Post by YULIYA DUKHKIN' on Jul 6, 2012 2:26:40 GMT -4
Yuliya
In the country now known as Ukraine, a group of fierce warriors roam. No one dares to fight them, for they are known all around the world for their horsemanship, their valor, tenacity and habit of always performing acts beyond the call of duty, and of always reaching for the impossible. The word itself, Cossacks, means in the Tartar language, “Freeman.” Before they were even called Cossacks, they were known as “the brave and strong people. “Where the Cossacks came from cannot be said with certainty, but, in any event, it [their State] existed prior to the Tartar invasion of 1223. These knights lived separately, without pledging allegiance to the Russians, the Poles or the Tartars.” At the head of their tribal units, similar to Scottish clans, was an elected leader called and Ataman or Hetman. They also elected others: the judge, the scribe, the lesser officials, and even the clergy. All leaders were known as the starshina. Executive powers were in the Ataman, who was the supreme commander in the fields. They did not have written laws, but the “Cossack Tradition,” which was common, unwritten law.
Vivek Dukhkin’ was one such Cossack. After a troubling past and being chosen to be an esaul at a young age, he fell in love with a woman his brother brought to meet him, a woman named Chiye Ada from the Celtic land. He married her almost instantly and came very close to having an illegitimate child when she gave birth to his son soon after that. He was a handsome boy, born at noon on the first day of Spring, named Voyin, the Cossack word for warrior. It was only after their son was born that Chiye revealed to him that she was indeed not human, and should expect some odd qualities in their child, but Vivek did not care, he loved her all the same, and made sure that not even their son would find out. Three years after this, the Ataman died and Vivek was elected to take his place, and everything was perfect in the Spirit Horse Tribe that lived low on the Dnieper River.
Only a year after this a terrible storm surged through their land, raining lightning and drowning out your ears with the sound of thunder, though none was as strong as the wind that pulsed through everyone’s hearts. What was odd was that none of the animals seemed worried. It was Vivek’s duty to help his tribe and so he went about, making sure that everyone was holding in. Chiye came with him, believing it was her duty to, but in the middle of this, she went into labor. Rain pelted her through it all, for she had been alone and there was no one to carry her under shelter. She herself had thought she was going to die when a tiny hole in the clouds went over the evening star, so that it shined on her, and that was when Yuliya was born.
Chiye, in her great thankfulness for the fact that both she and her child survived, gave her not three, but eleven names, a great number of power. The storm did not die down, but that was when Voyin found his mother, and even though he was only four years old, managed to help them back to their tent.
When Vivek learned of the way of her birth, he almost blamed her for causing his wife to nearly die, and so when his mother, who had abandoned him long ago, asked for the child, he agreed to let her have her when she could walk. Scared for her future, and wanting to make sure that her daughter would be like her, Chiye spent as much time as she could with her baby outside in the world, placing her on the backs of horses and dogs, touching her nose to wild animals, and setting her up high in tree branches. But when Yuliya could walk, to Zyma she went.
Zyma treated Yuliya with no kindness, even when she couldn’t talk. Anytime she disobeyed her, she would hit her hard with a stick that had thorns on it. Though Yuliya often talked back, resulting in more pain, this eventually taught her to never show her true feelings. She had to do manual labor the moment she could understand what job she had to do. She had to do whatever Zyma asked of her, no matter how trying it was. And the worst part was, Yuliya was allowed no animal companion. For Cossacks build their lives around their horses, but Zyma’s one fear was of horses, and animals in general. Yuliya had already grown to love animals, even though her grandmother thought she was a weakling for it.
When Yuliya turned six, Zyma tried to sell her to a man as labor, but when Yuliya refused to kill a chicken to show him that she was capable of anything, she was made to watch as he killed it himself, and then he left. Zyma then beat Yuliya ferociously that night, and that was the night Yuliya made two vows: One, to never hurt an animal, and two, to never love or marry a man.
One year later, Yuliya could put up with no more of her grandmother and her harsh ways, so she drugged her dinner, set all the animals she had free, and ran back to the home she knew she had once had, following the evening star to the Dnieper River.
She was welcomed home, but had been told of the tragedy that Chiye had been killed, and nobody knew who had done it. Vivek had told them all that he had found his wife dead and had held a ceremony, though no one had seen the body. Yuliya was heartbroken, for although she didn't remember her mother clearly, she remembered that she had been happy. Her brother, Voyin, promised her that he would be like her mother from now on, and he took Chiye's place in the Dukhkin' household.
Admist all this tragedy was good news. Her mother's mare, Moon Gem, was in foal to her father's stallion, Celestial Night, and Yuliya would be given the foal. She couldn't have been happier to learn she would soon have her first horse that would be all hers.
Yuliya also adopted the dog that had always been by Chiye's side, a dog who looked like a wolf, named Luna. It was through Luna that Yuliya met Okozir, the boy who would become to be Yuliya's best friend. Many a day she would steal him from the vigorous training his father had him do so she could bring him home and feed him and play.
About a year later, Moon Gem's foal was born, a shining bay colt that Yuliya named Arrow for the way he zipped around. Under the careful guidance of her father she let Arrow grow accustomed to herself and other humans. As was the Cossack way of gentling horses, she let the colt go everywhere with her. He slept beside her in the tent and stood beside them as they ate their meals. He followed her and Luna like a puppy as they went about the camp.
Because of her size and the way Cossacks trained their horses, Yuliya was allowed to ride him even as he was a baby. When he was a yearling, he had already grown used to her and would bring her on wonderful gallops across the valley. Of course, Okozir followed on his chocolate palomino gelding, and they would have wonderful races.
One day, however, they raced further than usual, almost to the northern border of the Spirit Horse land, and they were attacked. Arrow was struck by a flaming arrow and crashed to the ground, crushing Yuliya underneath him. Okozir tried in vain to lift the colt off of her, but he wouldn't budge, and so Okozir had to take the long, long ride back to camp to fetch someone who could help. For hours Yuliya lay under the burning body of her dearest friend. For the first time, she cried and cried and cried. Just for a second, though, she heard a voice inside her head, the voice of a young man. It was Arrow, he was speaking to her, and he asked her to leave unto the world his legacy. Yuliya promised she would, though she didn't know what it meant. The smell of blood never left her.
The first being to reach her was her father's black guard dog, Apollo, followed closely by Luna. Both dogs licked her face to clean away the tears and blood, and Yuliya found she could now also hear them in her head two, and she could talk back to him. Soon after they arrived, a man she didn't know came and lifted Arrow's body off of her with the help of her father. Voyin and Okozir were close behind them. Voyin was so angry at Okozir he might have started a duel, but Vivek told him not to. Yuliya learned that the other man was indeed her uncle, Voda, whom she had only heard stories about, a jolly, rambunctious and still young man who traveled the world for adventure and to learn about new animals and plants. He carried her all the way home and told her stories to try and distract her.
The next year was the worst year for Yuliya. At many times, she would break down screaming, so much that the people grew afraid of her and called her Screamer. Sometimes she could go for hours on end not knowing what was real and what wasn't. Apollo and Luna never left her side, and it was her only comfort to talk to them. She would often disappear from the camp to converse with any animal she could find, or do anything just to be away from all the people who could barely look at her.
But at the end of the year, Moon Gem gave birth to another foal, this time a beautiful black filly. Vivek gave the filly to Yuliya without question, and she named her Black Jewel. Like with Arrow, Yuliya brought Black Jewel with her everywhere, but unlike last time, she barely went around the camp. Yuliya did not train her with any guidance from her father and would often spend days without returning just to be completely alone with her filly.
At this time, Yuliya found one other animal companion, an orphaned Peregrine falcon whom she named Streak. Apollo, Luna, Black Jewel, and Streak were always by her side, and sometimes she would viciously keep others away from them. Sometimes she would still scream. The only people that could stand to be near her were her father, her brother, Okozir, and her uncle whenever he came back for a visit. But Vivek was the Ataman, and he could not take care of Yuliya as well as he could have, and although that duty was held by Voyin, he knew Voyin would be thinking about getting married soon. When Yuliya turned fifteen, Vivek told her that she should go away, and when she could forget Arrow, she could return home. Yuliya was heartbroken for all she loved was everything about the Cossacks, but Vivek insisted. Voda suggested that Yuliya go to the Celtic Land to see what she could find, and so, crushed, Yuliya left with her animal companions.
Amri
Back in Arabia, a small farming village was attacked by a band of rogue nomadic warriors. One of the men, whose name was never learned, entered the recently engaged Zamira Amatzya's small, two-room house, and raped her. Of course he left and was never heard from again. Zamira was completely disgraced and her fiancee disowned her. Nine months later, she gave birth to a son. She didn't even ask to hold him, and let the midwife name him. He was given the name Amri Ban Amatzya. Zamira screamed when she saw him, though, for he had deep blue eyes even though he was full Arabian. Everyone started calling him the Blue-Eyed Curse.
Amri was ostracized by the children of the village, but he didn't really care. Rather than playing, he spent his time trying to get strong, for he knew that his father must have been strong. His mother simply ignored him and let him do whatever he wanted, she couldn't have cared less. However, she did try to keep him alive, and made sure he had a roof over his head, and reprimanded him whenever he beat up someone, but he took no heed to this.
When Amri turned seven, Zamira has had enough, and so she committed suicide. She was given a funeral that Amri did not attend. None of the village women wanted to take him in, so he was shooed away from the village he had grown up in. He went from village to town to city pushing himself to get as strong as possible and doing anything to stay alive. The name the Blue-Eyed Curse followed him, as long with names such as demon or messenger of the devil. He stole everything he needed, but instead of being called a street rat, he was called a street eagle, for he never ran. He instead fought all the people he stole from and got even stronger. Strength and training became like a drug to him, and 24/7 he was doing something to get better.
When he turned eleven, he met a girl named Malika, who was ten at the time. He was completely begotten by her odd and quirky ways, patient enough even to learn the language of flowers from her. But since he couldn't stay in any one place too long, he had to leave her, but he didn't do so before promising that he would eventually come back and marry her.
At the age of twelve, Amri killed his first person, and he realized just how much he loved it and how strong it made him, and he wanted more and more. The idea came to him that he could be a mercenary, using his strength and skill and getting paid for it seemed perfect. He got lots of work and sucked it all in, reveling in each life he took.
A year later, he decided he could go back to Malika, but when he went to her house, what he found was that she was dead, killed by a stranger he still doesn't know who wanted to get revenge on him. Amri was heartbroken, but he hid it. This was when he started drinking, a horrible habit that has stuck with him to this day. It was also the result of this that he had crafted a horrible weapon made just for him, a huge sword that was bigger than his own body. At first, he could only just lift it, but now he can swing it with ease and bring death to anyone who meets it.
He killed more people, fought more battles, and traveled to even more places. All he wants is to become the strongest man in the world. Duty calls.
In the country now known as Ukraine, a group of fierce warriors roam. No one dares to fight them, for they are known all around the world for their horsemanship, their valor, tenacity and habit of always performing acts beyond the call of duty, and of always reaching for the impossible. The word itself, Cossacks, means in the Tartar language, “Freeman.” Before they were even called Cossacks, they were known as “the brave and strong people. “Where the Cossacks came from cannot be said with certainty, but, in any event, it [their State] existed prior to the Tartar invasion of 1223. These knights lived separately, without pledging allegiance to the Russians, the Poles or the Tartars.” At the head of their tribal units, similar to Scottish clans, was an elected leader called and Ataman or Hetman. They also elected others: the judge, the scribe, the lesser officials, and even the clergy. All leaders were known as the starshina. Executive powers were in the Ataman, who was the supreme commander in the fields. They did not have written laws, but the “Cossack Tradition,” which was common, unwritten law.
Vivek Dukhkin’ was one such Cossack. After a troubling past and being chosen to be an esaul at a young age, he fell in love with a woman his brother brought to meet him, a woman named Chiye Ada from the Celtic land. He married her almost instantly and came very close to having an illegitimate child when she gave birth to his son soon after that. He was a handsome boy, born at noon on the first day of Spring, named Voyin, the Cossack word for warrior. It was only after their son was born that Chiye revealed to him that she was indeed not human, and should expect some odd qualities in their child, but Vivek did not care, he loved her all the same, and made sure that not even their son would find out. Three years after this, the Ataman died and Vivek was elected to take his place, and everything was perfect in the Spirit Horse Tribe that lived low on the Dnieper River.
Only a year after this a terrible storm surged through their land, raining lightning and drowning out your ears with the sound of thunder, though none was as strong as the wind that pulsed through everyone’s hearts. What was odd was that none of the animals seemed worried. It was Vivek’s duty to help his tribe and so he went about, making sure that everyone was holding in. Chiye came with him, believing it was her duty to, but in the middle of this, she went into labor. Rain pelted her through it all, for she had been alone and there was no one to carry her under shelter. She herself had thought she was going to die when a tiny hole in the clouds went over the evening star, so that it shined on her, and that was when Yuliya was born.
Chiye, in her great thankfulness for the fact that both she and her child survived, gave her not three, but eleven names, a great number of power. The storm did not die down, but that was when Voyin found his mother, and even though he was only four years old, managed to help them back to their tent.
When Vivek learned of the way of her birth, he almost blamed her for causing his wife to nearly die, and so when his mother, who had abandoned him long ago, asked for the child, he agreed to let her have her when she could walk. Scared for her future, and wanting to make sure that her daughter would be like her, Chiye spent as much time as she could with her baby outside in the world, placing her on the backs of horses and dogs, touching her nose to wild animals, and setting her up high in tree branches. But when Yuliya could walk, to Zyma she went.
Zyma treated Yuliya with no kindness, even when she couldn’t talk. Anytime she disobeyed her, she would hit her hard with a stick that had thorns on it. Though Yuliya often talked back, resulting in more pain, this eventually taught her to never show her true feelings. She had to do manual labor the moment she could understand what job she had to do. She had to do whatever Zyma asked of her, no matter how trying it was. And the worst part was, Yuliya was allowed no animal companion. For Cossacks build their lives around their horses, but Zyma’s one fear was of horses, and animals in general. Yuliya had already grown to love animals, even though her grandmother thought she was a weakling for it.
When Yuliya turned six, Zyma tried to sell her to a man as labor, but when Yuliya refused to kill a chicken to show him that she was capable of anything, she was made to watch as he killed it himself, and then he left. Zyma then beat Yuliya ferociously that night, and that was the night Yuliya made two vows: One, to never hurt an animal, and two, to never love or marry a man.
One year later, Yuliya could put up with no more of her grandmother and her harsh ways, so she drugged her dinner, set all the animals she had free, and ran back to the home she knew she had once had, following the evening star to the Dnieper River.
She was welcomed home, but had been told of the tragedy that Chiye had been killed, and nobody knew who had done it. Vivek had told them all that he had found his wife dead and had held a ceremony, though no one had seen the body. Yuliya was heartbroken, for although she didn't remember her mother clearly, she remembered that she had been happy. Her brother, Voyin, promised her that he would be like her mother from now on, and he took Chiye's place in the Dukhkin' household.
Admist all this tragedy was good news. Her mother's mare, Moon Gem, was in foal to her father's stallion, Celestial Night, and Yuliya would be given the foal. She couldn't have been happier to learn she would soon have her first horse that would be all hers.
Yuliya also adopted the dog that had always been by Chiye's side, a dog who looked like a wolf, named Luna. It was through Luna that Yuliya met Okozir, the boy who would become to be Yuliya's best friend. Many a day she would steal him from the vigorous training his father had him do so she could bring him home and feed him and play.
About a year later, Moon Gem's foal was born, a shining bay colt that Yuliya named Arrow for the way he zipped around. Under the careful guidance of her father she let Arrow grow accustomed to herself and other humans. As was the Cossack way of gentling horses, she let the colt go everywhere with her. He slept beside her in the tent and stood beside them as they ate their meals. He followed her and Luna like a puppy as they went about the camp.
Because of her size and the way Cossacks trained their horses, Yuliya was allowed to ride him even as he was a baby. When he was a yearling, he had already grown used to her and would bring her on wonderful gallops across the valley. Of course, Okozir followed on his chocolate palomino gelding, and they would have wonderful races.
One day, however, they raced further than usual, almost to the northern border of the Spirit Horse land, and they were attacked. Arrow was struck by a flaming arrow and crashed to the ground, crushing Yuliya underneath him. Okozir tried in vain to lift the colt off of her, but he wouldn't budge, and so Okozir had to take the long, long ride back to camp to fetch someone who could help. For hours Yuliya lay under the burning body of her dearest friend. For the first time, she cried and cried and cried. Just for a second, though, she heard a voice inside her head, the voice of a young man. It was Arrow, he was speaking to her, and he asked her to leave unto the world his legacy. Yuliya promised she would, though she didn't know what it meant. The smell of blood never left her.
The first being to reach her was her father's black guard dog, Apollo, followed closely by Luna. Both dogs licked her face to clean away the tears and blood, and Yuliya found she could now also hear them in her head two, and she could talk back to him. Soon after they arrived, a man she didn't know came and lifted Arrow's body off of her with the help of her father. Voyin and Okozir were close behind them. Voyin was so angry at Okozir he might have started a duel, but Vivek told him not to. Yuliya learned that the other man was indeed her uncle, Voda, whom she had only heard stories about, a jolly, rambunctious and still young man who traveled the world for adventure and to learn about new animals and plants. He carried her all the way home and told her stories to try and distract her.
The next year was the worst year for Yuliya. At many times, she would break down screaming, so much that the people grew afraid of her and called her Screamer. Sometimes she could go for hours on end not knowing what was real and what wasn't. Apollo and Luna never left her side, and it was her only comfort to talk to them. She would often disappear from the camp to converse with any animal she could find, or do anything just to be away from all the people who could barely look at her.
But at the end of the year, Moon Gem gave birth to another foal, this time a beautiful black filly. Vivek gave the filly to Yuliya without question, and she named her Black Jewel. Like with Arrow, Yuliya brought Black Jewel with her everywhere, but unlike last time, she barely went around the camp. Yuliya did not train her with any guidance from her father and would often spend days without returning just to be completely alone with her filly.
At this time, Yuliya found one other animal companion, an orphaned Peregrine falcon whom she named Streak. Apollo, Luna, Black Jewel, and Streak were always by her side, and sometimes she would viciously keep others away from them. Sometimes she would still scream. The only people that could stand to be near her were her father, her brother, Okozir, and her uncle whenever he came back for a visit. But Vivek was the Ataman, and he could not take care of Yuliya as well as he could have, and although that duty was held by Voyin, he knew Voyin would be thinking about getting married soon. When Yuliya turned fifteen, Vivek told her that she should go away, and when she could forget Arrow, she could return home. Yuliya was heartbroken for all she loved was everything about the Cossacks, but Vivek insisted. Voda suggested that Yuliya go to the Celtic Land to see what she could find, and so, crushed, Yuliya left with her animal companions.
Amri
Back in Arabia, a small farming village was attacked by a band of rogue nomadic warriors. One of the men, whose name was never learned, entered the recently engaged Zamira Amatzya's small, two-room house, and raped her. Of course he left and was never heard from again. Zamira was completely disgraced and her fiancee disowned her. Nine months later, she gave birth to a son. She didn't even ask to hold him, and let the midwife name him. He was given the name Amri Ban Amatzya. Zamira screamed when she saw him, though, for he had deep blue eyes even though he was full Arabian. Everyone started calling him the Blue-Eyed Curse.
Amri was ostracized by the children of the village, but he didn't really care. Rather than playing, he spent his time trying to get strong, for he knew that his father must have been strong. His mother simply ignored him and let him do whatever he wanted, she couldn't have cared less. However, she did try to keep him alive, and made sure he had a roof over his head, and reprimanded him whenever he beat up someone, but he took no heed to this.
When Amri turned seven, Zamira has had enough, and so she committed suicide. She was given a funeral that Amri did not attend. None of the village women wanted to take him in, so he was shooed away from the village he had grown up in. He went from village to town to city pushing himself to get as strong as possible and doing anything to stay alive. The name the Blue-Eyed Curse followed him, as long with names such as demon or messenger of the devil. He stole everything he needed, but instead of being called a street rat, he was called a street eagle, for he never ran. He instead fought all the people he stole from and got even stronger. Strength and training became like a drug to him, and 24/7 he was doing something to get better.
When he turned eleven, he met a girl named Malika, who was ten at the time. He was completely begotten by her odd and quirky ways, patient enough even to learn the language of flowers from her. But since he couldn't stay in any one place too long, he had to leave her, but he didn't do so before promising that he would eventually come back and marry her.
At the age of twelve, Amri killed his first person, and he realized just how much he loved it and how strong it made him, and he wanted more and more. The idea came to him that he could be a mercenary, using his strength and skill and getting paid for it seemed perfect. He got lots of work and sucked it all in, reveling in each life he took.
A year later, he decided he could go back to Malika, but when he went to her house, what he found was that she was dead, killed by a stranger he still doesn't know who wanted to get revenge on him. Amri was heartbroken, but he hid it. This was when he started drinking, a horrible habit that has stuck with him to this day. It was also the result of this that he had crafted a horrible weapon made just for him, a huge sword that was bigger than his own body. At first, he could only just lift it, but now he can swing it with ease and bring death to anyone who meets it.
He killed more people, fought more battles, and traveled to even more places. All he wants is to become the strongest man in the world. Duty calls.
