Wajas | News Post

Part 1: Patience Wearing Thin
The Grand Admiral	September 6, 2022 9:08 am

It had turned very warm in the later weeks of summer. High overhead the glow of the midday sun turned the cloudless blue sky pale with its radiance. Those young and old who would normally spend these hours at play or work had instead retreated into the cool of dens or the shade of the trees still standing defiantly green and lush of leaf—save perhaps those wajas who thrived in the warmth of the sun. But this was typical of summer in Lunaria. It was slowly nearing the time of cooler days, colder nights, and the bright reds and golds of fall. For now, the sun still reigned. But as always, the heat could not pierce the dense canopy of the sacred grove of the Pear Tree. Here, the shadows remained cool and still, the air sweet to the nose, the duff across the ground soft underfoot. The great tree stood as it always did, its leaves glimmering in a spectrum of color, its crop of pears heavy and juicy. Soon Florrie would come to harvest and relieve the overhanging branches of its weighty bounty. For now, though, only one stood in its presence, but the piercing eyes had no time for the great mother tree above. The gaze of the Lady Artemis was focused on the child, the little sapling growing strong in the embrace of its seed-bearer. The little tree she was destined to accompany in honor and glory back to her home. Whose roots would stitch her broken world back together again after the destructive reign of the isopteron hordes. How long had it been since she had planted that blessed seed? It felt like forever. Artemis had thought the deed would be long done by now. This little sapling—well, not quite so little, as it now stood a meter and a half tall and had at long last begun producing the varied hued leaves its mother was famous for instead of the baby greens and yellows—should have been growing in its place in Solarian soil. And yet here it still was, in the place she had planted it. The great lady’s patience was running out. But Artemis could not blame the sapling. It was, in fact, ready, and had been for some time. But the path it needed to take had become treacherous. No longer were the links between the lands capable of being traversed on a whim. That feat, it seemed, had been lost when she had called forth the Arctic wajas into Lunaria, and they in turn had chosen to stay. Basic communication, the passing of news back and forth, still remained, but even that was growing spotty. It was almost as though her world was slipping away from her again. A soft tickle around her left ear made Artemis shake her head, a soft growl escaping as she saw a glint of gold flutter past. The pristine leaf settled on the ground at her feet. Almost without thinking, she leaned down and sniffed it, looking…perhaps looking for that scent that she remembered from…before. She quickly jerked herself back upright again, but already knew the action had been foolish. The leaves of this tree did not carry the scent that had caused her to take the ridiculous actions of her youth that had led to Solaria’s fall. “Is it your will to see me suffer?” she grumbled at the mother tree. “I’m trying to be patient. It’s not working anymore.” “It will be worth it in the end, my friend.” Artemis looked around, giving the new arrival a flat look. She supposed she shouldn’t be surprised at his arrival. “What do you want, Apollo?” she grumbled. “I come here to be alone.” “I frequently visit, you know that,” Apollo replied calmly, weaving his way silently through the trees and stepping into the shaded grove. He sat down next to her, smiling softly at the sapling. “Especially now.” Artemis glanced around. “Why now?” Both watched as another leaf, this one blue, fluttered to the ground to join the gold. There were an unusually large number of leaves, Artemis just realized. “Is nobody gathering them anymore?” “The tree’s bounty does expand from time to time,” Apollo explained, nodding his head up to the surplus of pears weighing on the branches. “In these times, it allows all the chance to gather.” “I…think I remember that, actually. Once, when I was younger.” Silence fell again, but it was a little less tense. More leaves fell, adding to the multi-colored carpet around them. A silver, another gold, several greens, even a rainbow… “You know Fred is trying to rebuild his portal, right?” Artemis snorted. “I heard. But I also know he can’t find a proper power source for it. The feather you gave him for the first one wasn’t stable enough. I vividly remember the results of that.” More to the fact that even years later, wanderers of the Murky Forest were still finding bottles of the Scientist’s old potions scattered from the explosion. “The solution will come.” “You’ve been saying that for years.” Artemis gritted her teeth as Apollo gently set a paw over hers. “The solution will come. For now, rest knowing that your world is no longer suffering. The isopteron menace is well and truly conquered. By you.” Artemis rolled her eyes, pushing herself to her feet. She could hear others approaching now, and by the sharp sniffling barks of sneezes accompanying the footsteps, she didn’t have to look to see that it was Florrie. Why someone so allergic to pears would still take it on themselves to gather pears would never make sense to her. “Apollo, patience isn’t always the answer,” she snapped as she turned away from her sapling. “And I’ve lost my patience before. Your brother can attest to that.” “Calling the Arctics to Lunaria did work, Artemis. The seed came to you in the end.” “Well, there’s nobody else left to call. I want this to be over, Apollo. I want to go home and get to work. I want to…to…” “Fix what you broke?” Apollo smiled gently. “It is long past the time for you to keep blaming yourself, Artemis. You’ve done everything possible to fix it. You’ve restored peace and hope to your world, even if the land itself is still broken. The stars are aligning for you. Your time will come. So let it come. Don’t try to push it along anymore.” He gestured towards the north. “Let’s go visit the scientist’s compound. I think you’ll find some peace from seeing the progress he’s made.” Artemis did not reply, her teeth still clenched. But she did not argue as she started following Apollo back through the trees and out into the steamy afternoon sun. Patience…waiting…fate…time will come. She had heard it so many times before. The platitudes were wearing on her. But…Apollo was right. She could scour all of Lunaria for a so-called power source, even pluck every last feather from her wings for the scientist to experiment with…but all that would do would bring more consternation to her heart. All the things she had done over the years had never just been good. It had always been accompanied by woe. The Arctics into Lunaria…at the loss of the fragile links maintaining communication with her home. The Pear Tree finally giving her the sacred seed…but no way to take its offspring where it needed to go. If there was a way to actually soothe the storm in her heart, Artemis couldn’t see it. It all just led to frustration in the end. And Artemis had never been able to handle frustration well. ****** The heat of the day could not pierce the dark caverns of the Mining Cave. The paths well worn by daily traversing of the visiting minors were cool underfoot, the darkness a relief even to the young, inexperienced eyes of the Divine pup slowly creeping further and further down. He knew full well that pups were not allowed here—it was dangerous, after all, for those without the training to deal with the caverns’ many hazards—but he kept going nevertheless. Something inside him, a tiny voice in his ears, was whispering to him. There was something here to find. Some great discovery that he could bring back to his friends, and not just the innocent wiles of a pup wandering further than he was allowed and seeking escape from the afternoon sun. “Why have I always been afraid of the dark?” he asked himself quietly. “The darkness is nice here. There’s nothing scary. If there was anything scary or really dangerous, there wouldn’t be so many grown-ups coming in here to work.” A soft trickling of noise turned him down a narrow divide in the rock wall. Water was dripping down in a steady stream from a large stalactite, gathering in a shallow pool before trickling away further into the cave through natural cracks and grooves in the rocky floor. The air was wetter here, cooler, and the pup could not help but flop his furry body down and relish in it, stretching out his buds of wings. He thought the water would taste bad, or at least dirty, but it was cool and fresh as he lapped it up from the pool. The crevice was too narrow for most adults to get through, maybe it would be worth bringing his friends here. What a cool place this would be for a secret hideout. It wasn’t even entirely dark, there was some fissures high above that let in trickles of sunlight. The grown-ups wouldn’t allow it, pups weren’t permitted in the caves. But his friends were just as sneaky as he could be. If he led them in one by one, made sure to avoid the times when the path was most often traveled, they could… A soft tap-tap-tap noise echoed from above. The pup looked up just in time to feel something small and hard bounce off his nose and clatter to the ground. He let out a small yelp, but more of surprise than pain. It really hadn’t hurt all that much. But it was enough to make him leap to his feet and hunt down the culprit. He would toss the offending stone down a deep crevice, the first one he could find. That would teach it to fall down and hit… …and then the pup froze. It was a stone, but what a stone! Smooth and rounded, and…and it glimmered! He could see it! The pups eyes went wide as he watched it shimmer in the dim light. The colors on its surface almost seemed to ripple. Suddenly, the thought of a hideout was gone. The cool darkness, the water, even the few adults that he ran by as he grabbed hold of the stone and took off back out of the caves faded from his mind. The startled words of surprised grown-ups never reached him, the demands to know why someone so young was wandering around down here. He was a big pup, but he was still fast, for a pup. And the adults were too busy to really follow him. They seemed satisfied to watch him burst out into the hot afternoon and run off down the road, back towards safer lands, where he belonged. The stone was the discovery he had been brought to find, he just knew it. And he couldn’t wait to show his friends! To be continued....

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