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[Jun. 1st, 2005|04:36 am] |
I am not writing these things down. I am telling them to this 'scribe' who follows me with scrolls and feathers. I do not know why he follows me and asks about my travels, but he said he would give me a copy of his scrolls when we are done. He can also draw well. I can not draw.
I can read scrolls, I was taught to by my mother, but I never could write well. Some hunters like to cut their names in trees or softer rocks with their knives when they go to some far place, but I can not write "Sogeth" without the letters looking...well, not looking like letters.
The last time I tried to write my name. on a soft bit of white stone, an old wizard walked up and said, "What is that!" I was proud, then, because I was still a younger orc and was not at all lost after a day's hunting in unfamiliar land, and so I said, "I found this!" I meant the piece of stone, because it was strange and white and bits broke off, but the wizard meant my name on the stone. He started talking about runes and coss micks and symbols, and he kept up for quite a time before I could say, "No, no! I've claimed the rock with my name!"
He got angry and did that wizard thing with the colors and symbols in the air, which I thought was very interesting at the time because I didn't know it meant I was going to get hurt. Then this girl appeared. She was skinny and had a tail and wings and wore clothes made by a very careless leatherworker who did not have a very large skin to work with, but she did not look too bad.
She looked bored, but when the wizard pointed at me, she started smiling and walked over. Not like an orc girl walks, which, yes, is very nice, but extra-bendy and wavy. I think her tail did loops.
"Oh, hello, I am Sogeth." Even as a young fellow, I did not shout at a strange girl, especially as I thought she was probably the wizard's daughter and he was already mad. I did not know where he had been keeping his daughter, though, nor why he brought her out when he was annoyed at me, but my mother taught me that other people have strange ways.
"Well, hello. I'd tell you my name, but it's so long we'd be all done before I even finished saying it. ...Is that alright, Sogeth?" I thought to myself that I liked the way she said my name.
Then she put her hand on my shoulder, which is very much not like an orc girl. Orc girls in my village will hit you on the shoulder or grab you by the shoulder, but they do not just put their hands on your shoulder. Unless they are your grandmother, but while my grandmother is small and skinny, she still did not do it like that. And my grandmother is mostly blind, so she would pat you on the face and you would have to close your eyes to keep your eyes from being poked by her nails, which are almost as long as this girl's nails were, but not bright red - and much more jagged.
I said to her, "Well...alright. I am sorry to ask this favor of you..."
"Oh, favors, I like those." I did not even know what she meant, but I still blushed.
In a quieter voice, I said, "I think I have offended your father." This made her stare at me. I hurried on, saying, "I found this strange, white stone, and I claimed it, but he walked up the path and started talking about coss micks and runes. When I tried to tell him that I had just claimed the stone, he got mad."
She started to say something, as if she was confused and starting to laugh at the same time, but she stopped and just looked over at the stone with my name on it. She hmmed, tilted her head, and then started saying weird words that I don't know how to say, as if she were trying to read my name, but wrong because of how bad the letters were carved. I would have stopped her and explained it was my name, but she was leaning on me... and I was letting her. Finally, she just shrugged and looked back at me, playing with my beard.
"Mmm, my...ah, father is a very potent master of magic. If he wants that stone with those dark, arcane symbols...you'd better let him take it."
I really did not mind letting him have the stone, but wanted to explain about my name. "Please, I cannot let him misunderstand. My father beats honesty into my head with a stick - but only a small stick, he is a good father."
I tried to look around at the wizard, but she had her hand on my cheek and tugged my head back around. "Oh, mine never spares the rod..." I thought she meant that he was a mean father and hit her with a big stick, which did not surprise me, seeing as angry as he got over the stone, but it was not that, actually.
It was that right then the wizard hit me on the back of the head with a big stick, yelling, "This fell power shall be mine!"
When I woke up, they were gone, and they had carried the stone away.
So, I do not write. I just make the two crossed lines when people want me to write my name. And I leave the writing of this story to the scribe who follows me. |
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