An Attempt at Fantasy: A Bit of Dialogue

Something strange is in the air. Smells damp.

...

"Please bother us no longer. We don't wish to cause disturbance, and insist instead on peaceful harmony. Your refuge here has brought us ill will, malady and misfortune, and we have done nothing to deserve such blight. On the contrary, we are weary from our travels - we only want solitude from whence we came and prosperity in a foreign land."

"Your kind have come here and desecrated these holy grounds. For months, you have looted our fields for provender and burned our forests for your comfort. You lack respect for those who have rested centuries in and through these hills. You have no rights here; it is our home, and we take umbrage not at your pilgrimage but at your harvest of our sanctum. This is no place for you, who do nothing but tear apart earth and its creatures and offer nothing in return."

"We offer nothing to those who haunt us in the night and spoil our crops and afflict our livestock! My people have come here to build new cities and new lives for our children; your ilk torture and threaten us. What rights have the dead to the land of the living?"

"How haughty you are, princess. We come from beyond you, yet we are every bit of material as you. We, too, desire peace, and these hills are our sanctuary, granted to us after a half-millennium of wandering among the dead. You may come to bid us alms. You may not pillage our graves."

"How have we pillaged your graves? There are no markings here nor any sign of dedication. What is your blessing? I see no steeple, watcher or headstone among these hills. You are baleful, and you cause trouble. Only strong, cautious and wary souls would see peace upon death, yet you have been banished to wander this temporal plane."

"You are foolish and naïve. You think we are unworthy of repose. But we fought for our posterior with valor and integrity. There is honor in every one of these souls on which you've trampled. We have wandered for so long following wars that predate your history, before your men declared themselves kings among the land and among your own people. Before so few of you chose to conquer all other men and place yourselves among all other tranquil life and earth. We are not the invaders of peace."

"Then why have you forsaken us and tortured us? Where is your honor there?"

"You do not understand the ways of honor. We have no one to protect but ourselves, and we can only protect ourselves by spell and curse, for we are cursed by your ancestors. Kind souls many ages ago have heard our plight and released us from the binds of a purposeless eternity. We have only these three hills through which water and verdure intertwine, and the creatures that graze and reciprocate to watch and protect. Without this, we have nothing to return to but the demons in their caves."

"If we settle, we disturb the ecosystem you protect."

"Only by your nature."

"Then I am sorry. We've come so far, and I guess we have longer yet to journey. It is against me to grant you restitution that I feel undeserved, but my people have suffered enough; we can't live in cursed land. Give us a fortnight to prepare the caravans, do not disturb us, and we will depart before dusk of the next full moon. May you keep these lands safe."

"I'm glad you see things our way. Farewell, princess. May you fare better in another place."