Sidereal Odyssey, Book 1: Zavijah

Beetles and Giants

The sky was starting to wane its brightness, and the binos awoke to see their friendly sliver of the eternal had disappeared, leaving a small trail of glitter in the direction of departure.  They sniffed about in every direction, their eyes on the lookout for where it had gone, missing its comfortable transparent chest.  They heard rustling in the brush behind the big tree, and peeked around the corner to catch a glance at what could possibly be causing so much ruckus during the peaceful daylight hours.  

“It’s scent leads this way!”  Heze bounded through the brush, coming up to a tree that was noticeably, only slightly, to be smaller than the rest.  The binos watched the intruder with fat little eyes, glancing towards the movement of another figure behind the feline creature.  “We don’t need the scent, it leaves a trail.”  Zavijah panted, slowing down to catch his breath.  “What does it smell like anyway?”  Heze froze in mid-trot towards the tree.  “Uh.. Like glitter.”  Certainty was absent in his voice.  

“You can’t smell him can you?”  Zavijah smiled, now making his way to the tree for a break.  

“No.”  Heze replied, ashamed.  He made his way to the tree, reaching high and planting his claws in the bark, pulling down in a stretch that left small scars in the wood.  The group of binos lost interest in the odd creatures and decided to turn in early, the first firefly of the night not present yet.  

Zavijah spotted a growth of klirin in a rotting branch, an edible and juicy mushroom that he had only seen pictures of in his book of foods, deep in the fungi section.  Excited, he crawled over to it with speed, calling Heze to come inspect it with him.  The cat droned over to his friend, not in the mood to try new food, and instead wishing that the witch were there to cook them dinner.  The mushrooms were a light shade of red, spouting from the dark green moss that covered the branch.  Zavijah whipped his hand out and plucked one, instantly sticking it in his mouth.  His jaws stopped chewing and his eyes went wide.  Heze noticed and got nervous.  

“Are you ok?  Hello?”  Heze asked, sniffing at his friends blank face.  Zav's eyes started to water. “This is the most beautiful thing I have ever tasted.  In my entire life.”  He whispered, his voice quivering.  Heze turned to look at the branch.  “Well they don’t look that gre-”  Zavijah shut his friend up by shoving a handful of the mushrooms into his mouth.  Heze instantly fell over in awe, his flooding saliva nearly dissolving the fungus.  “P-p-pa p-p-pack”  Heze stuttered.  “S-s-spit it out!”  Zavijah exclaimed, trying to get him to speak.  “P-pack them in my belly-bag!” Heze pleaded, rolling on his back with his tongue sticking out the side of his jaws, pupils wide.  Zavijah plucked the mushrooms and put as many as he could into the pouch, and those that he couldn’t fit he held on to for them to snack on.  

Zavijah popped another into his mouth.  “Do you think we can find more weird food?”  He asked, looking around excitedly.  Heze struggled to his paws, his pack giving him trouble.  “Not tonight, look it’s already getting dark.  We should probably set up camp before the moonlings come out.”  Zavijah took his eyes from the pinking sky and nodded, his cheeks full of mushroom.  “We need some firewood too.”  

“I’m on it!”  Heze darted into the brush in search of wood while Zav created the ward.  Slobber ran down Zav’s mouth, colored a faint red from the mushroom juice as he drew a small green gem from his pack.  He spit on it and threw it to the ground near the tree.  Slowly, a glowing green smoke emitted from the gem, climbing into the air and forming a hut-sized transparent dome.  Heze barged in, the smoke parting way for the familiar being.  He spat out the wood in a corner of the dome as Zavijah walked over to him.  Zav sat near the pile of wood and focused a power of fire before waving a hand over it, a grasp of flame catching the logs.  The forest grew great firewood, and with a pile like this, the fire could last through most of the night.