Essentia Animus

02-Independent Narrative

The midday sun burned brightly at the peek of a busy day. The Schorlwood Forest stood tranquil in its luminosity, a peaceful abode filled with nature's bounty.

"Awesome!" Srynihxaezhiyl of the Maexiqhezyhr family closed her book after having completed her reading of its contents. The book was titled 'Crystalline Blossoms', and was a record left from the beginning of the Instrumentation Era. Srynie personally loved so many of the books that came from that period, stories that spoke of myths and legends called the Terran Mythos. She held a strong fascination for the complete Terran Mythos, stories of another world called Earth and the wonders it beheld. Sure, she knew it was just fantasy stories, nothing like that could really exist because it defied all sense of logic. But it was such fanciful ideas that had begun the Instrumentation Era, and a large number of existing creations had been discovered simply because of the Mythos. She was certain that there was still much more fact beneath fiction to be discovered from the collection, given the opportunity.

The problem for her was just how much of an opportunity she could muster. In the little village she called home, she had found plenty of free time to commit to her reading of such stories, but getting access to such books out here had proven challenging at best. No one here cared for such books nearly as much as she did, so convincing people to have new books found and brought to the village was proving more and more impossible every day. The book she had just finished, the latest addition to her collection, she had actually been given for her seventeenth birthday last spring. She had hoped for another book for her upcoming birthday this year, but as spring approached she was coming to terms with the idea that she might not be so fortunate.

After the passing moment of awe in having finished her book concluded, she began to calm down once again. She had really almost committed the book to memory already, much like all of the others, so reading it wasn't even much of an accomplishment. Her excitement was almost simply artificial optimism in the reality of her circumstances. What inspired her the most in this book was its professional outlook on its circumstances, making a business from a presented opportunity. Most of it wasn't as fictional as most of the Terran Mythos, it spoke of the inspiration behind the Instrumentation Era, and the Tomes that came from it. Such Tomes included the Terran Mythos, in addition to tomes that inspired a dramatic growth of the gift in all corners of the world. It was said that the gift was dependent on a person's ability to imagine a desired result, so maybe emulating fiction and using it to empower a sense of imagination caused new and unexpected discoveries. Certainly, from there, business opportunities blossomed endlessly as new advancements were made with the gift, so the book made sense.

However, just as the Terran Mythos was tales of another world, so was any concept of being a part of discoveries and businesses invested upon it and the gift. Such a thing might happen in the big cities, but nothing like that even brought passing grace to her little village, the same village she should probably return to. She wasn't that far away, and she didn't have any actual responsibilities, but she wanted to make sure her precious books were kept safe. Having completed this one, she planned to have it put away safely as she goes to occupy her thoughts with something else. As the daughter of the village chief, she was at least expected to be around, even if she did little else. Her older brother held most of the responsibilities that weren't already completed by her parents, but that didn't stop her from wanting to be helpful. It's just that very few people were willing to ever make a request of her ever, that did do a lot in preventing her from being helpful.

Making her way back to the village, Srynie took the opportunity to watch the trees begin to bud their springtime blossoms. Schorlwood Trees blossom with azure leaves in the spring, which often makes for a beautiful sight to behold. Such a sight wasn't even possible beyond the forest, where such trees didn't grow as frequently and even replanting the trees elsewhere resulted in the leaves blossoming in a lime colour instead. Even this novelty was passing, it was that same lime-tone that the leaves adopted after spring passed on, as if it was the color they were always supposed to hold. Everyone thought that the azure leaves were beautiful, but Srynie thought they looked sad. To her, it was almost as if the trees did not want to blossom here, the azure a protest to the undesired conditions, and the adoption of their true color only a submission to the inevitable. She understood those thoughts all too personally, she herself was living in the same cycle of captivity.