04-24-2023, 09:00 AM
Auto-Quest for Immortality [0 Space Trait]
Word Count: 1524
~ Kota is dying and decides she wants to be immortal, she climbs the Mountain, dies (kinda) and some random magical being, either fae or magician, takes absolute pity on her lack of planning and grants her what she needs to live on. Truly she should be dead, because she had no actual plan, she just hoped she could ask someone when she got to the top but never really thought "oh hey, i'm kind of useless to pay anyone back" lol someone's going to come looking for their payment someday! muahaha anyway, Kota lives forever now ~
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“I’m dying..” she whispers to her loyal companion, who is curled beside her. The pair lay quietly in a mossy thicket somewhere in the deep Forest. A pack of wolves has been tracking the sick mare for days, and her own healing powers aren’t enough to keep her alive much longer. She is not a self healer ̶ her magic is limited when it comes to healing herself.
Kota hoists herself up with a painful groan. Her body cracking and popping as she brings her pale form to it’s feed. This mortal body of hers is tired…too tired to go on. Her light is fading ever faster by the hour, by the minute now.
Another sunrise is on the horizon and she fears now, looking at through the thick tree trunks to the east, that she may not see the day through to its dusk. Her own sunset is imminent and she isn’t ready. She thinks of her children, of her father, her immortal father ̶ her children still have time to achieve living on forever….and, wait, does she? Her heart crumples, and she looks down at Fraxni as the little fox leans lovingly against her shaky foreleg.
Kota’s thoughts are shaky and chaotic, which is not normal for her. Age has made her eyes milky, her hearing duller, and her mind distant ̶ half in another world. She was done with this. She is ready to pull her mind back, and mend the broken bits of her body; she must find the fountain of youth, so to speak.
The mare and fox set off for a long, arduous journey through the hills and valleys and onward to the jagged peaks of the mountains. It is there she must plea, pray to the Sprites, to the Mountain, anyone who might listen….please do not let her die.
Long, slowly, painfully, she moves across the landscape until she finally meets the base of the massive mountain. A frozen breeze whips down to greet them, her little fox squeaking and hiding behind her legs. She touches Fraxni with her nose, comforting her like she would a foal. Her breath raspy, sweat gathering on her trembling hide. The journey would kill her, or give her eternal life; she will accept any purgatory between.
She clears her nose, her spirit, with a snort and a head flip. It was time to push herself to the edge…literally.
Kota has always been a skilled climber, but with the sun fading and her eyesight not what it once was, she stumbles. Luckily, her companion steps in and guides her wisely through all of the difficult passes as they ascend. Kota can feel the tingle of the Mountain’s magic vibrating up her legs and through her body..it pushes her to keep going even though she feels like collapsing.
It is too much, and she indeed does collapse, which sends Fraxni into a panic. The little vulpine cannot help the weakened mare, and so the pale horse lays haphazardly across the rocks. She breathes heavy, heaving each inhale and exhale, her skin slick with sweat. The mountain ranges are cold, so the sweat catches the chilly wind and she begins to shiver violently.
“You must get up, Kota.” she can hear a voice, her mother’s voice, coaxing her back into the mortal realm. Comfortably she was beginning to fade, like a blanket rising over her in warmth, but the voice jerks it away. She sits up, gasping desperately. “One more push.” the voice urges her, demands of her, really. So the weakened mare drags herself onto her feet, it took a few tries, but she stands on trembling legs.
Pain. Blinding pain takes over her mind, but she tries to breathe it away, staying focused on sucking oxygen in as she ascends higher and higher, hoping the plateau appears soon. It is slow and grueling, even with Fraxni’s diligent help.
But finally
FINALLY
Her cracked hooves make contact with the flattened top of the monstrous mountain. She made it. She finally reached the top. And that is where she fell, lifeless, barely breathing and curled in the dusty dirt, the mists parting a circle around her. Fraxni squeals and curls against her, sobbing, assuming defeat would come for them both soon enough.
Was this death?
She’s in a place that feels weightless, and her pain is gone. She’s making her way through vibrant gardens under soft ethereal music. In the distance she can see a small black figure and in an instant she is closer, nuzzling a small black foal ̶ a healthy filly. She knows this filly, her smell, her warmth; it was her daughter. She was not tiny and frail, or bent like a broken Ibis on the sandy beach. Kota gave her body to the ocean when she was born dead, but the loss has never left her, and always she felt the girl, like a ghost. Her child being dead never stopped her from considering herself it’s mother, and thinking of the child daily. Often she would dream of what the girl might have been, what she could have become, like her siblings…it’s a git wrenching vision she puts herself through, but somehow still cathartic.
It feels like hours she spends with the girl, her child she’s missed for years and even had another daughter since. The child is healthy, bouncing and playful, and the mother and child speak of her life where she is and how happy she is. The child tells how she always knew her mother would come soon, but even so, there are plenty of kin where they are now. The child tells of a place beyond, and that where she is now is just where you wait for the ‘rest’ to join you. The child has been waiting for Kota ̶ and the mother can see the purity of happiness alight in the black filly’s bright angelic eyes.
But she's pulled back.
Back to Beqanna, back to the mountain, back to her ailing body and the cold wraps her.
But the pain flashes away and her lungs rush with fresh air. Her heart beats hard, her limbs crack and strengthen; her muscling returns, her fur brightening, her youthful health seeping back into her body. She rises to her feet, Fraxni hopping around excitedly, and Kota is in disbelief. Did she die or did it work? Her heart tightens, her child, and she looks around the mists as if she might see the girl’s face somewhere…but obviously not.
Either it worked or this is just a cruel dream before the lights go out.
“Is this?” she touches her own ribcage, shoulder, and legs. She smiles wide, despite her mourning heart (seeing her child again is going to fuck her up for a while), and rears like she’s five again. Her plan was to come ask the fairies, or the mountain, anyone really ̶ anyone or anything that could help her ̶ she planned to beg them for Immortality. She died before she could say a word, but perhaps the act of actually dragging her half dead ass up the treacherous Mountain earned her what she was after.
The Mountain, the land, is indifferent to her struggles. This seems obvious, so it had to have been a merciful fairy that took pity on her, perhaps? Or a passing magician who just couldn’t leave the ghostly looking mare to die? She may never know, but that doesn’t bother her.
Her and Fraxni celebrate playfully, galloping about the flattened top of the Mountain. This is no place for celebrations, though, and the pair are quickly shooed away. This was a sacred place, as Kota just truly learned. The Mountain is a place of ritual and magic, and now that Kota has achieved (hopefully) what she came for, it was indeed time to descend.
Was she truly immortal now? Ageless? Her thoughts race between her child and her future as the red fox and the mare make their way down the terrifying steppe. Kota’s vision is sharp again, almost dizzying how well she can see compared to her perspective on the way up. Getting old sucks a bag of dicks, 100%. Could she really be done with such a plague? The sickness of aging ̶ she surely hoped so.
“I saw her, Fraxni.” the mare sighs, plodding along down the steep rocky path. The little fox whimpers, looking up to her mare companion, it is an ‘I’m sorry’ without words. Fraxni flattens her ears and rubs her cheek against Kota’s leg as they walk. It is a comforting gesture, “It is okay, it is good to know she is safe; but she’s waiting for me…and now I’ve…” the red fox squeaks, shaking her head, ‘No no, this was meant to be, it was.’ the fox’s voice comes through to her mind, soothing her. ‘The threads of life are never mistaken.’ Kota hears the wise fox clearly in her mind, nodding, offering a half smile of reluctant acceptance. They walk on until they reach the base and safely leave the territory.
Mission accomplished.
You didn’t die.
