HOME | DD

Description

Conservatory Lore: Temple of Sound, Nor's Realm

One day, deep within the Conservatory's Temple of Sound, the realm of the ever elusive first Trespasser, Nor, a couple of esk found themselves walking under a pale, marble archway into a strange garden littered with the empty, shattered shells of eggs. Some of the shells were tiny, smaller than marbles, while others were the broken remains of eggs that towered, taller even than the high archway of fallow but living branches interlocked above their heads.
Then, inexplicably, almost all of the esk that had found this chamber also suddenly found themselves sinking deep, deep into the earth against their will and control. Some panicked, while others stared bewilderment as they seemed to be drawn into the earth, and still others waited unafraid, excited to see what new mystery would be revealed to them. Then, as the ground closed over their heads, all these esk could see was darkness. And soon, they somehow stopped thinking. Even those who were afraid ceased to be afraid, and only waited. Some patiently, others with great impatience and restlessness, but waiting nonetheless, each curled in a separate chamber beneath the earth.
Then, there was light. It was dim light but, light nonetheless, as though shining through a skein of thin, pale bone to reach them. They felt a powerful desire to find that light, to reach past it, but were curled tightly in balls, as though still buried deep beneath the earth, despite the light that clearly told them they must be above ground. Some of them waited still, but the longer they waited, the more cramped and still and tight the space seemed to become, and though no esk needed to breath or eat in order to live, they had an urge in them that called back to their days when they’d been alive, stirred old memories in them of living, and striving, and struggling, and brought instincts many had thought were forgotten forever back to life. They longed to break out from the sphere that held them curled and cramped, that kept them from seeing and feeling the air, from letting the wind rustle their fur and nature features, they wanted to walk and run and bound, and they were no longer content to wait.
So, one by one, they struggled and fought against the tiny space that held them imprisoned. Some fought savagly, others calmly, methodically, still others with an edge of panicked energy. Some heard a tapping noise, as though something or someone was just outside of their opaque, pale prison, signaling to them, or trying to.
One by one, each esk cracked their prison, with a terrific splitting chipping sound, like the thinnest of marble being broken open, and trust their paws out into the light, grasping, dragging themselves out of their captive, tiny place and into the grass. When they pulled themselves free and stared around at the world, it suddenly looked different, somehow, than it had...a moment ago? No it couldn't have been a moment, it must have been days, years? Longer than years?
It was like dying in a dream and waking up to gentle morning, sunlight falling on one's face. They saw the leafless but living interlaced branches above the garden littered with eggshells, they saw their companions around them, dragging themselves, or trying to crack open eggs, and they looked down at themselves and the prison they'd been encased in deep in the earth, and realized they'd just hatched. And even though they know this is absolutely impossible for esk, who cannot be born except by being transformed, made by something already alive or dead, they feel...different, somehow. Or at least, everything seems new, or slightly new, even though it felt achingly ancient to them before.
The only esk that were not drawn into the earth, that were not held there in darkness for what was a moment but felt to them like an eternity, and did not hatch from an egg perfectly sized to their bodies, were the abnormal esk, who watched the entire process with wondering, puzzled eyes as their companions went through this process. Why were they spared the hatching? Why were they excluded?
They wonder this, and in wondering, think of even more things they do not know; what it was like to be born at all, what it was like to breathe, what it was like to feel a heart beating in one's chest, could one feel the blood flowing through one's veins? What it felt like to make a child that was not already alive at all, that had never existed until it was made, not even as an object. Or had it existed? Did everything exist, in some form, and simply waited to be turned into another, made something else and new but also remain ever itself.
The non-abnormal travelers and trespasser esk finished hatching, stared around at themselves for a while, wondering at their new eyes, their strange new, altered view of the garden, and soon, one by one, after a moment of reflection, all esk wandered on; some exciting back through the archway, finished with their journey, unwilling to step further, or not needing to. Some, on the other hand, walked on, further down the arched path of joined tree limbs, deeper and deeper into the Temple of Sound. Closer and closer to the first Trespasser, the restless, the energy-stricken, the ever-changer: Nor.
Wordcount: 900 exactly

Esk Included in Art and Writing (Gift Art!)
Wind Chime Esk: 1596 owned by FeisuCakester
www.deviantart.com/esk-masterl…
Mouse Esk hatching from held egg: 1527 owned by Kassypen
www.deviantart.com/esk-masterl…
Flower Esk hatching from egg on the ground: 1354 owned by leafshadow04
www.deviantart.com/esk-masterl…

Description

Conservatory Lore: Temple of Sound, Nor's Realm

One day, deep within the Conservatory's Temple of Sound, the realm of the ever elusive first Trespasser, Nor, a couple of esk found themselves walking under a pale, marble archway into a strange garden littered with the empty, shattered shells of eggs. Some of the shells were tiny, smaller than marbles, while others were the broken remains of eggs that towered, taller even than the high archway of fallow but living branches interlocked above their heads.
Then, inexplicably, almost all of the esk that had found this chamber also suddenly found themselves sinking deep, deep into the earth against their will and control. Some panicked, while others stared bewilderment as they seemed to be drawn into the earth, and still others waited unafraid, excited to see what new mystery would be revealed to them. Then, as the ground closed over their heads, all these esk could see was darkness. And soon, they somehow stopped thinking. Even those who were afraid ceased to be afraid, and only waited. Some patiently, others with great impatience and restlessness, but waiting nonetheless, each curled in a separate chamber beneath the earth.
Then, there was light. It was dim light but, light nonetheless, as though shining through a skein of thin, pale bone to reach them. They felt a powerful desire to find that light, to reach past it, but were curled tightly in balls, as though still buried deep beneath the earth, despite the light that clearly told them they must be above ground. Some of them waited still, but the longer they waited, the more cramped and still and tight the space seemed to become, and though no esk needed to breath or eat in order to live, they had an urge in them that called back to their days when they’d been alive, stirred old memories in them of living, and striving, and struggling, and brought instincts many had thought were forgotten forever back to life. They longed to break out from the sphere that held them curled and cramped, that kept them from seeing and feeling the air, from letting the wind rustle their fur and nature features, they wanted to walk and run and bound, and they were no longer content to wait.
So, one by one, they struggled and fought against the tiny space that held them imprisoned. Some fought savagly, others calmly, methodically, still others with an edge of panicked energy. Some heard a tapping noise, as though something or someone was just outside of their opaque, pale prison, signaling to them, or trying to.
One by one, each esk cracked their prison, with a terrific splitting chipping sound, like the thinnest of marble being broken open, and trust their paws out into the light, grasping, dragging themselves out of their captive, tiny place and into the grass. When they pulled themselves free and stared around at the world, it suddenly looked different, somehow, than it had...a moment ago? No it couldn't have been a moment, it must have been days, years? Longer than years?
It was like dying in a dream and waking up to gentle morning, sunlight falling on one's face. They saw the leafless but living interlaced branches above the garden littered with eggshells, they saw their companions around them, dragging themselves, or trying to crack open eggs, and they looked down at themselves and the prison they'd been encased in deep in the earth, and realized they'd just hatched. And even though they know this is absolutely impossible for esk, who cannot be born except by being transformed, made by something already alive or dead, they feel...different, somehow. Or at least, everything seems new, or slightly new, even though it felt achingly ancient to them before.
The only esk that were not drawn into the earth, that were not held there in darkness for what was a moment but felt to them like an eternity, and did not hatch from an egg perfectly sized to their bodies, were the abnormal esk, who watched the entire process with wondering, puzzled eyes as their companions went through this process. Why were they spared the hatching? Why were they excluded?
They wonder this, and in wondering, think of even more things they do not know; what it was like to be born at all, what it was like to breathe, what it was like to feel a heart beating in one's chest, could one feel the blood flowing through one's veins? What it felt like to make a child that was not already alive at all, that had never existed until it was made, not even as an object. Or had it existed? Did everything exist, in some form, and simply waited to be turned into another, made something else and new but also remain ever itself.
The non-abnormal travelers and trespasser esk finished hatching, stared around at themselves for a while, wondering at their new eyes, their strange new, altered view of the garden, and soon, one by one, after a moment of reflection, all esk wandered on; some exciting back through the archway, finished with their journey, unwilling to step further, or not needing to. Some, on the other hand, walked on, further down the arched path of joined tree limbs, deeper and deeper into the Temple of Sound. Closer and closer to the first Trespasser, the restless, the energy-stricken, the ever-changer: Nor.
Wordcount: 900 exactly

Esk Included in Art and Writing (Gift Art!)
Wind Chime Esk: 1596 owned by FeisuCakester
www.deviantart.com/esk-masterl…
Mouse Esk hatching from held egg: 1527 owned by Kassypen
www.deviantart.com/esk-masterl…
Flower Esk hatching from egg on the ground: 1354 owned by leafshadow04
www.deviantart.com/esk-masterl…