Another Short

By Suki

I've been on a writing spree lately due to the large amount of positive feedback I've been receiving about Halcyon. This is a short story I wrote last night from the first person perspective. The story picks up where the last section ends, give or take a few events. I welcome any feedback you have to give on, positive or negative. Thanks for reading and enjoy.

Waking Up

Aramia

We've been floating out here in the ether between worlds for nearly a millennia, though it's hard to say how long anything lasts here. My vessel is at peace here, so I too am washed with the feeling of contentment.
As we float above the world, I can look down and watch the inhabitants of our island go about their lives. They look the same as they did when we left, but Halcyon has changed because of them. There are several roads that girdle the land and large barriers that separate the forests from the towns. They've found a way to manipulate their world to work for them in a way we could never have imagined.
I urge my vessel to open her eyes and look down with me at our home, but she doesn't respond. This place is difficult for her to stay awake in, but I think she doesn't really want to try either. She wants to stay in her dreams, remembering back to the days when the world belonged to us.
The currents around us were calm and I settled down on my belly, letting my tail curl around me so I could cushion my head on it. I spent most of my time peering down at the world below me; I didn't want to forget how beautiful life was there. The activities of the Halcyities, destructive though they may be, were fascinating to me. They had built wondrous machines out of ores they manipulated with fire; they had even conquered the sky! I wondered if anyone could sense us when they flew beneath our improvised hideout.
I felt many things when I looked down at Halcyon. It was jealousy mostly. I longed to feel the cool earth beneath my feet and to taste the air in the forests again. I had been urging her to wake for so long, but she shut me out, lost in some other time. I wondered if she was dreaming about being home again too; perhaps that's why I had this desperate need to leave this place.
When we first came to be in this place, when she was in her deepest thoughts, I could smell her memories. Some were from before we even met; they were cold and dank, like the sea cave where she used to play as a child. Most of them were of some other place I had never been with her; somewhere sweet and spicy, mixed with the smell of fish and open markets. It was a place where many gathered; I could smell all their essences mixing together. It was overwhelming to explore this place with her. I could smell things so much stronger than her that it made me nauseous to stay in this place with her for too long. Maybe this is why she picked this memory to hide things from me in, because she knew I would shy away from it.
It had worked; when I felt her coming back to that place, I'd disconnect from her. Now she was so close to being awake, I couldn't get back to her unless she let me in. I knew that would never happen. She was still angry with me after all this time.
As we passed over the little Boat Town, I saw a young man sitting on the docks, looking out over the water. He felt just like any other Soul, simple and kind, but I could feel something in my vessel react to his nature. She wanted to know more about him; it was the first time in over a hundred years she had even shown an interest in the real world. I stood up and stretched, yawning as though her needs were a trivial matter to me while trying to hide the excitement in my body. I settled across her chest and began telling her all about this man.
He was smaller than most men on the island and his skin was considerably lighter than it should be for a native, but he smelled of the woods in a way only a True Son could. His hair was long, dark, and shaggy. His hands were mostly callus.
“But what is he like?” she asked, whining slightly.
I smiled; she was almost back.
He's frowning. It makes little lines around his mouth. He's slouched forward; I'm afraid he may slide off into the sea if he sinks any lower.
“What sort of Mark does he have?”
The same one everyone in this little town does, but his is bright red. And there's some...smudging at the bottom, like it was drawn on with ink and he touched his wrist to something. The life ribbon's a little turned, like it was meant to be seen as three dimensional.
“Move off me; I want to see him for myself.”
I sat up and looked into her eyes as she opened them for the first time since she created this place. They were watery; the light was probably excruciatingly bright to her. After watching her wipe away her tears, I pressed my head to her forehead to welcome her back. She pushed me off her like I was nothing.
“I hate when you do that! It so...fox-like.”
I rolled over onto my back, letting my tongue loll out of my mouth. “Is this better?”
“No, not really,” she said sourly.
Rocking back onto my stomach, I stretched my legs out in front of me and rested my head on them so I could be comfortable during our analysis of the man. I could hear her struggling to force her legs to move; she hadn't anticipated the toll that this long rest would have on her body. I could feel my muscles pulling stiff joints, forcing them to move again. I shook it off, trying to remain disconnected from her until the pain passed and focus solely on the man on the dock.
There was something off about him that I hadn't noticed before. My body ached with the pull of dry skin, so brittle it could snap. He seemed to be surrounded by an odd sense of gloom, but emitting such a bright light from his being. My lungs seemed heavy, still filled with the smoke from that day. He definitely didn't have the complexion of a native islander.
“Aramia, I know this is difficult for you, but do you think you could shut up for a second. It's impossible to focus with your thoughts running through my head.”
I sighed. She was always like this after she slid. Age, it seemed, did not bring wisdom to our race. I felt a ripple of relief run through my muscles and into my bones; I was finally on my feet.
“It took you long enough.”
Our movement was still stiff, but our body was responding quicker than it had when it first woke up. She was surprised to see that I was still living inside the fox's body when hers was now open.
“I'm rather fond of this one. It's oddly comfortable in here.”
“Whatever. If you're going to wear that thing you're going to keep out of my brain.”
“Fine.”
She shuffled over to me and clumsily sank to her knees, her muscles quivering the whole way down.
“You see him?”
“Yes.”
“He's interesting, isn't he?”
“Yes. I wonder why he's so glum.”
“You can ask him yourself now that we can leave this place.”
“Who said anything about leaving? Why would I leave after I went through all the trouble of creating it?”
I cocked my head over my shoulder and looked into her eyes. “Because you've been sliding down there and now that you're back here, you can't stand not being home.”
She smiled. “I guess you know me better than I'd like to admit, Aramia.”
I stood up and she sighed; she had allowed herself to attach to my body when I moved to learn how to control her muscles. She was always looking for a quick fix. Walking around her with a deliberateness I detested, I settled next to her (much to her disappointment; she would have had me parade back and forth the next ten years to relearn walking). I nestled into the curve between her waist and hips and laid my head on her stomach.
“You're my oldest companion; I know you like I know myself.”
“I hate it. That's where I spent most of my time; in the years before I didn't know you. The time in my life when I was free.”
“I know. I'd let you go if I could. Locking us here won't separate us. You know that now.”
She sighed and let her hand slide onto my head. She ruffled my ears. “I guess we're stuck with each other.”
She rolled onto her stomach and peered down at her home. She held her head in her hands and kicked her legs in a childish way. “It's changed so much. Look at all those buildings! And those...”, she searched our mind for the word, “trains. To think that something so big could be moved by water!”
“They're an ingenious race. They bend everything to their needs.”
“What about him?” she asked pointing at our glowering subject.
“I suppose he does too.”
She frowned. “There's just something not right about him. Look! He's talking to himself now, in broad daylight.”
I focused in on him fully now that I wasn't dragging her around in my mind. Our minds combined and we began to search for his identity.
“Hylen,” we said together.
“That's an old sounding name,” she mused.
We looked deeper into the world around him, searching for further information about him.
“He's a...wilderness guide. What's that mean, Aramia?”
“He takes people on nature tours. He's an only child.”
“He lives in a inn ran by his mother.”
“His father was a diplomat from Main; that's why he's so much lighter than everyone else. He doesn't know.”
As we plunged ourselves deeper into the world around him, we became aware of an outside source trying to fight us off. Barriers were popping up around information we'd normally have no problem accessing. It was if an imperceivably vast wall had suddenly materialized around everything he had was connected to.
She continued to search for a way around the guard while I stayed on the perimeter seeking the one who fought us so strongly. Every where she went she encountered the vast wall; she was becoming frantic. What if we can't get out either?
“You are not welcome in my realm, Aramia,” a familiar voice called from beyond the wall. “Isn't two vessels enough for you? All I've got is this one and he's not very talented.”
“Oh no.”
We pulled out. We were both breathless from the struggle with the barrier. Her body was trembling from the strain of holding us here.
“Who...the hell...was that?” she said, gasping.
“It looks like there really is something special about that boy.”
“Answer,” she commanded.
I flinched at the order. “That was Cero and he's taken up residence in that boy. That's probably who he was talking to a minute ago.”
“Took up residence...you mean, he bonded to him, like you did to me.”
“Yes.”
She stood up, her legs almost crumpling beneath her weight.
“Come on,” she called to me. “We can't stay here forever.”
“Oh, now you want to leave? I swear, whenever there is a man involved your interest suddenly spikes.”
She bent down and picked me up. She held me tight to her body, perhaps a little tighter than necessary, and for the first time since we met, she spoke to me with her heart.
“We have to go because I can't let him be as lost as I was.”
The current that we had been drifting on in the ether slowed and dipped; she could feel it leaving her. The veil of haze began to dissolve and below us we could see the beautiful world we left behind so long ago. An anxiety rose in me that I had never felt before; we were finally waking up.