Rings of Gold

The heat was overbearing as the sun glared in the cloudless sky and the cracked ground made it difficult to walk. Small dry bushes dotted the landscape, at times accompanied by small trees. The ground was broken and cracked, the heat having dried most of the moisture out of it and leaving only a hard ground. The landscape shifted unpredictably with ridges making it difficult to walk in a straight path. Shara’s feet hurt from the journey and she knew that she would have to stop soon if the landscape did not change, and she found a source of water. Every step on the broken ground kicked up dust and she already had a layer of dust on her that would require a lengthy bath to get rid of. Accompanying the scorching sun, a never-ending wind came from the east and made the dust particles rise and fall with the changing landscape. Only the almost invisible eastward slope of the terrain revealed that she was heading into better ground. She knew she had to make it to the city near the great river Az, where water would be plentiful and so would food. She was unused to moving outside of the great valley hidden in the foothills of the northern mountain range and even though the journey had been difficult she was determined to reach the city that she had dreamed about recently. Her ruffled fur was dirty from the time she had spent in the badlands, but its color was still clearly visible. She had a soft brown fur with darker, almost black, fur lining her ears. Her eyes were clearly gold and rather than having white eyes outside of the pupil, her was completely black. Her mother had claimed it had to do with their heritage, as her blood contained the power of ancient beings. Despite the two years she had spent in the badlands, her eyes had only dimmed slightly. She had grown physically stronger over the years and gone were the softer forms of someone living a life of luxury. Instead, she had the lean and wiry form of a youth that spent a lot of time running and scavenging for food. She was tall for her age despite always being hungry and her once beautiful green dress had become tattered and torn. Only the glimmering golden light from her tongue, lip piercing and ear clips revealed that she was anything other than a lost lion cub. The deep valley in the foothills where she had been hiding over the last two years had been lusher than the open landscape outside as it was supported by the small streams that came out of the mountain tops. While it still had not been a forest, there was enough trees and bushes to give shade and a sanctuary away from the glaring sun. The caves along the sides of the valley had also been a boon as she never had lacked for shelter. The open landscape did not have these streams and had to make do with the seasonal rains that came in from the north, or the storms that the spirits of the land sometimes conjured from nothingness. There were no such spirits in the air now and Shara growled as she felt herself hate the lack of shade and shelter. Her footsteps had become heavier, and she started to feel exhausted as she climbed to the top of yet one more hill. The two years she had spent in the badlands that surrounded the fallen temple had been difficult. Fear of wanderers or treasure seekers had made her avoid the temple for the most part, so it had served as a constant reminder of her life from before the attack as it was visible from all parts of the valley. She vividly remembered the night that her mother, Matara, had woken her up by storming into her room and forcing her to dress quickly. Matara had promised Shara that she and the other shamanesses would protect her with all the power they could muster. She had also made it clear that the attack came as a response to the prophecy that had been foretold about Shara’s ascendancy. Thus, she was to leave via a secret tunnel that only the high shamaness and her personal guards knew about. Shara had tried to protest at first, but her mother’s stern glance had made it clear that the decision was not up for debate. She had to leave before anyone could follow them. As the two guards had led her through the temple, she heard screams and the sounds of battle. She could feel both Sejd and Arcane power flow through the air, but it was not until they left the tunnel that she saw what was happening. The temple was under siege and she saw that the lionesses inside were losing the battle. At first it seemed unreal as she knew their power firsthand, and she wanted to go back inside to help them. But after a moment she felt that the anubian army was not only supported by their own powerful sorcerers, but by the eastern shamanesses as well. Fear filled her as she knew that her mother might not win the battle and one of the guards had put his hands on her shoulder to calm her. Soon, strange powers clashed in the air and they waited until the battle calmed and her guards made it clear that they had to leave. The last she saw of her mother was how she was led out of the temple, surrounded by the accursed female lizards who made sure that her mother could not use any of her powers to prevent being taken as a slave. Not soon after they had lost the view of the temple, they had been attacked by a ruinous spirit and her guards had given their life to give her the time to focus her will and power so she could drive the spirit away from her. Once the spirit had been driven away, she was utterly alone in the badlands. She returned to the ruins of her home after a week, when the anubian army had left. Bodies were still scattered around the grounds and it was clear that the anubians had not left any survivors. Those wounded or useless as slaves had been put to the sword. Females had been taken and all valuables had been looted. Shara wept as she had cried out to the great spirits and demanded to know how they let the attack happen. To her dismay, the spirits were silent, and she was for the first time in her life, truly alone. The two years she had spent hiding in the valley had been difficult for her. She avoided contact with anyone she noticed, and she made sure that the anubians thought they had killed or enslaved anyone that had been at the temple. Had she not had her powers and her piercings, she would have succumbed to the heat and starvation that the land gave to those who came there ill-equipped. She caught water spirits and forced them to reveal their secrets to her, giving her access to water and other spirits helped her with food. She had even made a deal with one of the darker spirits in a desperate moment when she was starving.  When it became clear that she could not survive in the valley much longer, she had returned to the temple to find anything that would help her. She swore revenge upon the anubian empire and the cowardly emperor who led them. It was not until fairly recently that she had convinced herself that she was no longer being searched for as she hadn’t spotted anyone inside the valley for two years. During all this time she had performed the training exercises her mother had taught her and she had realized that for all her natural talent and power, she would be unable to progress in her abilities until she got a teacher who knew how to properly channel her energies. She went back to the ruins and search for references to other temples and in a letter that had arrived just months before the attack she found a mention of a temple in the nearby town Shakthep. According to the letter, the shamanesses there were asking for advice from her mother and if they had listened, they would be excellent teachers. Shara gathered what few things she had and headed out, leaving the valley behind her.