play_arrowflashpersonflashpersonKINO - The hope of the MUTOHI [chp1 | The fall]<div align="center"><u><b><i> "That which is man-made neither seeks, nor wants enter the land of the forgotten and unknown…" </i></b></u> . . .</div> They could feel their blood curdle and burn around them, wind whipping past their ears as they descend further and further. Someone was screaming, but they couldn’t figure out who through their own pain; It felt as though their spine was being broken apart, skin ripping and tearing off of their shoulder blades. Curling their legs closer to themself as they snapped and stretched in unfamiliar ways. Their descent seemed to happen in slow motion, wind resisting every atom to keep them in this limbo; If they closed their eyes maybe they could convince themselves that they were soaring, that the swooping feeling in their stomach wasn't foretelling of their future as a stain on the ground. Blearily they looked at the sky, the stars their only reprieve - <i> Had the moon become red or was the blood finally tainting their vision? </i> The fleeting thought soon vanished with their consciousness, the last thing they saw was the foliage obscuring their eyes, not unlike their brain and senses were being obscured by <b> pain. </b> Looking upon a star as it slowly crashes from the sky. <i> CH’NOR </i>of the human skyship, the first to pass the veil since it’s creation. Would this be the sign of their prayers being answered? or an omen for those who dare to martyr the <i> KI </i> for their selfish desires? <i> ENERUY </i> will soon be put to judgement regardless of the outcome, of this she was sure. For now, she will ensure that they live, then see what time will hold for them.<div align="center">. . .</div> They felt like crap.<i> Where the hell were they? </i> Groaning with the strain of, apparently, being alive. Their senses came to them agonizingly and slowly. First they could feel something dry and sticky coating their fingers, though thinking on it more, it seemed to be an all encompassing feeling. Luckily they couldn’t feel the same ripping and tearing pain of before - in its place was a dull ache, like they had done a whole a week of strenuous exercise and are really feeling it the next day. They also felt like they were under a heavy blanket, though consciously thinking of the weight on their back they were met with the dizzying feeling of something <i> moving, </i> stretching upward at their unwilling command. <i> What? </i> Groaning again they slowly forced their limbs to lift their weight from their prone position, finally braving the task of opening their eyes to assess the situation. The light of the sun was bright, only obscured slightly by the canopy overhead. At first the world was a blur of colour, and light. Rubbing their eyes was probably not the best idea, considering their hands were a distinct colour of brownish red - Instead blinking hard to help clear their vision, willing the world to come into focus. Finally able to confirm visually that not only are their hands, and whole body for that matter, covered in blood, but they did not look anything like how they did before. Claws adorned the ends of their scaled fingers, and the scales did not stop there. They spread across their entire body - clumsily they moved to look at their feet, tail getting in the way of their efforts - <i>Tail? </i> Contorting their body to look behind them, spine protesting with the action they saw it, <i> them. </i> A pair of small membrane like wings and yes, a tail; Scaled as the rest of them, with a tuft of hair on the end, not unlike the hair on their head. Despite their better judgement, they reached up to touch their face, <i>I’m already covered head to <b> tail </b> in blood what did it matter? </i> - Feeling their features they note that not only had they gained a snout, their ears seemed to have grown substantially, they had a couple of small pointed horns near the start of their hairline and their teeth had become a lot sharper as well. <i>At least they still had hair? Small wins they suppose… </i> They shook away the somewhat hysterical thought and focused on the world around them, they found that their senses were a lot sharper than before, due to… <i> whatever </i> transformation they had undergone. The forest they were in was seemingly peaceful, the only sounds making up the space was the breeze rustling the trees that surrounded them and the occasional call of what they hoped was a bird or frog. There was a mossy ledge that they could see nearby, the shafts of sunlight opposite it shining through the leaves, the area itself was aglow with distinct fungi even in the morning sun. The whole area was overgrown with flora they had never seen before, a magical sight conflicting with the war in their mind. <i>What happened to the airship?</i> They could only remember the chaos and fire, and the strange iridescent light… Well it’s not like they had many people to miss them they supposed. But they still worried for everyone on board, there were some nice people among the dregs. <i> What am I supposed to do now? </i> … Probably… Find water to wash off all this gore and find something cover themself with, if they are gonna be afraid anyway they would rather not be naked, thank you. <i>Seems like turning into a strange beast did more of a number on my clothes than my body</i> Huffing at the thought and slowly getting to their feet, which was more of a challenge than it had any right to be. Looking around again, they resolved themselves to walk in the direction the sun was raising from, surely they will find something eventually to wash off? “<i>CH’NOR,</i> I would not go this way if I was you” Startling at the sudden voice, they fearfully turned to its source, only to trip over themself and land as a heap on the floor, scrambling to distance themself from the new presence. “Such dramatics, <i>AYOR…”</i> The feminine voice of the large creature says, almost sighing out the last part of the sentence. “Is this still language you, <i>paa…</i> Humans! Humans use? Many <i>SOLUS</i> have passed since this language was used, I was unsure” They seem… nice? Nice enough anyway. This woman? creature was standing on that mossy ledge, looking down at them; which did nothing to ease their anxiety at her imposing size. She seems to be a similar creature to what they were transformed into, though with notable differences - obviously there was size, she was large and quite plump - body almost camouflaged by her forest green scales. She had large horns that curved backwards behind her small ears, framing her long face - Her snout was definitely longer than theirs, her face held wrinkles that told of being wizened by time, though not enough to be considered <i>old</i> old. She was wearing some sort of burnt-orange shawl, poncho type of fabric on her neck that covered a large part of her upper body, the cloth was mossy and held various trinkets at the hem of it, <i>was that a bird nest?</i> Remembering to answer her question they croak out “Ye- Yeah. We um, still use this language.” voice hoarse from what was likely their whole transformation ordeal. “Good! This one is <b>NISHA,</b> a historian in my people. You fell from your skyboat, this one saw the whole thing, quite interesting and <i>paa…</i> horrific.” That felt like an understatement, they thought, as the creature they now knew as Nisha, approached and slowly crouched in front of them, her chestnut hair coming into view as she lowered the hood of her shawl. ”Your <i>FIUN</i> seems to have helped you survive, we find such <i>MUTOHI</i> artifacts rare in this era.” She punctuates by softly pointing at their chest, where, luckily their necklace still hung. With everything that happened they had almost forgotten about the only object in this world they held with any sentimentality. “My… <i> Necklace?”</i> they address holding the charm of the object up to their sight. “Mutohi?” Had they died and somehow gone back in time? they vaguely remember hearing something like that when trying to quell their boredom at a local library. They were called dragons in their language, though they couldn’t remember much else about them, hadn’t they gone extinct a thousand years ago or something? Nisha huffs and looks at them worriedly, perhaps their confusion and dread was showing. She gently offers her hand to help them stand, which they take thankfully after some hesitation. <div align="center"><img src="https://file.garden/ZnGZOv7aF21WeO00/Sheezy/Nisha Image.png"><small> Sketch Illustration of Nisha and Kino. </small></div> “This one will take you to safety. See that you are bathed, there is a <i> SHA, </i> next to my home. The <i>S’HE</i> is not safe as it appears.” Though they didn’t know what the words in her language meant, she didn’t seem to house any ill intent - not that they really had much of a choice in this situation, which the look she was giving them they were certain she would drag them there even if they protested. They nervously nod in agreement and begin following her through the forest, Nisha clearly slowing down her pace as they work on adjusting to their new limbs. The whole situation could be a lot worse, they suppose; they would take Nisha over a bear or whatever else is found in this fantastical forest any day; She had a caring but stern aura about her, it reminded them a little of a primary school teacher in that way. There were so many swirling questions plaguing their mind, though for now they will chose to ignore them all in favour of finding a semblance of safety. Thankfully thanks to Nisha, that task will be taken care of easier then anticipated. Yeah, they just need to trust this large, surprisingly nice, dragon women he just met… <i><b> What is my life? </b></i> <div align="center"><img src="https://file.garden/ZnGZOv7aF21WeO00/Sheezy/Kino Concepts.png"><small> Some concept sketches for Kino, to give you an idea what they look like. </small></div>trophyBeing tricked about the »Rapture«.....................................................................................................................................Being tricked about the »Rapture«. .................................................................................................................................... In the final days, the Earth will be covered in spiritual darkness.People will exalt and love evil and hate and rebuke truth.Like in the days of Noah, people will be partying and be selfish right up until it’s too late. But as the darkness covers the Earth, God will pour His spirit on all people.The young will prophecy and have visions and the old will have dreams. The Bible says as much and predicted it thousands of years ago. O_O¡And it is happening right now! ÔoÔ People are having »Rapture« dreams and visions, both about going »¡WOOSH!« but also about what the years of »Tribulation« are going to be like. The »chip« , the »Mark of the Beast« , that whole shebang. Very recently, however, people are claiming September 23rd is going to be the day Christ returns... ¡¡¡Yeah, I’m NOT falling for that again!!! Jesus Himself said: »But of that day and hour, no one knows. No, not even the angels of heaven, but my Father only.« (in [Matthew 24:36]) . ¡And, despite knowing that, I STILL got tricked two years ago! This is what happened... I had just been called back by God, in October 2023, and started finding preachers, teachers, prophets and testimonies on YouTube. Some were encouraging, some were warnings, some were garbage and some were just flat out lies. Most of the garbage and lies was easy enough to spot and tell apart from the real ones. But one channel got me... -_-;; A preacher streaming on Facebook and uploading the streams as multi-hour long videos on YouTube. Preaching a good game about having a special Hebrew »Bible Code« that, when prayed over, could be interpreted correctly and reveal secrets from God, about people and events, not meant to be understood until now in this day and age. He nick-named his Facebook group »Night Watchers« (or something like that) , which, by the way, I didn’t find a way to join what-so-ever, despite wanting to at the time. Figured it must have been some private club or something. »shrug« He was also very insistent that people should go and subscribe to his YouTube channel, so that it would grow, get pushed by the algorithm, have more people notice it and his Bible code messages would spread to reach more of God’s people... ¿But if he really wanted his channel to grow and be noticed, wouldn’t he have had his comment sections turned on?... Strange... A few times he’d come out with new »Bible Codes« , provided by another guy in a different country. Apparently, he would receive specific dates (like birth dates and other significant dates) , convert them into »Book, Chapter, Verse« messages in the Bible and give that to the preacher to share with the people in the group. This »Bible de-coder« fella, was also writing a book about Bible codes, and was periodically updating the PDF. It ended up being 777 pages long when he was finished with it, right before December 2023. The preacher encouraged people to donate - nothing wrong with that, a lot of ministries do - but some time after the 777 update, the preacher suddenly had the »¡Rapture Confirmation Code!« What he did next sickens me to my stomach... he told everyone to give ALL their money to the Bible de-coder guy, because, according to the preacher: »¿What are you gonna use it for? ¡The world will end before 2024!« Now, I wasn’t that stupid. But believe me when I say that this guy sounded extremely convincing. ._.;; His tone of voice, attitude, expression of emotions, aura of authority and knowledge of the Bible... e-yerp - he was a preacher alright. So far, this preacher had managed to manipulate me into staying up all night - going outside and stare up at the moon and stars, waiting for Jesus to come pick me up, because: »¡Any time this week, it’s gonna happen folks! ¡Be ready!« Oh, and it was DEFINITELY gonna happen at night in America, because it was gonna happen in the middle of the day in Israel’s time. For 3 months, this preacher, this- pharisee ... managed to discourage me, make me depressed, lose sleep, destroy my daily routine and make me give up on wanting to do ANYTHING . Because: »¿What’s the point in starting something that I couldn’t humanly possibly finish, when time was almost up?« That was the solemn somber thought invading my mind. So, I asked God if I should donate to the Bible de-coder guy. Oh, by the way, this Bible de-coder was supposed to become one of the »Two Witnesses« (mentioned in [Revelation 11:3 - 12]), THAT’S why we were supposed to throw all our money away to him T_T God loves a cheerful giver, true. ¡BUT! I didn’t wait for an answer... so... I ended up being manipulated out of... a sum of money I will not disclose -_-; It wasn’t until later that night that my mind went: »Wait - ¡¿What’s HE gonna use the money for?!« ¡UGH! >_< I felt so... ¡stupid! A) Because I didn’t think of that before donating.andB) Because I got tricked... ¡AS AN ADULT! It’s one thing to be a young teenager and be tricked into giving money away to some guy, just because he tells you a long sob story about wanting to save young girls from being raped in a foreign country... But it’s another thing to be tricked as an adult, because some preacher talks a very convincing game and manipulates you to do the exact same mistake. ¡AGAIN! (That first one, happened in the Christian boarding school by the way... ¡I blame the teachers for even allowing that charlatan to come spew his lies in the first place!¡14 year olds are still children, you’re supposed to protect them! ¡You can’t expect them to know better yet!) Anyway... ¡Talk about double the shame! -~-;; So... 2023 passed... we didn’t celebrate Halloween or Christmas, (which is probably a good thing. According to some sources, Christ’s birthday is on the 29th of October, and Halloween glorifies the devil -_-) ... but rapture didn’t happen. So, checking in on the preacher’s channel, not ONLY was he making excuses as to why rapture didn’t happen, ¡but THIS wasn’t even the FIRST time he’d done so! EVERY year, for SEVERAL years, his excuse was: »Guys, we didn’t have all the information and details - we didn’t know as much then as we do now about de-coding Bible codes. The code changes with new knowledge and- « ¡¡¡Blah blah blah BLAH BLAH!!! ¡¿WHY didn’t I investigate SOONER ?! ¡Stupid, stupid, STUPID! Sad to say, but it took a whole year to recover emotionally from that one.¡Not to mention faith and trust-wise! O_O I have forgiven the pharisee preacher, the Bible de-coder, and even the teachers from way back in the day, since then. It was a lesson about trust and betrayal, learned the hard way. But this is why I’m on higher guard this time. It’s good to have hope, but foolish to have your whole life fall apart because you’re convinced about something. And even if rapture DOESN’T happen, or , it happens and you’re left behind , what matters is to keep trusting God to guide you. Both on your good days and your bad days, as well as on your best days and on your worst days.....................................................................................................................................