Instar lead us into one of the buildings located on the ground. It was a long house of sorts, primarily used for town meetings and as an emergency gathering place. The tables inside were scattered about and round, it wasn't used very often and had a slightly dusty feel to it, but not dirty. A few glowing lights illuminated the place, bathing the nearly empty room in a soft yellow light.

On the far end sat the village elders. A group of Charyepchee that had their molted skin tones fade with time, most of them were bone white now, one was blind except for his magic seeing eyes. Those of the more mundane variety had went cloudy. Another of them sat smoking a strange pipe, producing little puffs of green, mossy smelling smoke.

We bowed to them respectfully and waited until Instar took his seat before we sat ourselves. The group of seven elders included Instar, but he was by far the youngest of the lot. His position amongst them was mostly ceremonial at this point, and he wouldn't be considered a true elder until his son took his place as leader of their village.

The group of old ones, this almost had me laughing, I imagine Hermione and I are both much older, me especially, sat looking at us for a few long moments before one of them spoke up.

"If we must sit and talk, then the pipe will be passed as well, it is tradition to share smoke if we are to Palaver, visitors."

I nodded at that and took the pipe from the smoker. I had always enjoyed the occasional smoke, but it was something Hermione wasn't used to. Still, when in Rome…

The smoke had a tangy earthy taste that almost tickled instead of burned. I didn't hold the smoke long before passing it to my wife. She took it like a champ, only letting out the tiniest of coughs as she released her own smoke. The rather large ornate pip was passed along to everyone, and the true speaking began.

One elder, with a bit of moss growing under his chin grinned toothlessly at us. "The smoking helps these old brains remember better, and will help you retain what we need to tell."

I grinned myself and took the pipe for a second round. It caused a slight headiness, a small buzzing radiated from the base of my neck. "Of course, I'm sure that's all there is to it."

The blind elder chuckled at me words and then spoke. "Harry, if I may call you buy your given name," I nodded at this, "Instar tells us you have news to share, and questions to ask, which of us shall go first?"

I took a deep breath and my hand sought Hermione's. She took it willingly with a small smile. "If its alright with you, I would like to have my questions first, it might help me make more sense of what I saw, so that I could explain it better myself."

The blind elder nodded his head at that. "Alright then, ask your questions traveler."

"I asked Instar earlier, about the race the charyepchee butted heads with long ago, your rivals, and ultimately your enemies." The elders sat and studied me as I spoke. "I asked them what they looked like, he didn't know much, not that I blame him, this was long before his time, any of your times, but maybe a great grandfather or grandmother might have remembered."

"Aye, my grandmother was a girl, when we believed the last great group of them dead. Perhaps a few stragglers after, but not many."

"What did she have to say of them? How they looked or acted?"

The elder in question stroked the side of his head with an old finger and thought.

"If memory serves me right, they had a brutal society, a caste system I believe. A triangle, one on top, with many below. They were shape changers, if one rose from a lower caste to a higher one, they would take a new form to match their status. I don't know much about this mind you, I was young myself when I was told the stories. They have lost favor with younger generations i'm afraid."

The elder in question, a female, glared at Instar playfully as if it was all his fault. "But I know of something. The lower castes often seemed like animals, great shaggy beasts of war. The higher one would climb, the more refined they appeared."

I nodded at that. "Did any of them happen to take on elements in their forms?"

She frowned at me words. "I have no direct memory of this, not to say it isn't true, but I have no memory of it."

Another spoke up then at hearing this. "I think so, those that served in the army as leaders could take an elements and weave it into their form. Different elements for different individuals, personal preference, or based off of position I believe."

I nodded again, growing more apprehensive. "Did they war with each other?"

Here the old woman began speaking again. "That was one thing always made clear to us. They fought each other as much as anyone else. Its how they rose to power amongst themselves. Infighting was natural. A part of their lives."

I nodded, things were lining up in a way that I was afraid they would. "What happened to them all?"

Hesitation at that question, why was I not surprised?

Mossy chin spoke up for the first time now. " these are more legends than fact mind you, even what we told you was old news when we were but hatchlings." I simply nodded in understanding and he continued. "Most of them were lost in the war. We retreated after a time, heading into the forests and forgetting about the burned lands and destroyed husks of our old cities. But they did not. Once we weren't there for them to fight us over the scraps, they fought each other. The land was sick, and continued to be for years afterward. It's safe now, but just breathing the air could make you mad, and kill you slowly, so it was said anyway. Most of them perished then. Afterward, when there weren't even enough left to war amongst each other, the broke up into small clans, and fled. Those clans fought each other until only a handful of their race remained, and they just blew away in time."

We all sat quietly for a bit after that.

"How long has it been since one had been seen? Has it happened in living memory?"

The smoker frowned as he passed his pipe along. "I believe I saw one once as a small boy. It was old, older than I am now, and terribly lonely. Mad and confused with it. My father killed it, just at the edge of the plateau. Not another since, nearly two hundred years ago that was."

The charyepchee lived longer lives than I had thought. "This is perhaps, the foggiest question I have to ask, do you know anything about their technology? How they built and made things?"

Mossy chin had words for this question. "Not much, no details for sure. We believed them to be thieves and perverters. They were known for taking what we had and changing it to fit their purposes, but we know little of what we ourselves had. We have lost most of what you call technology, we've retained more of our magic from that time than anything else. Old stories say they grew machines, but I do not know how, nor do I know what kind of machines they may have been."

I nodded in thanks at his words and sat silently. I had no more questions that I thought they could answer. But I also believed I'd gotten enough to confirm my theory. The charyepchee had never mentioned another race as intelligent as their own. Other than their old enemies. I supposed it was possible, but I didn't think so.

The smoker passed me the pipe and I drew from it once more, still thinking. He asked me then, "do you have more questions, Harry?"

I shook my head and spoke. "I'll always have more questions, but I don't think you have answers for the rest. I think its my turn to talk now."

So I began, I left little out. I didn't tell them of this new power Hermione and I had discovered, and I skipped over the more grizzly details of my encounters, but the rest I included. I paid extra attention to physical appearance and behavior, since those points seemed to match the closest.

Their was silence in the meeting hall after I was finished. Instar was the first of the lot to speak, it was the first time he'd spoken in this impromptu meeting.

"Into the mountains you went? We rarely venture into the Stilted Lands. I will admit that these creatures bare a remarkable similarity to our stories. They spoke you said? A strange language different from our own?"

I nodded. "We used a spell much like the one we use so we can all speak easily. It didn't have as much time to work, so we only caught certain words… but I can tell you they had nothing friendly to say."

Hermione chimed in. "Mostly talked about killing us as bloody a fashion as possible." I laughed with little humor at her words.

"Its true, they were certainly… enthusiastic though. They fought with such abandon, if they felt pain you could scarcely tell. The only way to stop one was to cripple it. Then they just started howling for reinforcements. And those came quickly."

"And this other thing you fought, in the belly of the Phar'ok?"

"I don't know, the living thing sitting in its guts never mentioned them. But it did pursue us. And that never happened before. As long as we got out of the way it had never chased us before. That's why I was intrigued by the shape shifting and the element it seemed made of."

Perhaps a general had made himself king over his lesser, more animal like brethren. Maybe he'd grown lethargic with age, and we were simply the first interesting thing it had seen in centuries. If they had the power to change shapes, I doubt long lived lives would be beyond their reach.

The blind Charyepchee spoke next. "We stay out of those mountains, we like it much better down here in our forests. The plateau as you call it is a strange place, full of danger. Perhaps they have merely stuck it it these last centuries, daring to not descend, just as we don't dare to rise up. You say it spoke to you? After removing its head? Thats an interesting trick."

"I have a theory that its true self was hiding, that perhaps I was only fighting an avatar, or perhaps its life force is tied to the phar'ok's. I didn't get to hang around, it vanished leaving me in midair shortly after that."

Mossy chin gave a charyepchee chuckle at that. "You scared it lad, I'd have run too I think."

I grinned at him, "just don't try to eat me and we shouldn't have any problems." We talked a while longer, comparing information and details. The elders concluded that I was probably right, that we had discovered some long lost clan that had managed to survive. They were less clear on what the phar'ok held.

"On that we cannot say. Our records are mostly lost, and it had been so long since it had been openly hostile toward us. Like you say, I wonder if its merely lethargy, or perhaps boredom at causing the same kind of trouble for so long. We couldn't say, not for sure. If we had a good look at this creature perhaps we could say, but such a prospect would be beyond dangerous."

I nodded at that. "Yes, it didn't come across as something that would let itself be captured. I removed its head and yet it spoke, given that I don't know of a way I could contain it. Perhaps separated from the phar'ok, but with it? That would take some serious thinking."

We talked for a while longer, but had moved onto other things. We spoke of the colonists, and of Earth. I told them of our plan, how we wanted to become a part of Faye, that we had no desire to rule or concur, we just wanted to live, as best we could.

"A noble goal if any. You have met challenges since arriving, but we believe you have dealt with them as best you could. I would suggest staying clear of the mountains. As you have discovered, that is where the true darkness of our world rests."

I knew Hermione's curiosity would end up sending us back one day, but we would be far more cautious in the future. The both of us had our work cut out for us, we would have much magic to create between now and then, and a colony to build as well.

The talk slowed then before stopping. The elders bid us good luck, and offered us help in any way they could. We thanked them for the help they gave, and promised to share anymore revelations we might come to.

Hermione had managed to park the ship just outside the village. She'd covered it in one of our new wards before rushing me to a healer. I still felt a bit on the weak side, but had healed up nicely enough.

We bid Instar and Svenwhick a good night, and returned to our home. I thought briefly about flying us on to the colony site but decided against it. It was far to late into the night, and sleepiness had slipped her fingers into all of our heads. Violet was out in seconds upon going inside. He had headed straight for the little bed we'd made for him and fell asleep instantly, tiny purple body sprawled out over the child sized mattress.

Hermione and I fell to our own bed, wrapped in each others arms, and were asleep in moments.

2.

We rose early the next morning as the suns began to rise in the sky, and set off. We were cautious and flew extra slow, keeping our eyes peeled for any sign of the phar'ok.

Perhaps we wouldn't have to deal with it for some time, maybe it would try to kill us before lunch. We didn't know, but wouldn't be taking any chances.

The ship landed gently in the small clearing we had made. I allowed the engine to fade and sleep, we wouldn't need to fly again for some time, not until we returned to space to get our sleeping friends. If we so chose, we could activate the ship's other form; it would change shape and shift into something a bit more house like in appearance, but left it alone for now. The two of us stepped out of our ship and into Faye's crisp morning. Violet was still asleep, and we saw no reason to wake him just yet. Our ward had held nicely, and seemed to have no problem anchoring itself into Faye's natural magic.

I yawned, scratching my stomach idly and smiled to Hermione. "Breakfast?"

She grinned back and nodded. The pair of us ate, the smell of cooking food woke Violet in a hurry. After the three of us had our fill we went about setting up camp. Things were moved back outside, tables and chairs mostly, and a tarp was hung over, making for a makeshift porch of sorts. It would keep the rain out at least. Hermione's collection of jars and samples were placed back in their proper areas, displayed in several cabinets that lined the back of the tables.

Once our home was back in order, we decided to walk the big cleft we were going to use as our first colony. Not much of anything had changed; the stacked wood still sat in its place, the grasses still relatively short and no new animals had managed to sneak passed our wards. All seemed good. We headed for the 'entrance' to our new settlement. Entrance was a bit of a stretch, the open area was around a hundred yards across after all.

We walked hand in hand, our eyes roamed over everything in this place we hoped to make our home. It was peaceful here, more so than in many places across Faye. This alien world was rather wild, untamed for centuries. We didn't want to tame it, but hoped to befriend it all the same.

We came to our ward and began walking to the left, the closest rock wall lay in that direction. Everything seemed in order; no weak spots to speak of. After that we walked the length in the other direction, and again found nothing amiss.

"So what's first on a ever growing list of things that need doing oh fearless leader?"

I laughed at Mione's words. "Well, usually in a situation like this, building a shelter would be first, after food and water of course, but we have all those things covered. So to answer your first question, the first thing we must do is build a wall. We need to close off this big entrance. Make a gate so there's only one way in or out."

She frowned slightly at that and I could actually see her gathering her thoughts. "But what about the ward? It should work much better than any gate could, and ought to keep everything out that we don't want in here."

I nodded. "You're right, this version does seem to keep out what we want, but its not that simple love. This style of ward wont let us build in a doorway, would make the entire structure collapse. We have seen little of Faye, and there very well could be something in here that could knock it down, or bypass it somehow. Given how Bristle Backs can move through magic, I don't know if it would completely stop them. Besides that we have to think of those staying inside. They will all be new to magic, the knowledge will be there, if everything turns out the way we believe, but no experience or practice. It would be very easy to someone new at magic to walk through our ward without realizing it. They could become lost, or get chased away and eaten out there. The only reason we've faired so well, is that we're far stronger than the average witch or wizard."

I paused to breath before continuing. "Especially easy for kids, we'll have nearly a hundred of them living here. And animals, we don't want our cattle to wonder off do we?"

She nodded, looking more secure now. "I suppose it will have to be reasonably tall. With a gate that raises and lowers when someone needs in or out. I never thought about that honestly."

I gasped at that. "You? Not thinking of something? Hell must have frozen over."

She stuck her tongue out at me and grinned. "I let you have a few every once and a while." I laughed and squeezed her hand. We had so much to do still.

3.

The next few weeks went by quickly. We got up with the suns, and usually didn't stop until they were nearly hidden again. Even with magic it was time consuming and back breaking, but I was having a blast. Hermione was coming to appreciate physical labor more than I think she ever had before.

We started by selecting big thick trees and felling them. We tried to pick those that stood a bit apart, not wanting to knock over younger ones in the process. I forget the exact number, but it took hundreds to get enough for our wall. One advantage of setting up camp in a forest, there was plenty of materials to draw on.

The wall ended up being thirty feet tall, with eight feet of tree buried in the ground for support the inside of the wall was braced with thicker trees spaced twenty feet apart. Like our fort, the trees had groves cut in the side to help lock them together. That would have taken weeks alone without magic.

The trees themselves we left round, they stayed stronger that way. The tops of the trees had been sharpened into points; to discourage things from climbing over that way.

Hermione had integrated something rather ingenious as well. There were certain trees on Faye that produced an oily slick sap. The wall was coated in it, making it nearly impossible to climb at all.

She designed the gate too, but we went with something a bit different than a raising gate. We ended up using one that slid sideways into the wall. The trees on either side of the gate were thicker to accommodate it. It over lapped on both sides; by building it like that, we made it impossible to knock the gate over. It would have to be broken completely to get inside. A bit of metal pried from the soil was molded with magic into sliding rollers, we oiled those with the same sap we coated the walls with. It slid smoothly and quietly. When it was locked into place, I would have had to rip the entire thing apart to break that lock.

We reinforced everything with sticking charms. We avoided making things unbreakable. Sure, it sounds like a great idea, making it all unbreakable, then nothing breaks right? Not quite. What the common witch or wizard didn't know, was those charms had limits, high limits sure, but limits all the same. Once more magic or force was applied than the charm could take… the 'unbreakable' object would usually crumble to dust. We didn't want our wall crumbling to dust all at once. That would be… bad.

Hermione and I sat in the grass in front of our massive wall. We'd just put the final touches on it and had run tests over the whole surface; looking for weak spots. The two of us were finally satisfied that it was as strong as it was ever going to get.

Perhaps one day we'd replace it all with metal, that would make it much stronger, there just wasn't enough in the ground around us to try it. We'd still be looking for materials at the rate that would have taken.

Hermione was munching on a spark pod, her hair stood on end and waved slightly around her head. I don't think i'd ever get tired of watching her do that when she ate those things. "How many walls have you built like this one Harry? I know you put a few together back in the good old days. Didn't you help colonize America? Surely you had a hand in building a few then."

I smiled at her. Hermione and I had talked about my past lives many times over the years. She knew my story in general, and quite a few details, but she didn't know everything. It would take another century of talking for her to know it all; I intended for her to one day, it just took a bloody long time to slog through it all.

I nodded. "Sure did. I had found out He intended on heading there. Wanted a new nation to rule I suppose, so I followed like usual. The colonists and I managed to build many a fort over the years. This wall drew inspiration from that, along with a few hundred others over the years before that. Even with the Native Americans spread out over the whole continent, it was a wild, beautiful place. I spent several years amongst different tribes. Say what you want about wand magic, the medicine men in those days got along just fine without them. I always considered European magicals a bit funny for relying so heavily on a tool to channel their magic. They were experts at the art of animagus transformations. Met a few with multiple forms too."

"I'm going to make you write it all down one day you know. Your memoirs."

That got my laughing. "The world's longest, most boring book."

"Boring? Harry you spent literally thousands of years chasing and fighting an ancient evil. Flourish and Blot's wouldn't have been able to keep it in stock!"

I grinned. " it sounds good when you put it like that, but sometimes it took decades for us to find one another. For every interesting life Iv'e had, there's another where I spent twenty years making shoes for a living, or spent my mornings milking cows and my evenings putting hay up in a barn for hours."

"Well, skip over the boring parts then. I bet it would still be a rather large book, or series of books at least. You don't have to worry about fighting Him anymore. This colony will be up and running by itself one day. I don't know if you've noticed, but we aren't really aging anymore. You're going to need a hobby."

I hadn't thought of that. "Maybe, but I suspect we'll be quite busy for some time yet. I plan on exploring every inch of this world with you eventually. That alone will take a lifetime or two. But perhaps. What should I call it? An immortal Idiot's Guide to Globe Trotting?"

That got her laughing. "Nah, how about, Defeating Dark Lords for dummies?"

I grinned. "I like your's better love."

She leaned forward and kissed me. I returned it enthusiastically. From a nearby tree I heard Violet whistling a cat call at us. I found it hilarious when he did that. He'd listened to me whistle at Hermione enough that he could mimic the sound perfectly

She pulled back from me a little, a smile on her face and love shining in her eyes. "So what's next? I'm book smart but haven't the slightest clue on how to go about building a colony."

I grinned at her. "Well usually we'd have extra hands helping us. Building a colony like this is usually a group project. We've spoiled them by doing all the work up to now. I think we need to construct two buildings first. A bunk house for everyone to sleep. And another for meals and gatherings. I think of lot of people will be celebrating birthdays when we get them down here, you know, try and make up for two centuries of sleep"

She nodded at that. " keeping every body in one spot at the beginning will help everyone get to know each other better."

"Yes, and we can work on individual housing after we get a good routine established for us all. With more hands capable of magic we'll get every family into their own homes before too long. But, before we start on any more buildings, we ought to finish clearing this place out, its still pretty damn wild and thick with bush in here."

And so we got to it. The both of us kept at it like we had before, instead of burning or cutting up plants, we moved them. It would have been impractical to do it by hand, but of course magic made it all the easier.

We cleared out one 'corner' of our little colony site first, an area that had little in the way of useful plants. Once that was taken care of we combed through everything, looking for edible plants. Those we replanted in our cleared area. The trees were felled and stacked for use as building materials next, we got them all but for that single ring of singing trees. The little bristled lizards watched us warily as we worked. I supposed they were curious as to when it would be their turn. None of the other trees had long term residents other than insects. Violet was more than happy to help clean those up. The little guy would be waddling by sundown every day.

When we were finally done with this little step, our nook had been transformed. Most if not all the trees were gone; turned to planks for buildings. The fruit bearing bushes were arranged in neat rows, just far enough apart to give them room to grow. And all the tangle and undergrowth had been transplanted and moved away. Our spaceship stuck out like a metallic thumb in the wide open spot. A single knot of trees still stood, about a dozen in all, about fifty feet to the right of our home. The cave could be clearly seen from the back now.

Hermione reached for my hand and I gave it willingly. "Whats next?" She didn't sound tired, enthusiastic if anything. I smiled and kissed her then.

"Two things left to do before we go and start waking people up. We need to finish the two buildings we wanted, and to tunnel out that cave entrance more."

She nodded and stroked her chin in mock contemplation. "Lets do the cave first, I'd rather get the more dangerous task out of the way first."

"Sounds good to me love, no time like the present." We strode off, hands clasped, for the back of our little piece of paradise.

4.

Sheering off the rock, bit by bit, did prove to be the more dangerous. We'd been at it a few hours, had managed to get about half way down the passage, when a crumbling crack came from the cavern itself.

The two of us shared a look, as wary as always these days, and headed in to investigate. One of the tiny passageways, that before had been no bigger than my hand, had cracked and widened into another passageway.

"I guess all the vibrating knocked this lose." Hermione muttered the words, she talked to herself as much as she did to me.

I flicked a finger at the opening and a ball of heatless light shot forward into the gloom. The passageway was long and narrow, with a sharp upward angle. I looked at her and grinned, a tad maniacally. "You know you wanna find out where it goes."

She gave me a look, one that clearly said I had no clue what I was talking about, but she sighed and gave in without any sort of real fight. "I suppose, just a quick look and we're gonna stop this up again and forget it was here."

So the two of us headed inside to see all that we could see.

It didn't widen like I thought it might. No, it stayed narrow, more a gap between two huge slabs of rock than a proper cave. For the longest time we figured it was nothing, just a crack that would taper off soon enough.

Then we saw them, the paintings.

They started small; landscapes with two distant figures, before growing into a mural that stretched up out of sight in that narrow path. Two figures, riding in a glowing star, those same two going forth and spreading, now many figures, humanoid in shape but with no details, living and hunting in many places. Forests, lakes, desserts, and mountains, the almost humans spreading out over the entire planet it seemed. We didn't speak, barely breathed as we moved farther up the passageway, enraptured at the images. There were cities now, vehicles the flew, indistinct shapes with no real detail, but the intention was clear.

Then other beings were shown in the paintings, large and shadowed. The cities burned, and the last stretch was nothing but a wall of white and red.

The passage with the paintings ended abruptly after that, with a small hole that let in light at the back. I peered through the hole and reared back in surprise. The other side of it showed a forest of bulb trees, and a bear raptor had been walking through it. This passageway lead to the Stilted Lands. It didn't make sense, we hadn't walked even half an hour, and yet it was so. "Magic." I muttered under my breath so Hermione wouldn't hear.

She looked through the hole after me and jumped back almost. With a flourish of her hands, she closed off the small opening. "We need to enchant this side so nothing can break through."

I nodded at that and did so, burying that end with rock and dirt before layering enchantments over top. Hermione was back at looking at the cave paintings.

She hummed to herself before turning back to me. "What do you reckon it means Harry?" I could tell from her voice that she already had a fair idea. But it was nice when she let me have one.

"I'd say a recording of their creation story, an overview of their history, just after that war that threw them back into the stone age." I leaned forward and took a closer look. The figures were hairless, as best I could figure, and that made my nerves settle a bit. "Prolly lots of little nooks and caves like this scattered about. We'll have to bring Instar and Svenwhick to see."

She nodded smiling, "It's a bit… oddly familiar."

I smiled. "It is, and I can follow that thought, but lets not involve fate and prophecy if we don't need to love." She hugged me and we made our way back down to the cavern. Hermione placed an illusion and a ward over this entrance. We wanted to keep it quiet a bit longer, we'd share later.

My mind wouldn't stop thinking about the raptor bear I'd spied through that little hole at the end of the passageway. We'd had our encounter with them nearly a hundred and fifty miles from here, there territory, or numbers at least, were much higher than I wanted. There I go, thinking of threats and genocide again.

I suppose I always would think in such terms, the two hundred years of quiet travel had been good for me. Not having to fight for my life constantly allowed me to relax, to forget for a time what I'd been through in my long and shattered life. But now, I felt those old ways returning, settling back into my mind like some sort of violent cold blanket that covered everything.

It was something I was going to have to live with, something I would have to get a better grip on. I didn't want to be that man again, that coldness. I looked to Hermione as we covered the last touches of our widened cavern and smiled. With her by my side, anchoring and tempering the hardness in my soul, perhaps I could just manage it.

We finished just as the suns were setting in the sky, blanketing our home below the stilted lands in orange light. I took Hermione's hand and squeezed it, smiling.

"We've got a lot of the basics at this point." I whispered, "Home sweet home." She leaned against me and side tiredly.

"Its really is starting to look homey in here isn't it?"

"Indeed it is my dear." I chuckled as she yawned over the back of her hand. "But we have a lot more to do beautiful, come on, time for some shut eye I think."

She didn't protest as I lead her away, and back to our ship… our new home.

Okay folks, we've reached the end of part one of this story. Part two will be coming shortly. I don't tend to ask for reviews, but please, let me know how part one went, and again, i'd like to cry your pardon over how long it took to get from chapter 2 to chapter 3.

See you soon,

Harkon