Celestial Dawn

Worship

The sun was fully covered by a distant mountain range with but a few faint rays of light breaking through craggy peaks to streak the darkening sky. Mira let her gaze drift down across the crowd of humans before her. Mira felt no discomfort at being completely nude with thousands of eyes gazing up in admiration of her, let them behold their Goddess in all her radiant brilliance she thought.

Mira looked upon the pond and felt yet another urge. Just as the need to sing had overcome her in a moment of obsessive passion, another more base impulse compelled her to physically enter the pond and immerse in its purifying waters. To feel cool pristine natural water on her skin was a desire that needed to be satisfied.

Mira slipped off her sandals and slowly stepped forward being careful of the small humans gathered about her feet. She reached the edge of the pond and slipped her foot into the water feeling for the bottom with her toes. She followed with her other foot before easing her entire body into the pond and settling in so that only her head and shoulders remained above the water. The coolness felt wonderful as she dipped her head back fully immersing her hair and face. She lifted her head and wiped the water from her eyes. It was then that she noticed the dramatic affect her body was having on the pond.

The pristine water amplified and reflected the radiant light given off from her body and the entire pond now glowed in undulating layers of soft blue luminescence. The display delighted her human worshipers as they crowded the ponds edge to view the miraculous spectacle. Some dipped their hands into the water bringing the sanctified liquid to their lips and a few in their euphoric joy removed their clothing and dared to enter the pond.

Mira took offense at this disrespectful behavior and felt she had to put limits to the familiarity these humans seemed inclined to take with her.  She issued a strong verbal chastisement that quickly got their attention. Whether they understood her not, the harsh tone made it clear that the Goddess was displeased and the interlopers quickly scrambled back out of the pond.

           So sudden and strong was her rebuke that all of the  humans backed away from the ponds edge leaving Mira feeling a little contrite that she had unintentionally frightened them so. Then a small movement caught her attention, in their haste to move away from their angered Goddess, the humans had left a child alone at the ponds edge. Mira guessed the little girl was two maybe three revolutions of the planets orbit old. She was standing on wobbly legs, small hands clutched to her mouth, her face contorted into a grimace with tears welling up at the corners of her tiny eyes.

A human female hesitantly stepped forward but halted when Mira moved her hand to the little girl. Startled, the infant became increasingly unsteady, lost her balance and tumbled into Mira's hand rolling down into her palm. Her antics elicited a smile from Mira as she lifted the child away from the ground while energizing the photosensitive cells in her hand to provide the warmth humans need. Mira looked to the child's mother and smiled reassuringly emoting that she would not harm her daughter. Mira felt the tension in the human ease and even sensed a response that she trusted her.

Turning her attention to the small child in her hand Mira thought it amusing that like Deyan she was fascinated with the cellular structure beneath her translucent skin. Mira varied the intensity of the glowing cells and smiled as the little girl crawled about her hand following the undulating light patterns. She caused her fingertips to brighten and wriggled them about eliciting a giggling fit from the child that had Mira laughing aloud with her.

A thick wet braid of Mira's hair slid off her shoulder causing the child to clap her  hands joyfully as it brushed over her. The little girl reached out and caught some of the loose strands in her fist. Mira moved her head about and more of her coarse hair fell about the child who shrieked joyfully as she tried to grab the wet tresses that danced about her.

Mira had lowered her head to allow more of her hair to envelope the child when she felt a tiny warm hand touch her nose and she heard the little girl speak. Mira glanced down at Fayala who along with Deyan were kneeling next to the anxious mother.

Fayala signed, "pretty," and pointed to Mira.

            Mira felt a strange sensation that seemed to swell up in her chest. Was it, emotion? She can and has experienced attraction, affection, and even fondness for others of her kind but this was different. Mira thought back to the collective she was raised in and realized that Miorpeans do not develop personal relationships with their young.  She had never even been exposed to a child and now she felt a longing, a sudden desire to close her hands around this tiny human infant and hold her close, to smother her with warmth and care.

Mira looked down at the child's mother, took a deep breath, and reluctantly lowered her hand to the ground allowing the girl's mother to retrieve her child. The little girl eagerly reached out for her mother who warmly embraced her daughter and slowly backed away.

Mira envied the mother and felt a strange feeling well up deep within her,  something that made her feel uncomfortable , was this — jealousy?  She dipped her head beneath the water hoping to clear these confusing thoughts from her mind.

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      The moon had risen high into the night sky and small fires now dotted the hillside around which the humans gathered. Mira sighed, stood up and stepped out of water, she slipped her sartorial over her shoulders, fastened the clasp and sat down. It was deep into the evening and humans had been bringing offerings to their Goddess in the form of bowls, pots, and urns filled with food of all colors textures and flavors.

           Mira did not need bodily sustenance but as the plant life here was essentially non-sentient she had no qualms about ingesting small amounts to the delight of her human worshipers. As the humans approached most bowed to her, some would kiss the ground between her feet others would venture forth to kiss one of her three toes. Mira would greet each with nod of her head and conversing through Deyan and Fayala required each human to tell her a little about themselves. She would easily memorize each and every one cataloging them by face and name.

After spending an entire day observing and sensing the humans Mira had come to the conclusion that they presented no threat to this planet and in fact lived in a near perfect symbiotic relationship with the natural environment. She decided to do whatever it took to save these humans. She signed to Fayala that it was time to depart and she wanted both Fayala and Deyan to go with her. They quickly assented to her request, bid farewell to their families and climbed into Mira's hands to be gently set into her pouch.

Before leaving Mira raised her hand, palm outward to the humans who responded by bowing. Just as she stepped around the cliff wall she looked towards a group of humans that had stayed at the periphery throughout the entire gathering. She did not know them which meant they had not presented themselves to her as did the others. With so many humans  it was difficult to focus on any one particular emotion but from that group she did sense hostility being directed towards her. Mira turned and after giving that particular group a final look over her shoulder disappeared into the darkness.