Microsoft Zone Archive/Asheron's Lore/Blood Brothers

Original Link (now dead) - http://www.zone.com/asheronscall/bloodbrothers.asp

Blood Brothers

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by Allan Maki
Turbine Entertainment Software

A dust cloud spun just outside the ring of the dim red-orange glow of the campfire. Wind rustled the leaves of a nearby tree and reminded me that the seasons were changing. Somewhere in the night a pod of Carenzi growled one another down.

Steam rose in thin tendrils from the soup cupped in my hand while I sat thinking of my home in Cragstone. A chill ran down my spine as my host slipped between the shadows cast by the firelight to take the seat across from me. His fur, dyed the color of the dying embers in the fire, blended all too well with the eerie glow. For three days we had traveled along the plateau and into the valley, for three nights I had watched in silence as he studied the dark horizon, silent and vigilant.

He was a Tonk Ona. Tumerok Scout, in our vernacular. I had been amongst their people only a week. My time there was spent speaking with their Tah, about the Olthoi, or Wharu as the Tonk named them.

I had been trying to learn as much of their language as I could since my trip from the town of Redspire, but the learning was slow. They spoke our language well, aided I think by the presence of three Isparian settlements on this same Isle. The Tah had asked what the growing presence of we Isparians meant.

In the simplest terms that I could muster I recounted how the portals had arrived on the main body of Dereth. His reply was always the same, mutterings about Atua ngamaru and a tailless brother. I have yet to learn what these things he spoke of are but that was the purpose of this trip.

My guide has been eying me warily as I drift to sleep each night. I do not think that he mistrusts me, but it appears the task he has been set makes him nervous. They are unused to the intrusion of the humans, especially those that smell of Wharu so strongly.

I had arrived in the akiekie of Timaru wearing the shaped head of an Olthoi. They were unimpressed and thought at first that I was a servitor of the Olthoi. After much protestation to the contrary they accepted that I was indeed Isparian. They called me Ispar Antiusona. I have gathered that they consider me a scout, much like my companion, and that I come from the tribe of Ispar. Fascinating concept.

Tonight has begun as every other has since the beginning of our journey. Only tonight there are no drumbeats that hearken away the spirits of the Wharu. We passed through the last vestige of their Buadren circles. My companion is a bit more jumpy but maintains his ever-watchful eye.

I will make sure to record the events of this evening with care once daylight allows. For now I think that I shall sharpen my okane and prepare for another fitful rest.

"Ispar Antiusona?" Aun Kolaona broke his silence of three nights. "Why have you not asked where we travel?"

"I was under the impression that you would rather not speak to me, Kolaona." He regarded me with an inquisitive cock of his head.

"You should not address me so. I am Aun Kolaona. We have not bled together yet, and as such, are not Buhdi. . . " he paused. "Your people are very different, like what our brothers the Hea have become."

"I understand, I am sorry." I responded.

"Do you wish to know where we go?"

"If you are willing to impart that knowledge to me, Aun Kolaona."

"I will tell you." He nodded and reached into his pack to produce two apples, onga as they call them. "Eat with me."

As I took a bite from the apple he smiled, a toothy grin that twisted the tattoos on his face into an amusing mask of joy. He bit into his apple and I waited for his tale to begin.

"I am no Aua, who have been taught by the Nuuani of Palenqual, but I have learned well the stories of our brothers and sisters, the Hea.

"We are of the same blood and life, holding dear the customs of what was once our home. We came to Palenqual from our home and saw the Wharu walk. We fought them and our Tah killed the Wharu's mistress. That was a time when we Aun and Hea were one, before the coming of the Atua ngamaru."

The words spat from his lips like a poison pulled from a wound. His eyes seemed to burn with the voracity of the fire before him, and he was lost then, remembering for a long moment. I made no effort to break the memory.

"We were--are--brothers, the Hea and Aun Tonk. We lived together all our lives as a unified Tonkamu. Then the Atua ngamaru floated to our Tahs.

"They tried to poison our beliefs and disjoin us from our stand against the Wharu. They offered your land, where the Ispar live, as the fruit of their gifts. But they offered that which they did not own.

"You gave a gift and were in turn given your Okane." He motioned to the dagger gifted by his Tah. "The Atua ngamaru wanted nothing but offered change. Our Tahs wanted nothing of them, and sent them away. But they were not driven away.

"They instead turned to a Puh, a Bahka, cast out of the Hea Xuta for transgression against the Tah. They poisoned his body and took his tail. They changed his face and body, to be more like. . . " He stared hard at me then, and though warmed by the fire and the stew I felt cold. The hatred that he felt runs deep indeed. ". . . you." He finished and allowed the chilling air to remain for another series of moments.

He discarded his apple into the darkness where it landed with a thump. Seconds after there came a rustling of feathers, a gaggle of Siraluun no doubt thinking it something alive. Sounds of displeasure exploded, and then faded as the Siraluun retreated back into the night.

"Our kin of the Hea Xuta were unaffected for some time. Then came the return of the Puh. He wrested control from the Hea Tah and replaced him. Gifted by powers of the Atua ngamaru he displaced all that would stand before him.

"Spitting poison words into their minds he corrupted their beliefs and told them of the Ispar Dereth. Bringing treasures and tales of your land, he changed them. Then they went unto the Atua ngamaru and asked to have their tails removed.

"Now we are two Xuta. Separate for the first time.

"They wish to leave Palenqual and see your Dereth."

He crept across the fire then and came to sit next to me. I met his stony stare with the same resolve I met all such stares.

"I take you to their border so you can meet them."

I had not been prepared for those words. I had asked to learn more about their people and had been passed to another tribe. Dumbfounded, I spoke.

"Have I done wrong?"

"No, Ispar Antiusona." He shook his head and looked into the fire. "We love our brother/sisters. We wish you to know them as well." I watched as he rose and made his way across from me again. He wiped a tear from his eye as he sat. "We are one but no longer whole."

"I think I understand, Aun Kolaona."

He nodded to me then and looked back into the darkness outside the ring cast by our fire.

"Rest, Ispar Antiusona, tomorrow we breach the lands of the Hea Xuta. I will take you no further once we come to their place. I fear their poison may enter me."

He did not look back as I nestled myself into my blanket and sheathed the okane. Drifting to sleep, it clicked within my head: Atua ngamaru. Floating demons. Cloaked ones. Virindi. The Tumeroks had fared the same as the Lugians.

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