Looking at the backs of the departing crowd Vyla steeled herself for what was about to begin. One week of harsh living in the mountains did not appease to her at all. She did like however the semblance of freedom during the ceremony and she looked forward to experiment with the cube. She turned to observe the mountains in front of her as she smiled.

Almost half the summer had gone by and the snows showed no sign of stopping. Another Star shrouded year seemed to be on the horizon. Vyla looked upwards and grabbed at the passing snow but a gust of wind made her efforts useless. She took one last glance behind her before she set off into the wilds.

She had not gotten far before shrieks could be heard above. A Giron she thought at least two of them. Looking up to confirm her suspicions she tried to stay out of sight. The large bird creature stretched its wings while resting on the cliff side. Its wings spanned for about ten meters and luckily it was not yet fully grown. Its sharp teeth and tough wings made it quite dangerous for most smaller sized creatures.

It did not seem to have noticed her as she made her way below the cliff and found a few bushes for cover. Keeping an eye out for the other Giron she tried bringing out the cube to at least form some sort of weapon.

She wondered if it was considered cheating. Maybe the gods would deny her the right to take a rock from the ceremonial grounds.

Vyla had never put much faith in the gods merely nodding during the religious lessons and said the words without further thought. However after the events two weeks ago she was not so sure anymore. Perhaps the cube was some sort of god.

Seeing the other Giron sitting on a treetop across from the other one she tried to swallow her fear. A common hunting tactic. This is bad, not only are there two of them but they’re hungry to boot. She remembered that they respond to mostly movement and sound but she sat her thoughts aside and examined the terrain. A few trees would block a couple of attack angles and the cliff would of course shelter her back but left her exposed to a frontal assault.

Looking further along the cliffside and spotting a small cave entrance which her hunters could not fit through. A perfect hiding spot, if I can make it without getting eviscerated... I guess this is the first test.. Concentrating on the cube she peered inside and tried to visualize the room from the dream. Sensing the cube transform and move inside her arms a smile appeared on her face.

A small obsidian cube formed together floating just above her palm. She looked at the cube with a victorious smile and tried moving her palm around. The cube followed without fail and prodding it with a finger caused a small dent to appear. She spent a few minutes playing around with the cube and had all but forgotten about the external threat.

Gazing above she noticed that one of the Girons were missing from its perch. A cold tremor went through her body as she looked around on the edge of panic. No time to hesitate She thought as she promptly stood up and ran for the cave entrance. The Giron shrieked and denied any impulse of her wanting to look over her shoulder.

The cube floating ahead suddenly tensed up..

Instinctively she threw herself down on the ground and a mass of air pushed against her from above. She quickly regained her footing making it safely to the crevice allowing herself a few breaths as she looked at the cube and hugged it tightly. After catching her breath she turned inwards but came to a stop mid step. Looking at the cube again she concentrated and by her command it lit up the dark cavern.

Smiling brilliantly in triumph she looked at the entrance still hearing the Girons shrieking outside. They're gonna be out there for hours. Might as well look around, hopefully there's an exit somewhere.

Back in camp Shiv was sitting down by the fire with his left leg jumping uncontrollably.

-"Calm down Shiv, it's been like what? One? Two hours? She'll be fine, you said so yourself, she's both fierce and strong" Varko told him.

-"I heard Girons not long after she had left, What if they got her uncle?"

-"You and your hearing.. Syde made sure she knew of any manner of creatures that could kill her and how to avoid them. Come one, Sister! Tell your son how he's worrying for naught." Varko said while looking over to Orana.

-"Yes Shiv. All will be fine, nothing will happen to Vyla" Orana answered with a rigid face. But the others could clearly see her hand shaking.

... Varko was at a loss. "You're a veteran of over a hundred battles and you can scare most animals into submission with a stare BUT this is what gets you? Varko shook his head.

-"That's not it.. She'll survive.. That I am certain of. I didn't raise a weakling" She answered gruffly.

-"Then what is it..?" Varko asked but was merely met with a stare that seemed to indicate silence.

Another voice answered him from behind. "She is worried what the gods may have to say about it" The elder sat herself down next to Varko and stirred the fire.  "Remember she is not wagonborn. Found in the snow she was, like a lost puppy".

-"The sno-" Shiv began but quickly quieted down with a warning glance from Varko. If the elder or Orana noticed the glance they did not show it.

-"Come Orana and pray with me, I do not believe the gods would forsake Vyla. She is a good woman and will bring both strength and pride to our caravan. "

Varko followed them with his gaze as they walked away.

The author's tale has been misappropriated; report any instances of this story on Amazon.

-"I don't understand uncle. Why do we have to hide how she was found?" "You should pay more attention to the elder's religious lessons Shiv.." Varko answered with a strict tone. For all of Varko's pragmatism he remained a god fearing man.

-“There are stories of elders who misjudged the signs of the gods leading to unjust banishment. However the stories do not tell if the elders were knowingly misusing their authority or simply ignorant.. Do not blindly trust the elder Shiv or it may bring you sorrow….” Varko said with a sullen tone.

-"Well, forget about that now, let's sparr some. Come on grab your sword and come at me boy"

In the caverns of the Travoski mountains.

Vyla peered ahead in the cavern now lit up by the cube. She tried to move quietly but her feet echoed loudly against the hard stone floor. Trying to concentrate on the cube was a challenge and commanding it to retain its shape while emanating light was harder still. But not long after she had herself a glowing sword and feeling very heroic she braved the cavernous depths once more.

After about an hour of winding paths she entered a large room and even with the cube's light it was hard to see the ceiling or the far side wall. Approaching the middle of the room she could make out a perfectly circular hole and getting closer it was obvious that it was not natural, the walls of the hole looked too smooth.

Vyla looked over the edge with the bottom nowhere to be seen. Picking up a rock she dropped it down the hole but after about three minutes she lost interest. Moving away from the hole she noticed a large backpack next to the right hand wall. It closely resembled her own backpack which was a common style for drifters. A closer look revealed the backpack to be in the clutches of a human skeleton.

The skeleton would perhaps be about the same height as her if it still had its flesh. She or he was one of our people.. One taking part of the ceremony and died here.. probably. The skeleton had three miniature arrows stuck between its ribs and the side of its head had a crack in it. Vyla swallowed her fear and looked through the pack, it was empty.

She had already begun regretting her decision to come here. She took another glance at the skeleton. It's very clean, like it's been here a long time or picked clean.

The room gave no other clues to what or who may have killed the poor drifter.

Vyla continued down the far side exit as the cavern once again tightened into a narrow passage. Eventually and after only two small panic attacks she came upon a fork in the cavern tunnels. The three passages looked the same at a glance but after closer inspection she noticed they were marked. Something had carved a simple vertical line next to the left tunnel. The middle passage was marked with two lines and the right one with three.

Unable to decipher the markings she quickly chose the right hand tunnel. The path led upwards at least and with renewed vigor she started the climb.

Please let this be the exit. She thought leading the way with her sword of light. Finally after what felt like an hour.. There was light

Escaping the underground vyla sat herself down just outside the exit. She had merely rested for a moment before a strange sound caught her ears. An intense wind emerged from the cavern behind ruffling her clothes. It was some kind of howling and she looked up at the cliff face.

The whole cliff was riddled with cavern passages and some of them were perfectly circular as the one from before. The wind seemed to be blowing through the mountains resulting in this strange but beautiful sound..

It was a wondrous experience like none she had ever felt before. Vyla let the cube rest and closed her eyes listening to the tune of the mountain. It was as if Aanos the god of the mountains and Ishelm of the sky was blessing her with their conjoined presence.

However another chorus joined the mountain howls and a strange symphony arose. The new sound did seem, oddly enough, not to be product of the wind and mountains.

Vyla opened her eyes and her face distorted in terror. Hundreds of small humanoid shapes ,barely tall enough to reach her waist, stood inside each tunnel. Her gaze shifted to her tunnel and saw three small blue skinned figures singing. One of them glared at her and flashed a toothy grin with very sharp teeth.

The wind stopped and the singing pygmies retreated back into the depths one by one stopping their own song. The three close to her seemed to hesitate as they looked to be bickering among themselves. They were clothed in some strange simple fabric and were completely covered in blue fur. Their yellow eyes seemed to be their only distinct feature.

Vyla closed her mouth and slowly started to back away while holding her sword in their direction. One of them turned to the cave and gave away a series of yelps. Vyla hoped it wasn't to call for even more of them. Taking another glance at her surroundings she noticed she was in some large valley perhaps hidden between the mountains.

I seem to be trapped here, unless I wanna go through those tunnels again.. She had managed gain a fair amount of distance between them before suddenly the middle pygmy stopped bickering and rushed towards her. The thought of fighting and killing them easily with the help of the cube flickered past her mind. It was however quickly pushed away as her recent memories of failure to control the cube manifested themselves.

She ran..

Shiv spun around ready to strike but was quickly beat down by his mother's backhand.

-"You're distracted, what's wrong? If you're worried about Irna seeing you humiliated there's no need to fret. Syde took her hunting" Orana said with a smile.

-"I thought I heard.." Vyla? Screaming? I know my hearings good but this. No just my mind playing tricks on me for worrying too much. He thought.

-"Enough with the excuses a real enemy won't wait for you to regain your bearings. They'll skewer you where you stand and then do the same to your friends." Orana lectured. Shiv began a protest but was silenced by a upheld hand.

-"I can see you're tired so let's stop for today. Dinner's in an hour so start up a fire and invite Irna over." She said as Shiv walked off with his head down.

Maybe I'm a bit harsh on him but I'd rather be harsh than him ending up dead. Perhaps when Vyla returns I'll give them both a real challenge. Orana sat down so caught up in her own thoughts she didn't notice Syde running up to her.

-"Orana there's a problem, one of the scouts have gone missing."

 Orana promptly stood up and shouted -"Notify the elder and gather the scouts at the eastern side. You have five minutes."

Syde nodded striding away with due haste barking orders at the nervous young man who followed him. Orana grabbed the lightly adorned horn at her waist.

Some distance east resting up against a tree a woman kneeled above a middle aged man. She looked to be in her mid twenties with completely white eyes and bald. A slim furred white armor covered her entirely except for her bare head.

-"You shouldn't have fired that arrow" The woman said to the dying man obviously displeased. "A mistake which will cost you your life unless you promise to be.. exxxtra nice.. when your friends arrive."

"You see it was only by the grace of my employer that I managed to avoid it."

"See this thing here?” A six legged metallic creature crawled up her arm. “He's called Voss and he's actually quite.. nifty... But enough of that. I have another offer for you. If you can tell me where your little immortal is hiding I'll even make it comfortable.."

Seeing the blank look on his face she knew he had no idea what she was asking of him.. It'd be bad if this one died, the drifters are powerful warriors and I’d rather be diplomatic about it.. The woman deliberated as the sound of a horn echoed out in the forest ahead…

Here they come…