Dragondoom

EPILOGUES

Thork reigned long and was well loved. Under his guidance Kachar prospered and Blackstone again became the Jewel among Châkkaholts. Too, it is said that in some fashion he aided Jord to recover, though just how is not recorded. When he died he was laid to rest in stone carven with a pair of red hawks in flight, male and female, an unusual device for a Dwarven tomb. He was forever remembered in the songs of bards as one of the two who together slew Black Kalgalath.

He never married.

For many long ages the Harlingar and the Châkka held each other in contempt; and even though they fought shoulder to shoulder in the War to overthrow the Usurper, and again as allies during the Winter War, still they continued to bristle at the sight of one another. It was not until the War of Kraggen-cor, more than twenty-six hundred years after the slaying of Sleeth and the taking of his hoard, that the rancor between Dwarves and Riders was at last erased, for no hatred, no vengeance, no neglect is passed on forever; it must come to rest somewhere, to vanish in the eternity of time or to die under the weight of love. Even so, Elgo’s name forever became a curse in the mouths of the Châkka, and forever a benediction upon the lips of the Vanadurin.

There was but a single treasure of any consequence that survived from the hoard of Sleeth the Orm: a small silver horn on green baldric. Carven on the bell of the horn were diminutive riders on horseback racing among mystic runes. It came back into Jord upon a well-escorted waggon bearing Bram, son of Elgo and heir to Jord, and his mother, Arianne; and Bram called his favorite toy, the horn, his “tahn tahn,” for he was but three, nearly four, when Aranor sent for him to return to Jordkeep. The horn was passed down as an heirloom of Elgo through generation after generation of Vanadurin riders, until one day it fell into the hands of one of the Wee Folk. .

But that is another tale.