[center][h2]After An Ark[/h2][/center]

          It was an eerie walk they took, silent as they had to be to avoid detection. The jungle loomed around them in a motley web of twisting vines and tangled roots, and Caleb couldn't help but *feel* like something was watching them, somewhere, even though the space was silent; unnaturally silent, he noticed, even for such an early hour. As they passed beneath the latest in a series half-fallen branches, curiosity got the better of him, and softly as he could utter the words, he whispered: 

"...w h y  i s  e v e r y t h i n g  s o...y o u  k n o w...q  u  i  e  t ?..."

Rainbow gently nudged Ribbon to tiptoe around what looked to be a particularly tripwire-inspired twig fork, narrowly avoiding what would surely have been a crack like a bullwhip at this hour. "...w e l l...y o u  k n o w  h o w  I  m e n t i o n e d  t h e  n u t h e a d s  l i k e  m a k i n g  o f f e r i n g s  ?"

"...u h - h u h ?"

" s i m p l e", the pint-sized creature finished promptly, flourishing a hand in the air without so much as confirming his scrawny bodyguard had even seen it from behind. For a moment Caleb's mind flashed back to the cramped hole he'd slept in, specifically to the snakes that'd supposably occupied it. He wondered if Rainbow *had* actually forced them out all by himself, or if they just hadn't been able to understand their newfound company. At any rate, he still didn't know why the jungle was so dead quiet.

It wouldn't be much longer that he could hold onto that thought though, for all of a sudden the vines and shrubs became sparse and unpopulated, like they'd stepped into a completely different world. Here there were no hanging vines, no crawling roots; here there was no tussling thicket - only woodstumps, broken axe handles and discarded...fish. . .bones  .  .  .  ?

"...t h e r e...", Rainbow pointed out what appeared to be a rather carefully refined woodworking station at one end of the enclosed clearing, "...a n d  t h e r e...", he continued, nodding to another. The scale was small, but organized - efficient...unnervingly so, frankly; it was like somebody had carved a swath of a chessboard out of the otherwise dense surrounding foliage. "...t h i s  i s n ' t  a n y  o l d  g a r d e n  p a r t y -- t h a t ' s  a  m i l l  ,  a n d  t h e  o t h e r ' s  a  j o i n e r y  s t a t i o n..."

Caleb scratched his head again, the idea just hadn't sat right with him since he'd agreed to figure out if it was even real or not. If it was...well, it'd certainly be a fine ticket out of...wherever this was; but he couldn't understand how the "goblin" could be so sure it even existed...at least, in a useable state.

"...a  s h i p  i n  t h e  m i d d l e  o f  t h e  j u n g l e...", Caleb pondered unbelievingly. 

"...l e a v e  i t  t o  t h o s e  e a r t h - f o n d l e r s  t o  g e t  i t  a l l  b a c k w a r d s . . . a n y w a y  ,  l i k e  I  s a i d  ,  i t ' s  m o r e  l i k e l y  b u r i e d  u n d e r g r o u n d  t o o;  t h u s . . . w e  n e e d  a  K e y."

This had been the part the boy had been wondering about. It was some sort of special day of worship for the dwarves today...a day on which they didn't work, didn't go outside, didn't even eat (the fish carcasses must've been from the day or...days, prior). All day, today, they'd be locked up in that central forttress of theirs - and the keys they carried to get in would be with them. So imagine that Rainbow had just so happened to find a dwarf who not only just so happened to disdain this practice of theirs, but actively did so in secret, at the end of every week, and right out in the open. The chances had to be below those of finding a unicorn.

[b]"OH Mighty One, are you pleased with me? Surely you who are the most cunning would look favorably upon your most cunning servant - KARRASS! Karrass who makes such beautiful carvings for you, Master, and do you not see how the others worship the work of Karrass as miracles of your own in his place? Karrass does not NEED the praise of others...of course, of course..Karrass is humble, and devoted to his god...but...if perhaps the Mighty Bear could bestow just a *little* sign of its affection upon him...why, Karrass would make A HUNDRED such assumed "miracles" in his god's name!

...or, a hundred more, that is...

...Praise be to the Mighty One...Karrass earnestly awaits your reply; As he always has; As he always does...Still."[/b]

Caleb froze. He hadn't even *n o t i c e d* the dwarf kneeling before the tiny figurine not fifty feet away - he'd been so still, and his clothes blended in perfectly with the sea of woodstumps checkerboarding the parched earth.

"...j u s t  l i k e  w e  p l a n n e d  ,  r e m e m b e r  ?...", Rainbow muttered quietly atop his equally subdued steed. 

With a flash, a brief wash of purple light passed over him, and Caleb could begin to feel his features *seem* to change. But he knew it wasn't real, this was all an illusion, he didn't Really look like this...

...the question was, would their newfound friend see things differently?