Maybe I was in the wrong… Pfft, kidding. It was you, one hundred percent.

Timeline/World: Newfound Worlds – Iais’i
Current Date: August 21, 2617

Character: Aurore
Race: Deity – Wind
Age: Ageless, physically about 22
Current residence: Almir, Taylien
 

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I am plenty aware that calling them peasants is a little unfair to them. Not all of them are peasants but, to me, almost everyone out there is going to be a peasant in some way. I don’t mean that in a bad way, not really. I just mean that in the fact that they are mortal, and their lives are just so very different from mine. For the most part, as it stands, the vast majority of them are peasants one way or another if one looks at the origins of the term itself. They work the land, they fish, they hunt, they gather. I truly mean nothing negative with this statement, it simply is what it is.

Now, I tend to not make a habit of arguing with the peasants. It feels rather moot and pointless, mostly because, despite all things, a vast majority of them seem quite self-centred and believe they hold the truth to everything. At least, this has been the case with the few I have interacted with who were not from the vicinity of the royal grounds. Those within the royal grounds have possibly gotten used enough to my presence that they know better.

I don’t believe I have the all-knowledge. That would be stupid. I know all I need to know as far as my gift is concerned but the rest are things that I still do learn as I go.

So, I’m sure that my point can be understood when I say that arguing with someone about the source and nature of wind, how it travels, how fast it can get and the benefits of it are things that I fairly refuse to budge on. Most of the time, I don’t even really bother with arguing, I just ignore the idiocies that come out of their mouths, and I move on.

This particular scene, however, was taking place between an elder and a young girl. I’ve seen her around, the little one. She has a fascination with all things wind-related and it has made her a fairly curious person for me to be around. She’s always asking questions and is wide-eyed when faced with the answers. I don’t think she can be much more than eight or nine. Still so very young, at least in my books.

I itched to put that elder back in his place. I’ve seen how he acts towards the younger generation as though they’re all lazy and will not amount to anything. I don’t understand why they still have him teaching these younger ones when it is so very clear that he has no respect whatsoever for them.

At one point, he seemed to relent, and I almost walked away but it was short-lived. Mind you, I wasn’t even very far from them, I was in plain sight, I know he’d seen me, but she hadn’t since she had her back to me. He told her that maybe he’d been in the wrong. The way her eyes lit up was precious but then, barely seconds later, he snorted, said that nope, he wasn’t in the wrong, she was the one who was a hundred percent in the wrong.

The poor child just looked like he’d taken everything away from her and she ran off in tears. The man is cruel and once she was gone, I merely stared him down and he didn’t hold eye contact for very long. It only took him a few moments before he dropped his gaze and walked away with his invisible tail tucked between his leg.

I know that this isn’t going to fix the problem. I know that he’s wary of me if he’s not outright scared of me and tends to avoid me at all costs, especially when I’m near enough to him that he knows I’m there. It’s not enough to get him to act in any way that might be different from how he was before. The little ones are not going to grow up believing they can achieve anything if he keeps on beating them down the way he does.

I do need to talk to Ultan about this. I figure that if anyone can do anything about it, it should be him. It is his rule at this point, after all. His and Ayaka’s, but I know that his word still carries more weight than hers, even if people might want to believe otherwise. The equality is not fully in place, but things are better than they were when she first showed up. Not of her own free will, that, but still. That’s for another time altogether.

Final Word Count: 772

I’m always getting lost. In your eyes. Ha! Got you.

 
Timeline/World: Newfound Worlds – Iais’i
Characters: Aurore
Race: Deity – Wind
Age: Ageless, physically about 22
Current residence: Almir, Taylien
Final Word Count: 814 words
 

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I don’t think that I expected my heart to flutter the way it did when I first saw him. Now, up until I stepped off of the boat and up those cliffs, I hadn’t stepped away from Dacharye. According to all of our own laws, we’re not supposed to step off the island. It’s to keep us from… something. I don’t know. Even our own origins are a bit muddled. I know that we come to be as we’re needed. Some of us are older than the others but age doesn’t matter and none of us really keep track. Some deities used to pop up randomly. Created through the fact that someone was praying for them. Some that do come up like that don’t last very long.

I feel like there is something about the island itself. There is a coalescing of powers that make the place special. I know that some will never leave it. Life and Death both would not do so well off of the island. Death needs to be there to deal with the pools of soul, life… well for much the same reason. I don’t know why I left the island, other than the fact that I was fairly bored and, well, Thunder and Lightning both had also left. Monkey-see, monkey-do, I guess. I know that there are at least five of us roaming off of the island at this point. There could be more, but I know of us five.

Music roams with the man she took under her wings. I never thought her the type to allow her heart to settle on one. Though I suppose I have little room to talk, right? I’ve done the same. I knew that Lightning had been off of the island before. He’d lost the one his heart had claimed a few times over already and I didn’t envy him the pain. Thunder was never very far behind him, not quite tied at the hip, these two, but never far. Water, quiet as he is, has settled a protective heart around his own songbird and it is best to not cross him as his nature can and will change if protection is needed.

Then, there’s little old me. All the Wind in the world and here I am, by the waters, with this man, his wife, their child, and the guard. Though, by all means, only two truly matter to me on this list. Not that I overlook Ayaka or Alaric. They are their own person and have no need for my presence near them. The little one is growing up fast and while I’ve helped with him some, he is no flesh and blood of mine and most bigger decision regarding him are out of my hands and that is quite all right. Really.

Ultan is something else. The first glimpse I had of him was not a flattering one, but I suppose that first impressions are not always best impressions. Most try to make the best of him, but the first glimpse—not the first meeting—was not all that great. It still makes me smile somewhat to think of it, however, and in a way, seeing him in disarray as I did, it feels as though I saw a side of him I would not have seen any other day.

It took me some time before I was willing to admit that, yes, I found myself often getting lost, but only in his eyes; in his heart; somewhere on the pathway seeking his soul. The thought frightens me a little. I don’t think I’m quite ready to deal with the kind of knowledge that comes attached to these statements. I know that I love this man. I love all parts of him equally but the idea that I might be willing to go to lengths to find him again, as my brother has done, again and again, terrifies me.

I have no desire to lose my mind, nor my heart, on these potential searches for him. What if, a long time from now, when I find him again, he is so young that I have to watch from afar? What if I never actually find him or, when I do, he actually is so old that our chances during that particular life are gone? What if I find him only to lose him to something terrible?

I really don’t know how Lightning does it. I just don’t. The idea is simply unsettling. I think, though, that it unsettles me because I have begun to think about the possibilities of this happening and that means I am in so deep that there are few chances of going back from there. I know that I have plenty of time yet, but, still.

All I can do is take things one day after the other, however. And that’s what I’m doing.

None of you stopped me, so I assume you all enjoyed me making a fool of myself.

 
Timeline/World: Newfound Worlds – Iais’i
Characters: Aurore
Race: Deity – Wind
Age: Ageless, physically about 22
Final Word Count: 668 words
 

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Mortals are… something else. I’m aware that I shouldn’t generalize, that’d be just idiotic but some of the residents I’ve seen come and go recently have just proved my point. I’m not sure what they were, besides travellers. Their skin was darker, I imagine they might have been from the earthen lands. The lands of agriculture; the lands where sand and jungle have no say; the land where there likely are a few lakes but nothing the size of the ocean.

Had they come from the jungles, I know I would have recognized them; there are certain features that define them exactly as they are. The same can be said from those who are sand born, a few marked features and, of course, their much darker skin. Quite a few of the residents of the water’s edge are oddly pale, considering how much time they spend in the sun. The people from the earthen lands are the ones I have had fewer meetings with and it probably is why I can’t always tell when they are the ones who come. Then again, by a simple process of elimination, they remain the prime candidates.

I could be wrong, but I doubt it.

Within the small groups of travellers, there was a pair of young teenagers. They could not have been much older than thirteen or so. Old enough by some standards to be considered ‘of age’ for a lot of things but, as people age better, I suppose that being ‘of age’ comes a little later now. It’s strange, I guess, to see that people are already living somewhat longer lives. It’s comforting at the same time; I’m not going to lie.

These two, I imagine they were either brother and sister or perhaps cousins of sorts. Their features were similar enough to put them in the same family but to which degree, who knows. Not that I make a habit of trying to figure out these things, not really. The girl was very outgoing whereas the boy was much shyer, subdued, almost.

At one point, the girl was clearly stepping past certain, how do I call them, boundaries? As guests to the locality they were visiting, she should have been acting a certain way but she was constantly flitting from one merchant stall to the next, touching everything and the adults in her little group clearly weren’t aware of her behaviour. The boy was, and he certainly looked horrified.

When she came back to him, I think she must have taken one look at his face and realized that she’d been making a fool of herself. I heard her mutter under her breath about how no one tried to stop her, so they must have enjoyed watching her put her foot in it but it was clear her words were directed to the boy himself and seeing him hunch his shoulder so much lower broke my heart. I wish I could have taught that girl a few things but it’s not my place after all, is it?

I might or might not have made sure that the wind swept away a good few things from the little basket she’s been carrying around the market and I have no regrets. It might have been a childish reaction to her behaviour but it wasn’t as though I pushed the wind about to shove her around until she fell off a cliff side. You could say that’s my motherly side being overprotective over the boy and yet, as one who will never have children of her own, it’s hard to imagine what being motherly really is about.

Not that I haven’t spent my share of time with Loki, of course. He’s an adorable one and that might be where my somewhat overprotective nature comes from. He’s the first little one I’ve really been around, at least for more than just in passing and I adore him to bits. He’s just absolutely darling. At least… most of the time, he’s darling.

I’ve been an awful person to you and I want to change that.

 
Timeline/World: Iais’i
Characters: Aurore
Race: Deity – Wind
Age: Ageless, physically about 22
Final Word Count: 655 words
 

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There are arseholes everywhere. I’m looking at you, Brother. Though he’s mellowed out a lot since coming to these lands and I call him my brother but we’re all more or less ‘related’ on the island. We’re all born from the same general sense of need and I suppose that it does make us related, in the end.

Not that it has stopped any of them from doing dirty things behind closed doors and not always behind closed doors but we can’t have kids, so I suppose that it’s up to them to decide what they can and cannot do.

Though some are bigger arses than others and I don’t even need to look Lightning’s way for that. He was never one of the biggest issues, not with Thunder sort of mellowing him out. They’ve always been together, at least while they were on the island. Once off that island, though, I know they haven’t always been together but it’s not been so bad. Beyond that one village they destroyed for safety reasons but I’m not even going to get into that.

You have to understand, I’m not even doing this to point fingers, I’m just doing this because it reminds me that there are bigger idiots out there than the ones I have to deal with here now and again. I remember when the world was still technically young, when people were still trying to figure things out and not a single one of us has ever left the island.

There were arseholes everywhere on that island at the time. You could just look to your left or to your right and it was possible that there was one right next to you because I don’t think most of us were ‘old’ enough to be able to really calm down and settle into our skin. You have to understand that we didn’t just poof into existence. We were born from there being a necessity for our presence. That being, there still were newborn deities on that island when I left.

Now, there was one particular idiot, someone whose main ‘residence’ wasn’t very far from me and he was the worst of them all. He might or might not be the reason why I left.

Just before I did leave, he came to me, telling me that he’d realized just how awful a person he’d been to me—and others—and he wanted to change that but it was clear in the way he was presenting that particular apology that he wasn’t ready to change just yet. There were little signs left and right and I haven’t asked to know about his behaviour since I’ve left. I’m not interested in knowing whether or not he really has changed.

I’m sure that in a lifetime or so, perhaps when my current companion passes on as it would feel wrong to leave before he does and I’m honestly a little worried about my own heart, in the long run, I might go back to the island, I might see for myself if there were any changes but… maybe I’ll be like my brother. I think a few of us are likely to be that way, as the years wear on. We might end up trying to locate the souls of those we seem to have found companionship in.

I know I certainly might try. I don’t know that I would manage and I still am baffled by how long Lightning has managed to keep hanging on to his heart. It turned him bitter, the more lifetimes went on by, but he’s so happy now that it makes you wonder just how worth it, it might all be.

I have time yet, that’s what I tell myself. He’s healthy, he’s still young—though surprisingly well aged as per the old ‘standards’ of age—and he’s got quite a few years ahead of him yet. I’ll figure it out.

Even I can see that, and I’m blind.

Timeline/World: Iais’i
Characters: Aurore
Race: Deity – Wind
Age: Ageless, physically about 22
Final Word Count: 576 words

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“Except you’re not blind.”

“Am too blind.” The woman waved a hand in front of her face wildly, making me roll my eyes a moment.

“That only proves that you’re a crazy old woman, not that you’re blind.” I was amused more than mad but this conversation was going around in circles and these circles were not going to amuse me for much longer. I didn’t care to spend extra time around this particular woman but she had knowledge of something I did not, it was why I’d sought her out.

However, I wasn’t much appreciating her tone or the answer she was giving me. I could tell she was bullshitting me and it made me wonder why I’d sought her out at all. Wait, right. She had this answer to that one question I didn’t have the answer to and she seemed to be the only one who was old enough to have been around during the time the ‘event,’ as I like to call it, happened.

Except, she was bullshitting me.

Now, I’m patient. As keeper of the wind, I’ve had to learn to be patient. It’s all nice and mighty to tell someone—not that I do—that you can control the wind, but controlling the wind? It’s a lot of air, no pun intended. Wind will go where wind desires to go and all you can do is try to get it to go in the direction you want. Once you’ve achieved that, the rest is more or less out of your hands. So to speak. There’s more to wind business than its direction but that’s for another time.

Now this woman. She was the oldest resident of the cliff-side homes, she’d seen not one but two generations of kings come and go. This was the third. They rarely lived this long around these parts so I had wanted to ask her a few questions but the moment I spoke to her, I knew she wouldn’t give me anything precise.

I started with innocent enough questions. About when she was born, about her neighbours, about little things that held no importance. All of these she answered without any issues but when I started gently prodding her about the great storm and the whale, she clammed up. Nothing I could say made her open up about the subject and there was truly no one else left alive who had been there during that time. I was starting to think she hadn’t been either and that the event happened a much longer span of time ago than I’d first been told.

I mean, it’s not like I’m torturing her to get these answers, I’m just asking innocent little questions and she’s deflecting each and every single one of them. It’s frustrating and I’m about to give up without getting the answers I want. At this point, I’m honestly wondering as to why I wanted to know in the first place, other than the fact that I’m a curious soul and knowledge about natural events that might not have been natural at all have always fascinated me. We’ve ‘lost,’ so to speak, deities over time. Some have left the islands and were never truly heard of again so I thought that just maybe, this storm had been caused by one of my own but it is clear that I’m not going to get answers. As clear as this old crazy woman isn’t blind.