Topic: The Theviar

Kelus Teilujok

Date: 2007-12-31 22:43 EST
The Labyrinth's Child

Rains did not fall on the face of the first who guarded the KurGei Labyrinth. He did not feel the cold in the winter or the heat of the summer. There was only duty and honor, and his name was Murikesh KurGei, First Son of the Theviar — 1st Age, 13th Moon from scrolls of Elisu The Scribe

Rain fell heavily with each biting, cold drop hitting any flesh that was exposed to the elements. The form that would have towered a head taller than most Humans hunch itself into the thick weight of the cloak and faced away from the wind. Large hands of mottled brown and black were thrust towards the fire.

Enormous, grey stones towered to each side and at the back of the one at the fire. The look of the walls bespoke thousands of years of being out in the elements. Walls guarded no castled but protected the labyrinth and the ancient magic within the heart of it.

The fire the male warmed himself by lay in a basin of stone that had been formed at the time of the Labyrinth walls. Edges of the basin were cracked and center spreading outwards to those edges the stone was blackened from countless fires that had warmed its guardians for centuries.

Guardian was the term the Humans used. Among the Theviar, they were Gatul KurGei, meaning Sons Of KurGei, or KurGei Sons. A single guardian knew himself as G'KurGei. Or he would call a fellow Gatul KurGei by Lorsk, meaning brother. The KurGei Labyrinth was always guarded by no less than six and no more than eight.

The G'KurGei that guarded the Labyrinth has done so since his birth alongside the aged protector that had served before him. And his name was Kelus Teilujok. When his time began within the time worn walls, his horns had barely broken through the skin of his head. But that had been over a fifty years ago. Though he was still considered a child among his race, he was larger than more humanoid males. His towering height and bulk were like his brother guardians.

As the fire burned in the large pit, his brothers paired off to talk among themelves of various things: of better ways of handling a blade, when their age of marrying would come or if they would step outside of the old walls to even see that it happened, and of other things wondered about that went on beyond the holy ground that they walked upon and guarded with their lives.

Kelus released a rumbling breath and stood. The heavy cloak of patchwork leather and layers of coarse furs was thrown about his shoulders to refuse the cold. He did not complain of the weather but of solitude he found even in the small group of brothers. They were as much his kinsman as fellow warriors but he could not speak with them on things beyond weapons and sentrying the Labyrinth.

Black mane warmed his neck and his back between his shoulders. Beneath the weight of the cloak he wore tunic, trousers, mail, boots, bracers, and a belt about his waist that held weapons and leather sacks. The weight of it all would have broken the backs of some races, but he felt as if enough was not with him that night.

He wandered the courses of the ancient maze that had no roof to it and no protection from any sort of weather. The young Theviar moved through each section without looking up, knowing every twist and turn. Every vine creeping up those stones. Each rut in the ground that had been worn from years of many walking it.

The walls were even obscure to the young Theviar, having seen them all of his life until he knew every bit of rubble, slant of stone, or how many hands heigh the walls were in every various section of the magical maze.

Kelus Teilujok

Date: 2007-12-31 23:15 EST
Kelus moved seemed to move aimlessly through the Labyrinth, if it wasn't for the fact that he knew it better than he knew himself.

The light was wrong at first. It moved like the flame of a candle, but only torches and fire pits had a place in the Labyrinth. Kelus frowned at first, then lowered his hand from the cloak to his side where talon tipped fingers wrapped slowly about the leather grip of his sword.

Boots made no sound against dirt and pebble sized rubbled under and about his feet as the Theviar approached a far wall. There was light coming from the center of it. Where light should not have been at all. His steps were quiet and paced carefully with a slight bend at his knees to be at the ready. His clawed hand loosened the blade from its sheathe.

Horns that twisted skywards bent towards the wall and turned as he moved his head to see about the next corner that preluded steps to the far wall. Then he looked back to that wall and made a slow and steady approach of it.

Kelus was confused, his brow furrowing. The light should not have been there. Soon he was within arm's reach of it and his empty left hand reached out towards the wall. A black talon scraped against the mortar where the light was seeping through and allowed just a little more. More was removed and scratched out to watch small pieces of the stone eventualy crumble and fall away.

An eyehole was there as he leaned to peer through to see where the light that should not have been was coming from. Surely not from the day, since it was night. And not from any torch or candle since it was an outside wall. No village was this close either. He pressed his brow against stone and found it cold.

What he say caused his head to jerk back and make the copper beads in his beard clatter noisily. Again, he felt confusion tighten about him. "It cannot be.." Kelus looked again and pulled his head back more slowly this time.

Taloned hand fit against the hold and worked two fingers against the fissure until a large chunk of stone fell to the ground between his boots. His hand rested at the bottom of what was now a bigger hole in wall. The sensation was alarming, even for the warrior. Hairs on his arm stood and flesh prickled there with goosebumps.

He didn't know what it was at first until he realized that the air on the other side of the wall was warmer. Much warmer. The view through the wall of the winter standing Labyrinth was of a land at the height of its Summer.

For a moment, he thought to call to his brothers in arms. But he suddenly feared the magick might fade. Kelus then started to crawl through, wriggling broad shoulders against stone until he scraped flesh from them and his hips. Then tumbled harshly to the hard, sun warmed earth below.

Kelus grunted, having the wind knocked out of him. The difference in height seemed to have been miscalculated, feeling as if he had falling a dozen feet and not a few. He lay there a long time, wondering at any self damage. His hand fell against the ground with his first attempt up and there in the grass was a hard, twisted bit of something. It was brought before his face as he eyed it with perplexion and anger.

"The tip of my horn!"

Grunts loudly sounded when he was finally able to push himself up. There he sat a long time to look at the tip that had broken off of one of his horns. A growl rumbled deep within his chest. He shoved it into one of the leather sacks that hung from his belt and managed to get his feet beneath him.

Even in boots, the ground felt softer. It was not as hard as stone like the earth of the Labyrinth. And the smells were making his head swim. Trees, flowers, and the very dirt beneath him. A forest of trees before him and lands to his left and right that spread for as far as the eye could see.

He glanced over his shoulder to the odd hole that was suspended in the day's air to see darkness of night and the Labyrinth where his brother guardians were. Then looked back to the beautiful land he had literally fallen into.

A little venture first. Then he would tell them about it. He would bring them here too. Then headed off toward the horizon at his left as he started to pull the barbaric cloak from about his shoulders.

Kelus Teilujok

Date: 2007-12-31 23:37 EST
RhyDin

Kelus woke with the memory of that day still clear in his mind. Sleep was scrubbed from his eyes then pushed the blankets of fur out of the way. He planted his right foot to the floor of the tent and narrowed a bleary look about him.

Winter winds shoved against the hide walls of the large tent over and over again but the beams stood firm and strong. It was the largest of tents the market of the realm had and found that when he stood his had to lower his head to keep his horns from skewering through the ceiling of it.

Two trunks stood at the other end of the tent, along with a table and a chair. It looked like a cartographer's table if ithere had been maps piles atop it and scattered all awry. But instead, there were books, stacks of parchment, bottles of ink and a long, wooden case with several good quills inside of it. Unscrolled and layering the middle of the piles of things was a drawing done like an architect's blue ink vision of what a building would look like without its roof.

Kelus eyed the stack of books and papers and turned from them. There was time to look at them later. He was in no hurry to build his new home. It would be finished when it was finished. That was the simple truth of it.

Black mane was streaked with grey and his beard bore the same markings these years. Still he would not have been old among his race, though no longer the youth he was when he fell into the lands those here called RhyDin. Grooming did not take long, soon pulling a thick wool tunic over his head. He stuffed his feet into his boots and strapped fur about the tongue openings to keep the cold out.

The clay lamps filled with whale oil were extinguished. Then he shoved the flap of the tent open to step out, taking with him his heavy leather and fur cloak that had served him well all these years.

It was time to head back into the city for supplies. There was a building some spoke about with a tavern room to it that he would eventually visit. Eventually. He had been telling himself that for years and had yet to do it.

Eventually. For now, he headed for the markets.

Kelus Teilujok

Date: 2008-01-19 19:49 EST
He took comfort that he wasn't the oddest of creatures to be found in RhyDin. Here, Human females did not run away screaming and men did not grab for their swords or pitchforks.

In the well known inne, he could enjoy an ale and have the possibility of making a friend or two. But he still found himself cautious. As he watched, some hung on one patron and then another. Where there no Life-Mates here? And on another occasion, he saw strange instruments and horseless carriages that would have made some of the men he had called brothers faint.

Little by little, he was growing accustomed to the lands but still did not know many here. In time, he reminded himself. He was the stranger among them.