Life
No creature realized their time was being cut short, for their lives were beautiful, peaceful, and abundant, although lessened. The difference in aging between all the beings that lived there was recorded by the two longest-living ones; the watcher couple. In this peculiar scenario, creatures that usually lived to be a hundred would perish at fifty, and animals that generally lived for 20 would die at 10. Bicorns were no exception. Although known for living for over 500 years, they were the biggest losers if this was a game. They lived a mere 100 before they succumbed to what seemed like death from old age. No one saw a single Golem expire, and no one thought anything of it except those two.
Agram of Ice, and Fetya of Desert, were watchers from a bloodline of mysterious one-eyed beings roaming the Land of Black & White, mainly on the east. Although new to this world, by their usual age standards, thousands of years are equivalent to adolescence. Agram was a Night watcher, hailing from the frozen tribe of the Eye Kingdom. He stood at 7 Feet and 6 inches tall, the average height of a nimble night watcher, with a muscular build, and if viewed by the inexperienced eye, would seem as though he wore armor all the time and had a rare blue pupil to his single eye residing in the middle of his face along with a single horn that looked like it was touched by snow way too many times. Fetya was his partner, a native of the desert tribe of the Eye Kingdom. A day watcher standing at 7 feet and 2 inches tall, broad shoulders, with skin the color of sand, hosting the typical white pupil of a watcher, and hair that was longer than usual for the Eye Kin, also looked as though wearing armor, and carrying an axe almost always.
Agram & Fetya’s tribes were known for their constant duels and ruthless events in the Eye Kingdom designed to build character, and Agram & Fetya held the most entertaining and brutal of those duels with each other. A day came when they saw themselves growing tired of the constant dueling and felt as though it was time for them to seek solace. It was Fetya who spoke to Agram about the land she had heard of far away on the west of the Land of Black & White, a land with green pastures, multiple dominions, and creatures that lived peacefully side by side, a place they could achieve that unity in mind. Agram, who was used to Fetya’s axe being swung at him for no reason, was taken aback and thought of it as one of those jokes two duelers would jest together about when they break bread post their gruesome fights, but the Look on Fetya’s eye was more severe than that in a battle, and to Agram’s surprise, he saw himself succumbing to a certain beauty he saw in her eye that he had never noticed until that very moment. It was then an easy decision for him to make.
Although indifferent to the concept of time, the Eye Kin lived truly long lives. That is why they were called by many other beings, Timeless ones. Agram was 2023 years old, and Fetya was 1986 years of age. They decided to move to the Kingdom of Golemia, and after they had, they chose the most beautiful and moderate of all its dominions, Gaia’s Sanctuary, the greenest of all the land on the west. There, they saw a stone golem build a mansion worthy of a Royal of the Eye Kin as though a special welcome to the Timeless ones.
Years passed, and journeying away from their home was a norm. Using the speed and swiftness the Eye Kin are known for, and with their never-ending abundance of time, during their 33rd Year in the Kingdom of Golemia, they stumbled on a dominion full of beings they hadn’t seen for quite some time. They were used to seeing Bicorns in open stables at the bottom of the Royal palace, but here they were free, beautiful, and as majestic as they could remember, if not more. Agram said to Fetya: “Do you recall how the King once descended to speak to our tribes on Ashdal the Grey’s back?” to which Fetya responded: “Raises the hair on my neck every time I recall it!”. Agram then approaches the Bicorns, who lift their grazing heads up, and a single one of them, the biggest one who towered 10 Feet up even on all fours, comes closer to Agram & Fetya. As the Bicorn came closer, his horns shifted colors from black to a fierce red as though drenched in lava, with smoke starting to come out from the tips of the horns. Agram, who was versed in handling those grand beings, immediately bowed down to his knees and spoke in Bicorn-tongue, A clicking sound that translated to “Dignified & glorious one, respectful thy visitors be must we run?” to which the Bicorn responded in the same clicking sound “Eye Kin, your visit we hold within, our glory meets your potential, our friendship is essential.”
That was the day, Agram befriended Altive the Proud. Altive was a Bicorn blessed by wisdom older than his age, such are the Bicorn kin. Mounting a towering Bicorn with its consent was a feat reserved only for those who were capable and had the potential to ascend. Even with the Eye Kingdom, it was rare to be able to hoist oneself on the back of a Proud and Gallant dark Bicorn, let alone the leader of a Bicorn faction such as Altive the Proud. Many adventures were trodden, and exploration was achieved when Agram and Fetya road the back of Altive across the Kingdom of Golemia. End to end, they managed to scale the entirety of the Kingdom, witnessing the great King of Golemia in his stationary and peaceful position assumed when there be no need for his movement, and even reaching the northernmost part and seeing from a distance a population of new watchers descending into the Green Valley just outside the Kingdom of Golemia.
For 40 Years, their friendship continued, and Life seemed infinite with the union of Agram & Fetya and the fellowship with Altive. Agram even dared say once: “I feel like I’m the King of this dominion!” to which Fetya responds: “His wisdom is not one you have, and his strength is not something us watchers can fathom,” to which Agram responds with a jesting smirk while looking at Altive for any sign of approval, and Altive as he attempts a response, falls.
Agram & Fetya know how long a Bicorn should last, and their friends’ death to them was not right, for Altive was only 102 years old, entirely in his early days, and yet to be great. That sparked their search to extend, and it is precisely that event that triggered their investigation to dampen and see how Life, although peaceful and green, for other beings than themselves seemed short. So they Brace and commence a search. What is the secret of the Kingdom of Golemia? Where does that extra time go?
