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Message: <blockquote data-quote="WanderingMonster" data-source="post: 1479871" data-attributes="member: 573">Round 1-7: WanderingMonster v. BardStephenFox Myth of Day Before men built castles, and before the first dragon came from beyond the Edge of the World, there lived a simple people.  They were not men, nor were they elves, nor dwarves, for they had not yet thought to sort themselves out in such ways.  They simply were People; the simplest among them was Helianthus.Helianthus, like most of the people, was a farmer.  He tilled Earth with his hands.  He drew water from the River and let his crops drink deep.  He awoke in the morning and warmed his face in the light of the Sun.  He watched lovingly as the Bright Lady danced across the blue road giving life and light to the plants in his field and hope and happiness to his family.  Helianthus was a simple farmer, and he was simply happy.Late one day as Helianthus and his family watched the Bright Lady dance over the Edge of the World, his youngest son, Tithonias, asked, “Father?  Where does the Sun go when her dance ends?”  That was the First Question.  Helianthus had never thought to consider such things.  The Bright Lady danced from dawn until dusk, and never did he wonder—until now—why? He tried to shake the question out of his head.  He drew his family into their small house.  Darkness had fallen and it was time now for sleep.  The plants closed, the animals rested, so they too must now sleep.But Helianthus found that he could not sleep.  For the first time in all of Time, man lay awake wondering.  Helianthus found that none of his questions had answers, only more questions.  Finally Helianthus did sleep, but soon it was time to arise and begin his day’s work once more.  He walked to his fields and awaited the start of the Bright Lady’s dance.  It remained cold as he waited, but she did come, although late.  His face warmed in her light, but he did not notice.  “Why,” he wondered, “was she late?”  Helianthus watched her carefully all day.  She seemed in a hurry, and indeed—he noted—she ended her dance earlier than she had the day before. “What,” he questioned, “is so urgent that she must leave in such a hurry?”Darkness came, but Helianthus did not sleep.  He gathered his belongings into a sack, picked out a sturdy stick for walking, and set out to the west.  Helianthus journeyed throughout the night, but he was not afraid.  In these times, all creatures slept at day’s end so there was no danger from traveling in the darkness.  He walked far that night, and found his legs were getting weary.  He sat down on the side of the road and began to eat a piece of fruit he had taken from his orchard.As he ate the fruit the Sun rose and began its dance in the east.  As the light of day touched the earth, Helianthus looked and saw that he was in a strange land.  The land was flat and dry and there were no trees to be seen.  The plants here were small and few in number.  Everything in this land was laid bare to the light of the Sun as she danced.  Helianthus resumed his journey.  As he walked he felt the weight of the Bright Lady’s stare heavy upon his face.  He was uncomfortable and hot and muttered curses under his breath as he walked.  He wrapped himself so completely in his misery that he almost missed the great white building that rose before him.The building was nothing like the small brown hovels that were the people’s homes.  This was a fortress made of glittering white marble and had great white doors made of steel.  Helianthus could hardly look upon it, as the light of the sun glared harshly off of the walls of the white fortress.  He drew his hand before his eyes to shield them from the light.  Between his fingers he could see someone motioning to him from the doors of the fortress.  Helianthus approached cautiously.  He could make out a face behind the bars of the steel doors.“Come here,” said a voice from behind the doors, “but do not speak, for you and I are being watched.”  As Helianthus drew nearer to the fortress, the shadow blocked the light from his eyes.  “Your skin is slick with sweat, and your lips are dry from thirst Helianthus!”  He could see the face, but it was so covered in shadow that he could not see the mouth that made the words.  <a href="http://www.enworld.org/forums/attachment.php?attachmentid=13720" target="_blank">Two hands, bound by a chain</a> continued to motion him closer. “Yes, Helianthus, she is angry with you, for you dared to question her.  She hides the answers from you in the west, and she knows that you seek them.  That is why she hurries.  Each day you draw closer, and she spends more time jealously guarding her secrets.  Today she will go into the west much sooner than yesterday, you will see.” Helianthus squinted suspiciously at the figure behind the door.  His look betrayed the question in his mind.“Who,” the figure said, “am I?  Sit here, where the light does not reach.  You will be cool, and your skin will not burn, and I will tell you who I am.”  Helianthus sat by the door, out of the view of the sun, and it was cool as the figure had said it would be. “I am Solrath.  The Bright Lady is my sister, and I know all her secrets.  I sought to share her secrets with the people, but she did not like that.  She thought the people unworthy of her knowledge, but I knew differently.  Rather than risk me giving away the secrets of all Creation, she bound me in chains and put me in this desert prison.  She watches me all day, leaving me only a few hours each night to plan my escape so that I might share her knowledge with the people.”  Helianthus tried to speak to the figure, but thirst had stolen his voice.“How can you help me?” Solrath asked.  Helianthus nodded.  “Wait until she finishes her dance, and then you will free me.  Once you have done so, I will tell you where to find the answers to all your questions.”Helianthus waited for the Bright Lady to end her dance.  He began to wonder if could trust the words of Solrath, after all, he was a prisoner.  Prison was a place where the untrustworthy were kept.  Helianthus almost stood to leave, but then the sun’s dance was over, and as Solrath had said, she ended it earlier than she had the day before. Perhaps this prisoner could be trusted.  If what he said was true, Helianthus might finally have the answers to all the questions that plagued him.“Free me now,” Solrath beckoned.  Helianthus reached into the sack into which he had placed his belongings and pulled out a tool he had used to prune the trees of his orchard.  With it, he worked much of the night to cut the chains.  Finally, with only an hour before the sun began her dance, the chains had been cut.  Helianthus opened the gates of the prison and stepped aside.  The figure within stepped out. Solrath was much taller than Helianthus had expected.  He was angular and powerful. Each movement he made was swift and cut the air like a blade.  His eyes were large and cruel, and his mouth was wide.  Solrath smiled at Helianthus, revealing a thousand needle teeth that dripped with venom.  He stooped beside Helianthus and threw an arm around him.  “Now,” he whispered, “I will give you what you seek.”  Helianthus felt Solrath’s right hand grip his arm tightly.  He looked and saw that it was a talon, sharper than the blade of his plow.  “You will journey west.  You are not far from the Bright Lady’s home, but you must be quick if you wish to find her and know her secrets.  It is dark and you must hide as not to be seen. You will also need…this,” <a href="http://www.enworld.org/forums/attachment.php?attachmentid=13722" target="_blank">Solrath held up a large curved blade which shone cruelly in the moonlight.  Helianthus winced as Solrath’s grip on his arm tightened.  He could smell the venom on Solrath’s breath.</a> “Take it.”  Helianthus grabbed the blade and tore himself from the cruel man’s grip.  Solrath stood to his full height and smiled his needle smile. “Run!  There is no time!”Helianthus ran.  As he ran to the west, he forgot what he was running toward.  All he could think was that, for the first time, there was danger in the darkness.  The landscape changed quickly and dramatically.  The sands of the desert yielded to a great and untamed jungle.  Helianthus could hear the sound of singing and a great waterfall.  Sensing that someone was bathing nearby he hid under a great plant.  The singing grew louder as the stranger drew nearer.  His heart raced as he waited for them to pass.  He soon realized that as the person came closer, the day grew brighter.  It was the Bright Lady, and she was setting out to begin her dance.  If he didn’t look now, he may never know her secret!<a href="http://www.enworld.org/forums/attachment.php?attachmentid=13721" target="_blank">He pushed aside the broad leaves of the plant</a>, but it resisted, and blocked his sight still.  His anger grew with each new leaf that unfurled in front of him.  Was he not the master of many plants in his own fields and orchards?  This one would be no different than one of his fruit trees.  He grabbed the blade given to him by Solrath and struck down the branches of the plant.  With each cut, the plant shrank and shriveled until only a wilted, rotting mass lay at his feet.When he looked up, to his horror, the <a href="http://www.enworld.org/forums/attachment.php?attachmentid=13719" target="_blank">Bright Lady </a>stood before him.  She looked down at Helianthus and he could feel the weight of her stare heavy upon him.  She began to dance.  Helianthus could feel the heat of her fire upon his face.  His skin reddened and his lips cracked from heat.  As he looked upon her, his eyes could not abide the terrible light of her beauty.  Slowly clouds drew forever over his eyes, until there was only darkness.  As the Bright Lady danced across the great blue road, Helianthus wept.  He sat blind, silent, and alone.  Darkness was all he could see. And there was danger in the darkness. </blockquote>

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