The Temple of Never Setting Sun and Everlasting Darkness

By Tapio Nattulv

The young monk Zendhi has grown up in a sheltered monastery but takes on a great journey into the world with his master Zarnguri in a dark time. The country is on the edge of war and pestilence is hovering over everyone. Is this the end that will cast the people into a dark age with no return?

Follow Zendhi on an epic journey and personal quest to rise above his own and everyones downfall.

• Language: English
• Publisher: Xlibris UK
• Release date: Jan 29, 2014
• ISBN: 9781493138661

Tapio Nattulv

Tapio Nattulv is a 39 year old Scandinavian man with his roots in the far north. A strong interest in the old myths and legends of the Norse traditions and folk tales has always been a influence in his life. Tapio grew up with a strong connection to the wilderness and the people of the north. This has heavilly influensed his work but that has also been mixed together with eastern philosopies and he regard his work as spiritual.

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Copyright © 2014 by Tapio Nattulv.

All rights reserved. No part of this book may be reproduced or transmitted in any form or by any means, electronic or mechanical, including photocopying, recording, or by any information storage and retrieval system, without permission in writing from the copyright owner.

This is a work of fiction. Names, characters, places and incidents either are the product of the author’s imagination or are used fictitiously, and any resemblance to any actual persons, living or dead, events, or locales is entirely coincidental.

Rev. date: 01/25/2014

To order additional copies of this book, contact:

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Contents

Book 1

1

2

3

4

5

6

7

8

9

10

11

12

13

14

15

16

17

18

19

20

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22

23

24

25

26

27

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34

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42

Book 2

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2

3

4

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Epilogue

Thanks to friends and family that I love and that have showed me love

Ola, JP, Adam, Mike… all the wonderfull people and friends in Kiruna.

Öki, Andreas, Frazze, Peter and the others i love in Stockholm.

The people in Skattungbyn that i shared with, Arash and Leena thanks for the help with the book!

The loving support from Amina over the years!

Emil and Nikki, what ever you do I will always love you!

Book 1

Shadow Over Voile

1

It is said that we all get here. There is no way around it, it always ends here. I am glad to have come to the end at last! I walked so many times and life’s in the forest of your soul so each time I enter it again I can see my own footprints in the soft ground by the waterholes.

Zendhi woke remembering the words the man in the dark had told him in the dream. Always the same dream, the dark place, the figure of the man and his deep voice saying the same thing every time. But Zendhi always woke when the man lighted a candle and came towards him, always before he could see his face.

Zendhi was sweating and as usual he felt disturbed by the dream. It was still night, he stood up from his bed that was lying on the floor and he walked up to the window feeling the cold from the stones under his feet. He looked out over the yard that was far below him, everything was quiet. His eyes were drawn from the ground and out over the landscape. The valley below was peaceful and the mountains behind it were rolling and soft as they always had been. Zendhi watched the stars over the hills and the half-moon that was disappearing behind them. The morning was not that far of and the sun would come and drive the darkness and dreams away from him. The sun would come and he would see the world that he knew again from his window but it would be a world he seen all his life and his eyes felt tired when he thought about it!

- Zendhi don’t be a fool. This is what you know and what you are, everything else you wish for are your vain ways to not let go of your ego and everything it wishes you to be!

Zendhi smiled using his teacher and mentors words to himself. The monastery was really peaceful and quiet, sometimes the feeling of it could be almost pressing in the nights, so he would feel like screaming to drive the silence away. Most times Zendhi would shake the emotion of him and he would again have the peace filling him up.

This night he didn’t feel like screaming but he wanted to run down the stairs and down into the valley and pass the first small village and keep on going, going where he never had been.

Zendhi couldn’t remember when he came here. His mentor Zarnguri had told him he came to the monastery when he was three years old, brought by a man from the village in the valley who told the monks the child’s parents died in plague. Zendhi was now twenty-seven years old and he had no memories from anything outside this place. Sometimes he had gone down to the village with other monks but he felt strange being there knowing he came from there but in the same time not remembering anything from it, no faces, no buildings and no feelings. Zendhi thought about his parents now and then but he had never asked anyone in the village about them.

Zendhi now stood by the window and looked out on the night that seemed to go on forever. No walls kept the night in. The night was the walls but the walls were made out of endlessness! Zendhi went away from the window and kneeled by the bed starting to say his prayers soft to himself. After sometime he felt the sleepiness taking him again and he laid himself down on the bed, letting the slumber come with visions and dreams of far of lands and people.

Later in the day after the morning praying had been done and the monks all had eaten their daily food Zendhi was sitting against the outside wall of the monastery looking at the world in daylight. Far away he could see the village under a hill on the other side of the valley. No other living settlements could be seen from here, even though the monastery stood on a high hill overlooking the valley. Behind the hill of the monastery there was high ground rising towards the mountains in the east that were very high.

Zendhi didn’t notice Zarnguri until he stood close to him looking out over the valley.

- What is troubling you Zendhi? Zendhi looked up at the man with his gentle face marked by years but also filled with kindness. Zendhi thought for an instant about the fact that he didn’t know how old Zarnguri was, but he must be around sixty was Zendhi’s guess. Zarnguri was different from the other monks he didn’t shave his hair but let it grow long and grey keeping it in a knot. The other monks seemed to have a lot of respect for him even if he had stayed less time than them on the monastery. He had come there when Zendhi was around twelve years old, and it is around this time when the young boys are given a mentor and guide at the monastery to teach them. Zarnguri had only taken Zendhi and another boy named Khwand but he had now gone to live in a temple up in the high mountains.

Zendhi let go of his thought about the old man and looked back out over the valley answering.

- Don’t know just a strange feeling in me. I know what I am supposed to do here. I know the goal of the life here, I know about losing my ego and the self. But what do I know about the world and what I am or what I could be? This is peaceful and most of the time I don’t wish for anything else. But sometimes I feel like I don’t know what I am supposed to give up!

Zarnguri watched the young man as he was speaking and he couldn’t help seeing the resemblance in him from when he was young himself! The kind face but also the eyes that sometimes could go on fire when the feelings were rushing through him. Zarnguri felt pain when he looked at Zendhi. The rules and life of the monks was one thing but to know nothing about your past or about the world except from what was taught here most be frustrating as long as the fire still burned in you. Zarnguri could see that Zendhi was burning. He wondered if he would have the strength to stay here and learn peace in the end or if the walls of the monastery would make him explode? Zendhi went on talking.

- I want to see something else. Maybe I should apply for going to the temple in the mountain?

The older man answered slowly with a dreaming voice.

- Maybe but wait a while before you do. Don’t make your decision in this mode! With those words he went off, leaving Zendhi staring at the horizon.

2

Zendhi took the old man’s advice and didn’t make any decisions for the moment and sometimes he would totally forget his thoughts and be content with his life in the monastery. Of course Zendhi had some knowledge of the world and what it was but it was only in teaching and not in real knowledge come from experience.

Zarnguri seldom talked about the outside world to Zendhi and would tell few things even if asked. The things he had heard and been thought had come more from other teachers and reading himself.

The area that the monastery was built in was called Scoldien and it was a part of the land called Nan est Arnum Land of the faithful. Nan est Arnum was not one country but a big stretch of lands belonging to different small kingdoms but most of its inhabitants were followers of the Arnum religion called the faithful path.

Scoldien was in the southeast of Nan est Arnum and it was a land of mountains and dry climate but with some fertile valleys between the mountains that was made green from all the water floating down towards the sea in the south and the east.

Scoldiens people didn’t have one king but were ruled by local chieftains or advised directly by monasteries that laid close to the villages. There was actually only one city in all of Scoldien and it was in the west where the mountains started.

Its name was Salim and it was a quite big and lively city after what Zendhi had heard. Its main income was the trading and it served as a portal for many things exported from and to the mountains. In Scoldiens high mountains many mines were built and many valleys were excellent for growing tea and rice on the mountainsides.

So Scoldien mostly had simple farmers living under the mountains or nomads going from valley to valley with their flocks of goats and other animals, but most people were living good and could afford some extra food on their tables because of the export to the lands in west and north.

It had been very good times for long it was said, until around twenty-five years ago when the dark plague had come to the land. It had reached other parts of Nan est Arnum first but eventually it came to Scoldien and many people died.

It is told that the plague came from the north and the country far away called Nan est Learnum Land of the Unfaithful who’s inhabitants are said to be followers of dark and unholy ways. It’s been said by some that it came as a warning that the people in Nan est Arnum were slipping in their beliefs and practices and by others that it was send by dark sorcerers from the north.

Zendhi knew nothing of the different countries of Learnum and little of the other countries of Arnum. He knew that to the west started the warm lowlands of Berthia which he been told have had countless of people before the plague came. The plague had hit Berthia much harder than Scoldien and more than half of the people had died leaving empty towns and villages behind that still haven’t been settled.

Further away Zendhi knew some names but really nothing about the lands except for Tirmindion. Tirmindion was the great city standing as a guard towards Learnum at the southern shores of the great lake Gwem that separated the lands of Arnum from Learnum. Of course Zendhi had heard that the people of Learnum used other names for themselves than the ones the people from Arnum had for them but what names he knew not! Much more was said to him about the rising of the religion of Arnum by the monks and teachers of the monastery.

The scripts say that in the morning of the earth that was called Voile meaning wagon the lands was guarded and kept by the Enlighten ones called Emhirs. The Emhirs was a race that was sent to Voile by god self. Who was the creator of the universe and its beings that had been breathe upon by god’s breath of light. The story says that the Emhirs prepared Voile for the people of Arnum that was about to come. It’s told that the people woke in a distant time finding the Emhirs among them waking them up from dumbness and darkness.

The Emhirs was the leading light for the people that grew more and more in number and started to spread over the world. It is talked about a thousand years long bliss under the Emhirs that ruled and took care of mankind during this years of wealth.

No one knows exactly when or how but eventually a seed of doubt was born among the people against the Emhirs and their teaching because what they said and taught was too hard to learn or follow.

The Emhirs seemed to have endless life and be of higher spirit from the beginning and some of them was not even burdened by a body any-more but was like a light moving in the air. The road that they preached to the people seemed endless and to hard, so many left their noble leaders and took from among themselves people to follow!

At this time other beings appeared on Voile called Miroder, meaning the fallen ones. People in Arnum said the fallen ones were a race fallen from light to darkness and fallen from civilisation to wildness. Where they came from and how someone could have fallen from the grace of god no one knew and not even the Emhirs knew or would tell.

Their simple ways and practises were liked by many of the out breakers who took them as spiritual leaders and started to drive out the Emhir’s from the lands that they took for themselves.

Strives became more and more common and it didn’t take long before war broke out. Weapons ones used for hunting became weapons that killed men and women and new weapons were constructed sense both sides had progressed much in their intellect by being taught by the Emhirs. What the Miroders had taught their followers is not known but soon both sides were wearing armour and wielding long and deadly swords.

The war ended with the great battle on the lake Gwem in the winter time and neither side had victory but a peace came out of the fact that both sides nearly perished. The winter ice of Gwem was red from the blood of all the fallen soldiers, and ravens and eagles could be seen darkening the sky over the lake for weeks after the battle. The continent was divided and the ones being faithful to the Emhirs and their teaching took the lands to the south and called themselves Farn el Emhirs, followers of the Emhirs. Living in the land of the faithful Nan est Arnum.

In the north the people that left the Emhirs had their lands and their leaders but of them is told and known little among the people of the south. Peace was for many hundreds of years and mankind seamed to flourish in the peace that was given. Cities were built and monasteries were raised but it seemed that the Emhirs became less and less present after the war among the people and soon very few had even seen them.

The monks and their masters are said to have the records of their direct teachings written down and it’s spoken among the monks that people that come very far in knowledge one day becomes like the Emhirs.

It’s not known where from it came or why, but the plague came and it hit the lands hard and cruel. Families died and villages and cities went under, the people looked to the priests and monks for salvation and help but none could be given. The monks and priests were not saved from the Black Death either.

Twenty-five years has passed since the plague came and the Emhirs are a rumour and tale of old. People that claim to have seen them are mostly not believed and some say.

If the Emhirs are still living why have they forsaken us? Why do we have to follow only lore written down by man and not drink from their source direct? Is not mankind still in need? Do we not suffer still in the weakness of our minds and bodies?

The doubts are there but many still follow the road that is taught by the monks and hope for the Emhirs to return one day to deliver them from pain and toil!

Zendhi thought about all this as he sat in his room and read one of the scripts of the monastery. How little did they know about their past and where they came from except for more local history as the one of Scoldien.

The first people to enter Scoldien is said to have come after the great war lead out by a man called Wanhem est Emhir the man who is an Emhir. He is supposed to have reach so high knowledge and spiritual power that he finely became an Emhir himself but keeping his human features. Wanhem built many churches, monasteries and temples and showed the people that he lead the rich valleys and where to build their villages or roam freely in the mountains.

He died without a child and there for the land was divided between smaller leaders of the people but the religion and beliefs has always been kept strong in the land of Scoldien and many monks claim that’s why the plague didn’t kill so many of its people!

The people of Scoldien have as long as they been living here not been soldiers or warriors. Weapons other than for hunting or cutting wood was unusual. In some homes a rusty old sword could hang on the wall as an heirloom from the war and in the city of Salim the leader had some troops that guarded the city and kept peace. Other than that Scoldien seemed like a peaceful land but there could sometimes be hard words spoken between the farmers and the nomads because of unclear ownership of lands. And sometimes it was said among the farmers that the nomads were not faithful followers of the Emhirs but had gone to strange ways and teachings living in the wilderness of the mountains without permanent homes.

Zendhi closed the script and looked out, it was becoming colder. The summer was going to its end and even if the land was far in the south it became cold up here in the winter time. Zendhi thought about applying for the other temple higher in the mountains but felt big doubts about that.

It would only make him come to an even more isolated area and he wanted a change but not in that direction. Maybe he could ask to go outside Scoldien to another temple in another country? Sometimes it happened that the chief monk sent someone away like that but Zendhi doubted that it was done on request.

Zendhi cursed his restlessness and went over to the bed and laid down and started reading the script again until he fell asleep. He drifted far in his dreams over the mountains and looking out over unknown lands he saw a great darkness come on the winds from the north, sweeping across the country and killing the people as it passed.

He could hear humans cry and moaning, and foul beasts howl in the wind and the screams from carrion birds in the sky coming down to tear the flesh from the dead.

Zendhi woke late in the morning happy to see the light coming in through the window again.

3

A week went and the dream came to Zendhi in the nights and in day time he felt sad and often looked to the north expecting to see dark clouds come sweeping down towards the monastery!

Zarnguri watched the young man closely during these days observant of his pains and inner fears. Finely one day when they were outside the walls collecting nuts under the trees and when Zendhi looked to the sky to often Zarnguri spoke.

- What is troubling you Zendhi?

- Nothing master!

Zarnguri looked at Zendhi with a stern look.

- Since when do you and I lie to each other?

Zendhi looked a bit ashamed then he spoke again.

- I didn’t mean to lie but I don’t want to bother you with stupid things.

- Nothing is stupid Zendhi, the only stupid thing to do is underestimating the importance of small or seemingly stupid matters! Zendhi looked at Zarnguri and was puzzled over himself that he hadn’t talked to him earlier; Zarnguri had always listened to him.

- I have had a dream many times this last week, it is a bad dream master.

- Tell me of this dream.

- I dream I fly over the hills and come out over lands I never seen before, but in the north there is darkness gathering, a darkness that is sweeping the land and filling it with death and suffering!

Zarnguri stood silent for a while before answering.

- Have you heard the reports and rumours from the lands in the north?

Zendhi shock his head and looked at the older man for him to continue.

- We have had reports to the temple saying that the plague has killed people in Arnum again. Not so many but the last time it came is still remembered by many and such bad times I don’t know if we can endure again without loosing all of our civilisation and knowledge.

- Why haven’t you said anything, why has this not been told?

- The head monk doesn’t want it to come out before we are more certain of its proportions and its nature. These are still rumours from other countries and no one in Scoldien has died yet. But I feel something dark moving too and I had a feeling you would have some premonition of it!

- What does all this mean? Zendhi looked more worried now when he heard the news and rumours that Zarnguri was telling him.

- I don’t know and I am not supposed to tell you either but you seem to have your own way of knowing so no use hiding since we don’t lie to each other. Zarnguri smiled saying the last thing.

- What is Wandor the head monk saying about this?

- That I can’t talk to you about yet, but I will tell him of our conversation today and then I am sure you will know soon what he is saying!

- And what are you saying about this? Zendhi looked at Zarnguri’s face to read the answer as he had a feeling that Zarnguri many times could hide parts of the answer from him so he could figure out himself later.

- I lived last time it came and that was hard times, many died and the countries have not yet come back from that period of death. If it hits again with the same strength most will fall, that is what I say. But what will happen I don’t know.

They both stopped their picking and looked up at the sky. No dark clouds and no death, but a nice sunlight and a fresh wind from the sea of the south.

- Come lets go down to the valley and the river and see if we find some berries under the oak trees. The old man pointed to the small valley that came from the north-east and curved itself west to join the bigger river that went in the great valley under the monastery.

Under the trees it was nice and the grass was green and the feeling of summer was still there because the trees kept the wind out, and the sunlight felt warm in the shelter.

After picking some berries and nuts under the trees the two men sat down by the water and threw some berries in the stream watching the dark trout’s rice to strike them.

It was a nice distraction from the earlier conversation but soon Zendhi’s mind went there again but he didn’t ask directly but asked of another thing he had long wondered about.

- Where are you from Zarnguri? You are not from Scoldien are you?

- No I am not. The old man laughed and sighed.

- I come from a far of land called Mindoria, it is a very beautiful place with deep forest and rising mountains that are not so high but steep. And the trees are very different from here. Most of them don’t have leafs but they have like small green thorns that are a bit soft. It’s a very beautiful country indeed.

- Where is this country?

Zarnguri looked at him for a long time then answering with a smile.

- As you would say Learnum but our people don’t have one name for the countries north of Arnum but we have many countries but not one name that gather us together like here.

Zendhi looked in surprise at his master and friend.

- All these years you been teaching me and you never said! That’s why you never taught me about the history of our religion or the war against your people?

- No that’s not why Zendhi. I have been forbidden by Wandor to tell about my past to you or anyone else but I think times are changing now so I risk it. The history I didn’t say much about because it’s not facts but guesses and stories told to glorify one peoples past. We have another creation history in my country and we have another story about our people and the war! Which one is right? Can you or anyone else say?

- But if you don’t believe that our side of the history and creation is right then what are you doing here?

Zarnguri laughed at Zendhi’s question but still answered it with his calmness.

- In my youth I was hungry for knowledge and it didn’t matter from wench it came, so I wandered in to the southern lands seeking more of it. I had learnt my people’s ways but I was thirsty for more. You shouldn’t believe that this kind of teaching is the only one given even in Arnum. There are other ways and other skills taught for the hungry ones even here in these mountains.

- You mean the nomads and their sorcerers?

- Yes that’s what I mean but as usual they have other names for themselves than the ones given by outsiders.

- But why did you come here in the end then?

- I met… The old man stopped and looked as a pain from the past came over him and he wrinkled his eyes and face in a grim smile.

- I thought I could find some relief here, and some I have found!

They sat silent for a long time before Zendhi talked again.

- Do you know anything about my parents or how I came here?

- Wandor didn’t want me to tell you about them because he thought you might get attached to the memory or thought of them. But I said more than enough about other matters so I can tell you what I know about that to. The old man looked more relived now.

- Your mother and father came to the village down there when you were new born. The villagers told Wandor that they said that you had been born on the way here. Your father they said was a man named Ulgwan and your mother was named Inomiel. Your father is supposed to have been from Ranrik and that I believe because his name sounds like it’s from there. Your mother is said to have come from Tirmindion and her name suggest that too and their countries is not far apart so I think it’s most likely that they were from these places. They had only lived in the village for two years when the plague came. They both died and the villagers came here with you. One of the men leaving you told Wandor that your father had told him that they left their homelands because your mother’s family that was a rich family from Tirmindion wouldn’t allow them to get married because of your fathers simple linage. More than that I don’t know and I doubt that anyone else knows much more either.

- Thank you Zarnguri for telling me at last, I have often wondered.

- I have broken many rules and promises talking with you today but I am willing to take the risk and stand for what I have done and so we will see what comes of it!

Their conversation ended there and they started to walk back slowly to the monastery.

4

- When did it come? Zarnguri looked at Wandor asking the question.

The old monk with his white long beard and bold head looked up from the letter he had been reading to Zarnguri.

- It came yesterday with a villager who received it from a merchant down in Salim.

- The master and king of Tirmindion wants someone from the monastery to come to the city before the end of next month for attending the council he is summoning.

- So not only plague is threatening us again but war is at hand?

- The letter speaks of battles along the borders but also about fights within Arnum. The land is crumbling to pieces it seems!

Zarnguri sighed and looked out the window.

- And what do you want of me?

- That you know the answer to my friend. I’m too old to go and I don’t want to send someone that only knows the life of the monastery to give council in these matters.

Zarnguri turned to face Wandor and saw the honesty in the man’s face, smiling he answered.

- I am afraid that you send the wrong man for doing this but I will go and thank you for your faith and trust in me, but I only go if you allow me to take my student with me, if he is willing to do so himself.

- Zendhi? Wandor stroked his beard and continued.

- I am willing to let him go with you if you in your turn tell me why and what you have told him?

Zarnguri laughed.

- I was going to tell you anyway old friend nothing slips you so no point hiding. He had dreams about death coming from the north, bad dreams that reminded me of the last time the plague came. We talked a long time and I told him about my past… Zarnguri stopped and looked at Wandor that didn’t show any sign of disapproval so far.

- And I told him about his!

- And why do you want to take him?

- I don’t know it’s a feeling. He is under my care and he has a lot of questions that maybe this journey can answer for him and he is also a help and support for me on the road.

- A help for you? You travelled most parts of the known world and he doesn’t know how to get to Salim by himself, how is he a help for you?

- He is more pure than me, more innocent! That is my guide. Many things that I met in my travels before I would have mastered better with a pure mind than my hardiness.

- If it’s your wish and if he is willing take him. But be aware Zarnguri the fate of Zendhi might be stranger than we both can imagine, that’s my feeling!

The very same day Zarnguri went to speak with Zendhi who was standing in the garden collecting herbs for the house of healing that he was studying in right now.

- Zendhi!

Zendhi turned to see his master coming towards him with a strange look in his face. Serious but puzzled in the same time.

- What is happening master? He answered with a bow and putting his hands together over the heart.

- I need to ask you something Zendhi and I don’t want you to answer me right away, I want you to think about it.

Zendhi nodded his head for Zarnguri to ask the question.

- I am going on a journey to Tirmindion. I am being sent there by Wandor because the king Randorh is asking advice from some of the monasteries in a big council that is going to be held in the end of next month. There is word of war in and outside Arnum, and if the rumours of plague is true, then we are going towards very dark times Zendhi.

Zendhi nodded his head and felt sad, not only were this dark times but he would also lose his master in all this. But he said with a low and cracked voice.

- So what will you have me do while you are gone master?

- I was going to ask you if you are willing to come with me on this journey. Wandor has already approved of it.

Zendhi laughed feeling relieved.

- Well you asked me to not answer right away but I can answer now and its yes, I will come with you and if you want my answer tomorrow it will be the same!

- Are you sure? We will go towards danger and you will in every way be more safe here than travelling the countries in these times that are coming.

- I can’t hide from my dreams or fears Zarnguri, and travelling and leaving this place is something that has been in me for long now. Maybe this journey will bring me some peace like your stop here gave you some.

Zarnguri smiled a warm smile, he knew he chosen the right companion!

5

The wind was blowing hard over the open valley and dark clouds moved in from the north blotting out the sky that was turning dark in the evening. Zendhi shivered remembering his dream and thought of the oncoming winter.

He was packing his things that he was going to bring, Zarnguri told him to pack as light as he could but not to forget anything necessary. He had told him to not bring to much food. Wandor had supplied them with some travel money and Zarnguri had said to him that the nature would also provide them with food and shelter.

Zendhi packed some extra clothes for cold weather and a thick wool blanket for sleeping. He took a small wooden plate for eating and a spoon. Into the bag went the small knife that he used to cut herbs and branches with in the garden plus some food and a skin for drinking.

He looked into the bag wondering if he forgot something but couldn’t remind himself of anything, Zarnguri had told him to leave his razor home and said that if they were going north he better let the hair grow for the cold.

Zendhi laughed over how practical Zarnguri could be. When he felt finished he laid himself on the bed trying to sleep early because they would leave at first break of dawn Zarnguri had said.

Zendhi felt to excited to fall asleep and he laid awake a long time dreaming and thinking of the lands in the north and the great city of Tirmindion.

Eventually sleep took him and the thoughts continued in to the dreams, and in the dream world of the night he was walking on strange paths in the dark. Soon the surroundings were so dark he couldn’t see his hand but then suddenly a light in the darkness, a lantern moving closer. Where was he? Nothing to see but the dark and the light. Then he saw a shape behind the light that held it towards him blinding his eyes.

- Why you always follow me here? The voice asked coming from the light. It came closer and closer.

Zendhi woke with a jerk. Pale morning light was coming in the window, it was time to go!

When he came out Zarnguri was already sitting by the gates waiting for him. Zarnguri watched the young man coming towards him dressed in the same type of simple grey clothes as himself, with the hood pulled up to protect from the cold wind that was still blowing this morning. Zendhi had a gentle face but sometimes it looked like great sorrow was in it that the young man couldn’t touch or reach himself. His head and face was as the other young monks shaved and Zarnguri laughed inside thinking of how the travelling would make Zendhi look.

Zendhi stopped in front of Zarnguri bowing slightly and respectful.

- Master! I am sorry to be late.

- You are not late my friend, I wanted to come here early to see the sunrise and think of the road we will take. I hadn’t decide yet yesterday on what road to go. He stood up and took a staff that was leaning against the wall and handed another one beside it to Zendhi.

- It’s good to have for walking and protection!

Zendhi looked at the staff that was as high as himself, it was carved out from a hard wood and made smooth to hold. It