Iota

Later work men come to help fix the walls I destroyed. Some kids also come to help pickup the ruined books, and other busted things. There is lots to sort through. Wizzal acts like nothing is happening as he continues working on his experiments.

Shortly after everything gets under way a young boy with light blue skin and green hair comes running through the door. "My Originator sent me to show your granddaughter around." He says as way of introduction.

When he sees me his face turns a little bluer then the rest of his body, and he flashes a bright green glow. At this point I figure I must have a pretty looking Forensin shape. Wizzal looks up from his desk and says, "oh, Lizeli this is Iota(grub.) He will show you around. He is Marda's boy. Be off with you."

I look at him, surprised and thinking, "I should turn them all to cinders." I then think better of it. I do want to interact sense these are the first sentient being I've found and this is the first step. I need more information on the people of this world.

What's more Wizzal maybe of use. I shouldn't displease him yet or ruin his library anymore." I look at Iota and he gives me a huge smile, "Hello I'm Iota. The youngest of five sons of Marda. I'm 12 years old. Nice to meet you. I've also got two older sister, but they aren't very nice. How old are you?" I say nothing and after a few minutes he turns away still smiling and says, "this way."

I follow him through the hole in the wall and out into the small village. He shows me the village there isn't much to see but there is more activity than usual. About 300 people can be seen running around with straw, stone and using the chicken/dinosaurs to help remove debris and rebuild the town. The chicken/dinosaurs are the size of a large horse and look like they can be ridden.

We stop to watch the chicken/dinosaurs help lift a beam onto one of the less damaged houses to rebuild the roof. Iota smiles, looks at the creatures and says, "I wish I could get a Rayback. Then I could train it for the races and go to the village of Azar. It's a lot bigger then our small village of Tarza. I've heard the caves there go on for miles. I'll be old enough to go in two seasons." He turns and runs off saying, "Come on I'll show you my originator Marda's Rayback Tufa."

I follow him to the field and hold my breath as we get near the edge of the village and head into the field that house the Rayback. The flowers smell still make me feel a little sick. Probably cause I am classified as some kind of beast. That's good to know.

The smell can be smelled a good ten feet from the flowers in all directions, and the Rayback stay away from the flowers. It is like a flower fence. Iota runs up to one of the Rayback and says, "This is Tufa and she is pregnant. She should lay an egg in a few days. I'm trying to get my originator to give me the egg as an offering. My deliverance day is in 8 days. I'm gonna be 13 seasons old."

He sighs turns around and leans against the side of the Rayback saying, "My Originator says my older brother Batum is supposed to get a Rayback before I do." He looks at the ground with a look of annoyance on his face. Tufa makes a sound like a cow and walks away making Iota lose his balance and fall on his butt. He looks embarrassed for a minute, rubs his head and laughs.

He jumps up and asks, "How old are you? My guess is 16 or 17." I give him no reaction as he laughs then looks uncomfortable for a minute. He Clears his throat and says, "So I'll show you the garden. Then it will be the caves. That's basically it. Not much here after all."

He runs off and stops about fifty feet from me looking back. A look of surprise spreads across his face as he looks around and doesn't see me. When he does finally see me I'm on the other side of the field past the lines of the smelly flowers. I give a small wave and he runs to catch up.

"How did you do that? Do you use transportation magic?" I just shake my head no. Then say, "It's nothing special shell we go?" He looks at me in surprise then takes off running again. I walk after him but every time he looks around I appear right beside him.

The garden is little more then a field of crystal blue grass tipped with dark blue tuffs. Every five feet there is a small channel that water flows through. The water is a lite brown color instead of the normal green. There are lite brown crystals imbedded in the bottom of the channel. "Those are power crystals we harvest in the caves. They have the elemental power of earth. So the plants grow very well here. We also sell them for things we need in Azar." I look at the crystals and think, "so they are like energy fertilizer how strange."

After that we head to the caves. Iota keeps making it a game of trying to escape me. I appear to just walk behind him when he is looking. Then when he isn't I appear to vanish and am always near his side when he looks around.

The caves are dry and you can reach up touching the roof. As soon as I step into the cave my body starts glowing green just like Iota's does. "How many thousands of years does a group of people have to eat glow worms to start glowing like them?" I think. Iota is one of those kids that never stop running. The caves branch off in all directions and it appears I can always feel which is the closest and safest way to the surface. That's useful to know.

The tunnels stretches out in all directions with wider caves for living quarters on both sides of the place. We stop when we get to a huge outer cave. Black stone tables are set up as many as 200. Huge fires and ovens line one side of the wall.

The place is huge with high ceilings. Smoke covers the roof making it look black as the smoke rises to meet it. There appears to be a shining clear wall between us and the smoke up at the ceiling. Yet the smoke passes through. People sit here and there at the tables talking and some have kids. "How many people are in this village." I ask in surprise of the size of the huge cave. "Hmmm" he says "about 1,500 most of us never even go to the surface. That's one reason why Wizzal is considered so weird." I whistle in surprise. Much to my surprise the whistle comes out sounding more like a long bird chirp then a whistle.

The next place is the Iota caves. Worms cover the walls making the walls have a green glow. I grab one and eat the thing as we pass through the cave. Green glowing women collect the thread in one area. As we watch the thread flows down in long strands each women collects a certain color. As we leave the cave my mind wanders to the worm I just ate. Years ago the very idea would have turned my stomach now I just wonder what ability will I gain from the stupid worm.

He shows me the mushroom cave where huge mushrooms that look like oysters mushrooms cover the walls and the high ceiling. Men and women harvest the mushrooms using knifes as long as my arm to cut through the stems. Iota runs over and grabs a handful of the soft inside pulp from a stem. As I watch his whole fist fits into the spongy stem. A women shoes him away.

The last cave he shows me is the harvesting caves and sorting caves. Crystals of blue, green, brown, yellow, red, silver, and grey. Shine all over the place. They range from lite colors almost white to so dark some look almost black or solid.

Iota smiles, and picks a small solid yellow one up. Passes it to me and says, "each color is found in a different area. They also have different magic elements contained in them. The darker the color the more powerful and valuable. My dad is the best at finding rare elemental crystals."

We head out as he keeps explaining the power crystals and I slide the crystal into my pocket.

There are eight basic stones

Blue(water) - are found in underground water sources.

Green(Nature)- in the jungles and forests under old trees roots.

Brown(earth) - deep in the soil.

Yellow(sun and lightning) - in mountains and certain metal mines.

Red(fire) - Found near lava pools.

Silver(moon) - can only be seen in special dark forests or if lucky at night.

Grey(wind) - found on high mountain peaks or wind plains.

White(snow/ice) - found in high mountain peaks.

Shine(spirit) - A shine stone is all magic including spirit.

"The only people who can find all these stones are the Florensin and elves but they don't count anymore. This village is at a nexus location. With in just a few miles of here you can find locations of all types of stones. We have caves heading to each location. Normally humans would over take such a great location but sense they could be looking at a stone right in front of them and never see it without big bulky and expensive equipment it's not worth it. So they leave it to us and trade for the stuff. Well kinda trade," he says in almost a whisper. "We can see the color's almost like a glow but they see barely any colors at all."

Iota leaves me back at Wizzal's house and runs off back into the caves.