We all get on the plate and it takes off slowly back where it came. It continues to pick up speed as it travels. I would have expected to feel a breeze, but none is present.

After a short time we are speeding past rock faster than I can perceive. I don't recall being in a car that could go this fast. I can swear we are in some field, because I can't even hear anything.

I eventually have to close my eyes to keep from getting dizzy. It is so quiet I think I can almost hear Rock breathing. After what seems like an eternity to me I hear Grug say,”Here we are.”

I open my eyes and see that we have stopped in another large cave. There are several medium size earth-men standing around the floating slab of stone. As Grug gets off they all make a fist and hit their chest. We all get off and they make an opening for us to talk.

“Is Magmore the chieftain ready for us?” Grug asks.

“Yes sir. He awaits in the forge,” one of the earth-men say.

“Very good. Dismissed,” Grug says.

“But sir?” the same earth-men protests.

Grug glares at the earth-men, “Our guests do not need an escort. All records of the meeting will be readable after I imprint them.”

“As you say sir,” the earth-men turns to the others and says, “Dismissed.”

They separate into three groups and head in opposite directions. I watch one group as it leaves. After they are out of ear shot I notice them leaning to each other and whispering.

Grug heads off and we follow. I don't see any sign of buildings. I see many earth-men of varying sizes wandering around. To me it looks to be aimless wandering. I see a couple in rock form.

I notice one earth-men walking very slow. Grug stops and we stop with him. He turns to us and says, “Wait a moment please.” We all nod.

Grug walks over to the earth-men who was walking very slowly. They converse for a short time, then Grug takes its hand. They hold hands and I watch as the slow earth-man slowly glows, then becomes molten. It morphs from a round shape into a voluptuous female earth-man. I only know of one singer that could match her. Although she would have to be much taller to match this earth-mans size. She is the same size as Grug.

Grug returns and says, “Sorry for this delay, but that was my grandmother. I hope I did it right and put the furnace in her too,” he says.

“She will know when she eats some rocks. It will be felt in the furnace inside her,” Falls says.

“Okay, I told her to go eat some after I was done,” he says and turns to the other earth-man and waves. She heads off in a hurry to some place behind us.

“Shall we?” he asks and heads off again.

We walk for several minutes and I see what looks like a huge pillar of stone the size of a large library.

As we get closer I notice an opening twice the height of Grug. It's as wide as a three car garage. The closer we get the hotter the air gets. When we get to the door it is like a furnace.

“Um hold on,” I say and everyone stops, “There might be a problem here. Me, Rock, and Oaky can't tolerate very hot temperatures.”

“Sorry, I forget that not everyone can stand the heat,” Grug says, He turns to Falls, “Can you come in with me while the others wait? The chieftain needs your council to be sure he is reforging someone correctly.”

“I don't know about this?” I say.

“It is okay Jode, I trust Grug,” Falls returns.

“Oh I do too. I just don't know what reception you get when the other is reformed,” I say.

“That will not be a problem Jode,” Falls says, “Any earth based person that is reformed after a long sleep will be very confused and lack a lot of their memories, at first. It will take almost a day to regain all the memory back. It usually starts with original forming and then progresses from there. I will have to give them instructions on how to bring the reformed back up to the time when he or she was put to sleep,” she says.

“Okay just be careful Falls, we don't want to lose you,” I say.

“You won't,” She says and walks in. Grug shrugs and follows.

After a few minutes an earth-man about my size comes up to us and asks, “Can you make the light ball that Balthazar done? Ours broke,” it says.

“I don't know what you mean, but I do know one I can try,” I say. I imagine the ball of light the watcher showed me in the battle area and I say distract in my head. Without realizing it I put my palm out in front of me and the ball of colors appears.

It bounces to the earth-man, “Oh thank you sir,” he says and hits it to bounce it in the direction he is going.

“When did you learn that?” Oaky asks.

“Through a battle simulation in the city,” I say.

“What else did you learn?” she asks.

“Oh just a few. One I want to show you.”

I turn to an empty area away from everyone and do a fireball the size of a basketball with one hand. Oaky just looks at me shocked and Rock says, “Awesome.”

I hear what sounds like rocks falling hard and fast as a medium sized earth-men comes running up to us. He stops in front of me and asks, “Who did that?”

“Oh sorry, I did. Did I hurt anything?” I say.

“Hurt?” he asks confused, “No I enjoyed it. Can you do it again?”

“Uh, yeah.”

“Oh good, I will be right back,” it says.

If you stumble upon this narrative on Amazon, be aware that it has been stolen from Royal Road. Please report it.

“Okay,” I say stunned.

“What was that all about?” Oaky asks as the earth-man runs off.

Rock laughs, “He threw a fireball at a race that lives off of heat. Figure it out.”

“Oh duh,” I say as I hear what sounds like a rock slide heading our way.

I look to see about twenty earth-men heading our way. They stop in front of us and one steps up and asks, “Can you get us all?”

“Yeah if you all step back so the blast doesn't hit any of us,” I say.

They all step back a distance. They form two lines. They shift so the first line is separated just enough to expose the second line. This time I imagine a ball large enough to hit them all and put the base of my palms together in front of me. I say, “Combust,” The largest ball I have ever seen shoots out in front of me. I can feel the intense heat as it leaves. My exposed skin feels like it has been sunburned.

Each earth-man absorbs a portion of the fire ball into itself. I wait for an explosion, but none comes. “Damn, Do you mind if I do that again? That was neat,” I say.

All the earth-men shake their heads. This time I imagine a hotter version of the same size fireball. But this time I imagine it appearing a distance away from me.

I say, “Combust.” The fire ball appears the distance I imagined it at. But even at that distance I can still feel the heat. Instead of being yellow it comes out blue.

As it hits the earth-men it is also absorbed. This time I hear a sigh from all of them. Each of them then become molten and reform. They all look to be male.

They all say, “Thank you sir,” at different intervals then run off.

“Great, now I am going to have the whole town want me to do that,” I say.

“No,” Grug says behind us and we all turn, “I will have them informed to wait for someone else to recharge them.”

“Thank you,” I say and notice Falls is not with him, “Where is Falls?” I ask.

“She is helping the chieftain with the newly reformed and teaching him magic. She says it would be proficient for us to collect the other knome items while we wait for her,” he says.

“Leave it to Falls to be overly efficient,” Rock says.

I laugh, “Yep, well lead on good sir,” I say.

Grug smiles and heads off and we follow. We walk for several minutes when we come to a very crusty and solid looking earth-man.

We stop in front of him and he asks, “You are not going to destroy them are you?” he asks.

“No Breg. We are hoping the devices might help us with deciphering the tomb and possibly even help us if the knomes come back.” Grug says.

“About time, I have been trying to get you all to understand that,” Breg says.

“Yes Breg I know, Can you just take us to the devices?” Grug asks flustered.

“I don't have to,” Breg says.

“What do you mean? I told you we won't destroy them,” Grug says surprised.

“I know. I believe you. I just don't have to take you anywhere. One of the devices is a storage, or summoning device. Here I'll show you.” he says and brings his arm up in front of him. On his wrist I see what looks like a sliver band. He presses it and a stone block rises from the ground in front of him.

“Berg, how did you figure that out? This is why they could never be found,” Grug says.

“Yes, I have been working with them for some time now,” he says and presses the top of the block. It opens to reveal several gold and silver items inside. “This is not the only one I figured out. The other one,” he says and reaches and grabs a gold cube, “Puts up a wall, but it drains me of my heat so I stopped using it.”

Grug takes the cube, “I remember these. It was used to stop our attacks. We realized that it would fail if we kept at the attack.”

“And as long as you keep up your inner furnace Grug you will not be drained by it.” Falls says and we all turn to her.

“How did the lessons go with chieftain?” I ask.

“As easy as it was for Grug. All earth-men have an innate understanding of earth magic like all knomes. They were just lied to. Unlike the giants we fought, the earth-men are more powerful than any knome is. That is why my people asked for help from the shadow people. Giants did not know how to counter their magic,” She says and walks over to the box.

“Most of these devices are inactive due to damage. I know of their use from the underground. The larger cities use them. The knomes in my town are clay not metal, so they are unable to forge them,” she reaches in the box and pulls out a silver and gold rod.

It is about six inches long and a quarter inch in diameter. The gold and silver spiral around each other like a candy cane. She turns it in different angles in front of her, then reaches in and pulls out a ring of gold and silver.

The top half is gold and the bottom half is silver. It is just big enough to fit around the rod. “Do you know where the rod was found?” Falls asks Breg

“No, Someone else found it in a side passage after the battle,” he replies.

“Do you know the ranking of the knomes?” Falls asks.

“No,” Breg says.

“I know a few,” Grug says.

“Do you know what a rank five is?” she asks.

“No, I only know of one to three,” he replies.

“That would mean that this is a low level knome. It is rank five copper if I am reading right.”

“That would mean the owner of the rod was just a citizen. No military or high ranking officer was made of copper. There should be two other rank titles,” Grug says.

“If there were they were either removed or never put on. Let me play the message,” she says and puts the ring on the end of the rod. “Play,” she says.

The silver and gold on the rod begins to spiral despite her holding the rod. The ring remains on the top.

A copper knome appears in front of her holding the same rod and ring combination. The knome looks straight ahead and begins to talk.

“If you get this recording I hope you allow it to finish playing. I am so glad that you were able to figure out how to play it. The few Rock people I was able to teach how to use it, were captured and their binding broke.

I fear it might have been my fault trying to teach them how to use our instruments. Their names are Beeb, Durn, Guan, Frag, and Deeg. Please remember these brave souls. They gave their lives so you all could be free.

I record this as a message to you. I am not the only one trying to free you. It is mainly the high ranks that see you as slaves. To most of the citizens you are our equals.

I have hidden a stash of devices in the storage unit. I believe you call it a tomb. Many of your brothers and sisters were taken there and sacrificed to keep it running. I fear this will eventually cause the planet to become dead. I found this out from one of our sources in the high ranks.

I am sorry to say that the war broke out before I found a way to turn off the storage. I am going to try and get this to your people to help where I can, but I don't know if I can make it.

Most of your people see all of us as evil slave drivers so I fear I will not make it. Just remember you were not alone in your fight. Many of my friends will sacrifice their lives for you.

Our names are not important. Our group effort to save you all was called. 'Fighters for the Right to Burn.' Please never forget that name. It was not only rock people that were in it. There were many knomes too.” the image says. The gold and silver stops turning and the knome disappears..

“You mean I could have killed some of our benefactors?” Grug asks, ashamed.

“Not all people of a race are vicious Grug,” Falls says, “Even when we were slaves we had a few giants on our side. Our people have engraved their names on the earth so all generations will know. No one should ever claim all are the same as a few.”

“But we cannot honor those that aided us,” Berg says.

“Yes you can, “ I say, “Let everyone know of the group's name and allow all to see this recording. You could even make a monument of copper in this man's image for all to see and read.”

“Breg please take this to chieftain and tell him what we have all said,” Grug says.

Breg touches his wrist band and takes the recorder. As he starts slowly off Grug says, “Wait,” then touches Breg. Breg turns red and molten and reforms. Grug then pulls his hand back and says, “Go,” Breg looks at him shocked then runs off.

I look back and the block is gone. I didn't even hear it slide down. I look at Grug and say, “I guess that just leaves the tomb then.”

“Let's take the transport. It will be much faster. I can't stay long though. The tomb takes too much of my life force,” he says.