Song for the Sky I

[Lani Stranger]

16th of Fall, 518AV

To the stables, they needed her in the stables today. The half Chaktawe was slightly peeved with the assignment, she couldn’t complain about it, but she knew it was a joke played on her. By in the stables, they meant shoveling shit. Shoveling shit with the Dek.

Black eyes glided across the line of stalls to the only other occupant in this section of the stables, while the horses were out on grass. He worked much slower than her, he was ancient, and when she first glanced him, missing two limbs. Or at least half of two limbs. From the elbow down, his arms fell into stumps, obvious signs of stitch work that had been scarring over for years. She hadn’t gotten a close look, but based on the way he shoveled, there ought to be oddly placed callouses along his inner arms where he managed his work. He was whistling to himself, although she sometime caught sounds of a Nari word, and the half-Eypharian wondered if he was whistling or singing, she could hardly tell with the strange language.

Of course she wasn’t doing the Dek work, he was shoveling shit, and she was laying out fresh bedding for the horses, using the pick to spread it out evenly over the flooring, and then a watering can to settle any dust. It was a simple enough task, and was immediately evident that the half-limbed man was unable to do it, as it required a dexterity he simply didn’t possess.

Still, it was just her and him, and the mixed blood couldn’t help the suspicious feeling that she was put there because she wasn’t respected as an outsider. Even this Dek wouldn’t look her in the eye, she was so foreign. Not only did she not possess the wicked red hair of this human clan, but her skin was dark and shimmering, her eyes a soulless black, and her feet too large and calloused to make wearing shoes comfortable.

Setting the rake down, she grabbed the watering can and began haphazardly slinging it over the dust and wood shavings that now made up the fresh box floor. She loved horses, she truly did, and she was perhaps extra salty because she was not with the actual animals on this work assignment. The water settled the shavings and dust well enough in a few chimes so that she could move on to the next stall. She was catching up with the Dek. Although she had more work to do in each stall, he was slower, and it didn’t take her much time to reach him, she was now in the stall next to him. He still had four stalls to go, before they reached the stalls which were occupied. Perfect.

[Lani Stranger]

By the time they finished the stall work, Lani was about done with her work day. The sun was just getting to setting, and the Dek had moved to begin lighting the lamps that strung along the hallway of the stables. Wiping a bit of sweat off her temple, she passed by the elder Dek to the water pump, grabbing her water skin, she unclasped the top, chugged what was left of it, and then untwisted the ring that widened the opening so it can be filled. She pumped the water into the water skin, capped it, and slung it back around her hip.

She peered around the barn for a shady place to sit before making the trek back to the volcano, but nothing looked appealing, so instead she approached the nearest section that still had horses in it. As she approached, a large draft glanced up from its hay mound to look at her. Seeing that she yielded no treats, he turned back to the previous occupation with eating, ready to ignore her once again. Without thinking she stuck her hand through the wide bars, brushing her fingers together and clicking her tongue. She wanted to feel the beast on her finger tips, but instead could feel the movement of his tail as he swished the air around him, lighting up her finger tips with movement.
Sighing, she closed her eyes, opening her palm to feel the air in the stall. As far as she could tell in her fingertips, the horse remained where he was, eating, and flicking his tail or twirling his ears at the occasional fly.

It was in this moment that she realized the hereditary gift in her finger tips was not the only way she could feel the world around her without her eyes. She hadn’t attempted Auristics since that first time, but as with any magic, once she could do it once, she remembered how to. For her, it was a path from the deepest pit in her stomach, to the center of her forehead, just above the bridge of her brow. It wasn’t hard to find that well in her stomach where her djed lay. It made her slightly queasy to focus on it, like drinking spirits on an empty stomach. But if she focused hard enough, she could grasp it, guiding it like a shaking hand up her abdomen, through her neck, weighing down her tongue, and up to rest on her brow.

She could feel it, her djed sitting here, tingle on her forehead, and for a tick she was worried it would spill out and tear her apart like it did her mother, but she didn’t let the fear overcome her focus, and she continued to focus, letting the djed see for her, feeling the magic flow.

[Lani Stranger]

Once she was confident she could somewhat hold the djed on the path she set it, Lani let her eyes flutter open. The world looked different in front of her, before where she could see the colors of the walls and animal before her, watch where the shadows from the lamp lay down the creature’s back, she saw no longer.

The world appeared as a charcoal drawing would, flat and without depth, although it was colored so differently. Instead of light and shadows dictating the depth of the world in front of her, there where bright swirling colors that fused together and filled the lines of the horse, but blended outside of it, disregarding the rules that lines seemed to imply. Colors swirled before her, and she couldn’t seem to figure out what they meant, but she felt the distinct emotion of the creature before her. Her own thoughts were filled with content, and the full feeling of a thirst quenched. There was a small annoyance in the back of her thoughts but she couldn’t place what it was, only that it didn’t necessarily belong to her.

She fluttered her eyes closed as they stung from the djed seeping into them, and tried to recoup to look at the horse with more focus this time.

Just as she reopened her lids, in an attempt to squint through the pain to the horse, something tapped the back of her calf. But that tap felt more like a kick, and the pain that shot up her leg pulled her out of the auristic trance she was trying to attain.

“What the—“

“Hey halfblood, get back to work.” The Nari words flew out of the man’s mouth, and Lani didn’t understand a word of it. Her eyes were blurry and she blinked a few times to refocus them back into reality. Focusing on the red haired man before her, Lani frowned at him.

“I’m done for the day, I’m no Dek.” She explained in common, before holding up her waterskin and uttering the single Nari word she knew that could explain. “Chiet.” She stuck a thumb on her chest to show she meant it in reference to herself.

He hrumphed at her, but didn’t step back, still having her flattened against the stall door. She could hear the horse moving around behind her, but didn’t have the space to look back and see where the draft horse had moved to within its box.

“Do you even understand me?” He spoke rapidly in Nari, and she squinted at him, catching the bulk of a phrase she knew ‘do you understand me?’ which she heard enough to have learned what it meant. But there was an extra word that threw the order off, so she was not sure entirely what he meant. Slowly, she nodded, hoping he said the same phrase she was used to.

“A little bit.” She repeated the only answer she knew how to give to that question in Nari. He snorted, and stepped back. It was then that Lani realized how tense she was against the wall, she did not step forward, but relaxed her shoulders. She was at eye level with this man, although he definitely had the strength on her. She perhaps had the advantage of her extra senses, but he would have the benefit of the doubt by anyone here. She couldn’t tell his rank, she was still getting used to the weird caste system that was Wind Reach, but regardless, she was an outsider and he was not. She was a visitor, graced with the kindness of this city and its inhabitants that allowed her to live and work there. As far as she understood it, community was important and so long as she contributed, she was welcome. It was a simple enough concept.

“I’ll just go home.” She huffed in common, side stepping out of the tense circle that was created by his presence.

“Wait.” She understood the single Nari word, and turned back to him, waiting to try and understand what he would say to her. Instead he hiked a thumb back towards the barn entrance, and nodded to her, raising an eyebrow in question. Despite the fact that neither of them could quite speak each other’s language, she understood him perfectly.

Well, it was this or go back home. So she followed him out. His flowing pants that she always forgot the name of swirled about a tick after him, and she hooked a thumb in the belt loop of her eastern style pants and followed him, putting a small bounce in her step in order to catch up with him. He walked with a confidence that she didn’t see often, and so the mixed blood copied his stride length, and relaxed her own shoulders, raising her chin to look ahead instead of on the floor. Somehow, this relaxed her.

[Lani Stranger]

By the time the wood over their head gave way to clear, chilly skies, Lani’s hackles rose instantly. She felt the change before she saw it, and stopped in her tracks, almost four feet out of the barn entrance. “Wha-“ And then she heard the heavy swoosh of air above her, and the mixed blood shrieked, covering her head with her arms, and scuttled back into the stable. She heard laughing before she opened her eyes to see the man she was just walking with, with his hand buried deep in the feathers of a giant bird. The eagle stared her down with thick golden eyes that were easily the size of her fist.

“What in the Hai is that?!” She whispered in common. She knew what it was. One could not utter the name of Wind Reach without the tale of the wind eagles, and she didn’t know why but she thought they were mythical. Of course they weren’t… but she thought. Wind Eagle. The word floated in her mind, almost sounding annoyed.

“Evek.” He spoke aloud, stroking the feathers. She didn’t understand the Nari word, but straightened up without stepping forward. When he realized she wasn’t moving, he glanced over at her, and waved her over. She didn’t shake her head in rejection, but neither did she step forward. Sure, he trusted the thing, but she did not. But he was distracted by something, and seemed to be looking at the bird with intention.

“No, of course not, I just met her.” He mumbled something she didn’t understand in Nari. But she recognized the words ‘no’ and ‘her’, which piqued her curiosity. Tentatively, she stepped forward, so that she was just outside the barn, but still ten feet away from the massive bird. “Ha, you’d think so.” He laughed at the bird, and it looked to her as if he was almost having a conversation with it, jabbering and whistling some things she didn’t understand in Nari, and walking around the bird as if it wasn’t a massive dangerous creature. After he disappeared behind the bird, the thing focused its eyes back on her, and she felt her shoulders drop and her breath shallowed.

[Lani Stranger]

She could see the man’s red hair bobbing behind the icy feathers, but since the thing was looking at her, Lani decided the wooden frame of the stable’s entrance was perhaps the most detailed piece of artwork in mortal history. The man continued to mutter things in Nari, and within a chime she could feel him walking back towards her, so she looked up. The bird was no longer focusing on her, and she visibly relaxed. He said something to her, and she was too distracted to even understand, but then he held out a few gnarled roots she recognized to be carrots.

She looked at the roots, and then back at him. She took two. He was an Endal, that was well and confirmed by now, and he was giving her food. She already knew this was weird. She didn’t even make a motion to eat them, just holding them, and watching him carefully for any sign of a joke. He didn’t seem to expect her to eat them, and headed off towards the pastures with his own roots in hand.

It wasn’t until they reached the first gate that she realized these weren’t for her, of course they weren’t for her. They were for the horses. Of course.

Wait…

“Can horses eat roots?” She asked in common, before realizing he didn’t understand her. He turned back to her, one hand on her gate to open it, waiting for her. She wasn’t sure what the Nari word for carrot was, and so she held up the root. “Carrot.” She said in common. “How do you say ‘Carrot’?” She followed it with the Nari question to ask what something was. At this point she pronounced the words in that question so well because she said them so often.

“Carrot.” He told her in Nari.

“Carrot.” She nodded.

“Carrot.” He repeated again and then a grin spread across his face. With a graceful leap, the bare muscles in his arm flexed as he hoisted himself over the gate with a quick and simple movement that resembled the mounting of a horse, but was slightly off. Once glance behind her to the large bird that was now grooming it’s feathers, she realized that it was likely an apt way to mount that creature.

“Show off.” She mumbled, unlatching the gate and opening it like a sane person. She followed him into the horse pasture, immediately feeling exposed in the open grass. It wasn’t as open as the grasses she glimpsed in Cyphrus, and even for a normal horse pasture these were small, descending down the slope at the bottom of the Mt. Skynarta, carved into the ground where they could fit.

[Lani Stranger]

She was about three steps behind him when he let out a piercing whistle, which caught the attention of the horses. He slowed, so that she could catch up with him, and then they waited. In the matter of ticks, the collection of horses on the far side of the pasture turned, noticed them, and began walking toward them. These horses seemed friendly, and to know what the Endal and Chiet wanted, but a few lagged behind.

When the first horses greet them, they slowed, flaring their nostrils in the chilly wind to test their scent. The, the horses began to approach much slower. A few trotted right up to the Endal, snorting happily and nudging his pockets for treats. He swiped the carrots away from them, nonchalantly pushing their cheeks away from him with a soft open palm.

The horses that approached her were a little more nervous, unused to her scent, but intrigued by the roots in her hands. She reached out to one with an open palm, attempting to pet his nose. The horse raised it’s head to avoid her touch, but did not flee, since he was still curious about her scent. Giving up she let the thing sniff her, turning back to the Endal, she raised an eyebrow to ask what they were doing. Very showing, he revealed a carrot to one horse, broke off a piece and then let it balance over his flattened finger tips. The horses closest to his hand nibbled it with its lips and then basically inhaled the thing.

So she copied him, breaking off a chunk and offering it to the horse that was nudging her pockets. She flattened her hands like he had, and was the horse pulled up its lips to chomp on the carrot, she immediately realized why. The chompers on this beast were enormous, it could easily take her finger off without even noticing. It scared her a little bit and the horses seemed to sense this. And skittered away from her. But this only lasted for a few ticks.

“You can’t fear them, they know when you’re nervous, just relax. Feed them the carrots.” He spoke to her in Nari, and it was too quick for her to understand. Looking up from the horse in front of her, she turned to look at the Endal’s actions to see if she could decipher what he was saying, but instead she caught her breathe. The sun had already sunk below the ocean’s horizon, and while there was a soft orange glow kissing the top of the water, but the sky was otherwise dark as Syna gifted her lover with the space.

That wasn’t what made her gasp though, it was the dots of light that dropped from their position in the sky and shot down to the land below. Lani waved at the Endal and pointed, but he seemed entranced by the sky as well. She looked behind her, towards the mountain, to see that stars fell on this side too. They all seemed so far off, falling a million miles away. But they also seemed close enough that she could reach up and graze one with her fingertips. For some reason she imagined it would slice her skin in a searing pain and leave her open to the world.

[Lani Stranger]

And then the impacts began. This was not the occasional shooting star that one saw for a few nights out of the year. Instead this was a barrage of actual petching space matter burying itself into the ground. Where the impact hit, she could see, small pops of fire and dust throwing up in its wake, and then leaving medium sized craters in the ground. The horses were spooked, but within ticks she heard them trampling across the field, away from her, giving way to the sound of wings. Lani was petrified in place, watching the touch downs not too far off. Stable workers of all classes came out immediately, to check on the horses.

“We have to get out of here, they will stampede.” The Endal spoke rapidly in Nari, but Lani was already walking with a purpose. Her self-preservation was not as strong as his though. The horses were running away from her, so by her logic, she was safe. The Eagle was with him, and likely would not pluck her out of the middle of the field. Sure, there were rocks falling from the sky, but she could get hit by those anywhere.

It didn’t occur to her that the horses could loop around in their panic and trample her in a tick, or that the eagle didn’t belong to the Endal, and therefore did what it wanted. She was focused on seeing what could possibly be dropping from the sky. She anticipated skyglass, which she hadn’t seen before, but was known as what came out of falling stars by blessing of Zintila. Lani would be damned if she didn’t get to see some skyglass before she died. Even if she died trying to get to it.

“Halfblood! What are you doing?” She recognized the Nari word that many people called her, but she didn’t know what it meant. By the tone of his voice, it was clear that he was trying to get her to be cautious. Ha, cautious.

She had her eyes focused on a crater that bit into the earth nearly sixty feet away. Although she bothered to open the gate on the way in, her new focus was on the skyglass. She realized she was still holding a carrot and a half, and threw them to the ground, putting more energy into her steps as she prepared to vault over the wooden gate. With a quick acrobatic grace she leaped for the wood gate, grasping the fence with her hands and tucking her legs. She used her arms to help guide her body over the fence, and landed hard on the ground past it. She stumbled slightly, glanced back for not particular reason, but was too distracted to focus on the Endal following her, or the giant wind eagle that had taken flight above her.

Turning forward once more, she decided to finish her trek in a jog, even though her ankles hurt from the improper landing. They didn’t hurt of injury, but climbing the steps back to the city would be a bitch, for sure.

[Lani Stranger]

By the time she reached the crater, she was out of breath. She could hear the Endal job up beside her, and the wind eagle touch down not far from her. Without thinking, she brushed her straight hair behind her ears, and began shuffling down the loose dirt that made up the crater.

“What in all of Mizahar are you doing?” Nari words sounded in her ears and she didn’t understand, she tripped slightly on the way down, and ended up sliding the last few feet on her bum. The crater flattened out and in it she saw twigs, and various porous rocks filling the basin. The things collected at the bottom seemed charred, and she could feel one twig stabbing her in the thigh. She glanced up to see the Endal at the top of the shallow crater, looking down at her with a giant eagle beside him.

“What?” She asked in Nari.

“What do you mean, what? You something fall from the sky and run for it? Do you have no self awareness?” He laughed incredulously.

She grinned, put two thumbs up, and said the word in common that even though he didn’t know it, could probably understand. “Skyglass.”

“You’re crazy.” He muttered something in Nari, which was followed by a loud, annoying coo of the Wind Eagle. Lani still didn’t know what he said and didn’t care. She knew that the only people who could manipulate skyglass was those marked by Zintila, but she didn’t want to manipulate it, she wanted to study it. She wasn’t dumb enough to pass an opportunity like this up.

Turning back to the base of the hole, she started nudging things aside with her foot. She was going to be sad if there ended up being no actual touch down rock. Somehow it had burned up, and she got no gift from Zintila. She could hear the Endal descending the side of the hole behind her, but she paid him no mind. Grabbing on particularly charred branch, she set it aside and then saw what she was looking for. Before she could reach down and grab the shiny metal rock that had embedded itself in the dirt. A hand fell on her shoulder, stopping her.

“What?” She turned to him, questioning in Nari. He sighed, poked her in the forehead, which made her squint, and then he spoke.

“This isn’t ‘sky glass’,” He used her common word for it, and she understood him. He pointed to the rock, and she looked at it. She was so focused on getting herself a piece of skyglass, she didn’t realize it wasn’t skyglass.

Of course she hadn’t seen skyglass before, and she was sure he had not either. But this rock was metallic and shimmering, and even without using auristics, she could feel something was off about this metal. It gave her an eerie feeling that her instincts told her not to touch it. But at the same time this rock enthralled her, she wanted to know it’s secrets. What magic did it possess? If it wasn’t skyglass, could she manipulate it? Could she use it as a font in alchemy? Of course not now, she was nowhere near the skill level R’yse was when she taught the young mixed blood the magic, but she could of course keep it.

[Lani Stranger]

The Endal moved his hand to her other should so his forearm strapped across her collar bone, and she turned into his guidance as if he was pulling her away from the thing. But she couldn’t stop looking at it.

Stop you idiot. A voice rang in her head just as she decided what she was going to do. Ducking underneath the Endal’s arm, she crouched into the center of the crater, and dug her hand into the dirt, pulling out the fist sized metallic stone from the dirt that surrounded it. She felt shimmering warmth shoot through her and settle into her bones. She had little idea what it was, or what it had done to her, but she could already feel something was changing. Smoothing the features on her face, suppressing the panic that now occupied her chest, she turned to the Endal and shrugged.

“What?” She recognized the Nari question.

“Never.” She spoke the Nari word, confused if it was not, never, or nothing, but using it despite her uncertainty. He seemed to understand.

“Ooookayy, can I see it?” He spoke and held out his hand, so she held the stone a little closer. She wanted this, she didn’t want to give it up. He raised his eyebrows in a way that showed innocence, and she thought she had to trust him. Visibly reluctant, Lani showed him the rock, but he had to actually pluck it out of her hand. The stranger chuckled in amusement as she handed the rock over with the mood of a child who was caught doing something she shouldn’t. Trying not to seem to attached to the thing, she glanced up at the sky to see that they shooting rocks had stopped. It had only lasted a few chimes. While her eyes were wandering, she felt her skin prickle and turned to see the wind eagle staring her down again. There was something strangely intelligent about the predator’s eyes that made her uncomfortable, so she dropped her eyes back to the ground.

What did it do to you?

“What?” Lani looked up at the Endal, surprised by the clear common.

“Huh?” The red head looked up at her, focusing on the rock.

“Did you speak Common?” She asked in common, almost ready to get upset that he had been pretending to not understand her.

“What?” He asked for clarification, obviously not understanding.

“Were you speaking to me in Common?” She asked, pointedly in her native tongue and then tried for the Nari expression. “Do you speak Common?”

“No…” He answered in Nari, confused, shifting the rock between his hands.

“Oh. Huh.” She furrowed her brow, he seemed genuinely confused my her inquiry, so she let it drop, stepping a bit closer to him to hold her hand back out for the rock.

You haven’t answered me, what did it do to you? The voice rang out clearly again, and she began to understand that the Endal could not hear this voice, as he hardly reacted, giving her a single finger to motion that he was not done examining the rock.

Fear settled in her chest as she realized that the Endal could not hear the words. Was she going crazy? Was she going to turn out like R’yse? Was it genetic? Wait she wasn’t even related to R’yse—

It is me. The voice rang out and this time the Wind Eagle let out a sharp squawk, flapping its wings to adjust them and Lani turned to face the thing head on, shrinking back with eyes wide. It’s sharp golden eyes focused on her again, intently. Answer me.

“N-Nothing. I don’t know. Don’t know.” She stammered out loud in Common, trying to answer the monster confronting her. Was it actually speaking. The bird turned it’s head, blinked, and then looked away.

Unfortunately, I think you’re right. She could hear the disappointment in his voice, or at least the voice she heard in her head. The bird turned away from her, plucking at some feathers and blinking it’s eyes, no longer paying attention to her. Having completely forgot about the stone now, Lani placed a hand on the Endal’s shoulder, pointing back out of the crater towards the path back up to Mt. Skynarta.

[Lani Stranger]

“It’s getting late,” She murmured in common, having forgotten to speak Nari as well. Without her noticing, he pocketed the rock, and grabbed her shoulder in a casual side hug before scaling the crater. She followed him, stumbling a little on the loose dirt walls of the crater, but it wasn’t too deep and she was able to make her way out with little trouble. Brushing the dirt off the calves of her tight pants, she looked up at the Endal, remembering the rock now.

Forgetting about the caste system, she held out her hand, motioning for him to return it to her. “Please.” She added in Nari as a second thought. The Endal stuck a hand in his pocket, but then a curtain of confusion swept across his face and he pulled the pocket out, nothing in it. In almost the same instance, she felt the weight of the rock, surprisingly light, in her hand.

“What the Hai?” He exclaimed in Nari, and she understood, simply because of the simplicity of the word. Lani looked at her hand, leaving her palm wide open, not quite understanding what had just happened. She looked for only a tick before her tanned fingers wrapped around the rock and it disappeared in her own pocket. Wiping her face of emotion again, she shrugged at him and turned to start walking up the hike. It almost seemed as if she meant to do it.

“Wait, hold on. You can’t just take that thing.” He said, and she heard his feed on the gravel right behind her, and in an instance, felt his hand on her elbow. Gently, but still forcefully, he pulled her hand out of her pocket, still clutching the rock. More dexterous than her, he snatched it from her hand, and then in the same quick movement chucked it off into the distance off the side of the path.

Lani felt her heart sank, but the warm shimmering feeling that was settling into a comfortable dullness in her chest, she frowned. Just as soon as the rock was out of sight, she felt the familiar weight in her hand. Looking down at it, she thought quickly, stuffing it in her pocket before he could turn completely back around. He must have saw her because he pointed. “Did you just…?” He asked in Nari, and she clutched the rock in her pocket, sucking in her lips as she realized she wouldn’t quite be able to hide it.

Slowly, she pulled the rock out of her pocket and let it rest on her open palm. “I didn’t mean to, I swear.” She said, thinking, same as him, that she was somehow doing this. She wasn’t sure how, it wasn’t conscious, but it happened. He didn’t seem to intent on taking it from her now, so she let her fingers wrap back around the rock, loosely now, and relaxed her arm.

He seemed quite off put by the recent events, and began walking back towards his eagle. She took a couple steps towards him, now feeling a strange connection to this stranger who showed her kindness, and then discovered this rock with her.

“Wait.” She said in Nari, having inadvertently learned that word through him during the night. He turned, and she didn’t actually have anything to say. She would ask him to walk her back up to the mountain, which seemed like the logical way to keep his company. Now this friendly stranger was closing off to her. She didn’t even know his name, it wasn’t as if they had said very many words to one another, but she hadn’t felt the warmth of friendship in so long, it was comforting. “What is your name?” She decided to ask.

“Narth.” She said simply, and then turned back to his bird, not even asking hers in return. The mixed blood sighed, stared the bird down, and gave it a nod. She was still definitely terrified of the thing, and even if she was imagining it speaking to her, if it wasn’t intelligent, then she was simply nodding at a bird. Fine.

“See you later, then.” She mumbled, turning back around. She felt a little embarrassed. She let this guy walk her around after her work so that now she was walking home alone, at night. She had the opportunity to obtain a material she had never seen before, and was sure she would never see again, and had lost one of the only people who bothered to communicate with her. It wasn’t that the Inarta were cold to foreigners, but the language made it difficult. She missed the sentient connection, and if this brush with an Endal of all people, was as relaxed and friendly as it was, then this must be a rare thing. She was not looking forward to her next two days off. Nothing to do, lonely, and with a supposedly magical rock.

Word Count: 5,718