by P R Glazier
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Just as the residual power of the portal faded, Amndo and JDC ran out of the mist JDC his ri’fal at the ready, both looking around as if to expect trouble. Amndo said, “I definitely detected arcane power teasing on my ward, someone was here trying to get aboard, or at least find out what was preventing them. I am so glad I had the presence of mind to set a ward around the machine.” Amndo walked slowly around the Leviathan careful to stay beyond the perimeter of his ward. He paused at the point where the portal had opened and looked around a frown on his face. He bent down and inspected the grass, then he shrugged and walked back to where JDC stood. After they were satisfied that no one was about and the ward was still in place and unaffected, they turned back with the intention of continuing their search for the old Pnook city.
Nar’Allia was relieved to find that the dark shape coming through the mist was no more threatening than a chest-high stone wall, it blocked their forward passage. They turned left and began to walk alongside the wall. They could hear grunts and other animal noises and in places where the height of the wall dropped down to waist height they could see sheep and pigs on the other side grazing happily. Beyond the animals could be seen upright thin shapes, wooden fencing Nar’Allia presumed. The stone wall obviously formed the outer part of animal pens of some kind, protection from something from the outside. Eventually they came across a gap in the wall. They stopped and waited. After a few moment a woman came into view and looked at them, she then nodded and waived a staff of some kind across the gap in the wall. There was the merest hint of movement and the woman seemed to appear more clearly. The shifters gestured to Nar’Allia and Jonas that they should pass through the gap, which they did. Wooden fencing could be made out either side of them running parallel to the path they trod.
Soon even larger shapes could be seen coming out of the gloom, they couldn’t be seen clearly but they looked like great beasts standing in a herd, Nar’Allia was reminded of the Duagnuats, yet these were larger and each had a shaggy coat that hung down around its haunches and seemed to brush the ground in places. Nar’Allia felt nervousness come over her, these beasts were massive, but they didn’t seem to be moving, just standing there in a random pattern grazing perhaps. Maybe they were beasts of burden like the Duagnuats or even some kind of large bovine creature domesticated for milk and meat. They approached close to one of these and Nar’Allia laughed out loud, as much in relief as in amusement, for now they were closer she could plainly see, not giant animals but a collection of low buildings, hovels in fact was the best word to describe them. The low stone walled buildings materialised slowly out of the mist and as they did so, more details could be seen. The rock that they had been constructed from was the same as the stone walling they had seen earlier, the same diamond hard granite that they had seen protruding from the scrub looking like the backbone of the landscape poking through the rough exterior of its thin soil skin. They walked on a hard, compacted earth path, similar mud tracks could be seen running between the buildings. In places, especially the lower places, small rocks and stones had been driven into the ground obviously in an effort to counter the mud that must appear there during bouts of inclement weather.
As they passed through the village, Nar’Allia notices thick black smoke billowing through holes cut into each roof. She also noticed each roof looked like it was fashioned by laying large turfs of earth and grass. These had been laid earth-side upper most onto long poles of silver birch for these poles protruded out from beneath the turf at both the bottom and the apex of the roofs. In some places the grass and other vegetation on the underside seemed to be still growing for it was a healthy green colour, some fronds carried seed heads. All this hung oddly sometimes right down to ground level, indeed giving the building the look of a shaggy haired long coat. They stopped in front of one of these buildings. The shifter man held back a thick leather curtain that obviously served as a door and invited them to enter with a sweep of his hand. He gently placed the hare back onto the ground; it shook itself awake before changing back into the girl. She nodded to the man and took his hand briefly before she walked off in another direction. They entered through the doorway and stood inside.
Within the building it was quite dark, it smelt quite pleasantly of smouldering fragrant wood or some other combustible material. But Nar’Allia’s eyes began to smart and water for there was quite a lot of smoke within that had not managed to find its way out through the vent in the roof. She looked up, grass had grown over the vent restricting the flow of air and smoke.
As her eyes adjusted to the gloom, Nar’Allia could see a glow from the hearth in the centre of the room. Judging by its size of the space, this was the only room within. Above the smoky hearth a thick greasy chain hung from a large wooden pulley attached to a gnarled wooden rafter by a metal ring. The chain supported a large cast iron cauldron which hung directly above the hearth, wisps of steam rose from the interior testifying no doubt to something hot and cooking within. A heavy looking metal ladle lay on the stonework of the circular hearth, its bowl encrusted with a creamy coloured sticky mass. Nar’Allia recognised oatmeal porridge when she saw it.
A sudden movement around the other side of the hearth caught her attention. A figure walked around the hearth mumbling some unheard words to itself. The figure wore what looked like soft pig skin slippers. The ankles and calves of this person were dark stained and wrinkled. Any muscle that had once been there had withered for it had given way to skin and bone. Nar’Allia thought how similar this person looked to the old A’kath man in the facility beneath the Rust Desert. The shifter man waited patiently with his head bowed in a reverent pose. Eventually the figure stopped in front of them. It reached up and the edges of the large animal skin wrap it wore the sleeves fell revealing thin wrinkled hands and forearms. The hands reached slowly up and pulled back a hood of the heavy animal skin clothing that was wrapped around the small body. Then they reached back and pulled a long head of hair out from the folds of the animal skin. There revealed before them was an elderly human woman. Her face was as wrinkled as her legs, but her hair which was long, at least down to her waist and was pure white. Her eyes on the other hand made Nar’Allia start, for they were bright, but deep blue within blue just like Solin’s. The thick skins she wore slipped down her back revealing bare shoulders. She seemed not to care at this sudden exposure. Nar’Allia noticed dark marks across her shoulders and down her back, ornate twirls and lines that also extended across her breast bone and up her neck, they looked like tattoos of varying kinds, or even knife marks that had carved the skin leaving permanent scarring.
The woman looked deeply into the eyes of each of them before she addressed the shifter man in a melodious voice. "So, Alonso, what have we here? Dread elves walking with men of the west?”
Alonso, bowed low, he kept his gaze on the floor as he said, “my Taekla, we tracked these across the great ground, they flew in a battle ship. We thought we may learn something of their plans, but when they touched the heather, it was these that came from the battle ships belly,” he gestured towards Nar’Allia and Jonas. He then added, “there are two others, they went to investigate the shroud, but I think they will make their way here later, one was a strange one, the other a Gnome.”
At this the old woman’s eyes burned with an inner blue brightness. “a Gnome? A Gnome you say. Perhaps he has come home then. Long has it been since one of their kind has trod the heather eh?”
Alonso, just nodded, bowed once more and said, “All be at your pleasure Taekla.”