✈ - an eye-opening memory
“The experiences of each druid are as varied as nature itself. Most learn at the side of a Shan’do, while others find the Dream or commune with the wild. But there are those few, touched by the spirits themselves...”
— Navas Sageheart, Druid of the Branch.
200 Years Ago
It started as a presence on the fringe of Kyuusei’s senses, a pricking at the back of her neck as she patrolled the woodlands of Ashenvale. Something beyond the trails, hidden in the moonlit shadows cast by the Elune’s light, lingering only for a moment before receding.
At first, she thought nothing of it. Wisps were common in these forests, drifting between the massive boughs even this far from Ameth’aran. And none of her sisters had reported disturbances in their patrols, the Sentinels speaking only of calm in the Long Vigil.
But for Kyuusei, it didn’t pass; the presence grew more frequent, bolder, as Mother Moon waxed brighter each passing night. The young kaldorei, not even 700 years old, grew ever more sure. Something was stalking her.
Elune was radiant and full, joined by the Blue Child in the night sky as Kyuusei made her wary patrol among the ancient trees. There. Her long ears twitched, skin raising at the back of her neck, but this time there was a glimpse, something at the edge of her vision. Waiting beyond the trees, taunting her.
Kyuusei turned to leap from the trail, rushing into the trees and after the apparition without hesitation. The chase was on.
She wasn’t sure how long the pursuit went; all her attention focused on the shape that moved ahead of her, flowing between the trees and moving from shadow to shadow even in the brilliant moonlight. Always just beyond her reach, but never escaping her. But at some point, the forest around her changed. Elune’s harsh brightness grew softer, the branches and leaves gained their own faint luminance.
No longer in the Ashenvale she knew, the night elf pushed through the underbrush and stumbled to a halt in a small clearing.
The grasses were soft beneath her feet, a shallow moonwell filling the clearing with its gentle light. Slender trees ringed its edges, their supple branches decorated with pale green leaves and delicate white blooms. Kyuu only had a moment to take in the quiet beauty before a shadow beyond the moonwell drew her gaze.
A great cat, a nightsaber that dwarfed even the ones her sister Sentinels rode, stalked into the moonwell’s light. Her sleek shape limned in glowing starlight, the feline watched the night elf with a lambent predator’s gaze. But rather than fear, Kyuusei only felt a strange calm that bordered on quiet elation.
“There you are,” she muttered. “I found you.”
The enormous feline rumbled in response.
No. I have found you.
The nightsaber leaped at Kyuusei with a speed that seemed impossible for her size. She threw up her arms in a vain attempt to shield herself, turning her head and closing her eyes as she waited for claws to rend her flesh, for teeth to close around her neck. Waited for an end that didn’t come.
She felt rather than heard the same rumbled voice, this time tinged with amusement.
Look about you, child of starlight.
Slowly, Kyuusei opened her eyes. She was lower, close to the ground. The shadows beyond the moonwell were no longer shadowed to her sight, the earlier silence of the clearing now filled with quiet rustlings of leaves and small creatures unseen. Creatures she could smell, their scent causing her claws to twitch at the thought of prey in the grass. Grass that was soft and cool beneath her paws.
You gave chase well. But now? Let me teach you to hunt.
Kyuu tried to smile but only succeeded in baring her fangs. A soft breeze came through the clearing to ruffle her fur, the gentle sensation nudging her into motion. Awkwardly at first, and then with growing confidence, a single feline shape padded from the clearing, moving into the gentle shadows beyond...
(Thank you for the ask, @theparkhurstalchemists )
[artwork by Jade Merien]
