The Great Tyilkas

A tyilka has a brown monkey face with an orange-yellow beak, there are three purple feathers curling forward on theirforeheads, they have human-like arms and hands, only their hands have six fingers. They also have a brown furry back, a red furry stomach, Pinto horse legs, hoofs, and a brown Chow dog tail that curls over their backs. They run on their himd legs, they love to sing and swim, they are good at both. They eat mostly leaves; their favorite being mint leaves. They also like tree bark; their favorite of that is of maple trees, which they can have a lot of, for all tyilkas live in the woods of Canada. They build their homes grandly, and are always adding to them. They also have very good techinology, almost every tyilka has at least one computer in their home. Conilul of Sirnette, known as Coni, is a tyilka. She is very attractive in her city of Sirnette. She is also very popular, for she is brave, strong, kind, outgoing, friendly, loving, and peaceful, also beautiful. She loves to sing and swim, as all tyilkas do. She like to swim in cold water the best and she likes to sing all kinds of music. Kilanna of Sirnette, known as Kila,Coni's best friend, is also a tyilka. She is very much like her friend Coni, only she isn't as popular. She likes much of the same things Coni does. There is going to be The Great Tyilka Leave Festival, which hasn't been held for a couple hundred years. When every tyilka is young he/she is taught about The Great Tyilka Leave Festival, how only the bravest, strongest,most honest, most faithful and most curagious can make it. The Great Tyilka Leave Festival is going to be held exactly where it was held hundreds of years ago, in the biggest tylka city, Blueartick. Blueartick is on an island farther than the farthest place north on this planet, no human knows about this city, or even the island.

It was a cool sunny afternoon in the tyilka city of Sirnette where Coni and her friend Kila were playing around the lake in the middle of Sirnette. They were singing and swimming, and having a very pleasent time. As they were taking a break from all that singing and swimming Kila said,"Coni, do you think they'll ever have The Great Tyilka Leave Festival again? I mean it hasn't been held for how many years. I wish it was like the old days when they held it almost every year." "Well to be honest, yes I think there will be. When? Well that I don't know." Coni replied. They talked a little bit more on the topic, then went back to singing and swimming.

Little did they know what was going to happen. For about a month they hadn't brought up the topis once. Then one really windy day (it was too winndy to go outside)they were listening to the radio, when all of a sudden they heard it speak, "Now, listen closely. This very year something is going to happen that hasn't happened in a couple hundred years or so. The Great Tyilka Leave Festival is going to be held this year! Yes, that's right, The Great Tyilka Leave Festival! Yes. You heard right, The Great Tyilka Leave Festival!". Kila and Coni stared at each other, The Great Tyilka Leave Festival was going to happen again! Just like they always wanted it to! They couldn't believe it, ever since they were young they had wanted The Great Tyilka Leave Festival to happen, and now it finally was. The radio went on, "It will be held at the same place as the last time, which was hundreds of years ago. As you all probably know, only the bravest, strongest, honest, most faithful, and most courageous will make it. The Great Tyilka Leave Festival is going to be held in November, November the 21st to be exact. The quest will begin in September, only two months away! So you all better start getting in shape, Good luck! Stay tuned for more info..." Coni and Kila looked at each other again, their whole lives they had been trying to get ready for The Great Tyilka Leave Festival, if it ever happened, which they had always hoped it would, and now it was!

Right away Coni and Kila started to exercise more and they tested their strengths, trying to get ready for the festival. By listening to the radio a little more they found out that the beginning of this quest would start on September 1st. Until then they would practice every thing they thought was necessary to help them out. They had heard that a lot of tyilkas had never made it back, there had only been some who survived, because it was a very perlious quest. So they practiced they archery and shooting, swimming, though they were already good at this, boating, climbing, running, and practicing how brave they could be. Naturally a lot of other tyilkas were also trying and practicing things. In a way it was hard for the tyilkas who were too old or too young to watch, for they may never see these tyilkas again, ever.

Day after day Coni and Kila worked hard and practiced. On going to the festival you could either go alone or have only one other tyilka with you and definatly no other creature besides a tyilka. This will make sure you are honest, even if you part with the other creature the gates at the front of the city of Blueartick know these things and will not let you pass into the city, even though you might have made it all the way (this is way they had chosen Blueartick, this was what the city was made for thousands of years ago). Also you could use no technology, only things you found on the way and made yourself. You could bring your bow and arrow though, but not your gun. You had to remember these things, or the gates would not open for you, because this would be being dishonest.

Soon it was only a week before the quest began. Coni and Kila, who had planned to go together, weren't at all nervous or worried, though a lot of other tyilkas were. The very next week they would say goodbye to Sirnette and set out for Blueartick. At the time though they were just lounging about Kila's house talking and singing. Although they weren't nervous about the quest, they had no idea what was in store for them. Though it was probably best that they didn't, for you are never as brave if you know everything before hand.

It was the day before September1st when Coni said, "I can't believe this is finally going to happen! My whole lifes dream is finally coming true. Is yours, Kila?" "Yes," replied Kila,"It is." They talked a little bit longer than finally said goodnight and went to their own homes to get some rest before tomorrow began.

Finally it was the day, September 1st! All the tyilkas that would participate were to meet at the edge of the North Forest. There were about 75 tylikas ready to go, not including all the other tyilkas from the different tyilka cities. You were to start out at the edge of the North Forest, then work your way to Bleuartick. Most of the tyilkas looked worried, but some didn't, including Coni and Kila. Then it was time, Governer Jocegi of Sirnette started to sing, this was the cue to start. The whole city of Sirnette had come to see all the tyilkas off, some cried, some just sat there looking as if they wanted to go , others looked happy. "Tyilka City of Blueartick here come all the tyilkas!" Governor Jocegi sang out. And it was true, they had finally started the quest.

Once you started you had to go your own way, or with your partner, if you had one, you were not to talk to any one tyilka, you were to go your own way and try not to run into anyone else. If you did you would have o both part, not saying one word. If you should talk to anyone besides your partner, if you have one, you have to be in great danger or your partner in great danger, otherwise you are disqualified. Tyilkas usually do quite fine in the wilderness, though only when they are familier with the surroundings, though they are rather fond of adventures.

As soon as Coni and Kila were out of sight, they started to sing, they sang an old tyilka folk song that goes like this:

Leave your worries behind,
Don't let them get in your way.
Just leave them behind
And you'll be fine.
So don't worry.


Look forward to you adventure,
What a nice time you'll have.
And even if everything goes wrong ,
Don't let it upset you,
And you'll be strong.
(It was an old song in the time of the Great Tyilka Wars that the soldiers would sing as they marched into a new unknown area to battle.) As they finished the second verse, something dropped on Coni's head. She and Kila both looked up and saw the evil grin of an, Poyltigen. Poytigen's are known to be very disruptive, they are completely orange and have very large heads for their quite tiny gnarled bodies. It had just dropped an acorn on Coni's head. It started to throw more and more, both Coni and Kila were trying to get their bows and arrows out, but it was hard through the hail of acorns, and now three more Poytigens pitched in and were throwing acorns at them. Finally Coni dodged into the nearest bit of brush, got her bow and arrow ready and made a perfect shot at the first Poytigen. It fell out of the tree it was in and landed with a thud on the ground. The other Poytigens turned their attention from Kila to Coni now, which gave Kila a chance to get her bow and arrow ready. After that they cleared the Poytigens out in a matter of seconds. Once they were sure there were no more Poytigens, they went back to the quest. For the rest of the day they had no more encounters with any other creatures. They mostly sang songs, they only stopped once, for lunch, then returned to the quest. When it was to dark to see even a couple feet in front of you, they stopped, made a fire and had some supper. After supper they went to bed under some small trees.

The next mourning they woke up just as the sun came up, they had a little bite of breakfast and off they went again, always pointing North. Another thing about the quest was, there were no instructions. You had to find your own way. Luckily both Coni and Kila had a very good sense of direction, and they knew that you had to go North until you couldn't go North any more, then you had to swim, build a boat or something to get across to the island. As they were walking along, a Begdar came out in front of them. Begdars are know to rob you. Coni quickly ran up the nearest tree, while Kila went running in the other direction, they were going to try to confuse the begdar. The begdar followed Kila, at a very slow pace, then Coni jumped out of the tree and started running in the opposite direction. The begdar started to follow Coni, and this went on for about fifteen minutes until the Bedgar finally got too tired and fell asleep. Then Coni and Kila were off again, pointing North. For lunch they had some fresh fish and some berries they had picked up. They only had one other encounter that day, a deer. It ran right in front of them, knocking them over, and before they could catch it, it had disappeared.

For the next few days they didn't have any encounters at all. It was probably the heat, it had been unusually hot the past few days. Thankfully there were a lot of trees in their path to shade them, plus they loved the heat. Then after the few days of complete sunniess clouds started to come in. They came in very fast, they were very strange clouds also, purple with blue. And in a very strange shape, they kept coming and coming, closer and faster each day. Until finally they were right above Coni and Kila. Of course they had seen this cloud from a distance, but they hadn't paid too much attention, so they didn't worry about it. As soon as it got over them everything felt dark and gloomy this must be the cloud of sorrowness. They had only ever heard of this cloud before and thought it was only a myth, but sure enough it was right here. The cloud comes to challenge tyilkas who are brave and courageous, its goal is to make its victims un-brave and un-courageous. It had worked on a lot of tyilkas so far that went on this quest, but Coni and Kila weren't about to give up so quickly. They sang songs just as they would have any other day, which made the cloud angrier, as it had never failed to take tyilkas on after only hours with it. It was two days since the cloud arrived when it finally got so angry it started to disintegrate. This was the only thing both Coni and Kila had ever heard of of this cloud "Take head, for there is a great cloud of sorrow out there, no one knows where, until its too late. It takes the joy out of everything, most people never return once they have an encounter with it. It only come to those who are brave and courageous. It tries to stop you from whatever it is you are doing. Those who are not brave have no fear it will never come to you. The only way to get rid of this cloud is going about with your daily doings and being happy, it will slowly start to disintegrate." That was all, and they had thought it was only a myth, so they paid no further investigation. With the little they knew about it they knew at least how get rid of it. So slowly it started to go, and after four days since it came upon Coni and Kila it was completely gone, no tyilka ever heard of it again. The following days went much, much happier, thought they did have some encounters. One was with another tyilka, which they refused to talk to or even talk to each other until he was permatly gone, incase he would try to join in the conversation and get them to accidently talk to him. Another was when they fell into an open pit in the ground, which had been set there by a highbiz-groundhog. The groundhog was upset that the "things" he had caught were bigger than he was an set them free immediately. The last encounter was when they were just strolling along when out came a full grown mammott, it took Kila up in its hands and started running away, Coni was fast enough and got the mammott right in the heart with her arrow. The mammott dropped Kila in the lake that was nearby. After the little mishap they ate some lunch and went on their way. For only a day they had no more encounters, then the greatest one of the whole quest took place. They woke up early as usual, but unlike all the other days it was not silent when they woke up, there was a soft humming noise growing louder all the time. Besides that Coni hadn't slept very well, she had had a strange dream about something, she couldn't remember what, but it had been very disturbing and had had the same humming sound. The sound was like a gigantic machine humming and torches full-blast mixed. They had just finished eating breakfast when the sound sounded only about a mile away and they were starting to smell smoke. They put what they what was left of what they were eating in their packs as quickly as they could, then they looked up in the sky and saw, in the middle of the smoke a, dragon! Dragons hadn't been seen around these parts for thousands of years, they couldn't believe what they were seeing! Part of them wanted to hurry and try to kill it but the other part of them wanted to shout for joy, as they were actually seeing a dragon. Feeling like this made them forget where they were until the dragon blew a little fire in their direction, hopefully it hadn't spotted them yet. The dragon didn't seem to notice, for the time being anyway, it just circled all around and blew fire everywhere. Now that some of the fire had come so close it knocked a little sense back into Coni and Kila, they decided no to take to many chances with this dragon so they started to run to the river. Of course the river was not that close by and the dragon might see them, but they had to take the chance or else they would die anyway. They were probably a half a mile away from the river when all the humming and fire just suddenly stopped. Coni and Kila didn't stop for long though, they stopped only long enough to find out that the dragon had landed and was headed their way! Of course they started moving again, but because the dragon might try to torch them if they ran and looked like moving targets they slowed to a sneaking crawl trying not to look back. The dragon was not about to blow them with fire, it had another idea. As Coni and Kila were crawling their way through to the river (the reason they chose the river was because the lake might be trapped in all the smoke and at least with the river they might have a chance) the noise of the dragon even breathing was gone. Kila decided to turn around and check if it really had gone and just as she did, the dragon flew up while grabbing Kila around the waist and was off. It all happened so fast it took a minute before Coni relized that Kila wasn't there. She was torn in two: should she go on to The Great Tyilka Leave Festival or should she try and rescue her friend? It took her only about a minute to decide that she would try to find her best friend, then if there was still time try to make it to The Great Tyilka Leave Festival. She had decided that she would be better off this way, for even if she did get to The Festival she would not have as much fun as she would with Kila there. Besides if she didn't make it to the Festival she would never forgive herself for not trying to at least attempt to save Kila. So she looked in the direction the dragon was headed, it was North! Coni couldn't believe it, what luck. She headed North as she was before going up the river, she had decided to swim up the river instead of walking, because it would be much faster, as this river wasn't moving to fast anyway. The dragon had disappeared now and Coni was alone, all except an occasional squirrel or bird that flew by. Meanwhile the dragon had taken Kila to its home in the farthest North Forest , there it had dropped her off and gone up again to enjoy the nice fall day. Off and on Coni sees the dragon in the distance flying, but harming nothing. Coni estimates that the dragon is a mile or so away, little does she know that the dragon is just flying and is miles and miles away from its home were Kila is (knocked out). Coni hints this when nightfall was about to come and the dragon headed North even further until she could not see it any longer. She stopped for the night in an old tree hollow and got up early in the morning ate breakfast and went on with her "second" quest. She got swimming in up the river, she swam until around noon when the river forked going either East or West so Coni got out of the river and started going throught the North Forest. The next day as Coni was heading quickly North she encountered a Elken (An animal related to the Elk.) It happened when she was passing a huge tree and right in front of her was an Elken. And before she could reach her bow and arrows it attacked her swiftly with its antlers. It kept on attacking her, and by the time she was able to get to her bow and arrows and kill the beast she was wounded badly. Her right leg was cut a long strip down the side, her arms were both very bloody, her chest had a slash through it also, and she had scratches everywhere. Once she killed the Elken she took care of her wounds, but she had already lost so much blood that as she started out on her way she fainted. She was unconscious for seven days until she finally woke up. She was lying exactly where she fainted, and untouched. When she woke up she didn't know where she was, but she felt as though she had to get up to rescue something or other. With all the strenght she could find (she was rather weak after a week of not eating anything) she pulled herself up and started to find something to eat. She found some mint leaves and some grasshoppers. After she finished eating she started to remember what she was here for, she had to rescue her friend, Kila from something then try to get to a festival that was North somehow. With this she left going North. Around midday she looked up and saw something in the sky far away coming closer, it was making a sound she thought she remembered from somewhere. It was the dragon!

She looked up just in time to see the gigantic creature come and take her away, she was to tired so she just hung there in its hand waiting. She was hoping that this dragon was taking her where Kila was. It did just that. Coni was also hoping that Kila was still alive to be rescued, she was. She was sitting in the dark corner of the dungeon that the dragon had dropped them in, singing. She was singing a sad song when she heard the dragon, she didn't move though for she was used to the dragon flying by and she was just about to go back to her singing, when she heard someone yelling her name, "Kila, Kila are you there?" It was Coni coming to save her! She stopped singing and shouted back, "Yes, yes I'm here." Once the dragon had dropped Coni in the dungeon also, she ran to meet Kila. At first Kila didn't recognize Coni with her all beat up and everything, so Coni started talking first, "Well here I am. Not exactly in the best of conditions, but that doesn't matter, does it?" Of course it didn't! Now they might have a chance at getting to the Festival after all. They talked for a while about what had happened the pas days while they were apart, then the subject changed to how to get out of this dungeon. "Well we might as well look on the bright side," Coni said, "The dragon was kind enough to bring us this far, and she also saved me time, so I wouldn't have to look everywhere for you. B'limey, I would never have found this place and then we might not even be able to go to the Festival." So they started looking for ways to get out, they didn't find any the whole day and when the dragon dropped some meat in for them to eat they ate then looked some more, but found nothing. The next morning they started looking some more, nothing. They looked for about another week or so but never found anything. They were starting to think they would never be able to go to The Festival, until one day. They were looking around as usual and found nothing until the dragon dropped in their meal and left. One of the slices of meat hit Coni on the head and knocked her down, only she didn't hit the ground. She went right true instead! Kila looked where Coni had fallen and there was a hole, or what looked like it might be a tunnel. She had no where else to go so she grabbed all of the food dropped it into the tunnel and then jumped in her self, luckily she grabbed the trap door on front of it as she went down, or else who knows what would happen to them if the dragon found out? It might blow fire inside, and they would definatly not have a way to escape that. She seemed to fall forever, meanwhile Coni had already hit the bottom, which happened to be very soft dirt, she only hoped Kila had jumped in after ‘cause she had no way of climbing back up there. She moved out of the way and waited, first the food came "how thoughtful of her" Coni thought then came Kila herself. It wasn't a very dark tunnel, actually it was quite bright, to the surprise of both Coni and Kila. They walked along the only way the tunnel would go, East. They would have preferred North, but it was the only way they could go, for they couldn't go back up and there weren't any other ways to go. They traveled quite fast until they finally reached a turn in the tunnel (which they had begun to think it would never stop going East.) The turn was North! They kept right on going, hardly ever stopping and since the ground was so level it was easy to walk a long ways and not get tired. They couldn't hear anything, not ever the dragon, they had gone down so far, so they started to sing. They went on in this tunnel for about a day or two (making the food last of course) when all-of-a-sudden a lot of dirt collapsed in front of them blocking the tunnel. They were shocked! How could something this terrible happen right when they were so close? Instead of panicking they decided to figure something out. Then Coni came up with something, " Why don't we use our capes (the only clothes a tyilka wears) and strap them to our bows like a net and start digging?" It was the only thing they could do, they couldn't go back, for there was no way to climb back up that fall, they couldn't dig down and they couldn't dig up, and there were no other ways in the tunnel to go. Plus they didn't want to just sit there and rot. So they got up and strapped their capes to their bows ( by the way, if you were wondering how the bows could hold up, they were tyilka bows. They are stronger then any of our human bows and the dirt was soft) and started digging. Coni's idea worked! In less than twenty-four hours they were through the blocked path and on their way again. The neat day they noticed the tunnel had started to slant upwards. They weren't to concerned until two days later they started to smell water. In a way they thought this was good because this meant that if they were really going north this tunnel might lead them straight into Bleuartick on the other hand it might stop in the middle of the water and not lead them to Bleuartick. They didn't have much chose though, so they kept on going. The next day the later of their thoughts came true. At first only little drips of water came through the ceiling, then gallons came until the tunnel finally just disappeared. Leaving them in freezing cold water to swim. Fortunatly tyilkas are good at swimming and have furry coats. They started to swim immediately, luckily the tunnel stopped pretty near the surface of the water, though it stopped right in the middle of the water. The reason it is only called the water is because it is not a lake, not a river, but not a pond or a ocean either and obviously not a puddle not a bay either. There was nothing to hold onto for buoyancy, so they had to just keep on swimming. The water was freezing cold, even for at tyilka so they were slowly getting slower and more tired. Then a miracle happened! A dead tree was floating about and they took hold of it just as they were about to drowned, for they had been swimming none stop for almost eleven straight hours. The tree was just big enough for the both of them to float on and lay down. Soon they were fast asleep, the next morning they woke up and they were starving, but they didn't have any food any more, because the last of the food they had was somewhere at the bottom of the water. Then they saw something that was the greatest sight they could imagine...land! Not only that it was a island.

Conio felt like she could swim all the way there if she had to. Of course she didn't. but it was so close and the Festival was in only two days. They started looking for an extra branch or something to paddle with, only there was one problem, the wind was against them. They hadn't noticed the wind before, but now it as howling like mad! Coni and Kila had to think fast because the log was drifting faster every moment. They decided to take the risk of swimming all the way to the island ( the island was getting smaller every moment.) This of course was the only logical thing they could do, because the log was drifting into open sea and if they didn't do anything they would probally never see land again before the passed away, because of no food. So they hurridly jumped into the water. it was freezing (as it had been before) only now there were waves, hugh crashing waves, and they began swimming. As you know tyilkas can swim for a long time without getting tired, only now with the waves so big and not having anyhting to eat they had swam only about a half an hour and were near passed out. The island was getting closer, but it was still a ways away. About another half an hour later they were near drowning, when the wind died down a little, the only problem was they were to tired to swim anymore. It was about fifteen minutes later when they finally couldn't swim anymore, they gradually stopped, fell asleep, and surprizingly floated. For once things went right and the next mourning they found themselves on the shore of the island. what had happened was, the wind, which had become ony a breeze and had turned direction carried their floating bodies to the shore. It was late in the nourning when they finally came to, it only took them a couple of minutes to relize they had landed on the island. The only thing they could think of at the moment was finding some food, with all the strength they had left they crawled further in and found some berries and three small squirrels to eat. After their breakfast they thought about the Festival, it was 20th of November and te Festival was the 21st of November, the next day! Neiother of them knew were exactly on the island were the Festival was held, they didn't see any city or any signs of a city anywhere, nor any gates. They decided that they had gotten this far and it wouldn't do any good tpo just sit there, so they decided to go to the middle of the island (which is usually where something big is.) This island was bigger than it seemed to be and by mid-afternoon they still hadn't found even a clue to where the city was. They had a late lunch and continued, finally it was getting dark and still they didn't have an idea to where the city was. They kept searching until it was so dark you couldn't see in front of you. They felt their way into what they thought was an old cave, they went inside and fell asleep. The next mourning they woke early to find that the "cave" they had slept in was a gate. Then they heard bugles coming from inside and footsteps, someone was coming. Quickly they got up and waited, only now the bugling was growing softer and so were the footsteps, the Festival must be starting! Coni and Kila couldn't wait any longer, they pushed the hugh gate door open and quickly walked throuhg, everything was silent there was nothing but broken buildings of stone. They shut the gate doors behing them and started to walk down the biggest path they could see. The path went on for about a mile then finally they came to a wall and on the wall (which was full of overgrown vines) they saw a small wooden door. THey opened the door nad stepped through. On the other side of the wall it was beautiful! Everything was trimmed in gold or silver, there was food everywhere and of course, leaves! Mostly gold leaves and everthing else had leaves craved into them. There was only twelve other tyilkas there, none that either Coni or Kila knew(this meant that a lot of their friends might have died) they looked like they had been enjoying themselves thorughly and at the head of the Grand Room there were five very old tyilkas, the Five Great Tyilkas! Each on represents one thing of the Great Tyilka Leave Festival: Bravery, strength, honesty, faith, and courage. When Coni and Kila walked in, everyone stopped laughing and talking and looked at them. After a long pause one of the Five Great Tyilkas said to them, "Who goes there and how did you get here?" Coni replied, "I am Conilul of Sirnette and this is my friend Kilanna of Sirnette. We have come on a quest to The Great Tyilka leave Festival and have only just arrived, I hope we are not to late." As she spoke she relized that they had really made it, they had gotten throuhg the gates without noticing it! "No, not at all my dear children Conilul and Kilanna of Sirnette, you are just in time," the Great Tyilka replied. After that they started celebrating with the others and told the Great Tyilkas of their journey. The Great Tyilkas were impressed and the rest of the day was like living in a dream.

Coni said, right before she died, "If you work hard you will accomplish much."

That night they stayed at the Festival and the next morning, as they set out, they were called back and there the Great Tyilkas showed them a secret way to go back. It is almost impossible tro explain what the secret way was like. It was kinda like a tunnel, but like a river and something else that is just to complicated to explain. It only took them a couple hours to get back and whent they did the whole tyilka city of Sirnette was waiting for them. Of course the city of Sirnette didn't know if anyone would show up but they decided to wait at the place they had started and see. The feelings were mixed, they were so happy that Coni and Kila had made it, but all the others. The whole town took a moment to remember the tyilkas that hadn't made it, then celebrated Coni and Kila coming back safely.

After returning and relaxing for a while both Coni and Kila helped train young tyilkas in many ways and told them stories of the Festival. There were many more Festivals, and a lot of the tyilkas they trained made it. Though they themselves didn't ever do the quest again they both became Great Tyilkas. Coni represented bravery and Kila reprsented honesty. They lived a great many years later until they finally died at the ages 171 and 172(Kila died first.)