The banshee were a terrible threat to
the last lone shee. His norns may have been one of the few remaining, for now
they weren't so sure about worlds being so safe.
Then, interestingly enough,
during this time of utter terror and panic, another stone appeared on the
capitilla.
It lay in the hub.
They all crept up to it, fearing it may be a
new trick of the vengeful banshee
but it gave off no tangible auroa of vile
cruelty.
Instead....
It felt very primal....
Like time far beyond even that of the
shee, beyond the lifetime of the ancients
to the very days were the law was
marked in blood, and sweat and all things that could live and die and
breed.
It was a stone from the past.
Was
this a blessing, or a curse?
One brave norn, a chichi youngster, approached the stone and sniffed it.
Smelling the earthy scent, he placed his palm upon it and prompty felt it grow warm and glow bright with greenish fire.
Scrambling back, the norns and the lone shee watched as the norn slowly was envoloped in green light.....and he dissappeared!
This was very vexing for the lone shee was already worried he may never see this norn again!
Poor little thing...that stone seems like a marker to some vicious place in the warp!
But suddenly, the stone glowed again and the little norn was back!
He stared at all the others with a wide
look on his face but couldn't speak. He only pointed at the stone and uttered
nonsenseble babbling...
The shee was intrigued, his troubles temporarily
forgotten in this new endevouring object.He walked up to it, and ordering his
norns to stay back, placed his hand on the stone....
A feeling like rushing blood pounded in his head...
He felt more alive than
anything!
He felt the very heartbeat of the capitilla, the shee ark, and of each norn...
And suddenly, it all warmed him over,
and he was settled on a dirt floor...
His vision cleared of a greenish haze
and he looked up, astounded at what he saw.
There, before him, was a earthen chamber, reaching beyond his eys in the gloom.
It was huge, and had statues affixed to
the walls of each floor,
but his attention was drawn to the seventh statue in
the dark, the largest of them all...
Undoubtably female, it was a
beautifully crafted structure, holding up the many floors of the room.
The
lone shee thought it was almost lifelike, and the only thing that made it known
it was a statue was it didn't breathe.
But then, he felt a rush of air, and there was a light greenish glow from behind him...
His norns had bravely followed him!
Heart swelling with pride, he turned to
watch them look about in amazement, taking in this vast room...and then he heard
a voice.
It pushed into his thoughts like liquid steel, being both melodious,
and sweet.
The Shee looked for the source, and saw the statue looking at him, eyes closed.
It said:
Welcome, travelers.
Not many come
deeply into this realm.
You are the first I've seen that dwell from the
outside of this place...
The Shee shook his head and ached to ask a question..but his head felt full of lead....the statue looked at him..and he heard but one word:
Ask.
"Where are we? What place is this?" cried the Lone Shee.
Ah...responded the statue.
This place...isn't found.
It is never sought out.
It is never ventured into.
Without an invitation, you never get in, never get out.
Welcome...to Bug's Lair.
Shee: What? Bug? Who is this you speak of?
Statue: My name is Fionnula, and I am his daughter, carved from his bones. He is the embodiment of life, the symbol of earth.
His life is linked to all living things, so he lives in everything.
And this realm, this is his world.
No one can get in unless he wishes it so and no one can get out if he doesn't want them to leave.
Shee: Does that mean we are stuck here?
Fionnula: They chase you, I know of who you came from.
Bug has told me to watch for you, little shee.
And know you are welcome to stay in this room of mine, as long as you wish...
Shee: The banshee will come for me and the norns here!
Fionnula: If anyone can seal
themselves away from the world, and stay here forever, watching the world go by,
it is in this realm, the place of Bug's realm, to do so.
You don't seem to
fully understand, so let me show you...." to which the giant statue tilted her
head and faced the lone Shee.
The lone shee felt his eyes driven to look at this strange statue's eyelids...
And then, she opened them..
Pain...
Anguish..
Then life bloomed...
He felt it rumble through his mind...
His spirirt felt like it was flowing along a river.....a torrent of heartbeats, a saga of lifecycles...
He saw the lands above Bug's realm, filled with vibrant hills, and lush trees....
He saw the deep ocean, filled with every imaginable shape and form....
He saw things he never knew could exsist (and for a shee, that's pretty odd.)
He suddenly fell back as the statue closed her luminescent eyes...
He felt drained, so insignifigant.
But in that short moment he saw what she must have wanted him to see...
He saw the banshee, swarming on a ark. He saw them, looking at a strange portal that denied all access. It seemed to be a one way.
Fionnula: These are what he using
to send them a message and let them know
that they, by threatening a creature
he admired for it's strange bumbling ingeniuty,
have made a terrible
mistake.
The Lone Shee then saw one vision, and it matched the statues before him....
He turned, and saw in the swirling nexus of a one way portal, a vision of snapping jaws and swirling fins, of claws and teeth reddened with blood, of a primal roar coming from the throat of different creatures so fierce it pained him to see them rend banshees to shreds.....
Fionnula: They are restoring a
balance that has grown too akward.
In everything, there is a balance. So, now the board has been cleared up a bit."
The Lone Shee saw the balance of things, a miasmia of Life.....
Death, Life...
All interwoven...
It was the reason all of them lived...
To live...it was the whole purpose.
The Lone Shee's head ached....he wanted to lay down and rest for a thousand years...But the vision had one last thing in store for him...
He saw, in a small, kind of hopeful way, where the now empty ark, with it's small futures of safe eggs stored away inside, without anyone to guide it, heading towards a blue globe...
Gasping,he looked, seeing the banshees
had once again dissappeared into oblivion
with no trace of them on board his
capitilla...or on the ark.
He saw the world his race had set out to find...
...And his last memory before he had blacked out was that of a sharp toothed animal grinning and whacking him over the head with a big bone.
..He awoke...
The floors of the capitilla had norns
snoozing on it..his norns!
Tears of happiness swept over the lone shee and he
hugged them, then went to have a nice long rest on his bed...
Meanwhile...
Deep underground, in a land where
the beasts are free and go about their lives as they have for
generations.
Unendingly living and dying, in a vast inconceivable cycle, a statue looked towards the figure seated on her shoulder...
He grinned at her...
And she grinned
at him....
....Then...darkness........
