Grumtup the Green's Tog Tales (book)
Grumtup the Green's Tog Tales
Boar Clan Story
This is a story of how some Togs started living in a place called Boar Clan. When the S'Kra said good-bye to the Togs, the Togs were very happy. They were happy until it started to get cold and dark. Then it snowed, and the Togs were not happy at all. Some wanted to go home to the S'Kra. Some Togs wandered in the forests and across the sand to find a new home. It was a very hard thing to do, because the Togs didn't know how to hunt or build a campfire, but Togs knew how to work hard. So, they worked hard at trying to find a home. They carried little with them from their old home, but they did have some knives, heavy squishers, and a pouch full of turnip seed.
One day, Grumtup's Grandtog met some Dwarves in the woods. Grandtog was not afraid of anything, but the Dwarf who spoke to him first was very hairy and that made Grandtog a little afraid. Grandtog thought the Dwarf was a very small ape, but the Dwarf was nice and didn't fling any dung like a very small ape might. The Dwarves knew many things about the forests and the rivers and, mostly, the mountains. They shared their lessons with the Togs, and the Togs were happy. Togs learned to track animals and find useful plants. Most think Togs can't learn, but they're wrong. Togs just need more time to learn. When we do learn a lesson, we work very hard to remember it. A good remembering trick the Dwarves showed the Togs is how to write lessons down so remembering and sharing were easier.
Then one day, a great invasion of trolls came to the Dwarves' home in the mountains, and Togs used their heavy squishers and knives to help their friends. After that day, the Dwarves said that if Togs watched their mountains so no more invasions came to them, the Togs could have the forest steppes at the bottom of the mountains as their living-place. So, Togs went to live with the boars in the forest between the mountains and the river.
Togs were happy to share the land with the boars. Like Everild, the boars are fierce warriors, and Togs think this is a very good and noble thing to be. Togs and the boars were friends while the boars helped build longhouses for Togs' first cold winter. They worked together that first spring when the turnip seed needed to be planted in the long furrows. But the boars dug up the growing turnips long before they got big enough for Togs to eat. The boars got very fat on small turnips, and Togs got very hungry.
Togs thought long and hard on how to fix the problem. They tried to build a wall around their turnips, but the inside was too small to grow enough for Togs. So Togs decided to show the boars how fierce Tog warriors are, and Togs began to hunt the boars and learned they taste good with fat turnips. Then Togs were very happy, even when it got cold and dark. Even when it snowed.
That is how some Togs came to start a living-place called Boar Clan. The lesson in this story is that everything in Nature has something it's supposed to do, even if that something isn't anything you notice right away, even Togs and boars.
Ranger Story
Some stories are important to know -- they have lessons inside them. So we don't forget, we write them down. Writing is better than remembering because writing stays after you forget and sometimes it even stays after you die. That is why Grumtup is writing this story about how the Rangers started a Guild at Boar Clan. The Clan and the Guild are like togglers of different mothers that grew up together like twins. So, a lesson learned about Rangers is a lesson learned about Boar Clan.
Since the start of all stories, Rangers have talked to the sky and listened to the forest. These are the voices of Nature. Nature is a Ranger's teacher and challenger. There are many lessons to be learned, but there is danger too. Rangers gathered lessons from Nature like berries from a bush and shared them with other Rangers around campfires. Some could do magic better than others, and some were better fighters. Every Ranger had a special skill, and so there were always a lot of lessons to swap. Most Rangers learned that Nature has Balance. The bug eats the leaf, the fish eats the bug, the bear eats the fish, the leucro eats the bear, the Tog eats the leucro, worms eat the Tog, and what is left makes the tree's leaves grow green. There is no deciding what is good or bad in Nature; it just is.
Then came the Time of Chaos, when the Dragon Priests brought their bad magic to the realms. They unbalanced Nature, and this was bad. Rangers saw this and sent out their companions and signals across the land with a message that all Rangers needed to gather to talk about what they were all seeing. And so there was a Great Gathering.
At the Great Gathering, Rangers shared news and ideas about the Dragon Priests and Dark Hand, the forest they made down south. (Some Rangers didn't talk much, but they brought the ale, so they could stay by the fires anyway.) Some Rangers talked and said when someone works hard to unbalance Nature, Rangers needed to be like a steady arm to help Nature be balanced again. Some Rangers didn't agree because they thought Nature always Balanced itself.
"So, what is a Ranger?" someone asked, and for many days and nights the Rangers talked about that. When there was no more ale, they decided that there was no single answer to that question. A Ranger was all the things they talked about -- hunters, survivalists, those who could harness Life Magic and those who could befriend wild animals. But most of all, a Ranger was someone who was so attuned to Nature that their senses and survival skills were sharper and the ability to hunt their prey as natural as eating turnips. A few of them could use their attunement to Nature so well that they could make things happen that normally would not. One could make the wind so strong that leaves blew away.
Another talk at the Great Gathering was about making a place to keep gathering and sharing lessons. It was decided that guildleaders needed to be the ones to gather, keep and share these lessons. They would stay at guildhalls in places all over the realms so Rangers could still wander. For many years, the teaching of one Ranger by another continued and this was how many became Rangers. Over time, the guild made Rangers better at what they do. Rangers started sending those who wanted to be Rangers to a guildhall so they would be able to hear all of the lessons remembered there.
But before any Ranger left the Great Gathering, it was decided that only Rangers who were called would go fight the Dragon Priests, and those who weren't called would not fight the Dragon Priests.
Grumtupp the Bigger is the Grandtog of Grumtup the Green. Grumtupp the Bigger learned from Dwarven Rangers about the new Guild made at the Great Gathering. With the help of the Dwarves, he built a grand guildhall at Boar Clan and filled it with as much knowledge as he could so lessons would be remembered and learned by new Rangers. After many years, Rangers from all over the realms started going to gatherings there. Now, I am very happy to say my Grandtoggler, Paglar, will be the guildleader for Boar Clan. In his honor, I, Grumtup the Green, write this Ranger Story.