[ Eptian LIV ]

In his sadness and the anticipation of the knowing the fate of his mother, Eptih was at first paralyzed by the confusion of what had just happened, the scene of his town destroyed and the bodies laying about having had a enormous effect on him. But his rage kept him focused on what needed to be done and when night had arrived he went into action maneuvering back to the town stealthily so that he was unseen by the Velidians.

Once Eptih had made it back to what remained of the town he could see Thmascuids body up on the spike just as it had been before. The sight shocked Eptih and stoked his rage so much so that he sweat blood at that instant. Keeping himself from exploding in a rage was difficult but he managed knowing that silence now would result in a greater more brutal revenge later. Each droplet of blood that pushed forth from his skin would equal a thousand Velidian deaths and only this thought could quell his rage.

Eptih searched around for Thmascuids head but was unable to find it and so he removed Thmascuid’s impaled body from the (s)pike and carried it out of sight cursing the Velidians under his breath as he left the town unnoticed. He took the body [to a secret location] and there wrapped as much of it as he could with the little material he had with him. (Possibly a cloak or something or having grabbed some material when in the town.) and then dug a hole in the ground, placed the headless body inside and backfilled it. Once Eptih had finished these funerary tasks he set out to find his mother and Reyam. Revenge would have to wait.

Eptih found his mother and Thiaraceph who having fled the town escaped with their lives and little else. This reunion was the first between the two since his return from his travels that was not clandestine. Although Eptih was happy his mother was safe he felt an obligation to find Reyam and her family and so he agreed to meet his mother and Thiaraceph at a specific time and at a specific location then went out to find Reyam.

Eptih was not able to find Reyam as quickly as he had found his mother and every moment that passed he felt like she was descending deeper and deeper into a great danger. Eptih did not figured that Reyam would be much closer to the abandoned town then his mother had been but when he finally found her she was just on the outskirts of town mourning her father, older brothers and uncle who had been killed by the Velidians. It was horrible scene and Eptih had to carry the surviving women and children away as they did not want to leave their deceased family behind. The women and children survived only because they had been hidden by the men before the fight had begun. Reyam had lost her father, three older brothers and an uncle. Reyam, her mother, her little sister and brother, her aunt and two nieces were the only survivors.

Eptih took Reyam and her family to where he had planned to meet his mother and Thiaraceph. Reyam was in extreme anguish and Eptih comforted her and this is when Eptih’s desire for Reyam begin to grow [from a shallow lust to a strong affection] and when Reyam realized she wanted Eptih as a husband. Derram and Thiaraceph arrived sometime later and it was then that Thiaraceph recommended moving to a group of caves that he knew of nearby. Thus they all moved to the caves and there found relative safety.

By this time the Velidians had realized that Thmascuid’s body had been stolen and they desperately wanted it back and so they sent out a troop to torture any mortal they came into contact with for information and this netted them intelligence that directly implicated Eptih. Either someone had witnessed him in his clandestine raid or someone dropped his name to save themselves. This made Eptih a known and wanted figure by the Velidians, their primary target. Now this troop set out to find Eptih for the single purpose of retrieving the body of Thmascuid and the horror they inflicted on the populace was tremendous.

Eventually other exiles from the town began to hear of and gather at the makeshift community that Eptih and Thiaraceph had established. Many mortals in nearby towns shunned these people figuring that if they provided them sanctuary their town would meet a similar fate at the hands of the Velidians. As the days turned to weeks a communal system began to develop and a provisional town centered around the caves developed. Also during this time a love began to grow between Eptih and Reyam and as it became noticeable to others, talk began to proliferate about how it was wrong, it appeared that Eptih was taking advantage of a beautiful girl who was now fatherless. A wife was either a war prize or a gift of a father but never a mutual bond between two individuals. As the complaints of the people grew they were directed at Thiaraceph and it was he who brought them to Eptih. Needless to say this did not create a better relationship between the two as Eptih was offended at Thiaracephs insolence.

Thiaraceph seemed to relish his newfound status. He was now one of the few remaining heroes and was known as Thmascuids successor. Eptih having been gone on his journey was less known then Thiaraceph, he had achieved fame as a child but had not been heard of in years. Eptih was still quite young and so the people gravitated to Thiaraceph as leader. This frustrated Eptih who had never been fond of Thiaraceph. Now that Thiaraceph was trying to establish his authority over Eptih using Eptih’s new relationship with Reyam as a guise Eptih grew dissatisfied and challenged Thiaraceph whenever possible trying to establish his own authority without directly physically confronting him out of respect for his mother.

This plan came to a crashing halt when stories began to surface about the Queid troop that was searching for Eptih, roaming the countryside torturing and killing Mortals for information regarding his whereabouts. All the circumstances were now against him, not only was he flouting convention by taking Reyam and competing with the man everyone looked to as their leader he was now hunted and therefore a great liability. Some, under their breadth, blamed him for the destruction of their town and so Eptih could see the situation for what it was and decided to leave.