Synopsis
“At the beginning, Älemea was just a rock floating in space, with smaller rocks orbiting around. No water, no trees, no animals…Just a dry floating rock. No charm, no purpose…But the Gods found interest in this rock. Was it something in the ground? In the air? Maybe just pure curiosity? Nobody knows. But what people know, is that they came, and changed that rock, made the air breathable, created oceans, covered the earth with grass and trees…”
“But how did they do that?”
The old man lifts his head to look at the young Qasali that interrupted his speech, a smile forming on his wrinkled face. It was always amusing to see the young feline in middle of all the Saroshnar kids, gold fur between brown skin. The young feline has always been curious, too much maybe, but that might just be a trait of his specie.
“I don’t know, Jared. So…Where was I now? Ah yes, the trees. And they were quite happy with it, it was quite beautiful. Just imagine the wilds lands of Adara, covering Älemea. But nature isn’t enough by itself, it can’t grow, can’t evolve. Then came the animals. Mammals, birds, fishes, insects… Everything found some balance, and everything lives and prospers…Älemea was born.”
“And what about the humans?”
“And Saroshnars?”
Some of the kids asked.
“And Qasali?”
Added Jared, of course.
“I was coming to it. As for the humans, they’ll tell you they came with the Gods and were part of them, supposedly it was why they could use their magic, via the Anima they found flowing in the ground. They built cities, using the anima to help them grow and prosper; creating lights, vehicles, weapons, armors…
They quickly got dependent of this magic fluid. And that’s where come the Saroshnar. Our ancestors were humans too, but they didn’t agree with that overuse of the anima, thinking it wasn’t made to be exploited that much. As it was what created Älemea, it could make it die if they keep overexploiting it…
So they left the cities, and walked into the desert, and found the remaining of the ancient underground city of Ysalis, where we still live. Our skin darkened with time to be what it is today…”
The kids all begins to talk and jabber about that. Only Jared, the young feline boy, was still looking with expecting eyes and a flicking tail at the old man, waiting him to finish his tale.
“Please, silence, let me finish, for your little friend here…
So, after we split with the humans, they didn’t stop with their experiment with the Anima, using even more than ever, and began to really take themselves for the Gods, experimenting on animals…
Lots of failures and monstrous results, but they finally found the good formula and dosage, and created the Qasali, mixing animals and humans to make those hybrid creature. Strong, docile, agile, capable to work for them in dangerous place…
Mostly using them as slaves. And the fact they’re created by humans is why you don’t see much out of the cities, even if some escaped and came here to find refuge, and even less young ones…
Actually Jared, you’re the first one I see… And that’s what make you so special.”
The feline tilting his head on the side.
“Special?”
“Yes Jared. You may be the only child of your kind, but that means there can be others now or in the future…”
The old man was bit lost in his though, smiling. The kids jabbered again, until the man shakes his head to gather his though
“Alright, it’s all for today, go play in the yard…”
They didn’t needed more to get up and runs away, hustling a bit each other to go play. The old man was still looking the patch of gold fur in middle of them all, smiling.
