The drifting wastes and the labyrinthine house

The tropical heat and dampness dissipated as they travelled on. Gradually the lush greenery made way for more stocky plants. Juicy fruits still grew, a lifesaver to the Nornir by now. In this complete lack of gravity water was very difficult to collect and to contain. Only mopping up dew from plants with spongy mosses proved to be a workable solution.

Stickly heather dressed the walls of the tunnel now. The winds that carried them still brought some warmth, but wherever they rested the still air was unpleasantly cool. Even here, in this incredibly strange place, sosir felt the nagging of nostalgia awakened by plants like heather. “Even” was not the right choice of words, especially in these strange places he experienced homesickness. Sosir did not sink into the mire of memories, though. Not only was he not really inclined to those emotions, but he also had his young charge on his heels.

It frustrated him to have once more responsibility over another, but young Anlong could never survive on his own, and in a way Sosir had caused him to be cast out of his village. The youth spoke little, but for every word saved his appetite was increased. He ate more than the solidly built Sosir, and had no qualms about dining on bugs and even some of the tentacled furry critters when he caught them. A sort of meal Sosir felt nowhere near hungry enough for.

“Do you perhaps eat because it is the only thing left to you?” Sosir asked out loud. It was not in his nature to care for another’s actions, but expected food would get more and more scarce as this journey continued.

“I don’t, do I? I have no home now, no tribe or family nor any skills. I was never taught a craft because I was destined for greater things.”

The youngling kept a gloomy silence then. He seemed somewhat lankier than he had a few sleeps before, somehow.

Sosir answered him:”Many Nornir do not, and many more did not in the past yet found their place in the end.”

Anlong did not quite appear comforted, but he left the topic.

“I eat because my body demands it. Never in my life have I felt such searing hunger, and I cannot explain it myself. I will try to fight it and collect food along the way, but it hurts me.”

Sosir knew little of the biology of these strangely scaled Nornir. He shrugged, Anlong’s explanation and his solution seemed sufficient to him. They would tie as much foodstuff as they could collect together and tug it along in this weightless airstream.

Thinning vegetation more often made way for barren rock. The bare slate scale had been an unpleasant reminder to them. The air was cool now, and the stream they had ridden for days had slowed down to a soft breath. By now an impressive bundle of rations trailed them, a weight strong Sosir could never have shouldered on solid ground. Anlong seemed to suffer less from the cold than his hairless skin implied. Perhaps the same inner fire that fueled his hunger kept him warm.

Even the rock was patchy now. Bare ettistone walls and an outer ring of windows shew the real nature of their environment. The stars were a gorgeous sight, and a band barely lit land below hid many of them. Sosir would have stopped to stare if it had not been so icy. Even his tough fur was barely sufficient. Anlong however moved along automatically, seemingly not cold at all.

A window sat opposite to the outer ring of glass. This was the first one, not once had they seen something on that side of the tunnel. This alone would not have puzzled them for long and quickly be forgotten, were it not for the thing behind the glass: first he thought of an ettin, but the large pointy snout had nothing to do with the industrious ones. The brown and tan fur could have been that of a Norn, but that too seemed not quite right. It was barely the size of a young Ettin, but the papers and the studious look implied adulthood. The creature waved at them and flicked a switch next to the window, shading it completely until the glass was milky opaque.

Both were bewildered by this stranger. “He wasn’t floating.” Anlong said dryly. Sosir had not even noticed before but realised the utter weirdness of this one peculiarity. Both looked at one another and they moved on quickly. 

Another good rest later Sosir swore Anlong had grown even more. When he slept the young had eaten a good part of their reserves, more curious however was how his body and tail appeared at least a hand-lenght longer than before. He knew nothing of these Nornir Anlong belonged to but this still seemed unnatural to him. They were isolated, and Sosir felt an unease that travel would at least numb, so this he did.

His lengthy companion awoke when called, cheerless as ever, and together they creeped along the walls onwards into the yawning metallic depth.

The stillness of their previous camp would have been a blessing now. How helpful the airsteam had been before how hindering it had become now they had to crawl against it. As they climbed against the wind they noticed the stoney scales sticking to the walls again. More and they saw and found to be holdfests as their journey continued until eventually they saw the barren vegetation again. Sosir welcomed the slowly increasing temperatures, yet some statuelike columns were strange.

A donut shaped wall slowly came into their view. Here the crude but obvious statues stood in great array, though whether this was a welcome or deterrence was unclear to the wanderers. 

The large hole in the center howled with the concentrated winds. It was clear this way would offer only a very tiring and difficult passage. Some exploration around the solid walls base however shew a smaller ingress, more suited to their size and strength. No strong winds came from it, though the darkness felt threatening and oppressive, even after the dimly lit tunnels of the cold side.

The carved rock of the building felt moist to the touch but carved handles made travel easy. Winding, labyrinthine passages made orientation impossible, even to Anlong who lived a life in freefall. Inky red slime covered the walls in a thin film, and critters meeting the middle between toad and sea-star bounced around in the darkness.

Behind him Sosir sometimes heard eating noises from Anlong, something he refused to give thought to.

The branching and winding tunnels sometimes opened up in open spaces, where bas-reliefs depicted open worship of a serpentine form. The carvings were elaborate but stylistic, and the angular forms of the worshippers made Sosir take a while to recognise them as Ettinae. The open spaces opened into the wind tunnel that ran through the edifices heart, and clawing through them required them to fight the sucking winds. 

Every next of these open rooms was decorated more, as if they were recently prepared for celebrations. The sounds and echoes in the narrow tunnels were no longer solely those of the howling winds, but now those of scrambled voices could now also be made out. Clarity of sound increased, and it wasn’t long until they met a room filled with Ettinae. They looked tired, as if they had missed out on sleep due to their celebrations. All heads turned towards the interlopers, but the looks on their faces betrayed a hopeful confusion rather than animosity.

“Have you seen it?!” One of the Ettins begged. “It has not come! It comes every cycle! Have you seen the lifebringer?”

“Soothe down, industrious one. Few lifebringers I’ve seen in these tunnels but for another superstitious lot yonder. What do you mean by lifebringer?”

The Ettinae, who appeared to be some modified genus of Tunnel Ettins, looked upon him in disbelief.

“You must know of the lifebringer! You come from its direction, and such a hulking stone titan you cannot have overseen! We cannot live without it, it brings food and water to our gardens.”

Sosir suddenly had a very clear idea what their lifebringer looked like, and an equally clear idea what had happened to it. He was lost for words, but Anlong filled the void unexpectedly:“The divine worm lies dormant.” 

The sudden confidence took both Sosir and the fanatic Ettins by surprise, but the size of the youth shocked them even more. The dark of the narrow stone burrows had hidden the growth spurt, but Anlong’s length surpassed that of any creatures Sosir had seen before. His arms and legs were perhaps stronger, but little longer than they had been before. His antlers had grown to fit his scale, and he appeared to defy momentum.

The ettins sighed in a respectful awe, used to supernatural displays and fully accepting his words. “Feed me and show me the hospitality his envoy might deserve, and I may yet quicken the coming of the great worm.”

The ettins scurried before him, leading him on towards what Sosir presumed to be a feast. He felt frightened of the young norn full of surprises, but followed the procession regardless. 

A way out of this maze and a meal would be worth many fears.

The ettins knew their way. They moved quickly despite the lack of gravity, and Anlong appeared not to need it at all. He appeared to lazily swim through the air, his tail trailing behind him and his limbs folded to his sides. 

Days passed while Anlong was fed and played some divine diplomat to the ettins. They seemed perfectly fine as long as they could serve, as seemed to be their natural inclination. Sosir spent this time exploring the somehow ancient ruin the ettins lived in. Their gardens behind the structure were nothing short of magnificent, producing clearly far more than the relatively small tribe could need. They appeared to Sosir more like squatters in a machine rather than what was once intended to be a home.

Who built it, and where the food went, none of the ettins would tell him. The strange, stocky, shrew-like creature he and Anlong had seen on the cold side drifted through his mind, but that too, the ettins denied. 

Anlong’s scales were now more like hard tree bark, and his body had grown like his spirit and confidence had. When his industrious disciples worked the field the giant serpentine nornir took Sosir ambling. A crag in the course stone walls reminded him of the narrow way he had entered the stone tunnel in the heavens, and he met eyes with Anlong.

“If we are to part here again, I take it you have found your new lot in life?”

Anlong answered:”A fate was once picked and given to me. I have never strayed from it.” 

Sosir was given a gentle prod towards the crag, and he saw the youngling swing his massive body towards the red hot area the tunnel looped through.

Tiny black eyes peeked through the scales on his back, blinking and gazing at the ombre furred Norn as a cycle was reborn.