Buyan

In the early days, long before even people, the Slavic gods danced and played throughout their domain. The island of Buyan, an island with the ability to appear and disappear with the tides, played home to some of the lesser gods, being the land where weather, seasons, and sky were controlled. These were controlled by Perun, the God of skies and storm who lived deep within the Sacred Oak, or so the legends said, while his subordinates, the three wind brothers, Northern Wind, Western Wind, and Eastern Wind lived in the outskirts of the island, battling each other with their winds.

Not long after man swept through the Slavic lands, they set their sights on the mysterious island, hoping to make a home there to set up a port for whaling and fishing, so, on a day where the tides were low, a group of men set out to conquer the island. This group sailed to the island and moored their boats, and charged onto the land. However, unbeknownst to them, the island was empty. All that they could see was a massive oak tree, larger than anything they had ever seen before, and towering mountains towards the back of the island. The men searched and searched, only finding animal life but no human life. Deeming their conquest a success, the people rushed to set up a village, moving their wive and children and livestock to the island, claiming it as their own.

For months, the settlers built their new village and lived there comfortably, setting up a decent fishing operation, bringing in mackerel and herring in droves. What the settlers didn’t realize, however, is that with the tides, the island would vanish from sight. One day, a group of whalers set forth from the island to hunt a great whale that was said to inhabit nearby the Norwegian coastline. However, upon their return, the whalers could not find the island, there was no sight of it. In the days they spent searching, they were hit with storm after storm until eventually the ship was destroyed. Some of the men survived, only to notice the island had returned after the tides went back out. However, the island was untouched. The survivors asked how long the village had been underwater, but none of the settlers knew anything they spoke about.

Life on the island was peaceful, yet those who braved the seas away from it would be hit with storms and deadly winds as well as dangerous whirlpools. Eventually, after losing many ships, the settlers of the island forbade anyone from leaving the island once they arrived. It appeared that anyone could arrive on the island with little to no trouble, as more and more settlers from the Slavic lands would arrive, but none could leave for their ships would be destroyed in the terrible weather that plagued the seas around the island. However, these storms proved beneficial as well, as they repealed many Norse raids, keeping the viking raiders at bay for enough time for the villagers to prepare for a siege. No invasion ever hit the island, however, the Norsemen returning and telling their men that the island would ebb and flow, appearing and disappearing before their very eyes.

Deep within the forests of the island, legends told of a fearsome beast named the Indrik, a beast with the body and face of a wolf, the antlers and legs of a stag, and the scales of a dragon. This beast resided under the mountains and within the woodlands and was believed to be the king of all beasts. Many worshiped this beast, claiming that each kill they made was thanks to the beast, yet some set out to trap and kill it. These men never returned and more and more opinions turned against the beast, with missions and quests to kill the beast, yet for years these missions went with no success.

The civilization on the island of Buyan grew farther and farther from their Slavic roots, worshiping the Sacred Oak that grew in the center of the island, some claiming to have even seen the god Perun or the brothers of the wind, yet, their existence was never proven. Others claimed a healing rock known as Alatyr existed on the island, guarded by the Gagana bird and the serpent Garafana. However, society progressed and the fishing industry took over, fishing the harbor that was protected by the storms. The brave few who ventured out were never to return, and the myths and legends began to fade, as they always do.

Eventually, after an expedition to El Dorado and a return home to Oxford, a now one-handed Dr. Everett Erie made a stop on his next voyage to search for the lost island of Buyan. After days of circling on the Barent’s Sea, an island appeared right before the crew’s eyes. They touched down on the island, bypassing a dangerous storm, landing and meeting with the locals.

The locals told tales about their folklore and warned Erie that he will never escape the island now and that if he does it’ll come with a curse. Erie didn’t believe this, but was enthralled with the idea of Alatyr, a healing stone, and, hoping to heal his hand, he sought it out. After days of travel, he encountered a ferocious beast in the woodlands, and battled it, wounding it severely, but just before delivering the killing blow, the beast looked at him, staring him in the eye, and suddenly, he froze, dropping his sword and gently touching the beast.

Erie assisted the beast, not knowing what it was, and nursed it on his quest. Eventually, they reached the stone and Erie faced the serpent and the bird, but the beast began to speak to them, to what Erie believed he could understand, and the beasts stood back, allowing Erie to approach. He reached the stone, ready for his hand back, but he saw the injured beast limping away, before summoning it back. He used the incantation on the stone to heal the beast, and soon, the stone vanished. Only one use per person was etched on the wall, to which one of Erie’s men told him. Erie chuckled and mentioned he must not have noticed. The party returned, having released the beast back to the forest. It nodded to him and seemed to speak, granting him good passage through the storms on his next voyage.

Erie would return to his ship and the beast’s passage allowed him through, yet, the curse seemed to play through and, on Erie’s final expedition, he reached the Passage and was never heard from again. Some say Erie reached the passage and ascended, having bypassed his selfish ways, joining the beasts and gods he assisted along the way. Others say this is an old wives tale. But hey, what do I know? I’m just a simple narrator with a story about a selfish man who learned the errors of his ways.

- E. E.