Not Dead Yet - Chapter 3

Chapter 1 | Chapter 2 | Chapter 3 | Chapter 4 | Chapter 5 | TBC

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Berryshire

Part 1

Nearly midnight, Arõn'Roidd, 3 Nédiïn 3884

The light of the full Vialru, and two-days past full Onalru, illuminated the road into the warm, dusty Avel village of Berryshire Town in Cleveal of Væensal; the town streets were quiet this late at night. The Lights of the Alru were dimly dancing across the sky, and Illek seemed to be enjoying another feast of stellar dust and gas that found itself too close to the soul-eating black hole which guarded the night sky ever apart from the Roia during the day. The tall grass plains which stretched for many elics, glittered under the lights of the night sky. A man in a deep blue, dirty cloak, riding a tall dusty horse, which looked brown in the darkness of night, slowly made their way into the quiet town.

Past wooden and stone houses along a cobblestone road, the clacking of the horseshoes echoed through the empty streets; to a large wooden building with stables near the town center, they walked. The only light in the town seemed to be coming from a thick sprawling tree in the park at the center of town. The thick trunk of this tree started in one place, as trees typically do, spreading in three directions, wrapping back down till it was half buried in the grass before rising up again in a new direction. Hanging from the tree was a single lantern: a light for the dead. 

The garden along the path towards the Inn was unlit, and the windows dark. The cloaked man dismounted the horse, and wrapped its reigns over the gate post, and drew one of his blades. A sign over the door reading Aurie View Lodge swayed in the breeze--Berryshire was, however, not within any view of any Aurie. With sword in one hand, he slowly pushed open the door with the other. The Healing symbol above the door glowed as he passed through the doorway, shedding light across the entryway hall. The large painting of a beach was now lit just enough to think the waves were actually rolling in and crashing on the shore, wind rustling the trees.

"Hello?" a small, tired, concerned voice came from behind the shell covered counter in front of a board of room keys; there seemed to be tears in the voice, as if in the middle of a sad nightmare. "M...m..Mr. Capita? MR. CAPITA!!!!!!!!!! You're alive?!?!! YOU'RE ALIVE!!!!" The lights came on, the young Hobb was now standing on the countertop, screaming with excitement. His sadness completely gone.

"Ârûn?" Putting away his sword, Griegg Capita looked very confused, as he removed his hood and helm.

"You're alive!!!" Ârûn Bwein leaped through the air to his friend he'd believed to be murdered two months earlier.

"Griegg? So this is going to be a happy birthday, and not an unexpected memorial." A woman with long red hair, rustic beauty, with a strong face and muscular body, dressed in red robes, came down the stairs behind the bar.

Setting Ârûn down, Griegg Capita turned to the woman, "What did I miss?"

"Getting murdered, apparently." Came the deep voice of Talur, the overweight Avgar bartender, "Didn't lose the limb, either. The alru were on your side; come here, you can't deny me a hug this time, we thought you were dead; Raain was a wreck."

Giving into the embrace from the much shorter Avgar, Grieg looked at Raain, "D'you end up losing a brawl?"

"Couldn't even start one, and your stables got dirty," she said as she hugged her friend, the town stable Master.

"I'll take care of it tomorrow, its tough work not getting.....did you say something about losing a limb? What happened?"

By this point, with the noise of the excitement, and there suddenly being lights on in town, a crowd was starting to arrive. Mostly humans and Hobbs, but there were also two Vulswyn, and a Chayas~fox.

As the fox came down the stairs and saw Griegg, his eyes widened, and his tail and ears raised, "Lemon?" he said in a manor that only comes from being unexpectedly awoken, but finding that the reason is completely worth it.

"She's out front, Tedd, she's a great horse." And with a new energy Tedd, the fox, bounded out the front door, still in his night wear, and embraced his horse.

"I was so worried, Lemon; I thought you were killed along with Mr. Capita. So glad to see you, my girl!" Lemon, the horse, was even more confused than Griegg had been. He unleashed his horse, and led her back to the dirty stables, and gathered some moderately fresh food and water, kicking over a trough of dirty water. "I'll bring you some fresh water. I'll be right back," he said to his horse as he bolted for the hose attached to the water pump, laid it into the trough and as the horse began to lick at the hose end Tedd clamped together the outer rings of the rotative repulsion magnetic pump crank to begin pumping water into the trough. When it was full enough, he separated the outer rings of the motor, breaking the magnetic field that spun the gears to run the water pump, bringing it to a slow stop.

Inside the Inn, Talur was having to reopen the bar now that there were actually people wanting to drink for a good reason.

A low bell sounded outside; "Happy birthday, Griegg!" shouted Ârûn; Illek had passed over head, it was a new day.

Several rounds of drinks and cheers followed.

Just past midnight, Elõn'Roidd, 4, Nédiïn 3884

"Ok, so will you guys tell me already, why am I supposed to be dead?"

"Two months ago," Raain began, with a bit of a sob somewhere between the memory of a terrible loss and the overwhelming joy of not having lost it, "We got a bird scroll report of a  murder where you were supposed to be, and you had gone missing. An arm and shoulder were found, and it was believed to belong to you."

"They could tell that just from an arm and shoulder? Well, obviously it wasn't mine, what made who think that?" Griegg asked as he lifted a drink in one hand and a piece of the cold giant-frog steak in the other.

"There was a sleeve with your crest, though cut in half, with the arm." Talur piped in.

"Green sleeve?"

"I don't think the report said, why?" Raain asked.

"I lost my green coat."

"Interesting," Raain rubbed her chin, mocking Griegg's beard.

"The report said you had gone missing," Talur said.

"I left nearly a month before I had originally planned. Wanted to get home in time for today."

"You worried a lot of people," said someone in the crowd.

Raain looked at Griegg, and he knew he should have let someone in Kaillic know he was leaving early. "Well, time for bed, for everyone," she stood and turned to the bar room. "Breakfast will begin 75 minutes after the roia are up."

With a few grumbles and last swigs, the crowd began to clear the hall, and return to their rooms in the upper levels of the Lodge, and back into the dark town that no longer felt dismal, and to their homes to share the good news. But the third person out the front door looked out to the streets which were almost completely dark, except for the lantern hanging from the tree in the middle of town, also just in front of the lodge, turned back to the inn and said, "Hey, he's not dead, he can't have a Lantern. He needs to come out here and put this thing out!" The crowd was stunned for a moment, then all turned to Griegg, and spoke at him in agreement.

"Well, I couldn't agree more to that!" Griegg said, as everyone who had been going to bed, came back down to go outside.

Griegg lead the cheering crowd out the door, and all gathered around the tall, sprawling tree. 

Someone called out "Nabal, light the street lights!" An awkward looking man gave a solute, turned on his heels, and began running down the street towards the nearest lamp. He grabbed from his small belt pocket a long pole with a wick at one end--the pocket, though very small on the outside, could hold very large things on the inside; there were several pockets of this sort on Nabal's belt--and he began lighting the street lamps, which were nearly three times taller than Nabal, who was not a short man.

"Well," Griegg said over the crowd at the Tree, "this is a thing unheard of: the lights of the dead being put out, not because its floated off beyond the Kaea, and into the Illek, but because, there was no death!" The crowd cheered with laughter and applause! A few more buildings began turning on lights, those inside trying to figure out what the commotion was. The town was beginning to look almost festive. "So, I don't know what kind of ceremony we're supposed to have here, so, I think I'll just take it down and blow out the flame." About thee quarters of the crowd laughed out loud, the other quarter was still tired and trying to figure out what was going on.

Griegg stepped off of the low brick wall which surrounded the grassy area around the Tree, he walked towards the branch which his Death Light was hanging in. He paused for a moment, and pondered the oddity of seeing his own Light in the Tree, and the surreal feeling of it, an etching of his face in the rice paper, before reaching up with both hands to pull it down.

Griegg had barely touched his lamp when the town was suddenly illuminated and filled with the sound of rushing fire from a little way down the street. The crowd spun around to see a towering fire where Nabal should be.

A few seconds later the fire had put itself out, and there lay Nabal, burned and dead. A few fluttering blue ribbons of light began wrapping themselves around him, emanating from a ring on Nabal's finger, he began to glow gold.

As the crowd watched from a distance, Nabal's body shifted and reformed itself, but not as he was before. He was shorter and stockier, and a beard began to grow on his face.  Nabal awoke with a great gasp of breath as the ribbons and glow faded. 

Cheers erupted from the crowd. 

"Talur!" shouted someone from the crowd, "He's a Gar now! You've got another one in town."

Talur ran over, reached down to help Nabal to his new feet and wrapping him in a blanket that his wife handed him, "Welcome to the race. Good thing you remembered your ring tonight."

"Iy nwever leaf wifout it. Gwar you say?" Nabal would need to get used to this new mouth.

"Yup," Talur laughed, "But don't ye worry, you've still got your old eyes. And you've got quite the nice beard." Everyone laughed.

Then they turned back to Griegg's lantern, without much more about the reincarnation of Nabal: it wasn't the first time, or the hundredth time, it won't be the last. At least this time, he wasn't a rodent.

The Lantern wasn't as easy to untangle as Griegg had hoped, and he struggled for a moment to release it from the tree.

"Oh, just cut it down!" Raain shouted at him. With a slightly irritated, but amused look over his shoulder at her, he drew his short sword and cut the lines. The crowd's chuckles turned back to cheers.

He carried the wood and paper lantern in front of him back to the wall in front of the crowd. He stepped up, held the lantern high in the air, and shouted at the top of his lungs: "I'm not dead yet!!!" and then he snuffed out the flame.

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Part 2

Grieg looked around the now empty barroom, Talur was putting away the last of the glasses to be washed, Ârûn was attempting to levitate the trash bin but was having difficulty keeping it steady. After crashing the bin into a wall, knocking a small painting of another beach from it's shelf, Ârûn decided he was too sleepy to maintain focus; he strapped the rope harness around him and dragged the trash bin, which was taller than him, out the back of the bar to a compost pile beside the stable back wall.

"Matthew's not here?" Griegg said to Raain as they extinguished the candles around the room.

"No, he hasn't been here since before you left, it's not like him to stay away for so long."

"That was two months before I left."

"Exactly; he's been away eight months now. We've had a drop in visitors. And Jerricho has been away for a couple weeks, too. It's been quiet. And then you were dead!" She punched him, Griegg staggered a few steps.

"Well, I'm not dead," rubbing his shoulder as he felt a bruise growing. "Heshtoredd," he muttered, and the pain eased. "Jerricho out on tour?" With a bit of a chuckle, Griegg returned to the conversation.

"Sorta, he and the band were invited to play for Merran Kluh Ehs in Ayal."

"Really?" Griegg straightened up halfway through extinguishing a candle on a table. "She can be one of the Avel's best leaders, and one of its cruelest to those who anger her; have you heard form him?"

"Yeah, his music pleased her; he was careful to not cross the line, or make it obvious that he was trying."

"Jerricho Twist and the Hurricanes, performing for a Merran, its about time they got their break."

"But it's tough to lose the house band."

"When are they due back?"

Raain stopped wiping the table she was cleaning, and walked over towards the front counter, and calendar. "Should be just a few more days. I don't think they know you were murdered."

"Nor did I!" Griegg was starting to feel more uneasy about the situation as he gazed back to his empty glass and snuffed out another candle.

The fog was starting to thicken as Griegg left the Lodge by himself to check on his stables before going to bed. Raain was right, the stables were a mess: dirty feed was rotting in one corner, and a few water troughs had almost more food and mud than water, spider webs had developed in the upper beams, and many of the animals were unkempt. Giregg stood in the door way, scratching his head, and rubbing his face with the palm of this hands, "Tomorrow's gonna be fun......and Ârûn will be in trouble..." He turned around to leave for bed.

"Griegg?" Came the voice of Tedd from the far corner, he was laying a few feet from his horse, Lemon.

Pausing for a moment at the sound of the unexpected voice, Griegg responded "Tedd? that you? why are you still in here?"

"Yeah, its me; figured I'd stay with Lemon for the night. Since it's been a couple months, and I thought I'd never see her, either of you, again." He chuckled, "but don't worry, I don't feel the need to sleep with you."

"Good." Griegg laughed as he walked towards the stall which they were in, and knelt down to rub Lemon's gold-colored nose. "She's an amazing horse; she saved my life, nothing else could have performed as well." Tedd gave a proud but curious look between the horse and the man. "I had a few adventures each way, I'll tell you, and the others, about it over breakfast. 75 after the rise."

"As always. I look forward to hearing the story of your journey, my friend. Glad you're still with us."

"As am I, my friend, as am I." Griegg walked away with a nod and three fingers up, Tedd returned the gesture, and laid back down to sleep.

Griegg unlocked the door to his cabin behind the stables, "Home sweet home." As he opened the door, the smell of dust filled his nostrils. The room was small, with a bed on one end, and a desk at the other; there was no chair, not enough room. There was a chirping sound; a small bird was sitting on the desk looking up at Griegg as he entered. "What can I do for you?" Griegg asked with trepidation, and the bird burst into blue and white flames. Griegg covered his eyes from the blinding light in the darkness. A moment later the flames died away, leaving behind a white scroll with blue ribbon, "Work's never done," Greigg said.

 Sitting on the edge of his bed, he opened the scroll carefully, and read:

To: Griegg Captia Stable Master Aurie View Lodge Berryshire Town~Cleveal~Væensal~Avel From: Matthew Clevell The Eternal White Tower Kyshma Kæav~Kyshroal~Væensal~Kæa It was a relief to discover that you are, in fact, alive. I'm sure you have by now heard a few details as to what took place on Ithõn`Roidd, the 22nd of Hìlñdà, an arm was found at the docks of Kyshma, and it was wearing the sleeve of one of your coats. Latest news is there was green blood mixed in with the blood of the arm's owner who was a humon, which we had believed to be you. Also a grey feather which would otherwise seem to belong to a Kaarlnn, but even in my travels I have not seen a grey Kaarln; though I suppose if there was a mix of Kaarln and Valswyn, that might cause this, but that has never been done to my knowledge. It remains to me a mystery. We have also not yet been able to identify the arm's owner. It is believed that a True Death Blade was used, we have been unable to return life to the limb, or rebuild the body it came from, or even identify it beyond it being a hūmon male, the sleeve was what made us believe it to be you. I will be making a few other contacts and requests for travel for further assistance. I know you just left here, and arrived home, but it would be appreciated if you could make your way back. I would like you to head to Quagloria to catch an airship, I know you don't like to fly, but if you could come some swifter way other than by road. It's not often I say that I'm confused, but this could be one of those moments. I don't see why there should be any cause for concern for the safety of your journey, but I'd suggest not travelling alone. If someone wanted it to look like you were dead, they might actually want you dead. May the chaos of your existence be beneficial (though, it seems it may not be). --The Eternal Matthew Clevell

"Airships...talk about chaos. And Matthew not talking in riddles? I have a bad feeling about this." Griegg rolled up the scroll, and set it on the desk. He removed his cloak and leather jacket and stepped out the back door to relieve himself. The large white shell glistened in the lamp-light; everything at the Aurie View Lodge was themed to a beach. It only took a few minutes for him to fall asleep once he'd finished disrobing and laid down in the very comfortable water bed after his five months away.

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Part 3

The blue light of the fire cast dancing shadows across the field of flowers as the roia set in the eastern sky. The blue sky was glowing with reds, gold, and silver ribbons and spirals, as Raain sat watching the fire, and watching her brother in the distance talking with two other men, and a drrajkin, under two massive twist trees. The fire was calming, but it felt like hours past. The drrajkin was taller than the three men by a neck, his spiked tail laying harmlessly around his feet. She couldn't hear the words of the conversation, but she could hear the distinct dragonic accent amongst the humon voices.

The sky slowly darkened, and the Meal of Illek began to fill the sky from the west, Pualru and Kaalru had already risen and were full. 

Raain pondered the shapes of the flames when suddenly the darkness was split by a blinding light. Raain clambered to her feet to look for her brother; they were all dead, even the trees.

Raain jolted up from her bed, the morning light of Merroi flooded her room in silver; just a dream....just a ...dream.... she whipped the sweat from her face and neck as she tried to catch her breath and calm her pounding heart; she removed the covers and swung her legs over the side of the bed, and sat for a few moments.

She got up and strode to the window as she put on the robe she'd laid across the reading chair by her bed. 

Not this time of year, she thought as she gazed out the window at the rising roia. Where was that field? and who were the others? She pondered for a few minutes, trying to think if she recognized it from her travels, or from paintings, but she couldn't place it.

Below her window, to the right, she could see Griegg's shack; the green tiled roof starting to glow as the morning light made its way across the world. "Thank you for coming back, my love," she smiled as her heart warmed, and happy birthday, she almost forgot the dream. 

"Start the day, ok. Hot Tula," she said aloud to herself. There was one drink that guaranteed to wake anyone with enough energy to be unstoppable, and also knock even the toughest on their backside when chilled, a hot tula nut tea. She turned from the window with a twirl, paused at her mirror to fix her hair, hummed a tune, rinsed her mouth. She wrapped a silver rope around her blue robe and headed out the door of her room.

Outside her room, the hallway was dark; she waved her hand over a red crystal mounted on the wall, and the torches along the walls lit themselves, like tiki torches. The floor looked like ankle-deep water; the walls extended the illusion of shallow water surrounded by tropical islands. 

She walked down the stairs, which looked like a river flowing over a steep rocky slope. Arun was still asleep in his chair behind the front desk of the lodge.

Raain crept up next to him and knelt down resting her hand on his shoulder, and whispered in his ear, "Arun." He stirred and blinked his eyes, "its daylight in the swamps, time to get up."

"Huh? oh right, ok." Arun rubbed his eyes with his small hands and sat up from the back of his chair, stretching. 

"It wasn't a dream, Arun, Griegg's alive," she reminded him as he still had a look of sadness in his eyes.

Arun lit up, remembering the middle of the night events of five hours prior. "RIGHT!!!" He lept from the chair and stumbled in the blankets that were still wrapped around him. "I guess I got a little too excited."

Raain laughed, "It's not unexpected from you," she helped him get untangled from the blankets and to his feet, which wasn't very far--Arun being less than half as tall as Raain. Raain stood and the two walked from behind the counter towards the dining hall and kitchen, both smiling. 

Raain pushed open the door behind the bar which led to the kitchen; Arun right behind her. She paused in the middle of the doorway and turned to Arun. "Forgetting something?" She smiled an amused annoyance.

"LIGHTS!" Arun turned and ran across the dining room to the front door and reaching above his head, he waved his hand over the red crystal on the wall, and the room became brightly illuminated with fire.

Twelve torches in front of mirrors on the walls generated most of the light in the room, three on each of the four walls, and three chandeliers in the middle of the room hanging from the rafters filled in the shadows from above. Under each chandelier, a roundtable; along the walls, half round tables with four chairs at each. The fireplace at the far end had only ashes remaining, but the morning was warm enough that an extra fire was not needed. Between the torches on the walls, paintings of ocean scenes, small and large, and with the good news of the night before, this was sure to be a good day for all.

"Much better," Raain shouted across the room as she entered the kitchen. The smell of fruits, nuts, and meat almost overwhelmed her. Vines of Opplles were laid across one of the counters--thick red vines with pink leaves and orange dimple-skinned fruit; the fruit was finally soft enough to mulch for the mid-day's drink. Talur came in the back door with a bag of Tula nuts that had been drying in the drying room (any tula nut that is left off the vine for more than a few days and then becomes wet without being properly processed can be a fire hazard).

"Mornin' Raain!" Talur said as he hefted the bag of nuts onto another counter. "What d'ya think? Griegg's alive so we have a special breakfast?"

"Sounds like we all have the same idea," Raain said as she handed Talur the nutcracker which was hanging on a hook too high for Talur to reach. 

"Nira should be back in in a few minutes," Talur said, "she's picking up a special loaf from what's his face on the other side of town." Nira, Talur's wife, normally made bread in the morning, but for this special day, she had gone across town to one of the other bakers for his special fruit bread, one of the few who can make it right--probably less than twenty on the whole continent, but he was the only one who didn't make a big deal about it.

With his arms stretched high, Talur could almost reach the top of Raain's head, an average height for an Avgar--or a Uungar, for that matter. The wings of Talur's grey mustache stretched almost to his knees (a beard would have been a hindrance to his cooking, and so he shaved it off several years ago and never brought it back; he could tie his mustache behind his back while cooking). He had a dark spot on the palm of his left hand, Raain noticed this.

"Smoking this morning?"

"What? how'd yeh know?" Talur tried to hide his hand without making it obvious he was trying to hide it; didn't work.

"The ash on your hand, you think I wouldn't notice? You don't clean up after yourself very well. Go wash up."

With a grunt, Talur turned and went to the sink to wash the ash from his hand. Though there are many herbs and flowers which can be smoked, all creating various effects, Talur's morning favorite was the majna flower which clears the mind of congestion, opening it to think consistently and freely, when used in small amounts; smoking large amounts would have quite the opposite effect.

The front door to the inn opened as a short, plump woman entered, carrying a large basket of bread. The bread maker from across town had prepared extra loaves for the occasion, even before being asked by Nira. Nira's basket of bread was almost as big as she was. She hadn't even crossed the lobby before hoots of appreciation were heard as the smell of the fresh fruit bread filled the lower levels of the Lodge. There were a few early risers sitting at tables in the dining room, and a few other townsfolk helping Arun prepare for the larger than usual breakfast.

Nira carried the bread behind the bar, setting the basket on the floor, and beginning to transfer loaves to smaller baskets to be placed on tables. "Arun, could you set these out?" Nira called across the room.

Arun was sweeping the fireplace's stone table to be ready for use; he looked at his dirty hands and frowned. It was no good for him to try to carry the bread by hand, he had to move the bread another way. From across the room, he focused his attention on the bread baskets, he took a deep breath, cleared his mind, and concentrated. Those who were in the dining room stopped to watch Arun closely. He could feel their eyes on him, a bit of a distraction, he let it go and refocused, slightly raising his arm and hand towards the baskets. One of the baskets began to tremble and then flew far too quickly off the bar and crashed into the ceiling. Many of the early risers laughed; another told him to try again, while the man picked up the broken basket and now dirty bread. Arun tried to set aside his frustration and the embarrassment, and refocused his mind, relaxed a bit, and managed to slowly lift the next basket of bread; those watching couldn't help but show a bit of a smile as they watched Arun move the bread basket from the bar to a table, with his mind. When the basket landed gently on a table, Nira gave him a bit of applause, and told him to do it again; a few of the watchers saluted Arun by raising a hand with three fingers pointing towards him.

Arun began moving the third basket, and then the fourth, and then everyone went back to their quiet discussions or helping set dishes on tables as Arun continued mentally moving bread baskets across the room, feeling quite proud that he had only smashed one. Once he had set out all the baskets, he went back to cleaning the fireside table.

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Part 4

There was one visitor to the Ocean View Lodge who hadn't gotten up at all the commotion from the night before; he had arrived just a few hours before Griegg Capita, and had been too tired to care what this town's late-night celebration might be. Yes, they'd been a little morose when he'd arrived, and the sudden change to laughter was unnerving, but this bed was far more comfortable than the rocks and roots he'd been sleeping on for the past several weeks. He didn't feel the celebration was worth interrupting his first hope for a decent night's sleep, and knew that telling his hosts to be quiet would probably not bode well. He could probably could have taken most of them, his swords were sharp, and his arms strong, but why get out of bed?

Nik Worther was asleep in room 340. He was exhausted. He had been travelling from Lælyin, along a road without quality places to sleep for several weeks, and the water beds at the Aurie View Lodge were more glorious than anything he'd ever slept on before. If he were awake, he would have counted it a rare treat to be sleeping in this late, but as he was still asleep, he thought of little more than sleeping. That is until the breakfast bells rang.

Nik woke with a bit of a jump, the waterbed rippled and sloshed, helping him wake up even more as he tried to find balance and stability, he was in a moderate panic and near-rage as he tried to get his wits about him and stood up from the bed, his heart pounding.

He turned towards the window, marched to it, opened the shutters, and closed the window, dimming the sound of the bells, and shut the shutters again with a huff.  Then he paused....he saw something...something shiny that shouldn't be....what was it? He opened the shutters again and looked around.

No, not outside, was it?...... he turned to look around the room, and saw it. It was laid across his armour, and it wasn't his. Walking across the room he picked up a bit of soft, black fabric, wrapped it around his waist, but he was too lazy, or distracted, to attach the snaps under the legs, he wore his pants open. He knelt down in front of his very dirty armour. At the end of a gold chain was a palm-sized white medallion reflecting the light of the roia as if it were glowing itself. 

Near the outside edge of the round medallion was a narrow rotatable disk with four different gems, and an ornate etching between them. Inside this ring, the middle of the medallion was an etching of two trees creating a canopy over a flowering field, three men and a dragon were centered in the scene.

It reminded him vaguely of something he thought he'd seen as a child, but couldn't place exactly what or where.

But that wasn't the most important thing at this hour, breakfast was. And figuring out who had the audacity to decide that a loud bell would signify the availability of food.

He snapped his loincloth, put on his under armour, rinsed his mouth and stepped out into the illusionary river and headed downstairs for breakfast.

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Part 5

Griegg entered through the side door of the bar, it being closest to his cabin and the stables, every chair was occupied, and many people standing while holding a slice of bread and a bowl of breakfast stew. The mob looked up as the side door opened and Griegg entered, then an eruption of cheers caused the lamps to flicker.

"Well, good morning, everyone," Griegg chuckled. He made his way around the room greeting people with hugs, telling everyone who asked that he'd soon tell the story to everyone. Rain brought him his breakfast stew and the best bread roll that had been made. Greigg took a seat on top of the bar so as to have a view of everyone. He cleared his throat and began to tell the story of his journey towards Kaillic of Kyshroal.

He told of riding Lemon, the horse, through Eva's Long Road--bordering Eva's Forest--into Malturan and then through the Lakeland of Daruvial Thæsroal, and into Araia and across the rugged mountains of the Brin ranges. He said that little exciting happened.

As Griegg paused for what seemed like too long, someone asked if he then went into Agrannuroal.

"Well, that was when things got interesting," Griegg responded after another moment or two.

"I decided to trek off the main road for a camp, feeling compelled to venture deeper into the forests. Then, I came across three pairs Caitian shoe prints..." This really got the attention of the crowd, as there were no Caitians living remotely near Berryshire, nowhere in Cleveal, nor the neighbouring nations (except the rare traveller).

"I became excited to potentially meet these Caitians, so I followed the tracks," Griegg continued through the crowd's confirmation that they'd do the same. "After a bit, I checked my map, and saw that there was no form of civilization nearby, but not a hundred feet after putting my map away there was a clearing of trees, with an incredibly old building in ruins smack in the middle!"

Talur piped up, "You found one of the lost cities?"

"No," Griegg replied, "just one building was ever there. A lost temple, perhaps, I had thought."

"I knew you'd eventually find one! You've done far too much research and searching to not have found one yet." Talur affirmed.

"But I wasn't looking," Griegg said dismally. He had studied and searched in the areas that his studies had suggested he look, but he had never been able to find any evidence of the civilizations mentioned in his books; at least not in or near Cleveal.

"D'you find the Caitians?" said someone from the crowd.

"I did meet them fairly quickly upon arrival in the clearing, they almost shot me, but they later said they took a liking to Lemon, and decided no one evil would own a horse that golden. So, thank you Tedd, your lending me Lemon saved my life."

"Cheers!" Tedd raised his mug of tea, as did the whole bar.

"But, speaking of research, it was a library, an ancient library. The books were mostly too damaged to read, but we, the caitians and I, did find several dozens that were intact. Most of the surviving books were the histories of fairy tales that I had never heard of, some were in languages I did not know, and two contained geography. Maps of places I'd never heard of and a detailed landscape that vastly differed from modern maps. My guess is that these books were before the Great Kaatyclyzym, possibly even before the last ice age, but I don't see how they could have survived over 100,000 years...But like I said, the maps didn't even fit what we know of from before the Kaatyclyzym."

Nabal was the one to speak up next, "Iz that y shomeone twied to kiww you?"

An even greater stun fell across the room. 

"Nabal, that's the most brilliant thing that has ever come out of your mouth. This new body of yours must have a good brain!" said another villager. And everyone nodded with a slight laugh, and then looked to Griegg who sat staring at Nabal, pondering if this was the case.

Nik Worther had only been half listening, he was more interested in the food, deciding that killing the bell-ringer would not benefit him. But he perked up when he realized Griegg was talking about evidence of ancient histories, and a failed assassination over it. Nik had never previously put much stock in the stories of a pre-ice-age civilization existing, at least that it couldn't have been advanced enough to have a library. But if someone was trying to kill someone that discovered evidence, that might be something to find out more about. And the type of person to be interested in Pre-Kaatyclyzm history might happen to know about this strange medallion as well. This Griegg person would be someone to talk to; maybe he would stay here more than the one night.

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Chapter 1 | Chapter 2 | Chapter 3 | Chapter 4 | Chapter 5 | TBC