Peace and Quiet of a Sort

[Daliah]

Motherhood was overrated in all senses of the word, but through her many years playing the maternal figure to her three daughters Daliah had yet to host a major meltdown, for which the goddess was eternally grateful. Currently she was in the middle of fearing for the sanity of her combinded rulership, mostly from Dis and her growing anger management problem. The young woman was growing harder and harder to control, as the spirits she was born from grew more frusterated with their conditions of living. Vesta was still as calm as always, trying to mellow out her younger sister, though recently to no avail. And Sky. Oh, how that girl managed to unnerve the servents. Occasionally the demi-goddess liked such reactions to her own childhood, again worrying that her daughter was becoming a clone in personality and not just appearance.

At least today she would have peace. Sky was suppose to be working on a new project in her room, meaning she could not emerge for days on end, most likely longer. Vesta and Dis were both visiting the Tree of Life, a yearly pilgrimage both girls made on their own. For the first fiftey years of their lives Daliah and Sky would accompany them, but now Sky was too old to travel with her sisters for their personal quest, and Daliah really did look forward to the time off.

'I'm getting old...' The thought was ironic, as centries ago her original childhood acquaintances finished their own life cycles. Today she wore her long, ungrayed hair braided with chimes and bells. Her form, still that of a young woman still leaving childhood, was clothed in silk of bright purples and blues, making her lilac toned eyes. No gardener who observed her would dare claim she appeared over aged, and yet she still felt as though her many years were finally weighing down on her.

Ignoring her worries Daliah gravefully traveled to the center of her gardens, settling against one of her favorite trees. It was here that her darling Dis said her first word "Dahmama," the enderment being the sweetest she could remember all her long life. Dis always was the most distant of her daughters, while Vesta would happily cuddle against her mother and Sky would be bothered to leave her experiments to indulge in her mother's childish whims. Now, sitting under the shade of the tree Daliah dreamed of her precious daughters, wondering if being a mother was truely the hardship she had felt it was upon entering the gardens.

[Kri]

Swathed in a voluminous black cloak, complete with an almost all-obscuring veil, the demi goddess Kri slunk through the gardens. Her hind paws were utterly silent in the soft grass, her tail brushing absently along the foliage she passed. The garden was in a beautiful state of resplendency this morning, decked out in sparkling dew and brilliant flowers of every shade in the spectrum. Trees of every species grew together, their branches swaying in a slight breeze. Intricately carved sculptures dotted the landscape, as well as musical fountains pure enough to drink from. It was the kind of magical setting for which the Mist Realm was renowned.

Kri was oblivious to it all. She was grateful that the place was blessedly quiet and uninhabited, but beyond that, she was only out of her rooms for one reason. One very important reason. A reason for which she would even venture out of her private chambers and into the gardens she hadn't been in for nearly a century to find her absentminded fellow demi goddess Daliah. It was the only reason for which she existed anymore, besides perhaps the time she spent with her beloved goddaughter Sky.

It took longer than it should have for Kri to track her friend down, considering she had the combined abilities of her feline senses and her telepathic skills. But then, Daliah had a pronounced tendancy to wander. Kri was sure she'd gone through some of the same areas two or three times by now following the little goddess' scent. She was muttering a detailed litany of unflattering names in several languages by the time she came across the object of her search. Daliah, of course, was by now lounging under a tree, looking as if she hadn't just led Kri a chase across half the bloody gardens.

Growling low in her throat, Kri crouched next to the other demi goddess and pushed back her hood to glare at the other her properly, wincing slightly as the bright light hit her sensative eyes. Without preamble, she announced her demand, "Daliah, where is my new shipment? It was due at exactly five o'clock this morning. It isn't here."