One last truth

“Ohhhhhhh… huh? Wha… where am I?” Mina groaned as she slowly woke up.

Opening her eyes, all she could see was darkness mostly, but there was a tiny bit of light streaming through. As her mind properly began waking up, she was treated to the distinct feel, smell, and unfortunately taste of fallen leaves, making her realize she was beneath a pile of them. After a bit of shuffling, she got out of the pile to see that it was quite late at night, and the light she saw was actually from a street lamp. Looking around, she realized that she was at the park that was half way between her school and her house, though she was on the opposite side from the road she usually walked.

‘Huh? How did I get here?’ She asked herself as she tried to remember. But no matter how hard she tried, she couldn’t remember a single thing. It was as if a fog had filled her mind, obscuring almost everything. The only thing she could really remember was that she’d been gone from home for quite a while.

‘Nikawiy and nohtawiy must be worried about me. I need to go home.’ She thought to herself.

She then got up and began her march back home, feeling oddly anxious and excited to see them again. But she also felt oddly heavy, as if she was wearing a really heavy coat, but looking down told her that she was just wearing… nothing actually. She had a brief moment of panic and confusion as she realized she was naked, and looked around to see if anyone saw her. Luckily, there was no one, and even more luckily she saw that her clothes were laying right beside the leaf pile she’d just crawled out of. So, feeling very embarrassed, she quickly went back and put on her favorite purple shirt and jeans.

‘Right, I took these clothes off to put some other ones on, but where did the ones I was wearing before go?’ Mina asked herself as she got dressed. Still, this question was quickly put aside in favor of not being naked in the middle of a park, then focusing on getting home. Still, putting her clothes back on did nothing to alleviate the weird heavy feeling she had, but she chose to just ignore that for now.

After just a few minutes of walking, Mina made her way back home. She came to the door, momentarily worried that she might have lost her house key only to find it in its usual pocket, and made her way inside.

“I’m home.” Mina called out somewhat quietly, caught between wanting to be quiet and not wake anyone up, and wanting to be loud and make sure everyone knew she was home. The latter desire won out. “Nohtawiy, nikawiy, Danis! Anybody home!?”

There was a beat of silence after her declaration, before a bunch of bumps and thuds echoed throughout the house, and in seconds Mina’s mom, dad, and older sister all burst into the front of the house wide eyed.

“Huh?”

“Is that?”

“MINA!” Danis exclaimed as she wasted no time running up and pulling Mina into a bone crushing hug. Their mom and dad followed barely a second later, squeezing them all together in a huge tight hug.

“You’re safe, oh thank god you’re safe!” Her father exclaimed.

“My little Mikwan, my little natanis, you’re finally home!” Her mother exclaimed.

“I am never, EVER, letting you out of my sight, EVER again!” Danis exclaimed.

“Air!” Mina choked out as her family hugged her so tight she was genuinely scared they were going to crush her. Luckily, they heard her plea and loosened their grip, but they didn’t let go. In fact, now that she wasn’t being crushed, Mina realized Danis had picked her up all the way off the ground, and clearly had no intention of putting her down. Instead, nikawiy knelt down to look Mina directly in the eye.

“What happened to you Mikwan? Where have you been all week? And, why do you smell like wet bird?” Nikawiy asked, her nose scrunching up slightly at that last comment.

Mina reflexively moved to answer, but stopped as she realized she couldn’t. She didn’t remember where she’d been this last week, and definitely didn’t know why she smelled like wet bird.

“I… I don’t know.” Mikwan eventually said, making her mother frown.

“You don’t know? You don’t remember anything from this past week?” Nohtawiy asked, and Mina shook her head. “Alright, then what’s the last thing you remember?”

“I… I remember waking up to go to school, leaving the house with Danis, and jumping into some leaves on the way to school. Then… I think I remember… maybe some music? Then the next thing I can remember, I’m waking up in a pile of leaves on the opposite side of the park just a few minutes ago, and walking home.” She said. At her explanation, her father frowned.

“Memory loss huh? Just like all the other ones that have returned after mysteriously disappearing.” He remarked. He then stepped back from the hug and put on a serious look. “Alright. I know we all want to hug Mikwan till she pops, but priority one right now is to get her to the hospital to get checked out. She doesn’t remember what she’s been through this past week, so we have no idea what or if anything is wrong with her. It’s best we get her checked out ASAP, so lets all go up and get dressed to get to the hospital. We’ll also call the police on the way to let them know she’s been found.”

Danis and nikawiy both expressed agreement at the plan, and at that point Mina expected to be put down, only for Danis to keep holding her as she walked to her room.

“Um, Danis, you can let me down now.” Mina said.

“I said I’m not letting you out of my sight again, and I meant it.” Danis said firmly.

“Ok, but-”

“I’m not letting you out of my sight, I’m not even letting you go ever ever EVER again!” She declared.

“Oh come on, you’re going to have to let me go eventually.” Mina sighed.

Xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx

‘Seriously? How?!’ Mina thought to herself as Danis slid them into the car with Mina on her lap, after somehow managing to get herself changed without ever letting Mina’s feet touch the ground. Their father glanced at them like he wanted to tell them not to sit like that, that riding in a car like that is dangerous, but he didn’t. Instead, he reached forwards towards the car radio.

“Hey, you all don’t mind if I put on some music, right? I could use something to help me relax while I drive.” He asked.

“Of course dear. I think we could all use some music to relax actually.” Nikawiy replied.

And so, dad threw on his usual country radio station, and country music filled the car as they pulled out to head out to the hospital. To her surprise, Mina found herself enjoying the music more than she normally would, and she relaxed against Danis. Then, suddenly a familiar song came on the radio.

“Then as the sun says goodbye, and the stars begin to shine.

As the moon rises high, and the morning birds close their eyes

I will say my final words of goodbye, till the morning light.

Ohhhh oh oh ohhhhhhhhh.

Then in the morning, my heart will let go of all my mourning, and I lift my head up to the skyyyyyyy.

In this beautiful morning light.

…

…

In this welcoming morning light.”

“Mikwan? Is something wrong?” Danis asked as she felt Mina stiffen on top of her. Mina however didn’t notice, her whole focus was on the song. She didn’t know where she heard the song, but it was very familiar, and something inside her told her it was very important.

“Dad, what song is that?” She asked, forgetting to call him by the cree term.

“Oh, this song is called ‘Mourning till Morning’.” Her dad said. He then let out a wry chuckle. “Funny enough, the singer actually brought a lot of attention to the disappearances like yours, only for him to become another victim.”

“What’s his name?” Mina asked insistently.

“Oh, it’s Jordan Michigan.”

Xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx

“Well, you managed to send another person home. And in record time too. Still, in the time it took to send her back, I’m sure there’s been at least one more person summoned somewhere in this world.”

Back in the other world, Jordan looked over to the ‘air’ that was speaking.

“Do you always have to be such a downer every single time I actually succeed in helping someone?” Jordan shot back.

“I don’t disparage you when you succeed in helping someone, but this is not at all that. I’m simply trying to remind you of the futility of this goal you’ve given your.” They replied, and Jordan scoffed.

“It aint futile. And even if it was, it’s still worth doing. I’m not about to let the people of this world push their problems on people from my world. *Sigh* Seriously, why is it that the one person who actually wants to keep this world’s gods from dying ended up getting bound to the one goddess that wants her kind to die.” Jordan grumbled.

Indeed, the person Jordan was talking to wasn’t ‘air’, it wasn’t a split personality, it wasn’t someone hiding in the bushes, it wasn’t anything like that. The one Jordan, the musician from another world was in fact talking to was Ceol, the goddess of music. The goddess that he’d been summoned to this world to replace.

“You know that’s not true Jordan.” Ceol scolded. “I don’t want to die, nor do I want my fellow deities to die. However, more than my own life, I want what’s best for this world. And what’s best for this world is that us dying deities get replaced by people who can take up our mantles and protect this world in our stead.”

“Then why the hell are you getting people from my world involved!?” Jordan snapped. “The people of this world are forcing us out of our homes, our lives, our entire world, just because they can’t be bothered to fix the problem themselves!”

“You know that’s not their intention Jordan.” Ceol said sternly. “People from your world have the highest potential to become new gods and goddesses. They’re just trying to protect their home by any means necessary, no matter what those means are.”

“And you know that I don’t care. I just want the people from my home to live their lives the way they want to, not as slave gods for these people.” Jordan bit out.

“But no matter how much you want that, how many people you help return home, it doesn’t matter.” Ceol countered. “The people of this world will keep on summoning people from your world to replace the old gods till they’ve either replaced them all, or the old gods stop dying. That is an absolute fact.”

“Then I’ll figure out how to fix whatever’s killing the gods, somehow.” Jordan answered flippantly. “Till then though, I will find and save each and every person from my world I can, no matter what.”

Xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx

And so, a bird that flies through the sky. One who’d been stripped from their home has returned once more. Guided by the light of the stars and the song of their home, they escaped their gilded cage and returned to the arms of that which birthed them. Yes, this place may still be a cage, perhaps even one less pleasant, but it is their home, and that’s all that matters. But the story is far from over, for this story is not that of the bird’s, but that of the song that guided her. This song shall continue to echo through the land, helping the lost return home, till it can finally follow them there. And, perhaps, it will do more than just guide the lost. It might even save the found.