The Fable of Sable
Deep Desertborn of Al Raqis,
Sable the snake-huntress
studied negotiation and diplomacy
at the Araxes Senate,
trained with the Enclave Companions
and enrolled briefly with
the Planetary Protection Force
which gave her first insight offworld.
But the Desert kept calling out to her soul.
Sable took her diplomacy,
military & companion skills
to deter desert smugglers
with whom she intermitently
traded, shared camp and hunted.
Sable completed her coming-of-age Pilgrimage
shortly before the Great Quake.
Taking it as an omen
she moved to Old Town
where she helped with the restoration,
opened an ethnic art shop.
A travelling StarBorn wooed from Sable
the story of her life
'exploring the desert on a hoverbike'
and turned it into an amazing videogame.
Sable fell in love with a hansum smuggler
who promised her the stars,
only to abandon her in a forgotten outpost.
Sable survived by hunting
reptilian-rat-things and ate moss-vines,
until another StarBorn called Dive,
named after her pilot skills
accidentally rescued her,
took her on as co-pilot
of her ship, the Re.
The pair travelled as merchants
trading comics and art,
but usually lost in the slipstream.
All the while Sable followed any rumours about Araxes,
hoping someday to return to her beloved lost desert.
She heard it had been destroyed and despaired deeply.
One day they discovered a map
to a treasure beyond imagnation;
a time-crystal reputed to bring longevity.
They did eventually discover it
but it was not how they imagined.
Instead of bringing longevity,
the time-crystal instead causes
non-linear consciousness
along an individuals timeline.
This results in further complications
regarding cause&effect, free will and the multiverse.
Years passed, seemingly timelessly
but also with time-glitches,
until one day while Sable was out shopping,
Dive and the Re simply disappeared
either by accident, foul play,
or by Dive or the Re's erratic nature.
Then, when she was at her lowest,
Sable discovered Al Raqis had not been destroyed,
at least not on this timeline.
Now, Sable is old, her skin wrinkled with experiences
and by the light of distant stars whose gravities warp time
despite the time-crystal.
Sable decided to retire to a gentle place of healing,
to paint and to write
from her memories and imagination.
