Among the Birches *NaNoWriMo 2013*

Trouble in Tarazen

"So, this is one of the old trales your sort made eons ago, right?" Nicholai asked the following day, when they were on their way south.

"Right. This load leads south to Tarazen, the land of the sun. With any luck, Kya's close relatives-- the sun elves-- still live there, in their odd silken yurts."

"Ah! How nice it would be to see them," said Kya. "I have heard much of them. When I was still young, I recall having Luka tell me about his journey to Tarazen to meet with the sun elf chief, Fyora. He described her as being dark-skinned and, in the sun, glimmering. I always thought I'd love to see a sun elf..."

"Hopefully we shall," said Jasper. 

"Will there be enough grass growing for the horses in Tarazen?" asked Nicholai. "I can't justify brining them into a place where they would starve..."

"I'd not worry, Nicholai," said Kya. "In the stories, though they lived in desert, the sun elves were just as kind and caring to their creatures as the Islanders are; they take pride in providing for them. The horses shall have grass, or something equally as good-- if any such thing exists for horses."

The horses, seeming to know that they were being thought of, snorted. They betrayed neither excitement nor dread. They simply plodded on, familiar as they were now becoming with travel, and swished their tales to ward off the flies that lived year round in the hotter climate.

"There isn't much about here," said Nicholai. "Scarcely any trees, and none of the big rocks strewn about in the eastern lands and the North."

"Just plains," said Kya.

"Odd that elves would care for that."

"I can't say I understand it, Nicholai, but I suppose they see a kind of beauty perhaps in its simplicity... Or, maybe, they see a beautiful complexity which we three just are not yet able to. But remember, we aren't even to their homeland yet. This is a kind of no-man's land, perhaps used in years back for elf couriers and intrepid merchants travelling between towns and regions."

"That's true," said Nicholai. "But I can't say I expect the scenery to change much, if at all. I can see for miles and miles from where we stand, and all that lays ahead and to the sides is grassland-- and some of it too dry even for that."

"We shall see," said Kya.

The horses were unaccustomed to the heat of the air, and the going was relatively slow for them all, despite the firm, level ground. The hot air made Nicholai and Kya quite uncomfortable, as well, but to Jasper, it was nothing. Kya tried hard to not set herself too close to Jasper now not of embarassment but to avoid his radiant heat. 

After some distance and a languid, long lunch, Bracken and Maidenhair brought them to a stone sign, made of a rough, scratchy sort of rock, which bore the shallow imprint of the Tarazen seal. Because he had not seen it before, Nicholai could not make out that it was the outline of a falcon inside an outline of the sun. 

"The falcon brings hope," said Jasper. "The falcon is a survivor, a conquerer. The people living in Tarazen revere are raptors, but especially the falcon."

"It is almost like the relationship we have with the Sacred Birch," said Kya.

"Or that the pixies seem to have with their own tree," said Nicholai.

"We know nothing, really, of that, Nicholai," said Jasper. "But I suppose the analogy is still apt. The sun elves, or so it has been told to me, use the falcons to deliver messages both upwards and into the sky to be recieved by the Creative Force and to carry messages over long distances to allies and friends far-off."