I polished the earlier version a bit, and wonder if it reads better to
you now. Due to adding more words, it's a bit longer than 500 words
though.
Please do comment with whatever comes to mind. :)
--------------------------------
__Seasons and Elements__
(_Controlled by Magic_)
By A. T. Hall
****
-[viewpoint, undisclosed]- Prologue -200 days Time: .. [location]
"We have to take her back to her people." He almost looked up, but then
closed his eyes, just caught himself from taking a deep breath. It was
warm, dry, but the cave's walls were far too close, barely tolerable
because they had to hide. Only that need could outweigh the one for wide
open spaces, or even the need for the heat and aridity of their home
territory.
The confined environment kept him far too exposed to the females' scent, especially his mate's. She was standing close by, watching her son
tending the female on the ground.
He returned his gaze to the scarred young Breeder. The girl lay as if
merely sleeping, her scent nearly gone completely. Jeahnira, their just
as young Priest, was healing her injuries, but the boy couldn't draw out
her mind.
"If we approach the softies, they'll think _we_ did that to her."
Jeahnira's mother replied.
She would know, he thought, and he wouldn't put it past them. His tribe
had never gotten on with those neighbours, but there were other tribes
that would react differently. No less strange than those his mate called 'softies', but less likely to pounce on those who didn't match their
view of how things should be.
"Let's at least circle around and try to warn the other tribes." he
tried again. "We don't know whether any of our Lords made it." Sitting
here, wasting time, wasn't in his nature.
"You know what it took to get here."
That was true. They wouldn't survive crossing the mountains, and if his
idea of the terrain was at all correct, it would take them at least a
year to circle around them to get to the nearest other tribe.
It had taken years to catch up, trailing the warped ones that had
destroyed almost his whole tribe, and then they had almost run right
into their grasp when the warped ones had returned from their attack on
the sleeping Breeder's tribe.
Only Jeahnira's skill had prevented his group from being discovered.
Maybe they should have gone in the other direction for help, but that
would have taken even longer, and would have meant abandoning those that
were left behind by the warped ones. He had already abandoned too much.
They had picked up this girl like they had picked up his own Breeders
and now wondered what to do with her. Some of his own females were in no
better state. Of the thirty-nine Breeders they had found, six were
unable to walk or talk like this one.
Apart from the wake Breeders and the young Priest, there was only
Jeahnira's Warrior sibling to help carry or pull the unmoving ones. Even
with the best stretchers they could make from what the jungle outside
their cave offered, travelling on foot was far too slow.
Long before the warped ones had appeared, he had met a Priest of a
different tribe who travelled around in a little vehicle on wheels,
powered by the Priest's magic, but even that would not speed their trip.
That strange Priest had chosen to walk whenever he had run out of water
and other supplies, so it had to be straining.
"What if _they_ are already there when we arrive?" Jeahnira's mother
continued. "We don't know where they went, and you know how fast they
can travel. We can just hope those wet sods get a grip on themselves and
warn the other tribes."
His mate obviously didn't think any of their Lords had gotten around the
warped ones to warn their other neighbours, either. She looked at her
son.
Jeahnira shook his head. "I've been trying to get hold of one of their
Priests for the past fifteen years, that isn't going to change just this moment. Might as well try to catch a dream."
That didn't mean the young Priest would stop trying. Jeahnira had also
tried to contact the Lords that had fled into hiding with as many
children as they could protect, without success.
The boy's mother had said that it was amazing enough that he had reached
anyone who wasn't a Priest. She hadn't spoken what they both thought,
that apart from his Warrior sibling, the only one the boy had managed to contact was the Lord who had fathered him.
But the ones that had fled were good Lords, they would hold out and
protect what was left of his tribe. They were as strong as his mate. She
was the one who took care of his little group now. He couldn't anymore.
After all these years without the few things that gave his existence a
purpose, life, the best he could do was not get in the way.
There had never been all that much for him to do, nor the other Lords.
The Breeders had lived on their own, protected by the Warriors. The
Lords merely decided what direction they would travel, and when. Their
only real purpose was to father healthy children. With the need to keep
the Breeders' heat down, to not draw the warped ones with the scent that
even now, heavily muted, pulled at him more than the ground pulled at
his feet, that purpose was gone.
He walked away, down a narrow passage, to flee his nature.
********
Thanks!
--
Zoaray frowned. "She's strange enough," she said, | -- S&E 2/3 pointing at Scavor, "but you make no sense at all."
Scavor patted Zoaray's hand, grinning. "See, even she thinks I'm strange."
The Summer Breeder pulled her hand away. "You are full of air."
---
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