Special Notes: I don’t know if this will develop into a book, experimenting. Cover image pending-all depends on how the story is received. [Cormon, Book I, Chapter 1] [Challenge of Silence] Reli knelt, his knee sinking slightly into the soft ground of countless seasons of discarded leaves—the Rain Forest’s continuous cycle of life from soil to sun high above the many layers of rain forest and back to the soil again. Reli kept his head up and his eyes averted from the Shadow Cat that stalked past him by only a dozen feet—to run would mark Reli as prey, and to stand or stare directly at the great Cat would mark him as a challenger for the Cat’s territory. The Cat would not attack, Reli showed no aggression, but also no fear. The large boy was an uncertain and the Shadow Cat would not risk injury against a potential predator that intended none. The Shadow Cat moved silently, muscles rippling in waves under the thick grey hide, and glanced towards Reli as if to say, “Not today, my brother, go in peace.” Reli bowed his head and whispered, “Honor to you, my brother.” Speaking was not particularly forbidden, though many of the boys interpreted the challenge as such. Reli had tried the challenge last year and failed, and though it was not a dishonor to fail, nearly everyone failed the first time. Reli had taken it hard, returning to Master Rede’s circle and re-immersing himself in the ancient warrior’s lessons—listening, meditating, reading the scrolls, and practicing with the nine weapons he knew would be part of the nine challenges to adulthood, and the coveted status as a warrior. He had considered passing on this year’s challenge until one night when he dream walked and saw Master Rede as a boy long ago on his own challenge to adulthood. Reli had seen Master Rede in the dream walk sitting in the forest and thought he understood. The dream faded in the light of day, but Reli managed to hold on to just enough of the dream to think he understood. The Shadow Cat was gone, moving off somewhere through the forest on his search for prey. Reli stood, the scent of the forest hanging in the air like a memory of every creature that lived within the great forest. He closed his eyes for a moment and concentrated—a Slither snake twelve paces to his left, a Grasper watching him from between the heavy palms, a Glider flying through the trees, a colony of eater ants dissecting a fallen tree—the forest contained many dangers. Reli followed the path silently, beads of sweat running down his brow in the humid air. The forest teamed with life, always there, always watching. Reli watched back. The tracking path wound around trees that stretched up towards the sun, some nearly two-hundred feet tall and blocking the sun, Reli stepped over and around hidden dangers and stopped at a single patch of sunlight that had fought its way through the thick rain forest and rested on the cover of decaying leaves. He knew better than to walk across the tempting patch of sunlight, and he also knew better than to play with the wonderful beam of light on the ground, but there was still a boy inside him that couldn’t resist the temptation. Reli bent down and picked up a fallen branch and stepped back from circle of light, and grinning he tossed the branch into the warm ray of sun. The branch fell in the patch of light and rested there, and Reli and watched, it was quick and violent. A Strangler Fig lashed out and snaked itself around the fallen branch and snatched it away into the shadows, away from the lone sapling struggling to push up into the sunlight. Reli followed with his eyes and identified the older tree protecting the sapling, even the trees of the forest were alive—not all of them, but you needed to know which ones were. Foolish was the child that tried to climb the wrong tree. Reli made a wide berth around the patch of sunlight and continued following the path, he needed to be deeper into the forest before night. He had to be too far away for help to come, too far away for Master Rede to come save him. He had to be alone—if he was right, if he had truly discovered the secret to passing the first challenge, the Challenge of Silence. But what if he was wrong; what if he hadn’t understood what Master Rede was trying to teach him in the ancient stories, what if he had read the scrolls wrong. No—there was no going back. The first time he had stayed too close to the warrior camp. The Camp. He liked the camp; he liked the routine of rising before the sun and practicing until long after the sun set. Reli began to worry. He had traveled on the path for most of the day and still… nothing. Why? What was he doing wrong? It should have shown itself to him. Had he missed it? He stopped and looked around; it should have shown itself by now. Perhaps he just needed to go further; perhaps he had gone too far. Reli picked the pace up and walked faster and kept a watchful eye. His brothers were out here, somewhere, on a different path. Many paths left from the camp, some back to the village, some further to the town, and others even further to the cities and the places where the forest was no longer alive. Encroached on by the Others. Great places of steel and iron, technology, and the great ships that came and went to the furthest reaches of space. Reli had been off-world once, with his brothers and others of his village. They had taken the tour up to the great space-station that circled their world. He didn’t really have any interest in what was beyond his world; he had only wanted to see the whole of his world. And he had. He had stood in the observatory on the space-station and looked down on his world. Others had been there, and they were of some interest. The people from a world of water were there, odd in appearance, and said to live in cities at the bottom of their ocean. Reli wasn’t sure whether he believed that or not. There were also a small people visiting on the space-station, so small that Reli thought he could surely have picked twenty of them up in his arms—well, maybe not twenty, but they were small and came from a world that revered the bird. Reli thought that though they were small they must surely be similar to his people if they had the sense to respect the wonder of the animals of their world. The foolish ones had been there as well. The arrogant ones, the ones that believed they could own worlds. The world could not belong to anyone. They called themselves the Over-Lords—foolish, thought Reli, foolish to think that anyone could be master over another. Such a thought was as foreign to his people as the space-station itself had been to him. Reli hadn’t liked the space-station, it smelled of foul things, not natural. Things made to defy nature and set the Others apart from the living world. He had liked seeing the whole of his world, hanging there in the black night, a beacon that called him back to the great forest. He had seen the entirety of the forest from up there, spreading out across his world. That was something he would never forget. Wambes had been there as well. Reli thought they had been the most interesting of all. His lost cousins, yearning to be his brothers, yearning for their world though they might not have understood it yet. Some of the Wambes would find their way home; some would stand in their ancestral home and never truly see it. Wambes—descends of his world born on other worlds. Without the thick rich air and the greater gravity of their ancestral home to teach them how to breathe and walk correctly, Wambes never grew to their potential. Smaller than one born on this world, and weaker, though still much larger than any of the Others, they had heard the call deep inside them and made the Yedia home, to find what they had lost. If Rede passed this challenge, he would have to lead a Wambe into the forest and try to show him the way home. You couldn’t fail the second Challenge, unless your Wambe died. And that was certainly a possibility, Wambes died all the time. No—no failure. Reli thought about that and then shook his head, he shouldn’t be thinking about the second Challenge when he hadn’t solved the first yet. Reli hoped his brothers were doing better than he was. Rusar and Fanu had taken the paths that they felt would lead them into the world, and Reli had taken his. But—had his choice been right? The night was coming and still he hadn’t found it. He turned in a circle, the forest was becoming dark, he had chosen wrong. Panic began to seep into his awareness, the deep fear that he had made a mistake. Reli knew that panic and fear killed. He had to calm himself. He breathed deep of the thick humid air, it was beginning to cool and more predators would be coming out into the night to hunt. He heard the movement in the brush. Fear—fear killed, they could smell his fear, he was becoming prey. Reli looked back at the path, back towards the camp. If he ran now, maybe he could make it. Reli heard the light step and turned back. The Shadow Cat had returned. Reli willed himself to calmness. He had to remain calm, unarmed he was no match for the Shadow Cat, it would tear him apart. He knelt on the ground, the leaves were damp, the moisture in the air was settling and soon the forest would be covered in the dampness, the forest would feed. Reli averted his eyes from the Shadow Cat and kept his head up. The Shadow Cat walked towards Reli and stopped a hands-width from his face. He could smell the beast’s breath; feel the creature breathing on him. Why doesn’t it just attack? Reli couldn’t help himself; he looked into the creatures eyes. The world swirled in those eyes; the whole of creation was there, speaking to him. The Shadow Cat held his gaze for a long moment and then turned his head and looked into the darkening forest. Reli followed the great Cat’s gaze. The Shadow Cat looked back at Reli and then turned and walked off the path and into the forest. The Cat walked a dozen paces into the forest and stopped and looked back at Reli, then continued to walk into the dark. Reli watched the great beast and then back at the path that led to the camp—and understood. How could he solve the Challenge if he remained on the path, the path that had been worn by a thousand generations of boys seeking the Challenge; Reli stood and followed the Shadow Cat into the forest. Reli avoided the various dangers—side-stepping an Iron Tooth skittering through the leaves, stepping over the vine of Strangler, and walking around a Grasper dining on a Blood Bat, until he was walking beside the Shadow Cat. He followed the Shadow Cat deep into the forest until the night took the forest and Reli had to use his sense of hearing, smell, and instinct to continue following the beast. The Shadow Cat stopped in a clearing, a rare place in a rain forest, and lay down. Reli sat next the giant Cat and waited, and listened to the night. The Shadow Cat laid his head in Reli’s lap and he put his hand on the neck of the great beast and closed his eyes. He let his other senses take over and the night exploded into sounds, and smells, and movement—and he began to understand. A Slither Snake wrapped around him and Reli gently pushed the powerful snake away. “No brother,” Reli said to the powerful snake. The Slither Snake moved on and a Strangler Vine came next and also tried wrapping itself around Reli. He put his hand on the Vine. “Is it my time to come home to the soil?” The Strangler Vine pulled away and left Reli in peace. A Snapper stopped and sniffed Reli and then ran off at the sound of prey in the forest. Reli felt at peace, and understood. He was one with his world—not a separate being fighting for survival, but part of the world. Reli opened his eyes and the light from the moon illuminated the forested around him. The world was alive—a living being and he was only one part of that living being. Somewhere in the night Reli realized the Shadow Cat was gone and in his hand that had rested on the Cat’s neck he held a Shadow Staff. Reli grinned. He had found it. He thought it would be leaning against a tree, or in the path. No—better said, the Shadow Staff had found him, his first weapon. His Weapon. Not one of the training staffs that belonged to the Camp, but his. “Yes,” thought Reli. “An appropriate first weapon, to guide me on my journey.” Reli watched the world moving through the night—the animals, the plants, the very air itself, all was alive. The sun rose and he felt good. He stood and began walking back towards the Camp. He didn’t bother using the path, he enjoyed the walk through the forest and relished in his new understanding of the world around him. The sun was just reaching it’s noon position when he stepped out of the forest and found Master Rede waiting for him. Reli held the Shadow Staff out to show him. “I see, you made your own path instead of following the one made by others,” said Master Rede. “Yes, father,” said Reli. “I am proud of you, son,” said Master Rede. “I am Cormon,” said Reli. Reli looked at the young Wambes sitting in circles around other Master Warriors, listening to the teaching stories, and dreaming of finding their way home. “Which one do I take, father?” asked Reli. Master Rede pointed to a small boy practicing with a Guna Blade and Reli walked over to meet the boy. The boy was so small, he needed proper Cormon food, and exercise, and some time in his ancestral home to begin to grow. Reli stopped and watched the boy clumsily practicing with the blade. “Hello, brother,” said Reli. The boy stopped, turned and bowed his head, “Honor to you, brother.” “You have been taught well,” said Reli. “My Uncle taught me,” said the boy.” “Where were you born?” asked Reli. “On Corvus, brother,” said the boy. “My Uncle sent me here for the summer to learn to become a Cormon.” “What is your name, little brother?” asked Reli. “Gariaeth,” said the boy. “Is that your true birth name, or the one they gave you on the space-station to make you feel like a Cormon?” asked Reli. “They said it’s my ancestral name,” said the boy. “What do you say we use your true name?” said Reli. “You can never be Cormon if you are lie.” “Okay,” said the boy. “My name is Garth.”