The Water Screams in Protest(Dreyri Aldranaris) ———Background Information ———

So this is all a dream that I had one night. It takes place in a dream world that of course is different from the real world. An alternate world. But like most alternate worlds, this world perhaps mirrors our world in some ways. It takes place in somewhere that looks like a mixture of Antebellum America, Victorian England, and the wilderness. It takes place in a country - Marissileccea- whose economy basically runs on slavery. Most people are slaves, a few people are unbelievably rich, and a very small number of people are free but poor, scraping by on just what they need to live. They have some plants that we don't have and they don't have some plants that we do have. They have magic forces interacting with their world that our world might not even understand. But the way their world is the same to ours is that both worlds have beautiful nature, beautiful people, suffering, greed pride apathy, change, and learning. I will be honest with you, this work is far from perfect. I don't entirely understand what I dreamed or why I dreamed it. I don't think I did a perfect job of conveying the dream to you on paper. But I'm not any more perfect than you or anyone else, all that I have going for me is my constant and unwavering effort to make the best decisions I can and know how to make. So if it inspires you, great. If you hate it, great, that's your opinion that you're completely entitled to. But I hope that I can improve your experiance on Mother Earth's beautiful world. And yeah. :D :D :D Onto the story!


———A Light so Faint and Distant ———


Thomas is coming home to Carolivia from studying abroad. He was supposed to study business and politics, which would mean having to continue the slave trade in Coralivia and other places. That's because for any business to be even slightly viable it needed to have slaves because of the massive profit margins slaves generated. And only wealthy people could vote so to get into politics you had to be pro slavery. Now slavery those days, in those lands, wasn't really about race at all, it was more about getting crazy rich off the suffering and poverty of your slaves.

Coralivia was a beautiful place with amazing, breath-taking nature with sandy beaches, tall evergreen forests, bright deserts, peaty loam, jagged cliffs, and the river that ran through everything. But the citizens' minded were unnatural due to their greed and exploitativeness and all manner of other vices, and partly due to the presence of the Roaring King who made sure nothing would ever change.

Now Thomas was a pretty intelligent guy. He was a young man from a very rich slaveowning family with a bit of power and a huge mansion. Huge, ornate, architecture and made from stone. It caught your eye. It was very far removed from the nature around the manor. Thomas always had the shine of the idea that slavery was wrong somewhere in his mind but didn't understand how to follow it and mostly just went along with what his parents wanted in his life, growing up.

Going to college, those views quickly began to change. He had to live humbly, as a student, in small, quite small, simple tents, by nature, with simple food, with his only form of entertainment being talking to his fellow students, all young people, in their early twenties, really young. He had no slaves. He realized he liked this lifestyle. He didn't need all that extravagent stuff, he was okay having just what he needed. Also, it was so peaceful for the soul, spirit, and conscience to not have slaves. It was so great to not have slaves, to not be waited on by slaves, to not have the source of your lifestyle be someone else's suffering. It was also good to not have a lot of stuff, becasue that meant people were being cheated out of their fair share, suffering, so you could get that much stuff.

But he wasn't perfectly good yet. He still didn't know how to live without his parents' blessing. He didn't know how to or think he should live without his parents accepting him and being okay with him so he consigned himself, reluctantly, to going back to his life of being a slaveowner. He also, while he was okay with being lower middle class, he wasn't okay with being poor and not having the stuff he needed to live and be healthy. He knew that without his parents no-one would give him money and you needed a bit of money to get started on a career. So even though he didn't like having slaves he didn't want to not have slaves enough to fight against it.

During the whole time he spent in school and changing he also really got into theatre and playwriting. He loved making stories and acting them out and potentially changing peoples' thoughts, though at this point his stores weren't too original because he wasn't too original. Plays could be very elaborate and extravagant with flashy costumes, sets, and props if sponsored by a rich patron. They could also be very simple, with just a bunch of people in you tent and you and your friends acting it out. Thomas liked the latter type much more. Writing plays was very hard word but he and his friends liked it. Thomas liked it a whole lot. The feeling he got was incomparable. A constant push foreward met by a constant buzzing sense of harmony. Playwrites never made more than a little money so he could tell his parents wouldn't want such a career for him. But playwrites never had to use slaves so that was a huge plus. His friend Alexander, who was from a different, better countrym encouraged him to go professional in his passion. He eventually decided he wanted to, but he still wasn't okay with potentially not having enough to live. So he decided to ask for more money from his parents under the guise of it being for something else, and use it to sneakily start his playwriting career.

But he didn't ask soon enough and soon it was time for him to go home. His stint at college may have been ended prematurely by his parents catching whiff of his plans. He could've tried to say longer but he didn't since he was so against being abandoned and poor.

Anyways, dark things were at work, always had been at work, (for a while) in his home state of Coralivia.

A spiritual weapon that would help him on his future journey of redemption was that he had talked sincerely (respectfully, listeningly) to a few slaves and therefore the thought that people experiancing slavery had their own thoughts and emotions was more strongly within him.


——— Forwards into the Sunrise———


One of these slaves that Thomas talked to was a seventeen-year-old (and therefore, you know the key word, YOUNG) stableboy named Leonard. Leonard had hair as golden as sunlight and eyes light blue like the daytime sky. (Author's note: I'm not implying that "Aryans" are prettier than other people, truly all people and all peoples are equally beautiful. I'm trying to symbolize his connections with daytime and the daytime sky.) While this may be hilariously bad in context it's meant to represent daytime and how it's good for people and how day always comes after the oppressive night. And to further symbolize the fact that he represents the changing from a painful situation to a positive on, his spirit name was Golden Dawn, after the liminal, emotionally mixed, and dynamic time between night and day. He was a quiet, thoughtful, passionate boy.

This is the scene I was witnessing from the world inside my dream. Leo was riding through the outskirts of Coralivia on a horse he loved. He had just escaped his old master and he was filled with brightness, happiness, lingering sadness, and hope. He was excited and ready to start his new life in place where he could be free since no-one knew he was a slave. He was anticipating all the great things just across the horizon like respect and dignity and being a part of and accepted by society and being able to work in a dignified and humane work environment and not feeling trapped to be with people he hated and not being hungry and sick all the time. He really thought he could make it in the world as a free person. He was a firm believer that things could get better, that peoples' lives could get better, that the world could get better, though he wasn't really thinking about that last one right now, yet. He felt great changes, great power, great inspiration, alive and at work within him. He felt like very important events, not just for him but for the whole world, were taking place.

But he also felt and almost supernatural sense of fear, that something dark, something corrupted, and oppressive was coming to get him and hurt him, supernaturally. Now Leonard didn't beleive in magic yet, so he wrote it off as paranoia, which was especially ironic he WAS magic, he just didn't realize it yet.

While he was riding he also remembered his life as a slave, which was very painful and depressing. His master was a very rich nobleman who really enjoyed plays. He would fund a lot of really extravagant plays, often with very pro-status-quo stories, and sometimes Leo was brought along to the performances to take care of his master's horse. Being a stableboy was an incredibly lonely job as he had to spend all of his days in the stable, cleaning it, getting hay, feeding and brushing the horses, etc. He didn't really get to see the other slaves, and the loneliness was agonizing. He did develop a close relationship with the two horses though, especially the roan horse, Hacombe, who was being mistreated just as Leonard was. Leonard also didn't get enough food or warm clothes from his master, which meant he was sick a lot of the times, which meant the work was agonizing a lot of the times.

One day, though it's never explained how, Leonard stole a bunch of supplies, and rode off to Coralivia with Hacombe. During the ride from there to here both lives got considerably healthier and less sickly, on account of Leonard being able to take care of them properly. Leonard was the first escaped slave in the entire country's history, bestowing him quite a legacy to have. Amazing things were unfolding.

By the time they got to the town - a small, sprawling town compared to the city they were used to - supples were running a bit low so Leonard knew it was imperative that he get a job and settle down (no more constant traveling). He was very excited to have a real job where he could be respected and part of free society. He was, yeah. Happy. But he knew it would be kind of hard.


———Heinous Claws———


During all this time the Roaring King was looking for Leonard. The Roaring King was the embodiment of lines, of metaphorical lines, but not in the same way Leonard was. He was enraged at Leo for escaping. He was also enraged at him for plotting to help other slaves, who couldn't, of course, escape on their own but are beautiful souls deserving free lives, to escape.

Now Leonard was going around town trying to land apprenticeships but he hadn't landed anyand his stuff was running out. In his desperation he went to the estate of a slaveowning family to see if they had any jobs for him. He was scared of them and uncomfortable in his interactions with them but took comfort in knowing he was a free man as far as anyone knew. There was a dark, unsettling, corrupted, and almost infectious atmosphere over the estate. The manor house was huge, and towering, and the ladies were in very frilly dresses with frilly umbrellas. They said they didn't have any work for him and Leonard left a bit sad.

But mostly he had a feeling of something dark watching him.

What happened next was a nightmare. The author doesn't quite know how to write it down. There was a man behind Leonard. Not a man, a thing. A grotesque, disgusting, horrific thing. But as frightening as it was to look at what was ten times more frightening was his vast, deafening aura. The immense feeling that rode with him like an outstretched peacock tail of a thousand snakes. The being had long, rough, white hair, and sunken dark eyes embedded in what seemed like an ocean of wrinkles. His face seemed to be a wrinkled, saggy, loose, pale gray mass of skin loosely draped over a fat, deformed skull. His body was fat and pale and wrinkly. But the feeling he carried, like an immense, deafening, rabid, raging, grating, yet silent scream, was beyond proper explanation.

Leonard beleived in magic now. Whatever that thing was, it could not possibly be human, it had to be a dark, powerful force.

It rode behind him, sometimes on a black horse with red eyes and sharp teeth and sometimes on a motorcycle, which was an alien device to Leonard. Hacombe galloped fast but could not get away.

The aura of the inhuman rider was all-encompassing, all around Leo. It was smothering and oppressive, grasping to reach him and hold him down and suffocate him. It was roaring and screeching and powerful and corrupted, and inspired terror and disgust. It was angry and raging and furious. It fell over him, all around him, and blared through his mind. It was strong and proud and tangible. It was choking him.

He tried so hard to escape the rider. But the rider was gaining momentum. Leonard was terrified and, as the rider came up to him, the last thing he saw before passing out was Hacombe galloping away, and he was at least happy the horse escaped.

He woke up and the dreadful rider was standing over him. He felt a cold, weary sense of dread. The rider had a gruff voice. It said it was going to hurt Leonard. It introduced itself as the God of Lines, as the god of lines society said were not supposed to be crossed, of the social structures, behaviours, lifestyles, and attitudes that the status quo said must be maintained.

Leonard was scared because it was going to hurt him, but he also couldn't help but feel a sense of connection to the beeing's affinity with lines. He recognized the magic in himself and that a big part of him is to see the lines set by society and to analyze why they're there and what they're for and what they're about and then he crossed those lines and broke those social codes. Lines, and specifically crossing them was intrinsically a part of him, was tied to him, and was the constantly burning star within him.

Now, he saw he was on the ground beside a tend and in the tent was a dark-haired teenaged girl strapped to the bed. He knew the girl was there even though the tent was closed and he couldn't see into it. He was scared for this mysterious lady just as he was scared for himself.

The dark rider, who was, in fact the Roaring King, knew he would torture and kill Leonard for being an escaped slave and therefore challenging the status quo of slavery, which no-one had done before. But he saw the fear and tentative, confused respect Leonard helps him with and thought he could use that to control him into aiding the King with something. He told Leonard to go inside the tent and hold his daughter down and attach a drip containing the King's blood into the girl.

So Leonard learned from that that the girl inside the tent was this mysterious entity's daughter, and probably he was trying to somehow hurt her. This confused him. Shouldn't magic things, especially family-related magic things, get along? Well, he didn't know too much about magic. He could tell though that having the dreadful rider's blood but into her would corrupt her and weaken her, and having the corrupting, corrosive, locust-ridden force in her would really hurt her.

He didn't want to do it. But the suffocating, oppresssive, corrosive, scary force in the air was still around him and choking his mind and forcing I'm forwards. But as he got closer to the tent he felt a different force. A kindly free, comforting, warm, airy feeling that made his mind feel free.

He took that power and inspiration and used that power and inspiration to escape. To get out of there. He thought he was free from the dark rider, that he could live free and the way he's wanted to as long as he stayed out of that rider's way. He knew though that were were forces at work within him and within the world that he had not known before.


———Light on the Water———


Reuniting with Hacombe, Leonard set out to find work. He saw Thomas in town briefly, a man he remembered as questioning his own place in life, and Thomas gave him a few small silver coins which would tide him over for a few days.

Eventually he considered asking the rich people for a job again. He was outside the gates of an estate, sitting in the grass looking in and pondering if he should go in or not. They were outside their big whitewashed house, sitting in designed chairs and drinking tea from delicate, colourful china cups on glass tables.

Leo was thinking on how the dark rider was, or called himself, the God of Lines. How did that relate to the power or meaning of lines that was working inside of himself? And why was this being so angry at him? And why was his line affinity so oppressive while Leonard's line affinity was so freeing/kind/warm? Leonard realized that the dark rider was the God of Not Crossing Lines, of seeing what the status quo was and keeping it there, while Leonard's power was crossing lines, of triumphing over status quo. He realized more than ever that he'd have to help as many slaves as he could get to freedom.

He, on an unrelated thought, resolved to go into the estate and ask about employment. What he didn't know was that becasue of the Roaring King's influence the slaveowning families knew that he was an escaped slave and would jus enslave him again if they found him. Before he stood up he felt a finger over his lips.

He looked over and saw a girl, fifteen or sixteen, lying on the grass crouching like an antelope. She had dared hair darker than the night and pale skin paler than snow. And she had one hell of a gaze. He was lost in it, it seemed to hold him, and he could see her looking into his soul, connecting with him, trying to understand him, trying to protect him. It was so powerful, and so friendly, and so kind.

Leonard had no idea who this girl was he didn't know who she was or what she wanted. Some strange part of him trusted her though, and another part of him was questioning, and another part of him was rebelling against the sheer strangeness of it all. She was motioning to her helmet, which was similar to the helmet he saw the dark rider wearing. How would she get that helmet? It it even the same helmet? These thoughts were rushing around Leonard's brain. It couldn't be a different helmet because literally the only other time he saw a helmet even similar - black with a white, thin animal skull, weirdly shiney, made of strange material - was on the dreadful rider. Why did she have it? Was she some kind of helper for that being? No, she seemed too protective/nice and too ... rebellious for that. Was she this daughter he'd heard about? Maybe.

She put his hand on her heart and then started beckoning him towards the river. He followed, unsure, but trusting her.


———Alliances———


Suddenly ther monsterous rider burst out, explosively, and just as terrifying as he was before, maybe even more so. He was attend horseback on each side. Men in shimmering, multicoloured, silken suits and top hats. Women in large, voluminous, silken dresses of variou shades trimmed with lace-like material. They looked human but Leonard could tell that they werern't. He suddenly knew that these were his attendants, his cronies. And they were about to capture him for crossing the "sacred" line of slavery, for changing who was and wasn't allowed to be free.

Everyone should be free from Leo's previous torment, no questions asked.

Leonard and the young teen started running, as fast as they could. Away, far from those guys, towards freedom and safety. They kept running, on foot, exhausted and full of energy at the same time.

The crowd chasing them was rambunctious and rowdy, yelling insults at Leonard for being a slave, shouting profanities and threats at him for running away, chiding the girl for being so rebellious and not listening to them. They chittered about how superior they were and how superior they were and great they were. The girl was running hard to get away from the noise, from the ones bent on making her the perfect complacent daughter. The boy was running for his freedom.

The riders, the ring of screeching flame, always carried a deafening loudness which was silent with it, as the lone Roaring King also did. This loudness though was filled with haughtiness and judgement and contempt. Rage and superiority at Leonard for being an escaped slave. Contempt towards him because of his perceived inferiority. Superiority and control over the girl for being so rebellious, for thinking differently, for being so contrary.

Their force and the tangible power of their rage tried to reach the youths and writhingly wrap around them and hold them. They wanted the two youths back. They wanted them in their proper place. They wanted to entangle them and keep them down and keep them in their place forever. Their deafening silent loudness was viscous and clawing.

Leonard could feel it, feel their ferocity and their aggression as they tried to get him. He felt the sting of their words, the sting of the emotions they conveyed to him. He felt their scrutiny breaking him down, tearing at his sense of self-respect, making him feel like a little bug under their gaze. This was not as bad as how he felt as a slave, because the human masters while not as blatant as these attendants in their hate, made their feelings more than clear. But he could tell that if they ever caught up to him, if he ever fell into the heavy, bitter air that was around them, it would be unimaginably horrible.

He felt a soft fire within him though, that was keeping that heavy air at bay as long as her ran. He could feel an energy from the girl too, strong and fresh like river currents keeping him safe. But the closer the riders got, the more his defence faltered.

The girl was getting weaker, and was increasingly stumbling and tripping as she ran.

He reached a fence, a fence with a hole in it. On the other side of the fence was a blue lake, deep blue with waves that reflected the sunlight. Det couldn't swim. He looked around and couldn't see the girl.

He faced the riders. Their horses were whinnying like feral wolves. The air around them was bussing with aggression and pride and corruption. And they. Looked. Terrifying. Leonard knew that drowning would be better than this so he slipped out of the sugar field he was in and into the water, through the hole of the fence.


———Homeland———

Leonard thought for sure that he was going to drown. But as the cool embrace of water led him down, he felt ... not dead. He felt himself navigation through the water like a bird through the air. He felt himself not needing to breathe. He glided to the river.

The river was beautiful. Heavenly sunlight came flooding in though the top layer of water. THe water was cool and fresh. Flowing constantly forwards as humanity flowed constantly forewards as one generation made way for the next. Some fo the water bent, swirled, and beat against the edges. The cool ribbons of liquid caressed him.

There was a girl in front of him. No, a mermaid. No, it was the very same girl as before. Her pale skin was blue in the light underwater, and her dark hair and lips looked navy-blue. She had a long tail that also liked navy-blue tipped by translucent fins. She had a simple dark strip of cotton around her chest. She looked so healthy. She looked so at home. She looke so one with the river around her, like she understood it perfectly, like it was a part of her, like they were intrinsically tied.

She seemed full of spiritual energy.

The river teemed with life. Beautiful, magical full of energy and spirit and harmony and nature, shining in the sunlight as it constantly moved and shifted.

She beckoned him to follow her. So he did. She was so wild, so lively. Wild and free and untamed like the water that constantly rushed to sea or the fish that followed their instincts and their nature or the rocks that jutted in and of put of the river bank. She showed him through the nature of Coralivia. The intrinsic energy that flowed within it was the intrinsic energy that flowed within us all, that flowed through us all.

She was constantly moving, constantly wanting to improve, constantly wanting the world to improve. Progress. Improvement, Positive change. It's what she ached for. What she burned for. What she wanted intensely with the whole of her entirety. He longed for it too. He longed for positive change, panged for it. So maybe, very likely, his powers and her being were tied. Yes, she agreed.

They communicated not by words but by feelings. By overwhelming, joyous, hopeful feelings. She beckoned him to her, trying to show him the way to freedom. She really really wanted his freedom, he could tell, it meant a lot to her, to them both.

The river danced with the dance of life, with the dance to nature too. And he felt it all go into him and strengthen him and heal him and he felt that magical flame inside him grow stronger and healthier. The nature, the nature was so wild and free and harmonious. Everything inside it followed it's nature, followed it's instincts, did what it inherently felt was right. It flowed into him reminded him to always follow his instincts and be kind and generous, let his life and his love flow undisturbed by things like things and objects and money.

The river maiden flowed in it and with it and as it and by it like the river's - like nature's - daughter and sister and mother and baby all at the same time. Her love pressed onto him. She wanted him to be free. She wanted him to be respected, healthy, treated fairly, not exploited or seen as a source of gain but seen as human. She ached for it. For all the slaves. This was a positive change that needed to happen.

She was so in tune with the river, everything in the river was so intune with each other, worked in perfect harmony and understanding. It was inspired/reminded him to always respect and try to understand people. To understand that they were pockets of love and life and beautiful spiritual energy. He had to respect and understand and value them all as pieces of spiritual energy and glory. Just as every life form and environmental aspect was part of each other people were all part of each other. Just like ever twist and bend of the river brought with it new question on the nature of life, Leo knew that life itself and love itself and humans and relationships between humans and the inhuman were infinite and there were infininities of question you could ask about them.

The River Maiden, she was intrinsically tied to youth itself, to the very concept of youth and to youthful rebellion. So she questioned everything. Every action, every idea, every aspect of life and the world and existence, she questioned it. If she found that an idea was good she accepted it, dedicated herself to trying to protect it. If she felt an idea to be good, if it resounded within her spirit as natural and right then she railed for it. It was almost dangerous, how much she questioned everything. Almost dangerous, but not quite.

Leonard felt thrilled to be travelling down the river with her. Thrilled and energized and inspired.

The ecosystem was always breathing, always intermingling. Every beautiful aspect was sharing it's energy and being with every other beautiful aspect. It reminded him to be as kind and generous as he could and always try his very best to help people. To share as much as his own sacred energy with other people as much as he could, to share his love and his care. Light pooled over the river. The maiden was smiling. The river was so kind, so caring, so wanting all people to be well, physically emotionally, and spiritually. Leonard reflected that it was good for him to do the same.

The river gave him hope that the greedy, excessive, proud, dehumanizing face of Coralivia wasn't the real one. Hope that the natural state could be returned to. That a kinder, simpler, more generous time could be reached where people saw each other as people and that view wasn't marred by desire for illicit gain.

The River Maiden eventually dropped him off at shore, where Hacombe and a bag of supplies were waiting, at the edge of Coralivia. She told him to get out of here, that it wasn't safe with her father around.


——— Thistles and Sparkling Souls———


Leonard didn't want to leave though because he felt that if he left he'd have have failed at becoming a normal citizen. Now this wasn't true, he was a normal citizen no matter what. But while he knew very well how to be kind to other people he hadn't quite mastered how to be kind to himself yet. So he went back into town, bumped into Thomas again briefly, job hunted for a while, and also spent his time spying on the esttunities for him to free any of the slaves.

HIs folly caught up with him though as soon some of the slaveowners captured him for being an escaped slave.

He found himself again sleeping on the bare ground, working long and strenuous hours in sometimes extreme weather, and generally suffering. He was put to work picking crops, so he had the company of the other slaves at least. That was a fact that we was grateful for.

Sometimes the sun was searing down on him and he was incredibly overheating, making his head throw horribly. Sometimes the evening chilll bit into him. He had to work fast, incredibly fast, inhumanly fast, and it strained his mind and his arms and his focus so much that by the end of the day he felt like a bundle of frayed string. The constant fear of being punished weighed on him, terrifying him. And each day seemed more painful that the last. They didn't give him enough food, didn't give any of them anough food. Leonard quickly lost a lot of weight, became as thin as he used to be before he escaped for the first time. The hunger made the work so much more painful. He cut himself on the more thorny branches at times.

He knew that whatever he was experiancing wasn't any worse than what the other slaves were experiancing. He knew they all suffered together. There was a sense of oneness, of camaraderie and brotherhood amongst the slaves. He loved that feeling. He wouldn't trade it for the world.

But that didn't mean he wan't in a lot of pain. The experiance was harsh, unforgiving, terrifying oppressive, grating, ad melancholy. The worst part was when he was seeing one of his comrades die.

He didn't give up hope though. He knew that there was some power working within him stronger than he himself, that no-one else had. It was that flickering light he'd noticed before. Separate from but tied with the River Maiden's power. It was the act of crossing lines, of emerging into a better situation, of creating a better situation. He knew he had to use his power to help his friends. He knew he had to use it to help them emerge into a better situation, to free them. After all, that's what the power was for. He couldn't selfishly keep it that would be treacherous. He'd learned by this point to by kind to himself too, by the way. He didn't know how but he would go about freeing people.


———East Wind———

One day, on a cloudy day in August, he found himself by the river again though. How he got there is not shown. Hacombe was there though, and Leonard was overjoyed to see him again and embraced him. He saw the River Maiden with her head out of the water, looking deeply, longingly at him, smiling a bit sadly.

She let him know, without speaking, that one of the things she is a spirit of is desiring for positive change. Desiring for it with all of her being, incredibly, intensely, needing it, longing for it, supporting it wholeheartedly. She tried her best to make change happen. But she wasn't the spirit of making change happen directly, she wasn't directly the spirit of change happening. So she couldn't always make change happen. Change happening was made even more impossible by her father, the spirit of keeping things the same, and his cronies. But Leonard was what could perhaps change that.

Leonard had the spirit of change happening, of situations improving, inside of him. That might be why he was the first escaped slave ever. Wanting change, panging for change and hoping for change is what powers change and drives change into happening. But it's not all-powerful. Sometimes, only sometimes, there's a lot if can't do. Leonard's spirit though was the actual phenomenon of change occurring, which of course, needs her spritit, the spritit of wanting change. Together they could be incredibly powerful.

She gave Leonard a bag of supplies and money. She said that food was magical and was extra nourishing and healthy. There was an extent to which the food and money in the bag could replace itself once take out, but this couldn't happen an infinite amount of times. It was she best she could do. She told Leonard to meet Thomas, who had been changing his own life a lot lately, in a tent near the town by the river and evergreen forest. She gave him a pale stone from the river and told him to hold onto it, as it would prevent her father or his cronies or even the estate owners form finding him or recognizing him.

Then the group would work on freeing as many slaves as they could together.

Leonard took Hacombe and the magic supply bag and walked into the river. The currents were soft and cool and deep as the River Maiden transported them to Thomas's tent.


———Friendship with Living Redemption———


Leonard and Thomas became great friends. Thomas had been living on his own in his small, sparse tent for a while. He had finally gotten the courage to leave his parents and was content, he explained to Leonard in one of their many talks. While Thomas definitely would like to have enough food, everything else was okay. The tent was small but it had all the space he needed. He had no furniture and just a few tools, a mattress, and some bedding, but he had everything he needed to write his plays and be happy. He didn't go to grand places anymore and that was okay as he had a lot of peace being here and hanging out with the less affluent denizens of the town.

Leonard told Thomas of his own history too. Of his adventures in town trying to build a life, of his adventures galloping away from his old master, across the country. And of course he told him about all the terror and misery of his time in slavery, and the dark horror of the River Maiden's dad. And he told him of all the fantastical things he experienced with the River Maiden and his glorious journey through the river.

Thomas said he knew the River Maiden, that she helped him leave behind the corrupt side and be who he was and find purity.

Leonard liked how Thomas talked to him. With a quiet, constant, unquestioning respect that was as strong as stone. Leonard was just another person to him, just another human being, just another pocket of love. He was not something to be used, he was not a pathway to some end, he was not valued for what he did. He was simply valued because he was a human trying his very best to help people. He was simply a friend, to be respected and helped. He was simply seen.

Hacombe was the happiest out of the three of them. He was able to wander though the meadow and the grass, running and grazing to his hear's content. He was the only one with quite enough food, as Thomas's theatre hadn't taken off yet and Leonard had yet to find work.

They had the magical bag, but even though they were hungry they knew it wasn't infinite and they didn't want to take too much from it. But even though they were hungry they were respected and that was much better than being a slave. Also, the work they did was uplifting and not degrading, which was a major difference from Leonard's old life.

Leonard asked Thomas one day, while they were sitting on the untreated wooden floorboards of their dark blue canvas tent, how he got the courage to leave home. Thomas said that at first he was iffy about slavery and materialism but he didn't wanna leave his parents becasue he didn't wanna be who knows how hungry for who knows how long. He got to his parents estate and saw how big it was. How big and towering and ornate their harsh stone mansion was. He'd seen it before but this was the first time he saw it with his eyes open. It was so distant from nature, so far removed from it. It was a wound on nature. He felt a heavy, suffocating poisonous force around that place. And he couldn't get used to all the wealth he was around either, it was so far removed from nature. And what he coudln't get used to most of all was having slaves around. It was such an abomination. It was so corrupt and unkind and disturbing. He realized he couldn't live like this anymore. He was alright if he starved. He was alright if he died. Dieing was preferable to this scheisse. He could feel the threads of corruption in the air. So he packed a couple of things, some money, and left. He'd been living in his tent and trying to start his theatre career ever since.

Leonard agreed that the wealth of the estates was really far removed from nature and of course slavery was an abomination. They talked about how in contrast their hut seemed so in tune with nature, how it seemed huddled up against nature like a child on it's mother's lap. It didn't seem to be hurting nature. It seemed to be in harmony with it. Small and humble and nestled by the forest.

They worked in their respective fields for the next few months. Leonard got an apprenticeship as a carpenter. HIs place of work wasn't extravagant. Just a few tools and some wood. He enjoyed it, it was peaceful, he felt respected. He did his best. More people eventually came to see THomas's shows too, and he started earning a steady income from that.

Most of his stories were subtly anti-slavery, and he made them especially for the young children of slaveowners, who often came by to see his shows. His theatre was pretty simple and in his tent, but children preferred love over a bunch of stuff, like kids do if you let them be free and without pressure.

The two youths also spent much of their time scouting estates and trying to free any slaves they could. They made instant and warm bonds with all the wonderful slaves they tried to free. The rescue missions were terrifying and exhilarating and filled them with with such a lovely, perfect, sense for purpose.

But they never went well. Even if they did succeed at freeing someone, and they often didn't, that person would often be found again and returned to their places of torment. Leonard and Thomas knew that something was wrong. This wasn't the mission they were brought together for. They had to know what was going on.


———Riverside Conspiracies———


They realized, though they hadn't noticed it before, that every time they freed a person corrupted, invisible stings were gathering around that person and pulling them back. Leonard instantly recognized what this was, this was the work of the same evil force that had gone after him.

Leonard's spirit and the River Maiden's spirit and Leonard and Thomas all felt pulled to each other, and in a small while the three ... whatever's ... found themselves face to face, with the Maiden's head bobbing out of the water and Thomas and Leonard on the bank.

The River Maiden was frustrated, enraged, despondent, and overall going crazy that her father was still too strong for the brotherhood of change. She had been fighting against his dark magic with her own passionate energy. But he was too strong and it was unbearable for her that nothing was still happening. She called him the Roaring King, said that was his title, and that his reach as vast and powerful in Coralivia.

Thomas said that maybe they should all go together and confront the Roaring King, head-on, and perhaps they could weaken him. Leonard remembered how weak the River Maiden had become the last time he'd seen her and the Roaring King face-to-face. He wondered if it wasn't a good idea but thought about how they had another person no their team now and he himself had gotten much more connected with the spirit inside of him so she thought it worth a try. Especially if it could help free other slaves.

The RIver Maiden said she was intrinsically tied to nature and would get weaker the longer she was away from it so the faster they got the mission done the safer it would be for them and the likelier they were to succeed.

But whatever happened, they agreed, they had to give it their best go.


———Running At It———


They put sprigs of cedar in their hair, behind their ears, to bring a bit of nature with them, even though that wouldn't help much. They wrapped their arms around each others' waists so they'd be closer to each other, and they walked all in a line, in sync. Leo brought his stone of protection, clutching it tightly in his hand. THe spirit inside him, Golden Dawn, was much more tied into the world now, on account of being better shared and understood, and therefore stronger. There's fear, hope, and confusion as they press forwards in the soft post-sunrise light.

When the Roaring King saw them coming at him he ran. Leonard thought this was incredible as this time the Roaring King feared them as they had feared him before.

They chased it back to that first tent where it had first taken Leo. When it w inside the tent they used their collective power to knock him down. They were scared, determined, and they felt the corruption getting stripped off and vanishing as the Roaring King's form diniminshed. Try as they might though they they couldn't make it vanish entirely.

They realized that they weren't strong enough to take away all it's power, and the Roaring King was strong enough to persist still, probably for years more.

Realizing that they did all they could, they scattered and ran back to the river.

They realized that though they could not defeat him yet, they had weakened him and could use this opportunity to free as many slaves as possible. The The River Maiden burst into a rush of waves and Leo clutched his stone tight.


———Blooming Springtime Cascading Twilight———


River spent the next years wildly, ragingly, fighting the Roaring King in confrontational magical battles, aiding escapees and giving them tailsmans for protection, and doing whatever she could to progress the cause.

Leonard and Thomas also freed and helped free person after person, giving them protective stones and helping them be happy in their new lives. Thomas's plays also helped bring a couple of people from the new generation of overpriviledged snobs onto the good side.

Escapees in turn helped other people escape.

It was like emptying the ocean with a cup but at least it was something.

They were a very tight-knit community together and always helped each other out. Yes, there were a lot of things in their lives and their relationships they could improve upon, but they were willing to find and work towards progress.

Change, in Coralivia, was moving slow. But people beleived in it. And everyone was doing everything they could. And Leonard could feel the gentle summer breeze of change slowly picking up speed.

He could feel the threads of corruption laced through Coralivia weaken and fray. The King's power was weakening.

Coralivia, in all it's beautiful natural glory, had hope. The whole country had hope.


———Extra Information, Loose Ends, and Clarification———


The state Leonard used to live in was called Macomica. It was very urbanized. It had a lot of manufacturing, textiles, stuff like that. Coralivia was much more rural. They grew, sugar, tea, spices, flavourings, herbs, fancy fruits, cotton, silk, fabric dye, stuff like that. They also had ranching and some mining.

RIver stole that helmet she was wearing in that one scene from her father the King. She wore it when meeting Leonard because she couldn't communicate too well at that time, probably because she was too weak, and she thought that wearing the helmet would help Leonard figure out that she was the daughter that he helped save.

Thomas's mother, who liked to wear large dresses made of colourful, textured velvet, particularly red, was the one who pushed him to conform most, and who put the most pressure on him.

In case it wasn't clear, Leonard was a human with a good spirit or some kind of thing (think of it was a mixture between a good spirit and a good force) "living" inside of him. This spirit was kind of similar to the River Maiden in that they were both benevolent and magical but very different in many ways as well.

A corrupted, dark, heavy, and terrifying ambiance could be felt all over Coralivia, which was tied with the Roaring King and his hold over the place. The only places this wasn't present in were as follows: the blue canvas tent by the forest and later the part of town the escapees lived in, the fields in the estates where there were lots of slaves and mostly just them, and parts of nature humans hadn't really built over. As the Roaring King's power slowly faded this ambiance faded too.

Leonard and Thomas both developed short-lived crushes on the River Maiden at one point in their lives, after the main conflict with the Roaring King got resolved. But she, being a benevolent spirit or whatever and all, is asexual and aromantic. Like super asexual and aromantic. She's not going fall in love any more than the river itself is going to fall in love. She's not going to want to kiss someone any more than the river is goign to want to kiss someone. But Leo and Thomas both understood that once she explained and weren't creeps about it. Also Leonard is straight and Thomas is either bi or pan, though I don't know which. Which means that while they're best friends and partners in abolition and they stay best friends throughout their life, no romantic stuff happens between them. I don't know if either character gets married in the future of their lives but I'm thinking they probably do. So, yeah.


———Author’s Note———

If you like this piece check out my Mastodon my account is FSairuv@mas.to and I post about human rights, social justice, and the environment.

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