Beyond the Pines

(Many words in this story are words that I have created out of my imagination to build a culture and universe for this species. They may not make sense, but please appreciate their eccentric purpose)

It was a warm summer day in the Pines of Dow.

Riko decided to check out this new abandoned drupee golf course that his cousin found off the trail in the western region. He wanted to get some practice in before he challenged his friends from what he learned back in the village.

There was nothing more he loved than mastering something in life. It always kept him moving forward, providing him purpose for life. He never believed it impossible to bend the old proverb, "Jack of all Trades, but Master of None". He always believed he could master many.... many things in his life, before his end came.

He remembered his first time ever picking up a druppee. His father had handcrafted it from Hydrax skin beside the fire after supper one night. It felt so comfortable in his hands as the carvings locked around his fingertips, gripping onto the edge. He wondered if his Father had crafted it to the exact size of his hands, or if this is how all drupees were sized. Either way, it was a perfect fit.

He put down his sack next to a large tree and pulled out his beloved drupee, the same exact one his father made him when he was only a few years younger.

The pines had such an abundance of overgrowth, that it was difficult to see the metal cages from afar. About 500 cliks away, there was what looked like a rusty box of chains hiding behind a chiko bush. A couple of the chains had been severed from their welds, but there was still enough to catch the drupee if he threw it just right. Besides, he knew if he could make the shot from here with the box in that condition, he could assuredly make it in the future. Once he cleared out the course from overgrowth and fixed the welds, victory was his.

He stood back and let his hips relax as he shuffled his feet into a comfortable starting position. He knew it was all about the momentum in his throw. It was all about his body weight and how he utilized it to support the power in his toss. Everything, no matter what type of sport or skill it was, had a technique that could be learned and conquered.

He locked his eye onto what he could see of the old cage, not moving his pupil for even half a second.

He felt, "one", with his destination. He felt, "one", with the pines. He became, the drupee, before he let his hurl from his hands.

Finally, he took 4 powerful steps forward and flung the drupee as hard as he could, in the most natural angle his arm could execute, in order to crash it into the remaining links on the cage.

Rabos flew out of trees in flocks as it grazed some branches and leaves. It flew so beautifully, first rising very high, and then slowly falling lower and lower towards the cage. Riko underestimated the power in his arm and got a little nervous as he saw the drupee actually start to take it's own course to the left and towards some large boulders.

The drupee finally bounced off the top of one of the boulders, and then out of nowhere, was snatched by a Bano as it squawked in a mocking type of tone at the fectio. Rikos mouth dropped wide open and chuckled, "Oh no you don't!", as he began chasing the winged creature down the pines.

He ran faster and faster, jumping over rocks and bushes with his eyes locked onto his drool covered drupee now latched tightly in the bano's mouth.

Finally, the bano decided to let go of the drupee after eventually realizing it was not edible, biting so hard that it actually left one of his small incisors jammed in the edge. It bounced off a tree branch and landed into a small hole that looked half-dug out, engulfed under a root of an old leaning tree.

Riko never let his eyes leave the drupee and sprinted with full speed to the hole, almost catching it in a full dive as it landed in the pit. He was only 2 fa. short of his fingers latching onto the edge before he landed face first down in some mud next to the hole.

He lifted his face out of the mud with a comical expression on his face, after a huge piece of sludge slowly dripped down his face, revealing his eyes.

"Oh.... my.... Dopa", he said with agony, as he slowly stood up and cleaned himself off. He finally got enough off of his face so he could see clearly and not taste any of the mud in his mouth.

Looking down into the hole, he was appalled when he saw that the drupee had landed on something large and brown. He squinted his eyes and slowly leaned into the hole to get a better look, before cautiously reaching his hand down to grab the edge of the drupee.

Hoping that it wasn't something alive, or even a potential hunting trap, he jerked the drupee off it as fast as he could.

Luckily, nothing moved around or underneath it. He gazed at it again and realized it was simply an old, dirt covered bag that must have been abandoned long ago. Holes looked to have been excavated out of the sides from insects and creatures nibbling at it over the years. He decided to let his curiosity get the best of him and did what any fectio probably would have done.

He steadily leaned in toward the bag and wrapped his fingers around its dense, wet flap. After his fingers locked, he froze in position with anxiety, worrying about what would happen if he were to finally move it from its position.

Riko closed his eyes and yanked it as hard and fast as he could from the hole. After lunging to the rear, he wailed loudly, heaving the bag out of his hand when he felt and saw the worst thing he could have possibly imagined. The shoulder strap was still being gripped by a long and worm-covered skeleton hand, which ripped right off of the body seemingly buried under the tree.

When the bag hit the edge of the tree, another small sack also flew out along with a little black book.

"Clank! Clank!", Riko heard as the sack smacked the tree and bounced off the edge of a nearby rock. The sound gave away that there must have been several small artifacts inside.

Riko panted franticly, looking everywhere around him to see if anyone had noticed his scream, or if there was any fectios hiking nearby. Luckily, all he could hear was the wind and the howls of local animals in the distance.

He fixated his eyes back onto the bag to make sure nothing was going to crawl out, and then onto the sack which laid only a couple of fa. next to the little black book. He had a very powerful feeling that whatever was inside of the sack, was about to change his day and maybe even his entire life. Before he reached for the sack, he glanced back over to the skeleton to make sure nothing else was going to surprise him, or if it had caused the tree to start to slowly collapse.

All seemed well to him and he finally locked his eyes back onto the mysterious items. He decided to first reach down for the little black book and save the best for last. He brushed it off and noticed it was a little damp, which must have been from the sky shower from weeks before.

He turned the cover and separated it from the first page, slowly unsticking it from its old and slimy bond. The sap from the tree must have made its way into the bag and between the pages. This gave him a better time stamp of how long the bag must have settled there.

On the front page, in a faded text read the words, "The Book of Roai".

There was no author on the front or inside the front page, which was odd to him. He assumed it must have been written by a group of people then. As he flipped through the pages, he saw text, symbols, equations, drawings of planets and more. It was one of the most fascinating pieces of opus he had ever seen. He couldn't wait to study it more when he returned back to the village, in secret of course, until he he could figure out exactly who the skeleton could have been.

After securing the little black book into his back pocket, he let a huge grin take over his face as he leaned down for the small sack containing the artifacts. He untied the old striped laces until he could finally open it up.

He took a deep breath as he slid two fingers from each hand into the tight slot, expanding it further.

The sun beamed down and reflected directly off of what slept inside, blinding Riko in the eyes painfully and quickly. He dropped the bag and let it all fall out, shading his pupils from the bright, blinding light.

When he finally finished rubbing his eyes, his vision slowly crawled its way back to the window of his irises.

He couldn't believe what he was seeing as he looked at the ground in front of his feet.

It was 12 Gold Shona Bars, which looked untouched and completely clean from the soil it had been sleeping in all this time. The face of Lord Dopa himself was carved into its surface, with deep detail.

He had never before seen anything of such magnificent glory in all of his life. His stomach felt like it had done a double-backflip and the hairs stood up on the back of his neck. He quickly gathered all of the bars back into the bag and tried to keep the gleaming sun from blinding him again as the rays from the sun shuttered back and forth with each stack.

He picked up the bag and put it under his shirt as quickly as he could to make sure that nobody around had just seen or heard the bars fall on the ground. There was still only the sound of the warm winds blowing through the trees and the sound of the local creatures carrying out their daily chores in the distance.

His heart rate grew faster and faster.

While recovering his drupee from the floor, he also reached for his back pocket to make sure that the little black book had not fallen out when he leaned down to round up the Gold Shona Bars.

He quickly looked back toward the trail leading him back home to his village and ran as fast as he could, holding the sack of Shona like it was his beloved child.

While he day-dreamed of the fortune filled life to come during his run, he couldn't help but also be filled with worry by what the villagers, along with what his family would think of him. The last thing he wanted was for them to treat him different because of it or for the village to cast him out as a thief for suspicion of how he retrieved it. He knew if he told them where he found it, they may think he made up the story to cover up him being a potential suspect regarding the mysterious skeleton character underneath the tree.

He knew he needed to first discover answers about the, "Tree Man". He decided to stop in his tracks before getting back home, to search for an easy landmark designating a digging spot. He settled on what looked like a uniquely grown trupa bush that stretched around a tree trunk, which he commonly used to mark his way towards this region of the pines.

He bent down and checked the perimeter again before setting the sack next to his knees. He began digging, but kept his head up and rotating the whole time to make sure nobody heard or spotted him.

After making the hole deep enough, he set the sack carefully inside, tying the laces as tight as he could so nothing could jeopardize the health of his newly discovered wealth.

Covering it slowly with his hands, he also made sure to further camouflage it with some basking leaves resting around the trupa bush.

Suddenly, the sound of galloping started to blare out in the distance, creating a knot in his stomach before jolting back up to the ground and brushing the dirt off of his shirt. He made it look like he was just casually tying the laces on his sandals before locking his eyes with what looked like a group of hunters on large black jimpus approaching him

They galloped their way towards him with a mean and conspiring look before surrounding him completely.

Riko put his hands out to show that he was unarmed before waiting calmly to be searched, which was a normal practice for hunters when stumbling upon strangers during one of their bouts.

Surprisingly, they did not do so. The main leader of the pack of hunters slowly led his way up to Rikos position, before pulling back on the reins that were buckled tightly on the halter of the jimpu's skull.

"What are you doing out this far in these parts of the pines huh? Aren't you a little too.... scrawny to be out here all alone. You could be a Banos lunch for Dopas sake", said the leader with an evil scoff across his cheeks.

All of the other hunters laughed until Riko finally pumped his chest out, getting ready to respond.

They all slowly stopped when the leader finally put out his hand, as if it was an order to let them hear Rikos response.

"I was just.... um..... out picking for some fobi berries. A local harvester told me that this was an excellent spot. You see my ma.."

"Shhh. Quiet.... You hear that?", whispered the leader with his finger held out at Riko.

All of the hunters wrapped their hands around their bows and crouched on their horses, circling the area with their piercing eyes.

"You got lucky little one", he whispered. "We haven't had a lead all day... I could hear dinner in the distance. Let's go crew", said the leader.

Then they all followed the leader as he galloped bravely towards the steep side of the mountain, which must have been the area where he heard local Hydrax's calling to each other in the distance. It was a sound that Riko himself could identify from any distance as well.

He let out a huge sigh of relief as they all galloped away, noticing that the hole where the Shopnas were buried, was covered with a track mark of one of the hooves of the jimpus.

He let out a huge breath of air after hearing the last of the crew fade in the distance.

All he could think to himself, is how his entire fortune could have been so easily taken from him, if he had taken only one more second to finish digging and covering that hole.

That's when he knew, that a true master.... looks at every second as if it is worth a lifetime.

Everything was about to change.

He could see it.

He could feel it.

On he went.....

...... back into the pines of Dow....

to discover the next chapter in his journey.

The sun was now beginning to hide below the horizon....

... and the Moon began rising from slumber.

All was calm for Riko the rest of the night.....

All was calm....