The First War

The war went on for a long time, and the Sun turned many times and the light it cast through the holes riddling the mountain spun and danced to follow, and eventually both clans were exhausted from the fighting and finally met again in the center of the cave. But the trapped Chief who was named Orikal and his Fist who was named Trinimak were more angry than tired, and when the settled Chief who was named Lorkh met them, Orikal hit Lorkh hard enough to stun him, and Trinimak ripped out his heart and ate it and kicked the leavings across the cave.

The Settled were heartbroken by this and broke and scattered to the various edges of the cavern, and the Trapped were drawn together by this victory and moved off as a single clan.

Eventually, some of the Trapped thought they could figure out a way to escape by digging even further down, which the rest of the Trapped thought was foolish because everyone knew the way out was up, so those who wanted to go even Deeper packed up and left.

After that, one of the Shirkers still wandering higher up found a crack in the Mountain he could use to hear some of the Trapped folk down below, and started talking into it. A Trapped man heard the Shirker and listened to her, and the Shirker told him how he could be a king in the cavern and come to dominate the cave. The man called himself a Prophet and drew crowds who believed in his delusions of royalty, and when his followers were many, they cast down their defiance of the Clan and left, following the New Diggers far away.

Trinimak gathered his Army, our fathers, and under orders of Orikal, chased down the fracturing band of Velothiidh. Trinimak demanded that Veloth and his ilk come home, but the Shirker holding Veloth’s ear squirmed through the crack in the Mountain and infested him, and the Plotter-armored-in-Veloth stood up and fought with Trinimak.

The Demon had all its strength, as it had not wasted any of itself digging through the Mountain nor fighting in a long war, whereas Trinimak was tired and his feet caught in mud, and the Demon was able to throw him to the ground and fling itself on him. There it cracked open its jaws began to swallow Trinimak. Trinimak freed one arm and began crawling back out of its hellish mouth, but it bit down and swallowed him, and his arm fell to the rock.

The Demon laughed and laughed at this, and kicked Trinimak’s arm away, and then began to talk and lie. It had eaten Trinimak’s voice as well, and vomited that up enough to speak with it. Trinimak’s army despaired, and Veloth’s followers celebrated, to hear Trinimak’s voice deride the cave and family and preach how separation would let them do better. The Demon soon realized it was still squeezing through that crack in the cave wall and having trouble staying in the cave, so it left Veloth and pulled back to its own level. It couldn’t fit through the crack with Trinimak still in it, so it digested Trinimak right quick and gave birth to Malak on the far side.

When the Shirker had retreated and its followers moved on, Malak crept up to the gap in the rock and heard his army still despairing over him. Malak wanted to comfort them as he had previously in the cave, but that was when he was Trinimak and Trinimak was dead. Malak knew there was no comfort to be had, and he knew they had to be strong, so he roared through and his people heard his voice and stood up. And when they did, they found that they too had changed. They were no longer soft and pretty and graceful and fair; they were hardy and strong and rugged. And they knew there was no going back.