Whispered Stories

Sometimes, when I am working, the project will whisper it's story to me, if I am paying attention I hear the story.


5/14/2014
Spiral Sun Bag


Tea-An stretched and rubbed her back.  Following the Durkhi herds was hard work. 
They had to break camp and move every few days as the herds moved.   Finally they were in the mountains and at the campsite where they would stay  for the summer.  Her child would be born here and gain strength before the cold weather came and they moved back down to the desert floor.  The durkhi hide Pan-tua, their home for  the summer, was set up and in a few moments she would go to the ravine and collect some birthing herbs, Mam would show her the right herbs to gather.  She would put some in the PakqÜa she wore around her neck and dry the rest for her birthing drink.  Her Uncle Rhadhzi had traded a rare zakh pelt for  the stone with the sun symbol, their clan sign,  on it. He said the trader called it glass, what a funny word.  Uncle Rhadhzi  gave it to her as a handfasting gift when she joined with Ilan-Tu.  Mam helped her hook  the  PakqÜa around the clear sun stone and Ilan-Tu gave her the beads to decorate it as part of his handfasting gift.  When they traveled she wore the PakqÜa, as she was now the center of their household.  After she gathered the birthing herbs she would hang it in the Pan-tua to symbolize the center of their hearth until it was time to travel again. Well, enough thinking, the birthing herbs were not going to gather themselves, she would go get Mam and then the herbs.


Desert Amulet Bag

RienDey stood on the roof of the caravani, the inn that served the caravan masters, drax boys, customers, travelers,  guards and anyone else with the dursa to pay, and looked out at the town and the desert.  He had been 14 years old when his Meema sent him out to look for his Da.  He had found Da in an alleyway, clutching the last of his gaming stones, dead, probably at the hand of someone who he owed or who wanted what few dursa he had.  RienDey swore that day that he would never gamble like his Da and he drilled holes in the gaming stones and wore them on a leather thong around his neck as a reminder.  He had almost lost them in the 100 year sandstorm that he and Beek had been caught in.  They only survived because they took shelter in a deserted city that everyone shunned as bad luck.  Well it was good luck for them.  It took forever to dig out but when they did everyone else in the caravan was gone, Only he and Beek and the two drax they had with them survived.  There, in the sand, were two pieces of shell the desert dwellers called dragon's teeth, more good luck.  When they finally got home his sister Imree took the gaming stones and the dragons teeth and made him a pouch, with a desert skool for a clasp.  She had gotten really good with her hooker stick and the beads he brought back from his travels, he knew she wanted to make him a really elegant bag but this one suited him, the sky, the desert and his family.  It was enough.  It had been hard but he and Beek had a reputation for good luck and fairness and they knew the caravans.  They survived and saved up enough to open their caravani, the Hebee Bag, named after the bags that carried the trade goods on the drax.  His mother and Eilan ran the Inn, he and Beek handled the Caravans, Imree dealt with trade goods.  It was years before he realized that he gambled, but not with stones like his Da,  He gambled with people,  He had found Beek, his best friend and best caravan master when Beek had tried to rob him of some bread.  He had found Eilan in an alley bloodied with two broken legs.  He brought her home and Meema had set her legs and helped her heal, both her legs and her heart.  Eilan was good with numbers and Meema could not run the Hebee Bag without her.  He remembered when he had first seen Eilan with the eyes of a man, not a brother; it was a revelation.  Well tonight he would gamble again.  He thought Eilan would listen to him, but she was so proud, he had to make her see that they were right for each other.  He rubbed the gaming stones on his amulet bag and turned to go downstairs...
 

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