Legends of Belariath
Callie Volopa
The Story of Haiaka, Kinaya and Kayami
A Legend of the Verlosi Vulpine Tribe
As Told by Callie Volopa
Twenty-five hundred years ago in the Verlosi home village of Verlosi'ka, there lived a brown-furred Legendary Dancer named Haiaka who, at the moment of his soul-joining, was blessed with an especially creative and energetic spirit. Every night in the village for months, while his birthyear-mates celebrated their soul-joining with rampant sex and drink, Haiaka danced in the town square. His elegant, graceful and gravity-defying movements were unlike anything the Verlosi had ever seen before, and it soon became apparent to all that his spirit had been Touched by The Lady.
But Haiaka was desperate for the attention of his childhood friend, Kinaya, whom he'd fallen in love with when they first started school together at the tender age of six. This whole time, Kinaya had never known the depth of his feelings for her, though she considered Haiaka to be one of her very best friends. Now that Kinaya had been soul-joined, however, she spent her days and nights in the traditional manner of the newly soul-joined-- in revelry, delighting in the pleasures of the flesh. Though she had the occasional friendly conversation in passing with Haiaka, she didn't have much time for him in her youthful lust, especially since Haiaka was spending his nights dancing and not celebrating.
Obviously, none of Haiaka's birthyear-mates were among those who regularly came to see him dance, but many slightly older, significantly older and pre-soul-joining people watched every night and were entranced by the beauty of his movements. But as the months went by and the possibility of a relationship with Kinaya seemed to become more and more an impossible dream, Haiaka grew despondent. His elder friends advised him to be patient, but when Haiaka finally took a night off from his dancing and went into a pub only to find Kinaya there in the midst of an orgy with seven other vulpines, Haiaka was devastated.
Haiaka ran away into the mountains, not really sure where he was going but feeling the need to get as far away from the Verlosi'ka as he could. While climbing a mountain path, the Legendary Dancer tripped his foot on a stone and landed badly on his neck, suffering paralysis from the waist down.
Haiaka lay on the mountain path for three hours, squirming, writhing and crying out in pain, until he was found and rescued by a lovely red-furred vulpine woman three years his senior, a healer named Kayami. Though Kayami was able to heal Haiaka's minor wounds, his paralysis proved impossible to heal even with the most powerful healing magic of the time. Kayami took it upon herself to make a home for Haiaka and help take care of him.
As Haiaka came to realize that he would never walk again, he began verbally teaching Kayami his legendary dance forms. Thanks to his patient and skillful teaching, Kayami ultimately became almost as good as the Legendary Dancer himself. Through his teaching and Kayami's affectionate assistance of the paralyzed dancer, the two of them became good friends, lovers, and ultimately married four years to the day of Haiaka's soul-joining. The wise Kayami could see how much her husband missed his home, though, and so at her behest, the couple moved back to Verlosi'ka soon afterward to open a School of Dance.
Haiaka's School of Dance soon became known throughout the land for the stringent demands it placed on its students. Out of three hundred applicants for the first year, only 16 had the honor of graduating seven years later. And one of the sixteen was Haiaka's old crush, Kinaya, who'd grown out of her “all sex, all the time” immediate post-joining phase and began pursuing other interests as well. Though Haiaka only had eyes for Kayami, he and Kinaya reconciled and became the closest of friends once again.
Haiaka died young of a heart attack at the age of 431, and his body was entombed beneath the school that he and his lover had built. Every now and then an inspiring vulpine dancer emerges from his or her soul-joining, and that person is often said to have the spirit of Haiaka inside them. Though whether this is literally true or not is not for mere mortals to know.
Today, nearly 2500 years after its founding, Haiaka's School of Dance still trains aspiring dancers for seven months out of every year, and its legendary standards of excellence are every bit as high as they've ever been. Its graduates, which earn the right to call themselves the “Vol'ka Haiaka”-- “students of Haiaka”-- number about nine hundred strong and, while predominately vulpine, also count humans, wolvens, Drak Sen, elves and pixies among their ranks.