Siri: Sculptor Of The Lost Desert by battlesunn |  |
Untitled Document
Long ago, before the death of Coltzan, the Lost Desert
was a wonderful place. Under the firm, yet fair, rule of Coltzan, the civilization
flourished. The sun shone onto the warm desert sands, untouched by the soon
to come Sahkmetian war. The Lost Desert had not yet been discovered by Brucey
B. or his friends, so the beautiful desert resembled an rare jewel, an calm
oasis set in the center of a bustling Neopian metropolis. This was the age of
Coltzan, the golden ages of the Lost Desert.
Coltzan, though kind and wise, still possessed
a small, almost minuscule, vain streak. He took care to keep it under control,
lest it get the best of him. Still, he simply couldn't resist putting out an
order for the most skilful sculptor in all the Lost Desert to create a statue
of him, one that would stand proudly at the gates of his city, so that every
newcomer would know that this beautiful city was the sole property of the great
Lupe.
Coltzan's messengers searched farm and
wide, combing the desert for the most talented sculptor. Finally, they found
her. She didn't look very impressive at first, but then she offered to show
the messengers some samples of her work. Upon seeing the wonderful figures carved
out of the stone, the messengers agreed, she was the one!
Her name was Siri, and she was a Desert
colored Kyrii. Siri had been sculpting ever since she was a little Kyriiling,
create models of the Wadjets and Selklets that she found, using the soft riverbank
mud as clay. Siri was also very clever, and she knew exactly where the best
stone quarries were, and she knew how to calculate the pressure points on the
stone.
Siri's services didn't come cheap, though
neither did Coltzan. He had asked for the best, and he had got it. Besides,
he had more than enough gold, (Neopoints hadn't yet been introduced) to pay.
He even slipped Siri a little extra, just to ensure that she made the most beautiful
masterpiece.
Siri wasn't a slacker, and went to work
straight away. Coltzan had provided her with ten strong Grarrls to help quarry
the stone, all of who lifted the huge boulders of rock as though they were tiny
pebbles. Siri smiled as directed them over to her chosen workplace, a little
sand dune resting in the shade of a lush palm tree with an oasis nearby, lest
she get thirsty.
Siri spent a few minutes looking at the
stone, before carefully making a few dents in it with her tools. She then began
to draw out at a picture of Coltzan on the rock, to help her plan the entire
sculpture out. She took a deep breath, and then began laboriously chipping away
the stone, pausing every know and then to wipe of her sweaty brow.
All day she toiled, and for most of the
night, too. By the next day, the sculpture had began to take on a very rough
likeness of Coltzan. Though the sun beat down on her very hard, the little Desert
Kyrii tirelessly worked, her skilful paws chipping and cutting and carving away
at the rock. Finally, at the end of the month of Hiding, Siri was almost complete.
The sculpture, which at first had just been a huge lump of stone, had been transformed
to look exactly like Coltzan. The only part left, which was also the hardest
one, was to cut out the nose.
Siri shuddered. She almost always made
a mistake on the noses. But this time, she would have to be extremely careful
not to make any mistakes, or else Coltzan may punish her. Siri sighed deeply,
lifted up her tool, and carefully chipped away a small section of the stone.
With a hideous snapping sound, a huge crack went shooting down Coltzan's face,
permanently damaging the entire statue. Siri gave a strangled cry of frustration
as she rushed over to her sculpture, desperately searching for a way to fix
it.
There was none. The crack was too big,
and the damage too great. Siri had greatly misjudged the pressure point of the
stone. The Desert Kyrii fell down to her knees in front of the sculpture and
buried her face in her paws. She raised her tearstained face to the great and
wise face of the stone Coltzan, all the beauty and impressiveness of the entire
sculpture destroyed by that stupid crack.
Siri glanced at the sky, and jumped to
her paws in shock. The sun had almost completed it's journey across the heavens,
and the skies were turning from the powder blue of midday to the red orange
hue of twilight. Siri suddenly had a sense of incoming doom. Her deadline for
the completion of the sculpture was this evening, and the last shreds of daylight
were rapidly disappearing.
In a fit of frenzied panic, Siri dashed
to the Oasis' edge, gathering up the slippery bank mud in her paws. She then
stumbled back to her sculpture, and, in a vain attempt to plug up the crack,
shoved the mud inside. It didn't work. The mud, still wet from the waters of
the Oasis, merely slipped out of the crack and dribbled down the face of the
statue, making it look as though Coltzan was crying.
And he will be. Siri thought as
she stared sadly at her ruined masterpiece. He'll be crying with rage when
he sees this monstrosity, this disgrace to his name!
The sudden pounding of incoming paw steps
snapped Siri out of her reverie. She turned around and saw, to her horror, King
Coltzan and his followers, coming to see the statue. Gasping with shock, Siri
quickly covered her statue with a tarp and dashed over to try and forestall
Coltzan. She ran up to him and smiled, giving a quick bow.
"Your majesty..." She began uncertainly.
But Coltzan cut her off, raising a gigantic
grey paw and smiling warmly down at the little Kyrii. "Tell me, O Sculptor,
how goes the carving of my likeness?"
"Well, your majesty," Sir began, twisting
her paw around in the sand. "It's almost done, though it's not quite--"
"Ah, there it is!" Coltzan said happily,
looking and pointing at the tarp covered statue. Coltzan began padding over
to the statue, grasping a corner of the tarp with his paws and preparing to
tear it off so that he could behold the statue.
"Your majesty, wait!" Siri shouted, but
it was too late.
With a great flourish, Coltzan swept of
the tarp and beheld the statue. Upon seeing it, he gasped, and dropped the tarp.
"Oh my..." He whispered.
Siri came bounding in, falling to her knees
before Coltzan and staring up into his calm eyes. "Oh please your majesty, it
was an accident, it wasn't my fault, it's--"
"Brilliant!" Coltzan finished, breathing
out the word.
Siri sobbed at his paws. "I'm sorry, your
grace! I, wait a minute..." She glanced at Coltzan's face, where a huge smile
had broken across his maw. "You think it's brilliant?" She asked.
Coltzan nodded, running a paw down his
face. It was only then that Siri noticed that Coltzan had a scar cutting down
his face, looking exactly like the one on the statue. Coltzan turned to Siri
clearing his throat.
"Yes. You see, I received this scar during
an invasion some time ago. I'm very glad that you managed to capture its essence
so well in this sculpture." He grinned, drawing out a huge bag of gold. "Here,
O Kyrii, I shall give you double the original payment, for making a sculpture
that is in such great likeness of me." He gazed proudly at the statue. "Now,
when people behold this sculpture, they shall remember me as a kind and wise
ruler, and a mighty warrior."
Siri merely shook her head in bewilderment.
Perhaps it was sculptor's luck --but whatever it was, Siri was grateful for
it.
The End
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