| Chapter 3:

| As they turned towards Rothar’s, Eric couldn’t help but feel a little worried by Massic’s advice. Rothar’s cover was near the edge of the village, backed by the tall and jagged cliff face. The covers were basically huts, crafted very neatly from clay and roofed with some sort of bush or grass plant. They were expertly built though - sturdy, and large enough to make for quite a comfortable house.

| They entered the cover through its large wooden door. Rothar went about in silence lighting some candles and oil lamps, and in a few moments, the whole of the cover was seen in a glowing warm light. Eric looked around, too scared to move. There were books everywhere, papers, maps, and statuettes. Whatever Rothar did, he looked like he wanted to keep good record of it. Large furry animal pelts were laid out along the floor of the cover to act like a carpet, and in one back corner, the pelts were sewn together and stuffed with something, which served as the bed for his captor.

| Rothar stretched and removed his sword and holster, laying it down on a tabletop covered with more books. From the table, he picked up a leather-bound novel, a pen, and some ink, then went over to his bed. He sat down and leaned back with relaxed sigh, and brought his eyes to meet Eric’s. “You can come all the way in you know; standing square in my doorway will only make us both freeze tonight.”

| Eric realized that he had dumbly stopped in the doorframe when they had arrived at the house. He nodded and quickly stepped in, closing the door behind him. Rothar smiled and pointed to a place on the pelt in front of the bed. “Now, human, come sit right here and we shall talk of things.” His pen scribbled something into the book, and he looked back up at Eric, waiting for him to take his seat.

| Talk? Seems harmless enough; guess I’m lucky I ended up with Rothar instead of Massic. The relaxed thoughts in his head were enough to get him moving normally again. He sat himself down in front of Rothar, and waited. He kept looking down, not wanting to meet Rothar’s sharp pale gaze. Rothar sat at a slight angle from Eric, with his knees out in front of him and his feet flat on the pelts, so that he could rest the book on his lap while he wrote. Starring down as he did, Eric couldn’t help but look at those intriguing toes again, both resting on the animal pelt less than his arm length away from him.

| “Alright, lets start with the basics. Human is what you are, but you mush have a name, right?” Rothar held the pen in waiting.

| Eric looked up quickly from Rothar’s feet, and found that piercing gaze waiting on him. “Um…yes, it’s Eric. . . Eric McColm.” His answer was a bit horse and he realized for the first time that he had not had anything to drink since his capture. Luckily, Rothar was as observant as he was inquisitive.

| Rothar stood up, and stepped by Eric; his big feet passing right by him in another wondrous display. He walked to a small wooden door in a pelt-free section of the cover. The door lifted away, and he reached down inside to pull out a water skin. He closed the wooden door back in place and went to another section of the cover. Rothar reached up into a shelf that had been moulded from the clay of the cover wall, and pulled out a silver cup. He turned and went back to Eric, handing him the cup and water skin. “I’m sorry, Eric, I had forgotten about your water needs in my haste to discover more about you. Drink and get your voice back.”

| Eric filled the cup and gulped it down, glad that Rothar had cared enough to give him some water. He filled the cup again, and took the second one a little slower. Rothar sat back down, and rested the book on his lap again. Eric glimpsed down at Rothar’s big toes again, perfectly still and majestic.

| “Good, now lets continue. Asking where you come from, if it’s the Thira realm, might be a very difficult question, but do you think you could tell me?” Again, Rothar’s gaze was boring into Eric, as if trying to pull the answer from him.

| Eric thought for a moment about how he should phrase this; do I say I’m from Earth? No… that would sound stupid. I’ll just be general I guess. “I’m from a city called Calgary, in the province Alberta, in the country of Canada. I guess it’s another realm to you.” There… that sounded right.

| Rothar’s pen dipped into the ink and scribbled a moment on the paper, then he looked at Eric again with those pale eyes “And Canada - is a nation of humans? Are you all warriors, scholars, seers?”

| “Not exactly.” Eric shook his head “We’re a nation of humans, yes, but we all do different things, I mean, it’s a free country so we all choose what we want to do, and try to do it.”

| Again the pen scribbled out Eric’s information and stopped. “Now, in your tribe, did you fall through the gate in worship to Dar Souljeth and the right of Sioleth?”

| Whoa…what the hell does that mean? Eric crinkled his brows a bit and gave Rothar back a look of confusion. “Ah no, I don’t worship anything named Dar Souljeth and I’m not really sure what you mean.” Rothar’s pen scribbled some more information down and he looked back up at Eric, as if to demand more of an answer. Eric though a moment then spoke “Well, for one, we’re not really a tribe, we’re a city. Calgary has nearly 3 million of us living there and …”

| Rothar’s roar cut startled Eric and cut him off in mid sentence “Three million!? Are you telling me the truth Eric? It’s a number almost too fantastic to be true, you know. We are but a tribe of 27, and as we know it, there are a few thousand of us in this world.” Rothar paused, as if still digesting the incredible number, then gestured to Eric to continue.

| Eric swallowed and continued with a little less confidence “Um… well, there are a lot of humans in my world - they say something like 6 billion of us now.” Rothar’s book fell from his lap, but he made no move to retrieve it, just kept looking at Eric for more. Eric continued to explain “We’ve grown a lot as a race. When we were at your level of development, we only numbered a few million world-wide.” Eric cringed Oh shit… that didn’t sound good, I don’t want to offend him! “I mean, not to say you aren’t far along in things, but we had done the same 600 years ago.” Oh great, that came out even worse. I’m going to end up getting myself killed!

| Rothar smiled, picked his pen back up, dipped it in the ink, and began writing again. For a couple minutes, nothing was said, then the big lizard set his book and pen down and picked up the backpack Eric had been carrying. Calmly reaching in, he pulled out one of Eric’s textbooks, and examined it. “I figured as much when I first caught site of Waverek examining this book.” Rothar placed a black-clawed fingertip on the first line of words, and followed it slowly across, his claw making a faint scrapping noise. “These words are placed perfectly on the page - every space, each of the letters themselves, though I don’t recognize any of them; everything about this book is perfect. Not even the steadiest writer among us could achieve anything like this magnificent piece; it is something that we cannot do, yet I expect these are common in your Canada?” Rothar looked back up from the words, pale eyes holding to Eric’s in waiting once again.

| “Very common, yes.” Eric’s confidence was at least leaking back again, after the momentary start. “They look like that because they are printed by a machine - a machine that can make hundreds or thousands of them for people to read.” Eric slowly reached out and tilted the book upward so that he could see the title; Rothar bore a slight smile, with a pondering look about him. “This one is a book about Computer Networking Topology - how to use computers to build large scale networks with…” Eric trailed off, realizing Rothar would have no idea what he was talking about - especially since most people back home had no idea what he was talking about when he started with computers!

| Rothar had quite a confused look on his face this time. “A computer is another machine in Canada?”

| Eric gently took the textbook from him and started flipping through the pages, looking for something. With his head down, searching, he tried to explain, “They’re not just in Canada, the whole world has them, err, where I come from that is. They’re a machine that can calculate numbers millions of times faster than we can, and they can do just about anything with images, text, and sounds… ah ha, here.” Eric turned the book around and showed Rothar a picture of a computer system.

| The gasp Rothar let out was only half as shocking as the look he had on his face. “Your world is truly wondrous… this painting looks real enough to reach through!” Rothar gently ran a claw over the image, as if to test its solidity.

| Eric finally smiled - he was beginning to like Rothar, who was obviously someone that liked knowledge. That and Rothar at least wasn’t trying to kill him! “It’s not really a painting, it’s a picture - you can take a picture of anything you like in our world, then it can be placed in books, on paper, clothing - just about anything really.”

| Rothar took back the textbook from Eric, he looked at it a moment longer, then sat it down on the pelt beside him. He picked up his notebook and pen, dipped it into the ink, and began scratching what he had learned furiously into the book. “I must try to record this - it’s incredible! There’s so much to ask you Eric, I don’t know where to begin, but, you must have the same kind of questions about my home in your mind.” Rothar finished the last line, and looked back up at Eric, who was gazing down at his feet for some reason.

| Eric’s eyes darted up, and he spoke quickly “Umm sure…” Whoops, he might wonder why I was looking down. Jeez I need to be more careful. Hmmm, what to ask first…”I guess I should start with the same questions as you; like where is this place, what is it called?”

| Again, Rothar sat the book down, then crossed his legs to sit in a Zen-like position - toes resting atop each knee. Eric couldn’t help but dart his eyes quickly to each set of toes, set so perfectly atop those pale green knees. Almost as quick is looking down, he met Rothar’s pale gaze again, hoping he didn’t notice. Rothar took a deep breath, as if clearing his mind, then spoke. “This is Sioleth, a promised land. It is all we know of this world, and was promised to us by Dar Souljeth during the First Vista. We are the Zagoran, its keepers.”

| This time it was Eric’s turn to look completely confused. None of what Rothar said really made any sense to him, though it sounded very religious. Whoa… now that’s epic. “Is Dar Souljeth your god?”

| Rothar nodded matter-of-factly “It was to him that we made sacrifice when we happened upon you. He created this world, and promised it to us, but only if we could prove strong enough to rid it of evil.” Rothar gestured as he spoke. “The gift of Sioleth to our people is what we call the Right of Sioleth.”

| Eric nodded - it at least made sense, in a mythical story sort of way. Eric was sceptical though - Earth had hundreds of faiths, and it seemed there was very little proof that any of them were very realistic. He decided to ask a daring question “Please don’t take this the wrong way, but how do you know he listens to you when you ask him to?”

| “Each offering we make, we Seekers receive Jantra with which to better our kind.” He extended his clawed hand, holding it palm-up for Eric to see. Without explanation, it began to glow red, and pulse softly in the candlelight. Eric backed up a little, surprised by the sudden illumination, and unsure of how it was possible. Rothar lifted his hand above his head, and Eric’s textbook leaped from his resting place into the glowing hand of Rothar. Rothar smiled and glow faded from his hand.

| “That was incredible!” Eric took a moment to gather his thoughts about him again, and asked, “Only you can do that?”

| “Yes, only me.” The big lizard set the book back on the pelt, rose to his beautiful feet, and strode over to a candle that was getting low. “Each tribe has a Seeker. We are, as you might have guessed, knowledge seekers and keepers of the Jantra. Sometimes, if you’re lucky enough, Dar Souljeth speaks to you, but very few ever get that lucky. Tribes form around us as we are the only link to Dar Souljeth’s ways, and look to us for purpose and advice.”

| Eric rose as well, a little stiff from sitting so long. “Now I see why Massic listens to you - you’re wise and powerful, more so than any here, I bet.”

| Rothar puffed out the low candle and turned to Eric “Jantra is not power Eric, it is aid. I am forbidden to use it for anything that would not be in aid. It is the rule all Seekers live by.”

| Eric scratched his head. Okay… this is strange, but cool. It’s almost like a dream world of some sort, except this one seems more real than my own. Still doesn’t help explain why the hell I ended up here though. “If you’re peaceful, why carry a sword?”

| Rothar lit another candle, and placed it in a clay bowl to catch any stray wax. He looked back up at the human, and gestured at the sword resting on the tabletop. “We are warriors Eric, we fight to gain Sioleth from the Evil that threatens to take it from us. Even as a Seeker, I cannot escape its necessity.”

| Eric nodded, and said nothing for a while as Rothar went about the cover, refilling the oil basins in each his lamps. Asking softly, Eric tried for the answer he wanted most. “Rothar, do you know why I ended up here?”

| Sighing, Rothar shook his head “I don’t know Eric McColm - it was the will of Dar Souljeth, I can think of nothing else.” Rothar went to the far end of the cover, to a large clay stove, partly embedded into the cover wall. “Are you hungry? Neither of us has eaten anything since we met.”

| Suddenly noticing the persistent rumbling in his stomach, Eric nodded, and managed a small smile. “A little, yes.” Oh man… I wonder what they eat?

| Rothar smiled and lit the coals in the oven “Excellent. Seekers get to know a lot of good meals in our pursuit of knowledge - I hope I can prepare one to your liking.” He moved over to the small wooden door in the cover floor, and knelt there, back to Eric, rummaging for food items to prepare.

| Eric smiled, watching him, noting his soles facing him whilst he gathered the food. It was one of the first good looks he had gotten of the bottom of their feet. The toes were jointed twice - once at the ball of the foot, and once more part way up the toe. Rothar’s sole crinkled with little ripples and his toes were slightly curled as their topside rested on the cover floor. The claws on the end of each barely touched the floor. He could just make out the fine scaly skin from his distance, finding it all very enticing. Wow…I don’t know why, but I can’t stop looking at his feet; they’re wonderful! Eric suddenly was aware of his excitement.

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