Reply to thread

Message: <blockquote data-quote="alsih2o" data-source="post: 810419" data-attributes="member: 4790">If our heroes had known just how long they would be in the wastes beyond they would have spent more time studying the faces of the throngs bidding them farewell at the city gates. A short study of these faces would find the eager envy of young people, wishing for their chance to prove themselves in the name of the state, and weeping women sure they were seeing innocence die, sure they were seeing the bravest the world had to offer marching blindly into a battle of no return.   Anyone who doubted the importance of the procession need only to look to it’s head, where two horsemen led the way.  Horses had been exceedingly rare in Maissen since the founding. Few had survived the shipwreck and most of these had perished from hoof rickets in the 4th year of the founding. Now their tall lean presence at the fore made a stark contrast against the increasingly flat landscape before them.  Legend started and ended at this border, if you could call it a border. Maissen didn’t come to a stop so much as it faded from existence, swallowed by the seemingly endless and perfectly flat prairie beyond. One small group of shanties marked the last steps in a protected state and at their rim stood a small group of mixbreeds, proud and sad. The calvarymen pulled to ahlt before the small group and nodded their goodbyes to the heroes, trying to fix forever in their memories the faces of these 5.   The eldest of the group stepped forward.  “Who amongst you is Rinney?”  Rinney acknowledged the stooped man and met eyes with the dark woman behind him. She was slight of appearance and here eyes were rimmed with the lines of a person who has faced the strong winds blowing in from the nothingness for too long.   “I bring you Tavania. She is trained in the ways of our people from before the Founding, she has prepared for this moment from before the gods planned it, and will serve you well.”   Tavania and the heroes tried to keep the meeting casual, as casual as introductions can be for those bound for the unknown, ready to lean on strangers for support. As they spoke the leather clad group spirited immediately into the grasslands, singing the songs of heroes who did not return, and mocking each name as it was called. The third group checked their supplies and headed north, each squatting unconsciously, seeking to gain some cover from the high grasses.     The dry, brittle grasses swayed in the breeze, hiding the soft footing beneath where the spring rains ad begun to saturate the soil.     Tavania gave them her last warning, the one she had practiced for this moment.   “At the small clump of trees just fore Masieen ends, beyond that we are on our own, prepare as you must now, for this is the last we shall see of good people and safe sleep for a season”     Once she felt that everyone was listening she spoke more solemnly.  “Watch always for the Shokta, you will know them when you see them. They roam these plains freely upon their great mounts, black bison who reek of death and can kill a man with their breath alone”   Rinney stared back at his faithful bearer cow, Ichiopa, and wonder how big a bison could be. Thabyra stopped and studied 3 men cooking fish paste in an iron pot over an open fire as the rest scanned the village for any last useful thing they had forgotten.  As they took their first steps into the open plain their air of confidence was betrayed by their weapons at the ready, even here in the shadow of the great state.</blockquote>

Verification