:: Random Item—The Sage Sage Bow ::

The Sage Sage Bow

by Wm Jay Carter III, 6/16/15

a ranai bulb-lantern bearer

Weapon: Bow

Culture: Ranai

Condition: Small, Pristine

Color: Sage

Keyword: Splendor

One of the bulb-lantern bearers draws the curtain of willow-branches to the side, permitting you to enter the sanctuary of the legendary Sapo Velho. The venerable ranai elder dendrite seems not to notice you, but continues croaking softly and steadily. Following the instructions you were given, you kneel on the rock nearest Sapo Velho and lay the tiny bow down before the elder. The old frog reaches out, takes the bow, and holds it beside his head—all without breaking his meditative state, it seems, for he continues to snore in froggy fashion.

You wait impatiently for him to get on with it, but it seems the ranai is waiting for something. Then, as quickly as he might have snapped a fly from the air, his fingers pluck the bowstring. The sound resonates throughout the sanctuary, and suddenly a rush of color fills your vision as if every living thing—and perhaps even the earth itself—began giving off its own unique light. The sight is enchanting, and after another moment of drinking in the sight, it fades. You stand, bow, and escort yourself from the sanctuary, feeling that the old frog has given you a great gift indeed.

The folktales among the ranai say that Sapo Velho has had over 150,000 lives, and has been meditating since before the Cataclysm, never speaking, never eating, and never waking. According to his caretakers, the bulb-lantern bearers, the only way he has managed to do this is by regularly reconnecting with reminders of his past lives, such as toys he once owned as a child in his first life.

Reconnecting with his past possessions, say the bulb-lantern bearers, allows him to focus his energies back into the past and make himself young again. Sapo Velho’s old possessions are never lost, they add, but find their way into the hands of those that Sapo Velho wishes to meet. Discovering one of his possessions, then, is akin to receiving an invitation to his sanctuary.

Preserved through the ages by Sapo Velho’s own memory of it, the Sage Sage Bow is one such toy. Made from the first sage bush that ever grew in Athanasia, it was strung by the first spider—the mother of them all—using her own silk. It is rumored that no arrow has ever touched the bowstring. Instead, one pluck from the string by Sapo Velho himself awakens the senses so that the dimness of age is cast away from one’s eyes and one can see the true nature of the world.

Often mistaken as a weapon, the Sage Sage Bow actually accompanies another of Sapo Velho’s toys, the Sage Sage Violin. Together, the instrument liberates one’s sense of hearing as the bow liberates one’s sense of sight, revealing the music of life and nature.