Work fascinated and enthralled Taako, he could watch other people do it all day. Take this ditch, for instance. It wasn’t actually a ditch. It had no real purpose other than to see what was under the soil beyond (a) dirt, (b) more dirt, and © rocks and roots and shit.
Humanmen called it ‘archeology’. Taako called it, ‘digging up stuff and making up stories about it.’ Frankly, he couldn’t see what the fuss was about. So what if there were ancient Dragons whose bones had turned to stone? Everyone who knew the Old Lore knew that Dragons were the first animate beings in the world, intelligent or no.
It was the same way that everyone should know that, though the Dragons made the world, it was the ancient Elves who shaped it. Though the jury was out on which particular sub-variant of Elves were the original, they all agreed that it was the Elves who made other creatures in their own image. With varying degrees of success.
He’d never tell his Humanman friends this, but… the old legends pretty much universally declared Humanmen as something of a failure, creation-wise.
Ango gasped as a section of packed earth crumbled away to reveal something of a cavern inn the side of the stone. He got out some visual helper apparatus and peered through it. “Oh my gosh…” his boy hadn’t got any better at swearing over the years, “This is quite the find. Sir, do you know what this is?”
Of course he fucking did. This was Elf stuff that Ango was digging up. “Looks like a First Era Cote, li’l man. Elves were the first ones to use magic to shape the world around them.”
Ango was already in there with a light source. “Whoah… this is almost unchanged from the cotes in the farmhouse, sir.”
“No sense throwing away a good design,” breezed Taako. It’s comfortable, easily defensible, and you can keep the whole family close so there’s always someone on watch. Hells, bubbeleh, we invented our meditation techniques so that nobody in the tribe would be in danger at any given time. Lots’a history in the Elven race, we go wa-a-ay back.”
Ango emerged, holding a small object with reverential awe. “They had pottery in the First Era, sir. Or perhaps even earlier. Some of this clay was mixed with charcoal to colour it.”
“Yup,” said Taako, effectively disguising his astonishment that something possibly older than Krav could still exist to the point where a genius boy could detect how it was made. Pretty impressive for a broken piece of pottery. “Elves invented the basics of civilisation, hombre.”
“But… this is First Era. Who or what did they have to defend themselves against?”
“The stone-boned Dragons, of course.”
[TAZ Prompts Remaining: 8]
[Be sure to visit internutter (dot) org for details on how to support this artist]