wheatencrown | Reminding Teja of Himself

From:

Teja looks around. "It looks as if no war nor strife ever touched it, only the cold winds of winter," he says.

Count huddles under his cloak.

From:

wheatencrown

"This land is still loved and this is your land once more."

She nods towards the door which needs only him to open it.

From:

ostro_goth

"How did this come to pass?" Teja asks. He opens the door, and it leads into a stone-flagged kitchen.

There is a hearth, cold now, waiting for a fire. Count jumps off him and runs to jump onto a chair, sitting there, proudly. His chair! He was first!

"This feels homely," Teja says. "I make my home here, the cat's actions tell me so. But how is it..."

His voice falters, as suddenly, he remembers -- love. He remembers kissing somebody, beloved and familiar, who had been sitting on the chests that line the walls, their bodies touching.

From:

wheatencrown

"I brought you back here and you have returned many times with your love."

She walks over to Count and gives him some pets so that Teja can take his time finding his way back to all he knows.

From:

ostro_goth

"My love..." Teja says, touching the chest at the place where he remembers standing, and feeling...

"When did this all happen? I only just died."

From:

wheatencrown

"You have been in Milliways for many years now, Teja. I'm not sure what happened to you to make you forget again."

From:

ostro_goth

"What is Milliways?" Teja says. "The name of this house?"

From:

wheatencrown

"No, its the tavern that we just left. You have been spending your afterlife there."

From:

ostro_goth

"In a tavern?" Teja says, stroking the wood where he remembers his love sitting.

Where they were kissing.

"But then, who would have thought I would find love, ever? I have been dead all that time, already?"

From:

wheatencrown

"It took time, but you have learned that you can love and live more than you ever imagined. Its been a pleasure to see you enjoying yourself."

From:

ostro_goth

"I? Enjoying myself?" Teja almost smiles at the thought.

Pause.

"What is she like? I remember feeling and fervour, and soft dark curls, I think..."

From:

wheatencrown

"He, Teja, keep walking around, I'm sure you'll remember."

From:

ostro_goth

"He?" Teja says, staring at her, deep shock in his eyes.

And suspicion welling up in his heart that it might be the truth.

He remembers short dark curls, and a firm strong back under his hands.

A man -- could he have sunk so far, let go of his principles so far...

From:

wheatencrown

She sighs at that look on his face,

"Teja, stop that."

From:

ostro_goth

"It is not allowed, among my people," Teja says, softly.

His hand still touches the wood; his heart still remembers feeling so much love.

From:

wheatencrown

"You're not among them anymore, Teja and you've learned that you can love for yourself and its not a betrayal of them."

From:

ostro_goth

Teja wanders over to where the cat is sitting, picks him up, nd sits in the chair, the cat in his arms.

"I remember soft dark curls and playful eyes," he says. "I remember kissing soft lips and feeling intense joy. His name is..."

Carolus. Carl. "Charlie."

From:

wheatencrown

"Yes, what else do you remember?"

From:

ostro_goth

"I remember raising him here from a tiny kitten," Teja says, stroking Count. "He was so small, and in my bed at night, in the moonlight, and woke me to give him milk from a small bottle, and while he suckled, kept digging his paws with the needle-sharp claws into my arm."

Pause.

"Just this one image; just as Charlie is just the one image on that chest, with me standing before him, kissing him."

From:

wheatencrown

"Then we will find you more things to recall."

She walks over to pick up the bronze horse statue that has found a home over the fireplace and hands it to him.

From:

ostro_goth

Images start flooding into his mind, jumbled images of people and cats and horses, a white cat with green eyes, a laughing girl with dark curls, a little barefoot goddess, a forge that has been his own, mostly, for a long while, naginata and mokume-gane in the lands of Japan, a gentle man with golden hair, somewhat like Totila, the thought of whom fills Teja with sadness, a barefoot young woman leading him through a forest, a long-snouted beast bearing fearsome dreams, another lovely young man facing him in a duel, a strange, roaring thing carrying him through the hills, lying in the warm sand with Charlie, a large ship which holds an instrument like a gigantic klepsydra, music out of a little device, and pictures out of another..."

Carefully, he puts the little bronze horse down.

"It is a great mess, but yes, it might have been years. Why did I forget?"

From:

wheatencrown

"I don't know, Teja. Last time you were out of Milliways and faded. I don't know what's happened this time."

From:

ostro_goth

"We were on a beach that time," Teja says. "He and I."

The golden-haired one, and the fencer, had been before Charlie. The fencer had also been a musician...

"I know not myself again from all this, and yet it feels so right. Are there not two more cats?"

Pause.

"And a white one. A white one with green eyes that is not a cat, really..."

From:

wheatencrown

"Yrael, who is himself. This is a beginning and we will stay here until you remember it all. Since there are many rooms in this house."

From:

ostro_goth

Teja stands, putting the cat on the floor.

Count walks over to the cabinet where he knows the cat food is, and mewls at it.

From:

wheatencrown

"I think Count would like to be fed."

From:

ostro_goth

Teja walks over to the odd chest, which opens sideways, then takes out a little bowl, a tin of cat food, and a fork; he opens the tin with the ringpull on its top, shovels the food into the cat bowl with the fork, throws the tin in the dustbin, puts the dish on the floor where Count starts eating avidly, turns the tap, rinses the fork, and puts it away in the cabinet before closing the door.

Um.

"How did I just do that?" Teja asks, bewildered.

From:

wheatencrown

"Your memories are near to the surface."

From:

ostro_goth

"One may not forget how to feed the cat?" Teja says, shaking his head.

From:

wheatencrown

"You knew where everything was."

From:

ostro_goth

"Yes," Teja says. "This is my kitchen; I have dressed greens here, with olive oil and vinegar, and roasted meat or fish, for a meal with my beloved. I remember gutting trouts..."

He opens a drawer and takes out a slim knife, bearing his own house-mark, the edge shimmering with the pattern that marks folded steel.

"With this. I made this."

From:

wheatencrown

"You did, you are incredibly creative, my dear Teja."

From:

ostro_goth

"I am a smith," Teja says, "and proud of my blades. And yes, this might be one of mine; but the steel is folded much more tightly than I ever tried before."

From:

wheatencrown

"That is one of the many things that you've learned in your afterlife."

From:

ostro_goth

"And now, I need relearn it all, within some short days, to reclaim an afterlife that is but a faded dream to me now," Teja sums it up. "Where is my beloved now?"

From:

wheatencrown

"In Milliways, I'll take you back when you recall more. Come outside, I think I know something that might help."

From:

ostro_goth

Teja puts the knife back into the drawer, and follows her.

From:

wheatencrown

She takes him outside to where a small ruin is all that remains of what was once his house,

"Put your hands deep into the dirt, this land knows you well."

From:

ostro_goth

Teja bends to the ground, touching the earth.

He knows there is a great machine in the shed, upon which he may ride through the hills; he remember walking here with his beloved. He knows about the town, and where it lies; he remember the shop kept by Massimo and Chiara, in which he had a hole made upon his flesh, to wear a little ornament in. He remembers those; he remembers a broad, strong, dark-skinned friend with whom he shared his bath, who had many of those, and whose hair was felted into ropes.

He remembers Carlotta, and her father's wedding. He remembers the hunt for the blood-drinker, and the secrecy wit which he joined those searching for the monster. He remembers walking out with his beloved in the snow, and a sharp, sudden pain in his back...

From the earth of his home, he remembers everything.

From:

wheatencrown

Demeter comes forward to enclose him in her arms as he remembers.

From:

ostro_goth

"We must return," he says, taking her into his arms. "I was killed, but what happened to my Charlie? He was with me, in my arms; he might be wounded, or..."

From:

wheatencrown

"I don't know, I've been gone and only know that I saw you and you'd forgotten yourself again."

She leans into him, he worries her so much at times but its good to have him back.