2. A Starfish Out Of Water

Moira’s brain was processing as fast as she could, but everything was so discordant from her experience she was really struggling to even comprehend all the input. The disorientation was endless. She knew where shed been sent and why, but this couldnt be right. Was this what it mean to be alive? Was this what it was going to be like to be a human?

She wasn’t going to be able to handle it. It was too much. No wonder so many of them did crazy things.

She’d hoped she might be able to drift in the in-between place where she still felt safe and sane for longer, but a sensation that she couldn’t identify moved through her and danced with her soul. It had to be her signal to enter the hell of her punishment.

But this feeling, deep inside, was the first thing that didn’t feel horrible. Maybe it was a last touch from her sisters. No, no, that wasnt right. It was definitely earth bound. Perhaps the mother spirit who presided over this realm was here to help her. Wouldnt that be nice.

But she probably thought Moira needed to be punished too. Especially since it was one of her children Moira had... changed.

Something strange was happening to her... face? Yes, some of the knowledge from this body was just hovering at the edges of her mind. Lips. A cool touch. Her tongue moved of its own accord and reached for the cool sensation. Wet. Water. Finally something she understood. Water, fire, earth, and, aether, those were parts of the universe she could comprehend.

What she didn’t understand was how her sisters could have devised such a horrible punishment. Betrayal weighed heavy on her soul, and sadness like shed never known, or even witnessed. Before right now, she didn’t even know she had the ability to feel either of those emotions.

Good night, the emotions.

She would do anything to not be experiencing everything coursing through her, pulling at her like a thousand black holes were trying to suck her in and compress her into tiny bits.

The water touched her lips again and she swallowed more, soothing the heat in her throat.

A deep rumble filled her ears and reverberated around in her chest. “Little lady? Can you hear me?”

Her eyes fluttered open and the last remnants of her existence as a Fate swirled in front of her. The wisps of the magic she’d been left with sparkled around a being in front of her. Her senses told her he wasn’t human, wasn’t exactly a beast either.

She also knew she didn’t have to be scared. His aura glowed with kindness. He was a special being indeed.

Moira reached into the ancestral memories of the human form she’d taken and tried her best to communicate with the being, ask for his help. There was no way she could survive this punishment on her own. She’d seen enough lives of these primitive souls ruined by isolation and fear.

Hot fingers of fear, she wasn’t sure she could do anything about, burned through her. That was even more horrible than the betrayal and sadness that weighed her down. How did humans deal with this?

Connection. Shed watched it a thousand times a night. That was the only answer and she would make sure she was never alone.

Moira made the air move from her chest and out of her mouth. Sounds came from her throat, but they weren’t right. She needed to hear him speak again and try to assimilate his way of communicating.

The being offered her more of the water. “I’m here to rescue you.”

That still wasn’t enough. Maybe if she could touch him, she could pull from his memories and skip the learning phase of communication. She reached her arm out, but the movement was stiff and awkward and her body parts would not do what she wanted them too. She concentrated harder and her hand touch his face, but much harder than she intended.

He recoiled and rubbed his cheek, but that tiny bit of contact had shown her one memory. The appropriate response to his words popped into her mind and she let them flow out of her mouth. “Aren’t you a little short for a stormtrooper?”

The man’s hand dropped from his face and his mouth fell open. He stared at her for a long time. She must have gotten the reply to his greeting wrong.

It wasn’t like she understood this form of communication yet. Language - humans used language and she was going to have to learn it instead of simply being able to comprehend everything around her.

Was this part of the punishment? She had to learn to appreciate the sister Fates abilities?

Fine she did. They were great and important. She wished she had them. Now could she go home?

“Are you from the stars? Is there a war going on? You aren’t looking for someone named Obi Wan Kenobi because he’s your only hope, are you?”

She reached for him again and he took her hand in his. The sensation that ran through her system before, the one she’s mistaken for a welcome from the Mother Earth, hit her again, this time a thousand times stronger. Moira’s soul recognized this man’s and... they wanted to join. Become as one.

She couldn’t allow that to happen. Fates didn’t have soul mates. They helped determine soul mates for other beings, but they didn’t have anything to do with trying to find a soulmate of their own. Ridiculous.

It must be the emotions of this new human body interfering with her own soul’s understanding of who and what she was. This man was not her soul mate and she wasn’t his.

The wind blew across the light weight shelter they were in and a loud screech came from the land behind her. The man moved his facial muscles in a way that made her uncomfortable even though she didn’t understand what it meant.

“Uh-oh,” he said. “I should have brought a dragon with me. Soul stealers would surely make a snack out of your pretty soft skin. We’d best skedaddle on out of here.”

She only understood a few of his words, but she was sure whatever screeched were bad and the way he looked out of the shelter meant they were leaving.

Good. Now if she could just get this corporal body to move the way she wanted it to. She tried again to search for bits of language and made some noises. He did not seem to get any meaning out of them and it hurt her throat.

This whole having to learn thing was not fun. She’d watched humans and a whole variety of other beings do it for millennia, and she felt helpless and weak not being able to do these simple acts as well as they did. There was no way she was going to survive this punishment, learn her lesson, and ever get back home.

A strange sensation pricked at her eyes. She reached up and touched water. She was making water out of her eyes and it was the first... no, the second thing today that actually felt right. The first was when she’d touched this kind man.

“Oh, darlin’, don’t cry. Everything will be all right. I wont let em git ya.”

Tears. The water on her face was called tears and if she thought very hard she recalled seeing the people she watched over cry. It usually meant they were sad. But sometimes it was happy, and also mad, and even, scared, or frustrated. With each of those remembrances, a little more understanding of what it meant to live as a human seeped into her consciousness.

About time.

More tears came out of her eyes and it was becoming hard to breath.

“Never, in any crisis of your life, have I known you to have a handkerchief, Scarlett.” The man held out a colorful scrap of cloth that she had no idea what to do with. “Here. Blow.”

He pressed it to her face and made air come out of his nose. She did the same and a horrible gooey substance left her body. She could breathe better now. Must have been some sort of space parasite she picked up while crashing to Earth. Gross.

The wind whipped through the shelter again and one side detached, making the top lift up into the sky. The man grabbed it and pulled it back down. He held it over her head, and when he looked at her, his cheeks turned a pink color. “I didn’t think to bring any clothes for you, and you can’t go running around bare naked. I’ve learned that the hard way. My shirt will cover up most of you, until we can get you back to Rogue. Then Kady, that’s my witch, can magic you up some clothes.”

My witch. Moira didn’t understand what those words meant, but they made her chest feel tight when he said them. She didn’t like it. She didn’t want him to say those words again. A sound came from her mouth. “No.”

“No? To what? I guess I’m not that opposed you being—” he flipped his hand up and down indicating her body. “But I don’t want you getting burnt. That would be a damn shame.”

“No.” She still wasn’t sure what the sound meant but it made him speak to her more and she liked the sounds he was making. Also the faces. There was a twinkle in his eye when he’d looked at her and that pink in his cheeks made her insides feel pink too.

Which was a weird thing to think. She had no idea what the inside of her body looked like.

He took the shiny material of the shelter and held it out to her. What did that mean? Another sort of greeting? She didnt want to say something wrong again. She needed this being to be her, she didnt have the right word for what she wanted from him.

His mouth made a strange thin line and then his eyes darted back and forth. A sound came from his chest or throat without him even opening his mouth. Hmm.

She tried to replicate that sound. But more green goo came out of her nose. Again, gross. She hoped he didnt get the parasite too.

He seemed unconcerned about anything but the shiny shelter material. He tapped it to his chest, spreading it out across his top half, wrapping it around himself. Then he held it out to her again.

Oh. He was trying to provide covering for her. So kind. She reached for the material and pressed it to her chest like he had. But when she let go, it fluttered to the ground beside her. Huh.

“Can I help you with that? I promise not to touch any bits you don’t want me to.” He held out his hand and gently took her elbow.

He got to his feet and she tried to move like he did. She made her feet go under her body, but with her bottom was still too close to the ground and she could not for the life of her figure out make it move upward. She wiggled one way, and landed back in the sand. “Ow.”

The man smiled at her, took a hold of her arms, and lifted her up. Her top half touched against his and all those super...pink feelings shot through her body. She stared up into his eyes and her breathing hitched. That parasite must have moved into her lungs.

She parted her mouth slightly trying to get more air. The man’s lips parted too. They were coming closer to her own and she really wanted him to touch her mouth to hers. Like she might not ever be able to take another breath if he didn’t.

“Fate. You’re making my head and heart feel very strange and I’d like to kiss you. I’m sorry about that. Feel free to hit me in the face again if you don’t want me to.” He stared into her eyes, his gaze flicking back and forth across hers.

He was asking something, but she didn’t understand what. Her one word didn’t feel like the right response, but she didn’t know any others. It had made him act before. Very quietly, she said, “No.”

A shadow passed through his gaze and he set her down on the ground. “Yes, ma’am. No, means no.”

Wait. This wasn’t what she wanted. What about the lip touching? She reached out, her movements slightly more coordinated in this new standing position than when she’d been on the ground, and touched his arms. “No no no.”

“I understand.” He took a step away and held the clothing out to her, and turned his face away.

The water tears came into her eyes again. She touched her lips with her fingers and then pointed at his. “No no no no.”

“Gosh, little lady, I didn’t meant to make you cry. I’m real sorry. I promise not to do anything like that again, Okay?”

“No.” She let the tears run down her face now. She was so frustrated and scared, and touching him, being held to his chest made some of that fear go away. “No.”

“Uh. I’m getting the feeling that might be the only word you know. I must have hallucinated earlier. That kind of thing happens around these parts more often than you think. Okay, let me ponder for a second.” He tapped his mouth and moved his eyes around and up to the sky.

Moira tapped her mouth too. The man saw her do that and narrowed his eyes.

“Mouth,” he said and tapped his lips again.

“Mff.”

“Close enough. That’s great. We just have to teach you some English. Cool.” The sound of the screech came again and he glanced off into the distance. “I have an idea, but we gotta get out of the sun. You’re gonna burn and we can’t see my tablet’s screen in the bright sunshine anyway.”

He took a step closer and dropped the shiny covering next to him, then he pulled the covering on his chest up and over his head, exposing his skin to the bright rays of the sun.

The man removed the top part of his clothing and that pink inside of her spread. He was not only a nice being in spirit, but in form. She looked down at her own shape. Their shapes were quite opposite. He was hard and had lines in the shape of a V that disappeared into the bottom half of his clothing, which she realized she would very much like to touch. She was soft and round in that same place.

Where his upper half had defined lines, she had...two, large... blobs of skin.

When shed watched these humans from her place among the stars, shed only seen the shining light of their souls. Up close, they were quite different.

Good night stars above. Just looking at his skin made her want. “Mff.”

He didn’t seem to notice her mouth sound. “This is a shirt. You put it on and then we’ll take Herbie back on into Rogue. Then I can help you learn English, or rather E.T and Sesame Street can.”

His words were fast and excited and she couldn’t help take on some of the emotion he displayed too.

She took the covering but hadn’t been paying close enough attention to understand how to put it on her. She held it to her chest like she had the shiny thing, knowing it wouldn’t stick any better. She also hoped it would encourage the man to come over and touch her again.

He tipped his chin to the side and slowly reached out for the covering. “I’ll be real gentle and try not to touch anything I shouldn’t. Okay?”

She knew her no word was definitely the wrong choice this time and she didn’t want to screw it all up again. She tried another sound he’d made several times. “‘Kay.”

His mouth moved up instead of down this time and he stepped closer. Finally, she’d gotten something right.

He took the covering from her again and placed part of it over her head. She couldn’t see of a moment, but then her head popped out of a hole and she was partially covered, although it gaped where her blobs were. Wow, the heat from the yellow star above them instantly became less painful. These coverings were a great idea.

She wiggled around a bit until more of the top cloth covered her. It was a bit tight around the middle area, but it fell all the way to her legs, so that was good. She couldn’t move her arms though.

The man made a happy sound and touched one of her arms, moving it until it aligned with another hole. She wiggled around some more and stuck part of her arm out of the whole. She did the same on the other side. Perfect.

The man took her hand in his, giving her more of the pink feeling and then led her toward a... well, she didn’t know what that was. It didnt have a soul exactly, but it was magical and sentient. Interesting.

“This here is Herbie. She’s a noble steed and will get us back to town.”

The man brought her close and climbed onto the being. He then waved her closer and she understood he wanted her to get on it too. That seemed like a pretty monstrous task. She’d had to concentrate pretty hard to make legs move in a fashion similar to his and get one foot to move in front of the other without ending up back in the sand.

He looked at her, then to the area right behind him. “Hmm, no. I’m not sure it would be safe to put you on the back. Come sit in front of me, that way I can hang onto you if you start to slip.”

The man moved so the area his legs touched was exposed in front of him, and he patted it. “Right here, darlin’. I’ll have to put my arms around you, but there won’t be any funny business. Okay?”

“Kay.” She stepped closer and pressed her legs to the strange being. She could not figure out how to move her body next and the tears came to her eyes again.

“It’s okay. Let me help.” He put his hands around her middle and lifted her into the air, not far, just enough to get onto the being. He set her down facing away from him, in between his legs.

She relaxed and her back sunk into his front until most of his body touched most of hers. Yes. This was right and good.

The man touched gave being a pat on the part in front of her. Giddy up, Herbie. We gotta get on out of here and let the dragons know about those soul stealers holed up at the beach somewhere.

Suddenly they were flying through the air. No. That wasn’t quite right, they were bumping across the land.

“We’ll be home in no time, my sweet Fate.”

Right now, Moira didn’t care what that meant or where they were going, she was happy to be in his arms and not lying in the dirt scared for her future.

Happy. She liked that emotion.

But she wasn’t supposed to feel happy. This was a punishment. If her sister Fates were watching her now, they would make sure that happiness ended and soon.