Silko didn't understand what was before his eyes. Ten people bowed at his feet, most women and children. The air smelt damp and the wind passed steadily through the temple-like gazebo he laid in. He marvelled at the color of their skin. Throughout his life he had known only three complexions. Dark-skinned, orange-skinned and pale-skinned but never had he seen violet-skinned people, beautified by their bluish white hair. This had to be a dream. Standing up before them, he walked out the structure into a world that dazzled and startled him at the same time.
It was magnificent. Houses attached to the walls surrounding the city, designed in the likeness of colorful plerotus. He saw what seemed to be an oasis within the earth, a city in a hole. Men riding Zandons (creatures resembling stingrays with colourful feathers and talons) and women flying on Flufens (giant bumblebees), creatures he only saw in books back in a place he used to call home. There stood structures as high as hills designed like coral reefs with vines, spherical huts and other forms of shelter. Children swung from vine to vine playing within the roots that seemed to stretch out from the big trees above.
"What is this place?" He asked in awe.
"My lord, you've awoken." A voice from behind said.
He turned, finding the bowed head of a female violet person. When she raised her head his breath immediately was taken away. The golden twinkle within her eyes froze him right on the spot and then she caught his heart with a smile.
"I was appointed to take you to the grand council."
Grand Council? Retracting his focus to her words he wondered why she called him 'lord'.
"Who are you people?" He asked, "and where am I?"
"I am Vikarie, prime archer of the Neonex, daughter of Estia of the Grand Council" she replied firmly, "and this is Neonexia, home to the remnants of the Neonex clan. Now come my lord, there's much to be discussed."
She took him to the Lartige, the great hall of the council where town's meetings were held and cases were judged. It took two hundred steps on the spiral staircase to get to the main hall where the great hexa table laid, and there they found seven individuals, four male and three female, all dressed in white silk robes, each as ethereal as the other.
Vikarie bowed at sight of their faces. Then she said;
"My lords, the fallen star has awoken."
Fallen star? Everything proved more peculiar as he listened and beheld what was around him. The main hall resembled a giant's library having book shelfs that seemed to bend over same as an old man.
At the sight of the boy they bowed low then gracefully approached, peering as it felt to him, into his existence. They examined his skin, his eyes, his hair and they were fascinated. One of them who seemed to be the oldest amongst halted them all, and thus he bowed once more with the words;
"Oshti swu ayepedelewea!"
Without hesitation the others did likewise, chanting the old man's words. Silko looked to Vikarie for an explanation, for he did not understand what they were saying but she also had her head down and as if translating their words, she evoked;
"Favored is the one touched by the Creator. Our ruler has returned."
Fallen star. Lord. Ruler. It occurred to Silko that he stood amongst insane people, the only thing running through his mind was Aurelia, if she was alive and safe. The weight of the silence made him uneasy for he did not know what to do, these strange Neonexians had their heads down for a rather long time. Then like an ice breaker his stomach grumbled loud enough for everyone's ears.
"Hunger!" One of them exclaimed.
"Food!" Another shouted.
"Forgive your servants my Lord," the oldest said, "after a three-day slumber you must be famished. We shall provide you with delicacies at once. Vikarie!"
Vikarie bowed taking her leave immediately. Silko was astonished. I've been asleep for three days? He wondered how he was still alive. How did he survive that attack? Who saved him? What fate was his sister facing in that wretched village called Gavanda? He immediately started planning his escape from these wierd looking people in the quest to save his sister.
A feast was prepared at once, the boy was offered food and drinks, delicacies he had only dreamed of when he was in Gavanda. The wise ones organized a festival in the city. They danced, they sang, songs of old they chanted euphorically. The night fell, generously accommodating the fest until it was dawn. And with the dawn came Silko's epiphany.
"Aurelia!" He called, elevating from his slumber. Around, on the floor, on the tables and on the vines were those who kept the festival going until it was dawn. Some muttered in their drunken state while most snored.
At once he rose up, tiptoeing towards a standle where they kept and fed their Zandons. When he finally got to the standle in his sight he approached one of the creatures gently, trying his best not to startle it while attempting to hop on its back. After the fifth try he succeeded in boarding the Zandon. He smiled rubbing the side of the creature. About to attempt what he believed was the procedure of flying this thing, he got interrupted.
"What are you doing, my Lord?"
Vikarie's voice came as a shock to him, one that made him fall off the Zandon.
"I was just... observing, observing this beautiful creature."
"Observing?" Disbelief oozing out of her tone. "My lord why do you seek to abandon your people?"
"That's the problem, I am not who you think I am. Fallen star, lord, one touched by the Creator? I am none other than an ordinary village boy seeking to save his sister from certain doom!"
"Sister?" She asked, "you have a sister my lord?"
"I do" he exhaled, "and the least I can gather is the horrors Tobias is putting her through."
He gave up struggling to board the creature and a took a seat on the ground.
"Who is Tobias my lord?" She asked sitting next to him.
He clicked his tongue. "A traitor."
"Traitor?" She asked, "did he sin against you my lord?"
The boy exhaled, looking up. Then he looked at Vikarie, her eyes were earnest. So he narrated;
"My father died when I was seven. No one knows how only that he didn't come back alive that dusk from the seasonal hunt."
"Seasonal hunt. What village do you speak of my lord?"
"Gavanda. Haven't you heard of it?"
She shook her head much to his astonishment.
"Hmm. Well ever since he died mother became the family's breadwinner. We lived fine until Tobias took an interest in the family. He was the one who brought father's corpse back to the village."
"Sounds like a hero. My lord."
"You need not say my lord at the end of every sentence Vikarie" he smiled, "but yes, that was our forethought. No one truly knew were he came from but he stole the heart of the village instantly. His eyes caught Aurelia, my sister. He wanted her."
"Wanted. Like a property my…. Liege?"
Her replacement made the boy laugh.
"A wife. He was a twenty-five year old man, looking to marry a fifteen year old girl. Mother was against such atrocity. 'None of you shall take a partner from the impure bloods' she would say. That was three years ago."
"What does impure blood mean?"
He chuckled looking up at the slowly lit sky. "The people of Gavanda are pale skinned, we are brown skinned although mother's skin tone was a bit different from any of us. See she had a skinned colored like the leaves of the autumn trees. She thought it outrageous that we married anyone different. It was your father's will she would say. Personally I thought she was being foolish, love does not see color."
"Love sees logic my lord. I believe this is what your mother saw."
He exhaled. "Five days ago mother died while she was out picking berries. She was as healthy as a groundbear, it was uncanny how she died. Tobias offer to take care of us, only if Aurelia became his wife. She refused. And thus he made the village attack us, blaming us for the death of our own mother. We were on the brink of capture but somehow I escaped, waking up here."
Vikarie sighed.
"My lord, I believe your mother spoke of something different when she mentioned impure bloods."
He looked at her, his face harboring confusion. "What do you mean?"
She sat up, a stern plastered on her face, "Surely she must have told you."
"Told me what Vikarie?!"
She exhaled. "Your origins my lord, the very reason the people bow to you. The truth about what you are."
"What I am?" He stood, staring at her with inquisitive eyes.
"Come my lord, you shall see for yourself."
She lead him once more, to the Lartige, in to the giant's library.