I
I was the last of my sisters to be born. We were born from a seed of Ulamineska in Anul's hair. We are three, Sonja's the oldest, then Skylar and then me. We are stars. With our birth all the stars in the night sky were born, but I have never met or seen one that is like us, we have two forms. The animals told us that, that's because we have the gift of consciousness that other stars and constellations have not, so we have two bodies, the fiery rock, and our conscious form with which we roam the land we shine upon.
My sisters and I are each making a field book, filling it with everything we know. Sonja says the word is grimoire, and Skylar tells me it's good for remembering things when you need them. But I could never forget about the properties of tulips or how to make essences out of teardrops, or the names of trees and which animals live along them. But they say the more I put in it the better, that it should be filled with everything there is in the world.
Maybe I should start telling the story of how Savein became what it is. I don't think my sisters wrote about the beginning, even though they know it, I think they are just writing everything about the present and what they lived so far, I guess they're right, there barely was anything before we were born.
There was nothing, truly, but water and rock. Rock was the core, and water covered it all, and there was nothing else, there was no sky, no light, only Darkness and Hope. Water and rock.
Until, slowly, very slowly, the rock began to grow, peaks of rock began to rise from the water, until you could call it a land.
I was the last of my sisters to be born. We were born from a seed of Ulamineska in Anul's hair. We are three, Sonja's the oldest, then Skylar and then me. We are stars. With our birth all the stars in the night sky were born, but I have never met or seen one that is like us, we have two forms. The animals told us that, that's because we have the gift of consciousness that other stars and constellations have not, so we have two bodies, the fiery rock, and our conscious form with which we roam the land we shine upon.
My sisters and I are each making a field book, filling it with everything we know. Sonja says the word is grimoire, and Skylar tells me it's good for remembering things when you need them. But I could never forget about the properties of tulips or how to make essences out of teardrops, or the names of trees and which animals live along them. But they say the more I put in it the better, that it should be filled with everything there is in the world.
Maybe I should start telling the story of how Savein became what it is. I don't think my sisters wrote about the beginning, even though they know it, I think they are just writing everything about the present and what they lived so far, I guess they're right, there barely was anything before we were born.
There was nothing, truly, but water and rock. Rock was the core, and water covered it all, and there was nothing else, there was no sky, no light, only Darkness and Hope. Water and rock.
Until, slowly, very slowly, the rock began to grow, peaks of rock began to rise from the water, until you could call it a land.
From inside the rock something started to grow, a seed that wasn't there before, grew and grew and grew until it became a tree. A tree of white bark and purple leafs; the first to breathe in this land of rock and water. It's spirit awoke something on the rock and the water, the tree could think and feel, but most importantly, the tree could create. It's roots grew inside the rock, that was now partly earth, the roots grew and extended themselves to some place they liked for themselves and from them grew other trees, but not white trees like the first one, from the roots grew normal trees, yew, pine, hazel,nirre, lenga, and many other trees. They, nonetheless, could not create like the first tree. When the land was filled with earth and trees and flowers and grass that were well taken care of by the water that has been there since the beginning, from the first tree was born a Sun.
II
From beneath it's roots a creature crawled and was born, it was fire and it was life. His name was Lëm, and his fire shot to the sky and lighted the land, when he was in the sky the flowers blossomed and the trees gave fruit. The sun was gifted with;consciousness, so he had another body, the first body to crawl, walk and run on the land. After long hours of walking around and shining upon everything that he could lie his eyes on, he came back to the place were he was born, tired of his first day of life. He slept against the first tree and his dreams travelled through the first tree and into it's roots, and from them a Moon was born, crawling from inside the tree. The moon was like the sun, but completely different, it was not fire, it was not life, but she was magic and dreams, she was soul. She wondered at the sleeping man next to the tree, his dark body shining only mildly, but enough to make her skin sparkle.
II
From beneath it's roots a creature crawled and was born, it was fire and it was life. His name was Lëm, and his fire shot to the sky and lighted the land, when he was in the sky the flowers blossomed and the trees gave fruit. The sun was gifted with;consciousness, so he had another body, the first body to crawl, walk and run on the land. After long hours of walking around and shining upon everything that he could lie his eyes on, he came back to the place were he was born, tired of his first day of life. He slept against the first tree and his dreams travelled through the first tree and into it's roots, and from them a Moon was born, crawling from inside the tree. The moon was like the sun, but completely different, it was not fire, it was not life, but she was magic and dreams, she was soul. She wondered at the sleeping man next to the tree, his dark body shining only mildly, but enough to make her skin sparkle.
Hánuxa walked around the land and got to see it, she saw how her presence changed the ways of the water and the growth of the flora. When she returned to the first tree, which she liked better than most, not for being the womb from which she was born, but because of it's beauty and majesty. As she looked upon the tree, she gave it a name; Ulamineska. Then four seeds fell from it, the first fell on the ground, the other three got entwined in her curly hair, and she looked up to her original form in the sky, and now it wasn't alone. In her hair there were many twinkling sparks, that shone on the sky next to her.
But there were three sparks that shone brighter, creating a small constellation in the night, three great stars that looked like an arrow head together. Hánuxa called it Oliuaia. Watching the Oliuaia constellation with great pride, she felt the Sun waking. And when he woke the fire from his eyes awoke consciousness in us.
III
Like I said, Sonja was born first, she was curious above all, she soon learned the name of the moon and the sun, of the Tree and her own, her hair is a soft brown, and her face and body was covered with freckles. While Lëm and Hánuxa were walking around the land, sleeping or exploring, my eldest sister sat in front of Ulamineska, and saw her younger sister be born. Skylar was born a day later, her hair orange and short, her eyes a deep green, her skin too, was covered in freckles. Sonja was quick to teach her little sister everything, and told her there was still another star to be born from the first tree. They saw my birth, we three shared freckled skin, but I was blonde of hair and of light blue eyes. The three of us wondered around the land for infinite time, there was no counting the days, for the moon and sun were on the sky at the same time most of the time, maybe one left before the other at times, or sometimes they would walk different paths and the sky would have two sides.
The fourth seed then grew. It was clouds. The sky filled with clouds, now it rained, or snowed, or there was rainbows. Now the sky was grey or pink or orange. And from the roots of the first tree the cloud's conscious form was born, a young handsome man.
We grew together, the four of us. Hánuxa and Lëm always stayed away, I don't know why. It was the three of us, eager to learn, eager to live in this strange land, and Mimir who always followed us around. And boy, did I like him, sometimes I'd hide from my sisters and climb a tree with Mimir and we would talk and watch the sky, and how he would change colours and shapes at my request. They were good days, bright days. Neither Sonja or Skylar understood what I felt, but I didn't care.
It wasn't too long until Ulamineska created again. Five dragons were born from it's roots. They were small at first, the five of them extremely different from each other, but of the same kind at the same time, like my sisters and me. We felt in our hearts that it was not up to us to help them, that though very different from us, they were like the trees and the flowers, and they would grow and they would die at their own time. The dragons grew and flew away to different points of the land, rarely we left the forest of the First Tree, but the dragons flew away, distancing themselves from us. Like this, all kinds of fauna were born, and dispersed themselves through the land. Each animal was very different, with diverse habits and feeding needs; feeding. That was something we have never heard of until the animals. What do moons and stars and suns and clouds feed of? My sisters and I were never as curious, we tried what the animals tried, and we learnt to mix the flavors, but it was all hollow to us. Mimir though, found that the dew from the flowers and the rain and the water made him feel strong, and we saw how Lëm began tearing apart dead animals and ate their meat, while Hánuxa had a fancy over the animals that lived beneath the water. But nothing filled my sisters and I.
IV
There was a whole world right beneath our feet, there was sky and ground, flora and fauna, and our spirits that inhabited it, but there wasn't balance, not yet. There was something else, the last creation Ulamineska would make. The Hearthborns. A hundred men, shaped like Lëm or Mimir rose from the roots of the first tree, and then a hundred women, like Hánuxa and us, but that was all they were, like the animals that were born before them, they had only one physical form, they were mortal, they were finite. They had needs, like the animals, they fed with meat like Lëm and they drank water like Mimir, they covered their skin with fat from the water-animals and they named everything like Hánuxa. We all took interest in those Hearthborns, there were so many of them, and they mingled and mixed in strange ways, and looked up to us in our powers and wisdom, which my sisters and I, if as well we didn't share everything, we helped them and taught them little things we knew, and the sun and the moon were like a father and a mother to the people. Hánuxa taught them speech and Lëm taught them how to hunt and how to eat. We observed them more from the far, not mingling with them as much, but intervened when it was needed, we learnt properties of flowers and plants and everything that surrounded us that could help the Hearthborns. I came to envy them, they were so beautiful! They loved too, like Mimir and I, they hurt and they smiled, they lived so much and felt so much. They discovered many things we never would have learnt in our own.
But they were too many for the forest, the people with Lëm and Hánuxa drifted away from the forest of Ulamineska, like other animals and the dragons had, and the ones who remained slowly became more special. Not only the Hearthborns, but the animals too. The closer to the First Tree they lived, the more conscious and intelligent they were, we could listen to their thoughts and understand each other, and they had a special connection to the tree, even stronger than our own. The people who stayed on the other hand, were curious, like us, and we helped them and guided them through their discoveries.
V
One of the men who stayed in the forest discovered fire, and with words he could bend it. Acui was with his younger brother Makus, Acui was a grown man already, how fast time passed for these people, he was hitting some small stones between each other to pass the time, among those stones there was a sewali one, and as Acui hit this stone with another, sparks of light and electricity blew from the friction, he began to repeat the process until it was clear to him. Makus fetched dry feathers and twigs and all he could find, and Acui directed the sparks towards this, and both of them, and the three of us (for it we are stars and in the sky we see everything) saw how the fire ate the twigs and shone bright and warm. The brothers enjoyed the fire and found it soothing to be close to it, while awake, and while they slept. They came out of the woods to show it to the other people, all the things that could be achieved with this new discovery, how it could keep them warm, how it could cook the meat, dry skins, bend or harden strips of bark and thin poles. The people loved it and welcomed it, and marveled at Acui's ability to manipulate it, sometimes he would whisper words and the fire would become greater or smaller, even change colours, until one day, fire accidentally burnt down someones home, and a child inside it. That's when they realized fire not only created but also destroyed, and Acui's gifts were frown upon, he returned to the forest, almost as a recluse. But not before he quarreled with his brother, Acui maintained that the fire they had built in the village where the people lived should never be killed, for from it the people fed their own fires, but Makus said that the people should work hard to make their own fire, to make it an effort to create this that was as useful as it was destructive. The brothers now separated, the people looked upon Makus for guidance to what would become of the fire, which was both loved and feared. The younger brother, for he still loved his eldest, decided to respect him in a way, without betraying his thought, and so every night, the Hearthborns would gather twigs and branches and all that was needed and together they would build a fire to warm their homes and cook their meals, and the last person to stay up would have the job of putting it down. Makus always waited for his brother Acui to come and join him in front of the great fire, so that they would put it out together, but it was always him alone that watered the ashes so that fire would not be reborn.
VI
As time passed we saw the mortality of the Hearthborns was far lesser than our own, that was what probably marked their lives and so, to use the little time they had they explored and learned as much as they could, and I always loved that about them. They would build with logs and trunks little homes in which the families would sleep together. We saw them come and go, and their own personal way of everlasting was through the other Hearthborns born from inside of them, a creation made out of love. They named their children after the land that welcomed them when they were born, and they would sail in canoes with their families even before they would learn how to walk. We have always feared the waters, for they are the ancient force before Ulamineska and us, for it is the opposite of what gave birth to this glorious land, but the Hearthborns seemed greatly at peace with it, they would live from it and feed from it, they were more at peace by the shore than by the trees.
But the trees were our home, and under their cover the people would seek us out for our knowledge and help, and we would help them so the land that gave us birth would live at peace. Soon, I suppose grateful for our support, Ulamineska gifted my sisters and I with spiritual companions; never will I forget when I chanced to look upon the eyes of my deer, he looked back at me and into my soul and my form, and in our minds and in our hearts we would be forever connected. Sonja had settled her eyes on a brown owl and Skylar on a fox, and they would share with us great wisdom and guidance, as well as love and support, and with them, we reached even greater knowledge and practice, soon the Hearthborns that would come to the forest to learn not in their lifetimes could learn as much as we. Soon, nonetheless, the ones who came seeking for knowledge such as ours, began to connect with other animals as well, and would follow our footsteps, or they would be closer to Hánuxa and her strange magic, or they would go to my Mimir and learn of the future, past and present, about fate and prophecies.
VII
We hadn't realized how far away we have drift off from our cousins the Hearthborns until we perchance found ourselves tangled in the personal story of a particular one. Dabi came to us in the forest seeking for help, for she found herself in a trap, where a man whom she had been had gotten her pregnant so as to ensure their romantic union in marriage, but she did not love him, she said to us, and I understood. Of course, we knew of a way, we know all, so we helped her end what was inside her womb to leave before it's time, and she was a free woman again. Never were we thanked so, and we had gained a friend who would visit us often to tell of her daily tales, of course my sisters and I did not refuse this friendship and rejoiced in what knowledge we could gather from the lady, for we were now foreigners of the costumes the people outside the forest had. A day came in which she told us, she was in love with another man, her face painted with long lines, she told of how he had brought wood to the family home, thus clearing their new relation.
Dabi didn't take long in falling pregnant again, and this time my sisters and me helped her have her child, as Sonja delivered the baby Skylar laid next to her in her same position as if she were also giving birth, to accompany her. I cut the cord, like so many times before, and made an amulet for it and gave it to the mother, who gracefully held her new son, born beneath a Kuturn, and so he was named after the place he was born. But before we could find a guardian spirit to protect the boy, Sonja stood up and felt how the boys soul was taken away from him, Dabi former lover using dark powers had stolen his soul and ran away so fast Sonja could not catch him. The mother held her child while it was still living, and I set off to find the father as Sonja the perpetuator as Skylar stayed with Dabi and Kuturn, and what I found was horrible and outrageous, Dabi's lover was dead inside his very own home, the blood slowly leaking from his chest. I came back beneath the Kuturn tree to tell of the death and so did Sonja, for the killer had jumped to the water and drowned so that she could not take back the soul that was not his, but his own was probably still swimming in the water, undisturbed, unpunished. Dabi wept and wept and her sadness new no end, for her lover and now her child were dead. We painted her face and told the people of her story, and saw how the elder lighted fires and sang a song of mourning, and she sang it too, and we learnt it, and sang it too.
(lyrics by Kalen López)
VIII
Myth adaptation
IX
The first war
X
Stars don't live forever
III
Like I said, Sonja was born first, she was curious above all, she soon learned the name of the moon and the sun, of the Tree and her own, her hair is a soft brown, and her face and body was covered with freckles. While Lëm and Hánuxa were walking around the land, sleeping or exploring, my eldest sister sat in front of Ulamineska, and saw her younger sister be born. Skylar was born a day later, her hair orange and short, her eyes a deep green, her skin too, was covered in freckles. Sonja was quick to teach her little sister everything, and told her there was still another star to be born from the first tree. They saw my birth, we three shared freckled skin, but I was blonde of hair and of light blue eyes. The three of us wondered around the land for infinite time, there was no counting the days, for the moon and sun were on the sky at the same time most of the time, maybe one left before the other at times, or sometimes they would walk different paths and the sky would have two sides.
The fourth seed then grew. It was clouds. The sky filled with clouds, now it rained, or snowed, or there was rainbows. Now the sky was grey or pink or orange. And from the roots of the first tree the cloud's conscious form was born, a young handsome man.
We grew together, the four of us. Hánuxa and Lëm always stayed away, I don't know why. It was the three of us, eager to learn, eager to live in this strange land, and Mimir who always followed us around. And boy, did I like him, sometimes I'd hide from my sisters and climb a tree with Mimir and we would talk and watch the sky, and how he would change colours and shapes at my request. They were good days, bright days. Neither Sonja or Skylar understood what I felt, but I didn't care.
It wasn't too long until Ulamineska created again. Five dragons were born from it's roots. They were small at first, the five of them extremely different from each other, but of the same kind at the same time, like my sisters and me. We felt in our hearts that it was not up to us to help them, that though very different from us, they were like the trees and the flowers, and they would grow and they would die at their own time. The dragons grew and flew away to different points of the land, rarely we left the forest of the First Tree, but the dragons flew away, distancing themselves from us. Like this, all kinds of fauna were born, and dispersed themselves through the land. Each animal was very different, with diverse habits and feeding needs; feeding. That was something we have never heard of until the animals. What do moons and stars and suns and clouds feed of? My sisters and I were never as curious, we tried what the animals tried, and we learnt to mix the flavors, but it was all hollow to us. Mimir though, found that the dew from the flowers and the rain and the water made him feel strong, and we saw how Lëm began tearing apart dead animals and ate their meat, while Hánuxa had a fancy over the animals that lived beneath the water. But nothing filled my sisters and I.
IV
There was a whole world right beneath our feet, there was sky and ground, flora and fauna, and our spirits that inhabited it, but there wasn't balance, not yet. There was something else, the last creation Ulamineska would make. The Hearthborns. A hundred men, shaped like Lëm or Mimir rose from the roots of the first tree, and then a hundred women, like Hánuxa and us, but that was all they were, like the animals that were born before them, they had only one physical form, they were mortal, they were finite. They had needs, like the animals, they fed with meat like Lëm and they drank water like Mimir, they covered their skin with fat from the water-animals and they named everything like Hánuxa. We all took interest in those Hearthborns, there were so many of them, and they mingled and mixed in strange ways, and looked up to us in our powers and wisdom, which my sisters and I, if as well we didn't share everything, we helped them and taught them little things we knew, and the sun and the moon were like a father and a mother to the people. Hánuxa taught them speech and Lëm taught them how to hunt and how to eat. We observed them more from the far, not mingling with them as much, but intervened when it was needed, we learnt properties of flowers and plants and everything that surrounded us that could help the Hearthborns. I came to envy them, they were so beautiful! They loved too, like Mimir and I, they hurt and they smiled, they lived so much and felt so much. They discovered many things we never would have learnt in our own.
But they were too many for the forest, the people with Lëm and Hánuxa drifted away from the forest of Ulamineska, like other animals and the dragons had, and the ones who remained slowly became more special. Not only the Hearthborns, but the animals too. The closer to the First Tree they lived, the more conscious and intelligent they were, we could listen to their thoughts and understand each other, and they had a special connection to the tree, even stronger than our own. The people who stayed on the other hand, were curious, like us, and we helped them and guided them through their discoveries.
V
One of the men who stayed in the forest discovered fire, and with words he could bend it. Acui was with his younger brother Makus, Acui was a grown man already, how fast time passed for these people, he was hitting some small stones between each other to pass the time, among those stones there was a sewali one, and as Acui hit this stone with another, sparks of light and electricity blew from the friction, he began to repeat the process until it was clear to him. Makus fetched dry feathers and twigs and all he could find, and Acui directed the sparks towards this, and both of them, and the three of us (for it we are stars and in the sky we see everything) saw how the fire ate the twigs and shone bright and warm. The brothers enjoyed the fire and found it soothing to be close to it, while awake, and while they slept. They came out of the woods to show it to the other people, all the things that could be achieved with this new discovery, how it could keep them warm, how it could cook the meat, dry skins, bend or harden strips of bark and thin poles. The people loved it and welcomed it, and marveled at Acui's ability to manipulate it, sometimes he would whisper words and the fire would become greater or smaller, even change colours, until one day, fire accidentally burnt down someones home, and a child inside it. That's when they realized fire not only created but also destroyed, and Acui's gifts were frown upon, he returned to the forest, almost as a recluse. But not before he quarreled with his brother, Acui maintained that the fire they had built in the village where the people lived should never be killed, for from it the people fed their own fires, but Makus said that the people should work hard to make their own fire, to make it an effort to create this that was as useful as it was destructive. The brothers now separated, the people looked upon Makus for guidance to what would become of the fire, which was both loved and feared. The younger brother, for he still loved his eldest, decided to respect him in a way, without betraying his thought, and so every night, the Hearthborns would gather twigs and branches and all that was needed and together they would build a fire to warm their homes and cook their meals, and the last person to stay up would have the job of putting it down. Makus always waited for his brother Acui to come and join him in front of the great fire, so that they would put it out together, but it was always him alone that watered the ashes so that fire would not be reborn.
VI
As time passed we saw the mortality of the Hearthborns was far lesser than our own, that was what probably marked their lives and so, to use the little time they had they explored and learned as much as they could, and I always loved that about them. They would build with logs and trunks little homes in which the families would sleep together. We saw them come and go, and their own personal way of everlasting was through the other Hearthborns born from inside of them, a creation made out of love. They named their children after the land that welcomed them when they were born, and they would sail in canoes with their families even before they would learn how to walk. We have always feared the waters, for they are the ancient force before Ulamineska and us, for it is the opposite of what gave birth to this glorious land, but the Hearthborns seemed greatly at peace with it, they would live from it and feed from it, they were more at peace by the shore than by the trees.
But the trees were our home, and under their cover the people would seek us out for our knowledge and help, and we would help them so the land that gave us birth would live at peace. Soon, I suppose grateful for our support, Ulamineska gifted my sisters and I with spiritual companions; never will I forget when I chanced to look upon the eyes of my deer, he looked back at me and into my soul and my form, and in our minds and in our hearts we would be forever connected. Sonja had settled her eyes on a brown owl and Skylar on a fox, and they would share with us great wisdom and guidance, as well as love and support, and with them, we reached even greater knowledge and practice, soon the Hearthborns that would come to the forest to learn not in their lifetimes could learn as much as we. Soon, nonetheless, the ones who came seeking for knowledge such as ours, began to connect with other animals as well, and would follow our footsteps, or they would be closer to Hánuxa and her strange magic, or they would go to my Mimir and learn of the future, past and present, about fate and prophecies.
VII
We hadn't realized how far away we have drift off from our cousins the Hearthborns until we perchance found ourselves tangled in the personal story of a particular one. Dabi came to us in the forest seeking for help, for she found herself in a trap, where a man whom she had been had gotten her pregnant so as to ensure their romantic union in marriage, but she did not love him, she said to us, and I understood. Of course, we knew of a way, we know all, so we helped her end what was inside her womb to leave before it's time, and she was a free woman again. Never were we thanked so, and we had gained a friend who would visit us often to tell of her daily tales, of course my sisters and I did not refuse this friendship and rejoiced in what knowledge we could gather from the lady, for we were now foreigners of the costumes the people outside the forest had. A day came in which she told us, she was in love with another man, her face painted with long lines, she told of how he had brought wood to the family home, thus clearing their new relation.
Dabi didn't take long in falling pregnant again, and this time my sisters and me helped her have her child, as Sonja delivered the baby Skylar laid next to her in her same position as if she were also giving birth, to accompany her. I cut the cord, like so many times before, and made an amulet for it and gave it to the mother, who gracefully held her new son, born beneath a Kuturn, and so he was named after the place he was born. But before we could find a guardian spirit to protect the boy, Sonja stood up and felt how the boys soul was taken away from him, Dabi former lover using dark powers had stolen his soul and ran away so fast Sonja could not catch him. The mother held her child while it was still living, and I set off to find the father as Sonja the perpetuator as Skylar stayed with Dabi and Kuturn, and what I found was horrible and outrageous, Dabi's lover was dead inside his very own home, the blood slowly leaking from his chest. I came back beneath the Kuturn tree to tell of the death and so did Sonja, for the killer had jumped to the water and drowned so that she could not take back the soul that was not his, but his own was probably still swimming in the water, undisturbed, unpunished. Dabi wept and wept and her sadness new no end, for her lover and now her child were dead. We painted her face and told the people of her story, and saw how the elder lighted fires and sang a song of mourning, and she sang it too, and we learnt it, and sang it too.
lit a fire
lit a fire
for a dear one
went away
to join the wind and trees.
paint your sorrow
paint your sorrow
paint your face
so he will know
that we're hurt and yet rejoice.
And in breeze and rain
and in night or dawn
he will sing amongst the birds.
With the leaves and waves
in the snow or spring
He will dance all night and day.
In the river
in the river
in the river or the seas
his spirit will be dancing
Lit a fire
(painted faces)
Lit a fire
(in the river)
Lit a fire
for our dear
who dances in the water.
(lyrics by Kalen López)
VIII
Myth adaptation
IX
The first war
X
Stars don't live forever
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