"Farin, please wake up", the boyish voice whispered, a finger poking into his cheek. Farin opened his eyes with a soft sigh, staring into the happy, small face of Lori.
"Have I not told you I can wake up on my own?" "Eh, I thought, waking you up is safer."
The light falling in through the curtain's gap was barely showing signs of turning into the sunrise. The world was still quiet and asleep and while Farin was the type to wake up early, Lori woke even earlier.
Looking at the little girl whose face screamed 'Praise me!', Farin was reminded of the little Gods. Reaching out, he patted Lori's head as if she was a puppy. The girl giggled, then complained. "Hey, you're messing up my hair!" "Your hair is quite short, there isn't that much to mess up. I'll help you brush it in a moment."
Just because he was the type to wake up early, that didn't mean that Farin was any happier to stand up and face the coldness of an early day. Sluggish, he wobbled over to his table, undoing his braid with closed eyes, almost nodding off again. "Can you give me my brush?"
"Here!" Lori kindly placed the brush right into his open palm and Farin hummed, beginning to brush. A short glance at his hair and the feeling in his fingers told him that he should probably take a bath sometime during the evening.
"Farin, your hair is really beautiful! Your mother's hair is similar", Lori talked happily, having learned that Farin was very easy-going towards her. The blue-haired man nodded, yawning. "Yes, this hair color is common up in the far north where my mother is from. It doesn't happen often that mixed children get the lighter color, but mine is even whiter than my mother's."
He let his fingers slide through the endless, silky strands. Having this white-blue hair had bothered him a lot when he was just a little child, but he always let it grow out. Memories were beginning to surface.
"Why do you have it so long? I know some people who have long hair, but not this long. It looks troublesome", Lori asked, straightening her own short hairstyle.
"Because of a story." "A story? What story? Can you tell me?" "One of the stories that get told in my mother's home."
While the center of the continent had their Gods in the cave, other areas had different Gods they served. As long as the royalty made sure not to get into conflict with the other countries, the common people tolerated other beliefs. There were many humans, it wasn't weird that there would be many Gods.
One of the Gods, or deities, that were told about in his mother's home was, in fact, a stone.
The stone had been the tip of the highest mountain up north, overlooking the world for hundreds of years. It observed and observed, never moving an inch, because a stone does not need to move.
One day, a wind passed by. "Aren't you bored up here?", it asked the stone as it jumped and twirled around the mountain's top.
"Why would I be?", the stone asked, looking down into the world.
"There are so many things that you can't see from up here. I would know, I go to a lot of places." That made the stone hesitate. It knew that the wind went from one place to the next and it had seen it pass by often. But the stone didn't wish to admit the possibility.
"I am a stone. Why would I want to be anywhere else? You are a wind. Moving is in your nature, not in mine."
"Well, if that's what you think, then so be it. But I suggest going down, you will see that I tell the truth." And so the wind left.
But the stone couldn't help but think about the words it had said, day after day. "I can see everything from up here. There is no higher point in this world." Suddenly, the stone decided on something. "That's right, the wind was wrong. I will go down and then back up, and the next time it comes, I can tell it: You were wrong, there is nothing that I haven't seen."
And so, the stone began to roll. It rolled and rolled, down the mountain, and past the other stones that wondered why it would move. When the stone finally reached a flat plane, it could move no more. "Ah, how troublesome. How should I move now?"
The stone was worried. It hadn't thought that it might not have a way to move around, let alone back up the mountain. So it waited - as stones can do quite well - and observed its surroundings. Something went by it, a person on two legs, and the stone was happy. "Alright, that, I can do, too."
The stone twisted and turned, and it had two legs and arms, a head and a body. Just like what had gone past him it now looked, but its skin was still white with blue veins, and so was its hair, and so was its eyes. But that was fine, because it was a stone, and it was white with blue veins, so this appearance was perfect.
"Now I can move and look around", the stone said to itself, but its legs didn't obey. The person had walked so easily, but the stone was unsteady, falling and falling.
Alas, a stone is a stone and it was patient, so it stood up until it could stand and walked until it could walk. And walk it did, straight forward, turning its head to look around. The first person it met, it asked a question.
"Say, is there anything interesting to see down here?" The human fell to her knees, bowing deeply.
"There is a beautiful river up ahead where fish jump against the stream", she said, her voice quivering. The stone went past her and indeed, there was a river with fish. Their scales glittered in the sun as they jumped up the stream.
"I could see the river", the stone said, "but not the fish."
So it went around until it encountered the next human. "Say, is there anything interesting to see down here?"
And the human answered. There was a field full of flowers, blooming only at night. There were fireflies dancing in the meadows. There was the birth of a child, the joyful crying of a couple marrying, there were laughter and singing, music and art. There were, indeed, a lot of things to see.
The stone stayed until its hair grew long over the ground, until the humans changed and changed. Before it had realized it, it had stayed until it had seen everything.
"Now that I have seen everything, I can go back up the mountain", the stone said aloud and the humans gathered to bid it goodbye. The stone used its legs to walk up the mountain, then sat down at the top. When the wind came by again it played with its hair.
"You have been down the mountain for a long time", it whispered to the stone. "What do you say?"
"There was a lot I hadn't seen yet", the stone admitted. "Now I have seen it all."
The wind sighed softly. "I see."
Unexpectedly, the stone continued. "But the world changed whenever I looked away. So I will rest for a while and then go down to take a look again, because I am the top of the mountain, I must see everything." And the stone lost its human form, quietly lying down. "Until then you mustn't bring over heavy clouds, because the storm will destroy the fields. And you must bring rain in summer, because the world turns yellow and dead if there is none. Also, you mustn't bring too much snow, the cold is bad for the children."
Suddenly, the wind laughed. "Alright, you listened to me, so I shall listen to you."
The stone was satisfied and kept its silence again, so the wind left.
So it came that the people on the plane never had storms, never had a hard winter or summer, always had enough rain for their crops. When the stone came down again it would stay until its hair grew too long, then it would leave and tell the wind what to bring.
Because of that story, the people on the plane who are born with white or blue hair would let it grow, like a reminder to the wind that it had promised the stone on top of the largest mountain to never bring harm to the people.
...
"Well, that's the story. I might not live in the north, but my mother was really happy when I decided to let my hair grow out, so I did." Farin shrugged his shoulders, finally finished with brushing through everything and tying it up.
Lori was leaning on his leg, smiling brightly. "I like how your voice sounds when you tell a story."
"Do you? Thanks." Farin poked her arm. "Now, get off me, that was enough lazing around. Let's go do our work, hm?" "Yeees."
Farin & Alvarr... How lovely pair!!
Such a character sheet !
Thank you, they took long enough
Thanks for the chapter
