Suzume:

Flying with my parents, my dad is a ways below us, while my mom is close to me. She’s asked me to watch the skies as we fly and I have been, they’re nothing too different then I am use to, the roaring waters surrounding the many other landmasses embedded in the waters. They move around in the churn but nothing about them seems odd. The central sun casting it’s calming blue rays over us as a strange cooling sensation flows past us as I see the energies dull in color.

I look at my mother with worried eyes as she smiles and points at the sky as a wave of darkness flows over us, though the skies. And we’re engulfed in it that darkness. The suddenness of change causes me to descend my and dad grabs my hand, helping me balance, “It’s the night sky.” He chuckles. “This is what Tara was like millenniums ago.”

My mother also descends to my dad’s height as she takes my other hand, all of us flying in tandem. “The World’s End Festival is all about those historic events long ago, when Earth ascended and became Tara, when we freed ourselves of the darkness.”

Both of them brimming with a smile, I feel those same feelings from long ago when I first did my Pitfall. I’m a bit older now, but a lot of things feel odd to me, since then everyone’s cheerfulness irks me. It grows ever more by the moment, some moments I hide to collect my thoughts, but I promised them I would come to the Festival as it takes place on the Edge of the Plane, somewhere I have never been before.

We have already flown over many landmasses, not including our own. Each one slightly different, there are places for us to touchdown upon and there are others souls there, some look similar to us, some are from different collectives, and different species all together. There are others dimensions as well that all filter into our plane and my folks have told me many will join us at the Edge of the Plane to participate in the events which migrate from landmass to landmass. Each one held slightly differently every decade or so.

But this is the first one that I am going to. I was born between two. And I would have been too young for the first one, my folks didn’t want to travel all the way out there even though I was fully able to talk and walk on my own at the time of my birth.

The night sky still dark, light begins to bloom in the distances as a white ball arises over a landmass close to what is called the Edge of the Plane. It’s been a long flight but as I see that ball I know instantly what I am seeing. It’s the Moon, long since removed from Tara when it transitioned.

“The Moon…” I hesitate to say with tears coming to my eyes, as long dormant feelings of nostalgia arising. I stare at it as a dot appears around it, then many more, each appearing with a great brilliance as the night sky fills with stars.

“We’re going to be experiencing Earth over the next month or so as it was back then. We do this as a remembrance of those times that we’ve as a species come from. All of us have an acing in our hearts to see that night sky again, as we’ve spent so many lifetimes prior here and watched that same sky. We just couldn’t leave it after the transition. Only when we’re born human do we have this craving, it’s encoded in the DNA of everyone of us.” My dad tells me with tears in his own eyes. It both a sadness, and a joy as we are almost there.

My mother the same, we begin our full decent to the base of a very large tree close to the edge which in the night we can’t see as well, but there are billowing clouds flowing almost like water, above of which are coils of unknown origins to me all wrapping around each other and forming beyond those clouds. They look metal, but it’s too organic to call them that.

“Suzume!” A enthusiastic call alerts me to Mine as she comes from the skies and embraces me in a hug, I hug her as well, now taller, but she still is taller then me as she parts at arms length and pats my head. “It’s been awhile hasn’t it?”

I shake my head as I watch my parents wave to me as they are going to find a place for us to stay. At night we’ll be staying in square buildings called homes. Not too different then how we live now, but we’re free to move about even at night. Tara doesn’t have a night as it once did.

Waving to them I look up to Mine, she wears layered fabrics which cover her whole body and even arms, they’re like robes. Called Yukata’s but they are short, and have a skirt around the waist instead of touching the ground. Easier to move in. A grand ocean displayed on hers. She takes me by the hand. “Where are we going?”

“To get you fitted, we’re going to have some fun while exploring Old Earth.” She says with a giggle, “Kayka is here too, most of the village is here, sorry that we went ahead without warning. Kayka wanted to prepare everything.”

“But it’s not Tara’s turn…”

“Doesn’t have to be,” she smiles, “we all help out during the World’s End Festival.” She points at the sky, “it takes a few priestess to cover all of Tara in in the darkness of old, even the moon. We all help so that the festival can go off without a hitch.”

I allow her to lead me as I see many other species that I’ve never seen before walking along dirt pathways and chatting with each other. Many of those square shape structures continually to pop up out of the ground from those who are in tune with the land. We reach what looks like a black sea, it’s covers the ground as I can hear clicks coming from Mine as she starts to walk on it but I stop upon reaching it.

Mine has something covering her feet, an although not too unusual many prefer not to wear shoes. This ground is unsettling and I’m in bare feet. She looks back at me, releasing my hand. “This is asphalt, something we used long ago. It’s not going to hurt you.”

“But…” I’m hesitant to even move forward. I see many other people walking on it just fine, but to me it feels wrong, it doesn’t make senses and Mine smiles at me.

“We were primitive and didn’t understand the connection we got with Tara if we simply walked around bare foot. We always wore shoes to disconnect us and it wrecked havoc to us. Come on now.” She takes my hand again and pulls as I take a step onto the asphalt. The sole of my foot feeling very warm, and she see the almost instant joy I have as the asphalt feels so warm beneath my feet. “It would bake in the sun on hot days and be almost too hot to stand upon. But as we made it here, we can regulate it’s temperature.”

I following her willingly now, the pathway getting far more crowded then I expected. There are so many shapes and sizes of souls here, some giant, some tiny. I have never see so many different souls all congregated into one area.

“Cities, towns, roads, even vehicles.” Those images appear in my vision as Mine speaks, “where all part of the World for a long while.” As we continue walking she lets go of my arm and I follow her.

A while later I start to smell some wonderful aromas and Mine takes off at breakneck pace and I follow, having to bring out my wings to catch up to her as we stop in front of a stall, I hear a sizzling coming from inside and I see Kayka behind the counter, utensils in hand and she’s making something.

“This a potion,” I ask, although the smells make my mouth water and Kayka shakes her head.

“Get changed into a yukata first, Mine will help you.” This is going to be fun for you Suzume.” I’m a bit taken aback by Kayka’s response and I look behind at all the people going about there business, and the more I try to feel good about all of this, the less I actually do. There is a deep foreboding feeling that is dwelling inside of me, like none of this is right. Yet both Mine and Kayka are acting as if that isn’t even possible. What makes them so different then me?

Following Mine, she takes me behind the stall to a room where there are many floral patterns, though some are of the stars and moon outside, others are the sun and even trees and mountain or just line pattern fabrics. “Pick one and I’ll help you change.” She says. “They are hard to put on by yourself.”

As I look at the spread, I see that my folks enter and they are already in Yukata’s. My dad’s is very plain blue, while my mother has roses on her.

“We’re going to be helping out Kayka before the fireworks…”

Images fill my sight of exploding bursts of sparks shock me, as I hear them as well. I’m almost stunned by all this as my mother puts a hand on my fathers face, as if pushing him away, “let her see them in person.”

The images fade and my dad gives a chuckle with a shrug. Mine is still looking intently at the Yukata’s around the room when she stops at one, this particular one is a deep red, with yellow lines, they aren’t in any patters, it, just the two colors and I’m very drawn toward it as well. A smile coming to my face upon seeing it. A resonating feeling tells me I should wear this one and I only have to grin at Mine. My father and mother leaving, my mom giving me the location of where we’ll be staying before parting, I also hear my father tell me to enjoy myself.

Both of them gone, Mine helps me change into the Yukata, although it’s far easier then Mine let on before, it simply slides over your head and a stash is tied around the waist. “We have a bit before the fireworks start, lets grab some food.”

I give her a curious look as she heads for the doorway. “Food?”

“Oh,” she grins, “you haven’t tried food yet, yes, back on Earth we ate stuff as we thought we needed to to keep our bodies active. Most of it was out of pleasure though and that got lost in the collective consciousness to the point were we had to eat. We don’t have to eat, rather Tara’s love fills us, as we breath, we breath in the very life of Tara, which sustain us. Though if we don’t breath, we don’t fill full.”

“Can you feel the love?” I ask her and she now turns to me, my head hanging as I don’t understand what she meant by that. “We breath to live and to move our bodies, but your saying that food does that?”

“It did do that, but we don’t need to eat, you have never eaten anything before have you?”

Shaking my head she grabs my arm again, “Come on now, Kayka’s food is very good, you’ll love it.” We leave the structure and walk around to the front where yet again I am greeted by that aroma. We’re face to face with Kayka as she leans over the counter and stares at me for a long while.

“Perfect choice for you,” She says as some drool begins dripping out of my mouth from the scent and Mine giggles.

“Kayka, two orders please.”

All she does is snap her hands as two static balls appear and she pulls out a container, they look like fabric, but it’s stiff, she then grabs the hot top that’s in front of her and levitates with a hum the six ball shaped objects off of it and put them into the containers. Three per each. She then takes them by hand and hand them to us. Mine grabs her instantly while I am hesitant and take the other one. “They are takoyaki, a very old food from a country known as Japan.”

As I stare at mine, Mine grabs one with a small wooden pick and plops it into her mouth, chewing it slowing with an expression of bliss. “takoyaki, don’t they have an animal in it, isn’t it bad to eat other?”

Questioning Kayka she has a smug look, “those have been manifested, I just cooked them, they have no animals in it.”

“Go on Suzume, try them, they taste splendidly.”

Giving both of them a wary look, I pick up the wooden pick and stick it into one, steam filtering out of the hole I just made and causing my mouth to water even more as I lift the ball and bite off a chuck. The textures in my mouth new to me as I have only even drunk water. I have never eaten anything, we have no need to. But I am in bliss as I slowly chew, moving the mash around in my mouth and swallowing before grabbing the next one with my hands and putting it in my mouth, right behind the third one. They tastes so incredible.

Both of them laugh as I stuff my face and hand back the container, my eyes asking for more and Kayka gives me three more, “Enjoy them.”

They are gone in no time as Mine causes a static ball of her own and puts the container in it, it disintegrates into nothingness as she smiles at me. I put the container into the static ball she formed as well and it vanishes from sight. “Did you enjoy that?”

Most of my irritants have vanished as well as I feel content now. All around us, as we bask in the moonlight are sounds of the festival, people laughing, odd smells from food cooking and all around a marry energy filling the air. Everything feels so much lighter then I am use to. We bound, taking large steps as I follow Mine, we find games to play, in particular one which we need to catch fish with very weak fabric that break almost on contact with the water. I didn’t catch any and neither did she, though we both made the attempt.

I also saw my parents around, doing there own things when a high pitch whistle echos in the air and there is a peaceful silences around as as everyone turned their attention on the skies. Exactly what my father showed me starts to fill the night sky, balls of many colors exploding into sparks and the smell of powder filling my nose. All new senses for me and I am a bit overwhelmed by it all as for an instant I am no longer here.

I look around me as I am, atop a steep incline, there is a sidewalk and many people walking along it, all wearing different patterns of Yukata’s and Kimonos. Laughter fills the air and much like the scene previously it all just floods over me as a sadness my heart. Like I had forgotten something I once thought was so beautiful. My Yukata looks the same and I look over, Mine is standing beside me, but she looks a bit different. I’m not sure if it’s her presents or her face as she looks at me with a smile and grins, as if for both of us, this is the happiest day of our lives.

“Suzume…” A voice calls to me and I I’m almost startled to see Mine looking at me as the previous image fades and I’m in shock.

“What is going on…”

“Are you all right?” Mine ask me and I’m looking around as if everything is foreign, and at least for me it all is, this doesn’t feel right. That crosses my mind again as I begin to back away from Mine.

“You...you’re not Mine.” I glare at her and she looks taken aback as I turn on my heel, I need to escape, I need to leave this place, I can’t stand it, I don’t like any of this, it’s not right. It’s not where I belong...