Neophyte World Builder

Chapter 142: Over Air and Sea

PLUME

The brilliant colors of the late-day sun were something to behold in this strange place. Something in the sky above made the usual band of light that gave illumination to the land stand out in a cascade of colors here, and Plume didn’t pretend to understand it. The strange but beautiful effect was one of the reasons that he and Farflier had chosen to stay here so long, though few others were able to appreciate it.

That was an unfortunate detail Plume had learned in his previous life. While he had treasured his elven friends, it had taken a long time for him to understand that they didn’t see the world the same way he and his kind did. They struggled to tell rooken apart from one another even when each was distinctly and obviously different. He’d finally come to realize that the elves didn’t see the intricate patterns of rooken plumage… only subtle variations of a solid color.

Likewise, they weren’t able to see many of the dazzling displays of color in the world around them. As he had met some of the other intelligent species of the world, Plume began to understand that very few of them shared this ability… but he’d never thought he’d be in a community where he could speak of such things freely.

“The enemy retreats. Many days of safety.”

Plume rustled his feathers and stretched as the clicking and buzzing noises behind him gave their report. He stretched aching muscles – he was getting old again – and turned to regard Mouthpiece. It was a weird name, but the ‘underfoot’ as they called themselves were a bizarre culture all their own, one that had taken time for him to understand even a little. Their language couldn’t be properly spoken by any others, not even rooken with their innate mimicry, at least not without magic. The rough and simple constructed language that they could both speak struggled to communicate some concepts easily.

In his day, they’d simply been called the Scourge… and most of their kind remained that way.

According to Mouthpiece, his own people regarded those who merely consumed and moved forward as primitive and ‘unenlightened’ variants of their people. They had no qualms with fighting or killing them, and Plume had seen Mouthpiece fight with brutal efficiency. It made him uncomfortable, given that his first encounter with the elves had been from the perspective of a less advanced people.

Then again, he’d never tried to eat elves. That does change the need to rationalize a fair bit.

“Will they stop?” Plume asked this again, as he did almost every time.

This time the answer was different. “One day. The harm grows too large.”

Plume nodded, then started walking toward the large structure on the shore. The rough grasses under his talons gave way to coarse sand, then transitioned to the composite material that the underfoot built with. The settlement here sprawled across land and sea, offering a multi-cultural meeting ground between rooken, underfoot, and the strange haptix that had lived with the underfoot for generations.

Mouthpiece walked alongside him without comment. The hard-shelled creatures – which Plume had learned were quite different from the insects he had assumed them to be related to – turned out to be industrious workers when they weren’t obsessed with eating. They didn’t build with wood, which was in short supply in this region anyway, but instead some strange mix of the shells from the sea, underwater plant fiber, and their own shed carapace from their molts.

Some of these slats of springy composite had Plume’s own molted feathers in them. Integrating his shed feathers into their building material had been the underfoot’s way of telling him and Farflier that they had been accepted into the community.

The rounded dome of the hospital was his current objective. Mouthpiece knew what was on Plume’s mind, and walked alongside in an offer of companionship that made the rooken’s heart ache. This place knew nothing of elves, but if the blue bipeds had been here, Plume was sure they’d be equally welcomed. The intricate mesh of each of the three species that lived here was something akin to paradise, after all the more violent and strange communities he’d run across with his old friend.

They were almost to the hospital when the notification hit.

The name was unfamiliar. The class was unfamiliar. But the context was all Plume needed to rush forward, hopping up and gliding over the walkways toward the entrance. The realm of Dream… which meant sleeping. Just as Farflier had been asleep for nearly a day, unable to be stirred no matter how Plume or the others had tried.

He barged into the room, causing a couple of the underfoot to look up in confusion. “Farflier?”

The aging rooken looked up with a shudder through his body. The pool next to him – leading directly outside to the sea – splashed lightly as the arms of the haptix retreated from their investigation. The undulating tendrils shifted in the signage of what the physician had found. No physical maladies but a minor lack of water. Whatever magical effect had ensorcelled the rooken was gone now.

Farflier chirped and stretched his wings… only to get a ruffling hug from Plume as he embraced his old friend. “I was worried you were gone! How do you feel? What happened?”

The haptix gestured for Plume to step away, but Farflier just gave a cackling laugh.

“I’m fine, old friend.” Farflier gave Plume a light push. “Let the doctor finish, I’m sure she’ll want to give me a more thorough examination. I’ll tell you what I remember when I have a chance.”

Mouthpiece had caught up by now, and asked the obvious question. “You of the people the announcement spoke?”

Again, Farflier made a dismissing motion. “Yes, but I don’t remember much about it. I wasn’t a rooken, yet I could fly. The others were very strange. It’s all very muddled and confusing, but I have a new Achievement for it, so I suppose I was one of these. I don’t remember many details, but I’ll tell you what I can when I get something to eat and drink.”

Plume backed away, letting out a chirp of relief. If Farflier was healthy enough to push and be playful, he was healthy enough that he’d be all right.

One waving arm from the haptix shooed Plume and Mouthpiece out, and the latter chittered something resembling a wish for wellness, before skittering off to handle whatever other duties he had. Plume appreciated the strange creature’s attempts to be friendly, though he knew there would always be a bit of distance between them. The underfoot and haptix had welcomed him into their community, but he had not been born here.

He spread his wings and took off, lifting himself up to the bluff overlooking the settlement. The tall formation shielded it from ocean waves during storms, which was part of what allowed the half-submerged layout of the town to exist at all.

Stretching aching wings, Plume clucked to himself. “Getting old again is hard. But this place isn’t a bad place to die.”

“I’m glad you like it,” someone said from behind him, speaking fluent rooken.

Another Achievement popped into the corner of his vision as Plume startled and spun about. This one was similar to the one he’d gotten from meeting Wryna… but much higher rarity. It gave him some idea of who he was looking at when he laid eyes on the petite elf just sitting and watching him.

Akasha, then.

“You must be the daughter I heard tell of.” Plume fluffed his feathers with a quiet groan. “Or some creature similar to her.”

The elf’s ears lifted. “Akasha, yes. Wryna told me she’d set someone on task to watch Farflier. I saw that it was you and stopped worrying. And I’m glad he’ll die in a comfortable place that showed him something new.”

Plume’s head lowered slightly. “Is it soon, then?” He wasn’t surprised… both he and Farflier were very spry and healthy for their age, but they were starting to suffer from the aching bones and wheezing of weakened lungs. The haptix had strange and new techniques to aid in longevity, but they added years… not decades.

Akasha just laughed and strolled forward, spreading her arms. “Soon for me. For you? Maybe not. You’re in good shape, so you may have many years left. But I think we both know a long journey back to the Homelands is just not going to happen. You’ve decided to stay, haven’t you?”

“I asked your mother to send me to a place no rooken knew. Then we found this place on our own, and I made a friend worth more than my own life.” Plume clicked his beak a few times. “This task was more reward than favor. Your mother owes me nothing now. Can you pass that on to her?”

The elf just swished her tail and dipped an ear in the negative. “No. She may not owe you, but I do. That’s fine. Wryna is um… unavailable now. I don’t know when she’ll be able to visit again. So you have me, and only me… and the gods. We’re the ones who decide who is owed something.”

Her ears lifted again, and Akasha tilted her head toward Plume. “I’m glad you enjoyed it though. I’m glad Farflier got a good life. I think I get a little about what my um… mother… was trying to tell me now that she’s gone. Being responsible is hard, you know?”

Plume had been given two lifetimes to think about life, and in one of those lifetimes he’d been a father. Rooken children weren’t like elves, but… this creature wasn’t an elf, he knew. She may look like it, but he could tell Akasha was something far older, going through a phase everyone had to go through.

“I think that you are much older than me,” Plume chirruped. “But you’re just growing up now, aren’t you?” He settled beside her as she sat down right at the edge of the bluff.

Akasha sighed, and with a familiarity Plume wasn’t used to, she reached out and pet down his back.

“Looks like.” She stared down at the growing town. “The world might be a little rougher, in the coming generations. I don’t like that. I’ll do what I can, but I can’t do everything my mother could. It’ll be up to people like you to really make things better… or at least keep it from getting worse.”

Plume wasn’t used to such casual affection, even from elves. Especially one he didn’t really know. It was awkward for a moment, but he was used to reading elf body language… he could tell this was just her nature.

“We had a lot of adventures. We nearly died a few times.” The rooken clicked his beak once. “But it was a life. I don’t know who you are, but are you going to be all right?”

The question brought a laugh to the strange girl. Akasha ruffled his feathers, then tapped Plume’s beak lightly. A rush of mana flowed through him, easing his aches and banishing the weight of fatigue that had been in his aging body.

“You do know me,” Akasha giggled. “Everyone does. And in a way, I know everyone. You just don’t know me as well as Farflier did back… before. I was told to give him space. I think I get why, now. Thanks for being his friend. And understanding what he needs.”

Plume opened his beak to reply… but the elf was already gone, as if she’d never been there to begin with. Only the vibrant, refreshed energy he now had told him the conversation had happened at all.

He considered what had happened, right up until Farflier landed and sat himself down right where the elf had been.

“I don’t remember much of it, but the dungeon was pretty strange. Want to hear about it?”

Plume tilted his head and chirped.

“Of course.”