[Himaran]

Bali and his companions stood around the native's body in silence. Erulon was helping the few injured or unconcious, but most were too shocked to even move. They had been attacked by a person - a person from a strange land. A deadly warrior had nearly overpowered an entire company of fighters; if the dwarves had ever felt despair and fear, it was now. Bali decided that the trance needed to end. "Bury the body, and collect your weapons. There is no treasure here; just a cursed jungle and a treacherous ocean. It is beautiful, yes, but evil. It has already claimed one of our live's, and that is too many for me!"

It took two hours for the wounded to recover enough to travel, and Bali was already nervous. His and Haenir's suspicions had been fulfilled: Rhûnian's did exist, and were hostile to outsiders. They had to get out of the land as soon as possible, despite the fact that no treasure had been found. Rhûn was a place of deception; it was a place where nightmares, not dreams, came true.

"We head north up the canyon," Bali announced. "Than west along its edge, until we can scale it and find a way back over the mountains. We will make it, but not without cost." He was quiet for a moment, and suddenly walked away from the others and down towards the sea. Finding a piece of driftwood, he etched a sentence in it with his knife, before placing it in a nitch in a group of rocks. A single arrow shot from the elf's bow, soaring into the sun before dipping and falling down towards the sea. It vanished into the waters, sinking down through the depths until resting on the rocky bottom. "Goodbye, Kain," Bali said loudly. "May your new journey be blessed." Then he turned, and the entire company followed him away from the sea.

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The final blow to the company's already strained morale was when the weather turned for the worse. There had been no rain for the weeks that they had travelled in Rhûn, and now a turrential downpour drenched them as the weary band heading north through the canyon. The wind began to blow, and it seemed as if the entire rock passage would give way. "We must get out of this," Arasinel yelled over the storm. Then they saw the crack in the eastern side of the plateau. The group had not ventured there previously, but the prospect of getting to a dry overhang dispersed past fears. "Perhaps we will find a dry place to stay until this quits," shouted Gortek. "Common, lads!"

Everyone waited to hear Bali's opinon. He seemed nervous, looking behind them and scanning the ground. Then he shrugged. "What could it hurt? Perhaps you are right." And so they entered the passage.

(in progress - will finish post later)