Sidr

SIDR

The peaceful night gently cushioned the grazing field in the comforting smells and sounds of spring. A tenant farmer stood night watching over his cattle, leaning on his cane, and observed that land he tended but was not entirely his. He stared up toward the starry sky and was lost in the beauty of the constellations. His thoughts drifted to a time when the land would finally belong to his children, and it pleased him to imagine the wars of Atheln and Caelwyn being a thing of the past. Perhaps the Crimson Enclave would finally wrest control, or maybe the White King's armies would finally purge the night creatures from the land. A sudden gust of wind pulled the peasant from his stupor, a wind that was both an omen of something unimaginably terrible but one that would see his fantasy come true. The thin cloud cover seemed to be thickening and almost descending toward land, quickly choking the stars out of the heavens. The cattle began to grow uneasy, stamping and circling in a way their caretaker had never seen. Though silent, the well-disposed animals' lips pulled back as if bellowing. The dreamlike state that the farmer was removed from was replaced with another more surreal landscape, as from the luminescent clouds, a pale hand slowly tore free. A violent winding cone of light and debris pulled free from the falling veil of thick atmosphere. In the center, the blind figure of Sidr rent into the world. Bolts of charged energy forked all around as both tree and fencing were obliterated. The poor cattle took the opportunity of escape and bolted, leaving the motionless man alone in the unrelenting storm of light and fury. The farmer fell on his backside and jibbered in fear as he stared at the entity that forced its way angrily into the world. A monstrous and slender figure, Sidr held the height of a demi-giant with the girth measuring less than an under-fed elf. Two elongated arms stretched his full length, ending in palms with three grossly exaggerated fingers. His body ended abruptly at chest level, dividing into a pair of unnaturally spindly legs that made up most of his stature. It was his featureless face that kept the man arrested, however. Unmarred seams of pallid and leathery skin held taught over a stretched-long ellipsoidal head swung in complete circles, surveying all about it before seemingly turning to him. The fertile ground below the farmer immediately withered and hardened as a column of light enveloped him suddenly. Somehow satisfied, the light, wind, and being were suddenly gone, leaving the scarred landscape in their wake.