bon dye [read-only]
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Ooc — Chelsie
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The animal representations described in this post are how Jinx views the Loa of Bon Dye. To anyone who reads this: the Loa and much of Bon Dye's religion are entirely up to interpretation, and so other wolves may view them differently. Please bear in mind that physically seeing a Loa is quite rare and should be reserved for special occasions and not everyday sightings. As this marks the beginning of Bon Dye, this will be one of Jinx's only physical encounters with the four Loa!

You may also feel free to represent your wolf "choosing" their Loa in a read-only post in a similar fashion if you would like!



So much had happened in such a short time: Jinx had been saved from the grip of Tartok's child by Sos, but it was a bittersweet victory. She had limped back to Neverwinter, but stayed out of sight of the leadership, not keen on explaining her run-in with the foolish wolves on the mountain. Her side was pulped, and the bruising beneath her coat would have been severe if it was visible; she still limped on that side, wincing with the pain that course through her ribs with every movement. Rather that seeking company or revenge, the Kesuk had sought the solace of sleep, to escape from the painful reminder of her humiliating fall.

In the night, she had Dreamed.

It was not a Dream like those insignificant, vibrant, child-like images that played through a wolf's mind when their subconscious engaged during sleep; it was not a Dream for entertainment, no meaningless collection of disjointed thoughts. This was a Dream much like the one that Siku, so long ago, had forced her into on the slopes of Tartok, where the vividity was so real it could not be anything but real. She stood on wide, windswept plains of snow, and in the distance was the hulking form of Sos, with eyes the colour of freshly spilled blood and rage and hate pouring off Him in waves. But there was something else too, something new: pride? Jinx did not move, knowing that this was perhaps the most significant moment of her life.

Mine, He growled, in a chilling voice that rose the hairs on her nape and spine into razor-sharp quills. The Bay is misguided, but you... You, and he, and Atka's toy... You will save it. His massive jowls parted to let forth first the roaring flames that she had seen consume the Bay in her Vision from months ago, and fear squeezed her heart and ripped into her soul as they rushed toward her. But the flames did not engulf her as she so expected; they rose and from them was manifest a tiger, with stripes of pure flame and eyes that burned so vividly she had to look away. The spirit creature prowled toward her, its throat rumbling with a hateful, prideful grumble, and in her face it roared and fire burst around her, but did not burn her. Ogoun of Wildfire, the First of Sos.

Then, Sos' jaws parted and a gale so fierce it nearly tore her paws from the ground and sent her fur whipping into her eyes, and filled her ears with a terrible howling, swept forth, and from the snow below formed an eagle, with wings of majestic, azure wind that forever blew and danced in spirals and whorls, a beak and body that crackled with lightning, and a voice that bellowed the very sound of the deepest tempest. She could feel from there its cunning, even as it swooped to light on the flaming tiger's spine, eliciting a violent reaction from the latter as it swirled around to consume its assailant, only for the bird to burst from its ribcage in a swirl of majestic jade fire. Bade of the Tempest, the Second of Sos.

Jinx became acutely aware, at this point, that they were no longer alone, and for the first time in months she turned to witness the second of her Gods, the one she had forsaken, striding across the ice toward her, her gait heavy and ponderous. She paused a long distance away, her head bowed with grief and disappointment, for Jinx had forgotten her; and even now, the former Mambo was tight-lipped and uncertain. From Atka's eyes there seemed to pour a liquid, at once perceived to be sorrow, but when the liquid struck the ground, the ice and snow around it melted, and a tidal wave of water seemed to rise up from where that first tear fell. From its depths rose the elegant curvature of a slender neck, and where that neck met body, aquatic wings with frost-limned edges burst from the snow, and in a flourish there appeared a swan, so beautiful in makeup and so stunningly fluid that Jinx's attention was captured from Sos' creations. Agwe of the Sea, came Atka's musical voice, causing Jinx to flinch with reproach, First of Atka.

While Jinx was still trying to figure out what these three animals represented, Atka's chest swelled and her jaws parted and a fierce roar shook the earth beneath the wolf's paws. Unsteady, she skittered this way and that, and watched in horror and fascination as the ground cracked under her feet and rock and debris spilled into a chasm of lava beneath. With heart hammering, the young Kesuk narrowly avoided being thrown to her death, though she winced heavily as pain lanced through the side of her body. As the earth cracked and crumbled, some of it remained, and slowly but surely a figure began to form from the remains of Gaia's rending: first, magnificent curled horns of beautiful diamond, a sloped forehead and powerful shoulders of pure earth, and a hide of moss and grasses. The ram stepped forth to rival its cousin swan, but it carried with it a fury that the swan countered perfectly in its serenity. Loco of Stone, Second of Atka.

The four animals converged, and Jinx watched in astonishment as amongst each other they asserted themselves, with no one becoming the victor. Slowly but surely, they departed: the tiger bound off into the tundra with flames crawling in its wake, crying a battlecry that sent a surge of pride and victory through her. The swan, with its beautiful siren song cry, melted into the ground and traveled away as a puddle, only to burst into the sky moments later in a glorious display of sparkling water and ice. Where the remnants of its flight fell, flowers bloomed from the snow to defy any sense of impossibility that might have once existed, and Jinx felt the rejuvenation slip into her heart and strengthen its beating and her resolve. The ram thundered away on hooves of obsidian, leaving cracks and crumbles behind it, and even as it traveled miles away she could feel the boom of its strength striking the ground, and it ignited in her a sense of tenacity and endurance, like she could do anything.

Only the windswept eagle remained, planted on the ground as though loathe to take flight. When it did, she heard clearly in her mind a sound as chilling as screaming hurricanes: Your destiny, bokor. With a single mighty flap of its wings, it shot into the centre of her breast, leaving a tornado rising where it had stood, but Jinx did not notice it; blinding pain enveloped her as she was lifted from the ground and sent flying backward, the whole of her wrapped in winds that threatened to tear her limbs from her body and leave her bleeding and broken upon the ground. In the distance she could see the burning red of Sos' gaze and the sorrowful blue of Atka's, but her screams of agony were drowned out by the wind and the keening cry of an eagle somewhere in her mind, and soon the whirl of Chaos all around her stole her consciousness from her.

When she awoke, it was with a new strength, in the very middle of the night. The names still rolled in her mind, and the image of each of them — gifts, or curses? The pain she had felt was real, but so too was the invigoration she felt now. Go now, she heard in her mind, and as if on autopilot, she obeyed. She gained her paws and, without question, slunk away from Neverwinter in the dead of night, following the sound of winds and eagles, of a tiger roaring viciously, a ram's rack smashing through its adversaries, and a swan's haunting melody in the distance, and feeling the tug of Destiny dragging her along, and not stopping until she had reached Blackfoot Forest, where she was again greeted by the eagle.

It was brief, so brief she might not have believed it, but it watched her from a tree before dissipating on a passing breath of wind, and somehow she knew it was as much a part of her as was her Porpoise spirit animal. She could not explain it yet — it would come to her as she slept here, that these were Loa sent by the Gods as Their messengers, as They could not be trusted together as they had been in Shearwater Bay again — but she knew it, somewhere deep in her soul.