Artisans of Time: Books I, Ii, & Iii

Copyright © 2001, 2003, 2008 by M. Jude Gove

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Contents

ARTISANS OF TIME BOOK I:

Rings of th e Gods

Chapter I:

Darkness of the Day

Chapter II:

The Power of Zahon

Chapter III:

Forge of A’ron

Chapter IV:

Treasures of Do’than

Chapter V:

The Smallest Will Prove Victorious

Chapter VI:

Secrets of the Nur’

Chapter VII:

Of the Ring of Kam-rye’

Chapter VIII:

Blue Dawn

Chapter IX:

The Deciding Ring, the Deciding Factor

Chapter X:

Rings of Another Kind

ARTISANS OF TIME BOOK II:

Tîme, Friend and Foe

Chapter I:

The Call of the Nur’

Chapter II:

The Dreaming Oc-nur’

Chapter III:

The Gif’ron

Chapter IV:

Ripples in Time

Chapter V :

From Insurgency to War

Chapter VI:

The Future of the Nur’

Chapter VII:

The Enemy of Friends

Chapter VIII :

The Queens Entourage

Chapter IX:

The Darkest Hour

Chapter X:

The Adventures of Erica II &

Chapter XI:

Time, Friend and Foe

ARTISANS OF TIME BOOK III:

Genetic Code

Chapter I:

Dare I Write, an Epic Tale?

Chapter II:

Seven More

Chapter III:

Fire in the Sky

Chapter IV:

A Dynasty of Commanders

Chapter V:

Earth Genes

Chapter VI:

More Cherished

Chapter VII:

The Seven’s Last Great Deeds

Chapter VIII:

More, Ripples in Time

Chapter IX:

Earth’s Last Stand

Appendix

Time Line Chart

Years and Months in the Nur’

ARTISANS OF TIME BOOK I:

Rings of th e Gods

Chapter I:

Darkness of the Day

My name is Edward Harold Dalton. When this story began, I was fresh out of college and working as a reporter for a southern California based paper called The Gazette. The story you are about to read isn’t about me though, for I do not enter the picture until close to the end of this epic adventure. This story is about seven friends. These seven outstanding individuals, I now have the privilege of calling my friends. Their story begins on Saturday, March 13th 1993. At that time Rick, Erica, Dianna, Mike, Dan, Joe, and Ronda are seven high school students from different backgrounds drawn together by one cause.

Before I get into their story let me briefly tell you how I met the first of these seven people, Rick. As part of my daily fitness routine, I run about two miles each morning. One Sunday afternoon in the summer of 1996, as I left my apartment, I decided to go a different direction than normal. I turned right onto the side walk running east toward a more difficult course on hilly streets. A mile into my run, I found myself on a side street overlooking the bottom floors of the county psychiatric clinic. At the next corner, I stopped to wait for a car to pass and heard someone calling to me from an open window, Hey, over here!

I turned in the direction of the sound, and at first only saw the clinic. It was a bleak older building, which was draining the counties funds just to keep it maintained. They had plans to build a new complex, but the ground breaking was on hold until after the next bond election.

The ground sloped down rapidly from the sidewalk where I stood on, to the grounds around the building. From my vantage point, I was looking directly at the second floor. There was an open window just to my left, and as my eyes strained to see, I could just make out a man in the window. I walked a few steps back down the side walk to get the glare out of my eyes, and could then see the features of the man a little clearer. He was an older man that I guessed to be in his late 60’s or early 70’s. Good morning. I called over to him.

His smile was warm and friendly and his eyes twinkled as he spoke, I don’t have anyone to talk to today young man. If you come listen to my story, you won’t be disappointed. Everyone says I’m a good storyteller. The older man’s soft tone and bright cheery eyes won me over, so I told him I would come up to see him.

It wasn’t easy to get in to see him, but when I finally pulled out my press pass from my wallet they cleared me to move on from the front waiting area to the patient floor. When I left the elevator on the second floor, I was escorted to Rick’s room. The orderly unlocked the door and let me into the room.He said he would return in thirty minutes and then closed and locked the door behind me. At first it left me with an uneasy feeling, but I soon forgot all about where I was at as I listened to Rick’s story.

After finally meeting him face to face, Rick started telling me all about his life. His full name was Rick Lloyd Johnson. He could fix anything with gears, and while he was in high school, he had a 1968 Chevy Chevelle SS with a 327 engine that his mom and dad bought him for $500. The car wasn’t running when he first got it, so he spent the next two years fixing it up when he had the money to buy parts. Rick said, ‘he had the car running just in time to take his driving test in it.’ Then the story took a strange turn, and became so farfetched that I figured all I would get out of this visit was a soothed conscience for taking the time to listen to an elderly man whose mind was gone. Rick told me that on March 13th 1993, he was seventeen years old and a high school senior and if that was true, only three years have passed!

Rick then told me that even though he is 78 years old now, he was born on Earth in 1975. "No one will believe me of course and I am sure you feel the same way, why even my family refuses to believe me, but

I am telling the truth. I tell you what I will do -I will press my finger against the crystal of your watch and you can run the fingerprint. It will belong to a Rick Lloyd Johnson, born March 20th 1975."

As a reporter, I see quite a bit of dead-end stories, and thought about blowing this one off. After going home though, I got to thinking about how sincere he seemed about checking his fingerprint. Then I thought; maybe I could get a good story about him for my column, and it would only be right to tell the public that I checked out the story and ran the fingerprint. So I contacted my friend at the FBI regional office and asked him as a favor to run the print for me.Interestingly enough, the print was matched to a Rick Lloyd Johnson born March 20th 1975! The finger print popped up as a match when it was cross referenced to the missing person’s database. The description in the database matched Rick exactly -except for the age. ‘So now what do I do?’ I asked myself. I figured I would pursue the story until I found a flaw in it, but only when I am off from work. To this day, I haven’t found a flaw in the story.

Eventually, I even talked to Rick’s six friends. They were able to shed even more light on the story. So now, what I am bringing to you is a composition of their stories, made into two books that I have called the ‘Rings of the Gods’ and ‘Time, Friend and Foe.’ I have also written a third book that I present as a firsthand account of my story, entitled ‘Genetic Code.’To start with, here is their story.

O n Saturday, March 13, 1993 Rick, Ronda, Erica, Dianna, Mike, Dan, and Joe were together on a high school field trip for an advanced Geology class. There were thirty-five students from two classes, two teachers, three parents, and the bus driver, that went on the trip.

The plan was to drive a big 550-mile loop over a three-day period, stop at ten rock formations, and pick up samples. Today was the morning of the third day, and everyone was a little uncomfortable and edgy after riding for so many miles on the old bus. Of course the boy’s basket ball team was using the nice bus. We stopped at the next site and everyone got out. There were the usual reminders to stay in pairs as you look for rock samples and the typical safety tips; Make sure you watch out for snakes, be careful to keep a sure footing if you climb on any of the rocks, no horse play, etc., etc.

After being in the bus for so long, the seven of us felt like burning up some energy hiking up the slope instead of just walking around close to the rest of the group. So we took off up this steep grade toward this rock outcropping about three hundred yards up the slope. The excitement started when Dianna saw an entrance to a cave just above the rock outcropping. Erica and Mike made it to the opening first. At first glance, it looked as if it were a man made tunnel going right though the top of the mountain and coming out the other side, but there wasn’t any evidence on the rock surface of it being cut or shaped by mining equipment. Since the floor of the cave was visible with our flashlights, we decided it was safe enough -and headed inside.

As we went further into the cave, we could see it didn’t go completely through the mountain at all. Instead, something metallic was reflecting the light from the entrance, as well as our flashlight beams, back at us. We kept walking towards the reflection, but it didn’t seem to be getting any closer. Finally, we decided to head back to the bus. Dan figured if we told one of the instructors what we had found that it would peak their curiosity also, and they would want to get out some of their equipment they brought and completely explore the cave. That was all forgotten when we stepped back out of the cave entrance. All of us were in total shock. Finally Dianna muttered in a soft voice ‘Were not in Kansas anymore!’

The terrain was different. When we entered the cave we were on a very small mountain, not much more than a hill, that rose only a few hundred feet off the desert floor.When we came out we were near the top of a much taller mountain, above the timberline, looking out across a lush valley 1,000’s of feet below us. We wandered around in a daze. We found a path that was partially over grown with trees, but was still passable, and followed it down the mountain in silence for several hours. Finally Dan spoke up, I think what just happened could be described in scientific terms as passing out of our space or time continuum to another time, or another dimension, or though some kind of spatial worm hole to another place in the universe. There was silence for several moments before Ronda spoke up, I pinched myself three times since we came out of the cave to see if I would wake up from this dream. Either I am still asleep or Dan’s right.

When the narrow path came to a broad dirt road packed hard from decades of horse and wagon traffic. We had been walking for almost ten hours. We were hungry and dehydrated. The few bottles of water and candy bars we had in our back packs were long gone. Dan sized things up and made an educated guess to head south, just 90 degrees from where the sun had just set. Dusk came and went, and still Dan pushed us to go on. It was late that night when we wandered into a strange village that might resemble something from the Middle Ages. All the homes were small wooden structures. The village square was paved with flat stones of all different shapes, and the villagers all wore very simple handmade clothes. The most complex items they had were the iron tools they used for farming. The people there were wonderful to us and treated us as family and not as strangers. We later found out that they farmed the land south of the village. We continued there working with these people for two weeks, wondering how to get home, wondering if our families were worried about us, and wondering if we would ever see home again.

Then suddenly one morning, they told us that we needed to leave. Josken, the village historian, said that we needed to go back up the mountain and return to where we came from. He said we were in great danger if we stayed. Josken told us, that at first he thought we might be the seven warriors prophesied about by his ancestors of old that would come when the village was at its deepest need and save them from the hands of an evil king. That time of deepest need had come, because the king had over taxed them of the produce of his fields and they couldn’t pay. He said they were holding out on him and swore he would destroy the village if they didn’t pay him by the next rising of a full blue moon.

^)ay 15 in the Nur’ for the seven of us. (Year 243 of the Nur’ Project.)

Today, the Kings men are to return. If the riders would have seen us there, the villagers feared that we would be recognized as being from a distant land. The king’s men would think they had traded the produce or maybe worse, sought help from a neighboring kingdom and dealt harshly with them, and killed us. The villagers sent us away at what was about dawn; except the dawn never came, it only got darker.

The time we had spent here so far had been pleasant, but now we felt as if we were running for our lives. We found ourselves climbing a steep mountain path, the same one that led us down from the cave, only now it seemed longer and more difficult as we climbed up the slope. The path changed directions constantly, as it wound up the side of the slope, something we had not noticed on the way down. Although it was the middle of the day, we were consumed by darkness. There were moments when we could barely make out the path at our feet, and our flashlights gave us little comfort. The air felt so thin it was hard to breath. Rick kept thinking it must be the altitude, but it wasn’t. It was as though the very air was alive!

This was obviously no ordinary day. Of course, the last few weeks hadn’t really been ordinary either. We just kept climbing, all seven of us. Hours before we had left the village, along with the valley floor, and now they both lay far below us. At this point, Rick couldn’t even make out the light from the torches in the village, for these too the darkness had swallowed up.

No one had spoken a word for over two hours. Finally, Ronda broke the silence. "We can’t just leave! I would never forgive myself if I didn’t try to help them somehow. They were so kind and generous to us.All I can think of is the worry on their faces when they lead us outside the city and told us to leave, to try and protect us." Joe answered back with a note of frustration in his voice. We would probably die trying!

Dan shook his head in disagreement. "Yes maybe, but Ronda’s right. I couldn’t live with myself unless I tried to help. So I think I would rather die trying!It’s not like we know how to get back home anyways."

Mike looked around as if searching each face for an answer before speaking up. There’s got to be something we can do, so I’m for going back if everyone else is.

"At first they thought, we were some kind of chosen ones from the gods, who had come to save their world. When they found out we were just ordinary people, they wanted to save us. I wished I could make all their dreams come true. I wished we were the ones spoken of in the prophecies." After blurting this out, Joe sat down and laid his chin on his knees in frustration.

Dan looked down and scratched his head as if deep in thought. Ronda with tears streaming down her face spoke out. We just have to do something before it’s too late!

Ronda’s empathetic beckon, summoned Erica’s emotions, and with a quivering voice Erica started to reply. Ronda’s right, Then getting her composure, she finished the sentence. We need to do something.

Dan had been thinking hard about what Joe had said. Finally he spoke up, "We all say that we want to help these people, we even wished we were the ones spoken of in the prophecies, but how do we know that we’re not the ones spoken of?"

Rick after a very long silence replied to Dan, We don’t know, but who does? I think we need to at least try.

Mike with a burst of enthusiasm spoke up. Let’s go back!

Dan still stood deep in thought. Joe looked up and said, What do you think Dan? Dianna turned and echoed the same question. Yeah, Dan! What do you think we should do?

Dan looked up, and everyone was looking at him. Sounds like we’re all for it, let’s go before we change our minds.

Dan took the lead, as usual, and headed back down the path toward the village. Suddenly, a shaft of light pierced through the clouds and the darkness all around, shining down towards the valley floor below us like a giant laser. It disappeared as quickly as it appeared. We all stood motionless for a moment looking up as if waiting for it to appear again. Looking around at each other, each ones expression seemed to echo the question, ‘Did you see that?’Without saying anything, the seven started down the hill again and seemed to forget about that strange event, as many other thoughts raced through their heads. All of us felt like we could handle ourselves well back home, but we were way over our heads here. Rick wondered; ‘what are we going to do against horsemen that have spent their whole life training for battle? What could a few high school students from Los Angeles do? We don’t have any special skills, or even know exactly where we are. The only thing we know for sure is that we are not anywhere near home. We don’t know how we got here or ‘how’ and ‘if’ we would ever get home.’ Rick got a lump in his throat just thinking about it. He shook his head and tried to come back to the little bit of reality he still had left.

Erica grabbed Rick’s arm. Are you O.K.? she asked.

I will be fine as soon as I wake up from this dream.

"I know what you mean, I feel like we’re in the ‘twilight zone’ or something like that."

All I know is, we better be ready for trouble. Rick said with a more serious tone. Then he stopped and picked up a tree branch. He tried to twirl it hand over hand and flip it behind his back, as if he had mastered it as a weapon. Unfortunately, he quickly dropped it and scrambled to pick it up. Mike saw what Rick was trying to do and picked up a bigger branch. He did the same thing, but he didn’t drop it, and accomplished the feat with sickening ease.

That’s how it’s done. Mike said with a note of sarcastic wit in his tone.

Don’t tell me you learned that at football practice? Rick enquired.

Mike laughed, No, actually, I learned it from my older brother.

^^ike’s full name is Mike Allen Ross. He is 18 years old, 6’3" and very well built. He is a senior in high school and plays Football. Mike also lifts weights in his free time, maxing out at 365 pounds on the bench press, making him rock solid.

When Mike was twelve, his older brother was shot to death at sixteen years of age in a clash between two opposing gangs. Mike and his older brother were very close, his brother always tried to protect him by keeping him from joining the gang, but Mike didn’t appreciate it. After the death of his brother, he realized how his brother was trying to protect him, and that has had a big impact on the way Mike thinks and acts. Mike has never joined a gang and is determined to stay clear of them. Mike is a very headstrong and self motivated individual. Mike hates bullies and is always rooting for the underdog.

Rick said he remembered walking around a corner one day and found Mike sticking up for a smaller kid (Jerry) who was being hazed by three bigger guys. Rick saw Mike motion to Jerry, to take off while he kept them busy, and then he started giving all three of them a hard time. They just stood there and took it. Then he told them to get out of there, before he changed his mind about letting them slide this time. Mike made it clear to leave Jerry alone. Mike never saw Rick, but this gave Rick a newfound respect for Mike. After that, Rick made it a point to spend more time with Mike in Geology lab.

One day after school, Rick helped Mike to get his car running, but also mentioned it wouldn’t run for too long without getting the carburetor rebuilt. Mike groaned because he didn’t have the money to spend at a garage to get it done. Rick told Mike to bring his car over that weekend and they could work something out. Rick rebuilt the carburetor, and when Mike asked what he owed him, Rick just smiled and said not to worry about it. Rick said he was just trying to help out a friend, like Mike when he helped Jerry. From then on, they have a great respect for each other and became close friends.

As we continued down the mountain, the air got heavier and heavier. Soon it seemed that all seven of us were going down with as much difficult as we had been climbing up. When we made it to the road Dan said, We had better get off the road and stay hidden, we need the power of surprise on our side if we are going to be any help at all. Without saying a word, everyone just moved off to the side of the road. For some reason the air on the valley floor was extremely thin, and fatigue was setting in quickly. The seven of us felt as though we were just dragging ourselves along.

We had no more moved off the road into the shadows behind the trees when the gallop of horse’s hooves was heard coming up the road from the village. The seven of us had just enough time to duck down in the bushes, when five riders rode past. They were all on black horses, and wearing dark cloaks. Four had hoods pulled over their faces, but one had a metal helmet with horns mounted on top. Their arms and legs extending out from under their cloaks had heavy leather boots, and their gloves were covered with razor sharp metal pieces sewn onto the backsides. Long sheaths hung from their waists. The four hooded riders carried large spears with a huge spearhead on one end and a knife-edge on the other.

Quite a while after the riders had past; we all took a deep breath. Rick didn’t like what he saw but he was more concerned about the villagers, then for his own safety. When the group was close to the village, their hearts began to race. Because of the eerie darkness that seemed to eat up light, they were right on top of the village before they saw the fires. As soon as Ronda caught sight of the flames coming up from the small homes of the villagers, her heart sank. She broke out into a run, and ran into the center of the village square with tears streaming down her face. From the far end of the village, she could see the villagers coming out of the woods running toward her.

Ronda’s full name is Ronda Janette Carlson. She is seventeen years old, has dark hair, is very petite, and is a high school junior. She has a quiet and shy personality and is kind of a mystery to the rest of the group -that is at first anyway. Ronda is a waitress at a diner in a bad neighborhood a few blocks from her house. Since she is the new kid at the place, she often works the late shift until closing. She doesn’t seem to let it bother her thought, or at least she doesn’t show it.

Rick met her quite by accident last summer at the diner where she works. The diner is just down the street from a junkyard that Rick worked at. He ended up eating lunch there quite a bit, (he always has the same thing, two cheese burgers, fries, and two large Dr Peppers). It was a pleasant surprise when they found out they had the same class together this year.

Enkan’ta, a dark haired young woman with dark eyes and about medium height, was in the front of the group of villagers coming out of the forest. She wore a linen dress with a leather cord around her waist, as well as a leather headband with colored beads stitched in, and simple leather shoes.

Enkan’ta exclaimed, There were five of them, but they have gone already … Josken said you would come back! He said it was prophesied that you would!

Is everyone OK? Ronda enquired, her voice shaking.

Yes. They only burned the village, they didn’t harm anyone. The gods were with us tonight. The king’s men said they would be back in sixteen days at the next red (full) moon with more men. If their demands aren’t met, they will take all the young women as slaves, and the young men to use as soldiers on the front line of their next battle!

What are their demands? Erica inquired.

They demanded more produce from our fields this year then all of the villages have been able to grow combined. Even if we had produced the amount they were demanding we could not give it all up without starving this winter ourselves.

What else do the prophecies say we will do? Dan asked inquisitively.

Josken, a small frail elderly man, with a long gray beard, whose bright eyes are always full of joy looked down, his face in great pain. Dan spoke up, What’s wrong?

The books are all gone … destroyed in the fire, every last one! … Maybe I can still help you though (his eyes brightening again). Most of it is in my memories. First, though, it is getting late in the day I feel, and the little ones need a place to sleep for the night, let us take care of their needs and then we will talk.

Everyone went to work quickly. Some of the young men cut branches and built a small lean-to, just big enough for the children to sleep that night. Some gathered what small amounts of food they could find. Others dragged what was left of their homes to use as firewood that night to keep the rest of us warm.

Dianna was watching this from the edge of the camp. As she looked on, her eyes began to water and she turned to walk away. Rick had paused from helping to build the temporary shelter for the children. He was having a hard time watching as well, and was about to go back to work to keep his mind off of what was going on, when he noticed Dianna’s reaction. He lingered for a moment as she walked away wondering if he should follow her, but then realized he was in no position to console her with the anger that was building up inside himself towards the criminals who had destroyed the village.

We all had a small bite to eat and put the little ones to sleep. Then, as with every other night, they posted two men at each end of the village on shifts, to keep an eye out for wild animals that might stray into the village at night. Then, just like every other night we had been there, we gathered around the fire to listen to Josken.

Everyone huddled closer than normal that night as Josken began to speak. Even the normally less attentive ones seemed to hang onto his every word tonight. Josken’s eyes began to brighten again as he spoke about what was written in the great books of the prophecies, and what he remembers the great ones of old saying when he was just a boy. This is the gist of what he said:

"Three generations before me, the founders of these lands came here to settle. Some say they were gods themselves, but this is not true. They were great in wisdom and knowledge of the gods that is true, but they were only men and women like us. They came to settle these lands from a long distance away. Some of their names were Kim-lar’ the Great, Ab’scath the Great, and Darth’tan the Great. From these three, descended many Kings, Queens, and great ones of old. Many of which were very good people, and ruled with love and wisdom. A very small few though were harsh rulers that took advantage of the people. These great ones brought many others with them when they came to the Nur’. From these, many of the peoples of the Nur’ descended.

It was in the days when one of the wicked ones was ruling over a great area of the Nur’, that some of the good kings went up against him but did not prevail. The gods saw the plight of the people under him, and what the good kings had done to try to help. They could see how some even gave their lives in that battle to redeem people from slavery to this wicked king (people who were not from their own realms, people they did not know.)

The gods in their compassion gave seven rings of power to noble ones of kingly families. These rings were to uproot the wickedness from the land, and keep it from reoccurring. Then, it was hoped that by handing the rings down from generation to generation, the land would remain free of wicked rulers. Later, it became the custom after a meeting of the ring bearers, not to give the rings to the first born of a kingly line. Instead, it was to be kept separate from the kingly line with the goal of separating the rings from the kingly power. One ring bearer became great in wisdom and could see the future. Through his wisdom, he prophesied about how one day a wicked one would get control of a ring of power and wield it for selfish ways. He said that the gods knew this would happen when they gave the seven rings out in the beginning, but they also knew that it would be the lesser of many evils, to do so. Continuing, he prophesied that the gods would step in when this happened, but he did not prophesy what they would do.

Years later, one of the keepers of the book of history worried greatly about this, and even sought out each one of the ring bearers to see what

they thought would happen. They all shared their wisdom with him. On his way back home, he stopped at the Tower of Sidon to rest and collect his thoughts. It was as he began to sort through all the words of the ring bearers that he got his answer. One of the gods came to him and asked him why he was so distressed about these things and he said, Because I worry for my children.

The god said, "I believe this is true, for I have observed the great love you have for your family. In the days of your youngest child growing old, the wicked ones will rise up. We will not wait a long time to step in, although it might seem that way to many. When the kingdom of the great one is almost consumed, then we will step in and provide a means of escape. We will send the seven."

The keeper of the book said, What will this seven be?

The god continued, "You will know them by their number. They will descend from this very mountain and yet will not be from Nur’. The seven will come from the stars and yet be of your kind. They will not know their destiny yet will be perfect for the task. They will ride north to victory, as well as cover many miles and pass through many lands before their task is done. The smallest among them will prove victorious, but the battle will have just begun. Because of them, the very hearts of many will be moved to unite and perform great deeds. They will journey a great distance yet will be here in an instant. The seven will be on time, you need not fear, they will not be late! The great wall will not be

Josken took a deep breath, "With that the god left, and my father quickly wrote these things down carefully, so as to capture every word. Then, when he passed them down to me, I read them with great interest and brought every word into my very thoughts. So today, I can tell you them by heart, without the writings before me.

I have pondered over these words for years and can tell you only a few things for sure. You are the seven. You came from the mountain, and yet you are not from Nur’. If you came from the stars, I do not know, but you are of our kind, flesh and blood. You didn’t know your destiny and yet it is unfolding right before you. The starting point is to ride north to victory. There is a great deal more that I could tell you, but I haven’t the time, because I need to use my memory to make a map of the lands to the North for you."

With that, we all went to bed, but sleep did not come easy.

T*he next day, we awoke at the crack of dawn. The day was bright, the sun was strong, and the darkness never came. Most of the villagers went

to work cleaning the grounds from the fire so they could rebuild their homes. Some of them prepared provisions for us to take on the journey. Argon (Enkan’ta’s husband and leader of the village) selected seven of the best horses for us to take and loaded them up provisions for the trip. Josken frantically worked on the map, straining to remember the details. The people of the village stopped work briefly when breakfast was ready and ate hurriedly.

A squirrel lived near the village while we were there. Erica had made friends with it by throwing nuts to it every morning. It was a little slow making its way into the camp this morning. The smoldering fires put it a little bit on edge.

Erica’s full name is Erica Marie Hicks. She is seventeen years old, has dark red hair, medium height, with an athletic build. Erica is a senior in high school. She is a cheerleader, and on the girl’s weight lifting team. There’s Erica’s way and then there’s everyone else’s way, everyone else is wrong, if you ask her! When she is right she won’t let you live it down. Honor student, teacher’s pet. You either love her or hate her. Most people get along well with her, (whether wrong or right she has a way about her no one can explain, that makes her OK in most people’s book).

If something’s going on, you can bet Erica’s is in the middle of it, or at least knows who is. When Rick first met Erica, he didn’t think he was going to get along with her, but, like everyone else, after you really get to know her, she is a very respectable person. They worked on a project in Geology class together -one on Fluid Mechanics.

^^hen the time came for us to go, Argon spoke up, I will ride with you as far as I can. Then he smiled and continued, I cannot go the whole trip, because the prophecy was of the seven, not the eight."

It was very sad when we rode out. The villagers all stopped working and gathered around. Josken gave us his blessing and we left without another word. The villages were waving goodbye with forced smiles, but you could tell there was great fear in their eyes. The body language was clear. A few of the women were holding their children closely with one arm as they smiled and waved with the other. Dianna noticed one mother in the background that could not hold in her emotion and had to turn away to hide her tears. Deep inside they hoped, but they did not realistically believe that they would succeed.

We were all glad that Argon was with us for the first part of the trip. His being with us, made the rest of us a lot less nervous about the journey. As we past the road up the mountain, to where we had come down the first time we entered the valley, we looked up longingly. Rick noticed for the first time how over grown it was. If he hadn’t come down it himself, he would not have believed it was passable.

Is that the mountain you came down from? Argon asked.

Yes Mike replied.

That is the road to the Tower or Sidon on the southern slope of Mount Nur’ark. Argon continued.

I see that on the map. Dan reported. "That’s good. It’s a high mountain and gives us a point of reference. It also helps us to estimate distance. We know approximately how long it took us to get to the

mountain from the village and that means     we have a long way

to go."

Ronda shook her head. Great! I’m already getting saddle sores!

Argon smiled at Ronda’s comment and then shared some more information. It’s about a two day ride to the mountain.I will go with you for the first day and part of the morning of the second day.

We continued from there and crossed a huge rock bridge over the main fork of the Great River. Joe remarked about the height of the bridge, and how it must be high enough that it would be well above the river even during a flood. Argon said, ‘he remembered when he was a small boy, the river level came way up close to the bottom of the decking during the rainy season. The old bridge held though, true to its makers of old.’

Then we came close to a small forest and the road turned and ran along the side of it. The growth inside was very thick and you could not see into it very far.

Erica squinted and tried to look into the darkness between the trees ahead. That place doesn’t look very inviting.

No it’s not. Argon exclaimed. "About ten years ago we had a drought that drove most of the game into the mountains for water. Because we were short on food, a very close friend of mine followed some deer tracks into that forest against the rest of the hunters’ better judgment. He felt it was worth the risk. We never heard from him again. My father used to say that even a very skilled person can get lost in there. Worse yet, the ground is very unstable throughout the area because of being so close to the river. There are patches of mud and sand mixed together that if you step in them you sink way down into

them very quickly. If you get stuck in it, it is almost impossible to get

out.

We call that ‘quicksand’ back home. Dan commented. It can catch anyone by surprise if they are not looking for it.

D an’s full name is Dan Gonzales Duarte. He is seventeen years old, with brown curly hair, brown eyes, and a medium build. He is a senior in high school. He has an IQ of around 189 and a take charge personality, yet most people around him don’t mind when he jumps in and takes charge, because he is a real people’s person. He was advanced a grade when he was in elementary school and hated it because he wasn’t with his friends anymore. Dan is bored with school, never studies for any assignments, yet squeaks by an A average. He spends quite a bit of his spare time reading reference books at the college library. He is fascinated with physics, but also enjoys hanging out with his friends. Dan is often seen with his friends at the movies. Most of his friends he tutors in one subject or the other, not that they all need it, but they have fun hanging out together. Dan and Rick had Geometry together during their junior year. When Rick missed a week of school near the beginning of the year, Dan offered to help him. Rick never forgot that and the fun they had. Dan was helping Dianna with Geometry at the same time and that’s also how Rick met Dianna. All three have been good friends ever since.

We rode on a little farther and then saw the road was going into the forest up ahead.

Dianna spoke up in a concerned voice. We aren’t going in there, are we?

It’s the only way, but don’t worry we are only going through the edge of it. Let’s all stay on the road. If we don’t stray off it, we will be OK. Argon said comfortingly.

We seemed to start riding closer and closer together as the forest loomed up in front of us. Our stirrups were touching when we past the first tree. At this point Argon said, " This is as far north as I have ever been’ and that put us even more on edge. The forest canopy closed over our heads in just a few hundred yards. Soon afterward, we were squinting in the dim light. We could see movement in the trees not too far from the road and heard faint sounds of twigs’ cracking, leaves rustling, and what sounded like claws scratching against trees. Needless to say, we got a little more nervous.As quickly as we rode into the darkness, we rode out of it, and back in the sun and grasslands beyond. We stopped there and ate lunch. Then we rode on until sunset, when we came to where the east road meets the north -south road though the valley.

Argon thought it best to camp there. As we crossed the east road, Argon noticed fresh horse tracks going from the north road to the east road. Five horses he said and they past early this morning. They have the same type of shoe the riders of the king had on their horses. We camped just northeast of there, over the edge of the ridge, so our campsite could not to be seen from the road, and we didn’t light a fire that night.

We were all tired. None of us had slept well the night before. After eating, we went to bed and slept like rocks that night, even though we were sleeping on rocks that stuck up through the woven mats we had brought from the village.

Argon was the first one up the next morning. He made breakfast for us and readied the horses. We ate and then said our goodbyes.

We set off on a road headed towards the north. Quiet set in without Argon there but time slipped away quickly, almost too quickly. We were going at a very leisurely pace. We had just made it to the halfway point on the map for the day’s ride, when the sun was at high noon.We should have been a lot further than were at that point because Josken had said, The last distance climbs quite a bit. So Dan said we would have to pick up the pace as much as the horses could take to get there.

Erica said, These horses are strong, they can probably take more then we could riding them. They’re not like the horses back home.

Erica paused for a moment then continued, I don’t know what it is about these horses exactly, but they’re very strong. They are built like a cross between a racehorse and a workhorse. Did you see the size of plows they were pulling?

Dianna echoed the same sentiments, I know what you mean, these are very exceptional horses.

Dan spoke up, Ok let’s try to make up some time then, but before we go lets set our watches.

Erica looked at Dan like he was off his rocker, Set our watches? To what? Are you crazy?

Rick was already contemplating Dan’s comment, and blurted out. To the sun!

Dan just smiled, and Erica looked even more puzzled. Then Dianna got it, It is approximately noon right now. So we all set our watches to noon and we will all be on the same time.

Exactly! Dan continued, And we will know approximately how many hours until sun down and sun up.I have already figured out that the days are a little longer than 24 hours on this planet. So we may have to reset our watches every few days at noon to keep them close.

So after a quick lunch, on they rode at a rapid pace. Afterward, Rick said his butt was so sore he longed for the seat of his car ... and it needed new springs. Erica was the only one of us that wasn’t the worse for wear when we stopped late that evening, most likely because she had ridden horses quite a bit before.

Soon it was dark. The ground was climbing fast and so were the horses. They were zealous as they pushed forward. It was as if the harder it got, the more they enjoyed it, and the faster they went. It was well past sunset, about ten o’clock when Dan said, Stop! I have been watching for something that would tell me we were getting close. I think this is it. They have cut the trees back away from the road ahead. Let’s hide the horses and climb over the top of this rise to see what’s around the curve in the road.

Soon we had the horses tied up well off the road, and were climbing the rise that turned out to be a mountain. In a short time, most of us were heaving for air. We kept on until Ronda dropped from exhaustion. Without saying a word, Mike picked her up in his arms and headed up the mountain. After another hundred yards, even he was heaving for air.

Rick stopped for a second to catch his breath. Mike walked up behind him and stopped too. Rick looked back around. I finally found a way to keep up with you. Mike just smiled and the two of them started out again.