Chapter 120

Cara, Morris, Stevin, and Jared sat quietly in the back of a cart. Morris kept looking at Cara and Stevin the tension between them was heavy in the air. 

"So, this is going to be fun, I don't know why I never thought of it Stevin, instead of waiting for the festival to happen once a year, we can go ourselves to the druids, and this five-head meeting excuse was perfect," said Jared breaking the silence all too excited, oblivious that everyone in the cart wanted to sit in quiet. 

"Speak slowly, Jared, my dad is driving the cart," Stevin warned Jared. Morris couldn't blame Stevin, he wanted to come on the trip with them but he couldn't find anyway, his mom had said no immediately, and the only way left was to tell a fake story to Jared, whose father had enough influence over the Elders to let them both come too. 

Morris looked out of the cart, at the passing trees and the open blue sky. It wasn't too common for young dwarves to come out, and if they did it was always under supervision, now that they were coppers, they would soon be getting many more chances to leave but this was different. He wondered on which side of the path Rit was following them if he was. 

They had three carts with them, they were in the last one, in the middle one were all their bags, and in the first one the three elders, Rahm, Sarah, and Maeve. 

Ash woke up the next morning and said goodbye to the witches. It had been a good experience he thought, he had mainly talked to Kalinda and she seemed like one of the old ladies from his village only much better looking, she only had curious questions and answered all the ones he asked too. Now that it was the time of day, he felt much more confident about his chances of making it to the point marked on the map. He had asked Kalinda about the kinds of things that lived in these forests. 

"These forests have the highest magical density in the whole continent, there are all kinds of creatures and phenomenons that happen here, no one can explain or know about all of them," she had said. 

Ash's curiosity was ignited, he had finally gotten used to being without mana and now had a little more confidence in the normal human body. Who knows if he will ever again get the chance of being in this place, thousands of miles away from the human kingdom? Somewhere along the line his luck will run out and no one would want to do anything with him anymore and he will be sent back to his normal life. He was making good time on his journey now, and he had plenty of time to reach his destination, so in the afternoon when he stopped to give the horses rest and freshen up. He decided to go in the forests and explore a little. 

Ash bound the horses to a nearby tree, the path had been deserted since he had started, he hadn't seen anyone other than the whiches yet so he wasn't afraid of getting his cart stolen or something, and the horses trained by the amazons seemed much more intelligent then the normal ones. So, he left them and entered the dense and tall trees. The forest was colorful, not just green but he could see shades of other colors as well in the canopy which wasn't common. It was also full of life, beautiful birds, and small animals he had never seen before. There was a mix of smells in here and he was sure if he could, he would feel a lot of dense mana in this place. There was a lot of noise in the forest, he was sure somewhere near there were bigger animals too, but he wasn't afraid, he had faced many dangerous things, even without his powers he should be fine with his sword by him. He walked deeper into the forest. Then he heard something, a weird vibrating sound. He walked towards its source in order to hear it more clearly, he felt he knew what the sound was but he couldn't place it in his head until he saw the source of the noise. It was a man, a very weird-looking man, the kind he would expect to be living in such forests, his clothes were a bit small for his stature, he didn't seem too big, just as tall as him though much wider in the shoulders and neck, but for some reason, it looked like the man was much bigger then he was supposed to be. He had dirty curly brown hair and a scarred face. His skin seemed much thicker and rouch than normal humans. The man was snoring loudly, Ash would have picked the man to be some kind of barbarian but he had a bag beside him that was open and there were several books in it, one of which the man had been reading before he went to sleep, Ash red the title it was not written in common human tongue, but an old language similar to Elvish, Derek's book had taught him the common basic script of most old languages, he translated the title roughly into, Four Heads Chair. He walked closer intrigued by the strange picture that had been drawn underneath it. The snores stopped suddenly, and the man's eyes opened, he saw Ash over him and growled loudly, but there seemed to be fear in that growl too. Ash jumped back and so did the man. 

"Who are you?" he asked totally taken aback.

"Sorry for waking you up, I was just passing by and saw you, I don't mean any harm," said Ash raising his hand.

"A human? But I thought the nearest human village was on the other side of the mountains," said Rit.

"Yes, I am a human, but aren't you too?" asked Ash.

"I am no human, I am a dwarf," said the man. Ash thought dwarves were smaller.

Then the man suddenly grabbed his head and looked around.

"I didn't wake up! I was supposed to follow them, They would be miles away now!" the man exclaimed. 

"If you need help, I have a cart, I can leave you somewhere, I am going east," said Ash.

"Uh, I was going east too, that would be very nice of you," said the man looking at Ash suspiciously.

"Good then, my name is Ash Blake," Ash introduced himself.

"Rit," replied and they walked back to Ash's cart.

"So where are you going, let me guess, the five-head meeting?" Ash asked.

"What? How did you know that?" Rit asked.

"Just a guess, I am going there too," said Ash.

"I didn't know humans would be there too," he said.

"No humans, just me, and I am with the amazons," said Ash.

"The amazons, they are good friends to the dwarves," said the man.

"So that book has something to do with the meeting?" asked Ash.

"What? Why?" asked Rit.

"The title, says, four-headed chair right?" asked Ash.

"No, it's the four-headed throne, and it has nothing to do with the meeting," said Rit.

"What's the book about?" asked Ash.

"It's just a book of old tales," Rit replied.

"So, what's the story about the throne?" asked Ash.

"Long ago, a king had a throne built, it had statues of four women around it, and the tale is that whoever sat on the throne ruled the whole world," said Rit.

"Yeah that sounds like a take all right, what's the point of making the statues?" asked Ash.

"Not anyone can sit on the throne, whenever someone finds it, the four women will appear one by one and ask a question each, only if you answer all the questions correctly will you be found worthy of the powers that the throne offers, " said Rit.

"And whereabouts was this king from?" asked Ash.

"If by that question you want to know where the throne is then forget it, the throne has been lost for centuries and has never been found, " said Rit.

"Yeah, there's always a catch with these things, do you think the story might be true?" asked Ash.

"My master believed so, that's why he kept these books, " said Rit.

Ash and Rit talked more in the cart while they traveled east, Rit had a lot of interesting books to talk about, and he didn't seem to mind talking to Ash about them.

They reached the point marked on the map.

"We are going to wait here for some time, the amazons I told you about are going to meet me here, " said Ash.

"It's fine since we are going to the same place anyway, I might as well just come with you if you don't mind, " said Rit.

"I have no problem, there is plenty of space, they like to walk instead of sitting in the cart anyways, but I forgot to ask, why did your friends didn't wake you and leave you?" asked Ash.

"I wasn't with them, I was following them at a distance, actually I am supposed to accompany this young girl, in fulfilling my master's orders, she is the one who is going to the meeting and we decided I would follow her without the riders knowing, " said Rit.