POV: Sequoia Pama (the Dryad)
"Woooooaah!" I exclaimed, bouncing up and down in excitement as we approached the floating city of Manu Ti. Or...cities, as it is. There were at least twelve islands floating in the sky above the biggest lake I had ever seen, each chained to the the ground with massive, moss-covered chains. It was awesome! How are they even floating? How did they get up there? Who built it?
"They're floating because of a series of complex formations keep them afloat, they got up there because of said formations, and I was one of the ones who built it. Quite literally speaking, Manu Ti is my city." The Old Man said from behind me...oh, did I say my questions out loud? Huh. Oops! "And you're still thinking out-loud." He said again, causing me to turn and look at him, blushing slightly but still smiling.
The Old Man was walking arm-in-arm with his...girlfriend? I'm not exactly sure of their exact relationship, but they were obviously close. Anyways! The Old Man was wearing a bit different clothes than I normally saw him in. Usually he wore white and silver robes, but now he was wearing what he called a kimono or something that was silver in color with gold highlights. I like it. It matched his grey hair. It's grey cuz he's old. Just like his horns! His horns are gone because he's old, too. His face doesn't look old, though. I think he's using illusions to hide the wrinkles.
The Old Man frowned as he shot me a glare. Which was another thing! He has really old-looking eyes, so he just has to be old, no matter what he says! "I know what you're thinking, Sequoia. You always get that same look when you're about to pick a fight." The Old Man told me sternly. I puffed out my cheeks and stomped my foot in annoyance.
"I am not! I am not going to pick a fight! I don't pick fights! I was just thinking -"
"Which is a dangerous thing that I told you not to do." The Old Man interrupted, smirking at me. Who's picking a fight now, huh?!
" - about how old you are, Old Man." I shot back. The Old Man sighed, and his girlfriend giggled, giving him a look. She was very pretty in my opinion. Much prettier than other people. And she was really nice too! I actually think the Old Man and her make a cute couple. Not that I'd ever tell them that, though. Or I'd never tell the Old Man that, at least. Though it is kind of gross to think about. The Old Man's, well, old, but his girlfriend looks a lot younger, even if she's not. I don't know how I know that, but I do.
"Old Man?" His girlfriend asked, raising one eyebrow as she looked at the Old Man.
"It's because of my hair. She saw it and though I was old because of it." The Old Man said with a sigh.
"You are old!" I exclaimed. The comment went largely ignored.
"I dunno, Tian. You are pretty old. Older than me, at least." His girlfriend said with a giggle. At that the Old Man frowned, and I giggled as well. I'm liking her more and more! She's on my side!
"Do you want to get technical about it? Cuz we can get technical about it. Technically speaking, Statera created our souls at basically the same time. Yours just took time to develop into the being you are now. Physically speaking, you're older than me, because this is technically Tian's body. Mentally speaking, I'm older than you because of my time as Dei. So it goes both ways." The Old Man challenged, raising one eyebrow at his girlfriend. "Besides, being old is a choice and I choose to never grow old. So ha! I win." His girlfriend giggled at him and I stuck my tongue out, flipping around to walk backwards and looking up at the sky. It was blue.
Why couldn't I see the leaves of the Big Tree from here? Or were the leaves blue, and what I'm looking at isn't the sky but instead is the canopy of the Big Tree? And, speaking of trees how come I could be so far away from my tree? Aren't dryads supposed to be bound to their birth trees until they turn, like, a thousand million years old?
"Does she ever think in her own head?" The Old Man's girlfriend stage-whispered to him, making me blush.
"I don't think so, Inesa. Never in the time I've known her," the Old Man told her (so her name's Inesa! That's a pretty name.) When they didn't react to that thought of mine I put my hands on my hips and puffed my chest up in pride.
"Ha! I just thought in my head without saying it out loud!" I announced proudly.
"Congratulations. You have mastered a skill most people learn when they're born. You've come such a long way." The Old Man commented dryly, making me wilt a bit. Well, when he puts it like that.... "And to answer your question, you're so far away from your tree because it's right here." The Old Man held out one hand, and in it appeared my tree, in all its little glory. It was still just a sapling after ten years, which was strange according to the Old Man, but he's old and therefore wise so I suppose it is strange, but my tree was starting to grow taller. Like me! I grew three whole inches in the past ten years!
"So why are we coming here again?" Inesa, the Old Man's girlfriend, asked.
"Because I wanted to get Sequoia a companion, remember? Since I won't have as much time to spend with her after this and all." The Old Man said, and I frowned, feeling my chest tighten a bit. I didn't want the Old Man to leave. He was fun, but he said that there was a lot he had to do, and I understood that, but...I still don't want him to leave me.
Suddenly, the Old Man was ruffling my green hair, grinning at me and meeting my eyes. His grin, filled with warmth as it was, immediately caused a massive smile to break out on my own face as I leapt at him and gave him a big hug, dangling off of his torso and my feet not touching the ground. I think I heard Inesa go 'awww,' but I'm not really sure because I wasn't listening to her. The Old Man chuckled a bit, the sound deep and rumbling and echoing in his chest and it was a sound I just loved, him laughing, and he patted me on the head a bit more before not-so-gently prying me off.
"I'm not going to carry you, so don't give me that look." The Old Man deadpanned at my pout at having been detached from him.
"But I'm a tree. Trees don't walk!" I announced, to which the Old Man unceremoniously dumped me on the ground.
"No, you're a dryad. And drayds walk fine with enough sunlight. Of which there is plenty, let me remind you." The Old Man said blandly, looking up in the sky, where the sun was hanging. For a moment I thought I saw a hint of longing in his expression, so I patted him on the shoulder (I had to stand on my tippy-toes to do it, cuz I'm still just a sapling and therefore short) and gave him a big smile. He smiled back, ruffled my hair, and everything was ok once again!
For a few more minutes we walked in silence, and I ran around smelling the flowers and chasing butterflies and generally being a bit of a nuisance, until we reached the City. I think it's name was North City or something, which was a weird name even if it was the northernmost city from Manu Ti. Couldn't they call it something other than North City? It's like naming a mountain range Rocky, cuz they're mountains and they're going to have a buncha rocks. Or a river Wet! The possibilities are endless for dumb names!
"Sequoia, don't stray too far," the Old Man warned as I bounced on the balls of my feet, looking widly at all the different people around now. The city was HUGE! It had these really big wood and metal buildings that shone like...well, they glittered a lot! And there was SO MANY people! I'm not sure I liked that part cuz they're really loud and I like the quiet forest better, but still! I had never seen so many people! There were a lot of Fae like the old man, and there were these other people that looked like water and fire and wind and earth and even lightning come to life! There were others too like that, but I wasn't sure what all they were. And, and! And there were these people that looked like giant spider/scorpion people! They were so cool! But I only saw, like, two of them in passing...
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Oh! And the birds that were flying overhead weren't birds at all! They were people too, people with wings! And there were these other people that were kind of like the Fae, but were also made up of strings and light or something? The Old Man called them Karae or something. I dunno. They're kind of weird, but the few that I talked to because one of them dropped something and I picked it up and started talking to them for a bit, until the Old Man said that they were going to leave me behind, were nice.
And, and! There were so many cool things! There were these big metal boxes that were moving noiselessly through the skies and down the streets, which were "paved," as the Old Man calls it (I didn't like the "paved" roads, it felt weird, unnatural...dirt and gravel's better), and there was so much cool stuff in the windows of buildings! And lots of shiny things!
"Sequoia, come on! We're almost there." The Old Man laughed, grabbing my hand and leading me away from a building with these rings of shiny metal that had shiny stones embedded in the metal.
"What are those?" I asked in wonder, looking back at the store window that was proudly advertising something in a language I couldn't read.
"Those are necklaces, goofball," the Old Man laughed. I was dimly aware of Inesa giggling beside him, but I just turned my attention fully to the Old Man.
"What do they do?" I asked.
"You wear them around your neck. They're for decoration." Inesa explained, hiding her smile behind her hand.
"Oh," I breathed, trying to wrap my head around that. "So it's like when you hung paper lanterns in my tree on my birthday, Old Man?" I continued. The Old Man nodded, ruffling my hair affectionately.
"Yes, except the necklace goes on you, not your tree." He said. I nodded, humming and allowing my thoughts to drift off. Now that I look, there were lots of people wearing necklaces, or with other similar shiny rings on their persons. Sometimes it was on their fingers, or wrists, or ankles, or sometimes hanging from their ears. So, I guess people like to wear decorations? That's kind of funny. I don't think I'd like to wear decorations though. They look heavy.
"Goofy child," the Old Man chuckled, ruffling my hair again and scooping me up onto his shoulders. I let out an 'eep!' of surprise, which prompted another round of giggles from Inesa. She's really giggly. Am I that giggly? The Old Man calls me a chatterbox, whatever that is, and I laugh a lot so I guess I can be giggly? I dunno. "You do realize you're still speaking out loud, right?" He asked, twisting his head so his horns didn't poke me in the stomach when he looked up at me. I flushed and shook my head vehemently.
"It's how I think!" I protested, feeling my stomach drop slightly as the Old Man started to fly in the air, flying above one of the giant chains and flying towards a floating island covered in trees.
"Most people think silently," the Old Man continued, prompting me to puff out my cheeks, scrunch my nose, and glare at him. He laughed, reaching up and poking one of my cheeks, making me giggle and breaking my concentration. I'm trying to glare, here! That's not nice to break my glare! "You're not very intimidating, kiddo," the Old Man continued to laugh.
"Quit teasing the poor child," Inesa chided, and I shot her a winning smile. You tell him, Miss Inesa! "Miss?" Miss Inesa asked questioningly, giving the Old Man an inquiringly look.
"That means she likes you more than she likes...literally anyone. If she really likes you, you'll get a nickname. Who knows? Pretty soon she may be calling you Old Hag." the Old Man teased, and I gasped. How dare he call Miss Inesa an Old Hag!? Miss Inesa just giggled at the name instead of slapping the Old Man, though, so I guess it's ok. He was just joking...
"Miss Inesa's too pretty to be old," I countered.
"...were you listening to our previous conversation at all? She's about as old as I am." The Old Man told me, and I frowned.
"What conversation?" I asked. Then, abruptly, something caught my eye as we approached the island. "Oh, hey! Flying wolves! That's so cool!" I shouted, squirming on the Old Man's shoulders. They were wolves, but were flying and had wings! That's just awesome!
"...of course. Silly me. Why would I assume she even cares?" The Old Man muttered, but I ignored him in favor of debating whether or not jumping from his shoulders would get me to the island faster. I wanna meet the flying wolves! Oh, wait, there's a group coming to meet us. "Hello, you guys. It's been a long time, how have you been?" the Old Man asked with a tinge of nostalgic cheer in his voice. In response the leader of the pack of flying wolves, a great big one with blue fur and wings on its back, and eyes that were...ancient to look at, (they weren't older than the Old Man's, but...more tired? Yeah, that sounds right) barked back, and I blinked.
I was expecting to be able to understand them.
The Old Man laughed and nodded, floating forwards to place his hand on the great big wolf's head, scratching it behind the ears. I, myself, reached out and scratched the wolf as well, an action that seemed to surprise everyone present. The wolf was just so FLUFFY! I couldn't resist! But when the big blue wolf let out a rumble of content, all the other wolves seemed to relax and the Old Man just chuckled lightly.
What was so funny?
"I think they like you," the Old Man said solemnly, nodding and grinning cheesily at me. I grinned back, and together the two of us floated down onto the island, Inesa following close behind. The flying wolves kept barking at the Old Man as we landed, and I leapt from the Old Man's shoulders the moment he touched ground, landing with a stumble. He laughed, and I frowned slightly, dusting myself off and looking around wildly. "Go play for a bit, I'm going to catch up with these fellows. It's been a while since I've had a chat with them." He said. I considered running off for a moment before turning back towards the Old Man, far more interested in what he had to say.
"How do you know the flying wolves? And how can you understand them?" I asked.
"They're called Skyshatter Wolves, and are by all rights divine beasts. I can understand them because I am fairly powerful. And I know them because, well...when I was young, much, much younger, I had a friend that was a skyshatter wolf. One of the first, actually. She, well she was the one who established this little pack, and I make it a point to come visit them and say hi." He said with a little sadness tinged in his voice. I hummed and looked around at the wolves now surrounding us. My gaze, however, landed on a small, silver-furred wolf with black-ish feathers, its blue eyes looking at the Old Man and me with interest. "She died a long time ago, though,"
I scrunched up my nose in confusion, pointing to the wolf that had caught my eye and looking back at the Old Man. "Isn't that her, though?" I asked, and he looked at me in confusion. Then he looked at the wolf. Then at me. Then he started laughing.
"You never cease to amaze kiddo," he chuckled, and though I didn't understand, when he ruffled my hair I gave him a glowing smile because it made him happy. "That is and isn't her. She died, but her soul is now living in that body." He attempted to explain. I crinkled my face in confusion, before taking a deep breath and nodding.
"Oh. So it's kind of like why Manu Ti feels a lot like you, but...not you?" I asked. Once again the Old Man laughed and nodded, ruffling my hair once more before urging me to go run and play.
I did. And not too soon after, I found a litter of shyshatter wolf puppies, and melted because they were so CUTE! They were all happy and yipped and barked and growled in the most adorable manner, especially this one that had black fur with little white splotches on it that was so aggressively, violently cute! It was a little standoffish around me though, but I perservered and eventually drug the puppy into the pile to play with me, just like all the other puppies!
OH! And then, and then some of the bigger wolves started playing too! They were running and jumping through the air, and one even let me ride it up into the sky, where they would drop me and then catch me before I hit the ground.
It was amazing, and so much fun that words can't even describe! And by the end I was covered with doggy slobber and fur and was so tired that I curled into a ball in the middle of a meadow and let the puppies clamber all over me, draping themselves over me as they too fell asleep. The black furred one, though, shoved its head into my stomach and fell asleep like that. It was almost cute enough to really wake me up from my sleep, but I was really tired, and it was getting dark so I couldn't feed off of sunlight as much....
"C'mere you," the Old Man whispered, gently lifting me out of the pile of puppies and mumbling something to the other wolves. In my half-asleep daze I didn't catch it all, but it sounded suspiciously like 'I think he's a good choice,' or 'will you allow us to take him?' I wrapped my arms around his neck and buried my face into his shoulder, slowly beginning to drift off. A deep rumbling sound echoed from his chest, which I recognized as his familiar, amused and loving chuckle, a sound that promptly put me to sleep.
Next thing I knew, I was being layed down in the meadow that was home, a warm fuzzy thing being pressed into my side, and my consciousness fighting for lucidity.
"Don't go," I murmured in my 'sleep,' "please don't go, dad."
Then warmth passed through me, a warmth that told me I was loved, and someone gently whispered to me. A smile curled the edges of my mouth and I curled around the warm, fuzzy thing, allowing myself to drift to sleep once again. I dreamt of the Old Man, and all the happy times we spent together, like when he brought me cinn-o-mon rolls and sweets and we sat and ate them by the river, or all the times we would play hide-and-seek or tag, and his smile every time he looked at me that told me he was proud, and that he loved me.
It was a wonderful feeling.