Wearing a blue dress with hand stitched music notes, Lighting playfully skips in the room. Her eye's glisten at the beautiful brown table that looks out the window. Her dad was busy drawing new housing plans.
"Daddy hehehe, you're so good at your job. Can I help?"
The sickly looking man turns his head smiling "Haha come here." Stewart her dad picks up Lī with biggest gleam in his eye. "So here we use the straight edge to make clean…"
*cough*
"Excuse me" Stewart says. He shakes is head back forth trying to break from the discomfort.
*cough cough*
"Daddy?!"
*cough cough cough*
Stewart collapses.
"MOOOOM! Hurry something wrong! Mom! mom! mom!"
The Ink on the paper begins to melt into the page. Rain pours down consuming the once beautifully lit town
*Drip*
*Drip*
*pop*
"AAAHH!"
*Drip*
*Drip*
"Huh"
"Ooohh."
Rain, really! Can the Goddess not give me a break?
I wrap a leaf around my bag and hold it above my head. I start to walk off pass the now larger puddle.
Hold up Lightning look at the puddle. It's a foot print girl and you're going in the direction of what ever made it. *face smack* I'm an idiot.
"Wow, this must be one of those caravan roads! Someone has not been doing there job though. There's so many puddles." I start to hum with excitement.
"🎶 My life has been behind those walls. Safe from everything. Unaffected by the worlds risks. I was taken afar. Now I don't know…"
*Rumble Boom*
The sound of thunder causes me to jump three feet in the air. My body lands on all fours, while my breath quickens. My bag smacks against the mud.
"Grroooss"
I pick up the bag and continue down the path. I try to comfort myself.
"It's okay lightning its just thunder. Its just thunder. Its just thunder" I slow my breathing. I take three to four second intervals to steady my nerves. I see a large flash of white rip through the sky. My eyes widen.
*Boom*
Where did I go?! *Looks side to side* Oh Goddess, I look like an Iguana.
My nails bear into the tree. My leg grasp hard against the bark. I shiver in fear holding tight until I finally let go. I pick up my bag and get going. My pace slows and my head hangs.
I slowly loose focus on the world around me. Only the wet dirt at my feet exists in my mind.
*boom*
My brain washes the sound out. I was to scared to even think.
*boom*
I continue walking while the noise draws closer.
*boom*
The rain slows around me
*smack*
"What, where did this tree come from. Oh wow its so ridged and bumpy. Huh?"
The tree begins to move forward slowly. "Oh shoot" I say catching myself from falling. My eyes widen "Woah! What is this?"
"Be careful dear, every time he steps the leg swings back a little and it will hurt?"
"Oh Okay thank you." I say while taking a step back.
Um Lī you do not know that person. Stranger Danger. Hello!
"So, whats your name kid; what brings you out here?"
"Lī and I came out here because of a Rooster," I state while intensely staring at the tree like uhhh leg."
"Thats wild. Are you a hunter? You're so young!"
My concentration breaks and I turn my head to see the short stocky four armed man standing next to me. His skin is rich in eumelanin; his hair gave a striking contrast with pure white locks. "Huh? I'm actually a warrior. Also I'm not a Kid, I'm eighteen. I already killed the rooster so now I just need to head home."
"Well pardon me, the next town in this direction is a three day trip if you rush."
Three days! How far did Tweeters take me!
"You can also stay with our group under the Heffalump until the rain clears."
"A HeffaWhat?"
"Heffalump its this large creature here. We don't actually know its gender but our group relies on her. Come on lets go around I can introduce you to the others."
"So Mr., whats your name?
"Names Chris."
"Chris, why are you relying on this thing?"
"Its size isn't something any animal can over come. Most creatures try to avoid the Heffalump, but our ancestors tried to eat it. The used stones, spears, and nets but nothing worked. To their surprise, it was unfazed. This happened over centuries if you could believe it. At some point the kids turned slaying it into a competition and soon a festival erected. Well I will tell you the rest later. We finally caught up."
I turn glance in the direction we were headed. Large rocks and make shift home are spread out in front. In the middle is a square where everyone is gathered
"Woah!"
"Yeah there's a lot of us. Since it's raining we came down to have our festival. Watch your step dear don't trip on the sled."
*Bang*
"To la-te"
We walk through the crowd up to a small stage constructed with bright red wood. The four people had rocks with intricate designs.
"So this here is our Lil Tiger, Lepto. Mom was a frog and dad was a zebra."
"Wow his skin has orange and black stripes."
"This is Jack our Mythical Rabbit, half dear half rabbit. This is Pig and they are all pig. E is a Donkey. We do have others on our left sled. We split up after choosing two themes."
"Theme? What did you choose?"
"Can't you tell! Rock and Roll."
"Hehehe, okay I see it now. There is a good assortment of rocks…"
Lil Tiger is holding a rock that looks like a funnel. He press his mouth against the smaller end
"1.. a 1, 2, 3 🎶
Just take those old records off the shelf
I'll sit and listen to 'em by myself
Today's music ain't got the same soul
I like that old time rock 'n' roll"
The group is banging on the rocks. The sound changes based on the the groves, size, and holes. I come to realize the rocks are like instruments!
"The rocks are like Instruments!"
"Haha do you like? We came across these rocks and ever sense jammed out."
"What else can rocks do?"
"We have some rock used for cooking. The rocks effect the temperature allowing for diversity in styles of cooking."
The platform shakes and I stumble a little.
"Oh woah!"
"Be careful now. It takes time to get use to the platform moving now and again. It's tied to her leg and we have the old girl pull us."
"Wait did you say food! I want some."
"Well come on. Today is a rockin popin Rice noodle soup."
He brings me over to window on one of the houses. The woman passes us each a bowl made from wood which felt soft.
"Ooo it's purple, green, and orange. It looks so yummy. HOT! Its so hot but good. It's so yummy. Water!"
"Here its lemon juice with mint. It'll help remove the spice from your tongue."
*Gulp gulp gulp*
"Haah, my mouth feel refreshed. I really like the green things. What are they?" I say as I point at the soup.
"So the green is Peas cut down into small pieces"
My eyes widen at the statement. "You say what now?"
He chuckles at me. "The green is peas, we also have cabbage which is purple and squash which is orange. There's also orange little peppers that give it the spice. The noodles are soaked in in seasoned water with the seeds of the peppers. The vegetables are cut up, seasoned, and fried off. They get thrown in at the end."
"Did you say peas?"
He blinks at me in silence until he decides to answer "yes."
*Gasp*
"I didn't know peas could be so good."
"Aww the sun's going down," I say.
"Haha, this is the best part. We have a few lantern to light up the night." Rocks begin to glow as the last of the sunlight is out of view.
"When migrating we had to become more reliant on nature and forgo technology. With time it became easy. The culture we built up is sturdy. We no longer need old world objects"
"Woah, our community still uses solar panels and old factories to keep it all going. My dad's family had to redesign so much if not we wouldn't have sustained ourselves."
"Some times fighting the natural order can lead to beautiful things, but it can also lead to a devastating end. Even our society will have an end. Heffalump is old. We will have to find either a new one or live a completely different life one day. We don't normally talk about it during the festival, but us old people discuss this out come. We've made contingencies so that our descendants can live in ease. I hope your father has done the same."
Our conversation ends with a deafening silence. I couldn't even hear the music or the rain.
"Now the festival has ended Lī. We can arrange for you to rest here if you like."
"Yes please," I say with the most sincere voice.
"Well come come, we have spare rooms for guests."
We approach a home made of strikingly black wood that made the home feel like a shadow of another home.
"Lys, we have company for the night."
A tall athletic woman walks out. Her red furry ears sit majestically upon her head. Her orange and black fur covers her skin. Her striking yellow eyes brings a sense of nobility.
Characters:
Name Lighting - Age 16 - Date of birth 2/3/1000 A.N. - Sign Hippocampus - Mutation ¿none? - Fear Thunder (Astraphobia) - Fatal Flaw Diabetic - Character flaw Lazy & Lies - hair brown curly - eyes brown or white - skin light brown - current state soaked
Name Chris - age 72 - mutation four arms - hair white - eyes brown - skin midnight black - character trait extrovert - married to Lys
Name Lys - age 72 - mutation tiger - hair/fur orange & black - eyes yellow - skin white with black stripes - character trait kind & strong - married to Chris
Creatures:
Type Iguana - danger level 1 - size 3 ft - ability camouflage & climbing - attack claws
Type Heffalump - danger ??? - size ??? ft - ability unihemispheric sleep & thick skin - attack walking
Song:
Old Time Rock & Roll by Bob Seger
Reference:
Winnie the Pooh - Heffalump which is the name given to the elephant in Winnie the Pooh.
One Piece - Zunesha who is a giant elephant/island
School:
Eumelanin - is one of three different melanins. Two of which can be found in the skin. This one is associated with tanning and dark skin tones.
Elephants - they are also commonly seen sleeping standing up in the wild to make an easy escape. Some scientists believe lying down for elephants puts a strain on their organs. A gigantic one like this would probably adapt to walking or standing while asleep.
Lys/Lis - french for Lilly like in Fleur-de-Lys (Flower of Lilly) the y or i stressed like ée in bee, see, he, and me
Unihemispheric sleep - the ability to have a portion of the brain sleep while the other side is awake. This can be seen in marine mammals as an adaptation to keep them from drowning.