Avian Shrine Visits

Posted on Wed Apr 8th, 2020 @ 10:59am by Lieutenant Mona Gonadie & Lieutenant Commander Mnhei'sahe Dox
Edited on on Fri Apr 10th, 2020 @ 4:00pm

Mission: Born and Reborn
Location: Miradon
Timeline: 2397

While most of the group had been sightseeing in a general group the past few days, Mona and Mnhei'sahe finally got a little time alone to visit a small shrine to the two moon goddesses near her home while the rest of their group visited a more tourist-friendly shrine about a block away with translators and flashy public ceremonies every twenty minutes. Unlike the rest of the modern styling of the cities they had been in, the smaller town had a distinctly feudal look reminiscent of Japan with ceramic tile roofs, buildings constructed from the local blue and white fast-growing bamboo-like trees, and doors and windows made from paper-thin sheets of a transparent film.

On their way from the capital city of Quen'Quen, they had visited the great natural Arches of Quen'sourri, where Mona and Dox had placed their hands together upon the stone surface and recited a prayer of hope together while a waterfall sprinkled them lightly from above with freezing cold water. Then they visited the spires of Quen'tar where they gazed upon the faces of the great leaders of Miradon carved into the largest hole in the ground on the planet - the name spires came from the tower built into the center that spiraled up in the center with an observation lounge and restaurant on several open-air decks. There, Mona was able to identify only a few of the faces, but there were pictographic guideposts at most windows with the names and descriptions of each face. Surprisingly, there were three Vulcanoid faces in the mix.

On the last leg of their journey, they had flown over the great northern sea, a vast teal saltwater ocean that separated the main continent from the smaller one. They then flew over the breathtaking snow-capped mountains of Quen'tassee before they arrived in the capital of Quen'toukie, near the orphanage where Mona was raised.

And thus after an hour in Quen'toukie, Mona had gotten her bond-mate alone to take her to a very special place where she'd found herself shortly after arriving at the orphanage. It was a bit run down and obviously still had few visitors, just as it did back when she first came all those years ago, but thankfully it was still there. The fish pond off to the side, the small shrine building, the small house in back for the clerics... It was all just about as it was the last time she was here. The shrine bell looked a bit more worn and the hammer had been replaced, but that was really the only thing she could pick out.

Guiding her chair up the worn stone path just a little ways before parking it and getting up to stretch and proceed the rest of the way on foot, she smiled peacefully. "This shrine is special to me. When I thought I had nothing left... When I wished I had been eaten as well... I got lost and ended up here behind the donation box. The clerics found me and took me in out of the rain and talked to me. Something about them... I think it was that night that I found a new purpose to life."

"This was before your foster parents took you in? Milla and Mardo?" Mnhei'sahe said as she ran her fingers just above the short stone wall that wrapped around the shrine. She was wearing her comfortable, black hiking boots and a pair of slightly baggy khakis with a snug-fitting black turtleneck and her familiar, green denim jacket. As usual, her off-duty fashions were almost as uniform as if she were wearing hers.

"What happened?" She asked, a light smile on her face as she brushed her slightly shaggy and decidedly unkempt red curls over her pointed ears.

"I had just entered into the foster care system and met Mammy and Pappy. They were nice but my heart was closed, of course, so I... ran away..." As she spoke, she waddled her way over to the small shrine house, a light smile on her face. "I think it was because of the storm, but we were staying in the city not far from here for the night before heading to the orphanage. There weren't that many other chicks there at the time and most of them were older."

"Anyway, they apparently searched for me for hours until I turned back up on my own in the morning." By now, Mona had reached the front of the small shrine building so she dug into her pocket where she had kept some spare change just for this purpose and tossed it into the prayer box, rang the prayer bell with the floating hammer, and bowed her head in silent thanks.

"I'm sure they saw your light. Individuals like that... they have a way of seeing the parts of us we would rather try and shut down to try and protect ourselves from any more pain." Mnhei'sahe said, putting an arm around Mona's back and leaning into her ever so slightly as she recalled her own issues as a teenage young woman, still believing she was half-human and taken in by the loving couple that believed themselves to be her grandparents. The human couple whose last name Mnhei'sahe still carried that did nothing but try and love an angry, petulant young woman who refused to allow them too. It was a bitter memory that Mona knew all too well through their bond.

As she thought of her own angry past, Mnhei'sahe instead chose to change the focus of those thoughts to the whimsical, rotund couple that had taken Mona in as a child and smiled. "Will Milla and Mardo be meeting us soon? I know there's no way they would want to miss the birth."

"We'll be heading to the orphanage next, actually. Then they'll be escorting us to the Aries, as per tradition." With a soft grin, Mona leaned against her Minay gently.

"It warms our hearts to see you following the old ways," came an old voice from behind them.

"Indeed. So many have abandoned them these days," Came a second.

"But to see one that has found a bond-mate with one from Altha'donar's wings," The first voice said.

"And to have returned to honor tradition..." the second voice finished.

As the pair turned to see who it was, they were greeted by the oldest pair of Miradonian clerics they could possibly imagine, dressed in simple brown robes and leaning on each other for support. Though they may have looked ancient, the pair still had a youthful gleam in their eyes and a bright smile stretched across their faces.

"I... I remember you. You're the clerics..." Mona began, one hand covering her mouth as she realized how long ago that was and just how old they would have had to be now. With a glance to Dox first, she bowed her head out of respect. "It is an honor to see you again."

Realizing the cue even without their bond, Dox matched the bow to the two elder Miradonians. Raised with military discipline by her mother, and used to being controlled and respectful when in her Senator Grandmother's presence, even holographically, the. young Romulan picked up on the reverence Mona had displayed and matched it in kind, though her upbringing kicked in a little too hard as she stopped herself in the middle of her traditional, Romulan greeting. "Jol... Greetings."

"Jolan'tru," both elder Miradonians replied in perfect Rihannsu, to which Mnhei'sahe blushed slightly and smiled.

"You're little Mona, aren't you?" "My how you've grown." "And now with three chicks of your own about to pop out too!" "You're doubtless seeking blessings, aren't you dear?" They spoke as if joined at the hip, which as close as they were, and as strong as their bond likely was, they might as well have been.

"Yes, Clerics. We..." Mona smiled at her lover, pausing a moment to reflect on things. "Yeah, my due date is sometime in the next two weeks so we're hoping to get a blessing."

Nodding, Mnhei'sahe agreed and took Mona's hand in her own. She was still slightly nervous about making cultural missteps but was getting a little more comfortable, as most every Miradonian she had come across was beyond friendly. "Yes. We would appreciate anything in that regard, really. Thank you. You... knew Mona from when she was little?"

The pair nodded, their smiles brightening. "She came here when she was but a lost chick." "We took her in for the night." "She came to visit us on the weekends." "Those first few years before college." "Found a good path in life." "Good education."

"You two were the ones that helped me find purpose after... Well... I can't say it doesn't still haunt me, because it does, but at least I work hard towards a brighter future, for them and for everyone else, just like you said." Mona smiled brightly, one arm wrapped around her belly and the other wrapped around her love. "And not just that, but for the future of our chicks and everyone else's as well."

The smiles of the two elderly Clerics brightened even further as they stepped forward, one of them pulling out an old, worn wooden bottle of anointing oil. When Mona saw that, she tugged on Dox's arm and sent a mental message that they needed to kneel.

When the two spoke, they were completely in sync once more as they each covered their thumb in the oil and placed it on the couple's foreheads. "In the name of the Moon Goddesses, we offer you and your unborn this blessing. May you have a joyous and painless experience at the ancestral place of our people."

"We accept this blessing and thank you with all of our hearts," Mona replied wholeheartedly.

Kneeling next to Mona, Mnhei'sahe replied as best she could, not knowing the culture. But the clerics clearly knew something of her culture, so she tempered that response accordingly. "We thank you for your gifts and will endeavor to reflect them in our actions. khlinae arhem."

The term was a formal giving of thanks to an elder or superior, and Mnhei'sahe said it with warm sincerity.

Even the chicks were still as the blessing was administered. A calm stillness seemed to descend upon the shrine as the two clerics stepped back and time seemed to slow. Even Dox could see the golden glow that filtered down around the pair, though it may have been a trick of the light.

Then, as quickly as it began, the moment had passed and the younger couple were getting back to their feet, having received the blessing. "Thank you, Clerics, for this and all the generosity you have shown." With another bow of her head, Mona somehow knew it was unlikely she would pass this way again.

"It was our pleasure." "Go in peace, dear heart." "The blessings of the Moon Goddesses go with you." With a bow from the two elder Clerics, they too turned to leave, heading down a side path towards the small living quarters.

As they walked gently down the path, taking care to watch every step on the uneven surface for Mona's sake, Mnhei'sahe had a rare, unguarded smile. The kind of smile reserved for use around Mona and occasionally Rita Paris. "I... I saw something. FELT something, during the blessing. It was incredible, Mona."

In truth, since Mnhei'sahe had inadvertently reawakened the psionic potential that Romulans had abandoned as a people since her people split form Vulcans millennia ago, there were many things she could perceive that she wouldn't have been able to before and her bond with Mona was stronger than only fully Miradonian couples that had been together for many years. "It felt... the same as what happened at the wedding. The light that appeared around us that flowed through us. It's... hard to describe, but it was real."

"I saw... felt... it too," whispered Mona. "It was definitely real and only the third time I've felt anything like it. The first was the night they took me in, second was our wedding... And my Minay? I swear they were almost a hundred years old when I was little." Giving her bond-mate a knowing look and a glance after the now-vanished pair, she sent the suspicion that they had just met... and been blessed by... the world's two goddesses over their bond.

Looking back down the hill where the two clerics had gone, Mnhei'sahe wondered about what she had just experienced and felt. But on some level, she knew that whatever it was, it was real. As real as Hera or Masato Rei. "Then we'll have to be sure we live up to those blessings, Jhu Dhael."

Referring to Mona by the Romulan phrase for "angel bird" had her mind dancing a bit more. "They said something about my being from 'Altha'donar's wings'. Suddenly, it makes the coincidence that Miradonian beliefs recognize a figure with a name that sounds remarkably close to the Rihannsu legend of the reborn firebird, Al'thindor, feel a BIT less coincidental."

Mona grinned mischievously. "Especially since one of the faces we saw at the spires earlier was a Rihannsu visitor that made first contact with us. The dates didn't make sense to you did they? It was just over two thousand years ago for us. Odds are, the original mythos was referring to their ship rather than an actual phoenix. Though I think the only people that could tell us the truth behind it just walked away."

Smiling back, Mnhei'sahe nodded. "They Sundering from Vulcan... the mass exodus of 80,000 under S'task was just over two thousand years ago. The early generation ships took hundreds of years to discover the hearthworlds, where the beginnings of our culture were formed in that transit. It's not impossible. And Miradon isn't too far off the main track that the ships are believed to have traveled between Vulcan and what would become ch'Rihan and ch'Havran." Comfortable around her wife more than anyone else, Mnhei'sahe used her own people's words for the names of their planets, 'Romulus' and 'Remus'.

"It was pre-warp and the generation ships used the gravity of stars to propel themselves at near-relativistic speeds. They may have used Saaa for a speed boost and stopped here before discovering the world was inhabited." Mnhei'sahe said, thoughtfully. As a child, her mother ensured she knew her history well.

"And since we can see things like that, it explains the legend of Nicoo'la tricking Altha'donar into flying too close to our sun, Saaa, and Goo'lga, the bird of wisdom, scattering the ashes across the night sky." Mona mused for a moment wondering if there were other names or words in Miradonian that were taken from the Rihannsu visitor.

"That is... exactly the kind of thing from which legends are created. It's something to think about." Mnhei'sahe said, squeezing Mona's hand tight. "The more we see, the more it appears out people have more connections than just our relationship."

Then, she turned her attention back to the shrine. "Did you spend a lot of time here. I know you were... reluctant to talk about your beliefs early in our relationship, and I've never pressed much as I never want you to feel uncomfortable, but I'm interested in learning more. I want to know everything I can. After all, the children will need to know about both cultures they come from."

"We attended a private school not far from here, but on eclipse days we attended school at a larger shrine. The one we left everyone else at, actually. I..." Mona paused a moment, looking around the familiar shrine they were at now. "I actually skipped those lessons and came here to volunteer. After a few weeks, mammy and pappy got after me, but when I told them what I was doing and we visited here together... Things kind of worked out somehow. I still got all the scripture quotes at the orphanage, but now I'm not so sure I got the same version of the storied lessons as everyone else. I always noticed that the other chicks only looked at each story from one side, but here... I was always encouraged to look at everything from at least three sides."

"And then when it came time for college, I got a full scholarship and a sponsorship for Starfleet from the Embassy's Vulcan Ambassador so I had to stop coming. Without transporter mass transit, I couldn't very well commute from Quen'Quen everyday for two years."

"Heh..." Mnhei'sahe chuckled as she looked around, the nature of her empathic bond giving her a strange sense of deja vu for a place she had never been before that was not unwelcome.

"My sponsor was a recruiter that had made several presentations at the human high school I was at who tried to get me to sign up a few times based on my grades and skill set. I was such... well, I was such a Hueiul hnaev back then that I kept avoiding it or turning it down." The young Romulan woman who never bothered to sensor her use of her native tongue around her bond-mate, referring to herself as a 'stubborn shit', smiled as she drew upon the old memory.

"So, this place was extremely important to you, then? I... can feel that. I can... I can feel you here." She said, running a hand along the surface of an old wooden support. "I'm glad we could come here."

"I can think of no other place I've wanted you to see with your own eyes than this, and with no distractions, no disturbances, no one else around." Without hesitating, Mona gave her bond-mate a quick kiss as they strolled further into the gardens. "Because when I was young, I poured myself into my work here every Eclipseday and now, I pour myself into you the same way."

A wide, unrestrained smile spread on Mnhei'sahe's face as she leaned a little tighter next to Mona as they walked. "What did you do here? WHat kind of work?"

Mona motioned to the blue and white bamboo that lined the fish ponds as well as the iridescent lilies, neon colored hydrangea-like flowers, and giant white carnations that lined the flower beds. "Mostly gardening, but I also installed a new irrigation system and came up with a way to control the baraba pole trees so they wouldn't go nuts in the ponds or flower beds. It also helps keeps the weeds at bay, though the mulch has to be replaced every year, which is hard on the back."

She then motioned to the ponds themselves and the arched bridge going over the main one. "The bridge was starting to collapse so one summer I rebuilt it using the same techniques as the original. It took all summer, but I finally figured out the puzzle box joinery. There's not a single pin or nail in it and it's only held up by itself."

"The small waterfall over there, the spring had dried up so I rebuilt it and designed a small solar-powered pump to bring water up from the well to keep it going at least when it's sunny. The fish..." Mona chuckled softly at the thought of the large gold and silverfish in the pond that looked like large sea chickens themselves. "Well, they live several times longer than people, so I made sure their food source was still renewable. They like tree roots and algae so I made sure the seed nets for them would last as long as possible whenever I could."

"Really, it was mostly outdoors work. The clerics always handled the indoors work. Then when it was time for lunch, we ate on the shrine porch behind the donations box and they'd teach me the old stories while we ate."

"You don't get much outdoors work on a Starship." Mnhei'sahe said, a slight bit of melancholy in the edges of the statement. "Maybe when we get home, we can talk to the Captian about maybe setting something like this up in the arboretum. I'd..."

It was clear there was something on her mind, and as the red-headed Romulan had knelt down to look at the water and they weren't touching for a moment. "When we went to Mol Krun'chi... I had never known I was born there, but... I was raised on that ship. On the Forager. But the Hera is more. It can be a ship but if we... Do you think we can bring some of this home? So they can know it?"

With a nod, Mona smiled softly as she leaned on one of the handrails she had built so many years ago. It was worn down by years of use and darkened with wear to a deep brown with the original blue hidden in veins here and there. "We can get some of the seeds and bulbs from the authorized export stores at the spaceport. We'll have to stop by on our way home."

"The Golden Ghost has a large, secondary storage facility on board, so that would be simple enough. And, I think the Captain will approve. And... I would like to make it happen. I love the ship, I do..." Mnhei'sahe stood back up, leaning back against the railing to face Mona, "But lately. Between going to Mol Krun'chi and now, being here. Suddenly, I don't feel as... uncomfortable as I used to being planetside."

"This is a good place," Mona replied simply, at peace with being home.

Someone else was having none of it though. Three someones, specifically, as they decided it was time to start their final turn towards being born, which made Mona crow slightly. "I need my chair. These three are impatient and starting to want out."

Leaning in, Mnhei'sahe reached up and tapped her commbadge three times in quick sequence and immediately, the chair that they left at the base of the shrine blinked and began hovering on autopilot towards them. Taking Mona's arm and feeling the children through their bond becoming restless. "Briaar designed that thing really well. The programming codes are keyed to my badge. Your engineering skills really rubbed off on her, Mona."

"She just needed a little... urk... nudge... yeah, like that..." Once the chair got to them, Mona carefully sat down into it, albeit a bit less comfortably this time. "I think it's time we made our way back to the others and headed to the orphanage to meet up with mammy and pappy, don't you?"

"Indeed. Let's get back to the transport and get moving, Jhu Dhael." Mnhei'sahe said as she lead her bond-made back to the rented flyer at the base of the hill. As she did, she tapped her badge again and with a chirrup, she spoke again. "Dox to Jablonski. Ladies... it's time."