Katherine, Jenna, Ben & Boggles had been walking for a very, very long time. Somehow, they had manages to travel up through the tree houses, into the teleporter, up the elevator, and were now trudging through the desert. Of course, this may sound like a short walk to you, but you aren't a norn, therefore everything looks smaller to you. To the norns (and ettin, and grendel, just to be fair) this was a very long way indeed. And, of course, everyone's spirits were extremely high.

"I'm hot."

"I'm tired."

"I hurt."

"Quit whining. You'll live."

"How do you know? What if we just pass out, right here?"

"I'll drag you. We just have to keep going, OK?"

In case you didn't figure it out yourself, Katherine was the one pushing everyone. Nobody was truly happy about this, but they suppose that roughness was the only way they'd keep going. If there was no pusher, who would stop them from giving up?

"Look," Katherine sighed, noticing sour faces all around, "I honestly believe we're going to find nothing. This must all just be a dream, and I'm going to wake up soon. But, if we have to do this, we have to do this. So come on."

Just then, Jenna took a stumble, then tripped over, face flat to the sand. She briefly winced, then glanced up at Katherine. Katherine had whizzed around and was looking at her straight on. "I - I'm fine..." she stuttered, and tried to pick herself up.

Katherine trotted over to Jenna. "Your knee gave again? I'm getting this worried about this.." She started. Thinking for a moment, she spied a stick nearby. "Oh," she exclaimed as she grabbed the stick and handed it to Jenna. "You can use this to keep your balance."

Jenna pulled herself up and reluctantly took the stick. She stuck it in the ground, and leaned on it. It DID make it a little easier to walk, but it kinda made her feel.. oh, nevermind, that was silly.

"Everybody ready?" Katherine asked. Everyone nodded, and she motioned to move out.

After somewhere around three steps, Katherine stepped on something hard. Looking down, she decided that it was a mess of wooden planks. Ben, Boggles, & Jenna stepped on to the planks, too.

"Who left these here?" Boggles remarked, stomping on the planks a bit.

"Dunno." Ben shrugged, and peered over one of the planks. It was rather dark, but if you cocked your head just so, you could make out some sort of statues.

"What say we break these suckers and explore whatever's down there?" suggested Katherine.

"You can't just barge in a place that is seemingly sealed off for a reason!" Jenna insisted. "It must ... well ... be sealed off for a reason."

Katherine kicked aside a plank, making a hole to slip through. "They didn't do a very good job. What say we go in?"

Everyone began to slip through the hole, and into the area below. It was a very dark place, only a little light came through the top area. It appeared to be a long hallway, not that they could see the end or anything. Just then, two torches lit up, as if by magic. In succession, more torches lit the hall, all magically, until they hit the end. At the end, there was 5 statues - 4 statues of a hand, a norn, a grendel and an Ettin formed a square around a statue of a Shee.

"I would say that this was an invitation to go further." Commented Katherine.

"Then what are we waiting for?" Ben asked, then began to run down the hall.

"Ben?" Boggles called, then began to run after him.

"Ben! Wait up!" Katherine scurried after them, but slowed to a walk upon noticing Jenna's struggle to keep up.

"Ow!" Ben squealed, as he knocked up against the ettin statue. It glowed with an eerie blue light.

"What in the -- " started Boggles. He walked up to the Grendel statue, and observed it. Something in the eyes of the statue intrigued him very much. He ran his claws lightly down the spine of the statue, and watched it light up with a greenish luminance.

Jenna, catching up to the group, noted the norn statue to the left of the Sheeian one. It was, apparently a baby norn, with long floppy ears. She rubbed one of the perky ears and watched the whole statue light up.

Tucked in the last corner was a statue of a (rather large) hand. Katherine muffled a smile, and trotted over to it. It was pointed in traditional Creatures fashion, fingers curled, thumb tucked, pointing finger straight and upward. Whoever made this place didn't take into account that there was more to the hand then meets the eye. She grasped the finger, to feel the shape of it, and as she did, it illuminated itself.

The lights from the statues seemed to leap from the statues themselves and dance in mid air. As they danced, one by one, they disappeared into the Shee statue. The statue illuminated itself very brightly, then actually began to move.

It looked left, then right, then moved its arms a bit. Noticing it had visitors, it raised its arms above its head. "I am Rokoko, of the ancient Sheeian race." It announced.

"Uhm.. Hi, I'm Katherine, this is.." Katherine began.

"I know who you are. You are a part of the warriors as mentioned in the prophesy. You come looking for the elements to the Arlington Stone, yes?" Katherine began to open her mouth. "Nevermind," Rokoko interrupted, "I know that too." He then waved his hand, and 4 stones appeared. "The Shee first believed that there was four elements, and they used these elements to make creatures. Norns were made from air, Ettins from water, Grendels from dirt and the hand from light. So, you all will carry the element you were made from. But first -" Rokoko turned toward Katherine. "You've had a tough time believing in the magic around you. Now that you have seen me, and have actual proof that this really is happening, do you believe?"

Katherine thought for a moment. "No," she started, "I just can't. The Arlington Stone isn't the cause of all this, the Grendels are just feeling mean. Don't give me this element crap, either. Norns, Grendels and Ettins are made from CARBON, darnit, CARBON!"

Rokoko nodded his head sadly. "All right then. Norn to air, Grendel to dirt and Ettin to water. But the fourth element is taken by the Shee. It will be returned when the hand when the hand can believe both in the past and legend." He clasped his hand around a clear stone, and then let it go. It disappeared. Rokoko then froze into stone once more, leaving three other stones to drop to the floor.

"That's that." Katherine stated. "We meet the others at Hand's End, right?"

The others just stared. Katherine had just defied the Shee, and she was still able to talk so freely? She was still able to talk at all?

"What?" Katherine insisted. "My gosh, just get those silly rocks if you insist, and let's get out of here."

Everyone else, still in awe, picked up their stones and followed Katherine.

--------------------------------------------

It was later, very much later. Being rather dark outside, the group set up camp laid down for a rest. Jenna had laid her walking stick fairly far away from her, simply because she didn't like it. As she rolled over, she felt a nudge on her back. Flipping over quickly, she found that the stick had rolled toward her and up against her back. "No," she insisted, "you stay there." Placing the stick a foot (30 cm) away from her, she rolled over. There was another nudge at her back, and she promptly flipped over and corrected the problem. This happened several times over, and upon the 7th or 8th time, she heard someone call her name.

"Jenna?" it called again. "Is that you?"

Jenna flipped over to find Katherine standing over her. "Are you OK?" she asked.

Jenna felt herself blush a little. "This stick is bothering me, that's all."

"Really," Katherine started, "what do you have against that stick?"

"It's ... just ..." Jenna shook her head. "It's a constant reminder that I can't do things as well as I used to be able to do."

"That you're old?"

"Oo ... " Jenna shrugged. "Yeah ... "

"Jenna," Katherine stated cleanly, "everyone knows you're still capable of doing lots of things. But that knee isn't going to be good for walking anymore; at least not until I can get back to my lab and take a look at it. I'm sure it could happen to anyone."

"Really?"

"Yes, Now go back to sleep."

Jenna slipped the stick away from her and rolled over. She still was rather embarrassed by it, but still didn't feel as helpless now after talking with Katherine. The stick nudged her in the back once again, and she started to remedy the problem, but thought better of it and fell asleep.