Bjorn.

The group of us sat around a large table, sharing stories and drinking ale waiting for news from Bodil and Kara. They had been gone for a while now and I had more questions regarding the vision or whatever that was. "Stop pacing, Bjorn. We will know more soon." Cal said as he came out of the room his two boys were now sleeping. "Sullevan, care to play Nine Men's Morris while we wait?" Gallion asked, pulling out a pouch containing the game. "Only if you are ready to lose, my friend." Sullevan replied happily. The two men retreated to two cozier seats near the fire and pulled up a small wooden table between them. They were set on playing against each other until there was a champion between them. Cal decided he was also going to join them, and be their mediator in case one of them decided to add in any new rules.

"Pepper, Tell me about the problems in the dryad villages on the main land? What is happening there?" I asked her. "Much the same as it is here. Larger in numbers. We have lost entire villages, burned by beasts and men. Too many Villages in fact. Rebuilding will be hard." She sounded sad. "How is it that no one else knows this is happening?" I asked her.

"Do they not?" She asked me as she stared me in the eye. "Tell me what happened again, Bjorn. What happened in your village when you and Gallion left?" Her long ears twitched, I assumed in annoyance. "Yeah, I just thought after finding out who I was, that it was because of me or at least connected in some manner." I admitted. "Well, you are not entirely wrong. Many of non awakened are being attacked. Livestock being mutilated, stolen, eaten. Anyone of course who would come face to face with something like a wouldn't be alive to tell anyone. Demons, dark fea, pythos, they are not interested in them. They live and cower in the shadows of the magical wards set around the land we live on, most times. They really are simply the beasts that are caught in between of Men and Gods.""Dark fea? Dryads and brownies are fea, so what is a dark fea?" I was curious, obviously they were dryads that follow a darker path, but just to be sure. Pepper cleared her throat and took a swallow of ale. "An embarrassment to our kind. Once know as pixies they were fickle and selfish. Eventually they lost themselves, tempted by other malevolent beings and turned dark. Now, instead of just taking shiny trinkets and flowers, they confuse their prey, stop them from caring, thinking for themselves and they are eaten alive... They are beasts, no longer representing who they once were." She shook her head, " Little bastards are disgusting as well. I can't stand them." "Come on now, Pepper. They aren't so bad!" teased Sullevan across the room. "They are kind of entertaining at times."

"Really? And how many of them have you made friends with? Ranger 'unite the world'." Pepper joked back. Sullevan shook his head laughing. "Don't think I haven't tried."

She looked at Sullevan, laughing quietly. "Sullevan is Eladry. A higher race of Dryadalis. He hated the idea of closing ourselves off once again, hiding behind walls. It took a long time to establish trades, relationships, and even peace for our three people. Sacrificed more then anyone else for it, until the clans decided it was to dangerous for us to live side by side with non awakened, and even the awakened for a time. Now he lives as a ranger. I think he felt betrayed by the clans, and took his step down. "What? Its been at least a hundred years since elves and hek...Awakened were known. How is it that possible?" I asked astounded. Sullevan didn't look a day older then Gallion, who was no older then fifty winters. Maybe..."Eladry have very long lives. The first race of Dryadalis. There are entire bochord's dedicated their history. Dryadalis like me, we are know as the Hanner oes, half lives. A race born of the Eladry and humans." She laughed, "Is this all a bit dull? "I smiled, It wasn't. In fact, hearing Pepper talk about the history of her people was like being told a familiar story from childhood. Memories you had forgotten. The more she told me about her people, the more I thought about my memories as Aadi. "No, I am enjoying myself." I said.

A banging on the door broke the conversations. Cal crossed the room and opened it to find a younger man standing their holding the hand of a child. "Erik, come in. And you young Cadmun." The two stepped into the house. "Got a message for you from Kara! Her and some other woman are headed to find Tao." Erik said. "Tao?" Cal studied Erik and Cadmun for a moment. "What else did she say?" "That you are to meet her in Mons, tomorrow. And not to bring Kanoot or Marc." He frowned a little. "I was hoping I could leave Cadmun here as well. Kara said the mountain... that fire was going to flow from it, that we should get as many people as we can to a safer place, or in the waters." Cal put his hand on Erik's shoulder, "Of course. Come, sit. "Erik, your parents? Where are they now?" My father is at sea, gone with Frik and his men to the north again. And my mother is in Guylian. For another day or two. She is supposed to return with trade and supplies on the trade galley." He told Cal. "Then you shall both be staying here. You can look after the three boys until I am back." Cal ordered Erik. Erik nodded, obviously relieved he was not going to potentially burned to death. "The rest of us, we will leave now to Mons." Cal said.

We gathered a few weapons, and readied some horses. The night was cold and I couldn't deny that I was tired. "Cal, we will need a lot more men and woman to move a village." Sullevan said. "We can gather people on the way. If Kara is back and ready for us as we arrive, she will bring as many as she can out... Erik, what about Sigris? Did Kara bring him along?" Erik nodded, "Oh yeah, Sigris is with them all right." Erik laughed to himself. Sighing Cal shook his head. "That man is older then the damned mountain." He muttered something else and went into the room that Kanoot and Marc were sleeping.

I spotted Gallion looking at me, waiting for my attention to land on him. He nodded for me to come over to where he and Sullevan were earlier. Taking the now empty seat across from him, "I can't be going with you, my boy. My legs aren't what they used to be and pretty sure I would be less help there then I can be here with these young fellers." He said as he waved his hands towards Erik and Cadmun.Cal came over to us after overing Gallion, "You are staying? "Gallion nodded. "I am no longer the young man I was thirty years ago, Cal. I am sorry." Gallion hated to admit he wasn't as capable as he was before. Years of metal working, and battles had taken a toll on his body. "No, my friend, thank you for watching my boys." Cal shook Gallion wrist and nodded. "We will be back as soon as we can."

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After preparing our horses and leaving the farm, everything seemed silent around us. As we talked what the best plan was as we arrived, what we could expect, how many or rather if any men and woman would help or leave themselves. There were no owls hooting, or animals crossing us. Was everything in this land scared?

"The air here tastes different." I said out loud, Cal spinning around at the sound of my voice with a dagger pulled out. "Sorry." I said as Cal shook his head. "What do you mean?" Sullevan asked. "Like when you burn a sweet herb on the fire. The taste it gives off. Something like that." I explained. It seemed almost familiar. "I don't taste or smell anything." Pepper said. Sullevan took in a deep breath through his mouth, then smacked his lips like he was tasting a new drink. "He is right." Sullevan jumped down from his horse and tied to a tree a few feet away. "Oi, we haven't got time to be doing anything." Cal called out to Sullevan. "We are in a bit of a rush!" "In all my time in this realm, I have learned that nothing, is never nothing, Cal. You know this." He said, giving Cal a look that said he was investigating no matter what.

Jumping off my own horse, tying it to the same tree as Sullevan I tried to look around us as best as I could in the dark. "Is there a farm here?" I asked. "Not for another few miles." Cal said. "An old cellar?" Pepper asked. "That seems to be common here. As though your ancestors had a lot to hide, or worry about." "Who knows." Cal said, shrugging his shoulders. "I don't make it a habit of creeping around the woods looking for strange things, unless that strange thing is a Dryadalis." Cal said. "Oh, yeah?" Pepper said as she chucked a stick at cal. The stick missed Cal and went straight inside a large tree trunk. Right thought as though the tree wasn't there.

The four of us stopped and went silent once again. I pulled out my sword and readied myself. Cal and Sullevan moved closer to the tree to study it, whispering Pepper said, "A vail." Sullevan nodded and pulled stepped back pulling a leather string from her hip and tying her hair behind her, she pulled up a hood from under her cloak that covered her face. Dropping her cloak she pulled two daggers from her hips and was ready. Sullevan held his hand in the air, then brought it down. Pepper shot off like an arrow straight into tree. I went to follow in after her, Sullevan grabbed my arm holding me back. "Wait!" he hissed. A moment later, the stick Pepper tossed at Cal, came back through the tree. "Let's go." Sullevan and Cal walked through the Vail, I followed behind them still holding my sword, ready to attack.

On the other side of this invisible barrier was Pepper, with her foot the back of a man face down in the dirt unconscious. "You knocked him out?" Cal asked. "He was standing here with a spear." She said in defense as she waved her hand at the spear just below Sullevan's feet. "Seemed easier this way. We can talk to him in a moment."

Sullevan was looking over the man's things that were laid out. It looked at though he might have lived here. A shack was roughly put together with sticks and mud, there were runes hanging over the entrance way. Furs were hanging to be dried, and a carcass of an animal was slung up strips of meat smoking over a low burning fire. The smell of sweet herbs filled the air here. The same smell I could taste before. "Who is this man, do you know?" Pepper as Sullevan and Cal. Neither men knowing who he was shrugged. "I am unsure." Cal admitted.

The man groaned and turned his face out of the dirt. "Ugh, why can no one ever just do things the easy way?" He asked no one. He tried to push himself up out of the dirt, Pepper pushing him back down with her foot. "Just stay there stranger, and we wont have a problem." She said pushing harder. "We wont have any problems, just left me up. I have no ill intentions, I swear to Ota." He said as he laid helpless in the dirt.

Sullevan knelt down looking at the mans face. "Your name?" He asked. "William. William Hannison. My father was..." He started. "Hanni the Butcher." Cal finished for him.

William nodded, "yup, yeah that's me. Son a murderer." "Just let him up." Cal sighed in annoyance. "Your father was banished from here. Why are you here?" Cal asked. "Was I banished for my father's crimes as well?" William asked. "I just thought as long as I lived quietly, who was I bothering?" "Stand up, boy." Sullevan said pulling him to his feet. "You know, I am pretty good and hiding myself, how did you guys find me anyways?" William asked. "I could taste those herbs you have burning there in the air." I said pointed to the bundled herbs at the edge of the flames. They were smoking heavily. "You could smell that out there? Nah, you're a liar." William said laughing to himself. "What am I then? I could taste them as well. " Sullevan said.

William didn't reply, obviously deciding it was better to just be quiet in that moment. He was looking us over when he asked, "What are you four doing anyways, creeping around in the dark? Hunting?" "We are on our way to Mons. Looking for men and woman to help the village leave before the mountain splits." Cal told William. "What say you? "William thought for a moment, "I say you should never run towards danger, you live longer that way. "Sullevan punched William in the top of the arm. "Ouch! What was that for?" William asked shocked. "For being a coward." Sullevan said ready to give him another. "No! No, please. I am not a warrior! I am a coward, you are right! I would much more prefer to hide, but only because I know! I know the truth about what is happening!" "Oh? And what is that?" Pepper asked shoving past him. William flinching in fear Pepper might attack him again. "Yeah, you go over there when I can you. You are scary!" He said pointing a shaking finger at her. She growled back at him, causing him to pull back. "What do you think you know, William?" Cal pressed.

William then locked eyes with me and went silent again. He tore his eyes away and kneeled on the ground refusing to look back up. He was praying and whispering in a different language. Sullevan sighed and pulled him back up to his feet, "what are you doing now?" William swallowed hard looking at me from the side. "Aadi." He said.

How could he know that? "How do you know? How do you know that name?" I asked him.

"In nomine Ota, potestas interatus confringet terram, Ragnarök nascetur." William said. "What does that mean?" I asked annoyed and confused gripping my sword tighter. "It means that Ragnarök has begun." He started to laugh and cry at the same time. "Finally." He said clapping his hands.