by minifun990 » Sun Jan 08, 2023 12:43 pm
Deep in a dark and magic laden forest a figure inhaled deeply. Scents filtered through her nose, deep mosses, dark and pungent. Fungi alight with a tingling glow that could make your paws numb. The rain that flourished a bright blue when the light turned on it. The earth itself was damp and filled with its own scents of decay and life. A cacophony of smells that a novice hunter would never be able to sort through.
Rodi was no novice though. She had grown up in these forests, hidden away from the huge civilizations that shunned everything they were. They shunned magic, they shunned their history, they shunned each other.
At least thats what her mum told her. Time after time again as she asked about her father. Time after time when she asked if there were others who lived in her world. They rejected us, her mother would explain bitterly.
She wanted Rodi to grow up bitter too, Rodi thinks sometimes. To provide company for her mothers anger and frustration.
But she didn't. Rodi saw the kindness in the world even among the cruelty.
She saw the flowers that fed the bees, and how the bees would not sting unless provoked. She saw the birds that fed their helpless children, even at the cost of the bugs lives. She saw animals helping each other, the weak and the sick. And she saw others take the sacrifice, leaving their group to keep everone else healthy.
There was cruelty, rainy days, hungry and sickness.
But there was also hope, new life, and sunlight.
She wouldnt let her hope be crushed. She would take the challenges life gave her and bring happiness to all she could.
But she also wanted more. There was a scent deep under all the life. One not as magical as everything else. Clean of the tingling magic that created and helped her home thrive.
It was too clean. Metallic and brittle. Almost like the scent of blood, and yet something far different. It was a city, but one clean and sterile. Surrounded in a cage of glass.
She just had to get there. And get in. And try to find a friendly face. And then find her father.
Rodi was used to the sinking feeling by now. The knowledge that life wasn't so simple. That a birds nest was not just twigs, but countless hours of searching, finding, and organising sticks and feathers and mud. A combination of instinct and knowledge, and often a bit of failure.
But she knew that it was easy to give up. It was harder to try despite everything that made it difficult.
She had the trail. She just had to follow.
Across the swamps, filled with fairies and a multitude of mushrooms. Across a wide river, heavy with hanging vines and ravenous rocks. Rodi travelled on. Following a lucky wind bringing a far off scent.
Her legs were heavy, soggy from dew and exhaustion. Her paws tingled from small scrapes from rocks and thorns. For a moment she wished she had four hooves instead, protected from the harshness of the ground.
But if that were so she would struggle to peel the rocky skin off the fruit she knew was edible. The flora was changing too much though. Soon she knew her knowledge of what was safe and what was not would run out.
Already the environment was alien, unsettling in the different colours. Greens and browns and tall wooden trunks that supported leaves that crowded out the sky.
She was ready to give up. She was tired, hungry and so far from her home. But there was one last thing she would do first. If all seemed helpless, take a nap.
In this case she decided to head to sleep early, finding a small hole tucked under a fallen tree trunk. Hidden away and relatively dry, she curled up and closed her eyes.
She opened them again to a surprise. Feline eyes in front of her, a squeak of surprise as they realised they had been seen.
“Wait!”
“Blood storkie! Help!” The other cat yells. Sprinting through the forest. Rodi runs after them, she is fast, after all. Used to the process of sprinting after prey through the forest. But the air rustles strangely. A cold breezy burn of magic on the air and the other cat is far faster. Quickly disappearing from sight.
Rodi hesitates, unsure, but doesnt stop. She’s never met anyone other than her mother before. Its hard to figure out where the other went. But Rodi can tell, can feel it in her blood, can smell it.
She is so concentrated that she doesn't notice for a moment. The huge imposing shape that lays in front of her. The strange decreasing sounds of birds and insects. A ring of barren no mans land before a opaque shine of glass.
Rodi gapes at it, it is so much larger than she ever could have imagined. So inspiring and huge and she struggles to try to comprehend how many cats might live inside.
She grins, after all there is only one way to find out.
The challenge of getting here complete, Rodi looks forward to the future challenges that lay in store.
"𝒲𝒽𝑒𝓃 𝓉𝒽𝑒 𝑔𝑜𝒾𝓃𝑔 𝑔𝑒𝓉𝓈 𝓉𝑜𝓊𝑔𝒽 𝓉𝒽𝑒 𝓉𝑜𝓊𝑔𝒽 𝓀𝑒𝑒𝓅 𝑔𝑜𝒾𝓃𝑔"
