TerraForma Elemental

Dark Stars - Ch. 5

It took me a few minutes to orient myself after that.... whatever that was. I laid on my cot and stared at the tent above me. The sun was already up.  I could hear the birds singing and my little Pebbles' deep breaths as they slept.  Slowly, I slid my feet over the edge to the cool ground below.  I could feel the earth below me.  It almost felt as though she was alive.  I knew she wasn't, of course, but I could feel all the different forms of life teeming within her. I felt like I might just grow roots and plant myself right there.  I smiled.  Today of all days, I needed to feel connected to her. Today, I needed to be at my strongest. 

Today, I gave the Pebbles a lesson in earth bending.  It would be an all day lesson, broken up by breaks and games that would help them not only become better benders, but deepened their connection with the earth.  Today, I must teach them that the earth is not just something to be manipulated, but a greater part of themselves that exists outside their bodies. Today, they had to learn to work with the earth. Today, I would teach them how to feel her, how to feel themselves. Today, we would become better benders. 

Yawning, I stood up and began to rummage through my pack for clean clothes.  It was almost time for me to give Sheena and Lyra my basket.  That was one thing I loved about being in a pod:  we all worked together to make our lives easier.  Washing clothes and dishes was primarily Sheena's job.  Lyra stepped in frequently to dry, but sometimes it was nice to have them dry on a line.  Maax nearly always cooked the food, while we took turns preparing it. I set up the tents and earth bent various structures that we might need. It was actually quite fun to build a bathtub of stone and clay and have Maax fire it for me.  As weird as it was, I had recently began experimenting with relief stations and how I could bend the earth to best benefit her and also reduce the smell that wafted up.  So far, I had experimented with some pretty complicated designs, but I had been successful at reducing the smell.  I counted it as a victory. 

Waking the girls up was a feat that became more difficult each day.  I would have to put them to bed a bit sooner each night. Eventually, we all stumbled out to the table for breakfast.  The table, I had worked to build out of stone, fallen sticks, and clay.  Maax had also fired this for me.  It was strong and could easily be broken down when we moved to the next reclamation site. We were still too young a pod to have our own site.  Eventually, we would need to settle down and pick a site to maintain.  That site would become our permanent home.  Part of me worried that it would be far away from my family and my friends.  I wanted to stay here, but then, most people did.  I had heard rumors that the work needed to be furthered out west. I wondered what our site would be like.  

My musings  lasted through breakfast and must have caused me to seem distracted.  As we were clearing the table, Sheena gently motioned for me to step into her tent.

"Klai, are you alright?" She looked worried. 

"Yes, just thinking about what the future holds for us all... thinking about where we will end up, where we will go."

She noticed my worried expression.  "Oh, Klai, you know I want more than anything to stay here near the sea and my family too. But the work out there?"  She gestured to the land around us outside of her tent, "The work out there is so important.  We want to leave this earth a better place than we found it, right? That...." she sighed here.  I knew she was wrestling with the same things I was. "That, this is vital. This is the future. This is how we always should have lived--in seasons, like her."  She stared at the earth beneath us, then parted the curtains that faced the fields. 

We stood there in silence for a few minutes, both lost in our thoughts, desires, and fears. I reached for her hand.  We stood there staring out. I was so grateful for her.  

"You know, I don't think I could do this at all, without you." 

She squeezed my hand.

"Nor I you.  Or the others.  This family means so much to me."