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[i]Squall Whisperers, Minstrels[/i][/center]

Much had changed in the past decade.

Pallamino the Third had stayed with Hujaya, Kaleo, Sulingu and Pyouroff for a couple years, learning the ways of the Stormbards, before deciding to set out independently. He parted with the blessings and goodwill of the other Stormbards.

Shortly afterwards, Pyouroff chose to settle back in his home village among the Hyummin, his age catching up to him. There he found a few more selka to apprentice as new Stormbards. Pyouroff had also become a source of oral lore among the Hyummin, his age and experience qualifying him as an elder.

The romance between Hujaya and Kaleo blossomed into love and eventually children. They had a boy, a selka toddler named Delfon who travelled with them in their nomadic lifestyle. Kaleo had learned how to play percussion to fill the absence left by Pyouroff.

Sulingu was still travelling with Hujaya and Kaleo, and she was now a fully grown woman and effectively family. Sulingu was still as graceful as ever, and she had also learned the lyre from Hujaya.

Hujaya, Kaleo, Sulingu and Delfon had spent the last few years travelling the coast between Hyummin and Ubbo. The increased aggression and expansionism of the Hyummin had not gone unnoticed by the Stormbards. What the Stormbards could do about it was limited. As Hyummin natives, they did not want to fight against their own people. Yet neither did they want to fight for the Hyummin against the people of other villages, for the Stormbards had travelled broadly and made friends broadly. The Stormbards did not wield much political power, so did not have the ability to directly lobby the Hyummin. But what they did have was cultural influence and stories. They shared songs of the downfall of the Grottu, reminding the Hyummin of the dangers of warfare.

In spite of this, the travelling Stormbards lived fairly peaceful lives, sharing with selka the beauty of music and the stories of Delphina. It was not until now that they had a chance to truly show Delphina's strength.

[hr]
"I wanna food!"

Hujaya sighed and looked up at Heliopolis. "You've already eaten recently. It's hardly past midday."

"Wanna food!" pouted Delfon.

Hujaya looked pleadingly at Kaleo. Kaleo knelt down, grabbed Delfon, picked him up and gave the toddler a stern look. "Delfon, what does Kirron teach us?" On getting nothing but a mutter, Kaleo continued slowly, "We have to earn our fun. What have you done to earn your food?"

Delfon muttered, "Hungry. Feet hurt."

"You need to get stronger, Delfon. We walk a lot. Look, how about if you don't complain again between now and afternoon, you can have the rabbit's leg. Deal?"

Delfon considered this for a few moments, his eyes going to the butchered smoked rabbit's carcass tied to his father's side. "Okay."

Kaleo put Delfon down on the ground. "Good boy."

Sulingu watched the scene with a smile, then continued with her lilting gait. Hujaya and Kaleo sang a little travelling song behind her to keep Delfon occupied as they walked. Sulingu was a short distance ahead of the others when she crested a small hill and stopped in her tracks. Her hand went to her flute. "H-Hujaya. Y-you need to see this," she stammered.

Hujaya and Kaleo stopped their song and ran up to the hill beside Sulingu.

"By Kirron's whiskers," exclaimed Kaleo.

"What happened?" Hujaya asked, her mouth gaping and eyes wide.

Before them the trunks and branches of the trees had turned black and their leaves turned white. The grass and undergrowth had withered and turned grey. On the ground lay dead birds, similarly blackened. A few birds still stood on the branches, their feathers grey and eyes dimly glowing. White motes drifted about like some kind of sickly ash. Before their eyes one of the motes settled on a healthy tree and sunk into its bark, a grey blemish spreading from where it entered. The forest was completely silent, with no sounds of life.

Delfon reached the trio, and Kaleo held him close protectively. They stared silently at the scene, unsure what to make of it. Eventually Sulingu said, "I don't like it."

Hujaya's eyes went towards the coast. "There's a village not far down-beach from here." Sulingu and Kaleo knew well the intent behind Hujaya's words. "Let's find a squall and move."

The Stormbards pulled out their instruments - Kaleo his drum, Sulingu her bone flute, Hujaya her lyre - and played the Song of Calling as they walked hastily around the blighted forest. Delfon was quiet, knowing not to interrupt his parents while they sung to squalls and also subdued by the grim atmosphere. Hujaya offered a silent prayer to Delphina, and soon they had a squall. They made the squall dance around them, keeping the miasma at bay.

With trepidation they walked towards and along the beach. They knew a tribe lived around here somewhere, and every step they went without seeing another selka made them more anxious. Then they heard a sound which made their hearts sink: wails of grief. "No," breathed Hujaya, and she quickened her pace, the others rushing behind her.

A sorrowful sight met Hujaya's eyes as she rounded the top of the sand bank. In the camp of the selka lay the sick and dying, black and white blotches covering their fur like a pox. Those who were still healthy knelt beside their loved ones, trying to administer the simple remedies they normally used to no avail. Some of the ill thrashed about where they lay, while some simply stared soullessly into the sky above with glowing white eyes.

Hujaya saw their plight, and in an outpouring of grief she sung,

"Selka sorrowful, selka crying,
I came here and saw your plight.
Although I cannot save your dying,
Delphina's winds can stop the blight."

Sulingu and Kaleo crested the sand bank behind Hujaya, with Delfon struggling along behind them. Sulingu gasped, her flute playing stopping. Kaleo kept beating his drum. Sulingu, remembering herself, stepped forwards and gracefully swept a semicircle in front of herself, directing the squall to blow over and around the camp.

The selka looked up as the Stormbards approached and the wind blew about them. A boy in his mid teens stood and to meet Hujaya. His face was streaked with more wetness than the usual residual sadness from living on land. "Hello, Hujaya. I'm... not sure whether it is good or bad you have come now."

Hujaya recognised the boy, for she had met this tribe only a couple winters ago. This was the chief's son. "Well, we're here now, Lilut. Where's your father?"

The boy looked over his shoulder to one of the marred lying on the ground, and he sobbed as fresh tears welled up in his eyes. "Oh, I'm so sorry," Hujaya said. She pulled Lilut into a hug to comfort him as he cried for his father.

"Hujaya," came a gentle reminder from Kaleo, who along with Sulingu was still trying to find a pattern for the squall to settle into. Delfon hugging onto Kaleo's leg did not help matters.

Hujaya sighed. "Coming." She stepped back from Lilut and gave a tuneful hum as she inspected the scene. She then strummed a chord on her lyre which made a melancholy sound when combined with her humming. The squall shifted its orbit to match the new resonance. With Hujaya and Sulingu controlling the squall, Kaleo was able to take a break to comfort the frightened Delfon.

As the Stormbards ensured the squall kept the perimeter of the camp clear of sickly motes, the people of Lilut's tribe recounted how about two days ago they had seen the first of the motes blow in from across the sea. Several of their number had fallen deathly ill, and the plants had also started to wither. Nothing they had could treat the illness, not even eye-fish scales. They had moved from where they had been before, but the blight had spread, and now there were more sick selka than healthy selka. They had been faced with the choice of abandoning their dying to flee for their own safety, or staying put and risking further infection. Now that the Stormbards had arrived, they could wait around and deliver the last rites. An alma had arrived and sat nearby, watching the dying selka from a respectful distance.

Hujaya, meanwhile, was sitting down and playing a sombre melody on her lyre. The combined strain of watching the squall and hearing the tragedy which had befallen Lilut's tribe showed on her face. "Why? Why must it be like this? If only we had gotten here sooner. Then we could have stopped it." Hujaya buried her face in her hands. Sulingu snapped up in alarm, scrambled for her own lyre and picked up the melody where Hujaya had abruptly stopped. The squall wavered only briefly in its flight.

Hujaya looked up only to gesture around at the perimeter set out by the squall. "We can only protect those this close, and we can't even heal them. And how many other tribes are there who are also suffering this blight?" Hujaya lamented. "Why, Delphina? What have they done to deserve this? How can we show your strength when all we have is a puff of wind?"

There was a distant screech of a pyrgerakia. Yet it was something else that made Hujaya raise her head.

[colour=lightseagreen][i]Give me your lyre.[/i][/colour]

Hujaya blinked, a look of confusion on her face. "What?"

[colour=lightseagreen][i]Give me your lyre.[/i][/colour]

Hujaya trembled as she looked down at her lyre. She had made it herself years ago. It was what she had been playing when Delphina visited her. She had replaced the strings a few times, and it was of rather simple design, but it was her most treasured possession. There were a few moments of hesitation and reservation. Then she stood up and walked towards the ocean.

"Hujaya, what are you doing?" called Kaleo, but Hujaya did not answer. She waded until the water was up to her knees, then she slipped the lyre's strap over her head and lay the lyre on the water. A wave receded past her, dragging the lyre out to sea. She watched as it became more distant, standing there as the waves lapped around her legs, questions and doubt buzzing inside her mind.

Suddenly, the sky was split in half by a bolt of lightning which seared purple blotches into Hujaya's vision. The deafening thunder made her stagger as it rumbled through her bones. By the time Hujaya's vision had cleared, Kaleo had rushed to her side and held her arm. "Hujaya, are you alright?"

Hujaya looked at where her lyre had been, where the lightning had struck. "My lyre..." She could see her lyre being carried by the waves back to shore, but it had a faint blue glow. As it got closer, they saw that it crackled with sparks and hummed with electricity.

Cautiously, Hujaya reached towards the lyre. There was a faint crackle and a prickling sensation in her fingers when Hujaya touched it and she drew back her hand reflexively. On realising that she was unharmed, she reached out again and picked it up. The strings glowed electric blue and thrummed with power. Hujaya looked to Kaleo beside her, and back to Sulingu and the other selka in the camp behind her, who were watching on with fascination. Hujaya slipped the strap of her lyre back over her head, then cautiously brought a finger to a string and strummed it.

[i]Thrumm-umm-umm[sub]-umm-mm-m-m...[/sub][/i]

The sound carried from Hujaya, past the camp and over the horizon like thunder rolling across the sky. The squall orbiting around the camp broke from its path to circle around Hujaya, until Sulingu's music called it back. All the selka looked on in awe.

Kaleo's whiskers twitched. "I think you called more squalls."

Hujaya looked up at the sky. There indeed appeared to be a few squalls flying in the distance. She strummed a few more strings on her lyre.

[i]THR-THR-THRUMM-UMM-umm-umm-umm[sub]-umm-umm-mm-m-m...[/sub][/i]

The squall circling the camp sprayed raindrops across all the selka gathered. A few seconds later, the distant squalls reacted, surging ahead with a burst of speed. A huge grin stretched across Hujaya's face. She looked back at the camp, then along the beach. She started to wade back to shore. "Clap me in, Kaleo."

Kaleo looked at Hujaya for a few moments more in awed silence. Then he clapped once, a second time, then four claps in a row, Hujaya skipping in time with Kaleo's clapping. Then she played her new lyre and sung.

"Praise to Delphina, her power she gave,
Now I can show you the tricks which can save.
With this lyre I have Delphina's great might,
So look and see a most marvellous sight."

The Lightning Lyre's melody filled the air with electricity and otherworldly tones. Its sound carried for an enormous distance, but despite its apparent volume Hujaya's voice could still be heard clearly.

"With my playing I can command the breeze,
For the storm spirits my song does appease.
With a word and a note I make it blow,
The wind obeys and follows where I go."

Two more squalls appeared, and Hujaya sent them into an outwards spiral centred on the camp. Their orbits grew wider and wider, expanding much further than anything the Stormbards had done in the past.

"With my playing I can command the sky,
That blue place where the birds, clouds and squalls fly.
No distance is beyond Delphina's reach,
My song is heard on the sea, land and beach."

Even more squalls arrived and joined the others, making counting them difficult. Hujaya sent the squalls spiralling in an elliptical path which stretched up- and down-beach over the horizon, covered a good stretch of ocean, and pushed inland slightly while keeping the blighted trees outside the perimeter. Overhead storm clouds formed from the squalls' presence, spiralling around with Hujaya in the eye of the storm.

"With my playing I'll keep the blight away,
No more selka here need to die this day.
As far as can been seen my song is heard.
Praise to Delphina, my prayer she answered."

There was a cry of a pyrgerakia as a flare of fire swooped down and set the trees just outside the blighted forest ablaze. The legion of squalls which had been summoned by Hujaya pushed against the flames, fanning them into the marred trees. Slowly the marred trees burned down, and Hujaya pushed the perimeter set up by the squalls further inland.

Minutes ticked by to hours and the day gave way to night, but still Hujaya played with notes of thunder. Kaleo had hand-fed Hujaya and gotten her water, but the extended performance exhausted her. Hujaya's fingers ached. Her movements grew weary. Her eyes drooped.

"You have to rest, Hujaya," Kaleo said, concern in his voice.

"I can't stop. They're counting on me. Them, and everyone else I can reach," Hujaya replied.

"And what will happen to them when you pass out while controlling a hurricane?"

"If I stop now, the blight will come back."

"I could play," Sulingu offered.

Hujaya thought for a few moments, then said, "Okay."

Kaleo helped Hujaya slip the strap of her lyre off while she continued to play. Sulingu stood close beside Hujaya. "You ready?" Hujaya asked. Sulingu nodded. After Hujaya had struck a chord at the end of a phrase, she passed the instrument to Sulingu, who took only a moment to start playing the next phrase. The notes fell uncertainly for a few seconds as Sulingu reacted to the initial jolts of electricity and adapted to the new sound, but she settled into Hujaya's previous melody quickly enough.

Hujaya flopped down to the ground in exhaustion. She barely had time for a single breath before Delfon clambered on top of her. "That was wow, mum! And loud! And windy!"

Though she was tired, Hujaya giggled and gave Delfon a kiss on the forehead. "It was," she concurred. She hugged her child to her chest. "Now, it's past time for you to sleep. Let's get some rest." Hujaya yawned and closed her eyes, drifting off to the melody of the storm.

[hider=Summary]
We start with the decade time-skip. Pallamino has set out independently. Pyouroff has settled with the Hyummin and taken up some apprentices. Hujaya and Kaleo have had a child named Delfon. Stormbards spread songs and story in peaceful opposition to aggressive Hyummin expansion.

Hujaya, Kaleo, Sulingu and Delfon are travelling when they encounter the Mar motes. They use a squall to keep the Mar motes away. When they reach the local tribe, they find that a majority of the selka have already succumbed to the blight and Hujaya is distraught. They can keep the Mar motes away from this singular camp, but they can't do any more. Hujaya prays in despair.

Ashalla answers her prayer, requesting Hujaya's lyre. Hujaya hesitantly complies, casting her lyre upon the sea, where it gets struck by lightning and turns into the Lightning Lyre.

The Lightning Lyre is an artifact. Its music carries for an enormous distance like thunder, although is generally not deafening at close range. The true power of the Lightning Lyre becomes apparent when used by a Stormbard, for it can call and control squalls on a similarly enormous scale. While a normal Stormbard could generally control only a couple of squalls at a time, a Stormbard with the Lightning Lyre could control hundreds in unison over many kilometers.

Hujaya uses the Lightning Lyre to push back the Mar motes as far as she can. Pyrgerakia arrive to burn down marred forests, extending the region she can keep clear. Hujaya performs for many hours. Eventually she's convinced to hand the instrument over to Sulingu. Sulingu keeps playing while Hujaya rests.

[b]Might/Prestige[/b]
[u]Ashalla[/u]
[i]Start:[/i] 0 MP & 4 FP
[i]Spent:[/i] 2 FP to create the Lightning Lyre (Storms Enhanced) (1/2 FP Artifacts created)
[i]End:[/i] 0 MP & 2 FP
[i]Portfolios:[/i] 8/10 Colour
8/10 Music
3/10 Sculpture

[u]Stormbards[/u]
[i]Start:[/i] 8 Prestige
[i]Earned:[/i] 3 Prestige (major role, followed quest)
[i]Spent:[/i] 1 Prestige, to push limits by protecting a large area from the Mar motes.
[i]End:[/i] 10 Prestige
[/hider]