Taking Stock

Submitted by Daniel H. on Tue, 4/21/2015 at 9:59pm

The sun sends warm slashes of light throughout the dusty library. Blue crystal scones along the walls being to glow dully as the sun sets and the light dims. Rune moves through the rays as it moves books around on the shelves, replacing some from the tables left by adventures seeking knowledge and moving others to their correct place. 

Ohren shuffles into the Library with drooping ears. His tail would be between his legs if it werent so short. He huffs a bit and walks up to Rune. 
 
"Tower... GLibber tolded me I is sposed to talka you about lelements and how dey worked and balance and stuss..."

Rune slides one last book in place before turning to face the bear that had wondered into the Library. Rune looks blankly at the bear, its runes softly pulsing as it assesses. "Bear, you do not belong here. The forest lies beyond the town walls." emits from the golem. Rune takes afew steps closer to the beast, inspecting it further. "This one recognizes the equipment of Ohren. Your speech is also reminiscent of him.  How odd."

Ohren teleports up on top of Rune as he used to when he was much smaller, much lighter and far less bear. 
 
"I is Ohren... You is tower... Tower teach Ohren how to lelemental stuss and all about balance and stuss... and de malksum..."
 
He stays seated up on top of Rune as long as the golem allows it or is able to hold him. 

The moment the full wieght of Ohren lands on Rune, a high pitched whine and grinding noises emit at the construct struggles to keep upright. Stones begin to shatter at the constructs joints, forcing it to it's knees. Rune crumbles into a scattered pile.  A moment later, somewhere under the bear's furry ass, Rune's name blinks twice, and all the stones -teleport- to the other side of the room. Rune, in a louder than normal voice, emits, "Please, refrain from that practice henceforth. This one was not built for that much strain. You wish to learn about the Maelstorm?"

Ohren frowned as the golem collapsed beneath his weight but then shrugs, at least he was big again. He nods slightly.
 
"I need to learning bout de Malksum and de lelements and how to maked dem balance. Glibber sayed dat you can teached dis to me... I not so good wif books so I need de lernings."
 
He sits down on the table which creaks beneath his weight. 

"This one understands." emits from the construct as it teleports to the shelves. Rune takes an entire section out from the M section. The books and the golem teleport to a table near the bear. As it sets down the books, the construct's gaze wonders from the stack, to the wall near the A's. "No time." says Rune, "Teaching Ohren to read would take to long. Inefficient. Fool's errand. Ohren, this one has collected many tomes on the Maelstrom. This one will read them to you." Rune picks up a book, turns it to the first page, and begins; "Chapter One: The Maelstrom is...."

 

After about thirty seconds of the golem attempting to read to him. Ohren's eyes began to droop lightly.
 
"Woah... woah... woah... Slow down... Dat too much for dis one to unnerstand so fast..." 
 
He grumbles lightly and flops onto the table, looking at Rune.
 
"You gots to tell me in you own words... bery bery slowly."

The golem pauses and looks the bear over. "An animal. Teaching through physical interaction. Words are ineffective. Wait, please." Rune opens a portal at his feet, and falls in. After a few moments, another portal opens about 3 paces off the ground, and Rune falls out of it feet first. In the golem's hands are a phial of water, a candle wrapped in twine, a stone, and a young rabbit. 
 
Rune sets these on the table, with the rabbit closest to it. "This one will teach you balance with these. Protect the rabbit from the fire." Rune lights the candle, and then holds the rabbit a safe distance over it, but it still squeals with discomfort. 

Ohren walks over to the candle and looks at the bunny. He was hungry but candle wasn't enough to cook it right. He takes the candle and shifts it off to the side a bit so it wasnt under the rabbit. 
 
"Dere... dats better. No screaming bunny."

The golem simply moves the rabbit back over the flame. "Solve the problem, do not simply move it." Due to the candle being lit, the wax recedes from the sides, and the twine ignites, making the flames bigger, and growing slowly. 

Ohren grabs the phial of water and douses the rabbit with it. most likely dousing the flame as well as drenching the poor bunny.
 
"Fire hot... water cold. Dis fix bunny?"

Rune sets the now soaked rabbit in its stone palm. The shivering creature looks sadly the construct who until this point had taken supurb care of it. Rune -conjures- a small bit of cloth, places it on his palm, and gently nudges the rabbit onto it. Using its thumb and forefinger, the construct gently swaddles the rabbit and sets it back on the table. 
 
"Excellent work. Now..." The construct conjures anouther candle and lights it...."protect the flame." Rune opens a small portal to some windy plane in the center of its palm. The flame leans away from the wind, and flickers.

Ohren moves to grab the stack of books that Rune had gathered and moves to set them between the candle and the portal, building a wall around the candle to protect it. 
 
"Dere... dat should does it."
 
He nods slightly and moves to pet the poor little bunny. 
 
"I sowwy I maked you cold little buddy..."
 
He ruffles its ears even though he was salivating a bit. 

The portal closes and Rune quickly moves the books away from the flame. "This one would prefer you use the materiel provided. But, this one has demonstrated instances that required balance, to keep one force from overpowering another. Why do you need balance using the elements explained Ohren? This one neglected to ask." 

Ohren looks at Rune. 
 
"Well Antaja sayed dat I should learned de lelements and be dere tetecter and balancer... But I doesnt knowed what to does wif lelements. Gliber sayed dat I should goed to you and learned and den I should visit de Malksum and learned about de lelements dere." 
 
He continues petting the rabbit and bites his lower lip as the thought of freshly roasted rabbit comes to mind. He was still a bit hungry...

"This one understands. Why did you not use the stone provided to block the wind? From this one's experience, the automatically balance each other in a never ending cycle. This one cannot see why the elements need to be protected...." Rune looks back at the bear, "Explain to this one."

Ohren shrugs slightly.
 
"Dis one tinks dat dey needs balance cause dere is outside forces dat affected dems... Like puny little humies... an... stuss." 
 
He looks over the rock and nods a little bit. 
 
"I didnt tink about de rock cause dere was so many usless books here..."

The construct nods, "This one understands. Organics do cause change in ways they do not mean to. Flawed. But, sometimes, they find new things in this way. Also, this one only knows what it knows about the elements from books. They...this one will try to explain...tell this one things so it doesnt have to find them out for itself. This one would compare it to knowing which berries to eat for a bear. Or, perhaps when your party member warn you against certain action." 
 
The golem picks up the stone and encloses it in it's palms. A high pitched wine and blue light emits from Rune's hands as the cosntruct mutters some incantations. When the golem opens it's hands again a fine pile of dirt is all that remains of the stone. "Speaking of organics causing damage, lets try fixing an element using the other elements."

Ohren looks at Run with a bit of confusion. 
 
"What does dat one mean when he said for dis one to fix lelement?"

Ohren was obviously confused, which was not unheard of. 
 
"YOu want me make dis dirt into rock?"

"Yes" emits from the golem. "Oh, this one forgot to re-supply you." Rune -conjures- anouther stone, a phial of water, and anouther lit candle

Ohren pauses and thinks for a bit as he looks at the dirt that Rune had crumbled. 
 
"Uh... I donno what do... What does dat one tink dis one should does?"
 
He looked at the candle, then the fire, then the water, then to Rune. 
 
"I doesnt unnerstand."

"This one hopes you will figure it out. This one has heard legendary tales of Glimmer's rage, and its never good to upset an immortal. This one will give you a hint: When it rains, what happens to the dirt?"

Ohren thinks a bit. 
 
"When it rains... den dirt gets wet... and slippery?"
 
THat was about the extent of Ohren's deductive reasoning.

"It holds its form, like when you leave paw prints in the ground." Rune pours the water onto the dirt, and molds it into a rough rock shape. "Now, how does mud dry?"

Ohren thinks a bit. 
 
"Uh de sun gets it hot and den it is dry... why you ax me dis?"
 
He was watching rune as he poured the water on the dirt. 
 
"Wait... dat is like when I maked de stuff wif de tings... but it jus took a bit of time to dried de stuss..."

The golem's lights glow a little brighter before it continues, "Good, but we dont have that much time. Which elements could you use to quicken the process. What was present when you built," Rune simply plays back Ohren saying "de tings"

The bear thinks for a bit, crossing his legs on the table and looking at Rune for a few moments as he tried to recall.
 
"Uh... dere was me... an den dere was de stuss... and den I put de stuss on de ting... Den I went and taked a steam baf... I donno what else was dere..." 
 
His brow furrows and one of his eyes gets bigger than the other. There was one of two things that was happening right now... eithe Ohren was thinking very hard, or he was about to poop. Luckily for the library, he was thinking. 
 
"Maybe if I maked a fire and putteded it in de fire itd be like makededing a brick?"

The golem glows even brighter for a moment, and then dims so it doesnt blind the creature before him. "Very good. Now.." Rune opens a small potal on the table and slides the mud in. It waits a moment, and then opens anouther portal above the table. A steaming hot brick thuds onto the table, leaving scorch marks. "..tell this one what is different about this brick compared to the rock."

OHren eyes the brick and sniffs at it a little bit. His nose wrinkles. 
 
"It got burndeded... An is hot."
 
He touches it just to be sure and his paw sizzles for a second before he yanks it back. He nods vigorously as he confirms.
 
"Yas... Hot..."

"That is not what this one ment." Rune opens anouther small portal and drops the rock in, and it comes out a moment later significantly colder. "This one wants you to tell it about its physical qualities, and what makes it different than the original rock"

He looks at it. 
 
"Its cold."
 
He shrugs, not sure what the golem meant. 

Rune emits a flat tone, similar to an annoyed grunt. "Ohren, this one seeks to teach you that can repair things, but they will not quite be the same." The golem's lights brighten and dim, similar to a sigh, "Has this one answered your questions?"

Ohren narrows his eyes at 'that one' and scrunches up his nose. 
 
"Uh... Sorta? You fixified it and den it was cold or hot... but it was fixdeded."

"This one did fix it, rather, this one made something new with similar qualities." Rune pauses, and then opens a small portal where the bear could look in it, "This one ran the mud through a volcano to heat it. Fire, essentially. This one was unclear." Rune closes the portal and crosses its arms across it's chest. "Ask this one questions." 

Ohren blinks a little bit. As if something was dawning on him. 
 
"Wait wait wait... Dat one needs to breakeded it again... Den dis one wanna try somfin..."
 
He waits for Rune to crush the rock, perhaps something was getting through to the bear. 

Rune destroys the brick as he had done before, and lays a pile of dirt on the table again. The construct also conjures anouther phial of water. 

Ohren looks at the dirt and then at the phial of water. He conjurs a bowl and dumps the dirt and water together in it. He mixes it up really good and then begins burning it with magic, chanting his incants over and over again as flames shoot from his fingertips into the bowl, heating the mixture. With one more big fireball, the bowl cracks and shatters, leaving the firm mass in the shape that the bowl had. 
 
"I dided it! Look!"
 
He points vigorously at the reconstructed mass. 
 
"De lelements rely on eachudder to essist.... so... if one is out of balance..."
 
He casts another large fireball at the rock, shattering it and scorching the table. 
 
"Den de udders breakeded."

"That is not what this one had intended to teach with this lesson, but, its a excellent point. This one has nothing more to teach." eminates from the construct. Rune begins to gather the tomes it hat pulled of  the shelves and put them back in thier correct order. 

Ohren tilts his head to the side and looks at the golem. 
 
"But wut about de malksum... I still donno bout dat."

Rune pulls a book off the shelf and walks back over the bear. "This one has many tomes on the nature of the Maelstrom, but, this one also knows you cannot read. This one has an account of a trip the dwarves had to the Maelstrom. They would be the next people to talk to. Also, this one believes that Keg, as a Shaman, would best understand the elements. Bring ale with you. Refrain from drinking it, as you should give it to the dwarves as an offering." 

Ohren nods slightly. 
 
"Yea... I should talked to Kegapus... He prolly knowed about dis stuss."
 
He strokes his chin and accepts the book. 
 
"I maked sure he no getted de ale on de book. I knowed you towers like you books to be booky an not aley."

Rune returns the shelves, and continues to sort. "It is their book. Although, if this one could have the book returned, this one would appreciate it." echoes around the library. 
 
 

"Okie Dokie..."
 
He takes the book and heads out of the library, that place had too much knowledge it was making his head spin. He turns once before he leaves and flaps a paw at the golem. 
 
"Bye Tower!"