9 Travels part 1
In the settlement, the Lord of the Night found the largest collection of humans he had ever seen. The village was very bright, with torches lit like bonfires in the night, standing out from amongst the darkness and tranquility of the night.
A hundred humans seem to call this place home and their leader resides in the largest hut he presumes. All the tithes were moved around to the places where they are to be used, meat was quickly cooked over the fire while herbs were stored in smaller huts.
Like the last village, he decided to observe and watch them at night, learning about them and everything they did. It was a break from the monotonous life he had. Despite the powerful creatures he created and magical powers he unleashed, they were all too predictable for him.
Humans, these creatures that resembled him, they are unexpected and unpredictable beings. They seemed to share minds much like his, completely unlike the animals that dwelled in this land or even his own creations.
Though humans had nothing to offer in terms of technology or knowledge of the world, he diligently watched them every night, hearing and seeing their interactions with enhanced senses. Nothing on the large village goes on without his knowledge, and he learned many things.
Over time, as five years pass, he found the purpose of a wife from watching them. The humans recently had a rite of marriage, when one of the humans resembling his mother and one that resembled him married and were declared as husband and wife.
Then, husband and wife would live together, eventually performing dirty things, which leads to a pregnant wife and a child to be raised. Five years was not enough to watch marriage, childbirth and raisinf a child, but disconnected experiences from each villager taught him the greater picture.
The expectations for a wife formed within him. The concept of beauty was more clear to him, a wife must be the most appealing to her husband. A wife must also be loyal, he had seen that those bound in marriage cannot touch others beyond it.
He didn't know what was so pleasurable about it, since he never had it. But, since these people would cheat from time to time, it seems to be something so strong. Therefore, a wife must be the highest quality for him to devote his life to.
The villagers he had seen did not interest him at all in terms of choosing a wife. This made him ask a question to himself, are there humans beyond this forest?
It's been at least 1000 years since he was anywhere outside of the forest, it might be time for him to explore the outside world once more. So, he ended the daily night observations and prepared to set out and fulfill his mother's command.
In his castle, he selected only one of his creations to accompany him. A gigantic brown horse with a pair of antler like horns on its head. It will be carrying his bed. He may be exploring but the comfort of sleeping inside his odd bed cannot be negotiated.
He sets out at dawn, heading eastwards beyond the forest. He rode the twenty foot tall horse, sitting in front of his stone bed, tied to a leather saddle he seats on.
The horse moved a hundred miles an hour, covering much distance and exiting the forest within only two hours, skipping past many features of the forest that had changed since he last saw them.
Once they exited the forest, the horse came to a full stop, summoning a wall of dust that briefly remained. He beheld a vast desert, with tall pillars of reddish stone and massive boulders that resembled malformed walls.
Dunes of sand rolled between the giant walls of brown rock, a few tumbleweeds blown by the wind. Small pockets of cacti and dried grass could be seen in the distant horizon, sheltered near the walls of desert rock.
Immediately before him was a small gap of dry colored grass, clearly belonging to the savannah. Several yards of it separated him and his steed from the end of the cliff, the start of the great desert before him.
He commanded his horse to jump off the cliff. Immediately, the creature rushed towards the cliff's end and leaped into the air, landing perfectly on its four legs and spraying sand around.
Unlike the forest, the Lord of the Night took it slow, his steed only moving at a fraction of its previous speed as he admired the desert.
The sunlight should be boiling him, making him sweat gallons of water. However, he felt nothing more than a slightly warmer air, albeit less windy than the forest.
The air occasionally smells of dried leaves, masked by the predominant smell of boiling water. Though deserts are hot, they are not truly devoid of water. In fact, the very air of the desert is rich in water vapour.
Two hours into the desert, and the stone walls begin to disappear as the open desert gradually expanded its maw. The sight of any greenery had vanished at this point, but the eyes of life see much more going on under the surface of the seemingly dry and dead landscape.
As they pass, Daevel watched the seemingly insignificant wildlife of the open sand, curious over what this place will offef him. He watches as a black beetle, much larger than the one in the forest rolled a ball at least twice its size, accompanied by two others like it with their own balls.
Then, there was the interesting insect with its threatening, hook like tail. Small and yellow, it seemed harmless, and possibly even cute. Daevel wanted to bring one on his journey, to watch it further, but another creature had taken his attention from the growing waves of sand surrounding the horse as it moves.
Fin like appendages poke out of the waves of sand, alongside bone ridges and the occasional fish like tail. For miles, these creatures had been circling around his steed from a dozen meters away. His hunter instincts told him this was either a declaration of hostility or intimidation.
He welcomed it. Whatever these creatures were, whether they meant harm or not did not worry him at all. After all, these creatures can't truly harm him. If it ever comes to it, he will just uproot them and throw them into the horizon, far away from where he would be heading.
After eight hours, the creatures finally stopped circling him and left, right when the sun began to set.
"I guess it's time to set up here then." He dismounted himself from his gigantic horse, untying and taking off his stone bed, gently placing it on the sand. A snap of his fingers set a blaze alight on the sand, powered by nothing but magic.
After unloading, his horse knelt down and took its comfortable position upon the sand, preparing to sleep for the night. He layed down on the sand, putting his head upon his hands, looking up to the skies as the stars blink upon the darkness beyond.
He'd seen this sight for centuries, the uncountable stars revealing themselves upon the darkness, accompanying the three moons. Only two moons have appeared today, something he had observed for a long time.
A thousand years gives a man time to make his own calendar, study the stars out of boredom. He wrote a journal in the palace, drawing his own constellations in the sky. His enhanced senses allowed him to see more intricate details.
Slight differences in their brightness allowed him to put together stars in groups and constellations. If they were heavenly lights that shone just as bright as another, he supposed that they some were farther than others and that this world floated upon an ocean of darkness, surrounded by the heavenly lights.
It was a thought to write down, a moment of contemplation to be recorded for purposes of a mere whim. Or perhaps, there is something greater to it, a trait of his mother perhaps? Although he had never seen her write anything for herself, she had written much for him to learn and study.
In fact, when teaching him, she would give him stacks of thin tablets of clay, full of summaries and explanations of the topic at hand. Despite the fact that the only written lesson was this language, the sheer amount of vocabulary he learned vindicated the stacks or tablets.
He digressed often, staring at things, only to remind him of the time before he had left. His mother didn't really satisfy him, her answer was incomplete. Why couldn't he stay with her? Wait until he marries and then leaves? Must he wait more than a thousand years apart for his supposed other half.
Even in what eventually was his exile, at least in his opinion, he held not even a thought of hatred or blame on her. Especially since she visited in dreams and that all memories with her are good, none of them are imperfect in any way.
He began to resent this wife, this creature who separated him from his mother, but it died down over time. There was none to blame but circumstance and to find her would complete his journey, to raise a family.
A dream of her completed his resolve in centuries past, there's a limit to obedience of course. She promised him that if he bore her grandchildren and raised them till adulthood, she will return once more.
The sky had darkened enough to tell him that the night is halfway till its zenith. A few hours of reminiscing his centuries of existence was quite amusing and time consuming.
He stood up, brushing off sand from his clothes and opened the lid off his bed, walking inside and closing it. He slept through the night in silence, like a corpse. While in the distance, shadows lurk among the dunes.
