A/N: Except of Elvorfiring Greyn and this story I won nothing. Damn! However, if you spot any grammatical errors, let me know about them so I can correct them. And if you feel for it, leave a review, too!

Landing on the solid ground Elvorfiring fell to her kness, unable to stand, and released Deekin from her grip. She hid her face into her palms and begun to sob desperately, unable to stop her tears.

Deekin stood over her sobbing form, confused from the change of his boss. For some time he just watched her and then he silently moved to her side and hugged her. He felt sad for the dwarf.

"Boss?" he asked, unsure of her reaction. She looked up to him. "Yes, Deekin?"

"The... the dwarf mage be truly dead?"

Elvorfiring felt suddenly very tired. All that hours of fighting and the death of her teacher and friend were too much for her. "Yes, Deekin. He's dead."

Deekin looked surprised. "But... when he send us through the portal, he knows he be dead soon? Dwarf mage sacrificed for... Deekin?"

Elvorfiring smiled gently. "Yes, Deekin. He saved us both. Why do you ask? Is that so unbelievable for you?"

Deekin fell silent for a while. When he spoke again, Elvorfiring could feel his sadness. "Deekin... Deekin not knows how to write it to the story about boss now."

"Then write the truth," answered Elvorfiring immediately. "That he died just as he lived - as a hero. And that we will never forget him."

Deekin nodded. "Yup, that sounds good, boss. Deekin writes it like boss said." He paused. "We are elsewhere now and don't know the way back, right? Deekin thinks we very close to the end. He better to have his quill ready."

Elvorfiring stood up and patted his shoulder. "Yes, Deekin. And now hurry, we have to stop Heurodis."

Deekin squeaked. "The evil lady better be close! Deekin needs to write!"

'Yes, Deekin... The evil lady is close... as is her death,' thought with wolfish smile Elvorfiring. Drogan will be avenged and Heurodis will pay.

o.O.o

"Is boss sure we go the right way?" asked Deekin for at least tenth time.

"No, I'm not sure, Deekin," replied Elvorfiring wearily. "I justhope we are going towards Heurodis."

Deekin pouted at his boss and begun to scribe something in his book. Better sooner than later he should finish beginning of his book!

Soon they entered crooked way through the rocks. The way was full of strange statues.

"Wow! Boss, boss - there's an ugly man! And there - there's someone else!" exclaimed excited Deekin. Elvorfiring just gulped and wordlessly gestured him to move forward. She didn't like this.

o.O.o

"Deekin thinks that's the evil lady there," pointed Deekin suddenly.

Elvorfiring stopped dead in her tracks and breathed deeply. Hour of vengeance finally came. Soon she was warily walking towards the hooded figure.

Surprisingly, Heurodis turned towards her and Elvorfiring saw how Heurodis smiled under her cape.

"You are comming without your master, as I expected," said she. "Do you have any name?"

Elvorfiring cletched her teeth. "I'm Elvorfiring Greyn and I'm here to stop you!"

Heurodis looked unmoved. "Oh no, you are not. But what's the creature with you? A... a kobold?"

Deekin growled. "Deekin bes the bard of the great hero and he bes here to kill you!" Suddenly he lost all his confidence and added: "But he bes here for the next generations, first..."

Heurodis didn't seem she payed any attention to Deekin anymore when she turned back to Elvorfiring. "Well, it seems that we can't work together, can we?" And before Elvorfiring could say anything, Heurodis continued: "But no matter. You are here and IT is with you. Allow me to take down my cape..."

Elvorfiring, who finally draw out the mythalar and wanted to break it by throwing it down jumped in front of Deekin. But before she could drop the gem, Heurodis took her cape off.

And in the next moments Elvorfiring or Deekin couldn't do anything. Heurodis made statues out of them. She quickly took the gem of of Elvorfiring stony fingers and threw back her head, laughing madly.

Undrentide will be flying again!

o.O.o.O.o

His whole body was aching. Well, being trapped in the valley and being half-buried under the falling stones... it usually makes you sore.

He heard someone's groans. 'That's the old man who showed me the way to the ruins!' Feeling slightly stupid he asked: "Are you allright?"

He heard some chuckling. "I'm still alive - does it count?"

Aarin felt relieved. "Yeah, it does. Are you able to move?"

"A bit," replied the voice of the old man. "The stones inhibit much moving."

'Damn,' thought Aarin, 'he's most probably wounded and with no healer here... well, I'm afraid it won't end nicely...'

They fell silent with just the sounds of their breathing breaking the silence. Then Aarin spoke again.

"You know my name already. Would you give me yours in return?"

The other man just silently laughed. "I'm Garrick. I suppose I have been here for too long now but you know - the ruins were just calling for me to come. And so I obeyed and left my friends - and Drogan amongst them. I quite missed my friends - at least the ones I had between Harpers. And by the way - why did you look after Elvorfiring?"

'Guess I asked for it,' thought Aarin. After all, Garrick trusted him enough for telling him his past. And trust asks for trust.

"I've met her while the Neverwinter was looking for the source of Wailing Death - surely have you heard about it?"

"Yeah, I have. This oasis isn't so separate from the rest of the wold as it seems," sounded sardonic answer. "What happened next?"

"I fell in love with her through the crisis," said Aarin simply.

Garrick fell silent for a moment. Finally he asked: "Well, then how it comes that you aren't together?"

Aarin almost groaned. The fateful question was here. "That's because of Nasher. They argued almost all the time from the city saving." He smiled sadly. "You know, when she was searching the Words of Power, artifacts we needed, we had a talk about Aribeth - woman, who's lover, Fenthick, was hanged for betrayal. And Aribeth betrayed the city, which firstly betrayed her, as well. I was scared that I and Elvorfiring will end just like them. Having to choose between your love and your duty is hard. And Elvorfiring wanted to spare me of this - so when her arguments with Nasher begun to be unbearable, she left."

Firstly was the only answer just silence. Then his companion said: "Well, forgive me the personal question - but she's an elf, right? Why aren't you already bonded?"

Aarin felt his cheeks burning. "We... we never..."

"... slept together? Is that what you want to say?" continued Garrick. "Well, it's nothing you should be ashamed of. Although... if you were bonded, you would be at least sure about her well-being."

"Tell me 'bout that," grunted Aarin. "But we wanted to learn each other better before it."

"Hey, do I look like I'm criticising your decision?" answered Garrick back.

"Since I don't you, I can't say you otherwise," replied Aarin. "By the way, do you think that the Ao's faithfuls will be looking for us?"

"I hope so - but you can never be sure about them."

As soon as Garrick said that, they heard someone's calling. The people from oasis was looking for them after all.

A/N: Guess that this chapter answers your question, right, Cheshire? ;)