THE BOAT
One hundred and fifty eight years after the Dwarf alliance ended with the city of Mithar an echo from the past sounded in a most peculiar way. A small boat entered between the guarding twin-peaks of the Bay of Lhun. It seemed to drift on its own power and direction. The sentries in their towers above spied an occupant; a man lying down.
"The Dead have returned!" A guard from another vantage point called out to those on the shoreline who gathered to witness the alarm. Those in the kata fishing crafts steered clear as they watched the tiny white boat pass them, heading for the harbor of Lindol. At the end of the longest pier the funeral boat came to a soft stop on its own. The stranger who lay silent within had a war ax across his chest, garbed for battle; a mighty dwarven warrior to be sure! Seen by all was a scorched arrow that failed its task to ignite the hero's honored ride into the afterlife; rather he found his landing in strange waters.
The Lord Mayor of Lindol was quickly informed. Vishva Dol ordered the craft to be tethered, guarded and remain unmolested, upon pain of death. Two weeks after a raven was dispatched a dwarven ship, with full complement arrived to retrieve one of their own. The occasion marked the final time eyes were laid upon those eastern mountain people. The dwarves of Jebul worked in utter silence to bring their fallen lord in tow, leading the tiny vessel back out to the open sea. With the boat set upon its renewed course, tributary horns and solemn songs rang out even as three torches were tossed alongside the cherished cargo. Moments later, those from the shoreline and guardian peaks watched as the great Dragon bowed ship from Jebul turned homeward. Sometime later the frail firelight at dusk was lost beyond the rim of the world.
Following that somber day, the people of Lindol recalled the night a warrior's boat entered their harbor every year thereafter by setting paper crafts to sail candles. The first witnesses unto their heirs recounted in songs and tales those they would never see again.
...THE BOOK OF TALES
