Celestial Roots

Chapter 2 - A whole new world

The sun was so bright that she had to cover her face with her hands. After the disconcerting ease with which she had exposed herself on the outside, she doubted again the usefulness of such a bold act. Blind as she was, she found herself unable to do anything but defend herself against the elements.

What surprised her the most was the biting air that passed through each gap between her gloves and touched her face. The smallest emanation of cold assailed her skin. Even if it was just breathing, her lungs were burning, despite the small puffs she was taking. She inhaled the air through her mouth and closed it as if she was chewing on an almost tangible food. Her teeth were painful and she started hiccuping, not knowing which ailments to treat first.

She realized that panic was invading her mind. Recalling all the times she had been in a perilous situation, the advice of her guardians came to mind. She took a few breaths through her nose. This turned out to be an idea with a dubious result because the blades that passed through her nostrils competed with the pain that pierced her eyes when she was trying to open them. She wanted to sneeze, hold her breath, and most importantly, see where she was going to go to return to the maternal comfort of the house. Whining in fear and pain, she squatted down in a primary protective reflex.

She forced herself to calm down. She gathered all the will she had and concentrated on her breath. After a few unsuccessful attempts, she began to breathe normally and realized that the air was not as sharp after a few slow and deep breaths. She could hear blows ringing around her. It took her a long time to realize that he néach had to work hard to break the walls of other houses. The regular noise, muffled by her hat, echoed in her ears.

Taghna eventually regained control of her emotions and stood up again by lowering the protection of her arms. She had won, once again. Asgeül and Slavan had only to watch out. Behind her closed eyelids, a red glow shone, as if it was almost animated by a life of its own. The shadows and colours fluctuated and she couldn't grasp their origins. She quickly gave up her questions for fear of running into some bad news.

She then half-opened her eyes and hastened to look for Araig and Vorn. The two women had always been her landmarks. They had never left her before. One of them was using a branch to knock down a wall while the other one cleared the pieces that were blocking her movements. Taghna took a few steps on the snow in their direction, out of habit, but rather than joining them, her gaze clung to a new element, almost by chance. She turned her head and felt like she was being hit in the chest.

The foreign beauty of the landscape exploded in front of her eyes. An unimaginable amount of snow surrounded her. Its whiteness shone and prevented her from discerning the surroundings, composed of majestic trees. The distance between her and the edge of the clearing seemed gigantic because she was so used to walking through her universe in a few steps. In her head, it would take her whole days to explore only their small village. The world around her was so vast that her mind refused, or rather was unable, to imagine beyond what she had before her eyes. She also realized how ignorant she was, almost in proportion to what she still had to discover. A growing dizziness rose to her head, mixed with fear and excitement.

Her other senses were also in shock. The smells that came to her, pure, damp and clear, were all new. She seemed to recognize some of them, with the somewhat frustrating feeling of remembering something without being able to put her finger on it. Nevertheless, the scents alone were sufficient to depict a cosmos of fabulous density and complexity.

Taghna had the impression that the first moments of her life, filled with unforgettable memories, adventures and discoveries, more or less violent uproar followed by slight reprimands, were only the backbone of a prodigious beast waiting only to be observed, tamed, explored and hunted.