Eltarki's Diary - Beasts Know More  

 

This is the place that I think I feared the most. I am no warrior. I am not a hunter. I have no skill for survival. Yet I ventured anyway into the realm of beasts, where immense monstrosities roam and battle for supremacy. I would likely be dead, providing a meal for one such beast or another, if not for the wilder that rescued me and brought me here.

I am in a cave, writing by the light of a small cookfire. No more light than needed for cooking is allowed here. Any such would attract unwanted attention. While I am grateful beyond imagining for the assistance these people have given me, I was unable to prevent myself from asking questions about them. They have been reluctant to share much with me. I sense that they have some sense of shame about their lives that brings about this reluctance. But I have learned something of them.

They are called Outers, outcasts from the Wilder that live deep in the Domain. They are primarily very young or very old. Some few are strong and capable, and it is those that they rely on for food. They refuse to hunt, though, and survive only on fruits and tubers they can recover from the forest and the moderate gardens they have planted nearby. Few of the beasts of the Domain eat plants, and so those gardens remain mostly untouched. It is never safe to go and harvest them. The beasts have learned that prey comes there, and so they too come.

These people have left the forest because they no longer believe in the philosophy, the worship of Kolos. They do not believe that the best way to live is to fight and grow stronger. They do not accept that one should gain power by defeating those weaker, but proving to be the strongest.

But this is the legend of Kolos, and this is the power that the Wilder revere. So the Wilders live in dozens of clans, roaming the forest to kill or be killed, grow stronger or die. The only communications they have with each other are the plinths they leave for each other to mark territory. These Outers, though, hide here in small caves to protect their young and aged. To live a life with less fear and horror.

I do not think that I understand either group. The Wilder are beyond my comprehension. Death seems as much a goal to them as success. The Outers...I thought I understood them until I asked them why they stay here. Surely they would be welcome among the citizens of Argath or those of the valley. Their leader looked at me with pity in alir eyes and told me that they would never leave. When asked why, al only said, 'This is our home.' As if this was all the answer that was needed.

Tomorrow I will leave this place and never return.