Old Natani slowly walking up to the temple doors, her knees creaking in protest with each step. She vaguely recalled earlier years, when she had leapt up these very same steps four at a time. She hasn't the foggiest notion what could have caused her to scurry about with such wanton haste, but she does remember quite clearly that it had seemed most urgent at the time.

This morning, however, she was in no hurry. After all: for all it's glory, the gods' temples cannot complete with the gods' blessings, and they had granted the city a wonderfully beautiful day. Natani took her time, and enjoyed the wind on her face while she could.

Eventually, of course, one gift must give way to the next. The little old lady left the outdoors behind her and shuffled through the threshold of the temple. She had come to visit Elder Takala, and it was always a blessing to meet another who had lived so long.

Furthermore, her faded senses timidly hinted at the presence of tea, and old Natani was quite fond of Takala's tea.

The Elder was seated barefoot on the steps of the altar, a small fire on the steps beside her. She had finished her morning prayers and was now enjoying a pot of root tea, heated in the incense brazier. It was not technically sacrilege, but had Elder Takala not been eighty years old and a master of Mens, the others at the temple might have been a little scandalized.

She had two cups out on the stone step.

Looking up, her ancient face spread into a wide smile. "Noros Natani," she said, in a voice that creaked like the wind in a tall tree. "I had a feeling I would be visited this morning by someone." She raised her teacup and beckoned her old friend to come and sit. "You are not as lazy as I. Those steps prevent me from visiting outside the temple, but I can see they are no match for you."

Natani carefully lowered herself down to the steps, leaning on her staff. Her knees groaned in anguish, but eventually went silent. Taking the nearer teacup, she sniffed it with a thoughtful smile.

"Stairs? I'm afraid that after raising four Roek sons, all lesser feats of fitness seem so pale in comparison. I hardly notice any jaunt shorter than a mountainside." she replied, with a warm grin. "I'm afraid your little staircase never had a hope."

The old lady took a sip of her tea. As usual, Tekala did not disappoint. She had found that nobody younger than her could brew a proper cup of tea, and as time went on, people her own age and older were becoming an increasingly rare commodity. She savored the tea for a moment, before speaking again. "But enough about such idle things. How has the temple been, since last I visited?"

Takala smiled, her bright blue eyes twinkling. "Oh, the usual," she said with a shrug of her hunched shoulders. "The young priestesses are hopeless. All too full of themselves. They all think they should be Mans masters before they even grow their first wrinkles. In my day, we respected our elders." She shook her walking stick. Technically, the young priestesses were all perfectly respectful of her, and most of them were taught to be humble, but she found humbleness to be annoying in large quantities. And she was old; she needed to complain about something.

Her eyes traced over Natani's face, seeming to search for something.

"Something is on your mind," she said, lifting her cup and taking a thoughtful sip. "You have been asking the gods the same questions I have, of late."

Natani grinned. "How is it that no matter how old I get, I never manage to get any older than you. Here you are, still reading my face like I do to the children."

She sighed, running her finger along the edge of her teacup, lost in thought. For a short moment, her finger stopped. Anyone who had known Natani for seventy years would see her thoughts, plain as day. If Elder Takala had been asking the same questions, then . . .

But an instant later the moment had passed, and Natani was back to her old self. There was precious little in the world that could cause her fear, and The Unknown did not make the list. "Nothing changes." She said, staring off into the distance. "the young priestesses are full of hubris, the temple steps are too tall, the streams wind through the valley, and the winds howl across the mountains."

"But every now and again, the winds change, the rivers shift, and our world finds a new shape." She took a sip of her tea. "But you wouldn't happen to know anything about that, would you?" Her eyes flicked up to meet the Elder's.

"I have been hearing whispers in my reverie," said Takala, smiling wryly at Natani's summary of their isolated world. "You may one day overtake me in age, friend, if the past is able to catch up to the present."

Sipping the tea and inhaling the steam, she looked out of the bright circle of the temple opening onto the bright hillsides of the valley. It was a beautiful place that they lived in. She couldn't imagine the Unknown being any more lovely.

"I imagine the world outside this valley to be unchanged," she said. "Still embroiled in feud and chaos like the world of old. Our valley has grown with our children and grandchildren, but in my dreams I see that the world around us is the same, an eternal child begging for sweets."

"Why listen to such idle whispers." Said Natani, with a shrug. "If the lands outside our valley have learned nothing in our absence, then that is their loss." She took another sip of her tea. "Perhaps one day we will teach them. But until that day, why listen for--" She stopped in mid sentence, as a thought struck her.

Elder Takala did not seem to be in the mood of idle musings. She seemed to have something on her mind, something solid. Natani raised a questioning eyebrow.

"Why were you hearing whispers of the outside world?"

Elder Takala had not planned on answering that particular question.

"I asked a question," she said, lowering her voice, "because I had a dream. It was following a prayer to the spirits of the world to make this a good rainy season. I received an answer I had not expected."

She sipped her tea, which was getting cold, and set the cup down beside her.

"I dreamed the face of the beasts themselves," she said. "I am very old, and nothing at all can frighten me, save the Ha'tcheth. I am certain no one should ever see them as closely as I have, and no doubt enters my mind as to the veracity of this shade."

Natani's face went hard, and her mind went sharp. The jolly old woman who idly pontificated about idle things was now gone without a trace, and in her place was a steel-eyed sage with the fate of her world weighing heavily on her mind.

"What dire consequences could necessitate such malignant dreams being forced on you?" She shook her head, her mind racing. "The Mona are capricious, but rarely act without reason - though that reason may be beyond our ken, it is there."

"So you were shown the Hatchers, and you asked a question." She said, thoughtfiully tapping her bony finger against the edge of her cup. "What manner of nightmare did the answer bring?"

"I was told of an exodus," said Takala seriously. "It feels as though the land is slipping from beneath our feet. If these answers are true, the hatchers have begun to move. Towards the ancient Shier Mountains, they move. Away from Anhau, they move."

She closed her heavy-lidded eyes.

"I must warn the other Elders," she said, sighing. "I must call a meeting to the Pylons."

Natani sighed. It was far worse than she had hoped, but far better than she had feared. Her world would be turned upside down - true - but it would not die - Natani simply would not allow it.

She steepled her fingers, mulling through her own thoughts - dismissing the unworthy and rationally weighing the remainder. After a few moments, she spoke again. "Yes . . . there is much to be done."

"We have forgotten much. Much some may try to relearn - perhaps at the expense of our innocence . . . our soul . . . " She shook her head sadly. "Of our people, only we of The Art have witnessed the horrors of war - I hope this will remain so."

She paused, raising her tea once more. She put it down again without taking a sip. Even Takala's tea would taste bitter, now. "What new forms of madness have the ever-inventive outsiders discovered, in our absence?" She closed her eyes, remembering the Old Tales. "I am certain that over the centuries, they must have come up with some innovative new malevolences."