Only a few of the Encantos had actual experience in crossing the Naga River to visit the Beda Rainforest and return unscathed. Majority of those are the elders of each family, who are mostly in charge of leading important Heleian traditions. Many believe that the ornate gem passed on to each family's leader is the real amulet that protects those who enter its shadowy clutches. However, the young'ins of Hele; Aiden included, believes that the Rainforest is familiar with their scent from prior visits that the Rainforest associate the elders with benevolent intentions and harmless actions.
The grin that Aiden had been wearing since he dashed past the Naga River widens at the thought of disproving Hele's widely-believed theory. It's not the gems! It's the scent! he thinks with glee as he follows the rocky path leading deeper and deeper to the Rainforest. The young Maris runs along this road, following its various twists and turns under the little sunlight that penetrates the trees' bountiful branches until the dirt meets with well-kept foliage housing a large tree in the middle.
Panting while taking in the majestic view of the tree's curtain-like roots and seemingly endless reach, Aiden realizes that he has reached the holy site of Encanto rituals: The Old Balete Tree. He unbuttons his wool poncho and drapes it on one of his arms with great reverence before stepping across the grass. He tilts his head the more he approaches the Old Balete, eyes twinkling with anticipation at the sight he's about to witness.
There's a reason why the holiest site for Heleian Encantos is called Old. While there is little evidence of the tree shedding within the proximity of the foliage, its magnanimous trunk and roots; many of which has grown past the ground, shows the wear it endured for—Aiden shrugs upon staring at one of the chipped bark on the root nearest him, amazed at its age, but absolutely stumped as to when its damage had begun. "K'raas is aware," he softly whispers, bowing to the root and turning to the other side to view more of the strange tree.
As Aiden bask in the little sunlight cascading past the Old Balete's leaves, his mind returns to the many stories about the Tree he heard from the elders of Hele. From prayers of fertility to thanksgiving, almost anything that Hele has offered to the Old God K'raas, the Rainforest had heard. To offer a prayer, Aiden moves to the small wooden altar in the center of the Old Balete as he recollects Rai's advice: kneel before the altar, press your palms across your heart, and whisper; with all your heart's might, the thing you truly desire.
Aiden fumbles as he kneels by the altar, pulling the wool poncho that got caught in the process, sets it aside, and did as he recalls, closing his eyes shut as he whispers in a drone: "Help me defeat my mother, Agua Carina! Help me defeat my mother, Agua Carina! Help me defeat my mother, Agua Carina!" He verbally exclaims the last of his prayer, raising his fists in the air in a strange, newly-founded strength. Aiden opens his eyes to the same, dim environment that he has witnessed on his arrival, a wave of confidence surging across his whole body. "So, this is how prayers work, huh?" he asks no one in particular as he gets up, picking his wool poncho at the same time, twirling on his heel to return to the dirt path where he came from. "I should offer more prayers in the future then!"
The wooden altar; filled with familiar Encanto artifacts, ranging from family insignia, produce, and even training beads, is not that far from where the foliage meets the dirt path. Aiden is confident that it didn't take him a gasp to reach that site, but here he is, a few minutes on his feet away from the altar, and he has yet to see the path out of the foliage. A few more steps... still no path in sight.
The young Maris' confidence wanes, but he begins to brush away any thought of fear with positivity. The day is still long, he thinks as he looks up to the little sunlight barely radiating the area. With more determination in his steps, Aiden picks up the pace and begins to run across the circumference of the Old Balete. It isn't a smooth trip, as Aiden later realizes when he trips on an unseen root and lands on the grass face first.
With a grunt, Aiden sits up, whining as he dusts himself off. With worried eyes, he scans his environment, now slightly concerned of his chances of getting out of the place altogether. The eternal tale of the Beda Rainforest devouring clueless vagabonds made the young Maris' hairs stand up. "B-But... I'Im no vagab-bond..!" he loudly shudders, holding his wool poncho close to his chest. The fright settling in his body seems to have heightened Aiden's senses, and for the first time since his entrance to the wretched woods, he begins hearing the rustling and the low growls emanating from the trees and bushes across the Old Balete.
Now trembling at the endless thoughts of whatever danger that awaits him past the foliage, Aiden backs up to the great trunk of the Old Balete. As he did, however, his foot sinks on a soft portion of the grass; the sensation on his boot consequently scaring him and he sets off screaming towards the uncharted part of the Rainforest.
As Aiden runs, the noises combine in a horrible cacophony reveling in the young Maris' plight. With little light guiding him, Aiden continues to run past the bushes and the trees, unaware of the things or entities pricking his limbs as he pushes past the branches; adrenaline guiding his body away from the owners of the growling. He knows by the time he ran away from the foliage, that he has fallen to the Rainforest's deceptions.
Not one to accept defeat, however, Aiden grits his teeth at the turn of events and turns to where he came from, both palms out as he slowly steps backward, his teary sea eyes shifting in the darkness the more the noises coagulate around him. The posture somehow works, as the noises mellow down when he arrives in a clearing. Aiden catches his breath, eyes still shifting in preparation for the worst. There is little light in this part of the Rainforest and the thought has made the young Maris gulp. A little further his location and there might be no light at all. The next thought that creeps in his mind ultimately made Aiden's knees buckle with fear.
Will anybody come find me..?
A sharp cracking echoes in the clearing. Aiden twirls once with a shriek, biting his lower lip to keep his sobs from escaping his lips. It's no time to cry, he mentally whispers as he gathers his remaining courage in his palms. The remnants of the cracking linger in the air, along with a low, almost muted snarling from nearby. It quickly shifts origins; first from Aiden's right ear, then to the left. With every change, Aiden pushes his body towards the source, his outstretched arms twitching in pain. The shifts eventually grew quicker, until Aiden is unable to follow it as it grows louder and louder. The rustling of the nearby bushes also becomes more prominent, and as the impending end closes in to Aiden, he lets out the loudest scream he can ever muster, gathering all of his *Mana in his palms, both glowing a great blue light as he disperses two powerful streams of water, which propels his little body to spin on the spot with great celerity. Upon draining himself of his fear and stamina, Aiden falls back on the muddy ground, faintly remembering Darkness closing in on him as he loses consciousness.
Stolen from its rightful author, this tale is not meant to be on Amazon; report any sightings.
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Old Heleian tongue-speak believes that the early humans had the ability to sense any other living things in the earth due to their affinity with their divine parents. An anomaly in this ability signals great danger; for oneself or others. According to the same legends, as humanity progressed and CANDEMARO was established, humans lost this unique ability; which is ironic, given that scholars of today has dubbed this era in CANDEMARO's history as the one of great development.
Rai scoffs in agreement as she places down the scroll documenting this petty self-praise of a Usor academic from Solferino. There is a great gap between the tongue-speak within the tribes of CANDEMARO and those that Usor academics have been documenting and archiving in their opulent libraries and educational guilds; a factor that rubs the shoulders of traditional and conservative leaders of the tribes in the wrong way; Hele included.
While Rai; upon succeeding the title of Lightning's Mistress, has gone into academic work for Usor academics of the central post, she is similarly irked by the numerous articles that blatantly discredit the legends and traditions she has grown accustomed with. While she has taken on the tasks in the hopes of clearing past mysteries, her unease upon reviewing these materials only grows.
With a sigh, Rai rolls the paper up, her brows knitting in displeasure from the earlier information she had read. Desiring to clear her mind off of it, she moves towards an opening in her family tent; a small rectangle cut out from the fabric to resemble a window, which gives the Lightning's Mistress a great view of the Beda Rainforest's trees and the majestic orange rays of the sun setting beyond the horizon. Rai smiles at the sight, all signs of stress virtually disappearing from her face. Her family's affinity with the sky transcends traditions and words. For Rai, seeing the sky placid and serene gives her solace. So when a group of birds, crying in distress, comes flying away from the Rainforest's trees, Rai finds it morbidly unusual.
Rai steps away from the opening, clutching her poncho close to her chest at the sudden interruption. A familiar, unsettling sensation creeps across her body, making her limbs tremble as she scrambles for the nearby lamp to light. She has found the lamp hanging near the support post, but with shaking fingers, she finds it difficult to light. With a small gasp, Rai pulls one of her index fingers up and blows greatly on it. As her breath touches her finger, her nail brightly glows and a small streak of white lightning hovers atop of it, illuminating the space in a blink of an eye.
Now with a better view of her surroundings, Rai's eyes shift towards the entryway. Her heart is beating so fast that she wishes to charge past the cloth separating her from the rest of Hele. The uneasiness continues to pound in her head, clawing past her thoughts and drilling afterimages of the incident. At the same time, however, the conditions with which Hele and Agua Carina have put forth on her pull the other way. Disobey and she might lose more than what she had already lost.
The tiny streak on Rai's finger sparks twice and falters the moment the Lightning's Mistress chokes on a sob. She is fully aware of her helplessness now and fears that her inaction will result in the misfortune of others. She has accepted defeat once, but cannot seem to build up the courage to accept another one. Keeping her other palm against her chest, Rai inhales sharply in an attempt to wash away the trembling of her voice as she mutters a prayer between her lips: **"Erabi pa dalm ..." At the moment of speaking, the disarray of thoughts and voices in the Lightning's Mistress' head clears almost instantaneously and; as if such divine force had possessed her whole body, she propels herself out of the tent with a deafening whistle that sent the ground booming after her, startling the camp. Despite the chaos she had presumably left in Hele, Rai's mind and body is somehow being reeled into the heart of the Beda Rainforest, though she does not place any restraint on the invisible force. In fact, her eyes, which was filled with grief and fear a few seconds ago, seems to clear up at the sight of the sunlight dotting across the dim areas of the Rainforest.
Before she has the time to fathom her destination, it has become clear to Rai that the power surging across her body was hers, as it was owned by the members of her family, and relatives that came before her. It was hers to begin with; the boost she has received was the one from another source. With renewed vitality, Rai glides her body to the side, moving past the trees until she comes across a clearing where she discovers young Aiden Maris knocked unconscious on the sopping wet grass bed. She lands on her feet a few meters away from the boy and rushes to pick him up on her arms. The faint glow from Aiden's palms indicates that he has recently drained his Mana; possibly in defense of something—
Rai immediately corrects herself as she glances across where she has found the young Maris. The image is still as vivid as it was a few years ago. A small lump of earth was disturbed to pay respects for a single... corpse she had retrieved on her first and last expedition. Stones and twigs; possibly a few fallen leaves and flowers littered the grave; in a futile attempt to mark it in the hopes of revisiting it once more. Rai has deduced; even from the dimness of the wretched woods, that the earth where the grave sat is soaking wet and most likely destroyed in whatever process Aiden Maris had endured within the Beda Rainforest. What she did not expect, however, was that her sight of the grave she had made long ago blurs before her eyes and a silhouette slowly begins to take shape in front of her.
At the sight of a familiar pair of eyes bleeding from its sclera, Rai freezes in her place, but the silhouette continues to take form and the fear slowly dissolves into nothingness as the silhouette's features begin to manifest: first, its midnight hair that seems to disappear where the light can't reach, its short stature, mirroring that of young Aiden's, and its pale complexion, as if no sunlight has ever touched any of its skin. The Lightning's Mistress looks up to the form's eyes. It still bears the shade of blood, however, as Rai looks at it now, it seems soft; even tearful. A sob wells up in Rai's throat. She has a lot of inquiries as of the moment, but none of the questions comes out of her lips as the form slowly approaches her. In a spur of emotion, the form falls on Rai's knees, sobbing first: ***"Awa'a."
Rai replies with a great wail of happiness.
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To be Continued...
*Mana (n.) CAN.,: Energy directly tied to an Encanto's stamina. The source of their gifts.
**Erabi pa dalm (Expression) Ent.,: "[drive] away this helplessness"
***Awa'a (Expression) Ent.,: the ancient Encanto word for fillial pity.