"Our land has always been here, though before it was only a dusty bowl of infertile lands, spinning in the waters under the skies. Creatures, entities we call Spirits, populated these lands, constantly fighting each other for control and wreaking havoc. They created the mountains in their fury, shore land from the edges of the land and created the cliffs, and didn't allow anything to grow. This went on for a long time, and there were no seasons then to count time by.
Until, one day, a fragment of the Ord fell from the sky, causing the Spirits to stop their fighting with its brilliance. It bathed our land with life and blew the Spirits from the grasslands, where it landed. Humans came from the fragment, animals from the very centre, populating the spread of grass which had grown in the instant the jagged piece had hit the ground. The grass stopped at the base of the mountains which the Spirits had raised, which sat at the set of the Ord; fell to the sea at the rise and in between grew great trees which cast shadows and hid the Spirits. It became their domain.
The Spirits, furious at this intrusion into what they considered their lands, united for the first time and blew in the sands, reminding us of who possessed the grass by rights, and that we could not survive where they rule."
A low chorus of hisses snuck through the group of children, raising indulgent smiles from their parents. The memories of every time they had heard the story floated behind their eyes.
On the edge of the group, a child watched the others hiss, a frown creasing her brow. "Ene, Elder, what about the Staeil? Did they not help?" The listening adults stilled, searching for the girl's parents with disapproving eyes. The other children glared at her angrily for interrupting the story. The Elder just smiled indulgently.
"That's what they wanted us to think. In reality, they were working with the Spirits to cause our downfall." Despite their anger, the children sat a little straighter. The Staeil weren't talked about frequently. "When they first appeared amongst our own, saying that they could talk to the Spirits, try and calm their fury for us all, it seemed an Ord sent miracle. Little did we know that they were letting the Spirits into their minds, to see our weaknesses and allowing them to attack. They wiped out entire tribes, bringing the sands further into the grasses, killing all of the animals where we were, summoning great winds that swept us over cliffs. Thousands of us died at their hands. Eventually, we went against the nature of humans and killed our own. It broke our hearts, but we saved more than we killed. It was a necessary evil.” The girl nodded at this, then frowned pensively.
“What would happen if a Steit appeared now?”
“We would have to kill them, my dear. They are too much of a threat. We cannot allow the risk to live.”
A somber mood fell over the camp, settling everyone into silence. The Staeil were rarely talked about. After a few seconds, someone coughed, and everyone started. The adults started moving around the fire again, and the final rays of sunlight haloed the Elder's head.
“I think that's enough stories for tonight, children.” The spell was broken as the rag-tag group scrambled to their feet and trailed towards the tents, everyone except a dark haired boy avoiding the little girl.
“Come on, Keilei.” She grasped his hand, her head filled with creatures swirling in the air and howling on mountains.
You've had some lovely reviews on this as well, so I'm sorry if I repeat but I don't have time to read all of them :')
But what about where they've set up camp? Desert, forest or near water, all those things would be lovely to see. It breaks up the focus on the history as well.
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