When Garm announced his intent to detach the boat from its wagon cradle and use it to both cross over the lake to deliver Tim and his invention to the elves as well as explore the lake shore to locate where Blaise was last seen, to his surprise Tim demurred.
"No! Sorry Garm but I refuse to take any chances with all this precious work. Besides my instincts tell me I should, as the gate keeper advised, stay on the path.
I've got an idea though. Why don't I drive the wagon around the end of the lake taking the long way round which will give you at least a week to explore and better still have it ready to reinstall the boat body at the slip where the ferry docks?"
"You have never driven a horse and cart have you Tim? It aint as easy as it looks and on these here rough trails what with the ruts and potholes its all too easy to lose control. Whats more, old Buttercup knows my hand upon the reins and trusts my judgement but if'n she feels a stranger steering, she might shy and lead you astray."
It looked like an impasse until Garm said thoughtfully "Of course I could just as well drive us over to the other side then launch the boat from there. Probably for the best is that. A week more won't make no difference."
"I think that is the best plan too" said Tim "I'm sorry to be so difficult and under other circumstances I'd have rather gone searching with you but my instincts are all warning me about any more boating on the lake and I've learned not to ignore them."
Tim was quite unaware of his 'instincts' owing more to the constant watch of the White One, as the elves called the force for good they believed to be part of the barriers magic. "Then from whence came the Black One?" Tim had enquired. "Well we feel sure it arose from the malice of those that made the barrier necessary to preserve and protect the elder folk like ourselves."
It was, in fact, the brownies who caused both black and white to exist. They were so insignificant that neither dwarves nor elves paid them nuch attention and they for their part preferred the company of humans as they had ever since the very first emergence of humanity long before the barrier became necessary.
When brownies weren't treated with the respect they required, which meant ignoring their helpfulness by never referring to them within the home nor trying to reward them however well meant, they left forever and became imps. Imps were the opposite, malicious little bbeings that eventually coalesced into the shades known as ghasts. These were the servants of the black one which itself was what ghasts eventually became a part of.
The foundation behind the existence of the brownies was no less than the spirit of the earth itself. No more can be known or even explained about the process behind the various manifestations of brownie, imp and barrier which only the wisest have divined but keep secret lest the knowledge be misused.
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