Risha

Risha had made this journey twice before, but each time the Great Spirit denied her his totem. Spider was a crafty spirit whose web interconnected all things. Risha would need his vision if she were to make her way among the lowlanders. She had spoken to Hawk, Bear, and Ki-Rin and each one gave her one piece of the puzzle that had a very disturbing look - he people were dying.

The jundari are a nearly immortal race and very resistant to change, which gave Risha’s announcement to her village the appearance of lunacy. The number of jundari living in the Iron Mountains was larger than ever before, so large that there was little space to properly expand. However, Risha raised the issue to the few births and the influx of their cousins from the east making the growth deceptive. This earned her some very hard glares from the council of Whisperers — since jundari value their privacy.

Risha knew she was right and her people were dying; however, it wasn’t until two weeks ago when she called upon Ki-Rin that she was given the answer she feared. That night she sat on one of the southern most peaks of her homeland and called upon the Ki-Rin totem. Rather than send a servant, Ki-Rin himself appeared before her, which nearly killed Risha from shock. He confirmed her fears that her people were dwindling from this world, but would not tell her why — instead, he told her to seek out Fasharan, the Dragon of Knowledge.

That is what brought Risha, with her full traveling gear, to the cavern of Spider again. The air around the cavern lay with a heavy silence upon her shoulder. Twice before she had come here to gain his totem, but each time he sent her back without so much as a word. This time she stepped into his lair and his totem was hovering above the ground, just at arms reach. It flickered with a deep purple flame and brilliant red heart. Risha went to grab the totem, but something stopped her — this was far too easy.

Spider was considered most difficult of the Great Spirits to understand, as his web not only moved throughout the world, but through the variations of time. He never explained whom he gave his totem to or why, but those with his totem became a greater part of the whole. At last she understood, Spider knew that only this time would she understand why she wanted the totem before — only at this time was she ready to need his totem.

Risha reached out with her spirit as her hand closed about the totem. She felt the impossibly cold chill begin to spread down her arm and into her body. He arm quivered as if thousands of tiny spiders were just under her skin and crawling down her hand and into her body. Risha began to see a great web stretch before her and feel the tug of several strands pulling her into one direction. She grasped the totem tighter and he sights fractured into hundreds of pieces, each one traveling down the strand, sometimes disappearing and other times joining with another strand.

The light chill of new fallen snow awoke Risha. She found herself in a small copse of pine trees, lightly dusted by snow. She instantly knew that she was no longer in the mountains, instead she was with the lowlanders. Shaking off the snow Risha picked up her leather travelling satchel and staff then made her way along the small game path. Beyond the trees she saw a small farmhouse and a small town near the horizon.

To most people Risha looked the same as when she entered the cave, but to those with the sight could see she had the backing of Spider. With just a quick look back at the mountains of her homeland, Risha set off to save a people that wouldn’t believe they were in danger.