Ka-Hail stalked through the salt flats as he tracked his prey, he had chased the antelope through the bush cornering and driving it towards the vast open plain. It was there that he would make his kill, as soon as his feet touched the crystalline ground he felt the salt crack beneath him. A cool, almost sharp power flooded up through his bare feet and into every nerve of his body. His senses were alive, he could feel the antelope a short distance away as it pounded through the salt plane its movements desperate. He could tell the animal didn't have much left in it, he moved forward with an animalistic grace and speed. Streaming forward the wind whipped his face and the sun beat down on his black skin, he was close now. The heartbeat of the animal had become audible as Ka-Hails senses broadened the world, coming alive with sights and sounds. The rapid pounding in the animals grew wilder, it was the heartbeat of something that knew it was about to die but still held hope. He smiled not for the kill but for the thrill of the hunt, for the contest between him and this beautiful animal that he pursued. This beast was a worthy prey and he would honour it greatly when he killed it and brought it back home. As Ka-Hail gained on it the beast drew into sharp focus before him, a hundred strides away then fifty then twenty. Ka-hail was close enough to smell the beast's hot sweat, he could smell the fear, the desperation on the animal. This was the part of the hunt he hated most, it was no longer a contest he was now an executioner and waiting any longer would be cruel he knew. He bent low to the ground sweeping his hands through the salt that churned up around his ankles as he ran. At his touch the crystals heeded his will, sharp crystal patterns formed in the air as the salt pulled inward into more and more complex fractal patterns. Driving his hand forward the hunter sent the crystals spinning through the air as he increased his speed even further. With one final leap he leapt onto the beast and snatched the twin blades out of the air before driving one through the creature's eye and the other through its heart. Feeling more than seeing the beast begin to give out beneath him he leaped into the air salt dagger still in each hand. Flying through the air he twisted and landing on his feet facing the skidding body Antelope. He walked towards the fallen animal and bent down grabbing its body and lifting it onto his bare back. Turning back to his path, the beast weighing heavily on him, he began to jog back to his home.

As he made his way through the salt flats he kept a keen eye out for water, water on the salt flats was perhaps the most beautiful sight in the world, that or Howana. Ka-Hail smiled as he thought of his love, his Lok-Makin, as he reflected he realized that she and the salt flats had much in common. Both were unforgiving, both were beautiful, both made him stronger. He knew that the child that she was bearing him would be the same as its father and mother, strong and kind. He did worry about how stubborn the child might be considering he knew himself well and Howanas stubbornness was legendary. Out of the corner of his eye, he caught a flash of light that pulled him from his musings on his wife and child. Knowing what it was he made his way towards it running smoothly across the massive salt flat even with the weight on his back. As he approached he knew this was a good one, when he got to the edge of the puddle he realized it was far larger than he had initially thought. Stretched out in front of him was a thin layer of water at least a five hundred strides wide and a thousand long. It stretched up to the mountains that formed the Awassian mountain range and at the range's center he could see the great mount. Smoke rose from the broken top of Awas Tan and with his sharpened vision he could see the heat rising like a mirage from the sides of the mountain. As he watched the mountain glowing boulders tumbled down leaving glowing trails like small red stars on the black stone. The glowing orange boulders were a good sign, it meant Awass Tan was healthy, if the gods seat was ill it meant cataclysm. The water at his feet stretched to the base of the mountain created a perfect mirror image of the view before him. The white capped peaks surrounding the great mount on the surface shone brightly next to the dark stone and glow of the enormous peak in their center. He looked down as he approached the great watery mirror and caught a glimpse of himself, sweat glistened against his black skin and his shaved head shone in the midday sun. Strong features that he had come to admire looked back at him from the pond, his eyes brighter than anyone else in the village seemed to sparkle like amber. His shaven face was set with strain from carrying the beast and his neck muscles bulged but a wide smile still stretched across his face. He noticed a fleck of blood running down from the great beast he had slung over his shoulder. It ran down his face before collecting in the corner of his eye, Ka-Hail watched the drop grow on the face of his reflection with a morbid fascination. With little warning the drop broke its banks and ran down further down the curve of his aquiline nose leaving a trail as it traced a sinuous line, almost like a tear.

He wiped the blood away and turned away from the pool to continue his trek back to the village, as beautiful as it was he had little time to waste. Ka-Hail knew that while it had only taken a day to track the antelope with the weight on his back it would take closer to a day and a half to get back. With this in mind, he set his pace at a light jog making his way towards his home and his love. As he made his way off the salt flats, he felt the short savanna grass tickle his bare shins as he ran across it. His eyes roamed from left to right as he kept a lookout for the big cats that stalked through the high grasses of the savannah. These cats ranged in size from the large creatures like Tuat Ah Rho to the equally deadly and lightning fast cats that were Ka-Hails namesake. The Ka hail Ah Rho were the lean spotted leopards that ran across the great savannah hunting and killing with grace and beauty. Their speed was unmatched, their strength uncompromising, their tactics unrelenting and their beauty otherworldly. To see the Ka Hail Ah Roh was to see divinity in flesh, their pelts perfectly camouflaged them as they searched for prey. Then as they found the hunt their bodies sprang into action, muscle and bone moving with unearthly grace. It was for this reason that Ka-hail had earned the name he held, it was not the name he had been born with. The name was as much of a title as it was anything else and it had been given to him alongside the pelt he wore. Ka-Hail was proud of his name, of his title and he was proud that he had been able to bring back honour and pride to his family after the horror of his sister. According to his mother's mother, his Appas, Ka-Hails mother had borne eight children, one more than Ka-Hail and his six siblings. His Appas said that his mother had one more child but it had been a Bonsimiki, a demon. The child had been deformed and grotesque, it was for this reason the Bonsimiki child had been cast out to die. The thoughts of his lost sibling brought to mind his own child, the one growing in the belly of his Lok-Makin. The thought of the small life that he had played a small part in bringing into existence and the thought of names flowed together. Ka-Hail knew that the naming was a product of necessity, when Ka-Hail was born he had four brothers and two sisters, now only he and two of his brothers remained. A smile returned to his face slowly as he imagined the life that he would soon have and share with Lok-Makin. His smile grew even wider as he thought of sharing that with the little boy or girl inside her. Ka-Hail thought of his own childhood and the things he had promised his father and mother he would do differently. He remembered his precociousness that had suffused him even before his powers had begun to emerge. Ka-hail knew he had been more than a handful for his parents to try and control before the fact that he was blessed had become evident. Then his blessing had shown its and the days with his parents had spent chasing him around the village after he had grabbed a handful of salt out the family bag. The way he would zip around leaping over fences and from thatched roof to thatched roof earned him his first name. Zapok is what his Appas had called him after a small bug that would leap and dash through the tall plains grasses as he did through the village. This had been his name until the hottest day had passed thirteen times, it was at this time he earned the name he bore now Tas Kan Ka-hail.

Ka-Hail had allowed his thoughts to wander as he ran and he saw the sun setting along the horizon and stopped staring at it as the molten disk lit the grass like the glow of the great mountain. He knew running through the night was possible but he didn't think it necessary he had hunted for far longer before. Working to make camp, his mind wandered again to what his child's first name would be and whether his child would be tas like himself. He knew that his gift set him apart even as a child he had always been able to win the silly games that children play, running faster or jumping higher. At first it was believed that he was just a spry child but as the sun passed overhead and time moved forward the hottest day passed for the fourth time and his power could not be denied. His speed was unmatched, easily outpacing the children and even some of the men, his strength was astounding that of a man many years his senior. The origin of this power was not known and believing that he too may be half Bonsimiki like his lost sister the tribe decided to take him to the holy mount. It was at four summers old that he saw the holy mountain of Awass for the first time. The great mount though was not to be what proved that Ka-hail was touched by the gods and not the devils. It was the second day of the trip that they reached the great flats, Awass Kan, the mountains mirror. It was during the brief season of blessed rain his people called Tas Awendi that he saw Awass Kan for the first time. It had been there on the great shimmering surface that he had proved himself to be Tas, to be blessed with the power by Awass. These were fond memories for Ka-Hail and he allowed them to swim through his mind as he finished making camp for himself under the shade of a stunted savannah tree.

Stolen novel; please report.

As he lay down on his bed of dry grass he thought about that day, the power of his blessing of the responsibility of carrying the power of Awendi. His Appas had explained the meanings behind many names to him, from the creatures of the plains to the great names of Gods. Tas Awendi had gained its name as it was well known that the season of rain was the gods quenching the thirst of all their creatures. Appas had said that it had all begun when the great and terrible Sankul god of fang and claw and Bentan the heavenly Sheppard had grown angry with their meek brother Tarbon the gardener god of plants. They accused Tarbon of coveting all the water that could be had, Tarbon whose attitude was like the plants of the savannah harmless when left alone was pricked when the two Gods accused him of hoarding. Tarbon turned and told them that his plants needed all the water that fell upon the land. Tarbon told his brothers that their charges, the animals of the world run rampant and that he needed the water to grow what they consumed. Bentan scoffed at this, looking at his brothers and explaining that he wouldnt need to make so many animals that ate the grass and plants if they stopped being hunted. Sankul, the eldest brother grinned and explained that it was not the fault of his creatures that they were stronger, the strong consumed the weak it was the way of things.Their argument grew from words atop the mountain of gods and finally it came to blows as Bentan accused Sankul of creating too many predators to kill his animals and Tarbon continued his accusations against Bentan. As the gods began to fight on top of the mountain their strikes shook the ground, the blows gaining in ferocity until one struck the other so hard the mountain cracked. At the sound of this terrible rending it awakened the almighty creator Taslak who had been in slumber since he had finished creating the world millennia ago. Taslak arose from his sleep stretching as he did so and the god's power was so great that it shook the world in heaving rolling quakes that split the earth. The hot blood of the land bled down off the mountain skin and blasted out across the savannah. Tas stood to confront the fighting brothers and clapped his mighty hands with a sound so loud trees snapped with the wind. The three brothers stopped their battle and looked at their father in fear, furious with the destruction they had wrought on his earth, Taslak looked down at them. Their fighting stopped the brothers saw the cataclysm they had wrought upon the land. Taslak looked at them, face twisted in rage in disappointment. The three brothers each tried to plead their innocence, one blaming it on another, their voices overlapping in a cacophony that rivaled the clap of the greatest God. Taslak looked down at the land that he had created and saw that it had been eaten raw and that the animals of his creation were starving and dying while his sons fought upon the mountain callous. He knew that something must be done to save his world, bending down he picked up a solid piece of black rock that was the skin of the mountain. Molding it as if it were the red clay that ran along dry riverbeds he shaped it into the likeness of himself. Looking at it he saw his own face reflected but not his soul, bending down he picked up a pinch of salt at the foot of the mountains. He blew the salt into the face of the statue and the eyes of the statue blinked with life, it blinked the grains from its eyes and it looked at its creator imbued with the soul of the greatest God.

Taslak looked down at this first man and told him this story and his place in the world, he told the man. “You are the skin of the earth, in your veins runs the blood of the land and in your souls you carry my will. Look around and see what my brother's creations have wrought, I am order and they are the chaos of nature, I bring you to order this chaos. You will tame this that I have made, you are my people upon this earth chosen to keep the balance as I set it.” Taslak placed the first man on the slopes beneath the mountain and looked down onto his last creation, with one finger Taslak lifted the first man's chin up to meet his god's eyes again and he made to this first man a last promise.

“Follow the balance, protect the land and all its creatures and you will always have my protection. I rest in every soul, in every grain of sand or salt, remember that faith in balance, in purpose is faith in me.” As he had been speaking Taslak had shaped more and more black skinned people breathing life into each. Taslak slumped, the deep sleep of a God taking him and as he lay back down to rest his hand slipped and the last unfinished men slipped from his hands. The unfinished, unsouled figurine tumbled down the back of the mountain where it heated in the burning blood of the land until white hot. His Appas told him that their people, the Tas Awen Rho, the children of Taslak and the mountain were still tasked with the sacred task of keeping the balance. She told him that Awass Kan was the reminder of the duty Borkol had set for his people and most especially a blessed man such as him. The mountain's mirror was to show the reflection of balance, the equilibrium that governed the entire world. Awass Kan showed that as long as there was balance below on the earth there would be balance in the heavens.

Ka-hail earned the name Tas as soon as his foot touched the water, he could feel the power coursing through him and fueling his every movement. Ka-Hail, then Zapok took off across the mirror surface of the water covered flat like a rock from a sling. Mist sprayed behind him as he charged through the lake looping, spinning, flipping and jumping as his people stared at him in wonder. This moment, this display of childlike wonder and joy on the salt lake proved he was Tas. If the blood of the dreaded Bonsimiki ran through his veins then the touch of the great Awass Kan would have burned him. This day he gained his second name Tas Kan, blessed by the mirror. The memories finished playing in his mind as he made a small fire from dried ox dung and cut open one of the common spiked fruits with his mountain glass knife. As he ate he stoked the fire with some dry grass and added another patty of dried dung before sheathing his knife and lying down on his makeshift bed. Closing his hand drifted up to clasp around the small pelt bag of salt that he wore around his neck. As was his habit he drifted to sleep clutching it tightly. Unlike many nights though Ka-hail dreamed, as he dreamed he saw the great mountain in front of him. Blood ran from its sides again and everything around him burned, even the salt of the mirror melted as the blood boiled the water away. All around him Bonsimiki ran about killing the animals that the blazing blood of the mountain did not. He tried to move to stop them as he ran to tackle one but even as he reached out the world seemed to stretch around him and the demon slipped from his grasp. His hand seemed to miss as he tried to grab onto them as he ran from one demon to another trying to stop the wanton slaughter. The smells of blood, smoke and something far sweeter and sicker invaded his nostrils causing him to cough and retch. As he doubled over in his dream he sat up from his troubled sleep, his mouth filling with the sour taste of bile. Trying to catch his breath the smell still invaded his nostrils and as the sun rose he could see shafts of light cast through oily smoke.