Sue's consciousness felt like it was sinking into a lake of tar, too heavy to do much more than to watch the darkness around her grow thicker and stronger by moment. Stronger and more vicious, what was just an absence of light moments earlier tuning aggressive, threatening, filling her whole body with fear through its mere presence, leaping at her in a way her feeble mind could scarcely comprehend and do even less about. Her body trembled, expression turning into one of utmost terror, attempts at vocalizing it only succeeding at mumbling put pathetic whimpers for nobody to hear.
"GRRRAAAHH!"
Her descent into the pitch black nightmare might've been gradual, but its end most certainly wasn't. Sue's subconscious suddenly found itself over at the campfire scene once more, surrounded by a wave of twisting, writhing darkness from all sides, presently held at bay by the one being she never expected to see for herself in person, or even in dream. Its body was perfectly black just like in the drawing she saw in her dream, the white of the smoke-like plume that originated from its head contrasting greatly with the darkness around them, its blue eye staring straight at her as its outstretched arms held the nightmares around her from closing in on her.
"RRRARGH!"
With another loud grunt, the pitch black being pushed the Dark Void even further back, so far it was no longer in sight, banishing it from Sue's mind entirely- for now at least, letting the girl take a better look at the dreamscape around her. It wasn't identical to how it was before in subtle but appropriate ways- the fire itself was extinguished, the lunar body above them was a barely visible new moon, and even the sky as a whole was dimmer and had far fewer stars lighting it up.
And of course, the slight but important fact that the creature that could only be the Night Father had apparently decided to join her here, staring down at her unblinkingly, His smoke like body shifting in place as she came to and regained awareness of what was even happening to her. And once she did, her first reaction was a startled gasp, followed by an attempt to scoot that bit further away from the ghostly satan, followed by a whole lot of scared confusion.
"I-it's you, isn't it. Night Father, right?"
The figure nodded slowly, grumbling loudly a couple times but otherwise not attempting to speak, knowing Sue couldn't even understand Him.
"Wh-what are you gonna do to me- am I dead or-"
The louder grumble caught her attention, the dark one firmly shaking His head, dark tendrils that comprised His arms reaching up above Him and pulling the fabric of the dreamscape apart, opening a hole- a hole through which Sue could see herself, still sleeping on a bed in the clinic, safe and sound.
"Not dead. Alright. S-so you're not satan."
Night Father let the rift above Him close as His expression- or at least the little of it Sue could make out- grew that bit flatter, head slowly shaking.
"Not satan, okay. Wh-why are you here?"
Suddenly, Sue felt a sensation of paper in her hand, looking down to see the same drawing Duck presented her in her previous dream, the one that showed her turning from human to Forest Guardian, with a depiction of the being she was now mere feet away from next to the arrow connecting her two forms, and a question mark next to it. Despite how dark the dreamscape was, she could still read it perfectly, the absence of light suddenly not impairing her even slightly.
"I-it- she asked me whether you turned me into this, but... it wasn't you, right? I don't remember you."
The deity affirmed her hunch, nodding again, the piece of paper Sue was holding disintegrating in her hands, its purpose complete.
"W-who- what was it then? Do you know?"
A firm shake this time, one that was followed by a weird, squirmy sensation in the back of Sue's head, similar to what she felt before her last dream began to fall apart but much more subdued. Sue was much too spooked to get pissed off nearly as much as she did then, especially with the sensation lasting nowhere near as long this time, though she still had no idea what was any of that for. She was about to speak up after shaking the light aching off before noticing something she couldn't have ever expected to see in this world next to her- an antique film projector, together with a wall in front of it for it to project onto.
"...what is this."
He wasted no time before showing her, hovering over beside her as the projector kicked into life, rattling loudly and starting to display a grayscale recollection of Sue's memories. Hike through the woods, sitting down to grab lunch, a loud bang not too far from them-
And then the projector stopped, a pair of disembodied hands made out of something that was neither light or dark that Sue's mind could only perceive as colorful static beginning to tamper with it. It pulled out the rolls of film, cutting it off at the exact point the display had stopped at, and then at another point later down in the recording, stitching both ends together and resuming the movie at Sue waking up in her new body for the first time, whisking the surgically removed snippet away.
"Wait, wait- d-did something steal my memory of what had happened!?"
Slow, somber nod, all the film equipment dissipating into the dreamscape, Sue herself left as confounded and unnerved as she was angry at the revelation.
"Who could it have been!?"
Sadly, there seemed to be too many potential answers for that, the skies around them becoming full of figures of wildly varying shape, size and splendor, what had to be dozens upon dozens of deities, though with neither Night Father nor Duck among them. The scene soon grew too overwhelming through, Sue shielding her eyes as she looked away-
"Okay, okay, I get it, too many suspects!"
The show ended in an instant, Sue and Night Father left alone in the dream once more, the once human trying to wrap her head around everything.
"S-some god took me and tossed me into this world and didn't even let me remember what had happened. C-could it have been the Pale La-"
Before she had even finished the question, she saw the deity shake His head firmly in the corner of her vision, cutting that lead off.
"Not her then. And not you either, s-someone else."
Slow, defeated nod.
She took in a deep breath, both sides only getting confirmation about the fact that the other had no idea who had done that either. One of them had the awareness of everyone who could've feasibly accomplished that though, beginning to internally mull over them all once more- before being cut off by the other, her voice uncertain-
"Did you... enter my dream like this just to confirm that?"
Quick, firm nod.
"I-I see. I..."
Sue thought back to everything she'd seen over the past couple of days, over even the creatures affiliated with the deity she was interacting with spoken of in hushed, taboo tones, the mystery burning a hole in her mind.
"I have to know. You are a god, yes?"
Weirdly enough, Night's Father response was much more subdued this time, His head seeming to meander around for a while before eventually settling on the world's slowest, and most reluctant nod. Confounding as that response was in its delivery, it was ultimately affirmative, Sue following it up with the actual question she had on her mind afterwards-
"What are you a god of?"
Sue saw His one visible eye close as the scenery around them turned liquid, morphing in front of their eyes, Sue soon being treated to what looked like a chase scene. A small black creature was running away from two massive white ones, one with two gleaming eyes, looking like a pair of floodlights, and another with a blindfold and a third eye on the top of its head, this one much, much brighter still, illuminating everything around it with a blinding glare.
All the light was so overwhelming it was hard to Sue to even watch, having to shield her face with one hand as she followed the black creature in its panicked dash into safety, away from the omnipresent, burning light. The little one ran for its life before it finally made it into an isolated pitch black spot, not giving its presence away even as the lights grew closer and brighter. The white creatures couldn't see the small one anymore, but that doesn't mean they weren't about to try hunting it all the same, a tendril of light attempting to stab into the dark- only to get countered with a flood of darkness from the isolated spot, fizzling the light away wherever it touched, sending the two intruders running away in fear before withdrawing back into its spot, the little black creature safe.
Shortly afterwards, the scene returned back to the extinguished campfire, the girl left to process what she'd just seen, replaying the events in her mind's mind as the deity beside her watched in silence.
"...safety. Protection from eyes, from light, from... th-the third eye..."
She saw the dark god affirm her hunch as it all clicked into place, its nods slow and deliberate, followed by some more low grumbling she had no hope of understanding.
"I-I see, I think."
Sue thought back to the Duck altar she'd seen a couple days ago, and the scenes depicted on it, one of which looking like a mirror inversion of what she'd just seen, with Duck protecting a small creature against the darkness- the same darkness she just saw protect someone. Something didn't make sense- that or they were just polar opposites somehow, doomed to fight each other forever.
"Then... what about her? Duck, I mean- Pale Lady or whatever..."
Night Father appeared to be taken aback for a moment, the rumbling noise that left him afterwards having to be the divine equivalent to laughter before it was shook off and He concentrated once more, the dream changing again.
They were back to the scene from the before, the little dark creature now scrambling out of the darkness into a nearby clearing, its limp and a few visible cuts clearly visible in this vision. They tried pushing on for a while but eventually just collapsed where they stood, right underneath a full moon, whimpering in pain. The moonglow began growing in intensity in response to that that, filling the scene with light- a cold, safe, healing light, Sue watching the little creature's wounds mending in front of her eyes, all of them undone in a span of moments.
"...healing..."
Sue felt her attention be drawn skyward at her comment, up at the moon, watching it to begin to go through its phases on fast forward, the dreamscape going from pitch black to bathed in cold light and back, and back, and back, from the dark's protection, to the light's mending, the Moon, one and whole.
Dark and light, one and whole.
One and whole.
__________________________________________
The eventual awakening that followed, many, many hours later, was by far the calmest one Sue had experienced during her stay in this world yet. Her mind hovered around the liminal space between sleep and wakefulness for what felt like hours, intermittent attempts at taking a look at her surroundings revealing them to be getting brighter and brighter each time. She could not have slept for more than just a handful of hours, and yet... she felt surprisingly alright.
Though a big part of that was no doubt caused by the religious vision she kept replaying in her mind while she laid in bed, the sight feeling like it ought to be shattering her world in one way or another, but it... wasn't, not really. Suppose it only made sense if anything, even if it made everything else she'd seen that much more confusing. The far more startling truth was that of her amnesia apparently being deliberate, Sue unable to even start imagining who could've done something like that or why. A literal divine intervention to pluck her, a human woman of no remarkable qualities, from her own world and toss her into this one, with no purpose in mind that she could figure out.
Who knows, maybe it was some sort of long con she wasn't aware of. Maybe all she meant to do was save Spark and Pollux on that fateful day and ended up outliving her usefulness thanks to Astra's intervention. Maybe one day she'd see the show host walk out from behind the nearest corner with a camera crew behind him and inform her she'd been being pranked the entire time.
Maybe the god in question just found it all funny.
Regardless of the capricious deity's possible motivation, all that further thoughts about this general topic were accomplishing were making Sue feel even more defeated, the once human grumbling to herself as she sat back up on the bed, one hand reaching up to rub the sand out of her eyes. Was she probably gonna need a nap down the line after a night like that? Possibly. Was she feeling like trying to get some more rest in her current headspace before the sun was finished rising?
Not in the slightest.
A glance over at the clinic's window revealed the celestial body in question to have only recently began its ascent- very little sunshine was making its way into the clinic proper, with most of the light flowing in as a rather dim glow. Human Sue was the furthest thing ever from an early bird, but... she could definitely make an exception this time. She needed to clear her head, and there were few things better for that than a walk around the block, even if she wouldn't have any tunes to keep her company.
Let's grab the crutch and-
Oh.
Sue might've had no recollection of the mobility device moving anywhere after she sloppily left it leaning against the night stand, but apparently it had done so anyway, splayed out smack dab in the middle of the cabin, much too far for her to even attempt to reach with her one good leg. She blinked a few times as her mind chewed through that revelation, groaning at having that whole idea be dashed before thinking back to the partial lesson she'd managed to receive from Sundance yesterday, finding herself equal parts excited at getting to make some use of it, and antsy at the prospect that she'd mess it up or worse- that she'd already forgotten how to do it.
With a deep breath, she flipped back through her memories of the lesson, trying to remember the exact way of using her mental reach and poking around the parts of her brain she associated with it, squirming lightly at finally having one spot give in and begin to extend outside the confines of her skullcap. God that felt so weird- though then again, it's not like repetition wasn't the best cure for weirdness, Sue attempting to shake away all the stray thoughts before prodding that spot further, eyes involuntarily closing as the mental tentacle reached further into the room, her right hand twitching with its every move.
The awareness of her actual limb moving in tow with the imagined one made her stop and think- could it also happen the other way around?
Carefully, she began lifting her arm before making a reaching motion towards the crutch, finding her mind's reach mimicking its motions in an overexaggerated way, the realization making her sigh in relief- alright, this was much easier. So easy that the next part felt like instinct, her hovering hand grasping the air in front of it as the watched the upper part of the tool get surrounded in a bright, if spotty white glow, the sensations of a rough, wooden surface pressing against skin coming from an utterly disembodied place. And then just a simple pull backwards, almost as if she was just changing the gear, loud rattling of wood on wood startling her out of her trance enough for the aura to fizzle out- with the crutch now right in front of her, making for a very welcome sight as she opened her eyes back up.
Yeah alright, using her hands for this felt much, much easier than how Sundance was trying to teach her. Though considering she'd almost never seen either her or Solstice actually use their hands like that when performing their magic, maybe there was a reason to that she just wasn't aware of? Hopefully she wasn't doing it wrong in some subtle but important way.
With any luck she'd get to ask her that very question in not too long.
Before she could finish picking herself up and head off to the races, she'd realized she wasn't exactly telling anyone about her little excursion, especially the one soft pink and cream creature that should really be kept in the know about it- especially since it was the one that got really properly spooked yesterday following her sudden disappearance.
Alright Willow, where'd you leave all that paper you brought...
The couple sheets she'd fished out of one of the drawers were all partially covered in assorted scribbles, with only one having enough free space left for Sue to be able to convey her intent- the same one which she'd drawn on a couple days prior. It forced her to surround the entirety of the new drawing in a large black circle with an arrow pointing towards it to hopefully draw Willow's attention where she needed it to go. Almost like clickbait, but actually useful here.
God that thought felt surreal for so many reasons.
Forest Guardian stick figure, walking out the clinic, walking in a circle around the approximate mental map of the village, before walking back into the clinic. A simple drawing conveying a simple, if badly needed action.
With her fingers getting cleaned of some of the charcoal dust and the newly drawn on piece of paper left on the night stand, Sue could finally turn to leave the building, a glance immediately outside the front door revealing the surrounding streets to be empty in an almost unnerving way. Hell, there were more people around even at night, a closer look at her sixth sense revealing almost every soul around her to be either asleep, trying their best to fall asleep again, too focused on something to be asleep, or... tossing around with could only have been a hangover.
Without any destination in particular, Sue just took a deep breath before retracing the path she'd walked a couple days ago with Willow, the only sounds reaching her ears this time being occasional bits of quiet bird chatter and rustling of leaves, her own steps probably the loudest noise around. A closer look around the construction site showed it to have progressed slightly since yesterday morning, with what looked to be the foundation now completely finished aside from one small part in the corner, the brick and stone walls at the other end of the house steadily growing larger and larger.
Her impromptu safety inspection got cut short at hearing a rough chittering sound behind her, startling her slightly before turned around, revealing the hedgehog-pangolin-big claws critter to be looking up at her expectantly. Sue quickly scooted off to the side, unsure what the brown one's deal was but figuring they just wanted to access their work site again.
"Shorry, there you go."
Their immediate reaction was just a couple more blinks, followed by scratching the side of their head with their massive claws before they shrugged it off and turned to face their actual destination, starting to dig into the dirt close to the unfinished part of the foundation at a speed Sue thought only possible in cartoons. A part of her wanted to stay and keep watching to see what else they'd end up doing, but that'd be kinda rude to just stare for no reason, especially since there's not even a crowd to dilute the no doubt unwelcome sensation of being watched like that.
Let's get a move on- and check Duck's altar while at it, Sue's night time vision prompting a close reexamination if nothing else.
With no other soul around her, only the chilly wind and cold light of the early dawn keeping her company, the tall monument was even more striking, Duck's engraving evoking power and demanding respect, even if the scenes depicted were as calm and reassuring as she'd remembered them. The flowers that decorated the base of the altar in front of the graven wall made it difficult to walk all the way up without disturbing anything, forcing Sue to keep at least some distance.
The two tablets to the sides of the main one felt weirder and weirder the more she looked at them, the events depicted on them a complete inversion of what she had witnessed in her own dream. The main one matched up, the depiction of the Pale Lady healing the small creature looking almost like it was plucked straight out of her vision, but the others were just wrong, and wronger still the more she looked at them. A closer inspection revealed the chisel work on them to be much rougher than that of the main monument, smaller size and darker finish of the stone managing to hide that fact to an extent, but far from completely so.
The inky blackness that was featured on the smaller engravings now came off as downright tacky, ruining the elegant simplicity of the main carving just to drive a point it felt, a point whose truthfulness she was growing increasingly skeptical of. The more she looked, the more things she spotted, with the biggest one turning out to be the tablets' physical dimensions. They might have been taller than her, but they were still much shorter than the main monument, each only around half its size with a comparable width, though some of it was obscured behind the main pillar's bulk, making them look even smaller than they were. Approximately half...
Sue's eyes perked up at the realization, hand gripping the crutch tighter as she began to turn around, trying to make her way behind the monument- before she could move anywhere, a soft spoken, half whistled sentence she couldn't understand caught her attention, distracting her from her train and thought and making her turn towards its source-
"Oops, my bad! Good morning Sue, didn't expect to see you up so early, or here of all places."
Solstice's follow up was delivered with a light chuckle, Comet chiming in as well, squirming in his mom's arms in Sue's general direction, the adorable sight breaking the once human's focus further as she giggled quietly at the sight.
"Well, I- I could shay much the same about you, it's so early."
"It is indeed~ but alas, 'an appropriate time of day to wake up at' isn't a concept Comet is familiar with yet, so here we are. Did you sleep well?"
Before waiting for Sue's answer, Solstice knelt in front of the altar, even Comet going that much quieter as his mom bowed her head in prayer, Sue only left to quietly observe the scene as she slowly backed away from the monument, waiting for the mayor to be done before responding-
"Yeah. Had a weird dream, but I shlept well."
"Hah, with all that had happened yesterday, I can't blame you one bit- even if it all ended well, minds always just keep on churning through it all, again and again. Hopefully it wasn't an unpleasant dream at least."
"Oh no, nhot at all."
She wasn't sure whether this was a lie by omission or not- in either case, she felt like keeping what she'd seen to herself would be the best idea for now, the other Forest Guardian seeming to not have prodded the issue any further thankfully.
"Wonderful. So- let's grab something to eat and then we can get started on your lesson?"
Guess with Solstice already around, there really was no reason to wait any longer before getting to work, Sue itching to get more independent in here and not have to drag someone along with her at all times just to be able to talk, the once student nodding firmly before they all headed off towards the clearing, all the motivation pushing the mystery further back into her mind.
"Let's get a move on then~."
Comet was equally appreciative of the motion, his loud, gurgly squeak making both women break into giggles as they made their way back towards the pantry, Sue unable to resist asking any longer-
"How old is he?"
"Closing in on five moons now. He grows so fast, it feels like yesterday that he would spend all day just alternating between sleeping and eating, and now look at him~ he'd be running circles around us if I let him."
The glee in Solstice's voice was almost infectious to Comet and Sue alike, little one wiggling as the big one cooed at the sight- though... five moons? Lunar cycle was like 29 days or something, basically a month, if that's what she was truly referring to, which only raised more questions-
"That's so much livelier than I'd expect a five m-mon- moon old to be."
"Oh? Why so?"
The mom was genuinely confused at her statement in a way Sue had no real answer for as the realization finally crept into her mind- humanlike as they were, neither Solstice, her son, nor even her anymore were human, and trying to apply human metrics to them was doomed to fail.
"Oh- nevermind. I... jusht went from memory about human b-babies..."
Solstice opened her mouth a bit as she nodded in response, Sue's confusion finally making some more sense- though she didn't want their guest to feel self conscious about it, walking over closer and patting her shoulder.
"It's all good Sue. Figures that that'd be the only thing you had as a reference point. Though... you got me curious now- how old are you?"
The question caught the once human off guard as they stepped back onto the clearing, many but not all tables having been moved back to their pre-feast spots, a couple figures in the distance in the middle of rectifying any remaining stragglers. Aside from them, the clearing only had a couple other souls around in total, one appearing to be working on a painting as the other ate in silence. It took Sue a couple moments to catch up with Solstice after she turned the other way from their usual path to Poppy's kitchen, the structure they were actually heading to much larger, with literal heaps of leftovers piled up underneath the canvas ceiling.
"Umm... I'm twenty two yearsh old."
For once it was Solstice's time to get startled at hearing that, the mayor almost tripping over a stick as she processed that knowledge, scooting ahead to catch up afterwards, Comet squeaking at the sudden motion.
"Good Moon I had clocked you at almost half that."
...what?
"What?"
The two were at an impasse as they finally made their way over to the pantry's countertop, with the cook inside, a humanoid four armed ladybug, getting to fixing something for them before either of them had a chance to speak up, catching Sue off guard. "Fixing" was a more than appropriate term here, the actual meal a hasty slapdash of the remaining foodstuffs more than anything else, a handful of dumplings each getting wrapped up in some of the bread and tossed into the oven to warm up, the ladybug grabbing Comet a handful of the spiced fruit slices in the meantime, most of the spice having already flaked off in the meantime, together with one whole dumpling.
It was far from Poppy's downright artisanal cooking, but considering how yummy it all looked and smelled once reheated, Sue's stomach couldn't care one bit, carefully grabbing her impromptu dumpling sandwich in one hand once it had been warmed back up, its thickness making that a rather tricky feat. Solstice followed in tow, Comet's portion getting suspended in the air next to him with his mom's magic, letting him nibble on in peace without the fear of dropping anything.
"Much appreciated Sunrise. Has Astra already grabbed anything today?"
The ladybug thought for a moment before shaking their head, continuing to remain silent all the while.
"And yesterday? Or were you not around to see?"
A couple firm nods, followed by gesturing with the upper two arms in ways that looked more deliberate than mere gesticulating.
"With Joy, I know. That's good to hear at least, she got here very late. Gonna be calling it a day soon?"
Another firm nod and more hand gestures, only briefly interrupted by them getting distracted by how loudly the Sue crunched on her sandwich, the girl herself not expecting it either.
Nothing like a satisfying crunch first meal in the morning, though probably not when it's loud enough to startle someone.
"Mhm. Hope he shows up soon then- and until then, take care Sunrise."
Two armed salute and yet another firm nod to send them off, Solstice tapping Sue's shoulder afterwards to get them going, the girl unsure which mystery she wanted to tackle first, taking a hot minute to finish chewing through her current bite and finally asking-
"Sho... are they alright?"
"Oh? Yes yes, they're alright, just can't speak very well so they opt for signing."
"You have a sign language here too?"
"Mhm! Though not a very developed one yet, Sunrise's been largely the one spearheading that effort and figuring out how to make it as easy to learn coming off of our spoken language as possible. They're making good progress last I've heard, and once they're satisfied with it we've been thinking about offering classes to help anyone interested learn it. Having another way to communicate won't hurt, and who knows, maybe some will even find it helpful."
Admittedly, Sue had never really thought of language- a non-programming language at least- as something that could be created, but it made sense in hindsight, especially with something like sign which would have had a much harder time evolving on its own.
"I-I see. Hopefully it helps them out, not being able to speak does shuck."
"You'd know something about that, hah. Yeah, it's been a great help for them, and it's been great watching them figure it out and start teaching to others where they can- even minimal communication beats no communication."
"It really, really does."
As Solstice guided them over to what was most likely her own dwelling, Sue's thoughts veered back towards the topic from earlier, thinking of a right question to ask as the whole group chewed through their respective meals, a louder gulp catching Solstice's attention as her student breached the subject again-
"So- for humans the age of adulthood is eighteen years old, what about F-Forest Guardians?"
Despite of how simple she thought her question to be, it ended up making Solstice think much more than expected in response, Sue also feeling some of her own thoughts prodded in a gentle way, the other Forest Guardian trying to figure out just what was the hard thing to understand here. Eventually she stumbled on a lead, her head perking up with a half eaten sandwich in her mouth as she spoke with her mind-
"^There is no set age. It's when one evolves into their final form, the one we share, which typically happens at anywhere from eleven to thirteen years of age.^"
"What doesh "evolving" mean?"
As surprised as Solstice was at Sue's actual age earlier, her expression here took the cake and ran away with it, eyes wide as saucers as she blinked at her, finishing her bite and opening her mouth a couple times to speak, but unable to come up with anything, feeling absolutely dumbfounded at Sue's lack of knowledge about something this basic.
"Do- do you really not know?"
"No! I've heard it mentioned a few timesh and was meaning to ask th-this whole time."
Sue watched mayor's confusion slowly began to get worked through as she thought more about it all- seemed that assumptions with how the other's worlds worked went both ways after all, Solstice appearing to have had as little idea about what Sue considered normal as the other way around.
"Hmm. I have to admit that I'm just as confused as you are here Sue. Confused and more than a little curious, but- that all can wait until lunch. Will make for a nice reward after practicing for a bit, dontcha think? And in the meantime- we're there."
The final bit of the mayor's sentence made Sue look up over at the structure in front of them, the large, conical, rugged tent standing out from the rest of the village, the lower part of the outer canvas covered with blue markings, not unlike the ones on Solstice's arms and face, and the upper, narrower part depicting the phases of the moon. The mayor pulled the large flap on its front open and gestured for her guest to come in, Sue left gawking as she took it all in.
The inside was nowhere near as dim as she might have expected without any windows, the thin canvas closer to the top letting a surprising amount of early sunlight in, letting her see everything clearly. The floor was covered with a handful of rugs, making for a welcome sensation for her feet after all the dirt, grass and naked wood of the past few days. A low set extinguished firepit took the center spot, surrounded with what could only be babyproofing in the form of the world's shortest fence, with a small cauldron being supported above it, a quick peek determining it to be empty.
"Alas, nothing in the pot~ made sure to empty it before our trip to the Central City lest it'd begin to spoil and haven't had the time to refill it in the meantime. Wonder if-"
Solstice cut herself off before she could say any more, emotional disposition faltering just a tad as she firmly shook her head towards nobody in particular.
"N-nevermind. Take a seat Sue, anywhere is fine."
A handful of surfaces to sit on lined the edges of the tent, with one of them, presumably Solstice's bed, marked off with a curtain and looking generally more plush than the others. The rest didn't look all that different aside from the size and the thickness of the soft mattress-like bedding on top of them though, neither of them having any back rests, the curious fact discarded as Sue took her seat on the smaller... guess couch was the closest comparison, Solstice sitting down on the one opposite to Sue's.
"Wonderful. Ready for your lesson?"
Sue nodded firmly, setting her crutch down beside her as her hands itched for some more practice.
"Swell~ let's start with the obvious- how much do you already know?"
The mayor carefully lowered her little one down onto the carpeted floor, the tyke beginning to waddle around excitedly at the prospect of regaining his freedom, before inadvertently circling around to his mom, plopping down beside her as they both felt Sue concentrate. The mental handiwork was nowhere near as confusing to make sense of the third time around thankfully, the extension of her mind moving in tune with her arm down and to the side before grasping the crutch, the white aura gradually spreading to cover the entire handle. The once human clenched her eyes tighter still as she slowly moved her grasping hand forward, the tool she was holding shakily standing back up-
Before losing balance and slipping out of her control, Sue's aura giving away as she opened her eyes just in time to see the crutch fall back down onto the carpeted floor while she caught her breath, not realizing how exerted even such a simple action was making her until she was done with it.
"Th-that's- pant- that's it bashically."
Solstice replied with a slow nod as she thought through what Sue had demonstrated, the display confirming what she already knew- the girl was almost completely new to this in a way that felt almost disturbing with how old she was. Still, it's not like she lacked the ability, merely the practice and know how, and both of them she could provide in spades.
"Alright~. What about telepathy?"
"Shundance d-didn't really have the t-time to show it to me too well."
"Let's start with that then if that's alright."
"It ish. She mentioned a couple things, something about mental links but only briefly."
"I imagine that was a tricky part for you?"
"I... yesh."
Sue sighed deeply, unsure how Solstice knew that but she was right. Wordlessly, the student closed her eyes again as she thought back to what she remembered Sundance yesterday instructing her to do, to lean into her sixth sense beyond its surface level emotion sensing, many fewer souls around them making that feat that much easier, though she still had little idea of what to do afterwards.
"^That's a start, but it won't work as well with many others around, you'll have to learn how to tune the noise of emotions out. It takes a lot of practice of course, but even just doing it unskillfully will help a lot going forward. Lemme-^"
The sensation of another's mental reach interfering with her own made her jump a bit, eyes blipping open for just a moment, seeing both Solstice and Comet be similarly focused. She concentrated once more right away afterwards, paying as close attention to what her mentor was doing as possible, her expression twitching slightly as the foreign aura altered her innermost sense, feeling like it was pushing the burning glare of all the emotions that much further away, faint emotions becoming almost too weak to notice. With those out of focus, it was suddenly much easier to do what Sundance had instructed her to do on the previous day, the actual blips of consciousness she was supposed to link to now made clear.
Solstice's was busy reaching out all the way over to her while Comet's was... all over the place, their forms not translating well to the visual senses at all- "amoeba-shaped" was the closest thing Sue could think of, but even that was only an extremely crude approximation. Regardless of how they didn't look, Sue had them in her mental sight, hand and the mental extremity bonded to it reaching over in Solstice's direction, shooting closer and closer-
Before a figurative rug was suddenly pulled out from under her, Solstice withdrawing her assistance with tuning the emotions out, their blinding glare breaking Sue's concentration, her physical face grimacing at the sudden sensation as she flinched backwards, her lead completely lost.
"^Keep your composure. Follow what I did there.^"
It was much easier said than done, Sue's attempt to replicate the mental assistance she'd received nowhere near as effective at tuning out the emotions, but it did push them back at least somewhat, enough for her to get some breathing room at least. It also inadvertently made her left arm reach out and to the side, her body trying to replicate the pushing action to an almost too literal degree, outstretching the limb as far out as it'd go. With emotions sufficiently tuned out, she could finally go for it, mental reach closing the remaining distance with one swift motion, feeling like it'd almost jabbed Solstice's consciousness-
"Ugh!"
And judging by her pained grunt, that's literally what might've just happened, the sound and the muted sensation of pain that accompanied it breaking Sue's focus completely, eyes opening again as she worriedly looked at Solstice, before growing dumbfounded at the unexpected position her arms were now in. Fortunately, despite the mayor's painful wince, the discomfort was only temporary, with some more rubbing of her temples driving the last of it away as she spoke back up, trying to soften her expression and voice-
"I'm alright Sue, I'm alright, don't worry."
"I-I'm so shorry, what'd I do?"
"Used too much force. I know is hard with so little control over it, but you really have to keep a firm grasp on what you're doing with your aura, else there's a risk of accidentally hurting someone. This was just a small Confusion, unlikely to cause more than a headache at the worst case, but the more practice you get, the stronger your aura will become, and the more hurt it could potentially cause."
Sue was a bit aghast at Solstice's words, eyes going wider as she took them in, not really having thought of herself as someone physically capable of hurting anyone else here. But she was right- deep down she might've been a human, but currently she was piloting a form that was of this world, one with no less strength than the rest of them, even if without any practice. Practice she was now even more keen to have with that realization, shaking the moment of uncertainty off and acknowledging her mentor's words.
"I-I see. Do I try that again?"
"Yes, go ahead- though I've got to say, I've never seen anyone use their hands while doing this as much as you have."
"Oh."
Suddenly, Sue felt much more self conscious about that fact, forcibly laying them down onto her lap as if she was just caught cheating or something, looking away in a fair bit of embarrassment. Embarrassment that was not in the slightest intended by Solstice, the older Forest Guardian caught off guard at that, having no idea what was wrong all of a sudden.
"What's wrong?"
"Wh- sh-shouldn't I not be doing that?"
"No?"
Solstice was still a fair bit confused at what was the hangup, but more elaboration couldn't hurt.
"If it helps, then keep doing that. Everyone has their own tricks to help them control their aura better- Sundance's wand isn't just for show after all. If moving your hands around makes it easier for you, then that's all the reason in the world to keep using them- maybe down the line you can try to get better at using your psychics without that help, but only if that's something you feel you need to be better at."
"I see. I-I thought it was just a- a crutch of sorts, shomething that'd make it unfairly easier."
"Easier- absolutely, that's the entire point after all. Unfairly so, I don't know how you'd even come to that conclusion. The goal is to get better at this and more independent, who cares about how do you accomplish that, or if it's in a different way than others. Don't see why anyone would even judge you for that, but if they do, it's none of their business. Nothing wrong with using a crutch, no matter the form it takes."
The mayor chuckled faintly as she looked between her student, her mobility device next to her, and her teeny son presently busy inspecting the elongated wooden tool, squeaking softly as he patted its surface.
"Thank you."
"You're welcome Sue."
Sue watched Solstice's smile grow that much larger and that much warmer at dispensing reassurance and having it be effective. The mayor's hand moving on her lap in a patting motion caught the once human's eye before she the matching sensations on her shoulder, the mental touch no less warm and reassuring as the physical one.
"Though I can't deny being rather curious- your previous kin, the "humans"- they- uh, you- must use your hands a lot, right?"
The question took the student off guard, though the actual answer was almost overwhelming in how trivial it was, Sue nodding firmly before answering-
"All the time, for everything."
"Figures you find it easy to use them then- so much of your subconscious mind must be devoted to knowing how to adequately control them that it's easiest for other things to map onto it. Hope the Forest Guardian hands are a suitable replacement at least, hah."
Sue felt a bit weird as she focused on these hands, still really not liking the weirdly proportioned fingers and the lack of fingernails, but at a purely functional level they were fine enough she supposed.
"They're... okay."
Solstice didn't expect her student to be so frank with her about that, equal parts amused at the honesty and sorry for Sue for not wholly enjoying her new body, ending up displaying neither of those emotions outwardly, instead redirecting the topic back to the lesson at hand.
"In any case- let's get back into the swing of things, hmm?"
Sue was not opposed to that in the slightest, trying to push everything else out of her mind as she began to focus on the exercise ahead of her, hands involuntarily rising to move in tandem with her mental reach.
"Try what you did last time, just slowly, take as long as you need."
She heeded the advice as much as she could, more deliberate actions letting her tune out emotions to a larger degree before her aura slowly made contact with Solstice's, intertwining with it in a way that felt different to everything else prior to this, but also just right at the same time. Even in her focus she could feel the pride beginning to bloom over from her mentor, the faint whispers of thoughts she could overhear matching that tone.
"^Great! Now- back- again!^"
Solstice's words felt weird and choppy as they traversed through the link between them in a way reminiscent of a bad satellite connection, sentences chopped up into individual words with only most of the meaning intact. Suppose just having made a link like that wasn't all that was needed for a smooth communication, but that was a concern for a later time- now she wanted to get better at the one thing she did manage to pull off, withdrawing mentally all the way back before starting from scratch, managing to repeat the whole routine that bit quicker this time. And then the next one, and again after that, Solstice soon not even needing to use words as she watched Sue practice, Comet just squeaking confusedly all the while at feeling such repetitive motions with his little mind.
He didn't mind that much either, eventually sitting back down where he stood as he just leaned into the psychic activity around him, the repetition calming. At least before Sue had trying connecting to him too, the little one's aura much more wriggly and lively, requiring her to sometimes either chase it a bit or slow down to not impact it too harshly, the tyke himself laughing out loud at every successful attempt. His mom wasn't quite as amused, keeping a hand on the pulse of it all to make sure no accidents would happen, but ultimately soon enough Sue had had more of it all under control than Solstice could've ever hoped for, her pride radiating brighter and brighter.
It was really comforting.
"^Wanna switch over to telekinesis for a bit?^"
The excited sounding comment interrupted Sue's umpteenth repetition, the girl's eyes opening to nod back at the beaming Solstice, definitely not being opposed to switching tracks over to something a bit easier for a time. She took a moment to grab her bearings as her mentor whisked her little one away, relocating the crutch to lay on the floor in front of Sue. With her breath restored, the student could focus once more, both hands constantly shifting and turning as she directed her mental reach to the inert piece of wood in front of her, lack of muffling letting her perceive the full brunt of joy outpouring from her teacher.
The first attempt might've been as ineffectual as any of the ones prior to it, merely managing to shuffle the crutch from side to side on the carpeted floor, but that began to change the more times Sue had tried it, pushing herself further in a much more immediate way as she tried to think the piece of wood into the air, mental muscles complaining at the exertion. As loud as they complained though, their owner had something much better in mind for them to do than rest, her hands grasping the air in front of her again and again as her mental reach grasped the crutch, the area covered with the white glow growing larger and larger each time, the item finally beginning to move ever so slightly into the air before exertion grew too strong and she had to let it fall to the ground again.
"That's it, that's it, keep going!"
Sue's motivation was at an all time high as she tried again and again, pushing her limits bit by bit each time, even if it was only a literal millimeter at times, Solstice's constant cheers through words and emotions alike keeping her going even if she would've long since stopped because of exhaustion on her own. This felt right, this all felt so right, the joy surrounding her soon growing infectious, creeping into her own mind.
"You can do it sweetie, just that bit stronger!"
squeak!
Even Comet was cheering her on now, the student much too concentrated to do more than smile that bit wider at the added bit of motivation, her hands starting to shake more and more with each go- she would need a break soon, but it definitely felt like she'd be able to get this thing in the air first, no shot she wouldn't, she got this.
"Just a bit more, grasp as hard as you can!"
Sue did as instructed, the warm light of others' and her own joy rejuvenating, letting her push herself even harder than before, hands bundled into tight fists as she devoted the whole of her mind to this one singular task. She grasped the crutch with all her strength, the entirety of it surrounded with a brilliant aura as it took to the air, the younger Forest Guardian's eyelids snapping open as she witnessed her own accomplishment, the sight filling her with pride even as hard as it was to make out through all the light emanating from her eyes.
"You did it Aurora, you did-"
Suddenly, the jubilant atmosphere evaporated in an instant, the immense pride emanating from Solstice gone as if a light switch had been flicked, replaced with a harrowed, shameful realization. The whiplash broke Sue's own focus in an instant, her crutch banging against the floor startling both her and Comet as they looked at Solstice, the little one squeaking in fear at the sudden change while Sue could only stare, watching her mentor's joy be replaced so suddenly with something almost completely opposite.
"Solstice, what's-"
"I-I-I'm s-so s-sorry."
The mayor's voice was little more than a whimper as Sue watched her cane get hovered up into her reach, before she herself started to get forcibly moved back onto her legs, only barely managing to grab onto any sort of balance as a constant, cold force began pushing her towards the front entrance.
"Solstice, what's going on!?"
There was no response, Sue's last glance over at her mentor catching an expression full of pain, tears flowing down her cheeks, the other Forest Guardian much too ashamed to even look back at her as she was finally forced out of the tent, almost losing balance and falling over completely. Her own head was filled to the brim with abject fear and confusion, some of the grief from the absolute torrent of it Solstice was letting out clinging to her and forcing a handful of tears down her own face, Sue left afraid of whether it was something she'd done that had caused this, and of whether Solstice was alright.
"S-solstice..."
She couldn't force out much more than a whisper of her own before her voice caught in her throat, the only sounds she heard coming from inside being an occasional heavy sob and Comet's quiet cry, the little one going from afraid to now just sad together with his mom, their shared despair making Sue feel that much weaker to her legs. Regardless of what had caused this, it didn't change the fact that she was now left completely on her own at the wood's edge with nobody that could understand her around, and not even a real idea where she was in relation to anywhere else in the village.
The thought made just a small drop of base, thoughtless anger at being left out to dry like that drip into her mind, her expression turning into a scowl at the feelings of betrayal, more and more tears flowing down her cheek. It didn't take long to burn out into more sadness however, Sue's exhausted body shaking as it grasped the crutch's handle that much harder, the girl eventually realizing she couldn't really do anything but to finally slowly turn around and face the rest of the village, almost nobody else in sight, and begin her slow walk back.
Feeling so,
utterly,
alone.