We decided to camp in the collapsing building for a few hours, with the wounds from battle still fresh upon our bodies we all needed a slight break. Nothing a little rest couldn't fix. The first watch was taken by Stone, he insisted considering he was now the "leader" to which Bolmer scoffed loudly in dissatisfaction. Stone didn't seem to pay it much thought, he's more tolerant of disrespect then most dwarves our age, most likely how he was able to negotiate with the stubborn fairies so well.

Ordwin and Bolmer seemed to be getting along well, sharing the dislike of the fairies they often chatted to one another. With Ordwin's constant stuttering it was a headache to follow, so I just gave up settling in a clear corner of the area before getting some rest. We cycled through our shifts before we were all somewhat rested, not yet quite at 100% but close enough.

Stone opened his pack laying out the colored shards one by one on the ground gently, being careful not to let them touch. The final shard is the only merged shard. "Let's get this over with," Bolmer mutters reaching for a shard to which Stone smacks his hand away.

"No touching the shards! We don't need a repeat of what happened last time!" Stone growls with a glare.

"We're gonna have to kill the beasts that come to defend the shards anyway," Bolmer argues to which Ordwin agrees.

"We can still prepare, we chose when and where the stones will be merged. Let's take advantage of the small gift the All-Father has given us." Stone grumbles, deep in thought.

I hadn't thought of any way of merging the shards without consequence. Talking to the beasts definitely wouldn't work, the Slitra didn't even look like it could speak the common tongue of the All Language. Also, we would inevitably have to slay the monster, the shard being somewhere in its body I didn't doubt it substituted for a heart or some other important organ needed to bring the creature into this world. "What do you propose we do?" I mutter to which Ordwin answers,

"T...t.the shards Bolmer merged were the s..shards of water and earth. An S..s.slithra's habitat perhaps that has something to do with w..w.what protects the shards?" To that, I raised an eyebrow stroking my beard. The Slithra was once an angry and deadly race that lived beneath the earth, very territorial didn't know they could repel fire. Not to smart though probably why they are extinct. "I have an idea on how to deal with these troublesome creatures," Stone mutters a grin growing on his face.

It took awhile but after trial and error we managed to finish, "You really think this is gonna work?" Ham mutters looking at the creation.

"I don't see you coming up with any bright ideas." Stone retorts, seeming satisfied with our creation. His idea was making a cage for the beast of the surrounding stone it was 10 feet wide on all sides, after reinforcing it through melted rock over a dozen times it was pretty solid. Calling it a cage might be a little off. There were no bars but reinforced stone walls with a hole half the size of a dwarf, so about 2 feet wide on all sides of the cage.

As for the door, it was a slab of stone, one would have to slide it shut for it to actually work. "When the beasts come out of the shard we attack it with dwarven fire, let's just hope it isn't immune to fire this time." Stone remarks with a grin.

"This is just a waste of time we should just smash it with a hammer, it's much more effective." folding his arms Bolmer wore a dissatisfied frown looking at the cage, he hadn't helped in crafting it simply scoffing at Stone's instruction as he watched. Forcing him to help would just reduce the quality of the cage, having the beast escape from entrapment would put my life in danger so I dropped the matter, although Ham seemed irritated with the continued resistance.

I.I...I think it's a brilliant idea, couldn't have t...t..thought of a better one m..my..myself." Ordwin adds. Nodding his head in satisfaction Stone grabs the merged shard as well as the white shard and places them in the cage before exiting. "Ok, Bolmer go and merge the shards."

Bolmer gave him a stupified expression before folding his arms and pointing his nose towards the sky, "Why me, you're the leader. You do it!" Ham looked like he was ready to pop before Stone raises a hand in front of him, "Your the only one here who knows how to merge the shards together, we need you to do it." His voice was unusually soft, it almost sounded like he was begging for him to do it. The disgust was plain as day on Ham's face at every word that came out of Stones mouth.

I had to catch myself from laughing, Stone truly was a smooth talker, a manipulator, the sly fox although I thought he laid the compliments on a little strong. He knew how to get his way. It was no wonder as to how he convinced the fairies to let him beyond the border and without a dance no less. Bolmer looked smug at Stones pleading uncrossing his arms slowly, "Have some pride Stone, I'll merge the shards just stay out of my way from now on." He snickers before waltzing in the cage.

Picking up the two shards he places them together as he did the first time, the two shards became engulfed with a bright white light before the two pieces became one, but unlike before there was no crack. The shard began to rise causing Bolmer to retreat towards the door before a loud "luck" followed by a "click resonated through the area.

Ham had closed the cage with Bolmer inside! "Hey, what are you doing! Open the door." Bolmer barks frantically pounding on the door as he peeked his head in through the hole.

"You wanted to beat it with a hammer, well here's your chance." Ham pipes through a grin as Bolmer revealed a face of horror as he turned around to the floating shard. The shard began to glow rapidly before disappearing into a bright light covering half the cage, shielding my eyes I look away while saying a smaller prayer for Bolmer's soul. Even I thought Ham's treatment was more than harsh, he may have very well killed Bolmer. Stone didn't seem worried in the slightest, in fact, the corners of his lips continued to twist upward slightly. I wondered if they planned this. Ham definitely didn't seem the type to go around locking dwarves in stone cages.

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The light began to fade revealing the creature, to my surprise, it didn't have claws or fangs or cause me to nearly shit a brick. Bolmer seemed relieved as did the rest of the tense dwarves for the guardian of the white shard was a Pegasus a creature of both myth and beauty. It's wings a pure white looked as if they were glowing as the creature fluttered them, It seemed wrong having the majestic being inside such a cage. Unlike the Slithra it didn't attack Bolmer, only watching him warily. Considering he was clutching his hammer tightly I didn't disapprove of its caution.

Releasing a breath I didn't know I was holding I looked at Stone who seemed mesmerized by the creature his eye's sparkled looking at the horse. Ordwin even had the gull to reach in the through the hole to pet the thing, like some kind of barn animal. It didn't seem to mind though licking his hand in return as he nuzzled it's head, being wary of the sharp horn that extruded from the center.

"T...that's a good boy," Ordwin mutters stroking the horse a smile glued to his face. "Are y...y..you hungry? I...I.I have something good for you." Dipping one hand in his bag he pulls out a half-eaten roll of bread before handing it to the horse. It whiffed the bread for a moment flexing its large nostrils before nibbling on the bread, contended with the meal Ordwin offered.

"Well I'll be damned, a living breathing Pegasus. How much you think you could sell this for in Curuz?" Stone mutters excitedly.

"I don't know about Curuz, but in Toradain I'm sure it would be considered priceless there are no others in existence. I wonder if you could breed it with another horse." Ham seemed pretty adamant about reproducing the mythological beast. "I say we keep it, we can always just start over with the shards. Returning to our lands with a creature of myth is bound to get us recognized or even a bigger prize from the Emperor."

The creature seemed harmless enough, although I was reluctant to start over in merging the shards. Especially if it meant having to battle the Slithra once more, the way its tongue and tentacles moved still made my stomach uneasy when I thought about it. Also finding another white, and brown shard sounded like a hassle, I wasn't looking forward to spending another day staring at the ceiling. The three seemed too engrossed in future glory to really think about the hassle the horse would cause, nevermind just getting the shards, dragging the horse through the unknown was bound to be quite the hassle.

"So it's agreed we'll breed the horse for the offspring each of us getting a horse each, what you do with yours is your own business but I'm sure they'll make excellent mounts as well as benefit merchants tremendously," Stone mutters patting the cage.

"A...a.a.agreed!" Ordwin mutters nodding enthusiastically

"Agreed!" Ham responds a smirk wide on his face lost in his own thoughts, perhaps thinking about the endless wealth to come from the horse. Sighing heavily I nod in agreement, arguing with them about the horse seemed fruitless, they had already planned out the horses future.

To be a breeding machine for decades to come. "Thwap!" The sound coming from the cage we all looked the three of them showing faces of horror as the Pegasus lay in shambles its body limp on the cage floor its neck snapped brutally. Standing over the body was Bolmer, his hammer drenched in the creatures clear blood as he began to shake the hammer sending the blood flying.

Looking back his eyebrow rises at the three horrified faces with slight confusion, "What? Oh, the Sorry horse had to go, ain't no way I'm fighting a Slither again. Shame though, the horse looked pretty badass." The sorry didn't sound sorry at all, although I was thankful Bolmer didn't seem so infatuated with the horse. He had saved possibly days of searching for another shard.

The corpse began to glow before disappearing into the cage leaving behind the three colored shard.

A slight sniffle escaped Ordwins lips as he turned away from the cage muttering to himself, to low for me to hear I shrugged my shoulders while opening the cage. Bolmer hobbling out giving Ham a death glare. Ham looking smug as he watched Bolmer exit the makeshift cage.

"A smash with a hammer, always more effective," Bolmer mutters waving his hammer at Ham. To which he simply scoffed.

"Then you won't mind me locking you in there for the next shard?" Ham teases. Bolmer staring daggers at him grinding his teeth.

"Don't you dare little piggy." slides out of his mouth slowly as Ham continued to poke at him.

"On to the next shard then?" I direct towards Stone, him watching the little argument between the two dwarves before nodding towards me.

"A shame, we could have made a fortune. Yeah, I have the next shard right here." Unfolding his arms he held the red shard. "Bolmer! Hand me the shard will ya." Interrupting the ongoing argument Bolmer hobbles over handing over the multicolored shard. Taking it from Bolmer he makes his way inside the cage looking at us for a moment.

"You ready?"

The four of us nodded as Stone placed the shards together the morphing together he sprints out the cage as Ham slams it shut locking it immediately with the makeshift stake. The stone glowed a dull bloody red, as the shard began to catch fire.

The flames engulfing the entire stone. The color of the fire changing from blue to red before disappearing leaving the four-sharded gem. It was still for a moment, but only a moment as it caught fire again, the flames roaring angrily. The color was blue nor red but a violet, it began expanding causing us to step away from the cage. We were fireproof, but the purple flames didn't look ordinary and for the first time since I was a small dwarf I feared being burnt.

The purple flames danced endlessly before a loud screech rung out through the area, causing us to look at each other bewildered. We didn't see a beast but heard it as the flames moved like a living creature, the flames bending by an unknown will into a shape. The shape became defined but the embers of the purple flame continued unending until it had fully formed the creature. It screeched once more the high pitched wail causing me to cover my ears.

It was a being of magical fire, its beak, wings, and talons entirely engulfed in unnatural flames. There was nothing on the bird that wasn't covered in fire. I cursed myself for not listening to Ordwins guess of the element of the shard having an influence on the type of guardian that would come to protect the crystal. Staring at the creature I could only stutter like Ordwin at the monster that lay before my eye's, "A Ph..ph.ph...Pheonix!"