Earth Mother's Journey

Tark'ee : The Earth Mother's Journey
The night is anything but still - a gentle, sweet smelling breeze swirls through the air and dances among the trees. Hundreds of decorated chimes ring out their song to the night, filling the world with a rhythmic orchestra. Flowers, banners and streamers adorn every surface imaginable, a wonderful mess of colour and life in the starlit world around.
Tark'ee of all origins are strewn about as far as the eye can see, and then some. All are gathered today for the Spring Festival - an annual event hosted by the Earth Tark'ee in unison, and as such, the festivities don't last a mere day.
Many of the Tark'ee around have made friends, or are seeking out their old ones. An undertone of warmth and friendship fills the plains, accented with laughter, music, dances, and the occasional loud exclamation as someone inevitably does something silly.
Hatchlings run around, weaving between the legs of the adults and the various temporary structures strewn everywhere - these being the only ones who feel rushed here. Bonfire dots the landscape provide light and warmth to those nearby - not that it is needed.
The aroma of food and beverages is thick, something mouth-wateringly delicious is always cooking somewhere and there has never been a shortage yet.

The Great Tree is central to the festivities and most of the Tark'ee present would have visited this monument at some point during their visit. Hatchlings climb its great trunk, leaping from branch to branch in their fast-paced games. Squawks of delight join the noisy atmosphere and add to the sense of relaxation and no-worries to this festival.
Another monument is present a little way away from Great Tree, a large wooden depiction of the Earth Mother - completely covered in streamers and flowers, the base is lit up by hundreds of candles which occasionally set fire to a streamer and leave a small darkened mark on the monument.
Whereas the Earth Mother herself walks among the festivities, taking her the whole week to travel from one side of the celebration to the other - often accompanied by a large following of eager Tark'ee and hatchlings squealing as they weave among her legs and play in her shadow.
She is never too tall, however you know where she is always based on the gentle green glow which lights up her surroundings. She willingly obliges to the hatchlings when they ask for a show and she sends this ethereal glow to the sky, creating shapes and figures to entertain them. Nothing can rush her in this, it's her strong held belief to give everyone a chance to talk to herself, to seek out her help. Now, however, she has made her way to Great Tree and is laying down, completely at ease, with a close group of Tark'ee all wanting to ask her advice or just impress her. Hatchlings waste no time in using this opportunity to nuzzle in close to her warm, glowing body. She is half-way through her journey this year, and is taking up a break for the evening.
The music seems to gradually settle now as more and more Tark'ee are aware of her presence, and more and more Tark'ee choose to take up a position in which they may hear her speak.
The questions start coming in fast, however those present remain quiet, content to merely listen to what she has to say. Questions arise such as "how will the harvests fare this year?" and "where can we find refuge in the case of a flood?". The Earth Mother patiently answers each and every question, taking her time to thoroughly explain everything until the questioner is satisfied. After a while, a quiet lull falls upon the listeners, each trying to think of a question or listen intently for the next. Quite suddenly, a hatchling calls out from atop a branch in Great Tree;
"I hatched from an egg four moons ago! Earth Mother, how many moons ago did you hatch? Was your egg big and strong like mine?"
A soft chuckle rose from the audience, and the Earth Mother herself was quite amused.
"No, dear child. My egg was not strong - in fact, I did not hatch from an egg at all." the hatchling made a clear noise of disbelief. She continued. "However, my age is beyond counting."
Many of those present knew this story, knew what was to come, but it was not quite Spring Festival without the Earth Mother retelling it. And so a hush fell upon the world, and the Earth Mother sent up her green-coloured aura to paint a picture for her as she spoke.

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"Before me, there was nothing and yet everything. An ethereal sea existed, chaos, no order to anything. Life as we know it here did not exist.
All I know is that what I see today in the ethereal sea is nothing compared to what it was. Look up, look up into the sky. All those stars - suns for other worlds. Planets, moons, many like this one. Out there, the ethereal sea - or at least the physical representation of it. It is beautiful here - however it is breathtaking and terrifying in the ethereal plains where I exist.
Before me, there was one creature who swam in the ethereal chaos. In the plasma between worlds, between planes. He is beautiful, he is both light and dark, chaos and order. As far as I know, he was the only being in existence. Can you imagine how lonely that would be? Existing but not living. A being so powerful, and yet completely powerless in the face of isolation - alone in the chaos.

This creature is known to you as Wave Father.

When I woke up the first time, it was to see the ethereal chaos, and Flight Mother. She did not look then as she looks now, however. She was different.
We saw one another, we felt each others presence and were both confused as to this newfound existence. To the distance, a dark figure appeared - a blinding blackness in the light. The Wave Father.
He greeted us, we could sense he was excited however he was also hesitant. His sea had parted, he told us that he was tired of the chaos and that he tried to create order. However, we appeared. Looking out to us three, there was a barrier. We could exist everywhere and anywhere we wanted - however we could not exist where another already was. Shapes formed between us, the ethereal chaos waxed and waned, taking form and breaking apart.
Time does not exist in the ethereal chaos, we had no sense of the passage of time. We merely existed and explored - I for one was very curious about everything around me. Wave Father guided me and taught me the ways of the chaos. He taught me how to control myself, how to skip through planes, and how to dance with the energies that flow. Despite the chaos, everything had a purpose and had a reason for being, so he told me. Wave Father is very wise. However he is also a prankster.
Once he got used to having company in Flight Mother and myself, he started playing tricks. His tricks were always tolerable and never harmed us, however he did push the limits of courtesy, and Flight Mother did not take kindly to this.

She became angry. Her anger was hidden from him, but seeped into the chaos surrounding her essence. Eventually, she snapped. She formed a ball of energy, concentrating her essence. I warned her, I tried to stop her. However she was beyond this point. Wave Father appeared. He knew she was angry and yet he appeared. To this day I will never know why he placed part of himself in her way, but she flung her essence at him - an unspoken taboo we all were aware of. We cannot exist in the same place at the same time.
The noise, if you can call it that, was horrendous. The chaos shook, shapes and formations came into existence and disappeared. Order formed but chaos ripped it to shreds before it could establish itself. Her essence screamed as it brushed through him, and the chaos split for a moment.
Energy burst through the split, and parts of all of us threaded through - though it was over quickly. The chaos restored itself by tearing apart the tear - however, a scar had formed. I was suddenly aware of a part of me, I was both in the chaos and outside of it simultaneously.
A new world, a new plane of existence had formed. This one was unique. We discovered that anything created in the ethereal chaos was mirrored in this new plane. But what we also discovered was that we were not alone in this new plane.

The creature known to you as Rock Father.

He was born from the chaos, however resided only in the place we now call the Physical Realm. He is like us, an ethereal creature. However he is stuck here - unable to control the chaos, unable to cross that scar. He was afraid at first, but he quickly grew to resent us. He left us then, when he realised he wasn't bound and was free to explore the endless world.
We did not stop him, but we pitied him. His resentment was clear, he was unhappy with us and the lack of influence he had over this realm. His reach was far, and we could sense him from a galaxy away.
Eventually he returned, but only returned to Wave Father. Rock Father persuaded him to do many things, from creating planets to destroying others. Eventually Wave Father tired of these games and parted ways with Rock Father - though he kept a close watch on him.

We found planets, stars, moons. We explored this new realm of existence whilst residing in the chaos simultaneously. Time passes in this realm, and eons passed us by as we quenched our curiosity as the world around us matured and stabilised. We felt the never-ending urge for company, all of us too busy exploring and creating to acknowledge one another.
Eventually, Wave Father sought me out - he told me that he wanted to create creatures like us. We somehow created the Rock Father, so surely we could create a new life form to keep us company? One which can create more of itself, such that we could gain the company we desired. I agreed to help him find a way to create these creatures. However, we were not strong enough together, even with the Wave Father's awesome power. This task seemed impossible.
We turned to Flight Mother. She was not eager to help, but eventually agreed that the universes would be more pleasant with another being which was not as absent as Rock Father. Our combined auras were thrust against one another, energies spilled forth, and others were taken away. Eventually we were able to create an essence which we could shape and mold. We had to agree on traits, hardened beaks, sharpened claws, a thick hide. This creature needed to also hold an intelligence unlike the other creatures that were beginning to evolve on these planets in this realm, we needed this creature to comprehend us.
However as we formed this creature, modelling traits off of what we saw can survive on these planets, we had disagreements.
Flight Mother wanted the creatures to be tall and strong, to be able to lift themselves into the heavens.
Wave Father wanted the creatures to be small, to frolic and play, to have no worries, to be curious and to swim the oceans as he swam the chaos.
I wanted the creatures to be strong, wise, loving and caring. I wanted them to be warm, and to always stay together.

We disagreed to the point where the energies were beginning to rip apart. Suddenly, Rock Father appeared. He attempted to grab onto out creation, to thrust his own essence onto it. However he did not succeed. Our combined energies trying to form our own creature ripped the creation into four. Once the energies had settled - we realised we did not destroy the creature, but create four similar yet unique creations.
Rock Father fled with his creation, Flight Mother took her own. Wave Father and I were left alone with our creations, so we too silently parted ways.


And so all of us together created the first creatures other than ourselves - we created the Tark'ee.