Loki and Nym

Part 2- The call

It had been 3 months since they all returned, my brother had taken back his place caring for the clan and now that some of the others with magic were back I had a lot less to do.

Something strange was happening to me, it had started a few weeks ago. One night in my sleep I kept hearing this strange noise, a humming a sort of song reaching to me. It made my head ache, I woke up feeling sick and I found myself wandering through the forest in search of the source but it never got louder, never closer.

Two days ago Nilan and Votina sat me down, they knew something was wrong and I finally told them about the humming. In the weeks since I first heard it I could hear other things less and less. It was like my body was willing me somewhere else and I couldn't ignore it any longer. "you know that's the call sister" Nilan had finally whispered at me after I was done talking. "That isn't possible" I'd replied shaking my head. Usually you got the call as a child, usually people find their Umesco at 90, not at 425.

They had taken me to a neighbouring clan, unlike us the Ilrati clan lived in stone houses on the outside of the forest, in their village they had a huge stone building, nearly as tall as the home tree. Inside there were scrolls and scrolls stacked as high as I could see. All of our history, all of our knowledge, all in this one building, a temple to knowledge.

Sitting on a large cushion made of weaved leaves was an elderly woman, she was maybe the oldest person I'd ever seen, easily 8000 years old. I couldn't believe I was meeting an elder, my brother had had to shove me to get me back into the real world.

The elders name was Trinoa, she seemed to know exactly why we were there, I had the feeling she knew everything. I remembered to my childhood, my mother had told me about a similar being in a realm not so far away, called Asgard, a man named Heimdall, an all seeing- all hearing being. Was she the same?

She had confirmed my fears, it was the call. Somewhere, my Umesco was calling me. But whoever they were, they were not on Alsoi.

"That's okay" I had announced "I've lived 425 years without an Umesco, I'm needed here, I don't need to follow the call". The elder had burst out laughing, an old and infectious laugh that caused my brother and Vontina to join her. "oh child" she smiled placing her hand on my face "you cannot ignore the call when you hear it, it is simply impossible".

After much talk about traveling through realms, and umesco's the elder told me about several other umesco's that weren't between members of the same species. "I cannot tell you where or when you will find your Umesco child, but there is a planet, far from here, in another realm. It is much larger than Alsoi, louder, fuller and more dangerous. But I believe it's where you should start".

"you must travel to Midgard"

...

When we got back to the Nyx, my wonderful home. I announced my plans to travel to the rest of the clan. I didn't know how they would take it, but of course, they all cheered, cried and supported me. They would always want me home, but they understood my need to leave. They seemed to understand it better than I did.

"Are you sure about this?" Nilan asked, standing over me in my room. I nodded slowly through my tears whilst I packed my things. I rolled my few belongings into a wrap, and stood up straight. My brother pressed his forehead into mine. "You can always come home little sister" he whispered, I nodded and stepped out into the air.

Taking one last deep breath I called out to the elders and to the being I now knew to be real. "uhm, Ador Heimdall, can you take me to Midgard?", closing my eyes tight I braved myself. But nothing happened, I didn't feel anything.

I opened my eyes and looked straight at my brother, who was somewhere between laughing and crying. "Is it meant to take this long? Did the elder..."

Before I could finish my sentence I was surrounded by light and stars, flying through the air, I seemed to be speeding through some sort of rainbow.