The Ancient of Dunáya Chapter 2: Dress

Others wanted things they ought not, and that was the danger of wishing from the pool.
---Wesley of Dunáya

A woman approached. Kareth knew it was a woman just as she knew the pool was circle and the spider was a spider; it just was. Shining green cloth covered the figure, who held her hands on her hips, smiling. The woman's white hair sat in a tight knot at the top of her head. Her skin was wrinkled and pinkish, and she looked happy. "Ah, you've come at last, child," she said. "Not a moment too late, either, because I'm still here. Stand up, let me look at you."

Kareth stood unsteadily, her bare back tingling as it peeled from the stone. Unlike the woman, she was naked. The visitor changed; her hair became a dark brown and hung to her shoulders, with some green feathers in a band holding it back. Her dress shimmered the color of the darkwoods circling the clearing, a rich, dark brown with warm edging. Wrinkles smoothed from her face, and her nose shrank. Her eyes stayed the same, soft and smiling.

This figure was the shadow that had beat Kareth to the surface.

Kareth found her voice. It grated harshly to her ears and hurt her throat, but she proceeded because that seemed the accepted way to communicate. "You kicked me," she said. "Down there, you got to the surface first." The frustration of that moment flashed, but faded in the sunlight's warmth.

The woman's eyes widened. "Did I? Not many remember what happens down there. I'm... sorry if I hurt you."

"I kicked another one." Kareth studied the pool. She imagined him falling slowly to the depths of the darkness. "I'm really not vicious, though. I don't think. What... is everything? "

The woman tapped her lip. "Remarkable, I've never read of an Ancient remembering anything with detail that happened before Emergence. The first thing I remember is waking up in the grass. I was much different then, I didn't know anything, how to control the elements, or even how to keep myself from changing." She shrugged, then sat in the grass. Kareth sat with her. "The pool is a sort of corridor between Alnon du Ruágah and life. We Ancients get to experience life, and watch over the pool. It is our nature to change, until we know what we want. I don't usually change unless I want to. But you, poor thing, you haven't stayed the same for more than a few breaths since I've been here with you. That won't do once you've gotten far out of this glen. You'll learn to control your changes with hardly a thought soon enough. Go ahead, take a look."

With a gesture from the woman, Kareth crawled to the edge of the pool. Her face reflected on the water, round then angular, smooth then wrinkled then rough. Hair changed from black to red to brown to golden, short to long to straight to curly; her skin shined pale, then earth brown, then green, then tawny. Fur covered her, then disappeared, then stretched into leaves. Her skin tightened, turned to tree bark, then smoothed to the velvet of a lavender petal. The changes came with every breath and she felt like she would fall into the pool, but tensed at the thought of the currents beneath. She jumped to her feet, looked again at the woman, and sat.

The woman kneeled next to her, placing a soft hand on her shoulder. "The Creators sent you here to take my place. We must emerge from an intact pool, so they are in forests or a mountain or something like that, away from busy cities and too many humans. Humans come by every now and then, drink from the pool, and Become. It has a different effect on them, though."

"I'm Kareth," she said.

"Of course you are, dear." The woman smiled and gripped Kareth's hand. "I'm Mona." Her face softened further, and her eyes changed from blue to green. "We Ancients must drink from the pool, but we don't Become immediately."

"Become what?"

"Become what the Creators meant for you to Become. That's for you to figure out, dear. This is the power of the pool, to bring Becoming. I'm becoming complete now, and that's why they sent you." Mona sighed. "It's been good here in Dunáya, but I'm ready to move on, and it's wonderful. More wonderful than generations of bliss."

"What are you Becoming?"

Mona looked at Kareth; wisdom, knowledge, self assurance, glistened on the other Ancient's face, essences that Kareth lacked. "I hardly know how to explain it. I am complete. I hope you can feel your completeness before too many generations pass."

"Generations?"

Mona held out her hand, and Kareth understood she was to grasp it to stand up. "Oh, that's one convenient way to measure time. It's how long one human lives, or more precisely, the time between the emergence of one human to the emergence of her replacements, her children. Only humans don't usually Become right after their replacements emerge. Though their replacements often help them to become complete."

"Human? You mentioned it before."

"They're kind of like us in that they have arms and legs and a head, but they don't come from Alnon du Ruágah, not that I know of anyway, and they don't live nearly as long as we do. We can live indefinitely, I suppose, until we are complete. They can have several replacements, not just one. And they can go back to wherever they came from as easily as spit, whether they Become what the Creators intended or not. They call it death. I guess that's why they have so many replacements, in case they lose one. I recommend that you watch a birth. That's what they call their emergence. Very interesting. You'll be glad you only had to go through the pool. The pool's much cleaner."

Kareth rubbed her temples. She was beginning to feel nauseated. Still, this was life, and it was better than the unconsciousness she came from. Mona seemed to sense her uneasiness and put an arm around her.

"You should eat something, and I'll make you some clothing," said Mona. "How can you do anything if you feel sick before you even can think?" Kareth leaned on the other woman's arm as Mona led her through the darkwoods a short distance to a tidy stone structure. Strips of long dried grass covered the top, and glassed windows peeped comfortingly from the walls. A hedge circled the building. They entered; inside was a comfortable room with a smooth wooden table, two high-back chairs, and cupboards. A woven rug lay under the table on a stone floor, and an opening in the whitewashed wall led to another room.

"Sit." Mona pointed to one of the chairs, and Kareth sat. Mona waved her arms. "It's very important that you read the Ancients' books, or how will you know what's expected?" She tilted her head toward the door. "The books are in the bedroom."

A steaming brown rectangle appeared on the table before Kareth, as well as a hunk of something dark and stringy. A round, reddish object also appeared. Bread, meat, and a nectarine. "I could have gleaned from a wheat field, and butchered someone's cow, but I hate to do that when I don't need to. No need to steal from humans. If I'm going to cook it with a thought, I might as well create it, or force the life-sparks into these formations. There's more than enough life-sparks in the pool for whatever you can need."

Mona ripped the bread into two pieces, and handed one to Kareth. "Put bits of this into your mouth, there you go dear." Mona put a chunk into her own mouth; Kareth ripped a piece of the bread and placed it in her mouth. Her throat pulled it downward, and her insides rumbled. Hunger. The bread felt satisfying, and her body strengthened. A cup full of pale liquid appeared, and Mona motioned her to drink. It was sweet and creamy and cool. Milk.

"We stay here watching the pool until we Become," continued Mona. "One Ancient remained for thirty generations here in Dunáya Forest and finally realized how lonely and pointless his life was without Becoming. The Creators usually don't send someone new until we are ready to Become, but they sent someone to that thirty-generationer to just kick him in the head. Well, the replacement was a woman and they fell in love and Became together! Quite unusual, having two Ancients together. Others in Alnon are always waiting to Become, waiting for their pool to receive them. That's why you're here. You wanted the chance to Become."

Kareth's arms tensed in memory of struggling in the pool, but the pool wasn't Alnon du Ruágah, but somehow a place between there and here.

"Do I know how to read?" said Kareth.

"Yes, and write too. We all come through the pools with these abilities, otherwise I'd have to spend my time teaching you, and it's time for me to Become. You can't imagine how to do either right now, but put a pen and paper in your hand, and writing will be obvious. Same if you look at a book. You'll recognize anything you see, but not necessarily something you hear about. And you will understand any language."

Kareth nodded. "But that thirty-generationer had that other Ancient come, and it sounds like they stayed together for quite a while." Thirty generations meant nothing, but she wanted Mona to stay as long as possible so she kept talking. Everything seemed jumbled.

"It'll all be clear soon enough," said Mona. "You don't need me, not if you have the books. But you will need paper, and some clothes. I want you to know how to make a dress before I go." She stretched her fingers, and twirled them as she spoke. "You'll find that you can make whatever you want with a thought, as long as you have the supplies handy, or at least the life-components. Paper usually comes from wood or animal skin, but I'm sure you can use your imagination and make anything with anything.

"Humans like the idea of making gold from lead. They come to the pool to make it happen, thinking it's some kind of wishing well. Simple to make gold, really, but they can never do it, and those who want to usually Become something dreadful."

Mona's eyes became stern. "Make sure you spare at least a second thought to make your paper not crumble with time. Ancients in the past forgot that simple step, and their writings are worthless because no one could read them generations later. Pity to lose one if you haven't read it, because they contain delightful stories." She shook her head. "If it crumbles and you've read it, you can just remake it, words and all, but so much easier to not have to. Preserve the books. If you haven't read it, it's lost."

She looked at Kareth and spoke definitively. "Kareth, get to know the life-sparks. All things have life, and all things are different inside, especially humans. You will learn from all life. You will learn to make things, mix the life-sparks together properly. You will learn what to Become. Pick up the fruit."

Kareth's fingers tingled when she touched the nectarine, and she had a sensation in her mind of shiny dots spinning around each other. Another nectarine appeared in Mona's hand and she bit into it, revealing its bright orange flesh. "I have a tree out back. I plucked one and sent it in here for you. They're very good. Try it. You can feel the dots?" Kareth nodded. "Those are what make everything, the life-sparks. When you figure them out, you can create whatever you want."

Kareth bit her fruit. It was good, sweet and tangy. The bright orange color was almost as pleasant as the flavor. The bread felt and tasted soft, and satisfied something inside her. The meat made her tongue water strangely. She liked the sensation and noted that each type of food expressed different components inside, different mixtures of life-sparks. "They are different, aren't they?" She wanted more, if only to analyze the differences.

"Yes, you'll do very well at making things. Let's get you some clothing, too."

Something wrapped itself around Kareth's body, not uncomfortable, but unfamiliar to new nerves. It was brown and soft, and she relaxed in the warmth it provided. Mona glanced out the window and spoke quickly. "You'll soon learn how to dress yourself with a thought, but I can't expect you to know how if you've never seen it done. Humans don't like it when we're not dressed properly. I don't have much time, though. I'm Becoming as we speak. They should give me more time with you, but it's wonderful."

Mona hadn't changed since they were at the pool. "I might last to sunset, but I'm sure you'll do fine on your own, when you read the books. Necessity breeds wisdom, I think." Mona smiled at Kareth in approval. "I've come to know what people want," said Mona, "with all I've seen here. It's more important that I know what I want, though. It's time for me to Become and it's time for you to watch over the pool." She embraced a stunned Kareth. "Watch the pool, watch the humans, there's a town nearby, and you'll get an idea of where you belong in the Creator's world. Eat more, you'll feel stronger." She pulled away. "I see you already do. You haven't changed for, well, since you took your last bite."

Mona glanced out the window and let go of Kareth's arms. "Yes, it's beginning to get dark. Isn't this exciting? Five generations of watching and helping, and now..." Her face beamed in radiance, her eyes glowed a swirling green fire, light surrounded her, and she disappeared in a flash.

Kareth stared at the spot Mona had left. Likely in five generations, or thirty, a spider could crawl over many rocks. She remembered every word the Ancient had said, every voice inflection, every detail. But their meanings would likely come clear only through experience.

Images courtesy of:
myheartsisters.org
etsy
clothesmonaut
Hotel-R

If you haven't yet, read Chapter 1: The Well of Life