Trek to Kraggen-Cor Read Online Free PDF Page A

original precisely, and I do mean precisely: even the spelling errors and the punctuation errors made in Tuck's original journal are copied faithfully. And as to the Account: places where words, phrases, sentences, even paragraphs, places where they were written in and then lined out by Tuck's scribes, even those are meticulously reproduced.
    "Look, the real Raven Book used to be here at The Root, but no longer. Some years after the War, Tuckerby's dammsel, Raven Greylock, for whom the book is named—my great-grandam five generations removed—bore it west with her to the Cliffs, the Warrow strongholt that stood fast and did not fall during the Winter War. There, she and her husband, Willen, gathered some of Tuck's original scriveners, and others, and continued the great scribing of the History. Even now the work goes on, for history always has been and ever will be in the making. And it needs recording. But as to Tuck's original Account, the Book remains at the Cliffs to this day, an heirloom of the Fairhills and Greylocks, the Underbanks and Fletchers, and others of Tuck's lineage. There at the Cliffs it is revered and tended by his kindred, occasionally being added to when some bit of lore or history bearing on the Winter War comes to light, appended therein by the family scholars—but only if after due deliberation it is unanimously accepted.
    "But I digress. It's from that original that the copies are made . . . and triple-, no, quadruple-checked. So, if it's truth you seek—the 'genuine truth' —then you hold it in your hands." Having given his pledge, Perry, though nettled, fell silent.
    Regardless of the Warrow's passionately tendered personal guarantee of the book's accuracy, neither of the two Dwarves seemed willing to accept anything but the original. Disgruntled, they glanced at Lord Kian, and at the Man's curt nod, they reluctantly settled back and Borin resumed his search

    through the tome, leafing slowly through the pages. Soon his dark countenance took on a faintly bafRed look. Then he stopped altogether. "Faugh! I go about this all wrong," he rumbled, at which statement Anval grunted his assent. "If what we seek is truly here, Waeran, then you must lead us to it."
    "And what is that?" asked Perry, his vexation with the Dwarves yielding to a strange glow of excitement.
    We ve come to it now, thought Cotton, and he hardened himself as if for a blow.
    "Kraggen-cor. Our ancient homeland. What you name Drimmen-deeve," answered Borin. "Durek the Deathbreaker is reborn, and we go to wrest stolen Kraggen-cor from the Foul Folk."
    "Deathbreaker Durek?" asked Cotton, shivering. "Deathbreaker? That sounds right unnatural, if you ask me. Just who is this Durek? And how did he get the name Deathbreaker?" Lord Kian smiled at the directness of this small Warrow.
    "He is the First, the High Leader," replied Borin, "the Father of Durek's Folk, foremost among the five Chakka kindred. Think me no fool, Waeran, for not even Durek is Death's full master, for all mortal things perish. Yet, once in a great while an heir of Durek is born so like the First that he, too, is given the name Durek. When this happens—as it has happened again—we Chakka deem that indeed the true Durek has broken the bonds of Death and once more trods the Mountain roots anew.
    "And now, being reborn, Durek desires to return to his home. He has gathered many of his kith—those descended in the Durek line—be they from the Mineholt North, the Red Caves, the Quartzen Hills, wherever Durek's Folk delve. And he has raised a great army. And we are to retake Kraggen-cor, to overthrow and slay the vile Squam, usurpers of that which is ours. We are to regain our homeland, the ancient Chakka Realm under the Grimwall."
    "Are there Spawn in Drimmen-deeve?" asked Perry. "The Raven Book tells that the mines were infested by those and other evil creatures during the War, but since then nothing has come concerning the Rucks, Hloks, and Ogrus that were there. Are