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Learning to Live
Chapter 23: The Mother
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(Milly)
"You know what that thing is?" Nick asked the weather beaten man leaning over him.
"Uru knows many things." The old man said with a grin.
A confused look passed between the others, but Meryl's face turned to recognition. "You were the one who found the guns!"
Uru grinned again, "Yes. You remember."
"Of course," Meryl chuckled, "Kind of hard to forget."
"Wait, wait," Vash said suddenly. "You know what that thing is… tell us." It wasn't a request. Vash looked deeply disturbed.
Uru began talking; at first it was hard to understand his broken way of speech, but after a few minutes it became easy to understand. The thing that had attacked the town was called a Shade. It's real name, given to it by the former inhabitants of Gunsmoke. The fact that there were former inhabitants was as surprising as the Shade, but Uru didn't elaborate on that. Instead he told us about how the Shade had been born, one of over a thousand others, it had been jealous of the power afforded to one of its elder siblings, Gian, and after destroying some of its younger siblings and gaining their powers went after the elder sibling.
Gian was currently in the process of creating a world and when the Shade attacked the elder was caught unprepared. It was badly damaged by the Shade's first attack and used up almost all of its power to put the Shade in a comatose state that it stayed in for billions of years. With the last of its life Gian put its lifeforce, it spirit into a mammalian species that would one day give rise to primates and eventually humans.
The life force reincarnated each generation into a new life form, Gian slowly gaining its energy and strength. However, Gian's life force didn't regenerate soon enough. Humans left Earth disconnecting Gian from its only route out. The core of the planet, also known as Spiritus, was intrinsically tied to Gian's life and it had no way to use the energy of the Spiritus to free itself.
As the human male Gian was currently residing in was put in a state of cold sleep, the Gian also fell into a sleeplike state, only waking then the human woke on a desert planet.
The Spiritus of the desert planet was incompatible with Gian's, as the planet had been formed from an ancient form of its species many eons ago. Time passed and the Gian continued to jump from one host to another as each was born, lived and died.
After Uru had completed his tale, Vash asked, "Then why is it following us?"
"Gian, one of you holds." He said simply.
"Who is it?" Meryl asked, glancing at each of us before finally resting on Uru.
Uru stared at each of us in turn, his look long and searching. Finally he stood up to his full four and half feet and walked towards a tall sack at the edge of the alley way. He rummaged through the bag, muttering to himself inaudibly.
I gave Nick a look of confusion; he just shook his head looking just as confused, only more peeved.
"Aha!" Uru, cried out and hobbled back to us. He held out his palm and on it laid three bullet shaped rocks. Little glitters on them sparkled gold while others shone like silver.
Before any of us could respond he placed his hand in front of Vash's face, then seconds later moved in front of Meryl, again moving on seconds later. Next his hand was in front of my face. I expected him to move away a few seconds in but he didn't. At first I felt a chill run through my blood. Then I felt my muscles seize up and I was locked into place staring at the bullet rocks.
A toneless voice echoed in my head speaking words I didn't understand. But the meaning behind them became clear: Daughter, it is time to bring about the Prophecy of my brethren's Chosen Ones. You, the keeper of Life, must save your siblings and your children. Go, Mother, with the Child, the Defender and the Catalyst to the land where the temple rises and falls. There you will find salvation for all.
With the last words spoken I closed my eyes and for the briefest of moments the world was black. When I opened my eyes again I was staring at the ceiling of my bedroom, the words still reverberating through my head.
I looked around. At first I wondered how long I'd been asleep, then shocking I felt the amount of time that had transpired. Three days. It had felt like only an instant at first. I realized after a few minutes that I could also sense the people in the house. Vash was in the kitchen pacing aback and forth, while Meryl sat at the table drinking some coffee. The twins were in their crib down the hall, but Nick was nowhere in the house or immediate vicinity. Closing my eyes I tried to make sense of these new things I was feeling, the time sense, and the people sense. I wondered briefly if this was what it was like to be a plant. I shook my head to myself, no. This was something entirely different. I'm sure some people would find this all scary. But I kind of though it was rather exciting. Who knows what the voice in my head had been talking about? But I'm sure I would be able to figure it out.
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-PRESENT DAY-
"And then, it started to come to me. What Gian had been saying to me, that is. When I saw you two in the Marketplace the other day, I realized who two of the people were. You, Kestrel are the Child, borne from the parent race of humans representing the future of all the people in this planet. And you, Knives, are the Defender, one of those who were created to protect and defend the human race. I am the Mother, or the one who carries the essence of the mother of all our races. The Catalyst…is unknown at this time. But I know in my heart that he or she will be present when we get to the Temple."