A gentle summer shower falls around the Tigers tail tavern as the entire tribe gathers inside to escape the annoying rain and discuss the federations latest move. The owlwin crafted tightly woven tigerwood branch walls, roof, and floor keep the Tigris tribe completely dry with the help of the huge leathery leaves which deflect most of the rain away from the ground at the base of the mighty tree.
Shia slams down ten overflowing mugs of mead onto the large wooden bar magically crafted out of one of the tree’s giant living branches. The elder men are gathered at a section of the bar discussing what they can do about the destruction of their sacred crystal bog. The branch bar encircles the entire tigerwood trees trunk where it grows back into itself, and smaller branches growing from the bar are molded into the patrons living bench seats. On the other side of the enormous trunk, opposite the elders, the younger male warriors are gathered around the bar where rumors of a coming battle are passed around like the large pitchers of sweet mead. The women are clustered around living branch tables and benches sprouting from the level limb-entwined floor throughout the spacious tavern. Worried whispers flow from table to table and are passed around the circular room faster than the rambunctious young flittens who are enjoying a game of chase as they run around and around the trunk.
"The treaty prohibits the federation from taking any land or natural resources from our lands without our consent and just compensation." Shia’s grandfather Jeva Sundance growls, furious at the federations insulting behavior.
"But Jeva you forget that the treaty no longer applies. This is federation territory now, our lands are part of the federation, they can and will do as they please." Chief Serrek explains to his old friend.
Jeva Sundance, guardian of Shia Sundance, cannot accept what the Chief is telling him. "But aren’t there some kind of internal laws protecting the citizens of this so called ‘united’ federation?" Asks old Jeva with disgust.
"You forget old friend that they not only make the laws, they also control the money that controls the lawyers, the only people who understand the laws. Hell Jeva, they are the lawyers, they are the law. They even have a rule that protects them just in case they do break one of their own laws; you can’t sue the government, it is above the law." Serrek replies.
"But Serrek I thought this so called federation was for the people and by the people?" Shia’s grandfather argues.
"Jeva, that is why I like you, you are eighty three years old and you still posses the optimism of an eight year old flitten. The actual unspoken motto of the federation is, for the people with money, and by the people with money." The crowd laughs at Serrek’s worn out cliche as others just grumble in agreement knowing how serious that statement really is. Jeva is one who grumbles in agreement, he is not amused. Shia watches her old grandfather with pity. He is a very serious man who loves his society and the rainforest that sustains them.
"So what are we going to do?" Jeva asks.
"What are you suggesting Jeva? That we fight? That we stand up to the federation, of which we are now supposedly a part of?" The chief asks his old friend incredulously.
Jeva stands up slamming his stoneware mug down hard, most of its contents sloshing out onto the bar. "We are felacs, damn it! Our hearts and souls exist only in this forest. Once the felac and the forest are separated, our spirits cease to exist. Just listen to the stories of the citified felacs who have turned to crime, or even worse... Materialism" The old man says sternly as he looks around the room at his community who are now all at least listening even if they can’t see him.
Chief Serrek stands up and confronts the irate old Jeva face to face. "You listen and you listen very carefully. We are not going to do anything rash." The old chief says looking hard into his friend’s eyes. "This includes you."
"Jeva, old friend," Serrek says putting his hand on his friends tense shoulder. "you know as well as anyone what fighting the federation will mean." Serrek looks over at Shia and then Jeva looks at his granddaughter pouring drinks behind the bar. As always, his heart instantly melts. He’s raised her since she was a very small flitten after both of her parents died in the war with the federation.
Serrek then turns to the entire tribe and says. "We all know what fighting the federation will mean. So the elders decided that if anything like this ever happened we would send a representative to Ultor, and fight this in the courts. You were part of that decision Jeva, and that is what we are doing." The felac chief says with a stern finality. Chief Serrek then looks around the crowded tavern and says loudly. "Now who will be the tribe’s representative."
No one argues with Serrek, not even Jeva. The elders know best. Everyone in the room had family and friends die in the war with the federation, they would be happy if they never saw another war. All of the young men of Tigris tribe raise their hands volunteering for the trip to Ultor. Serrek looks over the bunch of fresh faced chee warriors and then he notices something very odd...
Shia is raising her hand?! He thinks as he looks at the young girl with great affection. When both her parents had died, Shia became the tribe’s child, and all of the tribe loves her as their own. The old chief smiles at her and thinks to himself. Such a strong spirit. Imagine, a girl.
"Thank you for volunteering, all of you, but I have decided that I shall go to Ultor to represent the tribe." Announces Serrek as he looks over his tribe. The elders all look at Serrek in shock. Although none of them say it, they all believe that a younger man should go to the big city. Ultor is an unnatural, ever-growing scar on the planet created by all of mankind's worst traits, and only a fit felac warrior should venture their. But the wise old Chief knows better. It is diplomacy that has the only chance of saving his tribe now. He has heard that once a tribe's crystal tree swamp is harvested it is not long before the federation starts seducing the tribes most productive young felacs who relocate to Ultor to start shiny new lives. Or they just send out a platoon to gather the tribe for mass relocation. Luckily for Serrek his tribe and peers have to much respect for him to argue that he is not a strong enough warrior, Mostly because he'd kick their butts around the bar! So they all simply accept his decision silently.
"I will be leaving in two days." The Chief continues.
The tribe then breaks off into a hundred different discussion groups consisting of family and friends. Shia’s job suddenly gets a lot harder. It requires only a fraction her strength, balance and dexterity to serve the thirsty tribe, yet every morning when it is over she is exhausted. As the young girl serves a variety of foods, with either mead or sap sweetened root ale, to her thirsty tribal family, her mind wanders beyond her people and her home. She wonders what Ultor is really like. Of course she has heard many stories and even seen some picture’s, but it is very difficult for her to comprehend having lived in the jungle all her life.
How can people live in a place with so little life? The forest girl thinks as she tries to imagine a place that only people inhabit. No plants, no animals, no phish, no insects, no nature of any kind... Just people and their precious things!
Night ebbs into morning and the felacs began to trickle out of the tavern, ready for a good day’s sleep. Shia stands on the covered porch watching the incredible iridescent sunrise. She is exhausted, both physically and mentally. Her mind tumbles and her head spins as she drinks a cool mug of mead and watches the sky dawning over the glistening green rainforest .
Sneaking over the eastern horizon the sun shines down on a devastating but all too familiar site in the rainforest these days. The dawning new day illuminating the consequences of mankind's progress. As another part of Memnonia dies another strand of Aryn’s fragile web of life is lost forever.
Destructive waves crash against the once majestic living shore. As the tide moves in it muddies, mixing with loose soil and uprooted plants, which once took refugee in the stability of the crystal roots. Water washes over the lumpy hummocks that the crystal trees created by catching biomass and soil in their root masses for so many years. The small knobby hills stand defiantly against the sea as it washes in and out with the tide. But not for long. The entire bog and all the hundreds of species of plants and animals that inhabit here will disappear with time.
Every ecosystem has a keystone species, which many of the other species around it depend upon. If the keystone species goes extinct or is removed the entire ecosystem begins to unravel. Long productive relationships fail as the natural order breaks down and whole species die off. The crystal trees were not only the most attractive feature of the swamp, they were also the keystone species, whose loss will ripple through the tidal ecotone until the waves wash away almost everything and the sacred swamp is no more.
The last owlwin on Aryn watches as his home is destroyed. He watches from a tree adjacent to the crystal bog; sometimes flying high overhead to get an aerial view. Why? Why must they continue to destroy Memnonia? The old man thinks as he watches the endless destruction. Wingsong has watched the destruction of the rainforest since he was young and Memnonia reached westward all the way to the shores of the Amazonis Sea. He has also seen the recent strip mining and clear cutting that the federation has begun to do nearby. But ever since the war ended seventeen years ago and the Federation discovered liquic the crystal swamps have been systematically harvested. The devastating loss only one of the endless byproducts of Ultor’s unchecked capitalist progress.
The destruction of one’s home would enrage most creatures, animal or man, but papa Aryn bestowed upon the winged wizards many great gifts. Besides the gift of flight and magic the god gave the long lived owlwins prudence and patience. A consummate pragmatist, Wingsong spreads his huge wings, needing to view the destruction from the sky, and get a feel for what his next step should be. After all one mustn't rush in when the correct course is wait and see. He flies very high so that any federation troops looking up will think he is just a bird. Seized by the sickening scene of destruction below, tears stream from his small yellowed eyes as the old wizard recalls Papa’s wise words:
Bright light blinds.
Loud sound deafens.
Overpowering feelings numb.
Lazy thoughts weaken the mind.
The heart is weakened by want.
So stop, be still and silent.
You must observe the world,
yet trust in your inner vision.
Allow things to ebb and flow.
Open up your spirit,
Like the unending the sky.
As the small female sneaks up to the swamp she can tell, even from this distance, that a horrible travesty to the natural order has defiled the sanctity of this hollowed place. Taking to the trees as she gets closer, Shia deftly jumps from branch to branch. She stops at the abrupt new edge of the forest. Out of site of the soldiers Shia stares open-mouthed upon her childhood dreaming ground in a shocked daze.
The crystal swamp has been pushed back by the federation troops. Oh no! Its over half gone! The troubled felac finally thinks as she slowly comprehends what she's seeing. Shia can’t believe the soldiers have gotten so far in so little time. The full meaning of the destruction of the crystal forest crashes down on Shia’s soul threatening to snuff out her bright spirit. But she is strong, very angry... also very sad, and extremely frustrated. A wave of emotionally charged heat pulses through the wild forest girl and suddenly the undeniable need to strike overtakes her.
Splinters fly as the forest girl leaps from branch to branch like a rascal, her nails digging into the soft bark sending splinters flying. Her hands and feet barely come in contact with the bark on the branches as she swings from tree to tree never landing on any. Shia stops when she comes to her favorite crystal tree on the edge of the bog.
She watches the unusually chaotic colors of her little twisted tree as the capitalistic cancer progresses toward it. She cannot imagine life without the trees, she has been coming to the swamp all of her life. The forest girl looks up with huge, sad eyes and sees the dark soldiers getting closer and closer. Slowly as her shock fades Shia realizes with a crystalline clarity that her pretty little tree will be gone by nightfall, and that is when her fragile young heart breaks.
Shia jumps into the branches of her small doomed tree and weeps uncontrollably. She watches as the rogs get closer and closer. Tired from working all night the soldiers never look ahead and thus never notice the small sobbing girl. The weeping felac hugs onto the tree as she tries to absorb every molecule of its beauty into her shattered spirit.
"I will go to Ultor for you. Somehow I will make the federation pay for this" Shia whispers to the tree before her sobs rack her soul once again.
A heavy, sorrowful cloud hangs over the community of Greenfield as Tyc and his family sit around the breakfast table waiting, nervously... for what? They still have no idea! All they do know is, it's coming!
Autumn called an hour ago in hysterics and said her mother's gone. She just went to the bathroom and never came back.
Everyone in town is afraid to sleep, although it really doesn’t make any difference. From the video blogs and text chatter on the crystal computers, it sounds like about half the people in town are missing now. Many of the Greenfield citizens have reportedly disappeared right in front of their friends and families. Imagine, they just vanished into thin air. But then they didn’t have to imagine when a video posted an hour ago showed a man sitting on his couch one second and then he was gone the next. No warning, no sound, no lights, just puff and then nothing!
Several hours ago the Europea Union contacted what’s left of the town council and reported no leads on the missing people. They were even able to focus in on a few of the disappearances as they were happening. Using the latest crystal satellites they ran full spectrum chy scans and their findings turned up nothing! Just like the video, one instant they’re there and the next they’re not. No one can grasp the problem much less begin to form a solution.
Widespread panic has clasped its deadly clutches around the small mountain community. There have already been over a dozen suicides. Some people just couldn't take the waiting.
Josh’s parents called in the middle of the night wondering if Tyc had seen the boy. He explained how they fell asleep at cat rock and when he woke up Josh was gone. He told them how he had assumed Josh had just gone home. But Josh’s parents said they had not see him since he left for school that morning.
Having held out hope that his friend might just be lost in the confusion he finally excepts that, "Josh is really gone." The words feel hollow to the boy, because there is no explanation. But after thinking about it for several hours and then the call from Autumn, Tyc has finally come to the decision that explanation or not this is real and there is nothing he can do about it.
"What the hell is going on!" Tyc thinks very frustrated and frightened, as he thinks of his best friend in the world, Joshua Raymond Leepshin is gone, most likely forever.
He broke down several times during the night, and was so relieved when the sun came up, he somehow thought it meant he had survived. Then, Autumn called, his hopes were shattered. Her mother had disappeared after sunrise. Tyc knows that either he or Autumn are going to disappear soon, and it is driving him insane to be away from her, his surviving friend.
The young man paces around the large kitchen table as he frets and worries about the way his world is crumbling around him. He never realized how much the people of this town meant to him. Now he knows they are as much the town, as the land, and the forests, and the buildings.
Tyc almost goes insane and runs outside, nearly tearing the screen door off its hinges. He is momentarily startled by the vibrant, green, living scene around him. It's as if the nature the community has constructed does not notice their absence at all, of course that's natural. It then hits the teen that without the people, New Appalachia will eventually fail. Although the chy perimeter will work for a long time drawing energy off it's solar and wind powered arrays, it frequently needs maintenance, repair, and modification. Without people and the perimeter it is only a matter of time before all the restored ecosystems fail, the relentless species surrounding the community quickly consuming the town and surrounding forests. All the thankless work, of so many generations, his ancestors whom he had never met, all their work toward a natural harmony for naught.
"AAAAAHHHH!" The maddened adolescent screams as he drops to the hard wooden floor of the porch and starts to weep. "Why?" the boy cries into the floorboards as he slumps down even further "why?"
Tyc’s parents watch their son from the doorway. He is so young, so innocent. They are saddened more by what he is losing than anything else. But they think they know what will ease his pain.
"Tyc." His father says as he exits through the screen door. "We want you to go and see Autumn if you want to." Tyc’s parents look at each other and smile sadly knowing how much the two mean to each other. They hold hands.
Tyc gets up and walks over to his parents, his face red and puffy. "No, I can’t leave. What if...?" he can’t continue. They both reach out and grab their son to them.
"We'll always love you son," His mother says to him as she hugs him "but you are a man now, and with that comes freedom. Sometimes freedom is wonderful, sometimes freedom is difficult. You must do what you want regardless of us. We have raised a capable adult, but as an adult you must make this decision."
Tyc pulls away from his parents, his eyes pleading with them that he cannot make this decision; but they pull him to themselves again and Tyc’s dad says on his other side. "Let me give you a word of advice son: always follow your heart. Use your head to get you out of the trouble your heart gets you into." Tears streaming down their faces the three embrace and sob.
Tyc hears himself say. "Goodbye. I love you both and thank you for everything..." And then he runs down the stairs and through the woods. His vision blurred by his tears all he can see are vague brown and green shapes. Following the trail from feel and memory he stumbles for an unknown amount of time before he looks back. By then he is out of sight of his house. The uncertain boy stops. He has experiences an insistent desire to return to his safe home. He desperately wants to run back, make sure that they are still there, but he quickly turns away and continues forward instead.
"Autumn I’m coming!" He thinks. " I’m coming."
Tyc makes it to Autumn's house in under three minutes, it feels like hours to the teen. He climbs the winding steps and stops on the porch. The boy is eternally relieved when he sees Autumn, her father and her little sister Hilly in the front window as he looks up from catching his breath. They look terrible compared to when he ate with them earlier. But all Tyc can think about is how he has never thought Autumn looked so beautiful. Autumn senses the boy and looks up. The two teens look into each other’s eyes and smile. Tyc decides then and there that he loves this girl and instantly regrets never doing anything about it. Damn it! Why can't I just act and stop worrying about the consequences. We've lost so much time!
Well maybe there’s still some time. Tyc thinks as he stands and gazes longingly at the pretty young girl. Autumn gets up from the couch and goes to the door. Tyc also approaches the door and gets lost in her beautiful face through the fine screen. He opens the door for the girl and as she steps through the doorway, she vanishes. One instant she is there and then poof... Autumn is gone!
Tyc stumbles and falls in the doorway. As his shocked mind shuts down he hears a man and a girl scream out from far away, but he cannot move.
I’m alone. The crushed boy thinks as he stares at the spot Autumn was just standing.
The young man screams through the shattered fragments that are left of his world. From somewhere deep down Tyc gathers his strength, a will to live ignites, and he picks himself up. Entering the house he is greeted by a hysterical young girl, and her father who looks like he is about to snap, or die of a broken heart. Tyc just stares at Autumn’s father. The boy doesn’t know what to say to the shattered man, and then he disappears, a few feet in front of the boy.
The young Hilly screams louder and runs around, "Daddy, Daddy where did you go?"
she screams hysterically "Mommy, Auty, where are you!" The little girl is berserk screaming, and running around the house calling for her family, but they are gone.
Sights and sounds swim through the boy's mind like a vague memory. He is aware of the hysterical girl crying and screaming but it's as if it's a video playing in another room. The shocked teen almost automatically catches the frightened little one, more out of instinct than anything else. He holds her close, patting her blonde head as he consoles her, gaining as much comfort from holding her as she is getting from being held by him.
"Shhh, Hilly, I am here. We’ll find them, don’t worry Hill, we’ll find them." Crying and rocking as he soothes the child, Tyc realizes his time is soon.
The teen picks the young girl up while he continues to hug her, and he starts to walk out of the house.
"NOOOO!" the child protests in horror. "We can’t leave, what about my mommy?"
Tyc holds the girl back and almost cracks as he looks into her big sad brown eyes and tells her, "Hilly we have to leave, your parents aren’t here. So we must leave so we can find them. Don’t worry we won’t go far. We can go to my house and wait with my parents."
The prospect of seeing the familiar adults eases the child’s mind and the two leave Autumn’s house.
Tyc looks back as they walk back to his house. Goodbye Autumn, I'm sorry! He thinks in a daze as he looks up at her house perched between three trees for what he knows will be the last time. A flood of emotions pours through him and he turns and walks swiftly back home with Hilly in his arms. He tries to push the emotions away, he needs to push them away or he will break down.
Tyc and Hilly get in sight of his house and he almost expects to see his parents standing on the porch where he left them. When they are not there he gets nervous, but he shakes it off thinking, surely they would have gone inside to get closer.
Tyc climbs up the steps to the porch quickly, but not too fast. Hilly is getting heavy but he doesn’t want to let her go.
"Mom, Dad, I’m back." The teen shouts waiting for an answer. When he doesn’t hear any he feels the emotions clawing back to the surface. An optimist to the bitter end, Tyc thinks to himself, maybe they’re upstairs and can’t hear me. But even he is having trouble with that one.
Tyc puts Hilly down by the door so he can open it. He goes inside and calls with all his might, "Mom, Dad, It’s Tyc! Are you here?" But the only answer he gets is an empty chilling silence.
The very frightened teen feels a numbness overtake his body. He walks methodically from room to room, like a robot, calling out to his parents, much like the child had. He comes to the last room, and quickly pushes through the door... Nothing! Tyc almost breaks down when he hears Hilly scream.
The boy runs down the stairs to the front door and rushes through it to the screaming child. "What’s wrong?" he asks.
"I thought you disappeared." The young girl replies as she hugs him at the waist. Tyc hugs the poor little girl back. The teen allows his paternal instincts to kick in and replace his own fear with fear for the girl. It is all he can do at this point to keep from slipping into an shocked stupor. Picking up the girl he hugs her tight, clinging to her for dear life as she clings to him. And then he walks with her.
They walk down the stairs and get onto a trail following a little stream going downhill. Past all the houses up in the tall trees then past the smaller cherry, peach and apple orchards . The two refugees come to the edge of the forest, where the hills meet the swampy lowlands. Prone to periodic flooding from the river and the sea the land can only support plants which can tolerate lots of brackish water with varying amounts of salt. Luckily there are a few natural plants which not only survive under these conditions, but they thrive. Many of which help to filter the water of impurities. These plants inspired the twenty-first century scientist to genetically produce new plants which eliminate all waters impurities. And these plants eventually led to the creation of the crystals.
The crystals were designed after the creation of chy in order to utilize chy’s energy in simple instruments. The red and orange crystals grow on the rocks and soil along the edges of the numerous water bodies perforating the swampland. Yellow, and green crystals grow on herbaceous plants like lichen, moss and other epiphytes. The blue and violet crystals grow on the rocks and roots underwater. They all utilize plant properties to absorb compounds from the soil air and water. Utilizing photosynthesis and the minerals and salts in the soil and water the crystals slowly grow. Tyc’s community utilizes conservation practices when harvesting the crystals and thus always have a large supply even though they grows slowly.
Nature has always soothed the boy, but this place seems to sooth him a little deeper, almost like it’s enchanted or something.
Tyc wanders over the trail of rocks connected by crude bridges spanning the watery hollows and connecting the larger hummocks throughout the crystal meadows. Because of the filtering plants and crystals there are pockets of very fresh water which support a whole host of bog plants including trees with flared roots and some carnivorous flowers. It is a beautiful mystical meadow with a million childhood and adolescent memories which wash over the boy like an ice cold wave.
Holding hands the two lost souls make their way to Tyc’s favorite spot. A narrow band of genetically modified mangroves planted between the land and the sea to buffer the swampy meadows from the numerous tsunamis which plague all the stormy coasts of the world. The young man and little girl sit down on some rocks which also help to buffer the land from the sea. Tyc gazes out over the colorful sparkling swampy meadow, marvels at the exposed, cage like roots of the mangroves and then watches the crashing sea, towering mountains and clear sky clash before his eyes. He begins to weep at the loss of such beauty.
Tyc pets the little girl who is whimpering as she lies exhausted on the rock, and it is at Tyc’s favorite place that they await the inevitable.
