Archive and Dreamwhisper

Archive

Bonded to: White-Silver Swirled Blue m Ath

Age: 1200 (+) Sex: Male
Soul Name: bheal Known By: Dreamwhisper
Mate Status/Sex Preference: Lifemated (Dreamwhisper), straight
Children: on the way
Parents/Relatives: all deceased
Height: 5'6" Build: strong, muscular
Hair Color, Length, Style: brown, shoulder length, wavy
Eye Color, Size, Shape: grey, narrow and slanted
Skin Tone: pale
Voice Quality: rarely speaks aloud, voice is gravelly and gruff
Clothing -- Summer: grey leather pants, black boots, slate cloak
Clothing -- Winter: add thick black leather shirt
Jewlery Worn, Made: twine armbands (usually over sleeves)
Tatoos/Markings/Scars: three clawmarks on chest from animal attack
Pets/Animals Kept: none
Notable Posessions: his memory
Holt Function: archivist, memory keeper
Magic? How Powerful? Sending 12/10 (yes, that powerful), perfect memory 10, Magic Feeling 5/10, Hypnosis 2/10
Climate/Locations Preferred: Mountainous, snowy and rugged terrain, likes fall and winter best
General Likes: meditation, the truth without having to take it, songbirds
General Dislikes: too many people, gossip, his old tribe's chief
Fears/Worries: that his old chief will come looking for them
Special Strange Info: See below
Basic Personality: deliberate, cautious, occasionally explosive
How they feel about
Humans: old, old hatred
Elves -- herders: used to that kind of lifestyle
Elves -- magic users: it's good to be the best at what is needed
Elves -- bond-riders: half-blooded creatures usually bother him... but Dreamwhisper doesn't
Trolls, etc: never met one

***

Dreamwhisper

Bonded to: Light Green f Camorth

Age: 200 Sex: Female
Soul Name: nyal Known By: Archive
Mate Status/Sex Preference: Lifemated (Archive), straight
Children: on the way (less than 1 turn through pregnancy)
Parents/Relatives: Back at old tribe's lands
Height: 4'4" Build: slender, slinky
Hair Color, Length, Style: honey blond, past waist, wavy
Eye Color, Size, Shape: deep, remarkable blue, wide, round
Skin Tone: pale olive-yellow
Voice Quality: soft, almost inaudible, sweet singing voice
Clothing -- Summer: leather shirt and skirt, shoes
Clothing -- Winter: add fur cloak
Jewlery Worn, Made: none
Tatoos/Markings/Scars: none
Pets/Animals Kept: none
Notable Posessions: none
Holt Function: Seer
Magic? How Powerful? Sending 9/10, Magic Feeling 9/10, Future Sight 2/10, Animal Bonding 1/10
Climate/Locations Preferred: hilly, rocky terrain, spring and summer are favored, shadowy and shaded woods
General Likes: being believed, racing through the woods on cat-back, summer storms
General Dislikes: having to leave her home, having visions, being injured
Fears/Worries: like Archive, that their old chief will send someone out to get them; afraid of heights to a small extent
Special Strange Info: See below
Basic Personality: usually open and sweet, if quiet; sometimes mysterious and withdrawn
How they feel about
Humans: scared of them
Elves -- herders: enjoy their company
Elves -- magic users: impressed - but hates being one of them
Elves -- bond-riders: she wanted to bond another cat, before having been forced out of the tribe
Trolls, etc: never even heard of them

Special information about Archive and Dreamwhisper:

This pair of elves, disparate in age by almost a millennium, have recently Recognized and also been thrown from their tribe. Their chief, Three-Locks, declared Dreamwhisper to be a taint upon them, for having cat-blooded ancestry (most of whom had been driven out before then, but a campfire tale inadvertently told by Archive brought out this information). Also she was well known to have prophetic visions, including ones which told of Three-Locks' involvement in disturbing activities with Humans (no one likes to see children die, not even human ones - except him). So to avoid any further conflicts, Three-Locks declared her exiled. And she would have gone, but for Archive's insistance she remain. He felt that she knew one more important thing - not just his soul name which she did, but that a huge skyfire storm was on the way. During this storm, he spirited her away. However, the fact that Archive holds every piece of this small tribe's history (they may have been an old offshoot of the Twin Peaks cat-riders, in fact, though it would have to have dated back to when Twin Peaks was actually founded!) he is of more value than the cat-rider and seeress. So Three-Locks has indeed sent out search parties to look for his errant pair, and Dreamwhisper fully believes him capable of murdering her to get Archive back.

Their Recognition during the storm was a momentous occasion for them - but they had no time to consummate this event until more recently. They ran away from their tribe's lands eastward, just over a turn of the seasons before now. They've encountered other elves along the way, some who have come with them and some who were headed elsewhere. They feel strongly compelled to remain at Bald Mountain.

Partially of course, because it's much safer among other elves - and mostly because of the dragons. Who would dare mess with a dragon? Even Three-Locks would have to think twice before doing that!

***

A turn ago...

"Are we anywhere even close to safe?" Asked Dreamwhisper, and her mate shook his head.

"Not yet, you know how far Stickwalker used to travel to scout for the tribe," Archive reminded her. Though Stickwalker had gotten injured when Dreamwhisper was young, she recalled that he claimed many things about the area too far from the tribe's lands to see from even the high hills. They could still see those high hills - with difficulty through the storm - and that meant that they were still much too close to rest.

The storm remained steady, with huge peals of thunder occasionally breaking the heavy patter of rain. Archive's feet were sure on the wet muddy ground, and Dreamwhisper's went without trace. But they both knew that to rest too long in even this heavy downpour would allow Three-Locks and his hunters to find them.

They headed down through the foothills toward a huge valley which they knew had Humans living in it. If they passed through there safely, the likelyhood that Three-Locks people would pursue them was lessened. They'd get sidetracked and probably wage a brief war on the human tribes just for the sake of taking out anger on something.

Both Archive and Dreamwhisper felt bad that they had to leave their tribe - it was all Dreamwhisper had known, her life, her parents, grandparents and one set of great-grandparents. But it was that other set of great-grands that was the rub. She was able to bond animals, specifically felines came to her frequently. She could befriend them, and at one point a puma large enough to ride had been her friend. But these cats were short-lived, and they were little more than pets to her for a time.

But that was more than enough for Three-Locks and his 'pure blooded or dead' group. Archive knew perfectly well how many shifters and half-blooded elves had once lived in their fold. How many of them were actually descended from those able to produce not just elves from their genes... He himself numbered among the 'pure' blooded descendants of one of that pair, and so ironically Dreamwhisper was a very distant kin of his. But then, what elf alive today could really say otherwise?

Archive was old - compared to Dreamwhisper. But he had known the World of Two Moons - Abode - all his life too. But the difference was that he remembered everything - and his parents aided that when he was quite young, by sharing their intimate memories with him. Thus he began spreading his knowledge of the tribe: with their permission he would slip in and 'copy' other people's memories. He filled in some six thousand turns worth of history of his people, that way. Nowhere near as far back as the First comers, the High Ones, though there was a time when they were his size and ability.

Archive was hardly a 'bookworm' of an elf. His function in the tribe and his magical abilities kept him mainly safe, but that was never going to stop him from being a physically fit and active member of the tribe. Only Three-Locks and his foursome of guards were actually bigger than Archive, and he dared not challenge any of them individually for fear they would reciprocate and not do it one-on-one.

Dreamwhisper on the other hand, had known she was different, even without Archive to tell her. He did not have to show her faces by the generation, when they Recognized. But he did, and she was glad. To know where she was from, to know who her ancestors were, those things were precious especially now. Dreamwhisper's skill in the woods was catlike, but she wasn't used to moving for so long.

She had to rest, though the storm raged on and they were still within the tribe's lands. "Tell me more about them," she asked, and Archive urged her to walk, instead of sitting.

"Come with me, and I will."

Sighing, but raising herself from the wet stone, adjusting the simple pack that she'd taken on her back, she took her beloved's hand and they continued at a slower pace down the hillside. The woods now took the brunt of the storm above, but that meant they had to be careful where they stepped. They kept to the wet parts which they knew would continue to be dripped on by the heavy water above. Their tracks would be obliterated either way, and this way they did not have to take to the trees themselves.

Archive and she kept to words, as well, instead of sending their thoughts. Both knew that there were other strong senders in the tribe, ones which could pick a mind out from a group, or from a huge distance. That was a tough point for them both. The elf in question had never directly stated her allegiance with Three-Locks, but neither had she decried his rule. They could not trust Beyond, no matter how much they both wanted to.

Perhaps she felt them still, but if she did, she wasn't actively searching for them. Archive began talking of the adventures of the early tribe, before he was born by a generation. The cat-riders had come from a pair of tall peaks, it was said. Before Three-Locks sent them away, before they'd become a shame instead of a glory, the cat-bonders paired off with the senders. With those who had aptitude in other magics. That was where Dreamwhisper's grandmother and father came from, clearly, these unions strengthened the magic.

"Which was odd, because I remember one of the cat-riders who was very old when he died," Archive said as they passed what they considered to be the final border of their tribe's lands (an old river which was now more than full with the rainwater and muck coming down from the hills above), "he said that the bond magic would destroy the other kinds of magic an elf of their tribe had. Perhaps he was wrong, maybe they just did not practice enough."

"Well," Dreamwhisper huffed as they walked, "I do know that when I was paired up with Yellowpad, you remember him? I didn't have as many future visions as I do now. Maybe there is something to it."

"Or perhaps they could see their bonding would lead them into trouble," Archive said sadly, "and wanted their kin to have something of more use to their new adopted tribemates..."

Pondering that brought them to the dawn, and the end of the storm for at least a brief while. It started up again shortly after sunrise but at least they did get the chance to dry off a bit. But they did not stop walking. They took the river, moving eastward along it as long as they could stay awake.

Dreamwhisper noticed the smoke rising from a valley beyond theirs, "humans," she said.

"Then let us rest here for a bit, they won't come up here, they will have too much to worry about with flooding from this river," he indicated it, it was raging and cold, and they had to keep a bit of distance between it and them as they rested, lest they be carried off.

Dreamwhisper fell to sleep almost immediately, and Archive watched over her for a while. When the rain started again he huddled nearer to her, and they switched off to watch and sleep another hour. When Archive woke again, it was to Dreamweaver crying.

"It is all right, we'll get--"

"It isn't that," Dreamwhisper said with a stutter. "Look."

She pointed at the river, which had clogged with trees and rubble from above. It was wider, but slightly less turbulent than the night before. In the midst of the tree limbs, rocks and mud was an elf. He was quite dead, one of the hand of guards that Three-Locks trusted.

Archive was torn between sadness at the loss of an elf's life, and glad that Three-Locks had lost one of his own to the violence of the world.

"It means they were close behind us," Dreamwhisper said, "we have to go... we have to keep going."

Archive nodded, hugging her toward him and they moved on down into the human valley. It was as bad as Archive assumed it would be, the valley floor was all but covered in water, trees and bushes were surrounded by a sheen of it as it bottomed out there.

He glanced at another tree, nearby, and grunted. "This has happened before, look," he indicated the water damage on another of the pine trees which hadn't fallen by them. Others nearby similarly had marks of flooding.

"Why did they build there, then?" Dreamwhisper asked, dumbfounded. She heard the calls of women, humans, looking for their children or husbands. "How horrid for them. I don't like them but they're still people, alive."

Archive declined to say why he felt little pity for them. That knot in his throat reminded him of his infrequent meetings with human hunters in centuries past. One had almost taken his arm off, another had beaten him and stolen his kill. If they were now too stupid to live above a flood plain, that was not Archive's problem. They continued to walk.

At their first opportunity to actually rest, they'd found a bear cave which had been abandoned perhaps a few hands of days before, a mother and her cubs most likely wandering around catching fish and teaching her cubs how to hunt. If they had been in their tribe's land, they would have chosen a safer place, but this was different. They could take down a bear - it was unlikely either of them could come to kill a fellow elf.

Still, too, they spoke instead of sending. In a hushed voice, Dreamwhisper said, "do you think he really has killed children? Even human children, I mean?"

After a moment, a strangely silent one, Archive said, "can we not talk about Three-Locks now?" He appeared to Dreamwhisper to have a bit of a randy look on his rugged face. "Nyal."

Suddenly a word caught up with her: bheal. "Oh!" She said, and at last they were able to complete the duties of Recognition...

***

They travelled eastward, as well as they could across the hilly lands. It actually grew harder as they went, they knew perfectly well that once they had cleared the Human's settlement the land rose toward the east. Picking their way around open ground, and resting more and more as time went by, Archive and Dreamwhisper at last felt more comfortable about remaining in any one place more than a day or so.

Even though they had no bond beasts to carry them far, their tribe mates had none either, and would have to pursue on foot, something much more difficult with the inevitable mudslides and dangers of a heavy wet season. It was drier here as they continued on.

The first among the people they met, elfin folk that is, was a white-haired wanderer named Moontwin. Though wary at first, they became tentative friends as she proved herself quite adept at hunting from a distance with her bow. Their trio became a hand and one afterwards, some three moons later. Shrike and Cinder came barrelling out of the woods upon a large wolf, who was paired with Shrike.

And then came Bowcrescent and the Kid...

Eventually, their party (finally reaching two hands and three in number) oriented upon a bare-faced squat mountain. Bowcrescent insisted that was where they all ought to head, anyway, and Archive realized that with the younger elf's powers they should obey.

When they rested before reaching the thickest of the woods north-west of the Bald Mountain, they saw something peculiar in the skies. Not birds, surely no bird was that big! And not a bat, but their wings more resembled the fingered ones of a bat...

"What... are those things?" Asked Dreamwhisper. But then she herself had a flash of the future. And another word came to her lips, "dragons," she said.

"I think we've come to the right place, yes," Archive said as the massive white-blue dragon landed, followed by others. All manner of color and size, these dragons were ridden by elves!

Welcomed into Bald Mountain, even Bowcrescent had to admit that a dragon might be more fun to spot things from, and Moontwin of course was elated to learn that she might hunt from far above the ground!

"First things first," Apogee, their chieftess announced. "Even though we did not start out as dragon riders, we've become a tribe of them. It isn't a requirement, that you ride. But you can keep up with us better if you do!"

After a number of days rest, and a celebration that only Shrike and Cinder might have seen the likes of, the group of travelers were split up again to different dragonry locations. It didn't take Archive long to understand that they were traveling off the planet, but some of the others had a bit of a tough time with that.

Oddly enough the place which Archive and Dreamwhisper had been sent was filled to the brim with humans. But weirdly they had ... elfin style powers? Magic? Though the children and adults here had to wave their hands and wands, utter weird words, they could do things like make something fly, turn colors, or even break out in itchy rashes!

Archive, normally standoffish at best when in big groups of people, found himself in awe of the human children here. They were mere moments in age compared to him, and yet there they were flying about on brooms and playing complicated dueling games with the professors!

Because the campus at Salem Academy was inherently magical, it didn't much matter that the elves did not speak the language. There were dragons to see about, and see they did!

***

"Don't you think she's wonderful?" Dreamwhisper asked Archive. "I think she's so pretty, like a green apple."

"Well at least she'll be able to blend in with trees," Archive said, hand resting on his blue-white's swirly colorful hide. "This little one here... I don't even know what to say about him."

Say nothing, my friend, because you do not have to ride me if you do not wish to.

"Well that is a relief," Archive chuckled.

You also do not need to speak aloud any more, even at your new home you will be safe.

Archive looked to the dragon which he'd decided to sponsor from the sands. "... that is true too, little Ath. And good thing too, because I wouldn't want those people looking for us to find my child when it comes."

"That will not be for another turn of the seasons, my love," Dreamwhisper chuckled. "I do not even think that the people here at the Academy know I am with child."

"They don't even believe you're my lifemate," Archive grunted. "They think you're a child yourself."

"You used to call me that," Dreamwhisper chuckled and pulled herself close to her mate. "I wonder how the others are doing?"

They would have to return to Bald Mountain sometime, but for now, they had classes to attend which helped them learn to take care of the dragonets. Before long though, they would go back, and see the results of everyone else's trips.

Name: Camorth
Bonded to: Dreamwhisper
Gender: Female
Breed: Mostly-Pernese
Size: Standard Green
Colour: Green
Rank: Common
Personality: Camorth is a sensible creature, not one given to fabulous notions or superstition. She looks at things with a healthy degree of skepticism, and is particularly proud of her ability to keep her bearing in reality. She's friendly enough, once you get past a general mildly-forbidding air that surrounds her, and her cynical way of speech. Logic is this dragons greatest friend, and she'll use it whenever possible. She likes practical things and frowns on frivolity or uselessness, and perhaps the greatest challenge anyone will have with her is to get her to loosen up and have some fun here and there.

Name: Ath
Sponsored by: Archive
Gender: Male
Breed: Mostly-Pernese
Size: Standard for a Blue
Colour: White-Silver-Swirled Blue
Rank: Small Rare
Personality: Ath is mystical. There's no other word for this creature, who moves and exists with an air of magic. He's very quiet, and at times he can seem very slow, but if anything it's the opposite-- he merely chooses to say nothing and lets people think what they like. What he does say is very profound, and his very voice seems to carry raw magic in it, hinting at endless possibilities if you just know how to harness it. It's a relic of the place his egg was laid, and where he was hatched. He's got a talent of intuitively knowing what's wrong with people and giving advice that, surprisingly enough, works most of the time. For his part, he enjoys keeping to himself with a quiet smile on his face, only speaking if others choose to speak to him.