‘We know of several of these areas of sand throughout the forest, and you must keep well away from them. It is all right to view them from the trees, but not from the trees which have changed around the edges of the sands and are unlike the trees we have around us now.
‘Any area you come across in which nothing is growing must be avoided at all costs, as it may have the same properties as the Death Sands. We don’t know this for sure, but it is better to be safe than sorry afterwards, and the ‘afterwards’ is not very long according to the tales I have heard. No doubt you will come across many strange plants and creatures, and you must, at all costs, treat them as if they are deadly to you, until you can be sure they aren’t, by whatever means you have at your disposal.’
Suddenly the Story Teller raised his head, listening intently, but Kel hadn’t heard a thing.
‘I think our visitor is approaching,’ said Mec, tilting his head ‘I can hear faint footsteps outside on the main branch.’
A few moments later a young sounding voice called out,
‘Mec, are you there?’
‘Yes, come in Moss and meet my friend Kel.’
A tall well muscled youth of about the same age as Kel strode purposefully into the main cave and over to the entrance of the little den in which Mec and Kel were sitting on their gourd stools.
‘I’d like you to meet Moss, he’s from a nearby group, and like you, he is not too happy with his lot in life. He thinks there must be more to it than just existing and plodding on from day to day, and so I have brought you both together to see if you would like to go on an adventure.’
Kel stood up and took a few steps over towards the youth as he entered the room, and touched palms, as was the traditional form of greeting between strangers. He was a little taller than Kel, with broader shoulders and a deeper bronze coloured body hair, but apart from that, they could have been brothers.
‘I understand you are as bored with life here in the forest as I am.’ said Kel, not knowing what else to say.
‘I didn’t used to be,’ replied the youth ‘until Mec here began telling me the stories, and then I wanted to go out and see for myself what truth there was in them.’
Mec had brought out another bowl of fruits and pods, and they both tucked in to a good feed, almost as if they were subconsciously trying to put off the next stage of events which would irrevocably join them together in the adventure Mec intended them to go on.
At last appetites were fully satiated, and the three of them sat back with bloated stomachs, looking at one another, wondering who would start the conversation of no return.
‘You are both coming up to the age when you will be presented with the Greater Cutting Knives, but I have something here which will make that seem a small event.’ and so saying, Mec went into another of the little rooms, returning with two of the biggest knives they had ever seen, complete with two scabbards and the holding belts.
‘These are rather special knives, and were made a long time ago by a friend of mine. I somehow knew this day would come, and I wanted my adventurers to be equipped with the best I could find, and these are the best.’
Each of the shimmering black knives were nearly as long as Kel’s fully extended arm, and had a slight curve to the blades which made them look even more deadly than the normal straight type.
The handle was moulded so that it fitted the three fingers and prehensile thumb of the holder and was adorned with a bright red stone on the extreme end, and a strap through which the holder’s hand could be passed so that the knife wouldn’t be dropped if it was let go for any reason. Mec next produced the scabbards to hold the knives, which had a series of little pockets on one side, each containing a smaller knife than the one before, the final one being only as long as Kel’s little finger.
‘These represent a complete workshop, as it were. There is a knife for every purpose, and they are made out of the hardest of the Shiny Black Stones we have ever found, and if looked after, should last you a full lifetime.’
The pair were overwhelmed at the sight of the knives, having never seen any so large and magnificently made. Mec slid the gleaming black blade back into its scabbard, almost with an air of reverence, and handed each of them a belted scabbard with its complete set of knives.
‘There is one more thing about these knives. You will notice there is a bright red stone set in the handle.
‘These stones were found together a long time ago, and are set in the end of a hard silver coloured tube. We had no idea what they are for or who made them, but we think it must be a leftover from the time of the giants.
‘They have been passed down through generations of Story Tellers, and recently we found out by accident that if you pressed the stone hard enough, the other stone emitted a ‘pinging’ sound. It’s almost as if they talk to each other, and distance seems to make little difference.
‘Up until recently we didn’t have a use for these stones, but now it was thought a good idea to set them into the end of the Knife handles, so that if one of you ever needed help, he could summon the other.’
‘Let me show you how it works.’ and Mec handed Kel one of the scabbards, giving the other
