The Dream
Ohanzee chews the bean as he lays on his back looking up into the star filled night, the pleasant taste is a satisfying mixture of flavours none of which he can pinpoint, though the slightly earthy texture and edge to it does stand out.
Slowly his lids drop and are just about shut when he is suddenly wide awake with a start, as the air is filled with the voices of birds and other animals. Pushing himself up onto his elbows all traces of the days exertions gone from his body he looks about in confusion and wonder for the star filled sky has been replaced by a leaf filled one. It is day, of at least so it would appear from the dappled light that breaks through the canopy far above. Insects scuttle through the leaf litter and hum about in the air.
There birds rooting around in the thick leaf litter that covers the floor all about and birds birds too hopping from branch to branch with short flights. So many of them, such vibrant colours and such varied songs, it all seems so right despite not being the place nor the time apparently that he just a moment ago lay his head down in.
Then another noise joins the calls just behind him, one in a language he doesn't know but one that feels right too. He turns to look behind and sees nothing but trees and those bushes that can survive the limited sunlight below the canopy.
"Hello?" he ventures but no one is there. He tries again
"Hello?" and this time his word is met with giggling laughter from all about.
But there is no one to be seen
"Who's there?" Ohanzee calls looking all about and laughter is the only answer until a small section of the bark of one of the closest frees peels itself free and steps forward. It speaks in a strange language and then seeing the confusion on his face repeats
"I'm here."
"Whitewood?" Ohanzee asks unsure as she looks far more sprightly, younger and the forest, for that's where he surely is, is filled with laughter. The Aldryami bows deeply. She takes his hand and fair skips through the forest with him greeting Aldryami after Aldryami, each one similar to its kin but different too, skin or bark perhaps closer to the tree it seems to come from than any other.
There are so many, just as there are so many trees, so many types, large and small, straight and twisted. Even the bushes and shrubs of the forest floor seem to sprout their own particular types of guardian creature and they all speak a common language but fall back to Earthtongue as they realise that this stranger of flesh cannot understand them.
Ohanzee's stomach growls and
Whitewood stops and smiles at him before approaching a bush heavy with some bright red fruit with yellow blotches on it. She sings to the bush as she removes one of these and to his amazement he knows the words, but even more amazing is that it is the language that they were all using.
"Thank you" he says taking the fruit and biting into it he finds that it easily satisfies his hunger. He licks his lips and nods his thanks then looking up notices a small cave entrance below the gnarly roots of a great tree.
He blinks looking closely
What was that? and turns to ask
Whitewood, but she has already danced on. He looks back at the cave peering intently into the darkness and
There! There's something there. No, someone. And indeed, there in the darkness at the very edge of the shadows is a pale, almost ghostly white face. A face on a head that seems too large as the hand comes into view beckoning him closer.
The Raven brave approaches the cave looking about as he goes, but the Aldryami have all danced on leaving him alone. Then reaching the edge of the shadows he sees the spindly creature in full, so pale it surely never sees the light of day and as he takes the offered hand it feels cold, clammy, slightly slimy even, but for some reason not threatening.
He follows, lead deeper into the Earth and as he goes others join them, again all similar but different, all pale of body and limb though these vary in thickness, but with differing coloured and shapes heads. It is dark of course, but there is light, some light and as his eyes grow more accustomed and his ears strain to compensate he realises that he is in a vast cavern.
Here too, in the Earth rather than on it there is a forest, a forest of fungi as varied as the small forms about him. He has stopped and his guide is staring up at him a dull light coming from the very face of the creature. It smiles and beckons him to sit on a rock which he does, but the rock us soft and a cloud of spore fills the air about him.
As he breaths the spore in his head spins a little, a wave of euphoria washing through him and he notices the Aldryami within the Earth, which is what they surely must be, looking at him with broad smiles and nodding understanding. One of them picks a gill from a nearby toadstool and offers it and of course he takes it, it would be rude not to!
He sings the song as he does so and there is a murmur of appreciation that runs through the crowd of creatures. He bites into it,
So Earthy, Eartier than a mouthful of mud! and he covers his eyes at the sudden flash of light, almost blinding. He slowly removes his hands from his eyes and the cavern is now filled with light or so it seems, a purple tinted light that gives everything a slight glow, an edge that seems right.
Another of the Aldryami within the Earth this one carrying a cup apparently made from the hollowed stem of one of the many fungi. He takes it, he drinks heavily, he smiles, and as his soul takes off to fly about the cavern his body slumps back deeper into the puffball sending another cloud of spore into the air.
Ohanzee's flies through the strange underground world looking with wonder at the strange creatures that fly or crawl, slither or climb all about the fungi and the walls and then when the time is right swoops back into the waiting body.
Ohanzee rolls over, a line of drawl running down his cheek drips onto the bark of one of
Whitewood's roots that he is using as a pillow and from there drips onto the soil below. The Water flows to the Earth.
Dawn Windsday, Stasis Week, Earth Season
"First thing I need to do is pay my respects to the spirits in the temple, return the items they leant me and tell them of what has happened. Then I should check if there is anything that the Queen needs."
"Amara, will you join me?" and he heads for the River and Earth temple.
