Remembering Spiral Tides

Cheetara sat under the crystal tree. It's thin prismatic leaves tinkled in the light breeze. At the moment she couldn't see the blue sphere that had entered her domain. It orbited well above the branches like an overgrown moth, but she knew it was there. And there it will remain, she decided. At least for now.

Dah'ri had been clever. The word of power of the priest of Dandara had been the last, and had reshaped the Matrix of History. A crystal tree, a twin to hers, now stood in the Hall of History. The top of the building was open to the sky, a gift from Ba'sir. Magic kept out the elements.

More importantly, anyone could communicate with her simply by touching the tree. She could pass along knowledge directly to the people. The new Master Historian, Makani, had approached this change in openness. Her presence was a welcome warmth whenever she touched the Matrix.

Cheetara caressed the trunk of the tree. Color outlined her hand. With one breath, it spread upward. She looked at the scene before her in the world beyond the Matrix, the world of those she had left behind. Tygra contemplated his sleeping garden. His mate sat on a bench nearby, and studied him with worry. The architect's saddened heart had been the hardest to bear even as summer had faded into autumn.

It was Tygra who had sent her the blue orb. After the summer solstice, he had gained the courage to see the crystal tree, and what had become of the female who had once been his lover, and the mother of his son. When he released the orb, it coated the limbs of the tree in the outer world electric blue. The Matrix absorbed its energy. The orb had reformed above her tree, but Tygra had not sent the key to unlock it. The "key" was still too small.

"Altair." The name of Tygra's son formed before her in rainbow hues before dissipating. No one believed he possessed mind powers because of his cheetah blood, but the day would come when his father's tiger heritage would shine, and his power would flow. Then he could consort with Matrix, and the orb would open.

The black woman Ayasha had sent shivers through her domain when she had touched the Matrix. She had told her of the orb. It contained the past of her people on Third Earth to their distant origins on this, their Homeworld. It would expand the history of their people to its beginning.

Cheetara sighed with bittersweet tones. "Tygra will find his way, little Talitha. It will just take time," she remarked to the images in the tree. "Come the spring, you may ripen again, and give him the joy that will allow him to forget me."

The historian laughed. I have all the time in the world. The past, the present and the future. Cheetara stood. The scene in the tree faded away.

To step into the past, or glimpse the present, was what she primarily did, alone or with the help of her companion, Tygra, who had come from an alternate reality. What her people did not know, although Ayasha clearly did, was that she could see the lines of the future. Her gift of precognition now had no limitation. Masika's father did not share in this. The gift was borne by her alone, and she had yet to reveal it for fear of influencing the future. But to study the future was fascinating. Tir'shan's new power was not the only surprise he had encountered. The giant had become fertile. She knew of Ayasha's pregnancy before he did, and watched the woman swell with the mystic's second cub. This female would not be a vessel of her mother's power, conceived as she was in the natural manner, but would possess her own gifts. Ayasha and Tir'shan would be together for many seasons, although the former Guardian would indulge herself in travel and trade, and Tir'shan would father cubs with other Thunderans to strengthen the mystic bloodlines. It seemed that Ayasha would never truly lose all the power she had wielded as a Guardian. Perhaps it was a reward from the world she had served faithfully, a genuinely unexpected benefit. She and Tir'shan would grow old and cross into the Silence together.

However, Ayasha's first born was the source of rifts and chaos that drifted across many time lines. Cenatua had the darkness deep within her, a legacy of mountain tiger blood. She would either becomes the greatest Guardian of Third Earth, or destroy the world, for the shadow of her grandfather Sartren crossed her soul.

Mumm-Ra. Tygra and Talitha would finish him with the gift of healing, and in doing so, produce a son of great power and benefit to the people.

When the trees lost their leaves completely, Panthro would walk into the Silence. He would die a warrior's death on patrol with Chandra. The snow leopard would walk north to the sea, and would never be seen by her people again. Lion-o would fall ill for a time with grief, but Tygra would be the tree he would lean upon until his strength returned.

Lion-o would be like his father, and have but one mate. He and his mate would live long and happy lives together in all the time streams. His happiness in that regard seemed predestined. That pleased her immensely.

The others she had known in life would have more variable time streams. A kiss or a sigh could result in life or death. Truly, small things produced enormous changes for good or ill. People needed to live their lives without her interference, but the temptation to influence possible futures would be hard to bear.

Cheetara raised her hand to the blue sky. The sun dipped to the west. She and her companion had both wanted a sun to cross the heavens during the day, and a wheel of stars at night. So they simply thought them into existence along with the passing seasons, and more pleasing landscape. The trees around their cottage now bore the same red and golds of those in the world outside of the Matrix.

A voice sang deep and pure. Through the trees she watched Tygra. He had formed a statue of his daughter, and serenaded it nightly. While she looked upon the doings of the outer world eagerly, he did so only with reluctance. One day, Cheetara thought, the singing will stop, I will awaken, and he will be gone.

Only one soul needed to reside in the Matrix. Tygra desired rebirth. The more he sang to his daughter, the stronger the bridge he built back to her reality. The wind will carry him away one day, she mused, but I will not be alone, nor forgotten.

Cheetara considered the darkening sky. Dah'ri will walk here in his dreams.