Star shrines

In the city of the bear Häppchen, the trickster goddess was walking through the streets though she was very troubled at every turn she would run into both shrines and temples to various gods. From the rich streets and their temple to Intia, the god of guiding lights, to the docks on the grand river where many ships docked all with small shrines to Ambelle the goddess known for her beauty and ability charm the grand river itself, turning it from a bear that would smash ships on it shores into a calm mule for the men to travel with. Even the lover gods of Resta and Hydar, these two were best known for being the two stars that would rise in the morning, dance through out the day, and set together at night had managed a small shrine in the centre of town, even if it was mostly farmers who mostly gave them sacrifice.

Once the forgotten goddess was done with her business in town, she set out north along one of the minor roads, which seemed fitting to her in her sardonic way. These people treated her like a minor god, so she belonged on their minor roads. As the city shrank behind her she came to a fork in the road where some farmer had left field stones to bake in the suns. As she stood there deciding what road her future should be on, a thought occurred to her. If the men and women of this land would not erect a shrine to her she would do the work for them.

Whispering to the spirits that lived inside of these field stones. She told them how sad it was that their homes had been taken from where they had lived so long and forced them to bake under the hot suns. Maybe though, just maybe there was a shape they could change their home into that would keep these little spirits cool in the hot summer and dry in the wet winters.

Over joyed at this the spirits wanted to know what shape Häppchen thought they should change their stones into. So she told the spirits and as she did the stones moved and changed becoming for an instant like water before hardening again in a new shape. She watched with glee as the spirits changed their field stone homes into a shrine for her.

Once they were done she clasped her hands together with joy. While it wasn’t the covered in the delicate paints or fine woven gold and silver of other shrines, this was for her a grand monument to her and her being.

Delighted with how this shrine had turned out she placed a small morsel she had picked up in the town’s market down in the little shrine to herself. Without so much as an explanation to the confused stone spirits as to why she was leaving an offering in their home she was off, headed down the road to where her feet would take her next.

A week later Häppchen found herself once again wondering down that path while Resta and Hydar played in the sky above her, showing off the new beads Resta had been given by Hydar.

When finally she came to the crossroad she had a grand gift for these little spirits, a mirror of pure gallium. Perfect for the cool hands of any spirit, though in the warmth of a human or god’s hand it would surely melt to nothing. She found there not the little shrine the stone spirits had shifted their home into, but rather rubble laying by the road as that place had a new shrine placed where her sole shrine had been, destroyed by some farmer who erected yet another set of twined shrines to Resta and Hydar.

Looking up at the sky Häppchen glared at the two even as she already knew what the other gods and goddesses would say, with all their shrines, that shrines come and go, and it doesn’t matter if you loose a single one. It was something those with shrines to spare would never understand.

That night once the sky only contained the Milky Way, Häppchen made her way to the Mindont spring, where knowledge first flowed out from the underworld into the living world. Once there Häppchen spoke with many of the minor gods all of whom she was certain couldn’t count the number of shrines they had dedicated to them on one hand, though for some of them she doubted that it was for lack of fingers.

As the night went on and on Häppchen busied herself going from each of those who had decided to come that night and drink of the mystic waters at this spring. It wasn’t until the sky became a light grey that the two she had come seeking deigned to show their faces to those still gathered.

As Resta spoke with the goddess of numbers Edend, Häppchen spotted Hydar who while enjoying the atmosphere of those gathered at Mondont, she would catch the sad glint of loneliness in his eyes, and watch as a quick glance over to Resta would wipe it away, at least for a time.

“Ah she really is a treasure.” Häppchen said to Hydar just as he was starting to get that sad look in his eyes. For this comment all that Hydar gave back to Häppchen was an unamused scoff. “I suppose that could be said of her.” He eventually agreed as she continued to sit there, her eyes bearing down into his being. “But if only you could show her, oh but that wouldn’t be fair to all the other goddesses who wish for your smile.” She says more musing to herself than talking to Hydar.

This comment got Hydar’s attention to fix on Häppchen. “Show her what?” Hydar asked with a tone and force to his voice that made it clear to all, that were unfortunate enough to be listening in on what the two were speaking about, that this was in no way a question. “Oh, well you see I came across some mermaids who were in trouble.” Häppchen started to say. “I have no time for the ramblings of a fool.” Hydar cut her off just as her story was starting.

“Oh well yes.” Häppchen said, before continuing a truncated version of her story. “Well in short these mermaids gave me one of their excellent mirrors, but to those like you or myself, with fiery hearts the mirror would simply melt away and not be able to show us anything.”

As Häppchen spoke it was clear that Hydar wanted to interrupt her, but what she was saying had captured him enough to hold his tongue so far. “Now you see, one with a calm heart, and cool temperament.” She explained. “You mean like Resta?” Hydar chose to interject at that moment. “Yes, exactly like Resta.” Häppchen confirmed before continuing. “She could take this mirror and finally see just how lovely she is to you.”

With her story told Häppchen took out a small birch wood box and opened up the lid to show Hydar. The god out of a lifetime of habit reached out a hand to take the mirror but Häppchen snapped the box closed. “No!” She scolded him, doing her best to keep her voice low enough to not alarm any of the others here. “You, like I, are simply too hot headed to be blessed with this mirror.” She reminded Hydar. “You must take this box in it’s whole state to Resta. Then before she takes up the mirror you must tell her the story of this mirror as I have told you, only then can she be allowed to pick up the mirror. Do you understand?” She asked him.

With out so much as a nod, much less any word, Hydar snatched the box from Häppchen’s hand and walked over to his loved Resta. For Häppchen she was barely able to make it to the edge of the clearing where the spring lay that she heard a scream from Resta. On the ground where she had been standing was a birch box and a half melted gallium mirror.

Hydar didn’t know if he wanted to follow Resta and assure her that there must have been something wrong about the story, or if he wanted to find the trickster Häppchen and break her neck. He became hot with rage and would when his anger got to high burn the skin of all those he saw working upon the land, in particular he wished to burn the skin of Häppchen should she ever be found under his sight during the day.

While Resta became pale and dull in complexion compared to how she had been before she’d tried to view herself in that mirror. She ran as fast as she could, and was often out of reach for Hydar to catch up with, her beads becoming hard to see, except for the rare times she would meet and dance with Hydar in the sky. Her beads once again shining as they had when she was first given them.

Though even as they danced it would only last for a short time before she found herself running away from Hydar once again.

And so the twinned star gods of Hydar and Resta became the estranged gods, Hydar the Sun god, and Resta the Moon goddess.

Making camp

Sitting as she watched Taty busy herself Zelda stoked the little fire. The warm light felt good on her skin. Once the fire was going Zelda went to pick up the steel cooking tripod. As she lifted it she felt a shiver of pain shooting out from her shoulder. She bit down on her lower lip as she moved the thing onto her good shoulder as a sweat formed on her brow.

As she carefully took one step after another the tripod suddenly became light. When Zelda looked around she was nose to nose with Taty who had lifted the metal away from Zelda as if it was nothing more than a few bits of doweling.  “I can do it.” Zelda protested even as her body flushed with relief of having the weight of the metal off her.

Taty looked back over her shoulder. “It’s okay I’ve got this, why don’t you collect some snow?” She gives Zelda a smile before turning her attention to the fire and setting up the tripod.

Zelda comes to the sleigh and finds the tin pot. She empties the pillows that were shoved into it to be left with the rest of their gear, and also takes two small balls of prepackaged pemmican that each proudly proclaim their robust 400 calories, along with a small pick.

Taty has made quick work of the tripod getting it set up and moved some of the pieces of wood to keep them from pouring out of the cooking area. She turned to look at Zelda, pausing for a moment as she watched the other woman waddle with the tin pot bouncing off her thighs.  She gave a weak smile and a shake of her head as she let the other woman work. Going back to the tripod to make certain that it wouldn’t shift and spill everything onto the fire below.

With the pick in hand Zelda had gone to a snow drift and filled the pot with broken shards of ice and the clean white powder that had been under it. She pressed it down with the back of her gloved hand until she couldn’t any more and the snow and ice came to the brim of the tin.

Coming back to the fire Zelda has to squint, the sun was low on the horizon despite when she looked at her watch, seeing that it was nearly midnight. As she came the last few steps to the fire a deep part of her missed the regular diming of the lights when it was night, not the seemingly endless summer days that the surface had.

“That looks great.” Taty says to Zelda as she hooks the pot to the centre of the tripod. As Zelda turns back to Taty she notices the other woman holding up a pair of bowls. “So what’s for dinner?” Taty asks, holding out one of the dented bowls as Zelda fumbles in her pockets for the two pemmican balls. Taking the bowl she places the pair of balls in in. “Uh we’ve got, reindeer and cranberries or mackerel and candied peach.” She says offering Taty her choice even if her eyes betray her true wish as she watches the reindeer ball.  

Zelda watched as a treacherous hand went and plucked up the reindeer pemmican. “Oh I think you’re really going to like that one.” She manages to say as she takes a seat beside Taty in the pair of old nylon camping chair that had been patched at least a dozen times she could spot and probably more times that she couldn’t.

As the water got hot Zelda ladled out enough of the hot water to turn her pemmican into a stew. The two ate talking about nothing, Zelda with her pemmican stew and Taty enjoying hers dry. Taty then gave out a small gasp of surprise. Zelda looked up startled at what could cause Taty to make that sound when Taty pressed in close against Zelda’s good shoulder. “Do you see it?” She whispered into Zelda’s ear, her arm pointing to something off to their side. Zelda looked her eyes following Taty’s arm to a mount not far from where she’d been gathering snow before.  A part of her fearful that there’d be a raider standing there with a couple of his friends coming up over it. But all that her eyes could find was a few puffs of white cloud in a dimming side. “What?” She asks, lost as to what she’d missed.

“There was a fox!” Taty whispered to her with the excitement Zelda thought should be reserved for finding a lost friend like in so many stories she’d read growing up.

“N-no…” She says, feeling like she’d somehow recked the moment as Taty pulls away from her.

“Oh that’s too bad.” Taty says, going back to what little was left of her pemmican. “I’m sure you’ll spot one first soon.” She teases Zelda.

Letting out a sigh at missing the chance to see another living creature beyond Taty, Zelda turned her attention back to her stew, she took a few more bites from her stew she noticed a chunk of pemmican she’d failed at breaking up into her stew. She had to wonder just how tired she was to make a mistake like that.

Zelda mixed in just a bit more water to help break down the pemmican and took a hungry bite of it and her eyes went wide. The mild lean taste and explosion of tart in her mouth, she knew this. Her gaze shot over to Taty who looking just far enough away from her that Zelda was certain she could be seen from the corner of Taty’s eye but far enough that she’d deny it no matter how much Zelda pestered the woman about it.

Grumbling to herself got Taty to look over to Zelda. “Is your shoulder bothering you?” Taty asked, causing Zelda to glance away. In truth it was bothering her, there hadn’t been a point since getting wounded that it wasn’t, even if it was better than it had been. “We should check it.” Taty pressed with, after not getting a quick enough answer.

“Okay.” Is all that Zelda can say surprised at the force of the insistence. She angles her body a bit away from Taty for a little bit of privacy. “Do we have enough water for the old bandages?” She asks Taty to give her something to focus on as Zelda peels off her coat and top to check her wound.

It stings a bit as she unties the bandage and pulls the fabric away that has started to fuse with the skin. She presses with her finger around it and whinces as she does, while trying like always and failing to see the wound with her own eyes, even though it has remained out sight.

“Taty?” Zelda says, hearing the woman jump a bit as she readjusted some half-burnt wood. “Do you mind?” She asks, stretching out her neck even as it makes the wound scream out so that Taty can get the best look. “Any colour change?” She asks once Taty is over to her.

With the most gentle touch Taty’s soldier fingers can manage. Zelda can’t help but jump a little at this touch, her stiches bulging but never tearing.

Taty smiles so that Zelda can see her expression before answering. “It’s still red, but it doesn’t look like you’re getting any infection or anything.” She says happily and truthfully before adding on. “It’s starting to close up to.” She says with a bit too much excitement in her voice even as the wound still looks to be as long as her index finger, the same as the day she got it.

Zelda gives out a relived sigh, it hadn’t felt like that, she’s glad to hear, that she isn’t screwing up everything.

Once Taty was done examining Zelda’s wound she went to check the perimeter of their makeshift camp for signs of other travelers while Zelda went and got the bedroll so they could get some sleep.

With the sun finally set the two were in a single large sleeping bag on top of some feather weight panels that insulated them better from the ground. The two were close, they couldn’t afford the lost energy by each having their own sleeping bag.

When they started out they’d agreed they’d take turns sleeping on the fireside but each night Taty would forget who had been fireside the night before and claim it was Zelda’s turn to be fire side, and when Zelda corrected the record on that Zelda would still wake up fireside.  After a point she just had to give up on this.

Every night went the same they would bed down and as soon as her head found the pillow she’d be out, only stirring to find Taty’s warmth when she got cold.

This night though Zelda woke up when it was still dark, the sun not making its quick march back to the sky. She could hear Taty saying something but couldn’t focus on it, her stirring causing Taty to stop saying what she had been. Once she was awake to understand what was being said all that she heard was. “Hush, you need your rest, go back to sleep.” She was tired and couldn’t deny it, so she followed the gentle charm that Taty’s words placed on her.

Tandy's tepid meeting.

Even as the words were out of her mouth Tandy had to glance around still, half expecting the arguing pair to jump at her while the others watched. But no mater what her imagination told her it didn’t happen.

The two that had been watching the red faced pair glanced up to look at Tandy. She catches the eye of a woman. To call her a church mouse in her ankle length skirt, cardigan, and neatly collected hair would, Tandy gathered, be about the same as calling her a wild child in this woman’s world view. Her gaze flashed over to the man. With his heavy work clothes and neon yellow panels crisscrossing his body, she half expected to see a reversible yield-stop sign laying on the ground somewhere near by.

Even as the two looked between Tandy and the pair that had been arguing she somehow found the force of will to walk on the dirt road so she was standing with them under the lone orange street lamp at seemingly forgotten dirt T-intersection.

“Where are we?” Was all that her brain could think to spit out as she stood there. For her trouble of asking the red faced pair turned their glares to her. One was a man who looked to be a couple years her junior. His outfit screamed euro trash who should be wasting his time working for a pittance at a hot dog stand just inside some rundown theme park, only to find that he didn’t earn enough to ever go in it himself for an afternoon of fun.

As for the one he was arguing with, it was a girl, and Tandy nearly choked when her eyes saw her. While the flesh coloured flip-flops and green headband with a ceramic or plastic rose were nothing to be made much out of. It was what she was wearing, a single sea foam-green towel that looked ready to flutter off of her slender frame with a single wrong move. On the bottom edge was a small badge that Tandy couldn’t make out. With the fact that she wore only a badge and a towel Tandy’s mind went wild with speculation on just what this, in her mind, child did.

“Oh you brought another girl here!” The red-faced girl accused the man, only using her presence as further ammunition in the argument that had started before Tandy’s arrival.

Without out missing a beat the man shot back at her. “I keep telling that I have no idea how I or any of you got here!”

Sensing that these two would never let the other take any ground in this empty argument, Tandy broke in, snatching the ball of the conversation from the two. “Where the hell are we?” She asked, exasperation clear in her voice. The two frowned at her, and she had to wonder if they’d been enjoying it. Were they flirting at a time like this?! The thought echoed in her mind as the girl pointed up. Tandy’s gaze followed the finger and saw a crossed pair of street signs sticking out of the side of the lamp post. “Servant King’s Parkway and Five hundred forty-three nanometre drive?” She asked having never seen such names for streets in her life. Both were almost normal, but failed spectacularly at the last step.

Tandy looked back to them. “No, really where are we?” She asked. “Is this some kind of joke?” The girl frowned. “That’s what I was asking him, he was here first, so he has to know how we got here.” The man gave out a over the top groan. “I’ve told you a dozen times already, when I got here, you were already here with your legs all-” He can’t get another word in before being cut off. “My legs are a national treasure!” She shouts at him. If Tandy had been closer to age of this girl maybe she would have agreed, but as it was she had a hard time seeing those any more than two years younger than her as anything but children. These two hot heads were most certainly in that category, unlike the two quiet ones who had chosen just to watch.

“Listen,” She says feeling like the smallest child as she speaks. “I’m Tandy, what are your names?” She asks them, pretending to feel like an adult and hoping that they some how agree to her act. The towel girl isn’t haven’t it, and she shuts her grey eyes and looks away from Tandy with a sour look on her face. If nothing else at least Tandy can be proud in knowning she got her to stop arguing for the moment.

“Uh, I’m-” The proper girl starts to speak in a quiet voice before stumbling to a stop.

“Folks! Friends!” Tandy can feel her skin crawl like someone has licked her as those words come from behind her. She jumps forward out of surprise and spins around, now standing between the pair that had been arguing, the light directly overhead as a man stands there, on a red and white picnic cooler. He’s dressed like a cowboy but it seems like he has stolen his shirt from one of the rodeo clowns.

“Why I’m so glad all my friends have met one another!” He says hopping off of the cooler. Tandy looks to the others as they look between them. Between each of them there is no sign of recognition of old acquaintances.

“Who in the hell are you?” The man shouts at him. “Are you the ass that brought us here?” The towel girl joins in.

Bending down to extract some content from the cooler. The way his body moved made it clear that what he was hunting for was of much more importance to him than some silly little questions. “Oh why I am your dearest friend here.” He finally answered standing up while holding a stake that was larger than any Tandy had ever seen before, one that she had trouble imagining the beast it had come from.

“And this.” He shook the stake in his hand. “Is my dear...” He let the words trail off, and for a moment Tandy wondered if she was being introduced to his dinner, only to then hear the sounds of heavy paws on wet dirt. She looked and saw the outline of a dog in the dark coming towards them, when it came into the light of the lamp it snatched the steak from the man’s hand, and one of its three heads started to eat. “Cerb-” Tandy started to say. “Spots!” The man cut her off and loudly proclaimed like a proud father of the large three headed dog who now that Tandy could see in the light was in fact black with a speckling of white spots over it’s entire body.

“I am Syl.” The man finally introduced himself. “Your dearest of friends, and as such I would make a suggestion.” He pointed down the Servant King’s Parkway. “That you travel this way, and not leave the road as my dear Spots has been trained to protect the fields from poachers, and only one of his heads has been fed tonight.” Syl looked at the group with a thin smile on his lips. “Or you can take your 60 percent chance and hope that he hasn’t picked up any tricks from the family cat.”

No sooner had he said that than the light above them gave a loud pop that made Tandy and the others jump, to look up to where it had been. Without it, the T intersection was dark now, when she looked back Syl, Spots, and the cooler were gone even as she squinted in the dark.

Tandy's Troubles

Sitting at a cafe’s patio Tandy just wanted to scream. On the table she’d thrown a folder full of resumes. It had been a complete waste of a day in her mind and most people weren’t even thinking of lunch yet. With a deep breath she buried her head into her arms. This day, the week, and even the month, she was just ready to have it all be done with, or even better to have a redo at it. She scratched the back of her leg and could hear what had been a small run in her stocking growing even larger, not that she cared at this point.

Taking a deep breath she finally pulled herself up, she had needed that just the moment to regroup. When she looked in front of her she was surprised to be greeted with a woman a couple of years her elder, a scar on her left ear that makes it look like during some childhood game she’d lost a fight with a pair of rusty hedge clippers. Climbing on this woman was a toddler who looked like she wasn’t quite ready to start kindergarten. While another who she ventured was her cousin or maybe brother thanks to the brilliant green eyes the children and the woman across from her all had behind a set of thick rimmed glasses.

On top of her folder was a leaking bottle of milk that she could be certain had already left a coffee ring. “Uh, excuse me.” She has to say a bit exasperated at this woman’s actions. If she’d just sat down there was no way should would have done anything more than felt annoyed, but she didn’t have time to run to a print shop and get new prints done, no matter how much they used the term ‘instant’ in their advertising.

She smiled a mother’s smile at her, one that would be given when a child lost a silly little game. “Oh dear.” She said. At first Tandy felt a bit of vindication with those words until she realized the dear referred to her rather than the ladies action. Tandy could feel her flushing red. She wasn’t going to land a job with those resumes but it should have been through either her own incompetence or the egos of the jackasses rejecting her, not some mother.

She opens her mouth to tell this woman off, she doesn’t care any more if it is bad form, bitchy, or boyish, nor any of the other things she’d been chided to avoid her entire life. As she could feel the first syllable forming in her throat the shrill screeching of a phone’s alarm set to its highest setting cut her off.

“Oh dear oh dear!” The green eyed woman says as she hunts around in her purse and finally pulls out a phone to shut off the ringer. She she does a broach with a large cat’s eye set in the centre. She watched as it fell in the air, seeming to hang here for an impossibly long time, only to clatter on a metal rib of the table, causing the gem to crack as it bounced towards her.

Once again the woman spoke the only two words that Tandy had ever heard her speak, while she with a skill that had come from the time as a mother managed to hold onto her child in a way that seemed to defy gravity. “Oh dear.” This time to Tandy’s ear though it was a very different thing, a delight that should have been saved for greeting an old friend was in it as her eyes remained locked on the brooch, that only as Tandy stood up to yell something at her, did they start to drift upwards.

She could hear the clattering of the chair behind her as she stood with enough force to knock it over when she felt a bite in the back of her leg where the chair of all things had gotten the last laugh and caused her knee to buckle. Out of instinct she grabbed frantically in front of her but her fingers could only find that dropped brooch as she fell, with a thud on her back.

Tandy didn’t want to get up, she felt stupid and embarrassed from her actions causing her to mess up her clothes. As she lay there she wondered when it had gotten so over cast, and where the sounds of the street had gone.

She pushed herself into a sitting position and didn’t find the table with all her papers in front of her, she looked around confused as she wondered what had just happened. Had she hit her head? She pressed the back and side with her palm and didn’t feel any pain, but couldn’t remember what any other signs of a concussion were, maybe that had been it.

She looked in her other hand, the brooch still in it, the only sign of where she had been just moments before. With the broken cat’s eye in the centre and the entire thing made of silver or maybe platinum in the shape of a calendar where the rings for months and days could be slid to align with an arrow made of gold.

Picking herself up and onto shaky lags she looked around only to spot a group that had been behind her, too wrapped up in their own argument to even notice her. “H-hello?” She said with a shaky voice trying to get their attention, just hoping to end her confusion on where she was.