The Naturalistic

CHAPTER 7

The thought keeps spinning inside my head, I know it's totally fine, I mean what's even wrong with Rick being my trainer? It just feels. . . Different. Maybe because from the past two days he was completely ignoring me and now out of nowhere he happens to be training me. 

I sigh and try to keep the thought away from my mind as much as possible. Gloria told me that the library is underground, I descend the stairs and the smell of books fill inside me, Oh heavens! Entering the library feels like entering a huge maze which is full of books, with wooden polished floor and shelves. I look around, letting it all sink inside me.

 For me library just cannot simply be a room full of books, it's a place where thousands of stories live, it's a place where the reader feels a piece of himself in every book he or she reads, it's a place where words speak to us, they make a special place inside our heart and they stay forever there, it's where a reader gets a chance to live in so many different worlds that he would have never imagined. It's not less than any kind of magic. It simply cannot be just a room filled with books. 

I think of Jason, we both used to love reading, often used to fight over books and then Mom, she would shout at us because we used to shout at each other, doesn't make any sense right? It was us after all. A smile spreads across my face, full with the pain of those memories, at least I've got the memories. And them . . . I was never a part of their life for them. I wipe the tears away before they fall down my cheek. I hope he's taking good care of our parents. I hope.

Gloria had given me the list of books to read and their rack numbers, so I go and collect them all.

 I sit on one of the chairs and place all those books on the table in front of me.  I pick the first book, titled 'The History of Akonia - Volume I'. God knows how many volumes I have to read of these ones. The book is almost all about, how this land came into existence, the names of the neighbouring empires, the names of the rulers, their reign from year to year, their Houses etc. I try to remember it as much as it's possible.

There's a part in the book about the literature and language of this Empire. It states that ancient Akonia had a language of the pictogram, just like ancient Egyptian civilization. Different pictures and symbols have many different meanings. 

As I turn the page, I find seven different symbols drawn on it, below each symbol it's written, ' guarded by-' and then a name, also to which house does each of it belongs, no they aren't symbols, but emblems of each house. I understand the Houses as Gloria explained them to me before, but the names. . . I can't understand them. As I read further, it all comes under the roof.

It starts with-

House Raydon, Symbol - Fire in the background with a roaring lion on it. Guarded by - Fesa, the Goddess of Fire.

House Caldor, Symbol - Forest in the background with a white wolf on it, Guarded by - Edza, the Goddess of Earth.

House Reeze, Symbol - Air in the background with a falcon on it. Guarded by - Azoe, the God of Air.

House Ileron, Symbol - Ocean in the background with a mythical sea dragon on it, Guarded by - Wieth, the Goddess of Water.

House Gryend, Symbol - Mist in the background with a white owl on it. Guarded by - Salz, the Goddess of Spirt.

House Palidon, Symbol - Half eclipse and half-moon in the background with reindeer on it, Guarded by - Lhem, the God of Light.

House Merdiza, Symbol - Shield in the background with a roaring bear on it. Guarded by - Myahr, the God of Metals. 

While all of the Houses are guarded by a single God or Goddess, all of the Akonia is guarded by them, together. So this is the reason why Akonia is also called as the Empire of Elements and also from where all of the people born here get their powers from.  As I go on reading, I discover the depths of this Empire.