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wayfarers_lodge) wrote2009-09-19 01:28 am
wayfarers_lodge) wrote2009-09-19 01:28 am
{Two-Stick} Reliving the First Song
OOC I've realised I shouldn't put my speculative fiction where the DM can read it. He always uses it to fuck up my PC
IC
Two Stick ran her hands over the stone walls of the cave below the First Oasis, fingers trembling with excitement. She was in one of the most sacred places in the world, and in the presence of one of the first written records created.
Her fingers traced the letters very, very gently, not daring to brush them too roughly with her coarse hands. The letters had survived a thousand years- perhaps longer, the legends said that this cave had been sealed, so perhaps they had survived the flood, as well- and she did not wish to break them.
"This is amazing." She remarked, both to her friends and to the tribesmen who accompanied them. "The written form has evolved ever so slightly, but the words are the same..."
She paused, running her fingers over one section.
"This doesn't fit."
Ignis was at her side in a second, as were the most learned men of his tribe.
"What do you mean, Two Stick Lightning? The Record is immutable." He said it without scorn, because it was the truth- none changed the First Song, in text or in speech, on pain of death.
"I mean it doesn't fit. Sacred Poetry has a very specific rhythm in Ignan, and this section here, it departs from it- not very much, but enough. Listen.”
She sang the first canto of the First Song in the ancient, firey tongue, stressing each syllable straight on the beat. Slowly, one or two of the men nodded.
"I can hear it. The change. But surely that doesn't mean anything? It's only the section about Hawk of the Desert and Patient Camel, and how she should submit to him as is his right as a male, and he should accept her submission, as it is needed."
"No. It's here, as well-" Rose piped up, further along the great wall of text. "This section relates to a man's duty as chieftain of his tribe."
"And here-" Two Stick's eyes and hands darted to another section. "Where it dictates the age that a child goes from the care of its mother to the care of its father."
She tutted softly in thought, clicking her tongue as she ran her hands over the writing again, ignoring the suspicious murmurs of the men behind her. Her bright, glowing eyes narrowed as she studied the stone carefully.
"There... has been magic used here."
"Of course." Offered one of the shamans. "This is a holy place. Many great rituals of Shamanistic and Mystic magic are performed here."
"No. I mean here." She tapped the wall where the cadence of the Song changed. "There's the mark of someone Stoneshaping this section of rock. I don't like this."
"Jungle woman!" Growled one of the mystics in a low, dangerous voice, which made Swiftspear take a half step towards him. "Are you suggesting that someone has CHANGED The Record of the Songs of Hawk of the Desert and Patient Camel?"
"I suggest nothing, child of Hawk of the Desert." She replied sharply, but with a careful submissive inclination to her head, waving her hand to Swiftspear, signaling him to stand down. "Not without willingness to prove. With the consent of the Tribal Chieftains, I know a magic that will serve to determine what has truly happened here. If I am wrong, then I shall submit to the righteous judgment of a council of elders. If I am right... then this is in the hands of the children of the desert."
There was uncertain silence. The men of the desert looked at one another, unsure of this strange woman who had come into their midst, claiming to know and understand things that they had only ever dreamed. Firebird Rising was the one to speak first.
"I... believe Two Stick Lightning when she says that she thinks something is wrong," he said slowly and deliberately, choosing his words with the utmost of care, "And I believe her when she says that she thinks that something can be learned from this. I trust her."
Each of the other chieftains there nodded, eyes dark with mistrust, and Two Stick turned.
"Chaosti, could you please pass me the roll of scented sticks from my bags? And the chalk?"
Chaosti looked at her warily- not because he was afraid of her, but afraid for her- and fetched the small black leather roll. He looked at Rose as Two-Stick traced sigils in Ignan on the stone floor.
"Do you think she knows what she's doing?"
"I think," murmured Rose in reply, "She knows exactly what she's doing. I think we should be asking whether she knows what she's about to find out."
"Rose, please, I need you to keep an ear to me. I don't expect this to take very long- not more than an hour- and I need you to write this down, please. I may not remember it."
Rose nodded, face troubled, as Two Stick arranged the offerings for the spell, folded herself into her meditation position, and closed her eyes.
Time passed. Two Stick didn't stir. Chaosti, Rose and Swiftspear went quickly from tense waiting to relaxing, well familiar with the air-light mystic's trances. The tribesmen milled about restlessly, anxious and confused.
After a long, anxious wait, Ignis spoke to them again.
"Is... she alright?"
"She will be." Nodded Chaosti sympathetically. "Sometimes it takes longer than expec-"
He was cut off by a gasp of air and a jerk from Two-Stick, who rose from sitting to her knees to her feet in one trembling movement. When she opened her eyes, they glowed orange, instead of their usual lightning blue.
She started singing in a low, crackling, roaring whisper, like the promise of flame. It hissed with pain, and anger, and the need to be heard.
"She's... singing the Song of Hawk of the Desert and Patient Camel." Said one of the tribesmen hesitantly. "Not in any accent I have ever heard, but it is as the Record. That's good, right?"
"No," said Chaosti and Ignis in unison, looking at each other briefly before Ignis gestured to Two-Stick. A trickle of steaming blood was running from the corner of her mouth.
"That's Elemental Ignan," He contined as a drop of the blood fell from her chin, evaporating before it could hit the floor, "Her body isn't physically capable of pronouncing the word-shapes."
Chaosti stepped forward, and raised his hand towards her. Quickly he snatched it back. She didn't seem to notice.
"She's hot. I can't even touch her. Something's burning her- from the inside."
"The words have taken her. This is a punishment!" Said the mystic who had questioned her earlier. "She is being scourged from within for-"
Every single man that had grown up speaking Ignan stopped, their heads snapping up to look at the little jungle elf who was still singing, their eyes going from uncertain to peregrine hardness. Even Rose stopped, mouth open, eyes shocked.
"Rose... what just happened?" Muttered Chaosti, as Swiftspear's hands tightened on the handle of his spear.
"She said something different. She said something that isn't written in the Record."
"What did she say?"
"That Camel should always honour Hawk of the Desert as a male, as Hawk of the Desert should honour Camel as a female, as both halves are needed to survive in Fire's realm."
The gathered tribesmen watched in silence, hanging on her every word, and they all flinched when her words differed from the sacred text a second time. The voice that wasn't hers howled as if fed by a fearsome wind, exultant and demanding, as the First Song ended.
Two Stick fell to her knees. Her lips were blistered and burned, and her mouth smoked.
"Not done." She croaked in her native Sylvan.
"Two Stick, what do we do?" Chaosti asked, his hands twitching with the healer's need to mend his traveling companion.
"Fire... resist scroll. In bag. Hurry, I can't stop it... The song needs to be heard... the first one changed it..."
She gasped again and the fire took her over once more. Little flames licked out of her mouth as she spoke, and the smell of cooking flesh filled the room.
Chaosti hurried to Two-Stick's traveling pack, where Kirrit handed him the appropriate scroll with a strangled squeak of concern and his mistress's pain. Chaosti turned back to Two Stick and laid his hands on her to cast the spell. The skin on his hands blistered and split, but he held her until he was certain that the spell had worked.
Then he turned to the tribesmen, eyes furious.
"Who was the first to find this place?"
"It... was Wings of Ashes, who came with the other Chieftains to the First Oasis to ask the great totems for Law." Explained one of the elven lorekeepers. "Between them they came into the presence of the Record and found the Law." He paused, his eyes widening. "Only... the men came out, and even then, not all of them... because Wings of Ashes said that they had questioned the rightness of the Law, and the place of the women. Wings of Ashes said that he had been... right... all along, according to the Law. Those that were there then went on to lead their tribes to greatness."
"How long ago was this?"
The elf bit his lip.
"About... nine hundred years ago."
"So these words. They haven't been spoken in nine hundred years- perhaps they've never been spoken at all? And this Wings of Ashes... perhaps he killed the other chieftains... so that he could be right, and so that men could control women with a hand of stone. How respectful."
The lorekeeper fell silent at weight of those words, as Two Stick continued the crackling, hissing litany. At the next difference, the flinch that traveled through the tribesmen was not one of fury, but one of shame as they realised what they might have believed because it was easy, and what they may have lost.
The heavy stillness was interrupted by a shriek of anger. Almost faster than the eye could catch, Swiftspear pinned the angry mystic who had spoken of punishment earlier to the floor, as he growled and keened with a hawk's fierceness.
"It's lies! All of it! She has DELIBERATELY spoken The Record incorrectly! She brings her pretty man and her lorekeeper and her Tiger child, and tells us with her 'evidence' that not only is the sanctity of water broken, but the sanctity of the Song? It's a woman's LIES. And you've ALL BEEN TAKEN IN!"
Ignis looked from the prostrate mystic to the rest of the tribesmen, who watched Two Stick sobbing quietly as the Song left her for a moment, and Chaosti trying to pour water onto her skin to cool her. It bubbled away in a cloud of steam.
"I don't think that's right. I know Two Stick Lighting. She has carried my child, my only child, who is dedicated to Fire. Now Fire speaks through her- I KNOW it, I am born of Fire myself, and I can feel it in my blood. This Song needs to be heard. Wouldn't you be angry if you had been misrepresented for nine hundred years?"
He looked down at Two Stick Lightning, as the Song took her over again, his face painted with the need to protect.
"It has always been the duty of the children of Sugar Glider to question, and here she is, doing as her totem has bid. Think of your wives, my brothers, your wives and daughters and mothers. Think of how much they have done behind you. Now think of what they may have done BESIDE you."
"I always wondered why her rendition sounded so right, when she had never felt the sand beneath her feet a day in her life. Listen. Doesn't it sound in your blood, too, oh children of the Desert?"
The mystic under Swiftspear barked out a short, savage laugh.
"You are addled by bedheat, Firebird Rising. She has poisoned you, too!"
Swiftspear let Ignis pull the other man out from his grasp, and rose to his feet as the elven Chieftain slammed the smaller man into the wall with a crack of breaking ribs.
"You have NEVER uttered something so SACRED in your entire life as what is KILLING Two Stick Lightning now, you water-fouling swine!" He snarled, letting the fire creep into his voice, not heeding the gasps of the other tribesmen. "I don't even THINK we deserve the chance to admit that we were wrong, but BY HAWK OF THE DESERT, WE HAVE BEEN GIVEN IT."
He dropped the other elf to the ground, and turned back to Two-Stick, who had fallen silent.
"Rose Mountainrunner, have you made a full accounting of the Song?"
Rose nodded, and cleared her throat.
"I have, Firebird-Rising-harak.”
"Then I will take these old words to the Chieftain's Council, for those who were not here, for the other children of the Desert. May Patient Camel, in all her wisdom, have mercy on the rest of you if you do not."
He crouched down next to Two-Stick and Chaosti. The scorched mystic croaked softly, eyes delirious with pain, but every man heard her.
"Don't hurt him. He's Chosen. The Song speaks of him. Then Shall come a Shining Light, as the First Moments of Dawn..."
Her hand feebly patted Chaosti's arm as she fell unconscious. An awkward, uncomfortable silence filled the room, broken only once Firebird Rising could look at the delicate Empire boy again.
"Chaostiyanvial. Chosen of Wolf. Please let me take her. She's still too hot for you to hold."
Chaosti looked at him, and for a moment, Ignis saw the protective, implacable eyes of Great Wolf. Then he drew back, and let the fire mystic pick Two-Stick up and carry her away.
---
"Will she be alright, Chaosti?"
Ignis continued to watch the horizon as the Chosen of Wolf approached him.
"She should be. I can do little for her mouth but wait, but it seems that she won't be able to speak Ignan clearly again. Well, certainly not as clearly as that."
The chieftain nodded, not taking his eyes from the edge of the world. There was a heavy pause as he weighed his words.
"She didn't just make it up, did she? I mean... I'm sure she could have... but she didn't... did she?"
Chaosti looked at him for a long moment.
"No, I don't believe she did. And neither did you- you wanted to believe in the balance. But it was easier to get what you wanted."
Chaosti met his hawk-fierce eyes for a moment, before turning and walking away.
IC
Two Stick ran her hands over the stone walls of the cave below the First Oasis, fingers trembling with excitement. She was in one of the most sacred places in the world, and in the presence of one of the first written records created.
Her fingers traced the letters very, very gently, not daring to brush them too roughly with her coarse hands. The letters had survived a thousand years- perhaps longer, the legends said that this cave had been sealed, so perhaps they had survived the flood, as well- and she did not wish to break them.
"This is amazing." She remarked, both to her friends and to the tribesmen who accompanied them. "The written form has evolved ever so slightly, but the words are the same..."
She paused, running her fingers over one section.
"This doesn't fit."
Ignis was at her side in a second, as were the most learned men of his tribe.
"What do you mean, Two Stick Lightning? The Record is immutable." He said it without scorn, because it was the truth- none changed the First Song, in text or in speech, on pain of death.
"I mean it doesn't fit. Sacred Poetry has a very specific rhythm in Ignan, and this section here, it departs from it- not very much, but enough. Listen.”
She sang the first canto of the First Song in the ancient, firey tongue, stressing each syllable straight on the beat. Slowly, one or two of the men nodded.
"I can hear it. The change. But surely that doesn't mean anything? It's only the section about Hawk of the Desert and Patient Camel, and how she should submit to him as is his right as a male, and he should accept her submission, as it is needed."
"No. It's here, as well-" Rose piped up, further along the great wall of text. "This section relates to a man's duty as chieftain of his tribe."
"And here-" Two Stick's eyes and hands darted to another section. "Where it dictates the age that a child goes from the care of its mother to the care of its father."
She tutted softly in thought, clicking her tongue as she ran her hands over the writing again, ignoring the suspicious murmurs of the men behind her. Her bright, glowing eyes narrowed as she studied the stone carefully.
"There... has been magic used here."
"Of course." Offered one of the shamans. "This is a holy place. Many great rituals of Shamanistic and Mystic magic are performed here."
"No. I mean here." She tapped the wall where the cadence of the Song changed. "There's the mark of someone Stoneshaping this section of rock. I don't like this."
"Jungle woman!" Growled one of the mystics in a low, dangerous voice, which made Swiftspear take a half step towards him. "Are you suggesting that someone has CHANGED The Record of the Songs of Hawk of the Desert and Patient Camel?"
"I suggest nothing, child of Hawk of the Desert." She replied sharply, but with a careful submissive inclination to her head, waving her hand to Swiftspear, signaling him to stand down. "Not without willingness to prove. With the consent of the Tribal Chieftains, I know a magic that will serve to determine what has truly happened here. If I am wrong, then I shall submit to the righteous judgment of a council of elders. If I am right... then this is in the hands of the children of the desert."
There was uncertain silence. The men of the desert looked at one another, unsure of this strange woman who had come into their midst, claiming to know and understand things that they had only ever dreamed. Firebird Rising was the one to speak first.
"I... believe Two Stick Lightning when she says that she thinks something is wrong," he said slowly and deliberately, choosing his words with the utmost of care, "And I believe her when she says that she thinks that something can be learned from this. I trust her."
Each of the other chieftains there nodded, eyes dark with mistrust, and Two Stick turned.
"Chaosti, could you please pass me the roll of scented sticks from my bags? And the chalk?"
Chaosti looked at her warily- not because he was afraid of her, but afraid for her- and fetched the small black leather roll. He looked at Rose as Two-Stick traced sigils in Ignan on the stone floor.
"Do you think she knows what she's doing?"
"I think," murmured Rose in reply, "She knows exactly what she's doing. I think we should be asking whether she knows what she's about to find out."
"Rose, please, I need you to keep an ear to me. I don't expect this to take very long- not more than an hour- and I need you to write this down, please. I may not remember it."
Rose nodded, face troubled, as Two Stick arranged the offerings for the spell, folded herself into her meditation position, and closed her eyes.
Time passed. Two Stick didn't stir. Chaosti, Rose and Swiftspear went quickly from tense waiting to relaxing, well familiar with the air-light mystic's trances. The tribesmen milled about restlessly, anxious and confused.
After a long, anxious wait, Ignis spoke to them again.
"Is... she alright?"
"She will be." Nodded Chaosti sympathetically. "Sometimes it takes longer than expec-"
He was cut off by a gasp of air and a jerk from Two-Stick, who rose from sitting to her knees to her feet in one trembling movement. When she opened her eyes, they glowed orange, instead of their usual lightning blue.
She started singing in a low, crackling, roaring whisper, like the promise of flame. It hissed with pain, and anger, and the need to be heard.
"She's... singing the Song of Hawk of the Desert and Patient Camel." Said one of the tribesmen hesitantly. "Not in any accent I have ever heard, but it is as the Record. That's good, right?"
"No," said Chaosti and Ignis in unison, looking at each other briefly before Ignis gestured to Two-Stick. A trickle of steaming blood was running from the corner of her mouth.
"That's Elemental Ignan," He contined as a drop of the blood fell from her chin, evaporating before it could hit the floor, "Her body isn't physically capable of pronouncing the word-shapes."
Chaosti stepped forward, and raised his hand towards her. Quickly he snatched it back. She didn't seem to notice.
"She's hot. I can't even touch her. Something's burning her- from the inside."
"The words have taken her. This is a punishment!" Said the mystic who had questioned her earlier. "She is being scourged from within for-"
Every single man that had grown up speaking Ignan stopped, their heads snapping up to look at the little jungle elf who was still singing, their eyes going from uncertain to peregrine hardness. Even Rose stopped, mouth open, eyes shocked.
"Rose... what just happened?" Muttered Chaosti, as Swiftspear's hands tightened on the handle of his spear.
"She said something different. She said something that isn't written in the Record."
"What did she say?"
"That Camel should always honour Hawk of the Desert as a male, as Hawk of the Desert should honour Camel as a female, as both halves are needed to survive in Fire's realm."
The gathered tribesmen watched in silence, hanging on her every word, and they all flinched when her words differed from the sacred text a second time. The voice that wasn't hers howled as if fed by a fearsome wind, exultant and demanding, as the First Song ended.
Two Stick fell to her knees. Her lips were blistered and burned, and her mouth smoked.
"Not done." She croaked in her native Sylvan.
"Two Stick, what do we do?" Chaosti asked, his hands twitching with the healer's need to mend his traveling companion.
"Fire... resist scroll. In bag. Hurry, I can't stop it... The song needs to be heard... the first one changed it..."
She gasped again and the fire took her over once more. Little flames licked out of her mouth as she spoke, and the smell of cooking flesh filled the room.
Chaosti hurried to Two-Stick's traveling pack, where Kirrit handed him the appropriate scroll with a strangled squeak of concern and his mistress's pain. Chaosti turned back to Two Stick and laid his hands on her to cast the spell. The skin on his hands blistered and split, but he held her until he was certain that the spell had worked.
Then he turned to the tribesmen, eyes furious.
"Who was the first to find this place?"
"It... was Wings of Ashes, who came with the other Chieftains to the First Oasis to ask the great totems for Law." Explained one of the elven lorekeepers. "Between them they came into the presence of the Record and found the Law." He paused, his eyes widening. "Only... the men came out, and even then, not all of them... because Wings of Ashes said that they had questioned the rightness of the Law, and the place of the women. Wings of Ashes said that he had been... right... all along, according to the Law. Those that were there then went on to lead their tribes to greatness."
"How long ago was this?"
The elf bit his lip.
"About... nine hundred years ago."
"So these words. They haven't been spoken in nine hundred years- perhaps they've never been spoken at all? And this Wings of Ashes... perhaps he killed the other chieftains... so that he could be right, and so that men could control women with a hand of stone. How respectful."
The lorekeeper fell silent at weight of those words, as Two Stick continued the crackling, hissing litany. At the next difference, the flinch that traveled through the tribesmen was not one of fury, but one of shame as they realised what they might have believed because it was easy, and what they may have lost.
The heavy stillness was interrupted by a shriek of anger. Almost faster than the eye could catch, Swiftspear pinned the angry mystic who had spoken of punishment earlier to the floor, as he growled and keened with a hawk's fierceness.
"It's lies! All of it! She has DELIBERATELY spoken The Record incorrectly! She brings her pretty man and her lorekeeper and her Tiger child, and tells us with her 'evidence' that not only is the sanctity of water broken, but the sanctity of the Song? It's a woman's LIES. And you've ALL BEEN TAKEN IN!"
Ignis looked from the prostrate mystic to the rest of the tribesmen, who watched Two Stick sobbing quietly as the Song left her for a moment, and Chaosti trying to pour water onto her skin to cool her. It bubbled away in a cloud of steam.
"I don't think that's right. I know Two Stick Lighting. She has carried my child, my only child, who is dedicated to Fire. Now Fire speaks through her- I KNOW it, I am born of Fire myself, and I can feel it in my blood. This Song needs to be heard. Wouldn't you be angry if you had been misrepresented for nine hundred years?"
He looked down at Two Stick Lightning, as the Song took her over again, his face painted with the need to protect.
"It has always been the duty of the children of Sugar Glider to question, and here she is, doing as her totem has bid. Think of your wives, my brothers, your wives and daughters and mothers. Think of how much they have done behind you. Now think of what they may have done BESIDE you."
"I always wondered why her rendition sounded so right, when she had never felt the sand beneath her feet a day in her life. Listen. Doesn't it sound in your blood, too, oh children of the Desert?"
The mystic under Swiftspear barked out a short, savage laugh.
"You are addled by bedheat, Firebird Rising. She has poisoned you, too!"
Swiftspear let Ignis pull the other man out from his grasp, and rose to his feet as the elven Chieftain slammed the smaller man into the wall with a crack of breaking ribs.
"You have NEVER uttered something so SACRED in your entire life as what is KILLING Two Stick Lightning now, you water-fouling swine!" He snarled, letting the fire creep into his voice, not heeding the gasps of the other tribesmen. "I don't even THINK we deserve the chance to admit that we were wrong, but BY HAWK OF THE DESERT, WE HAVE BEEN GIVEN IT."
He dropped the other elf to the ground, and turned back to Two-Stick, who had fallen silent.
"Rose Mountainrunner, have you made a full accounting of the Song?"
Rose nodded, and cleared her throat.
"I have, Firebird-Rising-harak.”
"Then I will take these old words to the Chieftain's Council, for those who were not here, for the other children of the Desert. May Patient Camel, in all her wisdom, have mercy on the rest of you if you do not."
He crouched down next to Two-Stick and Chaosti. The scorched mystic croaked softly, eyes delirious with pain, but every man heard her.
"Don't hurt him. He's Chosen. The Song speaks of him. Then Shall come a Shining Light, as the First Moments of Dawn..."
Her hand feebly patted Chaosti's arm as she fell unconscious. An awkward, uncomfortable silence filled the room, broken only once Firebird Rising could look at the delicate Empire boy again.
"Chaostiyanvial. Chosen of Wolf. Please let me take her. She's still too hot for you to hold."
Chaosti looked at him, and for a moment, Ignis saw the protective, implacable eyes of Great Wolf. Then he drew back, and let the fire mystic pick Two-Stick up and carry her away.
---
"Will she be alright, Chaosti?"
Ignis continued to watch the horizon as the Chosen of Wolf approached him.
"She should be. I can do little for her mouth but wait, but it seems that she won't be able to speak Ignan clearly again. Well, certainly not as clearly as that."
The chieftain nodded, not taking his eyes from the edge of the world. There was a heavy pause as he weighed his words.
"She didn't just make it up, did she? I mean... I'm sure she could have... but she didn't... did she?"
Chaosti looked at him for a long moment.
"No, I don't believe she did. And neither did you- you wanted to believe in the balance. But it was easier to get what you wanted."
Chaosti met his hawk-fierce eyes for a moment, before turning and walking away.
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Having said that, I did enjoy the story greatly and I can't wait to read more about her adventures in the realm of the Desert dwellers.
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I keep telling Doug about these things, and he goes 'Oh wow. I can totally use that.' 'Will it fuck my character?' 'Maybe a little.' I should really have learned to stop by now.
=^..^=
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:(