Memorializing the Elder

You carry the surprisingly light body of the old man to a shallow place, and as you carry it there, you notice a symbol on the inside of his left wrist. It is no tatoo, it is a birthmark rather, but it is clearly and with no doubt a rune. You etch its shape in your memory.

You begin to arrange stones around the body in a large pile to keep away the wolves. You take the sharply honed dagger and cut out squares of mountainous turf to cover the mound...and you notice the same rune etched into the bottom of the pommel.

Curious, you begin to search among the belongings of the man to see if the symbol is etched elsewhere...and indeed it is. On a stone embedded in one end of the staff, on the top-right corner of the hard-bound cover of the battered tome...even on the inside of the strange box with the three lids. What could it mean, or signify?

The memorial mound is complete.

For no reason that you know, you find yourself tracing the symbol in the fresh earth on top of the mound with the staff. As you do so, a wind blows through the trees and down into the hollow. A wind blows into the mound itself. A wind opens the earth beneath you, and the mound begins to sink into the earth. You are not certain, but perhaps with another kind of eye you notice that the symbol glows slightly. A wind reemerges from the mound and travels swiftly in a spiral all about the place, all around you, and straight up into the early day. Gone.

Gone is the body of the old man and the mound you placed over him. Gone is the symbol you traced in his earth. Gone also is the ashen remains of the campfire. Gone is every trace of the old man or his camp. All that remains is what you have taken from him: clothing, dagger, staff, box and key.

You are hungry. The vast slope of the mountain extends below you. In the new light of day, you can see you are halfway up the slope of the mountain under which the dragon had made its lair. The town that sent you is up and over, on the other side of sheer walls and cliffs. You cannot climb up. You must either go down into the valley before you where you escry either a village or a town, or you must skirt the mountain toward the East. All other ways are impassible.

You are Calingor, a man emptied and renewed. You are emptied of yourself and all your history. Mystery is what remains, and very little else.

You are very hungry, and decide to...

1. descend the mountain in search of people and food
2. skirt the mountain to the East, and seek to find what finds you

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