Alternia Comics

I wrote this story many, many moons ago. It was my first shot at a fairy-tale style, and it turned out so well that, with the creation of the Mystic Frontiers, I decided to add it into the mythology.

So with that in mind, imagine yourself sitting at a campfire, your boon companions around you, as one of them - a fearsome warrior from the savage kingdom of Bire, tells a story from his homeland ...

Chapter 1

Once upon a time, there lived a woodcutter, his wife, and their three sons. The woodcutter made things such as chairs, tables, shelves, and the most beautiful carvings out of wood. They lived in the jungle not far from a nearby village, where every week the father would take his goods to sell.

Now, this woodcutter and his family knew much about the forest they lived in. They knew well its paths and its animals, but only so far as the northern edge of the forest, where there was a great desert full of rocky ground and dangerous monsters.

One day, the youngest son, whose name was Dahnni, had finished his work for the day, and had gone to play in the jungle. He played with the monkeys in the trees, tickled the fish, and scared the lumpy bullfrogs. Just as he was about to sneak up on a particularly fat one, a bird startled him from behind.

"Do you want to play catch?" he asked Dahnni.

Dahnni loved to play catch, and so for an hour the boy and the bird tossed a ball back and forth. Then, as they played near the northern edge, Dahnni threw the ball and it bounced off a tree limb to land out in the desert.

The bird and the boy fell silent. The bird began to fly away, but Dahnni stopped it. "Wait!" he said. "Just fly in there and scoop it up. You will be too fast for the monsters there."

"No," said the bird. "I have seen many birds try, and they were all caught and eaten. I will not go into the desert."

The bird flew away, and Dahnni looked sadly at the lost ball for a long time. Just then, a voice behind him asked, "Why do you not just go out there and get it?"

Dahnni jumped up and whirled around, so startled was he by the voice. There he saw, sitting in the trees, an enormous, beautiful tiger. Its coat glistened like water in the rays of sunlight that fell between the trees. Its great muscles showed through that thick coat as it got up and leapt to the ground with savage elegance. Dahnni looked into its bright, gleaming eyes. Like wells of fire they were, deep and piercing, but wise with the age of the trees.

"There are terrible monsters in the desert," said Dahnni. "If I go out there, they will catch me and eat me."

"And are you afraid of that?" asked the tiger. Dahnni nodded. "Terrible monsters, you say?" Dahnni nodded again. "Afraid of being eaten, are you?" A third time, Dahnni nodded to the tiger.

"Then run, manchild," growled the tiger, "for I will eat you!"

The tiger roared mightily, showing his row of sharp, white teeth. It reared up on its hind legs, its powerful paws and deadly claws raised to come down on the child. Dahnni turned and ran in fright, stopping only when he tripped on a rock. He backed away fearfully, then saw the tiger had stopped, and was just standing there at the edge of the forest.

The edge of the forest...

Dahnni realized where he was, and was on his feet in a flash. He looked around fearfully for the monsters, but none came. The tiger began to laugh, and the leaves above him shook with his mirth. "Show some courage, boy! Go get your ball."

Dahnni found his ball and went to go get it, laughing with the tiger. Just as he picked it up, though, a great beetle came over a rock, its mandibles clattering at Dahnni. It leapt down at him, but Dahnni dodged and ran.

"You see, tiger?" he said. "Monsters!"

He looked back to see the beetle hot on his heels. It stank like dung, and was as high as Dahnni's head. It circled and cut him off from the forest. "Help me, tiger!" yelled Dahnni. "Please, help me!"

"Courage, child! Help yourself, first. Then, you may call on me."

Dahnni looked about, trying to find an escape. Ahead he saw a large rock, bigger than he and the beetle combined. Dahnni ducked behind the rock, then took up a stone and waited for the beetle. When it stuck its head around the rock, Dahnni swung the stone and crushed its mandibles. The beetle made a strangled scream of pain, and Dahnni rushed around the other side and back to the forest.

As he stood there, panting, the tiger nudged him with its nose. Dahnni looked up to watch the tiger dart off like an orange and black shadow into the desert and pounce upon the wounded beetle. The tiger turned it over with a mighty sweep of its paw, then leapt atop and tore at the soft underbelly until its six huge legs stopped quivering.

The tiger came back, wiping its claws in the sand before setting foot in the soft ground of the jungle. "Do you know why the monsters of the desert stay in the desert?" he asked Dahnni.

"No," replied the boy. "I had never thought of why."

"It is because," continued the tiger, "we tigers keep them there. Once, long ago, the forest went all the way over what is now the desert. It was more full and lush than it is now, and every tree bore the sweetest of fruits.

"But then, in the days of my grandfather, a wicked sorcerer, Balqirem the Bone Wizard, came to the forest and cast a spell. It caused skeletons to come from the ground, and the dung beetles to grow and become his servants. As far as his armies got, so far went the desert. My grandfather gave his life in the battle on this very ground that stopped Balqirem's advance. Since then, my father, then I, defended this forest from the beetles and the skeletons.

"Balqirem rules from the barren mountain that once was where my grandfather kept watch over all the jungle. Someday, I will go there and reclaim the forest from the grip of this accursed desert!"

The tiger pawed angrily at the broken earth, then started off into the forest. "Farewell, manchild," it said. "Learn your lesson well. Courage is the key. Do not let your fears control you."

"Wait!" shouted Dahnni just as the tiger disappeared.

"Yes?" Dahnni started and looked up, for the tiger was already high in the trees.

"What is your name, tiger?"

The tiger smiled, and Dahnni backed up a step without thinking. "You could not say it, but you may hear it." The tiger made a low growling noise followed by a short yowl. "It means 'Striped Fire.' What is your name, manchild?"

"Dahnni."

"Very well, Dahnni," said the tiger, who then disappeared into the leaves. "We will meet again."