earthly striders

Back at the nocturnal Queendom, Glabitra was learning fast, too fast. She already perfected six of the seven portals, and all that was left, and that she started working on today, was dichodualitarimerginatura.

...

Alan has just reached the graveyard, the air felt heavy, weighing on his chest, and every breath required an effort.

"I can smell death" he said. His DCM abilities did not come back but his spiritual awakening and evolution is extending beyond his magic. The moons started going down, he entered the graveyard, it was eerie, but somehow peaceful, creepy, yet also calm. The graves were not the typical human ones, they stood vertically, a slab of stone that had strider wings coming out of it, also made of stone, the graves were so majestic. Some were double slabbed, it looked like two were stuck together.

"Are.. the diseased bodies above ground in this block?

-yes, they are. We put them, seal the stone, then plant it vertically.

-that's.. really beautiful, and unique, in my place we bury them underground and put some extensions up, but the bodies remain under the ground. Do.. do the bodies decompose?

-that's... the puzzling bit. I don't know, and nobody does, you see, sometimes we open coffins to put a new strider in because we bury close ones together. Sometimes you open a coffin that's been up for a week, and you find nobody in it, absolutely no trace of it, and sometimes you open one that's been up for ten years, and the body is intact as if the strider is still alive. Now, we resorted to burying couples into separately attached coffins, so the 2 slabs are glued together and there's a wing on each side to symbolize their unity, as you can see in some of these coffins.

-not trying to be rude or anything.. but.. how do you reproduce?

-we.. don't know that either. It's part of the mysteries of this side of the island that we don't know: what happens to our spirits after we die, what determines whether a strider stays in their coffin or disappears, how new striders come to existence, how does the barterschzepo weaponry work, and how can we break the curse.

-I'm.. a bit puzzled. How do you get new striders if you don't know how to?

-they spawn on the ledge of the island at random times of the night, which is why it's the first place we check every day, just a baby strider on the ledge and in silence. The frequency is also unknown, it's all unpredictable.

-there has got to be an explanation

-of course, we just don't know it yet. Who knows.. maybe your magic could help"

At that moment Alan realised, that in fact, his magic could help, specifically, Lathinsé, if mastered it would make him able to connect with the spirits of the dead, maybe he'd be able to get answers from a spirit of a strider. But he couldn't do Lathinsé, he could only hope for it to come to him, and he has no idea whether Glabitra has mastered it or not, after all, it's been a little less than a week, she probably hasn't. He never discussed the speed of a Shifter's learning pace with Ecaura.

"The suns are starting to rise, come on, we need to pretend we were asleep

-I'm actually not tired at all, surprisingly, this whole thing was quite engaging. I still have some questions I want to ask

-didn't you hear what I just said? Just pretend you just woke up, you can ask your questions later. "

Then she swept him up like he was nothing but an empty bag, she flew him to where he should've been sleeping and she returned to her place herself. Two hours later they "woke up".

Alan heard a very loud noise coming from down. He went to investigate, just to see the striders sitting on what at first glance looked like elephants.

Tyl flew from outside and picked him up then put him in front of her on an elephant.

After inspecting them a bit more, they weren't really... elephants. First of all, they were huge, fifteen meters tall at the very least, almost triple the length of an earth elephant. They had a big trunk that derived into three ones in the middle, they were purple, and each one had stars on its forehead.

"What.. are those?

-earthly striders, our beloved companions

-are they your pets?

-our what?

-pets, you know.. like, animals you own.

-own?!? We do not own them, how can we own a living creature? That's quite possessive. We don't own them, both of us live together, in harmony.

-how come I didn't see them the two previous days?

-they were recharging, it takes them a while to regenerate and recharge, they usually help in our fights against barterschzepos

-do the barterschzepos have them as well?

-well, no, they used to, but thanks to their neglectful selfish ways, all earthly striders on the men's side went instinct

-can they talk? What do they do?

-no they cannot speak but they can communicate through sounds, feeling and energy. As to what they do, well actually a lot. One, they preserve a lot of water in their huge bodies then use their trunks to shoot water at high pressure to stop and simultaneously put off the fire arrows barterschzepos throw, they can also help with moving heavy stuff or nightly calm walks on the island. The stars in their foreheads signify the years they lived, none have ever passed two hundred and fifty years before, they live more than us, but not forever.

-when they die, do they also get put in coffins like the ones I saw?

-when an earthly strider dies, it perishes, it turns into ash and disappears, leaving no trace behind, with the only thing preserving its existence being the memory we have of it, so no, we do not put them in graves as we have no body to put, however, we do engrave their names on a wall so that none will ever be fully forgotten, we go over all of the names at least once a month.

Well for now, we are not going to do anything with them, we just wanted to welcome them and check their bodies to see how the healing went. If you want to take a ride on one, you may ask for their permission, if they allow you to then go ahead. If not then give them some time, earthly striders are really sweet, if they ever refuse it's for a reason., but for now we'll all be getting off, do you want to come with us or stay with them?

-I'd like to stay here, I'll join you later.

-as you wish. Goodbye."

Alan got down, and at first he was scared the striders would crush him, but they didn't, he went around their legs inspecting, they looked like towers to him, he kept staring at them from below.

"Can I ride you, please?" He asked, thinking they wouldn't even hear him, but they did. One of them got on his knees and put his three trunks on the floor for Alan to get on, then the strider put Alan on his back and started walking around doing its thing, Alan was contemplating in amusement.