Chapter 10
Lian surfed over the edge of the canal expecting to fall into the ocean. He squeaked when he saw a smooth glass-like walkway beneath him. He landed and rolled. He laid on his back for a couple moments, stunned and confused.
Lian got to his feet. He quickly realized that he had no idea where he was. His initial response was terror. All the stories he had been told of the other worlds of the multiverse ran through his mind, none of them very pleasant. Savages, cannibals, filthy cities filled with bodies of people that had starved to death shoved into the tight corners because nobody had bothered cleaning them up.
However, after he looked around the terror was replaced with wonder and curiosity. He was surrounded by towering buildings. The walkways were made of a dull glass-like material and were lined with gently shining pale blue lights along the edges. All manner of humanoid entities walked along the walkway past him. On one side of the walkway were shops of various sorts.
Lian walked over to a rose tinted window of a clothing shop. He studied the interior of the shop curiously. It appeared as though the workers in the shop were robots. Highly functional, intelligent robots. He started to grin and went inside. He wandered the shop, looking at the clothes, but mostly just studied the robots intently. Their appearances mimicked the organic races that populated the world. But they all had a panel on each of their inner forearms.
"I wonder what else is here!" Lian left the shop. He turned left on a whim and wandered down the walkway.
The world itself was dark. The sky was deep dark blue and black clouds floated through it. But the people were lively. The buildings and walkways all had lights in various colors illuminating them. A large mechanical crescent moon sat in the sky, bathing the world in a silvery glow. Dragons, sphinxes, griffins, and all manner of other creatures Lian didn't recognize flew across the sky. People smiled at him as he walked past. They didn't avoid contact with him, and they didn't give him any odd looks, despite the fact that he had literally fallen out of the sky only about a half hour before. Beneath him the buildings seemed to go on forever. He couldn't see the ground.
There were medium sized marble fountains, usually carved in the likeness of a dragon, on every street corner. Lian reached out and touched the water of one fountain. He gasped. The water was cold. He pulled his hand out of the water and shook it out.
Lian wandered to the District Fountain. Suddenly the mass of people doubled. He was small enough to squeeze through. At the center, surrounded by a circular walkway was a gigantic fountain. It was carved to resemble a traditional mermaid. Around her neck was a necklace whose charm was a clock. She was holding a basket that was tipped over and that was where the water came from. It poured over six levels. Flowers of various types floated in the water at the lowest level, where people could actually reach.
A little girl dragged an older boy up to the fountain, "C'mon! C'mon!" She held a handful of flowers in her hands. She gave half of them to the boy she was with and the two of them placed the flowers into the water. The little girl looked up at the mermaid wistfully, "Do you think he'll come back if we keep leaving gifts for him?"
"Of course," the boy nodded. He followed her gaze, his own expression hopeful.
Lian stared at them in shock, "They...who are the flowers for?" He didn't have the courage to go up to them and ask.
The boy grabbed the girl's hand, "We're gonna be lat for dinner."
Lian looked at the clock. It was late evening. He stiffened, "I am so dead." He swallowed. He didn't know how he got here. And he wasn't even sure if he wanted to leave. Instead he walked up to the fountain. Flowers weren't the only things in the water. There were shells, jewelry, coins, and all manner of other valuable and beautiful things sitting at the bottom of the fountain. Lian cocked his head to the side.
"Would you like a flower?"
Lian jumped and turned around. A young woman, the same physical age as Mayu held a blue rose out to him. He took it hesitantly, "S-Sure."
She smiled and walked up to the edge of the fountain. She pulled a pair of scissors out of her pocket, "If you want the flower head to float on the water, the way the lilies do, you can cut the stem off." She cut the stem of her flower off and held the scissors out to him.
Lian took them. Initially it was a struggle to cut through the stem but he managed to get it on his third attempt. He set the flower gently in the water, "I thought this was just full of flowers." He glanced at the girl.
She shook her head, "Nope. People leave all sorts of things. As long as something is given to the water as a gift then it doesn't matter what it is."
Lian nodded, "Okay." He didn't want to look like any more of an outsider than he already did so he didn't say anything more.
"I'm Liliya," the girl held out her hand.
Lian eyed it warily but took it, "Lian."
Liliya smiled and shook his hand, "It was nice meeting you, Lian." She looked up at the clock, "I'm going to miss dinner if I don't hurry though." She nodded to him and disappeared into the crowd.
Lian stared at his hand. He shoved his hands into his pockets and wandered away from the fountain. He inevitably found himself standing in front of the ocean. Unlike the ocean back home, this one moved. It followed the laws of nature. He could feel the tides and the waves. The murmur of the water lapping at the beach echoed in his mind.
Lian sat at the edge of the walkway. His feet barely touched the surface of the water. He watched as around fifty little boats made their way out onto the water. People left flowers floating on it's surface. And plenty of people walked along the beach, played in the water. Kids ran into it giggling and shrieking in excitement. It was such a different atmosphere than what he was used to. It was overwhelming. Yet he couldn't help but smile.
"Mommy! Can we put flowers in the ocean?!"
"Another time, Honey. We aren't out to buy flowers right now."
"Okay!"
Lian chuckled and watched the mother and her young sun walk down the walkway past him. "That was adorable."
"Hey."
Lian stiffened and looked up in surprise. Two teenage boys stood next to him. One of them motioned to the ground next to him, "Mind if we sit?"
Lian stared at them for a moment, his mouth slightly open. He swallowed and shifted a little bit, "Go ahead." He quickly looked away and stared intently at the water. Every muscle in his body was tense. Waiting.
The two boys sat down on either side of him. The one that got his attention motioned over to where three other kids their age, two girls and another boy, were waiting on the beach next to the walkway, "Wanna come with us to put some flowers in the water? We need another person to get a boat all to ourselves."
Lian blinked and lifted his head to stare at them, "Uh..." He looked away sullenly, "Are you sure...you want me? I mean we don't know each other."
The other boy nodded, "It'll be fine. What's life without some new friends?"
"O-Okay." Lian got to his feet and followed the two boys over to their friends.
The first boy to speak smiled broadly, "I'm Jexus. He's my brother, Zven. The blond girl is Hailey and the brunette is Shanniah."
"And lastly is Sammy," Zven finished.
Lian waved awkwardly. Sammy and Shanniah both had baskets filled to the brim with flowers.
"What's your name?" Hailey asked.
Lian glanced at her. He lowered his gaze, "Um...Lian."
Hailey happily linked arms with him, "Welcome to the family!"
Shanniah laughed and shook her head, "Really, Hail?"
Lian was quite confused and didn't really know what to do with himself. He looked uncertainly at Jexus.
Jexus winked, "Just go with it."
The corners of Lian's mouth twitched but he didn't quite smile. He followed them to the boats and sat between Jexus and Hailey.
Jexus and Zven rowed them out into the ocean. Sammy and Shanniah put their baskets down in the center of the boat.
Lian cocked his head to the side, "This is probably a stupid question but..." He trailed off. He lowered his gaze and decided not to continue. What if they pushed him away for being different? Finally, someone was being nice to him. He didn't want to lose it so quickly.
"No such thing as a stupid question," Jexus assured him.
Lian swallowed. He didn't lift his gaze and mumbled, "Why do you put flowers in the water?"
"They're gifts," Zven explained, "for the Gods of the Sea."
"The old one and the new one," Hailey added.
"R-Really? You're not..." Lian trailed off again. He wanted to ask if they were afraid of the Old God of the Sea. Instead he asked, "You're not afraid of the water?"
"Why would we be?" Shanniah waved her hand almost dismissively, "The Old God of the Sea was Ravnica's leader before he was wrongfully imprisoned."
"Wrongfully imprisoned?" Lian repeated to himself. He felt like everything was crashing down around him. His thoughts raced and his head was starting to spin. "Oh."
"What's the story like on your world?" Sammy asked curiously.
Lian stiffened. He studied Sammy warily, "I-I didn't say I was from a different world."
Sammy shrugged, "Everyone here knows the story. You have to be from another world if you don't."
Lian shrugged, "Well. The oceans are all dead on my world. So they labeled the Old God of the Sea a traitor."
All of the kids with him gasped.
"He would never betray anyone!" Shanniah insisted angrily.
"Here," Zven offered, "We can take you to the library after this so you can catch up on the real story after this."
Lian studied each of their faces. When they showed no signs of doubt he stuttered, "O-Okay."
"Whoa!" Hailey yelled suddenly.
Lian jumped.
Sammy started to bounce excitedly, "It's a sea serpent!"
"Sea serpent?" Lian repeated.
"The serpents don't usually come this close to the surface," Hailey whispered in amazement.
Lian turned and leaned over the edge of the boat.
An electric blue creature with flaps on it's sides like fins slithered through the water just beneath the surface. It had two white stripes running down it's sides along the length of it's body.
Lian grinned. He reached out his hand towards it.
The serpent doubled back and rubbed it's boat sized white head against his hand. It returned to the water a moment later and disappeared into the depths of the water.
All of his new friends stared at Lian in shock but he didn't notice. He was too busy watching all of the sea life swimming beneath them. "They really are colorful. Just like Mother said," Lian whispered.
They all left Lian alone for a couple minutes.
Sammy asked, "Dude. Are you the New God of the Sea?"
Lian whipped around and stared at them. His eyes widened as he realized they were all staring at him, their eyes wide, mouths agape. He shrank and lowered his head. He folded his hands in his lap and hunched over, "Yeah."
"Really?" Shanniah breathed.
Lian nodded, "Yeah." He closed his eyes and took a deep breath.
"Holy..." Zven grinned suddenly, "That's so awesome!"
Lian jumped and stared at him, "A-Awesome?"
"Dude, we're friends with the New God of the Sea." Sammy whispered in amazement.
"We're friends?" Lian asked uncertainly, "But we just met."
"We welcomed you to the family, didn't we?" Hailey asked.
"Well, you welcomed him to the family, Hail," Shanniah corrected.
"Whichever," Hailey shrugged.
"I just thought..." Lian swallowed, "I didn't really think you were serious."
Jexus studied him for a long moment.
Lian shifted uncomfortably.
Finally Jexus asked, "Have you had friends before?"
Lian chewed his lower lip, "Well-I mean-" He sighed and stared at his hands, "No. Not really. On my world the old god is a traitor. Water is feared. It's evil. Nobody wanted to be my friend."
"And how long have you been alive for?" Shanniah asked.
"More than four hundred thousand years," Lian mumbled.
Sammy whistled, "That's a long time."
Hailey wrapped her arm around Lian's shoulders, "That's a long time to be lonely."
Lian shrugged, "I'm used to it."
"Here," Hailey grabbed some flowers from the basket and set them between her and Lian. She started to braid them into his hair. It wasn't easy since his hair wasn't particularly long. But his hair was long enough that it wasn't impossible.
Sammy grabbed a handful of flowers and threw them over Lian's head, "For the New God of the Sea!" He laughed.
"Ah!" Lian squeaked. He laughed.
They waited for Hailey to be done braiding his hair before they started to gently set flowers down on the ocean waters. Lian mostly listened in while the group bickered amongst themselves but he hadn't felt more wanted in his existence.