Dead Moons Rising: First in the Honest Scrolls series

last gift is one whose creation required the deepest and most delicate care. During its inception, I enlisted both the help of the dead moons and the wind. This is an exceedingly special seed, Haerland. I cannot stress the amount of care and passion it will require in order to reach its full potential and growth. Nurture this seed with as much adulation as you give your own creatures. Plant it in the southern depths of the Forest of Darkness. The rich soil will give it the strength it needs." The Sun laid the last small cloth in Haerland's hands. This one was much different from the other two. It was black in color, lines of white scarring the hull.
"Remember, Haerland: use these gifts with caution. Treat them not as your equals, but as lesser ones. This is your only warning."
Haerland took the seeds and did exactly as the Sun had instructed her.
The pearly white seed was the first of the Sun's three to grow into its pole maturity. Haerland discovered it on a long summer evening. The adolescent tree's pearly bark was notched in various places, the perfectly crooked limbs reaching high towards the clouds. However, the tree was not the only thing Haerland found that evening.
There was a small girl sitting on the edge of the cliff, her feet dangling over the side. The billowing tendrils of the adolescent girl's white hair in the wind matched that of the tree's bark.
"Hello?" Haerland called out.
The young girl stood and faced her. "You are Haerland?" she asked.
The stark cerulean of the girl's eyes against her nearly translucent skin startled Haerland.
"I am," Haerland answered.
"She tells me my name is Arbina," the girl said. "Arbina Promregis Amaris. I believe you asked for me."
Years later, the Sun's second gift, the mossy green seed, also reached the dawn of its adolescence.
Haerland discovered its growth on the dawn of an early spring morning. Just as the child 'Arbina' had accompanied the tree atop the hill, this tree was also accompanied by a young child.
The adolescent girl was sitting at the base of the tree, between the uplifted roots with her knees pulled up to her chest. A pair of scared and severe white-blue eyes met Haerland in a stare beneath the girl's strangled tendrils of mousy brown hair. This child introduced herself as Somniarb Crelib.
Both Arbina and Somniarb, as well as their trees, had matured into full adulthood by the time the Sun's third grew into its own.
It was towards the end of the First Age that he was found. On the fourteenth night of the last dead moons cycle, Haerland found herself trapped in the middle of the Forest of Darkness during one of the worst thunderstorms she had ever seen. She took shelter beneath the engrossed canopy of trees to wait out the storm. Just as she began to nod off, the figure of a fully grown man appeared in a flash of lightning directly before her.
She backed herself closer to the trunk of the tree, but the man continued to approach her.
"Haerland?" he called out into the darkness.
"Yes?"
The man came forward and proceeded to kneel down in front of her. "The Noctuans tell me you are the one to which I owe my life."
"Who are you?"
In the cracks of lightning, she was able to put together his appearance. His buff and vigorous body was scarred to the point of mutilation; however, his once handsome and strong face was not lost beneath the red scars.
"They tell me my name is Duarb," he answered. "And I want to thank you, Haerland."
She suddenly felt remorse for this man and knew he was of the Sun's third gift, the black seed. She gave him the smallest of smiles and said, "You are welcome, Duarb."
With the maturing of the Sun's three, Haerland knew the First Age was drawing to a close. She decided upon giving the Architect's five a collective name. Only one name fit them, and it was the way in which the Sun had told her to treat these gifts. Haerland would call them, the Lesser Ones.
As the Second Age dawned, the Sun's three, along with Lovi Piathos and Mons Magnus, all aided Haerland in making her lands better than before. But with five strong voices came quarrel and division, something Haerland was not accustomed to.
She made a proposition to the Lesser Ones. She asked each one to give a child, a child possessing any and every quality they thought most important to the survival of a living race.
Seven children, each with distinguishing characteristics and abilities, came from this proposal.
Duarb's 'Venari' child, or 'Hunter,' was the first born. The child was created in the very bowels of the earth beneath Duarb's roots. Pulling his powers from not only the sun, but also from the wind and the moons, Duarb created a child worthy of living in the Forest of Darkness. The child's most distinguishing ability, and most vital to his survival, was that he could hear sounds carrying on the winds.
The 'Dreamer' child was the second. With its pointed ears and flawless appearance, Somniarb Crelib's child reflected the free spirit she thought necessary for life.
Not to be outdone by the Sun's second and third, Arbina Promregis Amaris was quick to present Haerland with not only one, but two children. She gave twins, a brother and a sister.
Lovi Piathos called his child 'a child of the Honest.' Along with the gift of eternal life, Lovi's child was born with slits on each side of his neck. They were gills, given so that he would be able to breathe upon his birth in the deepest parts of the reef in the southern sea.
In the mountains, Mons Magnus presented Haerland with a child known as the 'Blackhand.' This child was gifted in that he could tell how far away or how close his enemies were by the vibrations deep within the dirt beneath his feet.
Haerland also produced a child. Born deep within the northern realm caves of the