The Chirr'T'Thar scoutship has left back for Tharhome, thundering back up into the sky. Evening has set and Acera was helping her mother with some chores when she notes Nalae has been acting funny all day, and heads up in the tree to search for her friend. Worried maybe the flight with Copernicus upset her stomach.
The little Marenati has been sitting up on a rather high branch of the tree, the branch bobbing and swaying beneath her weight. Her eyes are cast skyward, toward the twinkling lights of the stars above.
Acera is quite a ways below in the tree and she finally gives up and calls out, "Nalae! Where are ya?"
Nalae is finally stirred from her attentions by the voice of her friend. "I'm up here," she calls back.
A muffled sound of surprise is followed by a minute or two of scrambling and then, "Nalae, whatcha doing all the way up here?"
Nalae replies, "I'm looking at the stars.. you can't see them from down there.."
Acera blinks, "Well, not all of em, no. Whatcha lookin for?" as the young frenat ponders getting all the way up to Nalae's precarious perch.
Nalae shrugs a bit. "'m not lookin' for anything.. I'm just lookin'."
Acera finally scrambles up next to Nalae and chitters, "They are pretty aren't they? I hope we can go see em sometime."
Nalae blinks at Acera. "We're seein' them now.."
Acera shakes her head, "Naw. I mean up close. That winged cat guy said that each one is a sun, just like ours....Do you believe that?"
Nalae nods to Acera, but blinks a little. "The.. sun.. is the Great Keeper.. the oldest of the Creators..."
Acera looks confused, but has heard a lot that contradicts what she knows about the world, so chitters, "Well, ma says the sun gives life to all the plants, and the plants feed the animals, which in turn feed some other animals. But you think the sun...is alive?"
Nalae nods softly, smiling a little bit. "The Great Keeper watches over us during the day.. and our ancestors watch over us at night..
Acera blinks again and chitters, "Our ancestors?"
Nalae extends one arm upwards, pointing towards the stars. "They're right up there.. but all you can see is the glimmer of the Great Mother in their eyes while they watch us..."
Acera blinks, "But, he said they were suns too. Just that they're so far away they look so tiny."
Nalae blinks at Acera. "That's not what the Keeper told me.." And the Keeper is a higher authority.
Acera hmmms and asks,"Who's this Keeper?"
Nalae says, "He was the one who took care of all of us.. like your mother, but he took care of all the kits until we came of age..."
Acera ohs, "Has he been up there?"
Nalae shakes her head several times. "You can't come back after you go to the stars!"
Acera looks confused, "But, but Copernicus did. He does I mean. He said he does."
Nalae shakes her head. "He's a Creator... it's different for him.."
Acera blinks, "Oh. But why don't you believe him that the stars are suns too?"
Nalae shakes her head a bit, looking a bit confused about that. "Well.. I don't know... maybe they are, to him... I mean, we don't know much about the Creators, really... they might see things different..."
Acera nods, "He is kinda different. But he said that he'd have friends lookin for your folks up there."
Nalae says, "They can see everything from up there... they'd be the best ones to ask where the rest of my family is..."
Acera is looking really confused, but figures it's best to wait and ask her mother, she just nods, "It was fun flyin with him, wasn't it?"
Nalae nods several times. "Yeah.. I wish I could do that.."
Acera nods and looks up, "Yeah. Well, he said if ma says it's ok, he'll take me up there sometime."
Nalae's eyes widen. "No!"
Acera blinks, "Huh? Why not?"
Nalae says, "Weren't you listening? If you go, you can't come back!"
Acera frowns, "But Copernicus can. He said he'd promise to bring me back safe and sound to my ma?"
Nalae fidgets worriedly. "I.. I dunno... if he said so... but it doesn' sound safe... I'd be afraid I wouldn't see you again.... except up there.."
Acera's whiskers droop, "Well, I kinda was..well, you know...I kinda thought you'd go with me?"
Nalae fidgets worriedly. "I.. well.. I dunno... um.."
Acera snugs Nalae, "Well, he won't be back for a while he said. We can talk to ma and see how safe it is with a..what'd you call him?"
Nalae says, "Creator.."
Acera looks up at the stars for a bit and finally says, "It's just...I've always wanted to know what's out there. Folks in Haven think that "spacers", people who travel up there, came down here and set up their town for em."
Nalae considers that. "Maybe the Creators did..." She shrugs a little bit. "The world is bigger'n I ever thought..."
Acera nods, "Sure is a lot harder to understand than I thought too. Yet, seeing Copernicus, and that Charon fella...I feel kinda lucky. Getting to see things and do things other folks don't get ta."
Nalae considers that. She nods a bit, saying, "Nobody's seen a Creator.. as far back as the Keeper knew.. I mean, they can look like whatever they want, so you wouldn't know it if you _did_ see one.. I guess I was lucky to meet him.." She grins a bit, "The Keeper'll probably be askin' me about him for a week!" Imagine all that attention... :)
Acera nods, "Yeah. I never asked him to teach me how to change bodies like that. Hey! We could both grow wings and fly! Cool!"
Nalae shakes her head a few times. "Only Creators can do it... it's.. not something you can learn, I don't think.. I mean, it's like you can't learn to glide like me, and I can't learn to swim like you..."
Acera looks disappointed, then has an idea, "Well, how do ya get to be a creator?"
Nalae blinks. "Well.. I mean.. you just are one.. like you're you, an' I'm me.."
Acera ohs, "So you're born one then? Shoot."
Nalae apparently isn't quite happy with that, either. "I.. I guess.. I mean, I dunno... all the Keeper told me about the Creators is that they made the world, an' sometimes they come down in different forms..."
Acera hmms, "Well he said he had a mate, and that she was gonna have kits, and we'd get ta meet em an all."
Nalae nods softly. She'd forgotten about that.. the Keeper'll undoubtedly want to talk to her for TWO weeks straight. "Oh yeah... I guess they must be born, then.."
Acera looks confused, "Do they get lost too? He said his mate lost her home, like ya did?"
Nalae fidgets some more. She obviously doesn't much care for the direction this is going. "I.. I dunno..."
Acera notes Nalae getting upset and she chitters, "Whatsa matter?"
Nalae says, "Well.. I dunno... they shouldn't get lost... they _made_ the world!"
Acera has this feeling that's she's doing something wrong again, but she quietly says, "Well, he said it was a..different world she was from."
Nalae blinks at Acera. "You.. mean like another tribe?"
Acera nods, "I think so."
Nalae nods softly. "That sort of makes sense, then... I mean, she couldn't be lost where she was from, could she?"
Acera sighs, "I think ma is right. There's too much stuff for someone to be a know it all."
Nalae nods softly, looking back up at the stars. "How'd ya meet Samantha?" Her mind has been taking wild tangents for quite some time.
Acera looks up at the stars for several minutes, then softly churrs, "She... she found me next to ma folks. There'd been a horrible flood way up the river, lots of water, tore trees out. My folks got smashed by the tree. I was real young. Ma..I mean Samantha adopt'd me."
Nalae shivers softly and nods, giving Acera a gentle hug. "'m sorry.."
Acera hugs Nalae back and chitters, "It's ok. Been a long time. And Samantha is a good ma to me."
Nalae quietly asks, "Do you think they're up there now?"
Acera sniffs slightly, "Dunno. Ma talks with a lot of people. They all got different ideas bout what happens to ya when ya die. I...just hope they're someplace where they can swim and get fish and lie in the sun."
Nalae nods uncertainly, but doesn't argue. She just gives Acera another little hug. "Wanna go back down?"
Acera looks back up to the stars for another minute then nods, "Ya. We're up kinda high, ma might get mad."
Nalae says, "You go down first.. I don' want to make the branch shake while you're up here..."
Acera nods and works her way down, proving the old adage that it's easier to climb up than it is to climb down, but she finally makes it to the large branch that holds her room.
Nalae scampers down after Acera, once her friend has reached a safer branch. She takes much less time to get down, mostly since she has no qualms about clambering down the tree with her head downwards.
Nalae quietly makes her way over to Acera. "D'you.. really think they'll find my home?"
Acera nods, "I sure hope so. I know they'll try Nalae."
Nalae nods softly, sighing. "I hope so," she murmurs.
Acera chitters, "I'm kinda tired. It was a fun day though, but I gotta head to bed. Ma'll get mad if I stay up all night."
Nalae nods softly. "Okay.. G'night.."
Acera pads towards her room and then turns around, "If I leave the tarp open, think you'd mind..spending the night next ta me?"
Nalae smiles at Acera quickly. "You wouldn't mind?"
Acera rubs her paws together nervously, "Naw...I...I don't wanna be alone, ya know?"
Acera obviously misses her parents a little, even after all this time.
Nalae nodnods several times. "Me either..." She pads after her friend into the little room. "We always used to sleep nex' to each other.. all bundled in together, back home... I sorta miss it..."
Acera nods and rearranges the mess in her room and gives Nalae a small pillow and curls up on some blankets, "G'night Nalae. And thanks."
Nalae moves over so that she's laying near Acera's side. "Thank you too," she murmurs.
Acera grins as she snugs up against her friend, feeling a little less lonely. She churrs, "Well, maybe ya can't teach me to glide. But I bet I can teach ya to swim. ;)"
Nalae looks a little doubtful. "Maybe..." She just snuggles in, gently giving Acera a little hug, and letting the leathery gliding membrane dangling from her wrist serve as an extra blanket for her friend.
Starlight, Starbright, how I wonder what you are tonight? I wish I may, I wish I might, have the wish I wish for my friend tonight....