Discover Top Posts Tagged with #tal-vashot

Drabble: Assumptions

Here’s a drabble on Kulkija as a teenager. And all the issues she had to live with.

Life wasn't fair, that was a lesson Kulkija learned very early in her life.

She had been born in the hold, had known only the ways of the avvar. She feared no spirit, because she knew their ways.

And yet, she was an outsider. Her size and horns made her strange for others. An oxman, a Qunari, savage. There were words for her kind, the worst of all Qunari. Her grandfather had taught her it was not what they were. Qunari followed the qun, they were Vashot.

Much use that did when every trader to the hold called her Qunari. If they even were that polite.

There was another word worse than Qunari, though. Sareebas. Dangerous thing, a -thing-. Her fate, had she been born under the Qun. Kulkija's grandmother had told her about them, before her magic manifested. Kulkija still remembered seeing her cry when she accidentally froze her friend.

And Kulkija knew why, she listened to the spirits that came from the lowlands. Bound like beasts of burden, because that's what they were. Chained, silenced. All for a fear of the gods that made no sense to her.

"They fear, and its blinds them" Rauha said. Kulkija chuckled darkly, the irony of being a mage vashot among the Avvar was not lost to her. The Qunari feared demons taking over their mages, yet here she was, with a spirit inside her. And the worst that had happened had been Rauha taking over to drag her home.

"It's stupid" she said, looking down upon the hold from her mountain spot.

"Others say your kind cannot control it, they are savage. Fear, Dream-Walker, fear and lack of understanding" the spirit stated.

"I'm not?" Kulkija asked, and felt the spirit give its best impression of a shrug.

"You are reckless, you do things you know are foolish because you want to show off" Rauha said, Kulkija whirled around. Of course Rauha wasn't there, but the gesture was its own reward.

"Are you still angry over Harvahammas? The Augur said I had guts to do it" Kulkija stated, fingers going to her left eye. Her hold's beast had shown its approval of her by pecking her eye. The damage was permanent, the healer said.

"Or the time you broke your horn, Dream-Walker. You need patience, maybe the ones in the lowlands aren't wrong?" Rauha said.

"Just leave me ALONE!" Kulkija snarled, starting to pace. She felt colder, her magic manifesting itself in ice. Only to feel the warm hand of her teacher on her shoulder.

"And you would leave your hold without a watcher, Dream-Walker?" the spirit asked, and Kulkija breathed deeply, returning to her spot. Raven Hold had its share of cliffs and trees, and the youths of the hold often watched for intruders.

"They are wrong, they are ignorant. Why in the Lady's name would they trust things that never change?" Kulkija mused, slumping as much as she could in her spot.

"They fear Change, Dream-Walker. In their lands, the weather is always in summer. They fear what they would be, without" Rauha said, and Kulkija could feel those empty eyesockets looking at her.

"But that is not why it bothers you so. They define you, no matter how much you fight back" the spirit continued.

"Once I'm the Augur, it won't" Kulkija decided, looking down. Her little gaggle of avvar brats were there, making sure the ground was clear.

This was her. Not the stupid idiots in lowlands.

#Unenkulkija #drabble #avvar #tal-vashot