All heads were bowed as the Geusto of Solana, a sort of preacher of the church, sang his lamentation over Osric. Given all the destruction caused by the wolverine and his stone minions, it was a miracle that no one else had been killed in the fray. While this fact helped console some, for many it was still a very solemn occasion.

The Geusto reached a high note towards the end. Faro wasn’t sure what the words were in the song, it was some sort of odd language he didn’t think he’d heard before. Despite this, he could definitely hear the sad emotion in the notes, and could see the song moving some of his new friends to tears.

Of the unlikely party, only Tobi still had dry eyes. Faro imagined that it was largely because of the type of dwarf he was, usually serious and stone-faced. He also bet that part of it was annoyance from the tall, spindly old lady that was standing next to Tobi the whole funeral chattering away.

“You know, you weren’t the only one to lose everything,” she had whispered to him when the song began. “My store went down first, Tobi. All my wares, gone!” She threw her hands in the air in dramatic flare, and Tobi had rolled his eyes.

“No one is saying you didn’t suffer a loss too, Karen,” the dwarf cut in, trying to defend himself. “All I said was that I am now homeless because we lived above the tavern!”

This sentiment didn’t seem to phase her a bit. “Yeah? Well my cat. I haven’t seen him since the incident. Have you seen my cat, Tobi?” Karen prodded him.

Tobi shut his eyes. “I’ve already told you. I haven’t seen your cat, Karen. This isn’t a contest either. We're both had losses…”

“Yeah?” she had cut in. “Well my back room was full of family heirlooms that…” Faro had tried to tune the old woman out at this point, but she just kept talking through the entire song. Now, as the song seemed to be winding down, Karen was still raving mad, talking about how her great great grandfather had spend his last dollar to buy the general store at an auction from the mayor of Graeton, and how he was probably looking down on her now from Solana’s Plain in shame.

The dwarf just stood next her her, one hand burying his fingers deep into his eyes, the other gently caressing the handle of his axe. Faro could only guess what the dwarf was thinking about doing, but he was pretty sure he had the right thought.

The lament ended and there was silence. Even Karen cut off abruptly as she didn’t want to be heard as the only one talking. The Geusto, dressed head to toe is white, including the expressionless mask he wore over his face, said a few parting words, and the friends went up to say their final goodbyes to their farmer friend Osric.

They had all agreed that they would leave immediately after the funeral, and Faro was itching to go. Sure he was sad that a man had died trying to save a little girl’s life, but he had barely known Osric, and time was of the essence if they were to save Veronica. The fact that it was already two days after she and the wolverine had left Graeton made Faro’s anxiety spike. He had wanted to leave the day before, but the party insisted on staying for the funeral, and Mathias had told him they needed time to gather the proper weapons and supplies for the mission anyways.

Tobi, of course had his axe, and Lena her bow. They had found a nice-sized mace for Thora, as the young barmaid seemed to be pretty good with blunt objects. Mathias didn’t come off as much of a fighter, but had agreed to carry a short sword and several daggers for the trouble they may find on the road. As for Faro, he had tucked the small war hammer into his belt, and now had a larger version as his main weapon. Lena had brought it from her cottage in the woods, along with the food supplies they would need.

All of the horses in town were being used in the fields, or by merchants who would need them to travel back out of town. This unfortunate bit of news meant they would have to set out on foot, making their journey much longer. Mathias had assured him they were likely to find someone willing to sell their horses on the way to Umbra’s Veil, but Faro wasn’t so sure they would.

After their final goodbyes had been said, the party gathered their weapons and their packs of supplies and headed out of town.

Just past the main square there were a few streets of houses, but after that it quickly broke off into potato fields filled with the short, green stocky tops of the plants. The sun beat down on them and there wasn’t a cloud in the sky, just a soft breeze that greeted them, pushing them off on their way towards their adventure.

As they made their way carefully through the rows, Faro could hear Mathias grilling Lena about something that has been bugging him, but had been put off since they were busy prepping for the journey.

“So, magic,” Mathias said, nudging her with an elbow. You built that entire temple?”

Lena kept looking straight, her face as serious as ever. “Yes, Mathias. I built it when I arrived in Graeton.”

“That’s a really old temple,” said Mathias impressed. “Hundreds of years old!”

Lena cracked a small smile. “I am not a young elf,” she said simply. “The light was leaving Zelira, and it was my job to establish a new presence for Solana.” At this she shrugged, as if building the perfect structure and its magnificent hanging statue were no big deal to her.

The healer shook his head. “Zelira,” he said, almost perplexed. “Read all about it, but never been!”

Faro wasn’t surprised he knew nothing of Zelira, given his condition, but he figured it best that he start to relearn things and see if anything would jog his memory. “Zelira? What’s that?” he asked.

There was a long silence from Lena, so Mathias spoke up. “It’s the great elven kingdom by the sea. I’ve read that it used to be quite the place of renaissance and refinement back in the day. Unfortunately the rumor is that the once eloquent queen Zelira has become something of a recluse. She won’t come out of the seaside caves they built during the scourge. Won’t let anyone in. Won’t let anyone out. Even setting foot onto their land is a death sentence.”

Faro thought about that for a moment. “Did a lot of the rulers become isolated during the scourge? Everyone was driven underground, right?”

This time Lena answered. “When the scourge spread, all of the kingdoms were forced to dig underground. They had to build new kingdoms for the few survivors their kingdoms had. The surface was choked with bodies. Cosimir kept the kingdoms under his thumb by boosting the price of the subfluore crystals up to insane heights.”

The lion felt a crunch and looked down. He was having a hard time making his way through the fields without stepping on any of the green plants sprouting up from the ground. The others were managing fine, but they also had much smaller feet than he now had. Ignoring the plants, and hoping that he wasn’t killing too many, he stroked his mane in thought.

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“I think you all have mentioned those crystals before. What makes them so special?”

At this, Thora speed up to walk in stride beside them. “Subfluore are elemental crystals. This particular type generate an energy like nothing else. The kingdoms used them to provide light and power for their underground civilizations during the scourge. My family used to manipulate them into new and wonderful inventions… before Cosimir raided our town and killed my parents.”

Thora looked at the ground, a sad look now on her face. Faro had wondered what had happened that made her come under the care of a dwarf, and now it was starting to make sense. “I’m sorry to hear that,” he said to her. “At least Tobi found you.”

At this, her face brightened. “Yep! Tobi has been the best Andre an orphan girl like me could ask for,” she said as she reached down and clapped Tobi on the back. Faro couldn’t quite tell because of the beard, but it looked like Tobi was blushing a bit.

“Ay?” he said, trying to play it cool. “I mean, you did offer to shine my shoes while I was there on business. Made me look right professional in front of the merchant I went to buy from. He even threw in some free steins because he thought I looked like a dwarf who meant business.” Thora giggled, being taken back to the little girl she was when Tobi found her.

They all walked in silence for a bit after this, heading for a cluster of trees in the distance. Lena assured them that it wasn’t a very big cluster, and that they would be back on open ground after that until they reached Mournfall Lake.

Faro adjusted the pack strung across his back and let Lena, Tobi, and Thora walk ahead a bit. Mathias had dropped to the back of the pack to check out some of the herbs that were growing amongst the potato plants in the field.

“Always on the lookout for new herbs, eh?” Faro asked.

Mathias held one of the white flowers he’d picked up to his nose and sniffed. He flinched a bit, and then offered Faro to take a whiff. Upon smelling the flower, Faro flinched too. It was a spicy, musky smell.

“Yah!,” he said, coughing a bit from the overwhelm of the smell. “What is that?”

Mathias smiled and placed a handful of the herbs into his pack. “It’s yarrow,” he said simply. “It’s great to reduce inflammation of wounds, and just healing in general.” He paused, looking down at another clump of it sticking out of the ground. His face fell. “Osric used to bring it in from the fields and sell it to me.”

Faro nodded, realizing Osric’s death was still on Mathias’ mind, and wondered if it was the right time to broach the subject of him and this Eli that now ruled on the mountain. He decided that it was as good of time as any.

“I know you told me it wasn’t the right time the other day…” he started, but Mathias cut him off.

“Yes, yes, friend,” Mathias said, holding up his hand to stop Faro from talking further. “I know I owe you an explanation of what I know. Now is as good a time as any I supposed.” The healer paused as if wondering where to begin.

He took a deep breath and started, “I’ll start by saying, I haven’t been outside of Graeton in years, so this is all hearsay from patients, traveling merchants, and what I’ve read in my studies. The entire rebellion, at least this most recent one, started when Solana spoke to a blacksmith from Incarta and told him that he was meant to be the spark that triggered the new rebellion that would take Cosimir the Eternal down.”

“Eli?” Faro ventured a guess.

“Yes,” said Mathias, nodding. “Eli received a vision from the Great God himself. Of course no one believed him, and no one dared to raise an army against Cosimir without solid proof that they had Solana backing them.” Mathias straightened his glasses. “That’s when Eli got another vision. A vision that told him the waters of Morgrid would run again.”

Faro looked down at Mathias, confused. “Morgrid? A river?”

Mathias smiled. “Of sorts. Morgrid is a kingdom that water flows into from the Great Ocean. Once it passes under Morgrid, the waters turn into two flowing rivers that move North through Evania.”

“You mean South,” said Faro. He may have some kind of Amnesia, but he still knew how basic principles of nature worked.

Mathias raised a finger into the air. “Ah! One would think. But they say these rivers flow through Morgrid to be blessed by Solana, and the magic power of the god gives them the strength to defy logic and flow north. Although, to be fair, the land slopes downward from the mountain to far North Evania. Gravity is really at work, but whatever the reason you choose to believe though, the rivers had run dry since the reign of Cosimir began. Some say it was Solana’s protest to such dark magic ruling over his land.”

“Whatever the reason, the rivers were dry,” Mathias continued. “That was until after Eli received this second vision. As he told everyone of what he saw, no one again believed him. After all, the rivers had been dry for almost three-hundred years! It was unheard of that they would flow again. Funny thing was, within the week, the water began to run from Morgrid again. And not just a trickle, mind. They came pouring out with such great force that they flooded the plains around Incarta. The message that Eli was trying to tell the people was… let’s just say they knew to listen after that.”

Faro tried to connect the dots, but he was still missing something. “And what does all of this have to do with me?” he asked the healer.

“Well…” Mathias started slowly, cocking his head as if leading into something big. “The leaders of Incarta believed that Eli should travel to the other kingdoms and spread this message to help rally an army to take on Cosimir. To show the support of each kingdom and give more weight to his message, the king of Incarta believed that each kingdom should send someone of great importance to accompany Eli and help rally the troops. The king of Incarta decided to send his only son… Faro.”

The lion raised his eyebrows at the little man. “I’m…I can’t be a…”

“Prince of Incarta!” Mathias said, joyously clapping his hands together. The other three turned to stare at the odd pair, and Thora tilted her head in interest. “You accompanied Eli to the other kingdoms and grew close to him as a friend and disciple,” Mathias continued. “I don’t know what went on up on Mt. Fluore, or why Eli has taken his place as ruler, but some dark magic has overtaken you, and turned you into this. Despite being a lion, you are the sole Prince of Incarta none-the-less.”

They all began walking again towards a tall wall they could see in the distance, the three in front whispering quietly among themselves, Faro and Mathias walking quietly behind as Faro tried to process all of this new information. They finally stepped out of the fields and up to a wall that presumably marked the end of Graeton’s farmland. It was a ten-foot-tall high wooden wall that they couldn’t see through, with no gate in site.

“We must climb,” said Lena, unshouldering her pack and pulling out some rope. “Faro and I will climb over since we’re the tallest, and pull the rest of you over with the rope.”

Faro agreed and easily scaled the wall with Lena. He tossed the rope back down to the others, glad to be of service, but silently wondering if the members of his party now saw him differently knowing he was a prince.

Thora climbed up first while Faro held the rope and Lena grabbed her hand to help her over. Tobi climbed next, and he and Thora used another rope to climb down the other side. Mathias was last, and slowest to make his way up. He got about halfway when they heard Tobi scream from the other side.

Faro and Lena looked down and saw Tobi. He was trying to fight off the grip of what appeared to be a cloaked human. Thora was still by the fence, brandishing her mace at three other similarly clad figures, daring them to come any closer.

The man holding Tobi looked up to the top of the fence and gasped. “A fucking lion-man! Benny! Look up there!”

The group of men looked up. Next to Faro, Lena let out a sigh. “I knew I forgot something,” she said. “I made you a magical cloak that would hide your… this…” she said gesturing at him. “It’s stuffed somewhere down in my pack.”

“A little late now,” he said, assessing the situation below them. There were three men advancing on Thora, one holding Tobi, and five more hanging back in case they were needed. Two of these men in the back had bows drawn, aimed right at him.

Faro, crouching down on the wall, slowly transferred the rope from his hand and put his weight on it with his foot and stood up. He felt the rope slip a little, but it held firm with Mathias hanging onto the other side.

The man holding Tobi spoke again. “Climb down nice and easy like, lion-man. We don’t want anything to happen to your little friend here,” he said, holding his dagger to Tobi’s throat.

“Dark humans,” Lena whispered to Faro. “We have to be careful.”