Well here is an update of our little band of misfits, this chapter took long to write, im sorry, mostly cause of outside forces repelling against me...and writer's block, hopefully it doesn't show. Enjoy and review please!
Forseveral days they traversed the alien land, stopping as night would cover the vast sapphire sky and reveal the stars of this new land, when they departed the lands of the west the season that rang out was end of spring, now it seemed as if the very stars portended the beginning of winter's predecessor, though no leaves or trees abounded to which they could tell. And as they removed themselves from the mouth of the gorge that had been their neighbor for two days they came upon a hellish country, though the hills were emptied of green, cool, grass and replaced with hard, cruel sand. Before them stood a vast and intemperate plain, for as the dune-land fell away into the south the ground became as rock and fruitless to the touch of gentle life of green. The sand that blew up from the barren ground tasted of salt and small dry ravines told only the lie of the coming of water. They stood then at the beginning of the vast plain, the final grave of Helcar; yet neither aged man, elf or woman of mortal blood knew fully the long sorrowful history of that plain that once abounded green till the false tower Illuin fell from it's mighty height, its flame causing the lands to burn to desert and its stone form breaking to pieces as the snow of the mountains melted and formed the ancient sea of the East. Barren is that land now for as the old wives do tell, "If salt be within the soil, ye shall have no fruit from land and toil". The man called Alatar as the wisest of the twin companions closed his eyes and felt the dry breeze flow over the heated plain as red mountains rose in the distance as a fortress against the dry south. He spoke at last before they began their laborious trek through the wasteland,
"I sense a great power here, beneath the roots of the mountains, lying dormant…and unknown nourishment for the land that is thirsty."
To which the woman called Cidhrali spoke, having obtained much knowledge of the stranger's tongue,
"The ancients say…it was a…great water…long ago. But the water goddess became angry…and the water disappeared, and the demon eye, sealed the land…so nothing would grow…"
"Then this must be the ancient sea of Helcar…long have I wondered at the stories I was told of its beauty and its vastness…Alas, the beauty has fled and the vastness remains."
Celebrin spoke these words as silence filled their hearts at what was once the largest inland sea of all of middle earth, the only one fed with the fabled spring of life. With a sigh of exhaustion they continued their journey over the hills of sand and upon the flawlessly smoothened plain that shimmered like dull glass in the afternoon sun. When night came they had journeyed into what they called then, Talath Anorui, the plain of the fiery sun, for that is what Cidhrali had called it when they asked her of its name, which in her tongue is, Nefdair Kuedaliu.
That night as they sat beneath the stars the travelers learned more of the history of Cidhrali's people who were called the People of the Deer. Long was their history placed in the untold tales of the first tribes of men, none of them idyllically remembered the actual number of tribes that first sprang up from the earth at the dawning of the sun, nor could any remember how such tribal differences first came into being. It was the musing of the elves that mortals awoke as they did, each knowing their own clan from the rest. The woman knew much of the history of her people, which led the others to believe she was royalty of some sorts, a princess of a fallen king, yet her mannerisms were rough and would not fit well with high lineage, she was rough though her speech was fair, if anything she resembled the women of the Nandor in relevance to the elder kind, for they were still a tribal people, living off of the land and abiding little the rulings of the courts, unless it were a time of war. The woman spoke in hushed and silent voice as if the ears of the enemy surrounded them that night, she spoke of the tribes of men, how many it is said among their elders, once used to live in peace at the first rising of the sun. She spoke of the coming of the Dark One, and how easily tribes of men fell under his rule and dominion, some would rise to power among the Dark One's forces, and others, who resisted, led a life of bondage and ridicule. Then she spoke reverently of the elders of the tribes who rebelled against the dark powers and freed their country-men from shackle and chain; yet while she waxed in her storytelling there lay an underlined sorrow as well, for, she said, in the freeing of their people the Elders became outlaws in their own land, exiles and vagrants who wandered the desert searching for a land free of the Dark One's grip. She spoke of names that were alien to the traveler's ears, and they rolled from her tongue as water flows from the head of a fountain.
And as the hearth fire crackled and the night drew on rest came to their weary heads and the two aged men lay their heads upon the cold ground and with their eyes open looking into the stars entered the realm of dreams where they held private council meant for the minds of the wise. The elf and the woman remained looking at the same stars with waking eyes, and silence flowed from their mouths for the sight that they saw was unlike anything either had seen, for now in this vast, untamed wilderness nothing stood between them and the stars in the high heavens, such was the sight that only sailors upon an open ocean see have the opportunity of seeing. Celebrin turned his gaze from the stars to the woman who sat beside him, and his mind flew back in time and memory, to when he first heard of the eastern people. And he thought silently to himself how he had once thought the other races of men to be as evil or as intemperate as the orcs themselves, yet she was the opposite of such descriptions. Wisdom flew from her words and there was ancientness about her demeanor that made her seem to be as one of the Eldar, though her skin was dark and her hair unkempt. He then realized as the seconds drew on that he was starring at her visage as though he was starring at the first rising of the moon, as though he was spanning the depths of the sea looking for game in the wild of the abysmal sea. And in his realization his eyes met with her own for she too gazed at him in wonder, seeing before her the ancient ones her people called Kadjinai, the spirits of the earth, sky and river. With a furtive and shy smile her gaze was broken and she looked into the hearth fire, her mind began to race through the stories told by her people, of how the Kadjinai fooled with the hearts of women, making them live their entire lives in pursuit of a dream and those told by her grandmother, of benevolent beings who brought forth the rain with their midnight dances and drank from a spring that granted all life immortality. Children stories of taps on the shoulders of lonely wanderers passed through her mind while in his their raced thoughts of other means and ways; he knew not why he gazed at her as he did, nor could he feel any emotion other than wonder at her persona and her being, yet in some strange way he felt…guilty for staring at her so, as if a bond that once was most cherished began to break. The silence around him began to thicken and in an attempt to speak he brought forth a glottal sound from his throat as if some presence held it from speaking words to this mortal woman. She began to speak in his reluctance looking toward the earth and then in a straight and effortless path to the iris of his own eyes,
"What are you called … in the West?"
"We…call ourselves, Eldar…or Quendi…
"What do they…mean?"
"They mean…'they who speak' and 'people of the stars'…Why are you called goat people?"
"We are called no such thing!"
An anger and resentment rose in her voice as if it hurt to hear those words come from one she trusted; immediately her body tensed and she held herself as if a child with her arms wrapped around her knees. Yet she stared into the fire with eyes of dark brooding hue, as the night that waits for the dawn, the already natural slant of her eyes deepened as she peered into the hearth fire and spoke in her own tongue, for it was what she knew best and the stranger oddly enough knew more than what she expected, being that he learned it only a week hence.
"My people are not herdsman, they live simply off of the land, taking only what they needed and never forcing from the land more than what would grow; for our knowledge of the earth we were made to farm for the dark one and feed his burgeoning masses. Yet the land became unfertile after many years and we were sent to herd sheep and goats in the hills and for this we are called goat people…and for no other reason…the true name of our folk is due to our reverence for the light footed beast that dwells in the forest of the red mountains, though we have led a life now of raising horses in recent times, for the salt of the sand will not allow anything to grow again without much toil, and all the deer, who once trusted us now run from our face."
"How many of you are there? For you make it seem as if your rebellion would be welcomed in all parts of the land…"
"It would, save that most of our forces lies still under the yolk of the Eye, and our tribes are scattered, we cannot unite again for to do so would mean being crushed by the eye if we indeed draw too much support…yet you and your comrades can change that."
"How…?"
"I saw with my own eyes the power you wield, the ancient ones defeated the wind storm and you…you did not fear the shadows and your weapons injured him…even in my hands…"
"My weapon can do nothing for you, it is only metal and wood, though it is ancient, it is only that…"
"No other weapon could harm the shadow yet yours did so…"
"I do not fear them because of what I am, you know not the life I have led that allows me to not fear such…"
"Death?… I see it in your eyes, you longed to be killed by that creature and yet you were not…If you are indeed one of the Kadjinai, then you have at long last come to help us in our distress…as you said you would."
"What is this name you call me…what does it mean?"
"The Kadjinai are beings who live in the mountains, they rule over the earth, waters, fires and winds…by all accounts your are of their kind…"
"I know not of what you speak…I am no spirit being, you saw so yourself, I can be killed, I can bleed- I cannot control the waters, or the fires of the earth, do not place me so high as what you revere…"
"Yet your weapons and your power controlled the waters beneath the land, and your sword injured the shadow being…"
"I believe that it may have only done that because of you…you are a woman, a being who has the ability to create life, whereas they…are figments of death…"
"Though it is an interesting guess stranger, I doubt it severely…"
The strange voice interjected and from behind them stood a shadow cloaked in a sable garment, his face was covered with a deep black shall not even revealing his eyes in the firelight. He stood with a blade unsheathed in his hand, the curve of it, like a red crescent moon glimmered of bronze and shone red in the light of the small campfire. Celebrin unsheathed his own sword and stood as quickly as he heard the voice utter its first words, yet as he stood and faced the figure in the eye the woman stood also and held her arms at bay toward him, protecting the strange shadow being. Turning to him she spoke in her native tongue, in a familiar and informal tone as if she were chastising a child,
"Why did you not make your presence known? Why did the horses not call out at your intrusion?"
"These beasts, while noble, are starved, it was easy to bait them…and how was I to know it was truly your voice I heard from the distance, there are many strange things walking in the world, even more powerful than my love for you."
Came the reply in a laughing tone, its friendly lilt eased Celebrin's worries though his sword still stood raised against the shaded being, Cidhrali seeing this still remaining fear brought down the cowl of the shadow and revealed the figure as a mortal who gazed through eyes as similar to hers, filled with ancient stars and whose hair was as sable as the cowl he hid behind. Yet his face was less marred and filled with worry and a smile came easily to it, more so than a frown; Cidhrali with her palm placed Celebrin's sword down toward the ground as she pointed to the new face and said,
'He is my brother…"
gasp- Celebrin hits upon a bit of Tolkien mythology!
A word on the language of the eastern tribes:
-right now i am using Native American and Eastern Aisan terms for names- hint, hint-
Nefdair Kuedaliu nvda ugedaliyvtwo words meaning sun valley, I dont remember exactly which langauge this is from
Kadjinai Katchina Hopi word for spirit being similar to elves.
( elvish) Talath Anorui- Anor + Norui, sun+fiery fiery sun
