School Time, Kids!

Fresh fruit and the zeal of the morning sun brought every student down the path and into the learning garden. Girls and boys giggled into their places. The air flushed their lungs a with a lifetime, lush and wild. Nudges and notes flowed through the congregation. Children didn't need to hope for joy, they jumped for joy with intermittent unpredictability. Each face opened, a leaf bathing in the glow. Today, teacher was going to be their sun. His story telling skills earned their hearts on the first day of the school year.

Their village was blessed with twelve elders, the thirteenth was fresh in her grave. It was unlike the tree people of Atru Mombella to see things in a negative light. Twelve was a blessing, without a doubt. Silky but thin, Elder Kcaj bore a beard by some measurements. In spite of an aggressive reduction in vision, he still clutched the old story books when teaching the children. He told all the stories from memory. But, he wanted to emphasise the importance of reading. His conical headwear kept the sun from blinding what was left his blue eyed vision. Grey was a humble palette to draw from, and so Kcaj was a hunchbacked shawl in a shower of slate. The harmony of his robes sat well with the rich tan of his leathery skin. Clearing his sore throat, he began to tell the tale of the Black Death Harbinger with a rasping baritone worthy of the subject matter. It was a lesson as grim as it was necessary.

"Our world is one of many. The stars are different worlds. Telescopes can teach us that. What we can't see is what lives where we live. I'm talking, of course, about other dimensions. Planet Earth is one; the origin of humans is well known to us. Althanas, or the New World, as we call it, has its own Hitlers and Stalins--maybe worse. We haven't read the ending just yet."