How the Bloodless Land Came to Be
Everyone enjoyed it when the Chicken Beggar came through town, but most especially the children. It was a sign of good luck if she chose your house to seek shelter, and woe betide any who turned her away.
Most nights, no fuel was wasted warming the barn, but tonight, a warm fire burned in a makeshift fire pit. The Chicken Beggar, a ragged bandage wrapped around her eyes, her desiccated, frail body pulled into a squatting position, sat in front of the fire. A circle of a dozen or more children sat, crosslegged, around her, enraptured by the Beggar. The only noise was that made by the hens resting on and around the Beggar’s: one on her shoulder, another in her mangy hair, two more pecking at the remains of the meal at her feet.
An owl hoots, and she begins.
“Verndari, The Raven, was the greatest and finest of the gods, soaring through skies over sea and and star. There was no sky in all the universe that he had not traversed, so vast was his travel.
Atahaxes, The Hunter, was jealous of Verndari’s magnificence, of his ability to fly, and sought to end him. And so it was that Atahaxes lay a trap for Verndari. Through great magics, he caused a new world, fresh and clean, to be formed. A world without life, but brimming with its possibility.
When Verndari saw that there was new world and new sky, he desired to fly over that world. Atahaxes knew this, and so lay in wait. When Verndari came winging along the horizon, Atahaxes drew is great bow and slew Verndari.
Verndari, knowing that he had been betrayed, used his dying lifeblood to mete out his revenge on Atahaxes. Instead of becoming a corpse that Atahaxes could strip of his beautiful wings to make them his own, Verndari caused his body to become earth. His blood, water. His verdant feathers, the forests of this land, his bones its mountains, his great eyes the sun and moons. Atahaxes, knowing that he would never be able to have Verndari’s Wings, was driven to madness in his rage, and threw himself off of the cliffs of the gods’ homeland.
And so it was that this land, our promised land, the land of The Raven, came to be. Know it well, and remember.”
Date of First Recording
Unknown
Date of Setting
Unknown
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