Chapter Thirteen

The next morning Cierra woke up with a headache. She wished that schools taught classes like 'Classical Mythology' or 'Gods and Goddesses: Good and Evil.' She was certain that she had learned something about Greek gods and goddesses years ago, back in a fifth or sixth grade literature class, but the only thing she could recall now was that Zeus was rapey, Athena was smart, and Hera needed therapy.

She had told Baaqir she needed some time to decide if she would go to west mountain, and he had agreed she should take her time. In the end they decided to meet in one week at the base of west mountain, and she could give her decision one way or the other. It was odd though, something about how his shoulders had jerked downward when she said she was going to wait had made her think he was disappointed for some reason. Or maybe she was overthinking it; he had given her a lot of information, perhaps he just wanted to help her out.

Now that she thought about it, it must have been lonely for Baaqir to stay there with the Sekhmet vessel by himself. She hadn't seen or heard another person the entire time they were talking.

Even Cid had been unable to find anything to hunt. Cierra made a mental note to feed him a little extra today.

How long had he stayed there by himself? Then again, she thought, how did she know he was alone? Cierra felt more and more conflicted as she thought about it. Everything about Baaqir from his looks to his mannerism and environment felt wrong to her, but his words had been nice, and he had been nothing but friendly.

She couldn't stand to think about anymore without coffee.

Going downstairs, she yawned and gave a short 'morning' to her aunt and uncle. Both looked as though they were preparing to leave.

"Are you two going out today?" Cierra asked. It was Sunday, and neither of them, despite having busy work weeks, typically went out over the weekend. Cierra had learned her homebody behavior from them.

"There's a new quilt exhibit out in Macon that my co-worker, Judy, invited us to." Aunt Ernǚ replied, sighing. "She's always inviting us to these random art shows, and we keep declining. It felt wrong not to go."

"A quilt exhibit in July though…" Uncle Trev added, making a face, "Sounds a bit warm for me."

He bent down to pet Cid, who, having gotten used to the older couple, paused a moment for her uncle to give him a quick scratch behind the ears.

As Cierra watched, she was surprised to see that his hand disappeared into Cid's fur, a few inches past where Cid's actual ears were, as if he were petting a much smaller cat.

Cierra's heart skipped, what was happening? Just as she was trying to find the words to make a comment, Uncle Trev spoke.

"I think you might have a fully grown Cid in a few more months." He turned to his wife, "We might need to get him neutered sometime soon. What do you think?"

For some reason, Cierra didn't think Cid would enjoy that. Not to mention if Cid was one of the last remaining skogkatts, that would mean potentially ending an endangered species. Cierra wasn't a fan of being responsible for the extinction of an entire race, especially after watching the other members die in front of her.

"Could you bring back some more cat food on the way home? He really likes the wet stuff." Cierra asked, attempting to change the subject.

Aunt Ernǚ agreed, and Cierra tuned out the rest of their conversation, trying to think about what had just happened. Her Uncle's hand had literally disappeared inside of Cid and he had pet something that still registered to him as being Cid. How was that possible? What did her aunt and uncle, and potentially everyone else, see when they saw him?

She shivered, creeped out. She would have preferred simply trying to explain away his size rather than watching her uncle's hand disappear inside her cat.

After they left, she scooped Cid up, inspecting him from all angles.

"You're weird." She said, carrying him to the kitchen and setting him down near his food bowl. He ignored her, choosing instead to lick himself while waiting to be fed.

Back in her room, Cierra made a research plan. She needed to know three things: Who Sekhmet was, what Sekhmet and Freya had in common that would possibly lead her to Sekhmet and not Freya, and what might possibly be on the west mountain.

To Cierra's surprise, Sekhmet and Freya did have some things in common, as they both were associated with war and each were closely aligned with the main gods of their pantheon. Sekhmet was close to Re, or Ra, the sun God, while Freya was known to be a prized mistress of Odin, ruler of Valhalla. In many ways, they were both the right-hand ladies to these rulers.

Cierra chewed on her pen, thoughtful. Could they have known each other? They were both goddesses, so it was possible, right? Or was there some sort of taboo when it came to learning about and visiting other pantheons?

Goldie had referred to the dream world as the 'dream realms,' Cierra recalled. She had only heard the word 'realm' when reading about kings or queens in history class. They presided over their own realms, maybe it was the same in the dreams. Cierra had the urge to take a nap and try to ask, but she still remembered how challenging it had been to get a hold of Goldie last time. It felt like a waste when Cierra could be doing something useful, plus who knew when Goldie might 'summon' her again if Cierra went looking for her. What if she fell asleep while driving?

Cierra decided to wait and see if she could glean more information online.

Baaqir's story regarding Freya and the dwarves had proven true, or at least, true in some tales. As Cierra read more about Freya, it became clear that she was more than a goddess of love, fertility, and beauty, but also a goddess that largely partook in celebrating her sexual freedom.

In fact, Cierra was starting to see some inconsistencies in what deities were known for.

For example, in some cases, Freya was known as a goddess of magic, sexuality, and war but in others she was known to reign over war, death, and fertility. The same was true when it came to Sekhmet; she was known on some websites as a goddess of war and healing, but in others Sekhmet was known as a bringer of death and destruction, where she spared lives on god days. It was her counterpart, another goddess named Bastet, that was willing to heal others. In fact, Bastet and Sekhmet were said to be two sides of the same goddess at times.

Cierra wondered how this would look in the dream realms and which version would prove true. Or was there a separate realm for each being? One with Sekhmet and a separate Bastet, one with Bastet and Sekhmet combined. Just how many dream realms were there then?

She tried to think back on how many times she had revisited a realm before. There had been the skogkatt's area, that she had gone back to again and again over the years, and there had been a few others that she had favored but stopped visiting as time went on, but she struggled to remember them. Her dreams from even a year ago bled together with the others.

If only she had kept a dream journal from when she was a small child to now.

She decided to buy a new notebook whenever she went to the store next time.

Turning her attention back to her research, Cierra looked up the last remaining item on her list, the west mountain.

'West mountain' as a search term, brought up only geographical items. Cierra pursed her lips in frustration. She changed her search to 'West mountain mythology' and immediately saw results. Jade mountain and Kulun mountain were the two that came up more frequently, but that made no sense. Both mountains were associated with Chinese mythos, why would they be in the same realm as Sekhmet? Unless the realms were connected somehow? But that made no sense.

Cierra rubbed at her temples, when had any of this made sense?

She tried to assess this from a different angle. How safe were these mountains? Both were associated with divinity and the heavens, but Kunlun mountain was said to hold beasts of all kinds.

The whole point of finding Freya was to avoid beasts and other potentially harmful monsters. She had a week until she met Baaqir, which meant she had a week to see which was safer, the mountain or going to find Freya's tear on her own.