I didn’t really register Jij’s tangible scent—I mean, I was thinking about her so hard, I figured it was part of the mental imagery or whatever. Because this forest….it was too thick for me, almost. Like, smelling it and being immersed in the smell brought me all sorts of memories from yesterday; my head pounded with a remnicent ache, almost as hard as my chest did thinking Ma and Auntie and Bro and Big Toto and Jiji. Especially Jiji. God, I hope Mesec gave her my message—actually, I don’t know about that. Did I want her knowing how hard I sucked? I was a wreck when the Gods gave me this body (I’m still not quite used to). How could I have faced her, as defeated as I was? I had no choice; I had to get out of there.

Okay, sure. No matter what I did, I sucked. Cool. Glad we worked that out.

Anyway, I caught Jiji’s scent, and it made no difference to me, and I continued to graze as though she were nothing more than a poignant, painful, beautiful memory I was enjoying in the privacy of my own privacy….Erm. Yeah. At least, I enjoyed her memory until she spoke to me—

”Ros”

--and I flipped the fuck out.

I jumped; I shrieked like a little girl (shut up); I bolted to my right, ramming my shoulder into a nearby old-as-ass oak that was probably laughing at me and my horrible luck with trees. I bounced off with an “oof”, and suddenly I was face-to-face with Jiji, the real thing, the genuine article, the honest-to-freaking-God flesh of Ranjiri, daughter of Ktulu the Contrictor, Resident of the Foothills, my best fucking friend and my sister and my little cousin, and I—

--I was speechless.

I mean, look at her! The last time I knew her, she was a tiny tot, a little spit of a filly—which, more than anything, was the reason why I left. I had been a little spit right along with her, and the Gods changed that on that fateful night of darkness. It tore me apart to watch Jiji sleeping like a baby, because she was a baby, when every nerve and muscle and instinct told me I should be sleeping like a baby too, but no, I was in this huge-ass-almost-adult body that didn’t fit, but I had to make it fit, and it was too much (too much) and I had to….I had to get out of there.

But NOW?

Jiji was nothing but leg—golden leg, graceful leg that supported a fuller, deeper, curvier body with a mane and tail that cascaded around her, behind her, on top of her like silk draped over a trove of obsidian. Like I said, I was speechless; not because I had nothing to say, but because I had no breath left with which to say it. Jiji had taken it away; Jiji and all her POW in my kisser and all the memories that surrounded her like a perfume; heady and intoxicating. I was thoroughly shamed; I didn’t know what to say, how to say it, what she would want to hear from me. She knows I suck. She must know that.

So I said, “You’re….tall.” And yeah, okay, whatever, shut up, my voice cracked a bit. Bite me.



@[Ranjiri]