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The giant lum ox was a mythical creature with ivory horns. For a thousand years he guarded a patch of gumpwort mushrooms on the top of a mesa north of the Bor River (historian estimate that this was nearly a half century before the reign of Entharion the Wise). These mushrooms were in fact the form which a sacred and magical fairy council circle assumed during the daylight hours while they slept. The lum ox was fiercely protective of them.
When Ryker’s beloved Acia was struck ill by a curse (c. 957-966 GUE), he scaled the mesa in search of the gumpwort fungus only to find it guarded by the lum ox. The human’s lack of fear at the lum ox’s massive form made it wild with anger; so wild that he did not see the trap that Ryker had set. The beast’s fury centered on the billowing cape which Ryker used to allure it with. The lum ox charged toward it, plunging headlong over the edge of the mesa and met his end in the swiftly-running river at its base.
Swept along by the current, the corpse traveled downstream. The stream joined the Bor River, carrying the ox more swiftly toward the vast expanse of the sea, then flowed into the Borphee River. The beast might have felt some consolation in knowing that he could still offer protection to Gurthark the Stout who had nearly been eaten by a gigantic sea serpent. Grasping for breath, the plump man clambered up on the decaying body. When the elfin princess Myla found him stranded on the lum ox, she assumed that Gurthark had been the one that had slain the legendary creature. Thinking him a great hero, she brought him to the Kingdom of the Elves to vanquish a cyclops. Before departing, Gurthark wrenched the ox’s ivory horns; the rotting flesh easily giving up the prize. Myla saw this as proof of his bravery.
