The next time he appeared he regretfully had no news to report on the clan's whereabouts (as would always be the case). I brought him up the mountain to meet friend-bat and the cobalt lord, but friend-bat sensed his all too human nature and banished him from her home. I begged my friend to give him a chance, already realizing that the meeting was a bad idea. Friend-bat would respect that this almost-human was my friend, but she would not permit his presence around her cave. On the way back to the beach, he and I got to talking, and I realized that friend-bat was right in a way, he was very human. He said it made his travelling easier to assimilate to their ways. Even so, it saddened me that he denied what he was.
One night friend-bat was flying over the fields and saw an orphaned unicorn colt laying on the ground, crying for its mother. She descended upon the child, thinking she had found a quick snack. She looked upon it, gray as she was. It looked up at her, and immediately stopped crying. They stared at each other for a long while, and she finally picked it up and carried him to her cave. The dragon was surprised to see her bring in a living creature.
"This child was alone in a field. It is now ours," she told him.
"Usually they are long dead before you bring them here," he pointed out.
"I mean to raise it, not consume it. This is our child."
The dragon looked at the child skeptically. This was the most unusual thing his mate had ever done. The unicorn looked up at him as he had with her. He turned to the bat. "You do realize that unicorns are vegetarians. How do we know what plants will feed it and which ones will kill it?"
"Perhaps the cat can help us." She sat down and the child sat next to her, and nuzzled her forearm. She did something I had rarely seen her do, and smiled. The next day when they came to find me, they told me of their decision to keep the child, and I agreed to help them in any way I could. The four of us often sat on my perch at night watching the stars. And I always glanced to the horizons, wondering if my nomadic friend would ever join us here.
The hawk returned to the beach every six months or so, and he and I would spend long hours talking. Sometimes he would return exhausted from so much flying, and I would massage his wings as he told me of his latest journey. Sometimes we would stand or sit in silence and watch the moon rise from the ocean's horizon. He would never stay long, a day or two at most. If he left by the road, I would walk him to the village's edge and send him off with a hug, if he left by air it was always into the rising sun.
There was a general decision among the Moonchildren. From what has been told, it seems they either tired of the war they fought, tired of the humans and their all too banal natures, or feeling the need to experience this humanity for themselves. I wasn't aware of any of this at the time. Friend-bat and the cobalt lord were Moonchildren, but they took no active part in the conflicts. But when the decision was made to leave this reality for another, friend-bat and the blue dragon were in agreement. Through the bond I had with the lord and lady of the mountain, they told me I would be able to join them in this new reality if I chose. It intrigued me, to be able to move from reality to reality without experiencing physical death, to be able to start a new story, a new life, while still retaining enough memory of this one. But before I could leave I had to ask the hawk to join me, so I waited until he returned.
I tried to explain to him what was happening, but he didn't believe it was possible. The influence of humans showed through when he said the journey would be impossible, and that there was only one existence, one reality, and when it's over it's over forever. I begged him to join us, to join me, in this new journey, but again he refused. It was then that I realized I loved him, and that made leaving even harder than I'd anticipated. I swore there, standing on the high cliff above the ocean in the fading light of the sun, that we would meet again in the next existence, and all existences after. Then I kissed him lightly, and flew out over the ocean, toward the future of my soul. I don't remember what the transition was like, but none of us ever do.
I hoped that somewhere during all of it I would learn what became of my clan. Over the years since the separation, I had begun to think of them less, accepting that they were just gone from me. I found my old mentor in the Waiting Zone, but had little time to spend there. I was already being drawn back to physical life. I called out, what happened to the others? He answered not with words, but with the kindness and love I had known from him in life, and it surrounded me now and told me not to worry, that one day I would know the truth, and I would remember what I had forced myself to forget. I said I didn't understand. Be patient, and the story will unfold itself. And it was gone, I was gone, to be reborn with a stronger sense of myself than most.