Telmori Legends
How Dark Paw became Dezaker
Welcome to this meeting. I will tell you how Dark Paw made friends and how he drove out the false dezaker. Listen and do not interrupt !
This story begins when we were still young to these lands. It was then that Dark Paw returned from his first journey upon Dezak's Path. By this time he was no dezaker but a mere wolfrunner. He returned with his first blessing, friendship with the dark. And he wanted to tell all the Telmori of this. But as soon as he started the dezaker of the packs appeared and made him stop. He did not want to hear a word about friendship with darkness. Telmori never were friends with the dark but always with the good light like Nysalor. This should not be changed. And as the Tergavi agreed nearly all Telmori would do as the dezaker said. They simply would not listen to what Dark Paw had to tell.
This made Dark Paw very angry. He knew that it was good to have friends, true friends regardless how they looked like and where they came from. And so nonetheless he tried to convince at least some Telmori to think the same way. But the words of the dezaker were powerful and no more than eight Telmori said that it was right what Dark Paw did. After there was no chance to convince more, the nine of them said that what was needed could not be found here inside the Telmori lands but that it could be on Dezak's Path. Thus the nine went off and came back again with more friendship with the dark.
This time they brought their fearsome howl with them. And when the dezaker heard it for the first time he trembled a bit and therefore he forbade Dark Paw to go on Dezak's Path again. He told everyone that Dark Paw and his eight companions who have become friends by now were about to join the legions of Gbaji and wanted to bring chaos to the Telmori. Of course this enraged all the other Telmori and if not for his eight friends Dark Paw would not have made it out of the Telmori Wilds alive. He knew that if he was ever to see his beloved woods again he would need far more than a fearsome howl. And thus the nine set out again to find their friends.
This time it was no easy journey. First they reached the borders of darkness where their new found friends lived. And Dark Paw told them what he was searching for and why. The dark friends recognised that it was just and they told him a secret. They told him where he could find what he was searching for. But it would need all his and his friends' power and it was likely he would get robbed and left without it. Speaking the holy words Dark Paw and his friends decided that they could not simply escape from their tracks. Telmor would laugh at them in his forest and maybe never let them in. Only moments later they all agreed to try.
Their dark friends gave them all which could help. Among these were the Rfr, magical stones which would lead them even in the deepest darkness. Each of the warriors got one. The search was terrible, all of them learned that indeed it was impossible to find what Dark Paw was searching for and defeat it. The thing was so mighty it simply could not be conquered. What ever the warriors tried they were betrayed by their own nature. Sure they were heroes but they were no gods. The thing is so mighty that even most gods cannot cope with it - fear. And then Dark Paw did what no one expected, he did something most unusual even to him. This is where he won eternal fame.
Instead of battling fear he chose to embrace it fully and to experience it to the extreme, he told his friends to do the same. They did like they were told. And as all nine of them were nearly maddened by their own fears, here the bond of friendship and the hope for justice prevailed. Fear had no more power over them. And the more each of them sought to feel more fear the more it vanished until none of them felt any. Here they experienced all the fears a Telmori could have, all of them. Never to feel them again.
After that Dark Paw and his friends returned to the Telmori Wilds. Many seasons had passed and many have thought that Dark Paw and the other had died at the hands of chaos. But they seemed most vital. Dark Paw demanded to speak to the dezaker which was still the old one who cast him out. The dezaker now old came before him. He recognised what was going on here and he wanted again to make his rousing speech as if still young. But Dark Paw interrupted him and asked if he did not want to greet his friend first. The dezaker curious who Dark Paw's friend was, as he was seeing nobody replied that he would if he just could be showed who it was. This was all Dark Paw and his friends were waiting for. With a powerful crescendo they summoned their friend to show itself to the dezaker. And fear came, pleased to get a new victim. Only moments later the dezaker started to scream, he called for Telmor, his Tergavi and for his warriors. But there was nothing they could do and so before there own eye the dezaker withered and died, they said he died of the fear of being wrong.
Then Dark Paw and his friends told all what they had seen, who they have met and that it was surely no chaos they brought for the dark friends hated chaos as much as we Telmori do. After this all the packs saw that Dark Paw and his friends were just and Dark Paw was called dezaker and on the next cursed day he should do his final journey on Dezak's Path, the immortal fields from where he never returned.
But this is how Dark Paw returned with fear and drove off the false dezaker.