"May I ask where have you been?"
Sea blue eyes averted down to the clear water, her arms slowly wrapped around her torso as she usually did when nervous. She didn't respond for a few moments, it was clear they already knew the answer to that question, the young spirit knew that conversation would come sooner or later, but yet she felt far from prepared for it. She never thought she was good at doing things by herself…
The figure behind her patiently waited for her answer, elegant white clothes almost appeared to glimmer against the soft sunlight. Well, they called it "sunlight", but they all knew it wasn't exactly the sun they were used to back at the mortal plane, that was a whole new dimension, a new plane, accessible only for those spirits that no longer were tied to a vessel. The spiritual plane was... something so odd, yet strangely nostalgic.
"... I was… making sure they were doing alright." Not too far, a group of children played tag on the garden of flowers and fruits, laughing and smiling, completely uncaring of their differences or stories. It pained her to know all of them passed away so early in their lives, most starved to death or were eaten by bigger creatures. She… felt glad that she was part of change for something better. That the next few generations would arrive much older than this one… hopefully, at least.
"Esna, we both know that is a half truth." Their words made Esna wince, her ears dropping ever so slightly. Earth brown eyes gazed up at her, even if she was half submerged in the water, she was still slightly taller than the spirit, who often chose the form of a middle aged, male seedling.
"I… I'm sorry, I know I shouldn't be going there so often but… I…" She sunk into the water even further, now reaching the same height as the guardian. Take a deep breath, she told herself, just speak from your heart. "I… I was always bound to my spring… I could never see those things or go places, or talk to people and… be seen. Well… most of the time."
The Guardian appeared to be more satisfied with this answer, they nodded, offering a reassuring smile, despite their efforts it relieved her tension only a little bit, but she felt thankful regardless. "Talking to the Chief was great and all, but you always want to meet other people… now I can… now I can splash them, play with them, cheer them up when they're down, or even just help them find that shoe they lost. I felt free, in a way. And I thought… since I just had to wait to reincarnate… I could… spare a visit or two?...or three…"
They both went quiet for they knew that was way more than just one, two or three visits. The actual number was 56, counting with today's misadventures, but it was better to leave that part out for now.
"Well, it's good that you care about the Oasis, my dear, but we both know it's unhealthy for a spirit to be in the mortal plane without a vessel for too long." His words made the young water spirit to sink even further down, now only her nose and above were not submerged yet, but she might actually disappear in the depths if she felt anymore like a little kid getting scolded by their parent.
They were about to continue when something suddenly felt off, only a single syllable had the chance of leaving their lips before they began to look around. There was nothing out of order at first glance, birds chirping, children playing, the same two drauks arguing again over who had the most honorable death… everything was just as any other day. They'd have to have a talk with the others, maybe some lost soul taken by sorrow was causing trouble again. It wasn't uncommon, they deal with those rather often, less often now, but it still wasn't too uncommon. It was only natural.
"... Esna, you're still allowed to visit the Oasis," the water spirit immediately perked up, raising out of the water just a little bit. "-but, for your own sake, refrain from doing so until next month. You'll be given a set number of passes per week like everyone else." She deflated again, not as much as before, but still downcast.
"Now, I'll have to take my leave. Take care of yourself, alright?" The seedling stood up from their spot by the shore and began making their way back to… wherever the high spirits work at, Esna never really stopped to question where they went, maybe she should ask next time they meet one of them. All she knew was that they watched over the mortal and spiritual world, like some sort of guardian angels or administrators depending on the angle you see it. The longer you spend there, the more you realise life is… complicated for the lack of a better word. Esna waved back at them, forcing a smile. When they were far past hearing distance, she sunk completely into the clear lake, swimming past fishes and aquatic plants she had never had the chance to see in her past life.
"Heya, Esna!"
"Hi, Dana!"
And also meet other water spirits, that was a dream come true. This place was nice enough, a bit monotonous, but nice regardless. Yeah, she could wait a month to see the Oasis, she got this, it would be a piece of cake! The month would pass by before she even knew it, all she had to do was find something to entertain herself with and try to forget the fact her best friend was stuck on a bed with a fever going through the roof, while the residents were trying to run the Oasis all by themselves unsupervised, where so many things could go wrong and there would be no one to help them.
… Oh boy, that went downhill fast…
"Dana!" Esna exclaimed, making a sharp turn back towards the other girl, swimming so quickly she caused a small current that scared the poor fish that were swimming by. "Help me distract myself, I made a mistake!"
The other water spirit, skin a different shade of blue, almost a light purple, short hair and pink eyes halted her peaceful swimming session to look back to her friend, who looked haunted. "What? What did you do?"
"I was alone with my thoughts, help!"
She needed to do something to forget her worries, thankfully Dana received her distressed heart with open arms, despite not fully understanding what she meant by that. It's, okay, she'd given them that list, they do just fine. They could handle themselves for a day or two. They didn't need anymore help.
Oh, Gods, please help us…
Shakuro sighed in dismay as he massaged his temples, trying to block out the absolute mess that was the fountain plaza at the moment.
"Come on, we need to restock the shops first, soon we'll run out of food and people will starve!" Reuben stated, which gained several nods in agreement from other residents, mostly the serkhas.
"Not just the food shops, Reuben, the last festival was novelty themed, remember? These are the ones that need the most restocking." Sol argued, his ear twitching in annoyance. Most of the lagoras and some seedlings agreed with him, but the general opinions were divided. They all knew what needed to be done, actually doing it wasn't supposed to be as hard as this.
"Shouldn't we go out to get supplies first? I mean… whatever we choose to do, we can't do much without supplies."
"Lili's got a point, let's make a party to search for stuff! Anyone else volunteer?" Aslar's words were followed by several hands being put up, some were already pulling out their weapons, excited for some action. Despite the fact only a select few were chosen to run the place, more and more soon joined until pretty much all the residents were hopped in somehow. Which was good, they now had many more hands to help! On the other side, that also meant more diverging opinions and ideas.
"Uh, guys? Shouldn't we also clear these roads?" Pami's quiet voice urged their attention towards the mess that was still left over from the previous night.
"But restocking was at the top of the list Esna gave us, we should probably do it first."
"Is it in priority order? Because "trade with merchants" was above "patrolling" and I am pretty sure checking for danger is more important than trading."
"Why can't we just do all of these instead of one by one?" Miura successfully gained the attention of the many residents, smiling, the drauk warrior elaborated her idea for them. "They're all important in one way or another. Instead of just a few people doing all the work, if you see something that needs to be done, just do it."
The people whispered and murmured amongst themselves, contemplating, then after a few seconds they expressed their opinions with excited nods and thumbs up. That did sound like it could work. At least it was way better than spending two or more hours arguing about what to do next.
"Okay so we go restock the food shops, Sol goes with the other shops, Lili, Aslar and whoever else goes to gather resources, and… Shakuro you didn't say anything, so do whatever, I guess." Levi shrugged and started walking away towards the bloom booths, several other people followed him.
"Wait..uh.." Jamileh's quiet whisper was unheard by most of the dispersing crowd, being lost in between the other much louder voices. Shakuro and some very few people who were close enough to hear her call turned towards the shy seedling, who was struggling with having something important to say and not wanting to be in the spotlight. "I...I have a list… of what the shop owners need… I… helped the chief… I can help…" Her eyes were downcast as she was mostly unheard by her peers.
"Well, they already left…" Hanoch stated just as quietly as the young girl, watching the rest of the residents leave to their respective tasks. Well, at least they made some progress in comparison to the mess that was that early morning.
"I know, give me the list and I will pass it on to the folks who are going out to gather resources so they know what to bring." Shakuro held his sister's shoulder, giving it a reassuring squeeze.
"Hey...Uhm, you guys? Do you really think we can do this?" Pami and Roto walked towards them, concerned looks on their faces. Roto's pet leapard was safely tucked in his improvised baby carrier, so the hyperactive little thing wouldn't cause much trouble, for now, at least.
"I mean, I know we can figure it out and there's no use in being negative, but this was so sudden."
The pinwheel artisan was right, it was very sudden and they barely managed to make any proper planning at all. They spent the entire morning arguing and discussing the next step, but it seemed like everyone had a different opinion on how the Oasis should or shouldn't be run. What appeared to be the simplest part of the day turned out to take most of the morning.
They could only hope things would go a bit more smoothly than this.
"We….have to try?" Hanoch scratched the back of his head, "better than doing nothing at all...right?"
Jamileh nodded, still looking downcast. "They're ...right... I'll... I'll give you the list." She smiled at her brother, who watched her walk away towards their home. If she had looked back she would have seen Shakuro frown in worry, something didn't feel quite right, that smile was a bit too saddened and disappointed. He knew his sister would want to help more than just giving a list. Hopefully the others would remember that they didn't have to go door to door to restock everything and they had someone to make that much easier right in front of them.
"Yeah...you guys are right. We can't stay here all day, there's work to do." Thankfully, his words seemed to offer the remaining residents a semblance of reassurance. Worry and nervousness was still present, but it was only natural in such a strange, new situation.
They had faced so much worse, not even the actual Chaos descending its wrath on them was enough to take them down, even if their priorities were a bit...messy to say the least, they would eventually figure this out, they'd survive.
Although "doing whatever" as Levi put it was probably not a good mindset when trying to keep such a large place like this in order. The desert hadn't seen a group bigger than 50 people in one place for decades, maybe even centuries, there was barely enough food and water in a region to sustain that many, anyway. This was a new experience for everyone… although it would be so much easier if they could agree on something for once.
"Hey, Shakuro! The team is ready!" Aslar's voice snapped him out of his train of thought, he really had spaced out… he was worrying too much.
"I'm getting there! I'll just go get the list of things that you guys will need to prioritize."
"Hurry!"
At least everyone was helping….well, except for Mariah and Sakina. He hadn't seen the two since yesterday night. All he knew was that the young man had also fallen ill from the water spring's cold waters, not as bad as the chief, but still fairly under the weather. He did nearly drown. As for Mariah… she had kind of disappeared, not even Levi could find the stubborn girl. They couldn't lie that they were a bit upset at their actions and the unnecessary commotion they caused last night, but there was no use in being angry at them when neither expected this to happen.
"Hey, Jam, did you see Mariah anywhere?"
"Uhm… no, I don't think I did… she seemed so upset…" his sister's quiet voice answered him as she handed him the list that she had so carefully crafted after all her time restocking bloom booths. Oh well, she was bound to appear at some point, she wouldn't leave her shop and Levi alone for too long.
"If you see her around, tell her to come help us pick up some materials if she's not busy, we're sending a lot of parties to get this done with sooner rather than later. The festival did sell very well, but it did end up in a shortage of things to sell.
"Will do… hey… brother?"
Shakuro was about to run off to the waiting party, by some miracle he had picked up on her quiet tone. Even after so many years, it was hard to hear his dear sister's voice. "Yeah?"
"Who is… going to take care of the dewadems?"
Shakuro almost paled at her words. Of course they had to be forgetting something, especially something as important as this and that couldn't be trusted to just any person. With so many shops completely out of stock and straight out of a festival, it was only natural for there to be many dewadems. Enough to make many people feel compelled to take one...or two...or three…
"I… do not know." He already had enough on his plate with organizing the material gatherings and making sure these idiots did not fight each other to death before the first day ended. His eyes shifted to Jamileh and he had a smile on his face again. "Say, Jammy, you up for the task?"
She froze, startled, her poor mind rushing with so many thoughts she could barely keep up. "M...me?!"
"You're the most trustworthy person I know. Well, if you're up for it, of course." Her brother's smile reassured her a bit, it was a very important task and that he trusted her to do it did make her feel a bit special, appreciated. She couldn't help but give a small smile of her own, which she automatically hid by force of habit.
"Aw, come on, where's that cute little smile?" The wise seedling leaned in a bit, faking intrigue. The younger sibling giggled even more, playfully shoving her brother away, she was still smiling.
"Silly." With that, both siblings went on with their respective tasks. Jamileh holding the biggest bag she owned to collect the precious gemstones. She did feel a bit better by helping like this, she would be lying if she said she didn't feel even a bit thrilled by the new task. That didn't mean she wasn't absurdly nervous and anxious, but the young seedling girl welcomed it with open arms.
"Morning, Evia… do you… have dewadems?"
She was... trying her best. Thankfully the older girl was more than happy to lend her a hand. With a nod and a smile, she reached out behind the counter and pulled out a medium sized bag almost completely full with the little blue gems. Jamileh would probably end up having to empty her bag soon before going out again… wait, where should she drop these off again?
Was she supposed to administer the money too? Not giving into the ever growing anxiety was one of her hardest battles yet, but her brother was counting on her, she needed to at least try.
"Say, I was getting a bit worried about this whole dewadems thing," the seller spoke up before she could leave," but I'm glad you're the one doing it!"
She couldn't help but fluster at her words, hiding her face and consequently her grateful smile. "I… I mean… t… thank you."
Evia giggled at her reaction, waving goodbye. "No problem! Good luck, Jamileh!"
One day, Jamileh would find the secrets of the hidden and lost art of how to handle compliments properly. It would be a perilous journey beyond everything she knew, expanding her horizons and training her mind and heart to counter the most powerful weapon yet: genuine compliments. But that day was not today, so she continued to hide her face as she walked out of the shop and into the other, slowly gaining a bit more experience and talking a little more with each shopkeeper. Just a little bit, but it was progress.
Meanwhile, she passed by a group of people who volunteered to clean the roads up, the mess from the previous night was being quickly cleared up, the decorations taken down and folded up for future use. It was good to see everyone doing some progress, and that despite having diverging ideas, they could still work together. Confidence renewed, she opened the door to the music box shop.
"Morning, Potipan… do you have dewadems to-"
Said seedling was emptying his own dewadems into a bag brought by a green serkah wearing light blue clothes, seedlings and serkah froze as they stared at each other, the gears in their minds turning, the bags felt so much heavier all of sudden.
"I… thought you were the one collecting these?" The music box artisan looked up to Yahya, whose skin got just the slightest bit paler. He nodded quickly, putting his hands up.
"I am! I...I mean, Miura asked me if I could do it and… since I wasn't doing anything…"
Their eyes turned towards the girl, who shared Yahya's dread. Oh gods, why? She had to say something to them at least.
"Uh...s...Shakuro...t...told me to…" This was a mistake and the awkward silence that followed her words only served to prove it. The serkha's quiet voice snapped her out of her train of thought before she bolted her way out of there and back home.
"W-Well, you can do it… you can do it much better than me anyway, look at your bag, I mean...Ugh I've been talking for too long." He shook his head, gaze lowered to the ground as he realized just how pathetic his attempt at resolving that tension truly sounded.
"N-No! I...I...look you have so many...you are doing a good job…"
"Why... don't both of you do it?" Potipan's slightly awkward smile gave them some resemblance of reassurance, "you both seem like you're pretty good at this."
Jamileh and Yahya shared a glance, eventually she smiled as warmly as she could, he scratched the back of his head, but also offered her a smile of his own.
"Well...if it's okay with you?"
"Of course!... Let's go?"
The tense atmosphere faded, now the three wore relieved smiles as the two walked away together, showing each other which shops already had already had their dewadems collected and which still awaited for them.
"Bye, Potipan!"
"See you!"
The seedling let out a relieved sigh, adjusting the bag on her shoulder as she followed the serkah into the remaining bloom booths. True, this wasn't the smooth ride they hoped it would be, but they would figure out a way to resolve those bumps in the road.
Or will they? :3