The first thing Guru decided was necessary was teaching me how to handle the energies of both the Outback and the Dreamtime Spirits. This was both incredibly simple and unbelievably complex at the same time. However, if I was to be able to accompany everyone on further missions here, it was vital...
First, enter deep meditation, Guru instructed silently as the pair sat together just outside the hideout. He had already created a circle of his own energy upon the earth that protected Coco from the swirling energies of the land that threatened to overwhelm her with every step. I sense you have already received instruction in this.
Coco nodded. Rather than try to force words through the connection, she simply shaped her memories of her instruction under Mrs. Ruby.
Ah, a voodoo priestess, Guru mused calmly. The skills she taught you will serve you well in understanding the magic of this land, and of the Dreamtime Spirits. I am aware of how voodoo teaches, and can build from there. Your lessons were to feel the power of your environment, follow its paths until you understood the forces that shaped them, and then leach from them what you needed without damaging those forces or the environment. My teachings begin the same way, but there is a fundamental difference.
Her teachings only work in an environment where the energies are quiescent. However, this land's magic and the Dreamtime Spirits are mischievous at the best of times, outright hostile at the worst. The first steps - of feeling the power and following the paths - will apply here. However, you will then need to understand the will behind the forces, and the emotions that drive them...and above all else, earn their trust. This is an experience that is different for every practitioner, but is always physically and emotionally intense. Thus, before you make the attempt, you need to find absolute peace within yourself, or as close to it as you can manage.
Coco nodded, taking slow, deep breaths as she gathered all her magic within herself, focusing it down until it was a single point within her body, bound up in the eye of the needle in her mind. To push herself further, she heightened her focus and brought it all into the single point of thread currently passing through the eye of the needle.
Hold that, Guru instructed gently. It will help you endure. I wouldn't normally recommend attempting this while the Earth was wounded, or while the Mask of Dark Earth were active...but we don't have a choice here. The Mask of Dark Earth must be pacified and laid back to rest, and it will not rest as long as it senses your power. The Mask of Dark Earth is Darkness, Destruction, and Death, and it is filled with ancient rage. You have used your magic to destroy, to cast someone into darkness, have wielded the power of Death...and done so in rage. The Mask will actively seek you out, no matter how you try to hide. The surge of feeling you experienced when you first put hoof to Earth here...the Mask felt that. You must be ready for when - not if - it finds you.
Coco nodded slowly, nervously. "I...I understand," she murmured worriedly.
Fear not, I have taken precautions, Guru offered gently. I have enchanted small totems that I have given to your family members, which will be powered by the familial love they share with you. They have positioned themselves a certain distance away in a triangle at different heights, leaving my position here in the circle as a fourth point. Once I dispel this protective circle, it will create an enclosed space, limiting how much of the Earth's magic and the power of Dreamtime you are exposed to. Once you have adjusted to this much, you will be able to move about to help hunt down the Mask and cleanse, appease, and inter it anew.
Coco nodded, focusing her mind. "I...I'm ready..."
Guru sighed sadly. No...you are not.
The circle faded.
Coco vaguely felt her head rock back and her body convulse, but the sensation almost didn't register in her mind. The rage, pain, and corruption of the Earth lashed her body, blazing through her blood and soul in overwhelming waves. She thought she screamed, but she couldn't be certain. She felt the Spirits tearing at her mind, as though trying to devour her. She struggled, desperately trying to hold onto herself as she was swamped by sensation, but the harder she fought the more agonizing it became. Some part of her tried to call out to Guru to make it stop, but she wasn't sure it was even heard.
As she felt herself starting to sink into the morass of sensations, she realized there was no way she could overcome this. She couldn't even feel her body anymore, and she was rapidly losing her sense of her mind. Lost, alone, and desperately afraid, she did the only thing she could think to do.
She let go.
She stopped pushing against the waves of rage and pain and instead let herself go spiritually limp before it, let it carry her where it would. She felt her mind swirl around, smashing against walls of something before swirling back. As she swirled around, the voice of the Earth, of the Spirits, became clearer. They were angry at the desecration, the violation...but the rage went deeper. Something long ago had gone wrong, and everything that had happened since was a direct result of that wrongness. The balance was off, and the land desired correction, but no guru or sage who had arisen in the lands had possessed the knowledge or skill to achieve it...and with every failure the rage had grown.
Sinking into the morass, she began to understand the currents. How it lashed, how it swirled, how it eddied...she moved with it, following it around until she found her way back to herself. As she did, she slipped back inside, and felt her body as the voices of Earth and Spirits subsided. She was not the focus of their rage, and thus they had no reason to harm her. As all before her...she had one chance.
She opened her eyes, blinking away something wet and red before her entire body convulsed. She barely managed to roll on her side before she began to evacuate her stomach.
I did not expect it to be that intense, Guru offered worriedly as he gently stabilized her. Though you definitely should not have eaten before attempting it. That I did expect.
Coco barely managed to get to her hooves, trying to reach up to wipe her muzzle. Before she could, Guru had held a cloth to her face...wiping away a distressing amount of her own blood.
Even as she felt the protective separation fade and the power that had accepted her - however temporarily - shielded her as it acclimated to that which it had been separated from, she decided firmly, Not doing that again anytime soon.
I certainly wouldn't recommend it, Guru agreed.
Yeah. Not fun.