Finally even Ernalda died and everything stopped growing. The sheep
starved because the was no grass, mothers didn't have milk for the
babies, the pigs couldn't find any acorns. Then Orlanth decided to bring
her back and gathered his friends and set out to do the most important
thing that has ever happened. He followed her trail into the underworld
and the bad winds, chaos and darkness was left on the surface destroying
and eating everything they came across. The only one who stayed was the
loyal thane, Elmal and even he flickered and grew dim atop the Great
Mother, but he never failed.
It grew so cold and dark that your breath fell off in pieces, to tired
to move so we had to hide. Our ancestors found a secret hole in the
earth and we followed Orlanth below and hid there, while we waited for
him to come back to us. Now, this was a very special place and we could
sometimes tell what he was doing and what happened to him. It didn't
happen often, but we could share some of his struggles and help him on
his way. One of of these times was in the Baths of Nelat, that your
grandfather already told you about. You know how terrible they were, but
he couldn't leave because that would be even more terrible so he stayed.
And so did we. We shared his pain in the secret hole, we endured the
heat and the stinging smoke and by doing this we helped him endure as he
knew he wasn't alone. And when the pain had burned all the old bad
things from him and sweated out the stale winds he returned with Ernalda
and the Torch of Light.
This is why we go to the Hot Cave every Sacred Time to help Orlanth come back. Sometimes, if you feel the Bad Winds in you, or the Stale Air you can also go the Hot Cave and force them out. The Bad Winds are too impatient to stay in there, and the Stale Air hates the smoke swirling about.
Cheers,
Bo
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