Gaia’s Forrest was far bigger in scope than I initially thought it was. Impossibly so. It has been right at a day and a half days since the green could be seen along the horizon, and we just got to the first trees. Yes, there was trees along the way, with some comparable to the size of Tesoro’s house in both width and height, yet the tree that were in front of me now dwarfed those by several magnitudes in every category. To see the leaves of the trees you couldn’t simply just look up, you had to tip your head back and look up to see the bottoms of the canopy of the trees you were next to.
Pulling my journal out, I flip to the page that I had l left off at. Putting pen to paper, I continued writing.
Day 7
Things happened. Even though there had been no signs of any Fearies, after the three circles of sand sleighs had been made the cameldons started to go crazy. I guess because they are similar in nature, but before we even heard them approach the cameldons tried their best to run away. Everyone tried their best to calm them down. It took one of the other group leaders realizing that all the cameldons were running in the same direction, as if to run away from something. Pointing that out, that leader turned and saw hell coming for us. Screaming “to arms” or something like that, all those capable of fighting turned and saw what caused the leader to yell like they did. A large group of wispy shapes was coming towards us.
Turns out those wispy shapes were called “dust devils”, a fae of Sol that, much like the chimera, was a fae of Sol that got corrupted somehow. The fight was not lethal thankfully, but there were several injuries throughout the caravan, all minor in nature thankfully. This particular group of dust devils was relatively young and therefore easy to deal with. Their constantly shifting shapes makes them hard to land a hit against, but a single solid hit makes them dissipate into a cloud of dust. After everything settled down, Joshua pulled us three pilgrims aside and thanked us for helping out. He then explained that beating these dust devils simply gave a few days reprieve from their attacks, as they would simply put themselves back together after that time and continue on like nothing happened. The older the dust devils, that larger the body typically, and all of these were the size of the dogs used on the farms with animals, making them not exactly small. I shudder to think what the older versions of these things look like.
Day 8
Today was rather uneventful thankfully, the past few days have been exciting enough for me. At most, we got closer to the Gaian border. The closer we got, the bigger the roots became. I can definitely tell that, while these things can be taken lots of places, they definitely do better on smoother ground. The constantly shifting elevation of the different roots from the different trees made for an incredibly bumpy ride, at least through the sands it was a gentle rocking motion. At one point I even got out and started walking. Now my feet hurt and my backside is sore, and the only thing I got out of the Faithless we traveled with was laughter.
Day 9
I personally thought that we entered into Gaia’s domain some time yesterday given the size of the trees. I was promptly informed that that was simply the ‘door mat’. I could see why it was called that. All the trees we went by yesterday were still the same type of tree, but as we got closer, I saw it. Trees at different stage of life basically, I saw yellow leaves, orange leaves, red leaves, green leaves, trees with no leaves. I saw fruit trees, trees full of pink flowers, and flowers of all sorts and shapes. I had no idea that there existed this many types of plant life. Aside from my nose suddenly getting stuffy as I was assailed by a cavalcade of many different scents that made focusing hard to do, I am fully at awe of the sights that surrounded me.
Hooking my pen onto the pages of the journal, I shut the book and look around at the forest around me. Joshua sat off to my left, he looked more at me than his surroundings. “Better shut your mouth boy, I know that this is all awe inspiring for you, but there are things in these woods that would happily make their home in you mouth with how far your jaw has dropped,” he said with a chuckle. I closed my mouth at the statement.
“You’ve been here before by that statement. How far into Gaia’s territory have you gone?”
“Not much further than the settlement that we’re heading to. For as beautiful as this territory is, the further in you go, the more hostile everything becomes. Not just the environment, but the creatures and followers as well. They don’t take to kindly to outsiders treading onto their territory. They are more willing to overlook those of similar religions going through their territories within reason, but straight up outsider like you and me? We’d be fair game without an escort.”
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“Sounds like you might have been a little to adventurous?” came from behind us as Lily poked her head forward. Her face was several shades of green. The rocking of the sleigh has obviously messed with her.
Concern spread across Joshua’s face before he handed me the reigns. “Try not to make any sudden movements with those Adamas. I have something to get for Lily, and the last thing any of us need to happen is our mode of transportation deciding to go in the wrong direction.” Disappearing into the back of the sleigh in just a moment, all that could be heard was the occasional “I thought it was here?” and the shuffling of boxes. A few minutes later after a loud ‘”AHA!” Joshua appeared with a small pouch in hand. Opening it, he brought out some small squares. Handing a few of them to Lily he spoke. “Eat these, slowly. They should help relieve that sickness you’re feeling currently.”
“You guys know what bread is, right?” Joshua said after seeing the confusion on Lily’s face.
“We do, I used to live on a farm that produced mainly wheat. But I can’t say that I’ve seen bread in that form before,” I chimed in.
“Ah, okay.” Joshua sighed before continuing. “This is a cracker. Think bread, but instead of making a loaf out of it, you do a few different steps. You take that would-be loaf, take a small piece of it, roll it out, cut it into a square, and then poke holes into it. Because it’s smaller than a standard size loaf. It cooks faster, but holds over just a bit better than cooked bread. So eat slowly, it’s very dry.” At that, he looked forward and held his left hand in my direction. “No offense Adamas, you did a good job really not doing much, but I feel more comfortable if the reigns are in my hand. Don’t want anything unexpected to happen and have an amateur steering this sleigh. If we were in the desert, I’d be more willing to let you continue controlling, but these woods… these woods are a lot more unforgiving.”
Promptly handing over the reins, I mean I wasn’t going to argue with the guy who most likely owns this thing. “Hey Joshua, I have a question. How did you even come across this thing anyway? Did you build it or something?” I asked as I handed the reins back.
“While I would like to say that I built this thing myself. The most I did was make some modifications to it over the years to make it more me. I placed an order for this thing from one of the workshops of the mountain dwellers to the south. They have expansive cave systems in and around where they live, granting them easy access to a multitude of different materials. Though they are a stubborn bunch, much more so than the mountains in which they reside. Which means getting something from them basically puts it in and amongst the very best of that item to be created, within reason that is. But their stubborn nature also makes trading with them unique, and difficult like no other.”
“I got lucky with this particular trade. I was in the outers bounds of what they called their Stronghold, their equivalent to your Conclave, enjoying a break from my early years of travel with my parents. I was enjoying a strong alcoholic beverage during one of their festivals, and ended up spilling what was left of my drink over the head of this one guy. Turns out he had a rough day, because that was all it took for a brawl to start up. Not that anyone else actually joined in, but it was a long fight, which would have been made shorter if I was not already drunk as each of his blows felt like I was getting hit by a hammer.” At this thought, a smile crossed Joshua’s face as he pulled out a necklace. An obvious religious icon of some sort that consisted of three layers. A hammer at an angle was the upmost layer, an anvil was the second layer, and the third layer was a red metal that, when light hit it, appeared to spark. I instinctively brought a hand to my Solar Slice at the appearance of the necklace. “Fancy yeah? I know the stereotype of us Faithless is that we don’t believe in any god, but that’s not always the case, we just don’t devote ourselves to any we come across. This was a gift from that man I ended up brawling with, we turned out to be best friends. We just didn’t know it when we first met.”
“He was an apprentice of a metal worker, as all are when they are born within the bounds of the Stronghold. Meeting my friend after our brawl, we talked over but cause our friendship to begin, alcohol! He had been having trouble with a task provided to him by his master, and by this point I was well and truly not all there, but something I said caused a spark within him, he paid for my drink and bolted. I didn’t see him at all up until I left, and with how faithless roam, it takes us a while to make the rounds between all of you religious types. Several years had passed and this was the second visit I had made to the Stronghold, not including the visit that started everything off. I finally got to see my friend after a long time, and the first thing we both do? Pull out the best alcohol either of us had come across. My drunken ramblings ended up helping get through some creative roadblocks he was dealing with, so as thanks he handed me this necklace and asked if there was anything he could for me.”
“Now at this point, I had traveled around enough to know that just about anything beats traveling on foot, but past that there are a few levels of ‘ease of transportation’. Talking it through with him, we ended on a rough design of what you’re riding on currently. While this style of movement was nothing new, we had put a focus on resilience of the pieces of wood that touched the ground as well as giving them the capability to be adjusted for different types of terrain. I provided the materials, he made it a reality. In fact, after this stop, I’ll be heading down south to trade and talk smack once more.”
The story Joshua told was so engrossing that none of us had realized how low Sol had gotten, which was plain to see even through the thick trees as the dark grew ever deeper. Joshua cracked the reigns in his hands, and the cameldons picked up their speed. “Were not sleeping outside tonight you kids. Not much longer now till you’ll see our destination.”
“Oh thank Sol for that,” Lily said from somewhere behind us.
He wasn’t wrong, not more than a few minutes later, it felt like we rounded just another tree, when there before us stood the largest tree we’d seen so far, with a sprawling structure that looked like it was either integrated into the tree or grown for the tree itself. The structure was intimidating in stature, but had a welcoming air as there were bountiful soft glowing lights that permeated throughout what could be seen.
“Welcome, young Solites,” Joshua spoke as he made an exaggerated motion in the direction of the structure, “to Gai’faitotoa, the Gates of Gaia.”