Dinner that night is one of the oddest meals you have ever had. Wedra shoos you out of the kitchen when you ask is she needs any help with the food, "Maybe tomorrow night but tonight you're in for a treat."

While you are waiting for dinner Yoder offers you a glass of chilled wine, "Here you go Barak. I bet you've never had this before. It's White Valley Sweet Wine. Usually it's pretty costly but I have a deal worked out with Lanor over in White Valley, if you know what I mean," he says winking at you.

Sipping at the crisply fruity wine and looking at Talus who raises his hands helplessly, "Uhm...yes, this is good stuff," you say deciding to skirt the subject of his unknown deal.

A short while later Wedra comes bustling out of the kitchen carrying a brace of game birds along with several vegetable and cheese dishes. "I got the recipes for these dishes from a Gorell merchant. They have the best cheeses there you know. I've made a few changes to make it more interesting. Well don't just sit there staring at it, dig in."

Everything she has prepared has cheese on it somehow. If it doesn't have cheese on it, there is cheese inside it and if there isn't any on or in it then it is supposed to be dipped in cheese. You wouldn't think that some of the dishes she has prepared would be edible but everything is surprisingly good and you stuff yourself almost to bursting.

There isn't much conversation during the meal since everyone seems so intent on the food but after the dishes have been cleared away Yoder leads everyone to what he calls the relaxing room. The room has a cheery fire burning away in one corner and scattered throughout the room are various thickly padded chairs and couches. He and Wedra settle into one of the couches while Talus pours everyone a glass of Goldleaf Brandy.

"Be sure you sip this slowly Barak. It's pretty strong stuff. So, did I miss anything while I was gone?"

Wedra tells Talus all about what has been going on in the village, who's done what and how so and so is doing and other normal things you would expect in everyday village life.

When Yoder, in the most serious tone you have heard from him yet, starts telling about the recent news from the west you perk up and listen with great attention. "Well King Trina has sent word out that we are going to need to send more help to them or we are probably going to get invaded ourselves. So most of the young men and women that aren't needed at home have already left for Hessia. I think all of your friends are already gone Talus. The next group is going to leave after the harvest is finished so you might want to see if they'll let you travel with them."

"We should find these people Talus, and go with them. The walking dead are an affront to the Great Mother and must be destroyed!!" At the end of this statement you realize that you are almost shouting. Looking down at your empty glass you sheepishly say, "Uhh...sorry about that. This brandy is stronger than I'm used to, I feel a little light headed already."

"That's alright Barak," Wedra says soothingly, "We all understand how you feel and agree with you but let's talk about something more pleasant tonight, please."

The rest of the night is filled with Yoder and Wedra telling you all about Talus during his youth and thoroughly embarrassing him. It seems that he has always been easily distractible, with the recent exception of when he starts building Drakenhurlers. He is always cheerful and generous to a fault, helping out neighbors and friends when he should be doing other things. They also comment on his unusual strength which he seems to pass off as being normal and why won't they quit mentioning it when they know it embarrasses him.

When your eyes begin drooping Wedra orders everyone to bed, "We've got a lot of work to do tomorrow so off to bed with you all. Barak you can sleep in the guest room. The bed will expand to fit you, but we will need to get some more pillows since the mattress doesn't expand too. It took weeks to get all the feathers cleaned up after that idea didn't work out. Do you remember the look on Caliden's face when it exploded in his face. Oh, that was priceless," she says as she begins to giggle uncontrollably.

Talus takes over telling the story for his mother who is giggling so much she has to sit down. "You see Caledin is a human sorceror friend of ours and he was staying with us a few years back. Father had just finished his "any-size-bed" and Caledin was the first person to try it out, he wasn't told that he was the first of course. Anyway, everyone went to sleep and a few hours later we all woke up to a blood-curdling shriek from the guest room. We rushed in to see what was wrong and there was Caledin standing in the middle of the room in his small clothes surrounded by feathers with a stunned look on his face. He kept saying "I just laid down. I just laid down." Now if you know anything about sorcerors you know that they are a pretty proud and arrogant bunch of people and seeing him there like that was probably the funniest thing I will ever see in my life. It took about an hour to explain what had happened to Caledin and after a while he saw how funny it was. Very little sleep was had by anybody that night and it was hard to keep a straight whenever we looked at him. Don't worry we just use extra cushions now, see you in the morning."

A good night's sleep later, after completely checking out the bed, you head down to breakfast, "Good morning everyone. May the Great Mother smile on you today."

Smiling happily Wedra turns to you, "Good morning Barak. Help yourself to some breakfast. We've got to get the 8th, 11th and 17th rows done today and you're going to need all the energy you can get. Hello Yoder. How are they?"

"Oh they're just fine. Hi Barak. Morning Son. I forgot to tell you guys last night, but these two horses, well one is actually a pony, showed up out of the blue a couple of days ago. They seemed determined to stick around so I fed them and let them wander around in the fields. Do you want to come take a look?"

Yoder leads you outside to a field behind the house and there you see two magnificent grey horses. The larger horse, which stands a little over five and a half feet tall at the shoulder, walks over to you and rubs its head against your shoulder. You can feel a great spirit-like presence when the horse touches you and you get an image of the horse striding across rays of light. The other horse goes over to Talus and does the same thing.

"They seem to like us. Don't you think so Barak?"

"These horse have a deep connection to the spirit realm. They must have been sent by the Great Mother to help us." Reaching up to scratch the horse's head you say, "Hello Lightstrider. My name is Barak Moonshadow. I'm glad you are here to help us. Thank you Great Mother for your aid."

"Why did you call him Lightstrider, Barak?" After you explain the image you saw when the horse touched you. Talus says, "Oh. Then this one must be named Mooncharger. Hello Mooncharger. My name is Talus Baerbellow."

"Boys, I'm glad you figured out why they are here but we still have a lot of work to do so come on. Which row do we have to do first Wedra?"

As you go off to begin helping with the harvest the horses follow you. Throughout the rest of the day you help Talus' family pick and sort grapes. The horses seem glad to help and pick what grapes they are able to with their teeth and carry many baskets back to the pressing house. The horses draw many curious onlookers but despite this the work progresses very quickly.

A week of hard work goes by rather quickly as you help with the harvest. During the nights Talus locks himself away in his workshop and refuses to let anyone enter while he is working on his current project. When not practicing your skills you spend most of your time talking to Yoder and Wedra and getting to know Lightstrider better. Yoder teaches you how to play Knacking and helps you make saddles for the two horses. Wedra tells you about the gnomish people and that you should talk to Hilo Rebbenor, the Seeker Priest of Binsus if you want to know more about magic.

After the first week and most of the harvest is finished you are able to explore Hellenfield more and talk to some of the other gnomes. The gnomes believe that every person has the right to do what makes them happy as long as it does not endanger the safety of others. As a people they are cheerful and easy going, if a neighbor stops by to talk they will happily put their work on hold and spend time with their visitors.

They are intensely curious about how things work and have no qualms about taking apart a perfectly good item or idea to see what makes it tick. Most often they will rebuild it better than it was before but sometimes not. They technically follow the god Mul but that is really only because he created the rules by which the natural world operates and they want to figure out all the rules and make them better.

The undead attacks concern them greatly but they trust in King Trina to know what's best for Gnomish. She hasn't let anybody down yet and has been king longer than anybody else has before. You meet the other gnomes that are getting ready to leave at the end of this week and spend some time talking with them. They are all young men and women who haven't really traveled all that much before but if King Trina says they need to go they'll go, they just aren't real sure what they should do when they get there and how they should go about getting there. Realizing that while the score of them are impressively equipped they are poorly organized, you gather a few of the ones that seem more experienced and begin to organize them into something more than an armed rabble. They readily take to the suggestions you make and begin calling you Commander Barak.

Hilo Rebbenor is a wizened old gnome whose house is crammed full of books, scrolls and other forms of writing. They literally cover every available space leaving barely enough room to walk through the house. He talks to you about the various forms of magic and noticing you inability to read begins to teach you how. Being able to read is the most valuable treasure a person could have in his opinion. There are many different theories about magic, he explains. The two most common are the Single Source Theory and the Quadratic Separation Theory. The Single Source states that all the magics, no matter what you name them, are all the same. It's our interpretations of them that limit us from using them all. The Quadratic Separation states that the four types of magic; Magery, Divinity, Shamanistic and Psionic are completely separate and have nothing to do with each other. He does not endorse one over the other but encourages you to form your own opinions and challenges you to defend them once you have them formed. He seems to enjoy lively discussions and will argue both sides of any issue equally well.

At the end of the second week Talus finally emerges from his workshop and is all smiles. "These are for you Barak. They are the best work I've done so far and shouldn't let you down." He hands you a set of drakes and a matching long drake. They craftsmanship looks excellent on these weapons, both decorative and functional at the same time. The stocks of the weapons he has oiled to a deep golden brown and carved bear images into the polished wood. The metal pieces on the weapons are made out of finely polished steel with scrollwork etched on the barrels. "Mother has been working on these sheaths for them. The belt also has pouches to hold a total of 30 shots for either the drakes or the long drakes, however you want to divide it up. You can either wear the belts or attach them to the saddles with the buckles here," he points out small buckles on the sturdy but plain looking brown leather belts as he hands them to you.

"These are beautiful Talus. I'm sure they'll come in handy when we fight the walking dead plaguing the halflings."