Resembling large mounds of sands shimmering with all the colors of the rainbow, these drifts at the bottom of the granite quarries of Ag-Kadúm look delicate and soft enough to sleep in. Take our word for it, powdered corns have never seemed so magical!
You see, that hard horn and hide of a bare-backed Raag continues to thicken throughout its miserable life, growing into a thick shell of bone and callous that stiffens its body into immobility. How does a Raag prevent itself from becoming the barely functional equivalent of a living sculpture? Well, it's a little scratch here, a little scrape there, to wear down any unpleasant hardenings.
Do you believe when we label the quarries of Ag-Kadúm as Rekendurr's equivalent of an elephant graveyard, collecting the sloughed-off skin of generations of Raag? If not, then try it out for yourself! Sleep in it, roll in it, admire the pretty colors, mix some with your tea and see if it's therapeutic, we don't care -- as long as you go and experience the wonder. Bring a little of the magic back and spread it around. After all, it's no skin off YOUR back.
The Lost Valley of "Icky Bloody-Awful Death"
Well, that's only a loose translation -- the depression's authentic name is the Lost Valley of Uk-Arvád -- but we're sure that's all just a gross exaggeration anyway. At the very least, there's a horde of excitement to be found within this wide bowl of trees and bottomless fens that few raag dare to tread, alone or in numbers.
Push your way past vines and branches that seem to shift in the lack of breeze. Cool your toes in swamp mud that looks like dry ground. But best of all, frighten flocks of the exotic winged weasels known as vergun into the air, all while marveling at the innate behavioral switches and spectacular aerial formations that will allow these monsters to chase down intruders and strip them to the bones in mere seconds!
Somewhere within this valley is rumored to hide the secret that can free the Raag from their deformed physical prisons. If the answer isn't death itself, we don't know what it might be, but maybe you'll have time to puzzle it out before the bog pulls you under.
The Running of the Carapaces
Usually occurring only once a year, this spectacle is a sight to behold! In the dawn on the beaches of rekendurr, you can sometimes hear in the distance the slow steady crunch and hum of the beden migration. A carpet of thumb-size beetles called beden, with hard carapaces and mandibles, rolls through the jungle on their steady path to Elandra-knows-where, overrunning anything in their way. Their shiny carapaces are quite a sight to behold, from what we've been told, but at least you get that faint stirring in the air for a warning. (Just make sure you strike up a friendship with the Raag, since they're the only ones who can hear it in time.)
More interestingly, vurgun eat beden. Then again, beden eat vergun. All right, Smileys admits, you never know what might eat what. Break up some drinks and place those bets, and don't sit too close.
 | Legal Disclaimer: Smiley's places no bets on what eats what... or whom. |
