Mountain Side

                                                    Prologue

         It was a picturesque morning on the flat farmlands of Emerlet, the crisp air

gave way to the breath taking picture forming on the horizon. The great sun was

rising, its warm rays of gold were lighting the Rahokie Mountains up making them

look as though it been some great painting overlooking some heaven. Slowly the

clouds rolled down the mountainsides first revealing the reddish brown peaks, and

then it revealed its true beauty the lush green forest hypnotic and mysterious in

every way drawing at any who would stare to long.

         The mountainside forest had always been a mystery to him, he never

understood why they would draw him in so. While staring into the deep green lush of

the mountainsides he heard voices deep with age and wisdom. He focused harder

still on the mountains trying to pick out the source of this voice or of his seemingly

hypnotic hallucination. Gazing deeper yet into the forest he saw a many things, he

saw patches of trees turned black as though they had been burned in place but left

completely intact, is was all very odd to him maybe even sinister in a way. Slowly

the focus he tried so hard to hold was drifting away, blurring and then his whole

world began to shake and rumble and there was a new and yet familiar voice.





                                                      1
                                        The Dream Awakens

         Satoym wake up, Satoym... would you just wake up! The moment Satoym

began to stir he lost his picture, it reseeded into the back of his mind like a memory

of days before lost or forgotten maybe even both. He gave up the fight to hold on to

the dream and opened his eyes and saw that it was his brother Yogie waking him

out of his place of peace, but why so early he wondered. The light of the sun had not

even reached out to the sky over the far mountainsides. Pausing a moment to react

to the sudden shock of a possible emergency he franticly looked about the room.

Listing all he could see in his head, the room still dark only lit by the tapered

candle, but even now, he could see the many shapes and objects he recognized for

being his own, but somehow the room as a whole looked different somehow it

looked wrong.

         The window he looked out of to guess the time had been open, he could feel

the wind blow on him now the crisp cold air from the mountains, almost as eerie as

the voices in his dream, of which he swore he could still here. Looking closer at the

window, he noticed it had been broken and its shattered pieces strewn across the

room. “Yogie what happened?” dizzily sitting up not fully awake yet, he looked

straight into Yogie’s eyes inquisitively. “I wasn’t sure myself. I was down stairs when

I felt the house began to sway as the wind began screaming around the house, and

then I heard a crash... I don’t know what happened but I rushed up here to see what

it was but I didn’t see anything.” Looking concerned as ever.

         Yogie looked like a simpleton, his face was gaunt, skin pale, his clothes

where of common material, grayish after many days work, and his eyes like blank

mirrors, seemingly void of any thought or even a soul. I always thought it was his

way to hide his emotions and thoughts; he was a true believer of the eyes being the

window to mind and soul. Even the way he looked was as much of a deception as

his eyes because he was not a simpleton and was always in deep thought. ”What is

it Yogie?” Yogie continued to look concerned and even worried about something.

After a long pause and a somewhat reluctant shrug “It is noon and sun hasn’t risen

and even if it were not noon the sun should still be up, yet it isn’t... there are no

clouds that I have seen just this horrid wind and endless whistle slowly driving me

insane. Satoym was awake now and looking out the window, looking over the

shadowed land over the foothills into the pitch black that he knew was the

mountains, still he swore he could here the voices reaching him even now past his

dreams. He stared blankly at the now blank horizon thinking back onto his dream,

remembering the voices and as if waiting for something he stared deeper yet in the

void...

         Yogie noticed Satoym’s stare it was almost as if the unseen mountains

carried him away, back to his dreams maybe or maybe it had something to do with

this wind. The wind had been coming out of the mountains all morning and now

stronger then ever. Deep in thought and worried about his brother, Yogie lost track of

the time he spent pondering what this wind may be from, and wondering why his

brother was so attracted to the mountains. Yogie looked deep into his brother’s

eyes and heard a voice longing to remember his brothers past, it felt almost as if it

was his conscious tugging at him to reminisce and just wait out the wind...

         Satoym had always been interested in the mountains he would always go to

the edge of town just to climb the tallest trees, to look over the forest at the

mountains. As a young boy he never had friends he never had time for them he was

always deep in his own thoughts which were overflowing spinning him in circles so

he often would seek the refuge of that tall tree. He often had the eyes of many of the

towns girls and even some of the young ladies. He was of medium height, he had

long black hair often braided in ceremonial braids, which accentuated his tanned

skin and blue eyes, and he was a well-built youth despite his recluse behavior. His

taste in clothing had always been a little bit more substantial then his brothers,

where his brother would wear common clothes his brother would only wear clothes

that set him apart from the rest of the town but his clean well kept body and clothing

attracted many of the female persuasion. He had always felt he was different maybe

even crazy, he felt his calling in life was not that of a peasants he was a thinker. He

never took to any of the women who threw themselves at him he felt that if he was to

be better then another muscle with no brain he should wait until he found a nice

young woman he could truly share his thoughts with.

         A few years ago, our parents had died in a fire and so we were left to fend for

our selves at first I had to do everything from the hunting to the work of everyday life,

soon I couldn’t keep up with it, and I had to coax him into learning to hunt but it

worked. Soon after only a couple times going with me he could hunt like no other in

the town he would even pull in extra money by hunting for other townsfolk. Soon

after that he began to train under the edge of a sword, learning all he could from the

books in town and the mercenaries that accompanied the travelers as they passed,

so he would master this or so I thought but Satoym thought different he never

stopped practicing and learning. He could best any man in combat but he felt he

was lacking something, but he was not sure what. That bring us up to today, for

today we were to go deep into the woods maybe even to the base of the Rahokie

Mountain range, not only were we to hunt but map the area for other families

wanting to explore the lands around the town.

         Yogie was finished reminiscing and so his gaze to fell over the blackened

mountain range soon the both were asleep.