Chapter 14
"So what's the capital city called?" Hermione asked, she and Selna seemed to have become good friends; they'd spent most of the past few days discussing the elvish lands, or the magical world.
"It's called Ilemar, capital city of the elves for nearly a hundred thousand years." Selna replied, Harry, watching the treetops, smirked as he suddenly caught sight of elves in the trees. The Border Guard stayed in the fortresses along the Barrier, the Forest Guard protected the elvish homes from anything that escaped or managed to elude the Border Guard. Looking directly at one of the elves in the trees Harry let them know that he knew where they were. The elf stiffened, Harry caught the quick hand signals passing between the elves above them.
In seconds six elves had appeared in front of them, blocking their path, Harry counted another six behind and to the sides.
"Are these the humans from Hogwarts?" One of the six elves asked, addressing Jalim.
"Yes they are, relax Elya, they're only dangerous if you attack them first."
"They don't look like they'd be so dangerous then either." Harry carefully raised and eyebrow and met her eyes directly when she finally turned to look at him.
"Elya you're being rude to our guests, enough." Harry turned and looked straight into the forest at where some of the other elves were hiding, Elya followed his look, and then signaled her elves to come out. She scanned the group again, then signaled her elves, the group was gone in seconds back into the trees.
"Please excuse Elya, the Forest Guard has been on high alert ever since a few vampires started trying to get past them." Jalim explained as they continued.
** The capital city of the Elf Kingdom was built in a pass between two mountain ranges. Behind the city was a narrow pass up into the mountains, in the front it opened out into the forest. It had been built when the forest was young, and so the beams of marble of which the city was built had been placed into cuts in the trees, which then healed around them. That had been thousands of years ago, now the city was suspended in the air by the giant trees. It also was attached from the ground to a height of eight or nine stories to the sides of the pass. The caves in the rock walls had been added into the city, the ground floor of the city was marble and granite, elegantly carved. A half-dozen or so springs and a mountain brook gave the city an ample water supply. Elves being elves they didn't do much farming. There were fields off to one side where the forest stopped and meadows began, but for the most part they gathered food from the forest. There were pastures for horses and meadows beside the city, but for the most part the buildings themselves were built into the forest.
Their elf guides to great pleasure at the human's awe of their city. The elves had of course known of the humans' arrival and many had gathered in the trees and on the ground to watch them. Many had never seen humans before.
They group was led to the small but elegant palace, King Darun met them in the main hall. Harry took the lead and bowed deeply to the king, as a Grand Master War Mage there was no need, but he had to follow human customs. The elf king gave him a short bow in return, which sent whispers of surprise through the hall.
"It has been a long time since humans last looked upon our domain. A lot of bad blood has passed between our peoples, but now we face the same great enemy and new alliances must be made. I am pleased to welcome humans once again to the Land of the Elves." Darun greeted them in English. Harry smirked and replied in elvish.
"We are honored to be allowed to come, we too would seek new alliances against our foe and understanding between our races." He stopped as shocked murmurs that swept through the elves listening. Darun smiled, his eyes twinkling with amusement.
Later after the formal greeting the students had been sent to their rooms in the small center they had been given. Harry waited in the main chamber of their rooms; all of the rooms were attached to a single large common room. He had given the students a hour-long briefing on manners and a review of elvish customs before sending them al to bath and change. Darun came in shortly followed by his daughter and one of his sons.
"Heron, these are Linmea and Aletan." He said, introducing the two elves, who looked to be twins, like all of the Royal Family they had very dark hair and amazing gold-silver eyes. Heron guessed both to be less than a hundred. "My eldest son is out with a patrol at the moment and Queen Nuramae rothak Silvar (Nugh-a-may, roth-ack) is with some of our warriors on the West boarder fighting off a group of rogue goblins." Heron leaned over and shook each elf's hand, elvish fashion, palm crossed against theirs for a moment. Remembering as he did that the Silvar family was the strongest line of warriors in the entire elvish race, and renowned for fierce loyalty and just, leaders. The fact that the Queen was rothak was not surprising either. The rothak on an elf's name meant that they had completed the Rothaki training. The Rothaki were the elite elvish warriors. A highly exclusive group comprised of only the top two hundred or so elvish fighters. The title was open to anyone who could fight well enough to join, no matter what their birth. The three elves sat down, Heron waited silently, knowing that because Darun had addressed him as Heron that the two knew of him being a War Mage.
"Was your journey uneventful?" Darun asked him.
"As much as could be expected these days, no one was hurt."
"Good, we have had disturbing reports of a great presence of darkness along the barrier lately. Nothing we can't handle, but it is distressing." He pulled out a map of the elvish lands, "you'll send three days here, then head to Galantith valley for a few days. The weather should be fine for travel this time of year." Heron nodded and pulled an identical map form a hidden pocket, on it was their full route.
"We'll stay clear of the western boarder and the goblins, we're not here to mess with them. How much longer will the Zilarat Pass be open before the winter storms close it?"
"Long enough, it won't close for another month and a half or so. Heron while you're in the city Linmea and Aletan will show the students about, along with the group who met you at the Barrier. The elves are eager to meet humans; the majority of them have not. What sort of fighting skills do the students have?"
"Teach them whatever you want to, I'm sure they'll try to learn it, they know some fencing and a little archery. Just remember they're human, their reflexes are not as fast or as balanced as yours, and they do not learn fighting as quickly.well most of them. They just started training last year." He addressed the last part to the twins, who both nodded quickly. A few moments later the students began to appear form their rooms, having bathed and changed their clothes. Harry introduced the twins, who seemed very talkative, the Hogwarts students left with them to explore the city.
"If you don't mind, I have work I must attend to in the Ways." Harry said,
"By all means, go right ahead, the students will be fine." The elf king said, leaving the room. Harry glanced around, then unclipped a tiny charm shaped like a broom from his necklace and enlarged it into his Firebolt. A moment later, protected by an invisibility enchantment so powerful even the elves wouldn't notice him, he left the city.
**
The house was stone, dark grays, curtains drawn shut. Unassuming it did not stand out from the other houses in the neighborhood in any way. It was old, very old, and antique really. The family who owned it had lived there for centuries, it was large, on a nice sized piece of land, as were all the houses. The only thing different about this house was what it housed.
The Anata family was very old, they had immigrated to America from England in 1890, in England they had lived in a small house in a backwater area no one really cared about. They had lived in England for 700 years before coming to America, and for another 800 years in France before that. But they were not French, nor English, nor American, they didn't know where they came from, but they knew exactly what they were doing and where they were going.
They kept records, records of volcanic activity. They gathered anything and everything they could find on volcanoes and recorded it. Their records went back well past Merlin's time. Now house in the two levels below their house the vast database was one volcanologists would have gladly killed for.
In every generation of the Anata family there had been one child who had taken an interest in keeping the records, checking everyday for new information. There had never failed to be one of these children in every generation to grow up to take their parents place. The other children were never told about the records, they never knew. The only ones who knew about the records was the person keeping them, their spouse, their parents, and the Agency. But they didn't know what that was.
To make money the person who chose to become the keeper of the records always managed to be exceptionally intelligent, and many acquired large fortunes. They always managed to find a spouse with no living family, who understood and gladly undertook the task of helping to keep the records.
The family had never suffered any horrible illnesses, fires, floods, or other natural disasters, nor burglary or murder. The children who did not know of the record went on to other lives blissfully unaware of what their family was. The record keepers, for over two thousand years they had kept these records. Now with computers they stored all the information in computers, and identical set of information on CD-ROMs, and another identical set of those, the one set in books, and another in a safe vault in a bank. Five sets of information, each updated with the full details of every major eruption. Each cataloging the shifts of tectonic plates, once those had been discovered of course, each mapping fault lines.
In all those years the Agency had only contacted the family a dozen times, always a single person, a man, a member of the Agency. They never took his picture so it was assumed that it was a different man each time, they knew nothing of magic of course so no one could live forever. The Agency had always treated them well, it never asked for much besides that they keep the records, which one child in each generation was happy to do anyway. The Agency had built them the house, and given it to them, the Agency had supplied the money to ship the records and their belonging and them from Europe. And when they had once or twice been threatened by revolts, rioters, or looters the Agency's people had defended them.
Now Andrew Anata watched out his window as the dark clad figure emerged from the forest. He wore black pants, black boots, and a black shirt under a black jacket. His long black hair in a ponytail and the back of his neck, he didn't look important, but he wore a gold chain around his neck with a gold and silver pendant on it, shaped like a bird. That was what they had been told to look for, the gold and silver bird. He turned to his wife, Jane, who was also watching.
"Have the children go upstairs and watch a movie, except for Shara, she is old enough. I'll go meet him." They both went their ways quickly, neither letting their nervousness show, sometimes the family went many generations without a visit, and they did not know what to expect of this man.
"Greetings, Andrew Anata correct?" The man said, Andrew noted that he had an English accent, mixed with something else he couldn't identify. *He will know your name with certainty, but ask if it correct.*
"Yes, that is me, welcome back." *Say welcome back, though they have been here all along.*
"It has been many years."
"We still keep the records, the Agency is not forgotten." Andrew had had to memorize those phrases when he took on the task of helping his parents keep the records. There were other codes, saying only that "we still keep the records, please come in." would indicate that they had guests over, in which case the man would ask where to find a nearby street and leave until a later time. Once the guests had left Andrew would signal him, for he would have been watching the house, that it was safe to return. Saying, "Times had changed," would mean that something had gone horribly wrong and they could no longer serve the Agency, for whatever reason.
The stranger nodded and smiled, though he did not offer his name. Andrew invited him inside; in the vaults underground was a small sitting room where Jane and Shara were waiting. Andrew noted that the man knew his way through the house, and seemed delighted to see that there was already another one of the younger generation taking on the duties of the parents. Shara was sixteen and would soon go to college, but she would know how to monitor the world's volcanoes by then.
"It has been many years since the Agency as had a need to contact it old allies and agents, but times are changing rapidly. Our sources show that soon we might expect huge changes in the earth. From the crust to the core. You have faithfully kept these records for over two thousands years, and for that the human race may well owe you their continued existence if indeed the worst case scenario comes to pass." The waited as they all sat in mute silence, shocked. With a sigh he sat down in the empty chair.
"I am known only as Heron and you may call me that. Over recent year the human race has been hurting the planet horribly, to the point where the Earth is becoming unbalanced. Global warming is just the beginning. With luck we still have many years yet, but in order to accurately predict what s happening and what measures can be taken to stop it we have need of the records from the past. All the way back about a thousand years." He watched their shock, Andrew collected himself and nodded, telling Shara to go get one of the CD-ROM sets, starting back a thousand years.
"I do not wish to overly alarm you, and there is no need to panic, with the information we can gain from your records the world might yet be saved. And if it is not we can ensure that there is still a place left for humans to survive. This is the catastrophe the Agency has been planning for for three thousand years. We need your help now, perhaps it is a false alarm, but it might just turn out to be worth the survival of our species."
**
Harry left the Anata's three hours later, all was taken care of, the Anata's were ready to help in any way they could, he would find time to look over the records later in the computerized database he was assembling in the Palace with the help of another of his Agent Families. He also had the records from the families that had recorded earthquakes, ocean currents, and temperatures. Now he was ready to try and predict when the catastrophe would occur, and perhaps what would cause it. He had a strong feeling it would have something to do with Voldemort.
**
The deep forests of old England were a wild and untamed place, and thus avoided and feared by humans. Long before modern civilization, long before armies had marched over the land into war, they were uninhabited except for the Druids who visited infrequently for stranger rites and rituals.
The sun had nearly set, and a thick mist covered the ground, glowing a bit in the suns last rays turned it a pale red/purple, through the still forest the sound of a horse's hooves could be heard. Only three roads ran through this forest, and one of them few travelers ever took. The druids used the small island on the lake in the more wild part of the forest, and no one purposely went near the druids. But nonetheless there was a rider coming down this forbidding trail. Alone, either a brave, confident, ignorant, or utterly stupid thing to do.
The blood red mare with a dark red mane and tail cantered through the trees, she had the strong look of a horse that could run at a steady pace for days on end. The trail was narrow and many roots grew across it, but her footing never slipped. Her rider was a young man, in his late teens, dressed in the apparel of someone in the upper middle class or lower nobility. His long hooded cloak streaming behind him as he rode. The sun sank below the horizon, everything abruptly dimmed considerably, and with an annoyed sigh the young traveler began to look for a place to rest for the night. Finding a small side trail he took it to a small clearing, leaping off his horse he used a fifteen-foot long length of fine lightweight rope to tie her to a tree branch, giving her plenty of room to graze. He tossed his pack off and sat down on a fallen log. Unrolling a long cloak on the ground to sleep on he gathered some wood and placed it in the fire pit before going to see to his horse, loosening the saddle and removing her bridal so she could rest easier. His efficiency and the rhythm of his movements showed him to be a person who traveled often despite his age.
Turning back to the fire he knelt beside it and extended on hand, his glittering black eyes becoming murky and hazed as he concentrated, calling upon whatever powers he held, suddenly the wood began to flame, brightening the clearing. With a pleased grin he traveler pulled over his pack and began to eat.
Later after the young traveler had eaten he lay down beside the fire, not sleeping but watching the stars through the opening in the trees above him, quietly whispering the names of the constellations to himself. Suddenly the mare looked up, and stamped her hoof, her ears flickering nervously. The young man looked up as well and looked about warily. Suddenly the mists across the fire from him began to stir along the edge of the trees. An owl hooted and took flight away from its perch above the moving mists.
The mists curled, drawing back from a cloaked figure as it strode forward, the young man leaped to his feet, and medium length knife appearing in his hand from a hidden sheath. Assuming a combat ready position he balanced on the balls of his feet, ready to spring into action. Stepping into the clearing the stranger lowered his hood and smiled warmly, the young man froze, motionless, his eyes widening in surprise. Amusement and approval gleamed in the vivid emerald eyes as the stranger slowly crossed the clearing.
"Relax Merlin, you knew I was coming."
Whew, long chapter! Please review!
"So what's the capital city called?" Hermione asked, she and Selna seemed to have become good friends; they'd spent most of the past few days discussing the elvish lands, or the magical world.
"It's called Ilemar, capital city of the elves for nearly a hundred thousand years." Selna replied, Harry, watching the treetops, smirked as he suddenly caught sight of elves in the trees. The Border Guard stayed in the fortresses along the Barrier, the Forest Guard protected the elvish homes from anything that escaped or managed to elude the Border Guard. Looking directly at one of the elves in the trees Harry let them know that he knew where they were. The elf stiffened, Harry caught the quick hand signals passing between the elves above them.
In seconds six elves had appeared in front of them, blocking their path, Harry counted another six behind and to the sides.
"Are these the humans from Hogwarts?" One of the six elves asked, addressing Jalim.
"Yes they are, relax Elya, they're only dangerous if you attack them first."
"They don't look like they'd be so dangerous then either." Harry carefully raised and eyebrow and met her eyes directly when she finally turned to look at him.
"Elya you're being rude to our guests, enough." Harry turned and looked straight into the forest at where some of the other elves were hiding, Elya followed his look, and then signaled her elves to come out. She scanned the group again, then signaled her elves, the group was gone in seconds back into the trees.
"Please excuse Elya, the Forest Guard has been on high alert ever since a few vampires started trying to get past them." Jalim explained as they continued.
** The capital city of the Elf Kingdom was built in a pass between two mountain ranges. Behind the city was a narrow pass up into the mountains, in the front it opened out into the forest. It had been built when the forest was young, and so the beams of marble of which the city was built had been placed into cuts in the trees, which then healed around them. That had been thousands of years ago, now the city was suspended in the air by the giant trees. It also was attached from the ground to a height of eight or nine stories to the sides of the pass. The caves in the rock walls had been added into the city, the ground floor of the city was marble and granite, elegantly carved. A half-dozen or so springs and a mountain brook gave the city an ample water supply. Elves being elves they didn't do much farming. There were fields off to one side where the forest stopped and meadows began, but for the most part they gathered food from the forest. There were pastures for horses and meadows beside the city, but for the most part the buildings themselves were built into the forest.
Their elf guides to great pleasure at the human's awe of their city. The elves had of course known of the humans' arrival and many had gathered in the trees and on the ground to watch them. Many had never seen humans before.
They group was led to the small but elegant palace, King Darun met them in the main hall. Harry took the lead and bowed deeply to the king, as a Grand Master War Mage there was no need, but he had to follow human customs. The elf king gave him a short bow in return, which sent whispers of surprise through the hall.
"It has been a long time since humans last looked upon our domain. A lot of bad blood has passed between our peoples, but now we face the same great enemy and new alliances must be made. I am pleased to welcome humans once again to the Land of the Elves." Darun greeted them in English. Harry smirked and replied in elvish.
"We are honored to be allowed to come, we too would seek new alliances against our foe and understanding between our races." He stopped as shocked murmurs that swept through the elves listening. Darun smiled, his eyes twinkling with amusement.
Later after the formal greeting the students had been sent to their rooms in the small center they had been given. Harry waited in the main chamber of their rooms; all of the rooms were attached to a single large common room. He had given the students a hour-long briefing on manners and a review of elvish customs before sending them al to bath and change. Darun came in shortly followed by his daughter and one of his sons.
"Heron, these are Linmea and Aletan." He said, introducing the two elves, who looked to be twins, like all of the Royal Family they had very dark hair and amazing gold-silver eyes. Heron guessed both to be less than a hundred. "My eldest son is out with a patrol at the moment and Queen Nuramae rothak Silvar (Nugh-a-may, roth-ack) is with some of our warriors on the West boarder fighting off a group of rogue goblins." Heron leaned over and shook each elf's hand, elvish fashion, palm crossed against theirs for a moment. Remembering as he did that the Silvar family was the strongest line of warriors in the entire elvish race, and renowned for fierce loyalty and just, leaders. The fact that the Queen was rothak was not surprising either. The rothak on an elf's name meant that they had completed the Rothaki training. The Rothaki were the elite elvish warriors. A highly exclusive group comprised of only the top two hundred or so elvish fighters. The title was open to anyone who could fight well enough to join, no matter what their birth. The three elves sat down, Heron waited silently, knowing that because Darun had addressed him as Heron that the two knew of him being a War Mage.
"Was your journey uneventful?" Darun asked him.
"As much as could be expected these days, no one was hurt."
"Good, we have had disturbing reports of a great presence of darkness along the barrier lately. Nothing we can't handle, but it is distressing." He pulled out a map of the elvish lands, "you'll send three days here, then head to Galantith valley for a few days. The weather should be fine for travel this time of year." Heron nodded and pulled an identical map form a hidden pocket, on it was their full route.
"We'll stay clear of the western boarder and the goblins, we're not here to mess with them. How much longer will the Zilarat Pass be open before the winter storms close it?"
"Long enough, it won't close for another month and a half or so. Heron while you're in the city Linmea and Aletan will show the students about, along with the group who met you at the Barrier. The elves are eager to meet humans; the majority of them have not. What sort of fighting skills do the students have?"
"Teach them whatever you want to, I'm sure they'll try to learn it, they know some fencing and a little archery. Just remember they're human, their reflexes are not as fast or as balanced as yours, and they do not learn fighting as quickly.well most of them. They just started training last year." He addressed the last part to the twins, who both nodded quickly. A few moments later the students began to appear form their rooms, having bathed and changed their clothes. Harry introduced the twins, who seemed very talkative, the Hogwarts students left with them to explore the city.
"If you don't mind, I have work I must attend to in the Ways." Harry said,
"By all means, go right ahead, the students will be fine." The elf king said, leaving the room. Harry glanced around, then unclipped a tiny charm shaped like a broom from his necklace and enlarged it into his Firebolt. A moment later, protected by an invisibility enchantment so powerful even the elves wouldn't notice him, he left the city.
**
The house was stone, dark grays, curtains drawn shut. Unassuming it did not stand out from the other houses in the neighborhood in any way. It was old, very old, and antique really. The family who owned it had lived there for centuries, it was large, on a nice sized piece of land, as were all the houses. The only thing different about this house was what it housed.
The Anata family was very old, they had immigrated to America from England in 1890, in England they had lived in a small house in a backwater area no one really cared about. They had lived in England for 700 years before coming to America, and for another 800 years in France before that. But they were not French, nor English, nor American, they didn't know where they came from, but they knew exactly what they were doing and where they were going.
They kept records, records of volcanic activity. They gathered anything and everything they could find on volcanoes and recorded it. Their records went back well past Merlin's time. Now house in the two levels below their house the vast database was one volcanologists would have gladly killed for.
In every generation of the Anata family there had been one child who had taken an interest in keeping the records, checking everyday for new information. There had never failed to be one of these children in every generation to grow up to take their parents place. The other children were never told about the records, they never knew. The only ones who knew about the records was the person keeping them, their spouse, their parents, and the Agency. But they didn't know what that was.
To make money the person who chose to become the keeper of the records always managed to be exceptionally intelligent, and many acquired large fortunes. They always managed to find a spouse with no living family, who understood and gladly undertook the task of helping to keep the records.
The family had never suffered any horrible illnesses, fires, floods, or other natural disasters, nor burglary or murder. The children who did not know of the record went on to other lives blissfully unaware of what their family was. The record keepers, for over two thousand years they had kept these records. Now with computers they stored all the information in computers, and identical set of information on CD-ROMs, and another identical set of those, the one set in books, and another in a safe vault in a bank. Five sets of information, each updated with the full details of every major eruption. Each cataloging the shifts of tectonic plates, once those had been discovered of course, each mapping fault lines.
In all those years the Agency had only contacted the family a dozen times, always a single person, a man, a member of the Agency. They never took his picture so it was assumed that it was a different man each time, they knew nothing of magic of course so no one could live forever. The Agency had always treated them well, it never asked for much besides that they keep the records, which one child in each generation was happy to do anyway. The Agency had built them the house, and given it to them, the Agency had supplied the money to ship the records and their belonging and them from Europe. And when they had once or twice been threatened by revolts, rioters, or looters the Agency's people had defended them.
Now Andrew Anata watched out his window as the dark clad figure emerged from the forest. He wore black pants, black boots, and a black shirt under a black jacket. His long black hair in a ponytail and the back of his neck, he didn't look important, but he wore a gold chain around his neck with a gold and silver pendant on it, shaped like a bird. That was what they had been told to look for, the gold and silver bird. He turned to his wife, Jane, who was also watching.
"Have the children go upstairs and watch a movie, except for Shara, she is old enough. I'll go meet him." They both went their ways quickly, neither letting their nervousness show, sometimes the family went many generations without a visit, and they did not know what to expect of this man.
"Greetings, Andrew Anata correct?" The man said, Andrew noted that he had an English accent, mixed with something else he couldn't identify. *He will know your name with certainty, but ask if it correct.*
"Yes, that is me, welcome back." *Say welcome back, though they have been here all along.*
"It has been many years."
"We still keep the records, the Agency is not forgotten." Andrew had had to memorize those phrases when he took on the task of helping his parents keep the records. There were other codes, saying only that "we still keep the records, please come in." would indicate that they had guests over, in which case the man would ask where to find a nearby street and leave until a later time. Once the guests had left Andrew would signal him, for he would have been watching the house, that it was safe to return. Saying, "Times had changed," would mean that something had gone horribly wrong and they could no longer serve the Agency, for whatever reason.
The stranger nodded and smiled, though he did not offer his name. Andrew invited him inside; in the vaults underground was a small sitting room where Jane and Shara were waiting. Andrew noted that the man knew his way through the house, and seemed delighted to see that there was already another one of the younger generation taking on the duties of the parents. Shara was sixteen and would soon go to college, but she would know how to monitor the world's volcanoes by then.
"It has been many years since the Agency as had a need to contact it old allies and agents, but times are changing rapidly. Our sources show that soon we might expect huge changes in the earth. From the crust to the core. You have faithfully kept these records for over two thousands years, and for that the human race may well owe you their continued existence if indeed the worst case scenario comes to pass." The waited as they all sat in mute silence, shocked. With a sigh he sat down in the empty chair.
"I am known only as Heron and you may call me that. Over recent year the human race has been hurting the planet horribly, to the point where the Earth is becoming unbalanced. Global warming is just the beginning. With luck we still have many years yet, but in order to accurately predict what s happening and what measures can be taken to stop it we have need of the records from the past. All the way back about a thousand years." He watched their shock, Andrew collected himself and nodded, telling Shara to go get one of the CD-ROM sets, starting back a thousand years.
"I do not wish to overly alarm you, and there is no need to panic, with the information we can gain from your records the world might yet be saved. And if it is not we can ensure that there is still a place left for humans to survive. This is the catastrophe the Agency has been planning for for three thousand years. We need your help now, perhaps it is a false alarm, but it might just turn out to be worth the survival of our species."
**
Harry left the Anata's three hours later, all was taken care of, the Anata's were ready to help in any way they could, he would find time to look over the records later in the computerized database he was assembling in the Palace with the help of another of his Agent Families. He also had the records from the families that had recorded earthquakes, ocean currents, and temperatures. Now he was ready to try and predict when the catastrophe would occur, and perhaps what would cause it. He had a strong feeling it would have something to do with Voldemort.
**
The deep forests of old England were a wild and untamed place, and thus avoided and feared by humans. Long before modern civilization, long before armies had marched over the land into war, they were uninhabited except for the Druids who visited infrequently for stranger rites and rituals.
The sun had nearly set, and a thick mist covered the ground, glowing a bit in the suns last rays turned it a pale red/purple, through the still forest the sound of a horse's hooves could be heard. Only three roads ran through this forest, and one of them few travelers ever took. The druids used the small island on the lake in the more wild part of the forest, and no one purposely went near the druids. But nonetheless there was a rider coming down this forbidding trail. Alone, either a brave, confident, ignorant, or utterly stupid thing to do.
The blood red mare with a dark red mane and tail cantered through the trees, she had the strong look of a horse that could run at a steady pace for days on end. The trail was narrow and many roots grew across it, but her footing never slipped. Her rider was a young man, in his late teens, dressed in the apparel of someone in the upper middle class or lower nobility. His long hooded cloak streaming behind him as he rode. The sun sank below the horizon, everything abruptly dimmed considerably, and with an annoyed sigh the young traveler began to look for a place to rest for the night. Finding a small side trail he took it to a small clearing, leaping off his horse he used a fifteen-foot long length of fine lightweight rope to tie her to a tree branch, giving her plenty of room to graze. He tossed his pack off and sat down on a fallen log. Unrolling a long cloak on the ground to sleep on he gathered some wood and placed it in the fire pit before going to see to his horse, loosening the saddle and removing her bridal so she could rest easier. His efficiency and the rhythm of his movements showed him to be a person who traveled often despite his age.
Turning back to the fire he knelt beside it and extended on hand, his glittering black eyes becoming murky and hazed as he concentrated, calling upon whatever powers he held, suddenly the wood began to flame, brightening the clearing. With a pleased grin he traveler pulled over his pack and began to eat.
Later after the young traveler had eaten he lay down beside the fire, not sleeping but watching the stars through the opening in the trees above him, quietly whispering the names of the constellations to himself. Suddenly the mare looked up, and stamped her hoof, her ears flickering nervously. The young man looked up as well and looked about warily. Suddenly the mists across the fire from him began to stir along the edge of the trees. An owl hooted and took flight away from its perch above the moving mists.
The mists curled, drawing back from a cloaked figure as it strode forward, the young man leaped to his feet, and medium length knife appearing in his hand from a hidden sheath. Assuming a combat ready position he balanced on the balls of his feet, ready to spring into action. Stepping into the clearing the stranger lowered his hood and smiled warmly, the young man froze, motionless, his eyes widening in surprise. Amusement and approval gleamed in the vivid emerald eyes as the stranger slowly crossed the clearing.
"Relax Merlin, you knew I was coming."
Whew, long chapter! Please review!