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 Strange Passings

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Zas B'ul

Zas B'ul


Posts : 713
Join date : 2013-08-29
Location : Texas

Strange Passings Empty
PostSubject: Strange Passings   Strange Passings EmptySun 24 Dec 2017, 03:47

The pack's theurge sat cross legged in the umbral landscape as the steady winds continued to blow unabatedly. She had been there most of the evening and the Silent Strider had set out to try and get her assistance in summoning a spirit while she was free, but upon reaching her and seeing her appearing to be in so much peace, he dared not bother her.

She needs some time to cool off. We all need time to move on and grieve.

He sat a little ways off just as content to look into the night sky and offering up a praise to the stars for being one of the consistent things in the pack's travels. And at some point he ended up losing himself to sleep.

He was awoken an unknown amount of time later by the ground beneath him partially giving way from being ripped in two forming a small fissure. Looking around startled as he pulled himself to his feet, he saw no sign of Hears the Song. Just s he went to investigate the cause of his abrupt awakening he heard,

"Make way! The old one marches." in a subtle hiss that seemed to fade and repeat it's message-following a puff of steam coming from the between the growing fissure with each syllable.

Curious, the philodox turned to look in the direction the fissure seemed to originate from and saw nothing, at first.

Then faintly just from over a nearby ridge, a thick cloud began to form and grow visible and increasingly darker. As it drew nearer, the ground beneath Zas feet trembled.

Zas noted that the cloud itself seemed to stretch from the ground all the way to the umbral clouds and had blotted out his view of the starry heavens.

The wind picked up slightly, kicking up dirt and spawning a few dustdevils which further reduced visibility, making it impossible to see who or rather what drew closer to the garou while the ground continued to shake and grow more and more difficult to maintain his balance on. Nearby rocks rolled, and clacked together, jumping from the ground and falling. The closer the cloud came the larger the rocks that moved.

He cupped his hands over his eyes to try and block out some of the dirt and catch at least a glimpse of what was going on, to little avail.

At this point Zas began to back away, as it seemed that if he did not some of the larger rocks would begin to roll on top of him, and so he took a few steps to the left.

Between the wind and the rocks rising and falling, and the ground violently moving about, the sound became nearly deafening. Zas cried out to whoever or whatever was passing by, but found his voice drowned out. Perturbed he might miss out on what exactly was happening he tried a different approach.

With a moment's concentration and a quick prayer to the spirits the Silent Strider Philodox let out a ferocious booming roar that resembled a mighty lion that silenced and stilled the rocks, the ground moving and even to some extent the wind.

Comparitively the space became as silent as a grave.

Looking into the cloud now, the wind blew a bit more of the dust out of the way allowing Zas a glimpse of what looked to be a large, rounded, tree trunk...but it was without a doubt the oddest tree the Apache had ever seen.

It had what looked like shimmering and glinting scales running up it's length which Zas could not see the top of. As the sound surrounding the area remained still, the wind cleared away more of the dust to reveal a second, and further back a third and fourth identical looking scaled tree trunks that stretched from the ground all the way into the cloud bank.

Zas spoke, taking in the sights completely bewildered. "Who are you? What do you want?"

There is a long pause, before a grinding creaking sound followed by a loud snapping pop that echoed like thunder above his head. This is followed by one of the tree trunk lifting up into the air and falling back down into the same spot, sending reverberations through Zas entire body forcing him to take a knee or risk falling down. As the thunderous peal rang out a voice could be heard, in the language of the spirits that carried both weight and authority but spoke in a hissing manner. "Kneel when you addressss El-Khaataarssss-rhya!!!"

The philodox recognized the old way this entity wished to be addressed, only because Scents the Lies had once taught him that some of the older elders demanded to be treated with the utmost respect. The Silent Strider remained on his knee, but looked at the tree that had just moved and realized that each 'tree' was simply the base of this creatures legs. Trailing his gaze up to the clouds, he spoke, "Forgive me El-Khaataar-rhya...I did not know."

"What brings one of your status to these lands?" He asks humbly.

A long, winding, powerfully muscled neck lowers to the ground attached at its end circling the garou is a heavily battle-scarred face whose right eye is as big as Rends in crinos form. Zas notes that there are many paintings, markings, and inscriptions along the creatures neck glorifying the might, power, and devotion of this spirit to Gaia. Each mark telling a story of some long forgotten foe or quest the spirit had fought or aided in.

The spirit ignores his question and says with interest looking him over with one eye, bareing stalactites and stalagmites for teeth "You did not know what?"

The philodox lowers his head, "I did not know who you were."

El-Khaataar snorts, sending out a large pile of dirt. "What would the young know of the old. Your kind hasss only just know crafted mud houses, when thosssse who were before crafted towersss of sunlight and dreamsssss."

Zas looks back up, "I would learn of what the old have done if I had a good teacher. Would you tell me of your journey?"

The spirit crunches its mouth closed inches from the Silent Strider's face as Zas hears from somewhere deep within its throat several croaking sounds that he slowly realized was the spirit chuckling. "My tale issss long enough, but your kind remembersssss when you musssst. You make your markssss in ssstone and raissse them up to the ssssky."

Zas scratches his head, "We are garou. We fight and die for the mother. We tell our stories in song and legend. Not stone..."

El-Khaataar lets out a bellowing roar that rattled Zas bones. "You have forgotten the old wayssss asssss well! I will sssshow you what you no longer sssseeee but you musssst sssshow othersss. You mussstt leave your mark to be remembered, but make it worthy. Do thissss and you will be like thossse who have gone before you."

Zas nods his head, "Do something worthy of rememberance and you will teach me something. Got it."

The spirit lifts his head up and begins to uncoil, his neck having at some point wrapped around the philodox.

The Silent Strider considers for a moment and says, "Would you teach me another lesson? I would like to be able to hear what the mother says about something, as my calling often requires me to look into the truth behind falsehoods."

El-Khaataar stops mid-uncoiling, and in a flash slams his jawbone into the side of Zas's body scooting a prone Zas to the scaled trees the spirit called feet. Lifting a leg, the creature presses down into the apache knocking the air out of him and flattening him into the ground; forcing him to inhale ragged gasps of breath as his body tries to regenerate from the damage. The spirit removes the leg and pressure just as soon as he had placed it there. "Ssstay near the mother. Lisssten closssely to what ssshe saysssss."

As his rib cage begins to pop back into place, the philodox inhales a few more breaths, his lungs taking in dirt and dust.

The spirit nods once to him and winks, "Alssso be careful what you asssk for young one, you jusssst might get it. Let that be your lessssson, and in exchange you practissse hearing all sidesss of an argument before you make your decissssions."

Zas makes to try to speak or move, but he can't. He just nods his head and coughs. The philodox knew however, that with just a bit of focus, he could use his new learned gift and he smiled.

As the spirit raises his head back up into the cloud bank and takes his next step, right over Zas crumpled frame the ground quakes anew and does not cease until the spirit gets out of sight. Zas watches on as the spirits body fades, but its tail trails after it for a considerable length of time.
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