Bonfires, poetry, and livin' life right and there's
Beaches, boats, sailing, togetherness
The feelin' like you're smilin' even brighter when the weather's shit
My mind is an eclipse of knowledge, magic shadowing the light of my understanding; these past few months have become an eternity of blackouts and hallucinations, from seeing a child in the fires, to making love to Pomona, to avoiding the war, to Straia’s departure, to the fire-child’s birth - not from Pomona, but from the mare I mistakenly made love to. My life is a painting and these last few months have just been blind slashes with poorly mixed colours, the beauty underneath is hidden by the chaos of an unforeseen magic having its way with my family and I. I’m still not clear on why Straia is gone, or how she will never meet her niece - I pray daily for her return, for my only daughter could use a mother figure. Her birth-mother dead and her should-be mother continuously disappeared, along with her half-brother Bergamot. I miss them like the sun misses the moon, but with this eclipse of knowledge and magic I must cling to what’s left to me, what’s left of me -
Kagerus.
Presently, her little darling nose presses into the crease of my elbow, nibbling there, rooting for milk that I certainly cannot provide. Her nutmeg eyes bore into mine, so like the eyes of my mother that occasionally, I forget just who I’m raising. Leaning over the child, I whisper words of encouragement, and muse over how strange it is to finally have a babe to raise. Bergamot was a blessing to Pomona and I, and we did our best with him - but I lived in the Chamber, and he and his mother in the Amazons. There was a time when he came to live with me, to serve with me - but not all things work the way we dream they will. And hungry little Kagerus is just proof of that.
Coaxing the little splotched darling ever onward, we make slow work of the journey from the Cove to the ‘Zons. Upon finding my daughter suckling at the teats of her dead mother, I knew that time was short and that there was only one place I could truly take her. And while it is with a certain dread that I lead Kagerus to the Jungle, I know it is not because I fear reprimand for my bold approach after our kingdom’s war; it is because I know that deep within, Pomona lives, but I shall never find her unless she wills it to be.
Shaking these thoughts from my aging mind, I halt our journey just on the edge of the Jungle border. Kagerus continues rooting at my softer regions, though to no avail. Her quiet yet demanding bleats for nourishment raise the colourful birds from their perches on the border, and although I know this will be enough to summon a sister, I add my smokey voice to the cacophony, calling gently for aid.
“Welcome home, Kagerus.”
Kavi ☼ Kagerus
