Chapter 1: Coldness Bites
He turned around and with one last breath of home, inhaled the scent of warmth. A desire to be wrapped up in Mother Earth held him in place. He recalled his Mother's hugs and his brother Toris' chest bump just before he had departed.
"You will travel the path that you are meant to, my son. Then your true life's purpose will be revealed to you."
As he contemplated his Mother's soothing words, SkyGod's cold wind bit into him.
At first, his toes tingled, but this tingling bore little resemblance to a pleasant feeling; like his Abi's─his grandfather's, tickling of his feet or the nip from the caves' little rodent and crustacean creatures when his clothes would come undone.
No. This tingling pricked his exposed skin as if he had brushed up against the brittle spines of a sea urchin. It forced him to move. At first, he walked but the wind kept pushing him sideways. Frustrated with his slow progress, he turned his head upward and shouted at SkyGod:
"Are you trying to stain me all white, so that I will blend into your pale light? Was I not sufficiently contrite? Now do me one favour and leave my sight."
His heart beat erratically, his mind raced, and his breath shallowed.
"I need to drown these creeping fears of SkyGod and solve my tribe's problems. But that's a lot of weight for anyone to carry."
He exhaled and saw the plume of vapour. It transfixed his gaze and attention.
"Oh what a strange and frigid wasteland. I have to wriggle free from the grip of SkyGod's hand."
Sabis crouched low to the ground. This is where he felt most at ease. Close to the source of Mother Earth's warmth, her underlying brown soil and dense moisture would appease. But this hardened and greyer soil differed. It felt dry and spent. Depleted of gemstone dust and insect life, it slipped through his mud-covered digits as if it had sinned and wished to hide from scrutiny. This scorned land needed to repent. And so did he. But he had no time to ponder his predicament for he was on a rescue mission.
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SABIS the SURVIVOR
Science FictionThe warrior affliction had taken another life. Tasked by the Elder Council to find a cure, Sabis set out from the underground caves into SkyGod's domain. He faced SkyGod with only his deep respect for Mother Earth, the love and rituals of his tribe...
