A quiet afternoon in the wilderness

[Pyxis]

6th of Summer, 510 AV

Pyxis sat quietly against a fallen log along the pond shore and watched his horse Aranck slowly choose his next bit of supper from several promising tufts of foliage. Something didn't smell quite right and it took a few seconds before he realized that it was his dinner slowly burning. Snapping out of his afternoon malaise, Pyxis grabbed for the stick that impaled his fish and pulled it away from the flames. The fish was almost two pounds, although nothing special for this region, and in the pulling he managed to upset his fishing pole and tackle. The fish was more than a little bit on the crispy side but the meal wasn't a total loss. Pyxis found himself wondering how he had managed to stay alive this long eating his own cooking.

After eating as much as he could stomach, he put the other half of the fish with the rest of the food he kept in his backpack and got his tackle back in order and sat back down against the log. His full stomach, the kind warmth of his campfire and the gentle neighing of Aranck lulled him into light sleep before he could plan his next move.

[Nimvahlis]

pulses of water stirred up silt as large, iridescent wings flexed. They resembled a butterfly's, glimmering shades of blues and violets in the murky depths. Nimvahlis' tail, coated in a silvery fur, pumped up and down, propelling him through the water as much as the wings did. Up ahead, the faintest of glows could be made out. The aura was little more than a near translucent ring of silver, but it was present nevertheless. Nim's eyes focused more on the lining than the object, and his hands reached forth to grasp the fish. Memories of Abura were inevitably summoned when he sought food as an Akvatari. He recalled the spires, the quietude, the gossamer aura of melancholia. A city of sorrow, and of artistry. Food had come second to the pursuit of arts, and the Akvatari sated themselves using the quickest method they could find. Often it played out exactly as it did now, in this pond. The Akvatari speeding through the water, snatching fish as his hands now did. Nimvahlis burst through the surface of the water and into the air above the pond. The struggling fish was clenched tightly in his hands, and he bit down on its neck to end its suffering. His wings threw droplets of water about the pond as they rapidly beat to keep him aloft. A slight hum persisted, audible as the water settled back to its previous state. The fish was large, as Nim noticed when he looked down serenely at his kill. This would be the last fish he ate in Taldera, and he regretted the loss of such excellent fare. Excitement thrummed through him; although it was muted by many layers of other, indescribable emotions. There was no particular reason for his excitement, other than the fact that he would soon be encountering new places and people. Nothing pertaining to Nimvahlis' mind needed to have rhyme or reason. Emotions and perception were shafted about in the beautiful chaos like rowboats on a stormy sea. Though it might vanish within the next second, Nim now keenly felt the excitement. It was something he did not often discover. Perhaps he would have to change that. Realizing that he had forgotten to release his hold, Nim now allowed his Djed to retreat. Nothing visibly changed, for Nim had not been examining an aura. But a sudden emptiness swept him up, ushered out the excitement. There was no reason to be excited over travel, people were the same here as they were anywhere else. Only, this land is lonely as I am. Except... Nim considered this thought for a second. An acrid smell became apparent, something he had never recalled in a forest. He wheeled about, examining the shoreline for its source. There was no forest fire, so somebody had to have made the campfire. He continued scanning the shoreline, about to recall his Djed to aid him. However, his unknown companion became apparent as Nim saw the horse. Without any particular thought in mind, Nimvahlis sped toward the grazing creature.

[Pyxis]

Aranck stood content, quietly chewing a bit of green while his tail swished back and forth with a restless vigor all its own. Then his ears jumped to attention and twitched back in forth in time with the movement of his eyes. His tail fell still while he stamped his feet and lightly whinnied to alert his dozing master that something was amiss.

Pyxis woke with a start, quickly shook away the sand of his dreams and adjusted his head covering to clear his field of vision. He didn't see an immediate threat and quietly assumed a crouching posture while his right hand slipped under his striped cloak and lightly touched the hilt of his scimitar. He made his way quickly to Aranck and no sooner had he firmly placed his hand on the beast's side to calm him than he saw an Akvatari flying towards his horse with impressive speed. His wings were a blur of frenetic motion but would occasionally catch the afternoon sun in a splash of color and his fine tail gently rose up and down with the wind. Pyxis warily admired the strange creature's beauty while hoping he would halt his advance.

The Akvatari kept up his speed as he approached and while his relaxed posture during flight wasn't particularly menacing any unexpected visit in the wilds could prove to be your last. Pyxis stood up somewhat relaxing the tension in his muscles and withdrew his hand from the hilt of his sword, but kept it ready, hovering near his waste. With his left hand he waved at bringer of his nap's unexpected interruption and said "Hello, friend," praying that his words would ring true.

[Nimvahlis]

Nimvahlis pulled up about ten feet from the shore as the horse's owner called out in friendship. The Akvatari blinked several times, contemplating the man's words. This man is more open than the pond we meet upon. On the same note of prudence, Nim fluttered his wings with a new intensity and took off into the sky. He arced up and over the lush canopy, a view to break hearts presenting itself to him. Though he did not bask in the aerial sights, instead diving down into the tree tops to break through the foliage above his new companion's camp. Now he was safer, less exposed. Nimvahlis did not speak to the stranger yet, but instead considered him more. Almost subconsciously, Nim murmured to perhaps the trees, "Who is this?" But the still and ancient conifers did not answer. Perhaps relief from the question lay within himself, as most things did. Nimvahlis closed his eyes for a spell, breathing deep and rythmically. Djed, smooth and sweet like molten honey, reached out from the complex of his soul and illuminated the man in front of him. Blue light limned him, and a pair of hands reached up from the earth, toward Leth. Leth. Nim did not so much see, as deduce the man's great hunger. Of a magnitude that none other than his kind could harbor. An infernally hot desire for return. He was an Ethaefal. Realization struck like a spear hurled from the heavens. Nim's eyes narrowed at the man, examining his countenance. Suddenly, the Akvatari redirected his Djed. It was a thought that hovered in the air, linked itself to this stranger. Child of Leth. The quiet assertion heralded the severance of Nimvahlis from his Djed. He allowed the flow to drain away, leaving his veins gasping for nourishment in the great emptiness. Nimvahlis sighed, staring wearily at the man. It was not a time for sadness, especially not during this momentous reunion. However, the edge that Nim tottered on so often had crumbled away and now he was falling. The world deflated, the novel victory of insight seemed drained of light. His wings, beating less swiftly now, allowed him to descend to the ground below. Perched on his tail, Nimvahlis seemed ungainly at best when not in the air. He finally spoke to this man, "Hello, friend."

[Pyxis]

The Akvatari's strange approach worried Pyxis, but the his unusual posture when he lighted on the ground and simple greeting calmed his apprehension. Pyxis stood up slowly and let his right arm fall to his side. "Welcome to my humble camp, traveler. Feel free to dry yourself at my fire," he said as he lightly tossed a fallen branch on the diminished fire. "I'm Pyxis. What should I call you and what brings you to my fire this afternoon?"

[Nimvahlis]

The Akvatari stared at the dirt as he contemplated Pyxis' words. Had he not this man here in front of him, he would have contemplated them for bells if not days. Instead Nim spoke, appeasing his companion's queries, "You may call me Nimvahlis, brother. Though I am not a traveler, I would gladly accept your offer of sanctuary." A hollow smile played across Nim's face, and he stroked his jawline slowly, reveling in the sensation of touch. Nim examined the Ethaefal before him, felt a longing to be at peace as this one did. Perhaps he would stay for a bell. Though it be a small fraction of a moment in the scheme of the world, it was long enough for Nim to learn more. His voice was calm and felt almost ethereal, yet deep currents of depression carried it forth, "My brother, you are a man of desires, yet you are so very calm. You feel to me, to be at peace despite your longing for return." Nim's voice now materialized, became corporeal and frank, "Why?! How have you come to terms?" Jealousy dug into Nimvahlis, deepening the great melancholia. He was a forest, wild and uncontrolled. He had never come to terms with this great separation from Leth, he realized. No, instead Nim had tried to bury the notion behind sweeping gestures of emotion. He had truly believed that the violet depressions, tranquil greens, and deep crimsons of anger might somehow paint himself in colors other than that of Leth. Try as he might to change it, Nim was left white and pale as a corpse. He had to find acceptance with something other than his mind. Nim stared at the stranger, turmoil churning in his eyes, "Circumstance has brought me here, brother. Yet aspiration shall make me stay."

[Pyxis]

"You may call me Nimvahlis, brother. Though I am not a traveler, I would gladly accept your offer of sanctuary." Pyxis wondered if this curious traveler would be more curious by the light of the moon. The thought was innocent enough, but the implications were startling. It was rare to find a fellow child of Leth, but the it was a bittersweet affair, equal parts reunion and renewed longing for that which might never be attainable again. Pyxis cleared his mind of the longing and focused on the reunion. It was a much easier task when the sun reigned over the heavens.

"My brother, you are a man of desires, yet you are so very calm. You feel to me, to be at peace despite your longing for return." Nim's voice now materialized, became corporeal and frank, "Why?! How have you come to terms?" Pyxis was taken back by the vulnerability the question revealed. Here was a troubled soul in search of a balm that no man could give him. Or could it be possible that the story of his rebirth might give this Ethaefal something to grab onto. He didn't know if he could tell a stranger such a shameful tale.

"Circumstance has brought me here, brother. Yet aspiration shall make me stay."

"I think that a hidden wisdom rests in your words." Pyxis felt a connection with this brother in Leth that had not been present in the other one. This one hadn't yet been infected with the badness. Hadn't yet given up on this mortal world. "I will gladly answer your question, as best I can, but first let us talk of less weighty subjects. I find that things of most import are easier to speak on when the moon shines over me. Share this log with me or, if you feel more comfortable in the water, I can join you near the shore."

[Nimvahlis]

Grass flattened as Nim's wings beat and he launched himself into the air. The Akvatari, so ungainly on land, maneuvered about the air as a dolphin in water. Nim fluttered toward the shore without a word, seeking to answer his brother's question with actions. The calm surface of the pond broke, sending concentric waves rippling away, as Nimvahlis settled in the shallow water. His eyes examined the waves slowly drifting off, growing ever wider. Where did my fish go? The fact that he no longer had lunch seemed unimportant now as he watched the waves, and anticipated answers.

He twisted back around to gaze up the stairway, at Pyxis. Nim was in dark depths, unable to see in the murky water. Through the depression though, he could see Pyxis' glowing outline at the end of the stairs. The journey from despair to hope was always a trying one, but Nim had aid. He stared at the man before him with a simmering brew of optimism. Not for the emotions that were present, but for those that would soon be. At any minute, the mental concoction could boil and spill over.

Nimvahlis wanted answers, and he knew he would get them. The word was solitary, but spoke volumes of anticipation, "Well?"

[Pyxis]

Pyxis walked over the edge of the water and crouched down. He put his hand on the cool mud that made up the boundary of wet and dry and then started to speak, "I was reborn in lake Ravok just over five years ago and almost made that lake my grave. My disorientation was such that I couldn't find up from down in those dark waters and I passed out and surely would have died if not for a kind old Benshiran traveler who pulled me out of the lake and carried me to his camp. When I woke my first thought wasn't one of gratitude towards the old man for saving my life, but one of great anguish over what I had lost. The loss attached itself to my mind and I couldn't push its dark tendrils out of my thoughts." His hand closed, mud barely pushing out between his fingers as he started to make a fist and then stopped. He relaxed his hand and cupped the mud with it as he stood up.

"The Benshiran proved to be a man of great kindness. He provided me with food, clothing, a place to sleep that night and the promise of a traveling companion as long as I needed one. He warned me of the evil that he had seen in Ravok and said that we would be traveling away from "that damned place" as soon as the sun greeted us again. He tried to cheer me up with tales of his people." Pyxis smiled and looked up over Nimvahlis's head toward some far off point in the sky. Then quickly returned his gaze to where he had picked up the mud.

"His kindness couldn't reach me, though. When I looked up at the moon that night I couldn't help but feel that I was merely the shadow cast by this corporeal form. So much splendor had been lost. Then, when the old man had retired for the night, the thought entered my head. What if there was a way that I could become reunited with Leth. At first I thought it impossible, but the thought's allure was maddening. The thought itself, like most thoughts, wasn't a bad thing in and of itself, but it lent itself to a sort of frenzied desperation." He stood up and paced along the edge of the water. He no longer looked at his fellow Ethaefal as he spoke. "I couldn't shake it anymore than I could shake those dark thoughts of what had been lost in my fall to Mizahar. It ate my alive that night and I did something that I will never make right." Pyxis stopped and the blood drained from his face. He balled up his fist as hard as he could and mud shot from between his fingers into the pond. Little ripples of water bounced off of Nimvalhis. "Just like that I put my hand around the old man's throat and squeezed the life out of him."

Pyxis didn't hide the tears that ran down his face as he stood at the bank looking at Nimvalhis. Then he spoke again, "I don't know why I killed him. Surely it would have been better to travel with a companion who knew this world, but it didn't matter. I had poisoned my mind with that thought, that false hope and I think I resented the Benshiran for the ease with which he lived in this place. I did know that I had done a great wrong and I cried out on that shore for forgiveness. I beat my chest and howled at the moon like the animal I had become. Then after a time I collapsed and fell quite. I rolled onto my back and looked up at the moon with a great sadness, but this sadness was different from what I had felt before. There was no self-pity left. I was not the one for which tears should be shed."

"It was that night that I decided, as I meditated under the moonlight, that I would no longer shame Leth with my actions. That I would always seek a way back to the divine, but that I would not forsake the living to do it. I would live as one that is truly part of both worlds. I don't know if that's what you were looking for, friend, or if you will ever call me that again after hearing my story, but I hope that some good will come out of my folly. Hopefully you will find the balance, as I have at such great cost."

[Nimvahlis]

A deep breath. Closed eyelids. His guilty smile. The Akvatari had closed his eyes when Pyxis' emotions had begun their rapid ignition, watching the volatile blue current surface and bloom from his body. The world was black to Nimvahlis but for the blues and violets churning about the outline of his companion. His aura penetrated Nim's shut eyes, a lone perimeter of cerulean light flaring in the void. A remarkable sadness, bound together by this recollection of distress. The hunger and persistent depression still lingered about his aura, in fact there was little new thus far. But such a strong reaction! Nimvahlis had collapsed before temptation almost instantaneously, desiring to watch the powerful emotions he had summoned play out. It was a drug to him, these moments of blinding color.

"More." An ethereal voice beckoned Nim, revealing a new height stretching into the empty sky. "It will be glorious..." to stand upon such a precipice was to know intimacy with each current of emotion. The sweet whispers continued to echo in Nim's head as he focused on Pyxis' aura. It was beyond beautiful, and though he did not glean any significant information, Nim felt connected on a base level to his Ethaefal kin. They were kindred spirits, and though they could not stay together for long, it was still pleasant to know that there were other beings harboring such deep seated melancholia.

Nimvahlis' eyes opened and his Djed began slowly receding as he allowed the focus to fade. Had he been a more lucid being, Nim would have realized that it had not been ten minutes since he had last viewed Pyxis' aura. However, the fact skipped over his conscience as he continued to bathe in the memory of his brother's aura.

The Akvatari spoke after a spell, jolting himself from his reverie and back to the colder world around him, "Sincerest apologies, Pyxis. I know all too well what you feel." Nim shifted uncomfortably, not from any physical displeasure, but instead from the odd sensation of emptiness he always discovered when he shifted from his fantasies to the mundane world. Truthfully, the weight behind Pyxis' words had not fully fell upon Nimvahlis, it was simply the feelings that drove them that he felt. To another being, murder may have been grounds for immediate departure, but such was not the case for Nim. Another smile, this time rather broad, broke out across Nim's face, "The nature of the balance most contemplate is a bit too precarious for one such as myself, though. We shall see what form of equilibrium I may find in time, perhaps I do not even desire it? I do not know." Nimvahlis Half heartedly changed the topic of conversation to something a few shades lighter, "What is it you do in these expanses of time we wander through?" His curiosity was still apparent, but not nearly so much as it had been not a chime ago.