Surveying
the morning camp as it stirred, Tharkin drew in his belt and
shouldered his cloak, scenting the air with his brow high. The dawn
had not yet touched the pine needles strewn on the ground, but the
light was near – he could smell it as it warmed the boughs above.
And indeed, his pale eyes saw, as they looked, the first golden touch
of sun in the reaching branches.
He
tread away alone into the crisp wind amongst the trees, giving a nod
as he went to a few among the rear garrison. The young men rose from their work as
though they would follow him, and the Boar acknowledged, but bid them
to stay. They knelt once again in the moss, tying off sleeping tents and lashing poles as they struck the camp to
move on. But their eyes swiveled to watch him go, and though there
were no whispers among them, all felt the pull of his absence, and
the risk in his disappearance. He was, to all in the Kinnarit, the
first father, the center of the circle.
The
Boar traced his bloodline all the way back to an ancient mosaic of
tribes and chiefdoms in the East, among them the Boii, The Senones,
the Insubres and Mandubii, people of the Iron Age in Gallatia and
Pergamom. His people, born of warrior nobility, seers, bards and men
of art, had moved in commerce and Ambassadorship through Byzantium,
and had streamed gently west to Macedonia, across the Danube and
through the Balkans. They lived well as keepers of the peace for a
time in Hallstatt and La Tene. At last, given the task of
Ambassadorship among the keepers of nature, they settled between the
Loire and the Rhone in a city called Alesia, and here for many moons
they thrived, until the descent of Caesar. Internal conflicts and
external hostilities drove many tribes apart or pinned neighboring
chiefdoms against one another.
The
breaking of N'Miridin had begun, and the Ambassadors of earth were
torn between the protection of earth, and the division of man.
Leaders among the earth Ambassadors approached Tharkin's clan,
admiring their pacifism, and meaning to reward their noble, quiet and
self-sufficient ways. Kinnarit was given protection, and many of its
clan members were offered apprenticeship in the ways of Earth
Speaking – this was a great honor indeed, for as the bond between
nature and Man eroded, few among Men kept to the ways of the earth.
Thus, with the Ambassadors who had once guided all men, Tharkin's
Gaulic ancestors withdrew into shadow, and departed from civilization
into the trees and the stones.
*
* *
Doubling
back through little inlets of creek toward a dense stand of trees,
Tharkin followed a faint wandering of sweet decay, a scent that his
sharp senses knew and savored. The mushrooms of this forest, found at the base of standing trees who had recently perished, were a
delicacy among the Kinnarit. His wife added them skillfully to meals,
and if Tharkin had but one weakness, it was for his wife's mushroom
stew. Still, he could be no less than himself, a blade of readiness
amongst the boughs where danger crept – this had long been the way
of life for The Boar and his people – there was no peace, no
safety. Always there was the possibility of those who had turned
against humans, and behind every leaf, every boulder, there might lay
a threat.
No comments:
Post a Comment