Date
Vhalar 16th, 719
QIt'ria hopped down from the flutterbus and was walking along the watery stones toward Desnind, holding Caza's hand. She went slowly, letting her daughter get used to walking through the water. She was confident in her motions, seemingly fearless. Qit'ria could feel stares on her ectoplasm of the other departing people who rode on the flutterbus from Rharne. She was used to it. People just were not used to ghosts, particularly one that was not acting in what they thought was a ghostly manner.
Caza pointed into the forest, looking up at her mother, "Ama!" Qit squatted down, pointing at the forest ahead of them. In Xanthean first, then in Common, she spoke the name of Desnind. "Our new home." Caza flapped her arms giggling and began running forward as only toddlers can do. And Qit watched her, smiling. And then her heart momentarily stopped as her daughter fell face first into the very shallow water.
And then it soared when her daughter picked herself up, and kept going. Qit continued to blink after the little girl, keeping up, while maintaining a tight focus on her bottomless pouch that she carried everything around in. It was much easier for her to focus on a single object as a ghost, than a whole bunch. Caza stopped at the treeline, sucking her thumb now, naked as the day she was born, looking confused. Qit'ria hung back, watching, seeing what her little cub would do now.
Eventually she saw the break in the foliage, indicating a path, and she ran toward that. And Qit followed smiling. It was the main path that would lead straight to Desnind. At Caza's excited pace, it didn't take them long to reach Desnind proper. But Qit'ria also had business to do. No more wasting time. Caza was already an arc and a cycle old, it felt like a blink of an eye. And Qit knew that was because she'd been busy with her own matters and was not giving enough time to her daughter.
Never again.
Qit'ria thought through what she needed to do. She needed to see if her brother still lived here in Desnind. She'd told him to leave, but part of her suspected he would not. She needed to visit the Order of Adunih to let them know she was here now. And she wanted to stop by the Medicine House, to work with them as well. She let loose a bird whistle, and Caza stopped chasing a butterfly that had crossed her path and ran back toward her mother.
Qit smiled down at her daughter, kneeling down, putting the domain bag between them. She examined her beautiful daughter. Midnight black skin, crimson eyes, tufts of speckled black and white feathers sprouting like hair from her head. Qit leaned forward and kissed her daughter on the forehead, before reaching into the bag. She had to put her head partially into it in order to see what she was looking for because she couldn't quite differentiate them by feel so well. The first cloth was brown, a cloth diaper that she wrapped around her daughter. The second cloth was deep green, and she draped it around Caza's shoulders. It was Qit's own Order of Adunih cloak, adjusted to fit the toddler.
Now that they were ready, Qit knew that the first step was to go find Horkalin, her brother.
