AzrasTale
WARNING: uNFINISHED sTORY (huff huff huff, almost a third done)
Chapter 1
The once was a bird-girl named Azra who lived among the Cloudy-Bottom bird people of the Stony Hills. Like every other bird person, she was very interesting, in that she looked like a bird, in everyway possible, but was actually a person, and in everyway possible thought and acted(and could not fly) like a person. This is what it meant to be a bird person. It also meant that you ate worms and bugs and small roots and plants that you dug up from underground and under rocks.
Well, one thing that loves to hide under rocks and underground is secrets. Many a bird person had found secrets while they were scrounging for food. And so even though the bird people were physically cut off from the happenings of the rest of the world, they were very worldly in their knowledge of the world's dirty secrets. They liked secrets, and took the business of secrets very seriously.
Azra, who at that time was known to wander off on her own to scrounge for food, found under a rock, an ancient and rather quiet secret. The secret asked her first to promise something.
"I am a secret, and according to the rules that govern me, I must tell you all about myself, but first I must make you promise that you will not tell me to those who would most want to know me..."
This was the first secret that Azra had ever found, but she had overheard in whispered voices that most secrets made you promise simple little things like this.
"Yes of course," she interrupted, "I won't tell this secret to anyone who would want to know it."
"Then you must never tell of me to any of the other bird-people because I am a secret about the true origins of the birdfolk," said the secret.
Azra's heart skipped hearing this, because she never assumed that she would find a secret so grand the very first time she found a secret.
The secret continued "...the Birdfolk did not always walk on the ground and eat worms they found under rocks and underground, they once flew in the sky like other birds, but they were not like other birds because they talked about things that birds would never find important, and they traveled through the air in ways that even birds cannot travel."
"But one of these birds, who were like your ansestor but now your like your cousins, fell from the sky and when she hit the ground she must have bumped her head because she never remembered again how to fly or how to travel through the air in ways that even birds cannot travel. And that one bird who fell was the greatest grandmother of the birdfolk."
"Now there are still birds left, who are like your ansestors but now more like your cousins, and they live far north-south-westerly of here, which would take a great while to walk to." And with something like that the secret went away (or Ezra went away, depending on your perspective).
Azra didn't know what to do and felt a sudden wave of loneliness knowing that she could never tell any of her friends or family about what she had learned. And she also knew that there she could never live out the rest of her life never telling anyone. And she knew she couldn't tell anyone because it was well known that if you broke a promise you lost all your memories and became just a stupid bird that flew around and ate flies. So she decided that her only option was to walk north-south-westerly until she found the birds that were like her ansestors but now more like cousins.
To save grief from her family and friends, Ezra decided that it would be better to even leave that night and without goint back home letting anyone know she was doing had left.
"It will just be easier this way," she thought, "everyone will think I was eaten by a fox while I was out scrounging for food alone, and they wouldn't ask me about my crazy quest and I won't have to lie to them or risk telling them the truth." This thought made Azra very sad and made her cry, even though she knew it was the best way to do things. And so she wept as she walked away from her home and everything she loved.
Eventually she found a road that seemed to twist and turn but still go north-south-westerly. It was an old road, and she only knew it was a road because ever few steps and sometimes many steps apart, there would be a ruin of a stone pillar or two. It made her wonder how old the pathway was and who built it. As she wondered she noticed that when she turned around she was much farther away from home then she thought she had the ability to walk in such a short time. She could barely see her home and she was already forgetting how sad her situation was.
What she did not know was that the path she was walking on had an old spell that made whomever walked on it move faster, especially those who were on a sacred quest. Unaware of this fact Ezra walked on into the night trying to make as much distance from her home as possible so that no one would go looking for her and end up finding her and then she would have to deal with the stickiness of that situaion. As the moon started to set Ezra fell asleep under a broken pillar on the side of the path.
She was awoken early the next morning by a loud ruckus created by a band of riff-raff faerie-folk camping right off the path. When Azra looked around she realized she was in a place that was much colder and stranger than she had remembered. She was in the domain of the Tundra Wolf Queen.
The band of riff-raff-faerie-folk were just getting up and starting up a fire from the coals of campfire from the night before. One of them noticed a little bird who was looking at them and said
"Good morning bird, whats your name."
The whole party was shocked to hear the bird call back, "My name is Ezra, and I'm kinda lost and hungry and cold, can I wake up near your fire and eat some of your food."
The riff-raffs were happy to accomadate her because they were so interested in her. And so they all huddled together around the campfire and tried to shake of the sleepy feeling of early morning. Soon enough all the faerie-folk started asking questions of Ezra, not only about what exactly she was, but about her homeland and about what she was doing in the Tundra Wolf Queen's domain.
Everyone was very confused as to why Azra couldn't fly, and whether or not she was a Faerie or Bird or Wizard or Changeling or something. But in the asking of questions, many stories of Azra's homeland were told, and in response many stories of the travel's of the riff-raffs were told. Soon They were spending the whole morning, and the next day and on into the evening telling stories and attracting all sorts of attention from all the little things in the area that were curious about the storytelling.
Even though the Faeries were planning on travel to the next town, they decided that they should delay their trip and instead camp in the same spot again and celebrate their new found friend. Soon alochol and merriment made it so no one noticed a mean looking boogie creep up on the party. He had been listening to the stories and had quickly realized that Ezra was a very unique creature and would probably be of interest to the Tundra Wolf Queen. So in the midst of the drunken foolery, he kidnapped Azra's sleeping body and took her to Tundra Wolf Queen's Tower.
The Faeries woke up the next morning with horrible hangovers and scattered memories of stories told to them by a little bird.
Meanwhile the bird-girl Azra woke up to the sound of footsteps on cold stone, and found herself in the Tundra Wolf Queen's tower.
See also
— AeGeylwynd? - 03.5 May 2003
