"Anna?" Crisis called out again, her hands cupped around her mouth as the warm light of the sun shone down on her.
"Anna? Where are you?" She was becoming concerned. Her friend was no-where to be found, and she wasn't normally one to ignore the calls of Crisis. She wasn't always happy when she responded, sure, but she always showed up...
She and Katrika had been looking for Anna all morning, and as the afternoon rays began to fill the sky, Crisis was becoming desperate...
Fortunately for her however, Anna was not far off. She slithered around a large cluster of trees to discover the purple haired Naga resting with her back against a cliff face, her head lolled to one side as though in deep thought, and one hand closed tightly in a fist, rested on her belly.
"Anna!" Crisis said with a mixture of relief and concern as she slid over, her face beaming as she extended her hand onto Anna's shoulder. "Are you ok?"
There was a pause, and Anna turned to face Crisis...
The blonde haired naga's mouth opened involuntarily, leaning back slightly. She would have been less shocked to see a bloody gash, or a missing eye, or some disturbing wound... but she certainly wasn't prepared for what she saw.
The serene smile on Anna's face was something Crisis had never seen before. The curled lips, the glitter in her eyes... it all radiated a sense of bliss and absolute calm that wasn't normally seen in the tense and irritated Naga.
"Oh... hey, sorry, I wasn't really paying attention... what were you saying?"
"I... just got here Anna. Is everything ok?"
Her expression softened still further - if that were even possible...
"Yeah, just great Crisis, thanks..."
She turned and looked out into the sea of trees stretching out below them in the huge valley.
Crisis however was overwhelmingly curious, and she curled up beside Anna, looking at her warm expression.
"Anna? What happened?"
The naga closed her eyes...
****************************************************************
Three Hours Ago...
****************************************************************
Anna had heard the detonation from some distance away, and it hadn't taken her long to locate the source. She wrapped her tail absent mindedly around a tree and folded her arms patiently as she watched the crew from a distance...
She always found it amusing to watch the teams of researchers repair things. Even if she couldn't personally take part for fear of return fire, she felt some satisfaction in at least observing the process.
These humans however seemed different. Less panicked than the kind of people she normally saw when their transports were damaged by the lush terrain.
They moved about calmly in suits of pale blue, small dome-like helmets pulled down over their eyes as they deftly welded the plates back onto their transport. The machine was vast and smooth, with no visible weaponry - or indeed, any perceivable method of propulsion.
Anna was intrigued by the technology they used. Elegant tools emitted subtle rays of light which left seamless repairs in mere moments. One of the figures caught her attention... a man dressed all in amber colored robes, his eyes hidden beneath the brim of his helmet. He moved about with slow, purposeful strides, gliding his hands across the surface of the craft, leaving it glowing wherever he touched... and a moment later, Anna realized the man couldn't see...
None of them could see...
They were blind to a man.
Tentatively, she slithered into the clearing where the craft lay, the blue clad mechanics continuing to go about their business.
The man in yellow however, turned his sightless gaze towards Anna, which gave her some surprise.
"Greetings. How may we help you?"
"Hi..." Anna said, unsure of what to say. "My name is Anna... I'm sorry to interrupt, but I've always been very interested in technology and science, and I don't think I've ever seen a craft quite like yours."
"You have a strong voice young lady." Said the man smoothly, his own voice not sounding more than in his late twenties. "Are you a mechanic also?"
"Yeah - kinda... though probably not the kind you need."
The yellow robed man extended his left hand, and from it a small silver device appeared, seemingly melting from the flesh.
He squeezed it tightly, and a flash of red light temporarily blinded Anna, causing her to fling her hands up over her face.
"You possess immense strength for a human. Might I assume you are larger than the average person?"
Anna wondered how best to answer his question, her arms lowered by her sides... she felt awkward having to correct the polite man and his device, but it wouldn't be fair of her to lie... Or would it? They didn't know she was a Naga, and how would they react if they knew? They didn't seem the types to panic...
But they had been kind enough to not react violently to a stranger in the jungle, so she decided to risk the truth.
"I'm no human... I'm a Naga... but don't worry! I'm not going to eat you."
The man laughed good naturedly, taking a step forward and holding up the device.
"I do not know what changes you have undergone since your birth, but you have the soul of a human." He pushed the device a second time, and a two dimensional image of Anna appeared before her, her own face gazing lifelessly into her eyes...
Her mouth widened as she looked herself up and down... but her gaze was drawn inevitably to the down - where she saw projected not a long scaly tail... but a pair of shapely, pale legs...
"What... what is this? What are you showing me?" She was nervous and shocked... almost felt like she had somehow been violated.
"This is you... like I said, whatever changes you have made to your body - like us, you cannot change who you are inside... sure, you may change over time as a person, but your internal self is a constant - it will warp and shift to suit your personality, but it will only ever show who you really are to us."
Anna inspected herself with wordless awe as the blind mechanics continued about their labor.
"But... no - this isn't right. The eyes are wrong... my eyes changed with my new body, and I have the same eyes in this hologram."
"The eyes are the window to the soul. Even if all else is incomprehensible, your eyes will always stay and determining factor... You are no longer human physically, as you claim... whilst your soul, from what you say - and I see - remains that of a human... however. Your new identity is also part of who you are."
He lowered the hologram and turned to the gleaming craft, approaching one of the smooth panels and touching his hand against it.
"You will always be part human. Nothing will destroy your roots... but whatever you have become now - that also is part of who you are... and if all that has changed is your eyes, that is a sign. At least it is to me..."
He turned from her and said simply,
"You don't like your new self do you."
"Well that's no secret..." Anna said bitterly, and the amber-coated man nodded.
"We have all had to make changes, whether we wanted to or not... and you must come to terms with yours."
His hands reached for the sides of his helmet - and with a short tug, he had removed the protective device...
"Now... this next sensation... you may find, a little unusual."
Anna had barely time to register the glowing blue sockets in the mans skull before all her senses disappeared...
She felt no sense of balance -
Blinded by light and deafened by silence -
She threw our her hands to break her fall and took a step to hold her steady...
A step?
She wasn't dreaming - she had taken a step...
"Do you find it hard to stand?"
The warm and friendly voice filled her mind as she cast around, trying to see where it was coming from.
"What is this place?"
"You are in the dimension of the mind... your world can connect to many places, but only beings from ours can connect to this..."
"Why do I have legs?"
"The more important question, is why can't you use them..."
The amber robed figure seemed to materialize from the light in front of her, and now at least she could look into his hairless face with ease. They both seemed to be on the same scale, and for reasons beyond her she felt completely at ease with him there...
She knew perfectly well that, legs or not, she was utterly naked - but around this singularly peculiar figure, she felt not the slightest trace of self-conciousness.
"I..." She tried to stand up straight, but her legs seemed heavy and unfamiliar, a sensation she knew all too well from her first moments as a Naga.
"Why?" She asked quietly, confused by her inability to move properly.
"This is who you are in your own head... you believe so hard that you are a human and not the so called 'monster' you feel you are physically..." He took a step forward and placed his hands on her shoulders, their eyes meeting properly for the first time - though his were made of light...
"You cannot move your legs because of what I see in your eyes. You try to move your limbs as though you were a snake, yet your soul has legs which cannot move that way. You cannot decide what you are... Are you human? Or are you snake?"
"I -" She began, but the man placed his finger on her lips and silenced her, causing her to blush.
"You don't need to convince me of anything. You my dear Anna, are uncomfortable with yourself. Do you not wonder why you rage on occasion and awake as though from a deep sleep to find yourself stuffed to the brim with humans wriggling in your belly?"
She bit her lip. So he knew about that...
"You lose control because you spend so much time suppressing part of you that you cannot escape. Like the legendary story of Jekyll and Hyde... you must accept the 'monster' in yourself to tame it."
Anna couldn't speak. Nothing came to her mind... in that moment - she ceased to be...
And her senses came flooding back...
...
...
The helmet was pulled back into place as the last panel on the ship was sealed, and the whole creation hummed to life, levitating from the ground and glowing with radiant light.
The amber robed man glanced over his shoulder and then turned back to Anna.
"You're not human." Anna said blankly, peering at the humanoid as he nodded solemnly.
"Neither are you Anna... but does my lack of humanity make me a monster?"
Anna said nothing... she knew he wasn't speaking of himself.
"Here..." He reached into his pocket, and produced a small round ball of green metal.
As his crew silently made their way back onto the dimension-hopper, he drummed his fingers steadily against the ball for a few moments before holding it out to the giant Naga.
Her head filled with an unfamiliar sense of peace, Anna reached for the ball and carefully pinched it between two fingers, lifting it up and peering at it as the man made his way towards the end of the line.
"Wait - what is this thing?" She asked, not wanting him to leave so soon.
Without turning to face her, the cloaked man responded, "Exactly what you need to hear..."
And with those words, he was gone...
***************************************************************
"Anna? What happened?" Crisis repeated, her curious smiling face looking up at Anna.
"I am aren't I." Anna said smiling, her eyes flicking down towards Crisis. "I am Anna."
Crisis looked puzzled and poked out her tongue. "Well, yeah, of course you are... Come on! We were supposed to be hunting together today, you promised!"
"Sorry, I got a bit distracted."
And then, Anna did something that left Crisis stunned. She wrapped her arms around her, and gave her a tight hug.
Crisis wasn't about to question the act of affection, and hugged back with a smile, feeling pleasantly uplifted by the whole thing.
"Shall we go then?" Crisis beamed, patting Anna on the back as the purple haired Naga opened her palm.
Something small rolled from it and landed on the ground, giving off a radiant glow of what looking like runic symbols.
"What's that thing?" Crisis said with curious interest as the pair began to slither away - but the answer Anna gave left her even more puzzled than before.
"Exactly what I needed to hear..."
There was a pause...
"You're still weird." Crisis giggled, and together they disappeared back towards the ancient tree...
...
...
...
Behind them, watching from the shadow of an outcropping, stepped the discreet form of Gunther, who had been enthralled by the look on Anna's face...
Sprinting quickly over to the fallen sphere, he knelt down and peered at the glowing letters in the air.
He wasn't sure what had gone on before he had arrived, or what the possible significance of such an obvious statement was, but he muttered the words to himself anyway.
"You are Anna."
He glanced after the retreating Naga's, and tucked the sphere into his pocket.
"Whatever..."
End
Subject: Felarya: A Simple Smile 
Fri Apr 25, 2008 11:54 pm
