Tyto awoke with a yawn. She felt dirty. No shower, no change of clothes, no midnight snack. This would be hard to get used to. She looked to her right. Salia’s leaf bed was empty. Tyto scratched her head, stretched, then stood up. Her legs and back ached. Her body had been used to a normal, human lifestyle, that was for sure. She wondered how long it would take for it to adapt. Tyto figured it would be a while, her body did have to adjust after sixteen years of sleeping in a bed, eating three meals a day and frequent showers. How her body would react was another fear she had about this new lifestyle.
She noticed the door was opened. Tyto reached into her pocket and felt around. Her fingers stopped around the stone, caressing it a little bit. Good, she still had it.
Wait, did I really sleep in this?
Tyto sighed. She should have used it as a blanket. Well, she’d do it next time, for sure. Her stomach growled. She guessed she should go find her sister and go gathering food. She exited the cave. The light hurt her eyes, but she managed. Regaining her vision, she looked around. It didn’t take long to find Salia, who was not too far away east- she seemed to be inspecting a corpse. A very familiar one.
“Woah,” Tyto said in awe, walking toward the fallen beast. It was the one she had fought off. Salia was a little bit taller than it when it was on its side, but it was still almost as huge as she made it out to be the night before. Salia turned towards her.
“You killed this thing?” She asked, half amazed, half worried.
“No. I told you, I only scared it off.”
Salia looked down at it and bit her lip.
“Something else must have killed it.” Tyto noted.
As Tyto got close to the creature, she noticed a bit hole with rotting organs in its side. It was a bite mark.
“Something big.” Tyto added.
Salia sniffed it.
“Do you smell anything?”
Tyto sniffed it too.
“No. That’s odd.”
“Yup. I guess that means we don’t need to dispose of this?” Salia asked.
“I think we still do. Obviously, the fact that this behemoth was bitten into and killed means that this is a prey. So, that probably means that if we leave this here, we’ll find an even larger beast eating it when we walk outside to admire the sun-”
“What sun?”
Tyto looked up. The sun actually seemed to be a moon. It looked like day, though.
“That is seriously odd.” She said.
“Yeah.”
Tyto thought a little bit. She looked back at the moon.
“It doesn’t hurt to stare at. That means that the light is coming from somewhere else.” Tyto remarked.
Salia nodded, though she still seemed to be focused on the beast, even if she didn’t seem to be doing anything to it aside from looking at it from different angles over and over again. Tyto walked around a little bit. She tried to find out where the light was coming from based on how the shadows were projected. It seemed as if it came south, but she couldn’t see anything.
“Well,” Tyto sighed. “Should we move it? I don’t know if it’s worth the effort, we can just relocate. Gotta find a food source anyway.”
Salia grumbled.
“Yeah. Maybe we’ll find another human or something on the way.”
The two sat in silence as Tyto thought of where to go.
We could find out alot by going south. It would likely be the most dangerous option, though.
“Can we like, skin this thing?” Salia asked.
“We don’t have a knife.”
“Well, we could make one.”
“Do you know how?”
“I can woodwork a little bit.”
Tyto sighed.
“Well, we should probably focus on getting food first, I think.” She said.
“Right. I found a nice log we can make a bow out of. You took that archery summer course, right?”
“Yes, but have you found animals small enough to use it on?”
“We’ll find them eventually.”
“We could gather.”
“Boring. Let’s go hunting.”
“Hunting what?”
“Come on. The predators need prey. There’s got to be some around here.”
Tyto started to pace. She was getting annoyed.
“Have you maybe considered that we are the prey?”
That made Salia pause.
“We still need a weapon.”
Tyto sighed.
“You’re right. But, we have me for now. I am the-”
Tyto paused.
“What?”
“Hold on.”
She took out the stone.
Aware. Rise. Scan. Browse. Survey.
She tapped the stone, imagining a small animal. Tyto could make out a faint thump that was coming from the west, it was distinct enough so that she could follow it.
“Let’s make that bow.”
“Don’t tell me you can track down animals, too.”
“Looks like I can.”
“So let’s go make a weapon?”
“But I want to go out and explore a little bit.”
“Without a weapon?”
Tyto raised an eyebrow.
“Right, right. Forgot about that.”
Salia sighed.
“Split up then?” Salia proposed.
“Will you be okay?”
“I can handle myself.”
“Okay, well. Let’s keep each other in our sights. If you need me, scream I guess.”
“Right.”
Tyto reached in her pocket again to make sure the stone was still there. It was, but she found something else. She took it out. It was a little shiv, made of stone. Salia stared at her.
“Um,”
“I don’t know either,” Tyto replied.
“That is… You didn’t notice it was there before?”
“I think it just appeared. Maybe it was a gift from Gower?”
“Maybe, yeah.”
“Here. You take it,” Tyto said, handing it to her.
“All right.” Salia said, hesitating. She took it as if she were ashamed.
“Right, well. Stay safe. I’ll whistle loudly if I find something.”
“Not too loud, you’ll burst my eardrums again.”
“My whistles are not that loud”
“Uh-huh.”
“Anyways, I’ll be back soon.”
Salia nodded, and Tyto started navigating around the mountain, towards the south.
Tyto followed the edge of the mountain closely, she didn’t want to get lost in the endless sea of trees. Hopefully there was more to this world than just trees, otherwise she could see herself doing something unreasonable. She sighed.
Stop that.
She looked to her left, where the mountain’s edge met her hand. It was rigid and pointy. Tyto wondered if she could scale it, perhaps?
Balance. Control. Uh,
Her head spun erratically. She felt like something was pushing down on her. Her ears rung. Tyto fell to the ground. She held herself up with one hand, but then she started to spasm. She couldn’t control it, she twitched and shook. She couldn’t resist. She felt helpless. Tyto gritted her teeth, still twitching like a loony. Then it stopped.
She panted, trying to get on her feet. She still felt weak. Tyto leaned against the mountain’s sharp edge. It cut into her a little bit, but she couldn’t move. Her energy was drained and her ears were still ringing. She let herself fall lightly, sitting down and taking a rest. She closed her eyes, and fell again.
Tyto lay on the ground dazed. The ringing faded in her ears. She sighed, still in shock.
I should be careful from now on.
Tyto got up, dusting herself off. She looked up and snapped back into reality.
Balance. Control. Agile.
She tapped the stone and started to climb up the jagged wall. Tyto advanced from rock to rock slowly, being careful not to cut herself. She pulled herself to the top easily, landing in a crouch. She gazed to her left. Nothing but trees. To her right, she found a city. A huge one, possibly as vast as the forest to her left. In the very back, she could faintly make out a large tower, it’s top obscured by light. That was the sun here, she supposed. She smiled. Civilization. Probably.
She turned back towards the forest and walked to the edge. She found Salia still examining the beast.
“Oi, Salia.” She called out to her.
Her sister looked around herself, then upwards towards Tyto.
“How’d you get up there?” She asked, yelling.
“I climbed.” Tyto yelled back.
Tyto could faintly make out a devious smile from her sister. She knew that Salia would take that as a challenge, and she did. Salia deftly scaled the mountain. Even with her newfound powers, Tyto still wasn’t nearly as physically able as Salia was when it came to climbing. Salia reached the top in under twenty seconds.
“Impressive.” Tyto said.
“Right? Woah.”
Salia’s gaze fixed upon the city in front of her.
“Impressive” Salia said.
“Right?”
The two approached a little bit.
“Is that where the light’s coming from?” Salia asked.
“I think so. Let’s go check it out.”
Salia nodded, and the two were off.

***

They arrived at the city gates just as the light started to dim. It wasn’t guarded, and seemed like the kind of thing Tyto would see in a nineteenth century photography book. Paved roads, simple two-story buildings, no cars. There were no street lamps, so Tyto figured there was no electricity here. The streets weren’t exactly bustling with activity, there were only two to three humans on the same street. At least they were human. They looked a lot like the humans back on Earth, but there were a few distinct differences.
This world’s humans had rounded faces, like children. It almost seemed like baby fat, but it wasn’t that noticeable. It looked like it was something with their jaw. They also seemed to be on average, a bit more plump. Their eyes were also a bit more round and wide. Aside from that, Tyto really couldn’t notice anything else, but she figured these weren’t homo sapiens and were some other species within the homo genus. She could feel herself getting a little bit excited, she had always fantasized about what modern humans could have been. If she was right, it looked like they might be able to find out. Hopefully, these humans wouldn’t end up killing Tyto and her sister.
Tyto looked around her. Salia was gone. She sighed, knowing that her sister ran off somewhere to go find someone to ask information from. Tyto sighed. Salia would always do this, she’d go off on her own and do something stupid. Tyto hoped it wouldn’t be too stupid this time. She walked at a fast pace, looking for her sister.
She found Salia talking to a stranger. It was a girl, most likely not too much older than Tyto or her sister. Strangely, she didn’t have a round face nor wide eyes. Tyto imagined what it would be like to have different species of homo on one planet. She wore a ragged shirt that looked like a potato sack and normal trousers. A peasant? As Tyto approached, Salia waved to her.
“Hey, Tyto!” she called out. The newcomer stared at her. She seemed calm.
“Hi,” she looked at the girl and bowed her head a little bit. “Who are you?”
“Freija. I’m from the village just down south.” She replied. Her voice sung with innocence.
Tyto smiled, then joined them. The three sat near the entrance to the cave.
“I was just headed there actually.” Tyto hesitated, looking at Salia. She wanted help.
“Yup! You see, my sister and I are new around here.” Salia started.
“Oh, welcome, welcome.” Freija said.
“Thank you.” Tyto said.
“Thanks! Anyway, we kind of don’t know much about this area. Could you show us around, maybe?”
“There isn’t much to see, I guess. Well, there is. But I don’t think you, like, want to see it.” Freija said. She didn’t seem very well articulate.
“Why’s that?” Tyto asked.
“Well…” Freija started, looking down.
“You see, there’s a, um. A very big problem right now. People are, well. I don’t know how to put it lightly, but they’re killing themselves. We’ve counted 20 suicides this week.”
The two sisters exchanged a look.
“I’m sorry to hear that. Do you know why?” Tyto asked.
The girl shook her head.
“There are only guesses right now.”
“Is there anything we can do to help?” Salia asked.
“Well,” Freija started. “The most agreed theory as of now is that Aviana is punishing us.”
“Aviana?” Salia asked.
Freija raised an eyebrow.
“You don’t know who Aviana is.”
“We’re new around here, you see-”
“You’re not from Xaliri, are you?”
Salia hesitated.
“What’s your home planet?” Freija asked.
Salia exchanged a glance to Tyto.
“Earth.” Tyto said.
“Earth! Thank God, I was starting to feel lonely. People here are, different. That’s for sure.” Freija said. Her tone changed. She seemed to be a lot more comfortable.
“Wait, you’re from Earth, too?” Salia asked.
She nodded.
“Probably here for the same reason you two are! Here to save the planet, or whatever?”
“Yeah. Not exactly how I wanted to spend my weekend, but I guess it’s a hell of a lot more exciting than sitting in and reading Symmetry books all day.” Tyto said.
“You like Symmetry?” Freija asked, bouncing a little.
“He’s my favourite author right now. Well, was.”
“Oh my God, I like you already.”
Tyto smiled.
“It’s Tyto, by the way. My sister is Salia.”
“Oh, you two are sisters! That’s so cool, I wish I had a sister.”
“It’s fun sometimes.” Salia said, joining in.
Tyto laughed.
“Sure.” Tyto said.
Freija started to tear up a little bit.
“It’s been, like… A really long time since I’ve had any real social interaction. The people here are, different…”
Tyto looked around her. No one was out.
“Oh! You never get used to how quickly night comes here in Xaliri. I guess you two don’t have anywhere to stay, right?”
“Nope.” Salia said.
“Come! You can live with me. I need the company, anyways.”
“Thank you. That would be great.” Tyto said appreciatively.
“Let’s get going. I’ll explain what I know when we get there.”
The city seemed big. It was almost as if it had no end. Well, Tyto didn’t know for sure that it did. The roads seemed to all connect to each other, and they wouldn’t stop. She couldn’t tell the difference between all the streets- the houses were still bland and boring, the roads all paved the same way, and the same emptiness filled the streets. There didn’t seem to be any sort of nightlife here that was obvious. The street lights were turned off, but that peculiar source of light still rung soundly. She wondered when it turned off and how.
Freija stopped in front of her house. It didn’t stand out, either. They all had a brown, clay roof, red wooden walls, and less than two windows. Some had chimneys, but this one didn’t. Tyto sighed. She knew she’d get sick of this eventually.
Freija gestured politely for them to come in, and shut the door behind them quietly. The house’s exterior was deceiving. Inside, it looked like a normal 21st century house. The walls were painted a perfect shade of snow white. A large, blue rug with a swirly pattern covered most of the floor. There was also a mirror, a few little tables, a single couch and three chairs. There seemed to be three rooms in this house.
“Aw, this place is kinda cute,” Salia noted, looking around herself with starry eyes.
“Yup. It’s cozy.” Freija said. “I used to be an interior designer. It’s pretty crazy how you can make such a small house look so grand.”
“You did a good job,” Tyto said.
“Thanks! I worked hard, since this is pretty much all I have. I made two bedrooms, because I thought I’d meet someone soon. It’s been… Five months.”
“Oh, you poor thing! You must have been so lonely.” Salia said.
That’s out of character.
“I guess. I’m past the ‘Oh my God, I’m literally dying and so alone please someone be my friend’ phase. That was a solid nine years ago.”
“Wait, how old are you?” Salia asked.
“Twenty six.”
Salia stared at her blankly.
“She’s saying you look young for your age. It’s true.” Tyto explained.
“Oh, well, thank you.”
Salia nodded, still for some reason in shock. Twenty five wasn’t that old.
“Anyway, take a seat, there are three chairs.” Freija offered.
Tyto took the padded seat to the left and Salia took the cushioned seat adjacent.
“So, this world is called Xaliri. I’m sure you’ve noticed that this city is pretty big. You may also have noticed that the only source of light in the world comes from it. Every species from the genus homo lives here, in Dalaland.”
“The genus homo?” Salia asked.
“Well,” Tyto started. “All humans on Earth are homo sapiens. You’ve heard that before, but there are different types of homo that exist. They’re just all extinct on Earth.”
“Yup!” Freija agreed. “We homo sapiens probably killed every other homo.”
Salia snickered.
“I hate you.” Tyto said.
“Come on. Why’d they have to choose the word homo?”
“I don’t know, why don’t you go back in time and ask them?”
“Let’s go then, me and-”
“The night’s flame is about to be extinguished.” Freija interrupted.
“Sorry. Please continue.” Tyto apologized.
“Anyway, homo sapiens are not the only humans that live here. There are homo neanderthals and homo deerius.”
“Homo deerius?” Tyto asked.
“They’re the more common one. They’ve got really round faces and kind of look like overgrown children a little bit.”
“I see.”
“Homo neanderthals?” Salia asked.
“Rigid jaw, rough figure. More athletic and all that.” Freija answered.
“Oh.”
“I think there are also homo floresiensis, but I haven’t seen one yet. I’ve only heard rumours.”
“The really small ones, right?” Tyto asked.
“Those are the ones, yeah. So, aside from that, the night’s flame, which is the equivilant to the sun, is run by Aviana. She’s similar to God, except she has a physical form. She doesn’t really like to show herself too much, though, so she uses some kind of magic to light and extinguish the flame. It goes off every night at 10pm.”
“Interesting.” Tyto noted.
“Yup. The rest I know about this world is pretty useless history information, like how homo sapiens were driven to near extinction and how fifty years ago, a huge civil movement sprung up to protect homo sapiens against discrimination. It seemed to have worked, since no one really minds me being a sapien and all that.”
“Wait, no. I forgot. There are really strange monsters in this world. I don’t think they’re like anything on Earth, so you’d have to see them for yourselves. I’m sure it won’t be long until we run into one, though. They occasionally wander into the city, but even if one doesn’t, we’ll have to go out into the Greenlands anyway. You know, to save the Earth and all that.”
“Oh, I see. One thing I’d like to ask, though.” Tyto said, pulling out her stone.
“Do you know anything about this?”
Freija nodded, and pulled out her own. Instead of an owl or a bluebird, there was a chicken.
“This is the source of our power. You tap on it and and make a hand gesture, and depending on what gesture you did, you’ll use one of your various powers that Aviana gave you.”
Tyto paused. She opened her mouth to speak, but Salia beat her to it.
“Wait, is Aviana the guy who sent us here?” She asked.
“Yes, but it’s a girl.”
“When he talked to me, his voice was pretty masculine.”
“Yeah, same here.” Tyto said.
“I guess she presents herself in different ways depending on who she speaks to? I don’t know.” Freija said.
“One more thing, you said that you have to make a hand gesture to use your power.”
“Yup.”
“That’s odd. I have to make a group of words then imagine something happening, then tap the stone.”
“I guess that varies from person to person too,” Freija said.
“We’ll need to find out what makes Salia’s stone tick. We haven’t figured it out yet.” Tyto said.
“I’m sure we’ll find the answer soon enough.” Freija replied.
Salia yawned.
“I’m tired.” She said.
“Sure. Let’s all call it a night, then?” Tyto offered.
“Sounds good to me. I’ll show you everything else first-hand. The best way to learn is from action, after all.”
Tyto and Salia nodded, then Freija showed the two to their room. It was small, but the bed was big enough for the two of them. There was a single counter with a candle on it placed next to the bed. That was all in the room.
“Looks like we’ll be sharing a bed, again.” Salia said, closing the door.
“Let’s appreciate what we have, I suppose.”
“I mean- I’m not saying I don’t, or whatever.”
Tyto yawned. Yawns really were contagious.
“Okay. Let’s just sleep.”
“Goodnight, then.” Salia said climbing into the bed.
Tyto got in as well and placed a pillow between them.
“Night.”
Tyto blew out the candle.