Avaanel
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‘How should we call this, graymatter? Hmm, no. Maybe greyearth? Hmm…no,’ Avaanel spent most of her time inside a treehouse near the central tree. ‘I had to do something, I forgot what though,’ inside said tree, many plants, minerals, gems, animal parts and such were present. They were placed on tables made of the same wood, but having tops of stone slabs, roughly broken by other Lightborn. Those tables surrounded her, and with a gesture of her hand, they would start moving alongside the walls, as she had trained the tree in various ways. For the Lightborn, whether it was an animal or a plant, they could find ways to bend their will to their own. They weren’t doing it in a malicious way, and it felt almost natural to do so, as if it was their birthright in a way. Kilon pondered a while as to why that is so, but couldn’t arrive at an answer without confirming first with the Creator.124Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡsbeGZfnukf
Brushing her hand through her short hair, Avaanel was slowly remembering what she was supposed to do. She moved around the higher portion of the tree, where all her little creations were at. She was taking inspiration from the compass Orvus had made, in the meaning that they could make more than just weapons, and various trinkets could come to be useful depending on the situation. Many were failed attempts. From small leaf bags of mushroom powder, that exposed to colder air would expand and glow, which she wanted to use as a means to find each other, to wood contraptions meant to help them travel across harsher terrain.
“I remember!” she exclaimed aloud, some Lightborns hearing her from the outside, as their windows had nothing to cover them, and they were formed not carved, thus the name of living windows. She stood up from her chair, one foot of the chair caught into the floor as the tree tried to take over the wood that wasn’t part of it, which Avaanel stopped with a kick of her foot. ‘This tree is a stubborn one,’ she believed the tree to have a personality of its own, not knowing it was simply reflecting some aspect of hers.
Avaanel hurried down the tree, an opening forming in the floor with her descent, as the step of her true foot was trampling over various materials thrown about, while her false one was moving with a will almost of its own. “Fanteem!” down at the base, the Lightborn to discover the sharp flowers, was sorting through the various materials and organising the place Avaanel didn’t bother in doing. She was hanging from a branch erecting from a wall to her left as the floor opening was closing in, and the steps the tree was trained to create were rounding around the edges, their shape almost that of a mushroom of sorts.
“Sister, I told you to not put the drain vines next to the fur of grass boars, they get entangled like this,” Fanteem showed a clump of mossy fur and vines intertwined beyond salvation. Fanteem grabbed at them with carelessness, as Avaanel discovered the moss growing on said fur to have the property of inducing sleepiness, while in the case of the drain vines, stopping their movements altogether. Fanteem was wearing clothing meant for protection, with thick skins hidden under a couple thick furs. In places the fur was either ripped, burnt or discoloured, while he was also one of the few Lightborn to wear a type of shoes.
“Forget those things, I just remembered,” Avaanel brushed aside his brother’s scolding, wanting to talk about something she knew more exciting. “The Groundbreakers return today, so we can build that!” she didn’t have the name for it yet, but Avaanel wished to build a forge of sorts. She knew that heat was what bent graymatter, as she tried to name the metal, and her idea was to create a special place for them to heat the metal and bend it to their will. The Groundbreakers she was speaking of, were a group of Lightborn that were redder in glow, and could manipulate earth with more ease, while their strong bodies allowed to dig for longer.
“Kilon will return in a couple of suns’ time or so, I don’t think we have the time to build ‘that’ and deal with the other stuff,” Fanteem made his way closer to her, moving aside various bags and animal parts. Avaanel, as he saw her, was dressed in similar clothes to his. The difference stood in small cut segments around her clothes, where various tools waited to be used or forgotten by habit. One such tool was a dull, pointy bone with a wooden handle. She used it to poke and probe various plants and animal organs, and when she didn’t work, like she did in that moment, she used the palm-long tool to poke her brother in the forehead. “Stop that,” Fanteem demanded, pushing her hand aside from below where he stood, “and get down here, help me sort this stuff, then let’s help Melonius with his work.”.
Avaanel made a bored expression, puffing her cheeks and breathing annoyed. Fanteem, being alone with her for long periods of time, noticed more than ever how unsympathetic she was towards others’ feelings. The work he was talking of, was Melonius making various tributes to their dead siblings. For Avaanel it wasn’t that she didn’t care, but she felt that by furthering their understanding and developing better ways to live and protect themselves, was time better spent than reminiscing about the dead ones. Fanteem shared the feeling in some capacity, while also feeling that it was a good way for them to remember who their brethren were.
“If you can’t be bothered, then I’ll go alone,” Fanteem told her, scratching his neck and turning towards the living door, annoyed by her visible lack of remorse for feeling the way she did. “But you should know,” Fanteem turned his head towards her, meeting her unbothered eyes with a sharp glance, “the dead teach us much, even if you can’t see it yet.”. Avaanel didn’t expect such words from her brother, as Fanteem wanted to show her it was still a serious matter they should partake in.
Avaanel watched Fanteem as he left, the door closing out of its own accord behind him, revealing for a moment the busy, paved road outside her house. She pondered for a bit, looking through a living window at her right and seeing the Groundbreakers being welcomed back by dozens of Lightborn, soon hundreds. ‘I guess it can wait,’ she thought, and headed hastily after Fanteem.124Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡFfp1c88uoN
Mercaara124Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡjT3m9wFYBz
“May the Light protect all of you, brothers and sisters,” Stelorus, the leader of the Groundbreakers, saluted his siblings. He bowed his head and back down, his left hand on the chest and right hand forward, with the palm open and fingers closed together. His group of fifty Lightborn followed suit, most standing on regal deers as mounts, while a few had river wolves to serve as scouts and detour threats from the rest of the group.
“May the Light guide you,” the others saluted as well, Mercaara looking around to see how much they brought from their expedition. Stelorus noticed her impatience, so he hurried along with the welcomes, leaving the regal deers in the hands of the others.
“You’re as hasty as ever, sister,” Stelorus approached her, Mercaara’s eyes still set on the large skin bags made from grass boars. “You should learn to stop from your work at times, and enjoy some time for yourself,” standing next to her, Stelorus was visibly larger. It wasn’t just his height, his body was similar to that of Efeehem, who was the strongest in terms of natural prowess. The various trinkets he wore on the furs gathered from various predators all around, from teeth to claws and bones, made him stand out as perhaps the best hunter Kilon’s group had.
“Kilon trusted me I could count and share the various materials we gather properly,” Mercaara responded, heading towards the right portion of their settlement, where four thick but short trees served as a storing building for the Lightborn. Each of them were grown from a different kind of tree, one of which once had the fungal disease affecting the forests near the entrance of the Lands Between Mountains. It was cured thanks to the Lightborns and their lights, as those helped the tree fight back the disease, only some slight traces remaining around the entrance inside. “Avunaia also told me that the Sweepers will have a better say on how things are done if I do my job properly,” she continued, a sense of pride in her voice.
Stelorus shrugged her with his shoulders, and followed her to the trees. Passing between dirt roads and various trees of the Lightborn, in which some rested their exhausted bodies or were developing a skill of sorts, the two of them reached the place. It was visibly set aside from the rest of the houses, so it could be easily found, and a good consequence of that which they couldn’t foresee, was that it allowed their regal deers to gather and unburden the materials faster.
“It might take a while until it’s all put aside,” Steloru was telling her, even though she almost didn’t hear him amidst her thoughts. “You could come with me for a while and play with some of our siblings. I heard some of them caught these little creatures that jump really high and are wet all the time,” he was talking of a species of frogs, poisonous for most creatures, but having little effect on beings of light like them where their skin had a thin veil of energy. “They told me they make your skin tingly, I don’t know what that means, Avaanel was the one to describe it like that,” Stelorus amused more himself than he did Mercaara.
Seeing that she didn’t want to do anything but her work that couldn’t be done, Stelorus suddenly grabbed her, which Mercaara didn’t realise until she saw the entrance of the trees getting further away. Stelorus placed her on his shoulder, and ran away from the place. “What are you doing?! Let me down!” she commanded, rightfully so. The other Lightborn were wondering what Stelorus was doing, and whether to stop him or not, or if it was even possible.
“I told you, but you don’t seem to listen, you need some time for yourself,” Mercaara didn’t care to listen to his reasons, and tried to blast a ray of light in order to trip him over, but Stelorus’ ability reached her limbs and forced her to surrender.
“You’re one to talk,” Mercaara reprimanded him, “you to what you want and even force others to do as you like.”. Stelorus kept running despite her wods, even smiling while doing so. “When Kilon comes back, I will have him punish you!”. She threatened.
Stelorus let out a copious laughter, as if her words were meaningless or didn’t have weight to them. “If Kilon tries to punish me, I’ll just run away like this,” Mercaara was simply speechless at her brother’s stupendous reasoning. “Besides, what will he punish me for? Allowing you to rest a little?”.
‘That’s not the point,’ she thought, while also feeling alleviated to some degree. She didn’t want to admit to it, but while her work offered her a sense of pride and fulfilment, it also strained her mind as she didn’t want to disappoint either of her siblings. As Stelorus was running between the treehouses and jumping over his siblings, sometimes making some of the fall, she felt amused by it. An old feeling of playfulness and cheerfulness enveloping her.
After a while, they were out of the settlement and up a tall hill near the settlement. The night was approaching, and most of the surroundings were falling into a dead silence, further accentuated by the darkness. Mercaara had only stepped out of the settlement on a few occasions, usually accompanied by Avunaia, on some duty the Sweepers were set on, or to help some of her siblings. She never truly stopped to take in the environment since their arrival, and it often scared her siblings, as she would more often than not whisper to herself things she should do. That wasn't the case for Stelorus however, who was fearless to a remarkable point of his own.
“Here we are,” Stelorus announced to her, standing just a bit on the other side of the hill, where an old tree stood alone for more time than some forests. He placed her down slowly, expecting her to run away the very next moment, but to his pleasant surprise, she just stood there, watching the sky and surrounding areas.
“You should’ve told me about this place brother,” Mercaara said mesmerised, “you wouldn’t have had to take me away like this if you did.”. Stelorus sighed with slight frustration but also amusement, then sat down next to her under the tree. “I can see them properly up here,” Mercaara pointed at the stars, glimpses of gods beyond their world.
“Do you like them?” Stelorus asked, his glowing eyes taking in the environment just as much as his sister. “To our understanding, the Creator should be somewhere over there,” Stelorus pointed at a certain point in the sky, where the sun would’ve been. “But I don’t feel the presence of our Creator in the rays of the day,” Mercaara knew, much like everyone else, the feeling he was talking about. It was an intimate connection the Lightborn had with their Creator, something they could feel in the very light emanated by the Link, yet it wasn’t present at all in the light of day, as their Creator was supposed to be the very sun nourishing all life.
“Do you believe there is another Creator instead, up there?” Mercaara wanted to know of him, looking into the depth of his eyes, soft winds brushing their skin, and the grass growing a bit all around them.
“That I cannot know,” Stelorus told her, stretching his hand towards the sky, as if to feel the presence of their Creator. “But I do know that the warmth of the day, is not that of our Creator, but of something else,” Mercaara didn’t have time to think about it, although Kilon mentioned to all of them how different the light of day is to that of the Creator, so she was starting to think of what that meant.
“Would it be bad?” She wondered aloud, Stelorus reaching below his pelts and scratching his right shoulder, where old scars left ghostly sensations for him to remember.
“I don’t think so,” Stelorus looked at her briefly as he answered, then back at the sky, “if there are two Creators who watch over us, then it must mean we are truly loved.”. Mercaara giggled a little at his words, thinking of all the hardships they’ve been through. “I know what you’re thinking, but having fought so hard against this world, I can see how much love the Creator offered it. After all,” Stelorus stood up, his tall figure only overshadowed by the ancient tree “what, if not love, can create such beauty?”.
Mercaara watched him stand up, then looked where he was, and slowly stood up herself, amazed by what she saw. Below the hill, some few hundred metres away, their settlement seemed for a moment to reflect the stars of the sky. The gems and minerals inside the trees were casting glows of their own as some captured or reflected the light of the Lightborn, while their lights themselves, were illuminating the dark roads. In all the dark wilderness there was, the Lightborn settlement stood as a testament of beauty, wonder, and in those two siblings’ eyes, of love.
The two of them stood there a while longer, letting their bodies recuperate from the use of the light throughout the day, and talk about the little things going with their lives. Mecaara told him of all the weird animal parts some of the siblings were gathering, showing one she kept for herself. Stelorus talked high and mighty of himself, how he killed various creatures like a giant river wolf, or starbears deep inside the forests.
“Do you feel better?” Stelorus asked her, their intimate time coming to a close. Mercaara looked with melancholy at the settlement, thinking of the strenuous time they had to endure in order to erect all those houses.
“I do, thanks brother,” Mercaara responded, patting her bottom and getting ready to head back. “Once Kilon and Avunaia arrive, let’s return here, see how much brighter the place will become.”. Stelorus smiled at her suggestion, and allowed her to help him up. For Stelorus, it was a sign he too was feeling better after the long expedition for gathering materials.124Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡiBlP6iHE7b
“Hopefully Avaanel will be done with her forge too, so we can finally make use of all that dirt she put us to gather,” Stelorus grabbed his sister by the shoulder, hugging her close to his chest and leaving for their home.124Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡhkZ4h4jOrP
