Moon's forest was one that pounded, thick veins of growth surging around them. It was a forest alive, a single organism, brimming with magic. At some point in their path of travel the forest began to shift. Trees began pulling themselves through rich soil, leaving tills in their wake. The smaller fauna of the floor rode up the turning soil ridges, making way for the movement of the giant trees.
Korin had been marveling at how her feet carried her so effortlessly in this dream world. It was the way she had moved the first time she had been there. One step, two step, not thinking about the movement. She was in awe at the confidence in her strides. Nimble and quick.
A massive root rolling underneath their feet pushed up soil and she used her newfound confidence to skip forward, jumping the sudden hill and jerking ahead of Era.
Era squeezed her hand, laughing at the sight of her pupils blown wide and exhilarated with the thrill of it all. He pulled them along faster now, feeding into Korins desire to run.
They were two bodies foreign to the cells of the forest, sprinting through whirlpools of woods and ferns.
Korins toes squished in the soft carpet of musky decay before sending out little sprays of debris, soles and toes propelling her forward. Era guided them over composting logs and mossy slopes. Through their mad dash in the forest his grip had remained, everpresent, calm, and soft. A warm presence that grounded her through the exhilaration of the disorienting experience that was the moving forest.
Era slowed in tandem with the trees. The two coming to a stop side by side, taking the moment to gather their breaths. Their hands stayed clasped, a steady warmth emanating from their skin. Korin had never held anyones hand like this. It was a gentle experience to hold Eras hand. It filled her heart with a sweet kind of wind, a warm summer breeze in the shade of trees, belly full of berries and melon. It tickled some faint memory of a childhood and sun.
"Are we almost there?"
Era nodded, just as swept away in Korins presence. He swung their arms back and forth playfully. "Yes we are close." His head swiveled from left to right scanning the forest around them. "The entrance to her home should be near."
"Ah, there it is." He pulled Korin forward, who could see nothing but forest and no sign of inhabitants of any kind.
Era brought up his free hand and pressed it into the air. It lay upon the surface of the world, ripples waving from his touch, distorting the scene in front of them. With a thrust of his elbow the mirage folded into itself. Korin could have sworn it made a crumbling sound like thin metal being crushed.
In its folds revealed a simple wooden door.
Era gripped the handle of the door and Korin tugged at him. "Are we just going to enter?" Her demeanor tense at the idea of just walking into someone's home unannounced.
"Trust me, if we knocked she'd never answer." He pulled down on the handle pushing open the door and pulling the two of them inside a large entryway. As he shut the door behind them, Korin could see the veil begin to draw like a wrinkled curtain.
Inside, the entryway, tiled in deep green, led to a greeting room lavish in color. Contrasting, contradicting, and haphazard decorations and furniture came together in surprising collaboration. Beautiful and hand inked maps lined the walls in golden frames, Couches of magenta, sage, and cobalt sat in formation fit for long discussions and crystal glasses of liquor. A collection of vases with floral decorations lined the mantle of an unlit fireplace and around the room various sculptures took up floorspace, mostly animals with ferocious faces. It was the interior of an eclectic individual, a lover of arts, well traveled and educated. Korin liked it.
As if on cue, across the room, entering through swinging double doors in lavish fashion, was a woman with cerulean curls and the large alert ears of some wicked dog. Their sandy pointed tips pulled backward and forward, taking in every little sound, twitching and beastly.
"Era darling!" Her voice chimed across the room bouncing off tiles and echoing. She flowed up to Korin grabbing her face in clawed hands. "I felt you traveling my trails. It has been so long since I last saw you."
A button nose and a heart shaped face would have given her a delicate beauty if not for too round, large brown eyes, pupils ovular and squished like some deep sea creature, a secondary eyelid shuttering every few seconds. Her nose twitched as she took in Korin, a thin eyebrow suddenly arching. "Stange. You look so different since the last time I saw you." The long eared woman suddenly ran her hands over Korins chest, making her jump in surprise. "You're a woman now!"
Era chuckled, clearing his throat as Korin took a hurried step back.
The woman's eyes finally found him, widening in realization. Gaze darting between the moon eyed Korin and the flowery Era. "Oh…" Her body twirled around as she breathlessly trilled. It was behavior that was in no way human. "Wow."
She spun around Korin, examining the woman up and down. Her body jerked and spasmed, sometimes lifting to float off the ground entirely, moving like a weightless attachment carried by the direction of her gaze. Korin went to balk at the odd behavior and Era squeezed her hand in reassurance.
"Miyami, this is Korin." Era introduced her.
Miyami took a step back, satisfied with her inspection, a grin, canine in nature, plastered to her face. "She looks just like you."
Korin looked to Era with his luminous brown hair and pretty white flowers. Era, who was like sunshine and fruit, who she was absolutely sure she looked nothing like.
Era shrugged with a smile folded in layers before turning to Miyami. "You say the oddest things, Miyami."
Miyami crossed her arms. "I only say truthful things. It is your ears that are odd." The eccentric woman with large jackal ears spun again, the bottom of a jacket stitched with ornate birds, fanned out around her. With a snap of finger, cupboards blended into the walls were popping open and a parade of china was swirling out of them. Everything came to settle on a crystal table laid on the back of a carved dragon, tea piping hot and already being poured into cups.
The two followed Miyami to the sitting area, taking a seat on the couch across from her. Her eyes darted this way and that, body twitching as she repositioned herself every few seconds. When she did settle it was with an eerie stillness, posing like a statue, only her second eyelids occasionally strobing over her squished orbs.
"What do you do, Korin?" Miyami asked, grabbing her cup and taking a sip of steaming tea.
"Pardon?" Korin asked, unsure of what the woman meant.
Miyami pucker her lips. "What do you do?"
"Um…" It was strange to have the otherworldly being ask her such mundane question. "I work in a bakery."
Miyami clapped her hands together. "Oh how quaint. Exactly what I'd expect."
"Do you like it?" This was a question from Era, who looked oddly delighted as well.
"I suppose so." Korin nodded.
"What do you do to entertain yourself?" Miyami fired off another question.
"I embroider and I read books."
"Books about what?"
"Hmm. A little of everything I guess."
Miyami nodded and lazily snapped her fingers. "What else do you do?"
"Sometimes I help my father with his inventions."
Era cut in, "Do you travel?"
"No."
Something in her reply made Era frown. Her words didn't hold a lot of emotion but there still remained an edge of discomfort. Subjects she might want to avoid. "Why not?"
"I cannot."
Eras frown deepened.
Miyami clapped her hands again, clearing away any tension that had entered the room. Simultaneously stealing the attention. "Well some things change and some things stay the same." The woman gestured a hand again and a long pipe sailed across the room trailed by a lighter, a tubular bronze contraption holding oil and flint. Its flame was already lit, ready to burn tobacco and herbs.
She took hold of the pipe, a long thing carved of walnut wood and ivory, clipping it between her teeth. The flame of the lighter poured into the bowl of the pipe, dried pink and green leaves blackened and burned red as she took a heavy puff. Streams of smoke curled around the edges of her lips before funneling into her nose. She chattered to herself in incoherent mumbling.
Era leaned into Korin, holding his cup of tea. "She can be quite the character, please don't let her behavior disturb you." He apologized on the woman's behalf. "I promise she is kind and trustworthy."
Korin saw as Era beheld Miyami, a little sparkle in his eye as he looked toward the woman who had the tendencies of a madwoman. Korin had seen the look before, not often, but here and there worn on the faces of some people she saw. It was a look of admiration. A look that felt like lava, bubbling up from the core of ones being.
Korin smiled, small and only for a moment, as she looked over Era. Of course a being like him would have mentors and idols. People he looked up to and modeled his behavior after, even if it was someone who seemed a bit crazy like Miyami. He had that look about him, like a beautiful hero on his journey of growth.
Miyami sat back into her rest, rolling her shoulders. A long and deep breath had her chest rising and falling. Suddenly she didn't look quite as young as she had. Skin still flawless and smooth but the play of light, the tired sigh, made her skin look thin and her spirit look aged. "So where do you want to begin?"
Era squeezed Korins hand before finally removing his fingers from her grip. He looked down at her for a moment before his eyes moved to Miyami. "For now I want to tether her to my location and get her remembering dreams. It won't be any good if she can't remember anything we tell her."
The secrets in their words didn't fly past her. She wasn't aware of what was hidden in their silent conversation but she knew the silent conversations and meanings unknown to her were taking place.
"What is it that you are needing to tell me?" Korin was used to being discussed while she stood to the side, not included in a conversation about her. It happened all of the time in the village. Like Sven openly talking about her while she had walked by. It had never upset her before, but now that it was Era, a knot formed in her stomach and she felt strangely small and shrunken.
"It.. It would be best to talk about it later when you'll remember."
"Why can't you just tell me now and then tell me again later when I'll remember?"
"Well…." Era chewed his lip looking to Miyami for some kind of guidance. All he got from her was a shrug.
Korin sat in the silence between his words, suddenly acutely aware that he was hiding something he didn't want to say and the why of it all had her curiosity peaking.
The big looming why lurked always just over her shoulder. Always there. The reason why the people feared her, why her family had fallen apart, why the strange tick followed her in every footstep recently. Why Era had been waiting for her in the astral realm.
Was this the why? The why of Korin. It had her riddled in anxiety, a thick limey mold that was eating through her composure.
Miyami watched as Era and Korin each brought their hands up to their hair to begin grinding strands between fingertips in a nervous fidget. It happened in such synchronicity that Miyami let out a bark of laughter startling the two.
"It's quite complicated, Korin," Miyami interjected, taking control of the situation. "We don't know when you'll awake. Time moves very oddly here. So let's start with setting a tether and Era and myself will explain to you what's happening if we have time after? Is that alright?"
Korin looked at Era, worry that mirrored her own on his face. He scrunched up his brows as they made eye contact, a look between pleading and forgiveness.
She slowly nodded. She oddly felt that she could place her trust in Era. "Okay."
Era looked relieved as he lightly and slowly cupped his hand around her own again. The feeling of summer and fruit once again coursed through Korin and she let out a silent sigh.
Miyami clicked her tongue and lifted her hand, "Let me see your hands."
Era didn't let go, just lifted their clasped hands.
The jackal eared woman thrummed her fingers across their hands and down to their wrists. Her touch had made Korin jolt, only held in place by Era who tightened his grip at her discomfort. It was electric and somehow wet, sending little zaps tingling up and down her arm. Her breath caught in her throat as strings of light began to cling to the areas of their hands Miyami drummed.
When Miyami finally pulled back a mess of web, glowing and electric, encased their hands. Era pulled back and Korin watched in fascination as the strings stretched yet refused to break. Korin wiggled her finger and a tremor waved through the air almost in sync with her gesture. Even when her fingers quit moving, the air continued to roil. Growing and stretching out from her body. Her image began to wobble and blur.
Eras' eyes widened, "Yeah I think that was the limit for today." He'd honestly been surprised the rolling forest had not woken her. He quickly took her hands into his one last time. "It appears you are waking up." The sensation of the webbing had driven the stimulation of Korins mind to its limits.
At his words the roil in the air seemed to turn into a vacuum, her hair and clothes pulling upwards at the invisible force. Even though she flickered in and out of existence Era could still feel the warmth they shared between their touch.
"What about what you needed to tell me?" Korins body was beginning to float up now while Era, Miyami and the room stayed perfectly still. There was a muted fear in her stony expression that he understood well.
"We will discuss it next time, I promise." Era gave her hands a squeeze, the tether of strings between them coiling in the invisible wind that sucked Korin towards the ceiling.
"You promise?" Her eyes were wide and her grip hard, searching for reassurance.
With a powerful draw the world pulled Korin up, her grasp slipping from Eras. The last thing she saw was Era smiling and the glowing strands stretching between them.
She flew away from the invisible house, away from Moon's forest and into the void.
"Try to remember me, Korin!" Era's words carried after her.