Star Wolves (The Tribes of Yggdrasil Book 1) (4 page)

A
s the shuttle
descended through whispy clouds in Alfheim's atmosphere, Hal could see titanic white trees reaching up from the forest floors, as if they were trying to grab at the stars themselves. Alfheim was a sylvan paradise of epic proportions.

They were flying into Llangernyw, the capital city of Alfheim; the closer they got, the more apparent it became to Hal how un-city-like Llangernyw was. It looked more like a botanical garden on a busy day. There was not a single building anywhere in sight, only massive trees, out of which Alfar streamed, and into which they disappeared, going about their business.

"Incredible..." Hal muttered.

Nila, sitting in the next seat, looked over at him. "It is lovely. If their trees are this big, I can’t wait to see the flowers!"

The shuttle approached a clearing in the forest that was Llangernyw and touched down. With an obligatory pop and hiss, the doors opened. The shuttle's engines began to spin down, the high pitched whining descended to a low thrumming.

As he stepped out of the shuttle, Hal stretched and inhaled deeply, grateful for a reprieve from recycled air after his ten week flight. His nose was flooded with a sweet scent, reminding him of honeysuckle, and a vacation in Virginia.

A tall comely woman with flaxen hair, seemed to glide up to him. Hal was struck by her lithe appearance and fine features, which he understood were typical of the Alfar; a result of evolving in a low-gravity world—Alfheim's gravity was 0.9G, or ninety percent of Earth’s. Hal certainly felt a spring in his step.

Flanking the blonde woman were two men, clearly guards, wearing some kind of greenish-brown body armor—which Hal could swear looked like bark. Each was holding a staff a foot taller than themselves. They glared at the humans, while the woman beamed warmly as she approached them.

"Haldor Olsen, I am Saeran. It is so nice to finally meet you. You are the spitting image of your father," she said, extending a slender hand. Hal received it gently, afraid of hurting her if he gripped it too tightly, but she surprised him with a very firm handshake. He looked at her shocked.

"Was that inappropriate?" She asked, “My understanding is that a firm handshake is a sign of confidence and respect."

"No, that was fine. Just surprised is all. Please, call me Hal.”

Saeran nodded.

“And most people say I look like my mother—with me having dark hair. My father was fair haired,” Hal said.

“Oh, my mistake,” Saeran said.

Hal turned and gestured to Nila who was now standing beside him. "This is Nila Johar, my navigator."

"Nila, it is a pleasure to meet you,” Saeran said.

"It’s my honor," Nila replied

“Is the rest of your crew coming down?” Saeran asked.

"We're it, except for our cryptographer, Elnora Kollman, who's already here,” Hal explained.

“Very well then, why don’t I give you a short tour of Llangernyw?” Saeran offered.

“That would be lovely,” Nila said..

“Please, if you’ll follow me.” Saeran gestured, turned, and moved down one of the walking paths, her pea green gown flowing gently like tall grass in a meadow.

“Llangernyw is stunning,” Hal said, “I can’t believe how well integrated your structures are with the environment. In fact, we’re trying very hard to achieve something similar on New Midgard; not quite on this scale of course, but building with our natural world in mind.”

Saeran smiled. “I think that is a noble sentiment, but Llangernyw was not
built
as such—it was grown. Everything you see around you is living and breathing. We are truly living in symbiosis with the trees and plants. You will notice each of the ywen trees in Llangernyw is near the size of your skyscrapers, such as those in New York city.”

Hal thought it surprising that she would reference an Earth city.

Saeran raised her eyebrows, “You look shocked? I’ve been to New York city. But between the increased gravity on Earth and the pollution in New York, I can’t say I was enamored with it on my visit, but I know you Midgardians are trying—with respect to pollution and living more symbiotically, that is.”

Hal nodded. “Fair enough. I’m not much for cities myself.” He watched hundreds of Alfar quietly going about their business, moving in and out of tree trunks, and passing above them on large branches- which seemed to function as roads.

There was another marked difference between this city and those on Earth—the lack of noise. Hal heard birds singing, the buzz of small insects, the rustle of leaves in the wind, and quiet voices; there were no honking horns, no sounds of construction, no people shouting or otherwise making a racket. The same could be said about New Midgard, but Alfheim was home to billions, like Earth. New Midgard was quiet in large part because the population density was extremely low, and there was a lack of heavy industry; being a new colony, it was still primarily an agricultural entity.

Another contrast was in the general adornment of everything. Every rail, building frontage etcetera, was intricately carved. But as he took a closer look, he realized they were not carvings at all, they were in fact patterns of growth. Saeran explained this as a function of their science of arbortecture. Plant material could be coerced to grow in myriad patterns. Some wore simple designs, others appeared to tell epic tales of battles, pictures of the gods, goddesses, and land spirits, acts of creation and other significant moments in their history.

Hal chocked this adornment up to the fact the Alfar lived so much longer than humans—homo sapiens were in a constant rush to get things done, but the Alfar … they seemed to be stopping to smell the flowers, as it were.

He remembered pictures of objects his ancestors had made a thousand years before. They were similarly adorned. Six-hundred light-years and a thousand years in time, and they had so much in common. It warmed Hal to think of these very distant cousins. Meeting the Alfar was probably the greatest blessing the gods had bestowed upon his race.

Another curiosity were the parallels in design themes. Here the Alfar seemed to employ themes which would be familiar to Celts and ancient Scandinavians. “Saeran, I notice we seem to have many similarities in the way we adorn things. Many pillars on your buildings for example have carved intertwining beasts; this is a strong motif in Old-Earth Celtic society. How is it that six-hundred light-years and thousands of years apart there is such similarity?” he asked.

“Excellent question. As you know, the gods seeded both our worlds, among others. That seeding included certain pre-dispositions for patterns of thought, behavior and culture, as well as biology. You’ll also see similar animals and plants. Not identical mind you, but very similar. Each evolve under the pressures and constraints placed on them by the environments, but the basic coding was the same; as our biospheres are very similar, you can see horses here which are nearly identical to ones on Earth. This also means our species may be able to interbreed.”

The party looked shocked.

“I meant the animals, of course” Saeran said, “but Alfar and Humans should be biologically compatible; there are a few human and Alfar couples, but no children yet.”

Hal nodded. “Inspiring.”

Saeran continued her guided tour. “Each of the large ywen trees you see functions as a building. They grow naturally, more or less as you see them. The insides are predominantly hollow, with a network of tunnels acting as hallways and rooms. Using the science of arbortecture we encourage the limbs growing further up to meet between trees, which then act like bridges among the higher levels, creating a network—somewhat like your sidewalks. We have no large roads, as we have no ground vehicles like you do on Earth. Our settlements are all very densely populated and our people spread out vertically instead of horizontally. We use shuttles and aircars between our groves—what you call cities, or towns.”

Nila put her hand on the smooth white bark of the ywen tree closest to her. “It’s warm!” she exclaimed.

Saeran sauntered back to where Nila was standing. “Yes, there’s sap running between layers of the bark. As the upper parts of the tree are heated by our sun, the sap migrates down to the cooler levels, lower down on the tree. This heated sap then radiates a pleasant warmth which regulates the temperature of the forest on cool days. During the hot summer days, when there is thicker leaf cover in the upper canopy, the bark gets less sunlight, and stays cool. The whole system creates a self regulating temperature which is pleasant in any season."

"I remember learning about them in school," said Nila.

As they continued walking, the group approached a stand of nine ywen trees dwarfing everything around them. They were half again as large as any trees they’d seen yet in Llangernyw.

Saeran looked up at the trees, and with reverence said, “This is the sacred grove, the Naw Colfen.”

S
aeran turned
toward the trees and gestured. "The Naw Colfen are our nine holiest trees, representing the nine classes in Alfar society. There were originally three classes, said to be given us by the god Heimdall. I believe your myths speak of a similar tale in the Lay of Rig. Heimdall, or Rig, was said to have introduced the class of Thralls, Karls, and Jarls. Which roughly translated, means: peasants or slaves, craftsmen, and leaders.

As our culture evolved we refined our class structure to better suit the needs and wants of our people. Unlike the Hindu caste system from Earth’s history, our classes are voluntary. Every Alfar has the same opportunity. In the first hundred years of their life, an Alfar studies, trains, and explores their passions and strengths; then, on their 100th birthday, they choose a class in which they will remain until death. This is much like a human finishing university then embarking on a career.”

"What if you don't have enough of the lower classes to do the work?" asked Nila.

"We do not refer to workers as
lower classes
, but I understand your meaning. It rarely happens, but when it does, people from other classes take turns filling in as required. It is possible to see our leaders out tending to crops, or serving food some days."

Saeran continued around the circular walkway. "Each of the Naw Colfen represents one of our classes, as follows,” Saeran pointed to each in turn, “the Arbeder, our workers, the Greftwyr, our craftsmen, the Farsiandr, our merchants, the Harlunydd, our artists, the Wydonwyr, our scientists, the Peirianyd, our engineers, the Rhyfelwyr, our warriors, the Offeiriad, our spiritualists, and finally, the Phenadur, our leaders.” Saeran turned back to the group as she finished.

“Another one of the pillars of our society,” Saeran continued, “are the Atebol, our holy virtues.” Saeran turned and gestured to a shorter wooden pillar located near the centre of the grove. “Carved in runes on this pillar are the virtues to which all Alfar strive,” she pointed to each row of runes on the pillar and read, “accountability, interdependence, balance, truth, hospitality, justice, loyalty, industriousness, and perseverance.” She turned back to her audience.

Adrianna had a curious look, and spoke up, “How do you enforce those laws?”

“The Alfar are guided and
encouraged
to live by the Atebol, but are not forced to do so. However, in extreme cases, those who have proven time and time again to not abide by the virtues, are banished. We Alfar find it odd humans need such detailed laws to know how to behave. Our code is simple, yet it seems to work for us.”

Hal nodded enthusiastically. “It's nice to see first hand, like Nila, I studied Alfar culture in school, but seeing it in the flesh—or in the bark,” Hal joked, "is humbling." He bowed deeply to Saeran and said, “diolch i chi ddynes hyfryd."

Blushing, Saeran smiled. "Well done, Haldor. It seems you also have your grandfathers flair for languages. And your pronunciation of Alfish was vey good."

"Well, since you took the time to learn English, I thought it only polite I reciprocate. Don't quiz me though, I spent a whole week getting that one phrase right."

Laughter rippled through the trio.

"I will show you to your rooms where you can freshen up. We are having a dinner in your honor tonight, then tomorrow morning we will meet the rest of the team at the starport."

T
he main hall
in Llangernyw where dinner was being held, was situated in the center of the city / grove. Siani had given him a very detailed description of its functions and impressive active-arbortecture. The hall could be configured for banquets, concerts, or whatever else was needed. On this night, it was set up to serve a banquet in honor of the guests from Earth and New Midgard.

The hall was formed by a recess between the intersection of four great trees. The
ceiling
created by the bark-clad titans was fifty meters high, and the hall stretched two-hundred meters long and a hundred meters wide.

At the end of the banquet hall were two massive statues, at least ten meters high: one of Freyr, and the second of his sister Freya. Alfheim was said to be the domain of Lord Freyr, and the Alfar considered him their patron; they also paid extra deference to his beautiful twin sister Freya. They were, respectively, a god and goddess of fertility, belonging to the Vanir, one of the two main tribes of Norse gods. Their purview was not limited to fertility: Freyr was said to be a great warrior, and Freya was renowned for her use of magic.

The floor of the banquet hall was made of a middling-green, fragrant moss, which served as a comfortable medium to walk on, and absorbed spilled beverages and odors; it was the perfect self-sustaining, organic flooring. All it needed was some diffuse sunlight, which it received through the branches in the canopy above the hall, and water; and on either side of the banquet hall, two small streams ran through its entire length.

Hal marveled at the beauty of this place. It was dreamlike. He pondered over the continuum of living environments, such as Earth, New Midgard, and Alfheim. Each was so different: Earth being on the far left of the continuum, and still industrial, and not as well integrated with the environment as it could be. New Midgard was in the middle of the continuum, a work in progress, the men of Earth reaching and hoping for something better. And then there was Alfheim, perfection of form, function, and sustainability; the long term goal realized. Hal knew the Alfar had been around longer than humans, and their culture had millennia more to devote to this, as well as them having longer lifespans. He wondered if the environmental integration contributed to that longevity … perhaps.