#aslesa

When I think of Ashlesha, a quote by Fiona Apple (Ashlesha Venus) comes to mind,

“When I was a kid--10, 11, 12, 13--the thing I wanted most in the world was a best friend. I wanted to be important to people; to have people that understood me. I wanted to just be close to somebody. And back then, a thought would go through my head almost constantly: "There's never gonna be a room someplace where there's a group of people sitting around, having fun, hanging out, where one of them goes, 'You know what would be great? We should call Fiona. Yeah, that would be good.' That'll never happen. There's nothing interesting about me." I just felt like I was a sad little boring thing”.

The tomcat nakshatra, Ashleshas tend to be defensive about what they consider “theirs”, simply for the fact that they don’t own much at all. Ashleshas tend to either live in austere surroundings or be hoarders. Like a snake curled around a clutch of eggs, Ashleshas don’t hold on out of a sense of entitlement. They cling because they desperately crave security.

These Cancer placements often seem to have some invisible hand of God protecting them from well-deserved consequences. The spirits of snakes are considered great protectors of souls. Even the most bland-mannered of Ashleshas likely have experienced an illness/accident that by all rights should have been fatal. Gautama Siddartha was said to be born under the Ashlesha Nakshatra, and it’s said that his tapas under the bodhi tree was protected by the snake king Muchalinda.

Aslesa settled down on the bank of the stream, her antennae trailing in the water, and waited quietly. Eventually, Royeaux sniffled and sat up, brushing away the flowers that had begun to grow in the cracks of her muddy scales. “I don’t deserve this,” she said quietly. “You should have kicked me back to the Wyrmwound.”

“We wouldn’t do that,” said Aslesa with a smile. She hesitated. “Unless you wanted to go back to Plague?” 

“Oh, no,” replied Royeaux quickly. “But all of you are so kind, and so brave, and I’m nothing like you.” Her wings drooped, and where they touched the mud reeds began to spring up and wind themselves through her red feathers.

“Being kind is a choice,” said Aslesa. She stood, flicking mud from her talons, and turned away, sunlight casting a glowing halo on her mane. “Bravery is trickier, but it gets easier when you have faith.” 

Suddenly, there was a flutter of feathers and two harpies popped out of the rocks, fluttering their charred feathers. One was a masked female, her feathers gleaming white from behind a cover of dark ash, and the other was a male with large golden eyes. The dragons could see other pairs of eyes blinking out from the darkness.

Spreading her wings warningly, the female shifted to place herself in front of the male. “What do you want?” she asked in broken Draconic. 

“We’re here to help,” said Iseult, setting down her basket and nudging it towards the harpies. Warily, the female relaxed and reached forwards with a talon to flip open the top of the basket. She tilted her head towards Iseult and chattered a phrase in her own language.

“What did she say?” Radiance asked.

“She called me Dancing Fire,” responded Iseult, and bowed slightly towards the harpy. “My Beastclan name.”

The male harpy chirped something at the female, who bristled and chittered back angrily. After a moment of exchange, she turned back to the dragons.

“Few harpies left,” she said regretfully. “Not many warriors. We cannot protect him.” She gestured a wing towards the male, who ducked his head. “Must be protected. He is... the harpy future.”

Iseult sat back on her haunches. “You want us to protect him?”

The harpies clicked and nodded, and the male spoke up for the first time. “My name is Kaerio. It would be a great favor to all harpies should you take me into your custody.”

“We can do that,” said Aslesa, nodding. Iseult turned to the female. 

“When your numbers have grown again, we will return him,” she said with a smile. Kaerio hopped into the air and alighted on Iseult’s head, between her ears, and she smiled faintly.

In a fluid movement, the dragons leapt into the sky, leaving the smoldering remains of the roost behind them.

“Zephyr, don’t you recognize me?” Aslesa asked as she came closer to her mate. He lowered his head and took a step back, hissing. The paladin’s shoulders dropped slightly, and her next words were addressed to the Shade. “Leave him alone,” she growled. Zephyr struck out at her, his shadow-sticky claws striking for her eyes, and Aslesa dived onto the gritty earth of the floor and rolled out of the way. Zephyr’s talons struck the floor, but instead of striking again he sat back on his haunches, clawing at his head.

“Zephyr? Are you- can you hear me?” asked Aslesa hopefully- and then Zephyr’s head jerked up and his eyes rolled black, and the voice of the Shade spoke through him. 

G͘i͝v͘é͘ ͜u̧p,͠͠ ͞Pa҉̕la̴͞ḑ͟i̴͡͠n̛͘͟.̢̕ ͏̢͠H͏̨͟e̡͞ ҉i͡͠s̵̨ ̵̸g̢̢on͟é.

Aslesa faltered, her wings spreading indecisively. She stepped forwards, and the Shade snarled. “I will kill you,” she said quietly, with a sharp edge of danger in her voice.

Laughing, the Shade said, “N̛͘o͢,͢͡ ͢͢yo̸u͘͡ ͏w̢o҉̴̴n͠'̀͡t.”

“You’re right,” sighed Aslesa, and the sword fell from her claws. And before the Shade within Zephyr could react, she had crossed the gap between them in a swift movement and had wrapped her arms around him.

w̵̛͘h̷͞a͢͡t ̵̧͜a̵r͏e̶̴ ̛́҉y̶͝ǫu͡ ̨͢D̛O̷I̷N͞G? shrilled the Shade, its voice muffled by Aslesa’s wings as they wrapped around. It didn’t understand why it couldn’t move, why it was growing weaker and weaker like a trapped and fluttering moth in the paladin’s talons-

“I love you, Zephyr,” Aslesa said softly, and she began to sob into the other skydancer’s feathery shoulder.

“SEKAI,” shrieked Nacadi, tearing her jaws free of Aravir’s vines. Her eyes burned with hatred, and drops of sizzling Shade fell from her teeth. She lashed, trying to reach the translucent form of the glowing nocturne.

Sekai sighed, averting her eyes. “Nacadi, I’m- I’m sorry. I’m sorry for leaving you. I’m sorry for not coming back.”

As suddenly as she had began to thrash, Nacadi settled, and her eyes grew wide. Korst thought she saw tears welling in the wildclaw’s large brown eyes, and she tilted her head curiously, for the tears were black.

“n̨o ̶͝͏n͜o̶͢ n͞o͢͢,” hissed the Shade with what sounded like dismay or perhaps panic. The black tears poured down Nacadi’s face, faster and faster, and Sekai drew closer and leaned against the wildclaw’s shoulder. Where they hit the rocky cave floor, the tears sizzled and melted into shadow.

“The Shade is leaving her,” said Sekai softly. “It’s safe to free her now.”

Aravir nodded and twitched his claws, and the vines melted into dust and dried leaves that spun away on the drafts whistling through the destroyed tunnels. And then he and Korst looked past where Auster, free of darkness, was staggering to his feet with Tybal’s help, and they saw Aslesa, still holding onto Zephyr as though he were an anchor in stormy seas.

“Why are you crying?” asked Zephyr, blinking, and Aslesa pulled backwards with wide eyes. He stood in front of her, shuffling his claws awkwardly and trying to get a better look at her face.

“You’re- you’re all right!” Aslesa exclaimed with delight, and Zephyr nodded and smiled.

“Looks like it.” He looked around the ruins of the cave and whistled under his breath. His mouth cracked into a dazzling smile, but his eyes were weary as he murmured to Aslesa, “This’ll make for some interesting nightmares.”