Chapter 8
"What is that thing?" Jalya's voice shook, her previous fiery exuberance sizzling down to a dying ember. I gazed straight ahead, unable to speak. Any fears that I did have about going into the woodlands were always dominated by thoughts of the woodland clans or other evil wanderers that could kill me, curse me or steal me from my home.
What lay in front of us, however, not ten feet up the rocky passage, was nothing like anything I would have imagined. It was a body that appeared to be passed out or sleeping, much like us in shape, but small like a child. It wore no clothing and had no hair, only smooth, unbelievably pale skin. Its incredible whiteness was, in fact, the most disturbing thing about the small figure. It may have been only the moonlight playing tricks on my eyes, but I was certain that this small being was actually glowing.
Jalya looked at me, mystified. "A sun seeker," she concluded, though she sounded like she didn't quite believe her own statement.
"Come on, Jalya, there's no such thing. It's probably just a really pale kid. Sick maybe."
"Look at it, Emerin. It's not pale; it's glowing."
I stared at its flawless white skin, more than white; it was almost transparent. It cast a strange green luminosity over the ground on which it lay.
"It must be alive," I stammered, "to be glowing.....wouldn't you think?"
"I guess so." She looked at me. "We should help it."
"I don't know. Do you think it's dangerous?"
"I doubt it. I mean, you've heard the stories. Sun seekers are nice and peaceful. That's how the elders describe them....and the teachers. They're the guardians of the valley. They want to protect us, not hurt us."
"Yes, that's how the story goes, but that's what it is. A story. The elders and teachers also said that sun seekers aren't real, just a legend."
"But look at it. What else could it be?"
She had me there. It certainly fit the description of the mythical creatures in our books. But the sun seekers, or Lumeai as they were officially called, were characters from fairy tales. They lived in little communities on the mountaintops, away from the trees and closer to the sun. They absorbed the sun's rays for energy and this is what caused their distinctive phosphorescence. They were magical and all powerful when they were atop their mountain, but if they left their home and traveled down into the trees, they would become weak and vulnerable and eventually die. Our valley had been named after them, Valley of the Lumeai, and from their elevated homes, they watched over us, protecting us from harm.
But these were tales that we were told as children, stories that were intended to make us feel more secure, particularly after we'd had an emergency call. I remembered many times, in sanctuary, they would round up the kids, and tell us stories about the sun seekers and how nothing truly bad could be happening while they surrounded us on their mountain tops. However, as we grew older, we understood that these were just the elder's tall tales. Though the form in front of us told a different story and I felt like a kid again, believing in magical beings. If it was a Lumeai, we did need to help it. It couldn't survive down here for very long.
"Okay, let's take a look at it," I said, and, after a brief hesitation, stepped forward. We inched our way across the flat rock, fearing that any noise we made might startle it, and then what would it do? As we got closer, its radiance became more pronounced and it was obvious that it was not a child, not even a pale, sickly one.
I marveled at its skin. It was so smooth, so perfect, not white at all, but rather a translucent casing for a soft white luminescence. It was completely hairless, and, though its form was white, it was surrounded by a greenish glow. It was so beautiful that I longed to touch it, to rub my hands on the polished orb of its head, to dig my fingers into the supple skin of its arms to see if it felt like mine.
"Let's roll it over," I said, my hands outstretched before I could finish the sentence. "So we can see it better, see if it's okay."
"Be careful," Jalya urged.
My fear had left me now, and I had no reservations about reaching out and touching this strange creature. Its skin was soft, yet firm at the same time. Gently, I rolled it over onto its back, so I could look into its face. It had the size and facial features of a young child, yet its expression conveyed a wisdom that would only be known by an elder. It was a strange mix of innocence and insight that captivated me as I stroked its cheek. I stared into its face, wondering if it would wake under my touch.
"Well," Jalya prompted, "do you think it's alive?"
"I can't tell....its skin's so cold." I put my hand to its chest. "I don't feel any heartbeat; do you think it has a heart? No breathing either. I don't know how these things are supposed to behave." I shrugged my shoulders and gave Jalya a perplexed look. "What do you think? Should we take it back up the mountain?"
"We don't even know if that's where it came from."
"Well, if it is a sun seeker, it must have come from the top of the mountain, right? We can't just leave it here to die."
Jalya's face was tense. She thought for a moment before stepping forward. "Okay....but this here is an exalted spiritual being. We have to stop calling it an 'it'."
"What do you want to call it then? I don't know what it is."
"There has to be a way to tell if it’s a boy or girl. Check out its parts."
I looked down. "It doesn't have any parts!" My eyes scanned every inch of the glowing creature. Its skin was perfect; it had long, slender fingers and toes, yet no fingernails or toenails. No nipples or bellybutton either. And absolutely nothing to give any indication of its gender.
Jalya moved closer and studied the small body. "Hmmm, strange." She felt its unusual skin, equally entranced. "Well, I'm going with boy. It has no nipples; how's it gonna feed its babies?"
"They live on sunlight, Jalya,” I reasoned. “If they even have babies, they probably don't need to feed them." I lifted the head and shoulders to assess how heavy our cargo would be. "Seems pretty light. We could take turns carrying it...I mean him."
I turned to observe the tiny, perfect face. Huge eyelids covered what I assumed were extremely large eyes, yet there were no eyebrows and no eyelashes that I could see. It had a small bump for a nose, yet oddly, no nostrils, only small indentations where nostrils should have been. Slightly beneath, there was an opening, which seemed to serve as a mouth, but no color in its lips. I shook the body gently.
"Hello," I said softly. "Can you hear me?" The creature emitted no sound, but turned its head from side to side, revealing tiny ears. The shock of its movement almost caused me to drop it from my arms. It was alive.
"Okay, let's get you home," I crooned gently and picked it up as if it were a sleeping child, resting its head on my shoulder and supporting its bottom with my arms. If I ignored the strangely cold flesh, I could almost pretend I was carrying around one of my little cousins.
"Lead the way, Jalya. I'm gonna need you to scout out ahead and warn me of any dangers before I step on them."
"Got it," Jalya chirped. She was already far ahead, scurrying across the rocks. If I didn't think that we could make it to the top before, I sure figured that we didn't have a chance now. Every step up would be that much more difficult with the extra weight, which I estimated at between thirty and forty pounds. But for all the inconvenience of carrying such a burden, there was an unexpected benefit.
The moment that I picked up the sun seeker, possibly the very moment its head lay down on my shoulder, the pain that had been throbbing behind my left eye suddenly disappeared. The tension that had been leaving knots in my neck and shoulders loosened and my muscles relaxed, making me feel carefree and happy. My energy increased substantially, and I was able to keep up with Jalya easily despite my heavy load. And even though its body was cool, I felt an incredible warm comfort wash over me as I basked in its green aura, a feeling that intensified the further we went up the mountain. Maybe the little critter really was magical.
We walked for what seemed like hours, through
grass, across rocks, around tiny shrubs and eventually stumbled upon a well-worn path. It twisted and curved through the trees and brush, but it looked like it might eventually lead to the summit. We took turns carrying the sun seeker, which wasn't a burden to either of us, since holding him close seemed to make us feel lighter. In fact, climbing was somehow harder when I was carrying nothing at all. And my headache never returned. Better than facion bark. I wished that I could take him home with me.
Home. I didn't even know where that was anymore. I came to the decision on that long walk up that I couldn't go to live with Jalya and Ashel. While the men were typically afraid of the woodlands and generally didn't set foot on the other side of the river, I could not be sure that they wouldn't. Or if they didn't want to go themselves they could send someone else out looking for me; David the Nebril, for example. Now that I knew that they wanted me in Lock Up, who knew how badly they would want to get me there. I still didn't understand it, but I feared that they wouldn't just let me go quietly. And if that were the case, I would be endangering Jalya and Ashel by being there, not to mention myself. No, it was for the best if I put as much distance between me and the village as possible. I just wasn't sure how Jalya would take it; she wouldn't want to see me go off on my own, and neither would Ashel. I wondered if maybe they would want to go with me.
My racing brain shut off when the sun seeker began to whimper next to my ear. He moaned and tossed his head back and forth, before nuzzling his face into my neck. He didn't wake up, however, so we just kept walking. And that's when I noticed it. Ahead of us was a faint green glow that appeared to stretch across the sky. Were there more of them up there?
"I think that we must be getting close," Jalya said, staring awestruck at the brilliance. "Good thing too. I'm exhausted!"
"Oh, here," I said and transferred the sun seeker to her grateful arms. "Your turn. He'll help get you to the top."
"Oh, thank you, thank you," she gushed, cuddling the little body against her own. It seemed strange how comfortable we were with this small creature, who was completely foreign to us. He babbled something incoherently as he settled his head on Jalya's shoulder. She smiled and continued the upward trek, a little lighter and more energetic than before.
We rounded a bend in the pathway and I saw that the end was near. The path widened into a rocky gulch with loose stones that rolled under our feet, making walking trickier. But I was motivated by the glow that I saw before me. It stretched out across the heavens, lighting up the pathway and bathing us in its warmth. It pulled me forward in an almost hypnotic way. When I looked over at Jalya to see if it was having the same effect on her, I noticed that she was no longer beside me. She and the sun seeker were far ahead, very close to the top, the green brilliance draping her body so that I could barely see her form.
I tried to pick up the pace to catch up, but I could not go any faster. In fact, it was nearly impossible to go on at all. I considered sitting down for another rest, but I feared letting Jalya out of my sight. Who knew what would happen when she walked into that green radiance with the unconscious creature in her arms. I plodded along, wheezing, making the monumental effort to pull each leg forward. Every step ached and my chest hurt, but I had to keep going. I could no longer even see Jalya.
When I finally stopped climbing and stepped onto the flat ground of the summit, my legs gave out and I fell against a large rock. Breathing heavily, I looked around me and into the eyes of dozens of sun seekers: large, brilliant, violet eyes that widened perceptively when they saw me. Jalya was standing amongst them, watching them tend to the injured one that she had brought to them. But each of them stopped what they were doing when they saw me, and turned to stare with what looked like astonishment. There were audible gasps and an excited murmur rippled through the group.
One of the glowing beings walked toward me, almost floating on its spindly legs. "Oh, my," it said in a raspy whisper, a smile covering its porcelain face. "Look at her....look at her!" Its voice raised in excitement, as it turned around and addressed the others. "Do you see it? We've found one." It laughed as the others approached, romping toward me in giddy jubilation. "I don't believe it. We've finally found another!"