1 Foresthome
Alayni sat cross-legged on the grass with her eyes closed. In her mind, she pictured the scenery. A sea of grass surrounding her, swaying in the breeze. Tall evergreen trees with thick trunks, wild flowers in full bloom, birds and insects flying about. The sky a vibrant blue, clouds a blinding white. She could see it all, as clear as if her eyes were open. It should have been an impossible mix of wildlife, yet it wasn’t for naught was impossible in the keeper’s forest. The image in her mind grew clearer, morphing into a reality that was somehow more real than the scenery itself.
And then, she could feel more than just the dampness of the earth beneath her, the early morning breeze ruffling her hair, the trees as they swayed back and forth,the flowers’ bloom as soft rays of the sun fall upon them. She could hear the fluttering of wings as birds and small insects took to flight in the morning light.
Delving deeper into the realm of the foresthome, she was attune with the world around her. She could make out whispers of life radiating from the living beings above and below the earth. With a practiced focus, she separated each whisper from the entanglement.
She immersed herself into this realm, leaving behind only the vessel that was her body. Life was different here. It was colorful and far more alive than could be imagined in the physical realm. The trees surrounding her gave off the same light green color, identical except for the feel of the core only differentiated by one capable of communicating with nature. As the keeper of the forests, it was only natural that she could.
Her essence hovered above the ground, not touching it yet never drifting away as though kept there by an unseen force. The ground itself was bursting with color radiated by all of its inhabitants. In the physical realm, it was a brown color varying in depth by its contents. Here, it was a canvas painted with colors of all kinds, radiated by the life force that dwell within.
She floated about, moving from one essence to the other, learning, observing, taking in as much as she could before it was time to return. As much as she loved to be in this realm, she never let it distract her from the passing time. Though time was of no consequence here, she had somehow taught herself to be mindful of its passing in the physical realm.
Even keepers could lose their lives this way, distracted by the vast beauty and knowledge this realm has to offer. The body needs sustenance to survive and an essence needs a body to hold it down. One cannot do without the other. When the body is neglected for far too long, it perishes and the essence is released, dispersing to join foresthome. That thought in mind, she deduced she had another half hour before her body would begin to feel any drastic effects.
On the horizon, she could see a burst of energy. She drifted toward it, mindful not to mingle too much with the radiants around her. Imprinting on one could very well change it essentially and she preferred not to interfere where there was no need to.
An uneasy feeling overcame her when she felt a familiar chill run down her spine. A keeper’s instincts are never wrong, especially not when they are immersed in their primary element. A burst of light pushed her back as she approached the strange essence.
Impossible, she thought. No being should be capable of causing anything like this, not in this realm and surely not against a keeper, one who was attune with the life around her. She called upon the radiants around her, lulling them into action. In a matter of seconds, they were awake, ready at the call of their keeper. She absorbed their life force and with it resisted the push of this strange being. With a raise of her hand, she manipulated the surrounding radiant and encased it in a dome of light. When she was sure it was secure, she drifted forward, wanting to observe it, analyze it. No creature had ever been reported to conjure this sort of energy in the realm and she was eager to learn more but just as she was about to rupture its walls, a blinding light burst from its core and it disappeared.
*****
The sun had begun to set by the time Alayni’s essence rejoined her body. Night birds had begun their assent and the small animals of the forest scurried to the safety of their burrows and nests. The sun bade a last goodbye in a burst of colour that painted the sky in a magnificent pale pink and orange pigment, a clear distinction to the earth’s growing darkness. Slowly, it disappears giving way for the moon to cast its cool and majestic gaze upon the lands.
She steadied herself as she rose. Her legs were weak and wobbly from sitting for too long and her backside felt stiff. She raised her hand high above her head and stretched her taut muscles. When she was sure her legs could hold her body weight, she took a few steps forward. Taking deep and slow breaths, she tried to expel the fuzziness that always accompanied her essence’ return to her body. Finally satisfied with her physical state, she began her walk back home.
Her mind drifted to the being she had encountered. It befuddled her, she did not like it. True there would always be creatures foreign to her, however, there was something off about the creature, whatever it was. Not to mention, the force it conjured was beyond anything she had ever experienced from creatures of the forest and she had encountered quite a few aggressive animals. The being from earlier however, displayed a sort of intelligence that others had not. It was as though it knew what she was and had tried to conceal itself from her and when she shrouded it, it fled. What puzzled her the most was how it had disappeared without a trace whatsoever, not even an imprint, as though it was never there in the first place.
She sighed. Mulling over it now would do her no good. Her body was weary from spending all day in the realm. It needed sustenance and she was still quite aways from her cabin. The land was getting darker still as night crept in and the cold night air had began to seep into her bones. She regretted going deep into the forest then but had she not done so, she wouldn’t have encountered that being. ‘And what did it get you? A confused mind, hunger and cold’ she thought bitterly. Yet she knew it would not stop her from doing the same thing the very next day.
A sigh of relief left her lips when she saw her cabin in the distance. The thought of food and warmth had her quickening her pace. Soon enough, she was stepping into the warmth of her home. Quickly, she fixed herself a meal and after taking a bath, lit a lamp and settled down by the fireplace with her books of old. She had inherited them from her predecessors, keepers of forests like her.
Although she’d been a fully fledged keeper for some four years, she knew she still had a vast amount of knowledge she needed to learn, not to talk of her lack of experience in real situations. Alayni knew she should be thankful for that but couldn’t help but envy the other keepers. She was the youngest of them and was born into the world long after peace had reigned and therefore knew little of what it meant to be a keeper.
Alayni shook her head and focused on the pages before her, clicking her tongue distastefully. She hated books. She preferred to go into the forest and explore but she had little choice now. Nothing she had ever seen or observed could explain her encounter with the being earlier,Perhaps these books could. And so, she thought, I begin.
