One night, months later during the mid-summer, Bracken and Silas sat around a low burning fire in the forest near Tizra. They played their stams and sang the songs that Bracken had composed.  Each was dressed in a roughly sewn tunic.  They had removed their leather cleks and propped their bare feet up against some flat stones.  Their youthful faces were deeply tan and their teeth glistened white in the firelight.  Parents, as well as responsibilities, had been left behind.  In their place the freshness of trees and streams mildly sheltered them in a soft environment.  A gentle, almost melodious breeze stirred the tops of the tall evergreens in the forest around them.  Something else seemed to stir in the air.  An almost distant echo called quietly from behind the sky.  The presence of strangers drew closer on the wind of another world.

Bottles of Krem, a sweet intoxicant, lay empty near the burning coals. Hour after hour they played and sang.  At times the music drove them in flights of soulish power.  And then it soothed them as they played mellow riffs against the background of stream and breeze.  Finally, satiated with melody, they placed their instruments aside and lay back against their sleeping gear, staring up into the night sky.

Bracken's friend, Silas, was sturdily built. His face was round and his eyes a dark brown. A black shock of hair stood above his wide forehead.  Pulling a drentle from his pocket, he combed back his thick locks.  Silas liked Bracken.  He liked his different ways.  He liked his music.  Bracken had taught him much and he hoped to learn more.  There were other things he wanted to learn too.  Other questions filled his mind.  Perhaps Bracken had some answers to them as well.  He seemed to have most of the answers when it came to music.  Putting the brush back in his tunic, he turned to his friend with a question.  The rocky clearing echoed slightly with his masculine voice.  "I guess you've heard the rumors about the last sci-tec expedition."

Bracken pulled another bottle of Krem from his pack. Taking a deep drink, he passed the beverage to Silas. "Yeah, someone said they found a mineral that has unusual powers. It's supposed to look like a gem."

Silas looked doubtful. "It may look like a jewel, but from what I've heard, it will steal your mind.  Dad told me if anyone touched it they'd end up nuts."

Bracken sat up and threw a twig on the fire.  The flames grew dimmer as the night closed in like a black fog.  "Why would anyone go crazy just by touching a stone."  The whole sci-tec story sounded like a lie to him.  "I know that's what the officials say, but I doubt it. It's not the first time that they'd lie to hide the truth."

Silas passed the Krem back to Bracken and leaned back again, cupping his hands behind his head. "You may be right Bracken," he said furrowing his brow in a vee.  "A student at the Advanced Mind Training Center said it's an important discovery.  He says the mineral's effect alters your mind patterns."  Silas wondered how a stone could ever have the power to do that.  Most of the ones he'd seen just looked nice.  "The gem's supposed to advance people's mental power."  He looked quizzical.

Bracken set his bottle beside him and picked up his stam. His fingers ran smoothly over the strings playing a soothing background melody as he talked.  The night air had changed.  Another wind seemed to be moving in the trees.  Bracken could sense it, but ignored its presence.  "We'll probably never know what they do," he said disappointedly. "The tec crews won't even say where they found them.  The High Council wants the whole matter closed.  The crew's leader is a guy named Cib Mingus.  He won't even mention it anymore.

"I've heard they’ve been digging somewhere up on Mt. Shidow," Yawned Silas. He had heard all the stories before. They seemed a little boring by now.  Still, he had some questions.

Bracken set his instrument down and poked at the coals with a stick. The fire burned brightly and sparks swarmed up into the night air.  It was a mystery to him why no one seemed to know the real truth about things like the Mingus Gem.  "No doubt, there'll always be strange stories told about the Shidow area," he said.  The southern mountain had always fascinated him.  It seemed as if it had some strange secret locked in its interior.  "One thing for sure, no one's going to find the sci-tec mine without a map.  The Shidow area is a wilderness."

It was a wilderness, but even wilderness could be charted if you took your time, he reminded himself.  Secretly, in his heart, he was sure he could find the mine if he had time to explore the area.  As Bracken tumbled the idea over in his thoughts it seemed to grow. He felt a Powerful confidence that someday he would go there and find the mine.  Almost without thinking, he continued talking.  "Knowing the way the Council feels about this matter, they've probably destroyed any evidence . . . still if you had some explosives and a good eye ..."

Silas rolled over and rested his chin on his clenched hand. The flames reflected a flickering dance in his dark eyes.  A slight chill filled the air and he almost didn't speak. "Maybe I could find out more about this whole thing from one of my friends in Demur. He's heard about a group of people up there who say the gem has magical..."

Abruptly, he was interrupted. "Look! There's something moving up there."  Bracken pointed toward a spot just above the high trees.  "Look at that, Silas! It's too erratic to be a sky-flyer.  Just look at the way it's moving!"  Bracken had seen many things in the night sky, but this was something new.  The oval disk danced in an almost rhythmic pattern. Then it stopped.  As the two of them watched, an overwhelming force seemed to pull at them.  The night grew even more still until they could hear a gentle hum coming from the craft.  As they listened it sounded almost melodious.  It sounded like a deep, lonely cry, like an ancient song, like a song from before the world was made.  Then suddenly the glowing object began to move again.  Momentarily, it performed an aerial ballet and then, without warning, it dashed away over the horizon as quickly as it had come.

For several moments neither Bracken nor Silas spoke, then slowly Silas broke the silence. "What do you think it was?"

"I don't really know," said Bracken slowly. He had suddenly become aware that there were a lot of things he didn't know.  One thing though, was becoming more certain every minute; he had to start finding some answers.  "It couldn't have come from this world. There's no flyer on this planet that can move like that."

Bracken was troubled.  Not troubled in a bad way, but troubled nonetheless.  He realized that something inside him wasn't going to be satisfied with the High Council lies and the sci-tec stories.  Things were falling into place and he was growing more determined to find out what it all meant.

Silas sat back down and rubbed his eyes. "Oh well, it's probably just another one of those mysteries we'll never understand."  Yawning again, he pulled back his night cover and crawled into his sleeping gear.  "All I really know right now is that I'm very, very tired. All that Krem made me kinda groggy.  Why don't we talk more about it in the morning."

"Sure, Silas," said Bracken, still looking into the sky. "I feel kind of tired myself."

Long after they had settled down to sleep, Bracken lay awake thinking.  He had heard of others who had seen these odd glowing lights in the night sky.  Their appearances were becoming more common all the time.  But something seemed even more strange.  It was this that kept him awake most of the night.  He had a question.  One that seemed to be haunting him.  One he couldn't get rid of.  Somehow, he wondered if there wasn't some mysterious connection between the finding of the Gem and the coming of the space disks.  Could it be possible that one was the omen of the other?