[M’kel the Arbor Pov]

All of our people were different, each was their own person but some of us looked similar to each other. For example, me and my tribe consist of Arbor that have bark with a red tint, to which we named our tribe, The Redbark Tribe. When our people started to want to explore the outside world we quickly discovered that there was a border separating us from exploring everything.

Our mother had told us that there was land beyond the Greatwater, land untouched by her roots yet still filled with life. Every single one of us wanted to see it for ourselves but we were obstructed by the Greatwater as we came to call it. Though my ambitions might’ve been greater than my fellows as the thought of crossing the Greatwater always laid dormant on my mind.

When I had told Mother what I wanted to do she had encouraged the idea, though she had made it very clear that it would be dangerous. She had explicitly told me to only do it when I was sure I could make it, and thus with mothers permission my tribe and I set off to cross the Greatwater.

We had many ideas as to how we could manage crossing the Greatwater, I was lucky that my tribe held the same thoughts about crossing the Greatwater. It had caused everyone to put in their best effort. Eventually, we came up with a device that would be big enough for all fourty of us and would be able to protect us from sinking down to the bottom.

We could survive under water, yes, but that was only when light was able to reach us. We would die when light wasn’t able to reach us, and knowing that at some points in the Greatwater light was unable to reach we were extremely careful. And we were lucky we were so careful, the first few versions of our floating device had broken down when we tried to set sail with it.

And through trial and error, we were able to create what I call… a boat.

…

We had severely underestimated how long it would take us to sail the Greatwater, Mother had said it was big, bigger than our birth land but merely saying that it was big didn’t do it justice. We had been sailing for two moons without rest and we estimated that we weren’t even one tenth of the way there, yet we had already encountered multiple storms that could’ve been the end of us.

Luckily we had our mother to guide us, under her guidance we would be safe. Even though we weren't able to communicate with her we all knew that she was with us, looming over our shoulders making sure we were safe. This is what kept us going, and of course the thrill of what might be on the other side, would it be like how we know it or will there be something different?

…

Through the guidance of Mother we had made it, it had taken us well over the estimated time we thought it would take to cross the Greatwater. One hundred moons had passed until we had first seen land again, though from what we could see it would be too dangerous to directly and safely land our boat.

When we had arrived near land the land towered over our boat, the rocky cliff was clearly impossible to safely dock to. So we followed along the cliffs until we found a small clearing where we could safely come on land, a tranquil piece of land cut out from between the two cliffs.

When we had all finally stepped foot on land for the first time in more than a hundred moons it had somehow felt off putting. The land felt harder than it normally did, after so long on a boat not standing on solid ground we had all had adjusted to not having a solid footing to stand on. Some of the Arbor felt dizzy and had to root down to readjust themselves to the land, it was as if Mother was happy that we had succeeded in our seemingly impossible journey.

…

We didn’t waste more Sun than we needed to, when everyone was successfully readjusted to land we set off to find a suitable place for us to make camp. We hadn’t had the need to take anything with us on the boat as we could easily make everything we had here, it had saved us some space for a bit of luxury. Everything we had taken with us we shared with each other, Mother had taught us that we should share everything with each other, and her wisdom was something we all took to heart.

Knowing that our mother was looking out for us we set off with confidence.

…

[??? Pov] 1

It had been many years ago when my children came to life, in the beginning I was unable to let them wander too far away from me. I was too afraid of what might have been out there, but looking back to it I guess I was being too paranoid. When I had kept them close I hadn’t let them sit idle, I taught them everything I knew about this world, the cause of their Birth and the time before that.

The night sky, most of my children had asked me about it, how it came into existence or what it represented and all I could tell that it wasn’t always there. I said that the sky represented their freedom, that they were able to do whatever they wanted to do without restrictions.

But that wasn’t entirely true, it was a lie I had created because I couldn’t get myself to tell the truth to them. That there was something out there controlling everything, doing whatever it wants without considering us down on the planet.

After many years of existence I had grown in power, at first I could only control the plants surrounding me, but after time I felt my control strengthening and expanding. Then one day, when I was experimenting on the wildlife I felt as if I could control them too, nothing too ridiculous though. I couldn’t control their behaviour but I could influence it, with subtle pushes into the right direction I could have them do some things but nothing much.

But being able to control them wasn’t my intention, I hated knowing that there was something out there having control over everything so why should I do so? At first it was an educated guess, that there was something out there but when my powers extended I could feel something floating outside the planet.

Two very powerful beings, beings that could erase me with just a thought. When I found that out I had stopped doing everything that I was doing and retreated far back into my core, cutting off from everything scared out of my wits. It had taken my children's prodding for my attention to slowly come out again, but now I knew for certain. We weren’t alone, we never were.

…

1 I have yet to decide what I want to call the Tree, Mother wouldn’t be appropriate later on in the story and Tree of Life isn’t really something I think is fitting, let me know if you have any ideas.