Auridonian Folklore: Ehke and the Scribe

More #ThalMod. This text is of a different breed from the last two.

Auridonian Folklore: Ehke and the Scribe

[You recognise this story as a very popular folk tale in the Summerset Isles. As a child, you and your classmates were once told to write your own endings for this story.]

In the time when Auridon was fickle and full of mystery, there was village in the valleys downhill from the city of the Sky’s Watch. The village was called the Earth’s Watch, because as common sense dictates, someone must be busy watching the Earth while the others are busy watching the Sky. The Earth’s Watch was so low into the ground that it would spend half of the day inside the sky-city’s shadow.

Thankfully, half sun and half shade was the perfect condition for growing paper-grass. The Earth’s Watch had a bigger surplus of paper-grass and parchment than any other place in the Isles. The villagers had found ways to make cloth from refined paper-grass, fuel fires with dried paper-grass, even boil the paper-grass and make it edible. Savvy scholars heard talk of the Earth’s Watch, and they all came and settled, because there is nothing more appealing than limitless parchment to write on. The locals rejoiced at the sight of such wise and learned mer, since they would be able to guide the Earth’s Watch in times of blindness. The villagers offered the scholars beds with paper-grass blankets, hearths with paper-grass fire and meals with paper-grass stew.

The Earth’s Watch followed its name. The Sky’s Watch followed its name. The scholars wrote and times were calm. That is, they were calm until Ehke took his morning meal. Young Ehke of the Earth’s Watch sprinkled salt into his boiling paper-grass soup and inhaled the steam. Recognising the smell of salt and green, he said to himself,

“If we watch the Earth, and they watch the Sky, who watches the Sea?”

A week later Sloads attacked Auridon. A mer passed by from the south, headed towards the Sky’s Watch, ringing bells and screaming SLOAD and ringing bells and screaming SLOAD again. The Sloads would reach the Earth’s watch within another week. That day the scholars dismissed the Sload invasion as pure coincidence. A day later, they said Ehke had predicted that the Sloads would invade by reading the paper-grass leaves at the bottom of his soup. Another day and they were certain that Ehke had accidentally summoned the Sloads with a long-forgotten soup spell. Ehke knew that he could do little in his defense other than accept the responsibility of protecting the village, with no blades to arm the other villagers, besides the blades of long sharp paper-grass. Ehke was young and needed guidance in achieving the absurd.

All of the scholars were occupied with speculative accusations, except a hermit who lived alone in a small house and called herself the Scribe. The Scribe had filled more paper than any scholar in the Earth’s Watch, and therefore the most paper in the Isles. Some of the Scribe’s papers were written on in such a way that they became things other than papers. The house itself was the best example. She had written the house, from the foundation to the roof. Ehke visited the Scribe in the hope that she would help him defend the village.

The Scribe told Ehke that she would in fact be able to help him. She said,

“For you to defend the Earth’s Watch you will need four things: an armour to protect you, a weapon to drive off assailants, a wall to block our homes from the invaders, and a tower.”

“How will we build these things before the Sloads arrive, and from what?” Ehke asked, annoyed with the obviousness of the Scribe’s words.

“We will write them, from paper-grass parchment,” the Scribe answered. At this Ehke remarked,

“That’s absurd, which means it’s just the plan we need!”

Later that day, Ehke and the Scribe gathered reams of parchment and casks of ink to write a suit of armor with. It was a true collaboration where the Scribe wrote some parts and Ehke wrote others. Soon the other scholars became curious, gathering about the Scribe’s house but getting distracted and writing graffiti-comments on the walls and windows. The Scribe invited the scholars inside to help write the armor, and each wrote a piece. By sundown the whole ream was filled and forged into armor. Its words will not be revealed yet. Ehke donned the suit of papers that had been hastily glued together. The Sloads were now closer to the Earth’s Watch and would arrive in three days. For the next two days, Ehke and the Scribe repeated the same process. There was a ream for the weapon and a ream for the wall. Ehke still had his parchment armor, now carrying a blade of wadded-up parchment. There were sheets of parchment strewn around the village as a barrier. The Sloads were near, but the defense was nearly ready. Its words will be revealed now.

I am the Scribe. What you are reading is a transcription, a summary of the words Ehke would use to defend the Earth’s Watch from the Sloads. What you are reading is also the blank base for the last component Ehke needs: the tower, a structure taller than the Sky’s Watch itself. Auridon is still fickle and full of mystery, and the Sloads will reach the Earth’s Watch in a day. You are the Scribe. You may decide what you will about how this story ends, absurd or not, on paper or in mind. You should be the one to write the fate of us – Ehke and the Scribe.

[There is a blank page at the end of the book, but you decide not to tamper with it.]

If you wish to see the other posts, I have not posted anything else, so it would be easy to find them on my user page.