Totoka River Stoned on Shiva

@Deirdre , but all are welcome!

Olive was not feeling herself today. 

It had all start with a dream - nay, a nightmare. It was a ghastly reverie that left Olive crying and shifting her her sleep. In the dream, a dark spectre had loomed over her; it’s form hidden in a shroud of fog. The shapeless figure had drifted ever closer to her body, which had been immobilized by the ground. The loamy, mossy dirt inched up her legs and had wrapped her haunches. Held tightly in place, the phantom continued to mount it’s attack, portending her untimely death. In her sleep, Olive’s paws tugged at the ground as her lithe legs jerked in protest. Olive suddenly jolted awake and felt her mouth, sticky with foam, and her ears already cocked high upon her crown. She allowed a moment’s reprieve before shaking the restless sleep from her body. She arose silently and vowed not to return to the location that had so poisoned her unconscious mind. 

The sun, gently rising over the distant hills and trees, did nothing to soothe her frazzled mind. In her drowsy state, Olive kept her eyes to the ground in front of her and moved one paw in front of the other. She ambled on, determined to keep moving should the spectre of her dreams returned.  

Soon, Olive found herself face to face with a river that cut through the landscape like a hot knife. The she-wolf, somewhat awakened by her trot, gazed at the water curiously. It was clear and cool, having descended straight from the mountains. It was a thing of beautify: how the water wove around the river bed, dancing in crests and swelling movements - Olive could barely restrain herself. She lowered her maw to the river and drank it’s cool waters, feeling the sensation as it spilled down her throat and into her hungering belly.

For an instant, a flash of silver flicked across her line of sight. Instinctively, Olive lunged her body towards the shape - she knew it to be a fish, a delicacy! While Olive entirely expected her jaws to close around the slick body of the fish, her teeth clicked together with an empty splash. Her momentum kept the weight of Olive’s body moving further into the river. The riverbed sharply dropped off, leaving no foothold for Olive to stand upon.

Olive yelped and yipped as the strong river knocked her legs out from other her. The sudden change in environment shocked her initially. The water did not batter or tossed her around but rather swept her downstream at a smooth, brisk pace. Olive’s thick coat, waterlogged and heavy, caused her to struggle to keep her head above the water. Legs kicked out, flailing in any direction, in an attempty to control her trajectory. Every muscle, alight with fire. Her mind, suddenly clear with the rush of adrenaline. Water, the element which Olive identified most closely, had forsaken her. The energy of the river (which she so admired) pushed her further downriver and kept her towards the center of the tow, no matter how she tried to swim towards the bank. It was the spectre from her dream, in aqueous form!

No, Olive was definitely not feeling herself today.

deirdre, too, drank of the same river olive had, though was further away from the other. she would not have known olive had come at all, and might have missed her entirely were it not for the flash of silver that caught her eye. deirdre thought that she, too, had spotted a fish--and she made a lunge for it as it, for an instant, came near to the banks. deirdre did not see the face of the wolf nor the spiked fur of one, either, yet, though if she captured any bit of the other she would know it to be one then! if her success was to be had, it would likely be shortlived as the powerful river surged, but then deirdre did not expect to hold the hefty weight of the wolf to come into her grip.

As Olive was swept down the river, her adrenaline abated and panic began to seep into her flesh. No longer attempting a coordinated effort to swim, Olive thrashed about in the water to simply keep her head above water. She felt a burn in her throat as many times the waves forced liquid into her nose and windpipe. Olive knew that soon her body would tire and she would truly be in danger.  With her own mortality clearly visualize, she struggled even more to reach the bank of the river. 

The river pushed her down an undefined and terrifying path with Olive completely at the will of the incredible force. For a quick moment she was directed closer to the bank, but Olive’s mind was too preoccupied to capitalize on the opportunity. At the same time, Olive felt a sharp pain that radiated through her fur and skin - as if something had grabbed her. The pain was momentary and Olive was pushed away rather quickly, but what ever sourced the pain counteracted the tenacity of the moving water. It prevented her from reentering the strongest current that swirled viciously in the center of the river.

Recognizing the sudden and fortunate contingency, Olive searched fervently for a foothold. Upon feeling the comforting sensation of mud underfoot, the fae summoned tremendous strength and hauled herself out the water. She immediately collapsed on the bank in a heap of exaustion, chest heaving. She was still unaware of what armed her out of the rushing tide, so as Olive fought for oxygen she closed her eyes and delivered a silent prayer of gratitude.

ah! she had lost her grip! the weight of it told deirdre that what she had caught was no fish, not at all! and her emerald eyes held fast to the mound of fur that the river carried. deirdre prepared to lunge into the waters, but their churning thrust the pale woman into a current that enabled the stranger to escape the current. the pale queen rushed toward the other, having little regard for personal space as she, in a frenzied panic, sought to check the others vitals.

i am deirdre mayfair, and i mean you know harm--i wish to check your vitals, deirdre expressed, and she waited but a moment before using her muzzle to gently probe the other. the other struggled for breath, but they were alive! the pale queen moved to lay alongside her and offer her warmth, so that the other, in the autumnal chill of the day, would not endure hypothermia on top of all other things!

Olive’s eyes remained closed as her chest heaved and coughed, diaphragm convulsing and causing her exhalations and inhalations to sputter. She was not in danger of dying, but the pain of recovery was unbearable. How had she not felt the burn of cold water inside her when she was in the river? How come her plush coat suddenly felt like it was crushing her?

The pain was not only physical, but mental. The river, the water she trusted so – how could it betray her like that? If it were her time to depart from this world, why must it have been is such a violent manner? Did a creature of peace not deserve an end which upheld the same values?  That, Olive guessed, what a demonstration of the true balance of nature.  When you believe “I’ve got it,” that is when you stop learning and your awareness diminishes. She had been 'checked' by the forced of nature - but graciously stopped before it was a 'check-mate.'

Olive saw then [quite clearly] that she would forever be a student of the cosmos, unwilling to concede herself to her ego.

Amid coughs, a voice entered her ears [not unlike that of an angel]. Olive’s eyes opened momentarily to see the [almost translucent] silhouette of a wolf standing over her, but the green orbs closed immediately to shield her pounding head from the bright light. Where had this wolf come from? How was it that she were randomly present in Olive’s time of need? Though Olive was rendered unable to speak, she did not resist the stranger's help.

The pale stranger nosed her body and curled beside her, an act that Olive appreciated. She had not realized how cold she was until that moment – and why shouldn’t she be? Soon slushy winter ice would flow down from the mountains into the river, only eventually to be covered entirely by ice. At the thought, Olive’s coughing abated and intense shivers began to rack her body. Olive moved a paw [as heavy as that paw was right then] to touch the woman, silently asking her for more. More touch, more warmth, more comfort, more... anything.

deirdre cradled the pale girl in her long arms once the other was receptive to her touch, moving to groom her slowly. her body heat would warm the other, and as her tongue brushed against the cold, soaked furs of olive her nostrils flared to drink in the others health. the only thing deirdre could detect in the other that suggested she was unwell was the rapid beat of her heart, but deirdre knew that once the adrenaline and shock had faded that this would return to normal. deirdre would remain with the stranger until her wits returned, not wishing to allow the other to fall victim to those that might take advantage of a being in so sorry a state!

Time lost all meaning to Olive as she lay cradled in the arms of god herself. The woman’s divine feminine energy bathed Olive, restoring her and healing her.  Olive felt almost as a puppy would, nestled up against her mother following a generic puppyhood accident. The pale lady’s smooth tongue pushed at her furs, cleaning and warming her. It was wonderfully meditative and soon Olive’s shivers abated and her breaths deepened and her eyelids began to drop and then she was asleep, convalescing aside a stranger by the river.

Olive knew naught how long she was asleep; she only knew that her heartbeat had stilled significantly. Twisting in her spot upon the ground, Olive shifted until she was looking at the woman.

“Thank you,” Olive expressed, but continued in a low murmur. “I - I’m embarrassed.”

comforting though her ministrations were, deirdre did not sleep. she labored over the other woman, and sang low, sonorous notes while the river babbled its apologies. deirdre's song was one of the wilds, of the the trees, the waters, the winds, the flames that licked the earth clean when it needed to be purged and renewed--it was ancient and new both, and eventually, the eyes of her patient opened.

deirdre's smile was luminous! the others embarrassment was missed by deirdre, who cared only to see that the other lived and was well. i am so glad to hear your voice, deirdre said with a sigh of relief. deirdre gingerly removed herself from the limbs of the other so that she no longer cradled her, and her bright eyes held fast to the other. do you feel any pain?

The white woman moved away from her and Olive lay upon the moist ground, aware once more of her physical body. Until then, she had been so racked with adrenaline [the need to survive] that she had not thought of anything less essential than breathing. Now that she had been plucked from the waters as an eagle does a fish, Olive had the liberties to do as the nurse asked and scanned her body to determine the seriousness of her injuries. 

Olive quickly deduced that she had escaped from the watery sepulcher famously unscathed. Her head rang with an ache that was low and thick, but she assumed that to be a normal sort of pain. Her spine and torso still felt her exertions, but it were her paws and lower extremities which we tender from colliding with rocks and subsequently hauling her weigh out of the rushing waters. They throbbed and olive pulled her pale feet in towards her body.

“I think I’ll be okay.” Olive murmured softly, wondering what aches might present themselves in the coming days.  She turned her forest-hued gaze up to the self sacrificial woman, suddenly feeling very grateful and fortunate [rather than victimized and threatened. “You stayed?” she questioned, honored by the woman’s kindness. “Who are you?”