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Gtin'Nor woke us early, the sky had barely began to lighten as dawn approached. "We need to get moving, Noth'Gnok can be reached by mid-day if we leave now. I fear that we were pursued through the night and they're close to catching up."

I nodded groggily to Gtin'Nor, I've come to understand that my days always will start out bad and go from there. Jeseia was already stretching out and getting her pack on while gently pushing at the two snoring pair of dire wolves with her foot. I slowly stood and went for my backpack, almost reached it to. An unusual sensation started tickling at the back of my neck and I could feel the tugging of the elemental forces at me from my staff nearby.

"Somethings coming, I'm not sure what it is yet, but it's coming." I spoke over to Jes.

"We best get out of here then, and fast!" Jes replied to me, looking around for a moment before jumping onto Lorth's back. Calmon stood nearby, waiting for me.

Gtin'Nor slipped back onto the saddle of his horse and started a slow pace until we were in a line and keeping pace before he sped up. Soon we were at a hard gallop heading south. As we rode I could feel something was wrong north of us, the tension felt through my staff was growing worse even as the miles sped past.

To this day, I'm not certain if it was insight or a direct warning from the elemental earth around us. But in a burst of insight I called ahead to Gtin'Nor and Jeseia. "Everyone! Dismount now! Get your horse down as quick as you can!"

Lorth and Calmon, always seeming to understand us, halted abruptly and cowered down close to the ground, letting Jes and I slip off quickly. The horse and Gtin'Nor took only a couple more steps before he slowed down and jumped off of his horse. The beast refused to kneel down, just stood and whinnied in fear.

One, two, three, only a few seconds passed and I figured I was alarmed at nothing. Then I felted it all around us for an instant. The same sensations I've felt before when the elements around us recoiled from some unknown reason. This time, rather than lightning and storms from the sky, the earth itself lunged. Jes and I were rolled around on the ground while Gtin'Nor's horse fell over and started to panic, only his vise like grip on the reins kept the horse from bolting. The ground moved and bucked around us for only a minute or two but the effect was devastating.

Trees were uprooted, cracks formed in the once well tended road we traveled. Dust began to fill the air and smoke could be seen back on the horizon towards the north. Gtin'Nor gradually calmed his steed and mounted again, Jes and I followed and once more climbed atop our dire wolves.

"We must hurry, Noth'Gnok isn't far, and that would surely have affected them as well. We must get you to the lore-keeper as quickly as we can." Gtin'Nor stated simply, emotions really didn't seem to express themselves much in these dragonbreeds.

We broke into a full gallop, Lorth and Calmon keeping pace easily with his horse. The sun was rising higher and higher and it was clear the range of the earthquake. The occasional road marker was laying on the ground, small watering holes were drained and drying as the water slipped through cracks in the earth. Trees were leaning against each other. The odd sensation to the north diminished, but I could swear I could still sense something wrong. The worst part, that sense kept moving, heading south and west.

A city was quickly approaching before us, much smaller than Nok'Tor, a bit smaller than Torrnal perhaps. The problem is, as we drew closer, I could see a city wall. The wall wasn't the problem, but the fact that it had fallen down in parts was. The buildings we could see through the rubble didn't appear to have fared much better.

"This doesn't look good, a warm reception you'll definitely not receive. The folks here are wary of strangers, especially ones arriving in the wake of such a disaster. We ride hard right through town to the lore-keepers temple. We do not stop for guards, for questions, anything. I'll send ahead word that we're here." Gtin'Nor with one hand drew some cotton from a pouch and shouted a word in some language I couldn't understand. The cotton burst into a blue light and shot skyward, leaving a streak behind it.

Jeseia just laughed quietly, like all the worlds troubles were not but a bad joke.

We rode right through a break in the city wall, heading down a main street towards some simple two story temple in the middle of the town. Even as we drew close there were shouts for guards, weapons being drawn, and even the retching feeling of mages starting to tear into the elemental forces.

The doors were open for us in the temple, large enough for even Lorth and Calmon to enter. And it was lucky indeed because as soon as we entered and the doors closed, we could here a commotion outside. Mages and fighters yelling to throw the outsiders to the mob.

Inside the room, it was dimly lit and contained nothing at all. The room was just a large dome and entry place. The actual structure appeared to be a cave whose entrance was in the center of the dome. The path appeared to be lit with torches as far as I could see.

Gtin'Nor dismounted and motioned to us to do the same. "It isn't safe for us outside the temple. We'll remain here. I'll see if a lore servant will retrieve some food for us. We must remain here for now."

We sat in the dull room for about twenty or so minutes before a dragonbreed came up from the chambers below, cloaked in a hood. Gtin'Nor bowed low and adverted his eyes respectfully while Jes and I stared quietly.

"I am elder lore-keeper Algorn. Tanthis of man. Come with me. Jeseia al'Kendara Arabala, you must remain up here. The bargain was for Tanthis alone." With those simple words, he turned and slowly started back down into the earth.

Jeseia moved to complain but I nodded softly to her before following Algorn. "Don't worry, there's only one way in, I'll be sure not to get lost" I teased, but I was probably more nervous than her. What bargain was reached about me?

I left Jes and Gtin'Nor upstairs while following Algorn. A servant I assumed passed us on the way up with a tray of food and wine, I assume to tend to my fox and our companion.

We came to a small foyer after several flights of stairs, there was a set of desks and chairs. Around the room were several doors, each appeared to lead into other sections of the structure.

"This is the study. This is as far as you are allowed to go. I have researched all the knowledge pertaining to the foxes request. Draw up a chair and listen well, for I am old, my voice is weak, and I do not like to repeat myself."

I nodded and settled into a chair, it was firmer than I liked but comfortable enough, A small goblet of wine was at the desk for me while the elder settled into a slightly taller chair surrounded by a few old tomes of odd bits of lore.

"I know why you are here. The foxes requested that I provide all the history for what you are walking into. I do not know why, but, the agreement was that you would document all that you can for my library in return for the knowledge I share with you."

"I will tell you now, so that you will have the peace of the evening to complete your end of the bargain. In the beginning there was one master race. The master race was not unlike the race of men. They were made of all four base elements brought to life with the spark of spirit and were eternal in their youth. They shaped the lands and tilled the earth, they drew stories of the sun and moon, and told tales of the elements like they were kin. They began to learn and meddle in the ways of basic magic."

"Magic, as you know, is of the elemental forces all around us. Mages take, and Channelers guide. But in the most basic form, it's all the elemental forces being manipulated to reach a goal. The master race, having been created of all the forces, naturally had a talent for working with these forces. The problem, is that they began to rely upon it."

"When you rely upon something, you require it. And when you require something so entirely as they did, you want more of it. They turned from channeling to mage magic to feed that need. They began to distort the elemental forces around them by pulling too much from the natural order."

"Torrnal, the leader of the master race city at the time, was the worst abuser of power. His knowledge of the forces that govern our world was growing to the point that the elements themselves had to put an end to it. They striped the master race of their immortality to slow down the damage being done."

"The now mortal Torrnal realized early on that this was a strike against his people and himself personally. He used his immense power and knowledge to draw the spirit and primal energies from his own people to sustain his own weakening life force. It worked and all the master race died but one, Torrnal."

"He fled, to where, we do not know. Our records do not say if he died eventually or not. The fallen citizens of the master race lay dead and the elemental forces knew that life must resume. They divided the fallen into four groups and each were filled with only one elemental force and then spirit to revive them."

"All four of the breed races are descendants of those four groups. One group could not survive with only one elemental force inside them and so were left with only the spark of life and no connection to the natural world forces. Those are men."

"At the time of Torrnal's experiments upon his people to extend his own life, the world was ravaged by storms and events of no natural cause. Earthquakes, balls of flame from the ground, lightning from the sky, and storms of such intensity that it changed the very landscape."

"History, like so many things, repeats itself if unchecked."

I stared at Algorn for several more minutes before realizing he had finished speaking and was just gazing at me.

"I see you knew some of this already. Very well. You need to return upstairs with this scroll and hand it to Gtin'Nor. When you are finished, rest. See me in the morning." Algorn stated as he handed me a small scroll and motioned for me to return upstairs.

I went back to the entry room of the temple to find Jes relaxing against Lorth's side while Calmon waited patiently for me near the cavern entrance. Gtin'Nor was leaning on a wall, sipping some wine passively until I approached and handed him the scroll.

Gtin'Nor looked to me curiously, finally dipping his head to read the scroll. He looked over it briefly before nodding and looking up to me. "I am to train you in one mage spell and remind you to pen your tale afterwards."

We went to the center of the room and squared off, he nodded to me and began to twist the elements around him, I felt every bit of it and it was not pleasant. "This is a shield, it is to defend you against powers, mages learn this early on to protect ourselves from the recoil and backlash of some spells."

He drew a small symbol in the air and between us a wall suddenly appeared, not a wall of matter but of pure chaotic elemental energies. It looked like the twisting of the elements I felt around these mages was concentrated into one area to separate me from him.

"This distorts and destroys any magic that hits it, rendering it mostly harmless to those on the other side." He said to me before motioning to me.

"Now you try."

I felt out to all the elemental forces through my walking staff but could not get them to tangle like that. The natural flow just didn't work like that. I couldn't force that which didn't want to be forced. "I can't, I can't distort the forces like you can."

"Well you best learn, because it may save your life." At that he dropped his shield and began to pull fire into his taloned hand. "Incentive, I'm going to throw this fire at you, you best learn to build that shield quickly."

I quickly began to draw water around me to douse the flames should he release them. As soon as I felt read the water withdrew entirely. The elemental water had chosen this time to leave me to my own devices!

Gtin'Nor throw the ball of flame at me, it wasn't large, but it'd certainly ruin my whole day. As it drew close I drew upon all the forces around me to try and put something between it and myself. Only one force responded to me. Spirit. A bubble of pure spirit energy surrounded my hand, dominating and binding the fire as it touched me and channeling it back to the forces where it belonged.

"Again." Gtin'Nor called to me, throwing another ball of flame followed by one of ice at me, harder and stronger than before.

Each time the elementals struck the bubble of spirit around my hand they dispersed without effect, though they never existed. I released the spirit shield and summoned it again on my other hand, feeling the flow of pure life and balance about me. The other elemental forces were there again, apparently I was just taught a lesson the hard way.

"Very good. It's not what I was to teach you, but it appears to do just fine. You should get some rest and do that writing that you're supposed to do. I'm going to get some sleep." Gtin'Nor turned and settled into a 'corner' of the round room and fell to sleep quickly enough.

I was left to sit there and write by candle and torch light. What you have before you is the collection of my tales so far. I hope that the knowledge gleamed from this is worth the bargain that was made, but it is what it is.

Before we left I returned this last page to Algorn.

In the morning I was called down to see the elder lore-keeper once more. He stood before me with a parchment and a face made of stone.

"I was instructed that for you to succeed, you must be a clansman of the dragonbreed. Stand before me Tanthis of man and prepare yourself to be marked as a lore servant of Noth'Gnok."

I nodded slightly, standing as told before the elder. He placed the parchment over my shoulder and upper arm, facing out. Upon it was traced intricate designs which I could not read.

Algorn began to mumble softly in the arcane language I'd heard Gtin'Nor speak. Soon the parchment began to warm up, becoming quite warm.

"Take a deep breath Tanthis of man, Lore servant of Noth'Gnok." He stated softly to be before mumbling again quietly in the strange dragonbreed tongue of magic.

I breathed in deep and nodded slightly to him as he finished a last word loudly. At that moment the ink designs of the parchment seared themselves into my flesh. I'd accidentally burned myself on my fathers branding iron before. This was nothing like it. Magical flame to which no water could cool and no ice could sooth lashed into my upper arm and shoulder, burning the flesh deep in the patterns laid out in the parchment.

I awoke later, moved upstairs, with Jes staring down at me. She was channeling water along me to help sooth the pain in my arm. Gtin'Nor was staring at me quite intently.

"I've never seen any outsider marked as an honored lore servant. That makes us kin Tanthis of man. I am starting to understand why such great lengths are going towards you. Rest up. We'll leave tonight under the cover of dark for the foxbreed village."

Tales of Torrnal

Chronicled by Tanthis of Man.