Dawn's Light

Chapter 20: Interlude

Light flooded a room full of bright green plants. The branches were laden with bright rounded fruits that were just beginning to be ripe for the picking. All of the massive plants with their leaf covered branches reached towards the source of the light, a lantern dangling from the ceiling.

The lantern was made with a black metal hung from the ceiling by a chain of the same metal. Yet inside of it was not a flame; instead, there was a golden sphere. It glowed like a yellow moon and gave life to the greenery surrounding it.

Suddenly, someone walked into the room through a wooden door that squealed on ancient metal hinges, "Ah, the garden," she sighed in bliss, "my favorite place in the entire country," the feminine voice exhaled in relief as the thin figure noisily walked on the gravel paths that snaked between the trees.

"Even after all of my life, I am still amazed that though we are so far underground, this is the only place where greenery thrives in its former glory." She smiled softly at the nature as she found a place to sit in the light at the base of a tree, then sat down in the short green grass.

Her light bronze skin was atypical those who lived in the moonlit land. Her deep brown hair was tied up in a bun that exposed her small pointed ears and complimented brilliant slightly-slanted green eyes. Her brown sleeveless shirt exposed much of her tanned arms, and her tight black pants reached all the way down to her bare ankles and bare feet. In the eyes of her kind, she was beautiful.

As she leaned against the tree, a creature approached her and sniffed her hands for treats, then made a short gruff as it looked up to her face, disappointed by the lack of a present. To further show disappointment, it sat down, then hunched over and flattened its ears as its large eyes looked up to the woman.

"No, I don't have a treat for you today, but maybe next time." She spoke with a smile on her face as she reached up to stroke the creature's dark brown fur striped with lighter golden markings. On its face, dark markings lined its eyes and the sides of its muzzle like mystic runes, while its long tail swayed back and forth like a hypnotizing pendulum. It's forward facing brown eyes focused on the female for a moment, then turned towards a rustling sound to the right of the human.

"Sister, I knew you would come here." A soft male voice stated as a man emerged from behind several of the bushes. "You know the Royals do not like people to touch the leomah, so why do you consistently come here and pet them when you could so easily get in trouble." The man looked strikingly similar to the woman with similar hair, eyes, and pointed ears. He was shirtless body showed off his slightly bronzed skin over rippling muscled covered in pale scars.

"I know brother, but they are so friendly, especially this one. Kiki is my friend." She smiled as the brown and brass creature, a leomah, gently licked her hand. "Look at this fierce predator." she cooed and scratched the creature behind its ears and earned a soft, happy roar in response.

She paused for a brief moment, then looked at the more muscular male figure. "Why are you here?" She narrowed her eyes in suspicion and set her knifelike gaze straight into his eyes.

"You gave it a name?" The female's brother sighed in frustration, then shook his head in minor frustration. "I was looking for you, because you are supposed to be home, where father wants you to stay. You know father does not like when you come here," He looked her straight into her eyes, "and I am reminded again that somehow, despite the fact our kind's homeland has been dead and we are trapped down here like weak worms, you are still always happy here."

"You made it sound like it's a bad thing," Hytha blinked. "we have everything we could ever need down here: light," she motioned to the hanging sphere, "food," she motioned to the vast number of fruit-bearing trees in the garden, "and all of the forest we could ever ask for." She pointed to the vast expanse of taller trees away from the inner circle of light.

"But it's not real! The sunlight is not the real sun! We are underground in stupid a cave! We should be sitting in the real sun in a real forest." He stomped his foot like a child in a tantrum.

"Those stupid greedy monsters stole the sun! It is their fault everything in our homeland died!" He ranted and paced a bit, "the only plants left of our once glorious forest live underground like worms instead of towering over the land like their sky-touching ancestors. And we should be up there with them!"

"Calm down, you look like you want to kill something." The younger sibling frowned at the older being's antics, but had no real argument against his angrily exclaimed points, "Though knowing you, that is probably true. You seem to always want to go and kill something. So why not go release those feelings on a hunt and donate the kill to a widow or something?"

"We are not supposed to be trapped down here!" He bellowed again as he went over and punched one of the fruit trees to release his frustration and cabin fever, only for the shaking branches to drop some of the solid hard orange fruit which fell upon his head like rain. Infuriated but slightly calmed, he spoke again, "I am going to go hunt so we have food to eat for the next few days, so will you pick up the fruit off of the ground? Take it home and we will eat it with our meat."

"Why should I?" She huffed as he walked deeper into the garden to search for other animals to catch since those nearby were scared away by the leomah's presence. "You were the one that made the fruit fall," she crossed her arms in defiance, "so you should be the one to pick the fruit up."

"Just to it, please? I will owe you a favor." He sighed and rubbed the bridge of his nose, annoyed by the fact that he had to give away a coved favor that Hytha could do anything she wanted with. "But just one favor! Not one favor per piece of fruit, one favor total. I cannot be clear enough about that."

Hytha weighed the offer in her mind, then gave in and accepted the favor in trade to clean up the strong man's mess, "All right, I will clean up your mess," she taunted him as she pet Kiki behind the ears one last time, then stood to her feet and approached the fallen orange fruit. Once she had gathered them by using the bottom part of her shirt as a basket, she looked up to the lantern high above her head and whispered to herself so softly only she and the tree could hear her words. "I have a feeling we will be able to go back to our native homeland soon"

Author Notes!
Hello!
I got two chapters done this week so I am going to update tomorrow as well!
See you then!