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The first time he saw one was when he was a child.
This is it, he thought. I’m finally going to jail.
Alhaitham ran through the streets of Sumeru City, clutching a loaf of bread in his small 10-year-old hands. He had stolen it from a nearby street vendor. It was the end of the day, so Alhaitham thought he was going to be able to avoid a commotion, but that was seemingly not the case. A group of mercenaries from the Corps of Thirty chased after him and yelled at him to stop, their longer strides quickly gaining on him. The boy looked behind him frantically. His worn-out shoes banged against the cobblestone as his heartbeat pounded in his ears. I can’t go to jail, I can’t go to jail, I can’t go to jail-
His thoughts were cut short as two little green creatures popped out of a bush and tripped the whole group of mercenaries. Alhaitham almost stopped running out of pure shock, but his small body was still pumping with adrenaline and urged him to continue his sprint. After all, the streets were unforgiving, and a poor orphan boy wasn’t about to immediately question his unidentified saviors.
The next time he saw one was when he was a student.
Due to his quick thinking, Alhaitham had managed to evade any and all legal trouble until age 16, when he was eligible to apply to the Akademiya. Not only were his test scores high enough to secure a spot, but he was also able to take classes across multiple Darshans (he supposed breaking and entering the Akademiya’s library nightly helped quite a bit with this great success). The newfound scholar’s past didn’t completely disappear with the acceptance, though. The Corps of Thirty most definitely recognized him still, even though he had grown from that once scrawny orphan to a healthy full-time student. They would eye him suspiciously as he walked to class and the teen would simply flash them a smirk, knowing that there was nothing to tie him back to his crimes.
Additionally, the new people that came with the academic territory were fascinating to study. Alhaitham never considered himself a people watcher, but there were some highlights. A brunette with an eerie hyper fixation on creating a hivemind and a particularly annoying yet strangely endearing blond consisted of some of the more interesting students.
Alhaitham’s lips quirked as he reminisced, lounging in a grassy clearing. He was just north of Sumeru City on a project for one of his classes. The student had finished the assignment with relative ease so now he was enjoying his downtime with an interesting book. Puffy white clouds drifted across the clear, blue sky and a cool breeze blew through the clearing.
Lost in the words of his novel, Alhaitham didn’t realize the changing sky until it was too late. The now grey sky cracked with thunder and rain began to pour down in torrents. He cursed his unawareness as he quickly tucked the book into his belt pouch, hastily getting up and heading back toward the city.
In a grave oversight, Alhaitham had traveled the wrong way (he cursed the inaccurate map another scholar had handed him for his downfall). Hours later, the scholar’s Akadeymia-assigned shoes dredged along the muddied path, occasionally sticking to the road, as his robes became increasingly damp. He rubbed the bridge of his nose, feeling a developing migraine. After a while, Alhaitham admitted defeat and decided to sit on a log that was off the road. Sighing, he put his face in his hands.
Several minutes later he felt something nudge his leg. Alhaitham looked through his fingers and could see a little green blob trying to get his attention.
Oh great, the scholar thought to himself. I must have hypothermia. What stage are hallucinations, again?
The green thing kept nudging his leg even after he tried to blink it out of existence. He eventually gave up and asked what it wanted. If he was going to die here, might as well go out by listening to the byproducts of his hypothermia-induced hallucinations.
“Green Nara can see me!” it excitedly said. Looking closer, the animal-plant hybrid thing was small and pudgy. It had a leaf on top of its head with the stem forming a helical shape, the two protrusions then having their own little leaves. And to top that all off, it wore a derpy smile while staring at Alhaitham with small, diamond-shaped eyes.
It decided to continue. “My name is Arabalika!” Arabalika flapped his arms, the leaf on its head spinning. “It is not safe here! There is marana nearby, not to mention nara valuka!”
Alhaitham didn’t try to pretend what that meant. He listened anyway.
“Green Nara must come with me! Others don’t like Naras, yet this one can see me, so it must be a good Nara.”
“Where are we going?” he asked Arabalika. “And what are you? Am I hallucinating?” he added in that last part for good measure.
“We are going to Vanarana! And no, Green Nara is not hallucinating. I am an Aranara!”
Oh. Alhaitham recalls people mentioning them from when he was a child, but he didn’t know anything about them. For all he knew, Alhaitham could be in the process of getting abducted by a vegetable.
“Alright, let’s go,” he told the Aranara. Arabalika cheered and he began to lead Alhaitham through the woods.
The creature led him through arguably the thickest part of the forest. They passed an Eremite camp and came alarmingly close to a withering zone before getting back onto one of the manmade trails through a mossy, hollow fallen tree. The rain hadn’t slowed up at all, the water coming down at a much faster rate now. After trekking up a rather steep hill, the path began to wind between two cliff faces.
That’s when Alhaitham noticed the sky had turned purple. Before he could question it, they had arrived at this “Vanarana” place Arabalika had been talking about. Large lotus-like plants shot from the ground, blocking out most of the rain. White dots twinkled in the sky like stars painted on a sunset canvas. The scholar took note of how little spherical homes were spaced along the winding path which happened to be lit up by lanterns on top of tree branches. The huts certainly looked big enough for multiple Aranara to inhabit. Large leaves sat on top of the homes, acting as makeshift roofs. In short, the place felt like it was something out of a child’s storybook.
Arabalika stopped once they made it to a large lake in the middle of Vanarana. In the center of the lake stood a tree-like hollow with green particles dancing off it. Along the way, several curious Aranara began following the pair. They were all shapes and sizes, ranging from light green to pale red in color. They all wore innocent smiles and were quite excited about this newcomer. Some of the more shy ones stood off to the side, skeptically watching him. Alhaitham could tell that humans were not commonplace in this realm.
The Aranara excitedly chattered about the new arrival until their presumed leader of sorts made their presence known. He was brown and had a little mustache, signifying his age.
“Arabalika, who is this Nara?” the older one questioned Alhaitham’s companion.
“Araja, this is Green Nara! Arabalika found him cold and alone when the rain began! Nara is very sick and tired.”
Once Arabalika mentioned that, Alhaitham was reminded of his pounding headache and his slowly drooping eyes.
The old Aranara, Araja, regarded him, looking the human up and down. “Why can this Nara see us? Can we trust the Green Nara?” he questioned.
“I remember this Nara from when he was small! He is the poor little orphan Nara!” another Aranara called out from the crowd assembled around them.
The scholar turned towards the voice, offended by the comment, but softened his gaze when he recognized the green Aranara from when he was a child. Just then, it clicked; these were the things that helped him to steal that loaf of bread those many years ago.
Alhaitham awkwardly cleared his throat. “I wanted to express my gratitude to the Aranara for helping me today and assisting me when I was a boy. If I’m too much trouble, I can find my way back to Sumeru City…”
A chorus of protests came from the assembled Aranara.
“Nara is not well! He must stay!”
“This one can see us!”
“Nara Green must be a good Nara if he can see us!”
Araja then spoke up. “If many Aranara can vouch for this Nara, then we will give him a place to stay and help him feel better.”
“I will repay you all for your kindness. Thank you,” the scholar meekly said. He didn’t know what the big deal was with being able to see them, but he brushed that issue aside.
All of the Aranara looked up at Alhaitham with the same, derpy smile. These little creatures were starting to grow on him.
The last time he saw one was during a commission.
After the Aranara had helped Alhaitham recover, he made sure to do whatever he could to help them out in return. He would clear any fungi that were getting a bit too close to Vanarana or accept commissions from the Aranara themselves. Most of the time they were menial tasks such as helping them find cooking ingredients. Other times were more serious, such as when he had to defeat a Fatui agent or heal an Aranara with the power of Dendro. Alhaitham thanked the Archons for his Dendro vision and a small part of him believed that he was given one so that he could further assist the Aranara.
Sometimes Alhaitham would see an Aranara on his evening walk with Kaveh. They rarely strayed into the city, but on the rare occasion he did see one, Alhaitham would greet them with a nod of his head, even when the blond accompanying him would ask what the hell he was looking at. Then they’d launch into the next topic of debate, the original issue being forgotten completely.
It was a slow day in the Akademiya. Alhaitham, who was now the Acting Grand Sage after the whole debacle with Azar, lounged lazily in the oversized chair in his office. He was reading quite an interesting book regarding physics as he stretched out his legs. The ever-persistent light of the sun reflected off the blue glass panes and down on the hundreds of books shoved onto the shelves lining the walls of the circular office. The only benefit of being the Acting Grand Sage was access to the exclusive library packed with knowledge. Of course, he had read most of it as a child, but it was nice to be able to read the texts legally. Kaveh, who spent a lot of his time in Alhaitham’s office, was off to his right complaining about some Kshahrewar drama (thankfully the scribe had his noise-canceling headphones on, like always).
The sound of light footsteps alerted Alhaitham of a new presence. He looked up from his book and was somewhat surprised to see the Traveler with Paimon floating next to him. Even the architect stopped mid-rant to see what the duo needed.
“Good afternoon, Traveler,” Alhaitham began. “Did you need something?”
Aether fidgeted with his bag and pulled out a piece of parchment. He slid it over to Alhaitham who began scanning the text. “I was wondering if you two would be able to come with me for a commission. You’re both Dendro users and I wanted to try out some reactions with Electro.”
The second Alhaitham finished reading, Kaveh snatched the commission from his desk and pale red eyes began darting across the page. He glared at the man as he didn’t even have the chance to look at the map himself.
Kaveh spoke first. “This is definitely doable. A few Fatui northwest of the city? Piece of cake.” He summoned a high-tech suitcase. “I’ve been wanting to try out some new technology anyways.”
Alhaitham sighed and shook his head. “Don’t go blindly charging into things, Kaveh. We don’t know how many of them there are, what their goal is, or anything of the sort.” He looked up at Traveler. “When do we leave?”
“Er… right now?” Aether sheepishly said, rubbing his arm.
“Come on Feeble Scholar, you don’t look so busy right now!” Paimon interjected.
The scribe exhaled before putting an ornate bookmark on the chapter he left off on and getting up. The architect patted him on the back, shooting him a toothy grin. “It shouldn’t be that bad, Haitham. We are getting paid for this!”
“You need it more than me,” he grumbled before making his way toward the elevator.
The excursion out of Sumeru City was relatively painless. As their group approached the location listed on the commission, they were getting dangerously close to Vanarana. Alhaitham worried for the Aranara but pushed that fear to the back of his mind. The main priority was scouting out the Fatui camp and formulating a way to effectively neutralize the threat.
The Traveler, who was leading their party, stopped suddenly. “There,” he whispered.
The camp wasn’t huge, but it wasn’t something to turn your nose up at either. Some skirmishers wielding different elements lined the perimeter and Alhaitham could see a Cryogunner. He took note of the possible reactions he could be afflicted with and quietly summoned his sword. Kaveh summoned his claymore beside him.
“Are we ready?” Aether asked. Their current course of action was to just charge in guns blazing. The Acting Grand Sage would usually be opposed to such a low-quality “plan,” but there weren’t many Fatui to be concerned with in this instance.
The other two men gave hums of confirmation, and with that, they were off. Double Dendro and Electro was a very good matchup, with spread reactions dominating the battlefield. The Fatui were caught off guard by this onslaught, and Alhaitham cut them down with ease. In less than ten minutes the trio had defeated the entire camp.
Alhaitham wiped the sweat from his brow. Kaveh shook his wrist even though his suitcase packed with technology did most of the work for him. Aether turned to them with a smile on his face. “Thank you, guys, for coming along- it seems that the spread reaction is highly effective, especially with two Dendro users.”
They nodded and turned to leave, but that’s when Alhaitham spotted an Aranara out of the corner of his eye. Upon making eye contact, it waddled out of the woods and stopped in front of the scribe. A warm smile adorned his face when he realized that it was Arakunti. The slimmer Aranara was decorated with his signature yellow bowtie.
Alhaitham crouched down to be at eye level with it. The Aranara looked relieved. “Thank you Green Nara for stopping the bad Naras! They were very close to our home!” He turned to Aether. “And thank you too, Nara Aether!”
Aether turned to look at Alhaitham in shock, disregarding the display of thanks from Arakunti. “You can see them too?”
He quirked his head in confusion. “What do you mean Traveler? Can’t everyone see them?”
Kaveh looked over. “See what? Are you two talking to yourselves?”
The Traveler shook his head. “No, not everyone can see Aranara. Only young children can see them. And up until now, I thought I was the only adult who could.”
Oh. Alhaitham supposed it all made sense now. He just assumed that others were foolish and had mistaken the Aranara for plants. At least that was what he assumed when Kaveh yelled at him for staring into a bush for too long.
Arakunti was still standing there, waiting expectantly. Aether turned to the Aranara, not wanting to disrespect it. “You’re welcome, Arakunti. If you need any more help you can ask either of us anytime.”
Alhaitham nodded in agreement and the leaf on top of Arakunti’s head spun excitedly.
Kaveh, still confused as ever, butted in. “What do you mean you both can see Aranara? That’s an old children’s tale! Are you two… intoxicated? I heard that Naku Weed stuff is starting to be imported from Inazuma…”
“No, we’re not intoxicated,” Alhaitham snapped.
“I’ve been able to see the Aranara ever since I came to Sumeru,” the Traveler explained. “I assumed it because I wasn’t native to this world, but since Alhaitham can, there must be another reason why.”
The architect huffed indignantly. “So that means I’m left out? I always wanted to see an Aranara.”
“The whiny Nara can’t see us?” Arakunti innocently asked.
Alhaitham bit back a laugh. “No, the annoying freeloading Nara can’t see you.”
Kaveh opened his mouth to come up with a scathing response but closed it as the other two continued their conversation with the Aranara. A minute or two later, they sent Arakunti on his way and began the trek back to Sumeru City.
Aether began to come up with theories as to why Alhaitham, a Sumeru native, was able to interact with the Aranara, while Kaveh lamented about his missed opportunity to talk to such a “whimsical entity.”
Alhaitham turned the noise canceling on his headphones up. He could care less about why he could see them. All he wanted to do was to get back to his office and finish the latest chapter of his book.