Aurora and Reading

As expected, Emio was in much the same place Wanderer left them, either uncaring or unknowing of the commotion.

Wanting to get out of the area as quickly as possible, lest the humans reinvigorate their search, the Golem scooped up the unsuspecting Verdestry and quickly snuck past the massive tent, before continuing on their journey toward the desert.

The Vessel stuck to the long grass, afraid of any searchers from the camp that might wish to do them harm as they tried to escape their possible gaze.

The many moons were high in the sky by the time Wanderer worked up the courage to finally take a peek out onto the road again, looking around cautiously before walking out.

Yet the fact that the road was empty of any potential pursuers hardly even registered to the Golem, not in the face of the unexpected beauty of the vast black desert in the night.

Where in the day, the desert was a vast sea of black, glittering sand, tinged slightly blue by the light of the sun, at night the desert had taken on a new life, what could only be described as an aurora dancing across its surface.

The desert had been lit up by dancing lights of green, yellow and red, each intermingling and crossing through the others, shifting their hue and colour.

It was the most beautiful thing Wanderer had ever seen, mesmerising in its forever-changing nature, like watching a flame that shifted colour and grew in a way no one could predict.

The Golem watched enraptured as the scene suddenly changed a vast portion of the lights suddenly beginning to float towards a single area.

Wanderer watched as this patch gathered into a brighter and brighter ball, before from the sky, a great lighting bolt lit up the land and with an explosion of power, blasted away the lights.

The Vessel immediately snapped their gaze upwards, having not even seen the great cloud that formed over the top of the desert, a cloud born of the pillar of smoke that the deep-red volcano was spewing out.

Wanderer spent more time than they could say puzzling over how such a system could exist, and why the dancing lights and great cloud was not present during the day.

Yet despite both their and their Spirit’s best attempts at puzzling out the answer, they could find no conclusion, to all their collective knowledge what was happening in the vast desert was impossible.

Yet it happened nonetheless, despite its complex nature, causing Wanderer to desperately want to figure it out.

For a long time, the Spirit, Verdestry and Golem alike gazed upon the magnificent scene in front of them, each aspect of the phenomena having its own lure.

From the great flashes of power present in the thunder that assaulted the ground to the subtle moonlight seeping through the obscuring volcanic cloud, the whole spectacle was nothing but mesmerising.

Eager to inspect the massive phenomena, the Vessel picked up the pace of their journey, much to the chagrin of the still-lazing Emio.

They were bought out of their journey by the neigh of a nearby zebra, directed toward one of their kin, who, like Wanderer, was addicted to staring out toward the desert.

The zebra was so still that the Golem was unsure if it was even alive, and while the Vessel could certainly understand its fascination with the desert lights, even without the pleading neighs of its partner Wanderer could tell something was very wrong.

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The Golem slowly strolled over, the cries switching target as the horse-like creature noticed their approach.

It was obvious that the aurora in the desert was harming the entranced zebra, and so the Vessel placed itself between the zebra and its fascination, blocking their view.

A moment later, the equid snapped out of their fugue, shaking their head a little and turning toward their partner, with a light neigh.

The pair returned to their place behind the baobab tree, both happy to be out of danger, yet the fact that they were in danger to begin with caused a question to form in the Golem’s mind.

“Why was the zebra entranced, when I remained fine?”

While the desert was beautiful, and Wanderer could certainly understand basking in that beauty, even to the most untrained mind the lengths the equine went to was unhealthy.

The creature was mesmerised, completely unmoving like a statue, so much so that it didn’t even blink, as if the poor beast was unable to think of anything else but the view.

Their partner knew of this danger as well, as indicated by how they called for help instead of helping their kin themself, likely scared of meeting the same fate.

So that posed the question, how was Wanderer different?

While the scene certainly fascinated them, they were still free to think while under its influence.

To that question their Spirit had a rebuttal, how were they not?

The zebra were creatures of flesh and blood, that eat, sleep and breathe, while Wanderer was made of clay and untiring, their entire mind and being contained in a ball of magic.

Any of the many differences between the two could be the reason for the Vessel’s sustained lucidity, likewise with Emio and their Spirit also, who were similarly unaffected.

Yet Wanderer wanted to know exactly why, and after some thought, they came to the conclusion that they were not going to find out by pondering it by themselves.

The Vessel lightly rifled through their satchel, their stolen flare-bow now inside it, turning their gaze upon the four books they had taken from the mine so long ago.

With all the constant excitement in their short life, they had nearly forgotten they had them, it was only with their pondering that they realised that the musty tomes, or others like them, might contain the very answers they sought for.

And while Wanderer was aware that it was unlikely the specific books they possessed would help them on their journey of knowledge, it caused them to realise that there would be places made by humans where books were stored, and as such, may contain the answers they were looking for.

The Golem looked out into the horizon, past the waltzing lights and flashy thunder, and focused their gaze on one of the cities they had seen from so far away.

They had high, golden walls that curved inward, the bright aurora seeming to almost lap against them, out of the centre of the city stretched a great tower, coloured similarly to the walls with colourful banners hanging from its sides.

“There will be more books in the city” they knew.

It was a near certainty in Wanderer’s mind, if there were so many books in such an abandoned place underground, there was no doubt that there would be more in a full city.

Yet there was still one major problem with their plan, how would they learn to read?

While the Vessel could understand bits and pieces of spoken conversation and was slowly working out the meanings of more words, with written language they had no way of learning.

While Wanderer was capable of listening in on conversations, then using their sparse knowledge of the human language to work out what a word may mean from context, with reading and writing they had no starting point, they knew no words nor letters, the old magi’s visions having not imparted as such.

The Golem began on their trek again, fishing out the least ruined book of their limited collection before holding up in front of their face.

Yet despite how long they glared at the letters or how many times they asked their Spirit for advice, the writing would not give up its secrets.

The Vessel slumped in defeat, there was no other way, they would have to find someone to teach them, a difficulty considering both the human’s strenuous relationship with the Golem and their own inability to speak.

Wanderer was snapped out of their considerations by a hanging tendril blocking their vision, carelessly placed over their eyes by their friend.

Brushing the grassy limb out of the way, the Vessel focused on the Verdestry, who, with a shiver of their knotted form, seemed to be awaking from their lethargic state.

Seeing the small creature so relaxed convinced Wanderer to follow in their footsteps.

“Your right”, the Golem agreed to the unsaid statement “I shouldn’t worry about it”.

Though Wanderer could not say why, they were confident that everything would work itself out.