SHORT STORY

FIRST STEPS

FIRST STEPS
Nobody believed the girl. Even after they�d clothed her and calmed her down enough
to speak in complete sentences, nothing she�d said made any sense.

The villagers had seen their fair share of otherworldly things � living at the foot
of Mount Targon made this an inevitability � but the child�s story didn�t add up.

She�d described some sort of otherworldly humanoid who had risen from the sea that
bordered their village. It sounded like a wanderer: one of the lost, confused
celestial creatures who sometimes ventured from Targon�s summit. No one had ever
heard of a celestial appearing from the ocean, though. More likely, the young girl
was playing games.

But when a woman with crimson eyes swam into their village, held aloft by a pool of
water that ebbed and flowed at her command, the villagers realized it was no game.

�Hello,� the stranger said. �I am Nami. I am a Marai, a creature of the blue. I

mean you no harm.�

The villagers stared at her, mouths agape. Perhaps they were taken aback by her
appearance. That would make sense, considering how unusual they looked to Nami�s
eyes: flesh without scales and two backward arms where fins ought to be.

Though they weren�t much in the way of conversation, Nami did have their attention.

�I seek the Aspect of the Moon, for the Aspect has something my people require.
Without it, they, and possibly all the world, will succumb to a hungry and
merciless darkness.�

The villagers continued to stare at Nami, slack-jawed and mute. Only a sleepy,
four-legged beast went unfazed by the appearance of the mermadic creature in the
village, as it carried on pulling mouthfuls of dried grass from a wheeled cart and
smacking its slobbery gums.

Nami stood in the silence, tapping her staff awkwardly.

�So, if anybody knows where the Aspect is, that would be, erm.� She sniffed, eager
to create any noise to break the endless hush that had fallen over the crowd. �Most
helpful. To me.�

It was as if the villagers had been frozen in place it was so quiet. Nami looked
around the village and saw small, fluttering lights all around. Anchored to small
pillars of wax or large, wooden sticks, the lights indeed seemed to be alive, but
not sentient. They fluttered in the breeze and crackled with energy.

�What do you call that?� Nami asked, pointing at the light. �It�s lovely.�

An old man in golden robes stepped forward � the people of the oversky insisted on
covering themselves, for reasons Nami couldn�t immediately understand � flanked by
two sentinels. From the many layers of draped fabric, Nami deduced he must be some
type of elder. Or perhaps he was just cold.

�You seek the moon?� he asked. �Is she your friend, or your foe?�
Nami narrowed her eyes. The man�s lip quivered with silent rage. The moon�s Aspect
was clearly important to him � but in what way? Did he worship and wish to protect
it, or did he consider it an enemy?

Nami weighed the options. Surely, she thought, no one would be so unwise as to make
an enemy of the moon itself. She replied:

�Friend, of cour��

��HERETIC!� the elder shouted.

��Fiend! I said fiend! You misheard me!� Nami shouted, but her pleas went unheard
as the sentinels shouted orders. Many of the village�s people grabbed their
weapons, dipping their spears into round containers of fluid and sparking them
alight.

Nami stared at the tips of the spears now flickering with orange light spirits.
Their dance was mesmerizing, but radiated heat. Nami suspected touching one would
be incredibly unpleasant.

�You will leave this village at once! You spread FEAR and DECEIT, and we will have
none of it!� the elder demanded.

Nami stared at them for a moment, her face hard. This was it � her first test as a
landwalker. She knew, that if need be, she could defend herself against everyone in
this village.

But that wouldn�t get her what she needed.

�I am scared,� she said.

The elder smiled. Nami did her best to ignore it.

�Not of you, mind. I�ve looked into the hungry, hateful maw of darkness and thought
I would never feel joy again. Your spears can�t compare to that,� she said.

�And so, I�m not going to leave. Not while my people are still in danger,� she
said. She moved forward and planted her staff in the ground.

She moved with such confidence and fearlessness the villagers were taken aback �
physically, in one unfortunate case.

A young villager stumbled backward, his spear of heat skittering out of his hands,
landing beneath the cart of dried grass. The dancing heat spirit grew taller. It
licked the grass, spreading its own energy to the pile of dry hay. Within moments,
the entire cart was ablaze with the hot, volatile energy.

The grazing beast brayed in terror and turned away from the blaze. It kicked its
muscular legs in confusion, knocking the cart onto its side, launching the burning
grass into the air.

The wisps of heat landed on the village�s thatched roofs and spread rapidly,
consuming everything in its path with a voracious appetite.

The villagers scrambled to fetch bucketfuls of water from a nearby well. Nami
watched in frightened fascination as they hurled the liquid at the hungry spirits.
For a moment, their efforts seemed to beat back the spirits� rage, transforming the
flickering glow into a horrible cloud of hissing air that, unlike the rest of the
air in the oversky, seemed to expand with weight and form. The hissing smoke
swirled as the spirits drank up the water and danced on along the rooftops, turning
the blue night orange.