When the days were long

[suryallee]

This is the last chapter for today, i need to go to sleep now. let me know if you like it so far, ok^^


When the days were long
Part six

Next morning greeted the two of us with a dilemma of the other kind.

“Any idea how that has happened?” He gave me a blank look before he softly shook his own head at the mess. “Not the even slightest, my dear. This is ridiculous!” Both of us scowled and then shrugged in an almost eerily unison.

Staring down at it, Oorontes and I fiddled with the stubborn strands of our hairs to somehow get them get untangled again.

No avail, the hair stubbornly kept clinging to each other. Soon I cussed and asked for scissors only to have Oorontes give me a horrified stare. “Don’t you even suggest it! Let me tell you, our hair isn’t normal, it will hurt if you do that, a Lot!” Now, that put a stop to my rescue plans immediately. His terror had been real, I could tell.
Swallowing, I gave him a hard look.

“And how then, oh wise one, are we supposed to get it loose again?” He gave me a wry grin.

“I don’t think we will. As it looks, we will have to wait it out. Sooner or later it should stop with it.” At my doubting look, he shrugged helplessly. “Ever heard of this happen before to someone?” I tried to use a different road this time. Only to be rebuffed again. This slowly became a habit between us I thought scowling.

“Yes, sadly. Sometimes this can happen. Our hair has a kind of own will? You name it, but still some hair, like ours, can react like this. Basically, it is an extension of our emotional mind state or in rare cases, it even seems to sense events before us. It can take a likening into others just as it can hate someone else. Has happened before I fear.”

He let go on his hair with a grunt.

One hand stroke a lock of his other hair out of his eyes while his eyes looked somewhat confused down at the knot that his and mine had made. It was just one strand of both of our hairs but thick enough to resemble a small rope and tangled up in a way that was normally impossible and yet obviously possible at the same moment.

He gave me a lopsided grin that made me snigger madly despises our current quandary.

“I only ever heard of it happen when two hara of our tribe bond.” Was the bomb he casually let loose that moment. I needed a moment to get it fully. “Oh…oh!” Was my rather stupid replay, not that Oorontes seemed to mind me. He too looked rather surprised that he had told me that. In the end, I shrugged it off.

Looking at each other oddly, we both renewed our tries to pull the hair apart again.
Behind us, the chuckles of someone had us fast stop our childish behavior again and turn to the voice. He looked exactly like he had done in the mists. Taller when me by a head he looked down at our predicament with mirth dancing in his eyes.

When his grey eyes looked back up, they seem to laugh at us both.

“Now, that my children, is what I always warn you about, ne Oorontes?” The aforementioned one actually blushed slightly. The new har waved it off with one hand before he turned slightly to another one that had come with him.

“Ormelte, be a dear, bring us some food and a pair of brushes? Looks like we will need a little longer here as was the plan.” The one called Ormelte nodded shortly before he vanished out of the door again, with what sounded suspiciously like a titter at our plight. Before I knew it, Oorontes had the ugly vase from my nightstand in his hand and thrown at the closing door already with a softly uttered curse.

Next to us both, the har laughed openly at his outburst.

“Now, now, Oorontes! Don’t be like that. I thought you had those days long behind you my old friend… however, this time I can even understand it thought. You have to give, it is rather amusing that you, from all hara of our tribe, has fallen victim to it, don’t you agree?” Across me, Oorontes nodded slowly, a scowl on his face.

“You knew it and yet you still let me run into the trap, don’t you, master Sciamander?”
The named har nodded slowly, unhurriedly easing himself down gracefully to come to sit next to us both. Finally settled there he gave my confused stare a smile before he patted Oorontes softly onto one shoulder. “Of course I did what else could I have done? I told you that you have become too much like those poor hara that Thiede is forming in the late.”

He gave me a wink as if to take the sting out of his next words.

“You needed to settle down one day. If that means that I have to give you up to this young one here permanently see that happen, so be it!” His look had turned rather grave. “I told you over and over again that to be har does not mean to give up any passion or love, why do you young ones never listen is beyond me… as it is, we truly need to advance on our Caste trainings and that fast. If only to hold up against whatever he plans currently however, not and never, on the cost to lose what makes us to who we are, my darling!”

Next to me, Oorontes looked like a scolded puppy. Even his hair hung lifelessly down, adding to the air of chastisement somehow.

I could only look oddly at the two. Whatever was going on here, I was not really a part in it right now. Although it stung a little to be a means to an end. As if he sensed my thoughts, Sciamander suddenly held my chin in his long fingers and looked intently into my wide eyes.

*Oh, I did sense them, child. You will soon find that we have many powers that have been named myths in the human’s world before ours. Be assured that I never meant to belittle you, Myrthal. Nothing could be further from my mind as that.*

He stopped to talk via thoughts to me in favor to use words.

“You may call me Sciamander, I am what some fools call the Archon of the Colurastes. Let’s say, they are right and wrong in that, my boy.” He gave me another wing. “More it is actually that Ormelte is that since a few years now. I have become a hermit in the scholarship to harness our powers of my last years more and more.” His sight seems to turn inward for a moment before he focused it back on Oorontes and me. “But about that little tidbit, no one has to know for now, dear.

You see, Myrthal, he is only filling the gap, so to speak. Until that stubborn one there,” He pointed at the scowling Oorontes, “is finally trained enough to take this over from him and me.

Or should I say, adult enough?”

At this, I had to chuckle as well as Oorontes did it.

The Archon gave me another intense stare. “You see, he is my heir, no doubt on that but the others do not know the ropes so to speak, what is better that way. You will understand that with time, trust me. I do know very well what I am doing, my dears and that Myrthal run over your way, Oorontes, is a blessing that I am thankful for, my stubborn master pupil, of that rest assured.”

“You knew he was doing it all the time and did do nothing before?”
At the impish nod of Sciamander Oorontes groaned exasperated one time before he rubbed his face wearily.

“And you still let me work it out on my own all that time I needed to do it?!”

Sciamander didn’t seem to see the headed glare send into his direction nor did he feel the head of it as it looked. Unperturbed he gave Oorontes just a mischievous smirk that had him groan anew. Next to both, I had to laugh at the picture the two unknowingly presented. The Archon looked like my father when he had accomplished it to embarrass us sons in the past.
It made me think of them in worry.

“Do not fret, Myrthal, they are all alive and accounted for. All made it through Althaia without bigger problems at all. Well, your father did need a bit longer but he was hard on the point in age when inception does no longer work. He is well and fine. Why, I meet him today actually. He has a talent unlike any other that I have seen in a long while.
In carving and making beautiful statues.

His talent will bring our tribe honor and money and I am sure, will make him famous in no time at all. He already has many that are interested in him and will have more running after that silent har in the future to come. I am sure no exception from that. He is attractive in his own right, oh don’t look so shocked, my dear! I may be old but not blind.”

All I could do was to gap at Sciamander when he told me this. Sure, father had made a living lately with his artistic works but that he could be this good in it had never caught up with me. “Truly?” He nodded at my soft question. Suddenly I felt ashamed to have not paid attention to him as much as I should have. Oorontes had me sitting in his lap before I knew what had hit me.

All under the laughing eyes of the Archon who now patted me on the shoulder.

“Ah, it does me good to see such two as you; it helps to raise the spirits. If I were still Suhl, I would think of this as preordained, as I am now I would still say that some of the fates did meddle here. It wouldn’t wonder me, my dears. Oh, back already?” He gave the har called Ormelte who just stepped into our room again a smile.

It was softly echoed from said har who carried a huge plate with food with him. After him came Soixie inside. Carrying too a plate with drinks and sweets. He promptly sniggered madly when seeing our still knotted hair. “Oh hell! I knew it would end like this. Should have raised my bet with your brothers, could have made a fortune that way. Still thinking it gives no such a thing as love at first sight, oh Phylarch? On the other hand, that we are meant to become dusty old tome huggers in our new life? ”

He got scowled at from Oorontes and me simultaneously. “You did bet with my brothers?! …oh wait until I get my hands on their sorry hides!” “You Imp! I should have drowned you when I had the chance! What in the name of Ophidien was riding me that day to instead fish you out of that river and incept you, is beyond me!”

Next to us, Sciamander laughed loudly at our outbursts.

Ormelte too chuckled mirthfully. Soixie just shrugged cheekily and gracefully kneeled down to put his plate down. To, just in time, jump to the side to hide behind Sciamander to avoid a swipe from Oorontes who hissed, yes hissed, like an enraged snake in his annoyance to have missed him barely. Shaking his fist into the direction of his friend while I had to laugh now too. He grinned evilly at Soixie who suddenly gulped.

“Wait you pest, I will get back on you later for this stunt on us.”

Ormelte finally seem to loose it, because he too laughed now madly next to me on the floor. “You two will never change!” He told them after some moments. Sciamander in the meanwhile helped himself to a generous portion of what looked like stew to me and smelled delicious. Soon I wiggled loose to settle next to Oorontes to help myself to a part too.
For moments, there was silence while all were busy eating.

Suddenly a snake slithered up to me. First, I was so shocked to see the King’s Cobra from that day slide up to me and then my left leg, that I almost threw my food into the air in my shock. It however, did nothing else to slither up my leg and then my waist to finally settle in my heap of hair. Seemingly content to just stay there.

I must have looked pretty stupid in my plight because the others chuckled mildly at my reaction.

“Do not feel fear, he means you no harm. Thatis just Souwen and he belongs to Oorontes. We all have snakes here; they are our familiars after all. He has been with him since years now. It is as I expected it to be, you seem to draw them to you too.” Sciamander gave the snake a playful hiss that the beast mirrored happily, as it looked to me. Soon it lost interest in the Archon in favor to playfully hiss at my hair instead that currently imitated a nest full of snakes on my very head.

Rubbing my face, I gave Oorontes a halfhearted glare and pointed upwards at the real and the fake snakes occupying my head.

“Care to take that one back? He is making my hair behaves weirder as usual.”

Oorontes shrugged. “No, not really. If he is like that, tendency is that he will bite even me if I try that.” Another groan escaped me. “OH sees it from the bright side, Myrthal.” Soixie suddenly piped in. “He seems to like you, better as been bitten from him all the time, trust me. He did that to me often enough in the past. I told you our snakes take easier to those like you. …Uh Oh, we left the cursed door open, Ormelte!”

Following his sudden wide-eyed gaze I saw a three other snakes suddenly slither through the open door.

One deadlier as the other from what I knew of, however none of them though, even tried to bite me. They just used me to slide up and curl around every limb in reach as if they wanted to proof Soixie right. Suddenly Sciamander hissed one time sharply and everyone seems to freeze. Even the snakes. A sudden whoosh of wind and the door slammed shut.
Wherever that sudden gush had come from I do not know, but Sciamander looked a bit put on.

“Honestly child, there is nothing to fear.

They will never harm you. These ones belong to no one especially. Normally they curl up in the Nayati downstairs, around the altar of Ophidien. Looks to me they have chosen to stay with you, how odd, normally we choose our snakes. Still they should not scare you; to us Colurastes they mean no harm, others on the other hand…”

He let the ending hover ominously in the air.

Somehow, I got the swift feeling that no one from outside my new tribe should ever try to touch them. Oorontes Cobra still disrespectfully guarded his place in my hair thought. That was until Oorontes suddenly held his hand out to the critter that in turn tongued it before it reluctantly slithered over to vanish inside of his hair finally.

The place was soon taken over by a black mamba.

How the long beasts managed it to hide fully in our hair was a miracle but they did. My new snake in the hair tongued my neck occasionally as if to calm me and soon I tried to ignore it. It felt, right? To have the three wind their coils around me? After a while I shrugged and begun to eat again.

When looking up I saw an albino snake shortly look out of the black hair of Sciamander and soon after that a Harlequin snake wound itself around Ormelte’s neck loosely. As crazy as it was, I begun to take it as it came rather easier as I had ever thought that I would.
For the first time I noticed the small snakes winding around the wrists of Soixie. Like beautiful armbands they looked, only, I knew very well from my studies in the animal kingdom that these were two of the deadliest snakes that there where in the world!

Small and easy to hide but oh so deadly with their natural poison. Later I would learn that these snakes could even kill a har. That only my tribe and that of the Uigenna could tolerate poison to such an extend, that no other tribe ever mastered.

I shrugged it off again.

“See? It gets easier all the time, Myrthal. You will see.” Sciamander told me friendly before he too went back to his food.

After a while, nothing was left of the two plates and Ormelte and Soixie brought the empty plates back to the kitchen. They only left the tea with us. Sipping on some, I tried to figure out the nature of the other two coiling around one of my arms and my waist. One was rather big, even obviously being a young one, the other was colored like a sand viper. Smaller as the other two she and how I just knew this is a miracle, well, she coiled herself several times around my arm up to my biceps.

It looked like I had put a longer ornamental armlet on.

The other strokes me as a younger Python. Not fully grown that one but beautifully green, I had to change my first impression to, a type of Boa constrictor instead. A rattlesnake suddenly slithered around me up to Oorontes to be taken off the floor and settled into his lap. The boy had held the same one that night.

“How many has a har usually?” I give, I was curios.

Oorontes smiled at my interest. “Depends on how good he is with them I think. I currently have these two. But I know of cases that have every snake in the area following them around.” He nodded softly at Sciamander who winked at me. The albino snake curiously slit out of his mass of hair to eye me shortly before it curled almost lazily around the neck of the Archon to then slide down his arm a little.

There it came to a stop and seemingly fell asleep.

It looked rather old to me.

“Is she very old?” Sciamander nodded sagely. “Yes, she is very old. Older as she should have become. I wonder every day now that she is still moving, stubborn old Lady that she is.” He softly strokes the white head that I now recognized to not be albino at all but white from age!

He chuckled softly.

“She and I have along history with each other, is the only snake ever in history to have bitten Thiede, that she is. Was rather put on about it, he was. Even screeched like a banshee.” He laughed softly. I looked confused at the name. They had said it before and somehow I got the feeling that this har was something special.

“Who Is that?”

At my innocent question, I got the eyes of both hara on me.

What followed next I can effortlessly call my first lecture in Wraeththu history.

I learned that day that Thiede was the first of us all, that Sciamander apparently had an ongoing scrabble with said har and that he usually was called the Aghama, because he had gone and become a god like entity with the time. That he was also a very real har that still wandered around in this world. That he currently tried to build up a new society of what he percept to be perfect Harish ideals. Somewhere, in a place that he did build called Imannion or so.

I did not care much.

Somehow I had already taken on the way my tribe saw things and he, was not really Colurastes, end of story. He may be the Aghama but other than that, we did not follow his lead. We did follow Ophidien and that was that. It wasn’t exactly that we did not recognize him for what he was, oh no. Just, that our tribe was more focused on our own Dehar as on others.

Naturally, Thiede did not like that very much.

He often called us more stubborn as the rocks that we did hide under. From him our tribe had gotten the dub of being as two faced as our snakes were told to be in old myths. He, however, respected the power that our Archon did wield and control, that we had already two harlings and another on the way. That we could incept children and so on.

In short, he respected our power and independence as much as the latter were maddening him at times.

For the now, he did let us life in peace but Sciamander let no doubt on it that this would change as soon as Thiede had secured his power and build his perfect society. He was bidding his time and Sciamander knew this too and did the same.

Manticker had been right again, I found out that day. He really and truly had a brush with Thiede and had managed it to deflect him from our tribe. Whatever conclusion these two powerful beings had come to in the end, Thiede never got what he had wanted and both now held a strange peace with each other.

They respected each other and I got the suspicion that he had wanted Oorontes but did not voice it out aloud.

Looks like I did not need to, Sciamander sniggered madly when he once again caught on my thoughts.

“That is right Myrthal; he wanted my heir for his precious new tribe. He and a few other ones I would not give him. As if ever! He can go and find his own pearls in the shit outside. I keep what is mine and he will try to get you if he ever gets aware of what you are capable of, my dear boy. Luckily, for us, we found you first or he would have done in time, no doubt on that.

He is like that, the Dear. Always wants what others have and mark my words: one day he will have to pay up for what he did and does and I hope I will still be around to see that happening!”

Whatever bad blood lay between Thiede and Sciamander I will never know but it had made this har into an enemy of Thiede in a way. No, a constant opposition was more like it I think. They knew each other as no one else did and yet, couldn’t have been further apart. I shortly thought of Marten and me and let it stay by that.

Some things you were better off not knowing.

The rest of the evening, he and Oorontes talked about my training.

Asked me about my studies and genially about my hobbies and the likes. Looks like I hit a jackpot unknowingly when I had signed up for biology and exotic animal veterinary. I now would have enough to do to keep the snakes healthy and Sciamander promised me even to get me books for my studies as well as a teacher if he could find one so that I could end my studies here.

It would also give me a place in our tribe, one that was actually high ranking but that I got if truth were told, only much later.

At that time, I was just glad that I could be useful and earn my own keep. My family always was finicky that way. We did not like to mooch off others or to be kept persons. Always my father had told us to earn our own livings, to learn a trade or profession and then excel in it. Needless to say, we all did… even Marten in his own crazy way.

I too learned that day that he was now the second leader of the Uigenna. Their war leader to be precise and that he was already Caste Ulani at least. Around in the middle of the levels of it.

It made me scowl and curse softly.

Now I really had to work on my Caste training to get even with him again! With him, the biggest Mr. I am the lazy-butt in the universe when it came down to learning in the past, it was almost embarrassing to think about it!

Oh well, I thought, I would simply have to study harder as before then to match up with him. No big deal.

I failed to notice the amused and pointed looks that Sciamander, Ormelte and Oorontes exchanged over my head when I muttered darkly about that to myself.

Suryallee