The Origin Of Mount Woe Chapter 6
An Early Homecoming
By Nanaki
12,020 B.C.
At first no one noticed anything after the swirling blue died away. Most of the men had assumed it was some odd side effect of the Sun stone. That is, until one of the younger explorers stepped outside his tent and noticed he was standing by the entrance to Trann cave.Within a few minutes, the entire complement of the exploration party and the citizens of Trann cave were mixing among each other, loudly demanding answers nobody seemed to have.
Finally, a weary looking Vigo stepped out of his tent. Everyone quieted down, waiting for him to say something, but he just stared over the water at Enhasa for a few minutes. Eventually, he turned around to address the crowd. "As you probably surmised by our early homecoming, we have recovered the Sun stone." He paused to wait for the cheering to die down. "However, this stone appears to be highly unpredictable in it's nature. I would like to meet with Maro, Melchior, Gaspar, Karak, and my advisors in one half hour." Then he turned back. "Sorry Belthasar, but I've seen enough of you in the past month to last a lifetime."
"I know what you mean." Belthasar cracked his knuckles. "Now I would like to get back to my warm cave, with it's large fire."
Vigo patted him on the back. "Thanks for snapping me out of it back there. Until we figure out what really makes the Sun stone tick, I think we ought to just not use it."
"It is unpredictable. Did you notice Zeal's hair?"
"What about it?"
"It turned an odd silvery blue color. I also noticed a few other women had hair a of a plainer blue shade, just in the past few minutes."
"Another odd effect of the Sun stone, no doubt. I wonder if this thing isn't going to be more trouble than its worth."
"Well you better go get ready for your meeting. I'll talk to you after I've spent several hours in my nice, warm cave."
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As Vigo listened to his advisors argue, he wondered what good they really were anyway. Maro just smiled knowingly. Karak looked exceedingly bored. Finally, he spoke up. "Scuse me gents, but since I can't use magic, I don't know what all the fuss is about!"
"Well Karak," Vigo smiled, glad he had managed to shut the advisors up, "the Sun stone should provide a huge amount of magical power. But right now, we know next to nothing about how it works. I just know that I managed to recover several tons of Dreamstone and teleport us home. For some reason, that seemed to take much more energy than blasting through solid rock."
"Perhaps the Sun stone's energy is only taxed by living things." Maro suggested.
"In that case, we really could move mountains! In fact..."
"I have a feeling a major project is coming on." Melchior smiled.
Gaspar remained silent. Vigo looked questioningly at him, but then turned back the other way. "Maybe we could raise a mountain above the clouds..."
"I don't know if that's such a good idea." Karak frowned. "Wouldn't keeping the clouds at bay right here be easier, and less dangerous?"
"Perhaps. But it might use more energy to keep the sun shining than to move a mountain. It requires further research." Vigo frowned, deep in thought. "Gaspar, I would like you to find out which would be more cost effective. I tend to lean towards the mountain, because what good would the sun do us when we live in caves? The rest of you are dismissed."
Vigo pulled Gaspar aside after the others had left. "Is something bothering you? You seem awfully sullen lately."
"Its nothing, Vigo." Gaspar sighed. "I've just been having troubling premonitions. I don't think they have anything to do with your project though. My research team should finish fairly soon."
"So, are you really serious about moving a mountain?" Karak asked Vigo as Gaspar moved down the passageway.
"I don't see why not, if we have the power."
"So which mountain would it be?"
"I'm leaning toward Enhasa. It has that broad plateau on the east face."
"So, you're going to build a city on Enhasa, use a super powered stone to make it float, get Zeal to be your queen, and have a bunch of Dreamstone to fool around with?" Vigo smiled, realizing the grand scale of his plans. "You don't think small, do you?"
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"Your majesty! Its too dangerous!" - Anonymous
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