The first thing Telli saw was the smoke from a fire. He moved forward cautiously until a man came into view crouched in the shallows of the river. Telli assumed him to be fishing for something, although the method used was new to his experience. As he came closer, he could see that the man was using a small shovel to scrape up mud from the riverbed and add it to a pile he already had on the bank. He was elderly, with grey hair, and was alone so far as Telli could see. There was a pot cooking on the fire, and the sight of this encouraged the hungry traveller to reveal his presence. Approaching to within thirty yards still unnoticed by the old man, who seemed absorbed in his work, Telli cleared his throat loudly and called out.

"Hello there, sir."

The old man looked up at him quickly, then clambered up the bank, darting nervous glances around as if to ensure that the newcomer was alone. He stood there looking Telli up and down for a moment as the boy came slowly nearer, before speaking.

"Hello, hello young sir. Hmm--and where have you come from, hmm?"

"Over the mountains, from Drakisland." Telli sensed his youth and the fact that he was alone giving the old man confidence.

"Draksland? Hmm, Draksland? Never heard of it. Hmm-will you eat? Yes? I have fish. Small fish, but good fish. Do you come for gold?"

The invitation to eat was just what Telli wanted to hear, but he did not understand the last question.

"Gold?"

"Gold, hmm yes, gold. This is a river of gold. Will you put down your weapons please?"

The old man took a long knife from his belt, and threw it to the ground a few yards from where he stood. His hair was wild, his clothes ragged, and his bright eyes bulged slightly as he stared at Telli, who laid down his own knife and his bow, guessing that the other saw such gestures as a signal of trust. It occurred to him that the old man was a little mad, but he sensed no danger from him.

"Hmm, gold. Men only come to these parts for gold. You are not a robber young man? No, no, I see you are not, by your face you are not. My name is Slomen. Come and look." He beckoned, indicating the mud he had piled on the riverbank. Telli introduced himself by name, as the other began to sift through the mud with his hands. After a moment, the old man gave a cry of joy.

"You bring me luck, young Telli, you bring me luck! Hmm, see this." After rinsing it in the river, he held out a small, shiny yellow stone for Telli's perusal, hands trembling with excitement.

Telli had never seen gold before in any form. The Elnesiders did no trading or commerce, and therefore would have had little use for it even if they had possessed some. But he knew of its reputation from the old stories, that it was highly valued by the people of the lands he had now entered, and so looked at the small nugget with interest. It was about the size of a man's thumbnail and glistened in the sun as water dripped from it.

"Is this worth a lot?"

"Worth a lot? Hmm, not here for sure. The fish in the river are worth more to us here, is it not true? But where many men live, in the towns and the cities, there it is worth something, aha yes ha ha." Old Slomen chuckled with pleasure, and then asked Telli, "have you never looked for gold in a river?"

"No, never."

"It is normally found only in very small grains. This is a very good place, hmm, very good. You will tell no one I hope?"

"No, not if you do not wish me to."

"Good, good. Come and eat. Food first, then gold I always say, and what more does a man need?" Telli could think of a few other things, but refrained from answering the question as he followed the old man to the fire.

The fish were small but good as Slomen had promised. He had boiled a few small roots with them, and Telli felt refreshed after the much-needed meal. The old man chatted away as they ate, chiefly about gold, which seemed to be his passion, if not an obsession. He had been searching for it for thirty years, and seemed to have travelled all over the Kingdom in his quest for the one great site, from which he would make his fortune, and retire to the city to live a life of luxury. He had great hopes of success in the area where they were. Telli listened quietly, and wondered how often his companion had been let down by such high hopes during the last thirty years. His opinion of Slomen as being slightly mad, but harmless, grew as the old man spoke, but he also began to like the eccentric prospector.

As they finished off the fish, Slomen, who had shown surprisingly little curiosity as to Telli's origins or business, suddenly made him a strange proposition.

"Your bow and arrows, hmm, do you hunt? Yes? If you can stay awhile, we could become partners, you know. I could pay you for food in gold-hmmm. The forest down river is rich with food, but the time I take to search for it takes me away from my real search, for the hmm, gold, you see?"

Telli explained that he must go to the great city of Kellmarsh in the south, which he knew to be the seat of the King, and try to raise an army. He told Slomen of the Khrelling and their human slaves, thinking it right to do so as his new acquaintance could be in danger from the cave creatures should they come in this direction on one of their hunts for new captives. The old man said he knew nothing of such peoples as Khrelling, clearly not fully understanding that the creatures were not human. He showed an interest in their caves, however, and Telli had to suppress a smile when he asked: "hmm, are these mines, do they have hmm, gold?" Explaining that the slaves had told him the Khrelling did possess much gold and other precious minerals in their caves, Telli made sure Slomen understood that this would not be the best place to go looking for such things. The meal finished, he thanked his host, and said that he would go hunting that day, and would return for the night if successful, but wished for no gold in return for his efforts as he was already indebted to his new friend. Slomen seemed pleased at this, and gave directions to a small cave where he could be found if not still by the river when Telli returned.

Setting off into the forest on his hunt, Telli hoped for success not only for his own sake, but also for the pleasure he could bring to the old man. Slomen had been immediately friendly after his first quick appraisal of the stranger entering his camp, although his madness for gold might well have led to a different attitude towards anyone sharing the knowledge of his new finds in the area.

The forest now contained lowland trees scattered amongst the evergreens of the highland woods, and proved to be a source of fruits, nuts and roots, as well as meat. Slomen had informed him as he left that there were goats and deer for large game, but also wolves and bears he must be wary of. Some trees and plants were familiar to Telli, identical or related species growing on both sides of the mountains, but others were new to the young hunter. He gathered likely looking fruits whether he knew them or not, now having an eastern companion to advise him as to which were edible.

After an hour of searching and gathering, Telli struck his own kind of gold in the form of fresh deer tracks. Just twenty minutes later, he had stalked and killed a beast large enough to last himself and his new friend for a week, or more. He was forced to butcher the animal there and then, selecting the best parts, before staggering back upriver. Having had time to think about the journey ahead, Telli had come to the conclusion that a supply of gold might be very useful to him on his way, and was considering the idea of staying for a day or two with Slomen. The old prospector was delighted when he saw Telli's load, and begged him to stay. Telli himself was pleased with the simple luxury of having a pot to cook in for the first time since his escape, and promised to stay at least one more day before starting to prepare their evening meal outside Slomen's cave.

Telli surprised himself by staying another eight days with Slomen, to the old man's great pleasure, and ended up leaving far better equipped for the journey ahead in many ways. The chance meeting was of great benefit to both man and boy, and Telli was later to consider it one of the greatest strokes of luck during his travels up to that point. He was the only human hunter-gatherer in a forest of plenty, and the pair ate three fine meals each day as a result of his efforts. Telli felt himself recover quickly from the hard days and nights on the barren mountains, and could see similar gains in his companion's health and wellbeing.

Slomen seemed to be rejuvenated, partly from the good food, and partly because he was free to indulge in his passionate search for gold from dawn to dusk each day. He proved to be excellent company as the pair sat by a fire lit in the cave mouth each night, having an endless fund of stories accumulated during his decades of travel around the Kingdom. Travel in search of what seemed to Telli a pretty, but for all practical purposes useless, yellow metal. One of the important gains for the young foreigner was that he left with far more knowledge of the Great Kingdom than he had arrived with, few of the Khrelling slaves knowing much of their origins. The other was that he left with a considerable supply of gold, along with the knowledge of some of the best places to take the raw metal and exchange it for lesser weights of the Kingdom's coinage.

Slomen profited in being able to extract far more gold from the riverbed than he otherwise would have done, being spared from all the chores necessary to stay alive in this isolated place by Telli's presence. At the end of the eight days, he was left with new and much needed deerskin clothes, and a thick goatskin coat, like the one Telli had made for himself in the Khrelling valley. In addition, he had inherited a bow and arrows (the young hunter having the time to fashion himself a new and better set from choice wood). Also, a set of Elneside style fish traps, expertly placed in the river, and generally worth at least one small fish for his pot each day.

"I don't know how I managed without you. Hmm, I suppose you must leave. Please accept this for your labours, this, hmm, gold," he said on the morning Telli would leave, proffering yet another handful of his precious findings. The old man was remarkably generous with the fruits of his obsessive searching, and Telli wondered if there was not a connection between this trait, and the fact that he still appeared to be poor after all the years he had devoted to the hunt for gold. Either he had given away too much out of a kindly nature, or perhaps his real obsession was not with accumulating great hoards of the stuff, but with the search itself. Telli managed to refuse this last offering.

"What I have learned from you about my way ahead is far more valuable to me than gold, and finding a friend after so many days alone the best value of all," he told Slomen, truthfully.

"Well, if I cannot give you gold, hmm, I can only wish you good luck, isn't it so, hmmm?"

With this last of a thousand 'hmms' ringing in his ears, Telli went on his way down river. He resolved to try and find the prospector again at some time, before the gentle old soul died a lonely death hunting for stones on some remote mountain, with no one to pray for him and bury his bones.

Telli, now fit and strong, and with no immediate need to hunt, covered a good distance on the day he left Slomen. For the first time since leaving Elneside, he also had in his head a reasonable map of what lay ahead, and was slightly surprised at finding the directions given by his eccentric friend to be very accurate. Towards the end of the afternoon, he had spotted signs of humanity; an abandoned mine shaft with a rotting wooden hut by its entrance, and the occasional flat-topped trunks of trees, clearly victims of an axe rather than nature. He saw no one until the middle of the next day, when he had expected to do so.

The river Telli had followed since finding its beginnings on the high mountains joined another, and at the junction was a small settlement, known as Minersford. Slomen had explained that the people here lived partly from hunting and fishing, along with a little farming, a means of existence familiar to the Elnesider. They also traded with the miners and prospectors, exchanging food, drink, and accommodation for a very high price in gold. Telli had no need to stop here other than curiosity, and a feeling that he should warn the villagers of the existence of the Khrelling.

Approaching the village from higher ground, Telli could see that it was very different from his own, but expected this from Slomen's description. 'A place forsaken by the hmm gods, young Telli, full of thieves and, hmm, pox-ridden miners' whores'. A scandalous theft in Elneside was something like a child taking a few chicken eggs from a neighbour. Whores were something the moralist Drakis raged about in the three hundred year old tracts left to guide his people on the path to righteousness, and had never existed west of the mountains.

At first sight, the settlement appeared run down, its fifty or so wooden buildings better described as shacks than cottages, some so dilapidated that Telli thought they could not be inhabited. On reaching the first huts, he was greeted by five or six ragged children, who shouted hellos at him, and tried to sell him food, wine, a bed for the night and, if he understood rightly, their own sisters to put in it. All this within a minute of his arrival.

Telli approached a middle-aged couple, the first adults he saw, thinking to pass on his warning of the Khrelling, but they too seemed intent only on selling him things. He tried the next man he came on, a shifty looking individual who had thief written all over his face. After refusing the offer of a canoe in exchange for gold by lying, wisely, that he had none of the metal, Telli gave up. Annoyed by the children who were still following him, trying to block his path, and pawing at his pack, he decided uncharitably that the people of this settlement would hardly be worse off if kidnapped by the Khrelling. He left the village, crossing a rickety wood and rope bridge, and receiving a shower of small stones from the urchins, no doubt a punishment for visiting without enriching any of them. Considerably shaken by his first experience of a community east of the mountains, he continued on his way down river.

Telli passed a few poor fields on the banks before re-entering the forest. He knew that these were not really important to the living of Minersford's people. The reason the village had grown up in such an isolated place was the wealth of minerals in the area. Its inhabitants trekked back and forth along the well-trodden path Telli was now following, buying goods for gold at a low price, and selling them on to the miners for a much higher one. Slomen loved explaining such things. 'The price of, hmm, gold goes up the further you get from its, hmm source, young Telli, not so? Always, hmm, remember this.' The old man had advised avoiding Minersford for this reason, as well as the nature of its inhabitants, but had advertised the second settlement down river, where the Minersford traders bought their goods, as being in complete contrast to the first. Telli wondered how he would have reacted to this early encounter with the citizens of the Great Kingdom had he not first met Slomen.

It was about six hours walking time to this next settlement, named Larisroot after a vegetable cultivated almost exclusively there. On his way, Telli passed two traders, both staggering under the weight of huge packs full of goods to barter for gold. They were civil, bidding him good day as they passed, sweating under their loads. To his great relief, neither tried to sell him anything, presumably because he was clearly headed in the direction where he could obtain their goods for a reasonable price himself. Telli moved by walking, having no need to fly, and enjoying the luxury of travelling on a trodden path for the first time since leaving Elneside.

He arrived at Larisroot in the early evening, feeling some excitement. This community of about three thousand souls was the largest he had ever seen. Here the fields were well tended, and the houses in a good state of repair. There was even a small castle, or manse, residence of the local Lord and a handful of armed men, and several other stone buildings, one of the largest being the town's only inn. The path from Minersford widened to join a broad thoroughfare between the river and the town, serving both as main street and market place. As Telli entered he saw the small wharf to his left, where several boats and many small fishing canoes were moored, and the inn ahead on his right. Perhaps sixty or seventy people were going about their business on the street, seeming a large crowd to the Elnesider. Slomen's descriptions left him with no need to ask for directions, and he searched the line of buildings for a painted yellow sign.

Finding this easily, he stopped before a stone house of two stories with iron bars on the windows and a thick wooden door divided horizontally into two, the top half being open.

Telli stood there nervously, about to make the first financial transaction of his life.

"Lost are you, boy?" A deep voice barked from the dark inside. "Larisroot is such a grand city that you cannot find your way?"

Telli approached the door, and could make out the shape of a very fat man seated behind a high desk a few feet within.

"Well, young man, have you come to shoot me with that bow and steal my wealth? Or perhaps you are more gentle, and merely come to beg my riches away from me?"

Telli had heard well of the stout moneychanger, and could hear the humour in his rumbling voice.

"I may wish to do one or other in the future, but for now have no need, for I have my own gold to change for silver. I must also give you the greetings of Slomen 'Goldnose', who has asked me to remind you that he still waits for three pennies owed since your last meeting."

"Slomen? How is the old madman, and where is he sniffing for his gold now?" The fat man leaned forward into the light, seeming more friendly and gleaming with gold, as if he had swallowed all he bought from the miners, and it was bursting out of him. Several of his front teeth had been replaced with the yellow metal. His ears jangled with it, four or five rings dangling from each one. Another huge ring hung from his nose, and the fat, stubby fingers he placed on the desk in front of him were encircled by many more. Add to this golden necklaces, bracelets, and broaches stuck into a shirt and hat made of silk, and it was no surprise that Telli stood for a moment, open mouthed and bereft of speech. The fat man laughed.

"Now you wish you had shot me, eh? The corpse would be worth twice the value of this house, I can tell you. But what of Slomen, has he found, hmmm, gold!" He raised his voice a few tones on these last words, giving a passable imitation of his friend, and Telli joined him in laughing.

"Slomen is well, and has had a little success in his searching, but you understand that he will not allow me to tell you where he is."

"Ha, ever cautious is the old fool. Does he think that fat Flankis will drag his bulk up some freezing mountain to take a few grains of gold dust from under his sniffing nose? But who are you young man, and how can I help rid you of your supply of the beautiful stuff?"

Telli was ready with a small nugget of gold, and handed it to Flankis, saying:

"Slomen knows that you would not wish to steal the gold he has found, for he counts you the most honest man in Larisroot, but fears more for your tongue after a few measures of wine have flowed over it in the company of others who are not so trustworthy. My name is Tellimakis, and I would like the most honest man in town to tell me how much silver this is worth to him."

The fat man looked closely at Telli.

"I jest, I jest, and know well that Slomen has no fear of me. It is now twelve years since I first counted the madman amongst my friends. But you also seem to know him well. Tell me, how is this?"

Telli gave a brief description of his encounter with the old prospector and their business partnership in the wilderness. Flankis's smile widened slowly throughout the account, and at the end he laughed loudly.

"Eight days! You put up with the mad one's stories for eight days. Little hunter, I think you are a bigger man within than you appear from without." He held up the nugget. "I see then our mutual friend has advised you to hand me a piece worth five silver crowns exactly in these parts. I shall throw in three pennies, as it is the first time we have done business, but only on the condition that you should throw them at Slomen if you see him before I do, for his cheek in claiming that I owe him something." He counted out the coins on his desk and held them out towards Telli in one hand, whilst holding out the gold in the other, as if giving him the choice between the two. Telli chose the coins without hesitation, knowing from Slomen that no better deal was likely to be had in the town. Business done, Flankis became friendly, and suggested that he might meet Telli in the public room of the inn that night, saying that any friend of Slomen's must be a friend of his. Telli left for the inn, looking forward to a warm, comfortable night.

The public room of the Larisroot inn was the social centre of the town at night. Telli sat at a small table in one corner thoroughly enjoying the new experiences he was going through at a rate that would have confused most people. One silver piece had bought him a small room for the night, with three good meals thrown in, the first of which he had just finished. Sipping at a glass of a tasty local brew, made from the laris-root itself, he reflected on the first two business transactions involving coins he had made in his life with great satisfaction, and watched the folks around him with interest.

There were already more than twenty people in the room, and others were arriving at a steady rate. Farmers and hunters, miners and traders, they all met here to eat and drink for pleasure, but also to discuss and make business. This was life, thought Telli. This was excitement compared to homely Elneside. He had attracted little attention in spite of his youth and unusual attire, the Larisroot residents being accustomed to strangers due to the proximity of the gold fields. This was soon to change, however, as the door burst open, and a deep voice shouting good evening to the company heralded the arrival of Flankis.

The fat moneylender was even more impressive seen standing than when seated behind his desk. His height nearly matched his girth, and the gold ornamentation continued from waist down, with his belt and even his boot buckles being made of the precious metal. He was clearly known well to all those present, excepting perhaps a handful of new arrivals to town. After greeting a few friends, he spied Telli in his corner, and introduced him loudly to the company (my new friend, Tellimakis, the hunter) before picking up a large chair with ease in one fat paw, and coming to join him at the table. The landlady appeared immediately with a large carafe of wine, clearly knowing his needs, and he poured himself a glass as she waited for payment, teasing her as he did so.

"Money corrupts, as we all know, and as I love you, I shall do my good deed for this day, and withhold payment, so that you can remain pure."

"Not pure, but poor," she riposted, winking at Telli. "Poor like all round here, where there's a great lump of lard who soaks up all the wealth of the mountains like a pig sucking up swill. Now pay up, or we'll send you back to Minersford, where your sort belong." Flankis paid up, laughing, and declaring his love for her again as she departed.

"Is it true you are from Minersford?" asked Telli, curiosity aroused.

"True, too true. You see before you the only honest trader ever to emerge from that stinking hole. I departed when I was about your age, some say because they had no set of rags left there big enough to fit me. I can tell by your tone that you passed through the delightful and hospitable hamlet of my birth, am I right?" He laughed at his own description, Telli nodding assent, and laughing also. Flankis then asked where Telli came from, saying he found his dialect of Allenth unusual, and thought it new to his ears.

Telli intended to warn the easterners of the Khrelling, and took this opportunity to tell his story, keeping it brief, and making no reference to his flying for his own reasons of discretion, as well as the fact that he wished to be believed. Flankis listened carefully, sipping the wine, his expression changing slowly from good-humoured interest, to fascination and serious concern. When Telli had finished his account, the fat man asked a few questions about the Khrelling and their slaves, before shouting out to two friends, telling them to join him and listen to the most interesting story they would hear in their lives. Telli repeated his story, with Flankis loudly emphasising the important points, and it was not long before the young Elnesider became the centre of attention in the public room of Larisroot inn.

His was not an easy tale to believe, and Telli could imagine the difficulties of accepting the existence of creatures such as the Khrelling without actually seeing them. He was not only asking those present to believe in the proximity of a new animal they had never heard of, but that this creature, like themselves, used speech and tools, wore clothes and carried weapons, and did such things without being human. Their experience, like his own until the morning of his capture, led them to assume that they were a unique species where such characteristics were concerned. Telli's story was relayed round the large room, and discussed by all with animation.

As the evening passed, it became clear to Telli that Flankis was certainly inclined to believe his story, and he sensed that the fat moneychanger, for all his flamboyance, was an important and respected member of this community. Telli expressed his concern that all villages near to the mountains should be alerted, explaining that the Khrelling usually acquired their slaves by stealing young children when alone at night. He felt that in this way, he might save some youngsters the agony of separation from their families, what Seth had clearly experienced, in the time until the Khrelling could be confronted with a large enough force to end their practice of slavery for all time. Flankis, hearing that the Khrelling might number thousands, or even tens of thousands, and were well armed, agreed with Telli that only the involvement of the High King in the south could possibly lead to the freedom of the slaves in the camp.

Brakis had stated his opinion, shortly before Telli's escape, that because of the snows, the following summer was the earliest he would expect Telli's arrival at the Khrelling valley with an army of liberation. Listening to the views of the company in Larisroot confirmed this in Telli's mind, although he had already been acting on this assumption, or would not have stayed so long with Slomen on his way.

One effect of his story was the arrival of the inn's landlord at his table with the suggestion that he should stay the next day in Larisroot and the offer of a free bed and board for the following night. He must tell his tale to several citizens of importance who were not present. Telli said he would stay, but was happy to pay his own way, and a polite argument ensued. Flankis settled this, much to the amusement of all those present who knew him.

"I was the first to meet our guest, so I shall pay," he said, flipping a silver crown onto the table in front of the landlord. The other picked it up, bit on it, and held it to the torch light, feigning disbelief.

"The stranger has come over the mountains bringing new magic powers that can wring blood from a stone," he said, in a tone of mock awe, as the company laughed, Flankis loudest of all. None could have guessed how close to the truth this statement was.

Telli had had a long day and said goodnight to his new friends early, knowing that he had made an unusual stir in their lives and would be the subject of their conversation long into the night. He settled into the unaccustomed luxury of a soft bed in a warm, secure room, and slept without waking or dreaming for more than nine hours.