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While a few lifeboats floated away from the wreckage, lazily gliding through the breeze, six creatures all from different species set foot on the rocky ground beneath it.

"If I didn't know better, I would think we were standing on regular ground right now." Noticed Heleine.

"Yeah," Leewa agreed, "With all these trees around, you'd be forgiving for thinking we're in the woods. It's almost as if an absolutely regular hill up and decided to come to life and take a walk all of a sudden. And not a tiny hill either: this thing could almost pass for a small mountain."

Even with his limited vision, Lirai couldn't help but agree. The vegetation was very different from what he was used to in the insular environment where he was born and raised: the trees were thicker, darker, with much denser foliage. The underbrush also felt somewhat wilder. And, aside from regular plants, even the omnipresent crystal flowers grew in different shapes and colour here than they did back on the Fesai archipelago. Not only that, but the pale light they emanated flickered and wavered in ways he had not seen before.

"Where are we even going?" Asked Nova.

Leewa responded, "Well, we should aim to get to the head. There's a good chance that whatever magical device is allowing this whole thing to move is going to be found around the head area or, at the very least, connected to it. Either way, if we want to try to communicate with it, that's our best bet."

After this exchange was over, the group went quiet. Now that they were standing directly on the gigantic creature, they had to be even more mindful of their footing, since the massive body slowly contorted in between each lethargic step in order to recover from the last and prepare for the next. Lirai tried to pay even more attention to the texture of each sound caused by its movement; there wasn't just the rumble of its incredibly heavy footsteps, but also comparatively smaller crackles, creaks, and snaps caused by said contortions. Something didn't quite feel right, but he didn't dare fully open his ears to learn what it was, since the roaring sound of the footsteps could potentially be loud enough to damage his eardrums.

The ear of a fei was a very sophisticated evolutionary marvel: the fuzz coming out of it didn't just protect the earhole from dust and other small objects that could potentially fall into it, it was also sensitive to strong and sudden incoming sound-waves, causing the muscles around the earhole to contract and accordingly close a sphincter to protect the inner ear from noises that were too loud. An amazing thing about this feature of their body was that they could control how closed they wanted it to be, thus regulating how much noise they were able to hear or exclude, and, even when completely shut down, they could still pick up quite a lot through a combination of the vibrations in their skull, the information given by the ear fuzz, and other complementary factors.

Lirai waited for the thunder of a step to be completely over, then opened his ears a little more, knowing that it would take a while for the next step to come. He closed his eyes and moved his ears around, trying to gather as much information as possible from all directions. In between each rattle and crackle around them, he could easily recognise the footsteps of each of his companions: Nova's springy bounce on her four little paws, Sycrhill's careful and steady march on his two legs, Gyvar's quiet and elegant stride on her thin four limbs, Leewa's uncertain steps punctuated by the shuffling of her long tail on the ground, and… he quickly assumed an erect position and his ears shot up. Where was Heleine? He couldn't hear her steps at all.

He was about to open his eyes when a sudden voice surprised him from his right side. "Did you hear something?"

The velvety voice of the blue mikai startled him to the point of causing him to jump a full tail's length in the opposite direction, almost tripping in the process.

"W-when did you get there?" He shivered.

She tilted her head. "Um, just now?"

"P-please, d-don't sneak up on me like that again." He managed to stutter.

She blinked a couple of times, seemingly bewildered. "I'm… I'm sorry, I didn't want to scare you like that. That aside, did you hear anything that could be interesting? I saw you listening very intently."

"I was just… I noticed that I couldn't hear your footsteps, which made me worried, since I was pretty sure you should have been around somewhere."

She chuckled, with a bit of pride in her smirk. "Of course. In my mother tongue, other species sometimes refer to mikai hunters as laizlo jovoira, which… admittedly doesn't translate very well in Valdheel, but roughly means 'sharp featherfall', because we're as silent as a falling feather, yet our teeth are razor-sharp."

He stared back at her, his mouth agape. How could she so casually say something so utterly terrifying with such an innocent expression?

He gulped, wishing to change the subject as soon as possible. "So, how come that you speak Valdheel almost as well as a native? I can barely hear your accent."

"You see, shamans, in my culture, aren't just spiritual leaders and practitioners of magic, but also mediators and representatives in our interspecies relations. Because of that, my parents insisted that I should learn to speak as close to a perfect Valdheel as possible, since it's the most widespread language in the known world, and started teaching me when I was still a cub. I basically grew up bilingual because of that."

A few steps in front of them, Sychrill mumbled something. Before they had jumped off of the wreckage, he had quickly gone to the hold in order to see if he was able to recover something from his luggage and now he had it. His left arm had a round wooden shield strapped to it, while his right hand held what looked like a fancy rolled-up length of rope, finely woven with robust dark coloured fibres. Lirai had already seen a bunch of dorpa with a similar setup: police and fighter dorpachi had that same equipment plus armour. Since Sychrill didn't appear to have the armour, Lirai guessed that maybe he had experience working as security in some kind of establishment, or maybe even as a bodyguard. He did seem to be rather fit, so it wouldn't be too hard to imagine. If he was a bodyguard, that would explain why he would be trained in basic healing magic as well as his offer to provide protection.

As a new rumble filled the air, they all stopped to keep their footing. When it went relatively quiet again, Lirai opened his ears once more, this time even more so than previously. He was sure he heard something strange, but he couldn't quite put his finger on what.

Gyvar addressed Leewa, with a little urgency in her voice, "Beg your pardon, sweetheart, but do you have the first idea how far are we from the creature's head?"

"Not a clue, but I could do a brief reconnaissance to let you know."

"Ooh that's an excellent suggestion: other than giving us an idea of how far is our destination, it would also allow us to avoid potential obstacles."

Leewa opened her wings. "I'll be back soon."

After the loghra left, Lirai asked, "Is everything alright, Gyvar? I heard some concern in the way you spoke."

"Oh, I do apologise, it's nothing to worry about. It's just that my husband was supposed to welcome me at the harbour when the ship landed and I know he'll be worried sick when he gets the news that we crashed."

Heleine tilted her head. "You're married?"

She nodded with an almost timid smile. "Yes, quite a shock, isn't it? Everyone says that I look too young to be married. It hasn't even been a full term since the wedding ceremony." She sighed deeply. "I hope he'll be fine while waiting for our return."

Nova interjected, "Oh, I would have loved to be there! I've always dreamed to do the catering for the wedding of a friend, but sadly I never had the chance."

Gyvar gave her an encouraging smile, "You will get your opportunity, I'm positively certain. If we keep in touch and you're still in the Princedom by then, maybe I'll ask you to do it when we'll have the renewal of our vows a few terms from now."

Before anyone could add anything, Leewa delicately landed next to them. "If we keep this up, we'll get to the head in about a notch or two. More importantly though, I've seen a house not far from here, and it seems inhabited."

Sychrill asked, "Um, whah is that more important?"

Leewa closed down her wings. "Well, whoever lives there may have an idea of what's going on, so we should go and ask them."

"Fair point," responded Gyvar, "but even if they knew nothing we should still go check them out: they might be in danger."

Heleine addressed Lirai, "What do you think?"

He froze for a moment, since he wasn't expecting anyone to ask his piece. "Er, I agree with Gyvar. We should definitely go check the house, regardless if those who live there are involved or not."

The blue mikai got a little closer to him. "You seem distracted. Are you sure that you're aright?"

He nodded, but didn't speak further. He still wanted to understand what was it in the background noises of that place that rubbed him the wrong way. He had agreed to go to the house, but he definitely intended to keep his ears open as much as possible on the way there.

***

Right after the umpteenth thunderous step from the construct, the small group reached a clearing in the woods. Without his glasses, Lirai wasn't fully capable of making out the exact details of the small house that they found in the middle of that clearing, but it was a single story building with something akin to a small tower next to it, both made out of old stone bricks. A little smoke was barely visible as it exited from the chimney. While approaching, he realised it was suspended over the ground, presumably by means of solid stone pillars beneath the pavement, and it had a porch made out of some slightly rotten wood. All in all, even in spite of his bad eyesight, he could see that it was a very old house in pretty rough shape, and the dark vines of crystal flowers growing on its walls only made it feel even more neglected. When all of them were on the porch, Leewa knocked on the door (the knock gave Lirai the impression that the door was made out of very solid wood, in much better shape than the porch on which they were currently standing).

From the cracks around the door, Lirai heard a high-pitched nasal voice, probably belonging to an elderly female. "Gosh golly, who might that be? We weren't expecting any company, were we, Her Majesty?" The elderly voice cleared her throat and declared, a bit louder, "Coming!"

A few bolts and latches emitted some rusty clacks and creaks as they were released and, as the door opened, they saw a pudgy older loghra with a huge pair of glasses. Her plumage was of a pale blue not too dissimilar from Heleine's fur, but with purple patterns, less saturated colours and streaks of grey all over.

The apparition cooed at Leewa, "Goodness gracious! It has been a ring of the Golden Bell and a half since the last time I saw such a pretty child. What can I do for you, dearie?"

Leewa almost imperceptibly shook her head while muttering under her breath, "…child?" and then dryly responded, "Ma'am, I have no idea how this came to happen, but…"

The older loghra interrupted her, "Humbugs, where are my manners? You and your little attendance can come inside." She turned her attention to the rest of the group. "I'm afraid I don't have tea for everyone, so unfortunately the lower circles will have to make do with an ol' cup of water." Finally, she focused her gaze on Gyvar. "Such a gracious handmaid you bring, you must be of good family. Maybe I do have some tea for her too. Come inside, please, come inside."

The six of them stared at each other and blinked in disbelief.

Lirai asked, "What was that?"

Gyvar sighed, "It would appear that we found a lady in her later terms whose mentality and culture are still stuck a couple of Princes ago. I wish I could say this was uncommon, but truth is that, especially in the countryside, it is anything but. Just let me and Leewa deal with her, as she probably won't listen to the rest of you."

The inside of the place was, unsurprisingly enough, a mess, given how the movements of the construct had to had shaken the little house. Some pots and pans lay on the ground beneath a low shelf, on top of which only one pot remained. Of the furniture inside, it seemed like the only thing that was still standing was a small wooden shrine with a reproduction of an opening gate made out of some sort of ivory. That detail, somehow, piqued Lirai's interest. Why would anyone keep the effigy of a gate, of all things? Also, there was an almanac lying around on the floor, which by itself would have been a very common thing to find inside of someone's house, but Lirai had never seen one like that: usually, they would have a picture of a green feather on the cover, but this one had a picture of a stone tablet instead.

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"There you go," croaked the old loghra while hanging a kettle in the fireplace, "the tea will be ready in a jiffy. What were you saying, dearie? My memory is not what it used to be."

Leewa cleared her throat. "Ma'am, have you not noticed that…"

The old loghra interrupted her again, "Dear me, did we even introduce ourselves? You can tell your attendance that they're allowed to talk for themselves. The old timers down the valley would throw a fit if I said something like this in their presence, but I allow that they can move on with the times: my beloved late Princess did teach us to treat all species with respect. Oh, right, my name is Vinthre. What about yours, dearies?"

After a brief, awkward silence, Gyvar said, "Lady Vinthre, all my friends here and I are deeply grateful for your hospitality and kindness, but there is currently a situation that you really need to be made aware of."

"Oh dear me, what happened this time?"

Gyvar opened her mouth to respond, but Vinthre just kept on talking. "You see, I can barely remember the last time that anyone came all the way up here for anything different than delivering bad news." She sighed. "The Princedom used to be a much safer place once, you know. The new Prince has been so worried with foreign affairs that he often forgets about his own subjects, isn't it right, Her Majesty?"

The elderly loghra addressed that last question in the general direction of the shrine with the opening gate.

Heleine took advantage of the brief silence after the question to speak up. "Ma'am, your house is currently located on the back of a humongous creature who decided to take a stroll around the plains. We're trying to find a solution, but staying here could be dangerous for you, so I think you should consider evacuating."

The old loghra waved her hand dismissively, "Oh, pish posh my dear. I've lived here for a long time and never seen anything out of the ordinary."

Leewa raised her voice in frustration. "Can't you feel the earth shaking? Those thundering footsteps? What do you think those are? We're telling you, your house sits on the back of some sort of colossal construct."

Vinthre didn't show any signs of distress. "As I said, pish posh my dear. I've been keeping guard to the command poems for… well, for longer than you've been alive, I'd reckon, and if the Beighal were to come alive the sigils would definitely start glowing, which has never happened all through my long terms of keeping watch on them."

If it wasn't for another roaring footstep invading it, the room would have been engulfed in dead silence. As soon as the last echo subsided, the kettle started whistling and Vinthre gleefully chirped, "So, who wants some tea?"

Leewa raised a finger. "I beg your pardon?"

"Tea, my dear, have you ever tried it?"

"No! I mean, what was that all about command poems, sigils and keeping guard to them?"

Without missing a beat, Vinthre asked, "So, you've never had tea? Preposterous, what do they teach you these days?"

Lirai experienced his mind shutting down for a moment. The entire conversation, not to even mention all the events surrounding it, was way too surreal for his brain to process. For a few instants, he felt like he was about to wake up from the most bizarre dream he ever had. That feeling only survived until he heard Heleine's velvety voice addressing him.

"So, among the enchantments that you can do with your instrument," she inquired, "is there anything that could be used to have her focus on just one topic for a moment and tell us what is actually going on?"

He thought about it for a moment. "Sorry, the only enchantment with similar effect that I know is a counter-enchantment, which allows someone under magical confusion to think clearly again. I doubt it would work in this case."

Meanwhile, Vinthre raised her tail and spread the feather fin that all loghral have at the end of it. The kettle removed itself from the hook over the fire and gently floated on the centre-stand of the sitting mat nearby.

Lirai decided that it was his time to try to contribute. "So, um, ma'am? I… I'm a musician and I thought I might liven up this, uh, this tea party. However, I came straight from the Fesai Republic, so I know very little of traditional Princedom music, aside that it's usually accompaniment to poetry reading and story telling. Since I'm sure you have a lot of experience, might I suggest that I provide some arrangement for some tale that our generation might have never heard? You know, something about that… Bei-something-or-other that you mentioned a few moments ago."

The elderly loghra smiled sweetly, "My word, that is truly a lovely idea! And, if you want a song on the Beighal, you couldn't find a better place in the whole wide world than here, since I've been appointed as its guardian by Her Majesty Princess Kaya herself, may she rest as gracefully as she lived and reigned over all of us."

Leewa, with the tone of someone who had enough, burst out, "Oh, would you quit it already? It's impossible that you lived long enough to have met Princess Kaya. She died almost three hundred terms ago and I've never heard of a loghral other than a Prince or Princess who lived longer than eighty terms!"

Vinthre stared at her, a little perplexed. "Dear me, isn't this the forty-fourth term of the Binding Stele age, Prince Khoros' reign?"

Leewa, trying to calm down, responded, "No, it's the hundred and twenty-fifth term of the Green Feather age, Prince Theras' reign, who is Prince Khoros' successor."

Again without missing a beat, Vinthre singsonged, "My oh my, how does the time fly." She then turned to face Lirai. "So, my large-eared child, you were asking me a story about the Beighal, right? Pull out your instrument and try to keep up, because I've been practising this song throughout all my long terms of solitude."

While he took his violin out of the case, she started humming a melody. He picked up on the harmonic progression of the melody and his mind rushed to fill it in, in order to create a functional arrangement. Once he was ready, with the instrument under his chin and the bow suspended above the cords, he gave Vinthre a nod and she started singing. Her nasal voice gained a modulated and fierce tone. Lirai didn't pay any attention to the lyrics of the song at first, since he was too busy trying to improvise an arrangement for some music he had never heard before. Fortunately, since it focused so heavily on the lyrics, Valdheel traditional music tended not to be very complex in its harmonic structure and composition, so improvising to it was hardly an impossible task. Once he felt comfortable with the loop he had come up with, he allowed himself to try and pay attention to the lyrics, and that's when he realised that she wasn't singing in Valdheel. He could barely recognise any of the words she sang, and even those he recognised were pronounced differently from what he would expect. Maybe it was some form of ancient Valdheel?

At one point, Vinthre stopped singing and gestured him to keep playing, with a look in her eyes that told him to have fun with it. He started improvising variations on the main melody that she had been singing, repeating it quietly at first, then playing around with the rhythm while slowly building up the volume, creating a bit of a counter-theme by playing on more than one cord at a time, finally repeating the theme again very loudly, but dragging out the notes and using vibrato to make it more expressive, finishing with a delicate tremolo, at which point she started singing again and he went back to accompany her voice. After a couple more verses, she started repeating a phrase, slowing down each time, until she reached a point which was clearly meant to be the end, so he set up the last harmonic progression to allow the melody to finish where it was supposed to. Their small audience gave them a warm applause.

The old loghra chuckled. "For a fellow claiming not to know much about Valdheel music, that sure was a great performance. You really do live up to the rumours about your species."

Nova cheered, "Wow! That was amazing! Unfortunately, I didn't understand a word you were saying."

Gyvar doubled down. "That certainly was a commendable effort indeed, but unfortunately my old Valdheel never has been good enough to understand it fluently."

Leewa intervened, "Um, mine is. I understood most of it." She paused, then addressed Vinthre directly. "I have to apologise to you for raising my voice in your own house, that was rude of me."

Gyvar sighed. "I should offer my apologies as well, as I feel I may have judged you too harshly on a first impression."

Adjusting her massive glasses, she merrily replied, "I don't even know what you're talking about, but I'll take your apologies if you offer them."

Leewa then asked her, "Is there any chance that you might tell us how to get to the chamber with all the sigils? It's really important."

Vinthre gently shook her head. "Sorry, but I vowed to my Princess to keep everyone from reaching that place without an express order from the Erwan Nest, so that the Beighal wouldn't be awoken without good reason."

The younger loghra pleaded, "Not even if it's a theophyte asking? I know you might not believe me, but I am a theophyte returning from an official mission on behalf of Prince Theras."

She shook her head again. "I have no reason not to believe you. And, being a theophyte, you may one day end up sitting in the Erwan Nest yourself, but until that day comes I am bound by my vows."

Heleine spoke up again. "I'm not following everything that's happening, everything is just too new for me. But I think I understood enough to say that this Beighal thing already has been awakened and we need to do something about it."

Vinthre dismissed her again, "Oh, nonsense. Nobody would ever be able to find their way to the chamber without my help, nor would they be able to gain control over it without the knowledge and power of a Prince or Princess."

A new tremor invaded the house, and the last pot fell down from the shelf, ringing like a bell that had seen some rough times. That sound finally helped Lirai realising exactly what he felt was wrong about the sound of the hill moving around.

"Guys," he began, "If the lady says that she's not going to tell us, maybe we should just thank her for her hospitality and move on. After all, we have a situation to take care of, don't we?"

He conspicuously winked to the rest of his group, relying on the notion that the old Vinthre didn't seem to have the most stable grasp of what was happening in her surroundings.

Gyvar chuckled. "Oh, I see. I concur with our musically inclined friend: we should definitely proceed, as much as I appreciated this little detour."

"Ah," sighed the elderly loghra, "the hastiness of youth. I bid you goodbye, then. If you happen to stumble around here again, do not forget to pay me a visit: I don't get much company these days."

Once they were out of Vinthre's house and after she closed the door, Gyvar stated, "I surmise that both Leewa and Lirai have learned something from this encounter that might be relevant to our current situation, yes?"

"Well," Heleine added, "Leewa did say she understood the lyrics of the song, so it would be great if she brought the rest of us up to speed. I'm curious about what Lirai seemed to have understood, though."

Leewa said, neutrally, "The song was basically a fairytale and it's pretty interesting. Beighal in old Valdheel was an uncommon word for 'guardian', just so you know. Its title can be roughly translated as The Guardian's Guardians. In summary, the song was the tale of an ancient ruler in the Old Princedom, before recorded history, who wanted a giant stone warrior made to squash his enemies, so he had his mages work tirelessly on creating the incantations needed. They worked for many terms, failing to come up with incantations potent enough to raise something of the magnitude required by their ruler. In the end, the tyrant died of old age before the Beighal was completed, but the daughter of one of the mages kept on working on the incantations even after the project was abandoned. When she too was old enough to see the end of her natural life approaching, she asked audience to the new ruler and reported her progress: she was able to create a functioning framework for the incantations, but it still required generating much more energy than she could possibly provide on her own. She informed the ruler that, were someone else capable of providing the missing energy and activate the sigils she had completed, the colossal guardian would have finally took its first fierce steps on this world, and it would have struggled to protect the Old Princedom from any threat. After that, she collapsed, her last ounce of energy expended on her final report. The new ruler instituted a new order, to keep watch on the site of the incantations, instructed to only ever bring the mighty guardian to life under a direct order from him or his descendants. The song ends with the warning: 'thus, the mighty stone guardian sleeps to this day, and none shall disturb it until the order is given or its last guardian fails'. And that's pretty much it."

"So basically, if we find those sigils we find its core, right?" asked Heleine. "I was already thinking so when that kooky old lady mentioned them before, but that's probably where we should go, whatever it is that we want to try."

Leewa sighed. "Yes, but who knows where they are."

Lirai raised his hand. "Um, I think I might know."

Everyone else turned toward him. He stuttered, "I-I, um, you see, when that pot fell down, I realised that…" he cleared his throat. "Before getting into that, I should mention that I noticed something strange about the sounds of our surroundings, but couldn't quite put my finger on what. When the pot fell down, its hollow ring made me realise that the strange sound I heard were the echoes of galleries running all throughout the hill. If we can find an entrance, I should be able to use my hearing to navigate our way through them. Since Vinthre mentioned a chamber, I'm pretty sure it will be somewhere in there, otherwise she would have used some other word."

Gyvar smiled widely. "Why, that is very impressive, even more so than your performance a little while ago. I almost wish I could hear half of what you do."

Heleine agreed, "She's right, that is amazing." Her smile shrank a little. "Unfortunately, none of us can hear as well as you do, and I fear we won't be able to see much in complete darkness either."

Sychrill finally spoke again, addressing Heleine. "Uh, sorry, ah'm sure ah saw yer whi… whiskers glo-wing. Can't ye do that to lahght the wae?"

She shook her head. "I can only do that to commune with Shuna, the Mother Goddess of the earth, I cannot use it as if it was mere torchlight. Besides, that light is very pale: it should be fine for me, since we mikai are well adapted to hunting even at night, but I wouldn't know about the rest of you."

Nova beamed. "At last, it is my time to shine!" She giggled, before adding, "Literally."

She then raised her tail and, on its very tip, a small glowing orange sphere started forming and growing, increasing in intensity by the moment. Lirai also felt the temperature rising, as if that shiny spot on her tail had been a small but relatively powerful flame.

Keeping her tail tall above her head, Nova chirped, "I'll happily be your torchlight, if you allow me."

Leewa nodded. "Since that's taken care of, now all we need is an entrance to the galleries and then we're golden. I'm going for another reconnaissance, and this time I'll also try to pay attention to where the Beighal is right now and where it's going: I'm still worried of what could happen if it gets too close to a more populated area."

While Leewa took off, Lirai pondered on the story that Leewa told them… well, that Vinthre told them and then Leewa translated. There was a lot that the story didn't clarify. If the tale was to be believed, the Beighal wouldn't wake up on its own, but rather someone would have to actively awaken it. Who would have done so? How? Plus, it would seem that the whole Beighal story wasn't common knowledge at all, given that Leewa and Gyvar, both obviously native to the Princedom, didn't know about it, and both of them seemed to be well above average too as far as culture was concerned. Whoever was behind it must have had precise knowledge about the whole thing, so, once again, who would have had access to that knowledge and how?

Finally, even though he estimated that at least two full notches had passed since he last heard the Beighal's wail, that pain he heard in it was still fresh in his mind. Nothing in old Vinthre's story provided any explanation on how or why a massive stone guardian might feel pain. Was it all his own imagination? Maybe it was just coincidental, maybe that scream had a more mechanical explanation. Then again, now that he thought about it, Heleine said that she sensed some kind of consciousness from the construct, and she mentioned it being in some sort of turmoil too. So, apparently, he wasn't the only one with that kind of thought.

He sighed. There was no point in racking his brain about it at that point: he simply didn't have the pieces to put that puzzle together. All he could do was to keep going forward with that bizarre group of new friends that he had just met, hoping that, with them, he would be able to find the answers. As he looked at all of them in turn, Heleine noticed his gaze and smiled back at him. He felt somewhat nervous around her still: he still hadn't forgotten that glare she gave him on the ship, and the way she could walk around completely unheard really did unnerve him. Yet, for some reason, he felt reassured by the smile she just gave him. He still thought he was completely out of his depth in this kind of situation, but that smile told him that someone had his back, were things to go wrong. He made a mental note to thank her for that, once the adventure was over.