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Jeseia woke me early the next morning. Our dragon-kin companion was gathering his small amount of gear while our two wolves were stretching out and starting to warm up. I gradually managed to get myself up and packing as well while Jes put out our fire from last night.

"So, what awaits us in Nok'Tor?" I asked quite simply to our new companion.

"Arrangements were made for horses and supplies for the short trek south to Noth'Gnok. We'll spend the day there, confirming everything is in order and head out at first light. If there are no problems, we should get to Noth'Gnok in two days time." Gtin'Nor replied, looking around somewhat impatiently as I finished cleaning up our small camp.

Jes finally came over and stood next to me, nodding, then watching the dragonbreed. Our two riding wolves lazily came over to join us. "Alright, I think we're ready to go. Do your thing, but, I don't trust you yet. You're going through first."

"Tanthis, I'll help set up a guide for you, do you think you can form a portal large enough for our group?" Gtin'Nor asked quietly, looking to me even as he started to concentrate and form symbols in the air about him.

"Don't have much of a choice now do I?" I chuckled, waiting for the spell Gtin'Nor was forming to complete. "Show me where we're going so I can I build the full portal from there."

Gtin'Nor nodded just slightly as he finished his casting, a small shimmering hole directly in front of him showed a stone monolith in the center of a town. "We use that stone as a marker, it is unique in all the lands and is kept clear for travelers arriving. Use it as your reference and we should arrive without problems."

I stared hard at the stone I could see, it was a pillar etched with simple deigns of blue crystal. Wasn't hard to picture in my mind at all. Clutching my staff close, I felt out with water and air until I could keenly feel the form of that stone in my mind. I reached in through the earth and felt the strength there of the stone. I drew the air and water elements through me, charging my hand with the energies there. "Calmon, Give a boost if you wouldn't mind."

My dire wolf companion knelt down, giving me access to his back to stand on. I slowly let the energies of air and water drain from my hand as I drew an arch from ground up and over Calmon by standing on his shoulders before ending again on the ground on the other side of him. "Alright, stand back a bit buddy, might get interesting"

Calmon backed up a bit and gruffed quietly to me. I calmed down and slowly drew fire from around me and poured it into the barrier I formed of water and air. As I pushed more energy into the portal, I could feel anger building up from inside me. The fire element was starting to fuel an anger inside me as I channeled more and more of it into the barrier. Soon I started to reach out for the stone far far away in Nok'Tor with the fire I fed into the portal. I could feel an immense pressure there, like a wall of rubber many feet thick.

I fed more and more fire into the portal, feeling anger rush up inside me in waves while the resistance against my pressing with fire became less and less. At once all of the pressure released and I physically fell forward a step at the sudden lack of resistance. There before us was the stone that Gtin'Nor had shown me. The air around us shimmered and wavered but the portal appeared to be holding.

"Alright, everyone through. I don't know how long I can keep this thing open." I call back to everyone, grunting a little in effort though I only stood there.

Our dragon-kin companion proudly strode through the portal as Jes had told him he would. As he crossed the threshold I could hear the sand beneath his feet shift to bear his weight. Lorth went next, ducking a little to fit through. He growled low and soft as he surveyed the area, but didn't return a warning. Jes and Calmon followed quickly afterwards, leaving me.

I could feel the elemental forces around my portal starting to press in firmly, my boundary made of water and air was starting to break down. I quickly jumped through the portal, it tore down and slammed shut as soon as my concentration wavered. I couldn't tell what happened back in the flat grasslands that we left but I suspected at least a few trees were knocked over based on my experiment the other night.

With a deep breath I knew we were in a strange land. The air was hot and dry, and then there were the gazes. As I looked around, trying to catch my breath and regain my senses, I saw many many sets of dragonbreed eyes looking back at our group. They didn't seem interested in Jes that much, but our riding wolves and myself seemed to draw attention.

"Come with me, rooms have been provisioned for you for tonight, tomorrow we'll leave." Gtin'Nor stated while turning and starting to walk away from the stone pillar in the middle of town. Jes followed close behind, followed by me, and then our two wolves.

We walked for about 20 minutes through the city, and a city it was. Buildings were all at least two stories tall set into solid stone. The very air we breathed felt charged with energy as we walked along, I could feel the elemental forces as they were rendered by the mages. They were chaotic, unpredictable, and in some cases almost angry.

Gtin'Nor led us to a stone building with a stable in back. Horses were there but were guided out as we approached to make room for our two wolves. "You can stay here for tonight, some meat and drink are inside, I must leave you for the evening. I'll be back to get you at first light and we'll head off. Get some rest."

The dragonbreed bowed slightly before turning and leaving briskly. I couldn't help but shrug and start towards the door. "Calmon, Lorth, get yourselves comfortable out back. I'll bring back some food in a bit. Jes and I are going inside"

The twins wandered out back with a quiet gruff between them. Jes and I stepped into the stone building, it was simple inside. A couple of bed upstairs and down stairs was a meeting type room and a small counter with stores of dried meats. It looked like a general purpose guest house, but, it had beds which we hadn't seen since leaving the feline monks.

"I'm going to head out back and feed the boys, get yourself some rest. You look horrible hon" Jeseia commented at me with a giggle before getting some of the dried meats off the counter and walking back towards the stables area. I went to complain but she was already gone by the time I thought of something to say.

I slipped upstairs and settled onto a bed, it was rather hard and stiff, must be the kind the dragonbreeds like, but feel asleep almost immediately.

Hours went by, I must have slept passed dinner as I awoke to a pitch black room with a snoring vixen curled up against my back and a small bit of food set nearby for me. I reached over and snagged a piece of meat, eating quietly where I lie to let Jes get some sleep. Apparently that portal I had made wore me out more than I thought. As soon as I finished eating I was out again like a light for the rest of the night.

Jeseia woke me up the next morning, giggling quietly as she nosed and nibbled at my neck until I started to move. "Hehe, hey hey hey, no eating the man. I'm not breakfast" I play pouted at her as I slowly sat up.

"No you're not, but I brought you up some. Hurry up and get some food in you, it's almost dawn and we need to be ready to go. I don't think Gtin'Nor will wait long for us." The vixen teased, slipping her arms around me to give me a hug and kiss on the neck before slipping downstairs.

I groggily followed her down, a hunk of bread that was left on the bed was hanging from my mouth as I came down to find Jes packing our bags with the food left for us. "Never know when we'll get another chance to stock up" She yipped back at me cutely.

I nodded and left her to packing us up, wandering out back to check on our wolves. They were starting to stir as well, having heard Jes and I talking inside I assume. They wuffed up at me and stretched out, slowly standing. "Ready for a ride boys? Going with a horse so should be an easy walk for you." Calmon barked quietly once at me and started walking around to warm up.

I left the wolves and went back inside to check on Jes, she had both packs at the door and was ready to go, just lounging around and munching on some bread. "You're getting slow in your old age" She teased at me.

"Hush you, I'll start plucking out hairs" I teased back, walking over to press a kiss to the end of her muzzle. "Now then, we ready to get yet another journey underway?"

"I think so, just waiting on the dragon to show up so we can head out." Jes replied, wagging her tail a little.

About half an hour or so later, Gtin'Nor poked his head into the guest house, nodding to each of us in turn. "Are you ready to go? I'm afraid we need to hurry, things have become...complicated."

"We're ready, what do you mean by complicated?" I asked, tossing my back onto my shoulders while Jes adjusted hers. The wolves growled quietly from the back of the house, starting to come up to the front.

"Word got out why you were here. Being brought to see a lore keeper is an honor reserved to our kind only. And the fact that it was the foxes and arranged it made things even more complicated. Some major customs were broken trying to arrange this. Half of the city is already ready to pour out to stop us. We must hurry."

I heard Lorth bark quietly once from out front, Jes' ears perking up shortly after. "It's time to go now I think, I can hear voices on the way." Jes slipped out of the room and climbed up on Lorth easily. I followed close behind and Calmon dipped to let me jump on his back. Gtin'Nor had a horse just outside and mounted quickly.

"We'll ride south, ride hard, we need to clear town and get ahead of any messengers heading for Noth'Gnok. We should make it in two days." He rode off ahead of us, riding hard towards the edge of the city with us easily keeping pace behind him.

We rode as the sun rose, heading south following a line of mountains to our right. We stopped only to water the horse and give Calmon and Lorth some rest. The wolves had a much greater stamina than horses and could run all day on an empty stomach without rest if we wanted. "So what happens when we get there?"

"If no word is ahead of us, we go in, you do your business, and we head out. If they know, we'll have issues that we'll need to worry about when we get there" Gtin'Nor replied simply, moving to his horse. "No point worrying about it until we get there."

We started south again, Calmon and Lorth easily pacing the horse as we traveled and the miles went past us. South, always south. We ate as we rode and spoke little, Jeseia motioned behind us a few times that we had riders behind us, but they were a ways off.

We rode until night was well established and the only light was in the stars. Gtin'Nor led us to a small commonly used camp area but would set no fires. The night was warm enough and the food required no cooking, so we ate in quiet. Calmon and Lorth settled down for sleep and let Jes and myself settle in against their warm fur to rest. Gtin'Nor was left to his own devices for the night.