It continues, originally this was a very long posting but decided to break it off into two, that way noone got lost or tired. Enjoy and please Read and Review

He jumped from the end of the rope and landed with a soft thud upon the desert ground; with his arrival, the crowd turned to him, deferring to him as their chieftain. Dhraloku landed with a slightly louder thud but seemed as graceful; Tal-ano looked at the elf and his son gravely, motioning them to come closer to him, not wanting to alarm the crowd more. When the two arrived Tal-ano spoke in a deep whisper,

"Cidhrali has not returned from the hills, have you seen her this day?"

The elf looked at the youth beside him, and his face wore the look of confusion as much as his own,

"We have not seen her since this morning Brother, when she left to retrieve water from the spring…She was not alone…"

"We know, the others have returned running, frightened beyond all measure, weeping and marked all over with scars and thorns in their skin, as though they ran without caution or abandon.…They will tell me nothing, saying only that they will speak to you."

"When did they return?"

Celebrin's cautious tone left him and he spoke more openly now, seeing the small group of women, sitting low upon the ground, wrapping their arms around their legs in a position of childlike fear and self-protection. Tal-ano, still whispering said,

"One hour ago, they came in parts, screaming about pokuhu, and shadows grabbing at them and…laughing."

"Pokuhu?"

"Creatures of darkness, cruel and mischievous, seldom do they attack in the day, and we have only heard rumors of them…children's stories told by old men."

Celebrin looked intently at the women, who looked at him and began to weep bitterly, one fell to his feet and grabbed a hold of his ankles, pleading in a voice labored by tears and fear,

"Getsucuatil, forgive us great one, we did not mean to insult you so and leave Cidhrali behind…f…fear took hold of us and we ran, even though she ordered us to stay. She is lost and we are weak…please forgive us!"

Going to his knees the elf picked up the frightened young woman and looked in her eyes, calming her by placing his fingers on a point on her back on a point that calmed the quickly beating heart.

"Zodjida, fear is nothing to be ashamed of…I do not blame you for what happened, but please you must tell me what happened!"

"We…we left early morning…t… to take water from the spring in the hills. But… it was dry; a wind storm had come and sealed it shut the night before. We would have turned back but Cidhrali convinced us to go further north, saying there would be more springs. We went over high hills and 

looked for hours for any signs of water, keeping our eyes on the ground; we never noticed how far we had walked until… We…walked until the sun reached the highest point in the sky…then…then…"

"Then what woman?"

Tal-ano spoke with great urgency, but his son went before him and kneeled beside his uncle running his hand on the woman's shoulder easing her worry. The woman wiped a dirty tear from her face and after breathing in heavily she continued.

"Then we found a river, it was blue and so clean, I had never seen a river like that before. We ran down to it and saw that it was not a dream, more than this green trees lined its banks and yellow flowers shone like little suns on the green boughs. We stooped to drink from it and the water was so clean and sweet, we forgot where we were and how long we had walked. As we gathered more of it, Ashira looked up and saw right before us the red peak of Shanadraska…"

The crowd gasped as she said this word and she broke into tears and thrust her head, shamefully into Celebrin's breast. He patted her head and stroked her hair as a father does to a child. Cidhrali has told him of that fabled mountain. Largely it loomed in the distance of their village, a bright red peak that was always surrounded by gray clouds. It lay a league away and was surrounded by a wall of high hills and deep clefts, it seemed impossible to reach the peak but apparently the women before him found an unknown path into the fabled land. Shanadraska was the beginning of the Land of the Kadjinai, the spirit world, where the elders claimed Celebrin came from. It was forbidden for mortals to enter that land and so they avoided it, for fear of angering the spirits, who, according to the elders, would punish the intrusion by sending the world into eternal darkness. Celebrin now understood why the women would not tell anyone else of what happened; in their eyes they had sinned against the ancient orders, he was the only one they believed could understand what needed to be done. The only problem was, though they thought of him as Kadjina, he had no understanding of such ancient traditions, much less how to correct them when they were disobeyed by accident. The crowd looked at him and he looked at the young woman and bid her to continue. She shook her head and then spoke, slowly at first then building into hysteria,

"She cried out with a scream that made my blood freeze, she ran into the shadows and was lost to us. Cidhrali stood and told us to stay together, but then the sun became shadowed and the world became dark as night. Then we heard cries and screams, shouting at us in an alien tongue, then they came from all around us, and arrows flew right at us. I became frightened and ran back the way we came, but something grabbed me and I fell to the ground. I turned and saw…a shadow holding a knife to my neck, his face was huge and flat and he had a row of teeth as big as ram horns. They were straight, pale and red as blood, his hair stood on end and when he grabbed me his hands were covered in bones and scratched at my skin. He shouted at me and grabbed my neck but before he did anything he screamed in pain and fell to the ground. Cidhrali stood there, knife in hand and she bade me to run. I did as I was told, Getsucuatil, I ran until I fell, by then and by some magic I found myself at the dried up spring, I waited to see if the others would come or if Cidhrali was behind me, but the evening was soon coming and I heard the howls of wolves, so I ran back here and found that the others were 

here…but…Cidhrali…and Ashira…were nowhere to be found. The pokuhu took them and we'll never see them again!!"

She broke into crying and fell to the ground; the other women came forward and tried to comfort her, as Celebrin stood. The villagers looked at him in both awe and fear; some saw him as the savior Kadjinai, who had come to teach them how to survive the darkness of Khamul's city. Others now saw him as part of that demon world that had taken Cidhrali from them, related in some way to these monsters that attacked their women. An elder stood, Tokuhop, an Ashtegu chieftain who had long chastised Kwartegu for trusting Celebrin. He shook his aged hands into the air and said to the crowd,

"See what evil we have done by marrying one of our own to the Kadjinai; whatever good Getsucuatil has done, his remaining here has angered the other spirits and they have seen fit to punish us. We have come too close to their lands and now flaunt this unnatural union on their borders, we must leave, before we are decimated by these monsters, these Pokuhu!"

Tal-ano spoke then and criticized him,

"And where would we go Tokuhop? Into the loving arms of Khamul I suppose? Or what about the Abache to the East who have ever been our enemies and only friends when there are Haradi to kill? If the Kadjinai wish to punish us, then why send Getsucuatil to us? The Kadjinai were ever our friends and teachers, it is the Pokuhu who do this to us and they need no reason to do so! We entered their land are surprised by their actions? The Kadjinai are just spirits and should understand that what these women did was a mistake, they will right the wrongs of the pokuhu…"

The man was interrupted by Celebrin, who had at that time decided upon a course of action,

"We waste time talking about spirits and demons; I am alien to these lands and have never seen the Kadjinai that you speak of, for I come from the west. The only thing I know is that my wife was taken by these monstrous things and evil spirits or no I will get her back!"

Then Tokuhop then spoke, pointing his fingers at Celebrin,

"You would defy the judgment of the gods? Then you will bring great evil to us…have we not suffered enough!?"

"I care not for the judgment of gods, least of all when they are interpreted by your split tongue! Any god who uses violence or fear to punish their people is no god of mine, and does not earn my respect. Stay silent and stay behind if you fear them so, for you will only impede the journey. "

With that Celebrin stormed off to find Thingalad, Tal-ano first remained behind and then followed his brother-in-law. Dhraloku walked behind him but his father turned around and said,

"Where do you think you are going?"

"To find my aunt, just like you and uncle!"



"You will do no such thing, you are far too young. You will stay behind and prepare our people to leave these lands."

"I am not too young; I am as old as you were when you first went to battle!"

"But that was against mortals, I go now against immortals; whatever Cedlal says, I still fear them and fear the retribution that will come from our blasphemy. You must lead the people if we do not return, take them into my lands and keep them safe there. Tell no one, not even your mother of what we have done, for if they knew that we defied the edicts of the gods there will be no safe place for us."

Tal-ano placed his hand upon his son's shoulder and led him back toward the village; he waited until the youth was out of sight and then turned to follow Celebrin. No others came to help them, spurned by the fear that Tokuhop had begun to sow; so elf and man alone set out to find the path to Shanadraska that was found by accident. They journeyed to the spring and found that it was now blocked by stone, and in the darkness Celebrin saw that it was marked by an 'X' in red. Upon inspection Celebrin found it to be a red dye, and not blood, he then saw light foot prints upon the ground, which were invisible to Tal-ano. He followed them and discerned that four had come and gone to place the stone, perhaps as a warning to the villagers. The two never spoke, until they neared the red mountain which now loomed in the distance, a great shadow in the sky, blotting out the stars. The man said in a calm voice,

"Your words in the village…you seemed unlike yourself. You were defiant, where you usually are reserved."

"What is your point?"

"My point is that you acted…human, for the first time I have ever known you; you were afraid…not of the gods, but for Cidhrali."

"You forget brother, I am not of this land…but why did you come? If you still fear the gods, as you call them, why defy them now?"

"I love my sister more than anything Cedlal; I lost her once…I will not lose her again. Even if I must die or be damned in saving her…and I will not let you perish alone for it."

Celebrin chuckled,

"I am Kadjinai remember…"

"I learned long ago, my friend, that you bleed as the rest of us do, if others want to believe you are divine let them. As for me, you may not be human, but you are certainly close to it.

The elf looked at the man in wonder, Tal-ano no longer looked at him as a divine being, and he saw him as friend, more so as family. Unlike the others, who always treated him with reverence, as a thing alien, Tal-ano treated him with the same care as he did with his own kind. Celebrin's only exposure to mortals had always been of the former kind, this new way endeared the man to him and for a brief moment 

made him long to the company of his own kind. A rustle in the wind broke his thoughts and reminded him of their task. They came upon a small and gnarled tree, standing alone upon a cliff side, the slope of which was too steep to go down with horses, it was here that the foot prints of the women led so the two descended from their seats and tied the two horses to the tree. Surveying the surroundings Celebrin espied something foreign in the darkness, a faint glimmer showed in the valley that lay beneath them; it flickered for a moment and then was hidden again as quickly as it had appeared.