Flight of the Bumblebee

The sky hung heavy and low above the usually peaceful oasis they called home, thunder rumbling ominously as hidden lightning crackled through the clouds. No longer still and glass-like, the surface of the lake rippled in waves brought on by rising winds, whipping the tall grasses that ringed it into a frenzy while panicked mice and birds flocked to their homes.

It was terrible weather.

Perfect, however, for a celestial being who needed flying lessons.

They had given him a day to rest and gather his strength, seeing how falling out of the heavens and all that was a fairly heavy event, and gave him a small hare to snack on in the interim. Valeska had watched the clouds roll in ominously from over the lofty peaks that sheltered them, turning the sky dark and lacing the air with an electric tang - the hair along her spine bristled instinctively, feeling the building energy reach its crescendo.

Cra-ka-BOOM!

With her jaw set in a firm line, it was time. She nodded her head, and Amaranth rose to follow.

They roused him from his den, leading him wordlessly out and around toward the southeast side of the lake. There stood a large, jutting rock, aptly named Houtu's Eye - Valeska had thought it quite an honorable title given the wide vantage point it offered from its height - and led the two up, up, until finally they crested the top, staring at least fifteen feet down toward the ground below. The wind seemed much fiercer at its peak, lashing at their fur and all but threatening to sweep them off.

“Star-child, this shall be first flying lesson,” Valeska began. “You cannot return to sky unless you learn to fly again. You were born for flying; you flew to us, so you shall fly back to be with the gods. It is great honor to have privilege to teach you - to return you - to Houtu's breast. Yes, gods have given us great trial, but in it, great gift as well.”

The sky rumbled as if to add emphasis, punctuating her statement with a grand flourish.

“Amara? What have the Five said in your visions? What must he do?”

The pale wolf studied their charge once more, scrutinizing him, as if to assess his natural capability for aeronautics.

“I think maybe should practice with light hops first. To test buoyancy.”

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The often tranquil nature of Fate's Respite was broken with each crack of thunder—with each flash of lightning. The grass swayed and the birds had stopped their singing. A storm was coming and even if they would hide away in their nests, he would fly.

He had awoken to the sight of Valeska rousing him for the day. He had blinked hard and slow, moving with a tired groan. They had woken him without a word as the thunder rumbled overhead. He wasn't afraid. What star child wound he be if the sky's creations fooled him?

Rising from the den Aulis followed the two wolves. They didn't speak as they lead him away and he found himself glancing between them every so often. Where were they going? And why couldn't he sleep longer? As it turned out, he had work to do—or flying to practice, more accurately.

"Flying lesson?" Aulis would question, his head cocked to one side as he gave Valeska a look that conveyed his uncertainty. Could he fly? Could any  of them fly? They were determined to find out, it seemed. At the mention of small hops, Aulis tested one, jumping a small height before he landed. He moved to try again before their questions caught his attention once more.

Turning to look at Amaranth, her words sent a prickle through his pelt. Shoved? The flip his stomach had done was settled at her next words. Maybe they didn't plan to shove him off the cliffs of the mountains...yet. Frowning at her explanation, Aulis narrowed his eyes at the golden wolf. "What do you mean? What is there to learn about the stars? " They were only silly dots in the sky, what was so interesting about them?

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Out from the corner of her eye, Amaranth seemed to shimmer in the tearing wind, her fur wavering like an eldritch apparition watching over the pair from a different plane. Yet she was here, stoic and sagely, and words of wisdom poured out from her lips like honey at a great Lord's table. "A baby bird cannot fly lest it is shoved from the nest," came her lilting voice, carrying gently over the chaos that surrounded them. For a woman who floated to such spiritual heights, she was an anchor, driving focus and purpose into every moment she permeated and assuring the sacred divinity of their actions.

Valeska, of course, agreed.

Before she had the chance to tip their little star-orphan off of the rock they so precariously occupied, Amaranth hesitated and withdrew her very reasonable advice. Valeska wrinkled her nose impatiently, but deferred to her golden mate - she held more sway over the High Priestess than either of them cared to admit.

“I suppose Amara is correct,” she said sulkily, peering over the edge again as if to say, "it's not THAT high", but held her tongue from further commentary.

Aulis was at least proactive enough to venture a little bounce during their dialogue, gaining height enough to make Valeska believe that maybe they could send him over the rock for a short practice glide - but then his interest was piqued, and he abandoned his task to inquire further. What was there to learn about the stars?

Everything.

“Oh, child,” she stated admonishingly, “The stars are our progenitors - our home! Do you think we are meant to feel hurt and sorrow in such fragile forms? We are made for more than this. Houtu, the All-Mother, created the Four from her breath. Sylvanus, life and spring unending; Rhys, summer and passion eternal; Aether, peace and levity and kindness; and Nivia, winter and silence. Together they are the Pentacle, the Five, and all blessings and punishments flow from them like water,” she continued. Whether or not Aulis believed any of this was debatable, but he had made the mistake of asking in the first place.

“You are of the stars - from the All-Mother herself. You fell from them and to us; perhaps by learning of your origins you might return again to celestial being.”

Valeska closed her eyes as a light pattering of rain began to fall, kicking up spray in the gusts that carried it. It was cold and unpleasant, but she would not be deterred. “Do you remember... anything? Close eyes. Focus. Think. Harness soul and turn it into arrow of truth for visions, and all will be revealed.”

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---

Amaranth drew the Two of Cups, Upright — the Two of Cups is the flow of love between two people. With this card, you are creating deep connections and partnerships, based on shared values, compassion, and unconditional love. While these relationships are still in the early stages, they have the potential to grow and develop into something deeply fulfilling and rewarding in the long-term. for this post <3

---

The child was, as most would expect of a being of his age, naive and trusting. Somehow, someway, this poor little being found his way right into the otherworldly paws of both Amaranth and Valeska. The occultist and the soothsayer, both playing off the weak semblance of reality that the other held. For Amaranth was rooted in visions of make-believe and fever dreams ... and Valeska was swayed so strongly by otherworldly pulls that could not be explained. Both were rooted deeply, however, in what they believed. They swore by it, lived by it, loved by it.

It was a rather dangerous combination.

The Star-Child gave a hop, skip, jump and lifted off ever so slightly into the light air of the universe. Amaranth could almost see the breeze lick at his heels, giggling at the irony of it all in a celestial sigh. But Amaranth's labyrinthine eyes glittered, a soft smile gracing her edged features as she gazed upon the youth. 'So pure,' she mused softly ... almost mournfully. And yet she did not know what the knot in the pit of her stomach represented. Fear? Guilt? Expectation and fear of his failure?

"What do you mean? What is there to learn about the stars?"

Blue eyes turned toward Amaranth, those once wide saucers narrowing in suspicion at her explanations. Amaranth remained rooted in mystery, that soft smile still playing at the edges of her lips as a single brow rose. It did not have to make sense; in fact, it probably never would. In fact ... did it even make sense to Amaranth? To Valeska? Valeska had brought so much more ... sensation, meaning, and feeling to Amaranth's life. Valeska awoke her in ways that Amaranth herself did not even understand, and in ways that she was still attempting to learn and comprehend.

But what she did know, was that Aulis was hers. Thiers? Her Star-Child? Their Star-Child. And she would teach him, nourish him, and help him get home.

And that help may very well be obscure.

Valeska began to explain the role of The Five, of the gods that guided her like a steeled arrow toward her goals. The gods that kept her aligned and centered. Gods that Amaranth was supposed a mouthpiece for. The golden woman's ears swiveled, listening intently to her mate (for she certainly should know this information, shouldn't she?) while keeping her burning gaze upon Aulis. Valeska willed him to remember ... wished for his soft, young mind to pull from memories that could not be accessed upon this normal plane of mortality.

"There was a time, Aulis," she began softly, waiting a moment for the child to digest Valeska's lesson before lowering her head to be at his level. Her gaze was hot, molten like soft purple magma. "That I was lost, too. I was lost in a world that loud, so loud ..." Her ears fell back upon her skull for a moment as if fighting away something deep from within. But the thought did not penetrate her expression beyond that. "But if you stop to listen to the soft things, like the whispers of the stars, you start to learn from them. The world is full of ... otherworldly teachers." Her head tilted softly, gaze lifting from Aulis to Valeska with a gentle wink.

Listening, yes.
And drugs.

And no sleep. For days.

It was all the same, wasn't it?

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Turning his attention to Valeska, Aulis would lean back onto his haunches. He had never heard of such tales before. Houtu and her four Sylvanus, Rhys, Aether, and Nivia sparked no sign of recognition in his expression. Yet he sat in awe at her words. The Four had come from her creation...perhaps he had too? Could he truly be one of them too? Lost in this world and forgotten by the All-Mother? Certainly, the All-Mother wouldn't forget one of her own.

Would she?

Amaranth leaned forward next. His once wide eyes would soften as her expression did. She had been like him. The world was loud. It was big and confusing. They told him he was from the stars but there were so...so many of them. The celestial plane was just as large as the world he found himself in now. "I didn't know the stars spoke..." He'd reply, tone quiet.

At Valeska's urging, Aulis craned his head back to eye the dark sky as the rain began to fall. It'd strike his muzzle before dragging a trail down his face. Closing his eyes the pup sighed. "Um..." He'd begin, straining to think, "I guess I remember a little. I remember it was really bright when I woke up here. I landed in a lot of grass...but I don't really remember before that..." Disappointed, he'd lower his gaze from the sky and looked between the two. If he didn't remember his time in the stars, could the All-Mother be right to forget him too?

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Poor little orphan. The names of the Five left no fleeting expression of recollection upon his concerned brow; only emptiness and a deeper look of confusion. Houtu surely would not abandon one of her celestial children, but whatever test she may have thrust upon the small gathering, it seemed cruel their mortal hearts. Still, they must press on with what they had been given, and surmount whatever obstacle lay before them.

The power of flight was not an option. It was necessary.

As Amaranth soothed him with words of fine silk and rich honey, Valeska, too, found herself drawn into the golden woman's speech. "But if you stop to listen to the soft things, like the whispers of the stars, you start to learn from them," she uttered, with amethyst eyes full of hidden depths - it reminded the Priestess why she had chosen her for companionship in the first place. She did not often speak, but when she so chose, her words were holy and full of wisdom beyond their grasp. Sustenance from heaven; water for a thirsty soul.

“Amara is right. They speak, but with a quiet voice, and one must prepare to receive their wisdom,” she joined cryptically, distantly referencing their penchant for ritualistic root consumption and heavy fasting in order to achieve such insight. It was true; they had both received visions in their time, and Valeska grew ever more stolid in her faith toward the Five. As Aulis closed his eyes in a struggle to access locked memories, chin raised toward the sky, he was suddenly the vision of innocence - of holiness - the heavenly orphan, the star-fallen, the Blameless Child. He was beautiful.

And then the moment passed, while the cold rain upon his muzzle drew him back once more to the realm of flesh and blood and sorrow.

“Bright? Surely that was the gate of Heaven opening for your departure,” she mused, as much to herself as to them. Valeska glanced up toward the clouds, then returned her gaze to Aulis with greater resolve than before. “But you flew, and your wings may have been injured in the fall; that is why they do not manifest! It must take another fall to trigger, ah, what is it... instinct.”

She turned to Amaranth.

“It is time.”

By that, she meant, it was time to forcefully remove him from the rock.

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PP with permission. @Aulis @Valeska

---

Amaranth's eyes glittered, gentle and welcoming and somehow... dangerous. There was a flame that had been ignited behind those labyrinthine veils, and it was as intoxicating as it was terrifying. To the child, it would seem soft and warming, welcoming and understanding; but there was something eerie and empty lingering as her imagination played wild games with her already weakened mental state.

But, oftentimes, this was completely overlooked as enigmatic, ethereal energy. The whisper of the gods and ghosts, those otherworldly beings who delivered their words through her mortal mouth.

It was often impossible to see the true intent that lingered. If there were even intent at all beyond the pure urge of her desires.

"I didn't know the stars spoke..." The whisper was soft, as delicate on her ears as the delicate drizzle of the rain. She felt dizzy, perhaps from elation or over-stimulation. The golden furs along her nape quivered. "Everything speaks," she corrected him gently, her voice a soft rolling purr that emulated the ebb and flow of the ocean's waves. As hypnotizing as those swirling purple eyes captured him in that cryptic gaze.

Valeska began to monologue softly, the words soft bubbles on the air as her silvery, perfect little frame wandered closer to the sheer edge of Fate's Respite. The gray air around them seemed to breathe with anticipation as the very cogs of Amaranth's brain began to softly whirr, as gentle as the soft purr of thunder in the distance. Valeska stood a bit away from them then, a priestess in her own right ... that golden gaze peering down over the edge of their kingdom.

"It is time...." to fly.

The sentence completed itself in Amaranth's mind, and with an equally as graceful as it was unprovoked motion, her delicate jaws lowered to grip onto the back of Aulis's scruff. The adolescent was small — terribly small. And Amaranth was terribly set on doing this. Her neck turned and her body wound up and then unsprung like a coil, aiming to lift and flick the smaller wolf completely off the ground and send him (quite literally) flying ... right at Valeska. As her jaws released, she felt the smaller body cascade into the air ... shooting him toward the heavens. Toward his destiny. Perhaps he'd sprout wings. Or perhaps he'd smack into Valeska like a small boulder.

But Amaranth was certain that repeating the process of falling from the sky would awaken his memory. Or inspire him. Somehow.

After all, she was helping.

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Instinct? Maybe it was. To fall again could very well coax his wings free. At first, he thought he had had none, that he couldn't fly. Yet, if that were true, why did he feel so alive? The energy that cracked around him told him it was true, whispered that he would fly once again. He must.

Everything spoke, after all.

At Valeska's word, Amaranth had parted her jaws, flashing the sight of her fangs as she closed her mouth over his scruff. Aulis hadn't been sure what she was doing, but he would find out soon enough as she coiled back. In a flash he had been thrown into the air, soaring as fast as she had been able to launch him. As he flew higher, Aulis' chest swelled with anticipation, with the belief that he would fly. He would; he could feel it. Excitedly he waited for his wings to open, to take him further into the dark skies, to the stars where he belonged.

But nothing happened.

Everything began to change as he felt himself hit the peak of his flight. His descent was out of his control; his wings had stayed shut no matter how hard he willed them to spread. Falling from the sky, Aulis let out a yelp as the time unfroze. Looking down he could see his next target. It was no longer the stars, but Valeska instead. Bracing himself for the impact Aulis' paws flailed as he shut his eyes to the world.

Why hadn't it worked?

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As long and lithe and graceful as she was, Amaranth's physique and general character did not scream athlete, or sports, or - as in this instance - good aim. Nevertheless it came as a great surprise to Valeska that as she took the boy within her serpentine jaws, coiling back like a snake and then flinging him forward with the practiced ease of a baseball pitcher, that she found their Celestial Child careening through the air straight toward her.

'What the shit', she thought to herself. Four cardinal directions to choose from and she still had to aim for the one Valeska had been occupying.

She would have thought it intentional if not for the look on Amaranth's face.

As she fell, Aulis following at close range after their initial impact, she was quite impressed at the height of Houtu's Eye. It had seemed tall, of course, but one didn't realize the true size of something until after they had been flung from it at great speed. Really, they'd been falling for what seemed like an eternity-

Valeska hit the ground with a solid whumpf, grunting as the air was knocked from her lungs, and she had just a millisecond to look up and witness Aulis spreading his shining golden wings to break his own descent and thus achieve their goal-

“BORK,” the High Priestess uttered in shock as the weight of his (mercifully light) body crashed into her from above. Huh. She could have sworn she'd seen wings - it appeared he had folded them back too soon in a panic. It seemed likely given his current state, for no doubt the shock at being thrown caused both instinct to activate (see: golden wings) and tragically allow his mortal fear to ultimately prevail (see: the golden wings disappearing), so the true test was to have him leap off voluntarily next.

Valeska stirred.

“I saw them open,” she uttered sagely, the sound of her voice muffled by his back. “Wings of gold - shining like Houtu - but then they vanished.”

Testing her weight, she then slowly away out from beneath Aulis, allowing him to spill gently onto the grass beside her - whether alive or dead, she hadn't noticed yet. “We must conduct more tests. For now, we will place pause on flying, and attempt future activation of other powers. Amaranth has told me there is a cave of demons within our midst, and you no doubt have holy abilities to combat them.”

She rose, shifting her gaze back to the boy.

Valeska nudged him with a paw, then glanced back up at Amaranth.

“Does he look... alright?”

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Been watching Umbrella Academy... channeling Grace, lmfao

---

Someone should take away her reigns — Amaranth was not equipped to be helping.

The child flew, released from her blessed jaws and gracing the sky with a flash of golden light. It hit her square in the third eye, blinding her for a brief moment as those imaginary wings lifted from Aulis's back in a burst of holy, otherworldly light. They crawled from his skin like serpents, screaming with the bliss of their freedom before ... poof. Those very wings disappeared, and the body of the child went a-plummeting from the sky and cascaded directly into Valeska. Like a bowling ball. Heavy. Certain.

Amaranth blinked, amethyst eyes wide as she moved with that same untroubled and ethereal grace toward the edge where the duo had disappeared.

“I saw them open,” Valeska breathed, practically exhaling the words into Amaranth's mouth as the golden woman hovered over this little ramshackle of a family ... "blessed" upon them by the great Houtu.

"As did I," Amaranth explained, smiling with an eerie warmth toward Aulis. The woman pressed her ears forward, ebony lips weakening with a sudden softness as she praised the child with her eyes. "You did well," she told him with a sagely nod, glimpsing with rapid eye movements toward his scapulae... waiting for the wings to re-appear as if on command.

Not yet.
 With time.
  She eased herself.

“Does he look... alright?” Valeska would worry, she always did. Amaranth smiled, and it was an odd combination of warmth and dissociation. It was soft, welcoming ... but somehow dissonant. Cacophony stirred behind her gaze as the cogs of her mind whirred with endless possibility.



"Come, let's rest for now, hmm?" Golden plume flicked, a final dismissal (with expectation) as she turned from the duo with her mind ablaze.

The star child. He would rise. And she would see to it.

---

Amaranth Exits!

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