I entered Athos' chamber in my usual fashion, sending before me fresh ocean air.

A broad crackling fire danced in the long fireplace which spanned the room. The mantle was an obtrusion of the wall, and like the rest of the room, seemed carved from one magnificent rock. As I looked into the flames, the walls seemed to shift in my peripheral vision. I turned to my host and smiled.

Athos held a glass out to me. Inside the channeled crystal a thick dark brew rested, creamy froth rising just above the lip.

"To a revealing evening" intoned the thickly muscled dwarf with a slow smile.

Returning his gaze comfortably, I raised my glass to his. The ring of the crystal chimed through the cavern, disappering in the shadows above. As the dwarven spirits warmed my cool throat, the reverberations tingled in my ears. I drank deeply, pleased at the musky taste. Nothing in the realms can match the earthy flavor of strong dwarven spirits.

"Welcome to my cavern, lady. You do grace me with your presence," voiced the Earthlord.

Smiling slyly, I objected, "Relax the formality, Athos. You're not a man for such useless ritual. What's cooking?"

Blushing slightly, Athos stated proudly, "Quiche!"

"Impressive!"

He turned, and the floor of the cavern shimmered. A large stone table grew out of the stone. Watching carefully, I noted this wasn't a work of magic. I've heard of men handling metal to shape into weapons and other objects, but I had never seen such malleability in stone. Athos was a true craftsman. Cahirs rose similarly on two sides of the table. The rock seemed living, veined with ore as it's master was with scars. My throat caught, and I felt the heat of my own scar. It was Athos who had encouraged me to keep it, the last remnant of my battles with Oblivion for control of the world's oceans. It seems so far from the safety of the earth. I fear nothing above water.

Athos drew out my chair. I slipped into it, bracing myself for the chill of stone, but there was none. The smooth rock was comfortably warm. He moved my chair in, and I made ready for our dinner. As Athos moved around the table, I watched his back and shoulders, well defined, gleaming in the firelight. I smiled to myself as he sat down for leering at him in such a way.

"So did you make dinner yourself?" I asked.

Athos blushed slightly. His humility always amused me. "Yes, with these clumsy warrior's hands. You're a brave woman!"

Laughing, I replied, "It's not your cooking that lured me here!" I let my eyes fall over his body appreciatively. There's nothing like catching a big tough guy off guard like that!

As I expected, Athos shifted nervously in his chair, the blush deepening and a silly grin spreading across his charming face. "I hope you like the dinner I prepared." Gesturing toward the steaming quiche on the (otherwise bare) table, Athos began to relay the intricacies of mortal cooking. I listened attentively, noticing the cooling of the quiche. Athos had forgotten utensils. He looked thoughtful for a moment, then made a quick, intricate gesture. A bottle of iced tea appeeared on the table. Blushing, he considered more thoroughly the task at hand, and was successful the second time. A humble spread of dining ware appeared on either side of the table. He smiled charmingly and set about the task of serving dinner.

"I never did any cooking as a mortal really. Not like this. My dinners were crisped over a campfire in most cases. I make a killer rotisserie chicken, " he winked. A confused line creased his brow. "It seems a bit heavy. . ." Athos trailed off, struggling with the stationery pastry.

"Your story was quite fascinating." But Athos wasn't listening. He rose from his granite seat, attempting to gain leverage. I muffled a giggle, but it escaped as a flush across my face. My eyes couldn't help but twinkle at this spectacle. The domesticated dwarf cast aside the serving knife and reached for his axe.

I reached across the table to still his hand, letting the laughter escape. Athos looked at me in surprise, then resignation as he set his battleaxe on the table next to the stubborn quiche. "Perhaps we should have had this catered," he quipped with a smirk.

"I'm not hungry anyway. Slow metabolism ya know."

Athos chuckled and rose from his seat. Assuming a playful pompous pose, he queried, "Would you care to join me at the fire?" and held out an arm.

"I'm honoured, sir." Rising from my seat, I took his arm. We sat down on a cozy sofa near the fireplace. His hand brushed my back, across my shoulders. His eyes lingered on my right shoulder. I felt my scar there burn a bit, as he thought back on that day as well.

"This is where we get down to business, then," I looked at him from under my lashes, an unexpected shyness overcoming me. Athos had been after me for months to tell him more about myself, where I had come from, how I had entered the world of the immortal. I had made myself scarce, knowing this. Not so much because I didn't want to talk about myself, but because I couldn't remember it all so well. Actually, I didn't really want to talk about myself, either. And I didn't want to admit that.

"This isn't something you have to do, Lanta," he said, sincerity warm in his eyes. I snuggled into his shoulder. Athos was a dear friend and I couldn't help but feel comfortable around him.

"Well, you have to ask the questions," I stated. I wouldn't know where to begin.

"What's your full name?" Athos asked gently.

"I dunno," I replied, blinking.

Athos considered for a moment, then asked, "Do you remember your parents? What were they like?"

I fidgeted a bit, and shrugged helplessly.

Athos glanced at the floor near the sofa, and a granite slab grew from the floor. Stretching his legs, he placed his feet on the ottoman. I chewed on my lips pensively, trying to think of something to say that he'd find interesting. This led to a wrinkle of my nose. Getting a smirk from Athos, I stuck out my tongue, poofed out my cheeks, and boggled my eyes. Athos chuckled softly. I remembered my dear sister Caly.

"Did you know Calypso and I used to be of the pixies who tended to the LifeTrees?" I asked.

Athos silently shook his head.

"We'd lean against the gnarled roots of the Trees and make faces at each other during the slow times." I smiled softly to myself. "Being so well hidden, there were many quiet times. There were a few skirmishes with lower creatures who would ignorantly damage the Trees. My time was before others know the grove existed. We spent our days tending to the Trees and playing games amongst ourselves. It was a slow time for the pixies under Lake P'hellias."

Suddenly my heart caught in my chest as I recalled the adventure leading to my scar, and my new life. Images of pain and excitement passed before my inner eyes, the ones that see events which have already transpired, replaying in your mind.

I looked searchingly at Athos, weighing inside the value of this tale to him over the memories of pain it brought back to me. What is it worth to me anymore? I hadn't thought of it in recent memory, so how can it be of any use kept only to myself? If it can do any good anymore, it will have to be told.

Taking a deep breath, I began to consider where the story began. I wanted to give a strong representation of all that happened.

"The whole thing started there, at the base of the Trees. This was after the Transformation, from pixies to nixies. We are of the first generation. Caly and I were dangling our toes into the lake, chatting about something of little consequence. Do not mistake this for slouching on our duties. We were very much prepared, at all times. The Allarren did not take lightly the care of that precious grove.

"Out of the corner of our vision, we saw a silver flash beneath the water. Instantly we dove in, without even a glance at one another. We swam as fast as our wing-burdened bodies could in the direction of the flash. At first it had disappeared from our sights. We swam deeper, feeling a disturbance further into the lake. Another silver glint and we rocketed ourselves to the bottom of the lake, shooting like spears through the water. We were near to the silted bottom when a greenish glow lit the area. A yellow slit formed in the water and yawned open. From behind us, the silver streak thundered past us, tossing our small bodies about in the undercurrent." I blinked, my heart racing just to think of it all.

"The silver thing, as big as we were, slipped into the glowing cavern. I took my crossbow from the sling at my back and swam nearer the opening, unsure of its stability. Caly also drew her crossbow, and her dagger, and followed me close, glancing about distractedly. I could see she was calling for others to come. We looked at each other and silently agreed to enter the cave. As if to cement our decision, the slit began to thin, and the yellow to diminish. I stared into it, and lost my mind for a moment. Whether I saw something or fear had overcome me, Caly's rough push sent me through the opening. She came through, and there we were.

"Where were we? The silver flash was no longer an issue. We knew that lake. It was our home. We were there all our lives, and we would die there, in the waters. That was how we were raised and taught all our lives." I broke off, as I remembered the circumstances of my birth. My mind trailed off to my first home as a child, and those who cared for me.

"What are you thinking of?" Athos ventured cautiously, not wanting to break the spell of reminiscence.

"My parentage is a strange one." I felt uncomfortable. Adoption, of course, is a completely natural process. My birth and growth, however, did not seem natural.

"I will speak of this later, once I have finished this story," I decided, and Athos smiled approvingly at me. Drawing back into that cave, I began again.

"We were in awe. Helplessly in awe! We knew every part of the Lake, but we had never seen anything like this. There were no caves in the Lake, and only one inlet from the sea, which ran through Alanholt on its way. No surprises ever came from it, however. Where this cave appeared there was a rock wall, enormously deep, seemingly uninteresting and quite solid. Looking around ourselves now, adjusting our eyes, we were in a tunneled cave. The walls were rough hewn, and a pale, gleaming yellow.

'I can't reach anyone,' Caly intoned. I blinked dumbly, not knowing what to do next. Our duty was to protect the LifeTrees. Caly had been able to notify our comrades of our absence form the trees, but there was no way of telling them where we had gone. The entrance sealed tightly behind us, the joints in the rock not even breathing a stream of Lake water through to this cavern. I motioned Caly away form the entrance, and centered myself, closing my eyes.

"I opened my eyes and a magic missile soared into the wall. When the bubbles cleared, the wall looked no different. Frustrated, I let fly a lightning bolt, fireball, implosion, and iceshaft into the stubborn rock, but it only proved to be as solid as we had always thought it. Caly sighed and turned to the tunnel. I followed, tired and disappointed."

Things began to get foggy for me. I glanced apologetically at Athos, "It has been so long. . ." I shrugged my shoulders and sighed deeply.

Athos smiled silently and began to rub my neck. I thought carefully. The details of our odyssey through the labyrinth escaped me so easily.

"I can remember lots of choices, hard choices we had to make. Which way to go, when to fight, when to flee, what to take as a sign to an exit, what was perilous to us. There were some signs written in another language. The creatures there looked much like nixies, but were wrong somehow."

Remembering this was like trying to remember a dream, or rather a nightmare. Impressions and shadows of things learned came back willingly, but the details of the situations were lost.

"The caverns were maddening. The walls were so brightly yellow they seemed to draw closer. We had no sense of time or place, but it seemed that endless hours had passed, days even, before we saw anything intelligent.

"We had ceased even speaking with each other, we were so incredibly fatigued. Lethargically we swam on, choosing at random which branch of a fork to take. They all looked the same. We came upon a rather open chamber, broad and flat. Instantly we grasped at our weapons and shields, bracing ourselves for attack. None came, however. There were pale shapes shifting about, in a sort of synchronized procession. Torches fixed in sconces on the wall were silently glowing, strangely devoid of light or spark. The participants in this macabre dance paid no attention to us. Caly was as stunned as I. There was some magic at work here, something mysterious.

"I ventured closer, trying to discern the nature of the situation. A hollow, echoing laugh seemed to come from all directions. It heightened in intensity and volume, and seemed to materialize before us. A being stood there, grinning garishly at us. I wasn't afraid. We had traveled too long to feel such a thing. I was almost relieved. The stature of this creature was that of power and malice, and I could see that, for better or worse, our journey had come to it's conclusion.

"'Nixies this time, eh?' the creature smirked, purpleish lips twisting. 'How dull.' With this offhand comment, it waved a spindly finger through the water. Three nixies appeared, rising out of the murky floor of the cave. They appeared stricken, faces forming masks of fear and despair.