Mallick had thought ahead to bring their bows and full quivers when they escaped Britengate so they only needed to put together sleeping rolls.
“Shuran! Look at this traveling shelter I found. It looks like an ordinary tent but I do not know this material. It is so tightly woven I do not think water could even penetrate it.”
“It seems heavy but might be useful. I will call for it if there is need,” Shuran said flatly and turned.
“Just like that…I need this or that and ZAPPO, it just appears. This is going to be amazing!” Mallick spoke with far too much glee for Shuran’s current state of mind.
“Mally look, this is not going to be any ordinary adventure. There will be danger and the unknown to face. We still have no idea where we are going and who is waiting for us.” Shuran snapped.
Mally was not taken back by Shuran’s tone. He knew his friend, though younger in actual age, was now aged and wise beyond his years. And yet he was still just a boy.
“I know this Shuran. We are in this together since the start.”
Shuran calmed and grabbed Mallick’s shoulder in a gesture of brotherhood before moving on to finish preparing for travel.
***
“Andra! Why have you returned so soon and without notice?” Nabusa was both pleased and shocked at the sudden appearance of her son in the antechamber.
“I apologize for my sudden arrival mother but things have progressed so rapidly and in a direction we did not foresee,” Andra said as he knelt down to kiss his mothers hand in greeting. “Shuran has found the chamber of Shin’Ar,” Andra said.
“I assume he has opened it as well?” she replied.
“He used the central chamber to send me home,” Andra said looking to Nabusa for answers.
“We must convene a council to discuss our next steps. This changes much but it is not a bad thing. Not a bad turn of events at all my child.” Nabusa reached down to rest her hand on her Andra’s head.
“You were correct,” Andra added. “He carries the ability to shift as well.”
“It is as I suspected. Shuran is more than just the blending of the seven. Something or someone has meddled with him,” She said.
“How is that possible? Surely not the Old Codger, Moona or the boy Mallick?”
“I fear this was done before he was birthed, and I wonder at what was done to the girl child.” Nabusa carried a look of concern that Andra had never seen.
***
Isten was angry at the fact there was no sign of Shuran. The Great Council, for failure to produce proof of a threat, had suspended his use of the Land’s Guard and Inquisitors. Now he had to figure out his next move.
“Why are you so upset Isten?” Salmetu asked as she turned her chair from the fire to face him. She sat with her undead cat in her lap scratching it behind the ears. “So the high and mighty Great Council has halted its pursuit of Shuran and his companions. That does not mean we have no recourse.” Salmetu looked up at Isten and smiled.
“What are you thinking my delightfully devious child?” Isten asked in a slightly perked up tone.
“We have Bastien and we could, use him. Perhaps make some undead forces with weavers to control them. And there are always the ogres and trolls,” She said as she turned back to the fire.
Isten saw the truth of it but he also knew something needed to be done about the Council. He must find a way to take control of it once and for all.
***
Shuran and Mallick finished everything they needed before setting off on their journey to an unknown destination. They spent the night going over maps of the known realms of Aurderia. The closest destination they decided to try was within the Orenthal Mountains. The maps indicated that this place was once the ancestral home of the dwarves.
Codger agreed that this was a good place to start. Although secluded, the dwarves hold no true ill toward humans in general, and they would likely ignore them before being outwardly hostile.
Shuran figured if the dwarves of Orenthal were anything like Aknard then they would at least be able to barter for information if nothing else.
Although Moona and Codger both had dwarven blood, they knew little of the heritage or history of full-blooded dwarves.
Aknard is the only dwarf that Codger was familiar with and Moona had only ever done occasional trading in Rivenwood with the few dwarves that would enter the human settlements to trade for goods.
According to Aknard though, his people enjoy their ale and wine. Codger promised to cook up some more of his home brew and have it available in a designated spot of the vault if Shuran had need. There was also the vast store of aged wine and brandy already in the vault.
Moona was like a sprat in a candy shop once Shuran repaired her ability to wield earth element and weave spells. She was busy now making up for the time the others had spent pouring over the library contents. She was translating spells and putting them in categories of usefulness.
She found some books too distasteful to read and avoided them all together. “There is some right nasty stuff in some of those books!” she said returning an old tome to its place on the shelves. “If you ever need to do somethin’ nasty to someone I’ll know what books to look in. We have one last night together so I thought we should all have a nice dinner and talk or somethin’,” Moona said with a smile.
“What has gotten into her?” Mallick asked Codger.
“Kinda scary right?” Codger whispered. “I think she must have found somethin’ in those jars and smoked it.”
Shuran just looked at them and laughed knowing she was just overjoyed at having her abilities back. But he had to admit, seeing Moona the least bit cheerful, was frightening.
The four of them ate a hearty stew of rabbit caught in the snares with wild vegetables and mushrooms.
Codger poured ale from some of his supply that he always kept on the Mellamu Nanna.
The mood was jovial and Shuran felt well while at the same time, held fear for the future. He had no idea what was to come but he felt that there would be much trouble in the world before this ended. He was not convinced it would end well either.
“I sure am gonna miss this,” Codger said. “I’ve enjoyed having a family again.”
Moona dropped her glass at Codger’s words. “Oh shite now I’ve done it. Moony dear I didn’ mean-”
“It’s alright Codge. You only said what I been feelin’. These boys turned out good and now I know it wasn’ our fault Vardoran turned out the way he did.” Moona was well into her cups by now.
“That’s right Moony,” Codger motioned for the boys to help him get ahold of her and lead her to her bed.
“Whatever she smoked didn’ mix well with your brew Codge,” Shuran said.
“Don’ talk about me like I’m not here!” Moona shouted in a brief coherent moment. She just as quickly went back to babbling under her breath as the three men in her life helped her get to her bed.
“She is not going to feel well in the morning,” Mally said.
“I think it best we be gone before she wakes.” Shuran said and nudged Mally.
“Cowards!” Codger said to them both and smiled as they watched Moona roll into her bedding and begin snoring. Loudly!
Before long the men decided to take to bed as well since it would be an early morning. Shuran was off to sleep quickly but not soundly. His night was filled with visions that were more vivid then ever before. Later he would realize that sleeping within the vault heightened his awareness.
In his visions small furry bears carrying clubs and sticks were surrounding him. The next moment he was in a grand cavern surrounded by dwarves and confronted by a figure with a double-edged axe.
Suddenly he is in a large wooded area surrounded by silence with Mallick and a dwarf who stunted and wore a crown. Arrows begin raining from the skies and pierce his companions through their leathers.
The woods around him began to shake and the trees were falling around him as giant heads appeared from above the falling trees. Fire began raining down from the skies and engulfed him. Suddenly he was raised into the air and dropped. Just before hitting the ground he woke suddenly in a sweat.
Shuran decided that sleep would not come again soon and it was only a couple hours before Utu broke above the horizon. He decided to go get some air outside the vault. Some quite time away from Moona’s snoring would be welcome also.
He walked the grounds past the dock where the Mellamu Nanna was resting and off into the clearing nearest the tower ruins. After just a few moments of enjoying the quite he heard the snapping of branches then silence again. Someone was out there.
Immediately Shuran formed a shield around himself and tried to remember if he had closed the vault entrance. He turned to head back to the entrance when the first creature came out of the woods toward him.
It was one of the furry creatures from his vision. It seemed it was moving toward him deliberately but in no hurry.
Shuran moved to try and circle back around but saw that another fur-covered creature blocked the path. The moon was currently behind the trees so he could not make much out. He began to gather Essence and thought to frighten the creatures away. He let loose a few bursts of fire and lightening.
The creatures stopped and one of them lifted a double-edged axe into the air and a noise came out of it.
“SHIN’AR!” and the other creatures repeated the sound.
Shuran was confused until he decided to look deeper at the furry thing closest to him. He could see the Essence and power of earth element about them.
Shuran approached the fur-covered animal only to discover that it was fur cloaks being worn by a dwarf. They were all dwarves. “Who are you?” Shuran called out and waited on an answer. After what seemed like an eternity, Shuran thought to side step the dwarf, there was a response.
“You are the Shin’Ar returned. We have come to escort you to the elders who wish to look upon you,” the dwarf said as a duplicate bundle of furry dwarf came to stand beside him. “My name is Dvargan and this is my brother Grafdrik.”
Shuran could not tell exactly where the furs ended and the dwarf began. What showed of his head was covered in thick beard and bushy eyebrows that reminded him of fuzzy leaf eating crawler bugs, only much larger. Two rather large eyes where all he could see. Behind those eyes was kindness and excitement. And next to him stood his brother, a mirror image.
“I am Shuran,” he managed to say.
“Shuran Shin’Ar, it would please the council of elders if you would accompany us to Duranekur.
Shuran sat with his new companions around a fire set outside the Vault tunnel entrance.
They told him that they had been watching the site of the ruins for as far back as the Dwarven history records. As Dvargan and Grafdrik began to recite the history, finishing each other’s thoughts, Shuran interrupted.
“Please, before you go on would you meet my friends and let them share the story?” Shuran got up and motioned for them to enter the vault with him.
“ELITUR!” the five dwarves all said in shock. “Shuran Shin’Ar, we cannot. It would be sacrilege for any but you or your Zidu’Si to enter,” Grafdrik and Dvargan said in unison.
Shuran was confused but he did not understand Dwarves. These were nothing like the dwarf Aknard whom he met at Smuggler’s Cove. Shuran drew back his sleeve and tapped the red crystal on his arm brace. “We have honored guests, please come outside the vault. Kin-Su,” Shuran said as the dwarves all made sounds of awe at seeing the Shin’Ar weaving Essence.
Moona was the first to waddle out of the vault entrance. She looked miserable from the night before and it was evident in her disposition.
“What in the name of DAMIKANNA is so blasted urgent…ARRRGG!” Moona caught site of five furry creatures with eyes glowing from the firelight and was caught ill prepared.
“Biddley, Diddles! Are those? I mean them fuzzy bundles. Are there dwarves under them furs?” she finally spit out.
Shuran just laughed and motioned her, and the now arriving Codger and Mallick, to join them. “Everyone this is Dvargan and Grafdrik along with their traveling team. They will be leading us to the Dwarven Capital City of Duranekur,” Shuran said.
Dvargan and Grafdrik told the story of their history keeping watch over the Library of Shin’Ar. It is told that as long as Dwarves have lived they have been charged with keeping watch for the return of the Shin’Ar, Watcher of the Lands. In the most ancient of their history stories are told of how the first people left this world all but one.
The Shin’Ar stayed behind because he loved the people of Aurderia and was rumored to have actually sent the first people away deliberately to save Ersetu. Shin’Ar lived for thousands of years watching over the peoples of the lands but one day disappeared.
The dwarves were the first to arrive at this exact location looking for their protector. What they found, were Shin’Ar’s trusted apprentices and faithful companions from the seven races, the Zidu’Si. Shin’Ar had closed himself off in his library and the Zidu’Si could no longer enter.
They were told that the time of Shin’Ar was at an end. One day he would return in the form of another but not until he was truly needed. The Zidu’Si all returned to their homelands and the dwarves made TAMU’TUR, a sacred oath to stay and await the Shin’Ar’s return.