Chapter 5

The Irrevocable Future

I woke up again, in my bed. We still had held a day before we had to leave. Celentine said that she wanted to fly kites and have lunch then head back.

We left the cottage we had stayed in and went back to the beach. The hustle and bustle of all the vacationers and people walking around, soaking up the western sun was exciting. I hadn’t ever seen so many people all in one place. The village isn’t like this at all. Not this many people. The palm trees and Pisces in the water is what they advertise, but what was left out was the number of people that crowded the streets and beaches before breakfast.

We had managed to find a Murid selling kites and for a haggle bought two for seven credits. Celentine said it was a ripoff.

We went out to a nice place and set them off, catching then wind just right, we had them flying quite well. I liked it. It was nice to see so many other kites of different sizes and colors all up against the blue sky.

After some time I decided to go play in the water. The cool water touched my fur and I felt the coolness. But there was something off from when I had first gone in. I enjoyed it and played a bit in the water, finding some other young Xenos and splashed around with them.

After about an hour we had to go. I reluctantly packed away the kite and since we bought them stuffed them into our bags and went to eat.

We had a nice lunch, we ordered hamburgers, a new taste for me. I got sauce all over my paws and managed to eat the majority of it, but since it was so big I decided to keep it for a snack on our way back.

Going back was pretty much the same as getting there. It was pleasant and the I watched as we walked by the trees as they gradually got thicker by the hour.

Sunset came and we found another place to stay, no rice fields, yet it was a nice hill where we could start a fire and talk. I could speak now, much better than a week ago. Celentine taught me well. We laid down in the grass and watched the stars slowly turn, she told me the names of different constellations and the story behind some of their names.

She pointed out Ares and Xeres again. I almost recognized them before she told me. She pointed out the Hydra and the griffin and the minotaur. I was amazed that they all had names. Someone must have worked hard to count them all and identify each one. There was even an entire science to it, recognizing the planets and stars and when they line up in a certain way, things happen.

I finally nodded off to sleep.

Celentine was quiet, her breathing was soft and faint. She rolled over and muttered something that sounded like “Yes dear.”

She’s a very loving teacher.

I ventured out seeing what I could. There was smoke coming from one of the rolling hills of trees. I decided to go in that direction.

It was that Canine boy, but he looked a lot older. “You’re still here, you haven’t gone home yet?”

“No, we have a few days to and we’ll head back. There seems to have been a storm in our path.”

“That’s odd. I haven’t seen any anything like that.”

“No, you wouldn’t be able to.”

I thought about that. Maybe it’s far away. “Alright. Well, have a good stay.” I replied.

“Have you enjoyed it?” He asked before I could leave.

“Enjoyed what?”

“Your life. Have you enjoyed your life and everything you have accomplished?”

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“I guess so.” I replied. I looked at myself. I wasn’t wearing my normal attire. It was something else. A tight black jumpsuit made of flexible material, a hood with goggles. “Who am I? What have I done?” I asked myself out loud, not accusingly, but now I was curious. Is this me? Where am I? When am I?

The Canine boy left, satisfied that he made his point.

I looked around. The tents and camp fires that were there had been taken down or put out. They seemed to be leaving now.

I walked out of the wide clearing and ventured out farther south. Celentine told me there were monkeys down there. Maybe they can talk.

I started walking through the forest some more. Trying to hear my own footsteps. They were silent, there was nothing, not even a crunch as I stepped on a dry leaf.

I came up to the top of another hill. It was higher than most of the other hills around. A small stream of water was coming out from the ground. A little spring had formed all the way up here. Interesting. There was a small clearing here, and someone sitting on a log over to the side, their back facing me.

“Dawn,” he said it a soft deep voice of a person who has lived long. “You’ve made it. You’ve done so much for us already.”

I stepped closer to him. In the dark of night, my black suit and my silent steps, how could he know I was here. Who is he to know my name? “Xeres?”

“Yes darling. I’ve waited long for this moment, I knew it would come and you would be the one. The prophecy says so. I prophesied it myself.”

“Thank you Xeres. I’m glad you could trust me. But I think I’ve come to find that I must trust myself. It’s harder at times than others.” I don’t know why I said that. I didn’t sound like a young Xeno, though Celentine said I was smart for my age. But what was there in me that I had to trust?

Xeres had turned to face me as I sat down beside him. “Dawn, believe in yourself. You have everything inside of you. You are yourself. That’s what counts.”

“You think so?”

“I know so.”

“And what is this all about? I thought I was a young Xeno just starting to train to be the next Huntress. Now I feel older and I’m wearing something I’ve never seen before.”

“Always young at heart. It’s a good trait, dear. Don’t worry.” He stood up and motioned to the stars. “Out of all the Xenos, Man and other species out there, you’re here and you’ve done your job, I couldn’t have trusted anyone else with the job you’ve done.”

“What have I done?”

He laughed. “You haven’t don’t anything. Not yet. But you’d have done enough before you know it. Now go to sleep. Rest while you have the chance” he laughed. “There’s hardly a dull moment even after a few thousand years dead. I’ll see you again soon enough.”

“You’re saying I’m it. I’ll know when I’m done. But how will I know?”

“It’s only begun, but there is an end. An end before the beginning.” He drew a circle in the air, right where the sun had started coming up behind us.

“Look Dawn, it’s dawn.” He laughed. “You better get back to Celentine before she finds out where you’ve been.” He winked and vanished into a mist.

The enigmatic gods. I think I should get back to Celentine.

I walked back towards the north, noticing the slight variations in jungle flora. I could hear my footsteps again, slight, very slight. I am still a Feline Xeno. Soft, cunning, daring. The curious and deadly Huntress. The most dangerous of them all.

———

Celentine was sleeping. Curled up in a ball next to the fire. She looked old. Even older than Ares and Xeres. Her ears twitched at the approach of my near silent footfalls, but I had managed to lay down and watch the stars fade and the sun come up without waking her.

I seemed to have only blinked and Celentine was already standing over me, bag on her shoulder and telling me to wake up, we should be getting back.

I stretched and yawned while she grabbed my bag and handed it to me. Luckily it wasn’t too heavy, but nearly no food.

“We’ll find some berries and thing on the way there, I think it will be good for you to know what you should or shouldn’t eat.”

Sounds good. I don’t mind berries. But I wasn’t that hungry, especially with all the food we had at the beach.

We walked back, Celentine leading the way at times and me following. Other times I had darted through the trees and had found some more berries that I could eat, unable to resist their taste. I ran by, grabbing a handful and popping them into my mouth. They were delicious.

Before nightfall we had made it back to the temple. The big imposing stone shrine that was my home. Yet you couldn’t see it anywhere than where we were, it was hidden right in the open.

I walked inside with Celentine and decided to make dinner with the leftovers we kept from the beach. I had half a hamburger still and Celentine picked a few fruits and vegetables from the garden and made a salad.

I nibbled at her salad in between bits of the hamburger. She had a way with food that I would have to master myself.

She stared at me while I ate. She seemed happy yet sad. A reminiscence of what she was when she was young.

The sun had died down and we were immersed in darkness, the stars giving us light, even inside our temple I could see “the eyes of a Feline” as Celentine told me, adding onto our astronomy lesson. There were no candles, no lights that they had in the city. “You don’t need them.” She had said.

She hugged me and put me to sleep in my room.