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Procrastinating with the Help of Conlangs, Hooray!

Instead of doing something more than minimally productive with my day, I translated/localized the excellent villain song “Shiny” from the likewise excellent film Moana into my silly conlang, cemel riichnao. You can find the official English (or your language of choice’s) lyrics anywhere on the ol’ internet for the original lyrics. What I’m going to do for the, like, 3 people who might be interested is put up the unglossed cemel riichnao lyrics first, then a glossed word/morpheme breakdown (that will be approximately a billion light years in length), and finally a back-to-English retranslation.

The cemel riichnao lyrics sometimes need a little push or wiggle in their exact delivery (matching the meter one-to-one was never an option anyway) but the lines do indeed work. With that out of the way, I present “Kazad.”

Tamatoa ne lonkuir jachkonad
Kulcen bechdotet nebanad
Ce cimar kuad lagirce chodokan
Cenop ce licir, bebiich

Jachmazaim cemer dutirce lebama nal?
“Cen chanak ceinerad tal.”
Ce thymer cem darad zytarce cyla
Maza nycor!
Algaz ce

Kazar
Parlakan nothul nuvad achychadimo
Rahakar achtoj tal koppa ce
Kazar
Jachjalvaredan kefadimo
Ce vetar tal!

Ce cimar nal
Alamim ce kachir
Ce hunar rannaj lumad (Byckalim!)
Ah, deim ce anranar
Naja bemjachkazad
Mmm, hakinim!

Ce melur neparibeth
Ce davoker albeth

Kez cen nal?
Mavi bechad nyfir cedolkin deo
Iaich darchad, bechad, tetad
Dotop deo cen rondochad
Bemjachbomchad!
Chnaich, ne ce cajur pankin kynan

Ce taler padarce paro kelekop
Vunfudim yleca deicho
Chabora hachir zucen bunad deichan
Ger romer nead, cen bemjach

Kazad
Ih ce lumor chatolan jachnekuzad
Cejochar, naj iho ce
Kazar
Ce pudar cercelim tal pun ger chochor
Cho ce choir

Maviich, dince nucer pun
Darchiaadim ne ger echur
Echarce cal, ye!
Deich ger pacer tal
Cen kuad kol tetorce lebam
Deicho zachad

Chnaim chuor jatylad deich
Jehelurce bemel mojadimo
Deich temyr
Nucer camerce
Pun chabora deicho ne calar!

Maviich
Ih ger monokor godot
Deicho
Kul doter konchna

Kazad nal
Ce fudyr tal cenop naj kuzad cen
Acen ce orokar
Ih ce

Kazar
Ger ibar deicha, ce ycikar zoad
Ihop tal
Anadiman ne ger
Kazar
Ce talyr jachad e
Kazad

Tamatoa ne lonkuir jach-kon-ad

Tamatoa not dressed up very-when-ADJZ


Kul-cen bech-dotet ne-ban-ad

PP-is smallness-crab not-color-ADJZ


Ce cimar ku-ad lagir-ce chodok-an

PRS knew now-ADJZ was happy-INF clam-as


Cenop ce licir, bebi-ich

Because PRS was beautiful baby-VOC

Jach-maza-im cemer dutir-ce lebam-a nal?

High-parent-PL said listened-INF heart-to INT


“Cen chanak ceiner-ad tal.”

Is who was inside-ADJZ IMP


Ce thymer cem dar-ad zytar-ce cyl-a

PRS needed word two-ADJZ tear apart-INF argument-DO


Maza nycor!

Parent lied!


Algaz ce

Instead PRS

Kazar

Shined


Parlak-an noth-ul nuv-ad achychadim-o

Treasure-like wreckage-from depth-ADJZ pirate-POSS


Rahakar achtoj tal koppa ce

Scrubbed deck IMP until PRS


Kazar

Shined


Jach-jal-vared-an kef-ad-im-o

Very-wealth-neck-like female-ADJZ-NMZ-POSS


Ce vetar tal!

PRS waited IMP

Ce cimar nal

PRS know INT


Alamim ce kachir

Fish PRS were foolish


Ce hunar rannaj lum-ad (Byckal-im!)

PRS chased anything light-ADJZ (Student-PL)


Ah, deim ce anranar

Ah 3pl PRS arrived


Naj-a bem-jach-kaz-ad

Thing-to very-high-glimmer-ADJZ


Mmm, hakin-im!

Mmm dinner-PL

Ce melur ne-par-ibeth

PRS love not-value-food


Ce davoker albeth

PRS resemble seafood

Kez cen nal?

What is INT


Mavi bech-ad nyfir cedol-kin de-o

Maui smallness-ADJZ had trouble appearance-with 3s-POSS


Ia-ich darch-ad, bech-ad, tet-ad

God-VOC half-ADJZ smallness-ADJZ piece-ADJZ


Dotop de-o cen rondoch-ad

Performance 3s-POSS is embarrassment-ADJZ


Bem-jach-bomch-ad!

Very-high-badness-ADJZ


Chna-ich, ne ce cajur pan-kin kyn-an

Person-VOC not PRS swung hook-with past-as

Ce taler padar-ce paro kelek-op

PRS required gave-INF credit start-for


Vunfud-im ylec-a deich-o

Tattoo-PL outside-at 2s-POSS


Chabora hachir zuc-en bun-ad deich-an

Body changed work-towards art-ADJZ 2s-as


Ger romer ne-ad, cen bem-jach

FUT hide not-ADJZ is very-high

Kaz-ad

Glimmer-ADJZ


Ih ce lumor chatol-an jach-ne-kuz-ad

1s PRS shined diamond-as very-not-finish-ADJZ


Cejochar, naj ih-o ce

Boasted thing 1s-POSS PRS


Kazar

Shined


Ce pudar cercelim tal pun ger chochor

PRS sent army IMP but FUT failed


Cho ce choir

Shell PRS hardened

Mavi-ich, din-ce nucer pun

Maui-VOC POT-PRS tried but


Darch-ia-ad-im ne ger echur

Half-god-ADJZ-NMZ not FUT defeated


Echar-ce cal, ye!

Beat-INF COND EMP


Deich ger pacer tal

2s FUT died IMP


Cen ku-ad kol tetor-ce lebam

Is now-ADJZ time took apart-INF heart


Deich-o zach-ad

2s-POSS pain-ADJZ

Chna-im chuor jatyl-ad deich

Person-PL abandoned distance-ADJZ 2s


Jehelur-ce bemel mojadim-o

Pursued-INF love human-POSS


Deich temyr

2s rallied


Nucer camer-ce

Tried was strong-INF


Pun chabora deich-o ne calar!

But body 2s-POSS not was able

Mavi-ich

Maui-VOC


Ih ger monokor godot

1s FUT kicked rear


Deich-o

2s-POSS


Kul doter konchna

PP saw someone

Kaz-ad nal

Glimmer-ADJZ INT


Ce fudyr tal cenop naj kuz-ad cen

PRS took in IMP because thing end-ADJZ is


Acen ce orokar

Life PRS was cruel


Ih ce

1s PRS

Kazar

Shined


Ger ibar deich-a, ce ycikar zo-ad

FUT ate 2s-DO PRS prepared only-ADJZ


Ih-op tal

1s-for IMP


An-ad-im-an ne ger

Like-ADJZ-NMZ-like not FUT


Kazar

Shined


Ce talyr jach-ad e

PRS wished for great-ADJZ and


Kaz-ad

Glimmer-ADJZ

Tamatoa wasn’t dressed up long ago


He was a small, plain crab

Now he knows to be happy as a clam

Because he’s beautiful, baby


Your ancestors said to listen to your heart?

“Be who you are on the inside.”

I need two words to tear the argument apart

Your ancestors lied!

Instead

Shine

Like a treasure from a sunken pirate’s wreck

Its deck scrubbed until it

Shines

Like a very wealthy woman’s neck

Wait!

Do you know?

Fish are foolish

They chase anything bright (Amateurs!)

Ah, they are arriving

To the brightest thing

Mmm, dinners

I love free food

You look like seafood

What is this?

Little Maui had trouble with his look

You demi-, mini-, tiny god

His performance is embarrassing

The absolute worst!

Man, you don’t swing your hook like before

I must give credit for the start

Your tattoos on the outside

My body became a work of art

It won’t hide, it’s too

Shiny

I shine like an unfinished diamond

I bragged, my things are

Shiny

Send an army but they will fail

My shell is hardened

Maui, you could try but

A demigod won’t win

They could be beaten, yes!

You will die

It’s time to take apart

Your hurting heart

People abandoned you far away

To pursue the love of humans

You rallied

You tried being strong

But your body couldn’t manage it!

Maui

I will kick your rear

Have you seen someone

Shiny?

Take it in because the end is here

Life is cruel

I am

Shiny

I will eat you, being prepared just for me

You’ll never be shiny like me

You wish for greatness and shininess

New Tician’s Champions

The cold mountain wind whipped at the four travelers’ cloaks as they huddled around the low embers of a cooking fire. The dim morning sun, lightly obscured by wisps of clouds, did little to warm the thin air. Jagged boulders cast long shadows across the narrow ledge ascending along the sheer wall to the travelers’ right. Rime nestled in the shade, invisible patches of ice that posed a deadly hazard. One wrong step, one misbalance, and an unfortunate mountaineer could find themselves tumbling thousands of feet before coming to a sudden, final stop on one of the narrow, winding paths or treacherous escarpments leading to Torchspire’s peak.

Delilah hummed an inspiring tune to herself as she doled out breakfast, a thick porridge of oats and salt pork, to her four companions. “Eat up, boys. Today’s the day we make history.”

“Today is the day we make New Tician safe, so our alliance with Tuma can be finalized and we strike out against our cruel enemies together,” growled Ayen. Blood trickled from his scarred palms as the elf’s eyes glinted crimson with sanguine magic. He looked over his shoulder towards the volcano’s peak, which just belched a gray plume of sulfurous ash. “It is within.”

“This engagement will be to our favor,” Maarich said. The riichna performed a complex meditation exercise in the shadows at the cliff’s edge, oblivious to or perhaps embracing the location’s danger. “Its lair will limit its ability to maintain distance, and this is a good thing for the rest of you.”

Delilah laughed. “And what will you be doing in the meanwhile, Maarich?”

Maarich’s body dissolved into the gloom and reappeared not a moment later behind the Tumish woman. His left forearm hovered above her throat and a silvery blade of ether sizzled from the fingertips of his right hand. “I assure you, closing the distance is no issue for me.”

“You’ve made your point,” whispered Trey’Lunariel. Wearing a thick blanket like a shawl, the elven sorcerer drank steaming tea from a tin mug clasped in both hands. Fiery, unnaturally red hair fell in loose curls around his serious, narrow face. Webs of black scars that shone dusky orange through cracks in the deformed skin covered over half of it. “Let us swiftly finish this so we can leave this abominable mountain.”

“Boris will return soon from scouting. He is making sure there aren’t further surprises waiting for us on the path ahead,” Delilah said, perfectly calm despite Maarich’s menacing pose.

“Two goblins hardly count as a surprise,” Maarich said. He stepped away from Delilah and clasped his hands, now liberated of the etherblade, within the sleeves of his woolen, black robe. The brick wall of a person moved with unnatural, practiced grace. “Unless you mean as a gift. The information they shared about this concealed ascent was most helpful.”

“I appreciated their honesty,” said Ayen. He fingered the ornate hilt of the sheathed sword on his belt with a slender, olive-skinned finger. The elf’s battered, brutish features creased into an ugly smile as he brushed stringy gray hair behind a pointed ear. “It earned them a clean death.”

Delilah glared at Ayen. “You could have let them go. They wouldn’t have dared to warn Muskybassgar.”

Maarich shook his head. “This path is navigable by us, but there may have been a different, swifter trail smaller creatures could access. They are conniving things to be trusted only as far as they can be thrown.”

Delilah arched an eyebrow and gave the riichna a sardonic look. “You hurled one of them off the mountainside.”

The riichna returned the gaze with his own eyes, solid and inscrutable pits of black. “Yes. It is wise to provide the proper motivation during any given negotiation.” Maarich shrugged. “If you had been schooled in the correct way, you would know this.”

“You were brainwashed by a collection of expansionist sociopaths who warred with and persecuted my distant cousins on this planet for centuries,” Trey said.

“They should have known better,” Maarich retorted. “Besides, that does not lessen the lesson’s truth.”

Delilah had risen and begun preparing for their departure in between bites of porridge. Dark leather armor on her body, a rapier at her waist, a lute across her back. As she tied back her long, dark hair, she said, “The food won’t stay warm forever, you know.”

Ayen and Maarich shared a grunt and began scooping the slop into mess tins. Trey, remaining seated and swaddled in blankets, gestured and said a few words in Elvish. A glob of porridge extracted itself from the pot and drifted a handful of feet to hover in midair before him. Every few seconds, he said another word and beckoned, cleaving away portions of the sphere that darted into his open mouth.

“Hi guys.” The nondescript Tumish man appeared with such suddenness that all four adventurers were taken by surprise. He ate from a tin taken from Maarich. “This is really good, Delilah!”

The riichna sputtered, looking from his now-empty hands to the Tumish and back again. “Thief!”

“That’s an unproven allegation, and I resent your words.” Boris cleaned the last bits of porridge from the tin and helped himself to another serving. “Have you checked your pack?”

“Yes, Boris, I have checked my pack. Where do you think I got my mess tin from?” Maarich strode to where his leather backpack lay. Tugging open the drawstring, he upended its contents.

A mess tin clattered on the barren rock.

“This cannot be!” Maarich shouted. He whirled on Boris, who continued eating, nonplussed. “This is yours!”

Trey’s eyes lazily rolled. “It’s labeled. All our belongings are labeled because you insisted on it to track our inventory. What does the label read?”

“It–” Maarich flipped the tin over and saw his own name on the bottom. “You!”

“Don’t know what to tell you, friend. Don’t feel too bad. These mistakes happen to everyone eventually.” Boris reached into a pocket and pulled out a boiled egg which he cracked on the ground.”

“Where did you get that?” Ayen asked.

“The giants.”

Ayen’s eyes hardened and blood magic curled along his sheathed sword in a purplish fog. “Giants?”

“Two of ’em. They’re enjoying breakfast. It would be a real shame if we were to hurry along and interrupt them.”

Ayen donned his armor and gathered his things in a flash. The seething purple energy danced to and fro over his body like a swarming cloud of insects.

Trey sighed and began packing his own belongings. “Always with the vengeance.”

“It is an honest emotion, at least,” Maarich said with something approaching approval. “I think back to when those giants destroyed that school. Had they possessed more vengeance, there may have been fewer survivors.”

Everyone paused to stare at the riichna. After a moment, Maarich added, “It is fortunate they were instead fueled only by hate.”

After another few seconds, he continued, “The way events unfolded remains a tragedy.”

Finally Ayen spoke. “Enough of this. We must be off.”

The five broke camp and set off, Boris at the group’s head. The Tumish thief, though far more comfortable navigating crowded streets and creating forged letters of credit, ably led them up a narrow, mostly safe path marked with pitons hammered into the rock. Maarich and Boris scampered up the cliff like goats. They paused every few yards on secure ground to lower ropes and help the other, less nimble three up the steep slope.

Before they crested the final stretch, some twenty feet below the final ledge, Boris motioned them into silence. So near to the volcano’s caldera, the air was hazy with ash. He passed around kerchiefs all but Trey tied over their noses and mouths. The elf gulped deep breaths of the fumes like they were fortifying perfumes.

“So how do we want to do this?” Delilah asked. “Should we try to–”

With a scream of impossible rage, Ayen heaved himself over the ledge’s lip.

Two enormous, red-skinned forms squatted twenty feet away around a goat spitted over roaring flames. They wore soot-blackened chain shirts and carried huge, black steel axes with heads as large as Ayen was tall. They wore their long orange hair and beards in elaborate braids. Their broad faces stared numbly at the charging elf.

With a second roar, Ayen unsheathed the longsword at his waist. The energy gathered around his person surged into the weapon, imbuing and enhancing it with weaponized malice. Arcs of purple lightning lanced into the ash cloud from the enchanted sword, blasting away the obscuring dust around its wielder.

Ayen Melamar of House Melamar, wielding his family’s ancestral blade Dark Sister, chopped into the nearest fire giant’s leg. Blood fountained, and the surprised giant took a second blow to the midsection. Ayen snarled as he punched Dark Sister through armor to bury the sword in the giant’s guts. He heaved with all his strength, cleaving a garish wound. Ayen grit his teeth and roaring, “For Tician!” sent a magnified burst of lightning deep into the giant’s viscera. Hot blood gushed.

Maarich, eager to join the fray, pulled himself up next, but Boris pushed past the riichna. He darted up next to Ayen and shanked the distracted giant with a short-bladed sword. The giant howled and whirled on the Tumish, but the man danced backwards and eluded the clumsy attempt at a counterattack.

Maarich, close behind, leaped into the air in a sideways jump kick. His weight crashed into the giant’s knee with enough momentum to dislocate the joint. Howling, the giant crumpled earthward. 

Maarich seized the giant’s braided beard, now within easy reach, and clambered up the impromptu rope. “How are you doing?” he asked sardonically as he balled his free hand into a fist that he plunged into the giant’s left eye once, twice.

Shimmying down, he turned to the uninjured giant, who had barely had time to react. “You, next,” Maarich said before punching the first giant’s ruined knee one last time.

Delilah, standing far back from the melee, regarded Trey. “I believe in you!” she said with a smile. “Them, not so much,” she continued under her breath. Murmuring a few words, she directed a vise of magical pressure to ravage the wounded giant’s psyche. The giant howled and grabbed at his head as he staggered.

“Watch an elemental master at work,” Trey said, grinning smugly. Chanting in Elvish, three serpentine coils of black flame sprang into existence around his forearms. “My fires burn so hot that none may resist them!” With a final command, he released all three rays at the wounded giant. Two of them struck true into the fire giant’s barrel chest, and the third seemed it would just barely miss if not for timely fortune and a flinch that sent it into the giant’s shoulder.

None seemed to have any effect.

The burn scars on Trey’s face vomited smoke blacker and more toxic than Torchspire’s. “Impossible! I honed my mastery over elemental fire especially against foes like this!”

Maarich cleared his throat. “These words are difficult for me to convey, but they must be said. Your first mistake was not being born a riichna. The second was pursuing an inferior method of spellcasting.”

Trey sat on a nearby boulder and buried his face in his hands. “I’m going to be actually useless when we battle a red dragon,” he wailed.

“Less self-pity! More vengeance!” Ayen roared. “They are gathering their wits!” He sliced twice more with Dark Sister, landing solid but nonlethal hits, then shifted to interpose himself between the two giants. “Come on, you bastards! Face me!”

“I’m doing the best I can!” Boris shouted. He attempted another attack on the wounded giant, but the chain mail deflected the blade. He hurriedly disengaged.

“Some friendly advice, Boris,” Maarich said, eyeing up the heavily injured giant. “When you make an attack, ensure you don’t miss.” He concentrated for a moment, channeling dark energy into a semicircular fan of javelins above his head. With a thought, the projectiles sped towards the giant, who to his credit attempted to dodge. But he was too hobbled and too clumsy, and he took the full assault to his upper torso. One of the shadow darts perforated the giant’s throat, blasting out the back of his neck in a shower of gore before the projectile returned to the ether.

As the dying giant toppled, Ayen raised his free hand, palm out. Purple-tinged blood flowed from open wounds in his palm into the corpse. “You do not yet have my permission to pass on.”

The giant’s legs twitched and its lifeless body bounded to its feet. Taking up the fallen axe, its eyes erupting bright purple light, it shambled past Ayen and chopped into its companion before crumpling again.

“I thank you for the ladder,” Maarich said. He bounded atop the first giant’s corpse and swiped at the remaining giant with a blade of force energy identical to the one he evoked earlier. The etherblade sliced through the giant’s thigh before vanishing.

The fire giant bellowed and brought his axe down. It hewed into the corpse just to the side of where Maarich stood moments before. “What did I just instruct about the proper method of attacking? Do you not pay attention?” A second swing came close to cutting through Maarich’s midsection, but the riichna leapt, landed on the axe’s broad head, and somersaulted back to solid ground. “Clearly not. You are a worse learner than Trey’Lunariel.”

“Maarich!” Delilah chided. The woman withdrew her lute and strummed an inspiring tune. “Boris, I believe in you too! Don’t let this stress you out!” Stowing the lute, she addressed the fire giant. “You’re a poopy-head.”

The giant winced as imposter syndrome set in and filled him with profound insecurity.

Trey needed none of Delilah’s mockery to feel disheartened. He took stock of his options and finally flicked away a group of three whizzing projectiles. They looped to strike the giant unerringly. “I’m doing my part,” the elf sighed.

“We appreciate it, my kin!” Ayen shouted back, closing the remaining distance to his opponent. Dark Sister flashed twice and left two bleeding gashes on the giant.

“Every bit counts,” Boris said, skulking around to the giant’s unprotected rear. He lunged forward and landed a lucky, decisive backstab directly into the giant’s left kidney. The grievous wound was not immediately fatal, but it pushed the giant’s endurance to its limits.

“Now learn,” Maarich said, dancing around to where Boris stood. His arms blurred and pounded the giant’s lower back with the force of steel. The agonizing pain was too much for the giant, who dropped his weapon and collapsed.

“Mercy,” he wheezed.

“Granted,” Ayen replied, drawing Dark Sister across the helpless giant’s exposed throat.

“Such a simple matter,” Maarich said. He looked past the fallen giants to the mouth of a wide tunnel leading to the volcano’s dark interior. Steam drifted from the opening. “Let us continue, lest the guards’ absence be noticed.”

“Who made you the caller?” Boris asked. He squinted into the gloom. “Anyone got a torch?”

“I can handle that,” Delilah said.

“Unnecessary,” Maarich said. He gripped the meaty part of Boris’ shoulder and reshaped the Tumish man’s internal vibes. Boris gasped and rubbed at his eyes.

Delilah stopped rummaging. “Ah, right.” She tilted her head to the left and Maarich dutifully pinched her. 

Finally, the riichna pinched himself. “Now we are ready to attack into the darkness.”

They formed up in three ranks, Ayen and Maarich up front, Boris in the middle, and Delilah and crestfallen Trey’Lunariel at the rear. Whether through Maarich’s realignment of auras or natural biology, the tunnel’s pitch blackness was less of an absolute obstacle.

The rocky path sloped downward gently. The air grew clammy and warm, the wisps of steam thickening into opaque banks that limited their perception more than darkness ever could. The five descended a series of terraces leading to a broadened section of tunnel. The air stank of sulfur and the floor became treacherously slick underfoot.

“Ugh!” Trey’s foot splashed into a pool of water concealed by the obscuring mist. “How am I the one to walk around with his feet wet? I can’t imagine how this day could get any worse.”

A coil of water as thick as a barrel surged around the unaware elf. The girthy tentacle overwhelmed his lackluster strength and tugged him away from his companions. He managed one startled yelp before he was dragged beneath the surface of a grimy pool to the group’s left.

“What’s happening?” Ayen demanded, turning towards the commotion. As he did, a lithe shape, barely discernible from the surrounding mist, lashed out and staggered him with a series of quick blows. A second, near identical shape appeared from the rear and smashed into Delilah’s unprotected flank.

“An ambush,” Maarich said, staring down a vaguely humanoid being made of yellowish water that surged across the pool towards him with a gurgling roar. It attempted to constrict around the riichna’s body, but Maarich evaded the attack completely.

“Gratling, get off me!” Delilah said. Her body compacted into a flat shape that darted away from her airy assailant and reformed some twenty feet away, against the wall farthest from the pool’s edge. “You’re a poopy-head too!” The elemental seemed unfazed by her insult.

Rather than pursue the woman, the air elemental joined its companion’s assault on Ayen. Its fists buffeted the elf’s back, staggering him.

Boris’ sword cut through the mist where he thought the nearby elemental floated. The wisp chortled. “I can’t see them! How can I hit them?”

Thrashing from the pool informed the party Trey remained alive. The bedraggled elf appeared on land out of nowhere in the middle of the fray. Sputtering and hacking up water, he pointed a finger at a nearby elemental. A bolt of fire flew wide. “Kavala, protect me,” he intoned, shifting as far as possible from the water’s edge without drawing the attention of the swarming air elementals.

“Have you considered not allowing yourself to be hit?” Maarich asked as he dodged another two watery crashes from his opponent.

“Yes, how could I have been so stupid as to overlook that? Of course I’ve considered it!”

“Then act on your consideration.” Maarich counterattacked, gouging chunks of water from the elemental’s form with a flurry of blows. It rumbled in dissatisfaction. Nearby, Ayen took another pair of blows, swung Dark Sister, and hit nothing.

The water elemental in the pool surged to the water’s edge and slammed into Trey. Blood streamed from the elf’s nose and mouth.

“Trey!” Delilah yelled. She bit her lip, considered whether to inject herself into the dangerous melee, and decided against it. “Healing!” The lone word conveyed rejuvenative magic that steadied the battered elf on his feet.

“I would appreciate some help,” Ayen gasped as the near-invisible air elementals continued hammering him. The warrior’s endurance far exceeded Trey’s, but the repeated blows started taking a toll.

“I’m trying!” Boris replied, missing another round of attacks. He danced away from the melee towards the cave entrance while the elementals were distracted by pair of elves.

Ayen spotted the withdrawal out of the corner of his eyes. “So help me, if you run away I will hunt you to the ends of the earth and kill you in your sleep.”

Boris chuckled nervously.

Maarich dodged more clumsy attacks by his elemental foe. “Ayen, you are a team player, right?”

“What the hell kind of question is that?”

“A relevant one. I suggest you gird yourself. You too, Trey.” Maarich cartwheeled into a position at the edges of the fray.

“No!” Trey yelled.

“Yes.” Maarich extended a palm, though the gesture was entirely unnecessary. A spray of corrosive spikes fanned out from his position, a deadly cone that tore into all four elementals as well as his two elvish companions. Ayen blunted some of the spell’s assault with a defensive twirl of his cloak, but Trey took the full brunt, undoing all of Delilah’s healing and bringing the elf to death’s door.

The water elemental wasted no time seizing Trey’s barely conscious body and retreating with it into the pool’s depths.

“You’re such a big helper, Maarich,” Delilah said. “How am I supposed to keep Trey alive and well if you’re trying to kill him?”

Maarich shrugged. “Check for bubbles. He will be in that area.”

Delilah cursed in Tumish and crossed the chamber to stand near Boris. She retrieved a vial filled with a dark, syrupy gel and shoved it into Boris’ hands. “Feed this to Ayen,” she told him. Peering into the mist, she barely made out Trey’s body in the center of a surging whirlpool. “Get up, Trey!”

Trey groaned and returned to feeble intimacy as Ayen crumpled under his dual attackers, barely staying on his feet. Boris ran back in, quickly unstoppered the bottle, and held it out so Ayen could suck out its contents. Many of the elf’s wounds closed, and he straightened with renewed vigor. Boris even found the opportunity to slice into one of the marauding elementals, though the problematic visibility meant he was unable to land a decisive strike.

Ayen chopped into an elemental. The lightning wreathing the longsword had minimal effect, so he gripped the blade and slid his hand along its length. Sputtering yellow flecks of radiance colored his blood and replaced the purple lightning. His second attack made the elemental hiss and flinch at Dark Sister’s touch.

Maarich and the other water elemental clashed again, the riichna escaping unscathed as his hands gouged furrows into his assailant. Trey was dunked under the surface by his tenacious foe and gurgled on the brink of consciousness for a third time.

“Trey! Get up!” Delilah yelled, inserting maximal magical force into the invigorating words. The sorcerer came to, though he remained trapped in the elemental’s deadly eddy. “You are such a poopy-head!” she shouted at the water elemental. This time, the words hurt its feelings.

At last, the group made headway. Though Ayen received a few more solid hits, Boris was able to skulk around to strike one of the elementals from an unexpected direction. Despite the mist’s concealment, the thief found a vital spot to strike. The elemental’s material form dissipated with a final howl as Boris severed its tether to the material realms.

Ayen considered shackling the disappearing elemental as he had the giant, but declined. Instead he swung Dark Sister twice, feeding his lifeblood into the long sword’s radiant aura to sear the barely harmed elemental.

Maarich dodged another string of attacks. “I cannot understand how you are all so bad at not being struck. Especially Trey, he has an especially poor showing today. When we are in a place of safety, I will instruct him well on how to dodge.”

“Easy for you to say, Maarich,” Ayen growled.

“Yes, it is. But since I am responsible for your well-being and success….” Maarich leapt through space using the space between spaces and appeared in the pool next to Trey. “Come along, you filthy elf.”

He grabbed Trey’s arm and pulled him to shore, sighing as the elemental took the opportunity to swing at the withdrawing riichna only to miss. He tossed Trey on the rocky bank near Delilah’s feet. “See that he stays awake.”

The water elemental surged around Maarich’s feet, but the riichna’s body blocked it from reaching Trey. Instead, it tried and failed to pull the riichna into the pool in Trey’s place. “You are welcome,” he said, looking down at the waterlogged sorcerer.

“Shut up, Maarich,” Trey groaned. He got to his feet, retreated a few steps, and released another triple-shot of incendiary rays at the elemental that had menaced him continuously. All three struck and boiled away a substantial chunk of the elemental’s form.

“Good to have you back on solid land,” Delilah said, clapping Trey on the back and filling him with additional vitality. “Ayen, do terrible things to them!”

“Setievasi, use me!” Ayen yelled. He parried both nearby elementals, then together with Boris struck down the water elemental. Maarich’s fists smashed through the head-equivalent of the other water elemental and he joined the others to stand against the remaining enemy. It managed a final flurry of attacks that buffeted Ayen before it fell under a combined onslaught of might and magic.

“Is everyone okay?” Delilah asked once the engagement ended.

Trey and Ayen groaned.

“Should we take a bit to patch up?” Boris asked.

Ayen shook his head. “We press on. We cannot risk Muskybassgar escaping, or worse, attacking us when we are recovering. Delilah, how much of your magic remains?”

The Tumish woman shook her head. “I can provide some healing, but I’d also like to keep a reserve just in case someone on death’s door needs assistance.”

“Here.” Maarich withdrew another vial filled with bright orange, fizzy liquid, and offered it to Ayen. “I have no need of this because I am apparently the only one among us who follows the advice of ‘do not be damaged.'”

“Your kindness is bottomless,” Ayen quipped as he swallowed its contents and tossed the vial aside. “Kavala is smiling at me!” He gasped in wonder, shivering as the potion worked.

“No, that we seized from stores in the citadel of the goddess of death before we met you. Yours is a completely different deity. Actually, Ogderel was convinced the potion was bestowed with incurable rotting witchery and only appeared able to heal critical wounds as a ruse.”

“You mean you didn’t know? You fed me something that could have killed me?”

“Anything you put in your mouth and swallow could kill you, Ayen.”

They passed around a few more potions and Delilah delivered spells of minor healing to patch up most of their injuries. Ayen and Maarich took the lead again as they delved deeper into the volcano’s interior. 

After leaving the fog-choked chamber with a pool, the air cleared and grew substantially drier. They emerged, blinking, on a narrow, sunlit ledge inside Torchspire’s caldera, one of many paths squirming around the chamber’s circumference above a lake of smoldering magma dozens of feet below. Multiple tunnels of various sizes, some of which were enormous lava tubes that could easily fit an elephant or something larger, radiated from the caldera.

“Where to, Ayen?” Boris asked, peeking nervously over the ledge’s rim at the burbling, red and black pool below.

The elf flexed his fingers and studied his bloody palm. Hemomantic resonance linked to a wound he dealt to Muskybassgar when they encountered the dragon by random chance a few days prior. So long as his injury remained unhealed and Ayen maintained the divinatory connection, he could unerringly detect the dragon’s position relative to his own.

Ayen pointed towards one of the larger tunnels across a perilous gap to their right and some twenty feet down.

“Not waiting for us in the lava? That’s a surprise,” Delilah said.

“It seems we infiltrated his lair pretty handily,” Boris said. He squinted at the gap.

“As far as we know,” Trey grumbled.

“Trey, can you get us over there?” Boris asked.

“Two of us easily. I can enchant Ayen and, I guess, you. You two carry Delilah and me over and make sure not to drop us. Maarich is on his own.”

“Couldn’t one of us fly back over and do the same thing?” Boris asked.

Trey’s eyes and scars blazed. “Maarich is on his own.”

The riichna seemed unconcerned by the proclamation. “When we are finished with this, we should declare war on Thea,” he mused.

“What, the five of us?” Boris asked.

“We will have allies.”

“I don’t think international relations work that way,” Ayen said.

“They have been at war with my people for centuries.”

Ayen blinked. “Not strengthening your argument.”

Trey channeled his magic into both the rogue and hunter. They took to the air and ferried Delilah and Trey across the gap. Maarich got a running start, made a mighty leap, and crossed the gap in a single bound, arriving before the other four. “As I was saying, they are the cause of all this world’s ills.”

Trey glowered at Maarich. “You instigated the war!”

“I did no such thing. I am taking steps to end the war.”

“Okay, Maarich, we’ll figure out all of this after.” Delilah patted the riichna’s forearm. She focused her attention on Trey and her voice blossomed in his mind. “He’ll forget about this by the time we return to New Tician.”

They moved down the tunnel, a black-walled tube that showed signs of artificial expansion. Ayen and Boris still hovered a few inches above the floor, buoyed by Trey’s spell. As they advanced, they heard a low, reverberating thrum, a deeply satisfied groan.

Ayen cocked his head. “He’s sleeping.”

Maarich grinned devilishly. “Excellent.” He concentrated for a moment. A shadowy pallor washed over the party, muffling their movement and cloaking their forms.

They emerged into a sprawling cavern resplendent with heaped treasure, thousands of coins of all denominations and material strewn across the floor in a jangling carpet. Geysers and open pools of magma broke up the uneven floor, and the roof bristled with stalactites.

Sprawled out near the room’s center, half rolled over, the fiery-scaled Muskybassgar dozed like a building-sized cat. The dragon’s enormous wings unfurled to scoop up and hold mounds of treasure as a pillow beneath the dragon’s head. Sizzling drops of magmatic drool melted and fused some of the heaped treasure around the dragon’s mouth into charred lumps.

“How are we going to do this?” Delilah asked, again using magic to message her allies directly.

Trey looked at the ceiling. “I have a solution. Ready yourselves to go in and finish the job.”

“What do you have planned?” Boris asked.

“Rocks fall. Dragon dies.” 

“Wait.” Ayen pulled out a stoppered bottle filled with pink liquid in which white flakes of asbestos floated. He drank its contents and wiped his mouth. “I was carrying this for just this occasion.” He hefted Dark Sister and nodded to Trey.

Without delay, the sorcerer pointed a finger at a cluster of stalactites above the sleeping dragon’s torso. A beam of black energy swept from his fingertip in an arc through the stalactites’ bases, disintegrating the material and plummeting multiple tons of rock atop the unaware dragon. The stones pierced the dragon’s hide, puncturing deeply and pinning its body under the collapsed ceiling. Muskybassgar screamed.

Maarich crossed his arms and snorted. “That is not as efficient as I expected.”

Trey smirked. “I’m not done.” He quickly recited another incantation and launched another, substantially smaller bolt of necrotizing energy. It slammed into the dragon’s head and spread to cover Muskybassgar’s body in a chilling, spectral aura.

Boris pointed to the huge opening in the ceiling. “It was a great idea and it did work. Excuse me.” Running in midair, he raced into the room and buried his sword deep into the helpless dragon’s flank, eliciting another roar. Ayen shrugged and piled on as well, cleaving a magic-wreathed Dark Sister through the dragon’s flesh.

Delilah, for extra style points, mocked Muskybassgar in its own Draconic language, but it ignored the petty insults. She looked at Maarich. “I do believe in you, you know.”

“Of course I do. We have experienced much together, you and I. Now permit me to fulfill my vow to Ayen and Trey.” Maarich walked up to the dragon and punched it, hard, in the elbow. “No effect.” He struck it more, hammering on the joint, but no matter how he tried he could not make the dragon reeling and helpless from the pain. “Why must you be so obstinate? You would feel much less pain in the course of your demise if you made it easier for us.”

Muskybassgar craned its wagon-sized head to stare down at Maarich. “I will murder all of you in the most exquisite of ways!”

The dragon’s roar shook the cavern, dislodging more stalactites that fell among the party. Boris took a heavy hit, Ayen a lighter one. Maarich completely escaped harm by seizing the most dangerous bits of plummeting rubble and sending the rocks into the dragon using his reflexes and leverage and the stones’ momentum.

The riichna acted by unleashing another pair of hard strikes to the dragon’s forelimbs. One of them seemed as if it landed as to stun the monster, but Muskybassgar shook off the debilitation. 

Immediately after Maarich’s attack, the dragon’s body flexed and the vast wings heaved. Muskybassgar burst from rubble and took flight. The blast’s strength knocked Ayen over and buffeted both Maarich and Boris, but the dragon only made it a handful of feet into the air.

“No,” Trey said, pointing a finger at the dragon and spearing it with another ray of disintegration. The dragon avoided the attack through a dint of fate when another section of ceiling crumbled and intercepted the ray. At the same time, Ayen and Boris recovered and pursued the dragon skyward. Both landed solid blows, and the dragon could only retaliate with a single claw swipe at Ayen which the elf weathered ably.

“You will burn!” Muskybassgar snarled, craning its head around and launching further skyward and outward. Both Ayen and Boris took the opportunity to strike again, Boris landing a sneaky, especially critical strike that made the dragon roar in pain. Dark Sister flared and the roiling malaise enveloping the blade spiraled around the dragon’s head and bored into its malignant yellow eyes.

“I don’t need to see you to burn you!” Muskybassgar’s jaws opened wide and a cone of hellfire erupted from the dragon’s maw, immolating all five adventurers and blasting down the tunnel. Delilah screamed. Trey weathered the fiery maelstrom with a timely dodge and a quick gesture that further blunted the fires and fed the energy into his blazing scars. Ayen had no cover to hide behind, but the potion he drank gave him ample protection against the heat.

Both Boris and Maarich emerged completely unharmed.

“You see, Trey? Ayen? Boris learned how to evade! Well done, Boris!” Maarich looked up at the blinded dragon. “You are worse at killing us than your lowly guards!”

Delilah’s hand glowed warmly as she placed it on her chest and healed some of the burns. She moved into the chamber, skipping across steaming mounds of half-melted coinage and scorched gemstones. She pulled out her lute and played an inspiring tune. “Boris, I believe in you!”

Steam and smoke burst from the floor from cracks in the stone, searing Trey and Delilah while Maarich again dodged the geysers. The fog made it more difficult to see, but the dim conditions aided Maarich. He ran across the floor towards the sound of the dragon’s mighty wingbeats and up a wall, then vanished into the shadows and emerged above the dragon.

“Hello, monster,” Maarich said, elbow dropping onto the dragon’s spine. Muskybassgar roared and its body seemed to freeze in midair for a fraction of a second before shuddering and shaking off the blow’s effects. Maarich’s follow-up attack glanced off the dragon’s hide.

Trey gathered magical energy at his fingertips, half a dozen missiles of force that glowed bright white, ready to release the moment his line of sight cleared. Boris flew towards the dragon and, with Delilah’s support, struck true, again skewering a vulnerable point on Muskybassgar’s body thanks to Maarich’s clinging presence on its back. A claw swiped at Boris but the sightless attack went far wide. Ayen followed up Boris’ attack with two-handed swings of his own. Muskybassgar’s tail swung about and crashed into Boris, spiking the man away.

Muskybassgar shook its head as its vision cleared. Battered and bleeding from multiple grievous wounds, the hate in its eyes was replaced by fear. It pulled away from Ayen, who swung and missed. With Maarich clinging to its back still, it dashed towards another tunnel near the ceiling.

“Damn it!” Delilah yelled as she heard the retreating wingbeats. She stumbled through the fog in their direction and pulled out her lute. She played a staccato tune that gathered rainbow energy along the instrument’s strings and neck.

The cave shuddered again, but before the rocks could fall the fog dissipated. Delilah loosed a multicolored bolt of swirling chaos that struck the dragon with a blast of acid. Trey released his magic missiles in a flurry that slammed into the dragon.

The great wings ceased moving, and Muskybassgar’s corpse slid from the tunnel opening to the floor eighty feet below with a thunderous crash, taking Maarich with and crushing him beneath the motionless body.

“Maarich?” Boris asked. The riichna didn’t answer.

“That idiot,” Trey said. He glanced at Ayen. “Are we really digging him out?”

Ayen Melamar, of House Melamar, sheathed his family’s ancestral sword Dark Sister. “He’s an asshole, but he’s an effective asshole. Did I ever tell you about when we questioned a traitor of one of Tician’s, that is Old Tician, noble houses who sold our people out to giants?”

“This sounds fun and not mentally unstable,” Boris said, searching through the unscorched sections of hoard for pricey trinkets.

“I enjoyed it. So did he. He left a vulgar message on the wall in Riichna. None of them could read it, of course, we had no idea what a riichna was because I’m not from Vanil.”

“Wait you’re not?” Boris asked. “But New Tician has always….”

“Time travel. Or something involving that anyway. We, ah, procured an artifact belonging to the Elven god of time and death,” Delilah explained. She gestured vaguely to her surroundings. “This war-ravaged planet is the good reality after Maarich, Ayen, Ogderel, Dondof, and I fixed it.”

“Used to be run by a lich who stole a god’s powers, from what I heard.” Ayen searched around Muskybassgar for signs of the trapped riichna. “I had a scarily competent wolf at one point in the past, until it bit a stone golem’s crotch.”

“Who is Dondof? How did you travel from the past, or from a somehow worse Vanil?” Trey asked.

“Stories for another time, perhaps,” Ayen answered. He reached under the dragon’s bulk, grabbed a black-robed limb, and pulled the unconscious riichna out. “There we go. Do your thing.”

“Healing,” Delilah said. Maarich’s breathing strengthened, his eyes opened, and he spit out a mouthful of blood.

“Very good,” Maarich groaned. “Now we reap our reward. With this amount of money, I think we can do much to make this world a better one too.”

“What would that be?” Ayen asked.

Maarich looked the elf in the eyes. “Would you like to tear down the glorious riichna empire that is causing so much trouble for everyone while at the same time destroying the Theans that have helped to make the glorious riichna empire the mess that it is?”

“I think so?”

Maarich grinned. “Then after we are rested and our earnings are returned to safety and tallied, I propose we should go to the Darklands. My estranged kin who fled centuries ago for not wanting to ruin everything would surely welcome earnest allies.”

Jachcadim Gerakticiano

Ven verad betoro chakur tirjitim jahiradimo vemad kem jomur jochpelebimrit pelo pelurop. Jachpel luchad jarano, nycur vipad vetijimjyk vevinimad, ilir bechad vin elefad. Torbovim chetad yler bechomim bahad cichtodokrit jachurce voljyl badokad jeda jahiradimo. Verej jariir mocheti, lopim nedotad verul ga acer tozo pacad. Riibuj negemad, nejoh riiad, e betorenim ovonad dince ontinyr junorce katinim jabepomad ya anranarce koja comogad ithdo cichad e cythad ya togokdo orocad enirce japalen Pelazbavcapo.

Delyla vomar yra vebych temarad kem pader jarib, gamuz bolad dokachen livgilen, akina vemad deo. <Chnaimich, ce ibar tal. Kolich cen jykol najajacholad.>

<Kolich cen jykol najavolpoad Gerakticienop, ce kuzyr kikin ihimo Tumakin cal e ihim ce otar rybad mocadimvo orokad cal.> Een covor. Imalam bajer cymimul vezemad deo kem dotim elefimo lejyk imalamad kazer pelajad. Duvar caotyn japalen potecimo, ancen vezeror vinip kolad pelvinun ivotochad. <Ceni.>

<Rybim enad ger cen mel deimop.> Maarich cemer. Riichna dopar camim danajad inceniop bechomimi jajila tuino, cennal icochad ya jariad oroca cajelo. <Niod acho ger maahyr ical jatylad acho, e naj bemad cen echnaimop ye.>

Delyla vathar. <E Maarichich, ger copar yrcenad kez nal?>

Charob Maaricho tejer mochi e keti nead cenar kavad kefadimyn Tumaad. Yjacop jekad deo viver nyanja e chal pacad pacen pevejer vynimul myo jedad. <Deich ce gecemur ye, yrearce jatyl neger rajeyr.>

<Fath najar.> Tere’Lunariel ubivar. Tinajerce rilem bolad an chirat, leiadim elefimad albaar almat ilvinad calapchopalul mythad myimi darad. Muca negempelad juner ochonrit pyregad e elefad lyjimi ylimad. Chokelmuim vezemul mochad, ga luthuar mez thukuzad daveljyk vundo apachad, remar darchim bemad. <Ihim ce kuzar valad tal, ce ylir betor negemad cal.>

<Boric ger dajer lajad docul deo. Ce gecemur comogim nevetad ihimop ithulen ne cen.> Delyla cemer, bemjachlavad nyn chapak gylabad Maaricho.

<Gylabim darad comogan ce dycemyr kyzad.> Maarich cemer. Bujar Delylayl e mythar myim, ku erarad pacchalul, tinjakimi aramuctinjao mochad. Chna volul ilucotad jahyr efjahkin negemnucad. <Anne padan ce thicer. Icop pylad ejachrit nycad afar jachbemad.>

<Afir yyl deimo.> Een cemer. Vynur ceryth raykad vynkin elefad e ebovunad mycerimo cerekad giritimdo. Cenim otoad e cerochad elefimo davular zuni thochad kem nejir muca rezad e kolad dutimyn fathad. <Padyr pac rejad.>

Delyla duvar Eena. <Din ciner jaharce. Nerab ymaner uakarce Mackibecgar.>

Zeku Maaricho jadyr. <Ith enad vejyr ihimoz, pun jocok hachad e jachvalad najadimop jachbechad din izamer cennal. Najim rochad cen, ce vigyr jotoban yleradzo cal.>

Delyla jilyar jadomuc e padar dal cachelad riichnaa. <Ylor riiadim betovolyl.>

Riichna dajur cuduk dotimkin deo, bemmochnumochim pedad e nedoazad cen. <Ye. Ce tedar najurce met jachgemad cemirajkal yrad.> Maarich caojahar. <Arch cemyr bemjachgemad, rab cemer.>

<Bemul podadimul ybelemad ga cerar e gocolor jachbethukimkal kymazelim jotobad iho kethcedo negecikur deicha.> Tere cemer.

<Cin cimar jachmelad.> Maarich valcear. <Alcen, ne ce bechur yen halogo.>

Delyla kul jefer e ycikar yjoh deimo kalakcha gamuzul. Avolopim mochervunad chabolen cen, fatherim giamen cen, metamim charynrit cen. An rezur mochmuca bahad, cemer. <Ibeth ne ger iler bekolkal, ce cimar ye.>

Een e Maarich pylar ubun e cekolar pukuura ruamak alhudimi nelemop. Tere, myler jochirad e rugyrad rilemimi, mypakaar e cemer cemim bechad cemeli elefimo. Ojtol ruamakul yljahir pelovul e konaver abech katinimen viverce vinarchi deya. Elekim bechad kobicho, cemer cem anchnaad e mypakaur, carfanarce pylim rugul ga valar rookai enkoad deo.

<Chnaimich, kez nal.> Tumaulim neicilad cenar vocomkin rikad bemdojonadim vemad romyr. Ibar alhudul cytharad Maarichul. <Delylaich, cen jachmelad!>

Riichna rokamir, duvarce myimyl kupodad Tumauliman e yniman kavad. <Cythadimich cen!>

<Zumec neyunad cen, e imukar cemim deicho.> Boric rejar tejim kuzad alhudul e pudir niatha anchnaad. <Kul zadaver pedeji deicho nal?>

<Ye, Boricich, kul zadaver pedeji iho ye. Pudur alhudim nelemop iho kethul nal?> Maarich enir pedej ervunad deo. Jenarce jenak, ruthur jecenim.

Alhudim nelemop torovutar tordo podad.

<Kocen ne cen tal!> Maarich becemar. Jilyir Boricen negajad, iberce kavarad. <Deicho cen ye!>

Dotim Tereo rugur copochad. <Ce tacakyr ye. Thoadim behad ihimo ce tacakyr cenop talir eradim ihimo. Tacak ce yenyr kez nal?>

<Ce–> Maarich ritur alhud e doter thac deo jochdo. <Deich cen!>

<Ajetich, ne ce cimar kez cemerce dea cal. Ne ce jachpepor tal. Zozoim rikad ce najir kanoad elekadima.> Boric ader tiripedeji e jenyr ivot amilad ga chakar tordo.

<Ontiner keth nal?> Een naler.

<Bemadimul cen.>

Dotim Eeno choir e le imalamad lyjer vejochi kyzicikad mycerimjyl cerakad deo. <Bemadim cen nal?>

<Darim cen. Ce jaribar melad. Donych bemjachpyregad arch ihim ce valer chakorce rab.>

Een dafar avolopim deo e bemular najim deo valimi. Vompac icikad jalagar ylenad charobdo vavinan lafetadimad ryltetimul.

Tere chivitar e cekolar toburce najim deo. <Cen fingolkin jachkonad.>

<Cen bechop ygel yylad.> Maarich cemer annajkin lajygemenad. <Ce dacikir kona bemadim riaad jochur recak riaad. Kul adyr fingol bemad rab, kulce acenadim jachbechad cennal.>

Elekimadim kojer dotanarce riichnaa. Maarich encemar keti ynkolad. <Mocim ce konyyr algazad.>

Kavar kobichimi anchnaad. <Cojik culimad ce mylar chekcip.>

Een cemer kuzad. <Kacin cen tal. Ce jahar tal.>

Vemadim najor nebit e keleker, Boric zekua acelo cen. Cythadim Tumaulad, fan cen jachmadalad vejirce ekijim chnabemad e najarce yifim goregop cyfythad, harer jachcalad ithjyl cichad e kyzvolpoad e reinad techtoriimoz kavamad tori. Maarich e Boric rajatar tuinjach behibiman. Kojer kobichi bechad tokothdo mythad jochurce vakim nitimop jachbechpimbiad afarce togokjyl unavad.

Hajurya jatyl kuzad, katin dardarlatadrit todokyn kuzad, Boric jaritur ryloen. Vin rochonar pelazul lajyrce thojochima potecimo. Dither ochodovim behim anach Tere rezer jachad vindoima e rokkaima. Elefim jujahar vithim nuvad ocovenul zelvenan dajacamad.

<Ihim ce talar coparce koc nal?> Delyla naler. <Calce nucer–>

Cumkin bemjachipelad, Een tyrthir namja todoko.

Darpakaadim jachbemad e pelvunad jomer katin dardarlatylad behibimrit pebochad pelimja jachilemad. Tinajer dafim mochmolazad ginocul e adir bemzigachim mochtorathad zekuimkin Eenobavad. Enir mezmuca bahad e omuc deimo anrevakimi felekad. Ochonim vecad deimo dotanar chogelad elefima yvalad.

Een urgukin darad yzekar bahmycerim giama. Pac bemulad uihririt avalar cerimen, hazirce e jachevarce mycholkin cerad. Rutegim temelul icikad amachur vevinen pelazad mycerimul lekoad, parafarce totet nycad uradimrit.

Een Melamar, Zuul Melamarad, urarce chal gemazelad mazelo thanyrce Mochkefalbyc, carfanur jaki pelbemadimo bemjachtozad. Imalam alyar, e bemadim romad ador cokol darad darcharoba. Een ipopur an chalarce Mochkefalbyc avolopimjyk ijozurce mycerim huegi bemadimo. Tyrthar camkin bemjachbemad deo, carfanarce fe thochad. Een tejur ipopim deo e urguar. <Ticienop!> Pudar vofon jachbemad temelul nenajimi bemadimo. Imalam imelad gyrikar.

Maarich lajurce cebolechi golomad jenirakolad pun Boric venur riichnaoz. Valar toz Eena e chalor bemadim ichulad mycerimkin tuchchalad. Gemadim jyadar e jilyir Tumaulimen pun chna jalagar ynad e thynir nuc zobonad dajcala.

Maarich ynyremad ethar vinjyk monoki kymarad. Tyrth deo machar rodom bemadimo jotkin kacinad nianorce. Bemadim jyanimad gaboler toren.

Maarich cythur omuc anrevakad bemadimo, ku dani facad, e vaker vak nepolad. <Kez cen nal?> naler chacelad momarce my erad rumygjyk ga julamur darad doti jekad bemadimo.

Facirce juchad, duzir bemadima neceorad, chanak aer kyzad kol jycopad. <Deich akolad cen.> Maarich cemer chalarceya rodom ovonad bemadimo kolop kuzad.

Delyla, tobirce jotobad cycenyl, gedar Tere. <Ce cenyr de ye!> cemer zunkin. <Deich bechovonad cen.> kavar vithyn. Ubivirce cemim bechad, harur domopim lead pudorce icik bemadimo fead. Bemadim jyadar e cyther zeku an volorce.

<Ce dotur haragol majad zucarce tal.> Tere fyginerce halepad cemer. Majirce cemeli elefimo, cythtanyl nitad pelul mochad acear cenimi yjacoprit. <Pelim iho ce peler bemjachilemad cal neadim ce torir yuo!> Pynar vulim nitad harkin kuzad bemadima fead. Darim otar gemad mimik pethad pelbemadimo, e nitadim cenar otorce kyzad arch kony gemad e jadoch ne pudar caoti bemadimo.

Neadim ne cenar nathol riiad.

Vezem ochondo Tereo ichboar pelvin jachmochad e jachocomad Pelazbavcaprac. <Ne ce kocenar tal! Nucur jachyrad hargol pelmajrit theadima enad!>

Maarich rejur nyan. <Cemim enad ce gitgudyr hanikirce, pun cemerce cen tal. Zozo riiad deo cen anrajyrce neriichnaadim. Zozo darad cen jehelurce gemul lecenop bemjachnegemad.>

Tere jochir torbovdo lajad e izojur ochom myimi. <Ger neonar kon ger cerur pelpelzirak.> vejor.

<Yrgolom jachbechad cen tal! Fingol jachbemad cen tal!> Een urguar. <Ce bemular vacikim deimo ye!> Ruker Mochkefalbyc jachdarad, patherce chapim najachad pun nezerazad, koaj vener chaurce bemadimcha darad. <Nemazadimich, ce jalar tal! Ce choler ih tal!>

<Ce copar bemjachmelad!> Boric becemar. Nucar cad anchnaad bemadima fead, pun daf ginocul kyur chal. Rybor valad.

<Boricich, bycem ajetad cen.> Maarich cemer doturce bemadim jachfead. <Kon ce cadar din, ce gecemur neotorce tal.> Rulir ketkal jomarce pac mochad urmaen darchrugad chypul zekuja. Vyladim icikkin valir bemadimen paroop konomirce nucad. Pun jachjalagor e jachzobonir, e pudyr pedtycath mimpethdo. Mochvalim riiadul fathur nyan bemadimo, parafarce varedyl ynimjyk deo ajaljikan agilemanad vyladimya dajir pacjyk.

Kem bemadim anpacad venor, Een jachur cymyl myo erad. Imalam icikbanad aljahar feimyl cymi pacadimjyl. <Ne ce aer kolad copag iho pacirce tal.>

Jakim bemadimo laneter e charob nenetad marar jeheljyk. Cytharce zigach junad. Dotim rachelarce lum jachicikad, baronir Eenkyn e carfanur akin jabolerceya kavad.

<Ce ajar gonomop.> Maarich cemer. Marar pacadimdo e cealar bemadima mylad chalkin pacpacul cedad riiadiman yakolad. Pacchal ruker cenorceya gialjyk bemadimo.

Pelbamadim unuvar e jojyar zigach. Zigacher pacadimi kethi kyad tobul yaketad Maaricho. <Ancen kez cemur gemulrit gemad cadarceul nal? Ne ce jalir nal?> Caj darad jalar lajad tejarce mimpethjyk Maaricho, pun riichna ethar, pather zeku vecad zigacho, e peololar tokothdo najachad. <Bemjachnerejad cen. Cen cimadim jachchotad rac Tere’Lunariel.>

<Maarichich!> Delyla gumuchar. Kefadim romir metamim e metamar vebych temikad. <Boricich, ecche ce cenyr deichi! Ne ce denomyr tal!> Toburce metamim, cemychar pelbemadim. <Cen ovonadim.>

Bemadim bochir icikircean lupoth amunad e pedyr horochkin taochad.

Tere thymer aforce neim borodul Delylao. Ruler fuguzim deo e vivur kuzad ynkyk acel nitad vyladimul zahzahad. Deim ruger otarce nenachad bemadim. <Ce copar tech iho.> elefim chivitar.

<Nahich iho, Ihim ce afir ye!> Een becemar, jylorce jotob nektoad hochadimo. Mochkefalbyc valemar darad e ylir darchfedim imalamad bemadimdo.

<Tej elekimad ce dycemer.> Boric cemer, mochurce charynjyk neavolad bemadimo. Gujolar yajyk e pather ynamach konyad e ijanad etuckai jekad bemadimo. Fe tojochad ne pacyr kudimad, pun venur topoth bemadimo burugima.

<Ce cimir tal.> Maarich cemer, jalagarce kethjyk tobirce Borico. Jacopim gifir e coromar charyn juchad bemadimo cozkin torathad. Zach zychogad mopebur bemadim, chanak mythor cerim e toror.

<Lir cen yuo.> vorobar.

<Ce rupar ye.> Een dajar, jenerce Mochkefalbyc nyanrit gaducad bemadimo neafad.

<Lak jachfiragad cen.> Maarich cemer. Duvar bemadimya junad rokkaa ardamo jykarce inaja mochad potecimo. Ilvin konaver enokadimul. <Ce kavar tal, chu horoimo ce dugyr rab.>

<Chanak ce najyr haragol deicha nal?> Boric naler. Dotajar morichi. <Rachna ce aer pelaz nal?>

<Calce lavur.> Maarich cemer. Myther tech agilad caotul Borico e torur kavad pihin idoad Tumaulimo. Boric dyamar e gefur dotimdo.

Delyla kojar caucirce. <Cethce.> Gather zeku jekad e Maarich tochotar achagad.

Riichna tochotir kuzad. <Ku ce goler cadarce mochjyk ya.>

Naker vych nitad, Een e Maarich hucad cen, Boric darchad cen, e Delyla e jachchinTere’Lunariel godotad cen. Giridjyk Maaricho celimul ya ynetjyk nelemad rab, jachmoch ardamo bechyr kuafan becelad.

Ith torad togir juchlimivad. Vin netir nithalad e ilemad, vivim ilvinul bolarce tiekiman naduchad ga maahyr peduv deimo rac moch dince. Latadim anjuchar tathuc tojonul jykarce tanaja vecad ardamul. Vin vinochar ivotachul e toj juchketelad cyr jacholofad.

<Fa!> Ketel Tereo alamir albemuli alamul alvinjyk nycad. <Ih cen chnaim jaherce ketelimkin alamad koc nal? Ne ce icikur koc thuk enad jachchotyr.>

Tanyl alamul pethbolad avalar elefimrit neciritad. Ultoc geriokad mopebur cam bechimotad e jenar majacelimyl. Cular havidya rogothad jenorce fatyn albemulo chofad jekdo acelo.

<Kez cen nal?> Een harar, duzirce tonuchjyk. Coparcean, paka elefad kyzcajelad alvinen ritad, vakor e volor tathuckin cokolimul valad. Darpaka kyzcedad cenar ynul e cupar kyrob neavolad Delylao.

<Lodoch cen.> Maarich cemer, dotanarce cenadim kyzchnaad alamul kyztemelad ga avalar albemulrit urgukin chovomad. Nucer rocharce charobrit riichnao, pun Maarich konomir cad jachpedad.

<Geretadim, ce anjuchir tal!> Delyla cemer. Charob domar pakaan dokad ga valar ecadimyl vinad e kavnaker katinyl dardarlatadrit, volvo bemjachjotobad jajilen albemulo. <Cen ecche ovonadim, ye!> Majadim davoker nejycopad chemjyk.

Algaz jehelur kefadim cal, vinmajadim lajur tycath celimo Eenen. Rumygim venur charyn elefimo, volorce.

Mycerim Borico tejar alvinjyk keth cenyr majadim lajad viver. Vip vathor. <Ne calce doter! Calce jacopor koc nal?>

Cylth albemulul icoper majacela ga Tere neter. Elefim nerejad cenar chtobul tordo darchi cebolecho. Rokamirce e rokamarce alam, fathar vyn majadima lajad. Lejy pelul vivar vecylad. <Kavalaich, ce avolar yuo.> majir, venerce bemjachjotobad jajilen alamo nejenerce jalnekin vinmajadim lafetadimad.

<Icir nehagarce nejacoporce nal?> Maarich naler konomircean alammachim ancenad theadimul deo.

<Ye, ih dince jachkachad dugorce ria koc nal? Icir jachen ye!>

<Koaj ce copar izudo tal.> Maarich dajcalar, dochotorce chtejim nakul majadimo delpakin cokolul. Podejar negemi. Een lajad cythar daryb ancenad nakulim, cajur Mochkefalbyc, e jacopor neim.

Alammajadim albemuli avalar jajila alamo e chapor Terejyk. Imalam aljahir vindoimul e rokkaul elefimo.

<Tereich!> Delyla becemar. Ipopar nam deo, icir chalerce cyceni orocad cal, e falir voad. <Lamim cen!> Cem nechnotad hanikir le lamarad ga kuner elefim otoad jeheldo.

<Gance afir yuo.> Een dyamar an vinmajadim lafetadimad kavar kavaarce. Topoth ceradimo jachmopeber Tereoadim, pun cokolim dakavad cekolar talpaarce.

<Ce nucer ye!> Boric dajar, otorce rukol anchnaad cadimul. Jalagar cycenyl aranjyk goryo kem majadim chuyr daradimjyk elefimul.

Een dugar roly tanen dotimo. <Afyrce tal, ger dotar deich kuza kethceo e ger cerer icyli deicho volocharce rab.>

Boric vathor impacad.

Maarich konomir bemcadim zobonad theadimul majad. “Eenich, cen majacelimadim ye nal?>

<Nal kachmochad cen nal?>

<Gefikadim cen. Ce yumar avolirce yuo. Tereich cen anad yuo.> Maarich hyrugir fucen jajili cebolecho.

<Ne cen!> Tere becemar.

<Ye.> Maarich thyker cym, fan mypaka thymor bathad. Gyrik chetimul mofad urmair fucyl deo, ruchut pacad ga dumur majadima bemvemad ecche elefimcelima darad. Een avolur tycath darchad leo rygukin volpolad tirjitul, pun Tere pudyr bathoch bemjachpedad tefarce bemim lamimul Delylao e rybarce elefim jajilen pacdo.

Alammajadim ne onor kol nead cythur charob darchicritad Tereo e volocharce imkin nuvimen albemulo.

<Maarichich cen bemjachafadim, ye.> Delyla cemer. <Ih dince laamur Tere koc nal arch deich ce nucer pacarce nal?>

Maarich caojahar. <Ce zadaver agurim yuo. Ger cen toriti riaad.>

Delyla mechar cemelul Tumao e ritir tobirce Borica. Pudur techril pedad muthkin mochnazlamad e ajenur myi Borico. <Ce ibyr Een tal.> cemar. Dalurce alvini, docer kyzad chabol Tereo anjohi jenalam alatoad. <Tereich, ce bavir tal!>

Tere zomer e dajir cypen zenad kem Een gabolir cadadimen darad, tobirce kyzad. Boric jahur kavad, enur valad apom, e thyker calan Een din rokur jecen. Bemim feimul elefimo hylor, e bavur temkin kavkolad. Boric jachontiner cath rukerce riiimi majadimul cychad, fan adun gechad thicer necalce pather oto vehekad.

Een carfanur majadimi. Temel tanylad bahmycerimdo natholar bemjachbechad, arch myther chal e togur my bemjyk. Rokamtibanim temelad lumul baner ibalam deo e geraker temel icikad. Cad dared falor majafim falorce thithar e jadirce patha Mochkefalbyco.

Maarich e alammajadim echnaad lacolar kavad, riichna fecirce nechorochad an myim dochotor zuntorim ecadimi. Tere julamyr fatyn theadimoz balakad e vomer jajildo ircrito koldo nitad.

<Tereich! Ce bavir tal!> Delyla becemar, aranurce coz bemjachlead cemimi temad. Leiadim ciritir, fan ancen chokyr ralafi pacad majadimo. <Bemjachbechovonadimich cen!> becemar alammajadima. Koli enad, cemim ugelor.

Acel jebar kuzad. Fan Een pudyr bechchapim bemad, Boric cal mochur otarce riiadim alammajadimul jomen negekikad. Cythadim ontiner tob dycemad nycnym alvino. Nak mojad majadimo tejyr jyanimjyk kuzad an Boric tajor ginob golota mojad.

Een icir morgotarce benadiman majadim necenad, pun pyenor. Cajur algazad Mochkefalbyc darad ibyrce imalam netad icelen lumad bahmycerimo ilemerce majadim bechceorad.

Maarich konomir ginoc anchnaad cadimul. <Ne ce getur koc deimich ce jachbomchyr neotyrce. Kolichdo cen Terea bemjachryad, ce aer dotop bemjachbechad. Kon ihim cen tobi volpoad rab, ger cemur bemad koc konomirce ye.>

<Maarichich, ria ce facer cemerce.> Een covor.

<Cen, ye. Cenop ce havogar laam e avna deimicho….> Maarich ethar uemjyk onarce chauema uemimi e cenar albemuli Tereal. <Ce jalar tal, thechelefimich.>

Cyther jacop Tereo e jenar aramen, chivitarce an majadim cythar cath cajurce riichnaa rolyad zo otorce. Koronar Tere tiekdo torad tozdo jehelad Delylao. <Ce golar mylerce cititad tal.>

Alammajadim avalar jehelrit Maaricho, pun charob riichnao volur aderce Terea. Algaz nucer e chochor jenarce riichna albemulen fucan Tereo. <Yjten.> cemer duvurce juchad leiadima alamiad.

<Ce rylor tal, Maarichich.> Tere zomer. Marir, volochar bujim bechad, e pynar arhan nitanchnaad vulul pelad majadima kavgylabarcead yren. Nitim behad otar e amilor chtej bazad nakul majadimo.

<Tordo najachad ce melir deichop.> Delyla cemer, chaparce Tere charyndo pedyrce ablankin girivad. <Eenich, ce coper jachbomchadim deima tal!>

<Cetievaciich, ce onar iha yuo!> Een becemer. Kyar daradim lajad majadimul, koaj Borickin otur alammajadim. Rumygim Maaricho cupar ivemzekujyk alammajadimo echnaad e lajur echnaim tobirce mocadimvo mylad. Cular delpa kuzad cadimul ga venur Een junerceya bazacyn danajad zydul e leul.

<Elekim ce melyr nal?> Delyla naler rybimyn kuzirce.

Tere e Een zomer.

<Cince cythar bech alabirce nal?> Boric naler.

Een jadar zeku. <Ce jebar yaen. Ne calce nycher fec Mackibecgaro yl cadarce jachbechad ihima kem lemirce. Delylaich, le anrilad deicho ce myler nal?>

Kefadim Tumaulad jadar zeku. <Calce najur lamim tejad, pun ecche ce air ladin rabarce konchna ce thymer af rab.>

<Bod cen.> Maarich romir techril anchaad pedyrce jachmezarafkin bekvopad e amur Eena. <Ne ce thymer cenop cen cenad chnaim zoad ihimul duverce bycemul ‘ne ce corochyr tal.’>

<Egic deicho ne ce nejochir.> Een chacemur cythircean jecen e koronar kyen. <Kavala ce zuner iha ye!> Dyamar haduvad jadirce handelan zucarce.

<Ne cen, cythur ria nacapul avocaki iao pacul ryberceya deicha. Deichadim cen ia bemjachhachad. Agderel getecir ycenad ga handel padyr najochytom nelaamad e davokerzo lemurce dajan jachfeim.>

<Ne ce thicer necimarce nal? Ibyr annaj calpacad nal?>

<Rannaj ce najer rokkai e cythirce calce cerer Eenich ye.>

Dither handel bemtejad e Delyla pader leim lamimul bechad alabarce ceorim bemad deimo. Een e Maarich ador kavar hal juchercean jachnuvad inajen potecimo.

Ylirce ynkolad vetoben albemulkin revecvejochad, vin rejur e cyr bemjachilvead. Anraner hibilad todokdo cichad e jachpellumad thojochimi Pelazbavcapo, riiim ithimul bemad elefirce rijahrit vetobo ralja ivilul pelad katinyn beryfad. Ardam ryfad bazul fanajad, tejadim cen kecek jachbemad ga cal gemur bekolim ya naj jachbemad, vular thojochimen.

<Eenich, ce jahar keth nal?> Boric naler, dalirce impacad jajilyn pelmochalbemula vomad.

Elefim coater vynim e faolar cym imalamad. Dygel imalamulad ginocir fea padad Mackibecgardo kon rendomer pelzirak zetezul konachad thukim bemyaad. Caldin fe myler nelaamad e Een kunur dalin gecimad, calce dugur fuc pelzirako deadimo antobad.

Een fathar ardamen jachbemad pujrit orocad jeddo e katinyn dardarlatad.

<Ne ce vetar poteli nal? Ce comoger.> Delyla cemer.

<Ce davoker romurce jachcolad.> Boric cemer. Dotajar puj.

<Ancin cen rab.> Tere moblinir.

<Tereich, calce pader riten nal?> Boric naler.

<Daradim jachfacar. Calce lekour Een e deich baritad. Deimich ce adir Delyla e ih e ce gecemur nemythorce tal. Maarich ce nechyr.>

<Riiadim necalce vivar ynad e ce copar yrcedadim nal?> Boric naler.

Dotim e vezemim Tereo jachpeler. <Maarich ce nechyr ye.>

Riichna davoker negajad cegolul. <Kon ger kuzar enim, dince ceror Theaen.> irir.

<Kez cen, latimkin nal?> Boric naler.

<Ger aer ajetim.>

<Nece icer kethgath ancenarce can.> Een cemer.

<Kul cerar jachbethukul chnaimen iho.>

Een hibiler. <Ne ce camar cyl deicho.>

Tere jomar le deo romadimi e dotadimi darad. Vivir e achalur Delyla e Tere pujrit. Maarich ador kelek jahad, ethar jachcadad, e ritir puj pucukkin riiad, anranarce vemimya echnaad. <Ancemerce, ce ener bemim lochoimul kethceo enad.>

Tere melochur Maarich. <Relrour cer ye!>

<Nece copar nerikadim. Ce ador bujim cerop kuzirce.>

<Thaca Maarichich, ger polur bemenim ynkolad.> Delyla pathar yajacop riichnao. Rulir jal Tereen e cov neter iciki. <Ger docor kolen dajirce Gerakticiena.>

Jahar ardamjyk, kecek mochvolad ga dithar reinim ybelemul nenetad. Een e Boric viver odol bechad tojja vinurce leul Tereo. Duter anranurcean murum juchmurumad, zom bemjachgemad.

Een gather zeku. <Ce icyr.>

Maarich fyginer mochadimad. <Bemjachgemad.> Rulir ketul. Banch bechomad remar majacel, vycurce jah e nyvarce nak.

Anraner toreuni babazad parlakkin caucad, morcu jabepomad morcapul e mojul jachbemad toriturce tojdorit tojirit inkilad. Tuchvilim e albemulim enad ivliul nechar toj nedokad e yadim chetir jachetimkin.

Mackibecgar pelvuncholad pobikir darchrugad ramaan capbazad vecorce anjohi ueuno. Vivim jachbemad pelzirako vecur pikuurce e adirce turukim parlakul zekuyn pelzirako. Ivilpeboch ilemad alamar e nianur tej parlakul cuacad rokkarit pelzirako rymimen.

<Ihim ger coper koc nal?” Delyla naler onarce kavad le yifarce honad ajetim.

Tere duvur jaim. <Ce cigalir. Ce goler jaharce e kuzarce zucopim tal.>

<Ce poler kez nal?> Boric naler.

<Torim ce juner. Pelzirak ce pacer.>

<Ce vetar tal.> Een pudur apom nyjelad pedyrce araful elitad kili tyim lemad niltoul viverce. Albaar jecen e ritar rokka. <Kul adir cecedimop jachenad.> Jacopur Mochkefalbyc e zekuar Tereen.

Leiadim father nevokokinad vyn riladima jachetimul mimpethja pelzirako icylad. Naztan pacul mochad nejur vykuzen rutegan tukinimjyk jachetimo, neceorce moj e jojenurce jathythim torul pelziraken neciritad. Torim chetar lavun pelzirako, cheturce nuvad e chokerce chabol jiamyn nethochad. Mackibecgar cumar.

Maarich ritir jacopim e yanar. <Ce gekikir jachbechganokad.>

Tere zunor. <Ne ce kuzir.> Ycikur valad lecem anchaad e vinar anchna lejyul jachbechad mochpacul. Chapor zeku pelzirako e doner remarce chabol Mackibesgaro icelkin verolodchulad.

Boric fathar enokadim jaimi. <Ikte bemjachbemad kulce e kul gemar ye. Coparce yuo.> Valar ueuni janurce vinarchad e nuvur nuvad mycerim deo kyrobi pelzirako cuzochad, relroorce urbu anchnaad. Een caojahar e ancerur, carfanarce Mochkefalbyc leaerad alucjyk pelzirako.

Delyla upupimop jachbemad borodar Mackibecgar cemeli pelzirakad yro, pun chuir chemim chirolad. Duvur Maarich. <Ce cimer vigarce deichi.>

<Jachen cen ye. Kul leveler bemim, deicha e iha. Ce ciner tagarce gecem Eenop e Tereop yuo.> Maarich lajar pelzirak e chalar jachmecad jajilimdo. <Ne ce natholer.> Otar bemad, kavaarce nian, pun necal volor ya neafor necopad pelzirak zachjyk. <Ce bemjachkenochir kan nal? Rabce gelir zach bemjachbechad teluci enpacul deo arch ce jachfacar rab.>

Mackibecgar jachar zekul adylimbazad dontanarce juchad Maarich. <Ger pacar deichim bemad cojikjyk bemjachlagad!>

Urgu pelzirako jadar torun, jatorce jachetim bemad juncerce majacelen. Boric pudyr chap tyrthad, Eena riiim bechtyrthad. Maarich fecir becelad cythurceoz tejim bolthul bemjachorocad e pudarce torim pelziraken onarce yron deo e ypac e jot torimo.

Riichna copar pynarce daradim otoul camad jachroalim pelzirako. Riiadim cenar patherce ciritorrcean vonchol, pun Mackibecgar mathir zen.

Charob pelzirako coater cadyn Maaricho e vivim jachbemad tyrthar. Mackibecgar yjohur bolth e vivar. Cam parafo venor Een e venur Maarich e Boric, pun pelzirak jahar katin bechad vini.

<Ne cen.> Tere cemer fatharce vyn pelziraka e bochar vulkin anchnaad enneadimul. Pelzirak konomar cad iataljyk kon tanaj jiamul anchnaad tejir e volar vul. Een e Boric lemir ankolad e jehelur pelzirak vijalen. Deim pather cokol najachad, e pelzirak din tefcadar cajkin chalyul riiad Eena ga elefim jachlavur.

<Ger pelor!> Mackibecgar ipopur jaharce zekul ritad e vinar jachvijalen e jachynaden. Een e Boric darad ador cath otarce kavad, Boric patherce oto romad e bemjachablanad ga falor pelzirak urguarce zachul. Mochkefalbyc jalemir e tarmaloch riterce chaldo jilyur zekurit pelzirako e numar temeldotimi jachthead.

<Netal doter pelarce deichim!> Nodro Mackibecgaro enur vecad e ruchut pelmochad rachelar chodonen pelyrce donjonadim jachlatad e parafarce ardamen. Delyla cumar. Tere torir bemjachtemel konomjyk kolad e mypaka valad ga avolur jachbemad pelim e ibyr pac vezemimi pelad. Een chuer revecyn romerce pun handel albaar najur avol kacinad ilemvo.

Boric e Maarich darad anraner bemjachnefead.

<Ce golar Tereich nal? Eenich? Boric cimir konomirce ye! Bemjachmelad cen, Boricich!> Maarich duvur pelzirak doluchad. <Cen jachchotad cererce horoiman jochad deicho!>

My Delylao lumer ilemad an tobar mimikdo e lemur fepelim tejad. Jahar vetobi ethirce turukrit ilvinad morcuimul darchalamad e thathim ilemad. Pudur metamim e metamur vebych temikad. <Boricich, ce vigar deichi!>

Ilvin e pelvin yjohur tujyl develen torul, ilemerce Tere e Delyla kem Maarich konomir kavad tuchvilim. Vejoch jachgitgudyr doterce pun cilkon luchad afar Maarich. Jahur tojrit duten camvivenimul pelzirako e volja koaj cenor bechomi e anraner pelzirakaj.

<Kez nal, voncholich.> Maarich cemer, jajimythar remnobdo pelzirako. Mackibecgar urguar e charob cenar faragi kobichul kolorcean jatirceya e mathirce nathol cokolo. Cad duvad Maaricho pathor lavun pelzirako.

Tere bemular pac lead vykuzimdo, virzaim cozul darchberyfad ga lumer jachlemad e golerad pynarce keti rejurce jil dotad deo. Boric vivar pelziraken e afkin Delylao otar yenad bochurce kavad tob zenad charobdo Mackibecgaro ajtirce cethen zofad Maaricho charyndo. Chalym celar Borica pun cad nedotad yljahir. Een duver cad Borico cajimkin darmyad deulo. Minna Mackibecgaro cajur ritad e machor Boric jochurce chna ylad.

Mackibecgar jader zeku rejurcean docit. Cenop otoir e ilalamir jachfeimul bemad, moc dotimi gerakyr imochen. Jenyr Eenen, chanak cajur e otor. Maarichkin zofir charyn ancenad, valur ardamen anchnaad jiami tozad.

<Anran mochadimo!> Delyla becemar dutercean vivenim volochad. Baronir vejochjyk jomen deimo e pudur metamim. Metamur vebych konachad bemularce pac vigretegad rezimrit e varedrit cabalo.

Gory jatir kavad, pun vejoch tejyr yaad torim calce juner. Delyla pynar lejy bembanad fochomul rugad ga otar pelzirak parafkin mofad. Tere pynar virzaim lead delpai ga chapor pelzirak.

Vivim bemad cojar temelerce e pacadim Mackibecgaro togurce enokadimen ardam tojdo katinyn vemdardarlatad, cytharce Maarichkin e tejarce charobyni nejaritad.

<Maarichich?> Boric naler. Riichna ne dajar.

<Kachadim.> Tere cemer. Duvur Een. <Ce juchar yead nal?>

Een Melamar, Zuul Melamarad, cerekur chal gemazelad mazelo thanyrce Mochkefalbyc. <Cen tochadim ye, pun toachadim jachnatholad cen. Cemar deich kon nalar vichadim jachzuimo Ticianul, gacen Koluticien, chanak ylar chnaim ihimo bemadima nal?>

<Ce dutur dycad e ne ce nejohonad.> Boric cemer, docarce tanajimrit lamulul neilemad lamulul rertapa parad.

<Melar. De ecche. Tobar enyf chomochad voldo cemeli Riichnao. Jachen neim necal yener, ihim necalce ikte riichnarit cenop ne cenir Vanilen.>

<Cetal vetar, necennal?> Boric naler. <Pun Geraktician kulcen….>

<Koljah cen. Yl annaj ce nianar behcen. Ihim, m, puder jachnajim kinyrce ia kolul e pacul elefimo.> Delyla icopar. Mypakaar pevad ritadim. <Kethce jachcerad cen cenadim melad zucirce ynkolad Maarich, Een, Agderel, Dandaf, e ih.>

<Paleim kul thour cythorce mecim iao, duter ih.> Een docar Mackibecgarrit reinima riichnao chokad. <Thoer jy koli riiad bemjachecilad kyni, koppa ipopar chajak letofo torul.>

<Dandaf cen chanak nal? Jahir kynen koc nal, ya Vanilen jachbomchad nal?> Tere naler.

<Cennal ylcikim kolop anchnaad.> Een galar. Ader varoyn pelzirako, cyther raol mochtinajad, e jenar enad riichna neicritad. <Enim cen. Ce copar naj deicho yuo.>

<Lamim cen.> Delyla cemer. Vith Maaricho camar, dotim enur, e rokamar ped rokkaul imalamad.

<Bemjachgemad.> Maarich zomer. <Ce netur kuad mepad ihimo. Darilkin enad parcaul, ce icer rab calce copar bemim najarce ecche kethcea jachmelad.>

<Ria cen kez nal?> Een naler.

Maarich duvur elefim dotimi. <Gance zytor gemhag tagilad riichnao ga enerce nyf bemjachbemad elekimadimop kem jochorce ankolad Theaulim ga afar coparce gemhag tagilad riichnao rutha cenad nal?>

<Ce icer ye nal?>

Maarich fyginer. <Koaj rabce jalar ynkolad rab e jarapim rabce dajyr volpoen e rilarce rab, ce yumur cince jahar Mochtorimen. Nihim nechad iho chanak volochir jachbethukimya neovonorceop gance anranir ajetim bemjachyenad.>


LoCoWriMo 2022

LoCoWriMo is a not-especially-widely known spinoff of the ever-popular NaNoWriMo that is near and dear to the niche subgroup of nerds who go hard for conlanging. Not all of our labors are as successful or popular as Tolkein’s Quenya and Sindarin, or David Peterson’s creations for Game of Thrones, Defiance, Thor: The Dark World (and a pile of other media), but I and many others do it anyway because we delight in the craft.

So, LoCoWriMo. The goal is to compose a “challenging but attainable” work of fiction over the month of July. I’ve seen 5000 words floating around as a goal, a total my silly little project coincidentally ended around. Said project is an epic retelling of the (mis)adventures of a raid on a dragon’s lair undertaken by players in a Dungeons & Dragons campaign I ran 3ish years ago. Some minor changes have been made for the sake of flow (and getting the thing done in time; really the only thing you’re missing is an encounter with a spellcaster half-dragon and an insane priestess whom the party roflstomped), but all other major victories and missteps as ordained by the dice have been faithfully included.

The language is Riichna, a conlang that I started kind of began creating in the Times Before the Before Times, which is to say 1999, when I was especially ignorant of just about everything. Its first iteration was absolute garbage. The second and third weren’t much better. I began V 4.0 seriously a couple of years ago when I found that wonderful website, the Conlang Workshop, linked above in this paragraph. In the decade-plus between V 3.0 and 4.0 I’ve seriously studied more handfuls of languages and have spent time autodidacting the grimy nuts-n-bolts underbelly of grammar and linguistics. So my creation, while surely still rich with amateurish errors a trained linguist would pick out and deride in a heartbeat, is more coherent and cohesive than not at all.

Eventually I’ll get around to writing up a formal grammar of the dang thing.

Anyway, you can find the Riichna version here.

If you’re a fellow conlanger (in which case kez nal!) and want to follow along with a vague inkling of comprehension, or if you don’t care about what I wrote in any of the above paragraphs and just want to read an after-action report fantasy short story about five D&D adventurers up to the usual, good news! I also wrote a version in English!

New Release: An Alphabet of Fear

You like short story anthologies? You like unsettling weirdness? You like when somebody’s compositions are constrained around a particular gimmick? If you answered yes to any of the previous questions, do I have good news for you!

Feast your eyes:

Alphabet Volume 1

An Alphabet of Fear: Volume 1 is the first entry in a series of anthologies that will take you, dear reader, on a guided tour deep into the twisty realms of the bizarre. Each entry in this series is centered on a particular theme or concept or fear, and our travels will take us through the Greek alphabet from alpha to omega.

Volume 1 contains 3 short stories. “Autophobia” is the firsthand experience of unsettling consequences following complete surrender to the control of another. “Bathyphobia” is the story of Roger Maple, a small-town journalist who attends the unveiling and activation of a remarkable, impossible Device. Finally, in “Glossophobia,” a young man named Kevin awakes, trapped and restrained, in a dim and eerily silent and sealed room.

Pick it up on Amazon Kindle today!