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Photo from Laurie Allen. Thanks, Laurie!

A Terrible Silence

Tao: We’ve been following this trail for quite a while, Dar. How can you be sure that a tiger you’ve never met needs your help?
Dar: It's ignoring prey it would normally hunt. It tells me it’s sick. Think about how much it’ll appreciate what you’ve gone through to help him.
Tao: Personally, I think tigers look down on me as meat.
Dar: Why do you think that?
Tao: Because they’re tigers and I’m meat.
Iara: You’re slow, too, and easy to sneak up on.

Iara: Come on, Dar. Nature’s humming along smoothly. My creatures are happy. The birds are happy, and the bees... There's time to spend a little time together.
Dar: Iara, when are you going to understand that I have no place in my life for the kind of friendship you want.
Iara: You have no idea what i can do for you, to you...
Tao: Right! Well, I’m going to head off down this way.
Iara: Keep a-walking, Tao. We’ll be a while.
Dar: No, we won’t. When are you going to understand that I'm not interested? Nothing will ever happen between us because you are not a woman, no matter how much you want to believe that you are. So, please, just go and do whatever it is that you do, and just leave me alone.

Tao: Dar, a wise man once said that there’s nothing more dangerous than a woman scorned.
Dar: Tao, she’s not a woman.
Tao: No, it’s something that can get even angrier.
Dar: It’s as gentle as I can be. She’ll have to understand.
Tao: I just feel that you may have painted a target on your back.

Dar: a tiger that can’t hunt becomes a man-eater because we’re easier to catch.
Hjalmar: I owe you a debt.
Dar: Repay me by not hunting in this forest. Because if his injury prevents him from catching anything else, he’ll come back for you.
Hjalmar: I’ll remember that.

Iara: You saved a human form a death he deserved, denying a hungry tiger his meal.
Dar: Iara.
Iara: That human you saved just killed a deer. You value humans more than me and my animals.
Dar: What?
Iara: You were made special, but now you use your powers to put your own kind above my creatures.
Dar: That’s not true!
Iara: From now on, I take away your gift.
Tao: No!
Iara: You’ll no longer speak to those you love too little.
Ancient One in his aerie: You fool!
Iara: Now no beast will know your thoughts, and you will no longer hear theirs. You are no longer the Beastmaster.

Sorceress II: What’s happening?
Ancient One: The little demon oversteps her bounds again. First she imprisons the demon Curupira, which she has no business doing.
Sorceress II: Iara?
Ancient One: Who else? Then she disrupts all things natural, and why? Because he rejected her pathetic advances and hurt her precious feelings.

Ancient One: Demons can do just about anything except possibly think what might happen when they do just about anything.

Tao: So what do we do now?
Dar: We had lives before I was granted my powers. We’ll have lives again.
Tao: Maybe Iara will have a change of heart.
Dar: I wouldn’t count on it.
Tao: Do you feel any different?
Dar: No, but so much sound is gone. I never realized how much I heard before.

Tao: So that’s it. It’s the end of the Beastmaster.
Dar: No, it’s not. I may not be able to speak with animals, but it’s not the end of maintaining the balance of nature.
Tao: What do you mean?
Dar: My people, the Sulas, you know that they respected nature and protected animals. I’m still a Sula, so that’s not going to change.
Tao: Yeah, but they can’t understand you, and you can’t understand them.
Dar: But I'm still me. I’m where I’m supposed to be and I’m doing what I’m meant to do.

Voden: Talk to me.
Ivory Trader: Please. I’m telling you the truth. I found that ivory.
Voden: No, no, no. A man finds a broken shard, a tusk, two at the most, but you had enough ivory in your wagon to outfit a small herd of elephants.
Ivory Trader: There’s no law against hunting.
Voden: And no single hunter who can bring down so many of the great beasts.

Voden: The elephant graveyard.
Hjalmar: I never believed it was real.
Voden: There’s enough ivory to pay for a hundred campaigns.
Hjalmar: What about the stories?
Voden: They say the ground is covered in tusks.
Hjalmar: They also say you suffer the wrath of the gods if you disturb them.
[Ivory Trader screams in pain outside the tent.]
Voden: Perhaps that’s true.

Tao: Ruh, am I glad to see you.
[Ruh growls.]
Tao: What’s going on?
Dar: He doesn’t understand.
Tao: He looks like he’s going to attack.
Dar: No, he knows it’s us. He just doesn’t understand why I won’t talk to him.
[Ruh walks away.]
Dar: Goodbye, my friend.

Iara: Why are you so upset? It’s my realm and I can do as i like!
Ancient One: It must be wonderful to be the only person in the world who matters.
Iara: He’s only a human.
Ancient One: When one form of magic is interfered with, all forms become unstable. For every action, there’s an equal and opposite...
[Iara sighs dramatically.]
Ancient One: Never mind.

Ancient One: Give him back the ability to speak with the animals.
Iara: You ask too much.
Ancient One: It’s the only way.
Iara: No! He has to learn that he belongs to me. He has to bend to my will.

Voden: I envy your journey and I look forward to your return.
Hjalmar: All in your name, milord.
Voden: Think of it. A hundred campaigns with enough riches to pay for so many warriors and weapons that no army in the world will dare stand against us.
Hjalmar: No one dares to stand against us now.
Voden: And let’s keep it that way.

Sorceress II: I thought we were going somewhere else. Does your magic falter already?
Ancient One: No. My magic will be the last to go, but I had to see this for myself. Our situation is more desperate than I thought.
Sorceress II: More desperate than the loss of our world?
Ancient One: Worlds come and go. As long as the memory of how to make them remains, all is not lost.
Sorceress II: The memory?
Ancient One: Yes, and that, too, is in great danger.
Sorceress II: What shall we do?
Ancient One: The only thing we can do. Interfere.

Tao: Where are we going? I mean, I know it’s your job as a Sula to pretect the animals, but there are animals here. Why are we going over there?
Dar: Walking helps me think.
Tao: Thinking. That I understand, but we’re walking aimlessly in pursuit of nothing.

Ancient One: Ic an only help those who help themselves.
Tao: So Dar can get his gift back.
Ancient One: yes. You can recover your powers by earning them as you did once before.
Dar: Does that mean that I have to endure Curupira’s test again?
Ancient One: No, but you must pass three very demanding tasks to show your dedication to the animals, your willingness to make great sacrifice for them, and to prove that you always keep your word to those you were chosen to protect.

Ancient One: My sorceress will observe to make sure you pass each task.
Tao: Why?
Sorceress II: Well, yours isn’t the only world at stake, and your powers aren’t the only ones that may disappear.

Tao: Why is Sharak staying so close when you haven’t spoken to him all day?
Dar: Sometimes animals can sense when something’s wrong. Maybe he’s just sticking around to see if he can help.
Tao: You can’t see what he sees anymore. What help can he be?
Dar: Sometimes, Tao, friends help by being there, you know?
Tao: Yeah, I know. I know.

Dar: This could be my first test.
Tao: Oh, Dar!
Dar: No, he said I had to test my dedication.
Tao: I have never met a man more dedicated to helping a rogue tiger that is dedicated to eating him.

Ancient One: I’m afraid the Sorceress’s device is failing on her.
Iara: That’s her problem. My magic is as strong as ever.
Ancient One: Oh really?
Iara: Look beyond the edge and watch it rain.
Ancient One: Perfect weather for a picnic.
Iara: You’re stopping it.
Ancient One: How dies it feel to lose one’s special gift?

Iara: Nothing’s happening.
Ancient One: No, it isn’t, is it? Perhaps you should have done that when you had your powers. Maybe Curupira could help.
Iara: If I can’t do this, then I can’t release her.

Hjalmar: Let me see. You're wondering if I have a sense of fair play and honor. To tell the truth, I do.

Ancient One: It appears your magic faces more and more.
Sorceress II: But you’re not out of tricks.
Ancient One: Not yet, but I will be affected soon. The Nords are getting nearer to the elephants’ graveyard.
Sorceress II: What does that have to do with anything?
Ancient One: If they take the ivory, a lot more will be lost than my powers.
Sorceress II: You have some connection to the elephants?
Ancient One: Yes, we’re a lot alike--unflappable, timeless and with a touch of nobility.

Hjalmar: You need to eat. We’ve still got a long way to go.
Dar: I don’t eat meat.
Hjalmar: You will when you’re hungry. I won’t let you starve.

Tao: And you can’t steal the ivory from the elephant graveyard. The legend says that if...
Hjalmar: I know what the legend says, believe me. The doom it predicts is nothing compared to Voden’s wrath if I don’t bring the ivory back.

Tao: I can’t hear them behind us any more.
Dar: They must have given up. We’re not as valuable as ivory.
Iara: They gave up because of me. I put a couple of snakes in their path. Little ones. Not even poisonous. It’s all I could do.
Tao: I think you’ve already done enough.
Iara: I’ve probably still got enough magic left to deal with the likes of you!
Dar: What do you want, Iara?
Sorceress II: She wants to offer what you and I would call an apology, only it’s a concept foreign to her nature.

Sorceress II: The balance has been disturbed.
Iara: Our powers are failing, Dar. If we don’t do something, then we’re all lost.
Tao: And whose fault would that be?

Tao: I wish we could restore your powers and leave hers turned off.

Tao: How could you let him do this?
Ancient One: The decision was his and he made the right decision.
Tao: How can you say that? Look!
Ancient One: Be quiet. I must begin.
Tao: Is this working?
Ancient One : I will not have your human emotions intruding here.

Ancient One: Your task of sacrifice is complete. Should you pass your next test, your powers will be returned.

Dar: I don’t have time, Iara.
Iara: I don’t want to slow you down. I just... I just want to say I’m sorry.
Dar: Let’s talk about this later.
Iara: I know I shouldn’t have done what I did. I don't know why I did what I did. I don’t even know why I’m doing this. I just have a feeling it’s supposed to help.
Tao: If you want to help, you should think less about yourself and more about the creatures you claim to care for.
Iara: Don’t you understand how I felt? I come from this world of cold blood and darkness. You, you’re the warmth and the light. How could I not be attracted?

Ancient One: Our magic can’t be relied upon. It now all depends on Dar passing the last test.
Iara: And if he doesn’t?
Ancient One: If he doesn’t, then our final act will be to watch a world of madness and darkness take our place.

Dar: Tao... Run!
Tao: If I die, you’re in trouble!

Tao: Why do I go along with these things?
Dar: Because you trust me, that’s why.
Tao: That’s another one of my problems.
Dar: Don’t worry. He won’t take us down straight away.
Tao: How do you know?
Dar: Because he’s a hunter. He’ll take his time.
Tao: Oh, good! Something else to look out for.

Hjalmar at the elephant graveyard: We’ll never be able to carry it all.

Ancient One: Madness and darkness!
Sorceress II: What is it?
Ancient One: My head. No! I’m starting to forget.

Dar: How close is the tiger?
Tao: I can’t see him anymore.
Dar: Good.
Tao: Good? It’s hunting us, not them.
Dar: I wouldn’t be so sure.

Hjalmar: You should’ve kept running.
Dar: I don’t run.

Hjalmar: You lied about losing your gift.
Dar: I don’t lie, either.
Hjalmar: What’s all this, then?
Dar: It’s proof I’ve gotten it back.

Ancient One: I, myself will be leaving for a time. No, don’t panic, my dear. You won’t be getting rid of the old grouch that easily.
Iara: Then why leave?
Ancient One: It was your interference that convinced me to search for stronger magic. Don’t consider this an opportunity, Iara, because it’s not. While I’m away, there will be no more mischief.
Iara: No more. You have my word.

Tao: I guess he now knows that you were his friend all along.
Dar: Now he knows his life can go on. He can still contribute to the balance of nature.