Telmori Legends

King Blossom

Come and sit down by the trees. Share meat with me and take a sip of this cool spring water. I shall tell you a story of how we Telmori count a thing you call „time“.

First there of course is our curse that turns half of us into werewolves on one out of seven days. This day is called the cursed one, in former times it was known as the blessed or friendly one. Every drog-rar consist of seven days beginning with the cursed one and ending with the day before. You would call this a „week“. Then there are urutr (spring), orutr (summer), erutr (fall) and arutr (winter) which correspond more or less to your „seasons“.

In ancient times that not even wolfspirits remember, there was a plant that was called the rutr which was given to Telmor by a generous friend. And because Telmor is a generous god he gave this plant to us. The first Telmori who saw the plant were Tergavi and they did not know what this new plant was good for. So they asked Telmor but Telmor only answered that he wanted to test his children if they were a clever folk and that the plant was useful.

So the Tergavi tried first to eat it, but it tasted awful and caused them a bad stomach. After a few days they were healthy again and spoke to their King which spoke to his warriors. Now all Telmori knew that Telmor had posed a challenge to them. Some tried to make spears out of the plant but they always broke very fast. Some tried to put the plant on fresh wounds but it caused even more pain and would not let the wound to close. Some tried to put it on their spear tips and use it as poison but it didn't work, too. Some tried to crush it and mix it with water then drink it. But the drink was very bitter and everyone who drank it had fever afterwards. And some tried other things…

After a while all was tried that the Telmori knew and we worried that we would not be clever enough for such a challenge. And so the one pack called for a meeting and all the Telmori met. The news were passed and many new ideas were tried but not one proved to be right. So the Telmori were unsatisfied and called again to Telmor for help. But he replied only that we had to wait and to be patient. So the packs parted again and called for the next meeting to be after the next winter. Perhaps then there would be an answer found to this secret.

So after the snow has melted and the days were to become warmer all packs met again where the plant was growing and were suprised to see it in full bloom. It was full of little white blossoms shaped like tiny pieces of fur. Now everyone thought that it was time to try every idea they had before but again nothing worked and they agreed to meet in some more drog-rarr.

When they met again the plant was in full bloom, this time more redish. And again they tried what they already had tried twice and failed the third time. And so they agreed to come see the plant after more drog-rarr.

They were suprised to find it in another colour, this time its blossoms were blue and shortly afterwards the first snow fell. And again everything that was tried failed. But this time one of the Telmori, a King decided that he would not travel away to find the plant in another colour when he returned. He wanted to stay until the next snow and see all days how the plant would change. And all the packs promised to be back before the next snow would have fallen.

And the King looked at the plant every single day and saw its blossoms turn from white to red and then to green and turn blue the day before his people arrived. And when they arrived he told them what the plant was good for and that every Telmori should know this new plant because it helped him to remember when the weather changed.

Because he found the answer to this blooming he was proclaimed to be King Blossom and he was asked to name the times between the different colours. And he replied that this needed preparations which would take him another snow to be ready. And when he arrived the next time before snow had fallen he had the aswers and he said that he thought four ruthrr only on this question. He named the time between white and red arutr, between red and green urutr, between green and blue oruth and between blue and white erutr. He never explained that names and only said that this was the „real“ name of the plant and that Telmor was very content with his children to found out such a secret.

Long after that, King Blossom died and his body was left to his wolfbrother, a beautyful grove full of the rutrr arose where his body had been. But this grove was destroyed when Gbaji burned the forest and so all the rutrr were destroyed. Nonetheless we still call our seasons after this plant.