Born of Wind - Of The Elements Series Book 1

Chapter 3

Wind Spirit, however, was quite content drifting the planet, without a creature to worship her. In time, the other three elements grew tired of watching their tribes, and retired to passive worship. Only Wind Spirit enjoyed observing the creations of her sisters.

One day, while drifting over the landscape, she came across a Warix tribe. They were an inspired mix of the mammals from Earth Spirit, and appeared like a forest in autumn: skin the shades of tree bark, vulpine ears under hair the colors of leaves in fall, small horns and eyes like drops of tree sap in angular caprine cheekbones.

She heard them fighting, as a lone Warix man was ejected from his tribe and sent out alone. She watched as he stomped off alone into the woods and hunted with a makeshift spear. She followed for days, but he failed to hit any marks. On the brink of starvation, it appeared his tribe had forsaken him.

In a moment of empathy, she graced him with some of her power, to help him survive. His horns became translucent, he could now sense the wind through them, and his eyes glowed silver like hers when he channeled his first gust.

The thankful Warix carved her a gift out of wood, a pendant in the shape of a ram. He called the Wind Spirit "Nushenyu," "My Goddess" in his language.

The two became close. They experienced the joys of the new world together, roaming without bounds. Although the Warix man's wind abilities were small compared to hers, he could whip up a tornado and soar alongside her.

Soon their bond led them to love.

One day, the pair were strolling through the woodlands, arm in arm, when they happened upon some other Warix— his former tribe. Despite all that had changed in his life, when he saw his former kin on a hunting party he flung into a rage. Shouting, he confronted them, using his wind powers to shove them against the trunks of trees. "Stop, my love! You're hurting them!" the Wind Goddess cried quietly. "Stop this cruelty!"

He did not stop. This unbridled display of revenge disturbed Nushenyu, who derived only pain from in her lover's vicious soul.

Nushenyu held a soft spot for all peoples, and in her desperation to end the cruelty, she did all she could: she blessed the tribe with wind powers too, so they might defend themselves. She hoped her partner would flee, clearly outnumbered, and the encounter would be over.

But his anger was too strong— he stood his ground. The tribe's use of teamwork held their true strength, assaulting him with wind-propelled spears until they managed to draw him out of the woods, and to the edge of a fjord.

He stood with his back to the rapids. Rushing waters pummeled the rocks far below. Wind Spirit Nushenyu blew above the canyon behind her trapped lover. She wept over the mess she had caused. They all looked up at her.

Around her neck swung the Ram Pendant. In her sorrow, she blamed herself for all the trouble and declared she would leave the physical realm and not return to meddle with the affairs of mortals anymore. She focused all her energy into the wooden carving and became obscured in a flash of light. The eyes on the little wooden ram glowed white, as the object now floated alone in the air above the fjord, then plummeted into the rapids below.

The lone Warix, devastated by the result of his petty actions, plunged into the fjord after her, into the tumultuous waters, and was never seen again. The surviving Warix kept the legend of that day alive and their tribe began to worship Nushenyu. Over many generations, the remaining Warix without wind powers faded from existence or bred into the tribe, leaving none of Earth Spirit's original creations.

The other elemental spirits never regained their interest in the mortals: The Meruyan, Hyish, and Warix nations. All expanded territories, farmed, built villages, and eventually made contact with one another.