Part V

(Solais)

“Shuute has never gone savage before, at least, not like that.” Father quietly discusses the incident with some of the highly skilled guards and I. The village elders also thought it would be good for them to attend this meeting.

“Do you think this has happened with other Yugri in the past?” I ask Lord Thir, one of the elders.

The wise old man streaks his hand over his long and grey beard before he answers with his used-up-raggedy-voice. “I’ve heard of Yugri abandoning their duty of protecting the village, not sure how Solai dealt with them… But I don’t recall anything with losing control of themselves… Mmmm, I have to look through the temple scrolls again… In the mean time you really should let Shuute sleep up there as well… That reminds me, why did Shuute offer to sleep in your tent instead of just going to Solai’s temple?”

Everyone pauses and contemplates over his notion.

Father is the first ne to speak and break the silence, “This is an important matter, but we must also consider what happened with Mimi.”

One of the guards steps forward. “We searched through her family’s tent and found her parents torn to pieces. We think the fuune must have somehow snuck in and killed the whole family.”

“So does that mean fuune can wear the skin of humans now?” I say as fear begins to creep in.

Everyone looks to father for guidance.

He just takes in a deep breath with his eyes closed while his arms are crossed and takes another long pause. “Perhaps… This is a question for the gods…”

“Well then we just step back from the situation until the gods answer us while we continue to study past problems in the village.” Lord Thir replies with his wisdom. Another silence fills the room before more words come from his mouth, “Now then, let’s go back to the situation with poor little Mimi. If, and I only mean by if, the fuune are evolving into the ability to wear our own hide, then we must consider how this took place with the little girl herself.”

Father rubs his dark blue mohawk back a few times. “If we had Shuute to continue his night raids then we would find out since he’s the only one who can sense them… But for now we can only speculate with what we have… As far as we know, the fuune could have snuck in like a shadow.”

“That has happened before,” Lord Thir replies, “That’s what happened when Uriu left us that coward, we had to wait about ten years for our ultimate god Solai to create Shuute for us. Mmmm yes, I remember this full well. It’s not easy to whip up a Yugri I would imagine, my old papa told me stories of their power himself, mmmm…”

“Thank you Lord Thir, your insight is much appreciated.” My Father says.

We all bow to him in respect.

------------

Father decided it would be best if I helped Lord Thir read through the scrolls in the temple of Solai. We sit in the light of the torches and skim through as many as we can before nightfall. It’s still only the morning, but we need to find answers soon. I can hear the sounds of the monks chanting their prayers to Solai as we study for any clues.

“Shuute has only been acting like this since you came back from the caves; is that correct?” Lord Thir speaks his mind to make a conversation.

I lift my eyes from the scroll out of respect and answer him. “Yes, well…”

He raises one side of his harry uni-brow out of curiosity. “Yes child?”

“Well… It’s more like he started to be different when he found me within the chambers. He says that he only needs some rest…”

Lord Thir licks his dry chaps and replies hesitantly, “I see… only rest… Then let him have rest.” He scooches closer to me for grasp of attention and raises his index finger up to show importance. “But let him have rest in the temple. It is the one place he is closest to Solai until she calls him back.

I heed his word. “Yes Lord Thir, I’ll make sure he goes to the temple tonight and sleeps here.”

His signature smile gets buried underneath his massive grey beard. “Good… Now then, let us get back to our study.”

--------------------------

Araius and Kranos peek over the horizon as Solai prepares for her momentary slumber.

I'm able to head for my tent just in time and walk in to look for Shuute. "Shuute?" I calmly speak.

"Yes Solias?" He casually attends my call.

"Listen, Lord Thir and I think it would be best if you sleep in the temple until you heal properly."

Shuute hesitates before answering, "I understand, I guess that should have been my thought when we first got back."

He's able to walks himself to the temple and I lie down onto my matt. It's been a while since I've had a good night sleep.

-----------------

Once Araius and Kranos are above in the sky my dream has a full grasp on me. I can feel myself sway back and forth. The ground beneath me is an open blue sky, but this color is darker than the sky above me. There are small white and foamy clouds in this different sky beneath me that form with the swaying of the ground. This looks like a puddle that we occasionally get during the second half of a cycle, but bigger, much bigger...

I peer out ahead above the large ripples. There's a person whose barely visible in the distance. All I can tell is that there's a person ahead of me.

It looks like he’s wrapped in white garments… Is that Shuute?... No, I know that’s not him, that must be someone else; but who?