Chapter Text
A tapestry of images manifested above the family in time with the music of Michiru’s biwa as young Suwati strummed it while sitting in the lap of her birth mother, Young Sasami with Papa Bronto Thunder sitting beside them. The scene of a great white shark circling the graven image of a massive python played out. The shark was visibly ill, but as She swam around the statue and sang Her song, it was aglow with spiritual light which lifted the shark’s illness from Her.
“And so, the Shark Spirit, Mama Boo, felt all better after She swam in the Sacred Place and sang Her song to it.” One of the family’s children, a girl with long, frosty blue hair and eyes to match, spoke to the others. “But then this big ‘ol Eel Spirit showed up, and He kinda had a problem with Boo using the Sacred Place.”
The images showed Boo’ambillyee, the Shark Spirit, confronted by the Eel Spirit, Parra,doowee.
“The Eel, Papa Parra, told Mama Boo that His children needed the Sacred Place for their own healing since they could no longer reach their own Place of healing in the fresh water. Mama Boo knew the Sacred Place rightfully belonged to Her shark children, but She understood the plight of the eels. She declared that the eels and sharks could share this space as long as they obeyed the laws She set forward, and Papa Parra agreed.”
The scene above the family showed Parra’doowee swim away before Boo’ambillyee turned Her attention to a procession of sharks of all species.
“Mama Boo then declared to Her own children that they must obey Her laws too, and if any shark didn’t obey Her laws, She would gobble them up Herself! And that is the law of the Seas around Down Under!”
The story finished, and Suwati ceased Her playing, the imagery above them fading away along with Her music. The family clapped in delight at Little Snow’s story.
"Amazing!" Bron boomed, reaching down to pat both girls on the head.
“You speak with the eloquence of a prophetess, little one.” Thusla remarked, standing in the corner of the room.
“And you play your music amazingly.” Michiru told Suwati
“Yay!” Snow elated at the compliment while she and Suwati gave each other a big hug.
“That reminds me, we need to visit your daughter sometime.” Silaqui whispered to Sekolah regarding the story’s protagonist. “It’s been a minute since you and I took a swim around the Great Barrier Reef.”
“Hey, why don’t you tell us the story of the Dreamtime Snake Mommy again, Sister Snow?” Suwati whispered to Snow suggested while she sat in the lap of Young Sasami, her birth mother.
“Yeah, I love that one!” Squealed Little Sayuri, her own excitement mirrored by her birth mother, Misaki.
Snow looked up at her own birth mother, Lady Sasami, who nodded in Her own approval, and Suwati held Her biwa at ready once more.
"Alright, then! So, ya see, the Mommy Snake, Eingana, had no 'giney, so She needed help giving birth to all Her babies." She spoke proudly as she held the old strawberry patterned Snoopy blanket in her right arm.
While Suwati played, a scene manifested depicting a python big enough to wrap its coils around a continent shifting with discomfort beneath the ocean.
"That's when an old man......old man.....ummmm......what was His name?"
"Eh, He’s a dude, so it doesn’t matter!" Snow's sister, Little Yumiko, scoffed while she sat on her birth mother Misao's lap. "If a dude ain't got scales, then He's definitely boring!"
"Now, Yumiko, you shouldn't interrupt Snow's story with such truths." Misao told Yumiko as she patted the girl's head.
Snow and Yumiko's sister, Sylpha, looked up to her birth mother questioningly.
"Mom, what exactly is a 'dude'"? She asked Alielle. "Is that what Papa Bron and Thulsa over there are supposed to be?"
"We can talk about it later." Alielle whispered.
Meanwhile, Snow tapped a finger to her chin and tried to remember the rest of her story while Michiru waited to play the next passage of music.
"Oh...right! Well, the old man, whoever He was, used a spear to cut a hole into Eingana's back end. It probably hurt very much, but She now had a 'giney to let all Her babies free.”
The scenes showed the old man, Barraiya, slitting a hole into Eingana’s lower regions. From the new opening in Her body, a flow of life burst forth.
“And so, She gave birth and became Mommy to all life in the land of kangaroos and nope-spiders. The end!"
The women and girls all clapped and Lady Sasami stroked their girl's frost-blue hair while she beamed with pride.
"THAT WAS WONDERFUL!!!" Queen Misaki and Sayuri squealed in unison before glomping each one glomped Snow and Suwati excitedly, making Lady Sasami and Young Sasami sweatdrop.
It was in that moment, leaning against Mama Michiru, that Jaziria remembered Her own childhood. She looked down at the ring with the trolleite stone engraved on it, the symbol vows She would make with the women She loved.
I've grown so much in this incarnation, and soon my assimilation with Lady Sasami will be complete. We've come far, and Misao and I owe our lives to her.
She watched the feathered serpent priestess who sat beside Misao now, and those old memories returned to Her.
***
Slitted eyes opened to reveal her first sight of the world. Eyes much like her own gazed down upon her. The newborn’s mouth opened, and she squealed with excitement and wonder.
“Hello there.” The larger being told the newborn in a soft, feminine voice.
The newborn began to take full sight of her mother. The great serpent’s rainbow-colored plumage glistened in the moonlight, as her wings surrounded the newborn.
“She’s beautiful.” Another feminine voice chimed in.
A second serpent woman came into the baby’s view. This serpent woman lacked the feathers and wings of the baby’s birth mother. Dark blue scales covered her body, topped by a humanoid torso and the legless bottom half of a snake.
The new child was a perfect blend of the two serpents. Blue plumage covered her back, and she bore the blue scales and humanoid torso of the second serpent.
The blue scaled serpent woman flicked her tongue in satisfaction. Their daughter was the first of her kind, a mix of the ophidian sarrukh people, and the semi-divine feathered couatls they revered.
“What shall we name our blessed child?” The sarrukh mother asked her mate.
“I shall name her after the first of our kind to be blessed by Mother Jazirian.” The couatl mother answered. “I shall name her Suexanna.”
The two serpent women nuzzled their baby girl, knowing of the great destiny that lay out for her.