Watchers and Wanderers: The Bloodline

The Bloodline

Watchers and Wanderers 1.1

The Bloodline: Uliee

What am I about to tell you is the truth. The absolute truth and nothing else.

Najwa's Royal Treehouse towered above the others like a spotlight in the dusk sky as I prepared to take my stage. The crisp air danced around countless bronze leaves, making them hum and fly into the red horizon. Once the bronze curtain lifted, hundreds of my Najwain commoners anxiously revealed themselves for me to address them.

I heard and hated their chattering. 

Their rumors floated with the wind and my abrupt decision to shut down the Lake-Market, Vine-Lines, and remove all ground patrol on the night of a Full-Moon had only made their sentiments worse. None of them, even myself, could ignore the sounds of footsteps below the trees that keep us safe. We all feared Full-Moons. With its beauty brought terror to our trees  and a fresh nighttime blackness slowly started to make its way across the sky. Parents grabbed their children and pushed them inside while some remained outside, desperately holding onto their vine-arrows and eyeing between the Royal Treehouse and the unseen danger in the forest beneath the village. 

Like the songs they sing, a bright Full-Moon was their only protecting them from the spirit-animals below.

I appeared for my restless people and raised my hands underneath the moonlight and silenced the crowd. I felt my hair, matching the moon, dancing like the leaves.

"Najwains, this is a great day for our village," I said. "Not long ago some of us lived on the ground in huts with no blankets, begged for food, and most importantly: in fear of spirit-animals."

Again, I raised both arms in the air and paced around the balcony that doubled the size of my commoner's treehouses. My people silently followed along with every word I spoke. My royal robes began to blend into the new night sky. Soon the commoners could only see my paleness reflecting off the moonlight.

"I've watched countless friends, peers, and even family members get eaten alive in front of me. And like many of you, as a mere child, I was forced to fight in order to survive."

Suddenly, the leaves' hums stopped dancing as if they, too, were listening. My entire world was in my command.

"But even with all of the strife, I knew one day it would be my duty to create a place for humans to be safe from spirit-animals once and be free from the Dreds that sent them. And that day came when on a mission with others as we stumbled upon the tree I stand on, what we call Asha."

I pointed below to the great tree the Royal Treehouse was built on and my finger traced the course of its roots that connected the hundreds and thousands of trees diversely scattered around Najwa. "Asha protects all Najwains from the spirit-animals that lurk below. It is my destiny to keep the tree and all of your families safe."

I took a long pause, queuing an eruptive cheer that shook the trees and sent bird-spirits flying into what remained of the stars. Without hesitation, I smirked and watched even the smallest spirit-animals flee back to their homes. I raised my hand again and the crowd went silent.

"And tonight, my niece, my blood, will be sworn as the Bloodline that continues Najwa's greatness after I pass and protects you all from the spirit-animals," I paused for a moment. "And the Dreds that hide among us," I said softly.

I shot a harsh look towards the entryway behind me, waiting for my true prodigy, The Zhao-Li Master. He was a young man, outwardly ambitious to burry his orphaned past. He rushed out in purple robes to the stage with a vine-cloth that covered a cage the size of his chest. The wind pushed his perfectly placed hair to its sides, ruining his otherwise perfect appearance. As he reached me, he bowed, just as all of my officers did and his rank made him no different. As he bowed, the unmistakable Half-Moon Zhao-Li tattoo on his forehead looked at me.  

He stopped before he approached the public and pushed hair so it covered the Half-Moon. I shot him a second, more disconcerting, look.

Show your title, Master.

The cage rattled and shook as he placed it by my feet.

"For you, Queen Uliee," he said.

"Thank you, Master Dane," I responded as he took another knee in my presence that I ignored.

For a third time, I pointed to the Full-Moon in the sky and ignored the ongoing howls and shrieks that wrestled through the brush that my people couldn't help but to hear. I let out a small laugh that curled my lips. "Najwains, do not fear the spirits the full-moon brings. The Bloodline will help you fight them back."

I ripped the vine-cloth off the cage and a small fox-spirit growled and hissed at the crowd. It tried to pace the small cage, hissing at me so loudly that its blend of orange and white fur lifted and revealed its skin covered in wounds but the knots tied around its paws kept it in place.

Its struggle made me laugh.

The crowd gasped.

I continued to laugh as some of my people shielded their eyes, reliving the trauma of their families dying at the hands of the very spirit breed I caged before them. A sea of bow and arrows stood by as the roars below grew like one organism.

I raised her hand again and the crowd grew silent.

But as I was ready to continue my speech, I locked eyes with a boy in the heart of the crowd.

He looked like the rest of my commoners: shredded clothes, dirt below a pair of eyes that told a story of travels and a hungry stomach.

The sign of a Dred.

At that moment, with my hand still raised, the boys' eyes locked with mine. He was trying to say something, or stop me, but he couldn't find the words.

After a moment of hesitation, I continued.

"Perhaps there's a Dred here tonight that will see my niece kill this very fox-spirit in front of you. Proving she is ready to become my Bloodline." My hand started shaking in the air as moments froze.

I turned back to the Royal Treehouse and motioned to the door.

"Janelle, present yourself."

The doorframe was empty.

I lowered my hand and the crowd started to become restless again as the roars grew louder and closer. Nervously, I stepped back on the vine-stage and juggled the words in my head as my people saw their first glimpse of their Queen disheveled. 

My eyes wandered through the sea of impatient faces and again, I locked eyes with the commoner boy. The color in his eyes wreaked with uncertainty and his pupils bled an attachment to the dying fox-spirit on the stage. I tried to break my stare to survey the crowd again in search of Janelle.

I'm ready. 

 She assured me the night before. 

 Ready to do whatever it takes and lead Najwa.

I scanned back to the boy, but he was gone.

Dred.

"What was that, my Queen?" Dane asked.

"Dred." I replied with a shake in my voice.

Dane leaned next to me and I moved my hand towards the palace and channeled a slow slithering sound that crawled from the vines. The crowd froze, as my hand remained steadfast in the air.

The slithering stopped and Dane the beat of a slow, pounding breath coming from the palace overhead above watched over him. As the moment froze through my fingers, a pair of dark eyes stood upside-down before his own.

Find the Dred and the Bloodline.