Cera's Tree - Empty
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_Since menhirs went active and erratic all over, the Teapots, Cera and even her granddaughter, Cherry, have each slowly and steadily degraded in their mental health. That's saying something in Cera's case.
Only since Jonni's death has it truly begun to show and become apparent to all beyond the whispered rumors among a few. Despite her overall decline in physical health on top of it all, Cera is forced to look after her delirious granddaughter and young great-grandchildren.
Tired by even mild exertion, giggling madly at almost anything and nothing at all, coherence is all but gone from her speech. Her maternal instincts and sense of familial duty as tending to family too sick or too young to care for themselves absorbs the majority of Teapot Cera's time.
The golden, feline eyes of Mojo put the squeeze of big brother kitty on anyone entering Cera's tree. No longer the lazy kitty, the great black cat prowls inside the tree at all hours.
The few times Cera might be seen out and about of her tree to retrieve this or that for the family in her care, she sings at the top of her lungs, almost oblivoius to anyone else.
o/
I'M A LITTLE TEAPOT! SHORT! AND STOUT! HERE IS MY HANDLE! HERE IS MY SPOUT! WHEN I GET ALL STEAMED UP! HEAR ME SHOUT! TIP ME OVER AND POUR ME OUT!!!! o/wild giggling and repeat refrain until back inside her tree, all the while needing her staff just to stay on her feet from point A to point BAt night the melody plays in the air all through the pass and inner camp amongst the familiar usual voices in the wind._
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_One night after being seen carrying her bed-ridden granddaughter, Cherry, and her sleeping grandchildren out of the tree on some floating magical disc a worn, haggard and weak Cera giggles to herself, even if tears trickle down her cheeks. A flash envelops Cera and her family into a glowing ball of white light that flew off through the canopy into the sky.
Two hours later a white glowing globe drifts back down through the canopy to the Camp. The same flash as before transforms the globe back into Cera. She is alone and must lean heavily on her staff to even remain standing on her feet. Humming softly to herself, Cera looks around the Camp sadly. She glances to the nearest few gali who may have seen her return. She smiles weakly, "Tells them..Mojo loves you all..most every last Teapot. Mojo is sad things have gone…all this way.. Mojo loves you all though...bye bye....."
With that, she wipes at her bright green eyes and she hobbles under the power of her staff back into her tree, almost slouching to the ground on the way.
A mere few minutes later a great explosion of light erupts and surrounds Cera's tree. The bright light shoots miles into the sky being visible for hundreds of miles around and perhaps turning night to day for a brief few moments inside the Camp. In the wind there carries a few strains of "I'm a Little Teapot..Short and stout.."
When it all fades away, those who may go to check on Cera find nobody inside, Mojo..Cera are gone. Those who go inside experience an overwhelming sense of voices and even the occasional vision of...things that drive them out of the tree in temporary madness. And in the air, inside the tree hangs the melody, constantly replaying itself so softly, it almost goes unnoticed, until those that enter find themselves humming about Teapots.
It's a story that repeats for nearly every single person who dares enter Cera's now empty tree. No one in their right mind would dare enter the tree again.
A couple who did enter the tree claim...insights....insights that could be eerie to the hidden truths in them..if anyone bothered to listen to the ravings of newly minted lunatics._
