Ch 2 - Warm Welcome

A strong force lifted my head up high and slid its body half under me so I could lean on him as I tried to understand the shapes of the land. Before I could see who was under me, something hard was placed to my lips and poured into my mouth. I was forced to swallow the bitter liquid and I felt it burn my insides but in a pleasing and reviving way. My ears tingled for several seconds as various parts of my body began to sting. After the pain subsided, I got a strange buzz of energy as I felt it explode to every corner and every organ of my body. It grew warm and then settled my muscles to be soft and feel moveable. After a few minutes of lying there and letting this drink take effect, I came to feel light and strong, as though I just broke heavy metal chains off of my limbs.

I lifted my head off the figure under me and tried to push myself up but the creature grabbed my arm and pulled me back down. I suddenly got worried and a strange sickening feeling swarmed in my stomach as I tried to understand what he was doing. He was larger than me and had slightly longer fur on his body. However he was covered in odd materials that just made him look ridiculous.

“Calm down, you’re still weak and may hurt yourself if you get up too quickly.” It said.

I was astonished when I heard those sounds coming out of its mouth. A voice. I don’t remember if I gave myself a voice in the creation. I was also shocked that I could understand what that voice was saying and I wanted to respond but when I opened my mouth, only a strange squawk and squeak came out. I looked at him terrified and he seemed to understand instantly when he said, “Don’t worry it’s quite common for pups to forget the creation of a voice.”

Pup? What is that? Is that my name? “And when we arrive back in the village we will talk to the Mage and she will help you to find one.” He continued.

 I thought about what he said and imagined what a Mage might be. I relaxed a bit as I realized he wasn’t a threat to my newly formed body. I hadn’t mastered my new form yet, which left me extremely vulnerable to enemies of any size.

I felt him loosen his grip now that I was not as dizzy as before, and he allowed me to stand up tall and firm. He held my arm to keep my balance as I swayed around trying to figure out how to balance on two legs. I saw several other strangely formed creatures examining me and watching me wide-eyed as I tried to stand on my own.  I fell to the side and the creature caught my wet, slippery body. He helped me to my feet again and tried to give me advice.

“Look at your feet and try to wiggle your toes. Feel how to control them and how to make them help you balance.” He said staring straight into my eyes as I was bent over and holding onto his arm for support.

 I nodded and looked at my toes. I concentrated and felt something move but it wasn’t my toes. It was my fingers. So I tried again. I touched my thigh and concentrated where the feeling of my hand was located on my body. Then I traced that area down, down, down, until I was focused on my feet. My feet were bigger than my hands, and my toes were thicker than my fingers but not as long. I stared at them for several minutes until finally I was able to make one foot twitch, and then I thumped it on the floor. I got excited and concentrated again. After several minutes I was able to wiggle my toes and move my feet willingly. I looked at the creature in front of me and smiled to him as he smiled at me. I then pushed myself to a tall standing position and while using my toes to help me balance, I only wobbled a few times before I was able to stand without his help.

 “Good job.” He said as he looked at the weird cloths that hung from his body. They were covered in slime and dirt. I looked down at my own body and saw that the tree mucus covering my fur had also become covered in dirt from falling so many times. I looked around and saw that some of the other creatures were dressed in similar wrappings of cloth. Some wore less than others while some were nearly entirely drowning in it. How strange. I looked at my body and the only thing covering me was slime, dirt and fur. I turned my head and looked back at my tail. Mucus dripped off the tip and plopped on the grass below. I shook my tail from left to right and blobs of sticky goo few off in all directions. Some creatures ducked and managed to block the droplets, while others weren’t so lucky.

I flopped my ears down with embarrassment, and felt I needed to apologize but I couldn’t speak, so I made some strange sound with my poorly formed throat and gave a weak smile. I looked back at the male creature who helped me stand, and examined how he had formed himself.

I stood a little smaller than him but if my ears were perked straight up, I would be taller. He had a bigger head with strange horns poking out from the sides and the top of his head. I then saw a tail wag from behind him. It was longer and a different shape than mine, and his fur was darker and had different designs in it. He stood hunched slightly and his teeth were long enough that one large tooth on each side protruded down over his bottom lip, even when his mouth was closed.  I then looked at the group of strange looking creatures surrounding me. There were a good handful of them, and I wondered why they had come to my birthing. I began to feel cold as I remembered my wet fur, and I looked around in jealousy at their warm coverings. I wondered where my cloths would be or how I could obtain some. I turned from them and looked back at the wet mess I came from. The slime trailed back into a large tree that looked much thicker and larger than any tree in its memory. I noticed that it was tall enough to block the sky and at the base was a hole surrounded in a thick reddish brown skin that was lightly covered with hunks of dark bark for protection. I imagined myself in it as I saw it pulsing in and out slowly, as if it were breathing.

“That is Namu” The creature said behind me. I jumped slightly at his sudden words. “She gave birth to all of us.” He gestured toward the others with his spotted paw-like hand. I looked around at all the strange shapes and colors that the creatures chose to make themselves.

“This is Hwajay,” He said looking at creature that was tall, long and furry but also stood on all fours with horns on his head and an extremely long tail. “This is Haenami,” he pointed to a female that was half Hwajay’s size and all black with black wings that protruded out of her shoulders and had a thin long tail and big paws.

“She is our leaders mate.” He added. She gave a kind nod and then he continued his introduction. He nodded to a creature with four front paws and two back paws with short blue highlighted fur, long ears and a long strong tail, “That is Jonsa.”

I stared at Jonsa for a moment noticing how his two front legs were made, and thought it quite unique and creative. Then he introduced a female named Kisang that stood on her hind legs like me but her legs were larger and longer with feet that stretched forward and a thick, long tail. She held a large leaf above me and smiled. I saw a slit in her stomach but it didn’t seem like an injury. Then a male named Ambyok, who was extremely tall, thick and strong but also resembled a tree more than a creature of fur was introduced.  I was then motioned to look to my left to see the remaining creatures who were just as random as the ones on my right. He continued to introduce them. A shorter white skinned creature named Inau had droopy ears and big eyes, standing on thick and heavy feet, but had grey splotches on her white skin, almost like she could blend into a stone or various rocks. She also had a tail but it was only covered in fur at the tip of its long naked length.  Next to her was Ounsu who was a creature small enough to fit in my hand. She had a beak and wings but also four legs and a long fur tipped tail. Next was a rather large creature name Eijong, who has four long legs but instead on feet there were thick hard stumps. He had two arms on a more upright body that had hair on top like me and long flowing hair as the tail. He waved at me with his naked hand. I looked at mine and saw a thin layer of soft fur. I liked the fur more that the naked skin since it seemed to be warmer.

“And I am Iri.” He directed my attention to tree they called Namu, “The majority of us were born out of this tree, varying from times as early as 2 years ago till as late as 280 years ago. However, other creatures came from other creatures as mixed bloods, like Kisang, Inau, Ounsu, and Eijong. ” He added.

“My mother was a marsupial dragon,” Kisang interrupted, “and my father was a kangaroo.” She smiled, obviously feeling proud of her mixed blood.

“Well my father was a Satyr and my mother is a Xanthus.” Eijong said trying to prove he was more extraordinary than Kisang. I watched them fight about whose parents were more impressive. After a few minutes of hearing their arguments I leaned more towards Eijong’s argument, rather than Kisang’s. 

“You’re both forgetting about the most rare combination,” Ounsu piped in, “Who would imagine a mouse and a bird mating?”

“That is pretty odd, but your parents were not very impressive creatures. What would a mouse do in this world?” Eijong mentioned. “Even a bird, can’t make that much of a difference.”

Ounsu seemed hurt at his blunt words and flew off into the trees after giving him a deep glare of hatred. 

“I think you hurt her feelings, Eijong.” Kisang whispered sadly. He shrugged, “She’s always hated me.”

I turned to Inau, for her to explain who her parents were. She looked at me for a long moment. Everyone went quiet, waiting for her to share her story. Finally she gave in.

“Fine,” She signed. “Since we are all sharing…my mother was the lady of the lake and my father was the Great Troll Alberich of Sora Mountain.”

“She wins.” Eijong said to Kisang, who nodded in agreement.

                “Are we done?” Haenami asked a bit irritated as Hwajay stood next to her with the similar expression. “Go on Iri,” said after everyone remained quiet.

Iri took my hand which was still wet, and slowly led me toward a small lake with a streaming waterfall. I took a few wobbling steps and then slowly got the hang of walking.

“This is where we bathe after our birthing. Go ahead and try it out.” He encouraged.

 I stood there, studying them all for a moment, wondering if they all had really done this before. I worried that I would mess this up like I did with my voice, but when my foot touched the water I felt more at ease and relaxed. I fell under the water’s surface and I slowly sank to the bottom of the lake. I let the water devour me. It felt nice and warm, as I felt it ripple my fur and tickle my ears. I rubbed my body, slowly washing off the slime. Then suddenly my body ached for something. My throat throbbed and soon I could feel my heart beat over powering my senses. I swam up to try and figure out what was wrong, but when I took a gulp of air I felt the pain suddenly subside. 

“Yes we all made that mistake at first as well.” Iri laughed as he read my expression. “We can only hold our breath for short time, or…well it gets painful...” He trailed off.

 I jumped out of the water in fear that it would hurt me, and ran to Iri. He gave a weak laugh, “No, no, it’s not going to hurt you, haha, you just need to take a gulp of air when your lungs start to ache. That’s all. The water is not alive. I assure you.”

I released him from my grasp and backed up a little to get some space. I watched the water and realized he told the truth. Though there were small creatures swimming around in it, the water its self was not threatening.

Kisang hopped to me with her large burgundy legs and to my surprise she stuck her hand into the slice in her belly. My eyes widened in horror as I imagined her to pull out her bloody insides, but when her hand came back out, she held a dry fluffy tan cloth folded up in a square.

I felt my heart jump and my stomach flutter. I was so confused and shocked.  I walk to her as she held out the cloth. However, instead of taking the item she offered I reached to her stomach, and touched the line of her belly.

She giggled and said, “Oh, that’s just a pouch for storing items that I need to carry around. It also will hold my babies if I ever have any. But for right now, I just hold your towel and a few other supplies.” She smiled and then wrapped the towel around my wet body to dry the water in my fur. It felt nice and warm. I lifted my arms up when she nudged them, and held on to her shoulders for balance as she dried my legs and tail.

When I felt completely dry I watched her put the towel back in her pouch and then pull out a flattened stick with dozens of smaller and thinner pins or thorns of some kind protruding from it. She placed it in my hand and then grabbed some of the clothes she mentioned earlier. She wrapped a cloth around my waste and tied it on one side. The cloth fell freely in the front as well as the back with thin strings wrapping around my hips. A whole in the top of the back cloth ripped open for my tail to slide through.  Then she took the second cloth and wrapped it around my chest and tied it at my mid back and again on the back of my neck. It wasn’t much but I already felt warmer and more like one of them. After she finished she took the strange prickly wood thing from my hand.

“I’m not going to hurt you,” She explained when I flinched away from her, “I just need to brush out that blond hair on your head so it doesn’t rat up. I also have a string to tie it up with so it won’t get in your eyes.  Would you like that?” She asked. I stared at her not sure how to respond.

“Nod your head by moving up and down like this for ’yes’,” I looked at Jonsa as he looked up and then down, “And shake your head from side to side like this for ‘no’,” He said as he moved his head left and right.

I smiled at him to thank him. Then I looked back at Kisang and nodded at her.  She smiled and began to carefully brush my hair. I watched the others talking in a group and every so often they would look back at me. They were discussing what to call me. I grew excited with the thought of my very own name. I hope it’s a good one.

Kisang continued her brushing and styling until her ties wear holding my hair up behind my head in a messy bun of some kind. When she was finished I walked to the lake and looked at my reflection in the water. I was beautiful. My body looked strong and slender. My curves were smooth and my hair was styled wonderfully. I smiled with approval and Kisang smiled back at me.

“She’s ready.” She called to the group.

They all turned and looked happily at me. They walked to me and Iri took my hand and started a small speech.

“Today a wonderful creation was born from Namu and is now washed, dressed and ready to receive her very own name. This name will be with her for the rest of her life and will help her become known to this land as she influences the lives of others and fulfills her dreams of the future. Please welcome…” He paused for effect. I listened carefully as I waited anxiously for my new name. He looked into my eyes smiled, “Sachi.” Everyone cheered.

“Welcome Sachi,”

“Beautiful name!”

“What does it mean, Iri?” Haenami, asked.

Iri, looked away from me and turned toward the group. “It means Luxury.”

“Wow, that is quite lovely.”

I smiled at them all with beaming joy, feeling like my life would finally start just the way I dreamed it would.