“A long, long time ago, when there many living creatures across the land, there was a grazer named Belzekotah. And one day, he found a magical stone hidden in the earth! No one knows how the stone got there, or if it was there all along. But when he found it, he found out that the stone had a very great power.”
Five pairs of eyes were wide with excitement, anticipation, and even a hint of fear. Four members of the audience were young horned grazers, watching as their father paused melodramatically with his face pointed away. The fifth member was a slender scavenger with a blue stripe on her nose, bouncing with almost as much enthusiasm as the children.
“The stone offered him a power beyond anything that anyone had ever seen, but to use this power, he had to be linked to the shadow stone. That meant that if anything happened to the stone, it would happen to him too! He did it anyway and started to use the power. But he was very evil, and wanted only to use the power only help himself. So he started to trap hunters, and even grazers, if they were mean to him. And when he thought that wasn’t enough, he started to kill them!”
Rhoger turned back abruptly, causing one of his children to gasp and another to drop to the ground. The other two, and Mirri, hung their mouths open in absolute shock.
“He created an army of shadow creatures out of all of the hunters and grazers he had killed—or so they say. He sent out this army to destroy everything! But then, seven brave grazers and hunters were able to capture the magical stone, and they broke it into seven pieces! Belzekotah was trapped inside, with all of the bad things he did trapped in each one. They scattered the pieces far away from each other, so that Belzekotah would be trapped forever!” He turned his head away, pausing again for effect. “Or so he thought,” Rhoger’s eyes were wide as he spoke in exasperation. “After hundreds of years, the seven stones were found, and when other grazers and hunters held the stones, they didn’t know they were waking up Belzekotah!”
One of the children again gasped as the other three glanced at him.
“And that’s when a brave grazer name Rain came in.”
“Oh, I like this part!” Mirri bounced.
“Rain found the shadow of Belzekotah… but he tricked her.” Rhoger frowned. “He tricked her into finding the seven stones and bringing them right to him—so that he could come back!”
“No!” Rhoger’s only daughter sputtered through the paws clamped to her lips.
“And he did!!”
“No!!”
“But Rain stopped him!!” Mirri exclaimed with her hands wide.
“Now, Mirri, I’m the one telling the story,” the father tilted his head.
She clamped her fingers across her mouth and shot a quick glance to Rhoger’s daughter when the young grazer began to chuckle.
“But when Belzekotah brought back his shadow army, all of the living creatures came together to try and stop him. Everyone had to fight against the shadows—including me—but they were not able to stop him that way. Rain knew just how to send Belzekotah back into the shadows. She had to break his stone, but to do that, she had to risk her own life.”
Mirri gasped despite bouncing with the excitement of already knowing the ending.
“But she was so brave, she did it anyway—she found his stone and broke it—and Rain the crested grazer defeated Belzekotah!”
The four grazer children and Mirri began to cheer. A sixth cheer startled all of them into glancing behind.
Three adolescent tyrants were huddled just outside the tree line, and two were now scowling at the one that had uttered the cheer. He embarrassedly hunched his shoulders as the female tyrant smacked him with her arm.
Rhoger could only laugh and puff out his chest out at another successful retelling of the story.
Arren rolled her eyes at her mate before glancing aside.
“That’s the abbreviated version.” The blue grazer that sat beside her smirked.
“Very. Can’t bore the children—or Mirri—with details, you know.” Arren nodded.
Rain chuckled and watched the children attempt to recreate the storming of Belzekotah’s shadow army against their father as the tyrants and Mirri began rooting for sides. Rain still bore the scars and bruises from her role in the battle, though most were on the mend. Only her left arm remained bound in vine and leathery skins as it healed from being broken in several places. She was sure she wouldn’t survive the cave’s collapse, but, clearly, her days as a survivor had not yet ended.
“Where are you headed?” Arren asked.
Rain’s lips pulled taught. “I’m not sure. I figured I’d just walk along the coast for a few days.” She looked kindly back at the horned grazer after a moment. “I’ll be back.”
“Good.” Arren nodded and turned back to supervise her family. “This whole land is indebted to you; from defeating Belzekotah to softening Farro’s heart. I’ve never seen such a union between hunters and grazers.”
Rain smiled lightly as Arren’s daughter proceeded to roar playfully at one of the tyrants, and he happily obliged her by acting afraid. “While I regret ever helping to release Belzekotah in the first place, I’m grateful for the allies I picked up along the way and for freeing them from the influence of the stones they held.”
“I heard that Farro’s heart had already been pricked long before the stone was out of his reach…” Arren tilted her head in Rain’s direction.
“Is that right?” Rain’s cheeks blushed with color and she began to climb to her feet with a smirk. “I’m not sure I’d trust what Rhoger—or Mirri—overhear.”
The motherly grazer chuckled under her breath as Rain collected her gear with her good arm. With a brief farewell and a wave to Rhoger, Mirri, and the kids, the blue grazer started to the beach under the clouded evening.
She could smell rain in the air as she stepped across the sandy shore. Three-toed footsteps followed behind her until the ebbing ocean rose up and blurred them. The staff strapped to her back was newly made to replace the one that had broken. The armor upon her good arm was worn and cracked after being excavated from the rubble, but it was still functional. The bag on her side carried a handful of stems and herbs.
She passed what was left of her cave, and the surrounding beach was still strewn with rocks and uneven patches of sand. Farro had witnessed the vortex orb and all of its stony pieces melting away with the rest of the shadowy substance upon their destruction. This left behind only traces of each stone’s power on the six living individuals who had found them. The only piece that remained unaccounted for was the small orb once embedded in Rain’s forehead—although for all they knew, it had melted away along with the rest.
As Rain continued her trek long the shoreline, the gentle pattering of raindrops began to fall across the beach. She slowed and stopped, settling her toes in the sand as she looked up into the clouds. Raindrops ran down her crest, across the scar on her forehead, and down the bridge of her nose. She took in a deep breath and shut her eyes.
“I don’t know if you’re really in the rain,” the blue grazer breathed into the air. “I don’t know if you even hear me at all. I know that it’s silly for me to think you are... but maybe none of that even matters.”
Her purple eyes opened. “When it rains, I remember you. You may not hear me, you may not really be answering back, but the rain reminds of when I could hear you. I remember how it felt to be near you, and the comfort you brought me.” A smile spread across her lips. “You may be my biggest weakness... but I’ll take all the reminders of you I can get.”
The rain remained soft and steady as she continued on her way. The waves continued to roll gently at her side to fill in the rest of her soundscape. The smile remained on her lips as her mother’s voice returned to her thoughts and she focused on the shore ahead of her with a sense of renewed purpose.
“You were born in the rain. And you will always be a survivor.”
<< Chapter 10
Thank you for reading!