Character Guest post for Raf from Rhapsody

Raf from Rhapsody

It’s so weird how people from different places have such different ideas of what’s normal. I mean, in Miern, it’s completely normal for all those city-dwellers to have canals running right next to them all time. Imagine! Running water right there within reach! (not that you’dwant to reach the water with all the crocs in it, though) In the Forest, the only water we get is either from watervines or whatever we can catch falling from the canopy when it rains (which at the moment is a LOT) before it soaks through the platform and makes its way down the ground.

But if you’re from the city – or anywhere outside the Forest - the idea of trees that tower hundreds of yards above you is probably not particularly normal. I mean, for me, it was kind of the opposite: when I left the Forest for the first time and had no Ancients around – literally no trees that were taller than thirty or forty yards – I felt totally freaked out. Sort of…exposed and nervous. I guess it’s just whatever you’re used to, right?

Gets a bit tedious though, having to answer the same old questions from every newcomer to the Forest: “Yes, those trees are big, aren’t they. No, we actually do live in them. Yes, I get it: living inside a tree is pretty wacky. No, I’ve no idea how old they are. No, we didn’t carve them out, they just grew like that naturally. Yes, this is the famous platform we’re walking on right now. I know, it does feel like solid ground. No, it’s probably more like two hundred yards down to the Forest floor. No, I’ve never been down there. No, I don’t find that terrifying. Yes, I’m absolutely sure the platform is strong enough to hold us.” Ugh. So annoying. But then, I guess I was probably similar in Miern. When I think about it, the crazy hordes of noisy, smelly people all around you, the sun constantly roasting you, no trees anywhere… It was intense! I couldn’t even get my head around the fact that their homes were made out of dried mud and bits of wood!

Everybody’s different, I guess. Loads of different normals. The only thing that doesn’t really work like that is…well, the stuff I can do; my ‘gift’ as the Elder called it. It doesn’t matter where you’re from, the Forest or Miern or the Desert or iMahliland – nobody thinks being amelforger is normal.