Chapter Text
“Alomatir! Alomatir, come here!”
With a groan, Alomatir tried to ignore their mother calling them. But in the end, guilt won out. They turned around and watched their mother coming up from behind, trying to push through the crowd.
“Mother, I’m just going with Brehomet!” Alomatir shouted back, turning around again to try and spot their friend.
Brehomet had not slowed down and was still flying fast towards the Circle of Elders.
“No, Alomatir! Wait for me!” Alanya called out.
For a moment, Alomatir imagined ignoring her and going off to catch up with Brehomet. But they already knew deep down in their heart that they would not ignore the call from their only parent.
Sagging their tail and letting out a growl of frustration, they waited in the middle of the flyway for Alanya to catch up. At least they were not flying back to meet her, that was the only sign of rebellion that Alomatir allowed themselves.
Masses of Vermithia passed by them, mostly ignoring them and veering out of the way just in time. One of their classmates flew by, smirking at them but Alomatir only shook their mane at him.
“There you are,” Alanya sighed in relief as she caught up with them. She coiled her tail around theirs but Alomatir quickly shook it off.
“We are going to miss everything!” They protested and quickly started to follow the other Vermithia who were all flying to the center of their nebula.
“Miss what exactly?” Alanya stretched out her long neck to try and see more but the crowd was thickening now.
“A Wanderer came back,” Alomatir said casually.
Their mother almost stopped dead in her tracks, causing another holdup. “What did you say?”
“That is what was said in class,” Alomatir explained. “The Prophet was called to the Circle of Elders because a Wanderer came back.”
“But… They can’t come back,” Alanya said, her voice cracking a little with fear.
Alomatir bristled at her discomfort, getting annoyed with her again. “Well, apparently they can, and one did.”
They stopped talking as they entered the big opening in the middle of the nebula that was known as the Circle of Elders. There were already many Vermithia gathered there, forming the circles that surrounded the middle of the void in which the Elders floated.
Normally, the Elders exuded an aura of peace. They were the oldest and therefore the largest of their kind and they seemed to go through life at a different pace, moving slowly and deliberately.
But now even the Elders looked agitated as they formed the innermost circle, moving around, flashing their scales and lifting the fins on their backs.
In the middle of the circle there was a Vermithia that Alomatir had never seen before.
He was big. Not as big as the Elders that surrounded him but still rather impressive. His scales were a fiery orange, making him stand out even more than he already did in the dead center of the circles of Vermithia that surrounded him. His eyes were yellow, and they looked… amused as he scanned the gathering crowd around him.
Next to him the Prophet was talking to the chosen leader of all the Vermithia, Queen Yoahow. She was old but not as old as him. Her scales were a dark green color that Alomatir had always found quite reassuring to look at. Whenever they had had the chance to look at the Queen, which had not been often.
They had been looking forward all their life to the moment that she would call them to the Circle of Elders to declare their life’s purpose. To tell all of them that they wanted to be a Wanderer. It would have been a gathering much like this one.
Except a little less restless.
“Enough!” One of the Elders, the large red Vermithia called Erofam, suddenly stopped flying.
All of the other Elders who had been circling the Queen, the Prophet and the returned Wanderer, were forced to stop their movements too. As their circle came to a halt, so did all the others and the Vermithia settled in to listen. The only movement now was the nervous flicking of tails.
“Why are we summoned here? Erofam asked impatiently. “Who dares summon us?”
“That would be me,” the returned Wanderer answered in a very calm and melodious voice.
A ripple of murmurs moved through the crowd and Alomatir felt a thrill of excitement that they could not quite understand.
Alanya’s tail reached out again and wrapped itself around theirs.
Alomatir looked up at their mother’s face for a moment, wanting to protest the touch, but then they saw with surprise that she was frowning, looking very concerned.
“And who are you, I pray?” Erofam continued his questioning.
“You may call me… the Stranger,” the Wanderer replied with a hint of a smile.
This time the whispers that moved through the Circle were louder and some Vermithia even called out in surprise.
The Prophet flashed his multicolored scales and moved closer to the Stranger in agitation. “Who gave you this name? Names like these have to be earned! You cannot simply claim it.”
“Why not?” The Stranger asked, almost in amusement. “I gave it to myself.”
“You mean you are a stranger, even to yourself?” Erofam asked him sarcastically, earning some laughs from the crowd.
The Stranger did not seem fazed by his joke. “I mean that I knew that I would be a stranger here, so I embraced this identity.”
“You would be a stranger here because you are a chosen Wanderer!” The Prophet called out. “And Wanderers are not supposed to come back!”
“And why is that, I ask you?” The Stranger asked him and for the first time the relaxed melody in his voice grew tense. “Why should we not come back to our star cloud, to tell our people of the wonders we have found?”
“Because we do not wish to hear about it!” The Prophet countered. “All the Vermithia here have chosen to stay in our star cloud. They do not wish to know more about the stars around us than they already do.”
“Not even you?” The Stranger asked, his voice dripping with honey again. “You are a teacher; you should be curious about the worlds around you.”
“I know what I need to know,” the Prophet bit towards him. “And that is enough.”
Before the Stranger could retort, the Queen suddenly moved closer towards him.
Even he could not escape the aura of leadership and majesty that she radiated, and he bowed his head ever so slightly.
A hush fell over the gathered Vermithia as the Queen spoke in a loud and clear voice. “We are not here to discuss the knowledge of our esteemed Prophet. Rather we are here to discuss your breaking of our Ancient Law.”
“Indeed, your Majesty.” The Stranger bowed their head even further and curled up his tail. “Will you allow me to explain to you why I have come back to our star cloud? Will you allow me to tell you my story?”
The Queen’s tail flicked ever so slightly, and she eyed the crowd that was gathered before answering him. “If you can do so in a peaceful and concise manner… Yes, I will.”
The Stranger gave out a low chuckle as he too surveyed the crowd for a moment. Then he stretched out his full body and began. “I have come back to tell you about what I have found. I have come here to tell you about a very special planet which I think… could be a new home for us.”