Gildedtongue's Story Book II: Purgatorio - Chapter 5
#6 of Gildedtongue's Story, Book II: Purgatorio
Chapter 5
"Not exactly the friendliest response to someone trying to help," the green-eyed chakat on the other end blinked a bit. Shi looked older than Gildedtongue, but had aged softer, more grandmotherly than Gildedtongue had.
"I suppose you'll be ready to gloat that I'm leaving here, then?" Gildedtongue crossed hir arms in front of hir bosom, arching an eyebrow. The white tiger returned with a smirk as shi purred through the viewscreen.
"Oh, no. Well, not yet anyway. Honestly, the only reason that I accepted this sponsorship was because we're sisters. I know you don't exactly like me for making fun of your little fairy tales that you believe in, but that doesn't change the fact that we're still blood."
"I suppose you're right, Jadestripe," Gildedtongue sighed quietly before shrugging, "So, what do I do?" The leonine chakat felt hir tail wrap around hir hindlegs in submission as shi stared at hir forty-year senior sister who was looking over something off screen.
"Right now, your primary goal will be to get here. After that you'll have to go to the Skunk'taur Arcelpegico where your embassy is. From there we can get your visa and work on getting you to be a full-fledged citizen." Jade chuckled to hirself before shi continued, "I'd be able to do this sort of thing faster if you weren't dead."
Gildedtongue nodded quietly, biting hir lower lip in thought. After a moment of taking hir sister's time shi finally said, "I... I want to thank you, Jade, for helping me through this. I know I've been considerably distant to you and Ebonwave," Gildedtongue paused a bit, cocking hir head to the left, "How is Ebony?"
Jade closed hir eyes tightly and looked away, "Ebonwave was caught in an atmosphere pop terraforming a moon on Alpha Proxima fifteen years ago. They said shi didn't feel a thing. Luckily hir cubs were fully grown." Gildedtongue winced and performed a quick sign of the cross. Shi had been so far away shi was nearly a stranger to hir own family.
Jade shook hir head from the memory, then gave a weak smile, "Well, it'll be good to see family again soon. My older cubs would love to meet the elusive Auntie Gildy, as would our newest granddaughter, Aeonflare." Jade smiled quietly and nodded to Gildedtongue. "I guess I should sign off now and head to work. See you in nine Terran months."
Gildedtongue missed the closing connection by a millisecond. The chakat went to join the rest of the household to finish hir meal in uncomfortable silence. Dreamweaver stared at hir teacher for a moment before breaking the deafening nothingness, "So, erm, that was your sister? Shi looked rather nice."
Gildedtongue responded with a grunt and was content to leave it with that, but decided to be more polite, "Yes, that was Jadestripe, my older sister. Apparently shi will be my sponsor when I arrive at Chakona, and vouch for my abilities and sanity." Gildedtongue punctuated it with a sip of tea, which turned into gulping down the rest of the now tepid drink.
The other three chakats kept relatively in silence before Firefoot spoke, "Didn't know you had any other siblings. Why haven't you left here earlier, or have them visit you more often?" A common question on the minds of the other feli'taurs.
Gildedtongue sighed as shi leaned back, feeling hir spines pop. "It's hard to consider some people your siblings when their children are older than you are." The other sisters nodded at this. Gildedtongue continued, "Besides, most of them weren't exactly supportive of my choices to stay here in the Kingdom," Gildy purred a chuckle, "Ironic that I'm the least pessimistic of my sisters, it seems."
Gildedtongue took a more serious face, "But, we were never very close. They already had lives by the time I was born, and I had my own path, which wasn't quite what they were understanding of. I guess it's hard for a number of 'God is Dead' scientists to understand the splendor of faith, even when it does spit in your face often." Gildedtongue shrugged, "They tried to coax me out of here, with words, books and even flesh." Gildedtongue shuddered a bit at an old memory, "But everything felt so empty, or left me rather uncomfortable."
Dreamweaver reached over to pet over Gildedtongue's shoulder. Shi responded with a very light purr, leaning into Dreamy's hand. The chakat gave a quiet sigh and resumed hir thoughts, "I suppose I should look at that fire as a blessing, heh, not much need to pack anything when I don't have much able to be put into bags." Dreamweaver gave a rather sad face to that comment. Gildedtongue gave a quiet chuckle and reached to stroke under Dreamweaver's chin, "Don't worry, I'll be taking your gift along with me, close to my heart."
The teenaged chakat didn't hold back another whimper as shi looked down at the ground, "It isn't that, it's just..." Dreamweaver trailed off slightly, looking for the words buried in hir head, "Just that, it seems all of a sudden, and, well, that's the proverbial 'it,' you know. You'll be lightyears away, we can send mail, of course, but that still takes months sending them via ship. God, I find a companion and someone I love and shi's already leaving."
Gildedtongue whimpered slightly, stroking over Dreamweaver's cheek, holding the cub close, closing hir eyes, "You knew before you offered that I was going to leave. This was going to happen."
Dreamweaver shook hir head and grunted to hirself, "I've loved you longer than that, Gildedtongue. Shit, sometimes it's all I..." The teen's speech was interrupted by a gentle finger to the lips.
"I know, Dreamweaver. And it does pain me to know, however," Gildedtongue paused, looking into the tear-glassed eyes of Dreamweaver, "I think your love should go to someone more your age, someone who isn't going to hurt you, who likes the things you like." Gildedtongue sighed and whimpered, seeing the young chakat's face. Hir thumbs wiped away the tears welling up in hir eyes before shi lowered hir head to kiss along Dreamweaver's lips. "I do love you too, Dreamweaver."
Dreamy nodded quietly, giving Gildedtongue a strong hug as shi squeezed the older chakat's ribs.
Dreamweaver's parents watched in silence before Gildedtongue finally pulled out of the embrace. Dreamweaver still looked shaken, but wasn't quite as hurt as before. Gildedtongue smiled quietly, stroking along Dreamweaver's cheek, "You'll keep me updated on what you're doing, right? I want to hear about every companion and mate and what you're doing." Dreamweaver smiled involuntarily as shi nodded, giving Gildy a kiss on the cheek. The older chakat sighed softly to hirself, "I suppose I should put my affairs to rest before I leave." Gildedtongue thought to hirself, then made a half hearted chuckle, "Though, I guess that's what happened last night, eh?"
Dreamweaver made a small chuckle at that, but sighed as shi leaned against Gildedtongue. The older chakat closed hir eyes and caressed over Dreamweaver's sides quietly.
The rest of the day went by quietly. Dreamweaver seemed a little distraught still, but accepting the inevitability of Gildedtongue's send off. The older chakat packed what little was given to hir, packing the clothing into a pair of saddlebags shi was given. Shi touched the cross around hir neck in quiet rememberance, letting a few tears run free along hir cheeks. The finality of it all was getting to hir, but shi had to remain strong, at least for Dreamweaver's sake.
Gildedtongue was roused awake by a prodding Startail. Hir dreamless slumber blinked away with the crust that had gathered in hir eyes. Shi slowly got up from hir makeshift bed in the middle of the living room to be greeted with a warm mug of coffee. Shi gratefully took it and swirled the fluid in hir mouth to get rid of the dry taste lingering in there.
The wakeup didn't last long as shi felt hirself hurried to the lavatory. Gildedtongue nodded tiredly and entered to flush out everything shi had accumulated in hir sleep. Breakfast was only a few slices of toast and marmalade resting atop of a piping hot mug of coffee, both devoured with the same urgency before everyone piled into the PTV outside.
Gildedtongue inhaled the sweet outdoor air for the first time in weeks, having had kept hidden in fear of recognition. The predawn grey blanketed the streets as the vehicle pulled out and made its way to the spaceport. Star and Fire sat in front, quietly directing the PTV through the roads as Dreamweaver lay clutching the older chakat tightly. Gildedtongue ran hir fingers through hir hair quietly, keeping hir head down, resting hir muzzle against Dreamy's. Gildedtongue let hir eyes close for a moment in hir early morning drowsiness.
But, as with all "momentary eye rests," Gildedtongue blinked open hir eyes to see the travel reached it's end. The space port certainly wasn't one officially used by the Feds, and probably only barely passed protocol. A massive ebon lump sat in the middle, a long cylindrical fuselage with some engines that looked bolted onto the sides. An enormous opening stuck out of the side as a modified Marauder class mecha hauled material in and out of the ship. The nose of the ship had the name Purgatorio painted in white. The PTV slowly drove into the dirt clearing around the ship, obviously not at an official space port, but at an official quarry.
The PTV rolled to a stop and the occupants took a moment to stretch their limbs in the otherwise confined space. A human female and a large leonine morphic female. Gildedtongue slowly untwined from Dreamweaver's sleepy grip and stepped out of the vehicle. "You must be chakat..." the human trailed off, looking over a datapad, gripped in her left hand, and below that a number of papers and some cards, "Wanderer. A pleasure to have you on board. I'm captain Matilda Jefferson. This is our accountant, Thirtysilver." the caitian bowed her head to the chakat as the captain pushed the pile of documents and the datapad into Gildedtongue's hand. The older chakat looked a little puzzled, but decided to swallow the information down and save digestion for later.
Gildy was tugged around by a teary eyed Dreamweaver. The older chakat looked into hir eyes and took hir into hir arms, hugging hir tightly. "I'm so sorry that I'm going. But, I will never forget you, Dreamweaver. Thank you for everything."
Dreamweaver looked bewildered at Gildedtongue. Shi blinked a few times, "But, erm, I don't think I did anything."
Gildedtongue shook hir head, "You never gave up on me. You kept badgering me to loosen up, and it's something I needed all these years." Dreamweaver blushed and shrugged nervously, but kissed Gildedtongue's cheek before backing up next to hir parents.
Gildedtongue adjusted hir saddlebags before slowly making hir way to the ship, following the captain and quartermistress. A longing glance back to the family that sheltered hir before shi trudged into the ship's cargo bay. The majority of the cargo was various ores and raw material for replicators. Space colonies and various planets always increase in population, and with more people needing resources, more allotment is needed, more than what the Federation has time or realistic resources to keep ahead of, thus they employ private cargo ships, which also carry non-priority mail and, in the case of Gildedtongue, the occasional set of passengers.
Gildedtongue scanned through the pages, seeing the flight path will be anything but the direct path from Terra to Chakona, stopping at a number of stations and terraforming colonies. By the final count, it will take nearly a full year to land upon Chakonian soil.
The new identification documents intrigued the chakat quite a bit. They seemed mostly accurate, but hir birthdate, birthplace, and, obviously name, was noticeably fudged. Shi hoped that people wouldn't be too curious to ask hir too much, though it would get some getting used to to answer to a name not hirs.
Shi took one last glance out to the port. Dreamweaver waving in hir melancholy, obscured by the Maurader and Firefoot and Startail giving weak smiles before trying to usher Dreamweaver into their vehicle.
Gildedtongue blinked back a few tears before making hir way up the stair towards the spine of the ship.