A smile came to Vanem's aged face under his mask as he approached the settlement he had come to call home. The march of days had become months, and then finally years, and now it seemed he knew no other place that held such fond memories. Despite having been a bit out of touch with his friends lately, mostly due to his own increasing penchant for travel despite his advanced years, he still found home to be a welcome sight.
And after the excitement of his latest trip, he was looking forward to the quiet atmosphere of the tiny settlement, where nothing seemed to go at any more than a snail's pace.
Thus as he approached, he was quite astonished to see that the entire settlement was abuzz with activity. Vanem frowned slightly. Had he gotten the schedule wrong again for when the merchants visited the town? He was sure that the bazaar was not for another moon cycle.
"I do hope nothing dreadful as happened," said Vanem as he picked up the pace, his cloak swirling about his feet.
Yet nothing was at all apprehensive about the townsfolk who had gathered along its only thoroughfare. If anything, there was a sense of celebration in the air. In the absence of the merchants, that could mean only one thing: some very interesting tales had come this way.
The settlement was so small and out of the way that any sort of news from the rest of the world was enough to cause a bit of a stir. Vanem sighed but smiled softly. Often many of the tales were rather wild, having been well-distorted before reaching the ears of the townsfolk. Yet Vanem consistently relied on such stories to further his research, and he often found that such things had a kernel of truth to them. Unfortunately, the townsfolk did not do such research, content to rely on the strength of the telling of the story rather than the strength of the truth behind it.
"Ah, Vanem!" cried a townsfolk as he approached. "Good that you are here. If anyone should hear such a tale, it's one of the town elders."
Vanem had once tried strenuously to dissuade the town from giving him such a title, but since then he had given up that battle and accepted the honorary title with as much grace as he could muster. "And what story would this be, my good friend?" asked Vanem.
"Why, about the sighting of another Spirit of the Flow! It's the most amazing thing I have ever heard!"
Vanem was given pause. He knew of only one Spirit of the Flow (or more colloquially "flow creature"), and that was along the Journey itself. He always thought it to be a physical entity despite is somewhat ethereal nature, found only when the Tower was filled with its strange liquefied energy.
He recalled his good friend Thunder being interested in it, but where it was located in such a confined space, she had feared harming it or damaging the Tower. "Please, good sir," said Vanem. "Tell me all that you know ..."
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Once again, Vanem found himself on the road towards parts unknown. Normally he would not simply turn right around after having just come back from a trip to head right on out again, but his curiosity had been piqued. Too many details of the story remained consistent in the retelling, despite some of the more lurid elements, such as the creature glowing blue. He had not recalled the creature in the Tower ever appearing in such a manner, thus he was ready to eliminate that detail as a possible embellishment.
He climbed a large sand dune and shielded his eyes from the sun with his hand as he spied his destination: a cave that he had not known about. It did not appear on any of the maps he had so laboriously drawn.
He smiled. He loved how this world still held secrets despite how much he explored it.
Several cloth dolphins chirped and spun playfully around him, his cloak glowing at their touch and imparting much needed energy. "Thank you, my friends," he called out to them in their own chirping language before sliding down the lee side of the dune. "Now, as much as you're curious as well, please remain at the entrance of the cave just to be safe."
The dolphins chirped a reluctant agreement at him.
Vanem sometimes found ancient equipment in such places, and sometimes a dormant war machine. Having the dolphins too close would just make them a target, and that's the last thing he wanted. He paused at the mouth of the cave, listening intently with his better ear for any sign of working machinery. A cool breeze was the only thing he found, and he removed his mask so that he might take advantage of it after having traveled in the hot sun for so long.
Vanem eased inside, lighting his lantern when the outside sunlight would no longer reach. He paused again as he heard his own footsteps echo and listened again, this time for the noises he remembered that the flow creature of the Tower made. All he heard was a gentle rustling.
"Very odd," Vanem murmured as he ventured further.
Vanem headed towards the rustling noise, and as he came around the bend in a passage, he saw several cloth creatures waving contently like seaweed under water. Vanem felt an affinity for them at once, remembering how these simple life forms could be such a boon to inexperienced Wayfarers. Yet as he approached the thick of this community of creatures, his eyes widened as he beheld a sight he had never seen in his life.
Nestled in the center of the thickest tangle of cloth seaweed was a large white, slightly misshapen orb. Vanem lowered the light from his lantern and found that the object glowed faintly. He took another tentative step towards it. The closest thing he could think of as to what he was seeing was a large cocoon.
"Kvailas," said Vanem in a hushed voice. "Have you ever seen the likes of this?"
His ancestor replied after a pause. <I know of nothing like this, Vanem, but then again, this world has surprised me before.>
Vanem had not recalled anything at all like this in his study of any document he had come across in his travels. Even the Ancient Texts that Thunder had given him held nothing at all like this in their pages.
With that, he had an idea.
Vanem headed away, carefully retracing his steps so he would remember how to get back to the chamber. As soon as he reached the entrance, he summoned one of the cloth dolphins to him.
"I have need of you," said Vanem as he extracted a parchment and pen. "You must deliver a message for me to Thunder at once. She will want to know about this ..."
(( Just a brief note that I’m not sure how many posts I will be making in this RP, I’m mainly helping to get the ball rolling. :) You can follow this RP on thunder-the-bookwyrm and VicZar’s blogs ))
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