Windows Into the Fair
I wrapped my face against the cold morning. These southern climes had nothing on the cold northern slopes of home, but could still leave a body chilled. Especially when the body isn't the one I came in on. I hate the soft, small body of the boy I wear. I long for the huge, muscled frame I was born with. No respectable Jarl would be found following such a small southerner. No longer am I Einarr the Giant. Now I am simply Firdaus.
Dalm Eberhard, Erdach Kodesh, The Tarrigan Castinate
Sure and true, I have never seen anything like the world of Erdach Kodesh. We arrived here in what passes for the early dawn here. I could tell everyone was surprised at the sudden move in places, and it was the first time that I was really sure that we had shifted places...usually it just seems that we are traveling from one place to another...and then we are just there. I have found myself worried about my memory often of late, never quite sure that what I am remembering is right or that my brain is curdled like old milk.
I had been lying down on my bunk, thinking that my Lord Theodoric would be coming by soon to talk with me about the day, when the whole world seemed to fall away, and then roll decidedly into a Hades spawned hole. When my brain coalesced once more I was struggling not to vomit my nights supper all over myself. My head split like two woodsmen were cutting at it with axes. Blood ran from my nose where I had fallen down somewhere in the earth rolling moments. I wiped my face clean and went out into the night. Where before we were in a grassy park, our tents scattered comfortably near a brook. Now we were situated on a flat frying pan of gravelly earth. Where the night should have been spread with a panoply of stars, instead there was only a gulf of unbroken black. There were no cook fires burning, here and there folks were kindling fires, but everyone seemed to be suffering the same vertigo and disorientation that I was. I quickly wiped the blood from my face and lit a torch so I cold see in the near complete inky darkness. Having lit a way to see, I dashed to the area of camp where my Master should have been.
Theodoric was not on his story telling platform. I circled it quickly, and was near panic for my Master when he grabbed my arm, holding my flailing torch at a small distance from himself. His silver gray eyes locked on mine and I felt a wave of calm overtake me. "Fear not Eben. I am of good health, and would not care to be set afire with a careless swoop of yon brand." he gently remonstrated me.
