A tale for stormy days, about the bear in the sky

[Scott of Hyperborea]

One day, back when the world was young and people still thought agriculture was a nifty new idea, Truth (who we call Elith) sat on the top of Mount Yaanek and looked out over the world.

He saw all the people and spirits and walruses and demons and ice-bears and cold lights and fixed stars, and most of them were inane and ignorant. They told lies to each other and broke their oaths and wallowed in superstition and stupidity. The more Truth saw, the angrier he grew, and he started thinking angry thoughts:

The world is less than I imagined.
The world is not the way it should be.
The world is full of sin and suffering.
The world has turned from Truth and Beauty.
The world is full of fools and liars.
The world is tainted through with evil.
The world requires fire and cleansing.
The world should not have been created.
The world should be destroyed completely!

But at that last thought, he caught himself, and he realized he'd almost given in to anger. So he performed the saranrhilve, the cold and clear yoga, and he took nine deep breaths and expelled those nine evil thoughts. Then his mind was clear and placid again, and he looked over the world and saw it as it really was.

But those nine breaths of evil air condensed and became the nine great storms. The last breath, the breath that Truth breathed when he thought the world should be utterly wiped out, became Volchi Janphrangion, the Grandfher of Storms. You'll never meet a meaner blizzard or a louder thunderhead, and if you see him coming you'd better run. His snowdrifts have buried whole towns, and his cold winds overturn mountains.

Volchi Janphrangion hates everything except Ase Ainainion, the daughter of the sun. He loves her so, but she is, pardon the turn of phrase, cold. Volchi Janphrangion isn't accustomed to being refused, so he threatened to destroy the world if he couldn't have his way with her. He starting pouring rain so hard that the oceans flooded the land, and Truth and Beauty watched in dismay as the seas covered the lowlands of Raikoth. Finally Ase relented, and told Volchi he could have one night with her if he promised never to destroy the world completely. From that night came Somi Chelesion, King of Clouds, and the Cloud People, who gathered the air into great white sheets and built their cities upon them.

But that one night didn't mellow Volchi; indeed, quite the opposite. He regretted his oath, but Truth wouldn't let him break it, and he grew meaner and meaner until finally even the other eight great storms started to hate him. Thus started the War of the Storms, where the eight of them ganged up on Volchi. Volchi took them all on and killed them all, so that nothing remained of them but their fragments and their children. Then he turned upon Til Siuphe, the city of his son Somi. Somi and the cloud people resisted Volchi with all their might. The two sides threw lightning bolts at each other, and the thunder of their battle resounded all the way to Til Kalir in Oraikoth.

There in the ultimate north, it was heard by Nehani Kalirion, champion of the Ice-Bears. He put on his starmetal armor and took his icicle sword and ascended into the sky to fight for the Cloud People. With a great roar, he jammed his icicle sword into the Grandfather of Storms, and for a moment it seemed that the Cloud People would prevail. But Volchi Janphrangion blew an icy wind into his face, blinding him, and then struck him in the heart with a lightning bolt. Thus did Nehani Kalirion die, and the Cloud People were scattered, and their great city destroyed, and Somi Chelesion killed. His rage sated, Volchi Janphrangion retreated to stew amid the eastern mountains, where he has remained ever since.

Somi Ravtakion, Somi Chelesion's son, declared himself the Prince of Clouds and started re-organizing the remnants. There were eighty-something little storms left over, and a few of the cloud people, and he forged an alliance with the rainbows so he could cross from cloud to cloud, colonizing each. Soon wind music was heard again in the Cloud Kingdom, and Til Siuphe was rebuilt bigger and more beautiful than before.

But his heart was sorrowful, and for all his glory he felt empty. So he descended in a whirlwind to Mount Yaanek, and there he asked the Oracle of Yaanek what remained to be done. And the priestess told him that on the highest cloud sat Nehani Kalirion's body, unhonored and unburied.

Somi returned up to the sky on a rainbow, and after many trials and adventures, he reached the highest cloud and found Nehani's body there. He brought the ice-bear's corpse back to Til Siuphe, but they didn't bury it. They filled the mouth with cloud-stuff and then they cremated it in lightning-fire, and Nehani Kalirion rose again as a Cloud Person, once again the Siuphelin's greatest champion.

Now, everyone in Raikoth knows it means a year of good luck to catch sight of Nehani Kalirion. So if you're ever outside on a cloudy day, take a moment to glance up and look for a bear in the sky.

[Andreas the Wise]

Beautifully written. Do I detect a hint of middle eastern creation myths in there?