Trident's Forge

T
he stars shone brightly
. Especially the new ones.

Those were the ones that held Kexx's attention, and why ze'd left G'tel's protective halo of trees so late at night. Out here, the glare from the campfires didn't interfere with the sky. Ze watched the two new pinpricks of light and pondered their meaning while the heat of the village fires slowly leached from zer body.

A young, inexperienced ulik bumbled into the clearing, betraying the presence of its pack. Kexx let a ripple of light wash over zer skin, both to let the uliks know ze was watching them, and to let them see the half-spear stuck into the ground next to zer.

The offending ulik was apparently young enough to have gotten caught, but experienced enough to know what an adult of G'tel could do with a spear point. It gave an answering wave of soft blue light down its front legs. The pack headed for the beach to forage in the tidal pools for much less dangerous prey.

Kexx watched them go, eight in total. It was large for an ulik pack, but most of the members looked scrawny. Perhaps the castoffs from healthier packs had banded together for safety. In truth, if the pack had decided to attack zer, Kexx probably couldn't have killed them all before being brought down zerself. But ze would've gotten more of the uliks than the pack could afford to lose and still hope to take down tomorrow's prey. So they passed. Such was the simple math of living on the surface. Kexx wished the pack luck in its wanderings and returned to watching the new stars.

Three years ago, the dimmer one arrived. Varr made three passings, then the brighter one appeared. They hadn't been named yet, mostly because the elders were convinced that they were Seeds of Cuut, preparing to rain fire down on them like the legends from the deep times. More than one family had fled the village that first night to try to return to shelter in Xis's womb underground, only to find the Black Bridge blocked and fiercely guarded by Dwellers in no mood to welcome refugees. Which shouldn't have come as a surprise to anyone. Dwellers barely tolerated traders, much less new mouths to feed.

Kexx couldn't blame them for their fear, but ze wasn't convinced of the danger. Sure enough, the new stars fell into a rhythm in a matter of days. Now they sat side by side, motionless in the night sky, but that was hardly the strangest thing that had happened. First, there had been the hard-shelled emissary sent to watch over them through its crystal eyes. Which of their triumvirate of gods it was watching for was a matter of some intense debate that persisted to the present. Nevertheless, the elders ordered it brought into Cuut's temple so that offerings of food and prayer could be made to it, and to make sure it only saw what they wanted it to see.

Then, nearly a year later, a strand of light, long and straight as the cleaved edge of a crystal, descended from the smaller star, connected with the larger, and slowly made its way down until it touched the ocean far to the east.

Try as they might, the elders could find no reference to such a happening anywhere in the songs or scrolls. Desperate for answers, they'd even sent an envoy to consult those Dwellers who commune with Xis in the deep below, but even
their
wizened ones squabbled over the meaning of the omen. Some believed it was Cuut coming to finish zer long battle with Xis for all time. Still others argued that the new stars were heralds of Varr, and that the ray of light was an invitation to leave Xis's womb behind forever. Of course, Kexx's village and the three fullhands like it had done that generations ago, venturing out from the Dweller caves, never to return. A gathering of village elders insisted the omen was meant for them alone, Dwellers be damned.

Kexx was no elder of the faith, and didn't feel qualified to question their proclamations, but ze still couldn't shake the feeling that there wasn't enough known about any of this for anyone to make such exacting, contradictory conclusions with the unflappable confidence the elders so often displayed.

A cool ocean breeze blew across Kexx, sending a small shiver through zer body. The skin on zer arms and in the folds of zer flattened headcrests was still damp from the water of the evening's cleansing ritual. A new storm front was moving toward the village, ze knew the feeling in zer air bladders. Kexx held zer hands up into the wind and spread zer fingers to let the salty smell of the ocean play through them.

Something on the wind caught zer attention. An unfamiliar smell mingled with the aroma of the sea. Kexx spread zer arms wide, trying to get an indication of the direction the strange smell was coming from, but the wind had churned it up too much to get a bearing. It didn't matter. A moment later, a warning howl pierced the night's quiet. One of the uliks had spotted something, and it didn't like what it saw one bit.

Kexx sprang up from the ground and grabbed the shaft of zer half-spear. The pack was a short run down the beach, flashing undulating waves of light over their skin in a typical threat display. Whatever the source of the smell was, it had spooked an entire ulik pack. Cautiously, Kexx crouched down and stalked off in their direction, the soft blue lights in zer skin shrinking down to pinpricks. The pack had arranged itself in a straight line on the beach facing the ocean, trying to make itself look as large and intimidating as possible.

Ze scanned the waves, looking for whatever had frightened the pack. Kexx spotted the hole in the water a moment later. A black void as dark as a cloudy night floated on the surface. It was easily as large as a bulo carcass. An enormous translucent triangular crest sprang from the creature's back and billowed in the wind.

The pack leader's skin-glow changed abruptly as the creature continued to approach without slowing. Its nerve broken, one ulik spun around and darted for the cover of the crop fields with the rest of the pack in hot pursuit. Kexx's instincts screamed at zer to follow their example, but curiosity kept zer feet planted to the sandy beach. As long as ze stayed out of the water, the enormous creature was no threat.

That's what Kexx kept saying to zerself as the creature plowed straight into the shore with enough force to gouge out a furrow in the sand. Thoroughly beached, the mysterious creature leaned onto its side with a shuddering gasp like creaking wood. With the muscles in zer legs tensed for a quick escape, Kexx watched the creature intently, quietly praying to Xis, or even Cuut, that it didn't suddenly sprout legs and run zer down. For its part, the enormous nightmare remained motionless.

Animal calls drifted across the night air. Soft at first, confused, like someone waking up, but they grew in both volume and number. They were high pitched, almost like children. Even more bizarrely, they seemed to be coming from
inside
the beached creature.

Swallowing a gasp, Kexx gripped the shaft of the half-spear tightly as the first figure emerged from the creature. Silhouetted against the night sky, the figure looked too short to be an adult. It was more the size of an adolescent, much like the voice, but the proportions and the way it moved were… unnatural.

The single figure was quickly joined by two more, then four. Soon, more than a fullhand of them stood atop the creature's back. Was it a creature at all? Before Kexx had time to ponder the question, a brilliant light erupted from one of the figure's hands, so bright that Kexx had to shift zer gaze to avoid night blindness. Three others joined in, white light streaming from their hands like tiny suns, brighter and purer than any campfire. They swept the beams of light up and down the beach as if searching for something. Beams, Kexx realized, that looked very much like the thread of light reaching down from the new stars to the west.

Kexx dropped prone, making zerself as small as possible. No animal's skin-glow was that bright. Whatever the strangers were, they weren't G'tel, from another village on the road network, or even Dwellers. The realization raced through Kexx's mind, leaving a wake of bone-gripping fear as it went. Too terrified to move, yet too curious to look away, Kexx studied the small creatures as they jumped down to the sand and made their way down the beach.

Now and then, one of the creatures shone its light on another while they talked, giving Kexx a clear view of them. Their skin was smooth and pale, like corpses, empty of the shifting patterns and colors of living flesh. Absent too was any skin-glow, except for the lights coming from their hands. They had two arms and two legs, but they were knobby, stiff. Their hands and feet were broad and flat. Long black strands covered the tops of their heads where display crests should be.

The group moved closer to Kexx's hiding place. Had ze been spotted? Kexx held up a hand cautiously to sample the air. The strange smell that had drawn zer down to the beach was strong on the breeze, wafting off the creatures like a dux'ah at the height of mating season. They moved strangely on their rigid legs, haltingly and without fluidity. Everything about them screamed foreignness.

One of the creatures stopped suddenly and pointed their light beam directly into Kexx's face. It was like staring into the midday sun. Kexx winced and threw a hand over zer eyes out of reflex. The creatures shouted at each other in alarm. Now there was no question that ze'd been spotted. Zer muscles shaking with panic, Kexx jumped up to zer full height and shook zer half-spear menacingly, hoping ze terrified them half as much as they did zer.

The one that had spotted zer stepped forward and hushed the rest, then signaled for them to spread out into a semicircle with Kexx at its center. Their coordination sent a trembling quake through Kexx's muscles and joints. These were not merely clever animals like the ulik that had scattered into the night, their crests tucked tightly to their skulls. Nor were their sounds mere animal calls. The strangers were talking to each other, just as G'tel did, but in a tongue unlike any Kexx had ever heard. They were intelligent, and therefore, infinitely more dangerous.

The trading scale in Kexx's mind tilted decisively from curiosity to retreat. Ze spun around toward the cover of the yulka field and took off at a dead run, but as soon as ze took the first step, one of zer toes caught on a root protruding from the sand, sending zer toppling onto the back face of the dune. Kexx reached out to break zer fall, but the ground rose up and knocked the wind from zer air sacks like a well-landed punch. Kexx watched in horror as zer half-spear rolled down the dune and out of reach.

Footsteps surrounded zer. Kexx flipped around and sat up just in time to see the strangers swarming down the dune from all directions at once. Even on the shifting sands and with their jerky gaits, they moved unnervingly fast. Kexx lunged down the dune and made a wild grab for zer spear, but one of the strangers had apparently moved to flank zer and snatched it up first. The circle closed around zer. Kexx held up zer hands while a pattern of slow glowing waves radiated across zer skin from zer chest out to zer fingers in the universal sign of submission.

At least Kexx hoped it was universal.

The stranger with Kexx's spear stood at the ready, but didn't point it at zer. That had to count for something. The one who'd discovered zer walked up slowly. Ze was smaller than the others, and softer somehow. Ze moved with more care and grace than the others, despite zer strange legs with their knobby protrusions. Ze stopped just short of where Kexx sat and held out an open hand. In zer other hand, Kexx saw a yellow cylinder and realized it, not their hands, was the source of the light beams. It was a… a tool?

Awe welled up inside Kexx's chest in a way ze hadn't felt since zer first cleansing ceremony, barely a year out of zer larval phase. These strangers had been sent by Varr, they must've been. Who else had the power to capture a piece of the sun? Kexx put zer hands flat and dropped zer forehead to the sand and started to chant a prayer, but this seemed to confuse and upset the strangers more than anything.

The small stranger standing in front of Kexx shook her head in a gesture Kexx didn't recognize, then held out zer open hand again.

“Watashin onamae ha Mei Nakama desu. Onamae wa?”

Kexx stared up at the stranger uncomprehendingly. Ze wasn't even sure zer mouth could mimic the sounds. The stranger's face twisted up in an expression Kexx couldn't interpret. Then, ze pointed a single finger back at zer own chest.

“Mei,” ze said simply.

“Mmm,” Kexx struggled to wrap zer mouth around the unnatural sound. “Mmuaeee?”

The stranger's mouth tugged up at the corners. “Hai! Mei.” Ze tapped a finger on zer chest for emphasis, then pointed back at Kexx and paused expectantly.

A name. “Mei” was the stranger's name. And now ze was asking for a name in return.

“Kexx,” ze said quietly.

“Kex,” Mei repeated, clipping the end and changing the meaning to a reddish, inedible fungus, but it was probably closer than ze had gotten to saying Mei properly on the first try.

“Kexx,” ze repeated back to Mei. The corners of the stranger's mouth tugged up again, wider this time. Wide enough to make creases in zer cheeks. Then, without warning, the pale little stranger lunged forward and wrapped zer arms around Kexx's shoulders. A hug. Ze was being hugged.

Kexx hugged the peculiar little creature named Mei back, and laughed in relief. Mei joined zer. They laughed together for a long time.