Xynar's reality

three types, seven groups

A woman-like spirit came out of the tree, she was really beautiful, she looked like a cosmic strider, but had a leaf halo on top of her head, she started humming beautifully, majestic noises echoed through the forest and got everyone hypnotized for a good minute. She then took a look at every strider that was looking at her, with a pure heart and a soft smile, and then turned to Alan and said with grace, "groundly striders will bless you" then disappeared back into the tree. Tree vines swiftly cut the string wrapping Alan up, he cried from joy and whispered, "I told you...trees are alive. They feel, see, hear, and do. Trees do."

Nobody said a word, they all took a few minutes to process what just happened, then just strayed away from the place, everyone on his own. Seeing them separate, Alan knew they'll be alone with their morbid thoughts, and didn't want that to happen, he did not trust a heartbroken person to be alone, so he levitated to the top of the tree, closed his eyes, and talked to the tree telepathically, using Lathinsé,

"hey...can you ask the other plants around all striders to repeat my words?

-of course, say it, it will be delivered.

-thank you"

Alan then spoke, "And you, where are you going alone? One can do nothing. You can't fly with one wing, you can't smile with one lip, everything is easier with two and more. What will you be able to do alone? Who's going to share your pain and misery? Who will be able to understand you? Do you think screaming or crying will let it out? They may let some out, but it amplifies, and you find yourself right back where you started. Say you overcame it alone, you did not heal the scar, you just covered it, a band-aid on your heart covering a cut that will never seal up. Be in pairs, or groups, help each other, understand each other, show compassion toward each other, keep each other company, isolation will not make it any better"

His words touched the striders in their hearts, they all started seeking each other, and within a few minutes, they were together, some crying while hugging others, some just laying on each other, some remaining quiet, but most importantly, together.

However, Tyl was not present. By now Alan could predict where she should be, the ledge of the island.

When he went there, he found Tyl communicating with her brother through the string, she stopped briefly after and turned to him in utter shock.

"What's wrong?" He asked, confused.

"Barterschzepos are coming in two weeks, with new machinery," she stuttered

"TWO WHAT? TWO WEEKS?" he asked again, bombarded

"This time I can say it directly, through you, tell them one of your powers allowed you to hear them or something," she said, then lowered her head down, clenched her fist and screamed at the top of her lungs out of frustration.

She then took Alan, tears still dripping down her face, generating from her broken heart, flew up to the meeting tree, and generated a high-pitched scream. By now, Alan figured out that those screams are what they do to call for each other. After they've all gathered up, Alan broke the news to them,

"One of the abilities I learned from Quantum shifters is called Lathinsé, Lathinsé has lots of manifestations, one of the things it allows me to do in extreme cases is to travel with my spirit, I travelled to the side of the barterschzepos and overheard them, they're coming in two weeks, with new machinery. Sadly, this ability requires a lot of energy and is extremely limited, I was not able to know what the new machinery exactly was, but at least I go the time interval, we better start thinking of a retaliation plan" of course, Alan didn't know whether Lathinsé can even be developed in this way, but he had to make something up.

All striders seemed shocked by the news, they looked at each other. A mixture of sorrow, fear and anger was brewing up inside of them, because of how many detrimental events were happening consecutively.

"On the good side, you are now three species and me against one, cosmic, earthly and groundly striders, I do have faith you three will be able to take them down, and I will help however I can, especially assuring communication between you all and groundly striders.

-do you want to see the cave where we kept their old inventions?

-sure, why not? Take me there, please.

-me, Joul and Anith will go take Alan, as for the rest, prepare for the new cosmic woman assignment"

While in the sky, Alan had the time to ask

"Tyl

-yes?

-what is a cosmic woman.

-the equivalent of a Tribakwiyan elder to make it simple. We only have one cosmic woman though, that only gets replaced upon her death. Of course not everyone can become a cosmic woman, first of all, you have to be above fifty, you also have to be a participant strider, which means that you participate in defending us against barterschzepos, we take the top contestants and do a random selection. Cosmic women are usually the wisest of us all, and they also have great communication skills

-wait, do some not participate in defending? Also, why random selection? Why not voting?

-the Neris island is complicated, all of what you know isn't even a third of what it all is, if I talk about it in detail it will probably take us days. Striders are divided into seven major groups: shielder striders, puncher striders, healer striders, seeker striders, reader striders, connecter striders, and the cosmic woman.

Shielder striders protect the rest from any form of attack, that's their whole job, reflecting barterschzepos attacks and attempting not to let any other strider get hurt.

Puncher striders are the opposite, they do not defend, they attack, fiercely and wisely.

Healer striders take care of the sick, or the new-existing, or the injured, basically anyone who can't take care of herself.

Seeker striders try to gather as much information about the outer world as they can. They also search mysteries of the island, like the ones we discussed at the graveyard.

Reader striders are responsible for writing down any new information and conserving it in the library. They're also expected to be the most knowledgeable and to know more than the rest.

Connecter striders assure good communication between everyone else, if any new discovery is made, or any new event happens, they're responsible for spreading the information.

The cosmic woman is the person who has been proven to be good at all of these domains, along with the other requirements.

Of course, all of these roles are greatly abbreviated, there are a lot of other details I left out.

As for your second question, we do random selection, because if we use voting, the striders that don't win may get hurt because they will think they are not the most liked, so to prevent that we do a random selection.

Satisfied now?"

Alan nodded. He also realised that Gwaxyguen, and the whole AZ planet, is way more complicated than he estimated.

They reached the area, it wasn't a forest, it was all rocky and dead, an earthly strider was waiting for them there. When they got down, the earthly strider used his three trunks to open the cave that was tightly closed with rocks, and they entered...