Urthuru Kin'Guru
THE WIND BLOWER
Born in the Shadow of a Storm
Guided by spirits, haunted by omens, Kin’Guru (kin grrrr-roo) is the wellspring of spiritual culture for the Otumu clan. Through his own life of hope and hardship, exile and exoneration, he has risen to give his people the power of story and music, in the end becoming the Uthuru, the first bard of Neanderthals. Now, aided by the Spirit of the Wind, Kutmùrhem, Kin'Guru faces an even greater challenge ahead.
THE STORM
In the month of Sheltering Storms and the moon day of Neelut, pregnant Sideku’Kiku (sid-e-ku kee-ku) and her mate, Ni’Oknùk (knee oak-nik) were caught in an ice storm when Kiku went into labor. Oknùk found a shallow enough cave for his mate to give birth. The labor lated hours as the storm roared outside. A small Nurodki found the cave, freezing its fast hold along the cave walls. Drawn by the smell of blood and sweat, it slithered and crackled inside, closing in on the birthing mother.
Character Profile
Presentation
Sex: Male
Age: 41
Eyes: Grey
Skin: Ruddy/Warm tan
Hair: Dark Brown
Height: 5’1”
Weight: 168 lb
Origin
Species: GMO Neanderthal
Clan: Otumu
Birth Place: Cave #46
Birth Month: Sheltering Storms
Birth Moon: Neelut
Circumstances of Birth: Gained the Mark of NurodkiStar Thistle Exo Genetic Profile:
NSPN ID: 34499430—293-34454
Genetic Source Mother: M-66
Linage Lab Origin: Lab 6
The Mark of Nurodki
A broken moon set behind black mountains. Kiku gave birth to Mus’Sorn first. Oknùk cleaned the baby while Kiku gave birth to Mus’Guru. She held him in her wet arms when the Nurodki darted out an icy tendril. Cutting a small gash across Mus'Guru nose. Oknùk used a flaming branch to melt the tendril off. The monster fled out into the howling winds as the storm moved westward across the valley. Sunlight broke through the white haze of cloud and illuminated Mus’Guru’s misfortune, a dark splotch freckled his nose.
Bad Omens
When the storm died down, the couple traveled to the Otumu clan cave. On arrival, Oknùk showed the newgorns to his father, Kin’Nenesseruk. The balding elder studied Guru as the Mark of Nurodki widened across the infants face, he conferred to the Kins of Mor that the baby was a Detsu Nidù, a spirit house, and would allow spirits to inhabit him. He was dangerous to the clan. The Kins of Mor chose for the infant to be thrown out into the harsh tundra to die.
Rise of a Hunter
Kin’Nenesseruk took the infant in his grizzled hands and five elder women approached him. The Duhi of Unkenrus (doo-high of un-ken-roos), led by Unkenru’Sotropù (un-ken-roo sue-tro-py), stopped Nenesseruk and took the infant into their own care. Disgusted, the elder father retreated to his place in the cave. He would no longer care for the Mus and gave all his attention to his twin brother Mus’Sorn.
Under Sotropù care, Guru grew to be a strong Mus, and at age seven he was five feet tall and could wrestle Mus twice his age. He could not train with the other boys in his clan to become hunters so he spent most of his time practicing with a wooden spear.
The Kon Ritual
Denied the ritual hunt that would put Mus'Guru into adult hood. He decided he would do it himself. Junnu was at its zenith when he escaped the clan cave and took two spears, Nurohok and Dùthukto (dyth-thuk-too) and lunged into the night. Tracking the winding frozen river under the silent glow of the moon, the Kohùt Per (night world) was a dangerous time. Mus'Guru found large morhurhur tracks racing along the river banks, its gait was off, evidence it was injured. The tracks lead to a small borough were the whimpering animal lay dying from a bite wound. Guru raised his spears to strike the beast, but the wind was knocked from him.
A hairy nomru had waited for him behind boulders, an ambush predator of the Kohùt Per, the animal grunted in excitement calling its pack to join in on the fresh attack. Mus'Guru gripped Nurohok with both of his hands, and lunged into the beast. The bullish nomru glanced the blow. Rearing his fore legs upward into the air it readied itself to head bunt. Mus'Guru charged into the creature with all his might thrashing Nurohok into the exposed neck. The nomru died in silence.
Sideku’Nimpu
Mus'Guru arrived in the morning at the clan cave, dragging the carcass of victory. The Kins and Unkenrus clustered around the enormous beast, stunned by its size. The dead nomru would feed the entire clan for the full moon cycle. Unkenru’Sotropù took the spears from Mus'Guru and threw them at the feet of Kin'Nenesseruk. Later that day, the Kins of Mor, with great reluctance, gave Mus'Guru the title of Kon.
As a rite of Kon tradition, an Unkenru would appoint Guru a mate. Sotropù gave her only daughter, Sideku’Nimpu to Kon'Guru. She was a childhood friend since he was a Mus. She spent most of her time painting animals on born charms and he would come to watch her when he was tired of practicing the spear. Nimpu was thin and quiet. She was not a prized Sideku in the clan, so the Kins of Mor didn't refuse the mating.
The Fall
Kon'Guru and Kon'Sorn went out to hunt for mirukons, the largest animals of the tundra. Armed with Nurohok and Dùthukto the brothers found a herd and waited until nightfall to strike. As Junnu set in the west, Kon'Guru called out, and the brotheres ambusehd a young mirukon that had drifted from the herd. Kon'Sorn threw his spear first, striking the beast in the head. Scared, the animal fled backwards into Kon'Guru. He felt his own legs snap under the crushing weight of the creature's feet.
Kon'Sorn dragged his disabled brother to the clan cave. Unkenrus gathered around the injured Kon, inspected his shattered legs. Sotropù cleaned then wrapped his legs in sinew and herbs. Kon'Guru was in much pain and many in the clan thought he would not survive.
Roar of the Wind Spirit
Kon'Guru lied in the cave with a fever and infection setting in. His screams interrupted the sleep of the clan and was later moved deeper in the cave. One night in a fever dream, he heard a cry so loud it woke him. The sound came deep inside the cave. Kon'Guru crawled towards the wail in the darkness. Unhurried, he lowered himself into a recessed part of the cave floor and crawled through a small opening until the cave walls opened up into a cavern of light so bright it burned his eyes.
In the light, Kutmùrhem, a spirit of the wind, waited for him. The ghost called to him and as Kon'Guru came near; the spirit inhabited him and took the pain in his legs away. His chest built up pressure until he led out a great roar of wind that filled the caverns of the clan cave and woke all the Otumu clan.
Kon'Guru came out limping to Sotropù and fell to her feet. His fever had broken and the infection in his legs was gone, but his legs didn’t heal right. Guru could not run again nor could he ever hunt again.
From Bones
Kon'Guru spent most of his time with the females in the clan cave. He watched his mate, Kimpu, paint the animal bone charms for the hunters to use. He played with a large mirokun leg bone from a discarded pile and blow across it. The sound of the bone resonated across the cavern and chilled his spine.
From bones, he invented new instruments, finding bones that would replicate the sounds of the animals of the valley and the spirits of the ice and frost. As the hunters returned from their hunts, he told the story of the hunt with sounds and vocal calls. He was the first to tell the stories of the Otumu people, from their Kon ritual hunts to the rise of a Sideku.
Uthuru The First
The Otumu people would gather as the sun fell into the horizon and listen to Kun'Guru's music and stories. The story of his songs would reach to other clans in the valley, and they would come to listen. It was the time of the sheltering storms when several clans had visited the Otumu clan cave to seek refuge from the ice.
Kun'Guru had three daughters from Nimpu and he had taught them how to play the musical instruments he had made. Late in the night they played, unknowing that a Norodki had found the clan cave and stalked downward into the heart of the cavern. He blasted a horn in tune with the song and the Norodki flung itself into the cavern and killed several Neanderthals. Guru blasted his horn and and the icy creature withered, shook and whined. Then it fled never to return.
The elders blamed Kun'Guru for the attack. He had called the beast to their lair, they thought. Sotropù tried to convince the elders it was not Guru's music but failed. Nenessuruk announced that he should have not been stopped by Sotropù to throw Guru out when he was an infant, but now it must be done. The Kins of Mor exiled Kun'Guru, his mate and their three daughters to the harsh tundra. As the Otumu people watched as Kun'Guru gathered his instruments and left, his supports cried out to him, they called him the Urthuru, a storyteller, the first bard of the Neanderthals.
Cavern of the Deep One
Kon'Guru wandered the frozen valley with this family for two moon cycles. They found shelter in old animal boroughs. They crossed frozen rivers and entered the black mountains. It was the last moon of the spirits that his youngest daughter, Nùnre, fell sick with fever. Kiku tried to treat her with herbs but the next moon day she died.
Kon'Guru buried her in a shallow grave of boulders with small blue wild flowers Kiku and found nearby, and her favorite shell instrument was placed on her chest. Mourning their loss, they continued up the mountain. They found a towering cave opening on a ledge and caustuly entered the serpentine tunnels to a massive cavern, no Neanderthal had seen. While Kiku made beds for her daughters, he explored the cave system.
Call of the Wind Blower
Kon'Guru descended downward until he could no longer hear the echoes of his children playing. He had brought a small flaming lamp made from a shell and animal fat to use as a light source. The cave walls were rough and covered in crystal stalagmites. Soon it was hard to breathe.
Kon'Guru called the Wind Spirit that inhabited him. His chest filled with air. No longer needing to breathe he continued to a small chamber where drawings in green mineral surounded him.
Shapes of people danced in the shadows. Many converged to a central figure so massive in scale and so peculiar, Kon'Guru knew it was no hunter or animal, but a spirit.
He named it Ushuk Dim, the deep one. This spirit differs from, Kutmùrhem, it seemed older. Maybe it was here before his clan came from the Kohùt Pum, the white place. He pondered its purpose and why the Wind Spirit let him learn of its existence.
While practicing the horn, Kon'Guru listened as the cave walls revereberated out into the cold open air. It was then that Kon'Guru grasped the purpose of the cavern. From the mountain ledge on where the entrance was, the whole Suurn valley spilled out, he saw the mountains on the eastern horizon and the coming of a storm.
Hunter of the Frost
is a science fiction book series with the first novel titled The Conquering Echo , to be released in late 2022. All facts, information, characters and plot lines are subject to change as the book is in development
