(Mthandihle) The Third Dream

It was another stormy night. Myth had found a nice, dry spot under a bridge to spread out her sleeping mat, and soon was fast asleep.

Almost immediately she was dreaming. Myth found herself standing in a large clearing in a dark, unfamiliar wood, with a small, irregularly-shaped pool in the center. A waxing crescent moon was reflected in the pond, even though she saw no such thing in the dark, starless sky above.

Curious she crouched at the water's edge and reached out to touch the reflection, finding to her disappointment only the surface of the water. Ripples from her touch disturbed the calm surface for a few moments, but soon all was still again. Disappointed, she straightened and paced around the pool, looking around for anything of interest.

The only thing was the reflection. It followed her, turning as she walked around the pool so that the crescent moon's "points" always pointed to her right. Frowning to herself, Myth looked closer at the crescent. It was odd... it had dark spots on it that looked nothing like the ones she was familiar with on the moon. In fact... they looked almost like...

...eyes.

As she finished this thought, suddenly the reflection of the moon and the whole pool around it were filled with eyes. They swiveled and turned to look at Myth, and she braced herself for the echoing voices saying strange things about chains and bonds... but they were silent.

The silence stretched out for a long moment before Myth finally broke it. "Ah... hello?"

"Theeeeeerrrreeee you are," The voices chorused together again like in her other dreams, but this time they were just above a whisper rather than a booming cacophony. "Having fun bending your bonds, yes?"

Myth frowned. There was the talk of bonds again. "What do you mean bonds? I'm not tied down."

The echo of the laughter sounded before the laughter itself. "You don't know?" There was a pause, and then another chorus of laughter. "No, you don't! Ah, well, do you remember when you first touched my power?"

Myth's frown deepened in thought. "Do you mean when I broke that statuette? When I first changed shape?"

"Yes! See, I knew you were a clever one. My power is to bend and break bonds. For whatever reason it's showed up first in you as bending how you're chained to one shape."

"That's... not a bond, is it?"

"Oh, but it is. You Material Plane beings are usually defined by your bonds. Even your plane is--gravity binds you down to the ground, you're bound to one shape, you're bound to the consequences of the past. Sometimes you talk about freedom, but none of you really know what it is to be free.

"That, you see, is what I offer."

Myth cocked her head to one side. "So... you are saying that freedom isn't just not having people force you to do something?"

"Yes, exactly! Freedom means no laws can bind you--not gravity, not momentum, not time! Of course, it's not easy, but you're already making progress, aren't you? You can bend your form more than when you first could, yes?"

At Myth's nod, the voices continued, "Well let me give you just a little help here. Since you're just starting to realize what chains you have, it's a bit hard to bend or break them. So look a bit closer..."

After a moment's hesitation, Myth leaned over the pond and peered into it. At first she saw nothing more unusual than the eyes... but then she looked closer at her own reflection. Or more to the point, the many, many little chains wrapped around her in her reflection. Frowning she tried to reach for them, remembered that the reflection was just a reflection, and reached around herself.

Laughter echoed again. "Not like that! Think of how you bend your shape, and... do the same to these other chains."

Frowning deeper, Mthandihle thought over how she changed shape. It was so instinctual she wasn't sure she could change it, but... well, actually... maybe she could...

To her surprise, she saw some of the chains in her reflection start to lift, and in response felt herself growing lighter until she almost thought she would leave the ground.

"Yes! Yes, very good! You're making good progress. Remember that when you awake."

Myth grinned down at the eyes. "Thank you!" Then a thought crossed her mind, and her eyes narrowed just a bit. "So... might I ask your name?"

She awoke wtih a start, laughter echoing in her ears as she bolted upright, smacking her forehead against the underside of the bridge. Rubbing the spot, she noticed it felt hot, more than she would have anticipated from just a smack, but she felt no blood.

Grumbling to herself about dream voices, Myth walked down to the edge of the creek the bridge spanned and splashed a bit of water on her face. Then, thinking of her dream, she focused again, thinking on the feeling of lifting, of... bending the bonds of gravity was it? After a moment she felt it, the lightness of foot beyond even what being a small cat gave her.

Taking a breath, she stepped out onto the surface of the stream... and it held her.

With a wide grin, Mthandihle ran back and forth over the surface of the water for a bit before deciding that maybe she should get some more sleep. As she curled up back on her sleeping mat, the soles of her feet only slightly damp, she did not yet know that more had changed than just her relationship with gravity.

For the leopard had changed her spots... or rather, the catfolk had changed one spot. On her forehead, one large spot had changed form, no longer being a leopard's normal rosette pattern, but rather, a stylized eye.