INE

The darkness was a long haul. I kept zoning in and out of it frequently, and each time the light fell over me, my conscious became more alert, more stable and more wistful.

At first my senses were frigid, nothing but an unlit void, built like a hard wall that couldn't be passed. Eventually, I had realised the darkness, its cold, slender fingers uncurling  to loosen the wall. When the wall broke, I realised my skin, the first sense of touch, my sight, my hearing. The weight of it fell  on my chest, where I discovered pain and burn.

Yet, I was frail—too insentient to understand myform But the more I wondered, the more it seemed to drain me. Before the long lost blackness could collide my mind again, all that was left was one wisp of thought, disappearing fast from the veil of the awareness--What was I?

The bright rays passing through the glass enclosure, beat down my face and pierced my eyes. I rolled over to avoid it.

I was surprised. I had not succeeded  rolling my form over before.

My movements made my safe cocoon—it was made of glass and was an orb—spin. A yelp left my throat. The pleasant surprise slipped off my awareness and fear took hold of my senses. The orb was tossing down a slopping path. I gasped when upended, and breathed out shallowly when levelled to the ground. 

Frightened, I squirmed about the sphere, making the situation worse. There was something pressing against my back, something hard and long. With great patience, and fierce struggle, I was able to retrieve it from behind me. The jagged edges of the thing pressed against the soft skin of my palm. I bit my lips as I tried to steady myself from getting my front and back rammed against the dense surface of the orb, over and over.

Hurriedly, securing the jagged thing in my palm, I swirled around and rammed it over the surface of the orb. The glass shattered in a beat and I was thrown rolling out of the orb, into the damp, slippery surface.

Relief washed over me like those gleaming rays trying to hurt my eyes. The sense of relief was new. It came out along with a sigh. My hands ran over the damp surface beneath me, sensing, inferring. It was evenly spread green, some prickly, some lush and smelling of rot and mud... the words came to me as I sensed each of their presence. But the green... it was all around me--to the right, to the left, under and over too. 

I sat upright on it. Grass... earth... I realised the names by perceiving their color, form and smell. Creepers, primroses, shrubs, trees, I touched the damp on the grass... dew. Then, raising my hand, I felt the warmth of the annoying gleaming rays. They were radiating from a ball of fire at someplace too high to touch. The sun—t͟s'ehāyi.

At a certain distance from where I was seated, a volt of white-backed t'imibiriti were busy hissing and grunting at each other as they feasted on a carcass. I had been watching them for some time, lying inside my orb. I had realised the name after watching their form and their daily habits. They rested on the crowns of the trees in the day, foraged in the darkest hours of the night, and brought food to the young ones when they found one.

Observing them was my daily habit. And so, I pulled my limbs to my chest and watched them feast on the rotting flesh. The sun rays were shadowed overhead. Something huge in size flew past the high canopy. It circled the space over me before taking an abrupt downward dive. First, all I saw was its humongous dark brown wings, snapping the branches of the trees on its way down. The t'imibiriti screeched in fear in one moment, and took a flight in the next.

It was so sudden that I didn't have time to grasp what was happening. I sat there, staring at the beast as it landed on the ground in front of me, wishing the earth to open up and let me in. I wanted to scream, but couldn't. Panic was heavy in my chest. I clenched my fingers. They had gone cold, made a fist and sucked in a sharp breath.

The Bird Beast padded towards me. Sparing a glance at the broken orb, it cocked its bird face at me. No thought about its form crossed my mind--just a sensation of an old fear felt revoked, and a familiar pang of pain and burn rose in my chest.

The beast half-circled me, surveying my form closely. I couldn't sense it. It was as if it left no trace of its presence. All I saw was a giant bird... mostly an eagle... teal head, dark-brown wings and talons of its front feet and a tawny body, a tail, and hind legs of a lion. However, it felt very familiar.

"I see you've woken up," said the beast in a strident male voice.

I gulped.

The beast stopped treading around me. It bent down to one of its brawny legs and picked on a string.

When the string came undone, it tossed it towards me. "You'll need it," it said, more like ordered.

I stood up reluctantly, fully aware of its watchful gaze. I didn't know if I was deluded by fear, but I could really see warmth in its round bulging grey eyes, and maybe some despair too. When I hesitated to move any further. It sat down on it hind legs as if to ease my fear. I stepped forward and retrieved the string from the ground. It was a plain blue colored string with a wooden funnel attached one end.

The beast scanned the trees around. "Has it occurred to you as what place is this?"

I shook my head. "No..." calling it beast would be a bad idea. So I settled for less crude word-Big-Bird Mister. "...Tilik'i - Wefi, Imīwi"

The beast threw its head back and laughed--loud and light-hearted.

"It's called Idanwe."

As soon as I heard it, I realised that it had something to do with magik. Yes, the mystical woods of Idanwe. It carried magik within it. Something inside me urged to find the magik, to get hold of it and drink it. I probed around to find a trace of the ethereal powers. But stopped when it dawned that the magik was indeed in its invisible, imperceptible form. It was silly to think that I could drink it.

The beast stood up, his manner was grave and intimidating. "You'll have a long stay here, Ijji, and you'll learn new things to keep yourself occupied," he said, now more interested in the surrounding than me.

He seemed to be sniffing the air through his indiscernible nose. "It can become lonely. Times can be despairing and on occasions, dangerous as well. But you shall endure it all... you shall live here for as long as it takes, for it is the only way that you shall survive."

I bobbed my head in agreement. Survive. I needed to survive. The ultimate aim of every form in this world was to continue to survive.

"I will."

No matter what it takes.

t͟s'ehāyi-The Sun

t'imibiriti-vultures

Ijji-child

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-CEYONE