Mandragora: Crystalline Clouds

Chapter One

In the year 856 of the first age, a prospector by the name of Arnaus Plaid decided to take a detour on the way to the Mid-Range Mountains. It was a time when the Nemon Forest had not yet been mapped. None of the humans had explored its recesses but luck would have it that weather conditions enticed Arnaus to lead his expedition to the Nemon Forest. But not all went according to plan and although crystal veins were found in uncharted territory, it took them so long to travel through thick woods that due to low provisions they ended up turning back after making their find. There are rumors of encounters with the prime but very little is actually known. It was not talked about and it’s uncertain whether the men that didn’t return were casualties of feuding or perilous terrain.

After Arnaus returned with what was remaining of his expedition, word of the crystal deposits spread far and wide. In waves, men arrived with hope in their eyes and longing in their hearts. It only took days before a homestead was built. It was called Sairferill meaning topsoil in the old language. It’s said that the ghost of Arnaus Plaid followed the men into the Nemon Forest because they never did find any crystals. Even as men gave up many more made the journey and tested their luck but no one ever did find the wealth they sought.

Today Sairferill has a population of about four hundred. Many residences are descendents of those early trailblazers. Herbs were found between roots that grew out of bark from the local species of trees. They were found to be edible and sweet enough that they became a popular desert. It wasn’t a coincidence that the first store in Sairferill was a bakery. The whole building is made from the wood of the Nemon forest.

Inside the bakery at one of the thick wooden tables sat a man in his seventies and a younger man in his forties. The older man had wavy white hair and blue eyes; there was calmness about his face that could only have come from years of hardship. He was telling a story to his younger red haired acquaintance, his voice deep and loud. Even with her years and years of working at the bakery Jenieya couldn’t help but listen.

“No one likes to talk about what happens deep inside great grand father forest. I’ve seen things long ago that would have you wishing you worked a soft job in the Metropolis. In these parts you may not have heard yet. There are a kind of prime that live in the Nemon forest that can only be seen in dreams and reflections…”

Viola, Jenieya’s 12-year-old granddaughter was taking a trey with steaming tea and cane wafers to their table. She felt her leg collide with something and tripped over it falling unto the floor. The trey toppled and crashed as she hit the ground. Hot tea scolded her forearm and she winced.

“Aren’t you a little too young to be working?” The red haired man said while standing up. From behind the counter, Jenieya made haste.

“I apologize, we’ve been much busier then usual this week. We’ll pay for you today.” The old man’s eye’s widened at hearing this.

“Theirs a lot for younge girls to do and lots to keep a bakery going. We’re not going anywhere soon.” The old man said smiling down at Viola.

Jenieya wrapped her arm around Violas waist just under her armpit and pulled her up to her feet. Jenieya took her by the hand and walked her to the back of the bakery where there were lots of utensils and provisions.

“Viola, I don’t ask you to help with customers often but when I do I expect you to be graceful. Surefooted. Learn this now and things will be easier for you especially if you ever move to the Metropolis. Be absorbed with what you do when you’re doing it.”

“I’ve been practicing in the mirror but when I’m not in front of the mirror I can’t remember what it felt like to look the way I practiced. I worry I look silly.” Viola explained.

“Then stop practicing in the mirror. Now listen. We need more cane prepared, there are plenty of stalks in the pantry. I want them peeled and chopped. We have a group of laborers coming tonight and they will want lots of cane juice. There is cotton wrap for your arm, make sure you attend to it now and not later. I have to get back to our guests.” Jenieya said.

Viola watched her grandmother flit around back out to the front part of the bakery. The smell of cane was unbearingly strong and sweet. It was easy to find where it was packed away. She placed them one after another on the wooden cutting block that ran along the length of the sidewall. While peeling the cane, at seeing the watery strands, Viola succumbed to their draw and put one close to her nose. She listened for her Grandmother’s footsteps and then bit into the cane stock. It was delicious. She chewed and chewed sucking out all the cane juice from the fibers. It sounded like sipping water through a straw with closed teeth.

She crept to the open doorway, to the front part of the bakery and peaked in to see where her grand mother was. Viola gasped and spun around at seeing Jenieya staring down at her cross armed.

“That’s cane juice on your face, I can smell it from here. Don’t even pretend other wise. That was your last chance. You’re on water duty for the rest of the evening. Whether you like it or not!”

“But I’m hungry now?” Complained Viola.

“And after you’re done you can go straight to bed without dinner.” Jenieya declared.

“Maybe some bread for my strength.” Viola suggested.

“No and there’s no discussing it. Take care of your arm before you start hulling out buckets to the well.” Jenieya said.

There was a mouse keeled over by the old shelving unit pinned under a dust bunny. Its fur was wet and matted. Viola didn’t notice Jenieya leaving the back part of the bakery but could hear her muffled voice with customers. The shelving unit bumped the wood paneled wall and from the gap beneath its bottom shelf was Raims the cat. His paws outstretched, he snatched the mouse and rolled over with it. Raims then looked up at Viola and smiled but when he looked back, the mouse scurryied out of sight.

“Get out of here Raims!” So loud was Viola that Raims jounced up unto a shelf that was full of plates. They gnashed together causing Viola to cup her ears. The plates wobbled and fell, crashing loudly onto the floor. Raims jumped sideways from the shelving unit to the floor and headed outside through the cat door. Viola hurried after him into the fields of barley that rose as high as her shoulders. Above treetops the sky was orange. Strands of light fell between clouds and the stone well by the edge of the forest was aglow. Letting her palms pass over the tops of the barley she approached the well. Her mind wondered to what the old man had said.

“Ah I’m not afraid of no prime!” She exclaimed. The stones were seamed with outgrowths of thick moss still wet from the rain of past days. Viola put her hands on the edge of the well and leaned over. Down into the deep vista she saw blackish water. There was not only a reflection of her long black hair hanging over her face but there was a wide awry blue skinned bald face with green cat eyes and a broad jaw. At seeing this she let go and jumped back nearly tripping over a hidden rock. Looking around there was no sign of the prime she had seen in the reflection of the well water.

“Am I dreaming?” She thought. A few longarm birds were landing into the thick canopy of the Nemon forest and Viola decided to go to her secret hiding place.

Chapter Two

The air darkened inside the Nemon forest and Viola crossed her arms to keep warm. Roots grew over top of one another and the ground was all woven with them. From out of what little topsoil there was grew moss- their furry strands whirling about. The trees were as bulky as cabins, their boughs starting low on trunks. There was brittle orange growth in circular patterns upon the bark and old man’s beard touched the ground. Viola parted his green hanging threads with her hands and hopped between the trees from one root to another. From the ground up, a shimmering of gold and azure caught her attention. Her foot slipped back on a root and down to the ground. She bruised her shin but was more concerned with the sparkling rock. Although it was only the size of a pebble it was as heavy as ten. Her mouth dropped as she gazed into the sheen of its many faces. Her eye sparkled back and on every face was a reflection of a person or people all sleeping. One young boy opened his eyes and looked right at her. She dropped the small crystal and looked around but couldn’t get her bearings.

She thought about how much time she had used walking to her secret hiding place. It was beneath a tree that grows over a rock and she had been going there for years. The way was as familiar to her as the smell of cane. Puffballs like the tops of dying dandelions we’re bobbing in the wind. Beneath their fuzz were gangly like roots spreading out like the branches of a sugar bush.

“I’m lost.” She yelled.

Like a sac of rocks tearing open, there was a sound that had Viola ducking. She thought about how loud she had shouted and regretted it. She wanted to lie flat on the ground but there was not enough room between or under the weaving roots. The puffballs landed on trees attatching their many arms to the ridges in the bark. The puff balls began to glow yellow and several birds shrieked. Another roar had viola thinking about escape and rubbing her arms wondering why her hair seemed to levitate. A ways off, green threads of old man’s beard parted. Sticks crackled from something heavy tromping through the woods. Puffballs shivered as strips of old man beard were torn from branches. Out of the underbrush tromping on plants in its way was a four legged prime as long as a chimney stack and fuming from the mouth. It’s tail cracked and struck out crushing a couple of puffballs. Its jaw line was broad and the shape of a crescent moon. It’s shoulders were well rounded and protruded out of it’s low lying back. It’s spinal column bulged out of it’s back tapering at it’s blotchy tail.

It turned its heavy head from side to side and spotted Viola with its red eye’s that had rectangular pupils. The pit of her throat swelled, she couldn’t swallow and when it came too a scream nothing but whirring. A sound like splashing accompanied a yellow burst of light. Viola leapt from the edges of it and belly flopped upon two roots pleated over the black earth. Standing far off, upon one of the many humongous low lying branches were two short, bulky blue skinned creatures with faces like the one viola had seen in the well water. The yellow beam of light that came from their direction did something to the green prime because when she got her bearings it was gone.

Gusts of wind swept down from the layered canopy and the puffballs detached their tendril from the bark. Their glow waned but remained as they floated along side her. Viola was apprehensive when one of the blue stalky prime approached her. She could not see a neck, its head was caved into the top of its broad chest. It’s cheeks were flat and out like. Its head had see-through stubble and the ridge of its nose went as high as it’s narrow forehead.

“Do you know the way back?” Its voice was low and coarse.

“I thought I did.” Viola answered.

The ground rumbled and the prime knelt down, hands on gangly moss. He looked back at his acquaintance that had leapt to the ground. He gestured to him waving one hand around his side. The puffballs sailed back to the safety of the tree bark. They attached their tendrils into ridges and their inner glow was revivified. The prime looked at Viola with its large green cat eyes.

“The crystals are turning to fog, it’s a dangerous time to be out in the open.”

Before she could say anything back, the ground rumbled and shook again. This time more violently then before. She stumbled and crouched down hanging on to roots. Cracks formed across the ground. Trees leaned over, roots bursting out of the earth sending rocks aflight. The surface of the forest shook like a strainer and from out of the cracks in the earth came curtains of thick azure light that shined up through the canopy. From the viscous light, fog began spreading over the land. Pieces of the ground lifted over other pieces forming cliff faces and there were terrible sounds of rocks gnashing unto and over one another. Plants and the tendrils of puffballs soaked in copious amounts of the fog. They become giant and collided with trees wrapping their tendrils around them. Maneuvering through the thick forest. One puffball grew up while one of it’s tendrils was stuck in the ridge of a tree. The tree split open and the puff ball floated to the top of the canopy trying to escape the forest. In one of the cliff faces was a sparkling cave where a crystal vein had evaporated.

“There into the cave.” The prime put forth.

The prime as tall as a short man. He was agile and leapt on all fours over to the cave entrance. Viola on the other hand had gotten her foot stuck under a root. She tugged but it wouldn’t budge. The ground continued rumbling and another crack ripped open dividing the ground by where she was trapped. The prime shook his head and made a leap in her direction but the fog that rolled out of the divide was breathed deeply by a Tyrote plant. It grew as high as a tree. The stock pushed up against her and the silia perforated her clothes. The top of the flower flopped over, trapping her inside. She screamed as pollen was shaken about. The yellow haze blinded her, and with each breath the pollen hit the back of her throat like mouthfuls of sand. She tried to yell but was winded. Light then shined in under a seem where the Tyrote petal had pleated unto the black earth. It was a blue hand lifting the orange petal. Viola was shocked and couldn’t move. Her hand was soar from having spill boiling water on it. She remembered her secret hiding place, the time spent wondering about the heavens and found the courage to duck under and out. She gasped for air as the prime grabbed her underneath his armpit. Luckily the pollen had knocked out her sense of smell.

High above, updrafts brought a tumult of fiery coloured strands to the sky. It was the crystalline clouds that shimmered so. Seams of light opened Violas eyes to the disappointment that her irises didn’t have far to go. The glare gave way into what looked like a vista of sparkling pebbles haloed by darker shades of blue. The prime was not only camouflaged, he was half buried in the earth and snoring. The very end of the tunnel looked like a twinkling star. Getting up was more difficult than she thought. She was stiff and wondered why.

“Excuse me, it’s time to wake up. You were right, I should get back to where I’m from.” Viola suggested.

The primes first set of fingers stretched and she could hear them crack. Then the longer set unfolded from veiny grooves on the back of his hands. The thin haloes around the sparkling crystal remnants moved like crashing waves. The prime rolled over from his side to his back and took his time sitting up. He moved as slow as a slug in the rain.

“Yarf, why would I show you the path home?”

“Because, you said I should go.” Viola replied. “Our younger ones, like yourself, several of them have done just what you’ve done. They’ve absconded to your side of the world. We call it the underworld.” The prime explained.

“I saw one of the… they looked like you do but smaller. Younger.” Viola replied.

“I’ll take you away from here but you must help bring our young back.” He said.

“I will. I will. Let’s go. Common.” Viola tugged at his hefty arm. It was too heavy to even budge and she slipped in the mud. The prime just stared back with his bright green cat eyes.

“You have sharp teeth” She remarked.

“My name is Oareth.” He anounced.

“Thank you Oa… I can’t say your name. Mine is Viola.”

“Viola, we’re loosing our young because they don’t have to eat or sleep where you come from. They don’t know that they can’t learn anything new.”

Oareth led the way and the star at the end of the sparkling cave became like a vertigo sky and they passed on through. The forest had newly formed cliffs from upturned land torn away from tremors. Roots hung out their sides but things had luckily settled and there were no giant puffballs. It wasn’t long after maneuvering by the low-lying sides of the upturned land that they reached the forest in tact. Oareth stopped ahead of Viola.

“Here you are. Quickly now, this is the edge.” He said.

“Thank you Oa… I forgot I can’t say your name.” Viola replied.

“You will. And Viola. Remember when you get to the edge keep looking ahead. To where you want to go. Help our young.” He intoned.

Viola walked away wondering why everything looked the same.

Chapter Three

Viola stood at the edge of what Oareth had called the under world. The wind pressed up against her back and her hair blew out in front of her. The terrain moved ahead of her as though she was running backwards. It only took a few steps before everything slowed to a halt. She fell forward, where twilight filtered through by the trees near the fields of barley on the outside of the Nemon forest. A gust of wind tousled her hair and she peered out across the field to the stone well and further off the bakery. She ran back to the to the bakery, to the front serving area and there was Jenieya waiting on the same two men. She said hello but was ignored. She couldn’t, however much she tried get their attention. Even waving her hands in front of them they didn’t see her. And that’s when she remembered what Oareth had told her, that she had to help.

She waded through the wavering barley and returned to the stone well looking for the lost ones. She gasped at what she saw laying half buried in the ground. The hands and feet of what she saw were sunken into the brown topsoil. It’s body atop pleated blades of barley.

“Excuse me!” She said.

“My name is Ayther and I’m sleeping.” He spat dirt out of the corner of his mouth not buried in dirt.

“Hi R… I can’t say your name. We can’t learn anything knew!“ She announced.

“Try me. What’s your name?” He opened his eyes and shook his body.

“Viola.” She said.

“Well that’s easy. V…” He stammered and then sat up continuing. “What kind of trickery is this and how can you see me anyway?”

“Never mind that right now why are you pretending to sleep?” Viola asked.

“I like sleeping” He answered.

“Can you dream here?” She asked.

“This is a dream.” Ayther answered.

Raims the cat meowed interrupting, and Ayther dislodged his hands and feet from the soil, rolling over to face his challenger. He bore his fangs at it.

“What are you going to do?” Viola demanded.

Ayther chased the cat through the field. Crouched over he was wacked by blades of barley and would fall everytime he tried to pick up the cat. Raimse even waited for him to fall. After he gave up Viola caught up to Ayther. He was sitting on the ground legs outstretched.

“I can’t learn to catch him.” Ayther complained.

“Were you thinking of sleep?” Viola asked.

“I miss it!“ He replied.

Viola left his company and waded through the barley. Twilight whirled through the tops of the field. There was a clang by the Bakery. Raims had gotten into the mound of garbage piled up against the back wall. Viola approached but although Raims could see Ayther, he could not see her. She reached out and tried to grab him but he was just too heavy. The brown hair on Raims’s body stood on end. He walked around in circles pawing the air. Viola glanced back a ways and saw Ayther still sitting with his large kneed legs outstretched in front of him. His torso slanted to the side watching the commotion.

Viola recalled the time earlier that day when a mouse played dead. She become upset thinking of Raims preying on mice because her and Jenieya gave him enough food. Viola then recalled Jenieya scolding her for tripping over something in the kitchen and falling with the trey. Her grandmother’s words rippled in her mind.

“You can go straight to bed without dinner.”

Violas stomach grumbled and she felt hunger and wondered how it could be. Ayther caught her attention; he was breaking cuds of barley folding them over to lie down on. She smirked and recalled something else Jenieya had said.

“Be absorbed with what you do when you’re doing it.”

She noticed something she had not before that Raims’s azure Iris’s looked fibrous. There was a layer around each pupil that was like a plateau raised above the rest of his Iris. The skin in the corner of his eyes was the same colour only with more pallor. The way the lighter browns on his face merged with the darker browns faded like the twilight.

Violas legs folded into the side of her body neatly. She stretched and clasped the ground under her. A few pieces of garbage jostled in the pile. There was a mouse moving slower then ever. It was trying so hard to scurry away but it should have been trying harder. It knew the dangers around the Bakery and yet it kept coming back for mere crumbs. Why couldn’t it simply get it’s own food, she thought before leaping. Underestimating her strength she crashed into the wood paneling of the backside of the bakery. The mouse had time to get away so she hopped through the cat door into the bakery and there was Jenieya preparing cane.

The smell of cane was so strong that it felt to her like she was swimming through it. She leapt with powerful back paws to the top of the cutting block. Jenieya stepped back startled giving Viola time to sink her fangs into a sweet tasting shoot. She took it with her leaping back down to the wooden floor.

“Ohh you. When I get you.” Jenieya protested.

Black birds flew over the field cawing and swooping low toward the tree line of the Nemon Forest. They were settling in for the night and so thought Jenieya to do the same. On returning to the bakery she heard the sound of a groggy voice. Viola slowly appeared above the barley and startled her Grandmother.

“I’m home,” Viola declared patting herself down.

“You are. Where have you been. I was beginning to worry.” Jenieya inquired.

Viola hurried over to her grandmother and did what she hadn’t done in a long time, she gave her a kiss on the cheek and a relentless hug.

The nights sky unraveled and the stars brought a smallness to the hurt Jenieya had felt for having to take care of the Bakery and viola all her self. She looked down at Viola seeing strength in her eyes and hugged back. There was a flash of yellow in the in the air and Viola whispered “Oareth”.

That night Viola dreamt of swimming through tunnels of crystalline clouds and found Ayther on his way home. It was the first time she dreamt of someone not having known them for more then two days.

The End

Comments