Winterbound, Part 18 - Scramble

For as long as they had lived there, for as long as any of their parents or grandparents or distant relatives had, the uroxoo tree had stood guard to the souls of their departed. The tree was both a monument to their passing as well as a reminder that despite the loss, life kept on continuing. In this way, it tied together life and death. This was the way of things the people of Estirão all understood intrinsically from the moment they were brought crowned with the tree’s flowers as new-borns until the moment their bodies were laid to rest under its roots.

Now, as she carefully set down her grandmother’s tapestry on the ground in the tree’s shade, Anaya found she understood it better than ever.

Kaneq was watching her keenly, all while she smoothed out wrinkles in the cloth. This she felt more than saw, her own eyes fixed on the pattern before her. The dragon had curled its body around the tree, morphing herself in order to conform to her environment. She was still big, but not quite as enormous as had been necessary for the sake of transporting four people on her back.

Tiu was also watching her, standing to the left of Anaya almost, but not quite touching. Her presence was a comfort.

Actually, it almost seemed like the whole village had gathered on the square to gawk at them, not daring to come close enough to be heard but hovering and whispering at the edges. To Kaneq, this seemed to be a source of amusement, the positive vibrations of her emotions washing through Anaya like a gentle summer rain. The only people still near were Madiza and Kimo, who both had stubbornly refused to take the hint and leave already.

Finally pleased with the way the tapestry was laid out, Anaya took a deep breath and sat down on it. She crossed her legs and closed her eyes. The image carved by the colorful threads danced before her eyelids.

“I’m ready,” she said out loud, to alert Tiu, yes, but more so to steel her own nerves.

Kaneq had explained the process, or how it would have gone had her grandmother been alive. The dragon’s soul would pass through from the old anchor to the new, their memories fusing. As Anaya’s grandmother had passed, the memories would come from the spirit woven into the tapestry, strengthened by the presence of the uroxoo tree. They would be hazy, but hopefully enough.

‘Then open your eyes.’

As if bespelled by Kaneq’s words Anaya felt her eyes open. The sight that greeted her was not the one she had last seen. Everything was shrouded in a white mist, images flashing past her.

‘Do not fear. Find the truth.’

Anaya focused her eyes, trying to envision her bond to both her grandmother and Kaneq in her mind. The images around her stilled, becoming clearer. She saw snow and white peaked mountains. She saw Kaneq, flying above her, looking the same but somehow younger, stronger. She must’ve been lost in the void of time for longer than the years that had passed in Anaya’s reality.

Then the image changed, the sensation not unlike the shifting of Kaneq’s flight, and suddenly Anaya was facing a woman, not quite young and not quite old, but immensely familiar. With a dizzying jolt, Anaya realized she was looking through Kaneq’s eyes, facing her grandmother as she had been, long before Anaya’s own birth.

Standing beside her grandmother were two girls, not much older than Anaya was herself. One of them was dark, her brown curls similar to Anaya’s grandmother. The other was lighter, her eyes brilliant and cool like a frosted lake. Her grandmother was talking to the girls, her words mumbled by the hum of memories in Anaya’s ears.

Anaya’s grandmother took something out of her pocket. It was at this moment that Anaya realized she was wearing clothes such as the people wore in the north, adorned with furs and heavy, embroidered fabrics. So were the girls, the dark one stepping forward towards Anaya’s grandmother as she reached to tie something around the girl’s neck. It was a stone necklace, white and brilliant, hung on a leather string. The girl’s face was determined, her brows wrinkling. It was an expression Anaya recognized – she had seen it in the mirror on the mornings when she felt like she needed to gather her courage to face the world.

Anaya’s grandmother stepped away once more, and the girl relaxed visibly, turning to her other companion. The blue-eyed girl smiled and reached her mittened hand to her own neck. From beneath her shawl, she pulled out a blue stone, similar to the white one now hung around the other girl’s neck. That too, the stone, was something she recognized. It was Madiza’s stone.

Anaya gasped, even in the haze of her memories feeling the way her body so far away reacted. The memory around her swirled, days and months and years flashing past her. She saw flashes of her grandmother’s life. She had come from the north, travelling with the two girls, now young adults. Then their ways had parted, Anaya’s grandmother settling to Estirão whereas the girls travelled on. She saw her grandmother’s house slowly turn to the place she recognized from her childhood. And then finally she saw herself, feeling her grandmother’s sorrow and confusion as she held Anaya in her arms. There was something missing, it seemed. The necklace.

With another startling breath she was pulled back to her body.

Tiu’s hands were gripping her shoulders almost painfully. “Anaya? Anaya? Are you alright?”

Her voice seemed far-off, and Anaya had to really push herself to focus on reality. “I’m okay,” she rasped out. “I’m fine.”

Tiu relaxed her grip, helping Anaya back up to her own two feet.

“I saw my grandma when she was younger,” Anaya said, the words bubbling out as she tried to make sense of everything. Beneath her skin, in her soul, she could feel Kaneq closer than ever before. “And I saw a girl with a white stone. My—my mother? At least I think she was.”

‘Yes. Neadi’s daughter.’ Kaneq’s voice seemed to reverberate deep in Anaya, her feeling as clear as Anaya’s own thoughts.

“White stone?” Tiu asked.

“The soul stone,” Anaya spoke with the words that came not from herself but Kaneq. “Grandma passed it onto my mother after she was anchored to Kaneq. It was meant to prepare my mother to be the next anchor but…” The memory of holding the baby, herself, came flashing to her mind. “It was lost when she died.”

‘We need that stone to complete the anchoring.'

“I… I know we need it,” Anaya said, biting her lip. “But how are we supposed to know where it is? Unless…” Her eyes widened. “The other girl!”

‘Ah, Neadi’s goddaughter. She was an anchor for a river dragon, which is why the families kept together. If I recall, her name was…’

“Leda,” said Anaya, locking eyes with Madiza, who blinked.

“My mother?” she asked, gripping her necklace through her shirt.

__________________________________________________

Next topic is "Atonement"