact and whole. Pink eyes searched his face, the scales of his neck, the stripes in his fur.
"Listen, Shengxiao, you're all right--all right? Come on, I'll make you tea, come--come!" She struggled briefly to grasp some part of him--hand? Horn? Jaw?--and lead him gently away, over the Union Pillars and to a little alcove beyond. "Don't worry, dear! I can tell you everything."
Shengxiao is free to avoid Momma Bolormaa's touch; for ease of writing it was god-emoted, but he may refuse!
@Shengxiao
Sheng didn't resist the sudden contact, if anything he leaned into it. his heart ached like he was dying at the horror that dawned Momma bolormaa's face at the realization she, and everything else in his mind, had been erased. but it seemed she knew something about what happened too.
he smiled, weakly, at the worry she expressed as she looked him over, sniffling and sobbing as he tried to regain his composure, nearly 3 years of pent up emotion locked behind a blank, memoryless wall bursting out of the flood gates.
"i would like that v-very much, thank you, Momma.." he sniffed, letting her grab him by a horn to lead him to wherever she needed him. it was strange, he noticed, how naturally he called her by Momma instead of her full name, or even just Bolormaa. she seemed to carry the same anxiety and worry he would over his own daughter, and he realized in a moment thats likely what he was to her. a child. maybe not biological, he remembered his hatching, but adopted possibly.
"Forgive my sudden visit, really, i-i just had to know.." he said, trailing off, not exactly sure what he wanted to know himself
Momma Bolormaa immediately busied herself, taking pinches of herbs from different pouches, putting them into stone cups, and setting a heavy pot over the firepit. She spoke as she moved, cheerful but sympathetic. "When I felt you touch the Spire, I knew something was wrong. I'm not sure exactly what happened--but there was a large black dog with you. He called you 'Many'--as if that were your name!--and said that you had been attacked by the Spire's magic. It happens, at times," she went on, mixing a few dried leaves into the pot. She stirred it, now and then, but mostly turned back to face Shengxiao as she spoke. Her expression was sympathetic, and her voice, kind. "It took me some time to get you back to my home--not this place, no!--ut my alcove in the tunnel nearby the Spire's room. And it took much of my medicine to soothe your mind. But you weren't sure what was happening around you! Reality was confusing for you, and it even took you days to tell me that your name was Shengxiao. I kept you as long as I could convince you--tended to you, until you could at least tell reality from imagination. But I feared for you, when you left." Her little hands wrung together, her face knitting into worry, then relaxing into bright relief. "But you're all right! You've no idea what a relief that is to me!"
She beamed, and then turned away, picking the quickly-heated pot and pouring a little hot water into each cup. The sweet odor of herbs rose--a familiar scent, again, one of soothing calm. She offered out a cup to Shengxiao, carefully, setting it on the floor before him. "Drink, if you want--I think you liked this one; it's just a tea, a calming tea. And tell me all about yourself. How have you been? What have you been up to?"
She lifted her own cup to her lips, and sipped. "Oh--it's hot; do be careful."
@Shengxiao
He looked around the alcove, and he could definitely feel the memories bubbling at the back of his mind. he looked wide eyed at how.. pretty the place was. it was like something forgraves had spoken of once, a room full of herbs and plants. he'd have to tell forgraves of his sightings, then! the fox would be so excited, he thinks.
as he sat, he had to listen. as she continued, that feeling of familiarity quickly built into something unpleasant, visibly wincing at a reminder of an agony he'd forgotten. he could fill in the blanks, his imagination seeming to be doing most of the remembering for him, but the pain almost felt like it was buzzing in his paw even now. he looked to it, flexing his hand as if trying to rid it from the sensation, but it left as quickly as it came. he didn't remember touching the spire, but he supposed thats why he never did enjoy being in polaris. closer to the spire he got, the more distant and.. lost.. he'd be.
he only just remembered the dog, but the nickname did sound familiar. familiar as it could, atleast.
he wonders, silently, what he did to the spire to be the target of such a violent attack? once that, from the sounds of it, drove him mad?
this woman sounded like she cared, and from what he could hear, she did. she did until he insisted on leaving, but it doesn't even sound like he would've done so well on his own, especially considering the fact he doesn't even remember it. he doesn;t even know how old he was. he wonders how long after he left the amnesia kicked in...
he wonders how long it's been since they've seen eachother.
he's realizing alot of things about himself, now, but he smiled at her. "its an equal relief to see you again, truly, even if i don't remember.. all of this. im sorry.. for forgetting." he said, voice full of sorrow that simply didn't fit him.
he gave her a quiet thank you as she set the tea by him, smiling at the sense of ease he got from just the smell alone.
he thought. "heh, well, where to start?" he started with a laugh. he hummed as he gathered his words, holding the cup up with his hands as he did. "Shortly after i.. well, awoke? i say that since its as far as i can remember of my recent cycles, like i woke up from a strange slumber. a-anyways, i met this hatchling named carja! a dragon of sorts, i think, she'd just hatched. i sat with her for a time, until she inevitably wandered off on her own. after a bit i helped out with this seeming event of sorts, i just had to make a noise when each "round" of the game was finished. then after a while of... well, nothing, really, i had began to realize that im not the youngest, im quite old in comparison to many of the gembound in these caves currently, and i hadn't.. done much. though, thinking back on that carja lass, i had, in a way, realized i craved a family of sorts. and i got it, in two different ways! first, i had a daughter. her name is Kimera, i found her gem while wandering the swamps of cetus, i think. she looks so much like me, Momma, i couldn't believe it for a little while. but she's my everything. she's quite the hyper thing, was when she hatched too, but she's all grown up by this point. im proud of her." he said, smiling warmly. with a pause, he took a sip of his tea. "secondly, i started a group of sorts. it had begun out of want to build my daughter a better home, and i suppose they wanted to stick around, do the same for themselves. we're planning on making a town, of sorts, but we haven't made much progress there, and.. well, im rethinking our priorities, though i dont have much more in regards to that."
after a moment of thinking, he scratched his head. "what else, what else- oh! yes, obviously i've met several people in the last while, but i can think of a few noteworthy ones," he began. "i met that carja girl again, she had grown quite alot since i last saw her, started smaller than me and when i saw her she was almost twice my size! she lived in monoceros last i checked, but she could have moved by now"
he took another sip of his tea, sighing. "another would be a lovely little fox named forgraves! we haven't spoken alot, i'll admit, but he's such an interesting character! he wanted to be the groups medic, though from what he's told me he didn't actually know much about the craft when he joined. he'd been working hard, that one, and he's been such a help recently with giving advice in rgeards to kimera, the town, my leadership.. as i said, we haven't spoken much outside of that, we never seem to have the time, but.. he's important to me, for what he is" he says, smiling. "other than that, i can't think of much! if its any help, i seem to have regained my 'sanity' if you will, though it was at the cost of my memory"
And at last, when he had finished, she set her tea down to speak. "A daughter, Shengxiao!? And a family! And you gathered them all? That is amazing, truly! I'm so happy for you!" she cried. And then she waddled over, and did her best to reach up to the far larger creature, and offer him a hug.
"You must be so happy," she sighed, and then pulled back--and her smile faded just a tad, a bit of seriousness encroaching. "You are happy, yes? I know the... memory can be a frightening thing. A sad one, but--you are happy?" There was concern in her tone as she studied him, but the edges of the smile still remained--so much of his life, it seemed, had now been happy.
@Shengxiao