Ssajann and his people speak the Siran language fluently, but you may not. Here you will find translations for the words that you probably won't understand. Haahiyaii (name) - Sunjoy Vvysiliivi (name) - Snowsister Riashvvy (name) - Ice Vvyji - arctic, or belonging to the cold (ie: ice and snow) Liisji - Mother, conveying respect koyakyviss - watching young ones, aka babysitting SouhaeDeik - Tribeground, home Vvyilii (name) - Cold, feminine Whisrior (name) - Abyss "What is it, Mother?" Ssaliisji - "husband's" mother, or 'mother in law' Ssajann (name) - Hope, masculine Kalun'shaisa J’Nuulorji - "Forever Bound", married "Mother, mother! I saw a water-thing! It waas huge! It was a great feaarsome beast and I have to..!" "Saajann, where have you been? You know you are not to play in the snow without friends! What if something had happened to you and I couldn't find you?"

Haahiyaii always thought her name was funny. All the other girls she knew had names like Vvysiliivi, or Riashvvy. Vvyji names. Why did she have to be so different? She didn't want to be different. But Liisji said that when she grew up, she'd be proud of her the very thing that set her apart from the others her age. Liisji didn't know, she had a perfectly normal name, even though she did say that when she was small the girls her age would make fun of her name, too.       The young sira sighed. A gust of chill wind cut across the open ocean as she gazed out at it, watching ripples form in it's pristine surface from unknown and probably large creatures beneath. She raised her fur and feathers slightly to guard against the cold, and turned so that she was facing the wind. It was always better to face into the wind, she'd discovered, because that way it didn't ruffle her fur and feathers and make her cold. Haa returned to her interrupted line of thought. The other children were all silly creatures anyway, selfish and thoughtless and spoiled. Her own Liisji had said so on numerous occasions after koyokyviss. Haa herself was more subdued and tended to keep to herself and wander off alone to think sometimes.       Like she was doing now.       She just didn't like the noise and activity of the SouhaeDeik, even though Liisji had told her never to stray far. She didn't really listen. She wasn't all that young anymore, anyway. Her adult fur and feathers had started comming in a year ago, and now there was only a little kittenish down and fluff left. It made her look all patchy and funny looking, she thought, but at least all the other children her age looked the same, so they couldn't tease her about that. Except Vvylii, who had gotten all of her adult fur and plumage in a year early, and now strutted around proudly as though she were already a grownup.       Haa rolled her eyes as she returned to her home and heard Liisji calling her name. Oh yeah, that would make her more popular, she thought sarcastically. She could already hear the sniggers of her peers as she loped into the village, and pinned her ears back sulkily. She was all set to deliver a harsh comment when she reached home, but was surprised to see Whisrior standing at the entrance of the cave with her Liisji.       Whisrior was the only other sira in her tribe with a name as odd as her own, though the aged being was hardly someone a growing, rebelious teenager wanted to be associated with. Even if she was the Seer for the tribe.       Haa paused uncertainly, her long ears still set back. "Shraji ya, Liisji?" ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~       The legend went as far back as the eldest sira could recall. The ancestor of their tribe had done a great service for the deity of life, Niaryalii. Some say a mother had given up her first born cub, others insisted that it was a father, and he’d promised his life and lineage to her. But whatever it was, it was a service that the deity had vowed to one day repay. That was before the great fission of clans, when all sira looked the same. There were so few back then, when the world was new, that many, if not all tribes claimed that their ancestor had known the deities directly, even spoke with them, as one friend to another.       However, only this one tribe, who had traveled with their clan to the cold north to scrape a life out of the ice and snow, could trace the story back through a single family line. They’d changed in the long generations that had passed between then and now, their warm colored coats fading, until not even the faintest blush of color was present, except of course for the siran markings. Those were the palest shades of gray in fur that was otherwise as white and fluffy as the fresh-fallen snow around them. Their wings were no longer capable of carrying them in the air, which was fine; the sky was a cold, inhospitable region in which only the hardiest creature dared venture. ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~       One soon to be mother in the clan of the snow-sira, tribe of the sea and ice, sat alone on the edge of a glacier overlooking the breaking waves far below. Haahiyaii had come here often with her mate in the year or so that they’d been together. The gray, stormy horizon matched her turmoil of emotions perfectly, and for a moment, just a moment, she leaned forward into the gusty wind blowing in off the ocean. Had she been startled just then, or the wind lessened suddenly, she would have lost her precarious balance and plummeted into the icy depths below.       But fate was not kind this day. An almost angry burst of air thrust her back towards safety, and she took it as the sign she had not asked for, but secretly hoped against.       She turned and trudged back to the rest of her tribe. She could hear a howl of grief in the distance; that would be her Ssaliisji. She suffered, yes, but the cold, icy torment that had encased Haa’s heart was immeasurably worse. She now faced a life alone. The thought was so horrible it made her want to turn and fling herself from that glacier, but the warm life within her was enough to keep her rooted in sanity, at least for the moment. It was all she had left.       She’d deal with whatever hardships life handed her. She’d rise above them, as the sun rose above the ice and brought new life with it every summer. Just as her name, the name that had so troubled her as a cub, suggested she could. Haahiyaii vowed then and there, as she came within sight of the SouhaeDeik and the other members of her grieving tribe, to raise this cub to be so happy and well adjusted he wouldn’t realize the lack of a father.       Yes, that’s what she would do. ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~       Ssajann hummed a little tune to himself as he waited at the blow hole in the ice. Sooner or later, a little animal would come up through the ice for a breath of air, and when it did... well, he hadn’t quite gotten that far in his planning yet. Suffice it to say, he would do something. The young sira hadn’t decided yet whether he’d catch it, or run away. Either way, he’d have a story to tell mother when he got back home, at the very least.       He knew he was different. Everyone knew it, actually. However, unlike everyone else, ‘Jann didn’t know why. Sure, he knew he didn’t have a ssaiji, but that didn’t seem to bother him as much as it did his mother and the rest of the tribe. See, what he didn’t know and the rest of them did, was that since sira are monogamous, his mother was Kalun'shaisa J’Nuulorji to her mate. Bound for all eternity. It's a good thing if one chooses a mate and lives a long life and happy life with them, and doesn’t wish to be separated even in death. However, it’s not so helpful when one chooses a mate and then looses them suddenly to a tragic twist of fate.       But his mother had decreed that he would be happier if he didn’t know all of that at such a young age, and so it was.       ‘Jann only knew that his liisji loved him more than life itself (she said so almost daily), and that he was destined for great things, which she also mentioned quite often. He didn’t particularly care to think what a ‘great thing’ was, but rather suspected it involved battling some powerful foe or defeating a fearsome beast, like the heroes in his bedtime stories. No matter, he’d find something to battle or defeat, even if it was a...       Just then a small fish-like creature popped it’s head out of the blowhole and blinked at him, surprised. He too was somewhat surprised, and studied the creature thuroughly before... okay, he leapt two feet into the air and sped off down a snowbank at the first sight of it. The thing watched his snow-trail for a moment before slipping silently back beneath the surface once again.       “Liisji, liisji! Ky j’koyoya shriash’r’ya! U’sh j’raluhais! U’sh j’khraluha chaelais r~etun diku Ky shomaky..!” he was interrupted by his mother, who had noticed that he was shivering uncontrollably throughout his whole speech.       “Ssajann!” she said in that voice that is half exasperated, half accusational that mothers seem to be so good at attaining. “Ssajann, shra shoma mik j’ky? Mik kuy kaormik cliijavvyji isja’arheesa! Shrashan ja'arya j’shoma mik dika Ky j’diya kaornerry mik?"       Of course, Ssajann had no good answer for that, other than to look at his paws ashamedly. He knew his liisji loved him, but it had been such a fun adventure! It wasn’t long before the event was forgotten, however, and ‘Jann curled up under liisji’s small, downy wing as she purred him to sleep. He really, really wanted to go out again tomorrow and wait by that blowhole. Maybe he’d be able to find an adventurous kit to go along with him this time. Pages: 1 2 3 4 Stats: Bunny Dragon Bunny Dragons are from Veniam Mactare : Ferreus Caves