Alina Nivar: The Moonstone

XII: A Tale Of Two Siblings

The three walked down the meadow for what felt like ages, but Alina didn't feel like they were getting closer to neither the Mourning Mountains nor the Gray Plains. She was tired and her legs hurt, but she told herself she wouldn't say a word about it. Instead, she gave a grateful look to the sun, which was almost setting. "Thank Suro" she thought, before talking out loud.

"The sun's going to set soon. Maybe we should rest already."

Arien, who was a few steps ahead of her, looked back at her.

"You sure? I think we should walk a bit more."

"Actually, I think we should stop too," Kita said. "I climb and swim a lot, but I haven't walked this much in my life." Alina gave her a thankful look, and she smiled back at her. Arien didn't seem to notice.

"If you two say so. Should we set up the tent?" he suggested.

"Yes, I'll help you out," the young girl offered. After they had everything sorted out, they sat down.

"Hey, you know about that legend you told me about earlier? The one about the mountain?" Alina mentioned to Arien.

"Yeah, what about it?"

"I think it may be somewhere in the book. There's a lot of ancient tales and legends in it." The girl took out the book and started turning the pages until she found what she was looking for. "Here it is. The tale of Tuma and Asomn, from the kingdom of Vaados."

"A tale? Great! What are you waiting for, let's hear it!" the nagwal girl bubbled in excitement.

"Well, here we go," she said, and started reading.

Once there was a woman who dreamed of having kids, but she couldn't. She asked the gods daily for a child, and one day, Rina who protects the mothers took pity on her. She sent an owl to tell her that, if she ever saw a single cloud raining in the sky, she were to put a bowl with oil outside. The woman patiently waited for the day she would get a baby, until one day she witnessed how it started pouring, even though the sky was completely blue except for a single cloud. She ran home, filled a bowl with oil and left it on the garden. Since the rain didn't stop and nothing was happening, she went to sleep, hoping to see the results the following day. She woke up to the cries of two baby twins, one with black eyes and one with blue eyes, outside in the garden. Happy as ever, the woman rushed to get them inside and took care of them.

She raised them as her own children, and named the black eyed one Tuma and the blue eyed one Asomn. The boys grew up inseparable, always looking out for each other. When they were still young, the mother noticed Asomn playing in the lake and lifting water in the air. She then saw Tuma take a block of earth without his hands and throw it to the water bubble, which exploded and splashed the boys, who started giggling uncontrollably. Scared, the woman took them to a witch, who told her that they were the most powerful elementals she had ever seen, and offered to teach them how to handle their own power. The mother happily accepted, and so the boys grew up strong and healthy. They never quarreled or fought; and they were praised and loved by their village.

However, one day while the brothers were hunting they killed a single deer. The deer had one black arrow stuck in the stomach and one blue arrow in the neck. Instead of sharing the deer as they would normally do, they started arguing about who did it belong to. The deer had been sent by Zartsek, the Spirit of Wrath, who wanted to see how much destruction the brothers could make. The argument quickly escalated into a fight, with Asomn sending giant waves to Tuma and him counterattacking with stones the size of a house. They went on and on fighting, devastating everything in their path. They moved mountains and oceans and no one could stop them. Their mother begged them to stop, but they didn't listen to her.