The Ashes of Allmau: The Orfolk of Allmau

Chapter 5

Apia followed the afternoon sun over the hills to the tablelands. All onboard who weren't propelling it forward prepared for the neighbourhood gathering. This had taken much of the attention away from the morning's misadventure, leaving Kydd time to reflect.

He rolled Rune around in his paws, hoping for some kind of sign or explanation. Apparently, he was about the same size as her when he was discovered on Red Bed, struggling to carry the little pith along. She'd not left his side since.

In those early days, no one had questioned his closeness to the rock. Kids do odd things after all. As he'd gotten older, however, she transformed into his cumbersome keepsake. But was she in fact the source of his curse? His inability to join the flow of Apia, to understand the thoughts and feelings of those around, was this because of her?

Perhaps she had some significance to those early days, to his life before Apia. The aetherforms were certainly intrigued. They clustered around objects of interest and fed back what they felt. Rune felt of nothing, she was void to Apia. The exact opposite to what she meant to him.

The pyronaut came to rest at the top of the hill, bringing Kydd's attention to the tablelands. This landscape was a true representation of Allmau. Vast, open and for the better part, dead. The giants that once lived here had created stone walls and cottages, all of which now crumbled into the dirt. When the fire devoured everything it left behind only the most hardy and horrid of life. The only selflessness, compassion and kindness that could be found anymore hid within the pyronauts.

Far ahead, several others were gathering from all directions, descending upon a petrified tree in the middle of the plateau. This was a common occurrence, a brief convergence of the aether. They traded, helped and healed one another, before setting back out into the deadlands to continue the never-ending quest of survival.

The largest of them all, Teurim, strode from the deep deadlands. A great tower of a machine, holding itself together with pullies and cables and drawing with it a flock of little birds. Its long legs swung beneath it, kicking and crushing boulders in its way.

From the mountains came Coleop. Inspired by the kilopedes it drove along the ground on caterpillar tracks, the town itself was a mystery as it hid under a hard raptor-proof shell, ploughing aside anything in its way with a makeshift cattlegrid.

Aragni floated into frame. Carried on a large raft of fused balloons and led by long, spindle legs, steering it through the air as an oarsman navigates his boat. Riding upon the bulbous body of the spider-like creature was a hitchhiker, Kyte. They were a frugal but friendly, tight-knit group of families, the smallest of the pyronuts here, who'd taken to the sky to survey and map the lands.

The last Kydd saw was Loopa. A pyronaut that took on the ferocious form of an extinct predator. Loopa raced across the deadlands on two wheels, rearing onto its back wheel as it wove between the legs of Teurim. Two scythe fingered arms opened out either side of it, as if preparing to capture some small deadland prey. They swept through the air, cutting aside debris kicked up by Teurim, protecting an ornamental horned skull mounted at the front of the machine.

Each pyronaut had its own population, its own culture, colour, and its own way of seeing things. There was so much more potential in this world, but he could only explore it if he could connect to it.

Apia rested upon the hill, preparing to descend and join the gathering. Kydd knew what was about to happen and felt the pressure growing upon him. He had to choose whether he wanted to be part of this world or remain peripheral to it. Given his plan, now was his chance to make that choice.

He kissed Rune's coarse surface and placed her on the raft. Apia hissed as it prepared for its descent. The two front legs lay flat to the ground, while the smaller legs aimed it for a winding dirt road that cut down the hills to the gathering below.