Genesis

Chapter 20: Direction

One would think that, with the ability to fly, it would be nearly impossible to fall out of a tree without doing so on purpose. Yet here I was, brushing dirt off of my tongue with my hand, having falling over a hundred feet to the forest floor while dreaming. At least I was unbreakable.

I gazed up out of the corner of my eye to look upon Cyren crouching low on the branch and laughing down at me heartily. Over the past couple of weeks he and Aura had been schooling me on their home, D'karia, which he had forced me to learn how to say correctly over the course of an hour, and the lands of Adjutor and what they had seen here. But they had yet to tell me where we were going.

We were heading east, and had drawn significantly close to the mountain range I had seen on my first few minutes awake on this planet. I would have encountered it eventually, but it seemed to be a part of the royal duos destination, so I had to follow. They hadn't told me much about the eastern side of the mountains, or what we may find within the mountains, but they had lectured me a lot on flora and fauna of the west.

Aura was incredibly knowledgeable about the different plants and animals. She could nearly describe each one without pause. She could be lying to me for all I knew. Who was I to not believe what she had to say?

The most intriguing thing so far was a two headed, pitch black rhino she had called the al'ghoran. I preferred rhino. It was easier to say. Aura claimed that at full speed the creature could barrel completely through one of the large trees. I mentioned that I wanted to test their strength on my own body, but she wouldn't even let me get close after I made the comment.

Aura explained to me how to use the movement of the al'ghoran to track smaller sources of food. Because of their size their movements sent massive tremors through the earth, which caused burrowers, Aura had called padara, to leave their hollows underground and move to the surface until the tremors had passed. When that happened, if we were quick enough, we could catch them and cook them for our meal that day. Otherwise we would have to resort to nuts and berries from around the forest, which got pretty bland after a while. Meat was way better.

I leapt into the air and flew back up to the branch Cyren was on. Aura was already making her way down the trunk of the tree. She and Cyren were little daredevils, but I had yet to see them falter. If they did, I would catch them long before they touched the ground.

"You are a graceful faller," Cyren joked as I came within earshot.

"Stop. I did not do that on purpose."

"I am well aware. You were sleeping soundly when you rolled off. Aura watched you as well, but lost interest when she saw you survived," he continued to joke.

"What do you want me to carry?" I asked, ignoring his crude humor.

He chucked a large bag full of food and water skins to me. "We will need to fill up the skins today. They are running dry, but carry that."

"Thanks Einstein, I understood that you wanted me to carry it when you threw it to me."

"Who is Einstein?"

"Some smart guy back on Earth."

"Is he a friend of yours?" he asked.

"He is quite dead," I chuckled and, with a salute, dropped to the ground.

I landed just as Aura reached the bottom and threw the bag to her. "Cyren says he wants you to carry this."

Aura sidestepped without pause. "I doubt my brother asked you to carry it down to pass it on to another."

"Someone is intelligent," I said humorously.

"I do not see that as an insult, Skyboy. Thank you," Aura retorted. "You should retrieve my brother. He seems stuck."

I gazed back up into the tree to see Cyren awkwardly attempting to maneuver his body around the large branch to climb down the trunk. "How did you see that? You didn't even look up."

Aura shrugged.

I laughed and shot into the air to retrieve Cyren.

We began our trek further east as soon as Cyren and I landed. He made a few comments about how he could have handled it himself, but resorted to his usual silence once we started to move.

We traveled for a few hours before I decided to ask the question that had been on my mind for a while. It wasn't the first time I had brought the question up, but they always seemed to find a way to avoid it. This time I wasn't going to let them.

Aura strolled into a clearing ahead of Cyren and me and decided that it would be a good place to stop for lunch. She sat on the cool grass before either Cyren or I reached her. I sat there patiently, slowly eating away at the padara meat while I contemplated how I would pop the question.

I eventually sighed, resenting the fact that I couldn't come up with some clever way to ask such a simple question. "Where are we going?" I finally asked.

"We move east," Cyren replied the same way as he always had.

"I know that. That's clear enough to me," I retorted. "But what I want to know is exactly where we are going, and why we're going there."

"How are you so certain our direction is not random?"

"Because I see little reason to travel at all if we aren't going somewhere."

Cyren nodded.

"There is no cause to keep him in the dark, brother. We can be certain by now that he can be trusted," Aura said, defending my case.

"I agree with her!" I said, nodding to Aura.

Cyren chuckled, "I believe you are right, sister. I have been overly cautious with our friend."

"Are you prepared to hear it, Skyboy?"

"As ready as I'll ever be."

They were starting to make it sound like it was the most well-kept secret ever.

"We travel to Siela Rumai," Cyren began. "The Temple of Souls. It is tucked away six hundred miles beyond the eastern mountains, which will still take us a few days to reach, and then another few days to pass through."

"That's a long walk," I commented.

"It may take us nearly a month to reach it," Cyren agreed.

"And why is it we are headed there?"

"You remember the Guri?" Aura asked, taking over.

"Of course. They're not something I would easily forget."

"The Kalju Isa constructed Siela Rumai thousands of years ago. Do you recall our mention of the ancient Elidin that allowed our travel here?"

"Again, yes."

"Siela Rumai acts as a much greater gateway than the Elidin ever could. The temple is living stone, as the Guri are. It is among the greatest constructs the Kalju Isa ever built, apart from the birth of their own people. They combined the full might of their anima to bring forth the life of Siela Rumai."

"What do you intend to do with it?"

"We intend for it to bring us home," Cyren said.