Jester's Core
Jester feels it in her nubs first. It’s like a tingling sensation; like pins and needles in her feet like when she sits on them for too long, although its not the same kind of painful when she tries to stand. Does stand. And, sort of, wants to walk. She’s not sure where though.
Nerin, who is lazing by the edge of the pool, caught somewhere between dozing on the surface and making sure that Mugi doesn’t drown, looks up from where they’re laid, brow furrowed. “Where you off too?” they ask, lifting their head further up from the water so that the sound can carry. Jester doesn’t really know how to answer that. She stops and sort of shrugs, trying to piece together the weird feeling in her soles, pressed between river pebble and low-growing grass. “Hungry?” Nerin asks, voice relaying their own confusion. Jester doesn’t normally just up and walk off. That’s Mugi’s little trick, because he loves all kind of adventure and he loves running off without letting anyone know where he’s going, so it’s a little odd that Jester is the one up on the moon bridge, heading towards the road that leads away from town.
Jester just shakes her head. She might be hungry, but it comes second to the feeling in her feet, pulling her away from her river and the home that she shares with her little Nym family. She only manages to get to the other side before Mugi catches up, having noted that Jester was done paddling in the shallows and catches up to her, all ready for another adventure. But something tells Jester that Mugi shouldn’t come this time. She wants to go by herself. She doesn’t know where she’s going, but she thinks—she thinks—that the tingling in her feet and the warmth in her chest is her core; finally blooming all for her.
“Not this time,” Jester says to Mugi, sounding much older than she actually is. Which is funny really, because Mugi is older than her and yet she is finding her core first, but there’s something in her voice that she’s unfamiliar with, and yet feels natural: something that stops Mugi in his tracks and softens the grin on his face. It slips instead, into something warm and prideful. “You’re going to find your Core,” he says, with absolute certainty. Jester nods, a little unsure, but as Mugi’s grin sparks anew, she finds his affectious pride warming her too, allowing him to take her hands and yank her into a hug. He can’t quite get his arms around her, and Jester can’t get her arms around him, but her little nubs pat his back and he ruffles the little leaves on her head. Nerin, still lounging in the river, watches quietly, making a mental note to tell Elophis and the others where Jester has gone when they get back.
And so Jester sets off, with a spring in her step and Mugi’s confidence in her back. She doesn’t need to worry about saying goodbyes to her friends or to any of the others, knowing that Mugi and Nerin will tell everyone on her behalf. She’s not sure how long it will take for her to find her Core. The feeling in her chest and in her feet doesn’t exactly tell her how far she’ll have to walk, but she knows she’ll make the journey and that it doesn’t matter how far she has to walk, or climb or swim. Well. Hopefully not swim. She’s not as strong a swimmer as Sorren or Nerin, but she’ll certainly try.
The journey takes weeks, with Jester taking shelter from little rain spells under giant leaves, and eating from the abundant fruit trees and bushes that grow along the path she takes. Sometimes, she comes across Nym dwellings, some tucked away in forests or gathered together in little villages and growing cities that have been reclaimed from the structures that the humans left behind, and when she tells them that she’s on her quest for her core, they bundle up food in little wraps of cloth and let her spend the night in a warm, dry bed before walking her to the edge of their home and give her blessings as she continues on. Jester passes by mountainous trees and mountains of rock, and crosses wild rivers and races the wind down rolling hills for as far as her little feet will carry her, always being pulled in the same direction.
It’s one morning in the second week, some countless days since leaving home that the warmth in Jester’s chest feels hot; the feeling under her feet like gentle flames that encourage her to run, to race, to chase the horizon just a little more until she’s surrounded by peonies. Beautiful peonies, some cream, some pink, all bleeding read in their hearts with honey-gold pollen in their centres. Their smell is intoxicating in the most welcoming way, and Jester can’t help but trail her hand over the ones near her, feeling their silk-soft petals and laughing when the pollen remains on her skin, like fairy dust. Some grow up to her hip, while others, older and bigger grow over her head, catching the sunlight and warming the ground beneath. Jester knows for certain that one flower, here, in this field is her flower. Her Core. Now she just has to find it.
Called by the heat in her chest, Jester walks through the flowers. She still wants to run, but she’s here now, she knows it, and there’s no need to rush. She lets her feet find the path, lets her hands trail the pollen and the breeze to push her along until at last she finds it. It’s a beautiful thing: petals pearl-rich and fading into the richest ruby-pink colour, and a perfect dusting of yellow pollen sprinkled along the inside. Jester reaches out, excited and worried, as if she might be wrong somehow, or maybe that she might break the flower in some way, but the moment that she touches it, she knows. She has found her core.