Atona awoke in a strange bed, with strange smells. She instantly reached down to touch her belly.
"Oh, your awake my child. You gave everyone a very big scare." a beautiful young elven maid said rinsing a cloth and damping at her forehead. "Your fine and your baby too. You just bumped your head and it put you to sleep. Balfar and your other friends brought you here straight away. They are all in council. I will send message that your awake." she said getting up and heading for the door. She opened the door and waved for a boy to come to her. She whispered something to him, closed the door and returned to her bedside. She returned to her stitching humming gently. Soon there was a rap on the door. "Enter." she said so gently, Atona didn't know that anyone had heard her. The door opened, the boy had returned with a tray full of food.
On the tray was a folded piece of parchment. She stood, taking the tray and setting it on the table. She thanked the boy, took the parchment read it and handed Atona a smaller piece of parchment that was inside. She opened it carefully, and read it. Inside was written:
My Dearest Loving Atona,
My heart leaps at the thoughts of you returning home to me. Ambien has told me of your current condition. I will meet you in the glade at dusk. I will bring a picnic dinner and we will talk and I will get to hold you in my arms once again. I love you with all my heart. I will see you soon.
Your Beloved, Ridale
She wiped the tears, and folded it ever so carefully. She was thinking about the letter, when the elven maid put a tray in her lap. It was full of fruits and breads. She handed her a glass that smelled of wine. "Drink up, and you eat them fruits. The men told me you hadn't eaten since breakfast." She said sitting down and returning to her stitching.
Atona ate until she could no longer eat. Her stomach was so full that she couldn't finish drinking her wine. She set the tray and glass on the table, and sat up in bed taking the letter in her hand again.
"So are the men getting this figured out, or are they just arguing?" Atona asked putting the letter in her lap.
"Oh Dear. I forgot to tell you. When you felt better you were to join them. I'm so sorry dear. My memory is slipping with my age I'm afraid."
"Your age. You don't look more than 124." Atona said getting out of the bed. She tucked the letter in her shirt close to her heart.
"Oh dear. That's nice of you to say. I'm 167 years old. That's my great-grand son out there in the hall. The little one that brought the messages and food. He's 24 winters now." she said.
"Really, that's fantastic." Atona said getting ready for council. "Could he lead me to the council chambers?"
"Certainly dear. He is waiting for you." She said setting her stitching down. She got up, went to the door. Her stride was beautiful, as if she floated on air. She opened the door and asked him to escort Atona to the council chambers. They spoke in elven. It had been a long time since Atona had heard it. She had forgotten how beautiful the language was. She had gathered her things and was headed for the door when the young man stepped in and bowed. She held out her hand, for him to kiss. She was impressed at how much etiquette the rest of the world lacked. Or at least what she got to see of the world. He took her hand gently in his soft hand, leaned over and gently kissed it. The young man had long blonde hair, rich blue eyes, and a rich tan. He was thin, and muscular, but very handsome.
"My lady, I would be pleased to escort you to council." the young man said standing straight again.
"Well, Thank You! I am honored to have such a gentleman escort me." She said moving out the door and looping her arm in his. He smiled, and guided her down the four corridors to the council chambers. They arrived at a door that was beautifully decorated with painted glass. It depicted a scene of the forest creatures grazing in the sunrise. The young man knocked twice on the door then opened it.
"Lady Atona, sirs." he said grandly, as if she was royalty. Atona entered the room to find the elven men bowed to greet her. The dwarven men ducked their heads. The only human in the room was Jaden. She curtsied and walked to the table where Jaden was, she began to sit down.
"Lady if you would please join us here at the table." Ambien's father said.
"Of course." She said walking to the chair he indicated.
"Well, back to our discussion. We know the areas around us for about five miles are getting rain, however not enough rain to help the crops grow. Places farther than that are getting plenty. We also know that the only source of water in the area is the stream. That water only reaches for two miles. Only three-hundred feet on each side of it gets any water. Soon we will die if we can't find a solution." Ambien said, he looked so regal in his council clothes. His hair was neat and tidy.
She sat in utter amazement of all of her surroundings. The room looked as though they were sitting in the top of a tree. The walls were of branches, the ceiling was made of the branches weaving together and leaves made a ceiling. The floor was of a thick padding of grass. It felt very soft on her bare feet. There were twelve elves on the council. Each one representing a different noble family. She was the only woman to sit on this council. As was the case at so many council meetings. The dwarves rarely came to these. Most meetings didn't deal with dwarven matters. If it didn't affect them it wasn't important to them.
Atona was brought in to the meetings a lot of times to learn the proper etiquette of such meetings. She was the one in the village that was the scholar, besides her sister. She wanted to learn as much as she could about everything. So Ambien arranged for her to learn council etiquette. Along with social etiquette also. At one council meeting, she asked why there was no one on the council from the village, if we worked so closely together. So they appointed her. A council member in elven society is very important. Council members were often nobility so she got the rank of Lady Atona of the Vale. She chose to be called Atona instead of Manslinger because she was not married. She didn't believe a lady should have a last name unless she was married. So she settled for her first name.
She got shook back to the conversation when Ambien started talking about how the dwarves could help. The dwarves at the suggestion of not wanting to help started grumbling. That's what broke her from her day dream, was the dwarves grumbling and the elves yelling to be heard over the dwarves. Atona signaled at the trumpeter to call the signal of quiet, as soon as everyone had calmed down she stood.
"Ambien, sorry to interrupt you, but the dwarves would not have come if they didn't want to help. They just don't know how much help they can be. If the problem is a dragon fine, they will all come and join us in killing or running it off. If you need help with crops enough to feed everyone, they can supply some. But if the problem is magical they can't help, everyone knows that dwarves just don't have any magical abilities. That is all they are trying to tell you." She said very firmly. "You all are not listening with your hearts your listening with your heads. We all know that we cannot solve any problems that way."
"Lady Atona, as much as we all respect your position. You are not allowed to put in your opinion." Lord Filtra said looking very pleased with himself. He was head of the Filtra House one of the richest elven houses in the Vale.
"Lord Filtra, I respect your position also. That's why I'm going to ignore your comment. My people are starving also. I have just as much right if not more right than you do to speak." She said with anger starting to boil up from her stomach.
"You Wench. How dare you speak to me that way? Why I ought to have you escorted out of here. But instead I believe I will do the honors myself." He said starting to rise. Before he could get up, she had pulled her dagger from her boot and thrown it to the top of his chair. It stuck perfectly into the chair directly above his head. His eyes were about the size of a gold coin.
"Now, Stop IT! Both of you!" King Tarrowlin yelled. "Filtra I don't know what you're trying, but I am still the king. Atona stays." he looked at Atona with the slightest touch of anger in his eyes.
"Provided she can behave herself." Ambien said pulling the dagger out of Filtra's chair. "You should know better it was your sons that taught her to fight," Handing the dagger to her, he said, "You going to behave?"
"Of course you have my word." She said with a smile. It was a devious smile that let everyone in the room know that she would behave so long as no one crossed her again.
"Now that you all have heard what the problems are, could we please get started on trying to find a solution?" Reginal said, standing with his hands on his hips. He looked very dominating standing there like that. Tarrowlin stood, with a fierce stern look,
"I believe that the problem is not magical in nature. We just need to find a way to get water to all the crops." Tarrowlin sat back in his chair a look of stern concentration and a small glimmer of defeat on his face. He was the King, and Ambien's father, so nearly everyone was still and quiet while he spoke. The dwarves were the only ones that just couldn't sit still.
"So sir your palace, and the village, need help with food and other supplies while you all figure out how to stop this mess." Balfar said looking from Tarrowlin to Atona.
"Yes, Balfar, we desperately need your help if we are to keep our young alive. Our supplies of fruits are getting seriously low. We also need grains to make our breads. Unfortunately our supply lines keep getting raided. It's almost as if someone knew that all that food was coming here and wanted to stop it before it got here." Ambien said, looking down at his maps.
"Well, we can help with some grains, and vegetables. We don't grow a lot of fruit in the mountain. But if your supplies are being raided, then we can definitely help there. When your next caravan goes out, you will have fifty dwarves going with it. That ought to help cut the resistance in half." Balfar said pulling on his long beard. A thing he did when he was thinking.
Atona knew he was deciding which dwarves to send. Since the stories of the Dwarven Destroyers were told a few years back, they have been getting just such a band together. The price has been high, a few collapsed tunnels, and a couple of injured innocent dwarves whom just happened past the tunnels at the wrong time. When the Destroyers train they ram themselves into walls over and over again. They say their god gives them the strength to battle insurmountable odds, without feeling no pain. Atona personally just thought they were nuts, they drink large amounts of ale, and put the strangest stuff in it. This would be a good adventure for them if they had learned a little control since she last seen them.
"I know just the troop to send with you." he said again is eyes sparkling. He had wanted to join the funny little troop, but was convinced that he was too close to the position of king to put himself in dangerous positions. So he decided to just serve beside his father.
"Atona, is there something wrong?" Ambien asked, gently touching her arm.
"No, just thinking about decisions made, and the effects they have on others." She said wiping her eyes.
"Are we making bad choices here? Is that what you're saying, you looked as though you were far away?" he said, a great deal of concern in his voice.
"No, no of course not. I was thinking of my own choices. The ones here are good. They sound reasonable. Ambien, is there a way we might be able to get the water from the stream to divert to the fields here. I saw it done in a book somewhere. That may help a little."
"Well, yes it could be possible, I suppose. We would have to dig very long trenches." Ambien said thinking. "Of course if we had some sort of pipe that we could stretch out across the land to the fields. If one end of the pipe started in the water facing the current of the water. The water would naturally flow into the pipe. The pipe could turn into the land and have a gradual incline." Ambien said drawing on the back of a map. Jaden jumped up and looked over the table at the drawings.
"You would need a turn off valve at some point so you wouldn't flood the fields. Also a screen on the end here, so fish wouldn't flow in and get stuck." Jaden said pointing at the map.
"You're right. We could have holes every so often down the pipe so the water would flow down to the crops. But the crops would need trenches dug alongside of them to let the water flow all the way down the field." Ambien said sketching some more.
"So what are we talking. A pipe opening the span of your hand, and holes about the span of me own." Balfar said, standing and looking at the sketches.
"Yes, and people enough to help dig the trenches."
"My dwarves will get to work right away on those pipes. We should have about five planks done by high sun. That's working all night. I will personally see to the stream end. And that screen you mentioned how big should the holes be?" Reginal said.
"I think you should be able to fasten a fishing net to the end and that would work. Just enough to keep the bigger fish out." Ambien said looking over the plans. "I'm going to go and work on getting together some crews to dig the trenches, and to put the pipe where it needs to go. Let's everyone meet at the stream in the morning. Except for the dwarves whom will be busy." Ambien said as he gathered his papers and started to rise.
Only then did Atona remember the note and her meeting with Ridale. Her heart started to beat a little faster, her hands got sweaty. She could just see his handsome face smiling at her. Feel his soft hand on her arm trying to lead her somewhere. Then she came back to the present and realized it was Jaden trying to tell her it was time to go.
"Sorry, Jaden. Just thinking about Ridale." she said getting up.
"Well, stop thinking about him and let's go see him." He said walking her out.
"You sound as if your going with me."
"I am. On strict orders from Ambien not to leave you alone. Now don't worry. I'm not going to be close enough to hear the conversation, but close enough that if you holler for help, I'll hear you."