Tall-Ones, near firstcomer elves

Kolgar

Bonded/sponsor to: Daeoreon (lapiz male mountain), Nenani (pearl female mountain), Ai'Ling (blue female Kiudragon)

Age: 15,288 Sex: Male
Soul Name: kolgar Known By: (Mis'hee, it's not hard to know a high-one's soul name)
Mate Status/Sex Preference: Recognized to Mis'hee (dead), straight, currently unmated
Children: several, probably long dead (Recognition more than 12 thousand years ago)
Parents/Relatives: high ones, firstcomer elves who died in hard winters
Height: 5'9" Build: tall and slender but fairly strong
Hair Color, Length, Style: browns, slightly reddish, curly, to high back
Eye Color, Size, Shape: golden, deep set, almond shaped
Skin Tone: fair
Voice Quality: high, scratchy
Clothing -- Summer: mixed fur and leather, shirt, leggings and tall boots in grey-browns with natural markings
Clothing -- Winter: cloak over that, little else
Jewlery Worn, Made: none worn but he makes a lot of things
Tatoos/Markings/Scars: none visible
Pets/Animals Kept: none
Notable Posessions: none
Holt Function: rock shaper, creator
Magic? How Powerful? Sending 12/10, Magic Feeling 8/10, Rock Shaping 10/10, Metal Shape 3/10
Climate/Locations Preferred: Tall woods, old-growth forests with mossy rocks and plenty of ore and stone to work on, fall season
General Likes: hunting, exploring, caverns
General Dislikes: hot sun beating down without a pond near, jealous a bit of the others with their lifemates alive
Fears/Worries: wants to Recognize again, but doesn't know if anyone would have such an old elf (yeah right)
Special Strange Info: along with the others slept for several thousand years at a time, in preserver-coccoons
Basic Personality: Truthful, honest, blunt, and somewhat simple. Though he is not dull witted at all, he prefers the simplicty of work, to a lot of mind-numbing conversation.
How they feel about
Humans: look at them breed! Harbors no ill will to the current generations, but won't forget what they did in his time
Elves -- herders: so they've conquered animals, good.
Elves -- magic users: it's a shame more elves cannot do what the first comers could
Elves -- bond-riders: is intrigued, this is a new thing for elves, isn't it?
Trolls, etc: hasn't seen any of the modern ones, though they came near the cavern where the trio slept
Bond Animal Info if any:

***

Yasheel

Bonded to: Tylhar

Age: 14956 Sex: Female
Soul Name: yasheel Known By: self, Awlvon, everyone who understands high ones have no privacy
Mate Status/Sex Preference: Recognized and Lifemated to Awlvon, straight
Children: more than one or two, but most dead ages ago. Will probably Recognize him again and have more, once they're stable
Parents/Relatives: long gone first comers
Height: 6'2" Build: very tall, lean, wiry
Hair Color, Length, Style: white-silver, with platinum shades in the sun, very long fluffy and topknotted
Eye Color, Size, Shape: dark green, large, round
Skin Tone: medium tan, burns, normally fair without sun
Voice Quality: high, sharp
Clothing -- Summer: leather long-sleeved tunic, fur cloak, high boots, in shades of yellows and pale greens
Clothing -- Winter: same
Jewlery Worn, Made: hair ornaments, and makes wooden things
Tatoos/Markings/Scars: none visible
Pets/Animals Kept: none
Notable Posessions: staff which is topped with a shard of the original palace's matter, which was shaped by a long-dead first comer, this is a very powerful artifact that attracts magical attention and glows strongly to anyone with good Magic Feeling
Holt Function: tree-shaper, flier, keeper of magic
Magic? How Powerful? Sending 12/10, Magic Feeling 8/10, Plant Shape 10/10, Levitation 7/10
Climate/Locations Preferred: forests, large caverns, spring and fall seasons
General Likes: peace and quiet, meditation, focused people
General Dislikes: loud noises and lots of people (except children, she loves them), distractions
Fears/Worries: Those humans... they may have learned a thing or two in the many thousands of years they've slept. she is paranoid that somehow they remember her...
Special Strange Info: she slept the most shallow of the group, her touch with the palace allowed her to listen in on the plants and keep track of whether anything or anyone was near
Basic Personality: a bit arrogant, but she definitely keeps herself in check when there are people around. she is disgusted and concerned with the half-blooded elves that have come about, though she knows they're still elves she feels sorry for them that they're doomed to live a mortal life (no matter how long). She's excessively spiritual.
How they feel about
Humans: hate and fear, paranoid
Elves -- herders: she can help them keep those goats and sheep in check!
Elves -- magic users: aren't they all? oh - they aren't? what's happened to the world...
Elves -- bond-riders: (holds hands to throat and says nothing)
Trolls, etc: those little things are nothing but trouble, the palace says so
Bond Animal Info if any: none

***

Awlvon

Bonded to: Pahari, female Blue Kegawa

Age: 15,068 Sex: Male
Soul Name: awlvon Known By: self, Yasheel, others
Mate Status/Sex Preference: Lifemated and Recognized multiple times to Yasheel, straight | recognizes Moontwin at the same time
Children: several (as above), will likely recognize not just Yasheel again due to his healing powers | Touch is his son with Yasheel, and Eclipse his daughter with Moontwin
Parents/Relatives: long dead firstcomer parents, had a brother who perished long ago
Height: 5'7" Build: slender, light build, somewhat bony
Hair Color, Length, Style: rich black-violet, very long and straight, styled with leather ties
Eye Color, Size, Shape: violet, slanted, very narrow and hooded
Skin Tone: light olive-tan
Voice Quality: low, smooth, quiet
Clothing -- Summer: cleverly stitched leather tan and white body suit with bone and leather belt, cloth arm bands and leg braces, leather shoes
Clothing -- Winter: same
Jewlery Worn, Made: none but he's considering earrings
Tatoos/Markings/Scars: none but he'd like to try shaping his skin to look like tattoos
Pets/Animals Kept: none
Notable Posessions: none
Holt Function: healer, shaper of flesh, flier
Magic? How Powerful? Sending 14/10, Magic Feeling 6/10, Levitation 9/10, Healing 8/10, Flesh Shaping 2/10
Climate/Locations Preferred: rocky evergreen woods, winter and fall seasons
General Likes: observing people, listening to gossip but not sharing secrets, being needed
General Dislikes: his lifemate's attitude toward the half-blooded elves, gravity, being alone
Fears/Worries: that if he Recognizes someone other than Yasheel she'll really go off on him...
Special Strange Info: he is very passive, but is certainly the smartest of the trio, and has essentially led the group though Yasheel thinks she has.
Basic Personality: sensible, observant, quiet and thoughtful, but he's a bit sneaky - not to any bad end.
How they feel about
Humans: if they have to be hated, so be it, but if they don't do anything to us why bother worrying about them?
Elves -- herders: that's the best idea yet
Elves -- magic users: enjoys his position of power but would never consider abusing it for the sake of elevating himself, that would get him in trouble
Elves -- bond-riders: he knows they're tainted with mortality, but he could solve that, though why would he ever? they're happy the way they are.
Trolls, etc: why did they go and take the Palace? what use do they have with it? they cannot make it fly!
Bond Animal Info if any: none yet

** Preserver: Honeyhat, a feminine seeming creature with brightly yellow body, darker golden yellow and pale white-gold wings, green eyes, who wears what appears to be a bit of honeycomb on her head. As far as Preservers go, she's almost sedate. She tends to hide among Kolgar's curly hair and fur pieces, and comes out when they're traveling only when the sun's not directly on them lest her hat melt... She's a bit odd even for preservers. She does sing, but actually sweetly, more like the song of a hummingbird or lovebird, than the raucous noise that comes from others. Her duties to the trio are solemn: she will not leave them unless all three of them insist upon it, and even then she'd be very likely to follow them and keep them 'safe'. She's responsible for keeping them in wrapstuff coccoons when they wish to rest, and is highly responsive to their decision to leave it - however she has had difficulty figuring out how to remove them from it. Last time, she had to have small animals actually chew holes in it until they could be opened from the inside. (Which goes against everything that she knows, those coccoons are not supposed to be disturbed...)

"I cannot believe we've been walking this long," Yasheel said. She wasn't panting, they had been walking 'this long' for turns of the seasons already. She also had been floating part of the way - So her complaint was merely a formality. And one that she'd repeated a hundred times before. Her annoyance at their condition was to end shortly, when the group came upon a lovely clearing. There were weird hooved animals drinking from a small stream, and fish could clearly be seen heading upstream.

The plains surrounded this whole area, continuing on for what appeared to be forever in almost every direction. It was that 'almost' that caught the elves' eyes. They knelt by the stream, and Kolgar wisely decided that this would be a good place to stop for a while and stock up on supplies. He took out a hook that he'd shaped who knows how long before, slotted it into a length of twine, and tossed it onto the end of a stick. Fishing was something they could do at any time, as long as they knew there were fish to be had.

Not like that one place... Where the water all but stank, where it looked okay but the magic around it was so foul that they had to leave. The nightmares they had there were enough to make them all nervous until they'd completely cleared that forest. They traveled east, south-ish, wandering around between watering holes. They avoided the humans they encountered, and listened to Yasheel complain. If it wasn't that, it was Honeyhat singing, which was marginally preferable.

They'd been out of their coccoons for perhaps three years now. Before that, they estimated they'd slept undisturbed for around three thousand. Time was a strange thing to these old elves. They knew it passed, they felt the world around them age. They knew things had changed in that time. Dramatically. Humans kept breeding - they'd been brutish awful things when the trio were young. Though they'd been born on this world, they hardly felt connected to it. Pure blooded, ancient blood.

Before they'd gone under, they had met the primative Wolfrider clan, then led by an elfess who was taking them far from their old home, and settling them into their new one in the woodlands. Only Awlvon wondered whether that tribe still lived, how they fared. He tried bringing them up once in a while, but his mate - bless her - was always put off by the subject. He knew why, because of their half-blood.

Well, hardly any of them could be half-blooded, truly, unless they all mated with wolves! He tried explaining that to Yasheel, to Kolgar's grunting quiet chuckle. But Yasheel was adamant - those creatures were beasts, couldn't he see their spirits?

Well of course he could. He was at least as 'magical' as she - and more so, because he had the ability to heal, and could sense those kinds of things. As the trio watched the deer graze, and Kolgar caught not one but two very large spawned fish (he noted well where the ones that had discolored scales were, they were the ones who would die soon anyway) and they began to cook over a fire. None of this group had fire-starting magic, which was fine, they knew that fire-magic was the most dangerous and went bad the quickest if it sat wrongly used. No, they used a simple flint and spark tool that Kolgar provided.

For elves which probably could have lived anywhere but here, they did seem to have a good amount of ability to survive. Their children, siblings, ancestors, not so well. But then, they had a Preserver with them, and they knew of few others who wandered that did. Most had gone with that one group of first-comers and first-born, heading west into the setting sun, heading into the hill which would become Blue Mountain. This group didn't contact anyone in that direction for many, many eights - and Yasheel was a bit averse to doing so, since he had easily detected the darkness coming from it. What had gone wrong there? Probably the same thing that went wrong with that one forest. Bad magic - but living magic, not dead. They had preservers, maybe something was manipulating the elves while they slept. Awlvon didn't want to know. They weren't going to head that direction.

Settled in with a bit of shelter made up (by Awlvon 'helped' by Honeyhat, as Yasheel was busying herself with... probably collecting flowers or something - ah, no, she was actually finding berries and tubers that she recognized they could eat), they rested up for a few days.

In that time, Awlvon allowed himself to dream, drifting mentally far and wide. He sensed that there were elves nearby, some number of them distantly. Commenting on them, this spurred the group into moving along again once they'd caught another few fish and smoked them up a little. Awlvon practiced his flesh shaping power on them, drawing out their liquids, so they were dried nicely in a day or so. Yasheel continued to pick berries, and there was a whole patch of delicious orange-roots - yams - which they packed away on each of their satchels.

At the very least, then, when they came across the encampment of other elves on their own journey, it was less than a day later and everyone would enjoy the benefits of fresh smoked fish in addition to the large antelope that the two female hunters had caught.

"Where are we going?" Asked Yahseel, tiredly. "I hope that it is somewhere close by. I for one am sick of walking." That at least was a sentiment that they all echoed. Well, all but Bowcrescent who'd done little more than walk across the plains back and forth all his life! He couldn't even imagine not walking.

"It's nearby," Awlvon said, and he noted the nods on the others they met up with. "It's good to be traveling with new people, isn't it?" He asked, and while the younger elves (all hardly a few hands of years old - well, maybe in their hundreds of years) agreed, Yasheel was so insistant that they travel ahead of her, though, and eventually it came out why.

Awlvon was positive she'd invented it, but it did turn out that several of their new travel companions (not just the obvious ones on the wolf) had some kind of animal blood in their history. Awlvon looked over their souls - it was easy for an elf like him to just look without prying. He didn't want secrets, he didn't want ... well, he did want Moontwin's secrets... He couldn't admit it yet, but he knew. He knew her name, and though she hadn't found his yet even just walking near her was starting to make the healer a bit nervous.

But what Awlvon saw when he looked at them, he saw their souls laid bare - their essences. Sure a couple of them were a bit furry around the edges. Why that bothered Yasheel so much he really, really couldn't say. And if he'd been able to? He might have even tried 'curing' her of it. But this was no affliction, it was merely a very strong opinion.

Kolgar didn't have that opinion, particularly not of Jade when she finally joined their travel group. Kolgar instantly latched onto her, because she was a gem shaper. Nowhere near as talented magically as he, but that was because her tribe, the Go-Backs, didn't care much for magic! Yasheel had a strong opinion about that too.

And it was pretty obvious when looking them over, that even if Jade didn't have a proper skill with her sending and her soul-name was (flimsy)(easily seen)(concealing nothing else) they were a great pair. Strong folks like that would always attract to each other. It didn't take long to see how attached they'd become.

Well, if Jade was anything like a clingy type - which Yasheel was, and which none of the other females in their little wandering group were either. She'd had other children, which Kolgar and she also had in common. The demands of Recognition would wait, a little, but not for long.

Not for long for any of them, really. They were the oldest blood that could still be found on Abode, at least just around here... Awlvon felt the prickling of minds as they reached the edge of the plains, the start of the mountains.

Bald Mountain became their home - just like that. The first-born were so relieved, even Awlvon, to just be settled somewhere.

Kolgar immediately found himself wandering the natural caverns in the big hillside, appraising it. With his shapers magic, he began rounding hard edges, smoothing floors, bringing things to the surface that the existing elves there didn't even know were there.

Metal ores? Plenty of them, closer to the middle of the mountain. Gems and crystals? Well they knew there were plenty of those, but only had one or two who could adeptly shape them - and even then, only when they were near the surface or dug from the stone itself. Kolgar had to be told not to actually bring all the gemstones to the surface - even though Apogee the chieftess of these dragon-riding elves would have loved to see it once, she proclaimed, "we don't need to be blinded by colors and dazzled by diamonds every time we walk under an archway," and so he left it to whenever someone asked. Particularly he was welcome to Jade's requests to draw up the harder-to-shape metals, so she could clean the stone from them.

Between the two of them, they were ready to build a metal, gem-encrusted suit of armor, the likes of which even a Troll could appreciate...

But first, the elves of Bald Mountain Holt had demands of the group. And though it took a while, and came in odd form, each of the elves were asked if they would bond or sponsor with a dragon. Whether it flew, crawled, teleported or leapt, they would be required to do so to be a "full" member of the tribe. No one was turned away, of course, anyone - and there were other travelers - was offered a place to rest and a pit to cook their meals, pulling their weight in the tribe was much easier however, with a dragon...

So while it was intriguing to the first-born, it also intimidated them a bit. They'd been here far longer than any of these young pips, even Archive was the eldest among all the Bald Mountain elves, and he'd come from the cat-bonders elsewhere! And was hardly a tenth the age of Kolgar! Now, truth be told, the first-born had spent a lot of their time coccooned. They'd missed thousands of years at a time, so they really didn't have all that to rely upon. They weren't so hide-bound that they must stay in one place, or they must be given unearned respect simply for living that long.

The elves here did respect them for that. It was clear from the moment they arrived to Bald Mountain, even the dragons recognized their great age. But they also respected the strength of will it required to ride or command a dragon, certainly. And if there was one thing that this small trio of elves had in common it was strength of will.

How else had they survived all the things they'd seen? Avalanches, floods, fires, humans... Cave-ins, hauntings, bad magic, and the like. Their stories would fill volumes, and indeed, Archive was even a little hesitant to ask to mind-link with them. He was talented, certainly, and his lifemate Dreamwhisper had skills in magic which even intrigued Yasheel.

Though she was, as ever, repulsed by the distant feeling of whiskers tickling her mind whenever she sent to Dreamwhisper...

While the others in their travel group split up and went to worlds distantly, Kolgar and the other first-born remained for a while. No one rushed them, but they knew that it would be a matter of time.

"I will not mind bond with a creature... that is below us." Yasheel hissed. Unfortunately for her, it was within earshot of one of the older Bald Mountain elves, Rib.

"How dare you -" she spat, "I was hoping that you'd help instruct my son with his magic," Rib turned to Awlvon. "But to suggest that dragons are below us? That's madness. You say such things because you don't know the truth, Yasheel, and the truth is that you're afraid to admit that there are other things as smart or as strong as you."

Rib sneered, turned away. Her son White-Eyes was a dragon rider already, well, he was the keeper of the pair of gem-colored Lians which lived in the Holt. He had bone-shaping abilities just like Rib did, but his were more geared toward living matter - a flesh-shaper. Apparently this power had surfaced more strongly now that he was grown and had a mental bond. Apparently, Rib thought Awlvon's lifemate was a bit too much to deal with even to be beside while her son learned.

Awlvon carefully turned to Yasheel. "You need to get out and find a dragon, then," he said simply. He stood up, "and so do I. But I've no idea where to look. I think Kolgar's already found something." Awlvon walked out to catch up with Rib, while his lifemate stewed in their quarters.

***

It was true, Kolgar had 'found' something. Several somethings, actually. While it wasn't clear that he'd actually bonded any of these dragons, there were three who hung near him and another that stood guard - apparently waiting for his proper bond to come to him.

The big blue and black spotted dragon had arrived first, having opened a portal with obscure magics. They'd wandered around - his own world was populated by other dragons too, and he'd found a friend in one slinky, wingless flier. They'd been to other places, and picked up another pair, perhaps a mated pair, they weren't sure.

One of them, the female who was a pearlish grey in color, reminded Kolgar way too much of Yasheel. She was so uptight! The only difference, he noted well one afternoon after cursing the Humans gods for putting such weak stone in such an important place (where he, not paying attention, tripped and fell through a crumbled spot), was that Nenani was able to paralyze you with a gaze. Or was it with her breath? Something weird, but Kolgar was stuck in an embarrasing spot just long enough to 'learn his lesson'.

He was a bit more friendly with the male, the lapiz-blue colored Daeoreon, because they had almost exactly the same personality. Daeoreon liked watching Kolgar work, but also enjoyed the spoils of 'war games' - with Jade, training with weapons in the Holt became a much more popular thing. Dae would let Kolgar ride him, a stunning mount for the rock-shaper.

It was the third of their odd bunch that Kolgar wondered about: Ai'ling, who at first everyone thought was just a colorful lizard or snake... But when she shifted her size from about the length of Kolgar's arm, to around the same height as Dae, everyone knew that she was a dragon!

She didn't speak much, though when she did she had only truths to speak. She of all the dragons around, enjoyed slinking through the rocky Bald Mountain itself, and it was she who showed Kolgar an ideal workspace - which he had to shape a tunnel to even get to, because she had simply taken the tiny fissure all the way to its inner cavern. Once he was there, everything fell into place.

Including the well-anticipated mating with Jade. There was never a doubt that she'd have born him children, really, but whether they were really Recognized? It didn't seem likely at all, when it came out. Jade's soul-name was perhaps safe with Kolgar, but it might also be safe with any number of other males... The way she flirted! But that was just fine with both Kolgar and she. She didn't have a dragon yet, when she bore their son Granite.

In fact she didn't have a dragon for a while, oddly. But that didn't trouble anyone much, because she was already quite busy with shaping weapons and dens.

**more below**