InsaneJournal

Tweak says, "Me siento sola."

fallen_star (fallen_star) wrote in mirage_rpg,
@ 2008-07-19 19:08:00

Entry tags:

arrival, ayla, complete, day 8, yvaine

Day Eight - Yvaine's Arrival
Who: Yvaine & Ayla
Where: The Meadow
When: Day 8; Evening, just after the sun has set
What: Yvaine’s Arrival
Rating: PG
Status: Complete

High in the sky, the Evening Star glittered and shined brightly as she watched the humans and the beasts. The creatures below interacted as they had a tendency to do. Yvaine sighed as she watched a traveler begin his journey through Faerie. Oh what it would be like to go on adventures of her own. She loved her sister Stars and her mother Moon very much, and life was never unbearable for her, but she wanted to experience life down below her sometimes. If there were a way back up home, she thought she wouldn’t mind heading down there for once.

With another sigh, Yvaine lifted herself to a standing position and moved a little to head toward some of her sisters. As she moved, a glint of silver caught her attention, and she turned to look. Out of nowhere a huge silver chain with a large, yellow gemstone flew at her, catching her in the gut. The blow caused the young star woman to stumble backward with an pained sound in her throat, and she promptly began a long descent toward the earth.

Fire sounded in her ears as its colours of purples, blues, reds, and yellows obscured her vision. Her heart beat rapidly, fearfully in her chest as she fell farther and farther, coming closer and closer to the ground. If there were something she could do about this, it would have been done. As it was, she could only wait anxiously for her body to hit the dirt.

A gasp left her lips as she finally hit the ground. Yvaine whimpered as a sickening crack sounded in her ears- almost drowned out by the boom as vast amounts dirt flew into the air- and pain shot like electricity through her leg, up her body.

She lay on her back for a moment, unmoving as she gazed up at the night sky. It was beautiful from down here, but she couldn’t see her sisters’ smiling faces. Sadness mixed with touches of anger began to creep up through her belly. Yvaine hadn’t really wished to be down here, among the humans and other creatures; it had only been a distant thought. Tears welled in her eyes, overflowing and streaking over her temples. How would she get home?

Yvaine recalled the necklace that had knocked her from the sky, so she turned her head one way then the other before she spotted it. “Stupid bloody thing.” She grumbled, moving ever so slightly as she reached out to grasp it as she clenched her jaw against the pain.

Suddenly her world changed around her, and she had the unpleasant sensation of spinning. Suddenly she lay, not in the crater her impact had caused, but in the grass in at the edge of a meadow. The scents around her had changed as well. Yvaine now detected the scent of sea salt on the air, though she couldn’t truly say it was that as she’d never before smelled such a scent. Red rimmed eyes flickered around new environment. The necklace was gone. They moved to the sky where stars glittered and the moons shone. These stars didn’t glitter the same way her sisters had, and her mother had never had a companion. This was a different sky than her homeland. Now she was truly lost.

Yvaine threw a blue silked arm over her face and sobbed into the fabric.

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_ayla_
2008-07-19 10:20 pm UTC (link)

Ayla, after spending most of her day in her room weaving a basket, decided that she ought to go outside. In the cafe she had heard that the resort had shifted and changed during the night and she was curious to see it. She left her room and stepped outside. She immediately recognized the smell of the sea and her eyes brightened.

She was familiar with the sea and loved to swim in it. She also noticed that the color and texture of the outside of the buildings had changed. She stepped off the sidewalk and felt the sand between her toes. She laughed softly, delighted. She looked around as the sun began to set. The colors were vibrant and beautiful.

She headed for the beach, and stood where the waves could lap at her ankles. She walked in the wet sand, heading for the forest and saw a small cover where half a dozen dolphins were froliking. She laughed again, pleasantly surprised by the change. It was a little unnerving, yes, but it was a wonderful change.

She left the beach and stepped into the trees. What once had been pines and redwoods were palms. She walked through the trees, sand still spilling between her toes. She touched the trunks of the trees as she passed by them, and came to the other side of the forest. That was when she heard the sobbing.

She paused for a moment and listened. It sounded like someone at the edge of dispair. Ayla hadn't heard anyone cry in a very long time. The clan didn't know how to cry. Jondalar had been the last person she had heard cry, and his sobs were much more masculine sounding than these. She wondered if this person had also lost a loved one.

She stepped out of the trees and headed for the sound. The sun had finally set, and she was only making her way by the light of the dual moons and the stars. All of the celestial objects seemed closer than they had back in her own world. But they were just as bright. She found the woman on her back, her arm flung over her face.

Ayla crept forward, her footsteps silent. She wasn't trying to scare the woman, but it was a habit. She knelt next to her and touched her arm gently. She didn't know what to say. She knew that she was in some sort of pain, but she didn't know if it was emotional or physical. "Excuse me, are you hurt?" She didn't remember seeing anyone like her before. She had long blond hair like her own, and she was wearing a long garment of some kind.

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fallen_star
2008-07-19 11:29 pm UTC (link)

Yvaine continued to cry, for what else could she do. Every movement sent shards of pain through her body from her leg, and she wasn’t even close to home any more. She didn’t even have the comfort of knowing her family watched over her, as these stars and moons were strangers to her. Her sleeve was soaked with tears, but she didn’t remove it from her face.

A touch on her arm caused Yvaine to jerk away in shock, though immediately after she cringed in pain. She hadn’t heard anyone approach. The star woman sniffed once before stifling her tears and removing the damp, sleeved arm from her face. Her eyes were rimmed in red from the salty tears she had shed, but they flickered up to the woman who crouched over her. The strange lady wore odd clothing that Yvaine vaguely recalled seeing people of Earth wear very long ago.

With another sniff she responded sadly, “I broke my leg when I fell.” Yvaine sat up slowly so as not to jar her wounded limb more than necessary. She motioned to her right leg, sending a bit of glittery dust to drift from her arm. The star wasn’t shining nearly as brightly as she had before her fall, but, because it was night, she continued to shimmer in the darkness.

Yvaine wasn’t sure what to make of this woman. Four hundred years ago her sister fell and was never seen again. None knew what happened to her. She seemed genuinely concerned, though, and the star didn’t want to repay real kindness with hostility. That could wait until she saw some sign that perhaps this person wanted to harm her.

“I don’t think you can help me, though.” Yvaine said quite honestly. Who could really ever help her? She couldn’t even move without pain searing through her.

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_ayla_
2008-07-19 11:51 pm UTC (link)

"From where did you fall?" Ayla's brow creased with concern. She looked at the leg, but it was covered by the blue garment. "May I look at your leg?" She waited a beat for a response before her instincts took over and she lifted the hem of the dress and pulled it back up to her thighs. It was difficult to see in the moonlight, but she could see that it was broken.

"Yes, it's broken." She stood up and glanced around the meadow. She settled her hands on her fur clad hips and scanned the area. She knew that the Planet was always aware of their needs. She was just waiting for the golem she knew would show up to carry Yvaine for her. She didn't have Whinney with her, or she might have been able to rig a travoise. Crouching back down once she saw the rock creature in the distance she smiled kindly at Yvaine.

"I am Ayla. I am medicine woman. I can help set your leg." She was wearing her fur wrap again today, her bulging leather amulet hanging around her neck. Her feet were bare, but she had her otterskin medicine bag hanging from one hip, and her sling hanging from the other by the tie that bound her wrap together.

When the golem arrived, Ayla looked up. Then, looking back down at Yvaine, she tried to explain. "This man of rock, he will carry you to my room where I can help your leg." The rock man probably also had Yvaine's room key. Yvaine, because of her leg, would not get the same tour everyone else got when they first arrived. She would have to read the tablet when she was well enough to walk again.

"It won't harm you. Don't worry." She smiled again as the golem crouched to lift her into his arms.

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fallen_star
2008-07-20 12:55 am UTC (link)

Yvaine gave the woman a strange look. Did she not know a star when she saw one? “I fell from the sky.” She said, still looking curiously at the woman. “Well, not this sky, but the sky I lived in before I was knocked out of it by a bloody necklace.” Her words echoed the bitterness she felt.

When the woman requested a peak at her leg, Yvaine was about to protest when the woman lifted her dress anyway. The air felt strange against her wounded leg, and she couldn’t decide whether it pleasant or unpleasant. “I know it’s broken.” She said, though her voice wasn’t irritated sounding. Her leg hurt too much, and this woman was too kind as she showed by her smile. How could the star deny help from such a person? Someone like this wouldn’t want to harm her, or she would have already in her mind.

A medicine woman? She could actually heal the leg? “My sisters called me Yvaine, for I was an Evening Star.” She said quietly. Was… She was still technically a star, she simply wasn’t shining in the sky the way she should any more. It still had a sickening finality to it. This was her life now. She could never return home because there simply wasn’t a way to get back into the sky. Even if she could return to the sky it wouldn’t be her sky, but the strange one with the strange stars and strange moons above their heads.

Yvaine noticed Ayla looking around, but for what? Suspicions began to form in her mind, especially when she saw the stone man approach. She had seen a lot of strange things in her time of gazing down to Faerie, but she knew people didn’t walk with such purpose when they stumbled upon something or someone by chance. That golem knew she was here, and the only other person who knew about her was this “medicine woman”. Had the star been lied to by this woman? Nothing betrayed the woman’s conniving, so part of her thought maybe it really was just chance. There were many forms of magick after all, most powerful were time and fate.

“He won’t crush me?” Yvaine asked uncertainly as she eyed the rock creature who looked very much like a man. She began to feel quite nervous as the creature crouched down quite smoothly for a stone creature.

“I think I’m okay by myself. You can leave me alone. I’ll be fine.” For one so nervous, her words were calm. However, the words were unheeded as the golem scooped the star into its arms quickly, but very gently. “What do you think you’re doing? I said I was fine, numbskull!” She said angrily before she realized how right on her rude comment had been. Yvaine didn’t suppose a rock person would feel pain, or really have much by way of brains in its head. Then again, it must have some semblance of knowledge, unless of course it was purely guided by magick. The glittering woman decided it must be magick, for she was completely ignored as if she’d never spoken at all.

“If it hurts me, I’ll blame you.” Yvaine said, matter-of-factly.

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_ayla_
2008-07-20 03:48 pm UTC (link)

Ayla was slightly confused by the statement that she'd fallen from the sky, knocked out of it by a bloody necklace. She supposed that upon arrival here someone could fall from the sky, but she didn't know what a bloody necklace had to do with it. She didn't know that bloody was a slang word for something undesireable. So, rather distracted by the state of her leg, Ayla didn't question her further. "Oh."

Ayla took things literally because she didn't know any better. Humor and sarcasm were lost on her, so when Yvaine said she was an Evening Star, Ayla looked at her strangely. "I like your name, Yvaine." She really shouldn't have been all that surprised. John said he could sail among the stars, so who was she to say that Yvaine herself couldn't be one. She had been taught that the stars were the hearth fires of those who had passed on. But maybe where Yvaine came from, they were girls like her.

Ayla stepped forward, placing another reassuring hand to Yvain's arm. "He will not hurt you. He can't." She smiled and walked beside the golem as he carried Yvaine back toward the main building and the living complexes that flanked it. She followed them down the hall to her room, and opened the door. The inside resembled the cave she had lived in back in the valley before she was brought to the resort.

She ran to the back of the cave where she kept many of her things. She had some extra furs and straw. She made a bed out of it and then directed the golem to lay Yvaine down on it. When she was finished setting the leg, she would have to have the golem come back and take Yvaine to her own room. She was sure the young woman wouldn't want to stay in her cave. She had seen a few rooms in passing, and none of them looked like caves. She was sure Yvain's wouldn't look like a cave, either.

Before the golem left, he held Yvaine's room key out to her. He closed the door behind him and Ayla built her fire back up. Then, she turned to Yvaine and gave her a small smile. "I just need to gather a few things." She stood and walked to the natural shelves in the side of the cave and found some willow bark and snakeroot. She also found some strips of leather she would boil.

Taking all her supplies to the fire, she crouched and began to take cooking stones from her fire and put them in a cooking basket she had filled with water. She tossed pieces of the willow bark into the basket and let it steep for a few minutes before she poured some into a wooden cup. She brought it over to Yvaine and held it out. "This tea will ease your pain."

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fallen_star
2008-07-22 03:45 am UTC (link)

“Thank you.” Yvaine said when she was told Ayla liked her name. “Yours is nice, too.” She was very much relieved to learn that the stone man couldn’t harm her, and she wondered again if the golem was under the other woman’s control.

As the buildings loomed up ahead, the star was surprised. She had expected cottages or a small village or something less extravagant. What was this place? What were those buildings? Why had she been brought here when she hadn’t even fallen near a sea? How had she gotten here? Was this some sort of unpleasant magick?

Yvaine wasn’t sure to make of this place or her circumstances at all. She’d never seen the inside of a building that still had its roof on before, and she definitely was unsure about where these doors led, or if she even wanted to find out. She wasn’t left much of a choice when Ayla opened a door and Yvaine was brought inside by the golem. As her sky blue gaze moved around the room, she found herself wondering if all the rooms looked like this. The star woman had never seen anything like it before, though she’d seen some of the decorations before. Gazing at the Earth from the sky didn’t exactly allow for viewing the interior of living accommodations, especially not of caves.

The stone creature laid her down upon a bed of furs that Ayla had set up. “It’s strange being inside someone’s home for once. I’ve always been out in the open sky.” She said softly.

Yvaine watched as the woman worked, not sure what she was really doing. When she finished and held the product to the star, she looked at it uncertainly. Stars didn’t need to ingest human foods and drinks, for they ate darkness and drank light; however, if this would ease her pain, perhaps it would be all right. “It might not work. I’m not of the same kind as you. Things that work for humans might not work for stars. I’ll try it, though.” She said as she took the drink. The star woman sipped it slowly, for it was hot. Perhaps humans and stars weren’t so different in body because she felt the soothing of the drink wash over her as soon as its warmth hit her belly. Her leg did indeed feel a little better, though the pain wasn’t completely gone. “I guess it does work okay. Thank you.”

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_ayla_
2008-07-22 09:47 am UTC (link)

Ayla still crouched by the fire, working to get all the things she needed ready to set the broken leg. She glanced over at Yvaine and smiled. She glanced around at her cave a moment before she spoke. "Not all the rooms look like mine. I don't think any of them look like mine, actually. They look the way you want them to look. I have passed by a few while doors stood open, and none of them look like mine. I don't think anyone else wants to live in a cave." She smiled as she returned to her work.

"I have seen a very bright room, very pink and filled with animals. Another room was very simple, with a bed and some wooden furniture." She shrugged. She was used to her cave, and the supplies she had in it. She could wish some of the things other people had into it, but she didn't know what use she would have for them. She liked things the way they were.

She reheated the cooking stones and put them in yet another cooking bowl. She dropped the strips of leather into the water and continued to replace the cooking stones with hot ones from the fire until the water boiled. While that was boiling, she mashed up the snakeroot with a stone and added a little of the willow bark tea to it to make a paste.

When she had everything she needed together, she dropped into a seated position next to Yvaine's broken leg. She looked at her. "The tea will help, but this will still be very painful. I could give you something stronger, but it will make you go to sleep. This is safer. Are you ready?" Ayla was going to have to twist the leg to get the bone back into place, and she knew it would be excruciating pain. She always felt a little heartsick when she had to hurt someone in order to help them. There was just no other way around it.

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fallen_star
2008-07-22 11:08 pm UTC (link)

“Who do I speak to so I can get a room?” Yvaine asked. The star didn’t have any other place to go. She hoped she would be allowed to stay until she could figure something out, and if the rooms looked like anything the resident desired, she had no doubts what her own would appear to be. “I didn’t know people even continued to live in caves since buildings were invented. This really isn’t so bad, though.” She didn’t lie. The cave was warm and cozy, though maybe not so great as her home. If she were simply a visitor here, though, she could handle it. Besides, this room fit this woman to the T, and that wasn’t such a bad thing. The star woman found she quite liked this woman who attended to her hurt so kindly.

Yvaine watched curiously as Ayla prepared… whatever it was she was preparing. She hadn’t the slightest clue as to its use or name. When the cave woman seemed ready to work directly with the wound, the star felt a little uncertain. Wouldn’t sleeping through this be better? Then again, the woman probably didn’t want her to inhabit her cave for too long.

Quickly, the glittering woman finished off the tea and nodded. More pain wasn’t welcome, but often when she’d seen the goings-on below the sky, things that were bad usually had to get worse before they got better. Ayla wanted to help her, but to do that she had to hurt her. She tried to prepare herself, but this was the first physical harm she’d ever felt, so she wasn’t really sure how to go about preparing oneself to resist pain.

Ayla had been right of course. When the woman twisted her leg, agony seared through her more painfully than she’d ever experienced before. Her teeth gritted together as a cracked groan-like yell emerged from her throat. Yvaine’s fingers gripped the furs tightly, and tears leaked from her eyes. Soon enough, though, the pain was significantly less than it had been even after the break had initially happened. It still hurt quite a lot, but it was bearable. Her chest heaved as if she had been running, but everything was okay. “I… Thanks, I guess. This is going to heal better now?” She asked, indicating her broken limb.

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_ayla_
2008-07-23 09:44 am UTC (link)

"The golem left your room key with me. When I finish helping your leg, I will call the golem back and we will go there." She nodded reassuringly. She slid her hands up and down the leg. It had swelled so it was difficult to pin point the exact place of the break and how it would need to be reset, but she was skilled and found it with a little time.

She looked up at Yvaine's face, watching her for a moment. "I did not have buildings in my world. Only caves. Much of this place is new to me. Like everyone else, she could have the option of a different room, but her room as a cave was really the only reminder of her life before. If she didn't keep it this way, she felt like she might lose herself forever.

Sitting cross-legged would give Ayla the needed leverage to pull the leg and twist it back into place. She gripped her just below her knee and just above her ankle, pulled and twisted. She heard the sickening crackle of bone grating together, but as she ran her hands up the leg once more, she knew that it was right. She swallowed and looked up at Yvaine. She knew that it had hurt, and didn't blame her for crying out as she had.

"Yes, it will heal straight and you should not have a problem walking. You should not walk on it for several weeks, though. I will find you something to help you walk." She looked back down at the leg and took the paste she had prepared and smeared it on her leg around the fracture. It was used to set bones and lessen swelling. She then wrapped it in very coarsly woven linen before wrapping the entire leg in the wet leather.

"This will keep the swelling down, and once the leather dries, it will harden and keep your leg in place." She stood and took the supplies she had used to set her bone and put them away. She walked back and crouched near the woman, laying a hand to her arm. "I will make you some tea each day until the pain is gone. And in a few days, I will re-wrap your leg. The snakeroot will rot and smell if it is left for too long."

Standing upright once again, she went to the door and opened it. The golem was standing there obediently, waiting to take the young woman up to her room.

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fallen_star
2008-07-23 02:15 pm UTC (link)

“Oh. I didn’t notice. Is that what those creatures are called then- golems?” Yvaine responded, wondering why she had been expected. It was a surprise to her that she wound up in this place, though whoever ran it knew she was arriving. That thought was unnerving.

As she listened to Ayla speak, it suddenly dawned on the star that this woman wasn’t just dressing like this and living like this out of personal desire. It’s what she’d always known, and change is hard. The woman wasn’t from the same time as Yvaine, but she was from the past. “Are all the people here from different times? I’ve watched the goings-on of Earth from the sky for millions of years, and I watched the people progress from living in caves to building homes for themselves out of trees and clay.”

After the pain from the twisting, Yvaine was all right, and she watched curiously as Ayla smeared something over her leg and wrapped it. Her leg actually felt better with the strange salve on it and the straps, though it continued to beat a dull ache through her limb.

“I can’t thank you enough. You’ve been truly kind to me.” Yvaine said. Not all humans were bad, she realized, and perhaps she wouldn’t be so quick to mistrust people, or perhaps she wouldn’t trust them right away, but she would keep an open mind. Just because she suspected humans were the reason her sister disappeared four hundred years earlier, didn’t mean every human creature had been in on it.

When the door was opened, the golem entered and lifted the star woman to carry her away to her new residence.

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_ayla_
2008-07-25 11:36 am UTC (link)

Ayla nodded. "Yes, golems." She wasn't sure exactly where she had heard the word, but she had since associated it with the men made of earth elements. She found the key and placed it in Yvaine's palm as the golem lifted her.

She walked next to the golem where Yvaine could see her and nodded. "Some are from different times, some are from different worlds. Some are not human, but they look human. Like you. A star who looks human." Ayla had gathered that her time had been long before many of the other people here, alien or not. But Yvaine had seen her time. Suddenly, she didn't feel quite so alone. Someone else knew of the world she came from, even if only from observation.

"No thanks are necessary, I am medicine woman." She smiled proudly, glad that her skills were not going to be wasted in this place. They arrived in front of Yvaine's room shortly. Ayla waited while the door was opened. "I am not allowed to enter your room without your permission. But I would like to see you settled." Another golem walked down the hall, carrying a crutch. Ayla took it from him and he turned to go.

She held it out for Yvaine to see. "When you are feeling well enough to try walking, you should use this. It will keep the weight off your leg and keep it from breaking again."

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fallen_star
2008-07-26 01:25 pm UTC (link)

“Ah. Okay.” Yvaine responded, acknowledging the other woman’s words.

A small smile passed over her lips as Ayla explained that people were not only from different times, but from different places as well. The star had never known any worlds other than the sky and Faerie on Earth; however, it made sense to a degree. Most on Earth had never fathomed that the stars might be living creatures, though the ones that did know were quite dangerous.

“Even so, you deserve the thanks.” Yvaine insisted, despite the cavewoman’s declaration that gratitude wasn’t necessary. Then again, it was just what the woman did. Thanking this woman for helping her leg would have been like someone thanking her for shining. She was a star, and it was simply her way. She supposed if her shining helped another person, though, it wouldn’t be so bad to hear they were grateful for it. From the proud smile on the other woman’s face, the star woman figured Ayla didn’t mind praise so much, either, despite what she might say.

“This is to be my room then?” Yvaine asked once they’d entered the building and stood just outside the door. Her key was still with Ayla, so she waited for the woman to unlock and open the door. Almost immediately her room resembled the night sky, only from far away as her sisters looked from a long way off. It made sense, actually. If her sisters weren’t really here in this place, then they couldn’t show up in her room. It made her feel quite lonely and sad, though her room remained as it was.

“Of course you can come inside.” The star woman announced. She took the crutch from Ayla, not quite sure what to do with it. “How do I use it?”

The golem entered the room and laid her down upon a cozy spot in the night sky. The stars glimmered the way her sisters did, but there was something slightly off about it, as if she could see through the lie, and she knew they weren’t her siblings.

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_ayla_
2008-07-27 01:14 pm UTC (link)

Once the door was opened and she had been given permission to enter, Ayla followed the golem in to the place where he set the star woman down. Gazing up and around, Ayla felt like she had been launched into the night sky. It was glorious and for a moment, Ayla envied the young woman's room. But she would not be able to live in the sky as Yvaine did. Ayla needed substance.

She held the crutch up and then demonstrated how it should be used by tucking it under one arm and walking a short distance, showing how very little weight could be put on the offended leg. "You see?" She handed it back and smiled. She also pressed the room key into her palm.

"I will come back tomorrow morning with your tea." She smiled as she backed toward the door. "The golems will be at your beck and call should you be in want of anything." She watched her for a moment from the doorway of the room, the golem having passed through before her and had long since gone. "It was nice to meet you, Yvaine." She smiled again and then shut the door behind her as she headed out to return to her own room.

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