The lotus settled gently onto the surface of the sea and the
fox raised her head. “Are we there?”
“No, dear,”
Bhodi said. “There’s someone bouncing
along the edge of the land there that I think we should meet. Someone very concerned about life and death
and failure. He’d probably be happier if
he trusted in karma to work itself out.”
“I… think I
understand him.”
“Yes, you
blood-spirit guides are all very tangled up.
Your friends are in their mortal bleeding times and so their spirits are
full of fire and strength.”
“Was that
an insult?”
Bhodi laughed.
“No, fox. If anything it was a comment on your state of being.”
“Oh. All right then, I think.”
The lotus
floated close to the shore, where a spit of rocks thrust into the water and a
very excited goat bounced up, shaking magnificent golden horns, his golden hoof
flashing. “THERE you are! I swore I’d find you, now we can go to Naida
all together—“
“Hello,
Chimera,” Bhodi said. “Shall we have
tea?”
The goat
bounced high into the sky and when he came down on all fours the rock under his
hooves cracked. “NO! We need to get to
Naida and get her home NOW! I’ve waited
fourteen years, almost fifteen to grow up and stomp that monster who nearly
killed her and now she’s got her ushera
and you fox look powerful enough to bite the bits off anything that could
threaten her! MY friend has been alone
long enough!”
“Do stop
shouting,” the fox said. “We should go,
Bhodi. Can you float all of us?”
“I could,”
Bhodi said quietly. “But it would be
harming this spirit. He is on the cusp
of something important and if I do that he’ll fail.” The lotus rose slowly out of the sea,
dripping as the Chimera raged below, jumping higher and higher, trying to reach
them. But the flower wasn’t speeding off
as fast as it could go, only staying out of reach of the ushera’s possible violence.
“NO! What?
You need to come now I NEED to get back home I need to you aren’t going to just
float away and leave me bouncing along in the dust like a child! I… I…”
“Come along
then,” Bhodi said. “You can do it for yourself.
You don’t need my help.”
The fox
covered her ears with both paws as the Chimera roared. The roar began as a baa and deepened,
deepened further and broke into a lion’s cough. A second head appeared next to
the goat’s head and a black mane burst forth.
Four gigantic wings unfolded, blinding light appearing in between every
feather and the goat’s tuft of a tail unfurled into a long, slender, tufted
plume. The Chimera flung itself into the sky, wings working, paws outstretched
to seize the lotus and Bhodi took hold of one massive paw and petted it. “See, I told you. Look at you now.”
The roar
cut off as though the boy had cut both throats.
“What? Aren’t you scared?” The voice was like a thunderstorm and when he
shook his mane, stars twinkled in it, fluttering away in the blast of air from
his two sets of wings.
“No, of
course not. Let’s go and see your Naida
girl. You say she’s in trouble?”
“That’s MY
girl,” the fox said. “She called me all
the way from the Floating Lands.”
“Oh, my,
that’s nice!” the lotus and the Chimera flew beside each other, the flower and
its passengers undisturbed by the Chimera’s lightning and falling star passage
beside it. “Tell me all about it.”
“My name’s
Asteri,” the goat’s head said. “Chiati!”
the lion roared and the goat rolled its eyes.
“Yes, yes. We are Star Mane.”
“I’m Bhodi.”
“And I’m
Kurama,” the fox said and curled up again, apparently not noticing that Bhodi
was petting her third tail that she hadn’t had before.
“When we
get to the desert lands,” Bhodi said. “We’ll have time for tea. After all its not every day that a Chimera
transforms and a fox gives up her name.”
He grinned and both Asteri and Kurama howled with laughter.
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