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 Posted: Wed Aug 15, 2007 4:29 pm
It is a barren land with no forests. There will be only one mountain at the outskirts of the land. It is not incredibly high but it does have snow on its tip all through May.
Or whatever the months shall be called.
There are no trees on the plains. At the base of the mountains there is some birch that grows. But they do not get very big.
The land is cold and rather harsh so it will probably be placed in the north.
The wind blows constantly so there is little that can grow there. That is what it looks like at least. Even if the normal things like trees bushes and green grass the land is fertile even though the harsh climate.
The grass is not green and only few strands do grow. But the ground is covered in mosses and lichens. On the large parts of the more protected parts of the hills grows berry bushes. Small rivers come down from the mountain.
The water lays in the ground as bogs or ice cold lakes that are very deep but not very impressive in size.
The winters are long and dark. The spring is clear and windy and autumns are damp. In the summer the plains gets covered by all kinds of alp flowers.
The people
The people of this land would be shepherds. They travel with the herds of reindeers when the seasons changes. They live in tents that can be taken down but is good enough as a home during the months that they are still.
They have clothes of wool from a goat like creature that lives at the same spot, the whole year, beneath the mountain.
In 50 years they would have become used to move around and their skin would be rather rough and wrinkled from this life.
They have been able to tame wild dogs to help with the herds and to pull sledge in the winter.
The tents are high and sturdy cots. For the fire they do not use wood. They dry the excrement of the reindeers and use that.
When they travel they put up huge wind tops at the greater hills. (What ever you call those things that spin in the wind that children play with.)
Family
The diffrent groups that travels the land are the diffrent families. The groups range from 8 to 30 people depending on how well they have managed during the year. For the most parts the chief of the families is the oldest person.
The leader is marked with a tattoo on the left arm and they always carries a wooden pipe with them.
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Posted: Sat Aug 18, 2007 4:13 pm
A creaking sounded over the hills as a giant pinwheel slowly shifted its position. The snow whirled past the enormous wings that made the great contraption move.
The ground was covered in snow at this point. A few dry twigs and an occasional bush penetrated the thick layer of snow.
In Zephyr's land the winter was always early. The hills were covered in a thick layer of snow as far as the eye could see. It was only at the foot of Tolvaly Mountain that a few darker spots were seen. If you could see that far and had eyes sharp enough to see it.
By the pinwheel ran some tracks. It was two parallel lines and prints that belonged to an animal with hooves.
The prints belonged to a sleigh that was pulled by a reindeer. The harness that the animal wore was of leather and small wooden bells lined the creature’s neck. They made a soothing ticking sound when the reindeer moved. Behind the sleigh stood a big and brawny man to steer the way.
The reindeer and sleigh were closing in on another great pinwheel that was put up along the border. They seemed to have no greater purpose than to show respect reverence to the wind.
"Hoo! Hooo." The man urged the animal to stop as they closed in on the wooden contraption. A snorting reindeer relaxed as they came to a stop. The pinwheel stood with a few kilometres between them. It was enough to spot the other wheel but to far too just walk between them.
The man got of the sleigh and gathered some sort of equipment from a compartment. He stood in fur boots that was bound with a few leather straps. He wore grey pants of wool and a thick jacket that was lined with a red flower pattern. The flowers ran around his wrists and around the neck. On his back was a bigger version of the flower but a lot of snow had gotten stuck to the coarse fabric.
The man pulled his cap down over his ears and hooked some sort of belt in his own belt. Even if he wore thick mittens he was surprisingly supple with his hands. The man climbed the wooden contraption. The logs that made up the base of the pinwheel were thick enough. A man could not reach around them.
Even so the man hooked the belt around the log and began to climb up the surface.
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Posted: Sat Aug 18, 2007 4:32 pm
Wood creaked against its holdings as the man worked on the wind catcher. The man had put a long staff in the cogs and secured it with rope to stop the mechanism from turning. If he was up there working on it with it moving there could be serious damage. He worked quickly with a thick needle. The wing had gotten a tear from the blizzard that had been not long ago and it needed to be fixed before it got worse.
Skins had been carved and worked at until it was thin as a membrane. The light structure kept turning through any weather. The only thing that stopped it was this bearded man with a needle and strong thread.
His family had starved and when spring had finally come all those years ago they were too few to keep on going by themselves.
The few remaining members had been taken in by some of the other clans but he had chosen to go on by himself.
Zephyr had given him this job and a home that stood steady in each of the ends of the row of giant pinwheels. It was a job in solitude but even if a few years had passed the man had really no complaints.
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Posted: Mon Aug 20, 2007 4:20 pm
While the man did his job with the snow fluttering past in the wind. The was no snow falling from the sky at this moment but the wind whirled up the loose snow that had fallen over the night.
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Far away from the wind chatchers was a herd of reindeers. The herd contained almost a hundred animals that were all standing still.
The family that were going to lead the herd to a safe winter location was having trouble.
The oldest daughter in the family had fallen ill. She had a high fever and not even warm fish stock with the normal healing herbs had managed to do any difference at all. The elders in the family had gathered to dance and prey for the life of the young woman.
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Posted: Wed Aug 29, 2007 5:47 pm
Strings are being played even in the bitter cold that is the foot of the Tolvaly mountain. Their clear sounds echoes out over the land as the people gives their praise to their home and to their leader.
It is not much but the dancers are beautiful in their dresses.
You can not see their eyes or know who they are but they dance anyway. A symbol that represent the flowing wind and the changing snow.
Reindeers scratch the snow and finds strands that is edible. They are being taken to the valleys where they can feed in the winter. It is just this stop left before they are at their goal.
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Posted: Tue Sep 25, 2007 11:45 am
In this land of cold and few great plants one could think it was an unfriendly place to live. But these plains was full of life and happy people even as the snow lay thick.
Wind played in the constructions that hung outside the opening in the leaders tents. The bone fragment and the rocks created sound that calmed the mind making the tribe elders fit for meditation and the diffrent rituals that took place every year.
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