THE FIRST REALM: RED — Learning to receive

Nor were they intent on accumulating things. When they discovered an unusual fruit, they took it to the kitchen so everyone could taste it. Food was plentiful on the tables, and objects passed freely from one pair of hands to another.

Male and female dwarves shared the household tasks. Caring for the youngest was the responsibility of the whole community. Children wandered freely through the village, and if they approached someone at work to ask a question, the adult stopped to answer. If they wanted to learn, room was made for them.

The dwarves liked making ornaments and toys to give away. They also loved moving house. They exchanged homes and took few belongings with them, leaving almost everything for whoever came next. Sometimes they hid a gift they had made especially for the new occupants.

Skyblue imagined a dragon handing over a tree with all its treasures still inside. The idea made her laugh so hard that she had to sit down.

But one afternoon, as she talked with Yaseee, she stopped laughing.

She had always thought herself different from her neighbors because she did not keep diamonds or mountains of gold. Yet she remembered very well how uneasy she felt when someone touched her crystals. She kept some stones apart and avoided showing them to anyone, afraid she might be asked to give them away.

“I’m afraid of losing things, too,” she admitted. “Even if my treasures aren’t like theirs.”

Yaseee did not hurry to answer.

Skyblue recognized something of herself in those dragons she had felt so distant from. As she thought of them, she felt a faint tenderness, still uncomfortable. It seemed that a tiny piece of ice was melting in her chest.

“It’s a process,” Yaseee said, as though he had seen it, too.

During her stay, she learned to love the earth where she had been born. The dwarves called it the Mother. They greeted her in the morning, thanked her for their food, and shared with her a portion of what they had received.

“However far away the planet you come from may be, your roots are here now,” they reminded her. “This earth is alive. She gives you food, shelter, and warmth. Remember her. The Mother likes presents, too.”

Skyblue began to place her paws more mindfully, to feel the ground beneath her body. She had not stopped wondering about the Blue Planet so many had spoken of, but she no longer needed to scorn the place where she was in order to wish to know her origins.