C10 Chapter 10

A new clue

The next morning, Dana was woken early again by loud voices coming from the kitchen. Shari, as curious as ever, hurried to the kitchen right away. She almost crashed into the minister for science during her hasty approach. The minister was talking animatedly with Dana’s parents. He was so surprised that the coffee mug slipped from his hand. When he tried to bring himself to safety, he almost fell from his chair. Dana, who’d only watched the tail end of the interaction, called Shari over to her. She quickly – and sheepishly – apologized for her tiny friend’s behavior.

After the first of the excitement was over, Dana wanted to talk with Dana and her family. As was the norm for him, his motives were wrapped into a nice story. He told them about the big earthquake more than a hundred years ago, that had shaken the mountains, and that, ever since then, there was no more contact to the outside world…it was impossible!

Every dwarf knows the story. Back then, we tried to solve the problem. But we never had any mentionable success.”

For just this brief description, he needed almost fifteen minutes, and it was only afterwards that he got to the real point of his visits. He addressed Dana directly:

“Dana, we have gotten wind of the fact by now that you have started your training to become a magician. You’re being trained by none less than a powerful wizard of the “Olden People” … Yes, we still know about them. There are still plenty of records to be found. Per our research, he must be able to solve this problem for us.” At that point, Dana interrupted the minister’s ramblings.

“Erogat – that’s his name – only has one significant problem: … he is dead! He won’t be able to leave his cave to use his powers on scene.”

“Oh!” The minister smiled sheepishly.

“Could you still ask him if he knows of anything we could do? Please!”

“Sure. There’s no harm in trying … worst case scenario is he doesn’t know what do to and nothing changes. Maybe he can think of something!”, she promised him.

Once they were done talking, the minister left the house to inform the cabinet. Dana waited for Gomek – a, because she wanted to tell him everything, and b, because she wanted to take him with her to Erogat.

Half an hour later, he arrived, and together they got on their way. While they were walking, she told them about the visits that morning and the talk that had followed. “That smells of adventure…” His face turned red with excitement. “…if anyone can solve the problem, it’s Erogat, and us – of course!”

They chatted away happily until they reached the rock, then they activated it and stepped through, happily approaching an adventurous future. Erogat greeted them happily on the other side. He considered their shining, happy eyes.

“Wow, what’s got you two so happy this morning?”

Dana started babbling without a pause right away, and had gotten to the point only five minutes later, so that she could finally ask the most important question of all:

“Can you help us? I know you can’t leave the cave, but that’s what you’ve got us for. We’re with you every step of the way. You solve the problem, and we do whatever you tell us to. Would that work?”

While Dana was rambling, they had already reached the entrance of the ancient library. They walked inside in silence. Dana created chairs from thin air again, since they were so nice and comfy, and then they waited to see what Erogat would reply.

“Well, I, too, noticed the giant bang, and that something changed about the time and location – I’ve known that for a while as well.”

He floated towards a large white wall while he talked. There, he motioned with his arms. A large image of the vast plaza appeared. Dana and Gomek got up and positioned themselves next to him to get a closer look at the picture.

“You see, Dana, that’s how I could see what was happening elsewhere before the big earthquake. I was always up to speed. But since then – nothing. Radio silence. Now, after you’ve activated the portal again, I’m getting a picture again – but only one of this one monolith. I think the other portals will only start sending signals again when you turn them back on. The interruption might have something to do with the earthquake. We’re dealing with mighty forces of nature here. Maybe even forces we don’t know yet.”

Dana wondered if she had told him everything yet. Suddenly, she remembered something.

“Erogat, months ago, I was outside the mountains…” She told him about the light up on the mountaintop; about the cold, about not feeling the sunlight, and about the animals she only saw as shadows. After she finished talking, he was silent for a long while. He was totally out of it, until he suddenly squeaked and rose from his thoughtful position.

“Dana, you’ve got to get up on that mountain – from the inside, I mean. The interruption outside would be able to influence your abilities so that you can’t use them. But inside these mountains they are working. But, before we can do that, you and Gomek need to study more. It’s especially important for him! He must find a dwarf that can teach him how to forge things – so that he can put runes into suits of armor, jewelry, and other objects. We don’t have a smithery here.”

Three more months passed before Erogat thought they were ready. In the meantime, Dana had told the high gentlemen about her plans as well, so that everyone who had to agree to the idea had already given their permission. Gomek’s parents hadn’t been thrilled when they heard what he wanted to do. They didn’t support him, but they didn’t try to keep him from doing it either.

Toben hadn’t rested in the meantime, and had found a dwarf that still understood the art of working with runes – the old Mogat. All they had to do was find his hut. Nobody knew where he was. Dana tried to find a map of every place she could think of where he and his hut could be marked down. She finally got lucky at the old general store at the plaza. On an old piece of paper, she found his hut and smithery marked down in the furthest corner of the forest.

Now the trio could get on their way to visit the old swashbuckler. Of course, Dana also wanted to learn the art of blacksmithing and adding runes. They travelled for a day until they’d reached the old guy’s gut. The cliché image Dana had in her head of old dwarfs, was fulfilled right down to the last detail right there. In front of the hut, an almost one- thousand-year-old, brooding dwarf sat, a large pipe in his mouth, a mug of beer in his sand. He didn’t look up when Dana approached him. She coughed sheepishly, then she politely started talking to him.

It took him five endless minutes until he looked up at them, then he hesitated and fixated Shari with a thorough look. The little pixie got scared and hid behind Dana. Only once the contact had broken off, he got up, stroked his hand over his beard, and tried to smile, even though the wrinkles in his face made that almost impossible. Finally, he reached out his wrinkly hand towards Dana and introduced himself. “Mogat, that is my name, yes, it is. What are you doing here? But more – what do you need from me? The last person that came to see me showed up almost five hundred years ago, and he also had a little pixie thing with him, just like you do.”

He pointed his free hand at Shari. Dana thought her heart would stop for a second. Another person with a creature like Shari in tow? How could that be? Was that visitor someone who had been catapulted through time that much? She tried to calm down, so as not to spook the old guy. Maybe there would be another chance for more inquiries about the stranger. She asked him to help Gomek and her with working runes into forged objects. Once she’d explained herself, the face of the man lit up by much, and he started raving about this form of art.

“I am probably the last master of this art. The last person who is still versed in the art of blacksmithing”, he mused. But he was excited that the young of the generation were still interested in learning this ability, and looked forward to share his knowledge with them. “So, if you are open to it, I will teach you”, he ended his monologue.

It was late at night already. He politely invited them in to have dinner and crash for the night, so that they could start learning early the next morning. After they’d eaten plenty of good food, they gathered in front of the fireplace. Even Shari had gotten over her shyness and had taken a seat as well. Now Dana was trying to find out more about the stranger. She asked, what the old man knew about him. “Not much. … He told a strange tale: about an unfortunate experiment and a magical explosion that must have ripped him from his timeline. He wanted to know if I had seen others like him or if I’d hear something about “The First” …”

Dana interrupted him. “Who or what is “The first” and where can we find him?”

“The first is an ancient creature; a dragon. Like his name says – the first of them all. He’s full of wisdom and knowledge. The stranger believed that the dragon could help him to rectify what had happened.” Mogat paused and clumsily try to light his pipe again which had previously gone out.

“And did he ever find the way to him? To the First?” Dana looked at him expectedly.

“I don’t think so. He just found very few clues in my small library of where he could look – and maybe find – the dragon.”

“Oh, can I see them, too?”, Dana asked impatiently. “How about this: If you study well, I give the books to you for keeping, so that you can start looking for the lost stranger – do we have a deal?” “Absolutely”, Dana replied enthusiastically. They talked a while longer until they got too tired and went to bed.

The following days and weeks of learning and practicing were very hard. But in the end, after successfully ending their training, both passed their final test: Gomek aced it, which had been expected, and Dana barely passed, but the old dwarf was still happy with her. As he had promised, he presented her with the old scriptures and gave Gomek all the necessary tools for blacksmithing.

After an extensive dinner in their honor, they said their loving goodbyes to the old dwarf and got on their way, heading back towards home and Erogat. They wanted to bring the books to him as quickly as they could. In addition, they wanted to tell him that, in addition to solving the mountains’ problems, they also wanted to search for the lost stranger.

“Lots of things to take care of”, Dana thought. “But it doesn’t matter. Somebody has to do it. And if it’s not us…who would?”