Ives was, going by Farin's opinion, an absolutely comfortable person to be around. He had the slightly darker skin and amber eyes of southern ancestry, along with the reddish tinted black hair of an easterner, making him look quite exotic. His hair, while only grown a bit too long to be called short, would point into all directions, more a bird's nest than a hairstyle.
His dreamy, dazed look made him appear unreliable at first, but Farin didn't take long to notice that Ives had his tasks done before anyone even noticed he was working at all. In his free time, the man in his mid-twenties would play with the children, help them with learning or doze in the sunshine.
Not once did he question Farin's mysterious tasks, instead he just accepted what the temple master had told him in full faith.
To tell the truth, Farin would have liked to keep the man around him like a plushie. He had an incredibly calming effect on people.
"Thank you for your hard work today", Farin greeted him in passing. Due to the late hour, he was on his way to his sleeping quarters in the side-building where the temple master and Ives stayed as well. Ives returned the smile amicably, looking half asleep.
"The same to you, Farin. Everything was fine today?" Ives' voice was soothing, like a lullaby. If he wasn't the heir to the temple master, Farin would have worried about being conned by such a person.
"Yes, I didn't encounter any trouble." Their conversations were always kept short but not uncomfortably so. Farin simply felt that everything had been said already so he bid the other a good night, continuing up the staircase and down the hallway to a simple door.
Every Farin had the same room, but they were allowed to decorate and change things as they pleased. Out of habit, Farin had kept his room very simple, only containing bare necessities. His only luxury was having several pillows on his bed. Most of the time he'd even keep the candles out, only relying on the light falling in through the windows.
Tired, he stretched his limbs in the darkness and then orderly placed the glowing gems from his bag onto his table. Before, he had just thrown the bag into the room, but it was better for the gems to be out in the open. Sitting down, he pulled his hair out of his ponytail, its full length falling to the floor. With habitual ease, he brushed through it before braiding it tightly for the night.
The heavy dark robe was exchanged for a simple set of light clothes, chain mail still warm on his chest, its weight almost unnoticeable.
I don't know why everyone wants me to wear these robes when I'm not working. Normal clothes would be just fine, and they're less sensitive, too.
Crawling onto his bed, Farin curled himself around the pillows. They were incredibly soft compared to the one he had at home, tempting him to take them along. Sleep was an important part of his day, after all.
With a yawn, Farin forced himself up one last time, closing a thick curtain over the windows and extinguishing most light inside the room. On his table, the gems glowed softly, although their strength was already lessening, and the sliver of light that fell through the gap in the curtains danced on the ground. Farin watched it in a daze.
How did the Gods live? They should need sleep just like everyone else. Those children Alvarr had brought with him had been pretty much asleep by the time he left, after all. He chuckled at the memory. They were small and cute, not scared of him at all.
If possible, he'd try going again tomorrow. There wasn't that much time before the temple master would be coming back, and only until then could he almost freely enter the cave. To be safe, he couldn't let anyone else know about this.
...He'd probably end up telling Eylir and Skari the next time they would visit, though. Since the situation had turned out like this, he might as well have two more people make sure he didn't make any mistakes.
Thinking about when to call for them, he slowly drifted off into a dreamless sleep.
Even if it was seven of them, their weight was nothing to him. The greatest problem would be balancing them out while moving, but the children could hold onto him themselves and didn't move too much.
Through the forest, he walked for almost an hour before reaching his home. A clearing in the middle of the dense forest, spanning only a few meters, with a pool of clear blue water right in the middle. The trees that surrounded the area were of a different type than the ones in the rest of the forest, growing weirdly into all directions and incredibly high up into the sky. Their fanned leaves were larger than a head, covered in almost translucent needles.
Figures were moving on the branches, mostly huge, although some smaller heads would peek out once in a while, curiously looking down. Alvarr stopped to glance at them before turning to the approaching people.
The children's birth parents already expected Alvarr when he entered the area, having heard his bells long ago. Wordless, with slowly moving tails, they approached him, taking their child along and making an almost inaudible sound before leaving. The children purred when taken into their parents' arms, snuggling themselves against their chests. Tired as they were, they'd easily sleep through the whole night in the safety of their family.
Alvarr stretched when all of the children had been taken off him before walking towards one of the huge trees at the edge of the clearing.
Climbing up he soon reached a hole, allowing him to enter the hollowed out inside of a tightly woven cocoon of branches. It wasn't the only cocoon on the tree, but all of them were far apart from each other despite not taking up too much space.
Through the hole, Alvarr could see another of his species resting on the ground softened by thousands of feathers and fur.
The man inside was grey from head to toe, his eyes old but lively. With his body perfectly still he merely tilted his head, looking at his late visitor. Alvarr moved over to sit next to the old man on the ground, a relaxed hum escaping his throat. The scent inside the cocoon was familiar and calming, he himself had slept here more than once as a child.
"Father", he greeted in his language, staring into the other's grey eyes without blinking. The man acknowledged his greeting with the curl of his tail before blinking once, a deliberate and slow movement. Alvarr spoke up once more, his voice quiet. "How to converse with them?"
No explanation as to whom 'them' could be, or why he wished to do it. In that single question, only the barest information was included, but the old God did not need to ask for more. Since there wasn't any other interesting race around here, 'them' could only mean the visitors, and since it had happened before, the young one was probably curious about a visitor who was willing to converse for once.
Most visitors would only come for minutes, their eyes hidden behind a piece of cloth, unwilling and fearful. In rare cases, one of them would be willing to stay for longer, and the old one knew that these ones were willing to communicate with their race - just that they couldn't.
"Learn their language", the old man answered simply, tone almost amused. Alvarr brushed his tail over the ground in confusion, a frown growing on his face.
"How?"
The old one leaned forward, closing in on Alvarr and fixing his gaze. In the dim moonlight shining in, the old one's grey eyes were quivering like molten silver. "Talk. Their language you can learn from me, but talking you will have to do on your own. The visitors talk a lot, giving no information, asking and asking. If you wish to converse with them, you will have to learn how to talk first."
Alvarr shrunk back, his ears pressed to his head and lowered in surprise. There were too many words in what the old one had just said, much more than he was used to. Was there really a need to use so many words to tell him this?
Alas, the old one had said that this was already the first lesson in conversing with the visitor and indeed that man had said a lot in those short times he had seen him.
Alvarr had copied the visitor's words before but it was uncomfortable and foreign to his throat. Even in his own language, he wouldn't say as much as the old one had just done, much less in the visitor's one.
Alvarr made a slightly distraught sound, voicing his troubles. The old one's ears twitched in amusement.
"I will teach you the easiest words and gestures first. He will be delighted to see you use them."
A curl of his tail. This father was his oldest, he knew a lot of things but didn't go out to hunt anymore. Often he would just wander around the area or help others with their little ones as he had done with Alvarr.
Asking him about the visitors had simply been an idea that he didn't necessarily expect to work, but Alvarr did wonder where he knew their language from. His tail continued to stick to the ground.
"Ask", the old one prompted him, poking a sharp nail against the young one's forehead. "I will answer, but only what you ask. Get used to hearing and saying a lot of words."
...He didn't really want to. It was unusually exhausting to concentrate on them, but his old father was expecting him to. "How do you know their language?"
Such a long way of asking, but he had a feeling just saying 'How' would not earn him an answer. The old one tilted his head forwards shortly, pointing at the movement.
"This is a 'nod', it shows agreement or compliance. Sometimes it can show satisfaction. It is the opposite of this movement, which is refusal or denial." He shook his head, waiting for Alvarr's hesitant nod in return before turning to answer his question. "One of my mothers taught it to me. Visitors have come to learn our language before and have even stayed here. It was taught to her by one of her mothers, in turn. One of us always knows it, should another want to learn. It would be a shame to forget it"
Alvarr's ears ached. He kneaded the sides of his head, forcing one more question out of himself. His determined tone made the question more seeking for agreement than asking. "Not dangerous?"
"No. Just very, very curious. It is fine to take the little ones to them or take what they give you. They will leave on their own."
That much he had already guessed. With their 'conversation' being over, Alvarr stared at his hands for a moment, deep in thought. Then, with a quiet sound, Alvarr leaned forward to rub his forehead on the old one's shoulder. The old one ruffled through his hair. Alvarr retreated, crawling out of the cocoon and then climbing over the branches and gaining height until he found his own home, high up. He slipped inside, tugging one of the huge furs around him.
With his upper body leaning out of the cocoon on a branch he stared into the forest, watching out for any suspicious movements while thinking. The forest was alive with the sounds of rustling, cracking and whistling, some howls from far away.
He had been surprised to find the visitor in front of the cave today. Before, no other one had come out of the usual cycle, or not one that he had seen, anyway.
Well, none of them had ever taken off the cloth, either. The first time had looked more like an accident, but the next time the visitor had taken it off by himself. It was an unusual behavior for one of them.
That visitor looked just as old as he was but much frailer. It wasn't in his body or anything, actually their build didn't differ that much. He just looked like someone who would lose immediately in a fight. His steps were unsteady and loud, although he seemed to be aware of that at least. His face would change very often, an interesting sight.
The visitor was waiting for him, that's what he felt. The man had approached him the moment he realized that he was around, and did that twist of his lips that seemed to show happiness. That should mean he wanted to learn how to communicate, as well; the old father had said they were very curious. If they could learn to do that then it'd be good, the visitor was nice to be around. If he came more often, that wouldn't be too bad.
Tomorrow he could try to ask the old father for some more about the visitors, maybe learn their greeting and the meaning of the various faces he had shown. That should be a good start to prove to the other that he was trying.
A tiny clicking alerted Alvarr to tilt up his head, looking at one of the thin higher branches. A tiny, furry figure was barely holding onto the branch, clicking at him before hopping over on tiny clawed feet.
The slender animal jumped onto his head, rubbing itself against his horns and then slipping down to the nape of his neck, curling up there with a satisfied click. Alvarr raised a finger to scratch its body, earning a lightly bleeding bite.
Eight almond-shaped eyes blinked in turns on the tiny thing's head, its body not much larger than Alvarr's hand when excluding the three thin tails waving around. Two fanned ears stood up when the finger approached and then folded shut again when it retreated.
The animal nibbled on Alvarr's hair as if it hadn't ever bitten him.
Unimpressed, Alvarr ignored the drops of blood on his finger. The animal had been with him for years and its habit of biting had never changed. As long as it didn't use its acid, he actually didn't really care. Besides, he needed it to be in a good mood, otherwise it wouldn't call for him when it saw the visitor. The intelligent little thing was unruly and moody, but he had no other way of keeping watch on whether the visitor would appear. He couldn't spend all day around that area.
Alvarr exhaled slowly. The forest was alight with tiny shining bugs that flew around the sky and other, larger bugs that looked like branches, moving now that the moon had come out. Everywhere, everything began to move. The sight had dizzied him when he was younger, but now it was familiar.
Some adults were moving on the ground or through the trees, soundless shadows that watched the borders or their territory. As if it was encased in something, just this area was free of the moving branch bugs, creating a visible line where they would turn around. In the dark, the glowing eyes of his companions could be seen everywhere.
He wasn't one of those guarding at night on his own decision.
This wasn't his time. His time would be when the sun was out.
Thanks for the chapter
