Too Close for Comfort }{ all

[Kunabee]

Kunabee

Black was the sky this night, black was the sky this day - black, eternally black, cursedly taken away for far too long. It had been - too - long! This was no eclipse, nay, this was a curse upon the mortals for defying their gods! And I would do something this moment, this instant, for I could not leave in silence - I would not suffer in silence, like all the rest did! Everyone, bending to another's will!
If I could howl it would echo; if I could it would be the loudest howl, it would break the heavens and the earth and the gods themselves would tremble!
But I could not, so I cried out, screaming - screaming like a demon, a devil, a creature of the light without her sun! Burning in the cold and unforgiving darkness, feeling it killing me! Killing us all!
Oh so slowly, would they never give it back?
I would not fail this mission! May the gods never have peace 'till the sun shines once more!
May there be no rest until there are voices with mine, echoing in harmony, screaming for the sun to shine once more - for it is the sun that gives birth to all life!
And where is the life now, yes? Dying! The plants starving! All of us starving, craving the giver of life that a god had taken away from us!
"Skoll you asshole, the hell do you think you're doing? What do you think you're doing?! You and Dio LONELY up there, huh?!" I screamed, and then I yelled more - letting it echo, letting it come as I cursed every deity that any creature had ever worshiped, screaming. Screaming as only a cat who would not sit at another's feet could scream!
"Where is the sun? The light of the world - for I can feel us all dying! Only the dust and sand will be left if there's no mercy! God, where are you - why is such a thing happening? I will cry to all deities until the sun shines on my face again!"
I screamed obscenities, pleading, demanding, all I could think of until my voice was hoarse. Until I fell to the ground. Even then I called - calling for a treaty and for some hope and some stop meddling.
"I will never be quiet, NEVER AGAIN, until the sun is returned to us mortals!" It was my final cry.
I laid on my side, exhausted, just outside the pull of the trees, the branches. Just outside the shade.
Where is the sunshine I know so well? Where is my friend that outshines all others until night kills him, hm? Where is the sun? WHERE IS THE SUN?
I had been screaming for hours. Everyone within miles probably had heard me. And I didn't care. I would be victorious in this battle.
Kunabee versus the gods. How dare they think they'd win.

[Bhu ♥ Irwin]

Dio had finally spoken to his friends on his land. We had all watched the man in his sorrow, seen him full further away, fade. He had been no god for some time now, merely a mortal whom had lost their way in the mists of the Heavens. A frown had fixated itself permanently on his face, eyes down-casted. We all knew he blamed himself for all the world’s woes, for all the failures of his people. He had tried and his actions had done no good to bring justice and peace to the world, so now he hovered in the shadows of his land’s borders, silently crying and dismissing us when we tried so desperately to help him see all is not lost.

There is still light being won on earth.

So clouded by his grief, Dio had not even known of Skoll’s harshness to the people of the world. Skoll was overstepping boundaries, affecting not only Folami with his actions, but felines, humans, everyone. The world needed the sun to live, this was not a lesson being taught, this was a punishment that would end in the death of the world. None of us wanted to speak illy of Skoll, but Simba had finally broke down in his worry over Noelle and her children. In a fit of rage he had shouted Skoll’s transgression to our baboon god. The man had stared blankly at the lion for only a second before rising with heat in his eyes. Dio kept himself calm in his words, but I had hid behind Adaeze, knowing Simba had just sealed Skoll’s fate. The baboon was not a harsh man, but I had never been one for scolding, and the Folami would be berated for his actions.

It was only then we heard Kunabee’s shouts from the lands below. It was not the only call being sounded in the darkness, but Dio heard it loudest, it would seem. Kunabee was a friend of Bhuvana, and so he held the girl to a high esteem. The baboon beckoned me then and told me it was time I put my heart out on the line for a mortal again. I had not visited earth since Alonda took my life that day. I held no grudges--I knew the woman had been a desperate state of mind. Her family had been about to be torn apart and so in her well hidden panic, she had reached out for any distraction. The woman was not a murderer, she had simply been at the end of her rope. She had killed me quickly, a sign of mercy, remorse.

I was the one Dio chose to send because my heart was equally loyal to both cat and dog, which Esson homed. Adaeze tried her hardest to hold no ill feelings towards Folami, but after watching one daughter murdered and the other tortured for years but such beasts, it is hard not to have some judgments. Simba knew only rumors of the supposed monsters. No, it had to be me. I knew the kinder side of the Folami first hand--I had been given a home after my family was stolen from me. Helsa had been a good dog, to my kind at the very least. But not only her--even within the pack I had seen Abeni treated warmly by more than Daiade.

It was with this I had faded from my world and entered the Iriomote’s. I had to defend Dio’s name, but I could not belittle the ivory king. My image was faint when I first called out Kunabee’s name, but the golden of my pelt and purple of my gaze was soon vibrant, glowing beyond that of my mortal counterparts. It was as if I had the sun within my own pigments, though I had nothing to do with its capture. “Oh Kunabee, you think you call alone, but you are wrong.” I said her name again, my tone softer than the silk human’s so love to wrap themselves in. “Mortals scream to the gods in every pride, of every species--and angels are shouting, too.” My eyes were gentle as I walked closer to the cat.

I bent my head lower to the soil and exhaled a long breath into the mud. I swung my tail a single time. “Ah, that is better, I was never much a fan for rain.” The mud I had breathed upon was dry, including that which was under the fallen feline. Around us an invisible wall had formed--no more of the annoying moisture fell upon our heads, but it did fall around us. I sat and looked down at the cat, warmth falling from my pelt. “This wrong that has been done towards you and all those that live, it is being fixed as we speak, I assure you. The eyes of Dio’s realm have heard Bidziil’s thoughts and he has spoken to Skoll. Skoll will give back the sun before the damage can become deadly. I promise you that.”

It was true, wasn’t it? Angels can hear the thoughts of mortals, but gods are off limits. I had lived my life a liar, I did not want to continue such a thing as an angel. Ah, but I was confident in the ivory king and his ability to have mercy on the people of earth.

[Kunabee]

Kunabee

And here was my call being answered. I sat up, then stood up. The rain was gone; all was dry. But no, only around me - and this angel that was sent. A feline, it seemed she was, and so it must have been Dio. I swallowed hard.
"I thought he was in mourning," I said dryly, without humor. With pain. But I continued, pressing on. "I know I do not call alone, but... I can never be silent." My throat ached. I had been screaming for who-knows-how-long.
"I don't know where Kite is," I explained in misery. But it was more than that. It seemed we were all going crazy. This angel, however; she could read my thoughts. She would understand. How the lack of sunlight was killing us on Earth - that it was already deadly without having killed all the plants. It was deadly because in something this strange, we were all going insane.
I remembered when it first happened. Probably an eclipse, I had said. Oh, how I wished I was right.
"I wish the gods had something to check their power," I sighed, bowing my head low. I sat down and wrapped my tail around my paws. Fluffy tail. Barely visible in this darkness. I thought I had known the markings well, but now I could not trace them. How much had been lost without the sun? How much more would leave us?
"What is your name?" I asked of her at last, wanting to know this messenger who had answered my cry. I turned my head up to look her in the eyes.
"And... thank you," I added in a whisper, knowing that I was answered. Not by some obscure thing, but by someone who was solid and real.
With good news I could tell my pride... pack... group... My group. Good news to tell my family: the sun would return soon.
And with it, I could only hope sanity would return as well. Let us be saved.

[Bhu ♥ Irwin]

I listened to her concerns, sitting neatly with tail around my paws. I had always been a listener--much too afraid of letting my secret out and destroying Helsa's life. The word's of the feline could only say so much, so I pushed deeper and took in her thoughts, emotions. Dio advised we use such things with caution, but I could feel Kunabee's knowing of our power, and could sense her being unafraid of it. The woman had nothing to hide, and the ability would allow me to help her even with the unspoken fears. Because that was why Dio has sent me, right? To allow at least one tormented soul some peace? I dare not consider he was only trying to wash his own hands clean of the matter, to make sure mortals knew this was not his doing. That would be unlike him--but of course, he had not been quite right for some time now.

"Oh they do, or they did. They have each other and they have those who have died. Guilt is a terrible emotion, a deadly power. Guilt and fear have woven there way even to the Heaven's grounds, and this has brought us to our knees. It is in that weakness sometimes good sense is forgotten." I paused a moment, always careful with my words, guarded to a fault for that was what I needed to do so keep myself and Helsa alive in my life. "I know you do not see Dio as clearly as other's, and that is fine. You believe in his existance, but not in his power. This is good, because those who worship him tend to forget he was once a mortal man, and you do not leave mortal flaws behind when you die. Same goes for Skoll." I blinked sadly at the Iriomote, regretting having the urge to let my next words out, but not having the power to stop them. "This is where Bhuvana lost her way. She thought too much of Dio, and when it hit her that he was not perfect, it crushed her very soul." I blinked away the pressure that formed behind my gaze. Losing Alia and Anabi to death had been terrible on Dio and us all, but having one of the four still alive and simply lost was what broke Dio into what he is now. Or was, I hoped. The man could not forsee a future that brought Bhuvana back to him, and when she came to an inevitable end, he saw no place for her in his Heavens.

He was not in charge of the role-book.

But I digress, it would seem, I had been asked a question that should be simple, but it was not. A name. My parents had followed different deities, those that stood over their African roots. I could not call out to them and ask what it is I had been born into, who I was. "The question you ask has a convoluted answer, my dear. Those still living would call me Allana, but they would also claim I was a Folami." I had no regrets for the life I had lived--despite the anxieties, I had loved my family, even through all their flaws. I would have loved them more had Helsa allowed herself to drop her mission to kill off her kind. Though I missed the woman fiercely, and knew she had found no home with Skoll, I found it a relief she had died in the war. Painful to watch, yes, but it had been my fragile form that had kept her reserved in her actions--now the Folami were at least safe from Holocaust from within. "I was saved by a Folami at a young age when some of her pack murdered my pride, and somehow the two of us managed to convince the world I was nothing more than a deformed Folami. Silly, perhaps, but I suppose the lie started before the civil war, so they all still trusted each other's loyalty to the human mission." I shrugged it away. This visit was not about me and I would not let my past push away the focus. She had asked for a name, I should have just given her Allana and left the complications out of it.

Maybe it bothered me a bit more than I had always told myself.

The woman had mentioned Kite and insanity around the lands. I needed to broach those topics. "Kite loves her mate and son and has a strong heart. She will not stay away for long." My gaze turned sympathetic once more. My home being in the Heavens, I was not living the suffering of these earth-bound creatures and so I could not claim to understand their agony. "Mortals fear that which they cannot see, and darkness worsens this state. Suddenly the rain is more than just a nuisance, it is the ice cold fingers of demons stroking you in the night. A branch snapping from the wind is a monster waiting in the shadows to claim its next victim. A bird's call is the hungry yap of a crazed Folami." I paused a moment to gather my thoughts carefully. "And just because the darkness lifts does not mean all wounds will be healed. There will be emotional scars, as I am sure you realize, but Esson is strong and will stand tall again."

I got to my paws and turned my eyes to the pitch colored sky. I could feel Dio looking down at us, though I could not see him. The rain around us gentled before letting up completely. I looked back to Kunabee. "Your land will know what it feels like to be dry until the sun has been returned to you. This is our gift to Esson. It won't be long before the sun is put back in its place, the ground may still hold mud, but it is the least we can do in this troubling time."

I pushed out of her mind, allowed her her solitude and sense of independence. "Is there anything more, my dear, or should this kitten head home?"

[Kunabee]

Kunabee

Each answer had to be swallowed slowly, with patience. One must let the words soak in and study it. That was the way to do things, yes. The way to understand the words of this angel. This angel who had suffered like the rest of us.
I found myself crying slightly, a small huff of sympathy. Understanding, even. I had lost myself, as well - somewhere in lands far, far away I was something to someone I did not know. And here she was - something to someone she did not know. But Allana she called herself, and Allana she would be - to me, at least. To me and anyone who needed it.
But now, here, I understood at last how I could possibly bring Bhuvana back. Save a soul. More difficult than it sounded, and it didn't sound easy. But I could do it. I had to do it - my dearest friend, well, one of two. Mahal crept into my thoughts and I could only hope and pray he was doing well. The Falomi had suffered along with us, I understood that.
Even the gods were in pain. The thought comforted me and also made me sad. I soaked up the emotion, standing and resting my head beside Allana's, nuzzling her briefly before pulling away. And here was this angel because a god thought to answer my cry. My screams.
The crying stopped and I felt... better. Sometimes little things could do wonders.
"Allana," I said, testing her name at last. "My dear, thank you. This is a lovely gift you've given Esson. And thank Dio, as well. After all, isn't he the one who can control the weather?" I barked out a short laugh. "I know Kite is strong and loves her mate and child, but sometimes, I do doubt... But thank you. You've allayed a lot of fears today. An answer to prayers sent even before the sun went dark." I bowed my head, deep in thought now.
To bring Bhuvana back to safety; to keep Esson together; to start alliances and navigate a troublesome political world; to give Daniel trust in his self once more; to find a mate; to change the world. Yet each of these, somehow, were answered - but the angel herself didn't know she was answering all of them.
Save Bhuvana by yelling, screaming, and finally simply stating the truth.
Keep Esson together by love and mutual trust.
Start with the prides, and then try Vea Apxn.
Find Daniel and talk to him, tell him all that I knew.
Finding a mate... well, there wasn't an answer, but the craving I had wasn't for love but for children. And the group together had plenty of those!
And changing the world would start with each step above.

How is it possible that such wisdom comes in an answer to the present fear of darkness? Perhaps because light is knowledge. The light had been shed on my darkness; and though there were only stars in the sky I felt my sun return.
The fire burned, but not with rage. No, this fire was back - the fire of love. I was different from all others. Allana had stated just one of my differences, the way I saw Dio, but I also believed in things.
In wild, crazy, impossible things. Like the power of the fire in my heart, the fire that inspired me to create Esson. The fire that kept me going.

Esson, what was Esson?
The answer was who. A memory, then. Of one of my littermates - well, an ordinary housecat, not an Iriomote like me. Playful, friendly, and with a smile. The first person to tell me I could do anything.

I at last returned my attention to Allana, and nodded. "You are no kitten, my friend," I told her, "Remember that you are more than the face you have. You've done a great service today, Allana. All I can say is thank you."
And to you, too, Dio.

Thank you both.