StarFox FanFiction Chapter 18

Chapter 18: Iris

On a small planet, tucked away in a deep blanket of stars with a fragile sun, a young fox girl wandered through the tree-filled caverns that covered it. Remnants of the ocean were carried in the soft breeze as it swerved along the sloping cliffs and crowded jungles, along with the distinct scent of desolation. The ground was filled with crooked paths, obscured with branches, rocks and vines; the girl could not even maintain a steady jog without tripping. The treetops thatched together a thin roof, so that the sunlight came through in broken patches of sparkling light. Growing tired, the girl saw a particularly large sunbeam coming through a hole in the roof. She walked directly beneath it, cranked her neck upwards, and closed her eyes. As the light tingled the ends of her blue fur with faint but comforting warmth, she could almost hear the voice of someone she used to know, speaking the exact words she had said not too long ago, in a place like this…

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“Krystal!” proclaimed the woman; a tall, broad vixen with shimmering blue and white fur, dressed with a heavily decorated golden top, shoulder-plates, armlets and anklets, and sandals. A long embroidered golden skirt left much of her legs bare as she walked across the shoreline, the jewels around her neck and through her hair clinking together with each step, along with the gentle thump of her ceremonial staff. Her hooded cape and the beaded locks of her long white hair flowed in symmetry with ocean breeze. “Krystal, hurry now!”
“H-here I come!” squealed a much younger Krystal, with wide eyes and a little yellow dress, as she scampered towards the woman. When the small blue fox finally caught up with the woman, she began panting.
“Krystal…I cannot teach you if you are not by my side to hear my words.” said the woman, her voice soft and steady. “You really must pay attention.”
“B-but…but we’ve been walking for hours! It’s soooo boring!” whined the blue kit.
“Life will give you far greater tribulations. You must learn to endure.”
“Is that why we’re walking instead of flying…and why we’ve yet to take a rest?”
The woman laughed. “Sometimes…the journey is even more important than the destination.”
“What is the destination, anyway, Lady Iris?”
“You will see…soon enough.”
“But you already know where we’re going! I want to know, too!” Krystal pouted.
“I have traveled to many places, such as this one, and many times before. Of course I know where we’re going, but I am also already aware that we do not always know what lies at the end of our journey. We must chose our path wisely and have faith in the road we take.”
“…So you’re not going to tell me?”
Iris laughed again. “Hmm…No, sorry! You may think of it as a surprise.”
“Ooooh, I hate surprises…”

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That moment, that one happening where a girl and her mentor walked along the shore of a quiet planet, a flicker in the universe that would never be repeated, played over in its only form of existence. In the mind of that little fox girl, whose thoughts swam around her in the sunlight, the moment ended, shut off from her trail of thought. The arm above her face guarded her from the sun’s growing intensity, and when she removed it, that moment returned to the back of her mind, and she was herself again—older again, alone again. She looked ahead and she continued to walk through the jungle.

“Journey more important than the destination…” she said to herself as she trampled through another wave of trees and grass. She walked with more caution in her step as she noticed the bunts of rocks and more dramatic gaps in the land below her sandals. “I wish I could believe all that now…Maybe if I knew there was a point to all this, if I knew something good was coming my way…but that would be against what Lady Iris taught me, wouldn’t it?” She grunted, knowing her inner most thoughts were contrary to her teachings. She looked up towards the sky again and said in frustration, “Well, Lady Iris, maybe there is no point to this journey! How can I have a destination if I don’t even know where I’m going!?” Her yelling summoned a flock of birds, the collective flap of a hundred black wings bursting from out a large tree, hanging in the distance. Not expecting anything to disturb her, the sudden noise made the vixen yelp. She crotched down and put her hands over her ears, only rising when the skies were clear and silent again. “Ugh…Keep it together! I…I can’t even remember…I can’t do this by myself. Look at me…I’m falling apart.” She brushed herself off, shuddered as she was able to find any condolences in her mind, and continued walking.
The more Krystal thought about it, the more frustrated she became. The vixen grunted with each displeasing thought, her steps faster and harder, until she became so disgruntled, her thoughts blocked her from the small ledge just ahead of her. Before her mind could even process it, her foot slid against the edge, and her entire body tipped over and smacked the clearing of hardened dirt. In a blink’s worth of time she was looking at the jungle with a slanted perspective, her body sore.  
As that first string of fur made contact with the ground, it brought the vixen back to a time where she had been careless before. A little fox girl had grown bored again, and decided to wander off. She became so overexerted that she did not even notice the rock that appeared in her stray path and caused her to trip.

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“Krystal…” Iris moaned as she approached the landing site; it was clear she was disappointed, but her voice was still smooth. As she drew nearer, the volume and pitch of her pupil’s cries became more apparent. “Krystal, that’s enough.” Iris said sternly, but not loudly enough to overpower the kit’s wailing. The fox girl had managed to sit up, but could not control the tears. Her mentor marched towards her, knelt down, and swiped her hand across her wet cheek. The immense aftershock left Krystal silent. Iris watched and waited as tears continued to stream down her face, but involuntarily and with less force. “Krystal, you need…to stop this.”
The kit eventually gathered the nerve to turn her head and face her mentor. The gentle kindness that she believed to be ever-present had been replaced with a firm stare, the gravity of her displeasure hanging off her frowning muzzle and slanted brow. Krystal recognized that kind of angry expression from her parents to be even worse than a more standard, furious one.
“Krystal, do you know why we’re traveling together? Do you even know why your family entrusted me with you?” The kit’s tiny snout quivered; to her this seemed like a situation where anything she said would be wrong. “Well??”
“B-because…because all Cerinians undergo training…in order to be spiritually aware and…and reach enlightenment in the universe.”
“…Yes,” Krystal shrugged off a bit of her anxiety, but the slight touch of relief was premature. “But obviously you only know what you’ve been told. You do not understand why we Cerinians do this, otherwise you would not be treating our spiritual journey as if it were a field trip. You have come of age, Krystal, now you need to start acting like it. You need to be patient and you need to focus.”
With another sniffle and a quick wiping of her eyes with her arm, the little fox girl stood herself up. “I…I’m sorry, Lady Iris.”
The vixen sighed. “No, it’s all right,” she said as she rubbed off the dirt on Krystal’s face. “You may be of the age to begin training, but you are still a child…I just need you to treat this a little more seriously, all right? Can you do that much for me?”
“Yes, Lady Iris.”
“And I’m not your mother, you know,” Iris continued as she brushed the hair away from the kit’s face. “There’s a reason why children are trained by clerics rather than their parents. It’s to ensure there won’t be any fooling around.”
“Yes, Lady Iris.”
“All right, glad we cleared this up…” Iris stood up, looked down at her mentor, and smiled. “Let’s be off, then. We’re nearly there.”
“Yes, Lady Iris.” As the little fox girl jumped to her feet and ran off to be at the side of her mentor, who had already begun walking, their likeliness faded, walking further away from sight, further from memory. They proceeded towards that unseen destination, and the sideway view of the jungle reappeared in front of an older Krystal.

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“Ugh!” Krystal sneered as she lifted her hand from under the torso that had toppled over it, held it to the sky and slammed it against the ground. “I’m getting careless again!” She lay for a while; her fist against the ground seemed to have drained all her energy, leaking through her fingernails and into the roots and blades of grass around her. A soft sighed wisped from out of her quivering mouth. “How long have I been on this planet? Why did I even land here? Why…why am I doing anything?”
Despite her deepest desire at the time, the jungle provided no answer to her questions. It was not even a newfound sense of being that pulled her to her feet, but a fear that one of the jungle’s denizens might take advantage of her carcass imitation and devour her.      
Memories of walking up a spiral mountain came to the vixen’s mind as a mild fog crept around her ankles. A strong change of atmosphere, just when she thought the jungle would never end. As a thin layer of wispy grey crossed her path, the utter blankness it provided carried her to that time when she finally reached the top, when that little girl had found the destination; a plateau that overlooked half the planet.

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“Wow!” the young Krystal said in amazement, her voice trembling with rapid breaths, her eyes jiggling in their sockets. “It’s amazing! Wow, we’re so high up! I can see the ocean! Lady Iris…Lady Iris, look!”
“Yes, Krystal, I see it,” said Iris with a lighthearted laugh.
“This is our destination, right? This is what we came up all this way for?”
“That is correct.”
“It is very beautiful, but…I still don’t understand why we walked so far when we could’ve flown.”
“This is the most suitable place in the quadrant for meditation and reflecting.”
“But…we could do that anywhere…could we not?”
Iris, despite the small kit’s expectations, laughed again. She made her way to the middle of the plateau, where she had already set up a small camp site, and sat down, arms and legs folded. “Do you remember what I told you about being patient?”
“Y-yes…” said the girl as she did as her mentor did, her ears perked up. “But I just…I don’t see the point in all this.”

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The memory parted from Krystal’s vision as did the fog, and a path of sand crossed down the middle. As the grainy white dust expanded further along her peripheral, a thin layer of blue and green appeared beyond the horizon. A soft, clean wind traveled between the strands of her hair and a salty breeze flared her nostrils. As she walked to the shore, the shifting tumbles of foam and waves making her ears twitch, her mind became clear again. She looked ahead, able to see for herself after what seemed like hours of walking aimlessly, thoughtlessly, like a moving doll. She turned her head, and not to far from where she stood, her small ship rested in the sand. Only then did the realization that she purposely walked in a circle sink in.
“I’m…so tired.” She sighed. Trying to relive herself of her lethargy, she shook and shuddered, rubbing her arms with her hands. “I really have no patience. I should know better by now, after all this time…haven’t I learned all these lessons already? I just…I’m coming apart here, is what’s happening.” Looking farther as her consciousness allowed her to see farther, she could see clouds tearing apart in the distance. A vague tower of cliffs and rocks emerged, pulling her eyes wide open. That same place where she had been with her mentor, the mountain pulled into a different time. Just once more, she saw Iris, the woman she so admired.

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“Krystal…” she said in a way that made the vixen knew she had disappointment. “Do you know what your purpose is?”
“My…purpose?”
“The reason for your being; why you are here, in this plane of existence, just as you are.”            
“I, I…no, I guess I don’t.”
As tiny balls of light came peering out of the darkness, the fox woman’s stern, almost immaculate visage turned steadily into a faraway, dreamy face. “Every living thing has a purpose; the trees, the animals, and you and me. Our spirits are brought into the world by our creator to serve that purpose, and when we are ready to leave this world, we leave it with an impact. Great or small, every imprint left on the world is vital for life to continue as it does. Your body was made just for your spirit, and your spirit exists to leave an impact on the world you live in…Do you understand?”
“Hmm?” Krystal’s eyes popped, her ears flickered; she was not expecting her mentor to stop and ask questions. “Oh! Yes, Lady Iris!” she said like an obedient schoolgirl.
“That’s very good. But no living thing is ever truly alone. Our spirits are all connected by the will of our creator. Do you know what a kindred spirit is, Krystal?”
“Um…” the kit was surprised how the lecture started feeling more like a test. “Well, it’s two spirits that are…related?”
Iris laughed. “Hmm, almost. Every living thing is connected, but each individual is also connected to another by a spiritual bond. Their purposes are related, you see, and if they are fulfilled, will bring them together as one. Every one of us has a kindred spirit, and part of our journey in life is to find the one whose spirits in intertwined with our own.”
“Wow…so, there’s someone out there who I am meant to be with? How will I know?”
“Hmm, well according to Cerinian custom, you don’t have to know. That is the job of our matchmakers.”
“B-but! How can they know who belongs with who?”
“Well, you forget that each Grand Council member acts as the matchmaker for the region they are in charge of. I am in charge of yours, so I am the one in charge of finding your kindred spirit; I am entrusted with such a duty because I am expected to care for all of you, and my spiritual bonds to you and the planet give me a greater understanding of such things.”
“Oh…so you will find me the right person…you won’t bring me a jerk, right? Because I want my kindred spirit to be nice…and smart!”
Iris paused, looked directly at Krystal, and smiled. To the girl, it seemed she was finally starting to loosen up about this supposedly serious spiritual quest. “Hmm, do not worry, I promise to do my best t find your kindred spirit. Who knows, though? Perhaps you will find him on your own…”

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“Iris? …Lady Iris!” Krystal yelped, her voice changing from adolescent to juvenile, deepening as the image of her mentor faded for the last time. “Don’t leave me, please! I’m lost…please help me!” She yelled with all her might, but Iris just sat there in the night with a blissful expression, unaware of her pupil’s cries. “I’m so afraid! I don’t know what to do or where I’m going! Please tell me what to do, Lady Iris! No…no, please! Please don’t go! I need you! Please!”

Her cries went unanswered once again, and the vision of her mentor faded from her memory. The vixen could feel her mind going blank again. She knew Lady Iris was dead and gone forever, and she knew no one would hear her pleas. Desperate to stay awake, though, she continued to speak, like chasing after a fleeing light, she clung to that tiny fiber of hope in her heart that eventually something…someone, would answer her prayers.   
“It’s not like it matters,” she said, “My kindred spirit is probably dead, along with my family…my friends, and…e-everyone I’ve ever known…” her words came out, stealing what little strength she had managed to collect as they spilled from out her mouth, and with one blow of the ocean’s gust, her perseverance scattered into a million particles across the sea. Every muscle tensed and tightened, she fell onto hands and knees gasping for air as her throat began to close. Her head jerked around as she coughed and gagged, helpless to watch as tears plummeted from off her eyes and darkened the white sand.
“They’ve called me a barbarian…a heathen, a heretic…a whore.” She thought, unable to speak such terrible words. “Every place I went to was strange to me, and, though I kept trying, I was never accepted. The way I look, the way I talk and think…I was too different, and I could not adjust. Many times I wished I had no telepathy…so I would not have been able to understand their hateful words.
“Why do I even dwell on such things if they make me sad? What’s done is done, and I’ve come so far…I know I am not as they say, and yet…If I were, if Cerinia was a planet of heathens…perhaps that would explain why it was destroyed.”
For a long while, the little blue fox girl sat on the shore, close to her ship, her arms around her knees, shivering with the hopelessness that would not leave her.
“Krystal…” a voice burst from the silence. She flinched; against all hopes that a comforting voice would answer her, it was a deep and cold one that called out to her.
“W-what? Who…who are you?” she replied, her fear crippling even her inner voice.
“Krystal, you must…go east. You will find a small planet, much like this one, but in pieces.” Krystal was able to tell the voice was male, and he dictated the direction slowly and with a harsh sense of indifference. “Seek out this shattered world…you will find what you are looking for.”
She gasped. “W-what…you mean…?”
“You will find the answers you’ve been searching for.”
“How…how can I trust you, though? Who…do I know you?”
“It is your choice. You can…do as I say…or you can continue to wander and be lost as you are now.” The voice then left her mind as soon as it came. Krystal stood up, suddenly feeling colder and more confused than before, yet she knew this was the best chance she could ever get. Her prayer had been answered, just not by the grace she was hoping for.
The blue vixen would head east soon afterwards, with both a sense of newfound purpose and uncertainty. Somehow she couldn’t hake the feeling that the voice that called out to her was familiar, and not one she would normally want to trust.