Legends of Belariath
Callie Volopa
A Tale of Gashan: Gashan Battles the Run’ya Najaka
A Story of the Verlosi Vulpine Tribe
As Told by Callie Volopa
On three separate occasions, The Lady attempted to create a mate for herself, finally succeeding with her third attempt, Trejani, the only one that was created as a baby and raised by a family. The first two were created as adults—Qileya’s relationship with her didn’t work out because they were too alike, and Najaka was far too evil and violent. Najaka was so evil, in fact, that in order to prevent the world from being overcome by his madness and lust for power, she banished him to the nighttime sky, making him a constellation. But as the legend of The Lady’s three mates was passed down from generation to generation, there formed a small, deviant cult called the Run’ya Najaka, who believed that one day Najaka would return to conquer the earth and cleanse it of all other races, and of the weak-minded among the vulpine race as well.
The Run’ya Najaka made the occasional small raid on wealthy individuals here and there, but they were considered to be, at best, slightly annoying overall until around twenty-two hundred years ago, when they began a large-scale offensive on the many settlements in and around the Ulma Valley. The sylvan elf villages of Japal, Hornacek, and Botan were all razed in one night; the following night, the wolven villages of Kitani and Folax were exterminated. The few remaining villages in the valley were on high alert, including Verlosi’ka and Kumaqri.
In Kumaqri, Salipa—the wife of Verlosi hero Gashan—was visiting her family. This took place about three months after Gashan had slain the “Night Demon”, Bowala, making him a legend overnight. On the third night of the Run’ya Najaka Offensive, the group stormed the walls of Kumaqri, and despite meeting their best resistance to date, they were helped in their cause by the fact that a full 10% of Kumaqri’s defensive force changed sides at a critical time in the battle. Before long, they had reached the residential part of the village.
Salipa’s home was invaded by the Run’ya Najaka, and she was forced to watch as her father, mother, three brothers and two sisters were murdered by them. She was about to be killed as well, but the leader of the group, a man named Omal—who hailed from Verlosi’ka—recognized her as being Gashan’s wife, and he said, “Why not have some fun with her instead?”
Kumaqri was burned to the ground, and Salipa was taken naked back to the Run’ya Najaka’s camp, where fifteen of their soldiers took their time raping her over the course of the next six hours. When they were done with her, they brutally whipped her, tied her up and left her for dead in a ditch. Verlosi’ka would be their next target.
Three hours after the Run’ya Najaka had left the area where Kumaqri had previously stood, a Chirot healer named Viaa Motaka was flying overhead when she saw Salipa, brutalized and near death, tied up in the ditch. Filled with compassion for the vulpine, she swooped down from the sky, healed her wounds (her physical wounds, anyway), and untied her. Salipa told Viaa what had happened, not only to her but to the valley’s villages in the past three days, and asked her to fly to Verlosi’ka and tell her husband.
Taking care to take a different route to Verlosi’ka than the Run’ya Najaka were marching, Viaa reached the Verlosi home village in a couple of hours, where she inquired as to the whereabouts of Gashan. Gashan’s best friend Ajanti was initially quite suspicious of Viaa, especially because at the time, Chirot were not very well-known to vulpines. But Ajanti directed Viaa to Gashan after the Chirot told him she came with news about Kumaqri and Gashan’s wife, Salipa.
Viaa met with Gashan, who was a colonel in the Verlosi army at this point, and told him of the fall of Kumaqri and what had happened to Salipa. As it so happened, Gashan had been kept informed of the previous destructions of the elven and wolven villages, and had fought adamantly—and unsuccessfully—to persuade the Verlosi Ruling Council (led by Elder Lajar) to intervene and protect the Ulma Valley. But because the Run’ya Najaka had thus far restricted their attacks to non-vulpines, the Verlosi Ruling Council—in their shortsightedness—had decided it wasn’t a Verlosi problem.
The fall of Kumaqri, on the other hand, was a different story. Gashan went before the Council again with the news, and unsurprisingly, they finally gave the authorization to attack the Run’ya Najaka. Gashan was disgusted that it had taken them this long to agree, but nevertheless, he mobilized his army for battle. Unlike the other battles that had been fought in the Ulma Valley over the past week, Gashan would not give the Run’ya Najaka the opportunity to invade—the Verlosi army would attack them.
At four o’clock in the afternoon, only two hours after Viaa arrived in Verlosi’ka, the Verlosi Army invaded the Run’ya Najaka’s camp. Squadrons of warriors, mages, water mages and rangers made life quite difficult for the overmatched Run’ya Najaka, who hadn’t anticipated the attack, and were outnumbered by about a hundred men. What really turned the battle in favor of the Verlosi was Gashan’s use of cavalry—men fighting on horseback with spears. It was a form of combat that had been little-used over the past couple centuries because it was thought to be out-of-date, but Gashan’s warriors were well-trained in the art, and many Run’ya Najaka died at their hands that day.
Gashan tore through his fair share of Run’ya Najaka himself, but his target was none other than Omal, the leader of the Run’ya Najaka, and the man who’d identified his wife prior to having his way with her and giving fourteen of his men that privilege. Omal’s description had been given by Salipa to Viaa, and Viaa had relayed it to Gashan. When Gashan and Omal met in battle, they had a mighty duel, fighting with their swords and magic powers. Omal, however, used Gashan’s rage against him and pierced him through the stomach in a critical moment, sending Gashan slumping to the ground.
Omal was about to finish off the legendary Verlosi warrior, when suddenly he was tapped on the shoulder. Whirling around, he found himself staring into the steely blue eyes of the person he tormented only the previous day—Salipa. Gashan threw his sword to his wife, and Salipa then did battle with Omal. This time, the side of good was triumphant—Salipa, a warrior/water mage, encased Omal in a block of ice, and Viaa used her magic to heal Gashan’s stomach wound.
Omal’s second-in-command promptly surrendered his forces, and the remaining Run’ya Najaka were brought back to Verlosi’ka. The majority of them were given life sentences in prison, but Omal was sentenced to death and publicly hung in the town square.
It would still be a few years before the Verlosi Ruling Council learned the price of shortsightedness, however...