| rdfs:comment
| - "Father, have a bite," Our'a shoved a flake of steamed cod into the dying man's mouth. "How does it tastes?" asked Our'a. "Divine." Our'a's father died. He was only 30 years old. He died of starvation. ___________ Rothaur was born in the land of Firsthome, when the citrus and olive trees grew in the hills and the salmon and cod fed in the coasts. Athysa his mother died in childbirth, for Rothaur's will to live was so strong that his life overwhelmed her. Such is the fate of Rothaur, and his father Sarted, who had to raise him in widowhood and living his old age in solitude. "What did they say?"
|
| abstract
| - "Father, have a bite," Our'a shoved a flake of steamed cod into the dying man's mouth. "How does it tastes?" asked Our'a. "Divine." Our'a's father died. He was only 30 years old. He died of starvation. ___________ Rothaur was born in the land of Firsthome, when the citrus and olive trees grew in the hills and the salmon and cod fed in the coasts. Athysa his mother died in childbirth, for Rothaur's will to live was so strong that his life overwhelmed her. Such is the fate of Rothaur, and his father Sarted, who had to raise him in widowhood and living his old age in solitude. His father Sarted was the chieftain of the tribe of Fral, that is Fish. They were a people who depended on the sea for their livelihood. Thus, they worship the Sea and its Abundance and the Son of the Sea that is Fish. Fral was given the raiment of the Cod, and dressed in a fishmail of glittering scales. The Wicked Spear was sacred to Fral. And that same shape of the Wicked Spear was used by the Fral-people to fish by the sea. Rothaur was born in a good year. The cod shoals were so many that they almost leaped into the fisher boats willingly. The grapefruit and vine were laden with fruits, and the soil was actually soaked in their juices. It was a good year indeed. But last year and the year before weren't that bad either. But the coming years were years of pestilence and rot. Sarted remembered his fathers and brothers didn't always live by the sea. His grandfather Amlecar used to tell his cousins and siblings how the People wandered in the trees and hills. In the shadows of the trees and holes of the hills were lived the monsters that fed on them. They had no name for these shadow-creatures, save Terror and Fear. They would yell the Terror has come, when the People encounter one of them. And, so the People has to flee the Trees, cross the Hills, and come upon the Sea. It was by the Sea they discovered the sweetness of the Cod. They called this land of the Cod Firsthome, for here they found safety. For a while, they don't know why the Terror did not follow. But they soon discovered the Terror were afraid of water. ____________ "Our'a!" Rothaur held his hands. It's been 80 years since his mother died. But in the reckoning of the Raum, that is the People, he is merely in the dawn of his youth. "Our'a!" Rothaur kneeled by his friend's bed. The hands in his were frail and thin, and his cheeks sunken. "Our'a! You must eat. You must bury your father. It's been two months you've been in your house with your father's corpse. This cannot be!" Rothaur dragged his friend out of the bed of straw. "The fresh air and open sky will cure your despair," said Rothaur. But Our'a struggled with what little strenght he has in him. "I will not leave you like this! I swam into the Deep, and scoured the Hills for food to feed you and all that is left of the tribe." "Leave me alone! Fral has forsaken us! Father has forsaken me. Leave me to die!" "Blasphemy! Fral does not forsake His children!" Rothaur managed to get him out of the door. He then tied his friend's legs with his hunting rope. He cut the heart out of the dead deer he hunted in the woods. He shoved the heart into Our'a's mouth. "The best part of the deer. Feed!" "A warrior's part. I'm no warrior. Let me go!" "You've taken the heart before. Eat it!" Our'a lay down, and looked at the corpse of the deer. He wept. "I am no more a warrior than that stag." "The Terror grips everyone. No one blames you for not braving the Trees." "But you did not stagger! You went into the Trees so many times. The tribe is beginning to talk you know." "What did they say?" "That you befriended the Terror. Your game is cursed." "I don't hear them complain every forthnight I return with venison and wolfmeat." "Then why weren't you taken by the Terror? Why are you not afraid of the shadows?" "I was hungry enough." "What about the Terror?" Rothaur was quiet. He went back to slaughter the deer. "Don't waste it. Eat."
|
![[RDF Data]](/fct/images/sw-rdf-blue.png)