Questions, Answers, and Learning.

Cari sat there, on the side of the table near the lowered lamp, his own glow of green combating against the low orange of the lamp, and as he sat there, he didn't know what to do.

"I would like to wander around and explore, but the Chief was right, I'm too dirty."

But he didn't want to just sit here, doing nothing, so he thought to improvise, for example, what was creating that light in the lamp?

He shifted over to the edge of the pillow, and tried to lean as far as he safely can to at least get a glimpse into the little holes in the lamp which filtered the light out towards the room, but it was too far.

"If I can't reach, I'll just make the pillow reach!"

He firmly squatted on the pillow, and, with as much force as he can, he pushed forward!

In the room, a pillow with a small mushroom on it shifted a bit, moving only an inch forward.

"...it's progress, at least."

Cari did it, again and again, and slowly, the pillow approached the lamp, until finally...

"I'm here!"

He was happy he managed to do it, his body was a bit tired from pushing it like that, but it would go away with time.

"And now, my reward for my hard labor!"

Luckily enough, the holes in the bowl-shaped lamp were low enough for Cari to see through, so, he did so.

"Woah."

Inside, a roughly carved crystal sat, attached to the lamp through small metal lines connected to the exterior lamp, going down near the base shaping a sort of mini bowl to hold the base of the crystal, which somehow fit it perfectly, and on the concave of the bowl, some kind of symbols and writing was written within a circle.

Orange in color, it glowed vibrantly, just as brightly as it was before the Chief lowered the light, luckily enough, the filter made it so the light wasn't overbearing.

"I guess the crystal is the source of what fuels the light, and the symbols and writing are what make it into a light? Interesting, I wonder what this is called..."

He sat there, observing it, it wasn't as beautiful as what he saw upon waking up, but it was equally as interesting, so as he observed it, he tried to make sense out of the strange garble of symbols and writings.

'There is a small rim that is filled with the orange light of the crystal, a triangle is the only shape breaching the rim, the part of the triangle past it is filled with a few small symbols, and the point of the triangle is centered in the middle of the bowl, from there, a circle surrounds it, more letters circling around it, a line running through the letters, it connects around the circle, goes under the triangle, and reconnects with the letters on the other side...

If I had to make guesses, the rim is where the energy taken from the crystal is stored, and the triangle is a sort of bridge, taking the energy from the first concentric layer to the next, after that...

I have no clue, I can't associate any kind of meaning with the letters, at most, I assume they are what gives the energy the 'directions' of turning the crystal into a light source, but how does it do that if the energy stays here, wait, how does it even take it?'

Too many questions were appearing in Cari's head, even associating what was and wasn't glowing with the orange light could signify something, the triangle, lettering, even the line that ran through it all was glowing.

However, he then noticed there was a somewhat small dot at the very center where the triangle point was.

'I guess that's where it...? The first place the energy comes in must be from the rim, so what importance is this dot?

All of this was just observing, he can't learn anything more without taking it apart.

And any guesses past this point can't be confirmed without doing so, but he doesn't even have the physical ability to do so, much less the permission from the goblin family.

'I'd have to ask for their help anyway as I have no hands, but I can't even communicate cleanly.'

He looked over to their room's door in this moment, but just then-

~Creeeeeeeeeak~

The door opened, and a yellow light popped out from behind it.

Cari was momentarily spooked and was about to screech to get somebody's attention before he got a closer look.

It was a young goblin, much smaller than Ag, Quier, and especially Olivia, she looked to be around 5 or 6, yellow eyes, and much lighter blue hair, to the point it was nearly white.

He was confused as to why there was a goblin in the house that he didn't recognize.

'They didn't mention them having another kid, right?'

He remembered faintly of the two girls from when he healed Olivia and as they sat opposite to his chair during the celebration, but not a third.

But seeing her, rubbing her little eyes from probably just waking up, and the nightgown she was wearing with shapes of the stars and a crescent moon on her chest, it showed him all the more that what he thought was probably the case.

'Maybe they didn't want her to see Olivia in such a hurt state since she seems to be much younger than the others, so they left her to sleep at home.'

It certainly made sense.

As Cari was staring at her, he noticed the area under her eyes looks a bit baggy, like she was crying.

'A nightmare? Maybe... should I do something?'

• • • • • •

The little goblin had woke up, dreaming of her family's chaos and rushing about when they heard of Olivia being badly hurt.

"Sleep, my little Lusi~, Momma is going to be right back, do not worry, big sis will be okay."

Her mother comforted her, giving a weary smile as she tucked her into bed.

Lucky, she had been sleepy, however, their worried faces, yelling, and her mother's fading figure as she sped away to join her family as they left the house through her open door had been ingrained into Lusi's mind, making her worried.

She couldn't fully sleep until a little later, she had slept away the day, even through the celebration.

The mother had gone early on in the event to wake her and tell the good news, but her sleeping figure seemed so peaceful, so she decided to let her sleep.

Only now she wakes to the fear and stress of her sister disrupting Lusi's sleep too much.

Her tears made her vision blurry; she could see her siblings sleeping soundlessly, she was too consumed in her fear and emotions to notice her very big sis sleeping next to her.

She had also awakened due to hearing something outside her room, it sounded like it was moving.

She waked slowly to the door, and creaked open the door, and took a peak.

She recognized the orange glow of their lamp, but when she saw another light, of green, she was confused.

As she rubbed her eyes again to get a better look, she heard a gentle sound.

~Umuuu~

Once she had her vision back, she saw the mushroom, on a pillow, in the middle of their living room on the table.

She was surprised, then confused, clearly displayed on her face, finally, filled with curiosity towards the strange new living thing in the house.

She walked over, and as soon as she entered the range of its glowing, she felt warmth encompass her entire being, and the closer she got, the stronger the feeling got.

Her previous fear, pressure that obscured her mind dissipated with every stuttered step she took, as if her struggle was of those negative feelings fleeing her body, making her feel all the more relaxed as she finally was in front of the little mushroom.

As she bent down to the eye level of the mushroom, it stared back, her eyes of curiosity were met, and seemingly reflected in its eyes.

~Hmu?~

It turned its head to the side as it noticed Lusi's head starting to bob from one side to other, it worried the mushroom apparently, for what reason, she didn't know.

Without warning, her eyes grew drowsy, the source of her fears and worry, both the unknown sound, and her nightmares, now gone, made her even more sleepy than before, despite sleeping for so long.

She, now half awake, grabbed the mushroom, it nearly jumped from surprise, but before it could even struggle or even display its uncomfortable state, she jumped onto the middle of the couch, with the mushroom nestled between her arms on her lap, she laid down...

Falling asleep in only a few seconds.

• • • • • •

"Uhhhhhh..."

Cari, locked between her arms, lying against her stomach, didn't know what to think or do.

"I wanted to help her, but I think I may have went a bit too far..."

He didn't do much besides releasing the restraint he had on his glow, but, it didn't have such an extreme effect on others by making them fall asleep, especially so fast.

"I know it comforts them, but it shouldn't do any more than that, unless..."

He gazed up at the face of the little girl, she was sleeping peacefully, the subtle bags still there.

"She must've been really scared for Olivia."

He remembered the three figures that walked up back to the chief then, but he only barely recognized them then with how tired he was, the fact this girl wasn't among them meant that she wasn't there to know how hurt Olivia was.

"Or that she was healed."

Between knowing how hurt someone is vs not knowing, he'd have to say not knowing probably was worst, questioning every moment if you'll ever see your loved one again...

He sat there, gazing at her, wondering how she dealt with that, and admiring her strength for being so, so strong in the face of such nasty things.

••• • • •

"Hmmhmfpt."

"Dad, wake up."

"Olivia? What is it?"

The Chief looked towards her daughter, then towards the window on the wall behind his bed, it was early morning, usually he would get up at this time but with the celebration last night, he wanted to sleep in a little more, but it seems today was going to be different.

"Just come on, I want you to see something.", Olivia said with a small smile on her face.

He smiled, seeing his little star shining so bright, so he slowly got up, to also notice his wife was also up and about.

She spoke lightly, as she also just got up, "Sweetie, what is it you want us to see?"

"It's a surprise, but it won't be for much longer, come on."

Olivia walked past the door into the living room, the two followed after her.

They saw the boys were awake, they were staring in their direction, intently focused.

The Chief noticed they weren't focused on them, but the couch in front of them, so he walked over to where they were standing.

"Oh my!"

He found his three youngest girls sleeping together on the couch soundly, and in the midst of them all-

~Allah!~

All their hands were around Lusi, well, one arm was holding onto her back, and all their other hands were cupped over where Cari was, and his immediate response to seeing the duo of parents awake was to get their attention to help him get out of this.

"Awwwwww...Oh! Please stay there, I'll get a snapper.", the wife said.

• • • • • •

"The WHAT?!", Cari was afraid of what that meant.

That was until she came back from her room, holding a sort of object with a black lens in a rectangular shape.

"Hold still...and look towards me."

Unsure of why, he did as he was told, and in a moment, a ~click~ was heard, and it printed out some kind of thin white thing.

"This is going on the wall!", the mother smiled with joy.

"How did this happen?", the Chief was the first to question how this happened.

"I'm not sure, when I woke up and found the three girls not in bed with the door to the living room opened, I checked and found them all like this, Cari was even sleeping with them, I wish you could've seen it, it was so adorable.", Olivia clasped her hands together near her face, remembering how while 'she' was asleep, 'her' glowing resembled a sort of heartbeat, momentarily growing and shrinking.

Cari looked away with embarrassment written all over his face in his hand-made cage(literally), throughout the night, each little one came out of the room sleepy, got caught in his glow, and joined the group, he guessed they noticed Lusi was gone and came to check, similar to Olivia.

'I didn't have the heart to cease comforting them and possibly disturb their sleep, so I continued, didn't think this would have happened, especially with all of them here, it got so peaceful that I fell asleep, didn't even know I could.

But now that everyone was awake, now should be a good time.'

He closed his non-existent eyes and called back his aura...he really needed to find a name for it.

'~Sunrays kept to the sun~.'

The family noticed the glow shrinking until it only stuck to 'her' body.

Something clicked in the Chief's mind, "That's what attracted them to you and chose to rest here, your...glow?"

Cari nodded in shame.

'But then what made them get out of their rooms in the middle of the night? He didn't even have it out that far last nigh-'

"Mhmmm~"

Lusi stirring took him out of his thinking, and as she slowly woke, so did the others.

She slowly opened her eyes, she felt the urge to yawn, but before she could...

"BIG SIS!"

She sprung from her spot like a springboard, unconsciously launching herself towards Olivia, shocking the other two girls awake with the sudden force of her jump and everyone else, also sending Cari flying.

~QIEEEEE!~

Olivia was shocked at her energy and could only do her best to catch Lusi.

The boys scrambled to catch Cari, but accidentally fumbled catching 'her' due to their hands accidentally colliding.

They had redirected Cari towards the other two girls, they had also tried grasping her, but ended up the same way as Ag and Quier, launching him higher into the air like a volleyball, towards Olivia.

Before Olivia could even start to worry about catching her too, Cari had landed somehow perfectly on Lusi's head.

Fidgeting from the sudden and fast flight, he was lucky to remain overall unharmed...at least physically anyway.

Ironically, the mother had the intuition to catch a picture of this too, and it will never cease to bring multiple people inside this house not only warm memories, but some shame too.

"Big sis! I was so worried something bad happened to big sis, but you're okay! I'm really happy your back, home and safe!"

She hugged Olivia tighter, resting her head on her shoulder, making Cari nearly lose balance.

"Sorry for making you so worried Lusi, I was hurt, but this mushroom healed me and I'm as good as new now, her name is Cari, and Cari, this is Lusi, she's my youngest sister, and please forgive her for that, she's really energetic, especially after a good sleep, Lusi, what do you say?"

As she spoke, Olivia gestured with her face towards Cari on top of Lusi's head as she lowered her down, picked Cari off her head and back onto the pillow.

Lusi stared on Cari for a moment, before saying with genuine feeling, "Sorry Cari, I didn't mean to scare you.", she had felt him shivering on top her head and knew she was frightened.

~Umauhu~

Cari nodded, he was half surprised and half scared by that, it was too fast for him to process everything, but if anything, he understood just why she reacted that way to Olivia, so he didn't hold anything against her.

The Chief clapped his hands together to get everyone's attention.

"Alright everyone, since we are all awake, I want everyone to get ready for the day, honey, can you prepare breakfast for everyone, I wish to continue taking with Cari from last night, I believe we still have a lot to discuss."

"Don't worry, I got it, come on kids, I want your help with this."

"But I want to know more about Cari."

"That can wait until AFTER food is made, Lisa."

"Mom, Cari is still dirty from yesterday, is it okay if I go and clean him real quick?"

"Sure, but make it fast Olivia, I'm going to need your help with making food in a minute."

"Alright, welp Cari, we can have girl time later, for now, I'll take you with me, don't worry Dad, I won't be long."

"Okay my little star."

"Da-ad!"

She quickly grabbed Cari, gently, and took 'her' to the furthest room to the left, the bathroom, while the mother and the rest of the kids entered the kitchen on the right, with the Chief staying in the living room.

Once inside, the floor was replaced with smooth tiles, on the left side was a sink with cabinets underneath, on the right side was a toilet, and in the back of the room was a shower.

Olivia brought Cari to the sink, set him down in it, and grabbed a rag from the cabinet beneath.

As she turned on the faucet with warm water, and doused the rag with it, she began to casually speak.

"You know, usually, villages outside big cities don't get this kind of stuff, especially small ones like ours, but my Dad, during his travels, made a close friend with someone who helps build cities, well, at least the part that handles stuff like this, and with his help, they built this village, with proper piping and everything, well, for the water at least...we still have to manually do the work for some of the things..."

She wiped down the stem of Cari's body as it really was the only part that was dirty, but, either for the sake of the conversation or just the heck of it, she wiped down all the other parts of his body.

"Using a few large crystals for the water and energy, and some inventive building, he built a working system to get a clean source of water, AND, a bit of environmentally-kind energy, isn't that awesome? My Dad is grateful everyday as it made living here all the more easier and convenient for us, although there are times we need to 'let the system relax', as my father says."

As she finished wiping Cari down and talking, she turned off the faucet, and tossed the rag into a bin to the right of the sink.

She grabbed him and brought him back into the living room.

"Here you go Dad, now you can ask away, I'll be helping Mom now."

"Mhm, thank you Olivia."

She gave a smile and walked into the kitchen, sounds of footsteps moving and utensils clattering around were heard as the door opened and closed.

Now, it was only the Chief, and the clean Cari.

"Now that we have the time to ourselves, I wish to ask some...more private questions, don't worry, you don't have to answer them if you wish, but I'd rather you would as these questions are asked with the goal to help establish what you do and don't know so I could help you better, okay?

Cari nodded as he understood, there wasn't much of anything he had to hide besides the immense energy he has within, and he doubted that was going to be brought up in any kind of way.

"Alright, one peep for no, two for yes, do you know of the history of our world?"

~Peep~ ~Peep~

"A little, a decent amount, or a lot, an additional peep for each one."

~Peep~ ~Peep~ ~Peep...?~

"I guess you know a decent lot, but only in certain things?

~Peep~ ~Peep~

"Okay, do you know of the energy that's apart of this world, and how people use it?"

~Peep~ ~Peep~

"A lot or a little?"

~Peep?~

"I'll take that as you understand a decent amount of it?"

Cari nods his head up and down.

"This is all very good, and saves me lots of trouble, although, I must ask, where did you get all this information, I doubt you woke up with it, as you said, you were only created days ago."

Cari tilted his head to the side, 'How am I supposed to answer that?'

As if reading his mind, "Oh yeah...Hmmm, one peep is that you read it from somewhere...wait, you shouldn't have been able to understand language, then how did you learn it in...you aren't extremely smart, are you?

'Nope, not really.', he shook his head.

"Hmmm...the only way I think I see this happening is through two means, either magically, or through a teacher...I really good one at that, in that order."

'But I had...both? Uhhh, okay then.'

~Peep...~

"Thought so, and-"

~Peep~ ~Peep~

"What? That's three peeps...you spaced the two apart, are you saying, both? You had a teacher that...magically teached you everything you know as of now, is that it?

~Alda!~

Cari nodded, and 'spoke' with energy.

"Where and how did you find this teacher...wait, before that, where did you come from...hmmm, I'm going to take a guess and say, the inner-part of this forest?"

Cari nodded.

"Makes sense, as for this teacher...mhmmm...okay, this is going to be a stretch, but if you can, show me who your teacher is, if you can't, don't do anything, I doubt you can, but just to be sure, already, a lot of things strange has happened."

He was also confused on how to explain it, that was until the Chief mentioned to 'show' him, and that gave Cari an idea.

Cari called upon the life energy in the environment, not to accomplish any goal, but to simply reveal itself.

Seeing 'her' eyes closed, he couldn't tell if he was somehow calling his teacher, or not doing anything, although closing your eyes can be considered nothing, but before he could ask Cari to clarify, the same green orbs of energy before when she healed Olivia, Qier, and Ag appeared out of nowhere, some aimless, some, flowing somewhere, yet they all seemed to drop what they were doing, and congregated over to Cari, taking a shape of one big orb.

The Chief was stunned at first, not fully understanding what Cari was trying to say besides the obvious that it taught her, but, life energy was just that, energy, it has no conscience, so how could it teach her?

"How does it 'teach' you? I could understand if it was used in the magical method of somehow teaching you, anything is possible in this world of ours after all, but, I just can't see how it would help you learn."

Cari was stumped here, as he had no clue how to explain past this point...

'I revealed and collected the energy in the area, even made it take the shape of life energy itself, what else can I do-

Shape! I can control it into whatever shape I want!'

He focused on that tug he feels within his body, and let it expand over him, as this was going to need his entire focus for the idea he had.

As if each orb was given an individual job, they started to rush around and shape themselves, combining to form bigger forms.

The Chief saw him controlling them and subtly realized, 'He is showing me through the energy.'

The energy shaped itself into a small environment, figures of trees, grass, flowers, bees, filled it, it took up the entirety of the room, and within each of these shapes, was filled with life energy.

Cari showed how it flowed between objects, when one dies, the life energy it has is released, and joins the rest of it that is free, and how nature slowly absorbs the life energy from the surroundings, a orb from a bee goes to the flower it died upon, and once that flower wilts, it releases it once again, parts of its energy gets absorbed into the tree, back into a bee again, maybe another flower, while other parts of it float away, waiting to go back into the cycle again through some means.

Once this cycle was made clear, he gathered all the energy, and made it rapidly change shape between all the previous objects shown, flower, bees, trees, birds, grass, insects, changing, warping faster than the blink of the eye.

A part of the life energy collectivized into this swiftly changing orb separated, and spelled out-

"It-

REMEMBERS.

What it has been.

It has been all over this world.

And through me, it isn't just energy.

It is ALIVE.

It is CONSCIOUS.

Even if I couldn't perceive it...

IT WOULD STILL BE ALL THOSE THINGS."