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CyAdora
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« on: January 18, 2011, 01:40:09 AM » |
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The Winner of the Royal Court of Greater Raktam writing contest is:
The Five Katras
Samantha Kade cursed softly as her light went out, and a little more loudly as the ledge she was standing on suddenly gave way forcing her to suddenly grab for any handhold she could to avoid falling who knew how far into the dark chasm. These caves were dangerous and dark, but that was exactly why they still had secrets to find. She managed to grab another ledge, just barely, and continued to climb up in the darkness.
Finally she pulled her way up onto a ledge and took a moment to catch her breath. She could feel she was close to something. She didn’t know what, but she was going to find out. A creeping sense of danger and awe told her there were old spirits here. Sleeping? Guarding? She wasn’t sure. Whatever it was she was close to, she had the distinct impression that whatever waited in the darkness would want to kill her if it knew she got her hands on it.
She decided technological light would be a bad idea, and instead pulled the small crystal pendant her father had given her from one of her small pouches. It glowed with a soft blue light it had acquired while she had sat and watched the Raktam Shaman work at restoring the lives of the natives. It would be just enough to see, and maybe guide.
She moved over to the wall and started to look it over. It was covered in symbols and what looked like very old native languages. She checked them mentally against the ones she had learned since coming to the island and judged them to be an earlier form of the language. This place was old. Old enough for the native languages to have evolved over time since their writing, not a fast thing in remote jungle islands.
She set to translating, making sense of the symbols and cross referencing them to similar native words and concepts to pull together the meaning. There were many references to honored ancestors and those blessed by the spirits and life giving arts, and various warnings that this was a sacred place not to be entered by the uninitiated. Was this some kind of Shaman’s refuge or place of learning? Samantha wondered what it must have been like when it was used long ago.
She traced some more of the symbols to something that looked like it might be an ancient switch or lever or something, brushed the spider webs away, and then slowly pulled. With a loud thud and a sound of grinding rock, part of the stone wall slowly opened up revealing a path inward. “Great…” she thought. “I’m sure –that- didn’t wake up anything nasty that’ll want to eat my soul for trespassing…” She held the softly glowing crystal pendant ahead of her as she slowly made her way inside.
The passage wound through the darkness a short ways and then opened into a small alcove that looked like some sort of bizarre cross between catacomb and meditation chamber. Carved into the walls were places for bodies to rest, some of them filled with skeletons, and some of them with books seemingly placed along with the bodies. In the center was what seemed like a meditation spot, with another large book in front of it.
Samantha looked from the skeleton books to the central book, and decided it was better not to disturb the dead any more than necessary right now. She crept over to the central spot and slowly reached out to touch the ancient book. A cold breeze picked up around her as she did and she whispered “Not here to make trouble… just need to see what this is…” softly in the native tongue.
Slowly she pulled open the cover and began to translate. “Book of Rites and Rituals of those Blessed by the Spirits to Protect and Safeguard the People.” She slowly flipped through a few of the pages. “So far so good…” she thought.
It took some effort to piece together, but slowly she made sense of it. The book was talking about ancient times on the island, times when the native people had been besieged by all kinds of evil spirits and monsters and disasters and everything. The book itself was intended to be a guide of sorts for those who sought to protect and lead the people, so they could help their people through the darkness and back to greatness again.
Samantha flipped a few more pages, and then looked up suddenly as a loud sort of shivering groaning sound came from all around her. Whatever guarded this place… (or was it hid this place not wanting it’s secrets rediscovered?) was waking up. She was running out of time. She pulled out some paper to copy, and began looking quickly through the pages for anything useful to her.
Her greatest hopes were dashed. There was nothing here about any miracle cure that could save her father. But something else caught her eye. One of the pages seemed to be about what looked almost like the crystal pendant she carried with her, and as she looked over the page she knew suddenly that this was the same thing. She focused, translated, and copied quickly as the wind slowly picked up in the room.
“Crystals of the People’s Protectors.” Ancient natives made them from the waters of the spring of life, like the ones she had seen in the native villages. They could only be created through ritual by those who were both honorable and who were selected by the people to lead and safeguard them. Wearing one was a sign of honor, but more importantly a sacred obligation to help the people. They were a symbol, given by the people’s ruler to the people’s champions to inspire them against the darkness all around them.
Samantha held her own softly glowing pendant up and smiled softly. “Are you trying to tell me that I’m honored? Or that I’m obligated?” The loud groaning grinding sound came again from all around her. “Or maybe… you’re trying to tell me the natives… the people… could use you again.” The sound came again, louder this time. It was time to leave. She took one last look around the room and then looked back to the pendant. “Alright then… I’ll see what I can do.” The soft blue glow intensified at that, as she gathered up her notes and supplies, put the book carefully back where it had been, and then quickly made her way out of the passage.
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Miraculously, she had made it out of the chamber and out of the cave without any supernatural horrors jumping out of the darkness to grab her. Even though it was still the jungle and still full of things trying to kill her, Samantha had breathed a great sigh of relief when she had pulled herself out of the dark cave and seen the sun again.
After finding a safe place, she took out all her notes and equipment again, reorganized it, checked to make sure she had everything, and then repacked. She smiled a little. The notes she had quickly copied down detailed the history of the small crystal pendants, and how to make them. Her own little crystal had stopped glowing finally, either exhausted or otherwise saving it’s energy with the sun out, but she remembered everything that happened in the cave. It hadn’t been her miracle cure, but it had been something else. Something important.
“Raktam.” She thought. “I’ll bring it to Raktam. The Queen there was friendly to me before. She seemed like a good leader type, the kind to look out for her people. Maybe she could do with a few crystals to inspire her people against the darkness. God knows there’s enough of it around this place lately. Anything to help, right?” She held up her little crystal again and smiled. “Besides, I guess I have an obligation to help out too now, don’t I.”
Samantha stashed the little crystal in one of her pouches, and set out towards Raktam.
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The item: a glowing crystal pendant will be the findable item in the Royal Court of Greater Raktam hut.
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