Outside it was night time, Lera was sitting against a rock waiting.
Lera heard Mercer as he was coming out and turned to look at him.
"Mercer, you were gone for so long!" Lera stood up and was glaring at him. "Did you find them?" Lera had walked over to him and was looking intently at him.
"Yes, yes I did. There was a man down there who told me a bit about the visions." Mercer gave her a light hearted shove to give himself a little bit of space.
"Well?? Are you gonna tell me??" Mercer moved to sit against the mountain and take a rest, Lera was waiting a little less than patiently for an answer. "You better not be holding out on me just to annoy me."
"Haha, no I'm not. I just really don't know what a lot meant. Though he did say I couldn't tell you yet." Mercer looked down for a moment, "I don't really know why he told me some of what he did."
"REALLY!? You aren't kidding with me right?" Lera looked glance at Mercer raising one eyebrow.
"No, he really told me not to tell you." Mercer looked up at her seriously, "It probably is the same reason as to why you weren't allowed to follow me down."
"Probably, but I still want to know." She pouted a moment before turning to look into the forest, "It's probably time we head back, mother will be worried about us."
"True, though she knows the man down and trusts him enough to let me see him alone, so I would think she would know he wouldn't let harm befall us." Mercer stood up and they began walking through the forest.
...
While walking through the forest they talked about random things. Lera talked of some new caves she wanted to explore, and mercer identified plants that could be used in emergencies for treatment, or more importantly, snacks.
When they reached the clearing Mercer looked for the flower but it was no longer there. When he was at the edge where the flower used to be he found Mirnia standing just behind a tree. She held out a small stone engraved with a small circle. "practice here... say Limui'ilamolo Tasilu'u to open and Limui'ilamolo Liatelu to close." Mercer took the stone and She left quickly. He wanted to call out to question her but she was long gone already. He spent a moment recalling the words and recognized them as words from Eldar which Tumuo had taught him. He translated them in his head as Command Free, and Command Cage. Though he wasn't really sure what it was meant to be freeing or caging.
He looked at the small stone in his hands for a moment. "Mercer come on, we can't sit out here all night. We need to go home at some point." Lera looked back to make sure he started moving. Mercer pocketed the stone and turned to follow her as they kept making their way back towards their home.
...
"Oh good, I'm glad you two are alright." Mother Ara smiled as Lera and Mercer entered came into their home. "I was worried something might have happened." Ara had a small fire going with a pot of soup kept warm. "I have some food for you in case you're hungry."
Lera and Mercer both set down their things and went to grab food, having eaten very little other than the lunch and snacks they packed.
"So, how did it go Mercer?" Mother Ara looked over to him while he was grabbing soup.
"He told me a bunch of stuff, I'm not really sure how to process it yet." He finished filling his bowl and sat down at the table next to Lera.
"Anything I could help with maybe?" Mother Ara was looking expectantly at Mercer hoping he would at least give her something to work with.
"No, I'm not supposed to talk about it with anyone according to him." He glanced at mother Ara in a sort of apology before continuing to shovel soup into his mouth.
"He didn't tell me anything either, so don't feel left out." Lera laughed leaving a smile on her face. Mother Ara laughed along with her smiling at both of them.
"Well, I need to be getting some sleep, please clean your bowls when you are finished." Mother Ara stood up and walked towards her room. "Have good rest, and don't forget your chores in the morning. I'll be out grabbing some fresh ingredients in the forest and our garden." They had a garden in the forest a small distance away that supplied them with most of the food they needed. With that Mother Ara left and went to bed.
Lera and Mercer finished eating and cleaned their bowls with some of the water they kept on hand.
"Hey after we finish chores I'm gonna go out and explore some of the new caves, do you wanna join me?" Lera glanced over at Mercer to see how he reacted.
"Nah not tomorrow, maybe not for a while, I have somewhere else I would like to go." Mercer put up their bowls and they headed to their room.
"Alright, I'll see you tomorrow then." Lera left to her segment of the room which was behind a curtain and got ready for bed. Mercer on the other hand pulled out the stone and studied it, pulling out his journal and detailing it's features. He drew the the runic core out and studied it for a while, but gave up as he was too tired to be able to make out the faint runes on the circle. Tomorrow he would return to the clearing where Mirnia had given the stone to him and Test out the Command phrases she gave to him.
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~Strange Stone~
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(A small rock with a runic core was drawn here)
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Small in size.
Possibly reacts to key words to open and close.
Has a runic core carved on one side.
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