He was Almost Absorbed by the System

Chapter Forty Four - People of the Wood, Earth and Stars

Planet D7-429c was a mostly untouched world, circling its primary behind two siblings and in front of two more. Its sunrises poured pale tones of gold and pink into its sky as it shed the skin of night just waiting to adorn the azure blue of day. Were clouds to float within its heights, they could not seem to mar it or detract from its beauty and even were they to fill it, the silvery haze was simply another thing to admire as the gentle rains fell. And then when the day descended to night, the sky was cast a flame with oranges and crimsons painted boldly before darkening to reveal an array of shadowy tones speckled by flecks of distant light. The world had no moon to brighten it, but then its inhabitants did not need it.

As eventful as the sky changing from night to day, from day to night, was the world below. The landscape mostly consisted of seemingly endless dense forest and stone canyons and rocky hills. Not mountains they lacked the mythical height of those, but these mounds and hills were cavernous, leading deep into an underground riddled with holes. There was an ocean, it claimed half of the world, while the land claimed the other. Any beaches were as rocky as those grassless hills, but not inhabitable.

As the sun became dominant in the sky, the forest would come alive. The singing birds would wake, a variety of beasts would forage for vegetation or hunt for meat and a humanoid people would awaken in the heights of the trees to begin their day. They were a people coloured by their forests, often with hair the colour of leaves in summer or pine needles of winter or the beautiful dying foliage of autumn. Their skins were pale greens or yellows and their eyes reflected the green of the forest or the blue of the sky. They were simply known as the forest people and the forest people lived their lives by day; patrolling, foraging, singing, playing, crafting and by night they would sleep.

Were the sun to set and the rule of the stars begin, then the forest would quieten and the canyons and hills would stir. Then the hill cats would begin their midnight hunts as the birds of prey sought to feed. The small rodents too fearful to move during the day would instead find fear in the night. The black goats would exit their small hidey holes and forage for rough grasses and weeds stubborn enough to grow in an around the rocks and the moles and ground hogs would bury in small patches of soft soil to dig for stone beetles. And a humanoid people would leave the caves with a few light stones to begin their nights. They were a people coloured by their rocks and earth. Their hair was usually the colour of metal ores, the rusty red of iron, or of tarnished silver or burnt copper or gold tones. Their skin was often like the rich brown of the earth or the cold grey of rocks. Their eyes were most usually all black. They were known simply as the Cave people and the Cave people lived their lives by night; hunting, fishing, dancing, running or crafting and by day they would sleep.

Sometimes the people of the forest would meet the people of the caves at dawn and sometimes the people of the caves would meet with the people of the forest at sunset. Their peoples lived in harmony with each other. Their peoples lived separately from each other.

But there was one child of the forest who dreamed about visiting the caves at night and there was one child of the caves who dreamed about visiting the forest during the day. And this was because they wished very much to visit each other.

But the Forest People and the Cave people were not the only humanoids to live upon this mostly untouched world for at the place that could be claimed as touched so much as to be unlike the remaining landscape was a third people. These people were known by the other two as the Outsiders. It was said, by the oldest amongst them, that the Outsiders came from the stars and that they caused a catastrophic event when they arrived. It effected the Cave people so much that they refused to have anything to do with the Outsiders. The Forest People were less effected, so eventually did trade with them, but they did not trust them so much as to allow them freedom of movement within their forests.