The First Inhabitants

Volumes 1-24

Volume 001


a few light years away is a planet just like ours,
whose inhabitants are not so different from us,
wondering about the same things we do.




Time, 893 revolutions


place, Peidu continent

Sevo was one of the few beings on his planet who could afford to wear a revolutions counter. Everyone just wore their wood and nothing more. A few lucky or blessed beings, army leaders, and some fighters wore the revolutions counter. This is a place where being in the army is the only mighty and noble thing one can be and one can do. There are no rulers here. No kings, no royal families, and no politicians. Only the army. That is all that matters.
Through the large window frames a wind blew Sevo’s way and he turned to glance at his revolutions counter and quickly returned his eyes to his fathers device. Kim’s eyes could not lock on where to stare.
‘Are you looking for the Necks?’ the little one asked.
He gasped while rubbing his large hands through the hair on his enormous head. Then he looked back at his child and replied ‘No dear. Your grandfather was no crazy Soleil. He answered one of life’s greatest questions“, where do we come from?“’
He spoke all that in haste while looking through the skies eyes so as not to miss a thing. At this moment, he could not tell his tongue from a cookie, his mind was focused on one thing. The little one knew for a fact that his father believed, actually believed, the words he was saying. Kim tried looking at the sky, but all his mind could gather was the lights. The same lights he’d been seeing ever since he was born. He didn’t come close to the dish of water to see the images the skies eyes formed. Sevo is a very talkative Soleil. The worst. On any other day one is compelled to believe there are five people in his workroom having a conversation but he is always alone, speaking out loud his ideas and thoughts, working on his theories. If he was quiet this once, the little one thought, it must be mighty important.

Soleil beings are as tall as the trees on their planet. The planet is also called Soleil because it has never seen darkness. Never has it ever been hugged by the night. It is only five thousand light years from the cosmic fulcrum. It is covered by a cloud of stars, but the closest are major three that are spotted from any crevice on this planet.
Unlike the dead star known as Knowless, which is not even a star, Soleil planet has a dense atmosphere on which weak light rays bounce off and only the strong ones pierce through hence even though it is located in a cloud of stars, it does not have a beautiful colourful sky like Knowless. Knowless even has a night which even transforms its sky to an even more beautiful sight with all the bright spots and colours defined.
The beings here on Soleil believe the stars to be the eyes of the gods. And the gods are always watching. They never tire. These beings, the Soleil, wear wood and mould it into things to use. They use stones to build houses and as weapons, and they use glass as a means of currency for trade. Their enormous size does not hinder them from stacking stones so high and building even larger houses, but not one with a roof. The Peidu, the most civilised beings on this planet, are responsible for the making and distribution of glass coins. It is only their continent that has no army. They never pick a side during battle; they have the best farm produce and market days are entertained on their lands. On the first and top floor of a house without a roof they were standing. Sevo hurriedly pulled out the script of strings from their ends to display the wooden notes for his son to read. Kim was just three-quarters of his father’s height. He was young; only four revolutions had passed since his marriage. He looked at all the knowledge his grandfather had gathered and realised he did not know him at all. He did not know if he ought to be proud of his late grandfather or sad that the beings of this land never knew who he really was and took him for a mad Soleil. Anxious to find out what was inscribed, he held a middle string and started reading from the top wooden piece.




Time, after second eruption


Place, unknown, Soleil planet

Scars, the fastest, chased the winged creature to their trap. It tried to turn its head backwards, breathing fire towards him as its large wings drove it away from this predator. But all that was no match for the mountainous being. As he chased the winged creature, his foot hit the ground, killing all life beneath. He simultaneously ran and swung his large arms to catch the tail of the winged creature, but it was so fast. As it turned to face where it was going, Muscles hit it with a tree. He was the strongest of them all – he just plucked the tree from the ground and hit it in the winged creature’s face. It lost balance and altitude, but before it could gain either, One-eye, the craziest of them all, came at it with a front forwarding kick; it fell towards Muscles who held it by the tail and repeatedly hit it on the ground like a snake. He dragged it towards his siblings to have a family meal together. The female siblings had already lit a fire. They sat around the fire, roasted the winged creature, and ate it.




Time, 893 revolutions


place, Peidu continent

Kim looked at his father in amazement; he had never imagined something like this. He slowly touched him on the shoulder and asked ‘What creature were they chasing?’
His father replied angrily ‘What are you talking about?’
‘The winged creature in grandfather’s scripts.’
‘Oohh, that was an evion, that’s what he called them. Read the strings from the top right where they start.’ Sevo’s back was bent and his head focused on the images in the water. He pointed backwards without seeing which way he was pointing. He really did not want to be disturbed.
‘What is an evion?’ The little one had another question.
He took a deep breath and then he stood up straight. He was frustrated and in his mind he had slapped the little one twice, but then it hit him, perhaps this curious lad has nothing better to do and might help him out. ‘One of the beings that first inhabited this planet. Apparently, our ancestors fed on them to extinction,’ he answered Kim’s question. ‘You start reading, I want you to help me out here.’ Sevo walked to the railings and held out the one his son was supposed to start reading from. He urged his son to read, and read his son did.



A few revolutions before the first eruption


No one will tell you a story from seventeen hundred revolutions ago because no one was there. A time before you beings learned to separate elements of the planet let alone communicate with sounds.
But I …
I was here at a much earlier time than that. A time before the death of the first Soleil.
THE FIRST TIME.
It was a beautiful time; we animals and plants lived in peace and harmony. The clouds were just a few elephant feet from the tree tops. There were rainbows, butterflies, and all kinds of beautiful plants. We elephants could see the evions fly through the clouds, playing with each other, as the dinosaurs tried to catch them with their long necks. Everything was beautiful.

There were thirteen statues around the land, shaped like you beings, but larger and taller. We all believed they were our guardians and the stars were the eyes of the gods. One of the statues had been cracked around the eye by an evion’s tail. It was trying to fly past the guardians, and as it struggled, it hit its tail in the statue’s eye. No evion ever tried something that stupid again. Something prevented that evion from flying past the lands; it could not even get to the beach. None of us could.
One time, from the largest god’s eye came a massive energy that hit the planet. It was so strong that one of the statues was thrown away from its position, as if blown by a wind. It landed onto a young dinosaur and killed it on impact, but then the large dinosaurs stepped on it and crushed it into pieces as they were trying to flee the energy blast.
The first statue was lost …

Whatever had angered the gods to send down such a thing? It was the same energy that awakened the first Soleil from their statue form, and they began to turn into living things. We were hiding in some kind of cave when a big foot stepped in front of us. Then the being walked away. When we came out of hiding, the clouds were as high as you now see them. The planet was never the same.
It was at this moment that the evions began to breathe fire, and hot magma started sprouting from beneath the mountains. The second statue, just after they all had just gained life, walked into the hot magma. It was the first eruption this world had ever seen. He didn’t know what it was, he kept shouting, as magma jumped from the young mountain falling on him, and there he died. The second statue was lost

Only eleven survived the process, and they began to live together as they were the only ones of their kind that ever existed. With time, they learned to cure hunger, communicate with signs, and swim in the ocean. These Soleil, for a few revolutions, lived in peace with each other as they hunted the evions, dinosaurs, large fish, and anything they could eat, but when they discovered they had hearts, emotions, and reproductive organs, everything changed.




Time, 893 revolutions


place, Soleil planet

On Peidu continent,Sevo’s revolutions counter was about to make five revolutions. That is how long it took for their planet to meet a sister planet; only a few moments were left.
Kim asked him ‘How is this going to help us?’
He responded calmly this time ‘Your grandfather was working on something.
I need us to finish it. It will help us fight the Necks.’ ‘If it is in his notes, we only have a few moments left.’
‘It won’t help us now,’ Sevo shook his head and made clear what his son had realised not. ‘No … no, that’s right. It holds the answer to our future.’
‘You mean my grandfather didn’t make this stuff up? He actually talked to elephants?’ its like Kim had come prepared with a set of question in a certain order. This time he did not just form the words, his whole body was begging for answers.
‘Yes, my dear boy. He was a Soleil who loved nature and nature loved him back. He met the elephant’s elder who shared the story with him, for the survival of the Peidu, or maybe all of the Soleil.’

‘What about the statues we built? Who else did the elephants talk to? There must have been someone who spread the word and led to the construction of the statues we have; three in our land, four on Neiger continent, and four on that of the Bras.’
‘Of course it, the elephant, must have talked to someone before; that’s why I have more trust in his notes. The clouds started to scatter as the planets were moving closer to one another. The Peidu have been and always will be against violence. Every time, they ran from their stone houses and hid in caves they had built for this particular situation. However much the Necks searched, they never found a soul here. But because they are violent beings, it would pain them a lot if at least they did not try to destroy a few things. They did it to ease their conscience. And they destroyed whatever they could. They also raided the farms but they could not carry much food home. But that does not mean they left any crops in the garden. They would rather destroy the crop than just leave it behind. Knowing this was a continent with no fighters but only empty structures and free food, all the weaklings in the Necks army were sent to this side. All the new army recruits were sent here. To see what it looks like down here, to exercise their freedoms, and fight the rocks and crops.’




On Neiger and Bras continents


The Neiger and the Bras were not known to cower from a fight. But the Necks have always been better fighters than their opponents. The Necks smoked a special leaf. They would collect it in piles, light it, and push deep bamboo stems into it to inhale its smoke. Yes, they were a little larger than the Soleil but what they did not know was that their smoking did them no good. Something changed in their bodies as they jumped from one planet to another planet. As soon as they stepped foot on the land of the Soleil, they were stronger than the beings that were on their own planet. As they threw their ropes up from their planet to drop down to the planet beneath, the Soleil quickly got in position with their spears and stones ready to hit whatever came from the skies.

Eski picked raw maize from the basket and took a large bite of the corn with its cob. His army seated down in a semi-orderly fashion, scattered about the place ate after him. Chewing the corn did not stop this legendary fighter from shouting at the top of his lungs. He greeted the lot, loud enough for the hundreds at the back rows to hear. He clearly sees one of the men one of the men shaking, unable to lift the corn straight to his mouth. To turn his eyes a far side, he sees another scratching his head as if wanting three wishes out of his tight curled hair. He raised his voice even higher to scare the fear out of them. The Neiger army commander Eski shouted to his army, courageous words, about how this time could be different, how they were supposed to be strong and fight for their lands, wives, and children, how this was their time, their first time to beat the Necks. A few maize grains and particles flew out of his mouth as he spoke, portraying a furious Soleil. Well, he was a great fighter. No doubt the best that had ever walked on this planet … For all the time since they had known the Necks existed, they had never won. Not once. And even with glorious words from such a great man, a few men still had fear in their hearts.
The moment one Neck was spotted in the sky, they began throwing rocks and spears at him. But so high were they and close to the clouds, not many could raise their stone and spear to reach the falling being. Slowly, the number of falling beings grew that they covered part of the cloud, creating a large shadow which cleared with the Necks stepping their feet on Soleil soil. The moment they stepped on the ground, they started slashing down anything they glanced at. Something happened on the battlefield; it was like someone tapped Eski on the shoulder and whispered in his ear to watch. He stopped fighting and he watched what was happening.
The Necks fought in pairs with such finesse and skill that the Soleil could not grasp. They kicked, punched, cut, and slashed whatever that was in their way. Eski is a great warrior, but even he, one being, could not beat the whole army.
When the time came, the Necks got hold of their ropes. They did not have to climb much; when they were all on their ropes, the planets moved apart and the atmosphere separated, and gravity took them back home. Eski was still standing, watching what was happening. His men, one by one passed by him, gathering their spears on a pile, and they walked past him again collecting their dead.
A few men went to gather wood to prepare a fire on which the fallen ones were to be burned. Their army leader Eski, with bruises and cuts, sweating and bleeding, spat on the ground, looked up at the bright sky, and in a low voice he prayed to the god’s eye “evumme du nimo ’Olu”
A Soleil direct translation would be, “reveal to us a way creator.”
This great giant begged the gods eye to grant them a path to the Necks’ planet. All he ever wished for was a path; he’d make them say farewell to their dead as they did every five revolutions the planets met.
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