(Untitled)

[fortunes_phase]

[OOC: Part of the Duet for Claws and Swords plot.]

Moon is still in her tree.

It's become a comfortable place, really. She doesn't have to eat. She doesn't have to drink. She doesn't have to sleep. She can just sit in the quiet, occasionally dealing with family or the wolves.

She has grown fond of her tree.

Moon, it seems, has no intention of

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[mogget_cat]

There is movement in one tree among the many that accompany the Moon's tree. Movement, as something leaps lightly from one branch to the other, and two bright green eyes watching the lady among the branches.

[fortunes_phase]

Her own eyes are oddly bright as they lift and find him.

"Hello little cat." Moon smiles, tilting her head. "But not a cat. Not really. Don't come to 'here kitty, kitty', do you? No. You are bright. Bright and pretty and Star would like you."

[mogget_cat]

The not'cat drops lightly from its bough onto one of the longer branches of Moon's tree, up and to her right. The bough bends slightly under its sudden, though light, weight.

"I am bright, indeed," he says, tilting his head in mirror of her movement as he pads gingerly along the branch. "One of the Nine that carry that title. And you? A lonely dryad with leaf-green eyes?"

[fortunes_phase]

Moon giggles, though it is quiet, nothing like her usual laughter.

"Dryad? Oh, no. They are pretty and speak to the trees and the tree speak back. I talk to the trees, but they don't talk to me. I am Moon."

As if that was explanation enough.

[mogget_cat]

"Ah," says he, maneuvering his way among the branches to one of the main boughs, his tail held at a curious angle as he approaches her. "You are the Moon, known to my friend Teja."

[fortunes_phase]

Her smile become more genuine.

"Teja! I like him. He cuddled me." This, she thinks, is a marvelous feat. "But his trial is only just beginning."

Moon's expression darkens, like a cloud over the moon.

"Warrior and wolf, sword and claws, and 'round and 'round they go, walking on a path they cannot see but will surely trip. Stones and vines choking, darkness obscuring the moon, hiding the star, and the tower in the distant is crumbling."

[mogget_cat]

Yrael's ears flick backwards. But not because of surprise that Teja cuddled anyone who wasn't Charlie or a cat (or a not'cat).

"You speak of my brother Jason, as well."

So they had already met.

[fortunes_phase]

Her eyes widen, akin to panic in their depths, and her arms tighten around her legs.

"Ruin hurt him," she whispers.

[mogget_cat]

Did he now...

"I don't suppose you are speaking of ruin in the generic sense..." the not'cat says, rubbing up against her side and purring in a calming manner.

[fortunes_phase]

"Ruin. Brother-mine. I chose him. Picked him. Love him, but hate him. Can you love and hate someone? I don't want to hate him. But he hurt him. Pick pick at old scabs, make them bleed, and then dig the nails in and rip the wound apart!"

Moon rests her temple against her knees and stares at him.

"Ten of Swords. The Moon. The Star. The Tower. Strength. The Wheel of Fortune. Three of Swords. Five of Pentacles. We're here and the path is awash in blood, but not yet... not yet... soon."

[mogget_cat]

His ears flatten as he hears more, and the purring stops.

"Oh, indeed, you can love and hate someone both in the same thought. Siblings most often, for I love my siblings as my own yet have hated them through the millenia. What is this path my friends Jason and Teja are walking? Do they walk upon it knowingly and willingly, or has it been chosen for them?"

And can it be changed?

[fortunes_phase]

Moon's eyes are steady, her eyes flashing slightly.

"All walk the path of their choices. No power can choose it for you. They walk the path they have set before them. But, at the moment... their path leads them through the dark."

Her eyes slip closed.

"Dark and dark, bright is bright, but will they come out on the other side? Leave behind the thicket of briars. Forget the tangle of thorns. Keep away from the blackberry bush, where memory is sweet but stickers will poke."

[mogget_cat]

"One may burn away thorns, and leave only sweet memory," says the Bright Shiner, bumping his furred head against her hand. "One may change the path, or cut a new one through the brambles that threaten. But one does not wait for the thorns to catch them before seeking to clear the path."

One sees to them first.

"Would you tell me of the darkened thicket that stands in their way?"

Metaphysical reconnaissance. Only in Milliways.

[fortunes_phase]

Moon begins to pet the not'cat, slowly, sweetly.

"Change. Change is needed. The storm will come. Refresh the blight. But only if they can breathe. They have to breathe. Have to want it. Change... it's so easy to stay the same."

She sighs, scritching behind his ears.

"I am his Lady, and I cannot stop the deluge."

[mogget_cat]

"Can you but comfort him, as the storm rages?" he queries, impossibly bright green eyes half-shut as he purrs. "Even in the thickest of thorny thickets there is sometimes found a sweet blackberry, to partially eclipse the sharp stings of the thorns."

He settles beside her, kneading claws into the bark of the tree. "Change, then. Change to the walker to change the path? It is not the first time it is needed, nor I dare say will it be the last. Change in mind or body? In thought or deed?"

[fortunes_phase]

Moon can't help herself.

She nuzzles the soft fur.

"Change the heart. Change the spirit. Make it remember. Make it see."

A quiet sigh.

"I promised to pick up the pieces. I promised him to put his mirror back together when it shattered. I just need to find the glue."