We decided that the place we had landed would host our first Ogham. Whilst Lira taught some of the Itar to fish in the river and set to building temporary shelters for the eight of us, I took the rest of the Itar out into the woods looking for suitably large rocks that we could use to make the Ogham. I had told Lira that the average Ogham might take a month and a half to make, what with carving runes into each Ogham stone and putting them in the perfect orientation and place.

The woods were cold, even in the day, and the wild men never seemed far. Many of the larger stones that we might have taken back with us already had crude markings on them. Likely this was the script of the wild men or perhaps something less developed. It must have marked the edges of hunting territories, warning the other clans and tribes of wild men to stay away. I couldn't tell which side of the boundary our camp was in, or even which stones formed which boundaries.

Only in the foothills some three hours walking to the north-west could we find unmarred stones of the right size. It was clear why, as well. There was certainly a lair to some creature nearby, bones lay strewn about the foothills. Some were large, the fallen wreckages of battling wyrms or drakes that had claimed this prosperous hunting ground in the past. Others were the broken forms of wild men, scattered about, some with flesh still rotting on the bones whilst the rest had been scraped clean. Whatever had slain so many lesser creatures it appeared to be dormant. Perhaps it was sleeping off a particularly large kill. I selected three stones to bring back with us that afternoon. Certainly, I would not carve the stones there under the possible eye of a veteran hunter.

The night was upon us quickly. There was nearly an hour's walk left before we'd be back at the camp. Night on the Claw disturbed me, the sounds were different from those on Albion. The night birds did not hoot the same as those I was familiar with and those creatures of the Claw that hunted in the darkness seemed not to worry about being heard. Worst were the wild men, for sure. Their calls rang out, echoing on the mountains and sounding far closer than they had any right to. Their bestial intelligence may not yet have become apparent but I feared that when they inevitably came across us they would be far more dangerous than most animals.

"Ardri!" Lira's voice shouted out into the darkness. She sounded worried, small fires dotted the woods in the distance. One was noticeably lower down than the others. "Ardri!"

I called back to her. "Lira, we're here!" The Itar grunted loudly. They did have a tongue of their own, it was very similar to the druid tongue of Albion with only a few words altered to better suit their stiffer mouths. The weight of the stones they carried was probably too great a burden for them to make the effort of long-distance conversation.

The fires bobbed closer until at last, I could see Lira and the other three Itar. Her relieved face was a warm welcome. The soft punch, slightly less so. I grinned back at her anyway. "You didn't come back before nightfall." She grumbled at me.

"Yeah, I didn't know how far we'd have to go. But at least we know where we can find some more of these now." I waved towards the stones that the Itar were now exchanging.

"There's still some fish waiting for you all at the camp but you'll be sleeping by the fire again. We only finished one shelter and you worried me." She stuck out her tongue.

"Who's shelter is it then?"

"Mine of course! None of the Itar want to have a shelter before us apparently." I nodded, his lordship had said that their sole purpose in life was our wellbeing. It was a fascinating idea, that they might know exactly what their reason of living was from the moment they marched down from the Beast Peaks, in the heart of the night a month ago, until they eventually died. I wondered if they were ageless as the Ancient Spirits were. After the Breath of Life was drawn from our aged and wearied bones would these Itar go on to guard whoever would bear our burden next? His lordship had said that he could not choose a successor himself, would the Itar be our successors, must I teach them to build Oghams as well. Or perhaps it was we who were now ageless and the Itar would lay with one another and birth children. We may have to raise young Itar and watch as generations of Itar lived and died in our service.

After a quick meal of fish cooked over the fire with a few herbs and plants that Lira had recognised from Albion, the Itar and I settled about the fire for the night. Dawn would come in only a few hours and I would begin carving some of the runes as the sun rose.

"Oi!" I looked up from the pile of leaves I was laid on. Lira was stood at the entrance to the first hut. "Get in and off the ground." She turned around and went back into the hut, muttering as she did. I smiled as I entered to find her laid across a simple wooden bed covered in leaves, grinning up at me.