Sound, Earth and Light

Second chapter of my SDC3 book.

He awoke to a big crash in the hallway and opened up his eyes, only to face a square room, deeply lit with candlelight in both corners, and a big metal door as the only exit from the room. He sat up, looking at his old self. How his body had altered to what it was before…it all happened. He spotted some violet purple hair in the corner of his eyes, and touched it with his fingers. He inspected his own body and touched his head as he had a light headache from his nightmare, which he couldn’t recall very well,- only that it was painful and very sudden.

He grabbed some clothes lying next to his bed, and felt every single muscle on his body ache as he put them on.

He peeked out through the door and into the hallway. He could spot a few people down the hallway, yet unfamiliar to them, he still opened up the door which was by the way, locked from the inside, and silently walked down the hall barefooted. He tried to recall what had last happened, but all he remembered was being in some kind of mountain hall, lit by strange flying and buzzing creatures. And before that, he remembered a journey….a long one, in despair, desperately trying to find a way back to the place he called Home. He wandered for years without a single clue as to how he got there, filled with creatures he’d never even heard he likes of. No one he met on the journey could answer his questions, as to where he came from, where he was, or where he should be going to. He could barely remember how he used to look like, but he remembered having brown hair. Not purple. The funny thing is that, he remembered the journey, but not how he ended up on the path. Everything before the journey was blacked out,- yet he knew he was from a clan from a planet called Mivako, or was that all just a dream too?

 

***

 

 

At the same time, in another corner of the galaxy, where the war had originally started, yet, it was one out of the two planets best preserved still, with all its wonders. In a cave, overlooking a small village in the east, another person awoke from her dream. She was tangled in veins and flowers were covering the entire cave and the smell brought memories of late summer days and sunsets. Leaves and petals were covering the floor, as if it had been seasons since anyone had been there. As she sat up, she felt a sense of peace and freshness, and she picked up a flower lashed to her arm, by a vein growing from the table she was lying on, and smelled the vanilla fragrance it was producing. It was near sunrise, and the sunlight was peering in through the cave walls and the morning birds and dragon screeches could be heard in the distance. The first thoughts that came to her mind was “HOME”. She swung around and jumped to her feet, only to find they were ridiculously unbalanced and she fell on her butt quickly. She crawled over to the open door in the wall and gazed happily over the horizon and sighed deeply with a smile on her face as she saw the three moons circling over the orange and pink skies, over the little village surrounded by green jungles. “Niqtar”, she said and touched her chest in happiness. “Niqtar, I’m Home!” At the side of her bed, were her old weapons. Even though familiar, she had completely forgotten how to use them. A spear and a knife. She had no remembrance of ever using them, and could barely remember the life before her journey. Even though filled with longing and despair, she had experienced some happy moments on her journey. And when she had awoken, it had felt like just another night and day, but to awaken to this glorious sight, she totally forgot about her weapons and ran out of the cave unbalanced, down to the village down below.

On her way down, she tripped happily, barefooted around every tree and every bush, opening up her arms welcoming them all back into her life again. She giggled and laughed as she danced around the flowerbeds, but stopped to a halt when she saw her village from up close. From above it had looked untouched, like a golden coin blinking against the sunlight in the sky. From up close, the buildings were worn out, and the war had left its ugly claws on the buildings, being torn half to shreds like a cat’s ragdoll. Her happiness was greatly diminished from the view, but the feeling of finally being back home after years of wandering in a strange place, that was the greatest feeling ever, and it filled her heart until it nearly burst out of her chest.

 

 

***

 

 

He grabbed a cloak hanging from the wall as he walked silently down the hall, barefooted, towards the noise from the people up ahead. In secret, he could hear another noise that had fetched his interest from the very start. Ever since he came out from the room, he could hear a faint singing voice and although he would never really question someone singing, it seemed to be such a strange thing happening right here, right now, from a place like this. It didn’t seem like anyone else was able to hear it, but him.

He walked towards the singing. A soft female voice singing from the very lungs of her body, yet a calm sound in rhythmic melodies. It came from the room up ahead. He expected slightly to see a female having singing lessons on the other side of the door, but the clash of sounds and the cheer of many angry people seemed to ruin that idea for him as he got closer.

Suddenly, the door he was approaching burst open and someone came running towards him. Not looking where he was going, and he being too slow to react to what happened, they both clashed into each other falling on to the floor.

“Oh, I’m so sorry I….” she pulled her head back slightly, looking closely at him. She looked closer, then back again, and then touching her head as if she got a sudden pain in her head just by looking at him, before rolling off and getting to her feet. “What are you doing here?!! For f**k sake. In the middle of the enemy’s lair and everything. C’mere!!!” She grabbed him by the arm, and for a second, he saw a tiger flash jumping at him with its claws unleashed, gaping its huge mouth against him. He flinched for a second before she pulled him even harder. “You must be one of the new rookies or something. Didn’t they tell you this moon was infested with Space Pirates?”

“Wh…at???”

“C’mere, Mindphaser!”

“How do you know?....what I am I mean”

“Oh please. Just one look at you is enough. Purple hair…purple eyes. What more evidence do you need? Oh yeah, when I touched you, I heard this female voice singing from within. I know you’re here to restore the clan or whatever, but being too obvious will get you killed here!” she said and pushed him into a small shuttle, closing the door. “Press that button!” she called from the other side of the door and pointed through the window, at some small red button placed behind him. She waved, but before she disappeared, she made a hand motion for him to press hard on the button, and when he did, he disappeared from the room they were in. He didn’t even realize he had pressed the button and came to realize that she had mentioned the girl singing, coming from him, although he could distinctively say the same thing about her, apart from the huge tiger flashing before his eyes. She had also said he had purple eyes. He used to have brown hair and brown eyes. He remembered that. But she had also confirmed him to be a Mindphaser…but if he was in the middle of the enemy’s lair, what was she doing there? Was she a Mindphaser too?

He had more questions than before he woke up, and the more he thought about it, the more his head kept spinning. He felt his eyelids become heavy and after a time, after leaning against the metal walls that were now flying across space to an unknown destination, he closed his eyes and fell into a dreamless sleep….

 

 ***

“What are you talking about? Don’t touch me. Leave me alone!” The girl shouted to two other boys around her own age. They both grabbed her by the arms and tried to pull her out of the spot they were in. Several other people were witnessing the incident.

“How did you do this? This must be some kind of witchery”. The people around were ‘oohing’ and ‘aaahing’.

“I am the Elder of this clan. What do you wish to know?” A boy about her own age stepped forward with much more colourful clothes than the rest of the people. He had a somewhat grace cast upon him, as he stepped forward with his partner, which looked both curious and vile.

“Elder!” The girl fell to her knees in front of him. “Please help me. I don’t know where I am. Where is my clan? What’s going on?”

“Your clan?” the Elder repeated. “What is the first thing you remember?” He looked at her questionably. “I remember grassy fields. Peaceful village life. Children playing in the sun. Fergadia were a small village, but…” the Elder held up his hand. “Fergadia?” he replied with a questioned look, and turned to his partner who whispered something in his ear. “Fergadia was wiped out completely several years ago. You didn’t know?”

She looked up with tears in her eyes. “Completely?”

“Elder!” The two boys interrupted. “She was in the tomb that came from Fergadia. She’s back from the dead to curse us!”

“What? No! I just…. Want to know what’s going on!”

“I cannot let you stay, Child. No matter if you’re innocent or not, the others will never accept you as you are. You have to leave!”

“Please give me answers. Where is my people?”

“They’re all dead. As you should be. I’m sorry!”

The elder made movement as for the two guards to escort her somewhere.

“Please let me go back to my village”, she cried with tears in her eyes.

“Your village has been completely pulverized to the ground. There is not a stick of a house left in it. The Invaders burnt everything to the ground 5 years ago.” The elder shook his head as he spoke with great sadness in his face.

“I cannot let you curse my village. You must leave. Where do you want to be sent?”

“But this is my home. Eden is my home. You cannot do this!”

“I will not let the other clans of Eden suffer as we might and your clan has. You are cursed. You should be dead, yet you are here, breathing. Your village should be alive, but they’re dead….”

A flicker of light cast over the heavens. A shooting star fell not far from the village.

“It has begun! Quickly, escort her out of the village before we are all doomed!”

The two guards grabbed her tightly and dragged her out of the village, while she cried for mercy. With nowhere to go and everyone she knew �" apparently dead. There was very little she could do.

 

 

***

 

 

At a closer look. It was everything that she feared. The golden village she had seen from above was just a fairytale now. The sun setting from above had made the city like gold, but now, as it vanished behind a big cloud, she could see the city for what it truly was. Everything she was looking forward to, to see her people again, to greet their smiling faces. To meet up with old friends and family. To be part of it all again. All of it vanished by the entrance of the city. What once had been pride, was now turned to despair and sadness. The bricks of the buildings were a slight gray shade. Once burnt, but tried to be healed over time without success. The plants alongside the roads and the flowerbeds had seen better days. Now there were hardly a single flower, but a lot of weed placed there instead. The lights were gloomy. The streets were dirty. Streets, once filled with laughter and happiness, were now replaced with a silent sadness that crept her heart and chilled her body to the bone.

Silently, she walked up the aisle, past most of the houses, to the biggest house in town, resting at the middle of the city. The wooden fences around the city spoke of a great battle and defeat. She could feel the pain as she touched them.

“Eam!?”

She turned around. Before she could even react, the person in the shadows came forth from a door by a house, with a huge smile and tears in her eyes.

“Eam! You’re awake!” The stranger hugged her tightly, slightly sobbing.

“Who… are you?” Eam asked carefully.

“Don’t you recognize your own sister?” she said and as the sun came back from the clouds, the lights shun upon her face, and the scars of battle was shown. Eam slightly started to remember now. Her green eyes. Her brown long hair and how she always used to have a smile on her face. Eam hugged her sister tightly again.

“Koto!”

Koto replied with another hug. “I thought you had forgotten!”

“I will never forget my sister!” They parted from each other, looking at one another. Koto stared at Eam now. “You have changed a bit. You look healthier. You have slept for a long time, dear sister!”

“How long have I been away?”

“5 years now, sister. It has been a long time”.

“What happened here?” Eam waved her hands backwards, hinting towards the entire village. “Where is everyone?”

Koto sighed. “Much happened the day you fell, and not much happened after. But now that you’re here, maybe things will change”.

“The day I fell?” Eam repeated. “I can’t remember much….I have had dreams, but nothing of this world…”

Koto sighed again, looking straight at Eam. Then her looks fell to the ground for a second before she was looking at Eam again.

“Most of the citizens are dead, Eam. It came all as a surprise. You were but one out of several hundred victims. Those of us, who survived, managed to escape with luck. Some of us came back, trying to restore the village to what it once was…. Others fled to other villages and settled down there. But, we haven’t been able to restore everything yet. The tragedy that struck us that day, it hangs over us like ancient ghosts. Although we are at peace with the dead, the city will just not bloom like it once did. But maybe now that you’re here…we can change that.” Koto smiled towards her sister again for the first time in ages. “Let’s rebuild it together”.

“Koto….” Eam started slightly, carefully not to thread on sore feet.

“What exactly happened? To me I mean…. Have I been sleeping the whole time?” Eam guided Koto to sit down with her at one of the houses’ bricks.

“Eam…I don’t know what to say. Everyone thought you were killed, when some of the others came from the forest, after that mission you went on with the white dragon….do you remember?” Koto looked at Eam struggling to remember. “I don’t remember any dragons…I remember … a Faun”. Eam smiled when thinking about the Faun.

“There are no Fauns here, as far as I know” Koto said chewing on the last part of the word Faun. “Are you sure the Dragon’s name wasn’t Faun?”

“I am positive. But I am not sure this Faun was here. It was in a different world. Maybe it was all in that dream I had, when I slept.”

“Mmmm….well, you see. The day you were found, dying, in the woods. That was the same day the village got attacked you see. Some of us managed to escape through the hidden tunnels beneath the city. I was one of them, seeing as I was the one who carried you to see the doctor of the neighbouring village. But you see, we never got that far….When we thought we lost you, you merely closed your eyes and fell asleep. I was watching you for days, and days turned into weeks and…then we realised that you had fallen into a coma. We didn’t know what had injured you, but it was clearly magical. That’s when I had your stone table made up in the cave overlooking the city. You were safe, and so was I. But after a while, I had to collect our people again, and left you….and I moved on with my life, hoping to rebuild the city to what it once was. I came up to see you every now and then, and you were always sleeping in the same position…and after a few years, I just realized I might never see you again…Two years ago, I stopped visiting. I’m sorry”.

“Don’t be sorry!! Koto, really, I feel fine. I might not remember much but, it feels as I’ve been gone for a few days only…and my dream was wonderful. Really wonderful!”

“Tell me about your dream, Eam. I will arrange for some food and you can meet some of the others, and you can tell us all about it”.

“There are others?”

“Of course, silly! Did you think I was rebuilding it with only myself?” She giggled now and poked her sister in the sides.

 

The upcoming days were filled with happiness and the joy of seeing her sister again. Even though she was happy to be re-united with a few of those people she used to know, a certain itch was starting to grow inside of her, telling her to leave the home she had always loved. She ignored the feeling completely. She did not wish to leave at all. Days turned to weeks. And after the third week she spent in her village, she started noticing something unusual. Whenever she touched the earth or a plant in the flowerbeds, they would spring to life and produce such colours of the rainbows. She was afraid that someone might see it, so she would rip the plants out from the ground, pretending to have seen nothing, and either bury the plants or throw them into the garbage disposals. When she threaded barefooted on the ground, the touch of her feet would create a sudden glow in the earth and grass and occasionally flowers would grow out from her footprints. Whether it was indoors or outside, it would still happen. It would just appear different compared to the surface she was threading on. She could not hide this for long, and from that day on, started wearing sandals and thongs.  Whenever she touched the tree trunks of trees, she would feel their story, whether it was happy or painful and she would feel it as if it were her own feelings. In the end, everything that happened to her, were starting to get hard to keep under control. When she woke up in the morning, her hair would be filled with the strangest of flowers, even though beautiful, and whenever she would fall or cut herself with a knife, rebuilding, her blood would be healed by veins, or she would fall on a soft grass bed or a giant flower. People were starting to notice, but never said anything, but she knew that they knew and one day she couldn’t hide the frustration any longer. The itch inside of her told her to leave, and she felt the control of her new powers would come to order once she listened.

“Koto….” She said one day. “I know you guys are too polite to say anything, but I know you know…about the weird things that have happened to me lately.”

“Eam….the villagers have noticed, but they do not fear you. They see it as a blessing, seeing what you can do, even though you try to hide it.”

“What are you saying, Koto?”

“You should know now, Eam, that we have eyes everywhere. We know about the flowers in the garbage, and the way you heal yourself and what happens when you thread on the ground”, she said and placed forth a small vase with the first beautiful flower Eam had created, which she threw into the garbage to save her skin. “It’s truly beautiful! And strong!” Koto admired the flower. “No doubt something happened in your sleep, Eam. Because I know you did not have these powers before. And I know you are Eam, because of the way you have tried to hide everything from us. If you were evil and with power, you wouldn’t have tried to hide it all away”. Koto gave the flower to Eam, who again sprung to life and started swaying when Eam touched it.

“You have an amazing gift, Eam. The villagers see you as a blessing �" not a curse. Maybe you have learnt the power of the earth while you were sleeping and now mother earth has sent you back to help us when we need you the most”.

“I must leave the village!” Eam suddenly burst out. She felt incredible bad about saying it, but a part of the itch she had inside were already starting to feel better, and she realized she had to listen to her insides, no matter what. “I don’t want to leave �" but I have to. Something …. Something is calling for me, and I don’t know what it is, but I must go, because it is driving me crazy”. Koto did not look very happy.

“Mother Earth has sent you to us to save us, and now you leave us?”

“You don’t need saving. And besides…” Eam said and placed her bow over her head. “I could never have saved you. With what? Plants?”

Eam took Koto’s hands and held them tight in her own, facing her sister face to face.

“I promise I will come back to the village, Koto, but you must wait a while more. There’s a chance I might discover what happened to me, and my soul will not rest until that happens. Something is calling for me. I need to follow the voice and see for myself. Promise me you won’t be mad…and that you will wait!”

Koto bowed her head but nodded silently. “I will wait for your return, Eam. I will explain the situation to the Elders. I will tell them what you have told me. I am sure they will understand!”

“Thank you, sister!” Eam said and placed her forehead against Koto’s. Then she rose up ready to go.

“Wait, Eam!”

“What is it, Koto?”

“Where will you be heading?”

“I….don’t know. I must follow the voice inside me”.

“Well, can you ask the voice now, where it wants to go?”

Earth placed her hands together as in a prayer and closed her eyes looking up. After a minute, she opened up her eyes facing the eagerly awaiting Koto.

“Tellus!”

“Earth?! Ewwww…” Koto looked sideways, a tad disgusted. “Why does it want to take you there?”

“I don’t know, but I must go!”

“Eam. The village 2 days north of here has a transporter. It was installed there 5 years ago. And although it only has one destination, it will at least take you to the right planet”.

“Thank you for everything, Koto”, she said and smiled at her. At an instant, she spun the flower she held into the air, making it fly back to Koto, which she grasped.

“Just sing to it, the song you used to, every now and then, and it shall never die”.

Author's Note

might be some time-issues according to time that has passed and so on..... o.O