Of the Torkrish...
Of a recent tide I did speak me with a draku known well and long. And the draku was troubled and had cause to speak of things that were close to it?s being, and not it?s being alone but that of others also. And while the thing I speak may not be that one's being, or the respite to it's woe, the thing be known and might have interest to some. So thus I speak. But the words of a Fool are but the whisper of a forgotten wind and none need feel they must list to them...
We spoke of eating.
Now this thing puzzles me. For since I have woken for this walking and since this walking the Gift be with me, no food have I found need to eat. And while there are those that eat, the need is a thing of mystery to me. But the one that spoke had need to eat and the manner of that eating it found most strange.
I speak of the Torkrish. Of my youth they were known, indeed known and of no small respect. But this walking I have heard not the name till again I did speak it. It is spoken in the words of Bandar WoundWeaver, but there be but little detail. For it says ' And of the Torkrish take care. For they react to healing in strange ways and that which is so for those not so made may not be so for them.'. But little else it speaks. But of the Torkrish I know.
Draku do hoard. This is known. And for most, the manner of hoarding is that a thing be put safe away and it seems lost to the world. And these be things of magery and of power and of value rare. Thus do bipeds speak of the draku love for shiny things and that they have jealous need of riches. But this thing be not so simple. For the draku do draw power from such things, power of Primal. This power may be fuel for magery or fuel for the draku claw, for our very form be of the primal. And in its use, the things of hoard give up their primal nature and become lost, mere dross of metal and stone and crystal. For know this. The draku do not hoard the things of gold or jewel, the books of lore or legend. They hoard the very Primal these things bear. And they hoard it that it might offer them its virtue.
Now this thing of hoard be know to some. And they are Wise of that knowing. But wise they are not, for the thing hath more import than many of those do know. And this be the thing. The matters of Rage and shield do indeed consume the primal of the hoard. But the matter of breath, of wing, of very life...why this also doth feed upon the Primal flows! And here I speak not of hoard. I speak of the very nature of drake. For each second we live, each beat of wing, each blink of eye, we do burn the Primal of our nature that we may be. And this may be known, for their be other places and in those places where the Primal is not, there are no draku.
Now if the Primal be burned that draku may be, then if it be lost and not found, the draku would not be. So how may it be found? Of the hoard we do know, but this be not a thing of the hoard. It be a thing of being. And this it is. For the draku of their nature do take and make of themselves the very Primal flows of the air, of the land. As they move among the things of the world, some small amounts of the Primal they do absorb, that they may be and the Primal of their nature not be lessened.
But there are the Torkrish.
And the Torkrish do this thing also, but they do it not so well. And the Primal that comes to them of the air and of the land, this be not all they do burn, and it comes in a manner their spirit and nature may not fully consume. And thus it must be they are lost to us. But they are not. And the thing be of their feeding.
Of the Torkrish it is known that oft their very blood be of a different nature. Oft of colour, of... of the taste of greeting. And this be because the Primal flows within be of different form and of different degree. For the Torkrish must eat.
Of a time that a drake be young, it may be that it hath some great fondness for flesh of the prey. It seems oft to have some favoured delicacy that it consumes to great delight. And of a time this be fitting. But of a time, the delicacy becomes anathema to it and its stomach doth send it forth no sooner than it be taken, and then it was known in my time that it would like be Torkrish. For the blood of the living be of the Primal and the Primal be of the blood. And this one would, unknowing, be seeking a Primal flow it lacked, or, by so gorging, be come to lessen its power to take the Primal of the air so well, for it had much Primal of the blood.
But the Primal must be found, else the draku be lost.
So thus it comes. The one come Torkrish must eat, and the Primal be of its food. And it goes, the things of the hoard, of the very Primal, it must consume in a manner others do not. The things of metal it will take to its mouth and fire and melt, that it drink them like wine. And in the melting and the drinking the Primal is forced forth and the draku takes sustenance. And the things of rock or crystal, for crystal is but rock, it will crunch and munch, that the crystals break and the Primal flood forth, and the Primal it takes and the dross it spits. And thus it hath the sustenance it may not gather from the air and land.
Yet oft they may not eat of a thing, for it doth not sustain them, and it doth raise turmoil in their Primal. Thus it may be that one might no so eat of gold, for it doth render it most ill or wound its power, or another of mithril. And this be that they have some antipathy to the Primal flow of that thing and it works against their balance. For the Primal be not a single thing, but flows and burns with a unique pattern in each form of thing, and in lesser degree in each thing itself. For gold be not mithril, and a sword be not a scale and even two scales are not quite alike, though they seem of the same making.
And this ye should know of the nature of the Torkrish. For they do sup and eat of a purer form of the Primal than those that seek it of the air and land. And thus oft they be more close attuned to the Primal than others, and of greater power or focus. Thus oft they come of the Helian line. Though there are yet those of the company of war that are found Torkrish. And they may oft be most mighty of claw or wing, for the Primal be the core of all things draku.
And the Foe do know of this.
So of a time, the Foe did seek that the draku be no more. And they did come to a great magery, that as each candle mark passed, the power of Primal did leave from each draku hoard. And thus the draku did ever chase more hoard, for the more they had, the swifter it be lost. And the Foe did have great glee that the draku be weakened. But the Primal be not so easily taken from its path, and after a time and a time, the magery did fail and the power of hoard did cease to flee.
For the nature of draku be the nature of the Primal and the world the gods made will have it so, whatsoever the will of the feeble things that walk it.
And thus be the matter of the Torkrish.
