First
Appearance: Heirs of Mâvarin, Chapter One
Trivia:
Rithe Fost gave birth to Rani just two months after arriving in
Liftlabeth.
Quote:
“Rrranneemmeee.”
Rani
Fost, a fatherless, 15-year-old apprentice tanner, wants four things
as Heirs of Mâvarin begins:
1. He
wants his mother, Rithe the tailor, to a) stop overprotecting him
and b) stop evading his questions about his father.
2. He
wants adults to stop treating him as a child.
3. He
wants to learn as much as possible about the tengrem that’s
been spotted in Liftlabeth, and possibly join in the hunt himself.
4. He
wants to know whether the strange silver coin he just found is some
kind of charm or talisman.
Instead,
he finds himself alone and apparently unarmed as he meets the mad
tengrem. Afterward, the hunting party finds a tengrem where Rani
was last seen – and no sign of Rani, dead or alive. But
in that case, best friend Del Merden wonders, who used Rani’s
secret code to signal to Del overnight? Could it be that the
fugitive tengrem in the Ot Lôven is, as he claims, Rani Fost
transformed? The half-feral monster needs Del’s help,
even as he warns that Del is not safe in his presence.
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Otherworld Journal Entry: Rani Fost
Moneldu, 5th Day of Dortem, 896 MMY
All
week I've been having strange dreams, full of bright colors, odd smells
and strange emotions. Maybe if I write about them, they'll leave me
alone, or I can at least figure out what they mean. If I weren't
already apprenticed, and if my mom would let me go--which she
wouldn't--it would be time for me to travel to the holy mountains, to
dream about what the Gods want me to do with my life. Maybe
they've sent me the dream without my having to make the trip. If
so, I sure don't know what they're trying to tell me.
I'm not quite certain, but I think it's all the same dream,
or the same fragments of dreams, over and over. I don't know whether I
dream every part of it every night, or in the same order, but it's all
starting to seem pretty familiar.
Here's what I remember:
The
first thing that usually happens is that I find a silver sword stuck in
a tree along the river, almost as if the sword grew from the
tree. It's a nice sword, sharp and shiny, only buried about an
inch into the wood. I pull it out and put it in my pocket. (I know
that's impossible, but that's what I do in the dream.) The tree
comes crashing down into the river, and catches
fire. Instead of putting out the fire, the whole river burns for
a minute or so as flames spread through the water. While it
lasts, it's very hot, and I worry that I'll burn, too.
Then I see a tengrem galloping toward me. It looks just the way I
expect it to look, based on Shela's songs, except that it's wearing a
green hat with a red feather in it. I pull the silver sword out
of my pocket and kill the tengrem. It's easy--one stroke and its
head comes off. I take the hat and put it on.
Suddenly
I'm surrounded by all the people I know: Del and Crel and their uncle,
Shela of course, Bil and Jord and my mother, Farni and his
parents--well, everybody. I hold up the tengrem's head to show them
what I've done. Instead of praising my bravery, my skill or
strength
or even my good luck, they all start yelling at me, as if I did
something terrible. I want to ask them why they're angry, but
when I open my mouth no words come out. My mother shakes her
head and turns away. The others turn their backs on me, too, and
walk away muttering.
In the part of the dream that usually comes last, I'm standing alone,
except that I'm surrounded by nature. I can actually smell fur
and feathers, from the rabbits and squirrels on the ground and the birds
in the bushes and trees. I hear the movement of water over
rocks, the rustle of foraging animals, wind in the trees, and the songs
of birds and insects. It all feels right to me, as if this is my
world, and nothing else matters. Gradually I sink into the
ground, until I'm part of everything I see and hear and smell, and I
don't have a body of my own.
That's when I tend to wake up, just as I've become part of nature and
discovered that I don't really mind no longer having hands and feet and
so on. The last thing I see, looking out through the eyes of all
those birds and animals and insects, is Del, walking to where my body
used to be and calling my name.
No, it doesn't help. I still don't know what it means.
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