Into the New World, Chapter 1: Amongst the Verdant Towers

[Zurai]

Lempetie simply nods as you all answer in turn, then gives you all another toothless grin and waves at the pile of oat cakes and honey. "I said eat up and I meant it! Younglings these days... Heeee!" she cackles to herself for a moment, slumped back in the chair, then leverages back up to look at all of you. She looks strangely serious, now. "Aye, you can go, and you must go. The spirits are confused and wild. I know you can feel them, Enko, and I'll wager even the rest of you are feeling more restless than usual. Something is wrong and we need to find out what it is and how to fix it. We are relying on you brave young people more than you know." She closes her eyes and sighs softly to herself. The silence stretches on for so long that you almost think she's fallen asleep, then her eyes open again, and it seems that her previous mirth is back.

"So, stories I asked of you, and a story you asked of me in return! Heeee! A fair trade, that. Settle in, settle in, eat up! I won't start until you've all had sommat to eat, but I promise you'll have the tale out of me afore you leave."

 

[Dire Lemming]

Enko, feeling a bit guilty about not answering Lempetie's question, quickly takes a cake and munches on it quietly. Grateful that she has not pressed the matter.

 

[WarShrike]

Ryon sets himself up with several cakes slathered with honey and waits for the story, munching quietly.

 

[Masquerade]

Cleyra follows Enko's example, taking one cake for herself. Even after the walk, she hasn't quite regained her hunger since breakfast.

 

[Nac Mac Feegle]

Thane takes a cake and looks at it skeptically, taking a few halfhearted nibbles.

 

[Shayuri]

Erin glances at the cakes and doesn't make an immediate move to take one. She squirms a little though, and finally her appetite exceeds her desire to spite the old woman's instruction, and she takes a big bite out of a cake while trying to look nonchalant about it.

 

[Lorthanoth]

Alistia has had enough of cakes to last a life-time. She declines the offer with a slight shake of her head.

 

[Zurai]

After Lempetie watches each of you eat at least one oat-cake - barring Alistia, who she frowns at, but says nothing to - she settles back into her chair and draws a whispy breath.

"So, a story of beginnings, you want, yes?" Her beady brown eyes sweep over the group. "A story of history, then, to bide away the time." Her eyes unfocus then, seeming to stare through the walls of the council building. "I was young, then, even younger than the youngest of you lot. Times were hard. There were spirit-talkers still - I am one, after all - but the people roamed the hills in families instead of living in one place year-round. There were no farmers, only plant-takers who gathered what plants they could find as they travelled. Food was scarce and we had to hoard what we had for the winter, when no plants grew to be gathered and few animals wandered around to be hunted."

Her voice takes on a lilting, sing-song quality as she describes to you over the course of the next half hour the troubles and trials her family faced in the time before Cuirlen. She tells of feast and famine, sickness and fear; she paints livid pictures of the hills her family wandered over the seasons; she spins tales of devastating storms, deadly grass fires, and terrible droughts. All throughout, her gaze remains distant, unfocused, unseeing.

Eventually, her tale winds down to a pause, and she seems to once again remember where, and when, she is. "... but none of that is what you wanted to hear. You want the tale of the founding of Cuirlen. Not as exciting a tale, I fear. In truth, 'twas all the spirits' doing. One summer, each and every spirit talker received a vision of a hilltop overlooking the river and the forest. We all felt it was important to gather our families here. By the end of summer, more people than I had ever seen were gathered on Cuirlen Hill, in tents and rude huts. When the final family arrived, the spirits told us that we should stay here - build permanent homes for the first time ever. They showed some of us how to plant the seeds of the plants we gathered, and they and their families became the farmers. Others were shown how to hunt in the Noonshadow forest, where few had dared to travel before. On and on the spirits revealed secrets until things were much as they are today - farmers and herders, hunters and gatherers, smiths and weavers, bakers and tanners."

As her story finishes, she sinks back into her chair and her eyes half-close. She looks tired; she probably hasn't told a story this long in years.

 

[Dire Lemming]

Enko hangs on her every word, and is left speechless by the tail. It is hard to imagine a time when their was no Cuirlen, but here is living proof. Still, the story reminds him once again why they must succeed. They can't go back to the way things were now.

 

[WarShrike]

"Why here Lempetie? Does it have anything to do with that big stone building? It was here before cuirlen was established wasn't it? I'm sorry, for badgering you i mean. I was just thinking that, well, it is made of stone. Like the mountain. Perhaps whoever made it was linked to the mountain spirit. Perhaps before leaving Cuirlen proper, we should take a look inside. Surely if it was build to honor the mountain spirit, it will be displayed properly inside. Enough at least for a spirit-talker to recognize." At this point Ryon looks to Enko pointedly.