It had taken a lot of courage for Strange Creature to cross the swamp. She’d traveled mostly by night, sticking to treelines and scrub, but she was here now. Tracking down the Royal Rainbow Troupe wasn’t hard, and as the sun rose above the trees, she found the strength to stand and timidly wander into the camp, looking up and over her shoulder every few steps.

She was so, so tired. She was exhausted, physically and mentally, from being caged by fear. She was tired of the compulsion to watch the skies and to shrink away from open spaces. It physically hurt her to not do the things she’d once loved. She couldn’t explore anymore, couldn’t run and play under the open skies. It almost made her sick to think of what she’d lost- no, not lost. What had been taken from her. She wanted to be herself again, but she couldn’t. Not on her own, and not even with the help of her friends. As wonderful as they were, the specific problem she had was... avian in nature.

Logically, she knew that the eagle was gone, that it couldn’t hurt her again, and that she was home, in the Swamp, far away from the icy treachery of the mountains. But she couldn’t help flinching at every shadow overhead and at every breeze at her back. She felt paralyzed much of the time, just waiting for talons to close around her once more. She needed to reconcile herself to reality, but it was simply impossible to overcome without...

Well, she needed a bird.

Not just any bird. She needed a small bird, something that wasn’t an eagle, and a bird that could help her. A bird that could listen to her and understand what she said. As far as she knew, there was only one kind of bird that could do this, and that was the kind of bird that took a kin’s form from time to time.

Or perhaps it was the other way around.

Legendaries, she knew, could change their shape, sharing their mind with the body of an animal. Their forms were many, but after asking around, she knew of at least one who could turn into a bird– and was friendly enough that he would probably humor what she knew to be an insane request. It wasn’t hard at all to find the legendary in question. Watch Me, she’d heard him called. She’d seen him before at festivals– granted, they’d never spoken or anything, but she’d seen a performance or two. He was hard to miss. There weren’t really a lot of kiokote around with acha scales and glowing eyes.

She waited until he didn’t look busy, then approached. “You, uh. Ah. You’re Watch Me, right? I’m in the right place talking to the right kin?” Her face, haggard and wan, broke into a hopeful smile. This had to be the right kin. Hopefully he would help.

@Ruriska

[imgright]https://matope.pixel-blueberry.com/imag ... uncert.png[/imgright] Despite how often they travelled, The Royal Rainbow Troupe was never hard to find. There was always someone that could point you in the right direction and they prided themselves on being easily locatable for their audience for whenever they fancied putting on a show.

None of them seemed to pay any mind to strange Kimeti that hesitantly wandered into their midst, it was common for strangers of every kin type to come and go, especially now that their resident leader had ascended. Around her camp life continued on as usual, indolence and gluttony mixed with the occasional burst of energy as someone burst into song or practised their act.

Watch Me was in the thick of it, not just easy to find but the absolute centre of attention. With the pudgy sanddog, Perfect Star, plodding at his heels and begging for snacks. He was doing the rounds, marvelling at each of his Acha tribemates and very loudly offering his praise and willingness to bless them in all sorts of ways.

It wasn’t unusual for him to be approached - in fact, Watch Me expected it. What a boring day would it be if at least ten kin did not come seeking his great connection with the Motherfather?

His ‘didn’t look busy’ moment that Strange Creature had been waiting for was Watch Me dipping his head to give Perfect Star’s belly a rub with his nose and was actually quite a special task he didn’t like being interrupted at. But he was, as ever, magnanimous, and so he lifted his head to answer the questioning voice, immediately disappointed to realize it wasn't an Acha.

But he had grown, or so he liked to think, and presuming she was here to be blessed, he smiled in broad welcome.
“Ah yes, I am who you seek!” He gave her a flashy little bow. “At your service!”

Watch Me lifted his head and gave her a curious once over. She looked, well... not ideal was the politest way he could put it. But the first word that came to mind was terrible. Rather than a blessing, she looked as though she needed a good long nap and a decent feed. Both of which he would happily arrange.

“How can I help you?”

@Scaramouche Fandango

“I- I really need you to turn into a bird.”

She paused for a moment, realising how absolutely insane that sounded. The relief of knowing she’d found the right kin mingled with the heat of shame that came from the particular peculiarities of her problem. “I mean. Well. That’s actually why I came here, to see you turn into a bird. I- let me start at the beginning. To explain why I need to see you turn into a bird. You can turn into a bird, right? I heard that Watch Me could turn into a bird, and if that’s you, then I really, really need your help.”

She took a deep breath, then began to recount the events of the expedition to the Totoma lands.

“There was a kin who was able to take us beyond the Swamp, and she led us to the mountains, where the Totoma come from. I went because I wanted to know what it was like, because I was curious. And there was this obelisk, a huge shattered pillar of... something. Crystal-like, it was. And it did strange things to the animals around it, and there was this...” She swallowed, forcing herself to go on with the telling. “There was an eagle, blood-red and spectral, pierced through with these crystal shards. It was huge, and it... it picked me up. I was clutched in its talons like prey– no, not like prey, I was prey. And I fought and fought and I ended up... on top of it, and all the while I thought I was going to die. I was so sure of it, but I wasn’t ready. And somehow, I didn’t die. At least, not all the way. I think maybe the eagle did kill a part of me, and it was the part I liked best. I miss who I was before. I don’t want to think I left her in the snow, but I think I did, and I want to try to get her back.”

She pawed at the ground, thinking how to explain. “I know you didn’t know me before, but I wasn’t always like this. I used to be brave. I used to explore, and I loved it. Traveling with my companions under the open air, going wherever the wind and the stars pointed us... that was me. But now, the sky seems like a constant threat, no matter where I am. The canopy of trees mean I can’t see what might be coming, and the open sky means that I can’t hide.  I miss being able to look at the sky and not feel afraid. I miss being able to enjoy birds. And... well, the kin who took us, she could turn into a wasp. I’ve seen a kin take the form of an eaglehound. I’ve been looking far and wide for someone who can turn into a bird because I think that if I can see a bird like that, a bird that I KNOW is safe, then maybe... I dunno. It might not work. But, um. If you could please turn into a bird, and maybe... if I don’t start panicking? If you could fly around a little bit, maybe come up from behind me so that the shadow goes over my eyes? If I do bolt, then maybe this won’t work, but I have to try. I don’t want to be afraid, but even thinking about birds just... it’s like my mind goes back to that place, like I’m living it again. I can’t live there. I don’t think anybody can live there- so like I said. Can you please, please turn into a bird?”

@Ruriska

During her explanation, Strange Creature had achieved a very rare thing.

Watch Me was completely and utterly silent.

His mouth had opened once near the start, about to agree to the change instantly because of course someone would travel far and barely sleep just to see him. He hadn’t needed an explanation for why she wanted to see his bird form. But an explanation was certainly provided, an extremely lengthy one.

And so, Watch Me listened, ears forward and head slightly tilted to take in all of the compelling narrative. It was such a story that nobody could be faulted for believing it to be made up and it wouldn't have been strange for someone to approach Watch Me with an idea that could be adapted into a play or song.

But The Royal Rainbow Troupe loved both gossip and stories, especially special ones that involved legendaries and obelisks. Watch Me knew that everything she was telling him was true. There had been a blood-red eagle and terrible things had happened on the mountains and he was very glad he hadn’t decided to go on that trip. He hated the cold.

“Well, that was a lot.” He said when she was finished. His brow raised. “That sounds like a terrible trip. I don’t blame you for having some lingering.... trauma.” He said the last word softly and with a slight wince for her benefit. “But I do believe you’ve picked the best way to deal with it!”

She was lucky that Sung-through had taken the resident birds away from the tribe today for training, otherwise the poor Kimeti might have already had a heart-attack. Better to get started in curing her ills before they all came flapping through.

“Well, then? Are you ready? I shall now transform!”

Watch Me gave her moment to prepare herself and then -



He was a bird.

Very brightly coloured and just sitting on the dirt, much to his distress. His tail feathers would be getting horribly dirty! But his usual jump and transform and flap around to show off had been an unsuitable option considering the circumstances.

So he sat, wings tucked and gave a pleasant little melody up at the now much larger kin.

@Scaramouche Fandango

She watched the transformation keenly, knowing that underneath it all, this bird was still Watch Me- and she didn’t need to flee. Her limbs felt leaden, her stomach sinking. Her body told her to bolt, the small, screaming part of her brain telling her she needed to get out of there– but the rest of her mind was telling her to stay and watch. She’d come all this way and she KNEW this bird couldn’t hurt her. It wasn’t really a bird, after all. The kin who could shift their shapes were avatars of the Swamp, chosen by the Motherfather for whatever mysterious reason. Perhaps it was that connection, that energy helping her stay. Some vein of the Swamp’s energy, channeled by the Kiokote, calming her fears as they fluttered around in her skull.

Head swimming, she shook herself as free from that headspace as possible. Focusing on maybes and mysticism wasn’t helpful at the moment. Instead, she focused on what she could see, looking at the bird and really taking it in. It was a small bird. It couldn’t lift her, nor would it want to. Glowing eyes belied the truth of it being a kin, and that- well, that helped. She paid attention to the long feathers of the tail, how they tapered and flowed. The body feathers- shorter, softer. She was attempting to take in the bird in its sensory total- how it looked, moved, sounded.

She knew that it wasn’t the eagle. It wasn’t the same thing. Preparing for the eagle by using a normal bird was like comparing apples and alligators– but she was home now, in the Swamp, and giant spectral blood eagles didn’t exist here. Why prepare for a monster that didn’t exist? That was the key difference here. She wasn’t preparing for another blood eagle, she was preparing for the everyday occurrence of seeing normal birds in her normal home. Her terror was interfering with everyday life, and that... well, it was this or get used to the idea of being so permanently changed. And she didn’t want to surrender.

That was at least some part of her the eagle hadn’t taken away. She hadn’t surrendered when she faced it in the mountains. Impossibly, she’d managed to clamber up on its back and survive the descent. She might be afraid, but she wasn’t defeated, and that... that was something. That was something she could hold, a little kernel of who and how she used to be. And if she didn’t surrender, then perhaps she could push herself just a little more. She’d already braved the trip here. Now she needed to just last a little longer.

“If it’s not too much trouble, could you please fly over me now? I think I need to get used to shadows going overhead.”

@Ruriska

As a Kiokote, Watch Me was certainly not small but you didn't realize quite how big you were in the world until you were on the ground as a tiny bird. It was a struggle to remain sitting in the dust and his feathers puffed up unhappily. She was huge before him and while he didn’t think she was about to step on him the innate instincts that came with being a songbird were screaming at him to fly away to a safer location.

He desperately wanted to stretch his wings and fly, so when she got over her initial shock of being next to a bird, Watch Me complied to her next request instantly. He lifted up in a flurry of wings, flew high and did circles above before diving and swooped over her form.

But he didn’t remain as a bird for long and anticipating her distress, he landed in front of her as a Kiokote almost immediately. “See?” He said, loudly, attempting to distract her from terror before she could think too hard. “Not scary at all! Shall I do it again?”

Watch Me waited curiously for her reaction.

Quite a few of the tribe had now taken an interest and had stopped what they were doing to watch the interaction.

@Scaramouche Fandango

At first she’d wanted to bolt, but something- determination, will, the desire to not inconvenience anybody, perhaps- kept her in her place. The songbird flying about her was completely harmless!

“Once more, please, and I’m going to look at the ground and watch your shadow- seeing you fly wasn’t bad at all. You’re quite good at it! But when the... thing happened, when the eagle lifted me, one of the only things I remember was this massive red... well, it wasn’t really a shadow, exactly. But ever since then, shadows moving overhead have been one of the worst sources of my fear.”

Which... as she thought about it, they really shouldn’t have been. She was untangling an important thread here. It wasn’t actually shadows that bothered her. It was movement. It was that shift in the color of the light, that massive body flexing its power over the sun itself by changing its very hue. When light had filtered through the body of the spectral eagle, it had been blood-hued and amorphous- not a shadow in any real sense. Seeing a bird’s shadow would just be more evidence that it was real, and that it was harmless. And the shape of it- well, an eagle studded through with crystal shards as long as her leg didn’t look like a songbird. Not from above, not from below, not from the front or side or back. They were different. She’d known that all along but being here and making herself see it- making herself confront the very thing that had reminded her of the terror- was making her realize that her fears were misplaced.

Yes, the eagle had been terrifying. No, not all birds were the eagle. Both things could be true at once, and she could accept this. Watching Watch Me was showing her that even birds that weren’t, well, normal birds didn’t have to be the eagle. Sometimes a bird was just a bird. And even when that bird was a kin, it was still just a bird. It wasn’t the eagle. The eagle was gone. 

There was a metaphorical egg beginning to hatch somewhere deep inside. She kept her eyes glued to the ground, waiting for Watch Me’s shadow to flit overhead. If she knew it was coming, she could prepare and be ready.

@Ruriska

Watch Me nodded and with a graceful little jump, he transformed, soaring up with a rapid flap of his wings. He circled around up high and then swooped, coming from behind, a small shadow of a bird, diving in close enough for his flight to be felt.

It was with a quick snap that he turned back again, this time higher, hoping to catch the sun and cast some sort of shadow.

He was hoping she would do well and wouldn’t bolt and so quickly returned again to his Kiokote form, this time beside her, peering curiously at her face. “Well, how was that?” He asked. There was a suggestion he had to give but he held his tongue until he knew i f she could handle any more.

@Scaramouche Fandango

“It was… good! I saw the shadow and I wanted to run at first but I realized- it’s just a birdshadow. It’s not the thing that grabbed me, and it’s something normal that I see all the time. There’s nothing intrinsically scary about it, it just reminds me of something else. The two aren’t the same!” Strange Creature was almost surprised to hear herself say that. Perhaps… perhaps she was braver than she thought. This didn’t feel like the other times she had tried to be brave and failed miserably. The marshfowl had been terrifying. Going out at night had been a disaster. But this- this was intentional. This was her way of… of solving a puzzle.

It was like when the tegus tried to get honey out of a fallen beehive or raid a crocodile nest. It was just a puzzle! Birds were just birds! This was- this was doable! Not right away, she’d need time, but for the first time since the awful return home, she felt like she might be able to be herself again. She turned to face Watch Me, his eyes bright as a bird.

“This is actually working. You’re fantastic. You’re a better bird than any bird I’ve ever met!”

If Watch Me had still been a bird, his chest feathers would have fluffed out at her words. “Ah yes, I have always thought I make quite a wonderful bird. It’s good to know you agree.” And with that compliment, he was thoroughly won over and was now completely invested in sorting out Strange Creature’s issues.

She’d done marvellously with him flying over her head and it was time to take it to the next level.

“I have an idea,” he ventured. “I have the ability to create normally impossible sounds.” He opened his mouth and the sound of cicadas came forth, filling the area with their summer screams. When his mouth closed, the cicada drone ceased.

“And I have met eagles before and heard their cries. Perhaps I should add it to my swoop? It would make quite the show, wouldn’t you say? You’ve done so well, I’m sure you would deal with this extra test admirably.” 

@Scaramouche Fandango

Strange Creature clapped her hooves at the cicadasong. “Such talent!” But his suggestion… well, it scared her. She’d made such progress. What if this undid it? What if hearing the eagle, recalling another sense memory, what if that all set her right back to where she’d been?

Well. If it did… then she could cower a little, pick up the pieces, and try again later. What she’d really learned today was that fear wasn’t the end. Fear was something that could be moved through. If hearing the cry was too much, that was ok.

“I… I’ll be honest, I’m not sure if it’s a good idea. But that’s why I think I should try. One more pass, with an eagle’s voice, and we’ll see what I do. Even if it doesn’t work… this helped. A lot. And even if I panic, I think, in the end… I think I’ll be ok.” She gulped, then took a deep breath. “Let’s do it.”

She braced herself, ready for the cry. She wouldn’t flee. She wouldn’t bolt. She might cry a little, might tremble, but she wasn’t going to run away. She was going to hear the noise and know- know in her mind and her heart- that it wasn’t The Eagle. That bird was long gone, and she was going to remind herself of that every day if she had to.

He preened once more. This poor troubled Kimeti. Oh how he wept for her! But she was clearly very sophisticated and knew talent when she saw it. Perhaps she would join the troupe? It was hard to be scared of mountain eagles when you were surrounded by so many lovely Acha.

“Very well,” he nodded at her agreement. She seemed scared but determined and he respected that immensely. She had a courageous heart. “Just remember where you are and who I am. It might seem as if an eagle is swooping overhead but let your head rule instead of your fear. You are in the swamp. Feel the warmth of the sun and know that you’re not in any danger.”

Watch Me shifted and twittered as he flapped into the sky. He rose up and up until he was ready to dive and then down he came, a small bird making a big shadow. His beak opened to let out an ear-piercing screech that did not at all suit the colourful songbird.

The tribe members watching all collectively held their breath.

She was expecting the worst, but as she listened to Watch Me, as she felt where she was, she… was grounded. Cicadasong and the distant sounds of lapping water, the wind rustling through reeds and the hungry noises of frogs– she was on solid ground. She knew where she was, and even though the noise was loud and alarming…

“It’s just a noise! Just a bird noise!” She reared up, but not to bolt. It was just a little kick of happiness. As Watch Me descended, it was all she could do to not prance in place in sheer happiness. She’d done it! For the first time, she’d separated the traumatic event of the past from the reality of the present. She had a feeling there was much more work to be done, but this was the first step in digging the old her out from under the snow.

“Thank you. You’ve been wonderful. This is the first time since the expedition that I’ve been able to function with overhead shadows, and knowing that you were a kin under there the whole time… oh, how it helped.”

She suddenly noticed the audience around them. Her nose flushed as she realized how inexplicable this must look.

“I… suppose you want to know what’s going on?” she said. “If- if you do, I could perhaps stay for dinner and tell the story? If that’d be all right?” She looked at Watch Me for approval.

@Ruriska

It was a triumph!

Watch Me circled back around and landed as a Kiokote, his head immediately thrown back in delight and front legs giving a little kick. Such an occasion was a grand time to celebrate and frolic!

“But of course! We are delighted to have you!”

The audience had given a resounding cheer at their success. Those who hadn’t caught enough of the conversation to have any context eager for a dinnertime story. They chatted together, full of curiosity, with many others heading off to tell their friends.

“Prepare a feast!” Watch Me called, setting even more of the troupe into motion.

To Strange Creature he turned and said, with a satisfied air, “Come. Let’s get you settled. And perhaps you would like to meet my daughter? She trains the troupe birds. They should all be arriving back soon.”

There were certainly going to be many birds in Strange Creature’s feature and Watch Me was certain that with his help, she would be entirely cured of her fears.

@Scaramouche Fandango