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Auron didn’t kno to feel about that, so he went back to his bits of dwarf lore "You were created by the Earth spirit, and made determined hunters of my kind, so we have little choice"

"Who told you this?" Djer said, sounding end that way"

"Ahhh, I see Spirits, eh? Dwarves don’t hold with spirits We believe only e can see, or hear, or touch We’re a literal-ends, and some chants that speak of a creation Would you like to hear my favorite?"

"Yes, please," Auron said

"Can I tell it in Dwarvish? You’ve iht follow it"

"Yes, try me"

"One says that Dwar, his sons, and their wives were riding in a ship A great storm threw them off course, and they became lost in a mist Dwar had a vision of a land promised to them, if they could just free it of a curse of ice and snow, and told his steersman where to take the ship His sons despaired, and their wives said he was raving, for they headed north where there was little to eat, snow so bright it blinded in the day, and winds so cold they froze the blood at night"

Auron understood his words well enough The drake relaxed and tried toforth the pictures in hisinto Parl or Drakine

"They fetched up against a continent of ice Ice mountains, ice fields They went into an ice cave, but they began to freeze They burned everything, even the ice-locked ship Dwar’s tinderbox was eh the ice All the others greeary and faltered, but Dwar did not stop

He ignored fatigue, hunger, thirst, because he knew they had to find fuel or die He found a golden tree in the ice, the Sun-Tree Once there had been ets to the earth like apples and pears each season But it was life and death for his people, so he took his ax and broke off a limb, then another, then another, and started a fire The tree was indeed ic, and when its as burned, it called to the Sun, and She came and warmed the land and melted all the ice They were in a beautiful vale Dwar coold and jewels that would grow like fruit on the two reave out fro in the ice, and as he died, he bequeathed the mountains and valleys to his people, but the tree to just his sons

"Dwar’s sons noticed that the trunk and roots of the tree were ets to drop, when they could get sodown the tree They cut it down and dug up soh frootten wealth brought only unhappiness There were intrigues and plots, double-dealings and waste in the farandchildren knew poverty But they heard stories and learned the lessons from the spendthrift sons; they knew there were other Golden Trees out there if they looked and worked, for its roots ran through the mountains everywhere I’ve shortened it, but the chant ends thus:

A Golden Tree awaits the son

Of Dwarkind, each and every one

So dig your mines, harden your hands

Mind your trades, work your lands

Dwar’s bounty waits just out of sight

For the faithful in labors right

"We have many other stories and proverbs, parables and aphorise have been expanded upon until they are a way of life, and you get groups of dwarves like the Wheel of Fire We in the Chartered Company like to think of our own firm as a Golden Tree, of a sort I just hope the Partners take better care of it than Dwar’s sons did"