Boneshaker looked down at me as she shook and shuddered. The bones around her rattled in a symphony of hollow sounds. She spread her wings and looked at me, our minds continued their link to one another, “Come Weaver. We will go to the mountain that reaches the gods and speak with them there. We barely succeeded with the three of us and we lost a sister to madness. I will demand more of us in this world in order to keep it safe.” With one powerful flap she was in the air.
I took a running leap into the sky with her as the sun painted the skies red for the coming of the night. The waking moons floating in the center of the sky. I watched my sister as she swerved drunkenly in the air. The ancient scars littered her body under the bones. It was like she was hiding any sign of weakness or damage. “Sister,” I call into the air as I approached her. “Your collection is grand and vast. I was wondering, how does it make you feel? I felt like I gained more power speaking to the people of the village that was built around me. How does it feel when you gain power?”
She looked pensive as we climbed higher in the sky. The updrafts of the last warm air in the world pushing us from the ground. “I feel a surge of power whenever I pull the bones of a creature out of it. The larger the creature the more powerful I feel.” She looked at me with a little hunger, “I will reap your bones should you fall brother. When we decide to end Crafter I will reap her too.”
I felt a shiver go through my body as I soared with her. To be treated so coldly by someone I considered to be family left me feeling hollow. Though as we flew I realized how little we had spent with one another. “May I tell you a story Sister?”
“I’ve no desire to hear about the world. I assume all your tales will be from times you spent with the pitiful beings that litter this realm. I think you waste your time.” Her eyes did not watch me as she spoke. She seemed to care little for how I might react to her words.
“What were we put upon this world if not for keeping the people of it safe?”
She scoffed and sighed as the sky darkened even further. The first twinkling of stars coming to life above us. No shadows were cast down from us upon the lands below now that the lights were at our tails. “Sometimes I think it is a cosmic joke. What do the gods need agents for if they are so powerful?”
I fell into thought as we flew side by side. “I think we are extensions of the gods. Some aspect of them that is sent to this place in order to do their bidding. But are blessed with the freedom to lead our own lives.”
Now it was her turn to lapse into a silence of contemplation. I could feel her mind churning on the other end of our psychic connection. “What kind of life can I lead if I have to spend all my time gathering bones for me to be powerful enough to represent my god? What makes that so special? Sometimes I question even that.”
I hadn’t thought about how fulfilling a life like that might be. I had the chance to be amongst the people of this world that I thought we were here to protect. She had solitude and quiet far from anyone. What kind of people would be around her if she was such a brutal symbol of the end of things. Not even their bodies were left to be wholly their own. She would claim them in the end. “I didn’t think about that. Could you not leave your collection behind so that you could lead some time with the people. Maybe that might soothe your soul?”
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“I need no soothing brother. I do not like to feel weak by being away from my hoard. I like to feel at the height of my power. Even before the Slumber I enjoyed that most. Bringing more bones to my realm and that rush of energy is the best feeling in my life.” She looked at me from the corner of her eyes as she climbed ever higher before settling into a long glide. “What might you live for brother? What do you think I am missing?”
“I find both great joy and heart ache when I live amongst the people of their world. Their lives are so short compared to what we have managed to live so far. But when I am with them the days feel longer like I can experience more and more things that better my life. The years go by slower, there are so many things that we can learn and achieve with them. I think maybe you should spend a lifetime with them. I can teach you how to assume a form to live amongst them. It is quite easy when you get used to it.” I offered my thoughts to her as we flew.
Silence claimed us once more as we glided long into the night. Both of our minds churned with the words the other had said. Our lives were so different yet we were to be united in the same cause throughout time. She could be a constant that I would not get anywhere else.
“When I feel like I am at the pinnacle of my power I will spend a lifetime amongst the people. Will that settle this conversation so that I can focus on flying. I am still shaking off the Slumber.” Boneshaker turned slightly to take on my whole form so I could nod to her.
I could see that the rivers and lakes of the lands had changed since I had last flown over this realm. The rivers are far more serpentine in shape. Many small lakes dotted the lands as we passed over mountains capped with frost and ice. I watched as the waters cascaded down the stone in the twilight of the world. Waters shined like silver rivers throughout the realms.
I felt an appreciation for the world that the gods had created. The beauty of it all was awe inspiring. I felt a burning curiosity that could only be satiated by knowing Boneshaker more. “What do you think when you see the world below us?”
She sighed, “I was enjoying the silence. Do you have to fill this flight with such inane conversations? If you must know. All I see are places that I might find groupings of creatures to prey upon and harvest for my collection. The pools of water are perfect for finding them. Though there are great boneyards scattered throughout the world. However, harvesting from there seems to diminish their power. A shame for it would be so easy.” She made some space between us as she continued, “Now please let me enjoy this flight in silence.”
Some form of petulance laced through me that I fought off. I half wanted to start bugging her incessantly for her comments. I had so many more questions that I could now ask. Things I would never have considered before living more closely with mankind as they became more and more advanced in the world. However I tempered that all with the fact that should she decide it she would be able to physically reprimand me harshly. I could feel how thin her patience was through our connection.
We finally came upon the mountain that we had converged on for the first calamity. We climbed as high as we could into the air and when we reached our apex and came down upon the mountain. The thin air made my head fuzzy as I took deeper and deeper breaths to make up for it. “Could we rest before we climb any higher? I am tired from the flight here. I had been flying for some time before I found you.”
Boneshaker grumbled slightly and then turned to me with a glare. “Must you be so weak? I think your time with the human village have diminished you. Think, there was a time where you struggled for days on end with no rest. You should strive to be that once more.”
“Maybe that is the reason I did not Slumber as long as you did? Maybe it is smarter for us to rest more often so that we do not find ourselves away from this world for who knows how many seasons.”
“ARGH! You think too much! I am too tired for you to prattle on with your nonsense. I will continue to live the way I have for as long as I am in this world. Why change what makes me strong?”
“I thought you said you would live amongst the people?”
“I said when I was at the height of my power! Which I don’t think I will ever reach. There is always more power. I will continue to be the more powerful of us both. NOW BE SILENT FOR ONCE!”
Anger rose in my chest. Why must she be so difficult? “Fine! Let's just finish this little quest and I’ll be done with you for another few decades.”
“Make it a century, now come on. We have to climb now.”
We trudged up the steep mountain top higher than any of the clouds as the sun rose once more to the east. The skies are a pleasant orange on the horizon fading into the permanent darkness of the sky for being so high. My hopes for a pleasant relationship rotted like what her breath did to the living. Sullenly in my head I thought unbidden, “Crafter would’ve understood.”