This story begins like all of the best stories... with a prophecy of death.
"In the harvest, twins shall be born
One will live a life of love, the other scorn
One with eyes of deepest blue
The other with eyes the darkest crimson
One will live his life true.
The other, his former life, will he shed.
A fatal clash shall end this feud
And a champion will the survivor be
For his family and brood
And crowned king, for all to see."
An interesting prophecy don't you think? Well it would seem that myself and my brother were the twins spoken of... Let me back up to our birth and nesting town. I am part of a race called Kenku. If you do not know us, we are a bird-like race. Most of us appear similar to ravens, though we do see a different plumage from time to time. One of the special exceptions is the oracle of the Kenku. Each oracle is gifted with prophecy from the great goddess Delphi. This blessing changes their entire plumage to a stark white. It was this oracle who spoke the prophecy. The damned prophecy that has cursed me since my birth.
When the oracle gave this prophecy, my mother was the only sitting mother due for the harvest. After that, the towns people grew distant, unsure of the outcome of the hatching of the two eggs. As the harvest drew near, the town became split. Half the town wished to ostracize her, whole the other half wanted to revere her. Why you might ask. Allow me to explain something about our culture. Certain colors signify certain things to my race. Yellow, for instance, is the color of the harvest. As such the town is covered in yellow banners and clothing. Blue, the color of the sky, we associate with freedom. So it is used by the leaders of our government. Red, however, is the color of blood, a symbol of death. When a Kenku is buried they are wrapped in a shroud of a dark crimson. So as you can probably infer, for a Kenku to be born with eyes the same color of the shrouds of death, it was seen as a sign of a harbinger of death.
My father was torn, he was afraid of what his sons would become. He briefly contemplated killing me before I had hatched, but he couldn't bring himself to harm his own fledgling. Instead, after our hatching, he did the only thing he could think of to save my life. He stole me from the nest in the middle of the night. He traveled all night until dawn, where he came upon a secluded cabin in the middle of a forest.
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The Old Gods Fall
FantasyA D&D novelization of a campaign I am currently playing through. The gods, ancient Greek and Egyptian, are disappearing. Their influence is waning and the world is changing. For better or worse has yet to be seen. There are two factions at the cent...
