Author's note:
So before we start, this is a work of fanfiction. I do not presume any of you have ever heard of this book before, but I wanted to tell you anyway. This is one of my all time favourites and I hope I can take you all to this magical world.
A bomb exploded a few yards away from the rainbow demoiselle, far too close for comfort. The humans that had been living on Afroi in relative peace with nature for the last century, had finally taken up the weapons.
If they could not control the Afroini who had been living there since before time, they would destroy them all. Then no one would have this beautiful world to treasure and enjoy.
The rainbow demoiselle didn't let the fire stop them, but continued on their journey to the dome where the human soldiers were coming from. They needed to find out all the information they could find, no other spy would be able to get close enough. And all other forms of communication had been destroyed by researchers. They had called it an evolution of mental technology.
It wasn't, it had only made the dome and the surrounding three lémai a dead place.
Nothing would grow there anymore, even the flaming trees of the wandering woods left it alone. All telepathic communication was impossible, and after several attempts by the Afroini that had ended in disaster, were stopped.
They had been given a mission and they would finish it no matter what happened, it was too important to falter and fail now.
Rrisi, fly and find Petra and Igor, lead them home.
Sstrra had held them in his hands and whispered encouragement in their mind. These two humans had been held captive in the dome when the contact had been broken. The Afroini feared they would end up hurt, the longer they stayed with the hostile humans.
The soft whispers of the Elder had fallen into silence during the first scuffles together with those of the human speaker. The rainbow demoiselle might not understand everything, but they did know when a life was returned to the ground it came from.
Silence suffocated the air as the both sides held their breath. Did the bomb hit its target and was it over once and for all?
A victory scream sounded through the air, the rainbow demoiselle ignored it and continued their path.
Almost there.
There was a blockade ahead, one that would have stopped the Afroini from coming closer. It didn't prove to be a big challenge for the rainbow demoiselle.
They flew over it and took their time looking at the two humans hiding behind the wall.
You could never be too careful while being in the space of someone who is bigger and stronger than you. All the little things can help to keep you and your loved ones safe.
The two soldiers were armed and in army clothes, their faces obscured by the gas masks humans persisted in wearing. It was unnecessary, the air on Afroi was clear and safe for them, but they used it as a last resort to prove themselves different.
Leaving the soldiers behind was as easy as finding them had been. They merely hoped they wouldn't hurt the Afroini when the fights would continue again.
The dome wasn't far away anymore, yet the rainbow demoiselle had not yet seen Petra and Igor, the people they had been sent to find.
They had to be somewhere, but if they were locked inside the dome there would be little the Afroini could do for them. For everyone involved, it was best to hope that was not the case.
Rrisi.
A whisper in the stagnant air was all it took for the rainbow demoiselle to deviate to the left. Away from the dome and closer to the wandering woods, where the flaming trees stood as mighty as ever.
Where are forests, hot as fire.
The woods of Afroi held the answer to a long forgotten poem, written by a human on earth who had only heard about Afroi as the planet Venus. The morning star, rising with the sun as a blinding light in the sky.
It was in those very woods that the rainbow demoiselle found the humans leaning against a tree. They were old, maybe even as old as the young tree they were standing by. Reverently touching its bark that cooled to the touch of their hands.
The rainbow demoiselle had never met them, only knew them from the image the human speaker had placed in their mind.
A tall woman in a white dress with flaming hair the same as the trees she was walking by. The man walking by her side, smaller, sturdier, and with a huge smile on his face as they held hands.
The people standing by the tree were not the same as from the image. Age had changed their appearance, but not the way their eyes found each other under the safety of the flaming trees. Hands touching in silent communication with the mind and soul of Afroi.
A karmill was close by and the rainbow demoiselle landed on the bright red flower. They needed to get closer to the humans and lead them to safety, flowers were a good landing spot for that.
Hello, rrisi, who are you looking for?
The mental blocks the humans had placed at the dome and its surroundings, were too weak or too fai away as the words easily came from the man's mind to their own.
Petra and Igor, the friends of the human speaker. Sstrra asked me to find you and bring you to the karmill fields where the others are waiting.
A picture of the valley between the mountains and the wandering woods, filled with bright red flowers accompanied the words.
The humans had never been that far into Afroini territory before though they had seen the occasional flower. They knew what was meant nonetheless and left the dome and its human inhabitants behind.
I found them, Sstrra.
I heard you, friend, we will stop the humans from following.
The humans didn't hear the flood wave coming before they and their dome were washed away.
Author's note:
So I hoped this was an understandable story, or as well as any fanfiction can be understood without knowing the source material. I took a few liberties with the translation of names and places as the book itself does not exist in English.
Where are forest, hot as fire | From R. L. Stevenson Travel
