Many, many years ago, long before the Kidagesh were a people, there were no seasons. The lands were constantly lush and green and everything was fragrant and beautiful. Time was meaningless, because there was nothing to mark it with. The great war chief Kidagesh had lived for many thousands of years, and would live many thousand years more, for there was no such thing as the Great Sleep.
Kidagesh had, at that time, only three daughters and one son, for he was often at war with his people. Ever they would drive him away and ever he would return, claiming that he missed his family. When he returned that final time, his youngest child, Selore, was suffering from some sickness. She was ever cold and her skin had begun to change from brown to tan to cream, and then to a new color, one they had never seen before. They called it blue, for it was very depressing to look at and everyone who stood near her began to also lose their color. Selore’s hair lightened, as well, turning to the color of the cornstalks and growing paler still, until it almost matched the color of the lilies of the valleys. Several of the chiefs wanted to send the girl into the wilderness and abandon her, fearful that her strange sickness would begin to affect others. Indeed, it did, in a fashion: her sister Qeuoco also began to lose her own color. Eventually, her skin changed to a lush green, like the plants of the land, and her eyes also shifted into a bright green-gold. Their brother, Hetmoque, grew even more brown, eventually darkening to the color of the thick kafey the older people loved to drink. The rest of his features darkened as well, until many were scared to be around him. He began to lead Selore around the village, assisting her on a walk each day. They were each the other’s only companion.
The change in the oldest girl, Josefey, was the most pronounced. Her skin began to turn golden brown, then grew brighter and brighter until it was a flaming red-orange, much like the rays of the sun as it just begins to rise over the lands. Her hair also changed, lengthening and brightening until it was the same golden color as the sun as it blazed in the summer sky.
Then one day, Hetmoque walked through the village alone, being sure to touch everything in his path. Everything he touched grew brown, losing its fragrance and liveliness. His sister followed after a few days later, and her bare feet seemed to infect the ground she walked on with a terrible blue cold. Crystals of some strange substance flaked off her, spreading across the village and killing all the plants, even the grass. The temperature dropped until it was too cold even to make a fire, and many of the young froze in their beds.
At this time, the rest of the people came forward and cast Kidagesh and all his children from the village. His wife came, too, and she gave birth to their next children–a girl and a boy–in the dark and the blue cold. She named them Nowway and Monou, because they were born in the isolation.
One day, Qeuoco returned and walked through the village. All she touched began to spring anew, color and life returning to the village and its people. Many rejoiced, but a select few became angry with Qeuoco for returning and drove her away. Qeuoco left peacefully, but the villagers’ anger did not diminish. They projected all of their anger upon her, blaming Qeuoco for the loss of the lush green grass and fragrant blooms they had enjoyed for all their lives and the loss of so many of the young and old to the Great Sleep. The bodies were laid out in a long line a stone’s throw from the village, rotting and picked clean by animals.
They were overjoyed when they awoke one day to find the lush grasses had returned. They saw Josefey leaving the village, her arms lifted in rapture and a golden color spreading from where her feet touched the ground. Wherever the gold touched immediately burst into color and fragrance, turning back to the old ways.
Every since those days, every three moons or so, one of Kidagesh’s children will walk through the world, letting his or her power spread across the lands until the next followed. If you are lucky, perhaps you will see one of them as they go through, helping the seasons change.
