The Tribes of K'haren - Completed

Chapter 10.2

A sudden bump made all four of them jump at the same time. When Nume looked around, she couldn't see anything. The boulders standing around them were still there and nothing seemed to have moved but they had all heard something. In disbelief, Nume watched as one of the boulders lifted off the ground gradually. Her eyebrows raised, she poked Kran in the side to make him look at the boulder. He couldn't believe his eyes either.

A wobbly mass produced itself under the boulder, slowly pushing it up. Then the wobbly mass unfolded itself to two sides of the boulder. On one end, two long, stick-like antennas stuck out of the mass and up on top, black dots appeared.

The creature, what Nume supposed the boulder must be, moved the antennas around and seemed to eye its surroundings up. When Kran carefully reached a hand out and touched one of the antennas, it immediately disappeared into the mass below. Very slowly, it then reappeared with the black eye coming up last.

Looking around, Nume saw more and more such creatures, actually, every single boulder was one. The baymout didn't like them at all. It hissed at them and when it struck at one, the creature disappeared back inside the boulder with another loud bump. Bay's fur was all puffed up. Luthi on the other hand didn't seem to care much once he'd got over the first shock. He seemed rather eager to eat on when he realised that the creatures ate grass, too.

'What are they?' Nume asked Kran.

'I don't know, I've never heard of anything like them... living rocks... weird...' he mumbled.

'They are called snails, you idiots...' Raf'ney-krush said. He'd come back without them noticing. When he saw Bay, he laughed at her and she answered with an offended snort. But when he tickled her neck, she quickly calmed down again. Just a slight tension was still to be seen in the way she moved. 'Come on, they're waiting for us. Leave Luthi here, I doubt you'd get him away from that field anyway...'

Together with Bay, the three of them walked away. Luthi followed at a distance, making sure not to lose sight of them. They saw more boulders and most of them seemed to be asleep but some were just waking up. When they came to a small stream, Nume noticed that the boulders here were arranged somewhat similarly to the tents in her tribe. They formed a light circle and some of them had holes.

'Is this a graveyard...?' she asked.

'Yes and no. It's a village.'

'What?'

Before he could explain anything, a small phraio-like person came running towards them. He only reached to Nume's hips but he looked like a grown up man, an old one even. He had a long white beard but hardly any other hair left on his head.

'How dare you bring them here?' a rough voice shouted at Raf'ney-krush.

'Didn't you say we were expected?' Kran whispered.

'Well, I maybe didn't mention that you're phraio... He's a dwarf, remember to be polite!' Raf'ney-krush replied. Then he turned to the small man. 'Please, Porfaen, let me explain...'

'No! No phraio are allowed in here! They are the reason why we had to flee our lovely mountains! Get them away or I shall go get my axe!' the man shouted angrily.

'Oy! We haven't done anything to you. No reason to be so rude!' Nume shouted back. Her tiredness made her testy.

The man eyed her up angrily. He was just about to say something when a similarly rough but slightly higher voice interrupted him.

'Come on, Porfaen, invite them in. We don't want to be rude to our guests.' A bearded woman appeared behind him. Her hair was long and red, crossed only by some white flicks. When she saw Nume, she ran over to her, grabbed her hand and said in amazement: 'Oh dear Lord, you look like the Goddess herself!'

'How dare you...' her husband shouted but she shushed him with a movement of her hand.

'Come on in, there's plenty of space in the Big Shell, even you should fit in there.' She said, turning to Kran and Raf'ney-krush who were both a bit taller than Nume. Without paying any attention to Porfaen's complaints, she led her guests into the village straight to the biggest shell. Bay waited outside, nervously twitching her tail. Ducking lowly, the others fit themselves through the door. On the inside, the shell was big enough for them to stand upright. Nume could see Bay peering through the open door.

'I'm Toma, this rude imbecile here is my husband, Porfaen.' The woman said while quickly climbing up a latter and lighting a liquid inside a bowl hanging from the ceiling. The whole shell lit up immediately. On the inside, the wall were painted in red and blue, portraying hardly recognizable pictures of past victories.

'That's beautiful!' Nume whispered, walking over to a wall and gently striking one of the pictures. The colours amazed her to the core.

'Ah, thank you, my great aunt made this one...' Toma said, hardly paying attention. She was moving swiftly through the room, pushing things around to make space for her guests to sit down on the ground. 'There you go.' She said when she was finished. Nume sat down gratefully, struggling to keep her eyes open despite being rather excited. She hated herself for not sleeping a little more.

Profaen was standing in a corner, angrily glancing at the strangers. When his wife looked at him equally angrily, he removed a pipe from one of his pockets, stuffed and lit it. Then he went on to smoking it, blowing the smoke right into his guests faces. Nume supressed a cough.

'What happened to the snail that lived in here?' Kran asked curiously.

'It died.' Was Profaen's answer.

'We ate it. I can remember it well, I was only just a young woman back in the day, it was shortly after our marriage, wasn't it?' Toma explained. Her husband mumbled something into his beard. 'Now,' she then continued. 'What did you come here for? How can we help you?'

'Do you remember the prophecy?' Raf'ney-krush replied. As an answer, Profaen started humming the melody Kran and Nume had first heard two days ago on top of the Open Wound.

'How could we ever forget?' Toma said, all cheerfulness had disappeared from her voice.

'It is them.' Raf'ney-krush said.

'What is?' Profaen demanded.

'The Outcast.' The half-dretho's answer made everybody go quiet. The two dwarves stared at him in disbelief.

// Soo... tea, anybody?