Name: Oyunguri

Abstract: The Storyteller

Detail: Under the bright stars and planets of the night desert sky, the young ones huddled round the campfire to hear the stories of titans and dragons.

"The dragons swarmed like wasps over the clouds," Oyunguri whispered, her hands curled like claws over her head. "They opened their fangy jaws and howled with a howl like thunder, their breath like the flares of the sun, or the rage of the ocean, or the crack of a mountain. The earth itself shook with fear to behold them, because they were hungry. Do you know what they craved?"

A child squealed: "Sourcestone!"

"They smelled the sourcestone!" Oyungui agreed with a hiss. "The sourcestone which is Telara itself, which is in every Eth and Mathosian, every Kelari and Bahmi, in you and in me. They would taste it, they would bite down with their great jaws, they would devour every last drop for their own bottomless savage greed!"

The children had heard the story a thousand times before, but still they clutched their blankets and dolls with excitable fright.

Since the beginning of Oyunguri's life, she had been earning the name of Storyteller. As a child she made up quick epics of sweeping fiery birds and heroes from afar, conquests and sprites and deep purpose behind the beetle eyes of woodland creatures. Once she had convinced the other children so confidently that the desert foxes were fairies in disguise that it took the village elder to put a stop to the secret smuggling of milk to their dens.

As she grew older, her skills took a shape altered from that of mischief. Oyunguri's sefir tell her own story of wandering alone in the desert for ten days, the last of the search party for a missing child; she had found the little girl buried in the sand against the beat of the sun, and had carried her home. They tell of the bloody attack of dragon-cult raiders, and how she had woven stories to keep the small and the helpless hopeful while swords clashed outside. They tell the story of the cold iced rain of a strange winter, and the fires and shelters that she had dreamed out of the broken totems of the ruins.

The tribe enjoyed a great bounty due to Oyunguri's limitless imagination and her quick use of the shining artifacts they found buried along their nomadic trails. The children declared that she took the artifacts to her dreams, and returned with new toys and warm blankets when supplies were thin. This very campfire had been forged in Oyunguri's dreams, and it flashed with flames of blue and white.

"The dragons circled overhead; their great leather wings boomed with each flap." She flapped her arms, bright with gold trinkets. "And then, the biggest of them all -- the dragon of death and extinction -- rose up dark and empty, and stole the breath from the world. He blotted out the sun, he shrouded the stars in death, and he said --"

[i]KZZZKKK[B]BOOOOOM[/B][/i]

The sky cracked, and a colossal force ripped into the campsite. All she experienced was cold and darkness, and she felt her soul being ripped from her body before everything was shrouded in nothingness.

She awoke with a headache, in a cave, surrounded by machines and strangers, with the thunder of a lost battle crashing all around them. The children were long and far gone.