Getting down the mountain was fairly easy. He just stowed his staff in the sack tied around his neck, and used the membranes at his sides to glide down in a tight circle. As luck would have it, as soon as he landed, part of the mountain broke off, causing a small rockslide. While small, this rockslide could still seriously hurt… so he ran to one side. When the rocks stopped falling, he looked up at where the rock had been. Why had it fallen? There was… something… hidden in the crevices revealed by the rockslide. What was it? He decided to climb up, just to see.

As he climbed, he noticed that the rock here was a different color than the mountain… the mountain was a sort of reddish-brown color, while this was gray. And it was in blocks. Another Ancient ruin? Perhaps… he would have to see what was hidden there.

When he reached it, he blinked. It was a metal box, with one side made out of glass. The image of a stylized flame was flickering there, apparently supposed to be some sort of guide as to what was inside. There weren't any latches, no visible seams to the box… so the only way to get inside would to be to break the glass. This was something he had no problem with. After clearing the shards of broken glass out of the opening, Kun'nuk'kles took the thing that was inside. It was… a sort of disc-thing, with an image of flame on it. He knew what this was… he just couldn't quite remember where he had seen something like it before. He put it in the sack with the Chaos Emeralds, and jumped the ten feet to the ground.

Now… next was Chaos Red. It apparently inhabited some sort of magma-dweller in the heart of a large volcano to the west. Kun'nuk'kles turned to the west, and did not like what he saw. It was a bleak wasteland on this side of the mountains. Nothing but devastation, as far as the eye could see… except… in the distance, there was something… moving. Well, that was as good a place as ever to go to at the moment.

He started walking at a measured pace toward whatever was out there. Soon, he was close enough to see what it was. It was a reptilian beast, much like the host of Chaos Green, being attacked by a group of Chipmunks. As he came closer, however, Kun'nuk'kles saw the Chipmunk child in one of the beast's great-clawed hands. He started moving slightly faster, and took his staff from the sack where he had stowed it. He didn't want to interfere if it wasn't needed, or if it wasn't wanted. He had been made wary by the experience with Uroth. Sometimes, people needed to do things for themselves.

When he was a mere ten yards away, one of the Chipmunks was struck with the beast's free hand, and was thrown toward Kun'nuk'kles, landing just two feet short. Kun'nuk'kles took a step forward, and looked down at him. The Chipmunk's eyes were closed. "Need some help, stranger?" he asked.

The Chipmunk's eyes snapped open, and he stared at Kun'nuk'kles's gentle face. "Echidna!" he said, in a quietly smooth voice. "You must go! The foolish boy wandered from camp, now in danger! Echidna might get killed, you try to fight dragon now has boy. Save self. Not sacrifice any more for us, will we…"

He stood up, and ran back to the crowd attacking the beast. Kun'nuk'kles blinked. That had been strange. An interesting accent, if not grammar. Well, it looked like they would appreciate help, if it didn't cost any lives. Rather unlikely that it would. But he couldn't use any widely destructive spells, like fireballs, nor would lightning do. He raised his staff, and began his chant. "Ak'kun leoht! Hydraquis nulliquis in-leternum! Dehydrate!" he shouted, and a shaft of light from the staff struck the beast.

The beast abruptly stiffened up, and cried out in pain. Water vapor started flowing out from between its scales, and vanished. The beast shriveled up, dead, and fell over backwards. But the Wizard wasn't finished. "Ak'kun leoht! Hydraquis nulliquis in-leternum, ivnerto! Reverse spell!"

The water vapor returned to the beast when the light struck it, and it swelled to its former proportions, but still quite dead. The group of Chipmunks lowered their weapons in wonderment, and looked at Kun'nuk'kles. One of them, however, ran over to the beast and extricated the boy. The rest started murmuring darkly among themselves and pointing at him. And then, they started toward him, weapons raised. "Hold!" commanded the voice of the one who had fallen at Kun'nuk'kles's feet, and who had freed the boy.

The group stopped, and looked back at him. He ignored them and started toward Kun'nuk'kles. When he was about a yard away, he spoke again. "I warn you not to fight when you wake me. You are stranger to our ways, and to our lands. You show you have much, powerful magic at your command. Above all, you Echidna, and we Chipmunk. You have no reason to help. You have many reason not to help. Why then, do you help?"

Kun'nuk'kles looked the Chipmunk right in the eyes. This one had sandy brown fur, with darker stripes around his face. "Because if I hadn't helped," he said flatly. "I wouldn't be me."

This was met with a general murmur of approval. The Chipmunk smiled broadly. "A good answer! Come, share our fire and our food," he said, and started walking away.

"Aren't you going to take that," Kun'nuk'kles said, jabbing his thumb at the dead reptile. "With you?"

The rest of the group started walking along with their leader, who shook his head. "Too heavy. You want bring it, you carry it."

"Fair enough…" Kun'nuk'kles said, and thought about the green Chaos Emerald.

He certainly hoped it was going to help him. He went over to the reptile's tail, put his staff in the sack, and got a good grip on it. He started to pull. To his amazement, it came along easily, sliding across the sand, leaving a deep furrow. The Chipmunks didn't even look back to see what the dragging noise was, they just kept walking.

Soon after that, the Chipmunk camp came into sight. It was more of a small village, set up around a pool of water. This was apparently a natural desert, caused by the rain shed of the mountains, and not a result of the Chaos, as he had feared. A Chipmunk female came out of one of the tents, squealed at the sight of them, and ran, in the desert heat, toward the child. While she was hugging him, and he was protesting, she looked past him to Kun'nuk'kles. "Husband?" she asked.

"Yes?" the Chipmunk in the lead replied.

"Why Echidna dragging Rock Dragon following you?"

The Chipmunk looked behind, and grunted in surprise. "He kill it. He want to take it, we don't carry it, it too heavy. Tell him if he want it, he take it. Look like he did," he said, impressed.

"Welcome, Echidna stranger. This our camp. You welcome here, from now on. I leader, Klinok. What your name?" the lead Chipmunk said as he turned all the way to face Kun'nuk'kles.

"I am called Kun'nuk'kles," he replied. "Wizard of the Island of the Gods' Messengers."

"You from Island of Angels?" the boy asked, wide-eyed.

"Angel? What is an Angel?"

"It what we call messengers from gods," Klinok replied.

"Oh, I see. A dialect term. It would also make the name of my home a lot easier to say, I must admit. Well, then, child, yes, I am from the Island of Angels."

The boy's eyes went even wider, and he hid behind the female, who was apparently his mother. "You named Kun'nuk'kles, then? That long name. I call you Kun," Klinok declared.

Kun'nuk'kles blinked. "All right…" he said. "This here's a Rock Dragon, is it? Could you do me a favor, and make something out of it for me? You can have the rest, but I need something from the body, as a trophy."

Klinok nodded, and waved one of the other Chipmunks toward him. "Al'mun, make Kun a…" he said to him, his voice going low so that Kun'nuk'kles could not hear. "Right. You make, he get, we get rest."

Al'mun nodded, and turned to Kun'nuk'kles. "I Al'mun. I make thing from Rock Dragon, you get. We keep rest. You get what I make tonight."

Kun'nuk'kles nodded, and Klinok slapped him on the back heartily. "Very good!" he said as Kun'nuk'kles bent under his friendly blow; apparently the Power of Chaos Green had left him. "Now, time for sleep."

"What?" Kun'nuk'kles said, disbelieving. "But it is barely midmorning!"

"You not know desert. Sleep in day, avoid heat. Hunt in nighttime. That way we live. Have good sleep. Tent for you by dragon," he said, and went into the tent that the woman had come out of earlier.

Kun'nuk'kles sighed, and looked up. It was, indeed, growing hotter. He settled on the sand, and planted his staff in front of him. "Ak'kun leoht. Meterok faunaeth malev'thi rutilim. Sanctuary," he chanted, and the staff pulsed.

A dome appeared above him, of a translucent material, or possibly light. The temperature within it cooled a bit, to his personal comfort level. He didn't like to use this spell, but there wasn't much choice. The desert heat would surely harm him, regardless of how much shade he got. He just didn't have the tolerance levels of the Chipmunks. But still, he didn't like this spell. It messed with local weather patterns, albeit minorly, and it was permanent, at least until he cast it again, somewhere else.

Well, he couldn't leave this place until he had whatever it was that he was going to get out of the Rock Dragon. The tenets of his faith dictated that he had to take something from any animal he killed. And he had to have a use for it. But this gave him the opportunity to examine the disc he had gained. He untied the sack from around his neck, and took out the disc with the flame on it. It shimmered in the odd light of the sanctuary he had cast. "Friend Kun, why you not sleep?" a voice behind him asked.

He turned around, but it was just Klinok. "Oh, I'm just thinking…" he said, but Klinok was ignoring him.

"Ah, I see. You have Barrier Artifact."

"A… wait! I remember where I've seen this sort of thing before! Thanks, Klinok!"

"Um… welcome," Klinok said, somewhat confused.

Kun'nuk'kles ignored him. He was busy focusing on the Barrier Artifact. It was a very useful little thing to have when confronting an enemy: any enemy, really. It would protect you from a single mortal blow, but then, it would leave you open to attack, and could only be used once. In that respect, it was nearly useless. But there was something different about this particular Barrier Artifact… it had that flame engraved on its surface.

Kun'nuk'kles turned back to Klinok, who was still watching him carefully. "You know about the technology of the Ancients, do you?"

Klinok shrugged a bit, and sort of nodded. "Good. What does this flame mean, here?"

He leaned over to inspect it. "Oh, that. That Symbol Flame. Mean Barrier Artifact a Flame Barrier," he explained.

"Flame Barrier?" Kun'nuk'kles asked. "What does that mean?"

"Oh, I explain. Long ago, Ancients make Barrier Artifacts. Artifacts scattered when Ancients died. Sometime, Artifacts appear at random, so there always some. Some few Artifacts exposed, much magic. Some change, become Elemental. Some become Water, protect drowning. Some Lightning, attract gold, other some kind metal. Others Flame, protect lava, fire. Like that, there. No heat get through Flame Barrier."

"Oh, I see. This is much more useful than most Barriers, then?"

"Yes. But Flame, Lightning, they no like water. Disappear if get wet."

"Hmm."

Hey, why haven't I seen any Barrier Artifacts, in our time? If they're randomly generated…

You're not Mobian. It's hard to see them if you aren't.

I see. I suppose that makes sense.

No, it doesn't.

Kun'nuk'kles ignored the watchers, again. They were speaking of things that didn't concern him in the least. But he was learning things that would be of interest to the archaeologists and students of his home. They wouldn't interest many OTHER people, but they'd interest THEM.

This line of thought turned him to thoughts of his wife. By the Tri-fold Spirit, he missed her. He wished he'd never had to leave Minsha, or his son, Shik'kai. He could almost smell her hair, touch her rounded…

And then, the grayness returned.

What happened?

A private moment. We should not intrude in such a thing.

But he is dead. And YOU have all the memories.

Still, it is not good to intrude in the intimate thoughts and memories of others. Such things simply are not Done.

But…

ENOUGH! I am enough of him to decide which memories of his will be shown to you! You are seeing this only by MY blessing! Or have you forgotten?

No. I had not forgotten. I apologize.

As well you should. Let us skip forward to the night, then. The next thing that concerns us occurs then.