Chapter Text
******
POTENTIAL
Aughra, Raunip
long before AoR
Aughra, the first and only of her kind, gazed down at an incongruous rock. She had seen many rocks in her day, but never like this one that had fallen from the sky. What was to be done with it? She couldn’t ignore it. It was her job to sort out the pieces that made up the whole of Thra, and now this rock was one such piece. A piece of Thra, and yet a piece of something else.
A puzzle.
A possibility. That Aughra may be the first of her kind, but not the only. She raised a gnarled hand, breathed a breath, and lifted a new life out of this unexpected rock. A piece of Thra, and of something else. She could hardly wait to meet him.
******
GROWTH
urLii, Amri
before AoR
urLii did his best to ignore the tiny Gelfling. He unfolded an arm from his back and reached for a match to light a third candle, refusing to take his eyes off the book he was reading. There. Much better light.
But although urLii was a creature of great placidity, who should have been able to keep his focus, the little fellow just kept staring with those big black eyes.
“Can I help you?” urLii asked at last. Maybe I can give him what he wants and he’ll go away.
“Yes!” The Gelfling perked up. “Who are you? What are you reading? Can I read it? I read all of the books in Domrak already.”
“That’s a lot of books for such a tiny Gelfling.”
The Gelfling said nothing, but kept up his hopeful stare.
urLii sighed and waved him over. The Gelfling perked up from his crouching position and sprang over to urLii’s side, peeking at the book. “It is a history of the Age of Harmony,” said urLii. It was meant to be their first and only lesson, but the lessons never ended.
“Are you all right?”
urLii blinked at the Gelfling who stood before him. He was not as tiny as he used to be.
“I was just remembering something.”
“I know you’re busy,” said the not-so-tiny Gelfling. “But I need help with this potion. It smells… wrong.”
urLii walked over to his young pupil with a smile. Time for another lesson it seemed.
******
THE UNEXPECTED
Rian, Gurjin
five trine before AoR
Rian sat alone on a rock halfway between the castle and the shore. As a child visiting the castle, he had raced his father to this rock and back. It was one of their favorite traditions. Now after his first official week as a castle guard, he had needed a private place to sit and think, and the rock had popped into his mind.
He stared at the shore, the castle at his back, and worried. Being a castle guard was different than when he had visited the castle as the son of the captain, and yet, he was beginning to realize, he now somehow had to be both. The other guards treated him differently, but at the same time, his father showed him no favor. If only one or both of those things wasn’t true…
SPLASH.
Rian screamed in horror as his musings were interrupted by some sort of lake monster heaving itself onto the rock beside him.
“Hey,” the lake monster said.
Oh Thra, it’s just my roommate. “Where did you come from?” Rian said. “I thought you were a lake monster.”
Gurjin pointed to his neck. “Gills. You didn’t know Drenchen have gills?”
“I did not know that,” Rian said neutrally, trying to catch his breath.
“Well, you should really try to learn about other people’s cultures before you go around calling them lake monsters.”
“Yeah.” Great, now after everything else, I’ve insulted my new roommate.
After a moment or two of silence, Gurjin cleared his throat. “Actually, when I first met my friend Kylan—he’s a Spriton—I almost drowned him. I had no idea that other Gelfling didn’t have gills.”
“Oh geez, was he okay?”
“Oh yeah, he was fine. Just fine. We’re still friends.” Gurjin threw a stone into the water. “Although I guess my old life is all behind me now. Everything here is so different from home.”
Rian considered it. While he didn’t know as much about being a guard as the others seemed to expect, he did know a lot about the castle, and his home in Stone-in-the-Wood was less than a day’s travel away. No matter how confused he was feeling right now, he couldn’t be feeling as lonely as Gurjin.
“Well,” Rian said. “You have one new friend here already.” He playfully punched Gurjin on the shoulder. “Just don’t try to drown me.”