The Dogs
When searching for the cave of Welleran we made camp by a stream that flowed southwards and into the valley. Around midnight we spotted wild dogs herding a flock of sheep over the hill. Our guide informed us of a farmstead that once rested by the stream but it had been abandoned to the elements when the family that lived there took their own lives. It is said that in the wake of Kesh upon sending her eclipse, the family, children included, had their hearts filled with such dread that they could not keep on living. The old sheepdogs now roam the area and habitually herd the sheep to this day.
On another occasion the yelping and barking of wild dogs was not such a tepid omen. Later that year my daughter and I were invited to observe an Ainore ritual that had developed in this new age of eclipse. The Ainore are a wild folk that live as hunter-gatherers in the eastern lands, yet some had moved inland following the expansion of our kingly culture into their parts with our new towns, namely Mormarf. One such Ainore by the name of Gethin and his two sons, the younger Gethin affectionately called Artain meaning "Bear" for his broad shoulders and Rythian, acted as our escorts through the woodlands of Southern Grenonek to their village by the river. However our journey was perturbed when Artain heard the yips and howls of a species of humanoid, or perhaps a strain of apparition, named the Kiden. As we would later see these Kiden were a bestial people with fur coats like bears, teeth and claws that even a lion would be proud of, and long lumbering arms like that of an apex chimpanzee. In larger groups the Ainore would hunt them for their skins when tanned were as hard as any metal armour. The Ainore wore many leather clothes and used many tools forged from skin that they would cut into cords and weave into a strong square pattern which I'm told was highly sought after in light armour and baskets. But in this instance we were to be the prey. Gethin informed me that Kesh's blessings had caused the woodlands to move and spread in unpredictable ways, and this was in part because of how empowered the Kiden had become since the fall of the capital. The KIden were like shepherds of the trees but, instead of guiding the woodland like sheep, they would burn and raise the lands to make way for new growth. We were nearing such an area. Artain knew this as the specific barks and howls were signals to the den-gods of the Kiden and other fire spirits that an offering was to come.
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We made it to the village unharmed but far later than was anticipated, however we decided to extend our visit beyond just the festival and volunteered ourselves to accompany a Kiden raid. Artain would act as our protection and we were afforded the chance to not just meet a Kiden, who could indeed understand and speak Imperial tongue, but watch a Kiden shaman known as an Astur perform a sacred right as our group stalked the creatures. It seemed as though these Astur classes of Kiden had begun to sprout feathers. Artain claims that the kiden with the strongest connexion to their flame gods can even fly, but these warriors are fierce and even the Ainore avoid them, even if the Kiden are severely outnumbered. He would go on to decribe how these warrior beast-priests could muster up such a rage that their blood would boil and infuse them with a flaming aura of sanguinous glimmer.
From 'My First New Travels', chapter iv in “The Endless Pilgrimage” by Saint Tomevel Rayleigh the Suitable