Ander - Part 4: Subchapter 11
11
... them all... kill them all... ki..." Shekka's eyes fluttered and her vision flickered rapidly between two shades of black. She squeezed her eyes shut, opened them again, but it stayed black. She didn't even have that one blurry spot of colour in the middle anymore, which can mean only one of two things: either she had gone completely blind, or it was night time.
She took a deep breath, nearly choked on the cold froth of foam around her lips, and used all her other senses. Her body felt cold and numb, tired and achy. She could feel the ground beneath her back, but no breeze, which meant that she was probably still in her tent. Crickets chirped outside, endlessly searching for partners to slake their lust before winter came to claim their lives. She sniffed the air and was met with the welcome, spicy aromas of medicines, tonics and cure-alls, as well as some of her more unsavoury ingredients.
She sat up with a groan, placed a hand to her forehead, groaned again. This was always the price to pay for seeing your God in person: a swelled head, an upset stomach, and unsteady feet. But what you got back in return was a sense of purpose.
She still did not know what the Cora wanted her to do, exactly, but He said she was already on the right path, that she already knew what she wanted to do, and that she should just do it. He said this path would fix everything. It would lead her to her vengeance, it would elevate her people to the heights they deserved, and best of all, it would please Him.
But how? She knew what she wanted to do, and she had permission from heaven to do it, but how? There were so many things standing in her way, so many obstacles in her path, so many Wolves trying to sabotage her every move. How was she supposed to deal with it all by herself? What could she possibly do that would fix everything? What would finally make all her pain go away?
Shekka waited for a sign, perhaps for the effigy to start speaking out of the dark (it's happened before), but the minutes dragged on and on.
She hugged her elbows and shivered in the cold, making her bonecharms rattle in the absolute silence of the night. Maybe she should try and get back to her sleeping tent? Oh, but Kadai would be there, and she didn't want to be with him right now. Every time he spoke her name, every time he touched her arm, every time he _looked_at her, she imagined him doing the exact same thing to his Fox. Did he imagine such things, too? Did he wish he could rather be with Sarah, the mother of his bastard dosa? When he held her in the dead of night, did he imagine he was actually holding a vixen instead of a blind she-wolf? What did he really think of her?
Perhaps she should just sleep here for tonight. She did have a cot set up for the emergency cases. She'd just have to find the damn thing, which might prove more tricky than expected, since she had no idea which direction she was facing. She crawled on her hands and knees, pausing periodically to sweep her arms across the ground in long, questing arcs. Her fingertips soon brushed against something hard and cold, jagged to the touch, and with a sigh of relief she realized it must be one of the effigy's stone claws. From here it should be easy to -
Her hand slipped inside something much warmer than stone: smooth and curved, with soft bits of unknown things brushing against her fur. For a second she didn't know what she was feeling, but then the subtle, earthy scent reached her nostrils. This was just the bowl of mushrooms she had used to open her mind to the Cora, that's all. She brought them up to her face and breathed deeply of their aroma: that soft, simple scent she loved so much, just like the soil in the woods, but mixed with some decomposing tree bark and morning dew. Finding these beauties was always such an endeavour, but they were well worth it. Of course, you had to be very careful not to pick the wrong ones, otherwise -
Shekka's eyes went wide, her mouth dropped open, all the strength left her fingers and the bowl fell to the ground with a hollow thunk, spilling the remaining mushrooms all over the Cora's feet.
She knew what to do. She knew exactly what to do.
"Oh thank you Cora! Thank you thank you!" she whispered, exultant. The elements of her plan neatly fell into place, one after the other, requiring almost no effort on her part, dodging and weaving past all the obstacles. This would work. This was perfect! It was as if everything had been leading up to this, as if everything had been waiting for her to make that one, tiny realization, to make that first link in the chain that would connect all the others.
This would fix everything. This would make everything right. But first...
There was a certain Wolf she needed to talk to, and she suspected he would be very interested in what she had to say... very interested indeed.
Shekka smiled. It might take a while, but she could finally have vengeance against the murderers and the betrayers, vengeance for herself and for her son, vengeance for...
The mushrooms Shekka used to speak to the Cora are actually a combination of several different types of hallucinogenic mushrooms, most notably the Psilocybin or "magic mushroom", known for its psychedelic properties.
Consuming mushrooms like these can result in "closed-eye hallucinations". These types of hallucinations only occur in the dark or when the subject's eyes are closed (as opposed to "open eye" hallucinations, which occur when the subject is wide awake). This is why Shekka can see clearly under the effects of the mushrooms even though she's 90% blind. Closed-eye hallucinations come in many different flavours, and are categorized in five levels of intensity.
Levels 1, 2 and 3 consist of visual noise (like static on a TV screen), light/dark flashes, and shifting patterns of colour respectively.
Level 4 is where thoughts can manifest themselves as objects in the subject's mind. These apparitions can be simple, like furniture in a room, or incredibly complex, like people, ghosts, or even divine beings.
Level 5 is reached when the hallucination becomes so real that the subject is no longer able to differentiate between fantasy and reality, and sensations felt during the hallucination "carry over" and are felt by the subject's real body as if it was experiencing it in real life. This can be wonderful, like a rollercoaster ride or sexual intercourse, but can sometimes turn into a "bad trip" where the subject can feel intense pain or even a dreaming "death".
The side-effects of long term use of these kinds of mushrooms are really nasty. Prolonged use of psychedelics can result in tiny little holes being eaten into your brain, and these can result in (here comes the kicker) permanent personality alterations and even blindness.
So remember, kids, don't do shrooms! They can make you go crazy and/or blind. (No, seriously, I'm not kidding.)
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