Dry twigs and sticks.
The bottom half of the statue depicts a creature listening, while the top parts depicts a similar creature calling out.
He's a Stickman.
It's a wonder how flowers as beautiful as these can grow down here where there's no sunlight.
I don't recognize the species, but they're beautiful.
That's one mother of a tree. Biggest damn thing I ever did see.
That's the Mothertree.
Hello? Testing, one...one...two...forty-two...
Doesn't seem like it's working.
I should just go talk to the guy in person.
Hello, Q'aman?
Wake up!
Hello?
Hello?
HELLO?
Actually, it doesn't seem like the statue is receiving my voice at all.
Shhh!
Shut up!
Shut up, shut up, shut up!
Who's there?
I know there's somebody here. I heard you.
If you won't come out, I'll just sit down here and wait. Sooner or later, you'll have to show yourself.
Solar eclipse!
Ow!
Duh...
Is she gone?
Hullo. I'm Woody. They call me the stupid one, 'cause I'm kinda slow, so don't let me keep you busy...
I was born with a big brain, so I can't move as fast as my two brothers... I can only do useless stuff like calculations and design and I play a few instruments and I'm writing a book on the flora and fauna of Alais...
Nope. She's still around.
Hi, I'm Willow. Wick's the oldest, Woody's the youngest, and I'm just stuck in the middle, as always.
Don't let me keep you, Wick's the boss, as always, go talk to him.
Oh my God!
Ahhh!
I hate this place. I so hate it. I can't even sit down without crushing the natives.
Big person alert!
What are you?
What does it look like?
This is too freaky.
Um, a talking twig?
We're Stickmen, and you're an accident waiting to happen, with your large, ungainly body and wobbly legs.
You think it's freaky? What about us? There's a large human stumbling around on her lumpy, wobbly legs. That's what we proper-sized folks call a natural disaster.
Watch it. Nobody calls me large or lumpy to my face.
Big boned, then. You're a bulldozer with a brain, lady. You're an accident waiting to happen. At least to us Stickmen.
What's a Stickman?
An unlucky bugger doomed to a miserable life of stiff backs and monotonous drudgery in the shadow of a Mother Tree.
Happy little fella, ain't you?
You have no idea.
Where do the Alatien live?
The Alatien? The guys with wings? Up in the volcano. There's an old city in there. I think they're squatting.
What's that constant, rumbling noise?
Lady, you have no idea what we have to endure. All day, all night, that noise is just murder.
It all started when Q'aman, the "quiet giant" -- would you believe that's what we used to call him? -- was banished by the Orlowol from his perfect fishing place to some remote place in the forest...
Whoa, information overload! Let's step back for a minute to fill in the details...
I'll see you guys later, then?
If you don't step on us first.
Later, guys.
So you guys are Stickmen?
That's right. I'm Wick. This is Willow, and that dumb looking one over there is Woody. And this is our Mother Tree.
What's a Mother Tree?
What do you mean, what's a Mother Tree? It's a Mother Tree. How difficult can it be? It's our mother, and it's a tree. It's a Mother Tree.
What do Stickmen do?
What do we do? What do we do? What do you mean, what do we do?
Well, the people in this world always do something. Like the Banda dug tunnels in the earth, the Maerum killed Snapjaw and covered their houses with Tanyenn. You gotta do something.
Hey, it ain't easy being a stick, let me tell you. You got your stiff back and limbs, your fear of fire and water, your three hundred years of miserable boredom, and then you have to get planted and raise a family. It ain't easy.
So you're not doing anything worthwhile, then?
Lady, I'm miserable, I'm grumpy, and I got a headache. What do you want from me?
Who built that big crossbow in the tree?
I did. Well, I thought of it, and these two nincompoops gave a helping twig on the, eh, manual side.
So they built it, and you...supervised.
Yup. But it's not done. There are still a few pieces missing before we can blast off for Luna.
How do I get into the volcano?
You don't. The road collapsed a few centuries ago, and when traders come, the Alatien fly down to meet them. Nobody goes up there anymore.
Did you say "blast off for Luna"?
That's what I said. Luna.
As in "the moon"?
The same.
You intend to go to the moon using that...thing?
Lunar cannon. And yes, that's the plan.
You guys are loonies.
If by "loonies", you mean "visionaries", then yes, yes we are.
How come you're not working on your lunar cannon now?
Because of that infernal noise, is why.
Who's Q'aman, the quiet giant?
He's the scariest human we've ever seen. He stands tall as a mountain, and uses whole trees for toothpicks. But he was the quiet type, and reasonably gentle...for a human.
He'd spend his days out by the Orlowol village, catching fish and frying fish and eating fish, and looking out across the ocean dreaming about loose women or whatnot.
What happened to get the quiet giant banished from that place?
The Orlowol got scared when he accidentally stepped on one of their young ones. He didn't do any real harm, but they banished him from their village nonetheless, and told him to go far into the forest.
Who are the Orlowol?
They're the crab-like creatures who live down by the sea. They're nice people, if a little crabby, and it's hard to understand what they're saying half the time.
Where's Q'aman now?
Somewhere in the forest east of here, we don't know where exactly. He went there to get as far away from the Orlowol as possible.
So what does all this have to do with the rumbling noise?
I was getting to that. If you'd just let me get a word in edgewise...
I just had some questions, is all.
Anyway. Q'aman is the brooding type, and he takes everything so to heart, he got instantly depressed, and went to sleep.
And what is he doing now?
Still sleeping. That's the problem.
But how long ago was it that the Orlowol banished him?
The last full moon, nearly thirty sunsets past.
He's been sleeping for a month?
He was depressed. What do you want, lady? Once I got so miserable I slept for eight years. And let me tell you, those eight years were the happiest of my life.
I still don't understand what this has to do with the rumbling noise.
How can you sleep for eight years?
With these morons around? I'm not even gonna answer that question.
No, really -- eight years?
Us Stickmen grow to be hundreds of years old. Eight years is nothing.
But still, eight years is almost half my life.
You're a baby. When you grow up, you'll understand.
See that statue over there?
Sure. What's up with that?
Back when the Dolmari lived on this island, ages ago, they put these statues up all around the island so that they could speak with each other.
You're kidding. So they're, like, telephones?
Tele-what? I dunno what that is. The thing is, these statues are all connected through magic, and when you speak into one, your voice flies through the air and comes out of another statue.
But I still don't understand--
You saw the big head up by the mountain?
Yes.
That's the one they used to talk to everyone on the island, to warn people of storms, or to hold evening prayer. It's connected to the statues as well. And Q'aman is sleeping right next to a statue's ear.
But can't you just wake him up?
We don't know where he is. We're not much for exploring this forest. There's water and fire, and monkeys. Monkeys like to "play" with sticks. We don't like monkeys.
But can't you just, well, send your voice to his teleph-- Statue, to wake him up?
There are four problems with that. Number one, all the statues have an assigned symbol, an identifying mark, but we don't know which his is. Second, most of the statues are broken in some way or another.
What do you mean?
Some statues can only talk to certain other statues. Some can't be spoken to, and some can't hear. Which makes it very difficult to get a connection through to where you want to send your voice.
Number three, in order to use the statues, you need a key. We don't have it. We don't know where it is.
And number four?
We're Stickmen, lady. What do you think? We don't know much about magic, or magical devices. And...and...
And what?
We're not too smart, okay? There, I said it. We're not too smart. And when you look at Woody over there, who's pretty stupid by Stickmen standards, that's a pretty scary thought.
Sorry I asked.
So if the noise stops, you'll go back to work on your cannon?
That's the plan.
But Q'aman stopped snoring already.
Yeah, but how long will that last? Sooner or later, he'll go back to sleep, and then he'll start snoring again. I'm not gonna start working only to be interrupted all over again.
But Q'aman has moved back to the Orlowol village. He's not going to disturb you again, trust me.
Really? How the heck did that happen? Nah, I don't care. The important thing is, we can work again. Thanks, lady.