I S R A
“It is good to have an end to journey toward;
but it is the journey that matters, in the end.” “The Qian”
She repeated slowly, wonderingly, letting her tongue take its time shaping the unfamiliar word. Her voice was richly layered with a gentle foreign lilt, and while she spoke the common tongue remarkably well, the odd word still tripped her up. “Does it hold a special meaning?”
Isra felt that she understood the concept of the group; she still found it a little strange. There were her mother’s kinfolk, the original inhabitants of her homeland – small, nomadic, wild, with the magic of the Great Mother still running in their veins. Then there were her father’s people, the first race to migrate to their continent – large, conquering, and civilized with several gods to pay homage to. Others came too once trade routes were established from her father’s people. These were the races that made up her homeland and you could further break it down into families and location. Leaders were often picked from elders; the old wise women, for example, were given the chief respect of her mother’s folk.
Protection seemed to be the main focus of the Qian and it seemed to Isra that they recruited their members. Perhaps Helovia was more dangerous than one first glimpsed on arrival. To be sure, it stripped her off her magic and diadh-anam but magic and gods could be so fickle that Isra was devastated but not overly fearful. There were dragons here, smaller in comparison to those in the stories passed down generation to generation, so maybe the sizes of other creatures where on a different scale too.
What sort of rabbit-hole did Isra fall down into?
Before she let her young imagination run wild, Isra remembered she had a source of knowledge right here. “I’d be happy to share my story, but first may I ask how I might find The Qian should I seek aid?” Already the worldly traveller, Isra made friends and acquaintances easily but even the last one was more than a fortnight away. It was comforting to know that she already had an offer of help in a foreign land, by not only a lone equine but a leader. “And would you know of a sacred place I might visit?” Hoping it wasn’t a strange thing to ask here in Helovia, but Isra was raised a god worshipping individual. The Great Mother may not be able to hear her here but she would pray anyway and she had learned in her travels that it was always wise to offer respect to foreign gods when the opportunity arose.
Isra might be staying in Helovia a long time, it would be best to do it early.
|
.svg/2000px-Google_Chrome_icon_(2011).svg.png){kind=icon}
