The Tergavi speaks

Telmori without Fire

Come sit down in this grove. Do you want some meat ? It is fresh from the hunt, still rich in blood. Oh, there comes the Tergavi, be quiet and do not interrupt.

This tale was told to me by a great wolf spirit last night. It is about a small part of our tribe, it is about those who have choosen the gtref-agr or the cold path.

When we were still young and there was no place where wolves could not go to, something terrible came to our forests. It was white and blinding and it had wings. Where this thing went to it left only snow, ice and death. No man nor beast could stand against it. Armies died within heartbeats, whole kingdoms within days and there seemed to be no chance to stop this terrible monster from killing all what was living. There our King Telmor left us to search for something which could cure this. He travelled far and came back with something which he got from a friend who stole it from the skies : ruug or fire. And Telmor told us that also man got this from his friend and that it would be a terrible weapon against the White Monster. And though many of us feared this new thing for it was hot and very sharp, we promised Telmor to learn how to fight with this new weapon. And after only a few days of practise the White Monster flew towards our forests and wanted to cover them in death like it had done with all previous. But Telmor told us to use ruug and in this way the White Monster was burned alive and never came back. After this we held a great feast in our forest praising Telmor as well as ruug.

Soon we Telmori discovered that ruug was not only good for killing but also for preserving meat or for keeping oneself warm. And we used this new knowledge to the best. And all forests became more pleasant with this new thing.

But after a time we Telmori became more and more careless with this thing which was not new anymore. And thus one time one Telmori who was especially careless left ruug unattended and it started to burn some bushes and trees and the more it burned the faster it grew and after sometime the first Telmori noticed it, but it was already too late. Nothing could be done against this huge ruug and no Tergavi, King nor Telmor could do anything to prevent it from destroying one of our forests.

After the whole forest was laid in ashes another terrible message reached us. A young Telmori said that he was inside this forest when it started to burn and that he barely escaped the flames but all his friends and their mothers did not make it. They were burned alive like the White Monster many generations ago.

Within moments all Telmori started to mourn and cry. And they did not stop before their tears filled the whole burned forest. Within only a few moment the trees started to grow from the ashes and in only one day a new forest stood there where the old was burned. This was the ancient magic which can no longer be seen, this was magic which only the females could do and this was magic which died out. But regardless if the forest was renewed the rahrr did not return, they remained dead, dead forever.

Seeing this the Telmori which was responsible for this terrible tragedy swore to never use ruug again and so did many others. From this day on they never touched something which was touched by ruug first even if they would die for it. And they departed to find a friend for them which could never become a foe if left unattended.

Many years later only a small pack returned to the forests but they had something which no other Telmori had. They visited the stars, they visited the darkness, they visited the winds, they visited the earths and they visited the waters. And some even visited the voids but of them no one returned for you can not find friends within the voids but only foes.

But those who returned had a gift from all the friends in the world. And this gift allowed them to survive where even Telmori with ruug would die of cold. They had and still have a pelt so white that they are invisible when snow has fallen and they have a pelt so warm that they even sweat when other Telmori would freeze to death.

These are the Telmori of the gtref-agr or the cold path. Honour to them and their way.