The Spirit of Humanity

The walk across the desert was... tense. We had to spend most of our time in full alert, ready to run and let the warriors take on the monsters at a safe distance, spending almost half the night awake in fear of an attack.

Everything went fine in the end, thank the First Ancestor, and we came upon the sight of the walls of the village in the first sacred hours of the lighttime. It was a strange thing to behold, for it was not of the nightdark colour of the buildings in Khonsu, but of a dirty yellow, appearing to simply be roughly cut stone.

My parents told me that such a colour was seen before the settling of our people, but I don't remember this from memory due to being born only three cycles before. Regardless, our presence was quickly noticed by what we assumed to be guards and shortly after a small group left the city and began to approach us.

I know mother said to never trust the demons by their masks, but it was clear these people were suffering. Most of the group seemed to not have eaten in days and their clothes were breaking at their weaves, with the only ones looking healthy and clean being the clearly protected leaders in the center.

Their procession stopped a bit of a distance away from our group, rougly 30 walks, and what seemed to be their leader came to the front.

"Welcome travelers, I am Ammon, son of Aki and Lanee and servant of our Good leader, Khalfan. I see your group has managed to brave through the beasts that roam nearby, having come from the direction where the sun does not smile. May I ask of your business in our faithful village of Amun?" He said, thankfully in a language similar to ours but with some small variations.

I stepped forward, having been chosen by our Good leader, the Great Spirit of Man, to be the one in charge of diplomatic matters.

"Swell greetings Ammon, I am Moya, daughter of Mosu and Naiil and elder of crafts under our Good leader, Omari. We had seen the walls of your village in a previous expedition and our leader was excited to meet another village so close by. We have come under diplomatic intentions from our own village, Khonsu, to visit yours and estabilish friendly connections." I say, trying to make our intentions as clear as possible to avoid misunderstandings.

Thankfully, it seems that the other side also did no want any problems and a friendly conversation was quickly formed between both groups. We were also invited into the village shortly after, a very good thing for our heat-addled heads and feet. However, the instant we entered through the gate I noticed that something rather serious had happened to the city recently.

There were several people laying on the side of the dirt road we traveled upon, looking even more famished than the ones in the group and looking to be begging for food. Several of them also seemed to be very sick, such that not even a river witch's brew may cure them. Seeing this, I had the mind to ask of it to the leader of these people, one that we were going to visit shortly.

Interestingly, in our short walk from the wall to a large stone building near the center of the village, I was able to notice that their population seemed to be much higher than ours, rougly 3 or 4 of them for every one of ours.

When we finally reached the building, however, we came upon a sight the Great Spirit had told us about, but that we were not expecting. It seems news of our arrival had reached the leader of this village and he had prepared a ...ceremony to receive us. The leader, Khalfan was his name, was surrounded by fierce looking guards and some of the best looking people I had seen in the village so far, perhaps in an attempt to entice of intimidate us?

"Welcome visitors, to this Great city of mine! I am Khalfan, son of those unworthy to be mentioned in my name and Great leader of the people you see around. I have heard of your intentions from the servant who greeted you and I am first delighted to hear that those from villages wish to create good bonds with us, just as the First Ancestor wished for. I then only wish to know if your friendly intentions for me and my people are true or not, for not many fortunate things have happened to us recently." He says and I have trouble distinguishing if his arrogance is genuine or an act for our group.

"Swell greetings Good leader Khalfan. As we have said before, we have come here on behalf of our Good leader Omari to expand only on our most good intentions. Our leader has also been having sensations of this place, having not seen but rather felt that something dark had clouded the Sacred Light from our All Mother from shining upon this village for some cycles now. He is hurt by the hurt of fellow brothers and sisters, wishing to extend all he can do to stop it. Was this sufficient to clear our intentions Good leader Khalfan?" I say and a hushed silence falls upon the crowd that had gathered around our meeting party, especially around the part where our leader felt their suffering.

Their leader also seemed stunned, spending several seconds digesting what was said before showing a dissapointed expression on his face, though I could tell it was not directed at our group.

"I have heard your words as clear as the river's water Elder of Crafts Moya, and I greatly appreciate your words and intentions. We are thankful to receive any help after the light-clouded cycles we've had and, as the First Ancestor said, "As like the bird that is fed with help of others, we too shall receive assistance in our darkest times and thank the ones that do so, for they feed us not with food, but with life itself". I will unfortunately not be able to tell you much more about our situation as it seems I have some ...internal problems to solve, but please speak with my helper Ammon for all you need to know. We shall speak more later and I am truly grateful for your help." He said and quickly walked away into the stone building, all his arrogance left behind.

(Continued in Part 2)

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Sorry guys, I've been busy these days and I've only managed to finish half of this Sidestory for now, but I didn't want to leave you with nothing. I will try to release the next part sometime early tomorrow, but I'll have to see.

After such a strange turn of events, our group was rightfully confused about what was happening in this village to warrant such initial hostility and subsequent change in attitude. I decided to look for the oldest member of our party for advise in this situation, Elder of People Dokai. He was an elder even before our current leader, the Great Spirit, took rule.

"Like the First Ancestor said, 'Do not worry of an approaching shadow without seeing it's wounded legs'. Let us wait and receive an explanation before forming conclusion." He said, answering my unspoken question and calming the rest of the group.

Shortly after, we were approached by the same man the greeted us outside the city and that now asked for us to follow him.

"Our people have passed by many trials recently, so I apologize with all my soul for what had happened, for we are afraid of more demons coming for us." He said, looking away from us.

"Seven cycles ago, we were attacked by a large amount of the Beasts, locking our people inside the walls for months. Many starved during these times and the ones that lived were weak and afflicted by demons. When the Beasts finally left we thought the disaster was over, but shortly after the waters of the Great River became cloudy and dark, like the blood of desert witches as described by the First Ancestor, but even still many dared to drink of it. Those that survived are the sickly ones you see in the street, the ones that didn't..." He continued, looking at the almost dead people sitting on the sides of the road.

"The times have continued like this for years and only recently have we returned to returned the Sacred Light of All Mother. Even still, we are still lacking in food, water, warriors, workers and much more. I know we may not have created the best first intentions, but I ask that, if your intention are truly good, please help us, not for me or for my leader, but for these dying people you see around us." He concluded, finally looking directly at us.

I took a moment to think about this. This final speech of his seemed to be truly honest in his desire, for I could see the sadness in his eyes when looking at the suffering people around us. I had the desire to help, alongside all the rest of our group, but I still had a question in mind.

"I understand your words Ammon, and we truly wish to help you, but I still have to ask for the reason of such strange behaviour by your Good leader, for even if you thought us to be demons in disguise like some of the monsters in tales, wouldn't it be better to have us think we were accepted before trying to reveal our nature?" I said, trying to understand the reason behind this decision. At my question however, Ammon seemed to become nervous, looking around us to see if there was listening to our talk.

"I have been instructed not to tell of this to anyone else, but I believe this will be necessary for you to understand what is happening. A few cycles ago, one of our people left the village in desperation, seeming to wish for death either by the desert's cruel grasp or by the hateful maws of Monsters, only to return a few days later, when many thought him to be already dead, claiming to have stumbled upon a strange plant that, when eaten, showed him visions of the future. He had apparently used this strange plant to avoid all dangers when returning to the city." He said, lowering his voice so that only our group could hear.

"He died a few days after, with no one being able to discover why. Some elders of the city then apparently heard of this story and claimed that only those chosen by to be the workers of the All Mother could use this miraculous plant without worry, confiscating all of the plant the man had brought back and sending expeditions to try to find where they came from. It seems that they were never able to find it, however, so they are limited to the amount they currently have. Using this plant, these elders have been able to rise their position in the city becoming the close advisors of our Good leader and influencing many of his decision. It seems that, some days ago, one of them had a vision that the cause of all the disaster our people had suffered would visit us, disguised as mere mortals, but that questioning them would easily reveal their true nature." He finished, shocking me and the others that such plant could exist outside of tales.

We at least finally had a reason for their leaders strange behaviour, but there is still much to be thought of this matter. Thankfully, nothing more happened and we spent the next two days living as guests in the Amun, learning of them, their history and the help they need. We eventually left towards Khonsu after a small ceremony of farewells, eager to reach our homes and report all that we had heard.

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I hope you guys liked this chapter! It was very interesting for me to try to write any kind of dialogue between characters, alongside having to create names and traditions for their speech. If you liked it, I will try to include other Sidestories such as this one in the future!