Motherboard

"G.. Greetings" I stammered out, the man spoke perfect Terra which shocked me even further.

He inspected me with an up and down look and then turned his head saying a few words in a language I didn't know.

"Come with me" he said while jumping down from his hyena that growled at my unfamiliar scent.

He began to walk back leaving the Hyena in the care of his comrades while walking towards back from which he came.

I hesitated for a moment and began to follow after him, giving his entourage a wide birth receiving a glare or two as I pass.

"My name is Jasha" he smiled politely.

I didn't return the smile only nodding and keeping my eyes open and head spinning.

"We didn't expect you until the end of the heat wave not before it".

I responded with a grunt, fighting the urge to throw my hood over my head.

"I expected more of you" he continued.

He looked at me as if expecting me to explain something.

"Me to" I said after an awkward silence.

All that could be heard for a time was footsteps.

I noticed the lack of children and people in general, at least until we got further in.

I began seeing women gathered together slicing up what looked like cactus and wild rabbit.

Some are seen carrying jars on their head while others are tending to small children feeding them, and to my surprise playing with them.

But what made me stop in my tracks was the temperature change when I crossed a certain point.

It felt cooler like I wasn't in the middle of a desert just a really sunny place.

Getting closer I see a man made well with a gazebo made of a large Um shell.

Inscribed in the gazebo was all sorts of different orange colored arrays.

They all interconnected and converged in the center directly above the well.

It was slowly pouring water into the well from the middle of the air in between the gazebo and well mouth.

It was a slight trickle but it was consistent.

I could feel waves of cold air being released with each pulse of energy.

'By the brown sugar...' I thought to myself inspecting the arrays which are fist sized and circular with all sorts of different markings.

Some had thumb size dots of orange in random places others had lines drawn connecting different parts of the circles into a cohesive tapestry.

"You look thirsty" The Jasha said to me, but the way he looked at me conveyed more than his few words ever could.

I smelled like a pit of dead carcasses and my eyes are sunken in from the lack of nutrients.

My body was constantly sore in the days only to be healed at night but the energy couldn't replace the complex multi vitamins needed to properly develop this young body.

Hunger was like an itch in the inside of my scalp, a proper meal on a timely basis sounded like a fairy tale to me.

"Come let's get you a drink".

He smiled sympathetically, I shook my head declining the offer.

I don't know what that was but I wasn't putting it in my body, at least until I figured out how it worked.

He raised an eyebrow and shrugged walking further east getting closer to the center.

The huge wall came into view, nestled in behind the large black rocks its presence seemed reassuring to the natives.

It was a long walk but I began to get an understanding of why no one was out.

They are all in the central area three or four families living in large black boulders that they scaled using hooks and ladders made from a large rope.

The rope and hooks reminded me of the harpoons used to hunt the Ums.

I saw heads poking out and all of them wore some sort of white garment making my brown and black leather stick out.

My cloak was sandy brown, along with the dirt making it look nearly black.

Jacha had a curved blade on his waste but wore no armor, other than a crossbow on his saddle he left behind I didn't see any other weapons.

His wide nose made him look fierce but the young man in his twenties spoke to me with difference and politeness making my paranoia run wild.

As we got closer the sounds of people talking a foreign language reached my ears.

Jovial laughter was heard from time to time.

Jacha stopped in front of the tallest Boulder which was five stories high.

"In here" he said giving me a bow before turning around.

"Your not coming"? I asked.

He stopped, turning around he had a surprised look on his face.

"Only the Gods followers are allowed, I dare not".

I hesitated only for a minute before walking in through a cave size opening.

After walking a while I came into perfectly circular area lit by holes in the boulder that let light in.

Even though the holes are wide no debris or sand can be seen on the flat floor that had a design drawn on it.

It was multicolored with the green and orange lines flowing adjacent to each other.

In the center was a goblet, reminding me of a novel I read as a child.

My footsteps abruptly stopped before entering the edges of the array.

Three figures could be seen inside all of them young children two male and one female.

Two of them Terra and another Olim with dark skin like the natives.

I was the smallest out of all of them.

Finding a place on the entrance wall too keep an eye on everyone I take a look around.

They all wore white and seemed to be concentrating intensely.

I sent a tendril to check on Ava and found her awake, it surprised me.

She was in stone form syphoning the energy around her.

'What are you doing'?

I asked as the stone began to ripple.

She was turning into a small flowing ball like I taught her before.

'You can't tell'?

'What the fu-' I noticed it then.

The ambient energy was coming in from all angles towards the center of the array where the goblet sat on its decorated pedestal.

'How did I miss this'? I mistook the thick flow of energy as the warmth of the cave.

Activating mana vision I was stumped seeing the energy flow upwards and into the center of the chalice.

Like a huge mana core of world energy.

'They are manipulating world energy' my jaw hung open.

As the energy flowed out from the center of the goblet it rushed past the young children all in different parts of the dome of energy.

It seemed like the closer you are the heavier the mana flow.

But just being close we got caught in the flow.

I paid attention to the arrays making sure to commit the intricate shapes to memory.

After a certain amount of watching I felt like I recognized the pattern but I couldn't remember from where.

The silver, orange and green lines are not something I have seen in this life, I wrack my brain trying to figure out when and where I saw them.

After a few hours I still couldn't put the pieces together, but the energy dome that was being created started to die down and the children opened their eyes one by one.

They look around expecting to find more people but I was the only one in site.

"Who are you"? A bulky looking Terra said standing up and taking steps towards me.

I stood up immediately moving at an angle keeping the wall to my back and all three of them in front of me, while also closing the distance.

"I asked you a question you filthy blood-".

"You can't tell by his robe"? a voice rung out.

I looked up above finding another white clad figure gently gliding down sending a few mana pulses while falling.

She was younger than the rest but older then me.

She was mixed blood like me, "Mage Bilin said to meet her at the usual place" she scowled at them while standing between us.

The two Terra's glared at me for a while then began to walk sideways out of the wide hall.

The Olim boy gave me a head nod and also followed behind the other two.

"You don't want to go up against him, he's a half step to condensing his mana core" she said turning to look at me with wide oval eyes that are sparkling blue.

"I'll keep that in mind" I said while taking a couple of steps backwards putting more distance between us.

"Where is the Mage escorting you"? she asked.

"I don't know" I shrugged, I planned to give vague answers until I figured out what was going on here and how the truth will effect me.

"They didn't even give you robes..." she muttered shaking her head.

"Come with me were going to see Mage Kata" she turned and began to walk getting halfway through the entrance before realizing I wasn't behind her.

I wasn't planning on going anywhere right now.

I finally recognized the array pattern.

It looked like a circular computer motherboard.