Savith was born in Blue Mountain over seven thousand years ago as one of the last glider children. He was born to two of the most talented and gifted rock shapers the Mountain had seen, seconded only by Aurek, also known as Egg. The boy was expected to be the culmination of his parents, and expected to surpass them in skill and talent for rock shaping. Sadly, this was not the case. At the birthing, weak with the strain, but overjoyed at the crying infant in her arms, Savith's mother asked Winnowill, "Tell me, my son will be the most gifted rock-shaper this mountain has seen." Winnowill looked, probed the vulnerable child, and replied, "No, Tarek. He will fly fast, and he will fly hard, for a glider he is. But I feel no touch of your gift within him."
Savith's early childhood is but a dim nightmare that creeps unbidden to his thoughts late at night when he's alone and trying to sleep. His parents' faces, now lost to time and tears, are but a shadowed blur. The touch of their minds no longer familiar, yet a dull ache that Savith has learned to breath about. What little does flicker into his mind in that half-awake mostly asleep moments are disjointed, and fragmented, leaping from joyously chasing feathers about the aerie to heart-pounding terrors deep in the catacombs to his and his parents' frustration at trying to spark some hint of rock-shaper's magic in the child.
It was during these first few years of his life, as Winowill began to further her grip on the mountain and its inhabitants, that Tarek began to openly disagree with the dark healer. It was after one such fight that Savith's mother went missing, and the mountain gained one of it's most notable statue figures: Door. Savith's father, distraught with grief, went to Winowill to beg for his lifemate back, so they could be together. The Black Snake tricked the poor shaper, and he found himself sitting in the hall, forever staring up at his beloved as the statue figure Brace. Savith found himself alone and without family, in a mountain growing ever more confined. The other shapers, whom where really to only elves Savith knew well, assumed and led the child to believe that his parent chose their fates, chose to sit as part of the stone mountain rather than continue on living with the humiliation of a magic less son. They refused to tell him which pair where his parents, and even snickered among themselves at the child's cries for his parents. So Savith blamed himself for his parents disappearance, even when Winowill, in kindness, gave the child to Llune, a magicless, childless glider. She learned to be a mother to Savith, and Savith learned to see her as the only mother he remembered. The move earned Winowill Savith's nearly undying loyalty as Llune gave Savith some stability in his live and some reason to try to contribute.
He trained hard, pushing himself and the gift all gliders possessed until finally, Lord Voll elevated him to the rank of Chosen.
As a Chosen he was the lowest and least important of the Great Protectors and so Savith strove to prove himself. Taking every fool-hearty mission, Savith fought to gain the eye of the true Lord of the Mountain: Winnowill. So, he volunteered for the certain-death mission to search for…for what? Savith can't remember. For it was that mission that made him a father, that mission that wrenched his soul from his grasp, and slammed it into another. And not just once, but twice. "Do you think the children will fly," a wolfrider in the tribe asked when they thought Savith wasn't listening.
"I hope not," the other replied. "I'd rather they shape rock than fly. It's just creepy the way he does.."
"Sssshhh!"
Shape rock….
So, Savith stayed, to wait, to watch. Hoping the childern had nothing. Hoping the childern had something. Wildstorm, and Wolfflame. They loved chasing their father, who wanted nothing more than to leave them to rot, but…. but they are a part of him. He can't help but feel…. responsible, some how.
A decade and a half later, his mission almost defunct, Savith packed quickly and left. No sooner had he lieft pack territory than he noticed he was being followed. His childern, the fools, were following him. He lead them on a merry goose-chase, doubling back, and making their lives difficult.
Months passed before Savith finally flew away, leaving the girls to die, alone, in the forest, just as he believed he had once died, alone, in the mountain. Both childern. Both without parents. Both unwanted.
Turns upon turns past. Savith's track-record proving him loyal to Winowill. Even when wolfriders infested the halls of the mountain. Even when Lord Winowill, after Voll's death, ordered the captured of elf after elf. He was always loyal. Even when it hurt.
Again, out on a mission, he returned to find Wolfflame, whom he called Ekana, there, in the mountain. Training. Not as a Chosen. Not as a hunter. But as the one thing he longed to be, the one thing the High Ones denied him: a Rock Shaper. "Father, it's me. Wolfflame. I'm alive."
And those words would grow to haunt him.
Learning to be a parent to a full-grown, magically active wolfrider is no easy task. Yet at Winowill's command, Savith begun to learn. Trying to be the role-model and parent to Ekana that he failed to be in the forest, all the while hating her for her ability to shape rock.
And then, the unthinkable. And it was Savith's fault. Why else would she act like a child? What else but dangling her gifts over his nose, like a waterskin to a dying man in the deesrt would make her subject the sanctity of the mountain to those outside, and then run? What else but the lack of his own ability to stop her, would prevent him from finding her quickly?
And for a handful and a half of turns, Savith searched, to no avail. Winowill, giving Savith the chance his parents never could, gave him Drifter, now called Volek to raise. To train as he did not train Ekana. And Savith begins to learn what it means to be a parent, what if means to sacrifice everything for the child.
Maybe someday, Savith will understand the why behind his parents' disappearance. Maybe someday, he'll forgive himself. Until then, he has Volek to learn from, about love, about loss, about life.
Training Volek hasn't been easy. From flying, to hunting, to tracking, to the handling of the bondbirds; it's a full time job! Still under orders to locate Ekana, and fearful of his Lord's retribution, Savith took the youth Volek out to 'train'. To the Plains they flew, and there found the Palace of the High Ones. And there found Ekana. But he was not allowed entrance. He was not allowed his daughter.
And the unthinkable, again. The plains were attacked by shaped creatures of horrow. After /he/ was questioned, "Are these the work of your /lord/?!" No, or he wasn't told. No matter. He leant his eyes, and the wings of his mount to the charge, and gave chase as an elf was plucked from their midsts by one of these creatures.
But Volek was attacked.
There was only one thing to make the child feel better: his father. How many times had Savith wished he could run to his father?
To Sorrow's End, Savith flew, Volek in his arms. To Rikia's side. "Here. He has a hurt that only a father can heal. Send for me when he is whole. There is still much to learn."
And then, he waited. A full turn.
Finally whole, Savith took Volek to the Raft Holt tribe. Might as well look there for Ekana, no? They arrived, and were allowed to stay as guests. What he would find next, Savith never dared dream he would find.
Not Ekana. But Larias. A traitor from Blue Mountain, captured and tortured, her mind fractured, and sent away. Yet here she was. Seeing a chance to return without being empty handed, Savith worked to regain Larias's trust.
But the pup Shadows tried to ruin it, and Savith did his best not to kill the wolfrider. Quickblade helped stop the fight, Savith flying off with Larias to speak with her. And over the next several turns, Savith regained much of the trust Larias had lost in him. It was when Dodia arrived that things turned interesting.
"The Festival of Flood and Flower," Dodia said, "And everyone's invited. Are you going?" Back to the desert. Savith considered, the fight with Shadows had undone much of Volek's trust in gliders, the wolfrider having said hurtful things to the boy. He agreed, and went to Larias, offering her a ride, offering her friendship (of all things!). She had been told to see Savah, the Mother of Memory for healing from her nightmares. "I'll see you there safely. After that…" Well, he'd like to spirit her away, but he wasn't going to tell Her that.
They stayed for the Festival, and then beyond. And Larias had disappeared.
Just his luck, no? Telling Volek to get ready to go, Savith made one more fly over, hoping to spot errant gliders to return to the mountain with him. Better to go home an elfnapper than go home empty-handed.
Just his luck, no? There was Larias. In the middle of the desert night, with another elf. Leaving the bondbird circling, Savith dropped down to find out who it was and to take Larias back with him. The three spoke, and the third elf attacked. At least, that's Savith's side of the story.
Grabbing Larias, thinking to protect the poor innocent glider, he flew off toward Blue Mountain, grabbing up Volek on his way. Thankfully Aroree was nearby, and grabbed the other as well, for punishment for attacking a Chosen.
But when they arrived at Blue Mountain, Winowill chided Savith for his transgressions. "You act before you think, and it makes me look the fool." And into the Cage he was tossed.
The tables were turned from the last time he and Larias stood near the Cage. He the captive, she the captor? "Take the bird and flee, if you must, Larias. Or stay hidden in my chambers." What in Voll's name would make the Chosen so defy his Lord? Larias's nightmares. He saw them.
But the Cage was not public enough, and the underworlders wanted a visible show of their dominance in the matter. So Malene shaped Savith to the pilar in the Main Hall as an eerie living reminder to all. Of what? Even Savith's not sure, but he knew he would find no rest from it until the stranger's people were satisfied or gone from the Mountain.
What happened next, Savith can not explain.
Once again his soul was ripped from him. But instead of the wild wolfthought he was shoved into, the pure grace and agelessness of a glider soul he merged with. Green eyes met blue. Tempers that mere moments ago had flared in anger, dimmed into sudden shock.
Larias. Savith.
It's the first glider-glider Recognition since… well, his own birth, at least.
"No. I will not submit." He was rejected. Just as he rejected the wolfriders the first two times.
"Recognition is a call no elf can deny, Larias. Deny him further, and he will die. And it will be on your hands." Winnowill glared at Larias, stalking toward her, "In either case, I will have a child of your flesh!"
Weak from the nearly full turn pinned to rock, and shaken to the core by the Recognition, Savith was released to Larias's care, and taken to his newly redecorated chambers within the Hall of the Chosen Eight.
It was a slow recovery, Winnowill refusing to render aid to it. A long, torturous week, but Savith could rest and recover. And the Call was heeded. "No more running."
No more running. Yet just after then deed was done, Larias did just that. Taking Winddance, Savith's bond, she fled the mountain, racing toward Sorrow's End and the underworlders that promised her refuge.
Needless to say, Savith was furious, and fought to recover quickly within the Halls of the Mountain. Months later, deep in white cold, when he had finished another lesson with Volek, a sudden pain filled him. A pain all too familiar, all too frightening. And again, Savith acted first. And thought later.
Safe. She was safe. Thank the High Ones. But so close to home, he refused to let her leave, and with much coaxing, Larias returned with him to the halls of Blue Mountain.
And there, for nearly two turns they lived, arguing with each other. Larias wanting to go out every moment. Savith needing her to stay well-behaved and silent. In the end, as Larias's time grew near, it was clear, she was not healthy enough. Dizzy spells, and trouble eating and sleeping. And through it all… Savith's Lord silent.
He acted, once again, without thinking. Stealing a young bondbird, not yet ready for harness, but one that he was training with Volek, Savith fled, taking Volek, Larias, and his mother, Llune. But where? Who would accept them? Who would heal them? Leetah.
It was a gamble. Savith wasn't certain Leetah would be there, or that Strongbow wouldn't shoot first and not even think later. But it worked. Leetah was there, and willing to help.
The two had been living in the Mountain, with Savith beingsent out of the mountain on the occassional mission, errand, and hunting trip. It was on one such hunting trip that the Cataclysm struck, leaving Savith injured, dazed, and too far form home to send for his beloved lifemate. Afraid his soul would once again find itself incomplete after he'd given his heart over as well, Savith shut it away. He would survive, but a shell of himself, daring not even to pray that she and his son were alive.
Hundred years after his arrival, Savith finds himself once more serving a raven-haired Lord. It's good to fall back onto mindless duty to forget… The ache will fade with time.
