A Hand-Woven Universe 4 4. Silence And Sea Stones

After a while he saw the group of elders who had gone off to find Adria earlier walking towards him, having turned off a narrow hall to the left. They were all sporting looks of helplessness, it seems that whatever punishment they were planning to give Adria, she had outmaneuvered them.

The elders saw Noone and waved towards him, making eye contact with each other. Noone could always tell when they were talking amongst themselves. Unless they were making a point to not look at each other - they would always make eye contact and various facial expressions. From the outside he found it very funny to watch. However, it reminded him of how much of their world he was unable to be a part of.

The most front elder, the uncle of Adria stopped in front of Noone and knelt down, "Hi Noone, are you going to see Adria?" His voice was slightly pitched and rough. The words he said were barely intelligible but Noone had grown used to understanding this type of speech. The adults never practiced speaking out loud. They seemed oblivious to how bad they sounded, or maybe they were just too thick-skinned to care.

Noone nodded at him. Noone had a good impression of this elder despite what Adria would tell him. He knew Adria would sometimes say too much stuff she didn't mean if she was excited or upset.

"Yes, The Elder said she would want some company." When Noone said 'the elder' anyone in the conclave who knew Noone would immediately know he meant Elder Azelle.

After both of Noone's parents had pa.s.sed away, Elder Azelle had for the most part taken it upon himself to keep an eye on and watch over Noone. Though he left the raising of Noone to the village.

Various people have taken a turn watching over Noone. Families and Couples, Elders, Workmen, even poor Liter the Librarian had ended up taking care of Noone for a year.
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Originally it was supposed to be a month, but the librarian found himself fond of Noone. Specifically, he found it great to pa.s.s on the spoken word to a descendant he knew would actually care.

The elders all had wry smiles on their faces, initially they had gone with the intention of scolding the young Adria, however beyond their expectations she had made the first move. Showering them with flattery and gifts immediately upon their arrival. What else could be said? They couldn't very well punish her after that, could they?

"She's just down that way" the elder gestured from the direction they came. He seemed ready to say something else to Noone, but bit his tongue on the matter.

Noone followed the halls, eventually reaching the home of Adria. It was a small alcove off to the side which she had dug out of the stone herself after stealing a miner's pick. When the elders had found out, they were originally going to scold her for that as well, but ended up being impressed that the 8-year-old girl was strong enough to do that on her own. Thus, they let it be.

"NOOONE!" Immediately following his arrival, an explosion occurred in the house carved from the stone and the cave lit up red, Noone saw a vaguely human silhouette shoot out of the window like dart out of a blowgun. Two smaller explosions rang out in front of him. He covered his ears in shock, expecting more explosions to occur.

BANG BANG

Once his eyes adjusted, he saw a young overly excited girl of 10, fiery red hair, and bright red power lines pulsing on her body. She was small but nimble even more so than Noone, even though her raw physical strength was less.

Before Noone could even exchange greetings, Adria began ranting about her progress with her attunement.

"I figured out a way to do instant acceleration and deceleration! You see, if I channel my elemental energy in my hands or my feet then condense it to its maximum, I can release it in a point out of my body, the explosion that occurs will instantly transfer energy into my momentum…"

Noone liked Adria a lot. After Adria had found out that Noone could only speak verbally, she put in a lot more effort in being able to talk and read. As such, the only people in Tapestry who are proficient in spoken words right now are Noone, Adria, the librarian, And Elder Azelle, who similarly took the time to brush up on his skills.

Because of this, and because Adria always took the initiative to talk to him, he very much liked spending time with her. Sometimes he thought she talked too much though. Especially when she was excited.

"… so, with this I will be able to match and even beat you when racing around the caves!" This was a game they liked to play. There are a lot of unused areas of Tapestry that have been created over the eternities their people have been here. For Noone and Adria, this was like an obstacle course. Adria was always compet.i.tive with it.

Ever since Noone had turned 5 he held the advantage over Adria who was 4 years his senior. This annoyed her to no end, but also left a great impression on her about his physical strength.

If anyone else had been around to hear that Adria had created such a technique on her own for the sole purpose of winning a race, they would likely be stunned.

Without a moment to lose, Adria desired to race against Noone right away. Like a child with a new toy, she was eager to test it out. "Let's head over right now!!" She said, not giving the young Noone a chance to get a word in. She grabbed Noone's hand and started to run.

Before she could get far though, Noone screamed out and tugged his hand out of her grasp. Adria smelt something funny…

She looked back and saw Noone holding his hand to his chest. His face scrunched up and tears began to flow from his eyes as he continued to cry out gripping his palm.

Shocked, Adria looked down at her own hands. Suddenly she realized they must still be incredibly hot from channeling her energy through them. Her eyes went wide, and her brain switched to panic mode, she began looking around frantically. She quickly looked back at Noone unsure what to do and the feeling of guilt quickly overcoming her.

Her brow creased, and her brain worked at what felt like light speed, "Noone! I'm sorry! Stay right here! I'll get the elder!" As she dashed out of the cave, she saw others starting to head in Noone's direction wondering what the screaming was.

"I accidentally burned Noone's hands! If anyone has any healing cream, please go apply it! I am going to get Elder Azelle right now!" She spoke telepathically with everyone she could feel in range.

Without stopping, she raced through the halls to the elder's quarters.

…

"Noone Noone its okay, let me see your hand." Noone was sitting on the floor his hand clutched to his chest, there was ointment on his hands someone else had applied before the elder arrived. Adria looked on from the side worried, and feeling very guilty. Please be okay, she pleaded as she looked at the pained expression on Noone's face.

Noone held out his hand for the elder to see. The hand had already started to heal, but there would be a nasty scar left. From what the elder could tell, it shouldn't affect the hands function once it is fully healed though. The elder looked up and around. Out loud he said, "This was a very high-grade ointment, I would like to thank whoever used it. If you find me later, I will be sure to reimburse you." Before turning his attention back to Noone.

"Noone, I want you take this in your hand and hold it for me, can you do that?" The elder took a small fossilized stone out of his pocket. This was a sea stone, a product of the universe laws mixing with a creature in the ocean and then fossilizing.

Noone nodded his head, he was apprehensive to let anything touch his hand after the pain of applying the ointment, but he bit his tongue and held his hand out. The elder gently placed the sea stone in Noone's palm. Immediately Noone felt a cool sensation spread across his palm, around his fingers, and the back of his hand. Noone felt as though he had a glove of cool water on, but he didn't see anything there.

The elder could see the relief in Noone's eyes immediately. He smiled and stood up, then looked over to Adria. "And as for you…"

Adria didn't dare to meet his eyes, he walked over to stand right in front of her and put a hand on her shoulder.

"Are you okay?"

Adria looked up into the elder's eyes and began to cry. The anxiety that had built up, and the thought of her recklessness hurting Noone led her to feel extremely anxious. She had been wanting to do something to help, but realizing it was her fault only made it worse. So, like any ten-year-old, she cried.