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Old 02-21-2004, 12:44 PM   #117
Hilde Bracegirdle
Relic of Wandering Days
 
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Join Date: Dec 2002
Location: You'll See Perpetual Change.
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Surinen

Surinen and Narayad rode to the northeast as quickly as the burdened camel would allow, which was not as fast as Surinen would have preferred. He would have liked to have put a fair distance behind their horses before the heat of the day began to slow them, and wished in vain that they had only the two horses, so making better progress. Among his ruminations he found that he regretted not yet having acquired the mastery of a bird or some other more fleet or enduring beast, which would be of great use in at such times. And so to distract his mind from the slow journey he thought of an eagle, soaring high in the sky, viewing the land from lofty heights, the warm breeze passing over outstretched wings and the desert sun glinting on glossy black feathers. He tried to will his senses into feeling as he thought such a majestic bird might, but after a short while his mind ended up wheeling about, circling in on the vulture that had taken leave of them so suddenly in the night. He could not keep focused.

It was not the first time he had practiced this exercise. He had tried many times before and had yet to feel even the smallest beginning of the humblest of birds present in his being. Apparently it was not to be. Neither bird nor horse nor insect readily overcame his mannish form as he rode through the endless waste, listening to his friend’s monotonous observations.

Narayad seemed oddly enough unconcerned about Rôg and his disappearance. It surprised his fellow outrider that he had so rapidly shut the strange fellow out of his mind, and now spoke only of the success of the well and his return to his new bride. Of the two, Narayad, having only been welcomed into the eagle clan and not born in its confines, should by all accounts have been the warier of the two. For he knew personally of the troubles that outsiders brought upon his native tribe, and had chosen to leave the people of his youth, rather then follow their new path.

In the same way, Surinen’s own sister had left to pursue her own ways without the benefit of her family, and her father and brother were left wondering which road she would ultimately choose, and which path Dinsûl bloodline would follow. For though both his children were of full age, they had yet to pitch their own tents. Mîrya had not found any admirers among the eagle clan and Surinen himself stubbornly refused all attempts to arrange for his taking a wife, until it had begun to be rumored that he had set his heart on someone above his station while he had worked as a servant among the families of the wise. But he, laughing at the notion, and said that it was the untimely death of his mother and the temperament of his sister that kept him from binding himself to another in such a way. And so he would tease Narayad unmercifully for his “weakness”, having not the patience or stomach to listen to him. And so he began to do so again, to help enliven his friend’s conversation and amuse himself along the long way.
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