Theo, short for Theophilus, Brendovin, stood on the edge of a gorgeous valley in the Appalachian range, soaking in the view. It was a beautiful, if slightly nippy, mid-spring afternoon, mostly clear blue skies with a cloud floating by now and then.
Theo was 5'11, 165 lbs., 19 years old, with strawberry blond hair just touching the tops of his shoulders. He had been born on Midsummer's Eve almost twenty years before, and lived with his mother; Daddy went MIA on his second army tour in Iraq three years ago.
Nine days before, he had felt the need to get away from things for a while. The recent death of his mother's mother, Theodora Bretowitz, had affected him more than he had expected; it wasn't her death that was the issue, but what she had said to him just hours before she died.
You see, Theodora had a bit of the gift, now and then, she could see strong glimpses of what might be the future. She had said three things:
1) Theo had a VERY significant amount of the gift, as the seventh child of a seventh child... if he had only been a girl was her first comment;
2) Somehow, Theo was about to start a whole new adventure. She could not see where, exactly, but it WOULD happen, and soon; and
3) She had quoted a verse of an old prophecy from the family's beginnings in the twelfth century, it went something like this:
Seventh daughter of a seventh daughter,
She shall hold all the worlds in her hands.
She will wield power such as none have seen,
And the justice of the lands is hers to give.
Theo shook his head, there was no way that verse could be about him, his mother Avenita was a seventh daughter, but he was a boy; even though he was a child of a seventh child, it clearly stated the person would be female.
He looked out over the beautiful valley again, then turned and continued walking up the mountain trail.
After another four or five hours of hiking, and a small meal of trail rations and water from a nearby stream, he looked further up the trail. It appeared to be much steeper ahead than what he had already climbed to this point. He knew he would be smart to go slowly now.
Just as he was about to start up the trail again, he had a very strong hunch; he'd grown to trust his hunches over the years, and this one was telling him that he would need the helmet his great-grandfather Alexandrov had worn in the Second World War.
He pulled out the helmet, looked at it for a moment, then put it on and made sure the strap was snug beneath his chin.
He resumed his walk up the mountain; a little over an hour later, the mountain trembled, a minor earthquake, or a warning of one?
He wasn't sure, and nothing happened for several minutes, so he kept going until he was about to pass by a huge boulder on his right.
That was when the world, or his view of it at least, went completely upside down; the mountain HEAVED, his feet literally were a foot or more off the ground as the big quake hit, then he was falling, and his head, in the helmet, struck the huge boulder quite hard on the way down.
**********
Some time had passed, he thought; he winced as he tried to sit up, feeling the helmet, he gasped as his fingers discovered the deep split in it. He appeared to have been quite lucky; thanks to the helmet, he was still alive, and he couldn't feel any blood on his head.
Things, though, were not quite the same, colours were different somewhat, such as the grass having a faint purplish hue, the rock nearby being a darker grey-blue than it had been before that godawful quake had struck from nowhere, and he himself felt a bit odd.
He decided to just sit and relax, maybe he would feel a bit better in a little while.
He wasn't sure how much time had passed, but he could see that the sky was darkening toward evening when he heard sounds coming from farther up the mountain. Strange, it sounded like a wagon, he didn't think the paths here were big enough for wagons.
He decided that it would cost him nothing to wait, so wait he did. A short while later, the sounds became clearer, and looking up, he saw a large wagon coming down a path on the other flank of the mountain that he could have sworn was not there earlier. The wagon was being pulled by six large horses, well, they looked like horses, but they were huge, easily bigger than the biggest Clydesdale he'd seen at the county fairs as a child years ago. Not only that, but they were a purplish blue in colour, with two rather long straight horns on their heads.
Now he knew that he must be hallucinating, bicorns just didn't exist. Nosirree, Bob!
**********
The man driving the wagon looked ahead as he steered the heavy wagon around the corner near the huge rock. Just as the wagon started to go by the rock, he looked down and saw a girl sitting there beside it. On her head was a strange head cover, split nearly in half.
He had looked away, ready to continue down the trail towards the towns below, when his head snapped back around to the girl.
Could she be the one foretold, he wondered? The prophecy said she would have odd things on or with her, that head cover sure was one. That same prophecy said that the girl in question would come from another world, a completely unknown world to his people.
He pulled back on the heavy reins. "Hai!, Hold, you scurvy krants, HOLD!" He looked down at the girl again as the wagon stopped.
"Lass, are you well? Your head cover looks to have taken horrible grief. Lass? Lass?"
**********
What had this man just called him? Lass? Why? Theo lifted his hands to his chest, and discovered WHY he had felt so odd.
Theo stood shakily, reached between his legs, discovered THAT particular new fact of life, and his tenuous grip on reality shattered.
He screamed, again and again and again, his/her voice rising higher and higher, the screams turning to earsplitting shrieks. At one point, the extremely high pitch of the screams brought a new reaction: the huge rock shattered, sending thousands of tiny knives through the air.
Many of the sharp bits of the rock hit Theo, who was still shrieking at the top of his/her lungs. The wagon driver cowered, covering his ears; he himself was lucky, the wagon was between him and the now shattered rock, he'd find some shredded items in the wagon later.
Several minutes later, Theo stopped screaming; she looked around briefly (seeking something?), then crumpled bonelessly to the ground.
Theona slowly returned to the world, waiting a short time before she attempted to sit up.
She noticed the man was leaning toward her, almost as if to help her to rise. She looked at him more closely, and soon realized that he was positively huge compared to her. At a guess, she thought he might be 8 feet tall, weighing somewhere between 350 and 400 pounds.
Then she realized that he was speaking to her again. "Lass, are ye well? Ye swooned for a bit!"
This caused her to look closely at herself again, the fact that she was female disturbed her greatly. She looked around her, then up at the darkening sky. Already, a moon was climbing up the sky, to her eyes, it shone pale gold in the night air.
She could still see the grass in the deepening gloom of the evening, and it still looked purplish to her, even more so than before.
Once again, his voice broke through and she raised her head to look at him. "Lass, are ye well?"
"I believe I will survive," she replied, "but as to being well, how can I be? I was born a man, and now, now I am a woman!"
He chuckled as he slowly knelt in the grass before her. "Aye, and a rather pretty woman, for all that ye are so small! I am Tanris."
"Hello, Tanris, or perhaps I should say good evening, as it seems the sun will set fairly soon."
"Aye, that it will, lass, in about half a cycle of the great clock which I saw in the capital three years past."
"Half a cycle? I'm sorry, but I don't understand you!"
He thought for a moment. "Lass, do ye know what a clock is?" She nodded, and he continued, "Well, we have very few of those here, but the one that most everyone remembers is the Great Clock in the main feast hall of the High Lord's Palace."
She stared at him, then shook her head, she definitely was not at home now. "I assume you measure your days using that clock?"
"Ahhhh, so you do understand. Yes, our day is split into 20 cycles of the clock, and we have about half a cycle before the sun sets."
"So it will be full night in a little while. Thank you for explaining it to me."
Tanris looked at her oddly, then laughed. "Lass, you are quite a pleasure, I think you may know far more than old Tanris here, and I've had the pleasure to celebrate 230 year-days. I am no young pup, and I have learned much in my travels."
Theona's head snapped up in shock as she heard him say that he had lived for over 230 years. "Did I hear you right? You said 230?"
"Aye, girl, I was born a bit more than five tendays before High Summer 230 years ago."
She shook her head again, that just didn't seem possible. "It is very rare for people on my world to live to see 100 years."
"Well, your size alone says you are not of this world, lass, you look like a girl of maybe twelve summers here, except for the obvious fact that you seem to be fully grown," nodding in the direction of her breasts, his face turning pinkish with embarrassment.
"Ahhhh, I cannot keep calling you lass, do ye have a name, girl?"
A name? Ummmm... yes, my name is Theo... na," she spluttered, her own face colouring in the dimness.
"Theona, you say? Well, may the Lady bless you, then, Theona, and keep you well."
"Thank you, but who is the Lady?" Theona asked, her curiosity rising.
"Well, lass, we have few gods in these lands, but the one most folk follow is the Lady De'mitra, she who tends the crops and animals. When she blesses us, the harvests are so plentiful there is often grain left outside the granaries because there isn't enough room in them. And any animals that we might breed somehow manage to produce more healthy offspring in those years, creating a surfeit."
"De'mitra is how you name her? Interesting, in my world, there are some who worship Demeter, an ancient goddess of harvest and agriculture. She is said to hold sway over the grains and the fields of the earth, I suppose that could extend to the animals in the fields."
Theona realized that the talk about food, harvests, etc., had made her hungry and she turned to look around for her pack. She was a bit irritated because the deepening night made it difficult to see anything more than a few feet away clearly, even with the moon.
It was at this time that Theona discovered that she could feel things, things like the fact that there was a large tree on the cliff's edge just around the turn up the slope, that there were several large mushrooms growing amongst the tree's roots, and those were edible. She could also sense the nearly dried blood from a carcass hanging on a hook at the front right corner of the wagon.
Yet, even more than these, she could feel something else, a sense of earthly power, she could point to the places on or under the ground nearby where that strange sense of power could be found flowing in lines and streams. She also felt as if she could pull the power to her.
That caused her blood to turn to ice. That damnable prophecy, turning her life upside down, willy nilly, and nothing she could do!
She wasn't really paying attention, but eventually, the change in the level of light caused her to look down at her hands. Her left one was glowing brightly enough that she could now see much farther around her than she could a few minutes before. She spotted her pack lying about fifteen feet away on the ground, next to where the great rock had been before she shattered it.
She stood slowly, so as to give her body a chance to adapt to being upright, and walked over to the pack. The heavy cloth of the pack was torn in many places, she could actually see some of the things inside, such as pieces of her male clothing. She picked up the pack, pulled the main zipper back to open it, and started pulling things out, paying no mind to the fact that there was a man standing nearby.
She had brought a few plaid flannel shirts,a s they were comfortable and helped to stay warm in the cool mornings and evenings. She also had put two pairs of faded jeans in there, and as she pulled each item out, she could see that all of them showed many rips and tears.
The few things she had brought for food, mostly MREs and easy to carry items like cereal bars, were not in any better shape. Most of the MRE containers had gaping cuts in them, bits of the food falling out, and the cereal bars were beyond any redemption.
Damn it all, here she was in a place where she had no food of her own, she'd either need to find some or depend on Tanris. Then she realized that she could find food, she knew there were edible mushrooms nearby, Tanris had meat available, maybe he had vegetables too?
Well, there was only one way to find out. She turned to him and asked, "Tanris, what were you planning to eat tonight?"
He shrugged, pointed to the carcass she knew was there, "I was going to cut strips from the meat, and cook some with a vis'nif."
"That's all? Did you even know that there are perfectly edible ri'gezna mushrooms by that tree you passed on the way here earlier? Do you carry any vegetables with you at all, ones that might last a few days while travelling, to eat with any meat you might acquire?"
Tanris turned to face her, his face very pale in the light of the one moon. "How... Wait a moment. You say you are not from this world?"
"That is correct."
"Then how... how did you know the mushrooms were there, or that I had meat here, and some vegetables that travel well?"
"Tanris, I can feel things that are linked to the ground, like the mushrooms, the vis'nif, and the body of the animal you killed early today. Not only that, but I can sense other things, like energy streams? That is how."
"You are truly odd, lass, ye do things that I have never seen anyone do, and I have seen many a witch in my travels. Perhaps... no... it must be, it is the only thing that makes any sense, perhaps you are the one foretold in the prophecy."
As he said the word prophecy, Theona's head snapped up like a shot. "Prophecy? What prophecy are you talking about?"
"Hmmmm... I'm not sure if I have a copy of it in the wagon, I'll look." He turned and walked back to his wagon, shaking his head at all the tears in the heavy covering, it would cost a pretty coin to fix it all, for sure. Some time passed before he returned to her, holding something.
He then passed it to her, she could see it was a heavy piece of thick paper, folded three times, slightly different to how she had folded letters when writing or sending them was still a normal part of life. She opened it, read the first few lines and blanched, it was the family prophecy. She staggered, wobbling badly enough that Tanris grabbed her to keep her standing, she grabbed his arm, shaking with terror.
"How!?", she cried out, "how is it that this prophecy is the same as the one Simon Longlock wrote almost eight hundred years ago in my world? Where did you get this? How long has this prophecy been known to your people? I must know!"
"Girl, what has you so distressed? The prophecy came from the hands of a man much like you, small and slender, I believe the historians said his name was Simon; we called him Farwalker, as he wandered across many of the lands. Six hundred of our years or so, I think?"
Theona, still shaking, recalled that Simon was said to have vanished not long after he wrote the prophecy found lying on his desk.
"Tanris, oh Tanris, I cannot bear this! I am the girl in that prophecy, Tanris, I AM!"
"What makes you so sure, lass?"
"Tanris, I am here, in your world, and I... I am the seventh daughter of a seventh daughter. I told you before that I was born male, but when I woke up here after hitting my head on that rock, I was already female. My mother had nine children, six girls and three boys, I was the middle boy. When I became female, the prophecy had already started, as I was now the seventh daughter of my mother, a seventh daughter."
"A little while ago, when I could not see well enough to find my pack, my hand began to glow, becoming bright enough to see around me. I said I can sense the energy streams, the power lines, if you will, one lies about ten par'k'neks over there, another six par'k'neks that way."
"I know not what you mean by power lines or energy streams, lass, I have no ability that way at all."
"Tanris, if I were to get some of those mushrooms while you cut the meat and wash the vis'nifs, I think I can prove what I say."
He shook his head and wandered over to the wagon to prepare the food for her.
Theona wandered up the second path, the one Tanris and his wagon had used to get here, and after a brief walk, turned a corner in the path, being sure to stay far away from the edge as much as possible, then spied the tree about fifty feet or so ahead.
Watching carefully as she stepped around the old tree to the side near the cliff's edge, she spotted the mushrooms and picked three. They were quite large, the hood being a good six inches across, the stem about eight inches along. She knew the whole plant was edible, She wasn't entirely sure she understood how she knew these things, but as long as they were safe, she wouldn't worry about it.
She worked her way onto the path, then followed it back down to the wagon to see Tanris laying several small to medium sized stones in a rough circle a short distance from the wagon. She nodded, a fire pit made sense. Tanris wandered up the other path and returned soon after with several chunks of dead wood. He grabbed a small hatchet from the wagon, chopped the wood and arranged it to burn effectively.
Once he had set several pieces in the middle of the stone circle, Theona told him to step back unless he wished to be burned. She stood there quietly for a moment, then her hands began to glow a bright red-orange; when it was big enough, she cast it at the pile of wood.
The effect was quite startling, to say the least. The ball of flame in her hand struck the wood, and a brief CRACK! split the air as the ends of the stacked pieces in the middle of the fire pit seemed to explode, then the flames began to eat hungrily at the wood.
Tanris stood several feet behind her but off to one side, watching. His jaw dropped when he saw the wood light so very fast.
Theona turned to face him, her back to the slowly growing warmth of the fire in the pit. "Do you believe me now, Tanris?"
Theona sighed as Tanris backed away a few steps, then stopped, shaking his head. "I've never seen the likes of that, girl, and I've met three powerful witches and at least two actual mages at the High Lord's Palace in Nur`li'sa at times over the years."
Theona sighed again, then slowly approached him. "Tanris, I vow before your Lady De'mitra and any other gods here that I will do no harm to anyone unless they harm or attempt to harm myself or anyone who travels with me, on my honour and my life."
A flash of lightning coming from the nearly clear sky startled Theona badly, she saw Tanris flinch in surprise. What startled both even more was the strong yet very female voice coming from somewhere near them, "Accepted, Theona of Earth, on your honour and your life."
Theona gasped in shock, her legs wobbling violently, then she fell to the ground, landing on her butt on the grass near the fire pit. "Fear not, Theona of Earth," the voice continued, "so long as you are honest and true, I and my brothers and sisters will have no cause to harm you. The fact that you could make such a vow so soon after we brought you here stands high in your favour at the moment. Be well, Theona of Earth."
Theona hadn't been watching Tanris, but when she looked up again, she figured he must have been just as shocked, as he was leaning against the side of his large wagon, shaking his head and moaning, she thought she could hear him say, "Lady De'mitra" once or twice.
The sense of an unseen presence faded, and Theona and Tanris were eventually composed enough to stand unsupported once more. Theona looked over at him, a weak smile on her face as she asked, "Did you mention Lady De'mitra just now?"
"That I did, lass, for it was She who spoke to ye just now, ye have been very highly honoured."
"Honoured? What do you mean?"
"Ye made a vow, lass, and She accepted it. Not only that, but She gave her word that ye will not be harmed by them without just cause. To top it off, She and the other gods think well of ye because ye made that vow, ye stand in their favour. She then wished ye well."
"So, as long as I act honourably and uphold that vow, you think she and the other gods will continue to favour me to some extent?"
"Something like that, they'll cause no direct harm to ye. I think ye have been blessed by her, Theona, it's been said many times over the centuries that Her wish for someone to be well brings nearly perfect health for the remainder of that person's life. Of the few I've heard about, the one exception was because the person was present during a major plague, they survived with much less harm than most others there."
**********
Theona glanced at the fire in the pit, it was still burning brightly, the heat of the flames felt good in the slightly chilly evening air. "The fire is burning well, do you have a pot about this wide and this deep?" She spread her hands sideways, then up and down to show the size needed.
Tanris thought for a moment, then nodded, "I have one slightly bigger than that, I'll get it from the wagon."
"Thank you, Tanris, might I use that small hatchet for a moment, I want to cut several branches and make a spit for the fire."
Tanris returned in a moment with the pot and the hatchet, then pointed to the smaller path along the side of the mountain. "There's plenty of deadfall, branches still on the pieces, about ais'senv'k'nek along that path, ye should find what you need there."
She thanked him and walked slowly along this second path, following it around the gentle curve of the mountain. A few minutes walk brought her to the place where she could see various pieces of dead wood, from hand's width to full trees, scattered all over the very slight slope. She wandered from piece to piece looking, chopping off a suitable branch now and then, until she had all she needed to make a spit. She then turned around, the light of the moon showed the path off to her left; she returned to the path and soon after, to their campsite.
She returned the hatchet, asked for some rope to bind the sticks together and quickly built the two base parts for the spit, placing one on each side of the fire. She then took the longest stick, slightly over a par'k'nek in length, then picked up the pot, sliding the stick between the pot's narrow metal handle and the pot itself, before lowering the stick onto the two base pieces, which she had stuck into the ground.
Theona walked to the wagon, asking Tanris for two large vis'nifs and water for the pot, then with the items in hand, returned to the area near the fire; she poured some water into the pot, then poured a bit of the water into a small wooden bowl she pulled from her pack. She used her hands to give the two vis'nifs a quick scrub, then using the top of a low, flat stone nearby, she quickly cut them into small chunks using a knife she had also retrieved from her pack, and dropped them into the pot to cook. She then picked up the mushrooms she had unknowingly dropped at some point earlier, most likely in her surprise at the voice coming from nowhere, rinsed them in the water as she had done with the vis'nifs, then set them on the flat rock, using one last stick she had cut and stripped of bark to give the pot a brief stir.
"Tanris," she yelled, "cut some meat off that carcass, enough for both of us, please!"
Tanris appeared a few minutes later, carrying what looked to be half a flank from the small carcass, and handed it to her. He watched as she rinsed it like she had done with the vegetables, then used her knife to cut it into chunks, tossing them into the pot with the chopped vis'nifs. She noticed him watching, smiled and said, "I'm making a simple stew, I'll let this cook for a while before I add the mushrooms to it."
Tanris returned the smile. "I've never seen a knife like that, may I look at it, please?"
Theona laughed and handed it to him. "Where I came from, a knife like this is illegal, carrying one is a crime. I use it for camping."
The knife Tanris was looking at so keenly was a blade, split in two parts, each about three mik'k'neks long, that fit into the handle of the knife itself when closed. The button triggered the release of the two part blade, a quick wrist snap would bring the second part into line, forming the complete knife. Theona had found the knife at a flea market across town from where she had lived, and had bought it for $25, knowing it was worth much more. Theona giggled at the rapt fascination Tanris was showing for the knife, she guessed he had never seen anything like it.
"Quite a nice knife you have here. Things like this are common on your world?"
"Single blade ones are much more common there, knives like that one you're holding are hard to find, but available if you look hard enough."
Tanris handed the knife back to her, Theona set it beside the mushrooms on the flat rock.
There was silence between them for a while. Tanris eventually sat on the ground near the fire, basking in the warmth of the flames. As the vis'nifs and the meat cooked in the pot, Theona used the stick to stir it now and then, until Tanris offered to get a large wooden spoon. He strode over to the wagon, spent a minute or two looking through some containers before finding one, then brought it to Theona by the fire.
Theona laughed to herself, then said, "I completely forgot to ask you if you had a spoon for the pot. Thank you."
He chuckled, saying, "I didn't even notice until a moment ago, a spoon is just one of many items I carry and use regularly."
Theona stirred the pot once again, prompting Tanris to say that it was already starting to smell good. Theona laughed, telling him it would be a while before the food was ready, then she used the knife to chop the mushrooms, throwing them into the pot with the vis'nifs and meat.
**********
While they were waiting for the food to be cooked, they relaxed, enjoying the warmth of the fire until Tanris stretched for a moment, then turned to face her and asked, "Lass, what language have we been speaking since we met earlier?"
She turned to him, surprised by the question. "Why, English, I know no other languages."
"What is this English ye mention? I have heard of no such language in all my years. Speak it for a moment."
Theona quickly said, in English, "I appreciate that you have been nice to me, thank you."
Tanris looked confused. "I understood not one word of that, lass, so what am I speaking now?"
Now it was Theona's turn to be confused. "If it isn't English, then I have no idea. Please enlighten me."
"Lass, Theona, you have been speaking the common or trade tongue as if ye had been born here and had spoken it all your life."
Theona was very surprised and showed it, then turned away after a moment and stirred the pot again.
Tanris shrugged, then spoke, "Perhaps it is a gift from the gods so that ye can understand people here."
Theona lost herself in her thoughts, occasionally stirring the pot as a second moon began to show over the eastern horizon.
**********
Eventually, the food was ready, Theona asked Tanris to get two bowls bigger than the one she had so she could serve the food. Tanris didn't want to go anywhere, he'd been itching to get at what was in the pot for some time, but he nodded and headed to the wagon. He returned a few minutes later with two bowls that might have passed as small tureens on Earth and handed them to her, along with a metal spoon.
He had also brought what looked like a ladle, which she then used to transfer the food from the pot to the bowls. When one was full, she handed it to him, then took the second bowl and filled it about halfway, setting it on the ground before she carefully removed the pot from the fire. She set the pot on the top of the flat rock, pulled the stick out and dropped it on the ground, then picked up her bowl and began eating.
Both Theona and Tanris were intent on the food, a small smile could be seen on Tanris' face, he obviously liked it, he hadn't tasted something this good that hadn't been cooked on a stove for a long time. Camp food, for him, was usually just enough to keep one going.
He cleared his bowl in what felt like about fifteen minutes to Theona, then looked in the pot to see if there was any left. When he saw that there was, he used the ladle to fill his bowl about halfway, leaving the rest for Theona in case she wanted another helping.
She finished hers just after he refilled his bowl, it was a bit odd because the spoon was made for people his size, not hers, and barely fit into her mouth. She realized she was still slightly hungry, checking the pot, she noticed there was a bit left and poured it into her bowl.
When they had finished eating, Tanris picked up the pot, collected the bowls, spoons, knife and ladle, and walked down the mountain; after several minutes of walking, he found a stream that spawned from a small pool and used the stream to wash everything.
Theona relaxed for a bit, seeing he had decided to do the dishes and spent the time in the fire's warmth looking up at the night sky. She couldn't see a single constellation that she recognized, this sky was not the one she knew. She saw that one group of stars looked vaguely like an olden day plow, another like a trident, a third like a large spoon, a fourth like a box with a handle sticking out of one side, a fifth looked sort of like the Big Dipper from home but five sided so the angles were different, those were the ones that had a recognizable shape.
She was still looking up at the stars when he returned, placing the pot, bowls, spoons and ladle in the wagon before returning to the fire. He handed the knife to her, surprised that she chose to place it fully opened on the flat rock beside her, then shrugged and forgot about it.
The two of them relaxed for a while, watching the night as more stars became visible, then the third moon showed on the horizon.
He noticed her looking at the moon just showing to the east, then the others. "You seem fascinated by the moons. These three are in orbits that are fairly close to each other, but not close enough that they would collide, and they usually show up on a daily or nightly basis. The other two moons are farther out, just within the gravitational well, and their orbits are longer, they can be seen here about every two nights.
Theona was startled when he mentioned the gravitational well. "You know about gravity? I'm surprised, we didn't discover gravity initially until about 350 years ago, and modern theories that expanded our knowledge of it within the last hundred years."
"Ahhhh, well, we have known about gravity here for close on to a thousand of our years, perhaps slightly longer than that."
"Hmmm, we'll need to talk about scientific discoveries at some other time, I'm ready to sleep."
"Give me a moment, it's a warm night, we can sleep by the fire." He then wandered off to the back of the wagon, opening the heavy tarp, then grabbed some items before letting the tarp fall again and striding back to the campfire.
"Here is a heavy ground sheet, put it on the ground, then ye can cover yerself with this," as he tossed her a light blanket.
She spread the heavy sheet out on the ground, then used her pack as a pillow, covered herself with the blanket and was asleep in minutes.
**********
She slept deeply for some time, occasionally shifting position to become more comfortable.
She had no idea what time it was, but she was awakened by what sounded like an animal walking not far from their fire. She threw the blanket off, rolled toward the flat rock, picked up the knife and stood up to face what looked like a very large six legged cat.
She sensed Tanris waking on the other side of the fire, then picking up the stick that had been used to hold the pot over the fire while the food was cooking, waiting to see what would happen.
She faced the cat, prepared to defend herself, but wasn't prepared when it spoke, "Star Lady, I am Shar'Nel Mak'ris, I come to walk with you."
Tanris rolled out of his bed, dropping the branch, then bowed to the great cat. "Welcome, Shar'Nel Mak'Ris, you honour us with your presence." He turned to Theona, explaining, "Mak'Ris is his clan name, it is an honoured clan, they've fought beside us many times. Shar'Nel is his personal name, or one of them, that he gave it at all means that he feels he can trust us with his life and honour."
Theona nodded and bowed to the great cat. "Welcome, Shar'Nel Mak'Ris, to our humble camp. You give us great honour."
The cat nodded before he replied, "How can I not, Star Lady, you who will save our world in the times ahead?"
The meeting with the strange cat had been odd, but Theona felt no fear of the cat and soon returned to her briefly disturbed sleep.
As she knelt by her blanket just before lying down again, she noticed that Tanris had unhitched the six krants from the wagon at some point and had set them on long leads running from heavy ringbolts in the wagon's frame so they could wander around and graze through the night.
She was woken not long after dawn, well, that of the first sun actually. She shielded her eyes with a hand and looked at the fairly large red sun lurking over the lands to the east. She rolled out from under her blanket, stood and walked over to the edge of the trail where the ground steepened considerably before turning into an actual cliff and looked across the lands in the early morning light.
She noticed that they did not seem to be a great deal higher than the lands below, perhaps a couple of hundred k'neks at most. The trail continued northward for a while before it turned and began winding its way down the slopes to the lands below.
She hadn't been listening to the things around her, so she was a bit startled when Mak'Ris approached and nudged her hand. The strange cat looked at her and nodded before he spoke, "We shall go into these lands this day, Star Lady. I shall walk beside you, yes."
She chuckled as she looked at the cat beside her, his shoulder being about the same level as her upper abdomen. He was definitely not a small cat, fairly close in size to some of the larger tigers back on Earth, but the six legs made it all too clear that this was not Earth.
That became even clearer as she noticed a yellowish glow on the eastern horizon and a second sun began to rise into the eastern sky.
She stared in wonder for a moment before she looked at the cat. "How many suns does this world have, Mak'Ris?" she asked.
"Three," he replied. "The red one is called Kal'Ti in the low tongue, Son of Ti in the common, the yellow is called Kal'Zin, Son of Zin in the common. They are thought by many to be the sons of two of the older gods of this world who fought each other over a young woman, and after nearly slaying each other for nothing more than simple lust, were doomed to wander the skies in their new forms which we see here.
"The third star is a blue one, Sul'Kar, which translates from the low tongue to Daughter of Kar in the common. That one is much farther out from our world than these two, and is only loosely connected to them by their stronger gravitational pulls keeping it in its place in the heavens. Those same old tales say that the Daughter of Kar is the young woman the two young gods fought over so long ago. Those tales also say that she wanders so far from them so that she will not incite them to further troubles by her mere presence among them."
"There are also five moons that orbit our world, three were visible in the skies last night before you returned to your sleep. Those three are known as Sul'Var, Sul'Mez and Sul'Nig, Daughters of Var, Mez and Nig; the two more distant moons are Sul'Shen and Sul'Bev, Daughter of Shen and Daughter of Bev, the five named are minor goddesses from long ago whose daughters wandered from home and were lost."
As Mak'Ris finished speaking, Theona heard someone approaching them from behind and turned to greet Tanris.
He spoke first, though, "Blessed morn to ye, lass, I see ye have seen two of the suns rise, aye?"
"Almost, Tanris, and a blessed morn to you as well. The red one was just over the horizon when I awoke. I came over here to take a look around and Mak'Ris followed me. He has been telling me of the names for the three suns and the five moons. To actually be able to see two of the three suns rising as I am doing now is a great wonder for me, my old world only had one sun and one moon."
Theona turned back to face the two rising suns and executed a cautious bow in their direction. "I greet you, Kal'Ti and Kal'Zin. May you both shed your light on our travels this day and guide us as we head to the lands below." She stood tall, turned and walked back to the wagon.
**********
The fire had gone out while they slept, so Tanris added a few pieces of wood and lit it again, then hung a pot on the spit over the fire.
He quickly produced a simple but nourishing porridge with slices of two different fruits in it, one of them when Tanris showed her a whole one reminded her of a strawberry except this one was a purplish blue in colour, the other looked like a banana but was dark orange, not yellow.
The pieces of fruit in the porridge added a different but fairly pleasant taste to the simple food, a bit of what could only be described as a type of milk poured over the porridge gave it a slightly bitter flavour that offset the two fruit types, yet added to the overall enjoyable taste.
The porridge was consumed fairly fast, then Tanris cut a chunk off the carcass and tossed it to Mak'Ris who devoured the semi-fresh meat.
Tanris took the mid-sized pot he had used to cook the porridge, the ladle and the spoons to the stream downhill and washed them.
While Tanris was gone, Theona grabbed her bowl and used it to carry dirt which she dropped on the fire until it was fully smothered.
When he returned, several minutes were spent in releasing the long leads from the ringbolts and hitching the six krants to the wagon again, then he helped Theona to get up on the wagon seat with her backpack, sat down beside her and clucked to the animals to get them moving.
**********
It took them perhaps an hour by Theona's reckoning before they reached the path that led down to the lower lands, and another four, nearly five before they managed to reach the bottom. There was one rough spot, where one of the wheels went over a fair-sized rock lying in the trail, and the impact as it touched the ground again had Tanris get down to make sure the wheel hadn't been damaged.
They stopped as they finally reached the edge of the very extensive plains at the base of the path from the mountain. Theona looked to the east and thought she could see what might be a village or small community of some sort in the distance.
She mentioned it and was told that it was the first hold in this area; the place, Calmar's Vale, was named for a long dead king. Tanris then told her that it was quite a bit farther than it appeared to be; appearances here could be quite deceptive, it seemed.
Mak'Ris had had no trouble at all in keeping up with the wagon, but had to stay away from the krants, he made them quite nervous. That was despite the fact that the cat wasn't even half their size, the big animals would jerk in the harness any time he approached them.
Tanris reached into a small barrel and pulled out four loaves of what looked like homemade bread and handed one to Theona. He then picked up a small box and used a short knife to cut, then apparently butter his loaves; the knife was handed to Theona and she did the same.
The bread had a rather nutty taste, the butter was quite nice if a bit sweet and Theona made short work of her loaf.
She looked up after she finished eating to see that Tanris was already finishing his second and picking up the third loaf. It didn't take much longer before he polished off his three and clucked at the krants to get them moving toward the distant hold.
**********
They finally entered the tended lands around the hold a few hours after mid-day. Tanris stopped by the one stone building, then jumped down and banged on the doorway. A moment passed before the door opened, revealing what appeared to be a rather stout middle-aged male.
"Ho, Tanris, finally back from the southern lands, are ye?" the man bellowed when he saw Tanris standing by his door.
"That I am, Kerick, it was like any other trip until I was almost out of the mountains on this side, then I found her." Tanris pointed to me sitting on the wagon seat. The other male, Kerick, looked at me and chuckled, then showed a wide grin as he faced Tanris again.
"So ye've finally found a young lass to bed, aye, Tanris?" he laughed, his belly shaking up and down, side to side.
"Not at all, Kerick, take a closer look at her, she is nae lass, she's a full grown woman."
"Ye say she's full grown? But she's tiny, nae bigger than a ten or twelve year old girl?"
"I tell ye true, Kerick, she be full grown. Do ye know of Simon Farwalker's prophecy?"
"The other world male that was here several centuries ago? His prophecy? Aye."
"Aye, Kerick, she comes from that same world, she be one of his descendants, and the lady of the prophecy, I believe," Tanris stated.
"She be the one in the prophecy? A slip of a girl like that be the one to save us all?"
"I believe so, Kerick, I've seen her do magic with my own eyes. She also told me she is the one in the prophecy after I showed her the cleanest copy I had in my wagon yester even. Her clothes are rather odd, not at all like ours, and her native tongue is not ours. Even stranger than that, she eats like I do with no concern for manners and she walks like a man, striding everywhere."
Kerick took another look at me, this one lasting for a moment, and nodded, "Her clothes are rather odd. Magic, ye said?"
"Aye, Kerick, she cast a ball of flame about this size (he spread his hands a bit) at a pile of wood and it burst into flame."
Kerick paled when Tanris showed the size of the ball of flame, then muttered, "That be more than was needed, for sure."
"Perhaps, Kerick," Tanris responded, "But she seems to be new to the magic, learning it as she goes, I think; I know it scared her. I also know that she has no knowledge of our world, the cat there was telling her about the names of the stars and moons in our skies earlier."
"Cat, ye say? What cat?" Kerick asked just as Mak'Ris wandered around the front of the wagon, startling the krants.
"That would be me, good sir. My name is Mak'Ris and I travel with the Star Lady, I go where she goes."
Kerick shook his head, if he had needed any more proof, here was a cat as mentioned in the prophecy, travelling with the odd woman. "Young lady," Kerick spoke, "Be ye welcome in my humble abode, I have food left from our mid-day meal if ye wish to have a bite."
"My name, sir, is Theona. If you do not believe that I am the one in the prophecy, I can prove it quite easily."
"The cat be proof enough for me, Theona, they do not willingly travel with people without dire need, yet he travels with ye. It be enough."
Theona nodded, replying, "I accept your offer of some food, the bread we had earlier was enough then, but I am hungry once again."
Tanris stood there for a moment, thinking, then said, "As small as ye are, girl, ye eat a fair bit, perhaps it is due to the magic in you." He nodded to Kerick, then added, "She ate one of my cousin Al'gard's loaves I brought back, they're almost a k'nek long and nice and thick."
Kerick chuckled, "At least she has a healthy appetite, despite her small size. Come, in, folks, come in."
Tanris, Theona and Mak'Ris entered the stone house, following Kerick to a common space with a large wooden table. Kerick waved to them to sit down, then said that he would return in a few minutes with some food for them, including some fresh meat for Mak'Ris.
Kerick returned a short while later, carrying a large tray with three platters on it, setting the biggest one by Tanris, one with raw meat chopped into fist-sized chunks for Mak'Ris and the third platter was a smaller one for Theona with the same items that were on Tanris' platter.
"The meat be fresh krez'gral, caught just after first dawn this morn by my middle son, there be also vis'nifs and fresh small loaves."
Kerick headed back to the kitchen. carrying the empty tray. He returned a moment later with a large jug of some sort of fruit juice and cups.
The three of them each tucked into the food, eating quietly, various sounds could be heard in and around the house. Someone was chopping wood out back, some else was singing softly while lovely smells wafted from what must be the kitchen, and a third person, apparently Kerick's daughter, could be heard muttering about having to sweep the floors and stairs again, she'd done it just the day before, wasn't that enough?
Kerick stuck his head through a nearby door, yelling, "Bett'rya, ye know better. We can nae have a dirty house, girl!", then closed it again.
The three finished their meals and were about to get up when Kerick rejoined them. "The food was good, I trust?" he asked.
We all responded in the affirmative, then Tanris said that we should be going, we still had a long way to go yet.
After a brief stop to use the simple in-house facilities, we were rolling along on the road to the east from Calmar's Vale.
That had been a good meal, I was content with a full belly. Tanris and I hoped to return soon if we could do so without some kind of hassle.
He spent some of the time while we traveled informing me about the court. It was only then that he said he was taking me to see the High Lord. I turned a bit in the seat and asked him why? His reply was quite simple, "If you are the one in the prophecy, he needs to know."
There wasn't really anything that I could say to that, so I just relaxed in the seat as much as I could and looked out across the open grasslands. It's not the first time I've seen grasslands like this, I grew up on the western edge of the region that we call "America's breadbasket".
Yeah, I know the grasslands well enough, I spent my early years on the east side of the town of Kirwin, Wyoming in the Shoshone National Forest. Kirwin used to be a mining town long ago, but it's a historic site now. There used to be a post office, but it closed down long ago.
Kirwin itself isn't very far from the edge of the Shoshone Forest, and there's plenty of open land once you leave the forest behind.
We ended up moving to Casper, Wyoming, when I was ten or eleven. My mom's mom had lived there for most of her life.
So, yeah, I know about grasslands and how extensive they can be. Even standing on the seat, I can't see an end to the grass ahead of us.
There's a bit of rise and fall to the ground here, but not much, it's pretty much perfect for farming or raising herd animals like cows or sheep.
We continue to travel along the road heading east for several hours, then as the sun is almost ready to set, we pull into a small camp site. Someone at some point in time created a decent fire pit here and there's a small building behind the pit as well, likely a sleeping area.
While we're unhitching the krants so they can graze through the night, I learn that the mountains we descended from earlier are called the Sky Claws and that they are the second highest range on this specific continent. I can smell a large body of water somewhere behind the cabin.
I looked over at Tanris briefly, then asked, "Is there a lake or something near here? I can smell water not far away."
Tanris grinned as he set the last krant on its lead and nodded, "Aye, a small lake behind the building, about ais'lond'ler k'neks, I think."
I laughed, then headed over to my bag, where I pulled out a small spool of very fine fishing line I had brought along. After a quick glance through the other items in my backpack, which was a fair bit lighter since all the food had been destroyed or spoiled, I closed it up again.
I had barely made it past the small building when I found the perfect branch for a simple fishing rod. I picked it up and continued walking.
It took me several minutes to reach the small lake, relying on my sense of smell, as I had to wind my way through the tall grasses growing here. This was not as easy as it might sound, as the grasses in question were all about eight feet tall, so it made it hard to see very far ahead.
Once I was near the lake's edge, I found a nice, large flat rock just above the shore and sat on the edge hanging over the water as I slowly tied some of the fishing line tightly to the end of my simple pole. I used my knife to cut the line at a nice length, then knotted that end of it.
I had known that there might be a chance for me to do some fishing on my vacation, so I'd packed the line and some basic hooks. I suppose I could have brought an actual modern fishing pole with me, but I had chosen to do things as naturally as possible if the opportunity arose.
I slid one of the hooks through a tiny gap in the knot I had made, then tightened it again so the hook wouldn't slide out.
Once my pole was ready, I cast the line out into the lake and waited to see what would happen.
People must not fish here often, I guess, as I got the first bite on my line less than five minutes later. That turned into a heck of a battle, as I caught flashes of a green and gold monster of a fish, easily three feet long, possibly a bit more, trying to get away from the hook in its jaw.
After what was likely perhaps ten minutes of straining on my part and escape attempts on his part, I finally landed the darn thing.
I'm not sure just how long I sat and stood there fishing from that big flat rock, but I was having all kinds of fun.
By the time I decided to stop, it was truly night, although the first moon could be seen rising in the east. That gave me enough light to be able to see around me somewhat, and even from this distance, I could smell the krants, or more specifically, their droppings, in the distance.
I looked at the top of the rock next to where I had been standing. Nine fish were laid out there, all but two bigger than the first one.
I shook my head, then used several hooks to string the fish onto the line and temporarily tied off the other end.
Carrying my homemade creel holding the nine fish, I slowly walked back toward the small camp site with a big smile on my face. I haven't been able to catch that many fish of that size in one place since I was about seven or eight, I think, and that was with dad's help, actually.
I could smell the fire that Tanris had started a fair bit before I strolled into the camp itself, then dropped the fish on the wagon seat.
"Hey, Tanris, how about cooking some nice big fish for our meal?" I giggled as I spoke, then again as he stalked over to the wagon to look.
Tanris continued to teach me bits and pieces about the lands of this world, especially the ones on this specific continent, "Great Roams". It seems that most of this continent is covered in grasslands like this. According to Tanris, roughly 85% of the total land area? Wow!
What made it even more stunning is that that total includes the few actual cities on the continent, the biggest being Nur`li'sa, "Small Home".
Tanris then went on to tell me that it would take us most of a ten-day to reach Nur`li'sa, maybe longer depending on how fast we travel.
We had a great meal that evening of baked fish and vis'nif. I learned the fish were a type known as kraf'nelg, common in many lakes.
After setting down simple ground covers and grabbing a couple of blankets, Tanris and I talked under the stars until sleep overcame us.
I have no idea where Mak'Ris had wandered off to, but he returned in time to have two of the fish as his dinner while we relaxed.
To this day, I'm not sure just what woke me up at that point. All I know is that I came rolling out from under my blanket, knife in hand and flipped out to its full and deadly length, to see Mak'Ris standing a short distance away growling at something or someone beyond the firelight.
I heard Tanris as he rolled out of his blanket, grumbling about being woken up again, then I saw him pick up a heavy branch. Now, I'm a fairly tall person by Earth standards, but there is not even a snowball's chance in hell that I could have picked up the branch he did one handed.
All three of us stood ready, facing toward the road passing by to the east and west, then waited to see what would happen.
What did happen was a woman appeared, riding a mount similar to the krants, but a bit smaller in size and a pale blue in colour.
"I come in peace, hoping to find the Lady of the Stars that was foretold. Our seers said she had arrived and would be near this place."
Oh, shit, just what I don't need right now, someone looking for me to help nail the prophecy into place. I sighed and lowered the knife.
"I am she. If you come in peace, you may be welcome here by our fire," I replied to her. "We have fish caught from the lake nearby."
The woman stated, "I am Ven'las, seventh rider of the eleventh tribe of the Ingis. Thank you for allowing me to share your camp."
Tanris laughed at that, dropping the big branch on the ground as he moved forward to get a better look at the woman on her mount.
"Ahhh," he said, " a rider of the Ingis. You can tie your kur'ras to a tree over there, it's best that it stay away from the krants."
I looked at Tanris and asked, "A rider of the Ingis? What do you mean?"
Tanris chuckled and explained, "The tribes of the Ingis are scattered across a great distance, both north to south and east to west. Each tribe has roughly eight to ten riders, all of them being women as the women seem to get along with the mounts better than the men. With thirteen tribes at the last count, which was taken seven of our years ago, that means there are roughly 100 riders among the tribes, perhaps 150."
He said this using the terms from the common tongue, "ais'lond" and "ais'lond'ler" for the numbers. I had to think a bit to translate them.
"Okay, so they have riders. What makes these riders so special, Tanris?" I enquired.
"It is simple, Theona; each of their riders, by the time they are adults, can kill a target by firing a bow, while mounted, from a great distance."
I giggled, then said, "That kind of reminds me of some folks in various stories I read as a child. One of the better stories was a fairly long one, describing the adventures of a group of people as they journeyed across various lands. One of those lands, Rohan, had excellent riders."
Tanris' head snapped around, "Ro'han, you say? That is strange, we have a land on the other side of the mountains back there by that name." When he said back there, he was pointing back the direction from which we had come, the mountains were still visible in the distance.
"Really?" I giggled. "That is odd, as the Rohan I mentioned is only a place within a story, not a true place. I learn much from you, Tanris."
The woman had laid a ground sheet of sorts and a blanket down by the end of the wagon closest to the road and was soon asleep.
It wasn't until I was back under my blanket, slowly drifting toward sleep again, that I realized he had pronounced Rohan differently.
Once we had had something to eat in the morning, Tanris' porridge again, we set off eastward with the woman riding with us. She had tied her mount to the side of the wagon opposite where the remainder of the meat was still hanging, then relaxed as we started moving.
I was quite surprised at how easily she handled the bumps and jolts of the road, I guess it's all that experience from riding.
There were only four fish left, I'd had one, Tanris had had two and so had Mak'Ris. The woman had gone straight to sleep after joining us. The four remaining fish were in a long, narrow box, just big enough to fit them lengthwise, but quite deep, deep enough for a dozen of the fish.
We'd been travelling for a few hours when there was a shout of "Ho! The wagon!" from somewhere behind us and to the north.
Tanris stopped the wagon and we waited for a short while before we spotted someone riding a large cat, not quite the size of Mak'Ris.
Mak'Ris shook his head, sighing, "One of my people's lesser cousins, some of them let the Warl'kel use them as mounts."
"So this person is from the Warl'kel, Mak'Ris?" I asked.
"That's one way to look at it, I suppose," he replied. "More correctly, the people are the Warl'kel, the Thorns of War."
"Interesting name. Is there a meaning to it?" I asked again.
"Yes," he answered me, "They are one of very few armies to have lost so few battles in the last thousand years."
"Hmmm... so strong and fierce, tough as nails and very, very hard to beat, huh?" Mak'Ris didn't bother to respond.
By this time, I could more clearly see the person approaching us. Even on the mount, he looked to be about my size or close to it.
He stopped near the front of the wagon and carefully dismounted, then looked up at us. He seemed to be looking at me rather closely.
"I am Kron'gar the Bold, I have come seeking the Lady of the Stars. I was informed by a seer she would be in this general area."
Not another one! Is this crapola ever going to end? Or am I doomed to fulfill that damned prophecy or die in the attempt?
Numbers first, as that may help people understand some things in the story a bit better:
Ais = one, ta = two, tor = three, kras = four, par = five, kif = six, nal = seven, gri = eight, nef = nine
Tark = ten, ais'tark = eleven, ta'tark = twelve, etc.
Bett = twenty, ais'bett = 21, etc.
Frin = thirty, mip = forty, ler = fifty, ves = sixty, zil = seventy, goj = eighty, wid = ninety
Lond = hundred, senv = thousand, so ais'lond would be one hundred, kif'senv would be six thousand, etc.
Numbering in the Low Tongue is somewhat similar to German, where one to ten is added to numbers like twenty, thirty, etc.
mik = one/tenth, in the story this is given as parts of a measurement, such as mik*k'nek, one tenth of a k'nek, the base distance measure.
------> k'nek is itself the bastardized or slang usage of karnek, k'nek is used so often the actual term has fallen into disuse.
Other numbers will be added as I work them out.
**********
Okay, a quick guide to some common distance measurements:
K'nek is the base measurement, equivalent to fourteen inches, so a mik*k'nek would be about 1.4 inches.
The double stride is equivalent to par'k'nek, five k'neks or 70 inches.
The next major distance measurement is the par'senv'k'nek, five thousand k'neks, 70000 inches or 5,833 ft, 4 inches. This is their "mile".
----->N'vit is the next measurement, being their mile; n'vit is the bastardized or slang form of nurvit.
One n'vit = 1.10479798 standard miles. Equatorial circumference of their world is 36,400 n'vit.
K'nek is also used for height. People here are very tall, average height is 7 k'neks or 8'2" for males and about 6.5 k'neks or 7'7" for females.
Elfin people are a bit shorter, males averaging around 6.3 k'neks or 7'4" and females about 5.8 k'neks or 6'9".
In this new world, our heroine at 5'11", or 5.07 k'neks high, is very, very short, which will make her a curiosity wherever she goes.
I'll add other measurements if I discover any that don't use this base form.
**********
I'm working out names for their time measurements at the moment, their minute (zekan) is about 75 seconds long, 90 minutes to an "hour" (filek), 20 hours to a day, ten days to their week (referred to in common as a ten-day), four ten-days per month.
I'm thinking ten months in a year, that would make their year equivalent to roughly 1.71 Earth years.
At the time the story begins, they are about twenty days away from a major festival, "High Summer" in the Common. So it seems that there is some kind of temporal relationship in common with Earth, as Theo vanished about three weeks before the Summer Solstice.
**********
"Low Tongue" versus "High Tongue" spoken across the Four Great Lands and the Five Isles, plus Common (Trade Tongue):
I've already given some of the numbers in usage in the Low Tongue, k'nek and its prefixes are also from the Low Tongue.
The specific "Great Land" (think continent) they are on is called Ferk'nish, or "Great Roams". It is the second largest of the four continents, with over 85% of the land there being wide open plains, with towns and cities scattered all over the place. There are a few mountain ranges on that continent, but for the most part, they are very old mountains, more like very large, often rounded hills.
They have named their world Fe`li'sa, in the Low Tongue, which translates roughly to "All Home" or "Home of All".
Theona's first major destination in this new world will be the capital of the land she is in, the city named Nur`li'sa or "Small Home".
Ai:el'si is used when a person of this world is telling someone where they come from, so they would say ai:el'si "town/city/country name". Ai:el'si translates to "a person of", so someone from the realm's capital would say they were "ai:el'si Nur`li'sa".
Mak'Ris means Long Claws in the Low Tongue, technically this would be the cat's surname. Shar'Nel translates to "Walks Far", thus his name as we know it so far would be Walks Far Long Claws. He may have one or more other personal names, two or three are common.
Farl'ris: Sharp Claws, a specific type of fairly large cat distantly related to Mak'Ris' people, that serve as mounts for some of the Warl'kel.
Krant: A six-legged creature similar to a horse but about 20 to 25% larger than a Clydesdale, with two long straight horns above their eyes.
Kur'ras: Smaller version of a krant, about the same size as a Clydesdale; like the krant, they have two horns located over their eyes.
Vis'nif: potato-like vegetable, skin is yellow, flesh of the vis'nif is a pale pink in colour. It can be cooked in a variety of ways like potatoes.
Ri'gezna: A type of mushroom commonly found growing next to trees all over the major plains of the world.
Kraf'nelg: A type of fish, green and gold in colour, commonly found in medium to large lakes, averaging 3.5 feet in length (three k'neks).
Warl'kel: A large town in the northwest part of the realm, also a small duchy based around that town. They're known for their warriors. The name of the town and duchy comes from two words, Warl which means thorn and Kel which means war, so "Thorns of War".
In'gis: One of two large plains areas, separated from each other by a roughly five n'vit wide strip of forest known as the Sai`In'gis, or as we might say it, the In'gis Wild. In'gis is the name for a grass similar to our rye that grows all over the world. The northern plain is the Ferk`In'gis, or Great In'gis, as it is at least half again the size of Nur`In'gis or Small In'gis which lies to the south of the Sai. A large part of the realm that Theona finds herself in lies within the Ferk`In'gis, so riders from the villages of the plains may not be common, but are not unusual.
Shal'Ris: "Sky Claws", the name given to the mountain range where Theona is found by Tanris.
Kal'Ti: "Son of Ti", this is the red star that is tied in orbit with two other stars, one close, one rather distant.
Kal'Zin: "Son of Zin", this is the yellow star, which is in a fairly close orbit with Kal'Ti.
Sul'Kar: "Daughter of Kar", the blue star that is barely held in its place by the red and the yellow.
Ti, Zin, Kar: The first two are olden gods that have been worshiped for many millennia, Kar is a goddess from the same time period. The three and several others have been worshipped since the days of pre-history here, altars to them are scattered across the lands.
Var, Mez, Nig, Shen, Bev: Minor goddesses from the same time period whose daughters wandered off from their home and became lost. One story speculates that the young girls wandered into a spell field that changed them into moons and set them orbiting around the world.
De'mitra: Fairly modern Goddess known as the Lady of the fields and forests, perhaps Demeter from ancient Earth or a goddess like her. When she bestows her grace on people, their fields and their animals will be abundant for a while, as long as her grace holds. Tanris states that Lady De'mitra's wish for someone to be well brings nearly perfect health for the rest of that person's life, which may be very long.
As I add to the story, I'll add words I use in the story, from either of these languages to this page.
For purposes of simplicity, Common in the story can be interchanged with English. Any differences in Common within the story will be similar to English being spoken by people from different parts of the world (like the UK, Australia, etc.)
Seventh daughter of a seventh daughter,
She, Theona, shall hold the worlds in her hands.
She wields power such as none have seen,
And the justice of the lands is hers to give.
A Lord of the Mar'vath walks beside her,
She wields balls of fire and swords of ice
In battle against her many foes.
Three ettins storm 'cross the Four Great Lands,
Sow hate, despair and terror as they go.
Theona, Mak'Ris the cat and an elfin lady
Stand strong as day turns to darkest night.
Elfin lady from one of the Five Isles,
Bringing light to the Under Realms.
She hails from the far off Isle of Stars,
Sent to be a guide on Fate's twisted path.
Six men, brothers all, or so it seems,
Guard the Lady with their lives;
Bright swords of steel and axes sharp
Work hard to hold the battle line,
The sons of Warl'kel stand strong.
Six riders of the In'gis come,
Seeking the Lady long foretold.
They bow, then kneel to her,
Six tall lasses so swift and bold.
Nine great flames shall light the night
Ere the Lady reach the Isle of Stars;
Six Lords and six Lasses come behind,
Mak'Ris stalking 'round them all.
Brave Tanris follows with wagon full,
Leading a swarm of country folk
Who have followed at the Lady's call
To save the world from darkest horde.
**********
Can't think of anything else for this at the moment, I'll add to it as more comes up in my addled brain.
What is given here is the bits and pieces I have now; where parts will fit into the prophecy may change as new parts are added.