Otem listened with a look of half-wonder half-amazement glazed across her dappled features. Otem could see yelling at her grandfather who had been a god, but somehow Kisamoa seemed ... seemed more than the Helovian gods. He had beaten them after all, or perhaps if not that, they at least couldn't best him. The autumn-mare cracked a smile as Kiada recounted her experiences. Otem had been too young to know of the things that occurred while Kisamoa was just around, but it definitely did seem as though he was fond of the Helovians, as Kiada said.
"Well, hopefully we don't fall out of favour any time soon. I'd hate to see what this world would be like if he - or it - turned against us." Otem pretended to suppress a shudder at the thought.
As the discussion turned to the amulet Otem had been given and The Mountain that Knows, Otem did her best to keep her chin held high and the weight of her sadness from pulling her shoulders down. The backs of her eyes bit with tears that she barred from entering into her field of vision, but it was a few moments before she could find the words to explain. "The Rift gave it to me .." Otem began, her voice solemn and hushed. "I don't remember if you had come out of the river or not ..." She shook her ram-horned head, unable to produce the memory in her mindseye. "Sometimes it speaks in my mother's voice ... other times it's a different voice entirely. But I suppose it's worth it, hearing the other voice sometimes, since it means I can hear from her again." Otem tried to smile bravely, but the smile wavered betraying the depths of her emotional turmoil beneath. Unlike her mother, Otem had not inherited the Mountain's ability to be emotionally divorced from the world around her.
Trying to lighten the mood somewhat, Otem forced a small laugh. "It does come in handy though. I'm sure it isn't actually Isopia speaking or anything, but it does have some good things to say."
otem
I'm a cold day in august, I'm a stream too shallow.
I'm a heart-shaped box with no letter inside.
Riptide Isles
