LEGEND OF THE GODDESSES
Mooneye Lagoon, 726 years ago
The sky was purple and red in the throes of twilight. Okapiopteryx stood atop a staff of bamboo, balanced on only one of her bird feet, with her hooves together, her eyes closed and her four wings folded. Fork hid among the jungle ferns, staring at the peacefully meditating young goddess, thinking.
He looked at his sapphire. "Should I go talk to her?" he asked. "…Might as well. Based on past experience, she probably already knows I'm here. I'm gonna do it."
He beat his wings and fluttered over to her, hovering near her head. "Greetings, Okapiopteryx."
She didn't speak or open her eyes, but inclined her head in barely-perceptible acknowledgment.
"I don't know if you remember me," he said, embarrassed. "We… crossed paths a long time ago. Fork, pixie pony, you know."
She nodded.
"I, uh, I'm sorry I ran away," he said. "I was just starting this whole… thing. This whole journey that I'm on. I thought that being seen would… but I know better now. And I've behaved badly since discovering that, but now I know better than that too."
Okapiopteryx arched one eyebrow.
"You don't know what I'm talking about," he chuckled weakly. "But I wanted to say, that whole encounter with you, it… it affected me. Deeply. Basically, you're the reason I became personally invested in this journey. Thank you."
She moved her lips silently for several seconds, then spoke. "Forgive me if my responses take time. I've decided, from now on, to speak in rhyme."
"I can see that," Fork said with a smile.
"Yes, it's important to me to say what I mean," she said. "This discipline helps my mind stay keen."
Fork giggled. "So… what have you been doing the past… nine years, you've been alone here at Mooneye?"
"I have been here… listening, waiting… breathing softly… meditating…" she said softly. "With no real need for food or drink, I am free to be still and think."
He leaned closer to her, intrigued. "What are you thinking about? What are you waiting for?"
She inhaled and turned her nose to the sky. "The energy of the universe is all around. Some flows through the air, some through the ground. There are many paths in that infinite stream, which you can see in meditation or in a dream. Since becoming a goddess, I've begun to see, that many of these lines now converge on me." She opened her eyes and switched her stance from one foot to the other. "Which makes me wonder what precisely I'm supposed to be."
"Oh, well, that's easy," Fork said enthusiastically. "The folks of this whole continent… they're waiting for you, Okapiopteryx. They know that the lines of their lives converge on you. They're waiting for a change. Your arrival has been foretold out there for a generation. A generation. Since before you were even born. It's clear that this paradigm shift was inevitable, and yeah, they're all out there, waiting for something to be done about it."
Her eyes darted over him. "You have a beard now," she noted. "With a little spike. It… doesn't look good, I don't like it."
He snickered and covered his beard with one hoof. He flew a few feet away and lifted his other wrist to address the sapphire. "Notice she also became a goddess as a teenager. And yet, as we all know, she's perfectly well-adjusted. How many teenagers do you know who can meditate for nine years straight? It's about upbringing and character, I guess. So much for Soledad's excuse…" He stared off into space, then his face fell. "Oh, man, I smack-talked Soledad and made myself sad."
"Whose ear do you bend, tiny pixie friend?" Okapiopteryx called to him.
"Oh, no one," he said, quickly flying back to her. "Just thinking about something that happened a long, long time ago… linearly speaking, anyway. For me it was, like, yesterday…" He cleared his throat. "Anyway, like I was sayin', there's a lot of people outside this jungle who are waiting for their goddess. I just thought I ought to let you know."
Okapiopteryx spread her wings and walked down her bamboo staff and back to the ground. "The things that I've seen going on…" she muttered. "These are the conclusions that I have drawn. Our planet's force lines seek me out, so there cannot be any doubt, I'm meant to accomplish some great things… but such is the blessing that every life brings. We're on this earth to do some good… it's time I pursued true godhood."
She sat down on her haunches and raised a bird claw to her mouth, gnawing on it thoughtfully. "Can I accomplish this mighty deed? Can I rule, and can I lead? Can a world of divided species subscribe, to the notion of a single united tribe? 'Tis a question I've posed many times, in my musings, writings, thoughts, and rhymes…"
"They're ready to be united under you," Fork insisted. "Half your job's been done for you already."
"Hrmm…" Okapiopteryx said through thin lips. "I don't quite believe that, but I'm going to see, what I can find out about society. I will go among them, see what I can find out, get a feel for what being their leader would be all about. After some time of that, I'll decide on my course, and see if I can lead them without threat of force."
She flew off into the air, soaring high atop the treetops and into the setting sun. Fork stayed where he was, noting her bamboo staff, which she had left balanced upright on the stone.
"Should I follow her…?" he wondered. "Meh, I'll do it later. I wonder… they've been waiting for her for longer than a normal mortal lifetime. She wasn't even born when her legend started, much less a goddess."
He pondered the Mare in the Moon, which was slowly rising. "There are real, honest-to-goodness prophecies out there," he mused. "Like the one about Nightmare Moon coming back on the thousandth year, and that other one about the Beast, you know the one I'm talking about. But these are prophecies about major cosmic forces which already existed at the time, of the kind that would have enough effect on the energies of universe to create prophecies. What could have predicted her before she even came to be?"
He scuffed the ground with his hoof as he carefully mulled over his thoughts. "What if it wasn't a prophecy?" he said slowly, tasting each word before saying it. "What if the foretelling of Okapiopterx's arrival was… something else?" He grinned broadly. "It must have been, because I'm about to do it! Do I dare? Do I dare? Yes, I dare!"
Fork laughed wildly, and his horn lit up with pale blue magic which ignited with a loud snap, sending him hurling through the web of space and time, a tight tunnel made of interwoven fabric, which burned with a radiant light all the colors of the rainbow. He blasted through this passage with enough velocity to make his eyes burn and his teeth tingle, a barrage of sensation that went beyond the five senses, beyond the vastness of the universe, beyond the scope of mortal understanding.
And just as soon as he entered this passage, he had passed through it and found himself once again in Mooneye Lagoon at night.
There was no Mare in the Moon, only a pure white orb, while the night was a void of pure black, with chilling pinpricks of light for stars, none of Luna's later innovations.
"Wait… no… I overshot," Fork realized.
He looked into the lagoon and found that the reflection of his eyes didn't have the moon-like quality that gave the lagoon its name. He floated down to the surface to get a better look, and pondered casting a spell, but his magic didn't do more than flicker.
"No," he decided. "No, not here. There are some things that shouldn't be explained."
And so, he flew off high into the sky before sending himself tumbling through time again.
-0-0-0-0-0-0-0-
Fork stood in the center of the savannah, surrounded by all sorts of creatures, tossing up huge motes of pale blue dust that formed elaborate shapes in the air.
"Hear me, fair people of these lands!" he said in a loud, carrying voice. "Your struggles shall not be your children's struggles!"
This display was appearing all over the continent at that very moment, all across the savannahs, rainforests, and mountain ranges, all of them featuring Fork at the center of a community, with the rapt attention of all its inhabitants.
"In a generation's time, the Four-Winged Queen shall rise up and unite all our tribes!" he cried out, using his blue dust to create a vague outline of her shape. "Tell your children to await her! Spread this story wherever you go, that the Four-Winged Queen… is nigh!"
One time after another, he gave this grandiose speech, singing Okapiopteryx's praises for a solid hour, before going back in time to that exact moment, in a new place, and doing it all over again, all over the continent.
He came upon a little village of okapi, and stopped in mid-flight. "Whoa, not here," he said hastily, flittering away before he could be seen. "This village can't know this story, because if they did, Kopé would have known it. No, this has to be a surprise for her."
-0-0-0-0-0-0-0-
Fork brought himself back to the present where he had left Okapiopteryx's company, scanning the villages of the continent. Already, they were more organized. Depictions of Okapiopteryx adorned every village, each one mildly inaccurate, but beautifully detailed. Oral traditions and retelling had made Fork's words legend.
"You see that?" he said to his charm bracelet. "And now they're waiting for her. And all it took was me repeating that whole spiel and magic show all over this continent, every hour on the hour, for a month. You know how many hours are in a month? Neither do I, and I'm not in the mood to do math. But… appreciate me and my efforts, if you would please, is what I'm saying. Anyway, back to the story."
Okapiopteryx was now creeping through the jungle, sliding stealthily through large bushes and ferns. "All right," she told herself. "All I have to do is be wary and watchful. I'll live among them and gather information, for an entire generation if I need to, and find out if they're ready for a goddess." She stopped in her tracks. "Well, that didn't rhyme at all. I'd better make sure I never do that again… yes, in only a few seconds, I'll be entering society, so this is my last chance to speak in prose… just a few more seconds, then never again. Right."
She emerged from the foliage into a grassland, and stopped once again, absolutely stunned. There was a crowd waiting for her, a crowd made up of all kinds of creatures: zebras, gazelles, giraffes, every savannah-dweller she had ever imagined and more.
A zebra stepped forward, wearing a wood-carved mask that gave him golden eyes and prominent eyelashes like hers, and four false wings on his back. "Behold," he announced, just as awestruck as the others. "The Four-Winged Queen has arrived at last!"
The crowd cheered and converged upon her, adorning her with jewelry: a many-pointed crown decorated with gems of green, black, and blue, and a necklace with a huge, dangling opal—both adornments made of the purest glittering gold. The bewildered little goddess was lifted up onto the shoulders of the adoring crowd.
"Foretold indeed, so it would seem," she muttered. "I… what did you call me? The Four-Winged Queen?"
Fork straightened in surprise from where he was hidden among the ferns. "Huh," he remarked. "Did I come up with 'Four-Winged Queen'? Isn't that delightfully paradoxical…" He smiled at his charm. "Look at that. I'm so happy for her… for her. Not happy that I'm seeing it, happy for her. That's new…"
Okapiopteryx leaned toward the masked zebra. "Sir… this feels most unique. Can you tell them all I wish to speak?"
He nodded to her and stood up tall, calling out in a carrying voice, "The Four-Winged Queen wishes to SPEEEEEEEAK!"
The gathered masses fell silent, and all except those who were carrying the new queen on their shoulders parted to give her space. She spread her wings and glided gently down to the ground.
"It seems this kingdom has been united for me," she said carefully. "I am touched by the sincerity with which you adore me."
She glanced around, scuffing the ground nervously with a hoof. "I see a universe of infinite energy. My mind is afire with this mystical imagery. A force that flows through the earth and sky; I see it with my dreaming eye. These energies, they flow and ebb, connecting every living thing… in a web. Yes…" She beat her wings excitedly, hovering a few feet in the air. "Yes! I want to build this web, if you will consent! Each life is an individual fragment… and if this is my country, and you my subjects, we can bring them together so everyone connects."
She scanned the masses from above. "All of you here to answer my call… this is an unnecessary pedestal. I am one of you, I am but a child. But if you'll follow me… we shall tame the wild!" She flew higher and higher, until she was silhouetted against the sun. "Each one of us is no longer alone. For this is our nation—this is our home!"