The Auric Insignia Page 7

  - We welcome you, Roarke, once again, to the trees of Braida.

  The raspy voice came from a Kappa that Roarke had not noticed until it spoke. A small figure came walking out, separating himself from where he had stood, next to Ama. Hunched over, the insect-like Kappa moved slowly, chitin covered joints shimmering bright green, dark compound eyes making it difficult for Roarke to judge the Kappa’s intentions or mood.

  - I am Plista, Kappa of Dead-nettle leaf beetles, specific I know. Please, sit if you wish.

  Sectioned legs folded below his rotund body as he made himself comfortable, with Roarke following suit.

  - You will have to forgive the somewhat stale atmosphere, it is not every day we have a human here.

  - So I’ve heard....

  - So Roarke, we have been told you were promised some answers.

  As typical when one was put on the spot, Roarke came up blank as regards to questions.

  - I..yeah.

  Sensing Roarke’s predicament, the beetle man continued.

  - Korri says you do not know anything, as far as Kappas are concerned, that is. I personally, am inclined to trust her judgment whilst others amongst us have their doubts, as is their right of course.

  Roarke looked towards where Ama was standing and was met with a vigilant gaze filled with distrust.

  - As we could never truly tell one way or another, I say we assume it to be true and go from there.

  He looked around, waiting for any objections but no came.

  - Very well, let us start at the beginning. We are Kappas, tasked with keeping the balance.

  - Korri said something about that. Champions of some sort.

  - Champions, teachers, leaders, many words with the same spirit behind them. We are tasked with upholding the balance of the world, ensuring its survival. A balance seemingly indestructible but in truth, as frail and as delicate as the petals of a flower in spring.

  - Why? Who gave you this task?

  - Good question, tasked by whom indeed, or by what, for that matter. The truth however, is not quite so simple as that, it rarely is. The truth is, we do not know, we have not been asked to take on this burden, this task, but instead we have stepped up and accepted the role that our lives gave us. If there if something greater than you or I behind it, I will let that go unsaid for the fear that I might just spout theories.

  Plista saw the scepticism on Roarke’s face.

  - Make no mistake, nature is not a bottomless well, and even though you may not see it here, nature is crumbling.

  - I’m not quite sure I understand.

  - A long time ago, harmony existed, the likes of which you see pale remnants of around you, here in Braida. Kappas of every species, striving for the same goal, but it would not last, for one Kappa wanted more, the Kappa of humans, Gota, wanted more.

  Ama’s words from before returned to Roarke, he had accused Roarke of serving someone called Gota. At the time Roarke had not thought much of it, the severity of the situation taking precedence.

  - With all due respect, humans have no one leader, and we do just fine without one.

  - Typical human, pride clouds your mind and the world suffers for it.

  - Ama, dear brother, calm yourself. He only speaks what he knows and it is our task to expand upon that. Now where was I? The qualities that made Gota a great leader, curiosity and an intellect with no comparison, would also be the qualities that led to his betrayal. In time those traits grew into greed and lack of heart, only being motivated by his own twisted logic. He believed humans were superior to all others and set in a motion a plan to make his aspirations a reality. You see, what makes a Kappa different from their, for a lack of a better word, normal brethren, is an energy, an extra life force, if you will. Every Kappa has this energy, which fuels their power, extending their lifespan and granting strength. When a Kappa perishes, for whatever reason, that energy is passed on to another member of their respective species, who in turn becomes the new Kappa of their kind.

  Plista waited to see if his words had sunken in before he continued.

  - Gota, with his brilliant mind, found a way to alter this process, manipulate it, in order to claim this life force for himself upon the death of a fellow Kappa. With promises of power, along with his sweet words of persuasion, he gathered a number of followers to his cause.

  A few feet from Roarke, Ama’s expression grew distant as he bowed his head and folded his ears.

  - With the help of the new servants of man, he betrayed the cause he had once sworn to uphold. Before we knew what was transpiring, they had grown too powerful for us to stop them. Having failed our only task, we retreated and tried to rescue what could be saved but much was already lost. Countless of beings were robbed of their leadership, that energy that ran in the bloodline of every race, and with no new Kappas to take their place, our efforts spread thin trying to help those who suddenly stood alone. Do you know what used to lie beyond these mountains?

  Roarke had no idea, for him and for every other human, the world ended with the Horned Mountains, or at least that was what he had thought. He shook his head in order to hear the answer.

  - No? Well I do. A great blossoming land, lakes deeper than the mind can dream, filled with life. Meadows covered with flowers that makes the ones you see here look like faint shadows, and forests, forests that would have dwarfed the small remnants we are currently residing in.

  Roarke had trouble imagining the things he was being told, they struck him as too great, as fairytales.

  - ...Alas our wooden brethren prosper no longer, for they were the first to fall to the betrayal of Gota. If you look around you, you see there are no Kappas for the flora of this earth. Where once there was a Kappa for every tree, bush and flower that had ever grown in this world, only broken spirits and shadows remain.

  Roarke tried to imagine what they had looked like but found the concept too incongruous to grasp and abandoned the effort.

  - Under Gota’s rule, human population exploded, covering every corner of this earth that they could reach. Two bucks will fight for the right to mate, and a fox will hunt and kill a rabbit to survive, but no other race will destroy their surroundings like man will. But perhaps you do not agree, perhaps you remember your home and do not see of what I speak.

  - No offense, but a little bit.

  - Then let me ask you this, have you been to the south, to the so called southern cities?

  - No.

  - Have you been more than fifty miles from your place of birth?

  - No, I haven’t.

  -The area where you live, being so close to Vanalf, the realm where our influence still have some hold, have not been exploited to the same extent as the rest of the lands to the south. Warped by Gota, man sought to better her position through the exploitation of others, and with fire and steel, man has made its mark upon the world, a scar that even the blind can see.

  Roarke felt conflicted, discussing the nature of humans in this manner almost felt like betraying his own kind. Before he could put this concern into words, Plista uncannily honed in on what he was experiencing.

  - Ironically the fate of humans have not transcended to a higher plane.

  - What do you mean? No animal is above a human, smarter.

  - That may be, but intelligence does not equal worth or importance, and it does not equal happiness. Do you think the hare ponders the meaning of life? No, because it knows and accepts its part within the balance. Do snails become depressed because they feel a lack of direction? No. Only the forsaken, humans, having been unnaturally ripped out of the circle of life, observes it from afar. Your minds pushed to their limit without purpose, growing weary and ignorant in the dark, desperately searching for enlightenment, a grace only Gota could bring. Gota had no ambition and desire to grasp the flailing hand in the dark and pull it out of the fog that clouds it. Gota bred the traits he himself valued, curiosity without limit, turned to insatiable greed, and let it loose upon the world. Instead of the helping h
and of a teacher, humanity found the false comfort of a tyrant. When you look at us, you might think that we have human traits, at least to some degree, but in fact, it is you, humans, that have been made to resemble Kappians.

  Roarke didn’t really know what to say, how to react. Listening to what was being said, he heard truth as he had never heard it before. Tales that could have been taken from any children’s book but that somehow rang true in his heart of hearts.

  - So what of Marielle?

  Plista shared a look with Korri, who had been quiet until she now, after a silent deliberation took over the conversation.

  - She was with all certainty sent by Gota to test and observe the extent of our movements and influence.

  - But I’ve known her my whole life! I mean, we have never really been friends but I find it hard to believe she would do something like that.

  - Maybe not, but you heard what Brock said, she had recently traveled to the southern cities. That, together with the fact that the snares were poisoned with Eitr doesn’t speak in her favor.

  Seeing Roarke’s confusion, Korri realized that she had inadvertently broached upon another subject unknown to Roarke.

  - Plista?

  The face of a kind old man shone through the armored face.

  - Eitr, Roarke, is a poison of sort. Poisonous only to Kappas, it is only employed by humans in Gota’s direct service as a way of leveling the playing field, if you will. Eitr is an unnatural substance, an idea from the mind of Gota, brought to life by his most trusted and closest human subjects most like. It works mainly by interrupting our accelerated healing and if left untreated, festers in the body until purged from the system. If allowed to take hold, it will in most cases lead to death in a most unpleasant manner. Since it is a double edged sword for Gota, it is probably treated with great care and probably only handed to the most trusted soldiers in the deceiver’s army. As to this Marielle and her possible motives and recruitment by Gota, we can only guess. Gota’s greatest strength is, and always has been, his mind. He manipulates and lies, twists logic and turn friends into foes, brothers into enemies, that is his power.

  Roarke looked at Ama, who with a clenched jaw and a thousand mile stare seemed to relive some painful memory that plagued him still to this day. Even if Roarke didn’t know the full story, he pitied him. Seeing where Roarke’s eyes rested, Plista once again spoke.

  - As you can see, the wound dealt by Gota was not just upon this land and onto the victims so far, it is also alive within the minds and hearts of the remaining members of our decree.

  A smaller and more dainty version of Ama, but colored in rust orange with a fluffy tail ending in white, approached his bigger brother. His sharp features arranged in an expression of compassion as he laid a clawed hand on the bigger Kappas shoulder. Like an electric shock had pulled him from his nightmare, Ama jerked around and took the consoling hand in a vice like grip. For half a second, Roarke thought a fight was going to break out, before Ama’s mind refocused on the present, and upon seeing all eyes on him, quickly vanished through the golden pillars that surrounded them.

  - Ama!

  - Let him go, Refaz, his plight is one of memory, he will seek solace in the hunt.

  A howl cut through the trees, through rocks and through bones, as Ama called out into what was quickly becoming a dark night. Fainter howls responded and shared in the sad musical that their cries created.

  - What happened to him?

  Nobody said anything until the Kappa with the red brown coat decided to take tone.

  - Among the Kappa, three brothers were inseparable. Ama, the eldest, me, the middle, and the runt of the litter, Racka.

  His stoic face was split in a sad smile like he was remembering happier times, now long lost.

  - Racka was the dreamer of us three, his head always in the clouds and Gota used that to his advantage. Whispering dark promises of grandeur, he bent Racka to his will. When the betrayal became known and conflict arose, it became clear that Racka had had a key role, Gota’s most loyal, his right hand, in the tipping of the scales of balance. As the self proclaimed protector, Ama blamed himself for losing his dear brother to evil, so much so that he sought up Racka during the battle, pleading to him to see the error of his ways. Racka, no longer the jolly baby brother, attacked Ama, scarring his face as well as his soul.

  Since that day, Ama covered his heart in the thickest of hides, letting nothing out, and no one in. His mind set to never again fail as he had before. That Roarke, is what happened, and that is why he hates humans so.

  Roarke couldn’t really blame him, even is he himself had had no part in it, he understood. Knowing himself he would probably have acted the same way if their roles had been reversed. After all, any human who loses a loved one to the desperate hunger of a wolf, will grow to hate all wolves.

  - For what it’s worth, I understand, and I’m, I am sorry for what happened.

  Warm smiles from the Kappas present met his statement, Roarke even thought Korri looked proud. Refaz, who had had the most somber expression before, seemed touched by the sentiment.

  - Well Roarke, that in itself proves that one cannot judge all by the actions of some, and I thank you for it.

  ***

  An arduous and ambitious plan

  Roarke woke up to a rogue sunbeam viciously dancing across his face with seemingly no remorse in regards tohiss disrupted sleep. He opened his eyes to see the place he had been offered as sleeping quarters the night before, after the meeting had drawn to a close. A low tree, in comparison, with wisteria colored leaves and a smooth dark trunk that was one of three growing in a constellation. Korri had explained that the whole tree closed like a flower at night, only to stretch and blossom as the sun once again began its ascent. Like a caring mother holding its child, the Mismi tree, as Korri had called them, created soft beds of padded leaves inside the giant bud. Roarke saw that Korri hadn’t been pulling his leg as the tree looked distinctly different in the morning dew, than it had the last time he had laid eyes on it. Branches like arms, stretched for a taste of the early morning sun.

  All except for the ones that made up his bedding, like they knew he was still there, they had remained so as to not make him fall. Roarke was further astonished as he tiredly began to stir, and the tree responded by lowering his platform to the forest floor, enabling his disembarkment. He stumbled a few steps before his sense of balance joined the rest of him in the land of the living, squinting, he looked around him and realized he didn’t remember where he had come from, furthermore he didn’t know where Korri was and therefore decided to wait where he was.

  - Well....

  Sitting down in a patch of pink flowers, the fuchsia left the ground in a cloud of pollen, covering him in a pink glitter and getting in his airways.

  - Cough... That can’t be good.

  - That color looks good on you.

  - Wha...

  An Idu fruit whistled through the air before hitting him right in the face.

  - Ippan! We agreed we would shout “think fast” first!

  Roarke wiped his face of the exploded fruit as he saw the comical duo from the day before, step into view.

  - Good morning...

  - And to you as well, Roarke. You know, Ippan and myself were catching up on our innuendo game this morning, when we thought of you.

  Feeling his face grow increasingly sticky and stiff in junction with the juice drying, Roarke gave a grimaced smile as Marel and Ippan joined him on the ground.

  - I’m flattered.

  - As well you should be, not a lot takes precedence over innuendo-morning.

  - I’m sorry, maybe I’ve gotten all this wrong but don’t you, you know, have any duties?

  - You mean besides brightening everyone’s day with our acquired taste of mirth?

  - I thought that went without saying...

  - We might be Kappas, some even call us champions, if that’s your thing, Ippan and I certainly won’t object. However, we don’t mi
cromanage the lives of every member in our respective species. Kappas are more about the bigger picture and other deep stuff like that.

  - “and other deep stuff”, got it.

  - But enough about us, how did the meeting go last night? Me and Ippan would have gone ourselves but it’s just not...

  - Yes?

  - Not our scene, if you will.

  - I could see that. Anyway, it went fine I guess. I mean it’s not everyday you’re told you’re part of a plague killing the world under the clandestine rule a some super man.

  - Super man?

  - Sorry?

  - Super man, I mean, isn’t that a little bit on the nose? There’s no mystique, no flair, you know? Never mind, go on.

  - Well, I guess its just an uncomfortable truth is all.

  - Those are the worst kind, aren’t they?

  - Appreciate the support.

  - Don’t sweat it. Human sweat right?

  - We have been known to do that on occasion, it’s true.

  - Told you Ippan, I win.

  Ippan answered by distorting his face into a grimace, which in turn started a passionate, theatrical battle between the duo, every new face more bizarre than the one before. Roarke couldn’t help but smile at the charade playing in front of him, his spirit lifted.

  - So these are the “brothers of a nicer variety”?

  It was Korri, she had arrived unnoticed during the duo’s enacted farce and now she was standing behind them, shaking her head at the same time as she was biting her lip so she wouldn’t smile.

  - Marel and Ippan, the brothers of a nicer variety, has a good ring to it, doesn’t it, Ippan?

  The giant looked to be tasting the words before he finally gestured his approval.

  - Hey.

  - Hi. Hey guys, mind if I steal Roarke away from the show?

  - No problem, we’ll be here all week.

  - Great.

  Roarke stood up and started to move over towards Korri who had already started walking, headed for their destination.