Day 31

It is so refreshing to be back in the trees! The pains in my legs and feet have all but gone. Enaerixer is healing me now that I’m back in her domain, or perhaps it is Froadaelo, God of Spring, giving me a new energy as we move into his season.

The Shard-Blade has been sheathed all day and my newly crafted bow has been over my shoulder ready to be drawn at the first sign of trouble on the ground. As Lanua traverses the forest floor, I swing between the branches 30 feet above.

We have seen so much more wildlife today than I have done since I stepped out of Teeluw nearly a month ago. I hadn’t realised how much I have missed the sounds of insects crawling through the trees and soil and making their own little songs that, together with the songs of the other species that call the forest home, create a wonderful symphony of music for the birds to sing to. The distant feet, galloping through the logs, combines with the dripping splashes of water into puddles on the floor to provide the rhythmic beat behind the melody. Leaves rustle in the wind to signal a new song about to be played. Thunder rumbles from the storm in the South, but it isn’t scary any more. It is calming down, exhausted from its constant struggle over the last few days.

Lanua, never having been in a forest before, is overwhelmed by the colour as much as anything else. No more are we wandering through drab, grey and brown valleys, or over dull, grey and brown hills. We aren’t in the grey and brown village that she grew up in, and the sky is, at least for now, not filled with grey and black clouds. The blue sky, the green leaves, and the orange and red sunset - her eyes cannot be used to so much richness. And her mood has improved noticeably. No longer does she complain that I’m walking too slowly. Indeed, she has begun to hinder our pace as she studies every new thing she finds in a world in which she has never been before. More than once I have had to remind her that we need to move quickly so that we may give ourselves enough time to reach our destination in under a month.

But I do not deny that, by spending a few days moving a little slower, we will heal our bodies and minds so that we may quicken our pace later on in our journey.

Day 30

Icecarry River. That must be what we crossed today.

We have been travelling west for the last nine days. As I have written before, the rocky hills seemed like they would go on forever. Every day has looked the same; not even the weather changed. That is, until last night. Lanua and I were arguing about which way to go today. Toward the eerie light of an unknown civilisation or onward to the West. Neither of us wanted to back down and submit to the other. We were both quite tense after more than a week of nothing but each other's company. That is when we heard it. From the South came the terrifying rumble of thunder, as if the sky was cracking its ethereal bones. The lightning began soon after that and by midnight, despite us being beyond the reach of the storm, the flashes lit up the sky as if it were noon. It would have been foolish to head that way today as the battle between sky and ground carried on.

And so it was that our path led us to a river. For once I knew something about the world outside the forest that Lanua didn't. The river we came to was Icecarry River, and if we had attempted to canoe down it, our bodies would have washed up on the shores of Flowing Lake. I know this because I have been to Flowing Lake once before in my life. It is on the edge of Teeluw, at the end of Teeluw River. I have seen the spears of ice stabbing themselves into the turbulent waters of the lake, as I saw them today making swimming or canoeing across the water impossible.

But the river hasn't been the only change of scenery this day. It would seem that we are finally out of the barren wilderness, for today we came to the first trees of Adramalech Forest - the forest north of the Flowing Lake and south of the edge of the world. Only a few trees grow this far away from their siblings, and only a single tree found its way across the water all those years ago. But one was enough. Like a fish put back in water after being held out for minutes, I returned to the trees. The branches of a tree on the far side of the river came out far enough for me to be able to jump across from half way up the single, adventurous tree.

Unfortunately, Lanua grew up on the ground, where any step is guaranteed to be placed also on the ground. It was enough of a struggle just to show her how to climb a tree.

When she was finally on the branch from which I had jumped over the river, I had already decided that she would need to cross another way. If she had jumped, her body would be skewered by the ice in the water, and I would be on this journey alone.

Instead, I took the length of rope out of my pack and tied an end to each of the two tree trunks. Then, after I had taken Lanua's things across for her, she grabbed the horizontal rope from above and crawled over the gap like a worm.

On the other side of the river we carried on walking west until we came to the edge of the main part of the forest. It was early when we decided to set up camp for the night but I wanted to craft a bow and some arrows before entering Adramalech. Besides, we had almost run out of food so we needed to refill our packs, and the opportunity to catch some fish from the shallow streams nearby seemed perfect.

Day 29

I had been under the impression that this wilderness was just a boring expanse of nothingness besides rocks and dead trees. But maybe I was wrong. This afternoon, when we had stopped to have something to eat, I noticed a speck of green poking out between two boulders. It was the bud of a flower.

We've seen a few more since then too and, after all, it is the beginning of spring. Maybe this is a beautiful meadow in summer when the plants have all come back out after hiding from a harsh winter season.

It is evening now, and to the south-west we can see green lights. They come from far off behind a tall hill, so we can't see the source of the lights. It looks like it would be about two days walk away. Maybe it is a city. I think we should start to head in that direction in case it is a settlement of some kind. They could help defend the village from the elementals and we wouldn't need to go all the way to Pon and risk finding nothing.

Lanua disagrees with me, as seems to be the norm lately. She doesn't want to change our course. We'll discuss what to do next tonight.

 The light of civilisation across the hills.

Day 28

I wonder what we'll find when we get to Pon. Will there be a pile of stones for us to freely take from? Doubtful. After having time to think about it, I'm not sure there will even be any stones at Pon. Why should there be? There aren't any left at Old Traders' Village - Humen from cities in the West came and took them all long ago. Why wouldn't they have taken them from Pon, too, if there were stones there? Surely Pon is nearer to their cities than the Dwarven Mines; it is possible that Pon had all its stones taken away even before Old Traders' Village. Maybe we should have stayed in the village and prepared for the attack. We could have trained the people to fight and defend themselves. Instead, the two best fighters have gone on a quest to find some miraculous counter to use against the Elementals, and we have left everyone unguarded and vulnerable.

Day 27

It feels like we have been walking for weeks. The muscles in my legs hurt badly and there is nothing I can do to ease the pain. I have blisters on my feet that make it difficult to walk, especially on the uneven terrain. In Teeluw, we use our arms to move around the town as much as our legs. Climbing up ropes and swinging across bars between the platforms. My body isn't used to all the walking.

I think Lanua is getting a bit annoyed with me, for my pace has slowed considerably over the last few days, but I can tell the journey is taking its toll on her too. She just refuses to show it, and the thought of saving her village motivates her to carry on at a speed.

The landscape hasn't changed since we passed Lanua's farthest camp a few days ago. Rocks everywhere. Burrows dotted here and there. A few lonely, dead trees always off in the distance. Hills going up and down, up and down. We can see far off to the horizon, but there is nothing there that we can't see an arm's reach away.

Day 26

Ilaeryol the farmer's story.

Everyone in Teeluw is trained to survive in the forest on their own. It's not because that is ever really a threat - the people of Teeluw plan to live where they do for a very long time to come - rather it is so everyone has some skill at all of the important tasks. Should it be necessary, a fletcher could help search for plants with medicinal properties, or a healer could help craft arrows. Everyone can do everything.

Of course, the fletcher would make better arrows than the healer, because she has spent her life honing the skill. But, in Teeluw's history, it was Ilaeryol who advanced the furthest past her peers, and even her successors, at her craft. No one in Teeluw has ever been able to farm in quite the same way.

First I should explain how farming works in Teeluw, as I understand that forest farming is not the norm.

It is the farmer's task to collect the ingredients required to make food for the town. This is not just restricted to ingredients grown by the farmer, but it is also up to them to collect from the trees and bushes and plants that grow naturally in the woods. An expanse of forest is cleared of the wild plant life that grows there and the earth between the trees is sown with the seeds for cereals and other similar crops.

Ilaeryol brought back bounties of food unlike anyone else ever managed to harvest. They were never spoiled by the animals in the forest; they were always perfect.The only time she was unable to grow what she had planted was when a travelling merchant passing through the forest on his way to the East had traded her some tropical tree seeds.

When the High Priestess Namifra was blessed it was a day of rejoicing. It is the tradition of the Teeluw to celebrate a new High Priestess to show the Gods that she has the support of the people in the hope that they will accept her in her new position.

Disaster struck. When the priestesses were preparing for the feast, they found that all the food stored had gone bad! Maggots crawled over the fruits of the forest and were having a feast of their own.

Ilaeryol had been picking hazelignum nuts and had overheard the commotion in the food stores. Immediately she dropped the nuts and began skipping from branch to branch through the trees to the farm patch.

She got there to find the field full. Not of the crops she had planted there, but of the tropical fruit trees from far away lands that had never grown before.

The exotic fruits were taken back to the town and served in place of the expected feast. Enaerixer was delighted with how much Namifra was respected by the people and granted the longest life of any High Priestess to her. Ilaeryol's loyalty to the Goddesses and their heralds was rewarded too. From that day, whatever Ilaeryol planted in her farm would be fully grown one day later and would always be in perfect condition, as well as immune to rotting when it had been picked.

Day 25

Drass the assassin's story.

Drass lived in Teeluw 1000 winters ago. Teeluw was much different then to how it is now. You might be surprised to find out that an assassin ever lived in Teeluw, but there was a time when people travelled between the East and West a lot more often. Back then the Teeluw people were very nervous of being found by outsiders. A few from the village were, therefore, selected to be trained as assassins. They would silence any who came close to revealing the secret of Teeluw forest.

The assassins, despite playing a role the town felt was necessary, were looked down upon for their opposition to the peaceful ways of the Teeluw. As such they stayed very much to themselves. That is, until Drass began his training. He questioned why he had to live as an outcast in his home. He drew attention to the shadowy group of killers. People began to talk. There were fears of an uprising from a lethal sub-community in the town.

Before either side could take any action, a caravan came through the forest and was attacked by fercacs. A hunting party, out on patrol, saw the attack and quickly came to the aid of the caravan. But this meant Teeluw had been exposed to the world. The assassins were bound by oath to slay all those who had just been saved.

When the other assassins prepared for the slaughter, Drass prepared to protect the caravan from the deadly forest once more.

The battle was short. Despite his skill, Drass was killed quickly, along with the caravan. Those on the patrol that originally saved the caravan were also killed.

The ruthless murder of so many people prompted the elders to discontinue the assassin training. But, as no one ever found the people of Teeluw until they revealed themselves through their own will, and because the town in the trees has been left alone ever since, some say the assassins lived on.

Day 24

Last night, after I had finished writing, Lanua asked me if she could read the journal. Before today she had only seen the page with the drawings of the runes and the page for Day 21 (when we met). I didn't see the harm in letting her see what I had written, especially since I've been writing it with the intention of showing it to people if I ever go back home. In a way, Old Traders' Village is like a new home for me, so, from that point of view, Lanua is precisely who I am writing it for anyway.

I fell asleep before she had finished reading it so it was only this morning I was able to be given her opinion.

She was mostly positive about it, but she pointed out that some of the shorter entries weren't very interesting, and fair enough - if not much happens in the day then there isn't much I can write about. I'm hardly going to record every word of a conversation to bulk out a page in my journal.

As we trekked across the frozen slopes, past Lanua's furthest reach into the wilderness, and, as I'd predicted, down into a valley, we both tried to think of a way to make the dull days more interesting to write and read about.

It was the afternoon when we came up with a solution. What if I write about something else on those days? There are many stories that the Teeluw people tell that are unknown to the people of Old Traders' Village. If the life of Esunai is mundane, I will tell the story of Drass the assassin, or Kraet the seer, or Ilaeryol the farmer.

I won't tell a story about one of them today though; it has been a long a difficult path between camps, across unpleasant terrain. We both need to sleep ready for tomorrow. It looks like we'll start heading upwards again before the day is out.

Day 23

Today has been very uneventful. I don't really have much to write about it. We just walked and walked. We made good progress; we're quite far from the village now indeed. Lanua and I didn't even speak very much; we just wanted to get to where we're going. It's very cold as well. The terrain has taken us quite high up. The air is noticeably thinner where we have set up camp than it was where we slept the previous two nights. 

We're nearly as deep into the wilderness as Lanua has ever been. She says we'll probably pass that point early tomorrow morning if we set off at dawn. After that we're into the unknown, but at least it won't be up hill any more. From the top of a nearby tree I could see that the landscape is more or less level to the horizon.

Day 22

The fire was still smouldering and Lanua was still asleep when I roused at dawn after a warmer night than I had been expecting this far north. I had not slept soundly. My dreams were haunted by the Elemental. More than once I awoke with a tight grip around the hilt of my sword.

Later on, when Lanua had awoken, we ate some of the meat she had caught before running into me yesterday. Over breakfast she told me about how she preferred the excitement of the wilderness above the monotonous poverty of the village.

She had always wanted to leave. She spent half of her time out in the nothingness north of her home, living off just what she could find for herself. When she went back to the village it would be to bring back a bounty of food. Meat from trappings mostly, but on rare occasions she would find the tracks of the herd and be able to bring back a beast with juicy, tender muscle meat, and lots of it too from a single animal that would rely on its legs to escape the many dangers here. It would also come with lots of fat that would be used to keep warm - first by the animal, then later by the villagers. Finally, the hide and fur would become clothing, rope, or whatever else the people could use it for. But as far as Lanua could tell, there was only one herd in the wilderness, and every time she saw it it was always a lot smaller than she remembered it being the time before. She told me that she wouldn't be surprised never to see it again.

To find food wasn't the reason she was out here this time though. In her previous journey into the wilderness, Lanua had found some pearls of frost, just as K'Ylin and I had, but Lanua had found them long before us as she travelled deeper into the wilderness often. Like K'Ylin, Lanua realised that they precluded an attack from the "monsters" that I suspect to be Ice Elementals. Unknown to K'Ylin, however, Dwarven texts that Lanua had found in the mountain recorded that the signs of activity from the Ice Elementals appeared long before the previous attack. In fact, the pearls of frost had disappeared two months before the last attack even began. Lanua had also read riddles about how the Dwarves had won the battle. The red, glowing rocks had played a vital role, but nowhere did it say more than that; there was nothing to explain why the rocks were so important.

In an attempt to prepare to defend the village from an attacking Ice Elemental, Lanua had come to the North to spend a few days observing them. After that she would head west to a city, named Pon, mentioned in the Dwarves' runic texts. It seemed the Dwarves had thought Pon might be a second source of the red stones and, with the nearby mine home to only fragments, Lanua wanted to try and find some at Pon and make it back in time to defend the village.

We shall both set off tomorrow. I would not be able to sit idly by waiting for an attack that I know everyone is ill prepared to counter, and Lanua has a better chance of getting to Pon quickly and safely with someone watching her back. We will allow ourselves one month to find some red stones. After that we will make out way back to Old Traders' Village and defend it with or without the mysterious and unlikely weapon.

Now we must rest. We sleep again where we did last night. Our packs are full of the meat we caught today; we don't know how easy it will be to come by food in the West - neither the Teeluw nor inhabitants of Old Traders' Village have been out that way since there were Dwarves in the mountain.

Day 21

When I came down from the trees this morning I found some more pearls of frost. I don't remember them being there last night. Did the monster come to these woods?

I carried on walking north. As I did I could feel the temperature drop with every step I took. Before too long the ground grew crisp under foot and a white powder covered the floor. Tracking the monster would have become impossible if its tracks had been as scarce as they had been yesterday, but this region of the wilderness seemed to be its territory - there were signs that it had been here to be found everywhere - and I was trespassing.

I came upon a series of caves. They were like the burrows I have been trapping for food, but much larger. Big enough for me to enter. Big enough for someone to enter at least. There were footprints in the snow outside the entrance to one of the tunnels. Not the footprints of an animal, and not the marks of the monster. These footprints were from a human, and I only knew of one other human in these parts.

Of course I entered the cave. Part of the motivation for me to come into the wilderness was to find the woman who could translate the runes from the mine. I was certain that the prints belonged to her. They were much lighter than mine. They were the kind of prints I would have expected to find left by the kind of person who favoured a bow. Light as a feather; not the heavy trenches pressed into the ground by the feet of a swordsman or brawler.

The cave was not too dark; light managed to bounce its way around the corners and through the tunnels well enough. With the red glow from the staff I could see almost as well as I had been able to outside. But the tunnels echoed. I did not realise it at the time but my sense of hearing was greatly hindered in the tunnels. I couldn't tell which direction sounds were coming from.

I was quite far into the cave, still able to see clearly, when something brushed past me. I felt a freezing chill all over my body. I span around and saw the path I had just walked along covered in pearls of frost. The path that had definitely not just been covered in such items. But now it was. A freezing breeze blew from ahead of me and I turned around again, feeling as if there was something behind. Pearls of frost were appearing everywhere now; they seemed to be growing out of the ground before my very eyes.

My grip tightened around the hilt of the Shard-Blade. I spun around again and saw it. The monster. At first it was like a ghost; incorporeal. I could see through it to the wall behind as well as I could see it itself. Gradually its form grew more solid - from something as substantial as breath on a cold day, to a hulking creature that looked to be made up of jagged blocks of pure ice.

The monster bore a resemblance to the Water Elementals from stories. They too could choose to be a gaseous cloud of vapour, or a man shaped column of liquid, or anything in between. Perhaps the monster used to be a Water Elemental, but lost its ability to sustain a liquid form in the low temperatures of the north.

The origins of the monster weren't my first concern as it became more and more solid before me. I had two options - either I stayed to fight, or I turned and fled. There would be no peaceful solution with an Elemental.

I did not think that fighting would be successful. It would turn to mist as my sword was about to hit it, then return to its icy form to attack me with cold, heavy fists. I had to run. I span on my heel and darted through the tunnels. When I came to a fork in the path I went left without a thought. The way took me up and up, then around a corner, and then all of a sudden I was back outside.

I allowed myself to turn around to see how much distance there was between myself and the Ice Elemental. As I found my footing it emerged from the cave mouth. I began to turn to run once more when "shweish!" A flaming arrow soared past my ear (so close to my head, I later discovered, that it singed some of my hair). Then another flew through the space between my arm and my side, then a third between my legs. For an instant I thought I was being ambushed but I soon realised that all the arrows, that had missed me, had found their intended target - the Ice Elemental.

The archer was crouched about 50 paces from me and had another arrow ready to shoot. However, this one had not been lit.

"Good, you've led the monster to us!" She shouted to me with a hint of sarcasm. "The fire will only melt it for a minute or so, after that it will chase you again. So I suppose that gives you just enough time to tell me what you're doing with my Dragon-Eye staff, but not long enough for you to think of a lie that will stop me from shooting you. "
"It was a gift from the leader of Old Traders' Village. I needed a light so that I could explore the Dwarven Mine and I was given this. I had only gone looking for a torch. "
"You think faster than I gave you credit for. But there is a hole in your story. I was home that day you came to my house looking for a torch, which, by the way, is a very odd place to expect to find one when there are shops nearby. You didn't see me but I overheard your brief conversation with my father, and I am well aware that he sent you away empty handed. You must have sneaked back in later and stolen the staff! "

Please stop reading over my shoulder now.

Behind me I heard the Ice Elemental's struggle cease. The archer whispered something and released the arrow she had been holding. Mid flight the arrow tip became fire, and it buried itself in the Elemental.

"Thank you. "
"Don't. I'd prefer not to have to fight the monster to get my staff back when you could just bring it to me. Come, we should continue our conversation somewhere safer - I don't have enough arrows to keep it at bay for very long. I have already used four more than I would have liked to. Having said that, I'll happily use one on you if you try anything. "

I had no choice but to go with her. The Elemental was already recovering from the last shot. I ran the distance between us and then we both jogged away, with her slightly ahead to lead the way. Every so often she would crouch down and whisper to herself, and the snow would melt away around her and the ground would reveal itself to look freshly burned.

On the other side of a small incline in the land we came to a pit. It was huge. It was impossible to see into it due to all the smoke rising up out of it. I asked what was down there but the woman wouldn't tell me. She said that if I knew I would turn around and take my chances with the elemental. It wasn't the most comforting response but she assured me that I would be safe there as long as she was with me.

"Now, tell me who you are, why you're here and why you were exploring the mines. "
"My name is Esunai. I'm in the wilderness to try and learn why the Ice Elemental is getting so close to the village again after leaving it alone for so long that the only memory of it ever coming near is bound to a folk song, and I'm right here because you told me, while you were aiming at my head, to follow you. I wanted to explore the mines to search for clues as to why the Dwarves died out. "

My abrupt honesty caught her off guard and she hesitated before talking again. I took the opportunity to speak more and to ask a questions of my own.

"You are Al'Lanua; Lanua for short. You are the most skilled with a bow in your village by a long way, and you always win the shooting game at the Festival of First Seed. You are also the only person who can translate the runes carved in the Dwarven Mine and the other reason I came into the wilderness was to ask you to tell me what they mean and why the rocks glow. "

I took this diary out of my pack and found the picture I had drawn of the runic carvings. Lanua had become quite quiet, almost distant, and seemed not to know what she should be doing. She looked at the picture and I could see her translating the text in her head.

"I'll give you the eye-staff if you tell me about them. And why the rocks glow. "

At this she looked up.

"You found rocks that were glowing? "
"Yes, why? What are they? "
"Do you have one with you? "
"In a way. I fell in a cave in the mountain and the rock I had with me shattered causing a shard to lodge itself in my upper arm. What do the runes say? Here, take this - it's yours anyway. "

I offered Lanua the eye-staff hoping that she would decide I'm not just some dishonest rogue, and that she would tell me what the picture said.

"It says 'The Power Of The Mountain Succumbs Only To The Greed Of The Soul' but, before you ask, I don't know what it means. "

Neither did I. After a short time we sat down and began to talk about what I had been up to since I left Teeluw, and about her life, which was entirely more adventurous than I would have expected from anyone who lived in Old Traders' Village.

That brings the story to where I am now as I write it by the red glow of the Dragon-Eye Staff and with Lanua poking the fire she made and occasionally reading over my shoulder to make sure I'm telling it right.

 The Ice Elemental.

Day 20

The rain still has not stopped but at least the wind is much calmer now. I left the inn this morning after only a few hours of interrupted sleep. When I got to the barren lands it did not take me too long to find some pearls of frost. The monster must have come close to the village last night. I thought it would have retreated into its territory from fear of the weather but apparently it did not.

I have been walking all day. As time passed by it became harder and harder to find traces of the monster. There have been many times when I have wondered if I am heading in the right direction. Then again, what is the right direction? I am tracking a monster that nearly destroyed the village all that time ago. Am I heading straight for it? Should I be trying to flank it? In the end it doesn't really matter - all I can do is walk on and hope to find more pearls of frost until I can see it and hopefully it can't see me. Then I can decide how best to approach it.

As the sky began to darken I found a rare patch of trees in this desolate landscape. I have set up camp at the top of them and the eye-staff glows and illuminates the surrounding area. I would not like to be out here in the pitch dark.

 Lonely trees.

Day 19

In the night a terrible storm blew in from the south. I decided that it would be best not to travel into the wilderness in such conditions. I hoped that the weather would calm down before the day was out but I had no such luck. It is now dark and the wind and rain still have not stopped for more than a few minutes at a time. The ground outside is beginning to flood. Roo is in those clouds.

With the noise of the storm I doubt I'll be able to sleep. Instead I will sharpen my Shard-Blade, check my equipment and make some final preparations for my trip north. I don't need to take too much as I'll be able to catch my own food, the way K'Ylin taught me yesterday, and after all this rain I can't imagine water will be too hard to come by.

Day 18

Today K’Ylin and I went tracking in the wilderness. Last night at the festival, amongst all the talk of food for the next months, I asked her where the winter supplies came from. When I was in the wilderness two weeks ago it took me such a long time to find anything worth bringing back, but there I was eating meats that had clearly been caught out there quite recently. K’Ylin told me that there is a lot to be found out there by someone who knows where to look, and she offered to show me some of the tricks to finding enough to eat in this forgotten village.

The first lesson was how to tell if a burrow had something living in it. Things to look for include hairs at the opening or droppings nearby. The ground in the wilderness is too dry to look for prints and there are no trees close to the village so the methods of tracking I knew from Teeluw did not apply.

The second lesson was how to flush out something that lived in the burrow. K’Ylin told me that when there were lots of burrows near to each other, chances were in favour of them being connected underground. Lighting a fire at one of the entrances would scare the occupants into fleeing their home through one of the connected exists. Again, the tracking skills I acquired in Teeluw did not use this method - after all, lighting a fire in the woods would be silly. But there was almost nothing to unintentionally set on fire in the wilderness near the village. It proved to be an effective method of bringing out the small animals and directing them into snares we had set up.

Before too long we had enough meat to last K’Ylin a week but I wanted more. I wanted to try and find some without help and to show her that I had learned well. We travelled west for about five minutes - just so I wasn’t hunting in the same area as she had been. I found some burrows with earth that had recently been disturbed; it was a sign that something had passed through the opening recently. As I stood up to find more openings K’Ylin stopped me. She had spotted some pearls of frost on the ground where she was watching me from.

Perhaps to your surprise, I knew what these pearls of frost were. They were not from the cold - in fact it has been quite warm for the last few days. They were from a monster.

Last night at the festival there was a song about the history of the village and it mentioned a monster attacking and the Dwarves fighting it until it fled back into the wilderness.  It had never been seen again since but it lived on in the songs. The song also told of the signs the monster left where it had been - pearls of frost. K’Ylin was convinced that the monster was returning and she was worried about the destruction it might cause now that there are no Dwarves to fight it off.

For K’Ylin’s sake, I am going to go into the wilderness in search of this monster. I’ll try to find out why it is returning and, if I must, I will fight it. Hopefully I won’t be fighting it alone. If I go into the wilderness I might find the woman who can read the Dwarven runes and, hopefully, if it comes to it, she will help me fight the monster - I know she is skilled with a bow.

 A snare ready to catch supper.

Day 17

As the warmth of the sun swept in through the open window I drifted back into the waking world, just in time to hear N’Ras at the door. It is unusual for him to disturb me so early when I could still be asleep but today he had plans that would take him out of the inn and into the village. Today was the Festival of First Seed - a celebration held in the village every year the day after the first crops have been planted. He invited me to come and join the celebrations.

As I found out when I first came to the village, food is rather scarce, so I suggested we take a few of the pies we had made yesterday to put out for people to help themselves to. N’Ras had had a similar idea so we packed them into our bags and set off for the village.

As we got closer to the village we could already begin to hear music; the celebrations had started early in the day. On our approach N’Ras told me about the festival and how it is on a different day every year - it just depends on the soil. No one knows when the ground will allow the first crops to be planted but when it does it is a cause for celebration and so the next day there is always a festival.

We arrived in the square to find stalls with drinks and snack foods to consume before the big meal for everyone later in the day. There were also some games to keep people entertained. One game in particular seemed to be very popular. I queued up to have a go while N’Ras went off to talk to friends.

The aim of the activity was to shoot a single arrow through as many of the moving targets as you could. If you waited long enough the targets would all line up and for a moment the only requirement to get the top score was a good archery ability. The catch was that the bow was not made very well. It was good enough to shoot with but the wood was weak and holding it drawn for too long held a high risk that the bow would snap in half. But drawing the bow and taking aim when the targets had lined up took too long. In as long as people could remember the highest score was set by a woman from the village. The same woman who was, at this moment, out in the deep wilderness hunting. That is why the game was so popular - everyone wanted to steal her title while she was not there to defend it.

It finally came to be my turn. I had seen people before me in the queue getting fairly average scores; certainly nowhere near the highest score recorded. In Teeluw we are taught to use bows and arrows more than swords; in fact I was one of the minority in Teeluw to favour a sword over a bow. Still, I was a skilled enough archer. I thought it would be easy but the bow was so weak that drawing it even half way felt like it was more strain than the wood was able to take. When I loosed my arrow the bow snapped in my hands. For a moment I didn’t know if I had even fired or if it had broken too soon. I had fired, but my arrow only passed through one of the targets. It was the worst score so far that day.

I felt ashamed and embarrassed. Even though it was just a bit of fun I felt like I should have done better. Almost as if he had sensed my disappointment, the game master allowed me to have a second attempt on the basis that I am new to the village. Usually each person is only allowed one attempt but for me an exception was made. I did not allow myself to waste this chance. This time I was given a much better bow. Lucky. The seemingly random movements of the targets appeared to be getting less random as I prepared for my next shot. Lucky. I drew the bow and lined up a shot. I wasn’t quite quick enough to spot that the rare occasion when the targets all line up perfectly was upon me until it was too late but the targets hadn’t moved much when I did loose the arrow. It sailed through eleven out of the twenty loops. I walked away as the game master inserted my name into the fourth position on the high score table.

After that I took some time to wander around the village and look at the decorations. They were not fancy but they brought life to the place that has seemed so dead in all the times I have visited before. I smelled the food that was cooking for later - a stew made from I don’t know what. I would later find out that it tasted quite nice.

Later in the day the elder gave a speech about how important First Seed is to the village. After that it was time for the big meal. I sat with N’Ras on one side and a young woman called K’Ylin on the other. She was good company and I admired her for not persisting in asking about why I had left the forest. I simply said that I had my own private reasons and then the topic was closed.

After the meal came the music and dancing. I danced with K’Ylin for a good while until she wanted to rest her feet, at which point I sat with her and carved a piece of wood into a stick-whistle (I studied N’Ras’ yesterday while out looking for berries). When it was finished I joined the band and made music with them for everyone who was still able to dance to.

N’Ras and I made it back to the inn after midnight and we both collapsed into our beds after having a wonderfully fun day.

 The Festival of First Seed. 

Day 16

This morning I woke to the sound of music. N'Ras had crafted a whistle out of a simple twig from one of the fruit trees. I had missed the sound of music; it is such a natural thing to hear the Teeluwin priestesses singing and playing their melodies to the Gods. To think that such a beautiful instrument can be made from a stick and that we, the people of the trees, had not the knowledge of how to make one.

There is not much for me to write about today. I spent it all with N'Ras at the inn. He has continued to teach me to cook with ingredients more commonly found outside the forest. He has also given me some lessons in how to tell if a berry is safe to eat.

 Berry pie.

Day 15

It is the evening of the 15th day since I left Teeluw. I will try to write entries into this journal at the end of the day so that I can write about what happened in the days while they are fresh in my mind rather than writing about the day before just after I have woken up, as I did so often in the mountain.

Today I travelled into the village. I had two goals. First, to find someone to translate the runes I wrote about in the entry, "Day 6". Second, to discover what I could about the glowing rock that is now part of my right arm.

If I were a stranger visiting Teeluw and I wanted to find out something about, for example, a curious plant I had found in the forest, I would be most likely to find the answers to my questions by asking the elders. As such, it seemed only sensible to ask the man from whom I acquired the magical eye-staff. He, if you remember, seems to be the equivalent of the village elder, despite his young age. Well, I found him at his house just after lunch time and he invited me in for a drink of a leafy brew. He was very interested to know about myself and my past since the rumours had begun to circulate that a new character was exploring the mines.

The questions were no more than you might expect and I'm sure the answers to all of them will be known by this point to any reader of this diary so I shall omit them from the story. Instead, I shall skip forward to just after he has asked his last question about what exactly it was I did that forced me to be the first person in my people's memory to leave the forest and to after I have avoided answering for the fifth time and to where I begin to ask my questions.

I wanted to know about the runes. What they said, why they glowed - the things you'd expect me to want to know. I won't lie about how disappointed I was to find out that he, nor anyone else in the village, had the ability to translate the Dwarvish writing. To some extent I was prepared to find out that this would be the case. What was really disappointing was that there was a resident of the village who would be able to translate the runes for me. The problem was that she was out deep in the wilderness hunting for food to feed the entire settlement, and that she had left only yesterday. If I hadn't gone straight back to N'Ras' inn I would have caught her just before she set off. She would not return to the village for quite some time.

I also asked about the glowing rocks. Here I was given some answers, though not many. It is thought that the dwarves mined the rocks from the mountain before the battle between them and the Humen. There was a demand for them in the cities to the south. That was when this village was prosperous. But when the Dwarves had mined the mountain dry, the trade dried up as well. The cities forgot about the old traders' village.

We continued to talk and drink the brew until the sun was low in the sky, neither of us really getting the answers we wanted to our questions.

Day 14

I am back at N'Ras' inn. It was a long journey back across the top of the mountain, made to seem twice as far by the lack of food in my stomach, but I made it back safely. Even better, my leg has fully healed! Now all I have to remember my first encounter with a dau'kelaq is the huge scar. N'Ras told me that "dau'kelaq" is the name the local people gave to the fercac-like creatures.

N'Ras was very interested to hear about what I found in the mines. Apparently in my absence he had grown more and more curious as to why the mountain Dwarves died out. But, despite my disappointing story of not finding so much as a clue, there was a huge meal made for my supper, followed by a berry pie made from the berries I had collected on my way back over the mountain to the inn. At the time I had been so hungry that I could have eaten a sack full of the berries, but in my mind I knew that they could be dangerous so instead I held on to them. I would have eaten them if it was my last remaining option but I was back before it came to that. N'Ras, recognised the local fruit and baked it into a pie for us to share.

I don't know what I will do now. It was nice to spend a lot of time on my own after living in Teeluw for all of my life (it is almost impossible to get time alone in the trees). I had as much time as I wanted to just think. I thought about a lot of things. About a lot of people. But those thoughts have been thought and no more good can come from thinking them again.

I suppose I'll see what's going on in the village tomorrow.

  A tree without its leaves.

Day 13

After more than a week in the realm of the Dwarves of old I have come back to the outside world. The air is so fresh! As soon as I could feel the breeze on my face and smell the scent of a thousand flowers covering the mountainside the pain in my leg vanished. I was able to climb outside into the noon sunlight as if my leg had never been injured. It seems the winds have changed in my favour.

When last I wrote I had just fought three beasts and, surprisingly, I had been victorious. With my food ruined from falling when the bridge collapsed I wondered if I should try to get some meat off the dead animals, but I decided against it - I have no experience in taking fercac meat from the bones and I wasn't even sure if any meat I did manage to take from these cave-fercacs would even be safe to eat. Instead I focused my efforts on finding a way to get outside. I had had enough of this mountain. There were no answers to be found regarding the disappearance of the Dwarves; at least not by me.

I could still hear the sound of water from somewhere in the caves. I had been able to hear it since I woke up on my ledge two days ago. Even though, when I had been heading towards it and I fell into the chasm, I was forced to travel away from the sound, after some time I heard the stream clearer than I had done before. It spurred me on.

Eventually I came to a huge cavern. The closer I had come to it the more noises I could hear coming from there and the more I was prepared to find much more than a simple stream. Still, seeing it in the eerie red light - well, I could not have imagined such a beautiful and mystical sight. It was as if I was looking into the very heart of the Goddess of nature herself. Words cannot describe the pool of perfectly clear water, nor the waterfalls. I felt reluctant to taint the pool with my dirty, sweaty body, but I was too tempted to swim in the turbulent water near the falls and wash away the grime that I had accumulated recently. It would also do some good to clean my wounds. I left my bag, my sword, my armour and the staff at the edge of the cavern and waded into the pool in my underclothes.

The Teeluwin people rarely have the opportunity to swim. There are ponds and small lakes in the forest and we are taught to swim in them at an early age, but visits to the forest floor are rare and never for recreation. Now, to be free to float on top of the water or to dive below it as I should choose was incredible.

I swam for hours. It was a relief to be able to take the weight off my sore leg without having to sit on the hard floor of the caves. I only got out when my muscles were almost too fatigued to keep me afloat.

This morning I went straight back into the pool. Unlike yesterday, however, it was not for fun. I wanted to find a way out of the mountain. All the water must have come from somewhere outside and I wanted to find its source. From the top of the largest waterfall there was a channel carrying water down a gentle incline to the left. The slope was mild enough for me to climb it and so I did. It was not easy with the water flowing against me, but I managed it in the end.

I was at the top of the highest waterfall and as I had hoped, I could see where the water was coming into the cavern. Furthermore I was able to get over to the stream that brought the water in - and from there I could see outside.

The hole in the ceiling from where the water came was big enough for me to get through with all of my equipment. I was so excited to get back to breathing fresh air. I dived from the top of the waterfall into the large pool below and gathered my things as quickly as I could.

It was much more difficult to get back to the top of the waterfall with armour, a bag and only one free hand (the other held the staff; I was unable to fasten it to anything securely enough not to have to keep hold of it) but I was able to eventually. With everything I had I jumped into the small pool at the top of the waterfall and swam against the current to the opening. I took a deep breath and pulled my way through the small tunnel until, finally, I could come up for air. Air from outside the mountain.

 The pool.

Day 12

Yesterday shall be marked as the day I found absolute faith in my religion. Roo, God of misery (and secrets, rain, cats, peace, and the moon) has been watching my journey into the mountain closely and has started to interfere in the affairs of this mortal. How wrong I was when I thought things were as bad as they were going to get pushing the Purge Nettles into my leg wound. In fact they have become considerably worse.

After writing my last entry into the journal yesterday I noticed the sound of flowing water far off in the distance through the tunnels. My supply of honeywater was getting so low that I had considered making my way back to the village before it ran out but with the possibility of being able to fill up my skin from a stream, not to mention the means to clean my wound in flowing water, I made my way toward the noise.

On the way I came to a bridge over a chasm. The bridge, like everything else the Dwarves built, was part of the mountain. It looked sturdy enough. I limped onto the bridge warily. It was fine. I limped further across. Still fine. More confident now I continued to walk across when 'crack'. I was within a single leap from the other side of the chasm when the bridge crumbled. If I had not been injured I could have jumped to safety but with my damaged leg I could only fall into the chasm with the stones that were once, long ago, a safe path across.

The fall was much further than I had hoped for and I landed on my back with a bang that echoed all the way to the city and back. Fortunately the net and what was left of the food in my bag (which I was wearing across my shoulder) cushioned my landing. Less fortunate was where the red glowing stone I had been carrying in my bag ended up. I had fallen onto my bag with such force that the stone turned almost into dust and a sliver of the vein splintered off and lodged itself in my right upper arm. They say that Roo hinders mortals in dire need and my curses were dedicated to him as I tried and failed to extract the sliver of rock and later as I chewed yet more Purge Nettles to heal the cut with the sliver still firmly embedded in my flesh.

To clarify my situation at this point, my leg was badly injured - not bleeding now and on the mend, but still agonisingly painful to put much weight on when walking and very difficult to move. My arm now had a piece of rock stuck in it - although it was only slightly sore and it was nothing compared to my leg. My mouth was numb from chewing Purge Nettles twice in as many days. My back was bruised from the fall but my Hazelignum armour had not been damaged (amazingly strong wood, Hazelignum) so I could still carry my bag on my back. Not that there was much in my bag at this point - all the food I had left was ruined when I landed on it. I was able to rescue a few crumbs but now I have run out. To make matters worse, I was at the bottom of a drop with no way to get back up to the path back to the entrance into the mountain and back to the village or N'Ras' inn. Nor was I able to carry on the other way toward the sound of flowing water where I could clean my wounds and refill my skin.

From an optimistic point of view I still had all of my equipment and none of it had been damaged. Roo had had his fun for the day. I walked for an hour in the only direction I could before settling down to rest. I was too depressed and angry with my misfortune to find a high ledge again so I slept in the middle of a tunnel on the sheet that I had discovered was much less comfortable than I had given it credit for.

Today has been an exciting day. About four hours after I had my breakfast of nothing but inedible Fraechyn leaves I was greeted by three cave-fercacs. These were much more bulky than the one I fought a few days ago. I did not think I was going to survive the encounter. Of course I did survive (how else would I be writing this? It is the curse of a writer when writing about oneself that it is obvious that everything turned out fine in the end) and the battle was particularly dull when compared to the one previously. I withdrew my Shard-Blade the moment I saw the cave-fercacs. They came toward me ready for a fight. I limped toward them ready to die trying to defeat an enemy I was not in a suitable condition to engage.

The first cave-fercac pounced at me. I slashed with the Shard-Blade horizontally right to left. The beasts skull was sliced in two. The second and third cave-fercacs pounced. I stepped to the left and thrust the blade forward into the second cave-fercac's neck just as the third had left the ground. Unable to change its course in mid air it could not dodge the vertical slash down that cut it in half. Against all odds I was victorious. I don't understand how my sword struck them so hard. I don't need to understand.

A cave fercac.

Day 11

When I regained consciousness after the cave-fercac attack the bleeding from my leg had slowed. The weight from the beast lying dead across my body must have cut off the blood to my legs, thus saving me from departing to the domain of Enaerixer, Goddess of life and graves.

I was somewhat reluctant to move the creature in case I started bleeding badly again from my leg but it was the only course of action I could take. I was still losing blood and I did not know how long I had been losing it while I was unconscious. If I waited any longer then there was the chance I would be unable to recover.
I heaved the cave-fercac off my waist and onto the ground next to me. I crawled over to my bag and took out the rope and Purge Nettles. I tied the rope tightly around my thigh to once more cut off the blood to it and I chewed the Purge Nettles until they were like a paste. Oh, what a horrid ordeal they put the mouth through. Their sting is worse than any other nettle in the forest but for them to heal a wound you are forced to chew them and chew them until every last part of your mouth and some of your throat has had the displeasure of being exposed to them. Then, when they are applied to the wound they usually cause more pain than there was already. But the healing properties of Purge Nettle cannot be rivalled by anything known to the Teeluwin people.

As I waited for the Purge Nettles to harden in the gashes in my leg and stop the bleeding and fight away any infection I wrote about my fight with the cave-fercac on the previous page in this journal. A few hours after this the nettles had hardened enough for me to be able to walk again as long as I kept the rope tight around my thigh. I had to tread slowly and carefully and use the staff to support my weight but I was able to make my way away from the dead animal that had caused me so much pain. It was not long until I found a ledge high up in the wall of one of the larger tunnels. If these cave-fercac creatures are as similar to the forest fercacs as they seem then they are probably unable to climb very high making this ledge the perfect place to rest for what I did not know whether was the night or day. I was able to scale the wall to this hole despite my leg but I could not carry the staff with me so I was forced to leave it with the eye open on the ground.

Of course I am writing this the next morning so I can say that nothing disturbed my sleep or the staff on the ground. Whether that is because nothing visited this area while I slept or because something that did was unable to reach me I am unsure, but either way I am pleased to have had an uneventful morning and regret wishing for more excitement when I was exploring the city.

 Ledge in the mine

Purge Nettles

Day 10

Despite my intention to stay at some level of alertness while I rested, I awoke with a start. I had been dreaming of Teeluw and what my life would have been like if I had stayed. Short. When, in my dream, I was thrown into the clearing, I realised I had fallen too far into sleep and came back to the waking world in a flash. What I wasn't expecting to see were the second and third flashes. It took me a moment to realise what was causing them. Fortunately I had left the staff's eye open enough to cast some light on my immediate surroundings. Before me stood a creature, similar to a fercac in build. Similar, but not the same. This animal had tremendous claws. It was these claws tapping the ground as the beast moved forward that caused the flashes. Causing sparks against the stone.

The cave-fercac seemed wary of me at first. I expect it had never seen light before so my staff (which I now held) had made it curious. It ran out of curiosity just as I pulled my Shard-Blade from the scabbard. The creature lunged at me with its front leg. I parried the blow with my sword, spinning him off to the side as my blade glanced one of the hook like claws. As it recovered it exposed itself to an early finishing stab but the force had knocked me onto my back. I could not deal it. We both got up and into our battle stances simultaneously. This time it was my turn to go on the offensive. I refused to wait for a second opportunity to present itself while I blocked blow after blow from a dangerous brute. I skipped left, then right, trying to confuse the two legged creature and force it to shift its weight. Another hop to the right followed by a quick jump back left and ending in a roll placed me to the side of the beast. I kicked with as much power as I could manage and I heard a crack. A rib had broken in the animal's torso. It fell onto its back but as it did so the great claws came up and slashed the leg I had kicked with. Blood poured out over the ground. The cave-fercac was struggling to stand up but I was struggling to stay concious. In a moment of desperation and blurred thinking I pulled the eyelid in the staff back as far as it would go so that I could shine as much light at the beast as the staff was capable of. He was startled for a moment but also just about stood up and ready for another attack. Meanwhile I was still on the ground bleeding profusely. It limped toward me slowly, then leaned back so that it stood on only its rear leg. The front leg was above my chest, ready to pound down and crush me. I clenched my sword tight. The hovering set of claws descended. With the last of my strength I thrust the Shard-Blade skyward and impaled the cave-fercac through the neck. It fell upon me and knocked the wind from my chest just as I passed out.

Day 9

The second set of rails did not go very deep into the caves at all. I expected to be able to follow them for hours before coming across a tunnel that had perhaps been blocked by a rockfall. In fact they led me for less than one hour to an abrupt end between two small rooms with open windows and a small bench inside each.

In my mind I saw two Dwarven guards, one in each booth, possibly there to make sure no one wandered in from the city unless they had permission from a Dwarf with the authority to decide on such matters. In that moment of imagination I saw the entire mountain come to life. I heard the sounds of a great city full of life echoing through the hollow mountain. The sharp, quick ringing out of picks against the stone, out of synchronisation with one another and discordant due to the varying density of the walls. I saw Dwarves bringing up their gems in carts to be taken to the city by the rails to be sorted.

I ventured further in. Past the two guards. A Dwarf ahead of me was carrying his gems, all with the red glow of the runes I saw on that house and in the vein in the rock I found, but these stones, unlike mine, were pure. It was not a vein in a lump of earth like the one I found; it was entirely made of that mineral. Translucent in his hand. Completely red and alive with the deep glow. Radiating an energy but at the same time doing nothing.

Then it was as if this Dwarf saw me, and he disappeared. So did the rest of them. I snapped back to reality and the silence of the dead mountain resonated against my ears. I was able to hear the pounding of my heart echo through the tunnel.

Since then I have been acutely aware of the noises I can hear all around. It is mostly my footsteps and breathing, and as I write there is also the scratching of my quill, but there is a trickling sound from far away too - I think it must be a stream - as well as a muffled tapping that I am sure I can hear even as I write this. For now I will say it is the sound of water dripping, but I am on my guard. I need sleep but I will get it with my eyes and ears open tonight.

A Dwarf at work

Day 8

I finished exploring the city today. After two full days of finding nothing of interest but a bit of glowing rock I had lost the enthusiasm to look in many rooms and as a result I have mostly just walked along the major pathways. The few buildings I did look inside were as empty as the rest I've seen in this mountain. I have not found anything to explain the glowing rocks or the death of the dwarves.

I have returned to one of the houses I looked inside on my first day in the mountain. I shall sleep here so that I am near the entrance of the city for tomorrow when I will start to explore the caverns that the other set of rails leads into.

 

Glowing rock

Day 7

I sat for quite some time this morning staring into the glow of the runes on the wall of the house in which I rested. They are strange indeed. Why do they glow the way they do? I have seen runes carved into the stone elsewhere in the city but they are as dull as the rocks. I have no understanding of the meaning of the carvings and I doubt they would explain much about the disappearance of the mountain dwarves, but they may explain this energy coming from the wall.

I had a small loaf for breakfast, after which I continued to explore the city. As I went deeper in and further from the main pathways the structures became more and more ruined. Entire walls had fallen and ceilings collapsed. Craters in the ground. Still no clues. Still nothing of value.

There was, however, more of the faint glow. This time it was coming from cracks in the walls where they had crumbled rather than runic carvings. That suggested to me that my one idea - that the runes were somehow connected with magic - was wrong.

I managed to break off, from one of the cracks in the wall, a piece of rock that was glowing. At least, it had a vein running through it and it was the vein that glowed. Without eyes it felt like a normal rock. The vein did not make any sound, it did not give off an aroma, it was as rough as stone usually is and it did not have any distinguishable taste. Despite this I could tell it wasn't an ordinary rock. It made the hairs on the back of my hand stand on end when I held it. The longer I held it the more it seemed to heat my hand but the instant I let go the warmth was gone. I have the rock in my pocket now. If I don't discover its secrets in the mountain I shall ask someone in the village if they know anything about it when I leave.

Today I have covered a lot of the city and I am still no closer to discovering why the dwarves died out. I will spend one more day in the city and then I think I will go and explore the other caverns along the right fork of the rails. Hopefully there will be more answers in that direction.

 

Runes

Day 6

I write this by the glow of the staff's eye. I have come into the mines and started to explore the ancient halls of the Dwarf Kingdom. What I have found here has surprised me. I knew from what N'Ras had told me that there was a city in the mountain but I could never have imagined one so grand. Indeed it was hard enough to imagine a city inside a mountain at all after spending my whole life in a treetop town. The sheer scale of this place is a wonder to me. I have only explored a small area of the city but it has taken me until I became weary to cover that amount. I have no way of determining the hour since the sun is behind the rocky ceiling.

Toward the entrance to the mine and exit to the outside world are vast corridors. The glow from my staff could not reach the distant ends before being consumed by the shadows. Rails run along these corridors; I assume they were once used by carts to transport the precious gems mined here from where they were uncovered to the city or the outside to be taken and sold to the traders in the village.

It was these rails that I followed into the city proper. The track split in two at one point and I chose the left route, thereby ending up here. It would be my guess that the right fork leads to where the gems were originally found. I will explore that place in due time.

As I travelled the left path I was led into a giant cavern. Again the glow from my staff was not enough to light everything but as I wandered about the place I found buildings carved out of the walls. Are they still called buildings in this case? They were not built so much as already there - rather the spaces now here were carved out of the solid mountain core. At first I looked inside every room I came across for clues as to why the dwarves of the mountain had died out but after repeatedly not finding anything I decided only to check a few rooms every so often and focus on exploring pathways and alleys of the city. I was disappointed not to find anything of value the dwarves took from the Humen after the battle N'Ras told me of not long ago.

Perhaps an hour ago I found myself at the top of a hill in the city. From it the glow of the staff reached far and I could see enough to guess which parts I had already walked and where I had not yet been. I also saw a very faint red glow from a building atop another hill further on. I closed the eye in the staff and the glow persisted. Curious, I made my way towards it. It was coming from the runic carvings on the wall of the house I have now decided to sleep in. I cannot work out what it is but it gives off enough light for me not to need the staff in its immediate vicinity and I would like to leave the staff dark while I sleep so that it does not attract the attention of anything that may still be in these quiet caverns. When I awaken I will continue exploring the city. There is so much of it left to see. I will not call this house my camp just yet so I will keep my things with me.

The Dwarf City

Day 5

I have everything I can see myself needing whilst I am in the mines. I have my sword and Garren's armour, of course, as well as a torch, which I shall say more about later. In my bag I have a length of rope and a small net, the food N'Ras prepared for me, a large skin of honeywater and a sheet I can wrap around myself to keep warm or fold up to use as a cushion should I need one. Still in my bag from when I packed in Teeluw is a box of Fraechyn leaves to chew on after I have slept and some Purge Nettles to help heal any wounds I may acquire.

Yesterday when I was in town looking for a torch I was directed to speak with whom to me seemed to be the equivalent of the Teeluwin Elders. Actually the man I met was rather young in comparison - closer to Garren's age - but his role in the community had obvious parallels. Alas, that is unimportant. What is worthy of mention is the artefact he gave to me. A staff. A staff imbued with magical properties. Within the winds of the wood is a lidded eye. When the lid is pulled back the eye emits a deep red glow. It does not cast the flickering shadows of flame, nor does it need to be lit or extinguished. It is superior to a candle in every way and, as if to try and improve upon perfection, the man gave me this staff as a gift. It did not cost me a single coin.

I will set off from N'Ras' inn now to make it to the mine before noon. I expect the journey to the entrance will take me two hours at an easy pace.

 The eye-staff.

The items in my pack, and the Shard-Blade.

Day 4

I woke up late this morning after spending much of last night trying to decide what I will need to take with me if I am to explore the mountain.
I must assume there will be no light to guide me through the tunnels, or any food or water to sustain me. There could be creatures that don't want me trespassing in their territory. I doubt I will make it out of the mountain before I need sleep so I shall take something comfortable to rest on.
I can't think of much else I could need that isn't already in the bag I packed in Teeluw before I left. Nor can N'Ras. He kindly offered to prepare some food today for my journey while I am in the village looking for a torch, as well as anything that stands out to me as something that could be useful.

Day 3

Morning

It occurred to me this morning. The village where I had earned my coin to pay the rent for the room in N'Ras' inn - as far as I can tell it is in the middle of nowhere. Why would anyone build a settlement so far from other civilisation? A strange sensation came over me as I pondered the question. How could I wonder about living away from civilisation when the Teeluw have lived without contact from outside the forest for as long as our history records? Still, we had the benefit of being hidden in the trees with enough resources to survive comfortably on. The villagers to the east have to go into the wilderness to their north to hunt for food and, as I found out yesterday, there isn't much food to be found there. I shall have to ask N'Ras this morning why the village is so distant from anything and why his inn is so distant from the village. Not one other person has been to the inn in the time I have been here. Surely this inn can't be the most fruitful way of making a living.


Afternoon

I spoke with N'Ras over lunch. He told me that hundreds of years ago Dwarves used to mine the nearby mountains for precious gems. Humen who regularly traded with the Dwarves built the settlement so that they could sell the gems to other Humen at a higher price than they bought them for. For years it went on until the Dwarves learned that they were being taken advantage of by the villagers. There was a battle and many of the villagers were killed. Those who remained still traded the gems, but they made no profit. The Dwarves took everything of value from the Humen.
Eventually the mountain became dry and the Dwarves had nothing left to mine. Some of them moved out of the mountain and lived in the village with the Humen. The rest died off in the echoing halls of their dark and lonely kingdom.
N'Ras told me that there were no true Dwarves left - they had bred with the Humen until all their distinguishing traits had been diluted. Nonetheless, nearly every family in the village, as well as N'Ras' family, had Dwarven ancestry.


Eve

With all the coin I had from catching the birds yesterday I did not need to go into the village to find work. Instead I helped N'Ras with his trees before he tried to teach me how to bake an apple and pear pie. But my mind was not on the lesson. Something had been nagging at me all afternoon. Why had the Dwarves that stayed in the mountain died out? They had managed well enough before. What had changed? Was it because too many had left for the village? I couldn't see why that would have such an extraordinary effect.
I began to plan a little exploration.

The battle between the Dwarves and the cheating Humen.

Day 2

I awoke this morning in an unfamiliar bed. It took me a moment to remember where I had spent the night. For the first time in my life I had strayed from the safety of the forest.

Safety? Is that what is up in the trees? For the longest time I would not have had to think in order to answer that. My home town was hidden away from the world and so the world left it alone. Even the creatures that lived in the forest were no threat. The only beast that would ever attack us, fercacs, could not climb and so would only ever be encountered on rare journeys to the floor. But anyone travelling to the floor would be at their highest level of alertness and in a group of no less than six. The chances of being harmed by a fercac before one of your party slew it were so remote that it hadn't happened in over 20 winters.

Now, however, after my actions I would not be safe. I would be hunted. I would be paraded before the town and thrown into the clearing. Escaping the forest was the only chance I had to avoid such a fate. As long as I'm out they will consider me dead anyway.

I shall be forced to start a new life in the wide world. N'Ras, the inn keeper, had been kind enough to offer me a bed for one night after my long journey out of the forest but for any longer I would have to pay my rent. I would need work. N'Ras had none for me but he pointed me in the direction of the small village where he had spent his childhood and suggested that I look for some there.

The walk to the village took little under an hour. As I arrived and saw the stone, moss covered buildings I did not hold out much hope for finding anything to do. Not until I overheard a small girl asking her father what was for lunch. His reply was, "whatever you can catch, same as usual." Perhaps they would pay me to hunt for them. I had to find out.

As it happened the man was very grateful for my offer and sent me off to the wilderness north of the village with the promise of 5 to 15 coins, depending on what I brought back. Eager to earn as much as I could I set off to find him a meal.

The sun moved in the sky and I didn't see so much as a rat. I began to wonder if that man had sent me away just to get rid of me. Perhaps nothing lived in these wastes. Nothing but insects anyway. I considered catching some beetles and taking them back. He had promised to give me at least 5 coins as long as I brought something back. But then I spotted it. High above me a flock of birds flew. I had to find a way to tempt them closer to the ground. I grabbed a scurrying beetle. I withdrew my sword. I launched the beetle as high into the sky as I could manage. The birds took the bait. Five of them swooped down; racing each other for the insect. I readied myself and ensured I had firm footing. I didn't want this to go wrong. I looked up and watched as the birds came ever closer to catching the beetle hurtling through the air. I timed it perfectly. I threw my sword up and just as the leading bird caught the beetle my sword pierced four of the five birds through the chest and clipped the wing of another. All five fell to the ground with a crash. All five were dead.

When I arrived back at the village the man who had hired me was delighted at what I had returned with. So much so that he gave me 15 coins for each bird. With 75 coins I returned to the inn, paid N'Ras for another night and climbed back into a slightly more familiar bed.

 

N'Ras' Inn

Day 1

I packed my bag before dawn was close to breaking; I had to leave before anyone found out. I would travel as light as possible. But I had to stay safe and be able to protect myself. The Teeluw people don't spend their entire lives in the tree-tops because of the view. I donned the Hazelignum armour I had inherited from Garren, and I fastened the scabbard that contained my father's Shard-Blade to my belt.
I ran.
With an acrobatic flip I jumped off the platform and began to plummet towards the ground. I grabbed a vine to slow my descent. I jumped from branch to branch until I finally crashed down into the soft, moist earth of the forest floor. After a quick check to see if I my rough landing had broken any bones (it hadn't), I began to head east towards the rising sun.

By the time I was out of the forest the sun was already high in the sky. It was almost noon. My journey to the edge of the forest had been relatively uneventful. Shadows seemed to move in the darkness behind the trees but any monsters lurking there only had life in my imagination.
As I stepped from the shadow of the canopy into the daylight and took a moment to absorb my new surroundings, I felt all of the fatigue and tiredness that I had been so determined to avoid finally catch up with me. I marched to the top of an incline just outside the forest edge and found what I was now looking for. A sign of civilisation. Smoke was rising up from behind a distant hill. I set off in its direction.

I arrived at a small inn with a kindly keeper who offered me a room for the night in exchange for merely some help tending the three fruit trees that grew outside, and my company. I told him my story, or at least part of it – of course I left out certain details – and he suggested I keep a record of my life in this strange new world that my people have never ventured into so that, should I ever return to them, I could tell my tales and become the famous Teeluw who left the trees. An unlikely event, but the possibility of fame appealed to me nonetheless.

The treetop town of Teeluw

Out of the woods