The wind blew some dust.

A cloaked figure stood in the shadow of a massive stone frame. She tossed back her hood to gaze at the faint etching in it's surface. Her emerald eyes glinted as she struggled to make out their shapes in the fading light.

What she did know was that this held the potential for everyone’s survival. There was a rustling sound from behind her, and she spun with a suddenly drawn bow. From the swaying leaves of the plants emerged a small long eared animal, and she quickly lowered her bow. With a practiced motion, the arrow disappeared into the cloak.

“Hello there little one.” She spoke, kneeling down to pat the animal.

The small rabbit looked up at, “You speak to me?”

“Yes, I need to find the owner of these stones.” She pointed to the large frame and the rabbit sniffed it’s nose at it.

“Why?”

Images of war and destruction flashed through Kaelin’s mind. She had been one of her people’s most trusted scouts, and was the only survivor of far too many battles with the enemy. The ones that had seemed like they would be the end of her civilization.

“Death comes.”

The rabbit looked around, searching for any sign of predators.

She couldn’t help but laugh at the reaction, “Not here yet, but coming.”

“Flee?” The word was more instinctual then spoken, and she could see it’s body trembling in fear.

“Owner. Safe.” She had to keep the idea’s simple and basic, or the animal would simply run away from a danger it couldn’t understand.

It looked at the stone thoughtfully, then it hopped away from her. “Come. This way,"

She followed it for several hours, trekking painfully through the ever darkening woodlands. If the rabbit was bigger, she could have traveled much faster; but she felt that she had already upset the creature with pushing it as she had. She was happy that it seemed to have a direction in mind.

When the stars were beginning to fill the moonless sky, she saw a dark shape.

A tower.

“Here.” The rabbit said, “Bye.”

Without so much as slowing to ask, it turned and began hopping away.

She waited for the dark to settle in, watching the gray blue shape in the dark. There was absolutely nothing to suggest that there was anything living in or near the structure. So she began to carefully work her way towards it. Years of experience had taught her to make no sounds as she moved through the shadows.

When she was almost at the base, she realized that the tower was far larger than she had originally thought. The large gray stones were almost white in the dark. The whole where they had once been part of the tower was easily big enough for Kaelin to slip through.

Inside she found a dark shadow perched on a gray throne. She froze, giving her eyes time to adjust to the dark.

A statue.

Someone had carved. No cast. A statue out of some black material. She looked around, there was a staircase on her left, opposite of the large sitting form. She followed the spiraling stairs progress upward, but she couldn’t see any sign of life.

Therefore she decided to examine the strange statue.

It felt off to her, and she wasn’t entirely sure if it was safe to be around. She had heard stories of wizards using their power to create terrible defenses. So it didn’t hurt to check the room carefully.

was certainly a wizards tower. Abandoned but not necessarily free of any dangers.

The statue, upon closer examination, was made of plates. They had a soft stone-like feel to them, but when she tapped her knife on one it rang like a metal. Each of the plates was interlocked in some seemingly random pattern. They all appeared to be rectangular and relatively flat. If she had to guess, they were each the length of her arm.

Even after examining the area for a good hour, she couldn’t see any sign of triggering mechanisms or traps. But now she was absolutely certain that this thing was no ordinary statue. The level of complexity and size of the thing suggested it had some great value. Although she couldn’t figure anything out.

After examining the statue, she began to carefully work her way around the room. There were some decaying tables and chairs, but mostly the room was stone blocks with grass slowly growing through the gaps. That left the next floor.

She moved up the stairs carefully, examining each and every one of them. They were small, even for her, and she was hesitant to stand upright on them with the curving wall of the tower. So she decided to crawl up them. It was take a while...

She froze.

There were two glowing blue embers floating from near the throne.