Celestial Roots

Chapter 17 - A difficult decision

Taghna, running at wind speed, was striding along ferns into long strides. The frustration she had felt when talking to Færn returned in intense waves that confused her. Didn't her friend see that if she hadn't intervened, he would be the one bathing in a pool of blood? That if she hadn't slept so long after the ceremony, Ranié would still be alive? Her intuition urged her to do everything possible to help the village.

However, she was irremediably attracted by the reasons given by Færn. The insistence of the séalyar on the need to respect their traditions resonated within her. All her life, Taghna had followed the injunctions of her peers with more or less enthusiasm but without ever really disobeying them. Out of habit and repetition, the rules of the village had taken root and germinated in her. They had become her natural position, the place where she could rest at any time without having to make the effort to think.

On the other hand, when she began to think about the survival of her classmates, these ancestral customs seemed meaningless, empty. Worse, having absorbed a large part of the sacred water, Taghna considered herself responsible for the failure of the other children. It seemed normal to want to rectify the harm she had caused even if she had to ignore the proper functioning of her community.

Thus she didn't know what position to take.

Every time her reason told her to follow the voice of the deans, her instinct shouted to listen only to her own will. Whether she broke Séaroën's laws or let her friends die, no decision could appease her. She was torn from all sides and when she leaned towards a choice, the contradiction of her position was revealed with all the more violence.

Increasingly lost, Taghna stopped thinking and took a moment to clear her head by paying attention to nature. The familiar sounds and smells of the forest calmed her down. The sun's luminosity decreased and the canopy lost its soft green and took on darker shades. Despite the long day that was coming to an end, Taghna felt neither hunger, thirst nor fatigue.

She caught the trail of a group of wild boars.

Taghna let herself be guided by her senses and completely forgot herself. She became one with the vegetation around her. Each breath, each step brought its own set of perfumes and visual clues with which she drew a detailed map in her head. Similarly to when she had wanted to find Færn, she had no trouble tracking down the game.

When she saw the wild pigs, she approached the group downwind to hide her presence. She managed to stand so close to them that she could have reached out her hand to touch them. Such closeness should have made her jump with joy, shouted loud and clear about her success, but she remained invisible and inaudible. Like her néach, Taghna had adopted an attitude that was half present and half absent.

By her side, a male was sniffing the ground. When it detected the presence of soft roots and white, juicy larvae, it used its two front legs to dig deep furrows in the loose soil. He then used his nose and curved teeth to clear the discovered food.

Just behind Taghna, a female had found mushrooms that grew in thin black strata on séarach roots. With a sharp squeak, it called its little one who hastened to eat the food. Taghna heard the friction of the young boar's teeth chewing the elastic texture of the plant. A strong smell of wet soil and wild garlic was emanating from the animal's mouth.

Taghna realized that the villagers of Séaroën and the animals that populated the world were not so different. They were trying to survive. Forgetful of her situation, she put a hand on the male's back beside her. Through her fingers, she felt a wave of surprise running through the spine of the boar, which cried of distress. The animals ran away at full speed, completely panicked at having been surprised.