The persistence of the ocean had become just another sound in the collection of noises that Jak had come to live with since awakening on the shores of this island on that cold, dismal night. The sounds of life rose and fell in cadence with the cycle of day and night. The calls of the birds, the whistling of the winds, the rustling of the canopy, occasionally the patter of rain, and, though it was the most unerring of all, the distant crash of the ocean as it beat upon the shoreline had been reduced both by distance and familiarity.
As Jak now approached that exact same coast where his old life had terminated and his new life had begun, he found himself mesmerized by the waves. At first by the sound of them and then, with even more power as he came out of the trench that had once been his home and came to stand at the place where the dirt met the rocky shore, by the sight of it.
The vast ocean.
He stood staring, listening, feeling at once both a strange serenity and a distant fear.
Though he knew it not to be true, the expanse of water seemed to have no end. It felt impossible. It felt unthinkably massive. It felt…
Old.
Ancient.
Older than the trees. Older than the rocks. Older even than the dirt he walked upon every single day. Older than the cave he called home.
Perhaps even older than the sky.
Jak wasn’t sure how long he stood there, enraptured by the ceaseless repetition of the waves as they rolled eternally towards the island, but at some point, the loud, familiar caw of a certain giant crow broke his meditative state.
He looked around, first at the shore itself, locating the exact spot where he had awoken. Time was a difficult subject, at times, often in examination of memories, it seemed strangely disordered and also impossibly lengthened or shortened. It felt unthinkable to him that he had awoken on this shore less than the passing of a season ago, when it felt like a whole winter should have come and gone since then.
Was this a result of his memory loss, or simply a part of life?
In the month that had passed since the founding of his tribe, Jak had learned that there were some common experiences or thought patterns that he had to adjust to both due to his lost memories and also to what little he could remember of his life before. It was clear that the life he had lived was very different from just about everyone else he had met.
With a soft sigh, Jak turned away from the spot on the shore that would seem no different to anyone else, and looked south.
It grew a bit more barren down that way. He saw a mostly dead tree standing skeletal against the blue sky. This was where the crow perched, staring at him. Although it was an animal, Jak felt he could read something in its stance, its piercing black eyes.
Something ominous.
Almost a threat.
Do not come this way.
“Why?” he murmured.
When Jak had set out on this task of coming to see the place where his new life had begun, in the cold, in pain, in isolation, he hadn’t had much thought of why beyond he wanted to do it and he had the time to.
But now that he was here, some part of him, small yet powerful, wanted to walk farther south. To follow the shore to its end and see what was there.
Because he was certain something was there.
Jak began walking. The crow cawed at him, sharply, the sound carrying well over the hiss of the waves.
It sounded like a threat...or perhaps a warning.
Like a wolf growling deep in its throat if you drew too close to the meat it was eating.
Jak slowed, and then when the crow flapped its immense wings a few times and cawed again, he finally stopped. It was still a good distance off, and the place he wanted to go was farther than that, out of sight, hidden by a collection of trees. He looked from the trees to the large bird that was, at this point, almost a resident of his tribe by proxy. The huge black bird was seen almost daily by someone around the tribe, and Jak still had the curious impression that it was, in some way, not just watching out for his tribe, but smart enough to.
And now it was warning him away.
So far, it had yet to lead him astray. That didn’t mean he fully trusted it, but he trusted his instincts, and to this day, they told him that the crow was trying to help. He still wasn’t entirely convinced it wasn’t a Spirit of the Forest, or perhaps some strong magic-user’s pet, or thrall. That didn’t necessarily mean it was secretly evil or part of some plan against him, but it also didn’t mean it was fully trying to help him.
Something was happening on this island, something somehow relating to him. He was convinced of it at this point. His first memory was of a strange, blue figure standing over him on the shore. And since then, that figure had met him in his dreams and nightmares more than once. He had the impression that it was trying to help him, but it had more of an air of mystery than he was comfortable with.
Of course, it was possible that all of this was a manifestation of a damaged mind. Perhaps he was imagining some of it, and simply assigning meaning to random events for the rest. Jak finally turned around and started walking back.
As he did, he smiled.
Though he had grown increasingly distracted by the sounds of the ocean, Jak had not missed the fact that he was being followed by someone who thought they were more quiet than they truly were. He paused as he neared the trench cut into the landscape.
“I know you’re there, Niri. Come out,” he said.
There was a lingering pause, and then the slim elf stepped out from behind a tree. “How did you know?” she demanded.
“You’ve developed your abilities much since we first met, but you have to remember that my hearing and senses are better than almost everyone else on this island,” he replied.
She sighed heavily and then lost any sense of irritation, instead becoming awkward. “Are you mad, that I followed you?”
“No,” he replied. “I am curious, though.” He walked over to her.
“I wanted to see where you were going,” she said. “And also…”
“Also?”
“I wanted to visit the cave. Our cave. And the log.”
“We can do that,” he said.
She smiled. “Good! Let’s go!”
Jak laughed and they set off down the trench, sticking to the left side of it, which began to rise upwards the farther along they went. They walked alongside the earthen wall, and already Jak was remembering their first meeting. How he had saved Niri, and how he had gradually begun to understand the scope of the situation on the island.
“You seem different,” Niri said after several moments of silence.
“Different today? Or in general?” Jak replied.
“In general.”
“How?”
“I guess I noticed it when I was following you. It’s the way you move, the way you walk. You used to be more...wary, I guess. You’d look around more. But now it’s like you aren’t worried about anything. You’re calmer, but at the same time, still really aware? It is hard to describe. Looking at you from a distance, I had the impression that if I wanted to sneak up on you and attack you, it would be a bad idea. Maybe it’s just because I know you so well, but I think I would think that even if you were a stranger. And apparently I was right. You knew. Was it the whole time?”
“Yes,” he replied.
“How?”
“It’s hard to describe. I think part of it has to do with the fact that I know you so well. I can just tell when you’re following me.”
“Hmm.”
“Does that annoy you?”
She sighed. “Maybe a little. Maybe I want to sneak up on you at some point and surprise you. You’ve done it to me more than once.”
He laughed. “I don’t really mean to.”
“If you say so...I think you do it on purpose at least a little, sometimes.”
“Maybe,” he admitted. “You’re kind of fun to startle.”
“Fine, but that means I get to do things like this!” She broke away from his side and leaped onto his back. Jak caught her easily, supporting her and getting her settled almost instinctively at this point. She’d taken to doing it a lot, and so had Rylee after Niri had set the standard. He was strong enough that it didn’t bother him, and having them in all their soft, feminine glory pressing against his back as he carried them around (usually to the bedding), made the experiences pleasant ones. He carried her along the way and then up the path that led to the cave he, her, and Rylee had originally called home. As they neared the top, he let her down.
His senses were finely tuned, but there existed things, and people, who slipped past them, and it usually was a good idea to remain cautious.
Jak listened for a few seconds, then peered into the cave. He relaxed when he saw there was nothing and no one inside.
“It’s safe,” he said, walking within. Niri joined him.
The two walked deeper in, eventually coming to a halt near the center of the small cave, and for a moment, simply stood there, looking around.
The remains of their bedding was still there to be seen, the remnants of their fire, a few broken pots and tools, and, most prominent of all: Niri’s cave drawing. It seemed much simpler compared to works that she had done since then, mainly because it was done entirely in charcoal, and they had since found flowers to turn into a paste that could provide all sorts of color. Even still, it looked masterful to him, a simple yet elegant depiction of a pair of deer near some trees and a little watering hole, all of it beneath a sun and some clouds.
“You came back, didn’t you?” he murmured.
“I did,” she replied, then smile broadly. “I’m so happy you can tell.”
“You’re very skilled at this. It’s hard to be anything but amazed.”
“There are many things I love about you,” Niri said, looking at him now, “but that you appreciate my drawing, my painting...that one is a thing I really love about you.” She paused, frowned a little. “Maybe that is selfish. One of the things I like about you most is how you like an aspect of me.”
“It’s not selfish, Niri,” he replied. “You aren’t a selfish person. You don’t have to worry about that.” He glanced past her, out the entrance to the cave, judging the quality of the light. The sun had not yet reached its apex, but it was getting there, and today was the day he wanted to have a meeting about the future of the tribe. Or at least the next step. “We should be going.”
“Okay,” she said. She took his hand and let him lead her out of the cave.
It was interesting, he thought, how much she trusted him. He’d done his best to imprint upon her the need to rely on her own senses and instincts more than any one person, and she had clearly taken them to heart, but he could tell she still trusted him implicitly to keep her safe. He would, there was no question of that, but he knew it was a situation to be observed. He was not perfect, not unstoppable. And the thought of losing her or Rylee, or Nessa now…
Was unbearable.
Nessa. He hadn’t seen her in a week, and although she had yet to dedicate herself to either him or their tribe, Jak could sense a strong, intense bond between the two of them. One that she was working towards consummating.
He wasn’t entirely sure what she was doing out there, sometimes beyond Avat’s Forest, beyond the fact that it had something to do with her people and helping them, trying to unify them somehow, and that it was dangerous. She tended to show up every few days, often injured but in high spirits. Mostly. When they were alone, she was happy to be there with him, but she admitted she was failing in her chosen task, and it was getting to her.
That he hadn’t seen her for almost a week bothered him, and soon he would need to go looking for her if she didn’t return.
They slowed as they reached the clearing that held the hollowed-out log they’d once, briefly, called home.
The two of them walked up to the entrance. To the untrained eye, there was nothing to show it had ever housed anyone, but Jak could see a tiny bit leftover. A few impressions in the dirt and plants left behind, largely protected from the elements.
“This was the first place we ever shared intimacies,” he said. “Do you think this was where you became pregnant?”
Niri smiled and looked down, laying both hands across her bare stomach, which was still smooth and taut. “Perhaps,” she murmured. “Maybe it was in the cave. Or the waterfall.” She looked back up at him. “We’ve shared intimacies in so many places.”
“Yes, we have.” He turned his attention away from the log and focused on her. He put one hand over both of hers. She moved them out of the way and laid his hand flat against her stomach, then held it with her own. “You are sure?” he asked.
“I am sure,” she replied, smiling. “We both are. We each have missed our time of bleeding.”
“I’ve never actually asked, but...why does that happen?”
She lost her smile, looking irritated. “We elves are told that it is a form of giving to the Forest. If we are not pregnant, then the Forest demands a small portion of us, and that is how it takes it. But now that I have spoken with Rylee and several other former Tolvar women, I find myself more inclined to believe them.”
“What do they say?”
“That it is a punishment, for not engaging in the planting of seeds enough, for not bearing fruit. Given that it always hurts my stomach, and how easy it is to become angry or irritable while it happens...yes, I am inclined to believe Rylee, though it would make no sense for an elf also to experience it if it is a Tolvar punishment. I truly don’t know why it happens, only that if it stops happening, it means that we have become pregnant. That is the only thing that can stop it. Even then, it will start up again at some point after giving birth.”
“I’m sorry, it sounds miserable.”
“It really is. But,” she said, looking down at herself once more and regaining her smile, “it doesn’t matter. Because I am pregnant, because you planted your seed in me, and it took root. And I have never been happier. I know Rylee is so happy, too. We talk about it a lot.” She brought his hand up to one of her cheeks and nuzzled it. “I can’t think of anyone I would rather have planted his seed in me,” she murmured.
“I’m very happy about this as well, Niri,” Jak replied.
“I know. I’ve gotten so that I can read you...most of the time. You hide your feelings well, but I can at least tell you are happy about this. Now, we should get back to the village, because I can tell when you are getting impatient to get back to work.”
He laughed and kissed her forehead. “I’m sorry, I don’t mean to be. I like being out here with you, it’s just…”
“It’s just that you run an entire village, your own tribe, and that is much work. It’s okay. I understand.”
“I appreciate it.”
They shared a kiss, and then began walking back through the forest.
