Illumin0sity

Journey to the East

Noah shook his head at Elann’s question regarding his wellbeing. Moving to the pallet, he answered, “I haven’t been feeling well, no.” Over the past few days since he pointed out his headache and slight congestion to Elann he had been getting progressively worse in feeling. Sleeping the days away had provided him with relief from the feelings, as had being active when he was up, but the avoidance had taken a toll on the Kelvic.

“It’s just a cold,” he said, now sitting beside her as she lay under the blankets. “It’ll go away in a few days.”

It was rare for him to catch any kind of sickness. For as long as Elann knew him he hadn’t been under the weather physically. The fever sickness she had long ago hadn’t made him skip a beat in his own stepping. His body simply ran too hot for most sicknesses to catch ahold of him to slow him down. As it were, the illness developing in him was almost entirely avian in nature and even it wasn’t keeping him down as she had seen. It very well could’ve been his stubbornness in not wanting to be put down by not feeling well. She’d seen that once the stitches were out there was very little he didn’t press himself to do.

She brought up his shaving, to which he had noticed she had found his razor, boar-bristled brush, and tub of cream and set them inside the tent. In thought he stroked the musings of his facial hair. He nodded, saying he would shave it.

“I’ll do it in the morning,” he went, reaching behind his back to pull at the collar of his shirt. Noah peeled his shirt off and laid it across his lap, raising up his arm in order to see the marks of his wound on his ribcage. After the examination he put the shirt to the side and went to take off his pants, eventually joining Elann under the blanket on the bed in the nude, lying down on his back with his hands playing over his stomach.

Journey to the East

Noah nodded, watching Elann go off towards the dwindling fire. He busied himself with getting Aimee’s attention inside the wagon, waiting for her to come to the flaps. She pinned one of them up when she did come, reaching for and receiving the garments that Noah slowly took off. She didn’t offer to help him, assuming he would want to take them off himself. The cloak, jerkin, socks, and boots all came off, leaving him in the long-sleeved shirt and trousers. Aimee folded what she could and returned them to him and Elann’s trunk, dropping the boots down onto the floor with the collection of other shoes there.

Noah was walking to return to the tent by the time Elann came back to him. He waited for her to walk to the wagon and bid Aimee a goodnight before returning to walk with him to the tent. He let her enter first, giving the premises a lasting look over before slipping inside after her. The darkness was illuminated by the lantern being lit, an orange glow flooding the interior and dancing off his pale complexion, playing with shadows. He ruffled his hair, looking around the tent to take it in, something done out of complete habit when he would constantly be in new areas and surroundings.

The tiredness in Noah was apparent in the bond and in his face, the usually bright eyes drooping, alertness and shine unaffected. He was quiet in his existence there, mostly just wanting to go to sleep for the remainder of the night, what of it remained until dawn. He didn’t know the time for sure but figured only a handful of bells remained before the morning birds would begin to chirp before Syna broke through the horizon.

He tread softly over to the pallet, moving to sit down on it with his legs outstretched. He wondered if Elann would just get ready for bed as well.

Journey to the East

Noah showed a small smile to Elann at her thanks, nodding at her. She may not have realized the gamble Noah took with bringing her to Zulrav. While his god would not have smote either of them He would have been disgruntled with Noah. Thankfully for the Kelvic they had a relationship built on respecting one another’s wishes. Also thankfully for Noah was that Zulrav cared enough for him to hear what the Stormwarden had to say pertaining to his personal life. It was the only reason He had seen Elann that night, of which Noah was grateful for.

Elann spoke up to which Noah shook his head. Once he had thought the same thing, slightly concerned in the past that him speaking to Zulrav would manage to wake up entire cities. “To them, it would have sounded like normal thunder,” he told her. “It was so loud to us because he was speaking directly to us, Aimee too. This area was the loudest because it was almost like sacred ground, like a church or cathedral. It’s like when He marked me for the second time and I flew away in the distance. What you heard was what they at the camp heard. What I heard is what we heard just now.”

Aimee left Elann, turning to return to camp. Noah’s presence and Zulrav’s lack thereof meant the night was now still, Noah holding the winds at bay for Elann’s chilled sake. Her clattering jaw and frozen hands were a consequence of the night stripped of heat by Zulrav’s storm front moving over the area, made worse by the fact that the warden had approached his god, forcing the great being to stay in the region longer than what was intended.

The trip back to the camp was quicker than when they initially left, no pauses being made to wait for the winds to indicate direction. Aimee took up the front for most of the walk, only falling back in line with Elann and Noah once they were in vaguely familiar territory. As they walked the clouds were becoming sparser, the glittering lights of stars and the great looming moon were visible.

In another tick of time they were back to the wagons, Aimee leaping up in theirs in order to shift behind the flaps. Noah came to a stop just outside of the wagon, letting go of Elann’s hand in order to undo the metal clasp of his cloak, shrugging it off and laying it on the edge of the wagon. “We should get you into the tent so your hands don’t hurt again,” he said, looking to her for confirmation.

Journey to the East

Zulrav cared little for the other gods. There was one deemed to be his lover by various cultures, Semele, the Mother of Mizahar. Semele, in many ways, was in the same position as Elann. Like Noah, Zulrav observed the world, for it was said He knew all things the wind touched. While Noah’s reach wasn’t that far, he observed the world in much the same way, not letting it impact what he did in it. Noah knew he wasn’t alone in his alignment with Zulrav either. He had met one other Stormwarden and though the other warden was much less proficient in his abilities than Noah was, the disposition they held was pretty much the same. They weren’t to be friends made in passing but they acknowledged one another as a blessed of Zulrav, siblings in a way. The other warden resided in Riverfall while Noah would reside in Zeltiva. Neither of them knew of any other wardens but there very well could’ve be some. Wardens failed to congregate like other blessed mortals. Their worship of Zulrav wasn’t as powerful even though they regarded the god as more than a mysterious being. It was much like how Kelvics failed to congregate, not even knowing they were in the presence of another Kelvic upon first glance.

Noah squeezed Elann’s hand in return, the lasting thunder that came from the cloud drifted off and Noah nodded at the words. The winds began to die down entirely, the protective barrier around the couple dispersing and rejoining the still air that started to blow the cloud front away. The blackness of the cloud shrunk and seeped back into the flow of dark grey heavenly bodies until it was no more and the great presence that Noah felt was fading as he knew his god was making his own way away.

Noah took up Elann’s frigid hands, bringing them to his lips to place a kiss on the backs of her knuckles. “Sorry that it had to be so late,” Noah apologized. “I had to wait for the peak of the clouds and the winds to beckon me.”

From their left Aimee’s near silent footsteps could be heard, her being shifting the tall grass and disturbing what loose debris lay hidden on the ground. Her furred body came around the back of Elann, the wolf curling partly around Elann’s legs, her bushy tail caressing the back of the Benshira. Her snout came up, looking between the couple as if asking if they could leave now.

Journey to the East

The cloud grumbled in reply to Elann’s question. The grumble was low, as if it were considering, before the booming continue. Noah was clearly desensitized to the loudness of his god, knowing there was no other way for the fullness of Zulrav’s words to be heard unless they were seemingly shouted in this way. His body reacted in the way any loud noise would force one to do, his heart skipped each time the boom broke the silence but he stood undeterred.

“He says He recalls your people and how what He would do to you would make your lives hard. He says there is nothing to be done about it, your people were not the first to dislike Him. To Him, your hardship didn’t matter, your people were to face the same hardships as every other living creature in the world, be there sandstorms, snowstorms, or rainstorms that caused floods. He says you were raised to dislike by those who feared Him in the past and who still fear Him now,” Noah translated seamlessly.

“He says it isn’t about appreciating Him, only know He appreciates you for what you do for me. He says to respect Him, and you don’t do that with appreciation but with knowing the might of His power, recognizing it. He cares little for worshippers, He is ‘fond’ of those that don’t view Him in a bad light, those that view Him as a natural part of the world, an order established long before mankind made their mark in the world. He respects those that respect Him and understand Him, those like me who use His winds thankfully and are grateful for His place in the world. He doesn’t seek to be pleased because He can live without the pleasure of mortals. However, nothing would please Him more than for you to continue the path you’ve already begun to walk.”

Noah stopped speaking shortly after the thunder died down back into quiet and swirling winds. He knew what Elann asked wasn’t answered entirely or to her expectation, but it was the way of his god. While Zulrav had begun to like mortals in recent years, their prayers and praise meant very little to the being. He would continue to do as He willed regardless of who pleaded, begged, or thanked Him.

Journey to the East

It was doubtful Elann could do anything alone that would evoke the wrath of Zulrav. Unless she gravely hurt the Stormwarden in some way, Zulrav would be unprovoked. Should Noah and Elann part ways in a more or less peaceful way Elann would become nothing but a whisper to the god, his attentions residing with the interests of his Stormwarden, and if Elann was no longer an interest of Noah’s, then she was no longer an interest of the god’s.

Noah couldn’t help but smile at Elann’s fright and hesitation when she addressed Zulrav with a nod and tentative words. He smoothed his thumb over her the backs of her hands, reassuring her. After she spoke the cloud quivered again in low groans, repetitive noises that made Noah’s smile stay.

“He’s laughing at you,” Noah said, looking up at the cloud. The god drew quiet though the winds stayed near violent as they swirled around the couple. They were surrounded by them but the breezes failed to come near them. This barrier was akin to what Elann witnessed the day of the great rain storm in Syliras, how Noah came to her but upon her advance she was greeted with nothing but harsh and gusting retaliation.

“I wanted to introduce you two personally,” he went on. “Zulrav would not come to you and I knew I would have to bring you to him if you were to meet him. He watches you but doesn’t speak, He tells me what He sees and thinks of you. You both are the most important things in my life and I think it’s right for you to meet one another personally.”

The clouds buckled under the weight of Zulrav’s voice once more as the god flooded the area with great noise. This was something Noah didn’t translate, only listening and nodding as he heeded the words of his god. Afterwards, Noah looked at Elann, nodding towards the great cloud.

“He wants to know if there is anything on your mind,” he told her in translation.

Journey to the East

The lightning was constant at this point, illuminating the world around them. Him following the winds, the lightning, and thunder were more than being a Stormwarden. These were things he had done before he was marked; it was how he managed to navigate the world as instructed as such by his mother. The signs he was pointing out to her now took on new meaning when Zulrav spoke to him in words the Kelvic could actually understand. He was attempting to show Elann this; trying to show her how one gained favor with a god who could care less about lowly mortals like themselves. Where Yahal could apparently be seen when one took a pilgrimage, Zulrav could not be reached in that way. Luck and personal interest of the god was what caused a mortal to be looked upon by the deity of storms. It was by luck and personal interest that Elann was looked upon by Noah, a similarity of the two.

These were things he couldn’t explain with his words, vocally clumsy as he could be. The imperfection of his explanations were made up with by the display he was attempting to show her with Zulrav in kind. Noah showed her his power, how he could use the breezes in order to send whispers across great distances, even though this one was not that great. They were right by one another yet where no wind blew, Noah’s own conjuration found her ears and filled them with his words of information. He told her Zulrav didn’t always use words to speak, how feelings and signs were used in place. Another similarity between the Stormwarden and his god.

Noah looked to her expectantly but she said nothing in reply, staying silent after the air he created to speak to her died away, rejoining the still air around them. He licked his lips, looking up into the sky as lightning streaked through the dark clouds. The direction the lightning went, though it was just a flash, was followed by another gust of directional wind pushing up against the couple and Aimee too. Noah turned and went the way the wind pulsed, using the consistently striking lightning to take in the layout of the land in order to find a path no one would tumble over.

Chimes passed in quietness, Noah not stopping in his walking, only slowing and waiting for the next gust of wind when it would come to push him along in lead. Eventually they broke through the other side of the sparse thicket into another meadow. Looking up, Noah noted the thickness and darkness of the clouds in this area. Where once a sheet of dark grey was constant, in this space a cloud nearly black and void of all other color stood in the air, menacing, only momentarily lit up when lightning came.

As they stepped into the meadow the winds greeted them with a new vigor, inquisitive breezes that could not be blocked out by the clothing one wore. Layers were useless here as it seemed any gust of wind that came at the couple soaked into their very skin. Noah was unbothered, but he was sure he couldn’t say the same for Elann. He continued to look up as he walked into the tall grassy meadow, clutching Elann’s hand as his heart quavered in his chest.

“He has no mortal form like Yahal,” he finally said, coming to a standstill. “Zulrav’s form is in the wind, the lighting, the thunder, clouds, rain. He is here and there, yet nowhere at the same time. There are times when his presence is strong and powerful and other times when I can barely feel him, like a whisper on the wind.”

Noah had forced them to the middle of the meadow, the tree-line a long distance away. He turned to face his bondmate, grasping for her other hand before holding them both between them. He looked off to the side, up at the dark cloud that grumbled with low thunder. “Elann,” he said, “meet Zulrav.”

At the utterance of the god’s name, the cloud erupted into the loudest clap of thunder she had ever heard. Noah’s own heart skipped a beat as the wave boomed through the meadow, causing the trees thin tops to bend and forcing birds into the sky. Aimee herself flinched, cowering as she retreated slowly to the trees in search of shelter. The thundering continued at the great volume, each break in the once peaceful quiet interrupted by a constant stream of noise, something that resembled talking. The words were only able to be heard in full by the Stormwarden, but his reactions told her that nothing was to be feared.

“He didn’t want to meet you at first,” Noah translated, “but now He is glad that I’ve brought you here to see Him. He says He appreciates you, even though He wasn’t fond of you when we first bonded. He says, although there are times He doesn’t understand you, He loves you because you love me and I love you. He calls you a… guardian, someone who watches over me, His child.”

Journey to the East

Elann’s fear would not have been penalized here. Noah was fearful as well, something he confessed to her whenever he traversed into the wilds. He had his sister and Elann with him though, Zulrav watching overhead. It made the feeling of fear lessen in his belly, lessen enough for him to dedicate his attention to Elann and the sounds around them. She said she heard the wind, to which he nodded, then looked in the way she indicated. He nodded again, confirming her hunch.

Noah took her hand again in his and led her in that direction. “You know how I call you my moon?” he said, looking back to her briefly as he stepped over a downed branch. “How you guide me through the night and the darkness, the Zeltivan lovers’ saying?” He looked forward again, ignoring the crunching of twigs that Aimee was doing as the wolf trailed behind them, her fluffy tail in the air and her nose to the ground.

“Before you, there was Zulrav. I don’t know where I’m going, but I’m listening to the wind as it tells me the direction. I can’t see in the dark but I’m not afraid of it, Zulrav gives me light.”

Noah stopped again, his head swiveling from side to side as he awaited the next whisper from the wind. When it did come, it was more than a whisper. The force of the wind rushed over the three of them, urging them in another direction that Noah went without hesitation. The wind continued to push at their back in gusts that didn’t seem to end or wane in their strength. When they did, Noah stopped again.

“He has different ways to communicate,” Noah went on. “Sometimes the signs are subtle, like what you heard, and sometimes they are obvious, like this pushing, or when the lightning strikes in the distance, or when the thunder sounds above. It’s how He talks to me, tells me what He wants me to know.”

Noah turned to face her again, holding her hand still. “When He speaks to me on the wind,” he said, growing quiet but his mouth still moved. The wind was absent in that moment but a gentle breeze would be felt on Elann’s ears, Noah’s voice coming through on a delay. The words said: “When he speaks to me on the wind, this is what I hear: whispers in his voice or in no voice at all. Sometimes they are just feelings, emotions like happiness and joy, or anger and frustration, or curious, and even annoyance.”

Journey to the East

Noah nodded at Elann’s words. Maybe was more than nothing at all. He didn’t expect her to know, simply asking the question to gauge what she was initially listening for, if anything at all. There was the chirping of crickets, the wind in the trees in the distance, the occasional snapping of a twig. Noah didn’t feel threatened, unalarmed by anything in their surroundings. The trek through the dark hadn’t worried him. What was felt in him was a sense of growing anticipation and anxiety that peaked right before he turned to face Elann and asked her what she heard.

The clouds above sparked with lightning, though they were silent, the strike not sending thunder ripping through the area. His fair skinned face was illuminated momentarily by the flash before he spoke.

“Listen for the wind,” he told her hushedly. “Try to ignore everything else. Don’t worry about the dark or the bugs.”

He grew quietly, turning his ears to listen as well. He could tell the whispers were coming from Elann’s right side, further into the trees. While lightning wasn’t flashing while they were walking, it was flashing now in a random frequency. No thunder came though, only the guiding lightning that Zulrav produced.

Journey to the East

Noah was standing in the opening of the wagon when Elann arrived, fiddling with the strappings of a jerkin he hadn’t worn in a long while. He didn’t want it to uncomfortably press against his back but he wanted it to feel snug at the same time, making it a chore to adjust. Her comment came, to which he was quiet to until the vest fell just right over his frame.

“Thank you,” he quietly said afterwards, finally taking his plate.

Noah ate in relative silence, sitting on the edge of the wagon with his sights set on the sky as the clouds continued to roll in and eventually cover the entirety of the sky in a dark grey overcast. The winds hadn’t changed in their fierceness, still reaching out and biting what wasn’t covered with the cooling temperatures they brought in with the night. They bothered all but Noah, his mind too focused on the movements of the clouds above and the mood of the winds below to be disturbed in the first place.

After he finished his meal, he declined Elann’s leftovers, settling with a partially filled stomach and waiting patiently for the fullness of nightfall to come. Eventually it did, those who couldn’t stay awake any longer going to sleep, and those that could eventually passing out as well. In the time it took for the camp to fall asleep Noah put on his socks and slipped on his boots, tucking his pants into them before tying up the laces. With Elann’s help he managed to get down out of the wagon, the dagger she brought to him being rejected and her being encouraged to leave her bow and arrows.

“Just bring yourself,” he said, waiting for her to make a decision.

Once made he’d take her by the hand and lead her away from the caravan, through the opposite way from where the tent city was set up. As they moved the winds picked up, pushing at their back. They trekked through a meadow, ending up in a sparsely forested area a long way’s walk from the camp. As they entered the area Aimee made herself known, the maned wolf sitting on her haunches waiting for who knows how long in the specific area. She took up the rear of the advancing couple until Noah came to a stop, thin trees around them with highly grown grass, dead and not.

The winds died a short time before he stopped and he finally released Elann’s hand, looking up through the light canopy to see the sky again. Aimee sat off to the side, her ears flicking this way and that as she took on the role of a watcher for the couple. She watched Noah turn to Elann.

There was a sense of anticipation in the male as he stood before his bondmate. He reached into her space and pushed her hair back behind both ears, drawing back and standing straight while looking down at her.

“Do you hear anything?” he asked, his voice the only immediate thing to hear even though it was but a whisper.

The wind wasn’t blowing on them or directly around them. However, in the distance, the whistles of leaves caught in the sylphs’ path could be heard. Little gales bounding through the thin tree trunks muttered on in the forest. Noah and Aimee could hear these things in the distance, though on the rawness of sound could be heard by the latter, the former could discern mood and speech from the breezes.