Temporal Trotters

by wyattpugsley

4. Hopes and Dreams

Morning

Posada awakes, staring at the ceiling, “I have to find a way to stop these dreams,” she thinks to herself. “Maybe I should bring it up to Sky, but I don’t want to worry her… Especially with everything going on, I’ll wait” She rolls over and up, getting out of bed and lightly shaking her still sleeping companion up, “…it’s morning, time to get up, Sky” she says softly.

“Mmm ok.. Just.. Give me a minute”

Posada sighs, sitting on the edge of the bed as she waits for her companion to wake up. Skystar letting out a yawn and doing her usual stretches as she comes to.

“Morning, Posada.”

“Morning. Ready for another day of work?”

“I guess…” she stops and thinks for a moment, “Before we get into that though I wanted to have a talk. I thought some stuff over while I was falling asleep, and wanna make sure we’re on the same page and everything, Possy.” Skystar smiles but her tone indicates that this is a serious talk.

“Uh, sure. What’s up? What’s on your mind?” Posada quietly replies, somewhat concerned by Skystar’s change of tone from her usual upbeat self.

“Well… it’s just… we haven’t really talked about the big elephant in the room, if you know what I mean.” She looks Posada in the eyes, her smile from before gone.

Posada reacts anxiously, not being entirely sure which elephant this might be among the laundry list of potential elephants that she’s been intentionally ignoring. “O-Oh? Um…” Posada’s eyes are taken off of Skystar, she looks out the window, at the bed, the doorway, and back to Skystar repeatedly in the span of a few seconds, “what would that be, exactly?” If not for the fur, she would be sweating bullets right now.

Skystar watches Posada closely, “she’s clearly uncomfortable talking about this”, Skystar remarks to herself before smiling a little bit again to her friend at ease, “Mainly getting back home! We’ve been so focused on just trying to survive we really haven’t had time to talk about it.”

“Oh…” Posada responds, somewhat relived that Skystar chose the easiest elephant to talk about. “Well, I was just so focused on finding a place to stay last night,” she says, scratching the back of her head. “But Skystar, I think we need to temper our expectations for ‘getting back home’. We aren’t even certain how we got sent back here, besides the involvement of the nuclear fusion test…” her expression changing to a much more somber one. “That’s not something that’s possible here. Even if the whole science team got transported here, we’re centuries away from having the resources needed.”

Focused and determined, but still smiling slightly, Skystar rebukes. “Look, we might not have your fancy nuclear tech stuff, or our comrades, but you know what we do have? Magic.” Skystar says in an upbeat manner. “Magic has been around since time itself, and I’m almost certain there has to be some way for us to get back through magic. Or through some magic artifact, there just has to be.”

“Sky…” Posada squeaks out, not buying into her idea. “I know you’re trying to stay upbeat but neither of us can even do magic aside from form change, we’re not unicorns. And even if we were, and there was a way for us to get back, would there even be any point? The revolution will go on without us. You and I both know there’s plenty of capable creatures to take our places.” She sighs. “I feel like this is just what was destined to happen. Maybe if I’d been kept in power, I would have…” She winces, face frowning thinking about her visions past and present “…done something I would’ve regretted. Perhaps this was just the best way for things to play out, Skystar. I don’t have to worry about hurting anyone.”

Skystar looks somberly at Posada, seeing her get emotional she lifts her wing and embraces her friend “Posada…” She cuddles close and talks in a quieter voice. “What’s bringing this on? You wouldn’t have hurt anyone. You can be eccentric, even a bit scary at times with your nuclear obsession, but I know you, I do, you’d never purposely go out of your way to hurt innocent creatures. It’s not in your nature.”

Posada tears up, not able to look Skystar in the eye her head turns down towards the floor as she starts to cry. “Skystar, I need to tell you something important. Something no one else knows about…” She chokes up slightly “You know what happened with me and the Storm King. Ever since then I’ve been having visions, usually when I sleep… And since taking over as the leader of Hippogriffia they’ve been getting… concerning.” Moving her claw she wipes the tears from her eyes “I’ve seen myself torturing our enemies, ordering the army to kill any thestrals who opposed us.. I ordered the complete destruction of cities and villages with nukes… in Chiropterra and elsewhere…” Tears stopping somewhat, she looks up to the Skystar “I don’t want that to be what I become, Sky. I’ve already subverted some of those but… I don’t know what those visions really mean. I-I don’t understand them. But I’m terrified that they’re predicting my future. A future where I’m losing myself in pursuit of revenge. If I’m here.. at least I don’t have to worry about that. For now at least.”

Skystar’s energy quickly dies down, looking at Posada with sadness and concern as she details her previously unknown visions. She takes a minute to fully process everything said.

“Posada, I’m sorry. You never told me you were dealing with something like that… I.. didn’t know.”

“I never told you. It’s not your fault for just learning about them now.” The hippogriff exclaims, a frown upon her face as she wipes the remaining tears from her face.

Skystar gets even closer to Posada, wrapping both of her wings around her, holding her close. “I’m here for you, Posada. It’s okay.” She says in a caring, loving tone. They stay entangled with one another for a few moments, calming each other down before Skystar loosens her wings from around Posada. “If it’s okay for me to ask.. Have they been right about things before? How often do you actually have them?”

“You’re fine, Sky.” Posada sighs. “They have been. But they’re not always things that can come true, if that makes sense. Sometimes they’re just like dreams. I had a vision shortly before I became Secretary, it was of me addressing a crowd of people in the capital. Crack Lightning and Silverstream were there. I didn’t know it at the time but that was a vision of me addressing the nation after taking power. It was exactly like the vision, it was scary. And then sometimes it’s like an alternative way things could have been. Like me massacring the thestrals instead of trying to change them… Or the nuclear reactor incident…”

“The reactor, I-I try to forget about that. I’ve never seen you act like that before. Wanting to torture someone like that… it’s something I thought the cult would’ve done, not you. But you didn’t go through with it, at least. If you had, I don’t think I’d be here talking to you.”

“I only failed to go through with it because you asked me not to, Skystar. I wanted it. I wanted them to suffer. I couldn’t stop myself, even having seen it in a vision.” Her eyes tear up again, voice strained somewhat as she speaks, “You won’t always be there to stop me. I will do something that’ll chase you away eventually. I almost did already. Even if you are there, it might not matter. I just lose control. And… I don’t realize it until it’s over and I’m staring down at the disaster I’ve caused.

Skystar looks away from Posada. She knew to some degree that the things she said were true. She had seen it herself. But she always did her best to dismiss it, to chalk it up to sporadic incidents. Skystar had always been able to talk her down, after all. “I know…” Skystar replies. “I’ve seen it with my own eyes. You’re not a bad person, Posada. Someone with an evil heart wouldn’t have been able to do the things you have for Hippogriffia, and your friends. You put so much emotion into everything you do… it’s what makes you so amazing to be around, why you warm the hearts of everycreature you’re close to. It’s also why you hold so much resentment and anger towards those that have hurt you,” she says, looking up to Posada as tears stream down both their faces.

They embrace and hug each other, wings wrapping around one another as their tears stain each other’s fur.

“We’re going to work through this,” Skystar’s voice cracks, “together. I want to help you get better. I want to make sure we never have to worry about your visions again. I want you to be happy with yourself, Posada.”

“You don’t have to, Skystar. It’s not your responsibility, you shouldn’t have to worry about me like this. I’m the leader of a country, I need to be stronger than this.”

“It doesn’t matter if you’re the head of state or just a nobody, you still have feelings, you’re still just a creature.” They let go of each other, “and you can’t expect to burden everything on your own. That’s what your friends are for, silly,” she sniffles, wiping her tears from her face and smiling slightly.

“I don’t even know where to start, Sky… I just feel so worthless. We’re already dealing with being stuck in the 6th century and now I’m having a full-on breakdown, what a fucking joke…”

“Shhhh,” she says, patting Posada with her wing, “you’re not worthless, Possy, don’t say that. We can deal with both, it’s okay. Everything’s going to be okay,” she states as she wraps her wings around Posada again. “How about we start by being more open? About how you’re feeling, about the visions you’re having. And making sure you don’t get yourself too worked up, like right now. Let’s just calm down.”

Posada takes in a deep breath, exhaling after a few seconds while Skystar comforts her. Repeating the process a few times and giving herself some time to decompress.

“Better?”

“Yeah… a bit. I want to get better. Feel better. I-I’m going to try and do my best, Sky. For myself, for you, and for Hippogriffia, if we get back.”

“Doing your best is all I can ask. Don’t be too hard on yourself, everycreature’s dealing with their own struggles, there’s nothing wrong with needing help. Just do your best and be honest from now on, please.”

"I’ll try, Skystar. I promise you; I will try.”

“Thank you. You know I care about you, right? Don’t forget that.” Skystar says before fully embracing Posada, wings and claws wrapped around her as Posada’s head lays on her shoulder, her own arms and claws holding tight to Skystar’s soft fur. “Let go when you’re ready, Possy. Take your time.”

***

Later that day

The duo lounged in bed, having completed the day’s work and ate dinner. Skystar lays under the covers of the bed, snuggled up while Posada sits on her side of the bed with her back against her pillow.

“About this morning, Posada. Is there anything else you want to talk about? Anything on your mind after thinking about things during the day?”

She shakes her head, a neutral expression on her face, “No, I don’t really wanna talk about it right now honestly. I think it’s best if we just focus on getting out of here for now. I’ll let you know if I wanna talk about it anymore. Promise.”

Skystar nods her head. “I understand. What about our travel plans once we get done here? I know I mentioned it earlier when we were working but I really think heading to the Magic University in Northpoint is our best bet. It’s one of the bigger ones in Hippogriffia, even back during these times. Plus, it’s near the sea.”

“It being a port city is a plus, gives us a lot more travel options,” she agrees. “Northpoint sounds good then, a solid first stop.”

“Cool cool, that’s our plan then, Possy.” She says before smiling at her partner, getting no response as Posada looks and then returns her focus to staring at the ceiling. Seeing this, Skystar rolls over to the other side of the bed, putting her legs over Posada’s, “would it make you feel better if we cuddled a bit, maybe?”

Posada’s face goes red, well, even more red than usual. “Does she know I cuddled up to her while sleeping? I don’t think I woke her up,” she thinks to herself. She extends her wing slightly and wraps it around Skystar, holding her with her claws as well while Skystar’s head rests against Posada’s chest. Not saying anything, they simply enjoy the warmth and contentment from holding each other close as they slowly fall asleep.

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