A tale of shadows

1

Chapter 1

People have called us many names over time. For example:

The Gorgons =creatures, monsters.

Or The Erinyes =people of the underworld.

Even The Oneiroi= gods of dreams.

But our actual name is the Ignatios : the unknown.

It started hundreds of years ago. Our ancestors were just like the rest of the people. We were part of a kingdom called Loxe. The Loxeadi people. We lived there for many generations. The difference between the rest and and us was that we have spirit animals. We have special connections with some animals. A connection, a feeling you cant explain intill you feel it. Your Raxi. You live together, you fight together. For eternity, until one of you dies. Then the other one will die with them. And if your bond is strong. You can talk to each other. The people of Loxe didn't know our secret. We lived at peace. Until one day....

There was a boy called Mascu. He was playing outside with his wolf. His Raxi. On our lands. But one of the rules of the kingdom was that if you see a wild animal you kill them, that was because one of the daughters of the king and queen were killed by them. A snake. She was bitten and poisoned with its venom. She only lived one day after it happened. But of course we didn't kill the animals. It wasn't our way. And no one had found out that we didn't listen to that rule. A couple of guards were patrolling inside the kingdom one day. They saw Mascu and his wolf. Mascu ran away but it was too late. They took them both and took them to the king. The king was shocked, because Mascu didn't obey his order. He sentenced them both to death. The boy was tortured for his betrayal and the wolf was killed while the boy watched. That was what the king said proudly to his people. They all cheered for him and there was a feast later that night.

The mother of the boy was devastated. So was their family, the Ignatios. The rest of our people were shocked about what the king did. Our tradition is that the dead people were put in a boat while the boat was put on fire and slowly drifting to the end of the world. But we couldn't do that for him. his family never got his body back.Later that night the father of the boy walked in the palace and killed the oldest son of the king and queen as revenge for his son.

Since that day the Loxeadi and the Ignatios were at war till this day forward. Our people left Loxe and went south. We found an area of land where nobody else lived for at least thousands of miles around it. Together we build our kingdom from just a piece of that land. We also created our own language, Ligata. The kingdom was called: Mascu. In honour of the boy. The kingdom multiplied five times its size from what it was.

There also were three kingdoms build somewhere else: Fitgo, the father; Jina, the mother; Bacu, the older brother. But the kingdoms were smaller. Mascu was still the true kingdom. The mother and father of Mascu were their king and queen and the brother, when he turned of age, ruled Bacu. That day that Mascu was killed and we created our own lands, we called Hatroda. The day of destruction.

After Hatroda, no one was blessed with the spirit animal of the wolf ever again. So the legend was if a person gets the spirit animal of a wolf, it is the rightful king or queen of our people and their kingdoms. We made a book of Hatroda, so many generations will know what happened.

~

123 years later the king and queen of Mascu were blessed with two children, a boy and a girl. The boy was called Axote (Axe). two year later the girl was born, Nyrrea( Nyra). The parents took them to the forest to find their Raxi. The boy was blessed with the snake. But the girl with none. The king and queen were shocked because that only happened to two people: Mascu and Bacu...Who had the spirit animal of a wolf. But only they knew that, it was a secret only to be known by the kings and queens of Mascu. The girl didn't understand what happened. The king and queen told the boy and girl to tell no one.

15 years later the girl still hadn't found her spirit animal. But after a while she didn't really care anymore. She told her self that she didn't need it. That she could survive on her own. Her father told her the story why we have Raxi's.

One of the gods was in a fight with a friend, Miasa and Froiya. Miasa got injured and fell to the ground. Froiya left her alone to die in the woods. She knew she was going to die, until every animal you can think of were around her on the ground, in the trees and in the sky. Miasa thought she was dreaming, but she wasn't. The wolfs came forward and touched her wound, it healed.

Then every animal came to her and stood around her. She stayed with them for a while. But she knew she had to get back to her home. So Miasa walked away and didn't look back. When Miasa arrived home everyone was looking at her. Miasa was confused so she looked around her. All the animals were walking with her and the wolfs were beside her. The wolfs saved her. And she became the goddess of animals and raxi's .

And she blessed us with a little of her power. She gave us our Raxi's. The girl said to her father: "but why didn't she bless me then", but her father didn't know why. Everyone wondered why she didn't have a Raxi with her. But they didn't question it. But of course there were rumours : she is just protecting it, maybe it is a special animal, maybe it's a wolf, maybe she has none. And there were many more. And that girl is me