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Message: <blockquote data-quote="Hjorimir" data-source="post: 6979705" data-attributes="member: 5745">Thursday, July 14DazenIt was late when the Companions arrived at Noor’s Meadow. One might describe the village as ‘quaint.’ It held an undeniable rustic charm and the people here obviously cared for their homes and village. The village had no inn or even tavern, but the villagers offered to provide a warm place to sleep for each of the Companions – even Charity – once they learned that they had come to deal with their troubles. Unfortunately, none of the houses were large enough to house all the Companions, so they were forced to split up.Dazen found himself in the home of Khel and Lailah along with their two daughters Erla and little Jixy. They had settled the elf with a place near the hearth, a pot of stew hung over its fire. Dazen sat down on the floor and pulled off his boots to give his toes a stretch by the fire. He looked up to find young Jixy starting at him as she clutched a small wooden doll in the far corner of the room. The young girl’s eyes were wide and she smiled coyly at him. He returned a friendly smile and nodded.“They don’t smell!” she said as she giggled.Dazen shook his head and explained, “We don’t sweat.”“Jixy, come away from there!” Lailah said and guided the young girl from the room into the kitchen.“You’ll have to pardon the little ones, Master Dazen. They’ve never met one of the Aldurfolk before.” Khel said apologetically as he came over to the hearth to stoke the fire a bit and sneak a smell from the pot while Lailah dealt with their daughter.“Just Dazen,” the elf responded with another smile. “And it’s perfectly fine.”Khel returned the lid to the pot with a faint clink, “Khel!” Lailah called from the kitchen causing him to wince.“It was our guest!” Khel called back with a chuckle, giving a sly wink to Dazen as he began to sit down in what was obviously his chair. He stopped short, remembering his manners, and invited the elf to take the chair with a gesture.Dazen shook his head, “No, please sit down.  I’m more than happy to sit here by the fire anyway.”Khel nodded and plopped down and let out a low groan as he got comfortable.Dazen studied the man a few moments and found him to be…exhausted. While Khel was quick with a smile, his eyes showed the truth. He wasn’t sleeping well. For that fact, neither was his wife or daughters. They were all red-eyed and tired.Lailah came back into the room, gave her husband a playful slap on the top of his head and checked on dinner. She took a small sip from a spoon, added some rosemary, smiled and proclaimed dinner was ready.Once in the kitchen, their eldest daughter, Erla, served everybody. Starting first with her father, then Dazen, and then her mother before filling up a bowl that she and Jixy appeared to be sharing. I must be eating from one of their bowls.“First, we thank the Archons for the bounty,” Lailah explained to Dazen. “Is that okay with you, Master Dazen?”Dazen nodded, “Please...and just Dazen will do.”“The Aldurfolk don’t give thanks?” Jixy asked.“No, not to the Archons,” her father replied.“Why not?” she answered as she stared at the elf.Dazen considered for a moment before turning to the girl. “My people are of the Ordu, one of the elder races. We were conceived by the Will of the Ninefold Divinities, those whom you call the Elder Gods. The Archons are your gods, little one. And long may the smile upon you,” he added with a smile of his own. Jixy gave a big smile back, revealing a gap where her front teeth were missing.“So, you worship the Elder Gods?” Erla asked.“It would be better to say we venerate the Elder Gods,” Dazen answered.“Girls, enough,” Khel said admonishing them into temporary silence.Khel led the family in a quick prayer and they all began to eat. Hrm, not bad for human fare, Dazen thought.They ate on in silence but it wasn’t long before the girls couldn’t handle it any longer.“The Aldurfolk…they don’t sleep,” Erla said as if she needed to explain it to Dazen.Dazen shook his head. “No, we enter what is called a trance where we…reminisce about our own past. We use this to cope with our long lives. Without it we lose …let’s call it perspective.”The family stared at him blankly. I’ve said too much.“What I mean to say is that like sleep is important for you, the trance is important for us.”“Do you dream?” Jixy added. “I hope not, because that’s when the nightmares come.”“Jixy!” Lailah snapped as she slapped her hand on the table. “Shush you! Let our guest enjoy his dinner!” Naturally, this brought Jixy to tears...and then Erla...and then even Lailah couldn’t help herself as she hugged her daughters. Khel just looked tired and shrugged in apology to Dazen and gestured for him to continue eating.~As the family slept, Dazen listened. At first all seemed perfectly well, but within a few hours, he could hear that all were stirring in the sleep and there were occasional moans of fear in their unrest. He got up, opened the shutters, and peered out into the night. His elven eyes quickly adapted to the dark and showed him the world in colorless grays. After a while, the elf admitted that he saw nothing that seemed unnatural or even out of the ordinary. He closed the shutters and turned around to find Erla and Jixy standing scared, tears in their eyes, at the entrance to the living room.“You’re not scared?” Jixy asked.Dazen shook his head softly, gestured at the rug on the floor before the fireplace. “Sit.”The girls sat down and took as the elf draped his blanket around the pair of them.“Grownups don’t get scared,” Erla told her sister. “Not like us.”The elf shook his head. “No, all people know the touch of fear.”Jixy’s chin began to shake with the threat of more tears. “Iluvien,” Dazen said with a comforting smile.“Ilu..” Jixy rolled the elven word around in mouth.“It means be calm,” the elf said as he settled down on the hearth facing the two.“Long have men and elves and even the dwarves known the touch of fear, but the thing to know is that time and time again, we have come together to overcome that fear and protect all of Arasil.”The two girls just looked on expectantly. Right. Hrmm…“In the days of the Great Lament, all of the people were at the mercy of the Chynntai.”“All of the people?” Erla interrupted.“Yes, the Ordu who are the ancestors of the Aldurfolk, the great tribes of men, including the Kaath, the N’jy, and the powerful Aidaan. Even the mighty dwarf lords who lived under the mountains were not able to withstand the onslaught of the Chynntai.”“Erla, what does on-slot mean?” Jixy asked her sister.“It means to kill,” Erla explained. “Are the Chynntai going to kill us?” she said turning back to Dazen.“No, no. They’re all gone now,” Dazen answered with his best calming voice. Great, I’m offering yet another thing for them to fear.“What are the Chynntai? Are they like us?” Erla continued.“No… I mean, well, yes, they were as men, but not men for they had no soul.” Their eyes grew wide at the thought of having no soul. Note to self, leave these kinds of bedtime stories to Ilvander.“Anyway, the Chynntai were a very bad people who did some very bad things…” Arasil continued as he attempted to dumb it down just a little.“Why were they bad? Is it because they had no soul?” Jixy asked. Now they’re both asking questions!“Err, actually, no. Once they were good. They did good things for the gods. Then they turned bad, but they never had a soul,” the elf offered.“So, what happens to them when they die?” Erla was starting to piece together some troubling thoughts.“Well, you see, they don’t really die. They are …well, they are the Deathless,” he started to explain.“But you said that they’re all gone,” Jixy challenged. “How can they be gone if they don’t die?”Why are they asking so many questions?!“Yes, they’re all gone!” Dazen replied then nodded eagerly with a big smile as to insinuate that everything is okay. He almost clapped with joy to see if he could turn the conversation around for the two girls.“So…” Erla started in.“So, the men and elves – who were the Ordu, but think of them as elves even though they were the Ordu – and the dwarves with the blessings of all Fifteen Archons and the Heavenly Choirs came together and drove the Chynntai from the world. The end!” Worst! Idea! Ever! Dazen!“But there are only fourteen Archons,” Erla challenged.“Umm, well, yeah. There were fifteen and then there were fourteen aaaand that’s where we are now.” Dazen forced a yawn, “Wow! I’m really tired suddenly! I think it’s about time we all went to sleep. What do you think, can you go back to bed now?” He was nearly pleading at this point.“I thought you don’t sleep,” Jixy said.Aargh! I found the source of the nightmares! It is these two demon-children!“Up! Up!” Dazen sprung to his feet and quickly hoisted the two girls up to theirs. “Back to bed you go! Let’s go! Hurry now!” He quickly escorted the two back into their room, tucked them into their beds and started to plan his escape.“What if,” Jixy began.“Shh” Dazen said gently as he pressed his finger to her lips probably a little harder than necessary. “You can ask me all the questions you want in the morning.” When I’ll be gone from this infernal place! Within one hand outstretched showing a sign for all to be quiet, he slowly backed out of the room, creeping as if his life depended upon it. Once he got to the door and it looked like Jixy was going to pipe out with another question, he quickly closed the door, slowing it down just at the end so as to not make any noise.He turned and found Lailah standing there in the hallway behind him, fists on hips.“Do you have children of your own?” she challenged.Dazen shook his head.“Praise the Archons!”</blockquote>

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