Pilan Homeworld

A forest city
The Universe is vast, an infinite eternity. Logic dictates that in such vastness many worlds could sustain life, sentient or otherwise, for the precedent already exists. And, indeed, so it is and was. Some know they are not alone in the greatness and use either magic or star-travel to traverse it, while others know it intellectually, and others, like Valaris, although isolated, know their ancestors were from elsewhere. And yet others know it from varied visitors to their worlds.
And then there are those who do believe they are alone in the Universe. They simply cannot comprehend the vastness, or, if they can, they are unwilling to believe the coldness of immensity is able to duplicate their uniqueness. Some of these suffer from superiority disease- arrogance- while others are the true innocents of the Universe. How would they feel, innocent or arrogant, if they were to discover that they are not only not alone, but that their great universe is not a singular phenomenon?
Such a belief was held by the people of Pilan. They did believe themselves alone, but perhaps they could be forgiven for their mistaken beliefs, for they were isolated in a tiny solar system in the very corner of a far-flung galaxy, and the periodic visitors they had received over eons of existence had been too few to alter that belief. In fact, the visitors were regarded as the embodiments of their gods and goddesses…of which they had a fair few.

And so it was for Saska; she was a visitor from outer space seen as a goddess, her lithe female form and long tresses of blue hair exactly matching the description of Leath, Goddess of Water. This was her third visit to Pilan; the previous occasion had been a hundred and fifty years ago, and in living memory there would not be one Pilanese who would have seen her before, which was why she felt able to visit without upsetting their integrated belief system. The tale of the blue-haired woman who had walked with ordinary folk, of course, continued to be told and sang; no one remembered, but they had not forgotten either.
Not much had changed in a century and a half, and she smiled as the exotic smells and colours assaulted her senses. If anything, the only change would be that the jungle was denser. Now she understood why she had come; Pilan was very different from anywhere else. Every step revealed a new wonder; here her mind would be so occupied that she could, for a while, forget.
It was a large world rotating on an east-west axis and it was covered almost entirely in rife and often impenetrable rainforest. It was a jungle world. Seas were tiny, lakes numerous and rivers innumerable; mountains were mighty, valleys delved deep down and jungle-choked plains could take months to cross. It rained eighty percent of the time- warm, friendly rain- and the other twenty percent was devoted to spectacular rainbows and the flights of exotic, musical birds. It was a wet, humid and fertile world; a seed dropped in the morning would literally sprout by nightfall. Long days and long nights, an extraordinarily long year, and one spring-like season dominated Pilan’s climate, economy and society. Pilan rotated around a massive star called Pill, the God of Light. Here nobody went hungry ever and life was somnolent.
Saska arrived just as the sun broke through again and even in the denseness of the jungle rainbows abounded. She wandered in the eerie green light accompanied by hundreds of colourful birds and numerous chattering and laughing monkeys. A red and yellow snake slid off the path as she approached; the path being nothing more than a break in the foliage all around. Tiny blue and purple bugs peeped out from under gigantic leaves, and ahead a bright yellow bird with a deep burgundy beak was busily pecking away at the soft bark of a giant tree. It ignored her completely. The sunlight filtered through the canopy to create a world of light and dark green shadows and drips of rain plinked from leaves into clear puddles. Everything smelled fresh and clean, and yet there was the mouldy aroma of an ever-moist jungle underlying it. It was a strange smell, welcoming in its truth, and did not detract from the freshness. Behind her a pair of red parrots squawked at each other and she smiled when she was startled by the sound. Not long after she had been on the path she heard the unmistakable sounds of people; a child laughing, another shouting, and a woman’s voice sleepily admonishing them to be quiet. Her sense of direction had led this way- there had been a settlement in this region when she was last here- and she smiled again, glad it had not let her down and glad the settlement had continued. And then she broke into a clearing the size of Galilan, and stopped. That it was no longer a settlement was instantly obvious; a hundred and fifty years had wrought many changes. Enjoying the sight of something so different, she stared around in wonder. It was a clearing only in that the greater portion of the jungle was kept in constant trim- a continuous battle, she knew from before, and the only rally arduous task for the Pilanese- for it was filled with trees and birds and monkeys and insects. The clearing was full, a jungle-city, multi-layered, with bridges and ladders connecting thousands of huts from just above ground level into the sturdiest branches of huge, high trees. The highest level was so far up she could not see it from the ground. The twenty or so huts she had known on her last visit had bloomed into a full-fledged city to rival even the great concrete jungles on other worlds. Children and adults alike climbed and ran the paths through and about the trees, sure-footed and unafraid, their movements akin to the monkeys, who in turn copied them, chattering away in every available space. Here and there a woman shooed them away, shouting in annoyance. The monkeys darted away, to return the moment backs were turned. Saska grinned, loving it.
The Pilanese were small, the tallest no more than five feet, and generally dark; soft, caramel skins, dark hair that was straight and long, and black eyes. Their features were pixie-like, pointed and fine, and long pointed ears peeking cheekily through their hair emphasized this likeness. Men, women and children alike all wore their hair long and all were generally naked, with some sporting the scrappiest of loincloths. Women wore concealing skirts, she recalled, only during menstruation.There had to be at least half a million in this city, she estimated, if not more, and there were many such cities, some far larger, others village sized. It was difficult to judge the size of Pilan’s planet-wide population for the jungle hid so much…still, she thought; it had to be close to a billion or three. There was no fire on Pilan, it was too wet and never cold, and food was as simple as picking off the trees. Light for the long nights was in the ingenious form of captured fireflies. These little glow-creatures were the size of a man’s fist and bred faster than they could be captured. Industry was the periodic logging expedition, basket weaving, the twisting of jungle rope, replacing rotten timber, and all of it was done to music and song. Learning was by word of mouth in the form of extraordinary tales, and each man and woman was an accomplished storyteller. Even children could spin amusing yarns, and the system of learning worked, for paper would not last long on Pilan and a people’s history was not forgotten.

Saska waved at a group of children on the bridge above her, who squealed and immediately began to point emphatically. Moments later all the bridges she could see were crowded with people, young and old. ‘It’s Leath!’ The refrain rang from one end of the city to the other, and they were not afraid. That was what she liked most about them, their fearlessness. She was simply Leath, a known figure in the tales of their deities…and what was possibly strange about that, what was there to fear? Willing hands reached down and helped her onto the nearest bridge, laughing and chattering all at once, little hands touching her pale blue hair and turning her hands this way and that to examine her pale skin. ‘She’s come again!’ Saska knew her arrival would already have achieved story status by nightfall and the first tellers would have an audience agog. They handed her along and up, pointing to a larger hut about a third of the way into the canopy, set slightly off-centre. All the huts were wall and window-less; with leather coverings lowered on all sides only when occupants were asleep against the rain. There was no privacy here; eating, talking, lovemaking, birthing, bowel and bladder movements, even death, all done in full view of the entire community, and also to music and song, even death.
The larger hut was no different from the others, only roomier, and with a bigger wooden deck in front of it. Obviously this was the leader’s hut, and it was his or her duty to speak first with the Goddess. Saska had learned that men and women were equal on Pilan, and it meant whoever greeted her could be male or female; it was a woman. She came out with an infant on her hip, her only adornment a necklace of wooden beads. She smiled and came forward to take Saska’s hand, leading her to a rough table with benches all around. A basket of bright fruit in the centre glistened after the rain.

Saska knew the Pilanese language, which contained elements of the older languages of the Universe, languages the Guardians studied until they were fluent in them, and thus had no difficulty in understanding the woman.
‘Welcome, Leath. I am Emth, the headwoman here.’ Emth bowed slightly and motioned for Saska to sit.
Given the size of the city, a headwoman here was the equivalent to a mayor or governor on, say, Beacon. Emth was a powerful woman, and was no natural and unaware of her status that Saska wanted to hug her. ‘Thank you, Emth,’ she smiled, taking a seat. She was already so wet, it mattered not where she sat…and, of course, she sat down smack in a puddle on the bench. She knew not to attempt to explain who she was; they would merely nod politely and turn around to tell the story the way they believed it to be. She looked up at the smiling crowds, waved, was waved at, and then experienced a moment’s vertigo on looking down. A bunch of children jostled each other at the edge of the deck, grinning and pointing. A man came out of the hut, rubbing sleep from his eyes.

‘This is Seth, my mate,’ Emth introduced him, ‘and this is out daughter Mali.’ She tickled the infant at her hip, and her voice had an entrancing rhythm. ‘You are welcome here, Leath,’ Emth smiled and Saska smiled back.