[Gretin]

Yay! Another reader! Thanks for the comments, but feel free to nitpick and criticise this story, I won't mind too much.
Anyway, might as well just get to it, "Yay! Another chapter!"

Chapter 11: The Gathering Stones

Meanwhile, Ramnes quickly made his way to the gates, he needed to find out where the Chief was, and the gatekeepers could tell him whether he was in the village or not. "Hey, you up there," he called, "have you seen the Chief?" "Hi, we sure did, he left some time ago, he seemed to be in a big hurry, too."

"Well, can you open the gate? I need to go find him." "Sure, right away," the mudokon in the tower answered. No sooner had the walls opened than Ramnes was outside and running up the hill out of the valley. The most likely place that the Chief would have gone to in this time would be the gathering stones, Ramnes thought, so he swiftly made his way towards that place.

Ramnes knew this forest very well, he knew where every clearing was, he knew what every clearing was called, and he knew what each clearing had in it. The particular clearing he was looking for now was somewhere in the center of the forest, which was about twenty minutes from the village as the bird flies and not much longer for him.

He was running steadily towards his destination when suddenly a voice shouted out from behind him, "Halt!" He stopped and slowly turned around to see a mudokon standing there. The first thing he noticed was one vicious looking weapon in the mudokon's hands, the middle of it appeared to be some sort of bow, but on each side of it were some rather large deadly looking blades. Then he noticed that he, or rather, she, was clothed almost all over in some sort of animal skins, which had feathers sewn in patterns all throughout it.

"Who are you?" she asked, not lowering the weapon for an instant, "And what brings you here?" "I'm looking for my Chief," answered Ramnes, "You must be from one of the seven village, are you not?"

"I could be. I asked who you are, now answer me!"

"Whoa, patience friend. My name is Ramnes, I am a mudokon from the village of Haupet, one of the seven villages in alliance. You have nothing to fear."

"I'll be the judge of that, 'friend,' " she answered in the same hostile manner. "You will follow me. Any tricks and you're dead, got it?" "Got it," Ramnes answered, then to himself, "Sheesh, what's her problem?" She walked past him and led the way in the same direction as Ramnes himself had already been heading, but at a much slower pace.

They walked on in silence for a time after that, and Ramnes realized that it was getting dark. "I hope we get there soon," he thought, "it gets pretty hard to find your way around here after dark." He thought about asking how much furthur they were going, but looking at the face in front of him he thought better of it. As the daylight faded, the blades on the mudokon's weapon slowly started to glow, getting brighter as the light diminished. Thus she was able to continue even when night fell, and Ramnes continued to follow, still heading in the direction of the gathering stones. As they walked, Ramnes wondered how she had been able to hide from him like that, he was reasonably good at detection, and he was often considered the most powerful mudokon in his village. Perhaps she had been too far away, or maybe her skills at stealth were better than his of detection, but he hated admitting anything like that.

He was walking along, engrossed in his own thoughts like this, when suddenly he realized that a fog was starting to form around them! He quickened his pace so that he would be closer to his captor, he didn't want to get lost in this! The fog seemed to be getting thicker and thicker as they progressed, then suddenly, it cleared. What was more, they were at the gathering stones, seven stones, arranged in a rough circle around a pool of murky water, the meeting place for the seven chiefs since before Ramnes was even hatched! All around the outside of the clearing was thick fog, but here where they stood, it was completely clear. Seven mudokons already stood there, one on each stone, all in the classic loincloth outfit but for one, who was dressed in a similar manner to the mudokon who had led Ramnes here.

Feeling a bit overwhelmed, he stopped walking and looked around the stones for his own chief; he had never seen the seven chiefs gathered together here before, and he only knew three of them, including his own. It was deathly silent here, and the mudokons on the stones were so still they looked like statues.

"Welcome Ramnes and Hembar," came a whispering voice, seeming to come from the pool itself.

"Greetings, Chiefs and Shamen!" Ramnes' captor, apparently named Hembar, cried out, breaking the stillness, "I have brought someone who is supposedly looking for Chief Haupet." There was a long silence. Ramnes nervously shifted his weight from one foot to the other, not saying a word. Then, with one motion, all seven mudokons jumped down from the rocks and walked slowly towards the two visitors.

"Ah, Ramnes, you feel a little humbled now, don't you?" said the Chief of the village Haupet, putting his hand on Ramnes' shoulder.

End of Chapter 11

So, what'd you think? Next chapter will be moving to another character, that of the up-till-now little known about Scorp.