Darian was able to sleep peacefully, nothing bad happened during that night and as he woke up the next morning, he felt a sense of relief. Snowy was sleeping peacefully next to him, and knowing that he was doing fine made Darian feel happier.
As Darian opened his eyes, he stretched and looked over Snowy who had just opened his eyes. "Morning," said Darian smiling as he slowly patted Snowy.
The moment he came out of the door, Snowy was already laying on his shoulder. The right moment Darian went out, Liro did the same. "Hey Darian!" said Liro as he ran towards him already full of energy in the morning.
"Morning Liro, did you just wake up?" asked Darian smiling. Liro nodded his head, "Yeah, I was waiting for you or Vane to wake up."
"Is Vane still sleeping or did he already wake up?" asked Darian as he walked together with Liro towards the room of Vane.
"He's still sleeping. He doesn't rest well if he is in a bed. He must be tired from all the travel we had… guess we can't blame him." At the end of the sentence Liro sighed. Darian laughed softly.
The two of them went downstairs. Naluri heard the footsteps of the two men going down the stairs and immediately reached them. "Morning, were you two able to sleep peacefully?" Naluri waited for the two to arrive downstairs before returning to the kitchen.
"It was really peaceful… we haven't slept like that for days," answered Darian as he and Liro reached the kitchen too.
"Oh oh, I'm so glad to hear that." Naluri sat down on the chair before returning to sew something.
"By the way… I was wondering why the hell there is this much grass around here," said Darian as he and Liro sat down on the chairs near a table with some fruit on top of it. Liro reached out to grab some of it, but stopped in the middle of the act wondering if that was actually for them.
Naluri stopped sewing for a moment and waved with her hand. "Please help yourselves." Liro grabbed a knife near the plate and started to peel one of the fruit.
Snowy came down off Darian's shoulder and positioned himself on the table in front of Liro, probably waiting for some fruit to eat.
Before speaking again, Naluri returned to sew what seemed to be a scarf. "Is it that strange to see this much grass in this place?" asked her joking.
"It wasn't rare in the old world… but there was never this much, especially all the flowers I saw, they don't usually grow here."
"The reason is much simpler than what you might think, and it is a story that had its root around 200 years ago, right before the city was created."
Darian looked at Naluri with curious eyes, wondering about the story the old woman was about to tell. Naluri glanced over Darian's eyes and felt happy that she could tell such stories.
"What do you know about the history of Yalemba?" asked Naluri as she kept sewing, her hands moving perfectly synchronized.
"We were told that it was a sort of union between all the small villages who weren't part of a big city," answered Darian. Naluri listened and nodded her head.
"That is true. All the small villages were slowly dying, the cities were becoming too overcrowded and there was no more place for the people, and here is why Yalemba is very important." Naluri started to tell about the story of the city. Darian immediately focused again on the old woman's words, while Liro gave a small piece of fruit to Snowy.
"There was a really important person in the small village of Yalemba… an alterid like us who had the power to replicate nature. He could create flowers and plants as much as he liked, in fact Yalemba was already how you have seen it." Naluri stopped sewing for a moment before looking out the window. This window had a view of the biggest tree in the middle of the city.
Naluri then returned to sew before unfolding other mysteries of the city.
"As I was saying, Yalemba has always been like this. We had our traditions and our way of living, so what Yalemba did was to go around these small villages and bring them to us, so they had a better place to live."
Before the villages would all unite under a single name, the whole Africa was full of these small towns. These villages, one was bigger than the other, and they were placed randomly on the land. Sometimes the villages built closer to each other would unite and become stronger, but there were multiple problems.
The fear of an attack from krukins was always there. They knew they were in the desert so the krukins wouldn't be able to reach them, but what if they would be able to evolve? That would mean that the desert wouldn't be an issue anymore, and these small towns would be the first ones to be destroyed.
Many villages were all across the sea, thanks to that they wouldn't need to go to the mainland to grab food, but for the many others it wasn't that easy.
They had to survive, and these villages would barely surpass 100 people. In some of them there weren't even alterids, so many expeditions ended very badly.
That is when many villages had to find a way to survive. They went searching for a place that could help them, that is when they found Yalemba, a paradise for such poor creatures. They were rejected by the three big cities of the time; they couldn't hold many more people.
"Thanks to a group of people, they were able to gather every small village around the land, and Yalemba was able to give them a place to live in peacefully. It was an offer they couldn't refuse, especially because it was good for both of us." As Naluri kept speaking, Vane had woken up and he remained focused on the story that Naluri was narrating.
"The power to create plants… I wish I knew someone like that," said Darian as he wondered how good it would be, he could study them easily without having to worry about gathering them for himself.
"Eheh, as far as I knew it wasn't easy to use, he needed to study them before," said Naluri as she laughed softly. The morning passed without any problem. She grabbed the scarf in her hand to see how it ended up. It was a beautiful red and although there was still something she could add, it looked really great.
"Study? Was there someone who knew plants well?" asked Darian confused, wondering if someone else had studied plants after the catastrophe.
"Not exactly, did you see the huge tower not far from the city?"
"Do you mean the one that was inside the small lake?" asked Liro as he ended up petting Snowy. Darian looked a bit jealous.
"Is it something from the old world?" asked Vane as he got closer to Darian, who jumped from the chair scared. "When did you get here?!" asked Darian surprised. Everyone looked confused.
"Didn't you see me coming here?" asked Vane as he laughed softly.
"I was too distracted by what Naluri was telling us…" whispered Darian as things became awkward for him. "By the way… now that I think about it, before I went to XERBAB-7 I remember that something like that had just been created, but I can't remember the purpose," said Darian as he tried to remember why it was built, but nothing came to mind.
'Now that I think about it, no one ever explained that even if I was an important person…' thought Darian as he came to the conclusion that the tower was used for some experiment, but nothing too important.
"It was here even before Yalemba was created, we don't know the purpose of that neither… but as they explored it, they found this diary… which had multiple information about many plants. It felt like it was written by someone like you haha," laughed softly Naluri.
"I want to see that," said Darian as he got up from the chair and slammed his hand on the table. Everyone jumped in shock.
"Lily is the one who is currently keeping that, you know that girl has always been so interested in plants and flowers, she can't stop reading it over and over again."
"Where can I find her?" asked Darian as he calmed himself.
"She is near the tower, she spends most of her day there," finished speaking Naluri as she breathed heavily. She wasn't used to speaking this much, so she felt a bit tired.
"Guess we're going with him," said Vane as he got up from the chair. Liro did the same with Snowy still in his hands.
"Well, we're going. Bye Naluri!" said Darian waving his hand towards the old person, who smiled warmly as she waved back.
As the group came out, they found themselves right in the street. Around them there were multiple people who walked around, many of them. The right moment Darian and the others came out, they gave them weird looks.
"They don't like us…" whispered Liro. Snowy came down off Liro's hands and jumped again on Darian's shoulder.
"It seems like they aren't really used to outsiders…" said back Darian still whispering.
"I think they just need to know us," said Vane with a totally different tone as he walked towards a group of women who were looking at them weirdly.
Vane walked normally towards them with a big smile. The women felt scared and walked back, leaving Vane all by himself.
"Guess it doesn't work," said Liro as he and Darian walked closer to Vane, who had a big disappointed look on his face.
Right after that they heard again some footsteps that were going towards them. As they turned back they saw Archie, who had his fishing rod and had an empty bucket in his hand.
"Hey, you are the outsiders of yesterday," said him. Everyone felt relieved to see a face who wasn't looking at them weirdly.
"Don't worry, that is normal… there are many people here who are scared of outsiders, it isn't your fault," said him as he walked right in front of the group. "Many of them have heard the stories from their ancestors about the people from the other cities being really bad and evil."
"Us Tideflares don't hate outsiders, except for Garoo… he doesn't enjoy them much," said Archie as he looked over the cliff where Garoo was probably playing his flute.
"Oh well thank you… by the way can you please get us to the tower? I think that if they see us with someone they're familiar with, they might treat us better," said Darian. Archie agreed.
"I was thinking about going around there too, you know the place around it is really peaceful, I can fish without anyone bothering me," said Archie as he started to lead the way.
The group passed in the street that had fewer people. The few people that were there watched the group with weird eyes, but as soon as they saw Archie they moved their eyes away and whispered between themselves.
After some minutes of walking they reached the tower. Two paths were in front of them. "You can take that one that will bring you directly near the tower, while I'll go here," said Archie as he waved at the group, who did the same and started to walk towards the tower.
This tower was really huge. The highest part of it was closer to the clouds and you could see that a part of the tower was inside the small lake.
Near this lake, the group spotted Lily almost immediately. She was sitting near some flowers with a small book in her hands.
"Heyy Lilyy!!" shouted Vane as he rushed towards her. The others walked slower towards her.
"Ohh hellooo," said Lily surprised to see them here. As they got closer she closed the diary in her hands and Darian recognized it almost immediately. Darian, without giving the moment to think what was happening, immediately ran towards Lily.
"Let-let me see that diary a moment," said Darian as he breathed heavily. Lily watched him with weird eyes, Liro and Vane were confused too.
"What is it Darian? Are you this much excited to see this diary?" asked Vane as he got closer to him.
"It isn't only that…" said Darian as Lily gave him the diary a bit scared. Darian started to leaf through it.
"I know this diary… I helped my friend writing it," said Darian as it looked like he was searching for something. He found a page with many drawings of flowers and the words that were written in a different way.
"What do you mean Darian?" asked Liro confused as he walked closer towards him.
"I wrote this page…" whispered Darian. Lily, after hearing that, looked at him with sparkling eyes.