By: Tlanuwa Posted on: April 05, 2006
Discovery of Purpose
The mist roiled from all directions, obscuring vision in any outside the crossroads here. From within it, shapes manifest themselves and then disappeared just as quickly, always leaving one to wonder whether they were ever actually there.... The crowd gathered in an enormous circle around the center of the area, where two sentinels, apparently guards, held the shackled figure of a beautiful woman in place. Her hair obscured her face, and there was nothing else to identify her. She had been stripped nude, but the soot that covered almost every inch of her form preserved at least some semblance of modesty.
A cloaked figure walked forward from behind them, carrying a wicked daegger in
one hand. As he passed the crowd of people, striding towards the three in the
center, a hush fell over the place, leaving naught but the screams of terror
echoing from far away. He stepped in front of the woman, and lifted her chin as
he leaned to whisper something in her ear. Her raven hair fell away from her
face. Her azure eyes burned with a mix of fear and hatred. White lines left by
the stream of tears that still flowed indicated her fair, smooth complexion
beneath the concealing ash.
"Tyalira!", Tlanuwa tried to scream, and it was then that he realized that he
too was bound, and apparently gagged. He struggled against these bonds,
struggled to simply twitch a finger or make a sound, but could not. He was
helpless, forced to watch this event unfold.
The cloaked figure with the daegger turned to face the waiting crowd. He
muttered something to the blade and, seemingly of its own accord, it left his
hand and floated, waiting for his bidding. "Welcome, brothers and sisters. Let
us begin," came the man's voice. His face remained covered, but when he spoke,
Tlanuwa knew him instantly -- Malifuus. Though he had never seen the man, his
taunting, dark shouts that echoed over all the lands rang in his head now, and
he was sure it was Malifuus.
The story of an event that seemed, strangely, very much like the one developing
now, had been posted to the public news bulletins all around Sapience. Word of
it touched the ears and hearts of almost every citizen. Outrage spread nearly
as quickly. People screamed and wailed at the purification of the orphan girl
held in Mhaldor -- the torture and murder of the same to the rest of the realm.
Tlanuwa had passed no immediate judgment -- while he was disgusted at the
child's torture and death, he had never been one to discredit another's system
of beliefs. This was why he had chosen the forests and Eleusis to make his home
-- his values were his own, not those of Mhaldor or Shallam or the other cities
that fell somewhere between.
This was different. Now he was watching someone he cared for personally. It was
not about politics or the eternal battle between good and evil. No, this was
nothing so noble as that -- this was someone he shared a direct bond with. They
shared their groves, hunted together, visited family and friends together.
Though he had not made the depth of his feelings known to her or to anyone, he
had the sneaking suspicion that both she and everyone that saw them together
knew it anyway. He did not mind....
Now he was forced to watch her suffering, unable to do anything at all. He
feared that this ritual would reflect the last, but he did not wonder for long.
Malifuus turned back to face her, taking the daegger back into his palm as he
did so. He shouted something in a language Tlanuwa did not know. The daegger
seemed to come to life. Malifuus wheeled and crouched in one fluid movement,
slashing Tyalira's ankles before rising again, an audible "pop" reaching
Tlanuwa. As the tendons writhed their way back into her legs and she began to
fall, she threw back her head and issued forth a single clarion call that rang
through the land. She collapsed to the ground, her face again obscured by her
long, black hair. Her body trembled. Her chest and back heaved with the labor
of her breathing. Malifuus dropped into a crouch, lifting her chin once again
so she faced him. This time though, when she looked at his face, her bearing
was suddenly reminiscent of an eagle, and her new found strength and nobility
flashed in her eyes.
"Yes! Fight! Fly away! Something!", Tlanuwa begged silently, but he knew his
hope was unfounded in reality. She was going nowhere, and this would continue
as the Gods willed. Now Malifuus took her right wrist in his left hand, and
with his right, begin flaying the flesh from her forearm to her elbow. His
surgery was perfect, in that it wrought pain in her to the absolute limit
without allowing her the escape of death. As the flesh peeled away, blood
poured and pooled on the ground at her knees. Her arm was now bare, the ivory
bones visible through the gore. After repeating the process on her left arm, he
stepped back, glaring down at her with a wicked smile on his lips. Tyalira's
gaze never faltered. The spirit that now resided in her being shared her pain,
and gave her strength to focus through it. Still, Tlanuwa wept, knowing the
ultimate end of this, no matter her strength.
Malifuus scooped up her now weak body and, mouthing some enchantment, lifted
her as if she weighed no more than a feather. He dropped the arm that supported
her, but she remained, hovering there, helpless to move or do anything. Malifuus
lifted the daegger with both hands above her torso, then drove it down into her
flesh, directly through the navel. Now she screamed, and the eagle with her;
the sound was devastating to hear, and Tlanuwa could not shut it out, even if he'd
wanted to.
Withdrawing the blade some, Malifuus incised two perfect lines,
creating a 4-paned grid of flesh that opened at the center. With a finger and
an expectant grin, he turned her body over, spilling her intestines and blood
over the ground as she finally, mercifully, expired. Tlanuwa's voice found him
again, and now he screamed, with more force than he'd ever known he had....
Then he woke up, the Rajamalan roar still resounding from his mouth. Quickly
realizing he had only dreamt, he stopped the outburst. The stars still shown
brightly in the sky, no sign of the impending dawn yet clear. He stood from the
makeshift palette of leaves he slept on each night and walked to the
northeastern corner of his grove. Glancing through the willows that separated
their groves, he saw Tyalira sleeping peacefully on her ivory-silk blanket --
the one he'd been with her to purchase. Satisfied that she was safe, he ambled
over to one of the limbs of the ancient, fallen tree that characterized his new
home. Taking a seat, he began to reflect on the events of the past couple of
weeks.
At the start of his troubles, he had found himself in the middle of a
Mhaldorian raid on Eleusis. He returned to his grove to find Cain there,
preparing to battle those that awaited him at the gatehouse just south, and he
froze. Stories of Cain's strength against even accomplished fighters had
created an innate, even unjustified fear of him in Tlanuwa. And now, though he
knew he should do something, even if it was only to leave, he could not. His
limbs refused to move. Without a word, Cain strode south to attack, and Tlanuwa
cursed for allowing himself to remain so weak that he could do nothing then. The
Eleusian warriors, among them Miagorme and Rangor, managed to fend off both Cain
and Xenomorph, and, for the moment, that conflict was settled.
Later in the week, several new areas in the Black Forest had been discovered,
hidden away for who knows how long. Interested, but still too angry and focused
on his combat training to leave immediately, Tlanuwa filed it away in his "todo"
list. After his final spar for the evening, Tlanuwa sought out Tyalira, suddenly
anxious for her company, though he knew not why, in particular. When he was
finally able to contact her, she was exploring the new areas, and suddenly,
they bumped up in priority on his list. He asked her for a gate, then stepped
through the portal and found himself immediately pounced on and sent rolling
through the leaves. Her way of saying, "Hi!", he assumed. With a grin, Tlanuwa
stood and hugged her, happy to be in her presence again.
She sent him to look around a bit, and, though reluctant, he took his preferred
form of the wolf and left out, enjoying the smell of the old trees and plants
that had prospered here. Everywhere he went the Druids and Sylvans laboured
lovingly to plant the herbs and flowers they depended on, encouraging their
growth with sweet words and songs. Pleased, Tlanuwa finished his circuit of the
new found area and returned to Tyalira's location in a clearing bordered by old,
strong willows.
They talked briefly of the new area, and then she announced that she planned to
move here, to this spot exactly. This was an idea that had never occurred to
Tlanuwa. His home had been, for years, in the Eastern Ithmia, close to his
mother, Gala, and Eleusis, where he spent much of his time sparring and
learning in the estate of the Sentinel House. That grove under the old, proud
oak had protected him and nourished him since he had become a Druid almost 10 years before.
But now, the idea of moving away from the mass of people that now lived in the Ithmias
appealed to him, though he was unsure if it was the solitude or the chance to
be closer to Tyalira that motivated him. Seeming to read his mind, she asked if
he was considering moving to the Black. Nodding, Tlanuwa beckoned Tyalira to
him, and he stepped through the willows and into the shaded glen just southwest
of her grove. He stopped and feigned pondering over the direction in which to
travel, and when she asked, he grinned and pointed at the ground. A flash of
comprehension filled her face, and then a sly grin, and she nodded in approval.
The rest of that day had proven eventful. After attending the ceremonies for
moving Tyalira to her new grove and moving Morine, her cousin, into Tyalira's
old one, Tyalira asked if he was to move, himself. He quietly nodded, and then
she pounced again. They returned to the location of his grove-to-be and he
glanced around one more time, though his decision was already made. Leneas and
Aethele passed through, exploring as well, and Tyalira asked if Aethele would
mind peforming the imprinting ceremony. She agreed and promptly retreated to
prepare, and Tlanuwa and Tyalira left to return and sever his old grove in the
Ithmia. Tlanuwa gathered the few belongings he had here, then uttered a prayer
that this place would remain protected, and initiated the process of severing.
The feeling of loss was overwhelming, and, sympathetic to his pain, Tyalira
stood close to him, comforting him as a lone tear rolled down his cheek. They
tracked back to Aethele in the new location, and the imprinting ceremony was
held. Immediately, the pit of loss was refilled and Tlanuwa's connection with
the land renewed, much to his relief. He slept soundly that night, particularly
in the knowledge that Tyalira slept so closely to him now.
The next days had been rather lazy for Tlanuwa. He spent most of them exploring
the Black Forest more intently, regretting he had not learned it more adequately
in his introductory training with the Sentinels. Soon, though, the day came for
him to prepare for another week of combat training in Eleusis. On the last
night he was to be in the Black before he left, he'd had the dream. And so here
he was, sitting on the limb, wasting good sleep on pondering over memories. He
would need the rest in the coming days, so, having fully rationalized the dream
as nothing more than a dream, he trudged back to his familiar resting place and
fell immediately back into sleep.
Though the shade provided by the myriad trees in the glen kept most of the
direct sunlight out, the temperature still warmed and one stray ray shone in on
Tlanuwa's forehead, waking him sooner than he'd though it possible for morning
to arrive. With a dissatisfied grunt he got up and stretched languidly,
relishing his body's natural strength and flexibility. After a quick breakfast,
he set about preparing for the trip. Tlanuwa gathered and laid out on a blanket
all of the various packs of herbs, healing elixirs, sharpened staves, and other
various instruments he would need in his training.
The bundle complete and stowed away in his kitbag, he sat and began reviewing all of the various
strategies he'd learned and some he'd devised himself and planned to test in
the week to come. His work was engrossing. So much so that he missed the thin
beam of prismatic light that appeared behind him, carrying on it Asche and his
soulmaster entity, which immediately began attempting to manipulate his will.
Snapping back to reality, Tlanuwa finally registered that he was being robbed.
Entirely unprepared, he froze briefly, but finally managed to shout for a gate.
Three portals of light appeared instantaneously, and Tlanuwa fought with all his
will to dive through the first he could reach. He tumbled out of the ether into
Brandi's grove, and, thankfully, Asche did not follow. After his housemates had
indicated that Asche had returned to Mhaldor, Tlanuwa thanked Brandi for her
quick help, and once again dove into the either, back to his own grove.
Adrenaline pumping still and anger rising, Tlanuwa tentatively sat back down to
think through what had happened. The primary cause, he determined, was that he
had lived a blessed life. Never once had anyone attempted to rob him or cause
him harm without his already knowing it. And suddenly, the Black Forest grew a
bit darker in Tlanuwa's mind. His resolve now set in stone, Tlanuwa doubled his
efforts to become attuned to the combatitive powers inherent in his link to the
forest. He practiced calling thorns up to wrend his enemy's flesh, beseeching
the branches to trap his foes, and calling lightning down to strike them dead.
He practiced, too, in the Wyvern's abilities, summoning flames and then
belching them free, but ready to incinerate any who crossed him. Remembering
his dream from the night before, and now acutely aware of how easy it was to be
attacked, he resolved always to maintain a link with Thoth, enabling him to
watch for any harm that might befall those he loved. The sunlight stored within
his grove already nearly expended, Tlanuwa decided it was time to depart.
He gathered his meager belongings and strapped them to his back. Hopefully
stepping to the edge of his grove, he peered through to find Tyalira still
sleeping soundly. A pity, he thought. He should have liked to say goodbye. But
he dared not wake her, fearing a brutal beating before he even got to the
training grounds.... With a final, whispered goodbye, Tlanuwa leapt to the
skies and tracked to some person he smelled in the direction of Eleusis. The
day passed quickly in his journey over the Urubamba and through the Aureliana
Forest, over the Prelatorian Highway and into the Ithmias, finally entering the
Eastern Ithmia and stopping for just a moment over his old grove, apparently
still uninhabited. The long trip over, Tlanuwa landed at the foot of the
gatehouse and greeted the on-duty Treekin warriors protecting entrance to the
village. Making his way quickly down the Oaken Way and into the Central Hall in
the Great Oak, Tlanuwa greeted his village- and house-mates before whispering
the words for entry into the Sentinel House Estate. He wandered around for a
bit, greeting the other house members going about their duties, and then walked
to the gardens where Vixen, the house teacher was. Lythea, too, was there, and
they greeted one another. Tlanuwa sat for a quick lesson in metamorphosis,
eager to transcend his knowledge of the art, and once finished, wandered back
to a secluded room to sleep for the night.
The next morning he arose and headed immediately to the arena, ready to begin
his training. Caelin was to be his sparring partner today, and he was already
waiting with his posse of forest creatures that would fight alongside him. A
sly grin crept across Caelin's face when Tlanuwa approached, and a frown beset
Tlanuwa's.... The week flew by quickly. Tlanuwa lost most of his spars, still
refusing to call his grove into the arena's forests, determined to learn to
fight without its aide to avoid becoming dependent on it. The losses stung, but
he learned from each and improved in his ability and strategy. Each night, he
found himself wondering what Tyalira was doing, wishing he could be there to
see for himself. And so the days passed. Each day he fought, each evening he
thought of her.
Finally, the day came for him to leave Eleusis and return home. Once again,
Tlanuwa gathered what remained of his supplies and packed them into his kitbag.
Bidding his housemates sincere good byes, he left the village and traveled north
back to his old grove under the oak. Fond memories rekindled, he returned home
to the Black Forest. Tlanuwa dropped his belongings next to his chosen resting
spot, and walked around for a moment, happy to be home again. Then he walked
back to the edge of the trees and glanced through to see if she was there.
Discovering that she was not, he morphed quickly into the jaguar form he'd
grown so accustomed to and sniffed for any trace of Tyalira, hoping, perhaps,
that she was visiting her mother a little ways to the north. Disappointed to
detect no trace, he consumed another skullcap leaf, ever watchful for her
safety. He sat back down against a tree and was content to daydream for a bit,
though never far enough from awareness to miss another prismatic shaft of
light....
The remaining daylight waned and the stars began to appear, signaling the sure
fall of night over the land. Tired from his travels and the week of intense
physical activity, Tlanuwa decided it time to rest for the evening. Just as he
began to doze, lingering in that tricky realm between wakefulness and sleep, a
dark voice, almost in a whisper, crept into his mind, "Tyalira has been slain
by the might of..." and the voice trailed off. Awake in an instant, hoping
beyond reason for it to have been another dream, he waited and listened for the
calls over the forestal communication links they kept open always. To Tlanuwa's
horror, the calls came, "Tyalira is down!" Fully awake now, he immediately
reached for the Wyvern spirit to come to his aide. Transformed, he leapt into
the skies with a mighty roar, and without stopping so much as to think of
whether he smelled correctly, he beat the Wyvern wings and soared faster than
he'd ever flown to the Dakhota Hills and Azdun. He descended immediately to the
area in which she'd fallen, scooping her mauled form into his arms. Her clothes
had been ripped and burned by her attacker, and only the sturdy leather boots
she wore when she hunted had not been damaged. With a defiant shout,
accompanied by the Wyvern's growl and a white hot flame erupting from his maw,
Tlanuwa screamed, "GATE!" The portal of light appeared and he leapt through it,
diving immediately back into the undergrowth on the other side and back into his
own grove, not bothering to ask if the other grove user could call upon the
mighty healing powers. Gently, and tears flowing freely, Tlanuwa lay Tyalira
back down on the forest floor. Palms extended, he shouted the healing words
that would beckon the grove's aide, and a blue aura began to emanate from his
hands, filling the area and blinding all within it. As the bright light began
to subside, Tlanuwa, now fallen to his knees, looked up, and there was Tyalira,
floating gently back to the ground standing upright, bathed in pure light and
unscathed as she was the day she was born. A single tear and a smile were the
only things he saw in her face -- nothing of the terror she must have suffered.
Relief now flooded Tlanuwa's heart, driving out the fear and hopelessness that
had taken hold of him. And then the light left them completely, and in the
moonlight that remained, he saw the cloaked figure wielding a daegger and the
baalzadeen that accompanied him standing behind Tyalira.
Without a second thought, Tlanuwa called on his grove to trap and wrend his
opponent. The mighty golem that stood watch lumbered forth, beating its massive
chest with one fist, and delivered a crushing blow to the massive baalzadeen.
The baalzadeen! Never in Tlanuwa's wildest nightmares had he imagined such a
horrid creature. Transfixed by the image of his own limbs being torn from his
body in the beasts eyes, Tlanuwa was once again frozen in place. The baalzadeen
was blood red in colour and garbed only in a long cloth, with pitch black barbs
covering the entirety of its body. It stepped forward on its massive legs and
opened its maw, revealing rows of razor sharp teeth. What happened next is the
substance of nightmares -- jaws fully spread, the baalzadeen vomited
tar-black, steaming bile onto Tlanuwa, coating him in what he would have sworn
was the very lifeblood of evil. In this time, his attacker writhed free of the
branches that had entangled him and stood, soundlessly whispering to the
daegger that hovered by his head. Shocked back into awareness, Tlanuwa began
summoning the flame within him. His reflexes too slow to keep his opponent
down, he relied on the bees that had swarmed from their hive and now stung the
intruder at will. The golem and baalzadeen now fought to one side, each
unwilling to relent until the other lay dead. Suddenly the daegger whirled and
dove for him on its own, missing my a hair's breadth and continuing away behind
him. The flame had built sufficiently inside Tlanuwa now, and opening his own
maw, he released the blue flame with all the force he had within him towards
the cloaked figure, but to no avail -- the baalzadeen had worked his way around
to stand between the two, and the flame struck it instead, not harming it in the
slightest. In the moment of confusion, Tlanuwa raised his hands high, preparing
to strike down the man with a bolt of lightning. Glancing briefly at the man's
face, he thought he detected a grin, and then the daegger struck. It had
wheeled back around, ever increasing in its velocity, and burrowed through
Tlanuwa's back, impaling him. As his head bowed to his chest, he watched with
regret as the blood -- his blood -- pooled on the ground below him. He had
failed, again, and now Tyalira was alone to fight for herself.
As he sank to the ground, his body nearly entirely dry of the blood he so
desperately needed, he sensed only a few final, curious things. The first thing
he heard was the furious beating of a Horkval's wings, who then landed in the
clearing, though he could not tell who it was. Then, he thought he saw the
outstretched, jaguar form of a man leaping through the trees and onto the
cloaked man, knocking him to the ground and mauling viciously at its head and
torso. Last, he felt an all-consuming blast of heat permeate the entire grove.
And then, he fell, tumbling endlessly into the void.
The nightmares flashed through his mind like lighting. Everything painful in
the previous weeks now flooded his very being, tormenting him. His inability to
fight when his village needed him. Severing his bond with his grove. The
uncertainty of living in a new place. The dreams. And finally, his horror at
feeling Tyalira's death, the battle that ensued, and the insufferable pain that
brought him here. "So this is death..." was the only thought that he could
manage through the torrent of memories. Just as Tlanuwa resigned himself to the
eternal suffering, he awoke with a gasp.
The first thing he recognized when his consciousness returned was a
conversation between two people, who sounded like Lythea and Miagorme.
Something about Lythea arguing the virtues of crickets.... Apparently, Miagorme
had been trying to eat them, and Lythea demanding that he not. Then there was a
"crunch", a "thwap", and last, the sound of Miagorme crying out as he was
thrown off the log and sent rolling through the leaves....
Then he remembered her. Bolting upright, Tlanuwa called, "Where is she!" The
chatting stopped, and Tlanuwa saw a brief smile cross Lythea's lips before
Tlanuwa swooned and had to lie back down. His eyes immediately went for the
willows that separated his grove from Tyalira's, and, to his overwhelming joy,
she stepped gracefully through them, unharmed. She carried a tray of cooked
venison, sweet rolls, and truffles in one hand, and a bottle of ale and a cup
in the other. She was garbed in a simple, flowing white gown, and walked
barefoot over the leaves, hardly making a sound. She smiled when her azure eyes
met his, and a warmth Tlanuwa had never known crept into his limbs.
Tyalira placed the food and drink on the ground next to him, and then sat,
gently lifting his head and placing it in her lap. As she stroked sweetly his
long, curly mane of hair, now clean and brushed, he asked, "What happened?"
"Lythea and Miagorme were nearby exploring the new forest areas and heard your
call for help." Tlanuwa didn't even remember making such a call. "They arrived
just as you fell. Lythea rushed in, ready to incinerate. Mia ambushed the man
from just southwest of here, through the trees. When he fell, he shielded
himself, and Lythea simply incinerated him. The man wasn't dead though, and
managed to prism out before they could finish the job."
"Mia left to look around and make sure there were no other attackers, and I linked our groves with Lythea's, allowing her to resurrect you and cure your afflictions. You've slept for two days healing."
"And what of you, Tyalira? What happened after I resurrected you?", Tlanuwa asked.
"In my state of Divine Grace, I was both powerless to help and safe from harm, so I was of little use for the moment. But I stood by the whole time."
Thoughts raced in Tlanuwa's mind then. All the questioning, the wondering, about why we are who we are and what in the Gods Names we are doing here had been answered. His place was here, beside her. Before his mind could catch his tongue, he gazed into her eyes and whispered the words, "United in death, and united in life...." A smile crossed her lips, and her eyes gleamed in the unusually bright sun.
After visiting with Lythea and Miagorme for a long while, and Tlanuwa thanking
them profusely for their aide, goodbyes were said, and they were alone again.
Tyalira gathered the food and drink, and they enjoyed the meal -- though he
more than she, it seemed. Tlanuwa recounted the events leading up to the fight
-- the dream, Asche's attack, his week in Eleusis.
"Sometimes I wonder why I'm here -- why any of us are. I wonder why we suffer.
Why we celebrate. Why we stand proud in one instant and cower in the next. And
then... then I see you -- look into your eyes -- and I see it all. The joy and
the pain, the pride and the regret. And I understand for that instant
that there are no answers to such questions, but rather a single solution to
overcoming them."
"And what, dear kitty, would that be?", she asked.
"That, fair temptress, is both the simplest and the most complex to explain."
Her eyes sparkled with amusement as he finished, "We live. We grow. We learn. We cherish the happy times, and we work through the hard times. We love. We seek. And at the end of the day, when Stygian night falls, we rest, and we dream, and we hope. And then..."
Tlanuwa stood, stretching languidly, aware of her eyes on him. Before she could realize what was happening, he pounced, sending them both rolling through the leaves. After tumbling for a time, he lost himself in her gaze, and kissed her.