losthunter | The Doors of our Heart

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The Doors of our Heart

Many thoughts about his latent magic had given Hunter a lot to think about in the past few days. He really wanted to find someone to help him learn more about his abilities. And maybe, help him to become stronger.

Kendra was gone, but that didn't mean there weren't ways to find her. Or at least find the people that were connected to her.

Hunter had spent a few days looking for the right door in the Nexus that would bring him the answers that he sought. And finally, he felt that he had found what he had been looking for.

But before entering into an unknown place, Hunter knew that he should have a couple of people come with him. He PINpointed a message to Jim first, since it was an adventure that he thought the restless captain would enjoy. Then he PINpointed a message to Faris, who had become his story-keeper in a fashion.

All that left was to wait for his guests, before the adventure could begin.

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Hunter softly kisses Jim in agreement. "I never felt alone, with Faris there."

"Because you were not," Faris says, his voice seeming disembodied in the space between them.

Jim sighs, though he's smiling a little. "My life is so weird now." He returns the kiss, though.

"Excellent. My goal was to be amaze the captain of a space ship. One down... but still got to introduce you to the other captain."

"Maybe one day," Jim agrees. He's known Hunter long enough now to know what kind of guy he is, and anyone who counts him as a friend must be decent people by extension.

Closing his eyes, it actually is pretty easy to go into rest mode. Especially with the chaos of the morning behind them.

And depending on how deep Jim naps, Faris will likely be the first one to know when night falls, simply by the change of smell around them. The sound of crickets right outside. And closer to midnight, Faris will smell the sweet taste of leaves of a tree, that wasn't there before. And he will hear the sounds of a child laughing softly.

Jim isn't a terribly deep sleeper, especially in unfamiliar places, and what sleep he does get tends to be plagued by nightmares - or unpleasant memories. He startles awake when Faris raises a claw and taps it against his shoulder, all but throwing himself off the cot by reflex. "What...?"

"It is I, captain," Faris says softly, reaching his tail to poke at Hunter, if Jim's flailing hasn't awakened him. "I believe what we have awaited is here."

The sensation of Jim almost falling off the cot is something that definitely awakens Hunter. He sits up, and nods at Faris, rubbing sleep out of his eyes.

"It is?"

Faris withdraws fully, back onto Jim's skin. "Yes. Listen."

Jim tries to calm his wildly beating heart as he does as the K'da asked, and it doesn't take long to hear the sounds of someone laughing. "I really hope that's her, or we're secretly in a horror holo," he mutters out loud.

"It sounds like more than one child..." Hunter rises from the bed.

He moves to the door of the fishing hut, creaking it open slightly. He shakes his head at how 'horror movie' cliché the sound is.

Just outside, there is a large Sycamore tree now growing by the river. The tree itself has a very feminine shape. There are a group of six children playing near the tree. And the tree... seems to be playing with them too.

Okay, yep, this is officially creepy to Jim. He peers around Hunter to see the same thing. With only the moon to illuminate the area, he can't tell if any of the children are the little girl from before. "I'm pretty sure that going over there violates several rules of common sense," he whispers to Hunter. Yet they all know perfectly well that that's what is going to happen.

"And here I thought that common sense wasn't in your dictionary." Hunter will admit that he is nervous. And a little uncertain. But he takes Jim's hand in his own, before opening the door further.

The sound of the door echoes across the river, where the children can hear it. They all freeze for a moment, then hide behind the tree.

"I think they are more scared of us..."

"Hey, it's in my dictionary, I just prefer not to use it," Jim replies.

The fact that the kids are hiding does a little to get rid of his own fear. It's still creepy and weird, but Jim has had some rather intense experiences involving hiding children, and he never wants to see kids scared of anything if he has anything to say about it. "It's okay," he calls out. "We're not gonna hurt you."

"You are from the village..." One of them claims. And hugs the tree tightly.

"No..." Hunter kneels down to one knee. The full moon shines off the piercing on his forehead. The girls all look out from their hiding spot.

"We are just travelers."

Jim peers a little closer at the tree while Hunter speaks, trying to tell if it's still animate, or sentient, or something. With everything he's seen so far since they've been here, he's not really willing to just assume that it's a normal tree.

In addition to having a feminine form, there is a knot close to the top of the trunk, before the braches all spread out, that looks like a face. And when Jim peers closer, that face tilts slightly, as if looking back at him.

"One of your friends asked us to come. They call her Kassandra in the village."

Hunter takes a breath. "I know her as Kendra."

The young girls come out of hiding, and after a moment of whispering together, one of them pouts slightly. "She hasn't arrived yet."

Well, that's... definitely weird. But Starfleet meets strange new lifeforms all the time, so Jim tilts his head slightly in a nod of greeting. You can't go wrong with that, he figures, and he doesn't really want to offend any of the locals if they don't need to. Even if it is a tree woman, or something.

"Could something have happened to her?" Jim asks with a frown.

"Maybe someone in the village..." One of the girls whispers.

"No. She is too smart to allow that to happen." Another girl answers.

"And we would feel it..." A third chimes in.

"Faris, any chance you could track her?" Jim asks quietly.

"Hmm, perhaps," the K'da answers, though he sounds uncertain.

"Wait... if you can feel her... why can't you sense where she is?" Hunter asks the girls. They exchange a look. An almost guilty look.

Hunter can feel like he is on the tip of discovering something. The pieces are there, he just needs to connect them.

It's a good question, and the girls' reactions don't make much sense to Jim. He casts an ever-so-slightly suspicious look at the tree. Maybe... or maybe not.

"When is the last time you saw her?" he asks instead.

"The midnight before this one." One of the girls answers.

"We always gather at midnight. The seven of us." Another answers.

The tree rustles her branches, as if offended by that slightly suspicious look.

Okay, fine, not the tree. He throws her an apologetic look. Hey, he can be diplomatic sometimes. "Always? No one has ever missed meeting before?"

The tree seems to accept the apologetic look.

"Always..." One of the girls is about to speak further, when another one cuts her off. "At least, as long as we can remember."

Hunter looks at the girls, once more time. They have a familiar look, in such that they could be sisters. Or...

"Pieces of a whole. You are all part of Kendra!"

The girls look away, as if their secret was revealed.

Jim frowns a little. "Like she was split into multiple people?"

"I am not sure. But perhaps she was made into multiple children, to protect herself. Like the tree..." The tree sort of turns to face them, as much as a tree can turn without uprooting itself. "She is being protected."

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