Prompt# 185 - Perceive(picture) - Shadow Walker - Tekia - original/Exalted

[tekia.livejournal.com]

Title: Shadow Walker
Fandom: Original/Exalted
Prompt: Cat Eyes/ Perceive(picture)
Warnings: none
Rating:n PG
Summary: Young Sari had a friend that was always there for her.

Rama had sailed out with the midnight tide, leaving Sari on the dock, staring out at the quickly fading glow of the white sails. Stars littered the inky blackness of the moonless night sky and she pouted, arms crossed over her thin chest. She didn’t cry, hadn’t cried since the last time her father had left, never to return, just the way Rama was leaving her now.
She kicked at a clump of sand, glowering when the clump didn’t soar into the air, but crumbled around her bare toes. She dropped to her knees and dug her hands in the sand. She grabbed a fist full and threw it into the air, grunting with anger, then hissing when the sand went into her eyes.
Even the beach was against her.
Tired, she turned away from the ocean that held her so enthralled and made her way back to the old hut that her father had left them. It wasn’t outside of the village, but it might as well have been, Sari thought as she passed the bakery and spotted her best friend, Sage, sleeping with one arm hanging out her window. Silly girl, one of these days she was going to roll out and bash her head in on the hard ground below. Snickering, Sari rushed home, not noticing the clouds rolling in from the west, blotting out the sparkling stars.
She arrived home to find that her mother wasn’t home. Sari peered into every room of the hut and put her hands to her hips as she wondered where her mother could have gotten to.
Then she snapped her fingers as she remembered that her mother had a job to do that needed to be done by the time the boats were ready to set out. Repairing something or other.
She stepped back outside and shivered as she realized the wind had picked up. Her skirt rustled in the breeze and she ducked around the back of the house, narrowing her eyes to see the blacksmith’s shop where her mother was busy toiling away.
During the day, one couldn’t see a thing, but at night, if one knew where to look, she could see the fire her mother kept at a high blaze. She smiled to herself at the sight of the tiny flame and set out. She’d probably get yelled at for being underfoot, but Sari wanted her mother on this night. She needed to know that not everybody was bound to leave her. Like Rama. Like her father.
She trotted down the path, humming to herself as she paused to inspect some bug or frog that crossed her path. Then the most horrible thing that could happen, did happen.
The sky split with an ear cracking scream of thunder.
Sari froze on the path, wide eyes staring, unblinking at the dark forest that moments ago was so friendly and familiar. Rain began to pelt the leaves and she felt the cold drops touch the bare skin of her shoulders and arms. With the first raindrop, she shuddered and ducked under the trees, touching a hand to the rough bark nearest to her. Her breath was coming in short pants as she looked up and down the path, waiting.
She didn’t have to wait long as the darkness was suddenly illuminated with white light, quickly followed by the crack of thunder. She gave a yelp and dropped to the ground, hands over her ears.
It wasn’t the rain, nor the lightening that frightened her so, but only the thunder. She felt tears trail down her cheeks and knew that she was crying hard sobs that she just couldn’t repress. The thunder scared her out of her wits.
The rain worsened and she huddled under the tree, watching as small streams of water trailed along the ground before turning everything wet and splashing up mud to fleck her legs and arms with the stuff. Sniffing, she dared to stand and glance up at the sky. There were no stars, and no moon, but she could see the clouds rolling along overheard and she frowned.
The Wyld was acting up, she thought, then jumped as she looked around her. Was any Wyld creature near to have heard her thoughts? After a few more moments without thunder, or a Wyld creature to attack, Sari dared to resume her walk toward her mother’s shop.
She’d only taken a few steps when thunder echoed overhead, a long, low drum roll that sent her stumbling into the trees. Blinding by all encompassing fear, she ducked under low branches, stumbled over thick brush, and slipped on slick mud. She no longer knew where she was going, only that she was fleeing. She had to outrun the booms, escape the haunting fear.
The thunder ended and she paused where she was, the white fear suddenly gone, leaving her drained and frightened of her own body. How had she gotten here? Where was here? She was so deep in the forest, she couldn’t see the sky at all, despite how the rain was still dribbling down leaves and splashing on her head.
Panting with effort, she looked around her and rubbed a dirtied hand over her face, leaving a streak of mud over her cheeks. She was lost, but that didn’t scare her too much. She knew, as well as the next child, that the island wasn’t that vast and nobody could really get lost. The forest wasn’t that thick.
But it was thick enough to house several dangerous creatures. Under the sound of the rain, she could hear a hog jostling about and she quickly turned away from that sound. She didn’t want to face an angered hog, especially not if it was a sow with pups. She shoved large leaves out of her way and nearly jumped out of her skin when thunder ripped the air. She took two steps and lost her footing as the ground gave away under her. With a screech of terror, she slid down with the mudslide. Toward the bottom of the new slope, she flipped and landed with a loud crack that reverberated through her body as if it were a tiny thunder boom.
She screamed with pain, instantly curling up around her ankle. There she huddled and cried. Rama had left and he knew secrets to healing that nobody else on the island did. Her father’s warm touch was lost to the ocean and her mother was still at work, leaving the young girl to fend for herself.
Her crying turned from pain to self pity and she thought that perhaps she should just stay here and let the thunder god take her. Shatter her heart with his loud voice and break her as her loved ones had broken it.
Women weren’t meant to sail, she knew. Had always known. Tag had always boasted about how he was going to sail the world, while she was stuck on this island, never to leave, because women were unwelcome on the ocean. Her mother said that her father’s veins flowed with saltwater and Sari didn’t understand why they refused to see that she was her father’s daughter and had just as much saltwater in her veins.
She wasn’t meant to sail, and now she couldn’t walk. She carefully stood on her good ankle and gingerly pressed down on the injured one and collapsed with pain. Snarling a curse that she had heard Rama use upon occasion, she pounded the ground with her hands, having a fit of anger before she realized that the rain had ceased. With it, all sounds besides her own tantrum had gone.
She stilled and looked up, then around her.
Something was on the hunt. Her mouth went dry and she slowly inched back until she was sitting upright. Something was watching her from the shadows. She couldn’t find it at first, but then she saw two yellow eyes staring out from the darkness, unblinking and steady as they watched her. She gulped as she realized that it was a cat, a black panther that was native to the island, and likely larger than she was.
She couldn’t bring herself to move as the cat emerged from the shadows and came to a stop just beside her. Its thick whiskers twitched, then the eyes finally moved from her face as the cat sniffed at her wounded ankle. Its nose was cold and wet and she jumped when it touched her inflamed skin.
After sniffing her leg, the cat pulled away and walked around her. Too scared to follow it, she only moved her eyes and was thus surprised then the beast pressed against her back, all but shoving her to her feet.
Gasping, she stood on her good foot and balanced in the mud, her lame foot hovering just above the ground. The panther returned to her side, pressing its shoulders into her side.
“You want to help me?”
The cat didn’t say anything, nor look at her, but she felt that, yes, it did want to help her. Licking her lips, she leaned her weight on the cat and he helped her walk. Before too long they had fallen into a steady pace that brought them out of the forest and back to the path. Without hesitating, the cat turned her toward home and they walked together.
“You know where I live.” She waited a moment. “You know me well, huh?”
She felt a vibration run through the cat’s body and smiled. “You’re right. I know you too. We’re going to get along great, aren’t we?”
They came right up to the back of the house and Sari fell to the stoop, hissing as she stretched her legs out before her. She smiled at the cat as he once again stared, unblinking, at her. “Shadow Walker. That’s your name.” The cat’s head tilted to one side, then he shifted his eyes behind her. Sari turned and found herself engulfed in her mother’s strong embrace. Her mother cried her gratefulness that Sari was back, for she well knew Sari’s strange fear of thunder. Struggling in her mother’s arms, Sari turned back to the cat, only to see the long tail disappear back into the distant shadows.
She smiled, though, because she knew that they would meet again. She’d felt it. He was her familiar, her constant friend.