Andel cut in front of Airka and she smiled as the dog disappeared into the rows of grain.  She saw several birds fly out before the dog loped back into view, mouth agape in its excitement as he looked back towards her.  She motioned forward and the dog ran on ahead.  The sun was getting high and Airka pulled her wide brim hat over her head, smiling each time Andel came running back the path.  The dog looked at her just long sure she was still following before diving into the crops or charging ahead once more.  Without realizing it she found herself humming an old marching song and in a brief time she came around a curve in the path and saw the forest before her.

Airka paused there, waiting.  She didn’t really expect, rarely were Fey cooperative.  They wouldn’t be such an issue if they were.  When nothing moved at her presence, Airka called out.  Andel bounded out of the crops.  The dog stopped before her, tongue hanging out of the side of his mouth as he panted.  She called the order and he settled at her side as she moved forward.  She saw the damage that the farmer had spoken of soon enough and paused again.

She’d twice dealt with Fey in the last couple of years.  Both had been at farms but that wasn’t surprising given that most people around here were farmers.  The first encounter had been along the Rustway River.  The river had burst its bank during a storm and then the Fey had refused to return to normal even when the water dried up in the summer heat.  The other had been another farmer which abutted this forest.  That had been as simple as some trees pushing out into the fields.

This was different than both of them but at the same time looked to be more like the river encounter.

The ground was dug up in great tufts, some of the crops now buried under.  It was like a giant had decided to haphazardly plow the field.  Airka shook her head and cleared it of the thought.  That was not something she needed.

The great trail of whatever had done this cut a clear trail back into the woods.  Airka waited a moment more, surveying the land for anything else which jumped out at her.  When Andel whined, she gave in and moved forward. 

The forest loomed in front of her.  Airka stopped at the thought and shook her head.  Loom was not something a forest could do, the trees were simply ahead of her and Airka walked into their shade.  She made a point to think of how the shade was a welcome relief from the sun, certainly not a ominous chill of what was ahead.  Andel hung back, waiting just within the edge of the shadows.  Airka turned and faced the dog for a moment, a smile briefly tugging at her lips.

“You would be the smart one.”  Removing her wide hat, she hung it on a branch and, and holding the ancient spear before her, Airka followed the disturbed earth deeper into the forest.  She picked her way past brambles, easy to get through given the path carved by whatever had ripped up the ground and within a small clearing, light speaking the ground through the interspersed branches above, she found her target.

Blessedly the boulder was still for the moment.  She supposed maybe it was actually big enough to be called an outcropping.  Gray stone, moss going down one side, the boulder sat in a small clearing amongst the stunted trees.  The sun hadn’t yet risen high enough to warm the clearing and Airka stepped tentatively onto the dew speckled grass.  With each step she waited for something to happen, for the boulder to move, to jump either away or come barreling down on her.

Closing, Airka finally reached forward with her spear.  Hesitating for a moment she poked the blue-gray metal against the rock.  A ring rang out in the small clearing and…nothing else happened.

“I suppose a boulder wouldn’t be one to go rushing about,” she murmured to herself.  Suddenly, several sections of the mass parted and a trio of topaz gems stared at here.  Airka had involuntarily taken a step back but the sudden rumbling of the ground caused her to lose her footing.  She hit the rolling dirt as the boulder rose up, smaller rocks rolling out from beneath it to support its bulk.  It took a slow plodding step towards her and Airka scrambled backwards.  She muttered repeated curses as another step of the boulder shook the ground, tearing the earth as its form moved forward.

Planting the haft of the spear, she braced herself as it moved to take another step.  The trio of gems, what she took to be its eyes, pivoted with her as she rose.  It began to take another step, rising up over her but Airka pushed out with the spearhead again.  She placed it against the stone.

“No.”

An arc of lightning jumped from the shard at the middle of the spearhead and the boulder stopped all movement.  After a pause it took a step back.  Airka advanced, keeping the spear’s tip against the rock.  Taking several breaths, waiting to see if anything else would happen, Airka regained her composure.

“Now,” she begun, “let’s take a look at you.”  She circled around the stone golem, the scrap of the metal against stone echoing in the early quiet of the woods.  Airka took her time.  Eyes raised she noted the strange markings on the stone.  The sharp trio of white lines here and there, clear signs of claw marks.  Whatever was willing to attack a stone golem didn’t strike her as foolish. Instead it made her hesitate at what would be so bold.  The size of the golem made her think it must have found its way here from the mountains to the West.  She noted that one of the smaller stones that it carried itself on was partially shattered, causing a jagged tip that dug into the dirt.  The cause of the trails of disrupted dirt the golem left behind.

More marks of an attack revealed themselves to Airka and for a moment she wondered at the fact that the creature had made it this far.  A small part of her mind shivered at the fact that the dirt trail could not be traced out of the woods, that such an injury had been recent.  The stone thought shuddered as she nearly finished her circle and pivoting it brought its jewel eyes to look at her.  Airka withdrew the spear and the golem calmed.

“A long way you have come,” she whispered to it, “but I can’t have you causing disruptions here.”  Taking a step back she rested the spear against her shoulder.  The golem stared placidly down at her.  “So, what new story do I give you?”  Airka thought for a moment, looking over the golem.  She saw her reflection in the gems of its eyes and then she smiled.  “You’ve come a long way, and its been a long journey.  I bet you’re tired.”  At the final word the golem began to slowly sink back down.  Its stone feet sunk in underneath it and pretty soon, minus the gem stones, it appeared to be nothing more than a somewhat out of place boulder.

Stepping forward Airka rested a hand just aside of the jeweled eyes.  “Carrying yourself this far has to have been exhausting, you should sleep.”  Her tone almost motherly,the moss lids of the gems began to slide back down.  For a moment the golem stirred, but Airka ran her hand over it.  Against her shoulder the spearhead gave a small hum of blue lightning.  “Rest here, a stone will need long rest, and you’ll be safe.”  With a final shudder the gems were hidden once more beneath moss and the golem settled fully into the ground.

Stepping back, spear still resting on her shoulder, Airka assessed the site before her.  It looked like a boulder, covered in moss by the years, and clearly had always been here.  There was of course the matter of the markings, stark white on the gray stone.  As Airka crouch down to the dirt as the base of the golem, and took up handfuls of it, she heard a rustling.  She turned to see Andel walking into the clearing.

“Smart dog,” she intoned as she straightened, adding as Andel began to push disrupted dirt back its into trough, “good dog.”  Content, she began to rub the handfuls of dirt against the stone.  Repeating the process until scored stone shared the same stain as the rest of it, ensuring the sight of a just long resting boulder.