In the beginning

The now decriped ruins of the palace was a sorry sight, i could almost see its former glory scattered on the stones, bits of paint, streaks of presious metal still cling to the walls, pillars, door ways...anything yet to be caught by the sands.
More distracts loomed up, causing minor disruptions in the surroundings. Energy swirled in this place, unknown to me how this occured. The lower we went the more there seemed to be. The abundance in energy only fueled my strength. How many mortals lost there lifes/sanity trying to navigate this place?
I could not sense any wandering souls, though a constant pulse of energy, sounding like a steady, strong heart beat thrummed in my head.

Sharp stones, stray sand gave way to smooth marble slabs, the cavern we now stood in gave me cause to stop and look around in wonder. This was more like it, this was what i liked to see.
But what sat in the middle was far more interesting, and cause for concern.
The sudden scrutiny of 8 beings was uncomfortable, but after seeing there sate, it was dissmissed.
Old, so old, a strong gust of wind would probably topple one of them, and the slightest scratch, would open the flesh like a hot knife through a butter.
The smell of the carvern was like a snake pit, dry and musty, altogether unpleasent.
However, the robes they wore were clean new-looking, long boney fingers rested on the arms of there thrones, feet planted together, like they had been told to sit like this, feet here, hands there.

Pillars, the pillars...8 Pillars, jagged at the top, had they been cut in half? Or eroded by time?
The inhabitants of this room now forgotten as i made way slowly to the first pillar, moving clockwise around my hand reached out to run along each black smooth surface.
"This colour is wrong....They should be white...Pure...Untouched..."
I felt strange, almost like a dream like state, the nagging feeling became stronger as i stared up at each pillar in turn, they are familar to me, like a long lost friend.

The sun is high in the sky; the flies and other bugs are in the air, circling our food, resting on clothes or the food, for a rest before being flicked away by one or another.

The food has been delicious, the company as great as usual, the conversations have been thrilling, I am now near the hog roast, and make my final move, into a position where it will be served to me.

As I sit I look at the chair to ensure, I do not miss the seat, resting my hands of either side of the seat so as I can guide my bum onto the seat and look up towards the people around me, I see her sat there for the first time.

My bum hovering centimetres away from the seat, my body tensed as I have stopped mid sit with the shock of seeing who is sat there. She has not been to one of these festivals in a few years. Suddenly realising I have not reacted to seeing her, I allow the huge smile to spread across my face, my hands which were on either side of the chair to guide my bottom on to the seat are now used to push my back up into a standing position.

Leaning over the table I great my daughter, Mika, with a hug.

“Mika so good to see you. How long have you been here” pulling away from the embrace, we both sit
“Not long, I was delayed last night with the bar” she starts, holding her plate up to accept the meat arriving from the spit, she continues talking whilst she does this, merely pausing to thank Flimia for the meat. “One of the regulars had been thrown out by his wife and he was a little sorry for himself. I finally got rid of him by saying if he goes back and sleeps in the living room, she will probably accept his apologies in the morning.” She is not concerned about this, I can only assume it must happen a lot in the human cities.
“Oh,” I could not help it; this gasp of shock is spoken before I can stop it. Mika is tucking into the hog; I use this moment to ask, “Will you be here for long?”
“Yes, in fact if you would not mind, I would like to come back”
“Do not get me wrong, I would enjoy having you back, when we spoke last week you seemed happy where you were,”
“I am, I just have this feeling I should be here.” She is really relax and happy about it.

I can not argue with her the way thing have been of late, beings who do not belong here appearing, and with Dathyn’s actions finally coming to a head and with the building delays we have experience I could do with having her around, her help will be wonderful.

I have been lost in my thoughts for the last few minutes. Mika has been sat there chewing her food watching me, and when I still did not come away from my thoughts she started talking to Grinoth’s eldest son, Grinoth Junior, he has only recently started attending these events and is betroth, to the lovely Esemara the warm month after next we will be attending there wedding in the clearing beyond the river near the mountains to the east of here.

Tomorrow before everyone leaves the final plans will be confirmed.

It is amazing to be so young and to be planning the rest of your lives. Looking at Mika and Grinoth Junior I find I am wishing I was that age again, If I knew then how I would feel now, I guess I would try to enjoy everything. I am not saying that I did not enjoy it at the time, I just feel I spent too much time worrying about the future.

I spent too much time worrying about the future, no I still do, I still spend too much time worrying about the future. Now that I do not need to worry about Dathyn I will find something else to worry about.

I am in the middle of my life, well I am in the middle of my life if I manage to life for what I have already done, and there is no reason why I should not last another 500 years. Though I could be one of the unfortunate and be taken in my prime.

In my prime. That is funny, when I was Mika’s age I was thinking I was in my prime, does that mean I am no longer in my prime, or was I doing what Mika complained the humans do and trying to be older than I am.

I find it funny how the young ones want to be older, they act like adults, they pretend to fight like adults, yet when you get older you suddenly want to be young, you try to appear young, sometimes you even act young, but you are never what you want to be.

Snapping out of my thoughts I start to eat the meat which has been going cold on my plate. Once I have finished this piece, I will have to have another that is hot. This will make a good excuse to spend some time catching up with my daughter, and letting her know what we are in the middle of.

We have not touched any of the clothes that were left in her room when she left, so she should be able to slot right back into where she left off. As many times as I have seen her in these human clothes she never looks truly comfortable in them. I know she will not be comfortable in her old clothes for a while, she will be used to the human clothes it will feel weird for while.

I have put the last bit of this hog in my mouth, which is very succulent, and falling apart, I have enjoyed the juicy fall apart texture of the meat. Once I have finished this slice I turn to Flimia “Flimia I have not finished here, another slice would be appreciated”
“Of course” and she sliced a bit off using a large bit of sharpened flint.

Lost, Trapped, Perun had felt like this for far too long. His last memory before this was one of violent combat with powerful beings, he wanted to call them elementals but they didnt quite fit the description. On their own these beings were no more powerful than a low level mage but together the 5 of them were nearly unstoppable. They fought as one, spoke as one, even felt as one. He had never met anything like them and probably never will again.

At first he thought he had the upper hand by trying to divide the 5 counterparts to destroy them one at a time but every time he seperated one the other 4 quickly moved to counter. Everytime he attacked the 5 countered perfectly forcing Perun to become more and more drastic.

Each one of these being had a slightly different fighting style making it almost impossible to predict what was coming next. Everytime he thought he figured out the pattern it would suddenly change throwing him off again and again. He tried letting each of the energy beings within him to take over to try and defeat the 5.

The blue energy tried speed to overcome their defenses but to no avail, the red tried brute force to break them, once again failing.

Eventually Perun felt that he had no way of defeating or escaping the 5 so he used every bit of his energy in one final attack. Unfortunately it wasnt enough Perun was left drained and with no way to defend himself or defeat the 5 but at the same time they had no way of destroying him, instead they chose to trap him inside. They destroyed his physical body and contained his energy within a box that was sealed with magical symbols which stopped him from drawing energy from the plains.

He was trapped, waiting for someone to release him. He could sense the outside world, he knew he had been hidden somewhere, its was old, very old. He could only sense stone and earth and nothing else.

So he waited for the time that someone found the box.

I could hear them, whispering, telepathicly or vocally i could not tell, the words sounded rough, gutteral an strange.
The heart bet had dimmed down, now only a low soothing thumping in the back of my mind.
Again i started to circle the outer of the pillars, well aware of the slow turning of the heads that followed, dry skin rasping against cloth was loud against the silence of the cavern.
I peered around the black pillar, tiliting my head slightly to Daythn to inquire if anything was going on with him. I would not speak out loud as i did not know if these decrepid old ones understood, or had the ability to pick up an mental communications.
Bare feet felt a small icey breeze ever so slightly ruffling the bottom of my cloak, turning away to face the wall i made my way to the wall. I reached out to touch the wall to find an edge of a boulder, as tall as the pillars themselfs just slightly forward of the carvern wall. An illusion, so make one think there was nothing but the wall there. I slipped into the gap to find a dark opening, a tunnel leading down, the breeze now gone, but the scent of crisp, cold fresh air rouse my curiosity.
Leaving Dathyn behind, i started down the tunnel.
For at least 3 minutes, with one hand running along the tunnel wall as it curved round, i made my way steadily downwards, the tunnel suddenly opened up, reveiling another carvern. Looking up i saw nothing but blue sky, the ground, covered in pure white snow, it looked soft, untouched.
The strangest thing was the waterfall, running down the far right wall, was silent. No noise of rushing water, no crashing as it met the bottom.
But infront of me, was the pillars, i lurched forwards, one foot in the snow as i stopped from going any further.
There they stood, white an strong, reaching up to the sky, the dais untouched from the snow was clean marble, the throne an untouched stone, bands that marked the lower middle of the pillars held the symbol and the colour of the clans.
The silence was a surprising comfort, the smell refreshing, a quick jump got me to the marbled floor, i did not want to marr the perfection of the snow around the pillars. I pulled myself up onto the throne, this thing was designed for something far more bigger than a human or the things upstairs. I curled up against the arm chair, pulling my cloak around me i lay my head on my arms, staring sightlessly at the enterance to this place.
I felt like i was home.

Dathyn stood still and silent as Kitsune inspected the pillars in the centre of the chamber. He watched her, from beneath the ever present hood, as she moved from one column to the next frowning as though there was something wrong or out of place.

Eventually, she turned her back on the ring of thrones, and their occupants, and walked towards an opening in the wall. So cunningly carved and layered with illusions, Dathyn had not even noticed it until his companion stepped towards it. As she passed through it and disappeared from sight, the figures on the thrones all returned their gaze to Dathyn, infinite patience written in every eye.

Stepping into the immense throne-room, Dathyn calmly returned the stares. "We need to talk."

As one, the robed figures spoke, their parchment-dry throats sounding as though they had not made sound in thousands of generations. "We did not seek your presence here, Animus Umbri."

"Indeed not." Dathyn cut in before the figures could go any further. "I suppose you presumed I would go and hide, after your little attempt to control me?"

"Not hide." The chorus of rasping tones sounded as though ancient leaves were being crushed. "Not survive. We did not anticipate that you would not be weakened by the synthetic Umbral matrix."

"Not the first time you have under estimated me." Dathyn moved forwards to the point where he was almost stood within the circle of pillars. "I did not come here for your explanations, I came here for reparation."

So..... here i am, still stuck within this blasting box with no sensations other that the faint feeling of being surrounded by cold stone. I dont know if im in a building or cave but im probably is some sort of catacomb, buried deep within the earth.

Days come and go untill eventually Perun looses all track of time, days turn into weeks, weeks turn into months untill eventually decades pass. Every moment is spent trying to find a weakness in the box and trying to push his senses further into his surroundings but to no avail. The only thing stopping Perun from going insane was the constant comunication with the personalities within him, both making surgestions on how to escape.

One day Perun sensed something new, faint and in the distance but steadily getting closer. Eventually Perun sensed the lifeform, it was faint but definately alive. Suddenly the life form became stronger, no not stronger just removing obstacles that stopped Peruns senses, it was a child not human but similar. The child entered the room Perun was in and moved over to the box that was in a small alcove at the back of the room.

The child picked up the box and instantly received a static shock from it and droped the box. As the box hit the ground the corner split from top to bottom. It was only a small crack but it was big enough for Perun to exploit, he instantly started drawing energy through the the crack and into himself. After a short time he had enough power to break the magic holding him in place.

The child looked on in fear as the box started to rattle getting more and more violent as time past, the child instantly turned and ran back through the opening he came through. Within a few more seconds the box exploded with a bright flash of blue flames, when the flames past a figure stood on the spot that the bax last rested.

Although he felt no physical discomfort during his incarseration Perun felt the need to stretch and crack the joings in his body.
"That's better, now where am i?" he said as he examined the room that he had been stored in
"No the question is where are those 5 creatures that trapped us?"
"Not now we need to get out of here and gain energy"
"I agree"

Perun started moving towards the opening and moved through it, only to see a long tunnel, it was very old and apart from the child it seemed that nothing had moved down here in years. It took Perun about an hour to exit the tunnels and get back to the surface. Perun didnt know where he was, all he knew was the tunnel exited into what appeared to be the ruins of an ancient city. He took the oportunity to find a nice quiet area of the ruins to sit and recharge.

To do this Perun sat, closed his eyes and concentrated to create a micro-fracture into one of the elemental plains. Just big enough for energy to pass through but small enough to stop anything else coming through. Once the fracture was open it was easy to recharge, the hard part was stopping it from opening any bigger as if left unchecked it would open and destroy the area of the world he was in and it would keep growing untill it was stopped. He knew this because he had once made the mistake of not closing it properly which led to the destruction of a human city.

Perun sat and concentrated, waiting to get the amount of energy he required.

Time flies when you are having fun. The sun is now deep on the western side, I have been sat here talking to my daughter for longer than I thought, I only have time for one more seat swap before we will be moving on to the clearing for stories and drinks.
“Oh Mika I am sorry but I will have to continue this later, the sun is nearly down and we still have to get the bon fire started.”
“I understand, speak later.” With this I stand up, and make my way to the other end of the table. As I pass some of the guest look up, knowing that they will have to start finishing their conversations, when I get to the head of the table I will address all of them.

I hate the speech, over the years I have got used to it, but it is not something I find natural. I never prepare what I am going to say, I find that once I get to the head of the table the conversations I have had over the meals and the experience I have had over the year just materialise, filling the time between the bottom of the sun and the top of the sun disappearing behind our land.

The one thing I have never done is heard how I sound to everyone at the table, I know I project my voice well enough for everyone to hear me, but I would hate to think that people dread the speech. I hate the thought of me sounding like a babbling mess, or even having too many pauses, stuttering too much is another fear of mine.

Ok I have now made it to where the kings and queens, the rulers of the species are sitting, without me changing places apparently everyone else was. That’s where I shall start on this occasion.

The last few people until I am at the place of nightmares. Well obviously it is not the actual place of nightmares, even though many of my bad dreams are based in this spot, it is just what I like to call it.

My left foot reaches around the corner, touching the soft, cool grass below, once it is down my right foot follows. A hush falls upon everyone, all eyes are probably on me. As I turn and my right foot also touches the cool grass I look up at the sky.

OH NOOOO I silently moan, my face does not portray what I was thinking, the bottom of the sun has not touch the edge of our land, calmly I look back to the table, there is the second thing I hate about giving speeches, and that is all the faces, all the listening people, all those you have to impress looking at you, waiting, all of them with that hopeful look of anticipation.

“Thank you, everyone for attending” I know I can not see everyone, but I start my thanks by looking at Ir Ran who is directly to my left, and finish by looking at Mika who is the furthest away from me on my right. “As always I hope the food has been worth the journey many of you have taken to be with us on this celebration, our world has been as generous this year as it ever is. Our celebration of our this world and what it provides us will happen again next year and all of you are very welcome to join us again.” As I said our world I raised my arms from my sides and swept them around to include the grass, the trees around us, it also provided me with a chance to look at the sun. the bottom of it is now touching the land, I am spurred on by this.

“Since the last time we met much has happened to us. Not all of it desirable, yet we are all here to tell the tales, this provides me with much pleasure. I would like to pass on my condolences and I am sure the rest of us will join me in this, I am deeply sorry to hear that Ir Ran lost many in a battle, his triumph does not make the loss of his people any easier. I also want to offer our support and pledge to provide any help we can to Aelfdane and his people who have experienced an unplanned structural demolition.” I nod my head in with a look of sadness which I hope Aelfdane knows is 100% heart felt. “Aelfdane if you need anything please do not hesitate to ask. We have some extremely skilled builders in our number.” I take a short pause to get my breath and get together the next thing I intend on saying.

“On a lighter note though I will like to congratulate Kalan on reaching his one hundredth birthday, I would also like to congratulate Esemara and Grinoth Junior on their wedding later this year” there are many things to be grateful for, and I list them all. The first year I made the speech I started off on the happy note, I wanted to ensure I said all of the good things but then I realised that the bad things had to come second. The hard bit is finishing the speech on a high note, so as everyone can move on to the singing and dancing and stories without the black cloud of deaths and destruction hanging over them, I have never made the mistake twice, I hope I will never make it again.

“Finally I would like to express my pleasure in seeing Mika back with us, she will be helping with the day to running.” From my people there is a round of applause for all the good news, I let them talk amongst themselves for a few seconds, giving congratulations. Whilst they were passing on there congratulations I managed to sneak a peak at the sun, there is a small slither of the sun left above the land. I can finally tie up my speech the babble dies down and I am aloud to continue “I have taken up enough of your time and hope you will continue to enjoy yourselves” I pause before jouvilly saying “that is assuming you have been enjoying yourselves.” Finally with a large smile “There will be a bon fire in the clearing” I wing my arm towards the direction of the fire which is just starting to take hold “when you are ready and your stomachs are fully satisfied we shall make our way over, drinks will be provided as usual. Once again thank you for coming.”

I sit in my seat, glad this part of the evening is over, out of the corner of my eye I can see the sun has just gone behind the land. That is a long enough speech for me. Sadly the next one will be along all too soon.

As Perun sat and recharged his senses became overwhelmed by all the different energy signatures he could sense, he must have been trapped for alot longer than he originally thought as his senses had become dulled. He knew that there wasnt much life in his surrounding area but he could sense something, something that was powerful and old. Perun knew that it wasnt too close but it was close enough for it to send a shiver up his spine.

The sensation broke his concentration and Perun lost control of the fracture, suddenly it began to grow and Perun realised which elemental plain it was. Fire started blasting through the opening, launching Perun into a wall behind him. As much as he could control fire this was far more powerful than anything he could manage. It took Perun almost 10 seconds to get out of the way of the fire, once he cleared it he realised that the hole had grown exponentially.

"Oh crap, not again" Perun knew that there was only one way of closing the rift, by hitting it with as much energy as it was unleashing. Perun moved quickly and got as close to the rift as possible, drawing all the energy he could he opened another rift to the same plain and made sure it was directly in the path of the first and facing straight at it.

The ground started to rumble as the 2 forces clashed into each other, both growing in power as the rifts kept growing larger.

"This is gonna hurt"

Perun jumped into the middle of the two rifts and forced them as close together as possible. Once they were close enough they should negate eachother, thats was the plan anyway. When the two rifts met all of the power coming through them was force into a massive explosion forcing both rifts to collapse in on themselfs. The explosion was more powerful than Perun had expected and it launched him straight up. Unfortunately he had spent all his power closing the rifts so he couldnt control his flight.

"Ok that hurt" he thought as he flew, suddenly Perun started to fall, gaining speed as he fell to the ground. It only took seconds for him to fall back to earth. He landed in a forest, destroying the trees he came into contact with untill he hit the ground. As he hit earth,trees and animals near him were thrown into the air creating a crator almost 100 metres wide. In the centre of the crator lay Perun, his armor and body both smoldering from the explosion.

"Ouch" he muttered just before passing out.

The food took the silence away, and she told me all about her life. By the sounds of it she has had a very full and busy one. When she was 14 she left school, and married a 16 year of officer in the Army, they travelled to the far flung reaches of this world, she became an assistant to a doctor, from him she learnt all she needed to become a full nurse, with this responsibility she saw many hard things, I can imagine she would not have been grateful for at the time.

She was on duty one evening, when her husband was brought in with a gunshot wound she was meant to be dealing with people she knew but due to the lack of staff in the hospital, she and tis one doctor had to treat him, they spent hours treating him, at one stage they thought they were going to loose him and they were on their last bag of blood.

There was another time when the enemy found where her husband was living, she had been doing long shifts and during the morning they raided her place she was asleep in bed. They turned the place upside down, everything was on the floor, they did not even seem to care they were going through her underwear draw. Whatever it was they were looking for they did not seem to find it. As quickly as they had barged in they just stormed out.

She told me about each of the places she lived in and many of the events that happened in her life, I am in ore I can not believe that someone has had such a wonderful life. After 22 years in the Army he was posted to a base a few miles away from here, they stayed there until his death when she needed to leave the military quarters.

When they moved here there were no jobs as nurses available, never having had children they started a family and she took up her needle work again, she had 4 children in total 1 died a cot death, one joined the army, one died a month before her wedding of a plaque and finally her last died during child birth a couple of months ago. All too young to have provided grandchildren.

“I am sorry to disturb you but some of us have to get a little thing called sleep.” The lady who was behind the hatch had come out from behind and was leading between us to collect our glass’s.
“oh I am so sorry we will get out of your hair now.” Mayra is reaching into her bag and pocket simultaneously. The hand in her pocket produces a watch and the hand in her bag produces a coin which she drops into one of the glass’s on the tray that Jane was holding. During the meal Mayra thanks Jane for the food using her name.
“Oh my goodnees, Jane I am terribly sorry for keeping you this long” her hand plunges into her bag and again produces another coin which she puts into the same glass. Jane started to reach into the Glass “No Jane” Mayra says putting a hand on Jane’s to stop her from taking it out. “You have been so gracious to give us your time I would not accept it back.”

Several droplets of cold water splashed against my face. I opened one eye slowly revealing a familiar face with a curtain of wet blonde hair falling around it. ‘I just went to get you some bleachweed from the riverbed as it grows in abundance down there, just thought you might have wanted it to get the blood out of your clothes.’ She pointed with an open hand to my balled up shirt, now mostly pinkish from the blood, at the end of the jetty. She dropped the kelp-like plant leaves against my chest with a wet slap and began to walk back towards dry land along the jetty towards the stone steps. I pushed the bleachweed off my bare chest as bleachweed has been used to, as its name suggest, bleach clothes as well as skin if one is not careful, which is why many of the dark skinned fabric merchants from the desert wastes have white hands from the dying process.

I sat up and looked back to the rising sun, now completely above the horizon and illuminating the entire river. Lost in the beautiful enchantment of the rebirth of light in the land, I failed to notice footsteps returning. ‘Here,’ as she dropped a large towel over my head, which seemed more deliberate than not, ‘dry yourself before you catch death of cold.’ She continued on to the end of the jetty and scooped up my shirt hastily and made her way back with an emerging smile on her face, as if some funny thought had just passed through her mind. ‘And you’d better wash this too.’ She said as she threw the dripping wet shirt at me, to which I found the cause of her humour as it was also cold.

I heard a faint distant whistling noise, which pricked up my ears and a feeling ran riot throughout my mind, and not a good one. As Moira started to pass by me, she revealed the source of the noise. The small black dot directly above in the sky that was quickly growing in size and definition. I knew that I had heard that noise before but my sight had confirmed it. Lightning fast reflexes took over and I pushed Moira with both hands and all my unsprung strength pushed her off the, for the last few seconds still intact jetty. I used the reverse momentum to roll and push myself off the edge of the jetty as, almost in slow motion, the wooden jetty splintered downward into the river as the weight and speed of the Zahlai’s razor sharp talons crashed into it as I was still freefalling before impact with the water.

The impact with the water was much less graceful than earlier. I entered on my side but the shockwave of the impact pushed me over on my back and towards the bottom of the now completely murky silt-stormed river bed. I reached for my kiri but the thick water slowed my movements. A heavy, rough force pushed me to the bottom and pinned me there, unable to reach my blade; the large bird-like foot made sure of that.

The sole of the foot was weighing heavily on the centre of my chest, while its talon ended toes dug either side of my head and its heel toe dug deep under my groin. The weight of the bird should have crushed the life out of my body like the juice from a berry, but it hadn’t. I lay pinned struggling for freedom, trying to claw at my kiri through the sediment, but every time I got close, the pressure increased and thus dug my body deeper into the mud. I tried clawing at the foot itself but it seemed hopeless, this foot had decimated a large wooden structure unscathed, how little my short blunt nails must have done. The silt had cleared enough to see a dark shape on top of the bird. It had a rider and a master. The rider seemed to be focused on something or someone else with his spear raised in the direction of the town, the bird occasionally snapping its huge beak at its master’s target. Though sound was too muffled to make out speech, the Zahlai’s screech penetrated through the water with ease though.

This huge outburst of noise seemed to off balance the Zahlai pinning me and the pressure on my chest lifted, enough for me to get my hand to my blade at least. I pulled it out from under me just before the pressure was put back, possibly taking my last chance of freedom away from me. Taking the blade in both hands I plunged the blade into its scaly foot, releasing a cloud of red in front of me.

This only seemed to anger the Zahlai as the angered pressure pushed almost half a lung full of air out of my nose and mouth. The next few plunges of the knife had no effect; the extra pressure seemed to be only from shock rather than pain. The beaked face eyed me through the water from the surface with its sly and fiendish eyes.

My oxygen in my lungs was starting to run out and everything started to fade into colourlessness.

oh well i sit down for a couiple of seconds, think about the pleasure of having completed another speach. It did not feel like I had been sat for long when Mika was stood beside me "are you joining us?" indicating to the clearing where the rest of our friends are sat waiting.

This is one of the longest days going, I dont know how I have managed it for this long. during those few seconds of sitting here I was reflecting over the last few weeks and how it has been completely weird with the sudden appearences of he weird people.

I have not responded to Mika's question. I have been sat here staring through Mika as if I am not of sound mind any more.

Shaking my head I bring myself from the past, "ofcourse" I finally manage to responde
"where were you?" Mika chirped happily "you were so far in thought you nearly disapeared" she takes a spet back to give me some room to stand up.
"oh its not important" I sigh getting to my feet.

That night I slept in one of the rooms that has not been used in a long time in Mayra’s house. There was a musty smell developing, there were large spider webs in all the corners, around each of the candle holders, the mattress which was made of straw would be bound to be filled with spiders and bugs.

I tried not to think about it, and if I had not of been so tired I suppose I would have struggled to fall asleep.

Thankfully I was so tired that before I had even thought of not getting any sleep due to the beetles and bugs and spiders and, ewwwww the shivers get to me even now, before I could think of that I was asleep, fully clothed.

This morning I woke up with the sun shinning on my face, somehow I had managed to fall asleep with my head in the exact spot the sun would come through the little window in the wall on to the bed. With the time of year it is I could hazard a guess at the time being seven AM, people already out on the street, the shivers for how cold it is outside clear in there voices.

Actually it is cold, there is ice on the inside of that window.

Last night was fun, the stories, the danging, the singing, everyone was so happy, the atmosphere was buzzing, the moon had been up for many hours before everyone were retreating to the beds.

This morning I am finding it difficult to get up, the blanket is heavy on me and I can feel the chill of the morning in the air around my head as I poke it out of the blanket.

a shiver runs through me, the warmth of this blanket can no longer keep me warm, flinging the blanket off of me i get out of bed and get dressed. there is breakfast to oversea, before most of the guests go home.

Crawling to my feet, my head feeling one size too big, rising from my sleepy haze, staring into the dark abyss...

Stumbling out of the cave, my shoes and clothes still sodden from the rain, though I feel as coiled as a spring from my much needed slumber. I walk out of the cave, my muscles still aching, my body starving for food or water. I look to the sky in the forest, dusk, daylight rising in the sky, the darkness of the shadows retreating back beneath rocks and the trees.

Looking to my teleporter, lifting up the leather flap, finding the components and checking the system of it. The date, September 20th 1891, 11:34PM, TWO DAYS! I did need the rest! Smiling to myself, I shift my attention to the working function of the device, the lights at a constant turqoise, although the solenoid was nearly destroyed by the last trip, there was still some mercury in the cylinder connected to the electrical workings and the magnetic wave reader...could it be enough to get me back home?

But as I think back, could I go back, when I am the first human being to have travelled in between planets, leaving this planet, not exploring even the forbidden fruits of it? However, with every forbidden fruit, however exotic may be, will always be a toxin in the taste of it, what if the reason why I have survived is only by luck, I could face a predator that I have know knowledge of its weakness, or those people I had encountered. They looked human, but what if they are savage creatures that feast on whatever meat may have wondered into its little neighbourhood? Then again, they could be very welcoming and peaceful. Perhaps not even the wildlife and population of this planet could be a risk to me, maybe even the atmosphere: I was lucky to even come to a planet that had breathable air. Or in the air itself, bacteria that my body is not immune to, or bacteria that could improve it, perhaps I could find and isolate a property on this planet that could cure ailments that are on Earth, saving hundreds of life! Its the roll of the dice...

I write down the co-ordinates of this planet on my notebook, pocket it away, and ready myself for the trip home, sighing that I have to leave a planet barely explored. I push the keys in to the teleporter, back to my house, in the laboratory, there's a bottle of whiskey I can get to immediately to celebrate my victory in scientific travel. Finalising the details of my next placement in the universe, I switch the ignition anti-clockwise, as I do, the lights around the circular ignition light up; electrics (Green and yellow), the electromagnetic reader (Brown), the mercury to fuel the machine itself (Blue). The ignition finishing its rotation, I push the key in, the ground beneath my feet shaking, vibrating from the machine working to teleport from here to the next ground. I look up to the trees, expecting to find myself looking up to my kitchen ceiling.

''AAAAHH!!!!!''

I feel my arm burning like being exposed to a hot pipe, the metal of the teleporter scorching my skin, smoke rising out of the machine. Panicking, I pull the ignition back out and rotate it clockwise, the process stopping, the ground no longer vibrating, undoing the straps and throw the device down to the ground, still hot from its failed departure. I look to my arm, the heat having eaten into it, resting my hand over it, wincing and swearing from the pain, I take off my neck scarf and wrap it around the wound, still damp from the rain and apply pressure to it, cooling it down.

Putting my gloves on, I walk to my machine, infuriated with it and pick it up, analysing it, discovering its fault that changes my mood from anger to pure fright... it had run out of mercury, the fuel that I need to work this machine, like coal to a train engine. And with no mercury, no workable teleporter, no way back home. I collapse to the ground in defeat. Yes, I was the first human to travel to another planet, but no can help or rescue me to get me back to Earth. No one will know what happened to me. History will just assume that I faded away, like all the little fickle things in life, a wasted life, believing that I am dead, having made no lasting contribution to Earth. Am I accept and admit defeat by my own contraption?

Certainly not! Scrambling to my feet, and a moment of exceptional thought, if the air was breathable for my lungs, then it must be comparable to the air on Earth, so that means I could find a liquid metal, or a similar chemical on this planet that is similar to Mercury, getting my express line ticket back home. But where do I start? I get to my feet, in search of any civilization that I could find... Shh!

Singing, laughter, people, civilization (Hopefully). I retreat behind a tree, taking with me my still hot teleporter and switch if off, the mechanical moans rests to silence, picking it up by the leather straps, and running behind one of the big trees. The group walk by, humanoid in appearance, white clothing carrying baskets of fruit and meat. But something did stand out in this group, their pointy ears... Well one shouldn't stare too long, especially if these are the same people that could help me. As they walk along, I carefully follow, staying behind the trees, watching where I step, the crack of a branch could spook them. Then it happens...

CRACK!!

The leader of the pack stops and turns around, where I hide behind a tree just in time as she gazes over. The pack, nervous to what could be following, the leader of this elf looking bunch smells the air, and stops, fixating her attention to a tree next to me. She smiles and leaves, signaling her patrol to carry on.

Diverting my gaze over to the tree she was looking at, an animal unlike anything I had ever seen before, standing on its four legs, its claws still dripping with a purple like liquid, blood from its last victim, the purple blood still on its razor sharp gnashers, green fur surrounding the four, wild, yellow eyes, but how it breathed stood out, not through lungs, but with gills just behind its eyes, a fascinating if unstartling sight which stretches outside its head and retreats back in. The creature looks at me, licking its three tongues, which latch out, surrounding around my foot and growling with joy at having caught its meal, reeling me in like a fisher man. Scrambling with panic, reaching for my weapon, aiming it directly at one of its gills, timing it right to when it breathes in and out. Breathes in... breathes out... breathes in... breathes out... breathes in..

The trigger pulled, the bullet pierces through the flesh of its gill, yellow blood splashing over the plants, its blood flooding out, the monster screaming in pain, its sticky, strong tongues losing their grip over my foot, finally free as I crawl back, hitting a tree, my revolver still aimed at the beast, as it runs off into the depths of the woods.

Breathing a sigh of relief from my close encounter, fate, it seemed had me to face another. A bag is placed over my head by two strong, and amazingly quick people, grabbing the weapon from my hand, subduing me very easily, tying my hands behind my back and heaving me up, a cold voice speaks into my ear.

''You've been causing a lot of noise in this forest. A few days in our hut will quieten you for a few days...''

Despite my pleas of innocence to my captors, I am marched off to my planned incarceration...

The held air in my lungs started to turn toxic due to the low levels of oxygen remaining, causing my lungs to release a small stream of bubbles racing for the surface from the murky depths. The water here must have been at least five foot deep, deep enough for small fishing boats to moor up; deep enough to drown. I could hear the faint and muffled clicks coming from somewhere around me. I looked towards my feet to see rising silt clouds rising behind what must have been half a dozen shelltrops scuttling their way towards me, each snapping their pincers open and closed as they came. They must be coming for the fresh meal. I felt a pair of thin hard legs tap precautiously against my boot. I pulled my foot away sharply and pushed it back with force, knocking the crustacean away with a crack. At this three others approached from the mugginess and dragged the half dead twitching carcass away with a bloodthirsty glint in their eyes.

Watching this mindless act of cannibalism, I failed to notice that the number of clicking scuttling shelltrops had more than tripled, each with that glint of bloodlust in their beady black eyes. All at once, with a sudden flick of their tails, they darted towards me fighting each other to be the first to bite. Something above the surface caught my eye. Something fast, dark and growing in size.

I was ripped violently from the bottom of the river, causing complete chaos under the surface. I was flipped over and slammed heavily against the rocks of the river bank; the weight of the Zahlia foot was no longer on my chest. The tens of hungry shelltrops has scattered like bullets from the scene as the silt completely consumed the water, it would take a good half hour to clear. I pushed hard against the bottom with my arms, using whatever strength I had in them to reach the surface.

I broke the surface and took what must have been the most refreshing breath in history. My mind melted away all feelings, only leaving me with relief, even with all the commotion twenty feet away. It was as if time itself had stopped especially for me, or as if I had caused it. Something started to twig in my head as everything started to come back together again. Someone was shouting. Shouting something familiar. I tried to focus on the noise through water-clogged ears, looking around for its source. ‘……..REA……..ORD……LEE…….BREA…..AYE……..ORD…….CKLEE’. I held my nose and swallowed, trying to get rid of the water from my ears. All of a sudden I could hear the voice shouting, in what was now an exasperated and frustrated tone, ‘UMBREA ARE YOU DEAF OR JUST DAFT, MY FUCKING SWORD!’

I turned round to the sight of the newcomer pinning the zahlia down against the rocky bank with its four clawed feet, snapping frantically at the sharp beak trying not to sustain an injury at the same time. Its master was pointing frantically at the jetty. I turned to see why. His sword had been wrenched from his hand as it stuck in the wooden support beam of the jetty, after severing the top half from the bottom of the zahlia rider at chest height. I half waded, half swam to the decking and started to lift myself up. The piece I had gripped onto broke off, dropping me back into the water. The initial impact from the zahlia had weakened the jetty substantially. I tried again, this time further from the damage and managed to scrabble my way on top. ‘HURRY, WE CAN’T HOLD HIM MUCH LONGER’, he screamed holding on as his beast jerked away from the flurry of snaps from the beak.

I saw the sword imbedded in the wood and made into a run for it as the town bell started to ring its alarm. I kicked the hilt of the sword upwards, dislodging it and causing it to spin in the air. I plucked it from the air by the blade tip and twisted my entire body, releasing enough momentum to help the blade across the forty or so feet across the water. It span true and fast towards its target, spinning fast enough to seem like a solid disc of steel.

The helmed man leapt gracefully, for his size, received the sword and fell point down at the now panicking zahlia. The ear piercing screech was the last noise it made. Ever again. The beast made sure of that by using his mouth full of serrated teeth to tear open the bird’s throat, finishing it off. The blade had pierced the zahlia’s eye and pierced through its skull into its brain, rendering its lower body useless. The man wiped his sword against the lifeless chest of the bird before slipping it back into its scabbard and leaping onto the back of the blue scaled beast. With two strong beats of its wings, the beast was off the ground and making its way to the jetty. It landed with a thud, nearly capsizing it, but luckily it still held. The man jumped off the beast’s back and landed next to me. ‘Took yer sweet time ya bastard!’ the voice behind the helm exclaimed in frustration. ‘Well I wasn’t the one who bet that I could kill a zahlia with nothing more than a paring knife’, I replied turning to face the man, raising an eyebrow and the corner of my mouth into a grin.

Stretching out briefly, my 5ft 2 frame barely reaching the sides of the throne. I surveyed the room from slitted eyes.
Lingering on the clan bands on each of the pillars, the one to the right of the throne stood out more than the others. However, each of the singular symbols etched on the pillars didnt prompt any memories.
Huffing to myself i shifted to one side, curling my legs close to my body while using the left arm of the throne to lean my upperbody on.
Staring sightlessly at the exit of the cavern, shadows seemed to shift an swirl, slithering across the floor, splitting into 9 segments, eaching heading to a pillar.
The segments pulled themselfs up, swirling to each form a humaniod stature, each where roughly 6ft tall, seeming to lean against the pillar, bodily actions appearing so that they talked to each other.
One stood out from the 8 others, this one stood in the center of the room, big and bulky, and at least 8ft tall. A Beast.
" I know you..."

The cold will not last much longer as one of the last times this year I will wear my winter formal dress, I pull it out of the cupboard, it is heavy in my hands the fur bodice the fur leggings which cover my feet (tights). There is a skirt to it, which is a buffer to the wind, the long sleeves on the arm make it so warm I can be out in the coldest winter and still feel warm.

The only time I feel as warm as when I am wearing this outfit, is when I visit Mika in the human town, they call it hot chocolate. It is hot to the touch, so you cannot drink it straight away, and it is creamy, rich and dark in colour. I was very dubious to try it at first; I had never seen anything like it before.

Apparently chocolate in its raw form is very bitter but when you grind it down, heat it up, add sugar and milk to it, the taste becomes sweet and creamy and thick and drinkable. The humans have become very good at turning one thing into another. Possibly even masters in it.

Now as I am dressed and as warm now as I was in bed I am ready to face breakfast. I do not believe many will be up, as we did have a late night, and few will have had enough sleep, especially after the amount of alcohol consumed.

The steps going down seem to take forever. I know they have not changed in quantity, I know that they are exactly the same today as they were when they were first sung into place, but for some reason today they just seem to be taking longer to descend that usual.

The hatch is closed and there is no one in the reception room, this being the only day of the year I do not have someone in the reception room continuously. For some reason my people can forget all there problems for this one night, I started giving my receptionists the whole night off a long time ago, and never have I had any problems with it.

Pushing my way through the hatch, my suspicions of me being the only one awake seem to have been confirmed. There are a few birds singing their morning song, there are a few rabbits bouncing around. But most of the animal kingdoms are still asleep.

Between here and the tables we were sat at last night is a small storing area which we have been putting a few items into over the last week for last night and this morning. Most of the time we do not eat much and we usually hunt / forage for the food we want to eat.

The berries that were picked were stored in bowls on the shelves, the leaves and spices and meats are likewise stored. I pull out the bowls and plates filled with their delicious contents and place them on the table periodically, trying to make sure there is a little bit of every thing in reaching distance of where any bottom will be placed.

This meal will be a lot more relax than yesterdays. We will sit wherever we want, we will nurse hangovers and will try to be social whilst still is a sleepy state. By the time everyone is awake, fed and ready to get on with the day the sun will be high in the sky.

For now though I am happy putting the bowls and plates on the table, happy enough that I have this song stuck in my head, it was one of the ones sung late last night, I had never heard it before, but being about the earth, the plants and the circle of life I found it not only appropriate to the festival but I have really taken a shine to it. Since it was sung I have not been able o get it out of my head.

From the day we arrive on the planet
And blinking, step into the sun
There's more to be seen than can ever be seen
More to do than can ever be done

Some say eat or be eaten
Some say live and let live
But all are agreed as they join the stampede
You should never take more than you give

(Chorus)
In the Circle of Life
It's the wheel of fortune
It's the leap of faith
It's the band of hope
Till we find our place
On the path unwinding
In the Circle, the Circle of Life

Some of us fall by the wayside
And some of us soar to the stars
And some of us sail through our troubles
And some have to live with the scars

There's far too much to take in here
More to find than can ever be found
But the sun rolling high
Through the sapphire sky
Keeps the great and small on the endless round

(Chorus repeats)

On the path unwinding
In the Circle, the Circle of Life.


The lyrics bring forward memories, some of the best memories. I am seeing the bird hatch, the first leaves on a sapling, the ducklings first trip on the water, I am remembering the first time I saw a lion cub growl, the hyenna tucking into a dead zebra carcass it has found, the hawk diving for a mouse.

All of these memories so beautiful in there own way, so memorable and magical.

The Elton Johns were clapped the hardest and the longest last night. That song just seem to get to all of us.

I stood motionless staring into the eye slits of the man’s helm, eyebrow still raised, questioningly. The man’s shoulders started jerking quickly up and down faster and faster until booms of laughter rose out of his helm. Slowly but surely the laughter overwhelmed him and he was bent over double holding himself up with a hand on his thigh, laughing uncontrollably. His beast cocked his head at its master curious of his master’s actions, chirping with concern. He looked fit to fall flat on his face from asphyxiation when he shot up straight and ripped his helm off one handed unleashing his wildfire of long ginger hair tied up in a ponytail and gasped at the fresh air.

‘Aye…..aye Umbrae, next time. As long as ah dinne’ need te’ rescue yer arse next time as well’ he laughed with a strong accent. He patted me hard on the shoulder with his free hand, nearly toppling me back into the water below. ‘It’s good to see you too old friend, how goes it?’ I asked, rubbing my shoulder. ‘Where je wan’ me te’ start laddie? Cause yee’ve been gone fer bloody ages ya have. How long’s it been? Six, seven months?’ he asked, pulling at his ginger goatee in thought. ‘It’s only been five months and thirteen days and I was almost on my way back. Fine, what’s the most important news?’ I replied, wanting to end this bickering quickly. He pulled his goatee harder in thought. ‘Most important huh?… Aye, well a flock of sheep escaped from a field in Barnsdale, snow be falling in the mountains, and och aye only the northern outpost got overrun by the largest raid since the Great War. That important enough for ya laddie!’ he exclaimed sarcastically. The faint crackling sound of static crackled from his large hands, his telltale sign of frustration and fury.

We had word of a possible assault of the northern outpost days before I left for my task. He volunteered to go north as he ‘needed to vent some energy’ and ‘split some ‘eads’. We had no idea this latest assault was any bigger than the occasional bandit raid from the Desolation Isles.

‘We need to get back.’ I paused, I lowered my voice to a whisper, ‘does Meister know?’ He shuffled uneasily on the spot, ‘Aye, he’s not best pleased. With either of us. What’s more there as been a theft of something that could spell disaster fer alla Sanda’. We both fell silent staring down our feet waiting for something to break the silence.

The faint pitter-patter of small feet on stone came towards us. Then the familiar sound of metal sliding caused me to look up slowly to see Moira running down the stairs with my sword pointed at the new guest. ‘Be gone foul beast, and take your monstrous master with you, for I shall defend this land.’ She commanded, holding fast at the end of the jetty in her silk dressing gown.

He burst out in laughter. ‘Hehe She’s a wee feisty one aye, she yours?’ he nudged my ribs in jest. I ignored his comment and made my way to cool down the possible heated situation. ‘Moira, please, he is a friend. We are both pieces of the same picture.’ I calmly explained. I could see the glint of understanding and acceptance in her eyes. Slowly the blade lowered, then came back to rest in it’s scabbard.

‘Well aren’t you going to introduce us then Umbrae?’ Moira asked hotly, flicking her hair that had fallen across her face to the side. ‘Moira, this is my long time friend Garret of Wildeborne. Garret this is Moira…..’ I started before I was interrupted. ‘Is it what I think it is? It is isn’t it?’ Moira asked, awestruck, slowly walking towards the giant blue beast behind us, staring. I chuckled silently to myself, ‘Yes, that’s Azgorragh or Azzie for short, he prefers that.’ Moira swiftly glanced at me in confusion, ‘He prefers it? I didn’t know they had personalities.’ ‘Aye,’ Garret broke in, ‘Especially when they are wee, an this one is still a youngun. The Mountain Blue are near impossible te train from adults so ye need te git em when they are wee babbies, or in shell. They also git real grumpy the older they are.’

Moira continued to slowly step closer to the Azzie, causing him to shuffle with a mixture of excitement and uncertainty. When she was almost close enough to touch him at arms length, she stopped and slowly raised a hand. Azzie instantly shied away and chirped a whine of distress to his master. Garret was taking a large gulp from his water sack, probably filled with ale or some other alcoholic liquid, taking no notice of Moira or Azzie. I walked up behind Moira and took the back of her hand in the palm of mine and reached out again to Azzie’s muzzle. I softly whistled a complex series of chirps and purrs at Azzie, to which his eyes lit up and nuzzled straight into our awaiting hands. We stroked him for a few seconds until he was contented with the stranger, then I withdrew and let her stroke Azzie alone. A huge smile broke upon her face, as did Azzie’s.

I walked over to Garret spoke to him quietly. ‘We need to go.’ Garret nodded in agreement.

Once everyone has gone and the food is eaten, the place feels very empty, yesterday you could not move without bumping into someone, today there is plenty of space between everyone. You could probably walk all day with out seeing anyone.

I have been sat in the main room of my tree for the last hour, or so, and only one person has come to see me, well beside Flimia with a drink for me.

Eisa was letting me know that her mother had passed away after the party last night. Which now means we are in mourning. Due to our long life spans we experience a death as often as a birth, we can have several Nisannu festivals between either occur, but sadly sometimes there seem to be a few in succession.

For today we will all have quiet reflection, we will prepare for tonight, when we will place Gryni on a weaved leaf bed and carry her to the lake, here we will place her on the lake and we will sing, our song will wish her spirit on and finally when her spirit light is fading we will set alight the leaf bed. This will ensure that she did not linger and that she has all the elements to help her pass on with luck.

The male in charge of the leaf bed building is Abardon Bedek, he has been building them with his three apprentices since his predecessor passed and he had to build the first bed on his own. The beds have change a little over the years. When Tesio Ozhur built them, they were the shape of a sphere now they are banana shaped and we have a double layer of leaf with the mud between rather than the leaf and the mud between the leaf and the body.

Tesio had only one apprentice, this is another change Abardon has 3, one which is full time and 2 which do it in the same sense as a hobbies. Abardon took this decision because he was a warrior at heart, he had signed up for the army, however the ranks were full and he was given a side job until a post became available. Now he trains on his own and is on the home defence team. Basically if they main warriors are loosing and the enemy get close to home Abardon is to coordinate the other back up teams and protect our homes.

Abardon has not been called upon to fight however this is the reason for the extra 2 apprentices, Abardon may get struck down in battle and requires a replacement, however if the battle gets to our home then his second could also get struck down in the cross fire. There trade cannot be lost.

As soon as I heard about Gyrni I called for a meeting with Amarizi, we spoke last week, and I am sure he mentioned that the next stage to the crypt was finished, however I just need to be sure and top get them prepared for the new carvings to go on.

The humans seem to be believe that a crypt holds the bodily remains to the deceased, I have no idea where they got this idea from, our crypts have paintings and stone carvings to commemorate the one who has passed on. If they have been artistic there works will go in as well as ours for them.

The royals have frequently had slightly bigger rooms and have had statues of themselves put in, I can not express as to why, but I have not even had my crypt started yet.

My mother and father have some of the biggest crypts in there, and it is not something I am looking forward to working on, I do not want to take up so much space, the crypts keepers had to take on extra apprentices for my parents crypts. The whole of our community were working on the finishing touches to their crypts for weeks towards to end of my mothers life.

My father passed on first, my mother then devoted her life to dads crypt and when it was finished she died, she had not eaten or drunk, or meditated and so she was completely exhausted she could not keep her life stream flowing any longer, everything that made her who she was left.

I am happy to pass on, as much as I know my time is not imminent I am happy to go, but I do not want such a large crypt, I do not want to have the community drained in such a way. If I leave of starting it there is less time to fill it and so it wont be big.

Amarizi has arrived, I can hear his voice in the front room with Elisia. Elisia and Amarizi have long since been unofficially courting. I am sure that soon they will make it official, and a good match they will be.

Flimia is always making a drin when he arrives, giving him and Elisia a chance to chat, This is how I have ended up with another drink so soon into the day and why Flimia is taking a very long time to leave the room.

Well that is what I thought was the reason as to why she was taking a long time to leave. “Elwe, I would like some help.” She stops, I wait for her to continue. Finally she does “I am sure you know Elisia and Amarizi have starting courting.” Wow the confirmation has been released, how did I not know that. “I have secretly been wishing for them to hurry up, I have been getting friendly with Ludok.” Ludok is one of Amarizi part time apprentices, and a crypt keeper. “ my concern is that because we are twins, is it bad that I like Ludok?”

I never have a boring day. I need to think of my response, we do not get many twins, in fact these are the only ones I have met, I have heard of others. “Elisia, who we like is still a mystery to us, we do not know how we pick who we like. You have both grown up really close, you both excelled in exactly the same things, though schooled by different people your schooling could not have been any more similar. You have excelled in the same activities and you have both been great in your jobs. I can not see how you liking a man who works in a similar industry to your sisters partner is a problem.” She is now looking at me, when I started talking she could not stare at the floor harder.

This is reminding me of when I met my husband, how I had been in this hall when my parents had inducted the new warriors. He was the third person to be done out of 7 that day. He had held his head high, he had stood rigid the same as the other 6 beside him, how I chose him I could not have told you, there was just something about him. Though out the induction he did not move out of ranks, he did not do anything to stand out from the rest, except at one point I did notice he was looking at me, his eyes were not looking at his instructor as they had been throughout the induction, they were looking directly at me, our eyes met and I knew I wanted to see him again.

Flimia was now over by the door, just pushing it open a fraction “Elwe I would like to introduce Amarizi.” With that she opened the door wide and stepped through, revealing Amarizi who was stood to attention, if you were a stranger in the room you may never have known that Elisia and him were a newly starting partnership. Her professionalism has worked for her. I have enjoyed having both of them working for me, they are twins but they have there differences.

Amarizi enters and stands on the rug in the centre of the room. I never planned of having the rug ass a marker for where people stand, but I thought the room was looking empty and so I requested one to be made for me.

Amarizi and I pass the usual pleasantries, Amarizi take the lead and speaks first. “Ludok is on his way, Thank you for seeing me at such short notice. I am sorry if I am the bearer of this news but Gryni has passed.” I smile, which puts Amarizi on a back foot for a second
“You are not the first to tell me this, which is why I was not surprised to see you. As usual I will have everyone at sun down congregated for the procession.” This is also part of our sending off. We all make a line from here to the lake and as Gryni passes past each person they say one great thing Gryni did for them in her life.
“Her bed is ready for her and is being taken to her home currently.” At this point I can here someone arriving I suspect its Ludok as this time when the inner hatch is opened it is Elisia that comes to report the arrival of my next visitor. When Elisia started courting Amarizi I introduced a new routine, I had to be handed a note which told me who had arrived. This meant that Flimia had to enter, walk around the room, give me the note and walk back around the room to get out with out disturbing the meeting. Giving Elisia and Amarizi time alone to be polite. Now as Flimia was starting a courtship Elisia has to do the routine, As it is Ludok is in the front room.

I briskly walked away, glancing back to Moira and the giant blue beast both contented with each other’s touch. I saw my tattered, torn and bloodied shirt screwed up on the floor next to them and sighed. It was my best shirt. Oh well.

I was halfway up the steps back towards Moira’s before I heard her call out. ‘Hey, where are you going?’ I stopped and turned towards her. I took a deep breath and let it out in a long sigh. ‘I need to get back as something bad has happened that I need to help clear up.’ She looked down and stared at her feet, ‘Oh, so you’re not staying then.’ I shuffled my feet uneasily. ‘No Moira, I’m sorry but I have to go, and soon, but I shall return one day.’ I weakly braved a smile towards her and continued the flight of stairs.

I quickly gathered my things from Moira’s house, slipping on my armour and weapon belts, and made my way back to the jetty. Garret was stood still, staring to the floor with his hand near his neck. I made my way down the steps to see that his hand was glowing with a white light. I then realised what was happening. He was communicating with someone via crystal circal stone, a long distance communication element which when split, allowed the two halves to mentally communicate. As I reached him his hand stopped glowing and he returned back to the world.

‘What’s wrong Garret?’ I asked concerned. He looked straight into my eyes and I could tell it was bad.

Everyone will have their own way in dealing with Gryni’s passing, their own rituals / superstitions. As a community the only thing we do is the procession, which is due to start in a finger of the sun and then the memorial that will accumulate over the next week.

I have finally managed to leave my home which I have felt confined to all day, my people who are too young to remember the last person to pass have come forward requesting advice on the proceedings and what they can do / say. Those who are struggling with the feelings of grief and loss have come for advice on how to cope and some have even come forward with issues nor related to Gryni, such as food levels, or even new findings with the various science projects they have been working on.

Sophia has just reported to me that there is a correlation between the moons phases and the planets movements. A long time ago we discovered there was a correlation between the volcano’s and the land shakes. They all happen in similar places and thus proves that the planet is made up of a surface are which is not solid, our planets surface is constantly shifting. Now she has told me that the moon plays a huge part in the timing of these volcanic eruptions and land shakes.

The theory of it is that the moon and the earth are connected closely together by the gravitational pull and when the moon and the earth are in certain positions then the gravitational balance which keep a neutral is disturbed and the earth is effected by these land shakes and volcanic eruptions.

This is going to prove useful when we are trying to protect our people or to plan events we will be able to have a heads up that we are likely to get more of an adventure than we would probably have liked.

Today we do not have anything to be concerned about, but she is going to be working on a calendar of the land shakes and eruptions for the foreseeable and will be monitoring the accuracy of it. With any luck we will be able to use her information in the assistance of other studies and as part of our calendar.

Sophia has revealed that the Moon stones we fashioned centuries ago have been of huge assistance in her research of the matter. With the others who are science orientated they have been communicating their findings to each other and have been collaborating events in relevance to each other’s work.

The moon stones was something one of our ancestors discovered, Ronia was trying to find out if we could communicate over long distances without draining our power as much as we were. We can communicate telepathically however is drains our energy supplies by such an extent that we cannot converse in depth. With a simple song spell it was determined that we could use an object to connect and transmit on our behalf’s, it was also discovered that the best object for this was a stone. The reason was because it was powerful in itself, it was old and the effects of the transitions on the stone were minimal in comparison to us. Later tests discovered that different stones had different resistance levels to the transmition magic. Finally we agreed that the Moon stone was the best stone to use. There are stones with equal or higher levels of power and resistance however the Moon stone was the most impressive with clarity of the transmition over larger distances and it was also lighter and easier to carry.

It does require a little bit of power every time you want to use it but this is negligible compared to what we used to have to use for telepathic communications. Initially the process could only be done between two, the process is to sing the magic into the stone and at the final stage split the stone in two, this made a life long bond between the two halfs and when it was touched and the connection was sung the other half would glow until the connection was complete by the receiver had taken hold of the half. Later developments meant that a group of moon stones could have a slightly different spell sung into them which tied a moon stone to a person, and each of the moon stones could connect to any other, which was also connected to a person.

With out these she claims she could not possibly have collaborated her information about the moon, its position etc with the earth events.

I am thrilled that our previous successes are fuelling more.

Garret’s eyes drove straight into me that we were needed urgently. His uneasy stature confirmed this. Whenever Garret felt as if he was needed elsewhere he would start to gently sway on his feet with anticipation to get the job done. I checked all of my straps, tightening any that were loose and strode towards Garret. ‘No fancy manoeuvres this time Garret, you know how much I dislike it.’ I jested, placing a hand on his shoulder. I gazed towards Azzie then towards the sky to the west and our next destination over the hills. ‘Are ye ready for this Umbrae? Is gonna be like bein’ in a hornets nest when we get there.’ Asked Garret with his palm resting on his sword pommel. I took a few moments to mentally ready myself before giving him one last nod and striding towards Azzie and Moira. ‘What’s going on?’ asked Moira inquisitively with a serious look plastered across her face.
‘ Never you mind lassie, we got it covered, it’s big boy stuff.’ Instructed Garret, striding past her and leaping onto Azzie’s saddle. Moira pushed her palms against my chest, stopping my travels, ‘What’s going on Umbrae, please, I want to know, for all I have done for you.’ She pleaded, her eyes watering. I looked into her eyes as a single tear meandered slowly down her left cheek. I glanced up to Garret sitting astride Azzie and sighed. ‘Garret, how bad is it?’ I asked, shooting him a stare of seriousness. Garrett sighed himself and glanced towards the sunrise before taking in a deep breath. ‘The raiders from the north have smashed through the northern defences and are making a swift break south. There’s going to be a council meeting about whether to try to get the dwarves and the elves involved, as if that’s going to happen. The dwarves’ll jest make like moles and dig while the elves’ll jest bugger off somewhere overseas.’ Garret said, obviously with a bee in his bonnet. I stopped a moment to clear my thoughts to focus on something productive. I thought on what Garret had said about the elves and the dwarves and bout how or what could get them to make a stand. Our guild had never really had strong links to the dwarves but our ties with the elves in Orome were much stronger after my quest years ago to assist with the local night bandit problem. I slowly reached up for to the small brass locket around my neck. A small smile cracked across my face as the memories of my long stay in Orome came flooding back to me. I opened it up with the spring clasp and read the inscription inside from a young girl I had met.

‘Umbrae
If ever you are in need, come

Elwe’