His brow furrowed as he regarded his younger sister. "Today?" He prompted. "You still want to take them today? We don't want to be caught out in the Barrens once the wind picks up. I can feel the humidity in my bones, Tomo... This one is best waited out, I think."
She rolled her eyes and stomped a hoof. "You always say that," she retorted dismissively. "But these youngsters are eager, and Grandfather Tree wouldn't call to them if there were danger. We're preparing to leave just now. Are you coming?"
Feruzi cast a wary gaze around. He'd secured the den as he'd promised, but the leaves overhead still rustled warningly of stronger things to come. But Tomoha was adamant; she rarely backed down from a challenge. If she was to be caught in a storm, Feruzi didn't want her alone with two yearlings. He gave a nod and shot the doe an exasperated smile. "I would never turn down the opportunity to guide blossoming minds... I will join you."
They went.
The dark cloud cover and strong breeze made passing through the Barrens an arduous task. Feruzi doubted the desert would see the rainfall Homewood would, but with nothing to shield them from the powerful gusts of wind, the two yearlings were practically lifted off their hooves each time it battered against them. They didn't seem to mind. It even looked a bit as though they considered it a game in letting the wind catch them and hold them in its embrace for just a moment longer than was normal before they were able to bustle ahead until the next gust.
Feruzi could only stand to be pleased that the sun wasn't shining down on them. Its rays were unfathomably hot, though flecks of sand flying at his eyes and mouth weren't that much better. He and Tomoha took up a post on either side of the yearlings, doing their best to keep the worst of the sand grenades off the youngsters.
"Maybe Grandfather Tree will give me a gift to control sand!" The young buck piped up eagerly as he squinted through the blustering debris. "Then I'll keep us safe the whole way home!"
"Grandfather Tree doesn't give sand gifts," his young companion retorted matter-of-factly. "I'll get a wind gift to stop these gusts! I'll keep us safe."
Tomoha chuckled wryly. "Careful children. You never know what gift Grandfather Tree will provide, and you must remember to be grateful no matter what it is. He will decide what is best for you, and what will make you the best for Vykeli. But I promise he will never lead you astray. Even if it's not sand or a wind gift, it will suit you."
The younger doe turned to Tomoha, long mane flapping violently in the wind. "What's your gift?"
She lifted her head proudly, despite the onslaught of sand, and Tomoha called to the wind, so that the youngsters would hear her over the gusts. "Vivify! If either of you are harmed during the storm, I will see you healed!"
The younger buck turned to Feruzi. "And yours?"
"Hm..." Feruzi smiled at the youngster's question, and in the interim before he answered, all three of the noulicorns with him had turned their gazes to him expectantly. "Well, my time hasn't come yet," Feruzi said with a shrug. "I wouldn't want to encroach upon Grandfather Tree before he has called me. And so, I wait."
This received a flurry of chatter. The children were concerned. Was it their time? Had they been called? What if Grandfather Tree decided it wasn't? Then they had braved this sandy windstorm for nothing! They didn't feel any different today than they had yesterday!
But Feruzi only laughed softly. "I suppose we'll see."
In the wake of Grandfather Tree's sheer size and great presence within his dominion, the winds lessened. Feruzi could see it before they'd even fully approached. The clouds had parted over Grandfather Tree's canopy, creating a halo of sunshine that turned the white bark stark and blinding. The branches were still as if no wind blew, and stray sand particles seemed to shimmer in the air around in. Feruzi gaped in awe.
He had joined his sister in escorting youngsters to Grandfather Tree many times. Many, many times he had seen the great white oak towering over him and all who approached.
But never did it hum to him, reach for him as it did now.
While the others stopped to catch their breath from the storm in the security of Grandfather Tree's embrace, Feruzi's legs carried him forward.
"Brother?" Tomoha called after him, though she made no attempt to follow.
Feruzi only barely heard her. His gaze was fixed on nothing but the sunlit beacon as it called to him, and he felt almost helpless to refuse the call. His body moved without his bidding. "It is my time," he answered reverently as his hooves came to stand at the base of Grandfather Tree's massive trunk, green eyes staring upward into an unfathomably distant canopy.
Quote:
You find yourself in the ruins, deep inside a unit built by the Others. The musty smell of old paper fills your nose as you realize you're surrounded by books. None of them are written in a language you understand.
What do you do?
What do you do?
It was overcast today. Feruzi turned his face to the sky, inhaling the warm, thick scent of moisture on the wind. With the sun obscured by cloud cover and a breeze tickling the air, it was an opportune day to stretch his old joints outside the copse of trees that served as home.
Feruzi was no stranger to the Ruins of Erli. In his youth, he had sprung up side stairways, wedged himself into rooms so deep as to be hidden from sunlight, hoarded trinkets left behind by the Others in search of each item's purpose. So many noulicorns shunned anything left behind by those that came before them, but if there were valuables to be collected or resources to be utilized, shouldn't they do their best to see that nothing went to waste? And if noulkind put in the effort to learn of what practices took place here, they could try to ensure that no one followed the same destructive path of the Others.
The items here could mean something, if only anyone was interested in learning what.
Feruzi wanted to know, and so he hoarded. When his collection had overrun his thicket in Homewood, he'd laid claim to a habitation unit deep within the Ruins, out of the way of most exploring noulicorns. He'd gathered his items and tucked them away, down a staircase and into a basement of his chosen unit. Here, he kept his collection organized.
There were metal prongs and blades and scoops that the others kept in drawers. So Feruzi had taken the drawers and stacked them in a corner. There were cans that sloshed when shaken, and after giving one an experimental stomp to crack it open, he'd discovered they were filled with the Other's source of odd-smelling nutrition. He lined them neatly along a back wall. Here he had baskets filled with towels and blankets. Over there the remains of powered appliances. Tucked in a nook were the bright and colorful games and toys that he expected must have belonged to their children.
And lined on a shelf, Feruzi kept the Other's tomes. He could not read their language, and he'd never had luck finding anyone who could. But he couldn't let their words go to waste, so he kept them, along with everything else.
It was on a gathering expedition that he'd stumbled into a particularly far-away unit that was filled with almost nothing but books. They lined every shelf of tall bookcases. They littered the tables. A few scattered piles dotted the floors. This unit in particular was massive compared to most Feruzi had been in, and there was no way to transport all that he had found to his own space. ...But it would be a shame to leave them open on the floor, with pages flapping in the wind and leaves and dust scratching across whatever messages they carried.
They would need to be preserved.
It wasn't a task to be completed in a day, but Feruzi found that he didn't mind the work. Everything here could be organized as he did with his own items. These books could be put into neat stacks. The ones left on the tables and floor could be returned to the shelves so that only their bindings were exposed to debris, and the pages were kept safe. The ones with pictures could be set aside to be riffled through later. Perhaps he could glean something from those.
'Why?' He could hear his younger sister demanding of him. 'Why should we waste time on the riddles of those who destroyed our world? Our time should be given to fixing what they ruined!'
Feruzi agreed. Of course Feruzi agreed. He wanted to see a Vykeli as peaceful and luscious as all the stories said it had once been. But he was not so foolish as to expect it in his lifetime. And in understanding what had caused the Others' downfall, perhaps they could forge an easier path to fixing what they'd left behind. Their books were written memoirs, reservoirs of their knowledge and actions. He couldn't read them. Feruzi doubted any living noul could.
But there were more than just living nouls left behind. One day, a powerful vivify ascended may stumble upon a single crushed bone in the Ruins. That bone may have been around since before the Others departed. It may have belonged to a creature that had spoken to them. It may have understood their language. It may have even been able to read their tomes... Such a creature didn't exist, yet, but it one day might.
And when it did, Feruzi would be pleased to have it decipher the tomes he kept in his habitation unit, and if he was very lucky, perhaps the ones here would be well-enough preserved to be read from.
Until then, he would wait, tidying these as best as he could and bringing back to his unit any he thought looked especially promising.
