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Message: <blockquote data-quote="Lars Frehse" data-source="post: 893343" data-attributes="member: 1674">Secrets- part 6 of 6Like his friends, Torn was stunned: „ Does that mean that Orcs built the Halls of Dunai?“Ben translated and the Ent answered:“ I don’t know who had built these halls. All I know is that long, long ago one of my ancestors had gotten this forest as his sphere of protection. He had passed it on to the next of his kind, who passed it on, and so on. Those who had built this hall, enabling it to host a forest, only had one order, which had been passed on as well. And that is that only Orcs shall pass through this wood.“.„And what is your name?“, Ben asked.„A name? Oh, since I am the only one of my kind here, I am afraid I don’t have one. You see, the oak that came before me had planted me when he knew that his time would soon be over. Then, when I was a young sapling, he told me of my orders and taught me this language, and then he died. So, since I am the only one of my kind here, and I will be until I know that my time has come, I have no name. But you may call me Ent, if you like.“.Ben bowed and introduced himself and his friends: „And have you ever encountered any intruders except for us?“.„No, my friend Ben, I haven’t. But one of my ancestors once had to deal with lizardpeople“, the tree answered with his slow and deeply resonating voice.After Ben had translated, Niklas said:“ Asaathi. Of course! The document with the information about the three entrances had been written in an Asaathi dialect, after all. They must have tried getting in here at least once!“Ben nodded and switched back to the druidic tongue, adressing Ent again: „Those lizardpeople, did they get past your ancestor?“Ent made the sound of small, dry branches snapping. Apparently, he was laughing: „No, of course not. My ancestor, like me, had been a master of the forest. And when he sensed the intruders, the whole forest stood up and fought the strangers until all of them had been defeated or dead. I could not possibly think of any way to defeat an entire forest...“„Well, there is always fire“, Trepat said after Ben had translated again. „Ask him whether he had ever been to any other part of the caves.“„You ask whether I have ever left my forest?“, Ent said in answer of the translation: „No, certainly not. The reason of my existence is protecting this forest, and I wouldn’t want it to be endangered while I am away. Of course, there are hardly any visitors, you being the first after millenia, but nonetheless I wouldn’t want to take the chance.“„Besides,“ he added after a short while in which he had hummed to himself: „ I really wouldn’t want to leave my forest. After all, I am a part of all this, and I can’t imagine that I could feel happy and content anywhere else.“.Seeing that none of his friends had any further questions for the time being, he promised Ent that they would return soon and then walked on with his friends.All of them were by now utterly confused by what they had seen. Apparently, there was none of the ancients left. Not even a picture or a statue that would let them guess what they had looked like. Yet, for some strange reason, they had made sure that orcs would be able to enter these caves. And not only that- the entrance through which they had come, the burning head, had even looked like the open jaw of an orc...They reached yet another cave which looked pretty much like the one through which they had come. Like the first one, it was natural and in it’s middle there was a pedestal with the same runes as the ones on the first pedestal. The only difference was that there was no open exit, but a pool of water opposite of the tunnel through which they had come.They walked to the water, and Ben made a cup with his hands and tasted some of the water: „It’s sweetwater... But definetly muddy.“.„Odd“, Trepat said:“ I don’t think that there is a lake supposed to be on Cyri...“.„I should go take a look then“, Ben said and jumped into the water, transforming into the shape of the shark he had been many incarnations ago.The pool widened, and as he turned around in the water to get a look, he saw that from here, the pool looked like an entrance, and it was formed like the open mouth of a lifeless orc. „The drowning head“, he thought and turned around again.The water was full of reeds and mud, feeling like a slow river or a pond. He dove up and after about five yards, he peaked through the surface into the moonlit night. Looking around, he guessed that he was probably the first shark to show up here: he was indeed in a swamp by a river, and beyond the banks he could see the wall and lights of a town which was merely two hundred feet away from him.Ben moved to the shore and turned into a halfling again. Looking around, he saw that he seemed to be right next to a dig site, which had been left for the night. But now that he took a second look, he recognized the site. He had been here before, and not too long ago, as a matter of fact: He was right in the morass near Mullis Town!Within a day, he and his friends had traveled over threehundred miles! And all that by crossing the halls of Dunai. All in all, with all tunnels, they had maybe walked ten miles at the most, and yet now they were here, right next to Mullis Town. His stray thought regarding the drowning head returned to him- if they could cover those hundreds of miles so easily, they should be able to reach the „howling head“ in the Kelders on the same way as well.As he stood there contemplating, he suddenly noticed that his teeth were chattering on their own volition. He was wet, after all, and it was a night in autumn- he was lucky the water wasn’t freezing over.Ben pressed his mouth shut and jumped back into the water, diving back to the head, which had the form of an overhanging cliff and which could only be entered from below. He had completely forgotten just how badly adjusted his halfling body was for living underwater, but he surpressed the urge to turn into a shark again, knowing that there was something he had to do.And indeed, as he wanted to enter the „mouth“, diving up to the friendly light of his friends lanterens, he felt an invisible forcefield holding him back. „The drowned head shall aid the one who brings it the breath of life“, he thought to himself, and then, even though everything in him screamed at him not to do it, he exhaled, losing the last bit of precious air in a bubble which floated upwards in the mouth to the surface.Fighting down the rise of panic, Ben transformed into a shark again, thankfully filling his „lungs“ with water. This way, he swam up the last few feet to his friends. He crawled out of the water in his halfling form again and said: „You won’t believe where we are right now!.</blockquote>

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