She could swear the last time she blinked was a second ago in a room full of grumpy old woman but the next time she opened her eyes she was in a totally different place with no bitter old woman of course. What could go wrong… well, nothing considering that she wasn't seeing anything evil looking or even remotely spiteful in front of her, in fact she was completely alone! Did the said Oracle trick her into a place where she has to see to everything on her own? That was a ghastly thought to have for her and she prayed it wasn't closer to any reality she might be thrown into. She bared her teeth in pure exasperation and tried to turn around slowly so she could at least get a hang of her surroundings. She heard a ruffle towards her left followed by a soft purr like that of a cat, she exhaled slowly and tried to breath in and out to steady her rousing nerves.
What was that. . .
This was an internal question of course, nothing she would utter out loud in case the situation turned out to be dangerous for her.
"I should stop getting myself into these kinds of situations sooner or later. God knows I have no solid idea to get myself out of them. I don't even know why I didn't use that gargoyle of a sentinel they gave me to at least teach me how to defend myself" she mused softly, already imagining the worst possible way to die.
DEATH BY PIRAHNNAS!
This was the headline she saw as the worst possible way to die but she seemed to be on land at least so she was safe from such things, but there is never really a promise of safety from anyone before coming here so she knew to atleast be emotionally ready for anything.
The ruffle again…
Now she stood facing the direction of the noise, her hands balled into tight fists. She tried to spy the periphery of her vision from her sides to see if there was nothing that she could use as a weapon but it was just grass.
Just great!
Her dilemma was fast mounting to anxiety and she wasn't exactly going to poke the snake in its hiding so she waited, and the next second a lion cub came sprinting right at her and the first thing that came to her mind was "run" but her feet decisively remained rooted on the spot for some strange reason. Does her brain really give no shite about her life anymore? Could it not comprehend such a simple instruction? She started breathing in and out trying to think really fast, faster than any thought she has ever had to process before. No inspiration hit her head at all. She watched helplessly as her life flashed before her eyes for the one hundredth time in a span of just a month. She breathed deeply trying to at least die with a calm heart and a somewhat clear head. Her eyes tearing up, becoming glassy and her vision becoming a bit blurry for her liking, in the end the answers she had been searching for brought her to her cowardice end. She smiled bitterly.
Where was that damn woman!
She had a mental picture of her dead face, shaking her head a couple of times didn't help with drawing another scenario. She saw her scarred and horrified face, dead for days without being discovered and felt it was okay to decide to close her eyes in anticipation of her imminent death, she lifted both her hands to her face and prepared to die. At least this way she won't be a gaping corpse. The next moment she felt something grip her firmly from behind her shoulders, she screamed and by instinct, her hands fell to her sides. Damn it!
"You are but a bystander in the flow of time here Princess, nothing you do or say will change what has already passed, do not quaver just yet for the animal is indeed wounded. I knew the consequences of reiterating a story that I was part of … some things may be told from my point of view whereas if you see for yourself, you have the choice to draw your own conclusion."
The Oracle said just in time for her to see the cub go right through her as if she was some sort of virtual projection.
"Oh…"
Just as you might have imagined, she was still tongue tied like a stupid dear caught in headlights, that oh was the only thing her mind could form after thinking that prickly cub had circled her and decided the most perfect way to kill her would be attacking her from behind.
"You have been searching for who you are your entire life"
She wasn't sure if the older woman had intended that to be a question from the way she looked at her as if expecting an answer because what she had said sounded like a statement to Dana and so she made a nod with her head. The Oracle seemed to have been lost in a memory for a second there until she exhaled loudly.
"I see a lot of myself in you Dana. Well, my younger self that is. Centuries ago, I was also a young maiden like yourself. Full of life and ideas of what my future could be like. Unlike you, I was raised by my grandmother who was never able to say my mother or my father's name without shedding tears. I know I can't ask you to relate with the fond feelings I share for my own grandmother seeing as you didn't have much of a relationship with your own, but I could never insist on a subject that was clearly a bleeding spot for my grandmother. I could never fit in with my peers even then and knew things that happened way before I was even born"
"Dreams . . . you had dreams about the past" this was certainly news to her and somewhat made her feel like she does have companionship in the world after all. Someone she could relate to. Were they all like that? Her grandmother, she turned out to be someone completely different from that bitter and spiteful human being she had known all her life.
"Did you know my grandmother? Well, if you don't mind me asking"
There was a considerable silence before she decided to answer her question.
"Some questions are not as simple as they might come out to be. When do you say you now know a person? The truth is we all have an inkling of who a person is through what they say they are, who they say are and then who they portray themselves to be"
Aah … what even got her thinking this one would be less cryptic than her followers?
"The truth is, you may spend a lifetime with a person without ever finding out who they truly are. I still remember her. Her face, her outspoken demeanor and her brazen personality but other than that, I can't truly say I knew her. Why do you ask something that you already have an accurate answer to? Did you expect me to deny her?"
She felt it was a strange thing to suggest. Aren't they always all seeing and all? They always seemed to know what was on her mind even before she could complete formulating her thought, this was certainly getting interesting. Now she remembered seeing that shadow on her expression though fleeting, she was sure she saw it. Was she deliberating whether to tell her the truth or was it something else? All she knew was that something definitely felt off
"I made no such suggestions, I merely asked a question from what you said which happened to remind me of something my grandmother said but since we are here may I ask you a question?"
"What is it you wish to know?" Her tone had a tint of condescending in it and she didn't even make an effort to mask it. She was the Oracle after all, she wouldn't lose her ground to a child.
"Her last words to me was that she was betrayed by the sisterhood and I know my grandmother was a lot of bad things but she was never a liar, especially not with her last breath. Who betrayed her?" she felt the fire rising from her chest again, that feeling she had tried to contain for so long.
"So much fire for someone who spent her entire existence hating you and not even secretly so! Someone who went as far as to try and kill you, do you think that it was out of adoration. That she had always harbored this love she suddenly showed you on her deathbed?"
"You don't get it, do you? You somehow think this is a battle about who had the most affection from their old lady but it's not! Why do you suddenly become so defensive? Do you know who betrayed her or perhaps … it is you that did. Yes, probably the reason you won't even say her name. Admit it!"
Dana was pushing her luck and she knew it, but most of all, she had challenged the Oracle of the druids. She knew there might be repercussions but she was beyond the point to care about such things.
"It was your precious grandmother that betrayed our covenant, not the other way round!" Yep, the great Oracle had totally lost her cool and it was her doing. She had done great at losing the new found vote of confidence was lost for life. She would rather lose it if it meant they were people she couldn't trust with her life.
"How dare you! I loved your grandmother like a sister. She betrayed more than our covenant, she betrayed our friendship!"
What … That was a slap in the face!