2024 B : Building

 

Food, shelter, and air are mainstays for life. Shelter can be a cave created by nature or a monumental structure built by man. To show the disparity, two excerpts from Fire and Redemption. the first is a cave where Medraut in human form takes shelter in from bad weather.

Three steps later Medraut entered a black maw. The narrow slit opened into a small chamber, then the horse walked into a larger room where the storm didn’t reach. “Finally,” he whispered. His first attempt to dismount ended with him hanging onto the saddle. The horse skittered away dragging Medraut with it.

“Stop, you flea-eaten nag.” A push of magic and the animal planted its hooves. It didn’t move an inch, even as it quivered in fear.

A push and Medraut staggered to the stone bench against one wall.

“Master?”

“I am fine, Gault. Is this all there is?”

“No.” The other man pointed into the darkness at the end of the chamber. “There is a large room back there set up as a stable. It will serve the stags and the horses. Someone even left a few bales of straw to use as bedding.” He scooped up a handful of dry pine needles out of a pile and he let them trickle between his fingers. “These will nicely serve as kindling if I can find wood.”

“Well, go find some,” Medraut snarled. “I am cold and hungry.” He pulled the blanket out of his pack and wrapped it around his shoulders. “And take care of my horse. It isn’t much but it is better than those antlered beasts the others ride.”

The second building was carved by the hands of man. Presenting the convocation valley and the grand structure that was the meeting place for the gathering of the clans as seen by Medraut where he sits in dragon form on a hidden ledge.

An immense valley, one that would take several days to fly across, hung between mountain peaks. Water plunged over the stone walls in magnificent falls that created shimmering rainbows.

But it was the far wall that drew the eye. Not because any sparkling water dampened the rocks. A massive structure cut into the black rock dominated the vista. More than the sheer size of the structure gave the impression of timelessness, so did the detail of the façade of what appeared as a row of columns. His quick calculation of the time to create the building said it was built by some ancient tribe over the eons. Dragon vision added millennia when it revealed the columns lining the portico entrance were colossal statues of armed warriors.

~till next time, Helen

 

 

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