The Rolling Hills

In search of a home

At the edge of the Moon trail mountains in southern Irai, a beautiful landscape lies, with hills in all shapes and sizes, almost making the ground looks like large waves in the ocean. The landscape has been home to many stories throughout the years, but one story has been told for as long as the spoken language made it possible.  
A legend and a mysterious story for the mountain folk that roams the hills in the area, and slowly move around.
    The story itself is kinda absurd when most hear about it, but it's the only "known" explanation and story of the happenings in the area.  

The people of the mountain

  Millennia ago, a dispute occurred within the mountain folk, a disagreement so big that it led to a large group being banished from their homes. This group of mountain folk was now forced to leave the safety of their home on top of the beautiful mountain tops, and as they wandered down the stones and rocks, they looked for a new place to stay.   They came by a beautiful lake with the most beautiful waters, but the lake people weren't interested in the mountain folk, and they didn't want them in their town.   So the mountain folk reluctantly continued their search for a new home, down the hills they went.   A beautiful marsh now revealed itself at the bottom of the mountain, and the mountain folk thought this could be a nice new home. But also this place was already occupied and the marsh folk were not interested in having more mouths to feed and dismissed the mountain folk.   Discouraged and tired, the group continued their walk down the hills and land, endlessly searching for a new home, but the story never ends in them finding their new home.. No matter where they arrived, the people there weren't interested in them, and send them on their way. To this day, they are still roaming the lands of Irai in search of a place where they are finally accepted.   And the mountain folk can still be seen on their search across the rolling hills of Irai, now many centuries later, slowly moving towards a new home.

Illustration

by CatRobi
 

Details

Location

  The hills just at the foot of the moon trail mountain range in Irai.  

Geography

  Hills, both big and small, fills a rather larger area, and reaches from the mountains and almost to the ocean. The hills mostly have small vegetation like grass and bushes, with low trees as well.
Now, as sad as the story may seem, there aren't a group of humans aimlessly walking around Irai, but rather a group of very peculiar stones. The mountain folk has been walking, searching so long that they slowly turned into stones themselves. Though this didn't stop them, and the stones are still moving a couple of meters each year. The stones are quite large, and oddly round for natural stones. The group is around 50 stones, which differs in size, but common for them all is, that they are round and smooth. The stones are too big to be moved around by a couple of humans, so it has been quite the mystery of how exactly these stones walk.  
The most peculiar thing is, that it can't even be explained with "oh, it's just gravity pushing them down the hills" as the stones don't stay in the small valleys between the hills, but actually moves uphill as well.
  This story is retold from generation to generation, and children love a good mystery like that. It wasn't written down until a couple of hundreds of years ago and has only survived by being told from person to person.  


Cover image: by CatRobi