I've had this chapter done for a while, but I wanted to let it sit and rest so I could go once over and catch any lingering mistakes. I THINK I have them all. But please tell me if you find any.

Gweled

…

"I'm sorry, friend, but I'm not going to spend the night buried alive." Lewis was staring at rocks, waving some sort of technology over them, then staring some more.

The argument was hours old now, and for Simon, an exercise in patience. The human had no idea what sort of danger lurked out there, and only one night wasn't enough to really school him in that fact. It would be safe, and smart, to dig in and make a sizable burrow to live in. The dirt was soft, and the rock underneath whispered of riches untouched. He craved to go down, deep, and find the glitter of ore. He knew he could be half way to bed rock by sun down.

"Well I don't want to live in a shed." Simon kicked at one of the surface rocks. It was small, grey, and useless. He just couldn't see why Lewis was so fascinated with them. They held nothing of value. No gold, no diamond, nothing.

"We can make it bigger." Lewis dropped one stone and scooped up another. Then, wearily, he sighed. "This isn't working."

"What isn't?" Simon inched closer, though he was still too upset to just come rushing up to the human. Logic seemed entirely lost on this sun loving creature.

"My scanner." Lewis crouched down and tossed the rock aside. "I can't see more than five, maybe ten feet with it. 'll never be able to figure out what's jamming the communications at this rate."

Simon looked the odd tech over and frowned. The morning long over, and his stomach some what satisfied with a few apples and a potato he'd found while mucking about – not nearly enough food, but it would have to do for now - and he was eager to get moving to find a better place to live. Lewis was stuck on his need to 'explore' and 'understand' the world. He wasn't getting anything accomplished though, and he was still almighty distracted by every little noise or movement.

"Well, no matter, we can see farther than that with our eyes." Simon offered, keeping his frustration in tight check. He itched to up and haul the human into the water, just to snap him to attention, and maybe get a well needed laugh, but they really needed to figure out something to do and do it. Anything, he didn't care.

"It doesn't see, it scans." Lewis shoved the thing in to his pocket – still a strange and rather risqué idea that would have really sent the old dwarf elders in to convulsions - before looking up with a sort of dejected sadness that drained almost all of Simon's childlike eagerness to dunk his new friend into the nearest pond.

Almost.

"Why don't you have a drink of water?" He asked, looking for any thing large enough and wet enough to do the job. "It'll clear your mind, and, you know, uh, you can try to figure out if you want to sleep in the shack without me, or come to your senses and dig a proper burrow."

"I'm not a prairie dog!" Lewis snapped.

"I'm not sure what that is, but it sounds delicious." Simon stood, gave the world around them a roaming glance, and picked a direction he was going to go. "Lets go that way, OK? Along the hill side that has that spooky cave in it. Maybe we'll find something good there."

Lewis at last stood too, and nodded, resigned. "Maybe I'll have more luck there."

"Excellent!" Finally! Simon started out, glad to be moving again.

...

For someone with such short legs Simon was a lot faster than Lewis could have ever guessed. In moments the dwarf was already a good stone's throw ahead, and picking up speed. "Wait!" Lewis called. "Don't..." He scrambled up a slope, watching Simon shrink in the distance. "Don't leave me behind!"

Simon stopped, a bright spot of red fluff and pointy little horns, on an emerald hill top, framed in the crisp blue of the sky. "WHAT?" His voice boomed over the landscape. Then words followed, thin and untranslatable.

Lewis hurried to catch up. "Wait for me!"

Simon remained, tapping his foot, and calling down with chipped, stilted sounds. Lewis couldn't place the dialect, but he knew he'd heard it before, somewhere. Only when he was with in range did his communicator start to filter them.

"...because it'll be night and who knows what's going to spawn all the way out here!" Simon huffed, blowing out his whiskers as he did so.

"Sorry. I just can't keep up with you. I don't know this land well enough yet. What if the rocks explode or something?"

A bushy red eyebrow lifted at that. "I've never seen rocks that explode, only creepers." He grinned a little. "Oh, and TnT. I love that stuff."

"You do?" Lewis asked, surveying the land new that they were up high. He could see the little shack in the distance, looking small and abandoned. "Shouldn't we go back for the crafting table and wood?"

"Naw." Simon scratched under his beard. "We'll leave it in case we need to come back this way. You never know. If we don't find anything you can always make the shed bigger."

Lewis nodded. "I suppose." Though he really didn't plan on spending one more night here. He looked down at Simon, the crew was going to love him. "I am keen on getting high enough to get away from what ever is jamming my signal. We could work on making the shed taller today."

Simon grabbed his wrist. "No." He pulled impatiently, like a child. "You'll fall to your death trying something like that, and we don't have time."

Lewis allowed himself to be dragged on. "I won't fall."

Simon glanced up at him from under his helmet. "You fell from the stars."

"Yeah but..."

Simon gave his wrist a sudden yank, silencing him, then he let him go. "Come on, come on. We really haven't got all day."

"Wait." Lewis reached in to his pocket and pulled out the spare communicator. Carefully he prodded at it until he had it turned on and set to counter any unnecessary feed back. "Hold still."

Simon stood stiff, his eyes narrow and locked on to the small device. "What is it?"

Lewis knelt and looked over what little the dwarf had on, searching for a place to attach the badge. He thought about giving Simon a simple explanation, but decided against it for the sake of the ever looming Prime Directive, and blurted out the first thing to come to mind. "Magic."

Simon gave him a silly grin. "Oh?"

"It's complicated." Lewis added, and found, under all of that beard, a strap that connected the dwarf's wooden spaulders together. He pressed the communicator against the thick leather until it chirped, signaling it had accepted the new host.

"You don't know how it works." Simon pulled the red hair away to peer down and examine it. "Do you?"

"I do to." Lewis leaned back on his heals. "I just can't tell you."

"Why?" Simon dropped his beard. "Is it to hard to explain?" His grin got bigger. "Or do you think maybe I'd steal the tech and sell it to millions of dwarfs and make a huge profit, and then be the richest dwarf in the land and. . ."

"Simon." Lewis chuckled. "No." He stood and found himself grinning too. "No I just, I'm not supposed to tell you to much about where I come from, it's the rules."

"Well can you tell me what it can do? I am wearing it now, and maybe I should know if it like..." He made a face as he thought. "Triggers an explosion... or something?"

"You said the only thing to explode were those green creep things. And they've been exploding long before I got here." Still, he had a point. "But," he amended, "I'll tell you what feats of magic it preforms."

…

Simon felt like he'd been given a small strange treasure. There were only two in the world, and it had been very shiny. He also felt a bit glad that Lewis had found a way to hide it, as you never knew what thieving dwarfs lurked in the shadows of the night. He'd heard about the surface walkers who lived to prey upon the people of the sun, and steel their things. Another story the elders like to tell.

"We don't really speak the same language." Lewis said. "This magically translates what I say and makes it so you can understand me, and what you say so I can understand you, too."

"But you already have one." Simon pointed out.

"I do." Lewis touched it with a small smile. "It doesn't have that much range, though, a few meters, that's it. But with two we can be anywhere in the world and they'll be able to talk to each other."

"Anywhere?" Simon found that a little hard to fathom, but then again you didn't ask a man from the stars for credibility. Jouten tended to have fantastic, though true stores to tell. Never mind that Lewis swore he was just a human, he was from the stars. That was enough.

"Most probably."

There had been so many times when something like that would have saved lives. Trapped dwarfs could have called for help, and been found.

Though a smart dwarf kept with in range of another's aura, and watched for the flickers of others. No matter where you were if you could sense another's presence you'd be able to tunnel to them. But the dark allure of the dig could distract you and pull you away.

The device felt oddly comforting. He'd never really be apart from this human now. As safe as that might have been he could think of a few drawbacks. "Even when I'm in the bath?"

"Do you bathe with your..." Lewis hesitated, and looked him over, "Shoulder armor on?"

"I don't know how humans do things, but I bathe in the nude." Simon replied, tilting his nose up a bit.

"Well." Lewis touched his communicator. "While they are water proof, they do need to be close enough to the host to work properly. Mine worked for both of us as long as you were close enough to me, but once you got to far away, about where I couldn't hear you any more, it couldn't really hear you either, so I had no idea what you were saying to me."

That made sense. "What about text?" Simon asked, recalling the small computer they had played with the night before. "I saw words on that, but I couldn't read them, would this translate them for me?"

"No. it only works with spoken words. I could probably get my computer to show text in your language if I had a sample to scan from, but there's no way I could read any thing of yours. I'd have to learn to speak your language first, then learn to read it."

"I can teach you." Simon offered. "If we had any books, that is."

"I don't really plan on being here that long." Lewis glanced up and had that lost look again.

"Ah, right." This connection was temporary, and Simon found himself just a touch sad about that. Once more he turned his attention to the dirt. It was always there, at least.

Lewis looked down, and forced a very thin smile. "They don't know I'm here yet, so there is a little time. It might be a good idea if I learned some of your basic words, just in case."

Simon reached under and felt the cold little bit of metal. Justincase. That was a good idea. "Just how strong are these things?"

"What do you mean?"

Simon looked back up at the human and tried to hide a growing smile. "I mean what sort of damage can they take?"

Lewis frowned a little at that. "Why?"

Simon wondered where to start. "Well..."

…

Until that day Lewis had never heard of so many strange ways to die. He'd never considered lava a big threat before, and never ever thought that animals would walk up to you and just explode. There was no evolutionary reason for that. At all. What was the point of exploding? It didn't help your species any, and it didn't help in mating like some sea-based life forms might have tried.

And the lava. Yes, he'd seen if fair share of lava, but never to the extent Simon spoke of it. Pools and lakes, and rivers of it, all over the under world where dwarfs lived. Lava existed underground on Earth, true, but you never dug so deep it was a danger. If you saw lava on the surface you tended to run away because a volcano was erupting, which might kill you, but the big danger from those were the ash clouds.

Pompeii was a vivid reminder of that deadly power, but hardly any one had died from lava that they knew about.

As fast as Simon was going Lewis found he was able to keep up this time, partly spurred on by a new wash of anxiety. He also suspected Simon was going slower for him, which was kind, but sort of made him feel coddled in a way he wasn't sure he liked. He was a commander, after all, and one that ought to be leading.

Never the less they were moving at a solid clip and Lewis didn't have much time to look around. So it was with quite a bit of astonishment that he took in the world when they did stop. There was, as far as he could tell, no pollution. The hills gave way to fractured crags that towered in to the crisp air, like sleeping giants. Clouds drifted softly in the blue above, over and beyond the cliffs, casting blurry shadows over the land. The shadows slid along verdant prairie grasses, and tumbled over the little foothills, and the foot hills in turn gave way to even more cliffs.

Nestled between peaks was a cave, yawning lazily in the bright noon light. It looked solid and sturdy, calm and sheltered.

Simon spotted it to, and for a long moment neither spoke. Then Simon started to descend towards it. "That looks cool." He glanced back. "I like this cave, what about you, Lewis? I like it."

"It's perfect." Lewis slowly picked his way down, careful not to slip on the more jagged rocks jutting up. "It fits both our criteria, any way."

Simon reached the cave's mouth first, and stopped to look up at it. Lewis caught up to him and craned his neck as well. It was not so big that it could not be closed off and fortified, but it wasn't small either. A dark smear graced the ceiling just in side it's mouth.

"Oh, coal, we need that, badly." Simon walked around with his head tilted back. "I'll make a tower and dig it out, you pick it up, all right?"

"All right."

Simon pulled wood out from his inventory and started to stack it in a ram shackle 'tower'. It looked sort of like scaffolding, but erected by following the pictorial instructions as drawn by a six year old.

"Are you sure that's safe?"

Simon glanced down from his little structure. "Why wouldn't it be?"

Oh so, so many reasons. "No reason." Lewis moved closer and grabbed it, willing it to stay stable. "Be quick?"

"Don't worry so much, I know what I'm doing." He pulled a pick out and started to chip away at the vein. Small chunks of dark coal started to rain down. Some fell straight on to Lew's head.

"Hey, ow!" He backed away. "Watch it."

"Helmet." Simon taped the point of his pick to his own helmet. "Why do you think I have one?"

"In all fairness, I've only just met you, you could just have an eclectic sense of fashion."

"Eclectic?" Simon glanced down. With a frown he pointed the pick down towards Lewis. "I'm not the one in skin tight bright red and black cloths, walking around without any armor."

"You don't have armor." Lewis huffed.

"Helmet." Simon tapped his head gear again. "Shoulder pads." he added. Then he turned back and started to chip more coal out of the cave.

Lewis gave the falling dark chunks wide berth. "Well, what about protection from those creepers?"

"I'll make more armor." Simon yanked out the last of the dark stuff, and then started to dismantle the tower from under his feet. "You need a set too."

As hard as he tried Lewis couldn't help himself from worrying over the way the tower swayed and bucked under Simon's less than gentle attempts to tear it down. He felt immense relief when the dwarf was finally settled down on the grass.

"You didn't pick this stuff up?" Simon asked.

"Oh... Uh..." Lewis chuckled. "Sorry."

Simon shook rock chips from his hair. "S'OK, we just have to hurry now, all right? Before those creepers come and try to blow the beards off us both?"

Scolded, Lewis turned his attention to the dark chunks of coal and started to scoop them up. "Right."

"And when you are done I'll show you how to make torches." Simon added, sounding just a bit patronizing. "Till then I'm going to work on sealing these openings up..."

Simon continued to talk about everything that needed to be done, and run about as he spoke. Lewis watched him, while cleaning up the dropped ore.

It was going to be another long night, Lewis suspected. He'd find away home, just, not today. Tomorrow maybe.

...

The cave was secure, or mostly so, and Simon felt a firm satisfaction from his and the humans handy work. Lewis had learned his lessons more quickly today than he had the day before, and because of that they had gotten a lot more done in a shorter amount of time. It helped that the red clad man wasn't panicking like he had been, so his mind was clear enough to focus. Though he looked about as spent as a wood pick in an obsidian pit. Dark half circles were hanging from under his eyes, and he was starting to slow down. It was good they were almost done as it would be dark soon, and with Simon's stomach still mostly empty, and Lewis dragging his eye lids, the progress they had made was vital.

The communicator had helped as well. The cave was larger than it looked from the outside and they would have had to do a lot of shouting without the second little device. Besides that, there was an opening in the top of it that went up to blue sky, like the cave had been a volcano once, but had died out ages ago. They had both climbed up the opening at one point or another, and neither would have heard a thing from each other at that distance.

Simon dusted his hands off on his pants and looked up to where Lewis was putting the last of the roof in place. It was crooked, and constructed from the roughest planks. Simon could excuse the sloppy work on the humans tired state, it had been rather trying for them both, but still, this sort of crooked had to be forced in to place. It was like Lewis had fought the natural flow of energy, and just rammed things here and there for no reason. It looked hideous, and unstable. If any thing landed on it from the crags above it would shatter. "Ah, that looks. . ."

"It's good, isn't it?" Lewis asked with a touch of pride.

"Well." Crooked. Simon felt his fingers twitch. How could Lewis not see how crooked it was? How could he not feel it? The energy that flowed through the stone, up the cave and drifted in to the sky got tangled up on all of that snarled, jagged, crooked wood. The energy twisted and writhed, unable to escape the wooden snaggles. You would have to be dead to not see or feel that. And dead dead, not just dead tired. "It's a bit..."

Lewis stopped and looked back. "What? It's almost sun down and it'll do for tonight."

Simon took a breath and took in the whole of the wooden construction. It looked like drunken worms had done the job. A part of him really wanted to see the mangled slats of wood explode. Some TnT would have done the job nicely enough. A creeper would do the trick, unfortunately, and that was also a part of the problem. It wouldn't do for the night in Simon's opinion, and they were running short on time.

"Move."

Lewis got down from the little ladder he had built – that was straight as an arrow Simon noted with a roll of his eyes – and stood blinking sleepily in agitated defiance. "What's wrong with it?"

Simon didn't reply, but climbed up and started to rip the wood down.

"Hey!" Lewis squawked.

"Sorry, but it's just not going to do."

"Why?" Lewis circled the ladder, looking up and rubbing at his knuckles. "I've got at least a dozen slivers from that project. Leave it be, Simon."

"It's crooked!" He retorted. "You can't just leave it like this!"

Lewis said nothing, but one of his eyebrows ascended towards his hair line.

"You can't see it?" Simon asked, pausing for a moment. Maybe Lewis was only half dead, like a zombie? He had said that he'd some how gotten his bones swapped out for an archer's. That didn't really register with Simon at all, and it certainly didn't bother him as much as the ceiling did.

"I guess, but what does it matter, it'll hold."

But it wouldn't. Not... not crooked. Simon gave it a sturdy tug and found that yes, yes it was quite solid. "But. . ."

"Simon." Lewis's voice was suddenly a bit more weary. "Do crooked things bother you a lot?"

Simon glared down at the man. "Don't they bother everybody? I mean LOOK at it!"

The look he received was one of tired tolerance, but the wood was ignored. "Simon. . ."

"No, I'm fixing this!" He turned and resumed his task of ripping the wood down, but found he was having a tough time of it, being as short as he was, and it was tightly wedge into itself despite being so misaligned. "I just need..." he reefed on one plank, "...to make sure..." for a moment nothing moved, "...it's going to be strong enough!"

The wood snapped and his balance shifted. He tried to pull back, but the ladder shot out from under him, and for a moment there was nothing between himself and the cave floor.

"SIMON!"

Fear slammed into him before the grassy floor could, then two arms snatched him from the air. He landed hard, but painlessly on top of Lewis.

Neither moved for a moment, then Lewis wiggled a little. "Simon, are you OK?"

"I don't like crooked things, Lewis, they bother me so." He managed, feeling his heart thunder about like a stampeding cow.

Lewis wiggled a little under him. "Um..."

"What?" Frustrated with the whole situation, and still a bit spooked from the fall, Simon's pride stung. He turned to Lewis, not ready to thank a man who couldn't see the chaos he'd caused. Simon wouldn't have fallen if the human had just done the job right.

"You don't happen to have OCD do you?" Lewis asked, his brows were doing amazing jousting movements towards each other, fueled by concern and just a bit of consternation.

"That's not something you really ought toask on the first date, is it?" Simon retorted back, giving his own eyebrows an entirely different work out and feeling a bit of satisfaction at the burn.

"That's not what I mean!" The human's cheeks turned an amazing color red. It almost matched his uniform. "It stands for Obsessive Compulsive Disorder not. . . not whatever you are thinking!" Lewis ripped himself free and got up to his knees, leaving Simon to fall flat on his back before him. Above them both the roof looked like a hastily jammed together jigsaw puzzle with a nasty little hole torn from the center.

Simon bit back a snicker and propped him self up on his elbows. His pride was salvaged, even if the roof was still an eyesore.

"Oh you are awful!" Lewis chided.

Simon glanced past Lewis and the roof, and saw the sky was blushing too. "I am not obsessed." Simon looked back at Lewis.

Lewis stood, gathered up the fallen wood, walked over and picked up the ladder, and reset his work station. "We'll fix it in the morning."

"But..." Simon sat up, glanced up, and cringed.

"No." He ascended towards his mess and started jamming things back in to place haphazardly. Some how he looked even more worn out.

Simon just couldn't watch the debacle, so he searched the floor for something else to do. There wasn't much, really. They had made a furnace, lit the place with torches, and even picked out places to sleep. What they could do for the day had been done, more or less.

"I'm sorry." The words floated down rather suddenly, and unannounced.

Simon twisted around and looked up. "What? What for? You saved my butt from hitting the ground."

Lewis waved around the roof with a yawn. "I can see it now, it's really a mess, isn't it?"

"Oh don't draw attention to it!" Simon stood, finally, and forced his attention to the ground. He could dig, that would be good, and maybe find some thing worth while down below like gold. It had been months since he'd had real gold in his hands. He rather missed it.

"It's just so... wavy and squiggly." There was a small laugh in his words.

Simon ignored him and stomped off to where his 'bed' was. It wasn't much more than a pile of grass, but it was larger than what he'd had the night before, and the night before that, and it was safe.

"It almost takes skill to get the ceiling this bad, Simon!" Lewis called down to him.

"I'll kick that ladder right out from under you." Simon huffed. He turned his attention to a thin blade of grass that looked more like a very small cat's whisker than a plant.

Foot steps approached him. "Sorry Simon." Lewis chuckled. "I know it's not some thing you can really help, lots of humans have OCD too." He plopped down on his own grass pile. "They couldn't stand how horribly, wretchedly, twisty that is either."

"You are doing this because I teased you, aren't you?" Simon asked, glaring.

"Hmmm..." Lewis placed his hands behind his head and leaned back. His eyes started to slide shut.

Simon grabbed a hand full of grass and tossed it at him. "I said one thing!" The grass exploded and went every where. "You are being mean!"

"Sorry! Sorry!" Lewis shook his head and laughed. The grass would not leave his hair or beard, and he looked some what like a sheep that had gone for a roll.

"You're such a brat." Simon chuckled. "Good luck sleeping with all of that itchy grass."

"I'll manage." Lewis said, but he started to pick himselfclean any way.

"You'll be up all night, scratching!" Simon retorted, imagining the sight with a grin. Lewis may have been exhausted, but one more sleepless night wouldn't do him in, not when they had this sort of shelter.

"Hey." Lewis looked at him, a small smile twisting his lips.

"What?"

"The wood isn't bothering you right this moment is it?" He gave Simon a tired, yet satisfied smile.

Simon's eyes widened. It wasn't. "Trickery. Mind games!"

"Psychology." Lewis corrected, stifling another yawn. "Child's psychology, to be exact." He looked smug and self satisfied.

Simon scooped up as much grass as he could in both hands and stood. He'd show the newb who could be more smug! "I am the kid? ME?"

Lewis ducked away. "No don't!"

Too late. Simon dropped his load and watched with immense satisfaction as the grass covered Lewis' full body. The human shook and twisted and flailed, but the grass clung tight.

"SIMON!"

Simon plopped down on his thiner bed, satisfied. They could fix every thing in the morning, and he wouldn't be able to see it while he slept. He rolled over and closed his eyes. Lewis was right, but he didn't have to admit that. "Good luck with all of that itching, friend."

The only answer he got was a lot of spitting and grumbled cursing.

…

Dark, so very dark, and solid. He was walking along a thin ledge, looking down over the others. So many dark beards. No one had seen him sneaking out. They had light skin, like little maggots, pale on white. He rubbed dirt over his arms, hiding how dark his skin had become.

He inched along the ledge further, a hollow feeling eating him up and gnawing at his bones. Had he been caught... no, he had no idea what they'd do to him. He'd never been out before. Not in the day time. Never in the day time.

It had been so, so warm. He never thought it could feel so good to be that warm. Only lava could warm you like that, he'd thought.

Someone was coming. A dark beard and little chipped flint eyes. He hurried to get away, not daring to be caught this close to the surface. But the looming shadow was coming closer. He tried to run, but the ledge gave out, and opened up to the world below. He peered over the edge. It was so far down.

Closer, the shadow was coming closer.

There was a platform, not far away. He could try to jump. He backed up to get a little distance, a little speed, but then. . .

The shadow loomed over him. Something warm, wet and sticky shot into his ear.

Simon shot straight up with a shriek, slammed in to something black and white, stumbled, and fell back into bed. The huge dwarf cave was gone, only a lonely, crooked-roofed, surface cave remained.

Behind him he heard Lewis give out his own startled yelp and then there was a lot of crashing sounds and sleepy words of confusion.

Lumbering above him, licking her nose and looking all too self-satisfied, was the pregnant cow.

"How in the hell did you get in here!?" Simon roared, or it would have been a roar had he not been shaking so badly.

"Simon." Lewis whined from somewhere behind him. "I thought it was a creeper!" Lewis staggered into view, tossed an arm over the cow's neck, and pressed his face into her side. "Warm." He still had grass tangled up in his messy hair.

"Oh, wake up all the away or go back to bed." Simon snapped. He wrung out his rather sticky, wet ear.

Lewis lifted his head and blinked at him sleepily. "How did she get in?"

"I just asked that." Simon got to his feet, found his knees a little wobbly, and snatched a torch up. "I'll look around the walls, you get her out of here."

"M'kay." He leaned back against her, and started to sag.

"LEWIS!"

"Sorry!" He shook himself and started to tug at her shoulder. "Come on, cows go outside."

She turned, saw all of the grass in his hair, and made a slurping lick up one side of his head, and down the other. That woke him up more completely, and he shot backwards. "Oh, Stop!"

She took his shout as a sort of offer, rather than rejection, and stepped up to him again for another pass with her tongue.

He shoved her away. "Ew, Simon! Help me!"

"Stop making out with her." Simon stepped up to the wall and found a place just big enough for everything in the world to have gotten in. Exasperated, and disappointed with the human's handy work, he turned and growled, "You did this side, you fix it."

Lewis scrubbed at his now wet face and tried once more to prod the cow into moving. She ignored his efforts and instead made another grab for his hair. Reluctantly he inched away, but not so far she still wouldn't be enticed.

Simon watched, bemused, despite the fact that he was still a little rattled. "Atta boy, flirt with the ladies."

"Shut up." Lewis stepped back. The monochrome beast followed.

"Your girlfriend is a cow, Lewis." Simon snickered. "And a rather promiscuous one at that, by the looks of things."

"Shut. Up."

The cow licked his beard.

"Or is that little one yours?"

"Oh, you just wait till I get back, Simon!" Lewis hissed. While rubbing spit off of his chin he managed to get her over to the opening.

Simon grabbed some spare wood and leaned against the still incomplete wall. "You two have fun!"

The glare he got was one of the most vile he'd seen in a while. It was also hilarious. He started to laugh, and found that he couldn't quite make the boards line up like how he liked them to, and decided that just for tonight, like the roof, things could be a little crooked.

From outside the shelter the cow lowed and Lewis yelped.

…...

Simon was snoring so strongly Lewis could feel it through the ground. It didn't really bother him, and truth be told he was one of those sleepers who could lie down next to a railroad track with freight trains rolling past and not wake up. It was a skill one learned when one occasionally found themselves sleeping on the front line of combat zones, as he had now and then.

This wasn't exactly a war zone, despite the roaming undead at night, because as far as he knew no organized group was actually combating the monsters. The dwarfs didn't have to deal with it under ground, did they? And Simon had said there were humans out there? That he himself was part human?

His own bones started to itch again, for not other reason than it was dark, as far as he could tell. And not just dark outside, it was dark inside too. He could sleep with noise, but the lights were a little two bright, so he'd taken many of them down. Not all of them, Simon had forbidden it.

The darkness could invite the mobs, he'd said, so Lewis had left a number of the lights up, but only on the walls, near the center of the room it was almost pitch black.

Agitated he got up, rubbed the sleep from his eyes, and made his way over to the crafting bench by feel. He reached in to his pocket and pulled his scanner out, then turned it on. It's range was still limited, but it could detect the wooden thing before him. He scanned it with every setting, and every frequency he could and found nothing interesting. It was wood and that was it. Well, wood with some interesting looking scrawly marks over it Simon said were supposed to help, but other than that, nothing.

Some of the straw was still stuck to his beard and hair, and much of that was matted down with horrible dry cow slime. It was starting to get itchy. He scratched at it, absentmindedly, as he scanned the bench once more. He failed to notice that the snoring had stopped.

"Lewis?"

"Yeah?" He turned and squinted through the dark.

"What are you doing? You should be sleeping." A dark on dark shadow sat up, and moved around, just nearly visible.

"You threw straw in my hair and it's itchy now." Lewis replied, trying to sound irritated. His voice came out more of a flat whine though, and he had the ridiculous urge to kick something for it.

Simon chuckled. "Oh right. I thought the cow took care of that."

In truth she had gotten the worst of it out. "Not enough." He lied, and turned back to his scans.

"Still haven't answered my question."

Leis sighed, tired, and not up for a fight he didn't have to be in. "I don't understand how this thing works."

"You brought it here." Simon shifted around on his makeshift bed, causing all kinds of scratchy noises.

"No." Lewis turned his scanner off and shoved it in to his pocket. "The crafting table." Without the light from his tech the room seemed vastly darker than it had been.

He heard Simon sigh. "It's rune magic."

Runes. Lewis dragged his hand along the bench's rough surface and felt the little carvings in the side. "Runes as in writing?"

"Yeah, sort of." More shifting and scratching. "Come to bed and forget about it."

"I'm not bothering you all the way over on the other side of the cave, am I?" It was hard to believe he could have made a noise loud enough to penetrate Simon's own snoring to wake him up. His little light couldn't have been enough either, not this far away.

"Your not all the way over on the other side, I can see you in the middle of the room!"

Ridiculous, Lewis thought. "No. It's too dark in here. Unless dwarfs can see in the dark?"

"Not that much better than a human that I know of, but I don't have to see you." He replied, sounding much more awake now.

"How can you see me and not see me at the same time?"

"Gweled, Lewis." Simon replied.

Lewis waited for a while to see if that word would be translated by his communicator, but it didn't go through. "I still don't understand."

There was an explosive sigh from the dark, and more shuffling scratchy noises. "I can see your energy, it's almost like you have your name just glowing up above your head. But you don't see it like torch light, you just...I don't knowhow to explain it other than you know it's there."

Lewis took a moment to absorb the new, and rather unexpected, information. Was it an Aura? Was it like his shipmate's empathy? Or maybe, as he'd considered earlier, it was like qi. The Chinese believed in a life energy that flowed through almost everything, and that life energy could be harnessed, and they called it qi. Science had once thought that sort of thing was superstition and nonsense, but then one spoiled alien child had nearly ruined a star ship's crew on a whim of thought, and humanity took a long, deep look at the plausibilities.

They hadn't been prepared for the horrible power of some of the creatures that possessed this sort of energy, but at least most of them had a sense of humor. If one had humor then one tended to have empathy, or something like it, and few people had been hurt.

The key word there was 'few'. There had been casualties.

"Lewis?" Simon prodded from the inky darkness.

"Runes and an aura?"

"More or less."

This information was like looking down a rabbit's hole and finding wonderland. It made sense in a weird sort of way, but unless you already knew all the rules you didn't know what any of the things you found meant. And you didn't know what could be dangerous, like what playing cards was supposed to be what by looking at the back, or who's honor to defend based on that. You could have your head offed if you did the wrong thing or spoke for the wrong person, but you didn't know what was wrong to avoid in the first place. Then it was too late and everything was irreparable. The queen of hearts had your skull on a silver platter.

He couldn't help but shiver.

More than ever he was glad Simon had shown up when he had. Lewis was sure he'd have been dead by now a dozen times over. Every thing was strange, new, and he was loath to admit again that he was frightened by it all. "I don't see an aura around you."

Footsteps sounded out, and Lewis could just make out Simon's form coming closer. "One more time, give me your hands."

"Why my hands?" He asked, not sure if he really trusted the situation or not.

"Because we work with our hands, so that's what we got'ta learn to use." Simon replied flatly.

Lewis reached his hands out reluctantly. "OK."

He felt Simon take hold and grip tight. "There are basically two kinds of magic: rune magic, like on the bench and other things we dwarfs make, and seidr magic. We don't use seidr magic if we don't have too."

"Why?" Lewis asked, feeling his hands warm at an astonishing rate. He could feel the hair spiking all over his arms, like static electricity was building up.

"Because it's connected to the Vanir, the gods."

"I thought the gods were the Aesir..." History lessons long forgotten and gathering dust stirred to life in Lewis's mind, stopping the sentence short. This was viking lore, straight out of the prose Eddna. "Oh, two houses of gods, right?"

"Yeah." The warmth from Simon's hands peaked and stayed at one temperature. "See, the dwarfs don't worship them anymore than they would us, because we share the rune magic evenly. The Aesir have even asked for our help from time-to-time, or so the legend goes. But the Vanir are a lot less friendly. Basically they are spoiled, over-powered brats, who try to get what they want when they want it, and think nothing of the consequence's. The seidr-kona use the Vanir's magic."

"The what?" Lewis asked, trying to keep it all straight in his head.

"Um... witches." Simon gave his hands a tug. "OK, this is going to be tricky. Close your eyes, and then tell me what you see."

Lewis closed his eyes and the cave became more dark, if that was possible. "The back of my eyelids." He replied, honestly. And then he felt just how tired he was, knowing that he ought to be sleeping. The back of his eyelids were a very welcomed sight.

"And?" Simon prompted. "Look, but, feel too."

Lewis tried to look and feel, but he just didn't know how to go about doing either. His hands felt warm, and his eyes saw dark. A lot of dark, and the normal little flickers of white you some times saw when your eyes were dark. "I don't know Simon." He finally sighed. "I think I'm too tired for this."

"You're fine."

Lewis frowned at that. He really was tired. Tired and now tingly, like someone was rubbing a balloon over his hair. He expected some sort of shock followed by Simon yelling 'got you', or something like that.

"OK, hold on." Simon shifted and made a grumbling sound. "It's been a while since I've done this for any of the kids."

"You taught kids a lot of stuff then?" Lewis asked, remembering he'd mentioned it the day before during the crafting lessons.

"I'd help my aunt with them now and then. Now hush." He gave Lewis's hands a sudden rough tug.

More warmth, and a slow sort of itch that spread in to his fingers and right up his arms. Then all at once his bones were crawling again. Panic struck and he pulled back, but Simon held him tight.

"No! Let me go LET ME GO!" He twisted, and grit his – it's - teeth.

"Stop!" The word was almost roared.

Startled by the sudden volume Lewis froze. He refused to whimper in terror. Commanders don't whimper.

"What's wrong?" There was a mix of concern and exasperation in Simon's voice. His normal, human sounding voice.

"My... my bones." Allright, Lewis cringed, socommandersdowhimper. But at least Simon was the only one who had heard him.

"Hmm." Was all Simon said.

Lewis refused to let the fear from the first morning swamp him, but he had to fight it with everything he had. "What's happening to me?"

"Your energy. You got a bit of ..." Simon stopped mid-sentence.

Lewis felt strong thumbs rub all over the back of his hands. "Simon?"

"Never mind, it's not that bad."

"What?"

Simon shifted, one of his thumbs still rubbing little circles. "I got it. Hang on."

Lewis flinched and waited, but nothing more happened. "Simon? Friend?" He forced himself to hold still and not become swallowed by the crawling, tingling, pins-and-needles feeling that was growing more and more intense. "Simon?"

Simon suddenly let go and Lewis felt as though he'd been swallowed by a void. His eyes snapped open and he grabbed for his companion, but there was nothing. "Simon?" He could see nothing in the darkness, and Simon wasn't making a sound.

Panic swelled, and this time Lewis couldn't quite keep it down. "SIMON?"! His bones felt like they were writhing with ants. Flickers of light danced all over his vision, moving with the crawling skeletal feeling. His spine zinged with energy he didn't understand. Slowly the stars in his vision started to fade.

"Close your eyes, dummy," was the calm and slightly amused reply. "The kids never had this much trouble." He added.

Lewis closed his eyes, chided and a little embarrassed but still unable to pull in the fear. "I'm not a kid!"

"Look for me." Simon urged.

One of the little light flickers was still there. "Oh... oh!" Gold dust danced, pulsing as if driven by a heart beat. It was faint, and fading, but there.

"You see some thing?"

"Sort of." Lewis tried to focus on it, but it vanished. "No, it's gone."

Suddenly, from where that little flicker was, Simon reached out and patted him on the elbow. "But you got it, right?"

Lewis felt grounded by the contact, and calmed even more. He sucked in, then blew out a breath. "It looked like light, but not real light, like the light you see when you rub your eyes to hard. Only... not."

"And?" Simon prompted, reaching down and grabbing his wrist. "Anything else? Colors?"

Lewis smiled. "Gold dust. You look a bit like gold dust to me. I think."

"I do?" He asked eagerly. "Like real gold dust?"

Lewis smiled. "You or the cow. I'm not sure who I was seeing."

"Oh very funny." He smacked Lewis on the arm hard enough for it to sting. "Well you look like a bunch of glittery little stars, like a pretty princess."

Lewis laughed out loud at that, and turned towards where he figured Simon had to be standing. "I'm from the stars, remember?"

"Oh yeah, the big star, Blue Xephos."

Lewis shoved Simon. "Not my name!"

"Hey." Simon grabbed one of his hands again, and once more there was a strange charge there.

"Yeah?"

"Bones still itch?"

Lewis blinked and discovered they didn't. Other than feeling quite tired he felt almost as good as he had before he had come to the surface of the world. There was only a little fear, nesting in the back of his mind. Dark yes, but ignorable for now. Like it was a sleeping monster way back in a cave of some sort. "Trickery?" He asked, grinning. "Mind games?"

"Child's psychology." Simon replied, trying to imitate Lewis's voice and nearly achieving it.

Lewis laughed again. "All right, I'll give you that one."

"One more time?" Simon asked, a little more serious.

"Yeah, OK, one more time."

"No freaking out?" He asked.

Lewis sobered up and braced himself. "No more freaking out."

"Really?"

"Really!" The fear wouldn't get to him, he wouldn't let it. He wouldn't!

"Really really?" Simon prodded.

Lewis sagged a little, unable to convince him self. "No."

"Atta boy! Now give me your other hand..."

The night crawled by after that with flairs of horrible mind numbing, bone jarring energy Lewis couldn't control, and the calm, if some what childish and crude instructions from Simon as the dwarf guided him in and out of a state Lewis could only describe as 'powered up'. It was exhausting, distressing, defied logic, yet felt like second nature, once he got the hang of it.

It felt like maybe he'd done it before. And that, more than anything, fueled the reoccurring terror.

Simon prodded him, teased him, and cajoled him into continuing anyway, and by dawn he was too spent to think about anything other than collapsing in bed and sleeping the next week away.

It was a strange world, and it echoed of being his home, but as he dropped in to his grass pile next to an already snoring Simon, he refused to acknowledge the familiarity.

His ship was all he really, really wanted.

Really? An inner voice asked.

Sometimes there was no arguing with people. Yes.Really.

His last vision as he drifted off was of sunlight poring in through the small cracks in the hastily built walls filtering through the aura of gold dust.