Anarion

Beyari: a Tale of Colossi

Qiyun Woo

Today has not been a good day for you. First of all, it started off poorly. You slept weird and your neck hurt waking up. Your older half sister had been telling you this was going to happen for the better part of ten years, but you had scoffed at her when you were twenty and told her that nothing bad would ever happen to you because you practiced martial arts everyday and the elements of forests of Sandrea were in fact the perfect way to refine your qi to give you permanent youthful vigor. Then ten years passed and your neck started hurting and your sister has never stopped laughing about that one time where she asked you to pick up a heavy box of soil for her and you had to say you couldn't because your neck hurt too much.

Second off, Sandrea was attacked from an angle outside of your caravan and therefore freaked out and veered off course for the first time in basically forever (it's not actually forever, her course has deviations, but this is the largest one on record based on the books that your scribes have brought with them and for obviously good reason). This meant that you had to make the difficult judgment to completely reroute the entire caravan, including all the burden beasts and carts, sending a pair of runners back behind you to get within radio range and alert the further settlements of the change so they could try to figure out a route to relieve you. Then you just had to hope you'd end up somewhere with enough clear terrain to move all the carts, or else call it with them only halfway filled up with planting and send them back.

Third, there's now been a rocket explosion in the middle of your camp, you're pretty sure Xiao Wei is dead and some other people might be hurt, and you're calling up emergency plans for small arms defense that you haven't had to practice in years while thanking some lucky stars that Zhou Zhou at least has enough fun with that military stuff to insist that everybody practice it sometimes.

You therefore decide to channel the entirety of your sour mood into your rifle shots, and take great delight in the fact that even though every shot is mildly aggravating your neck, you are still one of the best sharpshooters in Sandrea Caravans and you've already taken two marauders off their mounts with grim satisfaction.

You are, however, entirely at a loss as to this mechanical creature screaming what appears to be old-fashioned machine errors from some of the more complex computers still around. So, you do the most sensible thing possible and try to shoot it before it gets any closer.

Return to Thellamie

A minute alone can feel like hours. The frozen hands of a clock entwined. But it is also quiet. With no Aadya, Yuki sits and cradles Eclair. The friend she didn't leave. She stayed, so her friend left. Always a choice, always someone left out. There was no certainty in any of this. Only the doubt of forever wondering what could have been down another path. Wondering if there was another Thellamie out there with a Yuki who had sprung up after Aadya and left Eclair to awaken alone. Was that Thellamie the dead end path, or was this the dead end, simply awaiting its few fleeting moments with a choice that cannot be sustained before its pruned out of existence to make way for the better Yuki who knew how to make better choices.

The steam clears out of the air and Yuki's skin prickles with the cold from the door. She feels Sulochana's arrival through the rush of air through the door, the hint of perfume that flutters past her nose before she really senses it. And then she is swept up. In warm coils and the closeness of Eclair's body pressed together with hers, miraculously still asleep. Or perhaps not so miraculous at all, for all that she had seemed so desperately to need it.

At first, Yuki simply buries her head in Sulochana's coils, in the stomach and the side, inhaling her friend, pressing her face deep into her. She keeps her arms around Eclair, doesn't worry about how her shift bunches up against the two of them and enjoys the feeling of Eclair snuggled up close to her shoudler, the three friends all pressed together so deeply.

There is, then, no time to kiss Sulochana and we will all have to wait for another day to determine whether that two is the right path or the path that sends all of Thellamie to a new dead end. Instead, when the snuggling is done, there is a flood of words.

"...Civelia poisoned..."
"Super cool assassin fan vs. heartblade knuckles, like I didn't even know you could..."
"...and then I interrupted it with a towel cuz I suck but her heart was crying Suli!"
"...and Aadya's a big dumby dumb who doesn't know how to do her job except to run headfirst into a wall and and..."

"...and I'm tired Suli. I'm so tired. I can't be everywhere at once, I can't be with everyone at once, and I'm...I'm not the chosen one this time even though everybody keeps expecting me to be."

Beyari: a Tale of Colossi

"The stories? I...there's too many. But I'll tell you one. Of...hmm, no maybe not, Sandrea. Feels weird when we're right here. I'll tell you a story of Waln’t, the refiner. The people that live in the valley over there got here first, like out of all the waves of population. So they have stories of ancestors and generations and stuff now.

So, one of the traders who passed by the dome told me once that he made an offering to Waln't every single day! Cuz Waln’t had saved his grandfather's life before he was born. Like wow, right? Apparently his granddad had gone out foraging for, like mushrooms and cave stuff, and stayed out too late. So he didn't have the sunlight to light up the valley and help him figure out where he was going, so he got lost.

He was trying to find his way back when he got attacked by one of the giant cave lizards that hunt in the valley. They're hella dangerous, apparently, like big spiky tails and ceiling crawling, and sometimes venomous bites. So this guy was lost in the tunnels and was like totally gonna get eaten when all of a sudden the entire tunnel lights up like one of those old Van de Graaff generators and the lizard eats a shock right in the tummy! Like boom!"

Ailee's story is interrupted by a sound effect behind you of a much louder boom than the story she was telling. When you look, a small explosion has ripped through the caravan, which had parked itself in the wake of Sandrea. A small group of outriders, riding what appear to be shaggy yak bears, have fired a rocket launcher at the camp, and people and animals alike are scattering.

And, perhaps most importantly, your dismount from Sandrea is made both easier and much more urgent. For the great beast responds to the explosion by gallantly leaping off the cliff, bringing what had been a high perch directly level with the ground with enough time to leap off her head. As you land on the cliffside, other animals, your jaguar friend among them, have already leapt clear as well. The ocean is shallow enough that Sandrea has not disappeared entirely, and is turning herself to flee north up the coastline.

And behind you, the marauders are closing on the human caravan, as its members have begun to spread out and draw weapons of their own.

Beyari: a Tale of Colossi

The most prevalent sound is the ocean. The rising and falling roar of water breaking against rocks, cascading into white foam, and settling before a new swell raises it again. It is everywhere, present in everything.

Below that is the breath of Sandrea. For you sit atop her now and can feel her breathing more than hear it, despite being covered with mud, vines, and various seeds that have determined the best method of propagation to be really sticky burr. It may not be immediately apparent, but for the great sauropod dinosaurs, particularly those with long necks, the act of breathing is a challenging engineering problem. Nature solved it with trial and error, but bioengineers, even at the height of Silicon Valley, did not have infinite budgets. So they had to reverse engineer their way to information nature had hidden from them in the distant past in order to get to a working prototype. The answer, as best they could guess, was air sacks, rather like a giant set of constantly working bellows that were always slowly pumping air rather than taking distinct breathes in and out because there wouldn't be time for that sort of dead space in a creature so large that had to move air so far. All of which is to say that the sound of Sandrea breathing is not a rhythmic in and out but instead a continuous thrum deeper but quieter than the pitch of the ocean, the two blending together in an uneasy harmony.

And then, all around you, are the lights. Well...not lights, lights are just the easiest metaphor for the abstraction of data concentrations. At this distance, it's not possible to meaningfully pick out individual signals (absent some very sustained duration interception coupled with multiple linked stations to triangulate individual signals). But clustering is visible, like the old pictures of cities taken from the night sky. You can see what used to be the city of San Francisco, its downtown wildly overgrown but nevertheless full of so many data devices in some form that it feels thick. And you can see a sense of the existing human settlement roving along the coast, full of people still communicating with one another and recording information. You can see a cluster of signals within the valley running from northeast of you to southeast of you, a mixture of what had once been the densest population area of the East Bay and the new settlements that have appeared there. And to the east, there are signs of the new migration moving into the area and a rough location of the marauder camp standing out as a signal spot where no ancient settlement was present due to a major regional land reserve for the Ohlone Indians. Roughly speaking, of course, since the mountains and valleys have shifted somewhat from the data you previously possessed.

"hot damn" says Ailee, who had remained quiet for the climb, but has quietly added a little map marker in her drawing to note where your cat companion is, currently resting at the base of the neck below you. "Didn't want to break your flow, but damn, that was wild. I never thought I'd get to, like, be this close to Sandrea, or any of the colossi. I've only had cameras and stories to build up my info."

Beyari: a Tale of Colossi

The presence of the great jaguar, talking and ridable or no, is enough to manage the approach to Sandrea. No other cats intervene, and you can take a route that is appropriately free of distracting humans for the moment. As such, you come to the legs near to front of Sandrea, close to the beach. Well...beach might be a misnomer. Rather, she breaks free of the tree line, which ends abruptly at a sheer cliff leading down into the water with only a thin line of space from the end of the trees to the rocks. That space is occupied by succulents and scrub grasses, and Sandrea pauses here to...survey the ocean, it appears.

Here, at last, is one thing that has not changed. The cold waters of the Pacific Ocean crest with white foam and swirl against the rocks, the sight broken up by a handful of shore birds nesting on a small outcropping below. The water extends out to the horizon, cold and deep, until it meets the sky. Just barely visible in the distance are what were once called the Faralon islands, nearly thirty miles from shore and therefore visible as small rocks before dipping below the horizon.

The shoreline though, is shifted. If you were to overlay an image from your memory, everything in the present would be shifted to the east compared to that old image, a solid 20 degree rotation around an imaginary circle pushing everything inland and shrinking what had once been the bay. Ah, and the bay. Rather than a grand bay topped with bridges and settlements along the water, the bay flows from the cliffs inward and then downward into a vast, sunken valley. Only past that valley can you see what once were the foothills of the regions mountains extending north to south, looking all the taller for the lowered floor.

But, all this leaves the perfect opportunity to climb the legs, which is to go by treetop while Sandrea has stopped at the edge of the world. The touch of her skin is almost like rock as you land against her upper front left leg, using palm fronds as crude rope to stay attached. It registers as cold and rough in texture, but neither sharp nor abrasive, making it safe to cling closely to it. You have a short further ascent, and then you can reach the earth, soil, and natural vines of her back and make for the head.

Tell us how you get to the head atop the muddy forests and vines of the creature, and about how you feel that the cat accompanying you was able to leap far enough to reach a safe perch straight from the treetop, while you could not.

Return to Thellamie

[Yuki Staggers]

Fuck fuck fuck, I can't I can't, I can't. I can't keep moving, I can't keep jumping around and leaving things half done. I can't keep running off with whoever's right in front of me. I'm not good enough, I'm not strong enough. Why? Why? Why? Why can't you see it? Why can't you see that I literally cannot stand up right now because I'm already holding someone who needs me? What, do you want me to just get off the ground and dump this vulnerable sleeping woman here so that she can be arrested by the rest of the paladins while I run off with you? Is that it? Only Aadya matters? I. Can't.

Yuki does not say anything out loud. The look on her face is one of panic, a cat with wide eyes who is caught in a trap and cannot leap to higher ground. And then she shuts her eyes and grits her teeth and cries freely, heaving sobs that make her shoulders rise and fall as her tail falls limply behind her. A tear falls onto Eclair's cheek, and Yuki turns her head into her shoulder so that no more will disturb her friend's rest.

This wasn't fair! This wasn't how things were supposed to be! Is this what it was always going to be like now that she's not the chosen one? Everyone wants and wants and wants and you don't have anything special to give them? Yeah, fuck you, Yuki, you're just one girl and you can't be in five places at once like everybody wants, and everybody expects you to solve all their problems for them. She was supposed to be smart for Aadya and loud for Suli and open for Juniper and, oh god, fuck, where even was Juniper, she hadn't appeared at the ball at all before Yuki left.

It was too much, and it wasn't how Yuki remembered it, and she didn't know how to make everything work for everyone. It was the thing she wanted to know how to do most of everything, but she didn't know it. She didn't know how her parents kept the family together, not really. She didn't know how her grandparents had managed to cross the biggest ocean in the world and build a whole new family there. She didn't know how her aunt always managed to host the biggest New Years potlucks and have everyone come. And she didn't have it in her to figure out out right now.

She tries to wipe her eyes, but there's no sleeve on her shift, so it just leaves dark tear lines glistening on her arm. "Aadya, I-I'm sorry. I can't. I can't get up and go now. I can't. I'm so sorry. I'm sorry. I'm sorry."

Beyari: a Tale of Colossi

The cat growls in a low humming sort of way. Thinking. It is unlikely that it followed all of that and any hope that it might begin speaking to you in sentences is quickly dashed in the reality of waiting while it finishes the meat you provided it and considers.

The nature of the cat speaks in some sense to both the strengths of the past and of the lack of vision contained within it. The people who created this ecosystem planned for an autonomous rebuilding through evolutionary genetics that functioned correctly and that changed the ecosystem to benefit from and produce valuable materials (as understood by humanity of the past) in unusually high quantities. But they didn't think to themselves that maybe they could have enhanced the social aspects of cats that already prefer group living (though they'd have had to import since all American big cats are solitary). Nor did they consider that a cat might wish to request wings or the power to breathe fire, or any number of other things. Or...perhaps they did and the cats simply declined to change their fundamental form.

The cat, at any rate, cannot say. But it can finish up the boar's leg with satisfaction, pulling the last bits off the bone, and then follow you with a sort of wary curiosity that says that it wonders whether you might feed it again in a while but also that if you try to climb on it you will still lose a limb or find that it has disappeared into the trees.

Sandrea has turned now, veering more west, towards the ocean. Activity behind her seems to think this is a good sign. Several humans have started cheering and throwing their fists in the air.

Beyari: a Tale of Colossi

The great jaguar stares at the wrapped plastic boar's leg. There is a moment of careful consideration in this regard where the plan nearly goes wrong. Where the jaguar understands what you are holding and its impatience to have it from you nearly results in it going from tense to leaping, ripping your arm off, and tearing into the boar's leg. It does not, however, for whatever mysterious reason only it knows. But it makes it obvious that it had considered it and determined not to do so with a slight flick of its ears and an easing of its tension.

When all the plastic is dropped and the leg emplaced, it watches you until you stop moving. Then it watches you for several more seconds to see whether or not you intend to start moving. Then several more seconds to check again for certainty. After a moment, when it has determined that in fact you will not move, it leaps down from the branch with a practiced ease that allows it to maintain eye contact with you during the entire movement, its head never actually turning away from you. And then it bends carefully to the leg and begins eating, maintaining vision of you while it does so, taking careful, almost dainty bites from the meat.

While this may not be the most pertinent factor, you may note that scans from the revealed teeth as the great jaguar goes to eat indicate that its bone structure also contains metallic elements in unusual amounts. Rather than the expected calcium and phosphate with trace iron, you're detecting much larger amounts of iron, representing a few full percentage points of total bone mass, and there also appears to be a magnetic element, likely cobalt.

Beyari: a Tale of Colossi

There is a great deal to be learned about Sandrea, much more than could fill a notepad. Her own homeostasis is producing the enriched soil and plant matter that she scatters through some kind of conversion process. You'd need to observer her diet and respiration to really nail down how this works. It's difficult to fit a pattern to what she's doing at the moment though because her wound is making her less than steady, causing her steps to lurch and spill soil and seeds more randomly than likely would be the case with a steady stride. It's likely that this will eventually even out to a reduced flow of material for some time while her system directs resources towards regeneration and away from matter creation. Or, to put it more simply, she needs to find a safe place to stop and rest.

In other news, paper-making has survived! Though not particularly common among the sea coast people, scanning indicates some of the more notable individuals (based on ridership position and centrality of location of clusters of grouped humans) carry things made of paper in their pouches or packs, likely books and possibly notes or drawings.

Based on movement patterns, the "sea coast people who follow Sandrea" are unlikely to be the marauders that attacked her. They appear more confused and alarmed than aggressive, their movements primarily focused on trying to match Sandrea's altered path and scrambling to gather the unusual scatterings of material from her affected movements. Further, their equipment appears designed to collect materials but their weapons are defensive in nature, small in number, and would take an extraordinary amount of dedication to inflict the sort of large cut that Sandrea suffered. A reasonable guess is that the marauders launched a surprise attack from an angle away from interference by the Sandrea followers. Whether they then fled entirely, were driven off, or remain nearby but out of scanner range is uncertain without asking for an account of things. Your wide circle does, at least, rule out a number of potential hiding places insofar as you neither detect a hidden encampment of marauders nor are ambushed by stumbling upon such an encampment.

Though, you are ambushed as you finish your second circuit, just not by humans. Instead, the great hunting cat that has leapt into a tree above you appears more puzzled than anything. You clearly register as inedible, but it was napping in excellent camouflage, as a pattern of dark yellow-brown and black speckles adorns its body that blends near-perfectly with the tree bark and foliage. It's a great deal larger than any historical jaguar, more comparable in size to a large horse or oxen, but with a muscular cat's body and powerful front paws. Its weight is held by the branch it leapt to only because of the unusual dense metallic elements present in everything you've been scanning since you woke up. It appears to be trying to assess whether you are a threat or not, and thus whether it ought to flee, attack, or watch you.

Return to Thellamie

"Don't" the word from Yuki's throat is rough and pained. "Don't go Aadya." She says it softly this time. Her head hangs over the form of Eclair that she still holds so gently. Afraid of waking her. Her voice is still and small, caught in the hot steam of the sauna. "Please. Don't go. Not now. Please. I...I need you right now."

She looks up at Aadya then, and she is crying, though she could not tell you why in this moment. She doesn't have the words yet to tell you how heavy her heart feels right now. She can't explain why she feels so tired and how hard it would be to stand up right now and follow Aadya. She certainly can't why she feels such a strong foreboding about all this when Aadya could command an entire battalion of civil paladins to join her if she had a clear shot at rescuing Civelia.

But nevertheless, her heart cries out for Aadya to stay with her, and that she knows.