Jīvitaya Rai Naji is just an average human girl. Orphaned, but nothing stranger than that.
She was one of the few witnesses to the first alien invasion on Earth. One day, many years later, she catches sight of one of them following her. She wonders...
She wakes up still curled up against him, just with a blanket draped over her shoulders. She cranes her head to look at him and smothers a giggle. His head is tilted back to rest against the wall, and he is snoring softly. She carefully extricates herself from him and gets ready for the day before pulling out her tablet to read for a bit. About a chapter into her book, there is a soft knock at the door. Jīvitaya walks over to it and opens it quietly. Grania is standing at the door.
"That's good, you're already up. Are you ready to go?"
Jīvitaya nods and slips her tablet into her pocket after folding it. She steps out of the room and quietly closes the door behind her.
"Lady Jīvitaya, is there any place you would prefer to be while I teach you?"
"Is it possible for us to be outside?"
"It is quite possible, but we will have to be wary while we are out there. There is a reason why our city is so well hidden and is below the ground."
Jīvitaya nods, and Grania leads her out of the palace, through the city as it wakes, and out the cliff door. She keeps going until she passes the ship and enters the forest. She stops in a clearing a little ways past the tree line and sits down, tucking her legs beneath herself. Jīvitaya follows suit and settles in the wild grasses across from Grania.
"Lady Jīvitaya, is there anything you wish to know before we begin?"
"I'm sorry if it's rude, but why is your skin and hair the way it is?"
Grania smiles and gives a brief laugh. "That wasn't rude at all. You are entitled to learn about us. Our skin matches the stones of our land and our hair matches the trees. If you are one of us, I would say you are quinta and linobie, similar to your earthen quartz and ebony, with quinta being a tiny bit more cream-colored."
"Why?"
Grania looks confused. "Why, what?"
"Why do you match the stones and the trees?"
Grania nods sagely. "I suppose my people are like the nymphs of your Earth stories. We each embody a stone and tree, to show the balance of our world. Soil comes from rocks and nourishes our plants and in turn, the trees help create more soil. It is a perfect cycle. Each of us has a pendant or a bracelet, which contains pieces of our stone and tree. For instance, my pendant," she lifts it up "is granite and riodan."
"What do you do?"
"We go out in the forest during the day to hunt and to analyze the forest, to make sure that it is in balance, and if it is not, we try to fix it. Come, let me show you."
She stands and holds out a hand to Jīvitaya, who takes it and rises to her feet. Grania strides off into the woods. Jīvitaya rushes to catch up to her as she moves farther into the array of trees. Finally, Grania stops before a twisted tangle of branches, and Jīvitaya stops behind her just before she can crash into Grania. At first, the trees just look like they normally would, but then Jīvitaya feels a whisper pass through her. The tree before them suddenly starts to throb with darkness from among the glowing trees surrounding it, and then the vision disappears as quickly as it came. Jīvitaya breaths sharply, and Grania turns around to look at Jīvitaya after hearing her gasp out a breath.
"Did you see something?" Jīvitaya nods numbly. "What did you see?!"
"All the trees were suddenly filled with light, but this one was throbbing with darkness instead. Is it sick?"
Grania bobs her head, her face set in a frown that contrasts with her sparkling eyes. "Not quite, let me show you."
She takes Jīvitaya's hand and directs her to kneel by the tree's roots before pressing her hand to the damp earth around the base of the tree. She waits patiently, until Jīvitaya sees the world flash around her once more, showing glowing dots distributed through the earth. There are none around the tree's roots, and she presses further into the ground, trying to seek out further information.
"The tree doesn't have any nutrients?"
Grania bounces on the balls of her feet, her childlike action contrasting with the sternness of her appearance. "Correct."
"How do we help it?"
"Look again. Do you see an area where there are too many nutrients?"
"There, by that tree."
She points across the clearing to another tree that looks like all the others, but with dense light packed among its roots.
"Try to pull them over here."
Jīvitaya tries and is discouraged at first by the lack of movement. She tries again, and slowly, so slowly, the light shifts and spreads out until it reaches the sickly tree. As the light reaches its roots, Jīvitaya sees it slowly spread up through the roots to the rest of the tree. She pulls her hand away, panting.
Grania beams at her. "You did very well. That is what we do, that is our strength. Now come, you must be tired and hungry, and it is growing dark." Startled, Jīvitaya looks up at the sky. Grania is right, the sun is setting.
"How long?"
"You were connected with the forest for several hours. With time, you will learn to work faster and remain more aware of your surroundings."
They rush back to the city, racing against the approaching darkness, and when Jīvitaya reaches their rooms, Kysanden is waiting for her with a tray of food. She eats quickly before falling into an exhausted sleep.
——————————————————————————————— What do you think this ability of Jīvitaya's means? Does she belong on Gaia?
Now, here is your chapterly picture of Jīvitaya!
Oops! This image does not follow our content guidelines. To continue publishing, please remove it or upload a different image.
