Atlas jumped as a heavy hand gripped his shoulder. He twisted his head and into view came the hard, graying, aging face of his father. With his clean shaven look, salt and pepper hair gathering more salt by the day, and the sleepless dark bags drooping under his ink-black eyes.
Patriarch Laertis, and Aunt Xanthip, and their entourage of old crooked men came rushing, the commotion having long reached them in the Central Administrative Building, the Palace of the Compound essentially.
“Atlas Laertis! What do you even think you’re doing?!” The bellow echoed, still, in Atlas head chambers.
“This man is going to die any moment now if we don’t stop his bleeding! There’s no time for this!” Atlas responded with rare bite, his thoughts still lost in the emerald eyes and the flowing, growing blood.
Patriarch Laertis pulled his son aside and scanned the injured man grunting and sweating on his back, It was the roar of a glare the young woman to his side that made him falter in his judgment. Fierce like any blaze aptly named so. He gripped tight the reigns of his grit and uttered.
“What you want is dangerous Atlas. They found our home once, the surely can another. This knowledge itself is danger to us all, now that Change has come.”
“Kindness begets kindness. If we show them a cold shoulder now that will turn into freezing, jagged ice ready to scour our land till none can withstand its claws.”
“ATLAS.” The Patriarch blistered. “Do not lecture me with your mother’s teachings. The clan comes above all, and it falls to me to protect it at all costs. Your attitude as its sole Heir is nothing other than embarrassing. Capture them.” The Patriarch’s eyes burned with a cold fierceness. Atlas took that stare and buried it deep with his feelings, he turned around and obeyed.
Yet the moment he turned he found before him like a pouncing tiger the burning fires of those emerald eyes. Almost hidden in the black forest of her thick furrowed brows.
“I am ashamed that you lot, craven and weak, call yourselves a Clan. Just like us people of the Ru Clan. Not even a word spoken to the unarmed, injured scouts and hunters. Your ancestors are turning in their graves.” She spit fire at the Patriarch, a straight challenge. Yet the Patriarch was silent, at the gravely sound of a clearing throat he turned to his sister beside him.
“Brother. Do not take her insults to heart, instead take her meaning. We can have her vow to her Clan, if what she says is true she will honor it. It’s not like we can afford to waste food on people that do no work, so taking them prisoner is out of the question, as is murdering those that seek our help. To me what matter the most right now is the blood sent, and the blood trail they have left leading straight to our gates. I am explaining this because I want to respect the Hierarchy of our Clan. You make the final choice Patriarch.” The gray woman, stood straight despite her times, years older than her brother she spoke so as she walked over in front of the injured man and Atlas himself. She bent a knee to the ground and clasped palm over fist raised in the highest respect above her head bowed head to her own baby brother.
The decision at that point had already been made. Even Archeseus Laertis, cold blooded as he had become since four years ago, could not help but grow beat red at having his sister prostrate before him. “Very well, On the order of the Patriarch, heal this man immediately! If you let him die you shall face punishment. Now be off.” He ordered and the waiting men moved. In one breath the scene had cleared of the injured and the medics. The young woman of summer and spring left with them, swift and near silent like the gust.
Then the Patriarch turned around and let his sister stand up. He gave more orders. “Rush against the blood trail. Secure and scout. Make haste, and keep your eyes pealed.” The order was relayed rapidly through the hundreds of Clan Members as they set themselves to motion; whether that motion was in relation to the orders or towards the work that they had already been undertaking. The scene had rattled them sure, but each had their duties as well.
Meanwhile the outsiders were escorted with the dying man to the medicinal Hall, the first room to the left of the entrance of the Great Center. Where they stayed as their apothecaries and licensed practitioners did their best work on their party member. Silently being watched, though without the pointy end of a spear aimed to gouge their eyes out.
It was Atlas, having forgotten of his scuffle of words with his father, that had his curiosity outlast his patience first. As he saw the young woman of his age move away from the healing ward, and bed, wiping off blood from her pure white clothes.
“What manner of Clan is the Ru Clan?” He asked first and foremost.
“You care not for the fate of my cousin. As is your right, but what makes you think I’ll humor this talk, right now.”
“My faith you both have good humor, and a mind logical enough to tell there is nothing you can do to help him that my clansmen can’t. That, and I have faith in them.”
“We used to live in a place not so dissimilar to this. Then the Change came and took it from under our feet.” Her eyes turned cold, glazed, unpolished as she thought not so far past.
“I still have my reasons to doubt you. Our circumstances are not so common.”
“Don’t worry too much about it. Just take my word for it. Me and this party you see are all relatives and we call ourselves the Ru Clan, Proud Imperial Alchemists and Physicians. I’m Ru Shi. Nice to meet you.” Ru Shi cheerfully extended a bloody hand forward after her introduction concluded. This was a grand change in attitude Atlas had not expected. Yet it was welcome none the less.
He hesitated for but a second, and shook her hand. “My name is Atlas Laertis. Heir to the Laertis Clan.” The greeting was shared with Aunt Xanthip and the Patriarch.
Atlas continued “What happened to your home if I may ask? And why have you traveled, presumably, so far in these changing times?”
"You may not…” Ru Shi spread silence in the room. “Kidding, It was the change. We were not ready for the change our land would bring to our environment. Our Swamp warped into something monstrous in a week. We could do nothing against it. We’ve been traveling since, searching for a land with the same quality as our own. You’re is the one we found.”
“I think I understand… There was something about our valley that felt familiar… Right?” Atlas; eyes zipped about, they locked to the distance beyond. Seeing more than the rest, through the wooden walls and tens of homes, and the dense old wood forest. His eyes peered into the Color scape of the world, the new world brought forth after the Second Change. A Kaleidoscope of colors moved and ebbed, grew and solidified in a cosmic turbulence that was not easily deciphered. A nauseating high threatened to come rampaging in Atlas’ head just from this peek.
“Indeed. It seems there exists something special about the ancestral lands our clans had chosen.” Ru Shi responded with little sadness, the depressing mood lay heavier on her clansmen than herself.
“Seeing as we’ve come to this, I will go out and say it. We are in need of help. I would like to formally request for a meeting between the Two Patriarchs to happen. I want permission to call on my father!” Ru Shi turned towards Patriarch Laertis. The decision was in his hands. Whether he trusted the words of this little girl enough to have a force of strangers called to their home, one and only shelter. “And before you decline, please consider our medicinal and alchemical expertise. With the advent of Qi we can put our catalogs of recipes to good use.” She persuaded further.
“Tell your Patriarch to come. We, of the Laertis Clan, shall welcome him with gusto.” Patriarch Laertis replied without much bargaining.
Ru Shi wasted not time, she rushed outside, under the open skies, “Protect your ears Everyone!” she followed her own advice as a minuscule paper rocket flared into the sky and shrieked a most abhorrent call. Like a jet engine igniting in the expanse of blue, it called in its sharp cry. After the glass-shattering noise ceased, Ru Shi took a sit on the wooden stairs of the Laertis Manor and waited. A laid back smile on her lips.
It was not much later, only around half an hour after the forest had settled down, that more outsiders were sited at the northeastern clearing. They were rushing forward but stopped in their tracks when they saw the walled off, human settlement, contrary to the bloody scene they were expecting. A distress signal usually called for action against humans, not solid rock.
The members of the group all had large flowing clothes, non fitting for forest hiking and treading. They had long sleeves with many layers of clothing. Patterns; and colors; and embroidered symbols stretched of wildlife not seen before growing on their bosoms arms and backs. Their skin was tanned color that stuck through the generations, it blended in with the shadows much better than their clothes did. Yet Carius could tell that the men were of strong build. Trained muscles fluctuated under layers of silk.
The leader of the group, a so called Patriarch Ru came forward and spoke of the signal he had received. He was left to speak, but stopped himself in shock as the northern gates opened and he was invited in. Patriarch Laertis was there waiting, the definition of solemnity. Still surrounded, having brought twenty able bodied men with him for the emergency, the Ru Patriarch found himself baffled.
‘What did Ru Shi do again? She’s taking after her sister more, with each day…’ The Patriarch grumbled in his mind. “My name is Ru Wai, Patriarch of the Ancient Ru Clan. I have come here because of a Distress Signal fired by one of my own?” Even he sounded unsure of himself at this point.
“Well met Patriarch Ru. I am Archeseus Laertis, Patriarch of the Ancient Laertis Clan; and taking a page from your daughter’s introduction, Protectors of the Heavenly Emperor, Guards of the Cultivator Empire and loyal vassals of the Heaven Mandated Eternal Liege, the Yellow Emperor himself.” Archeseus spoke with chest puffed high. His words brought unwitting smiles to the lips of those near.
“I have heard of your circumstances to some degree from Ru Shi, who is safe and sound near your hunting party who we are treating to health. But before I let you see your family, I must have you make certain, our shared identity of a Clan that knows of the prophesied changes and that has survived till their coming.” Archeseus was upfront, that much Ru Wai understood. The cards had been laid down. If the Ru Clan were something different than what the Laertis Patriarch thought, then blood would spill and they would not make it out of this compound in the deep forest alive.
“The Empire of Earth; Sun; and Heaven learnt of the First Change, the fall of Qi, and had us prepare. It knew of the Second Change, its eventual return and had us wait. After which the Third and Final Change would come, and its tribulation would wash the world with blood and spell the end of our Race, and our civilization. For that we would have to fight. We Royal Herbalists and Alchemists have lived till now, tens of thousands of years later and are still carrying out the will of our forefathers. The Language we speak remains the same, the traditions we ascribe to have not been warped. We have stayed true to our responsibility to the world, to protect from the Bloodbath of the Third Change. I think, Patriarch Laertis you have no right to judge us or test us in our honesty. The spirits of our People know it well and that is enough for the Ru Clan!”
The declaration, the mighty trumpet of an Elephants roar. He had spoken the truth and only the truth, that everyone knew. Archeseus had to accept it, there were things spoken in his speech that only a person from that time would know.
“Then there is nothing else to discuss. The Ru Clan is welcomed to stay here with us for as long as they need. The Laertis Clan will no dishonor the Pacts of Old and have our ancestors scream from within their graves.”
A hand was presented and Ru Wai grabbed it. The two Patriarchs shook hands firmly “I had thought all other clans had turned to one with the sands of time.” Archeseus spoke with a resurfacing sense of purpose.
“Communication had stopped, I though the same as well. I am glad to find out that it’s not case” Ru Wai responded with a deep exhale of relief. The Men all around the group, both of the Laertis and Ru Clan immediately shifted their attitude. All weapons and hostile actions forgotten as they introduced themselves and happily talked with people so foreign and familiar. Long lost brethren.