Back when the white tiger was still laying unconscious. Unknowingly to everyone, an intelligent orb has gained a way to speak by observing humans and beasts alike. Even when it was learning at a fast rate. It didn't have its thoughts, just recorded automatically.
As the days continued, the orb started to feel the desires of the clan members. The stronger the member's desire was, the more vividly the orb could feel it. The day the tiger was being carried back to the middle. The orb saw a girl seemingly looking through the wall, holding her tears down. From what the orb could remember this was a 10-year-old girl, who always came in the day. Always standing on that side, crying and yelling for big brother.
The orb that just lifelessly stayed in the sky. shook silently as something new entered its network. As if to make a breakthrough, the world the orb saw wasn't black and white anymore. One thought was lingering over and over again in its mind "Who was exactly this brother?" The only way it could get an answer was to ask the girl herself. The orb that was always floating in the air, started to move towards the girl.
The poor girl was first scared but remembered the orb was always within the city. As any child would, she looked at the orb curiously forgetting she was in the middle of crying. The orb did not know how to interact with the child or anything else for that matter. Thankfully before it became a staring contest, another child came running.
" Flora, are you still crying? I am sure big brother is fine but what is that!!!? " The child first addressed Flora before noticing the orb floating next to her. The child didn't shy away as he tried to even touch the orb and even succeeded. " Flora looks, it's smooth to touch but hard at the same time. Wow, how is it floating?"The child was fascinated by the black orb.
" Nile, I don't think you should touch it. What if you make it angry or it doesn't like to be touched" Flora said worryingly for both of them. Knowing her cousin's past, he could even hammer the orb to see if it was breakable.
" Flora I don't think the orb minds it. If it minds, I think it would have said so" The 10-year-old Nile couldn't help but praise himself. Flora was about to dismiss her stupid cousin but she heard a robotic voice " I don't mind being touched" Both the children were surprised. Nile jumped excitedly around the orb. Being cautious against the talking orb was the last thing on his mind.
" See what I told you, it can speak Flora. Am I a genius!? That must be it " Nile satisfyingly nodded to himself. Then he looked at the orb, something was feeling off. Circling the orb even more fiercely.
"Mmmm??"
" Hmmm?"
" Ahh, it's your face. I can't tell at all, where is your face. I have a great idea hehe" Nile looked for a stick, then drew a circle on the ground, and made eyes and mouth to it.
" You see this. You need eyes and a mouth. Otherwise, I can't tell where you are looking or if am looking at your back or front" Nile said pointing at the orb. Flora wanted to say something too" That's true, we can't tell if you are happy or sad. Should we paint on his face for him" Not knowing why, the orb suddenly got chills. The orb looked at the circle and made itself light dot eyes shining on his face. He added a mouth, this made the children happy.
The orb finally decided to ask what he came down for " Who is this big brother you are crying for" Flora heard his question but something bothered her as she looked at the orb.
Stolen story; please report.
" When you are speaking, you need to move your mouth too. Look at me, my mouth is moving while am speaking out loud" Flora tried to demonstrate by talking and pointing to her mouth
As an intelligent orb, it didn't take much to just copy the movement of the mouth. To add more, the orb decided to speak how the children spoke in high spirits.
" You see there was big brother, who was always protecting us but he had to stay behind so he could protect us" Flora was first fiddling with her fingers before tears started to form in her eyes.
" You are such a crybaby, why are you crying? Brother Zion is strong. Nothing can hurt him, right orb?" The Nile threw a question to the clueless orb. The orb took the children's way of talking.
" Yes, it's okay. Brother Zion will be fine if he needs help. We can just help him" Both the children nodded vigorously agreeing with the orb. The orb talked more smoothly as the seconds went by. Before long it was evening and the children's parents came looking for them. By the end of the day, the orb even learned to say goodbye.
The orb returned to the middle of the city in the sky. Night had come and silence overtook Claustar as everybody went to sleep. The orb too decided to try to sleep. It closed its eyes but it was hard to say it was sleeping. The next morning came and as soon as the children woke up. They ran towards the black orb. Since both of them couldn't fly into the air, they had to wait for the orb to descend.
When the orb looked at the children happily jumping, he went down to greet them. The whole morning the children and the orb were playing around. Mostly the orb was being dragged everywhere. One of the random questions of the children's awoke more of the orbs curiosity" Nile, why can't everybody help each other, it would have been great if everybody was like you and me"
" Hmm. I don't know. Adults are weird, even when they know what's right. They don't want to do what's right." Nile seriously thought.
" If someone wants to do something and you can help. You should always help them, I don't understand why they can't " The more Floea pondered on the question, the more it didn't make sense to her. On the other hand, the orb was repeating " If you can help someone, always help" He nodded. Even to the orb that made sense, it was a good thing to help others.
" Someone needs our help, should we go help him" The children didn't hesitate to say yes to Orb's question. The orb looked where the middle of the forest was. He could feel the strongest desire. The orb could feel any desire of clan members, the stronger the desire, the more vividly he could feel. The white tiger was technically also a member of the clan and he expressed his desire the strongest.
-------Back to the present
Elder Green and Val were thankfully carried by Brav and amilios. They couldn't help but get little pale thinking they would be left all alone in the forest if they didn't get inside the Claustar on time. The one who was lost and perplexed about it all was the white tiger Bolt. If he left the forest, he should be in terrible condition due to the thin mana. To his surprise, he was feeling normal. Nothing out of its place.
" Bolt are you alright? Since we aren't in the forest, you should be in pain" Alia who had taken care of Bolt before knew very well, the conditions were currently bad for Bolt.
" I thought that too but I don't feel anything wrong, contradictory I feel amazing," Bolt told truthfully.
The orb came " Let me explain that. When we were in the middle. I observed quite a lot of energy from the air. As long as you stay within the Claustar, you should be fine "
As the orb explained, some recalled when they felt energies gathering towards Claustar. It was instantly that they didn't think of it much. Who would have thought, in that instant, it absorbed a huge amount of energy?
" When you go out of Claustar, you will have exactly 10 minutes before you will be unable to move. You need to return to Claustar before you ran out of time" The orb warned.
The Raiz was still processing what was happening. How did 5+5 become 34, how is the orb talking? how did we teleport? Raiz looked at his neighbour, Moon. Only to see his blank face too. The two victims decided to forget and let whatever happen to happen before their brains fried. Well if a cloud did have a brain to begin with, Moon lamented.
" How long can you stay floating in the sky " Moon suddenly asked the orb, hoping Claustar wouldn't start falling at any given second..." We have 2 days of mana to keep us in the air. I will automatically teleport us back to the forest if I judge we need to go back " The orb gave smiley emoji on its face.