"What is that... pebble... you're holding?", asked father from his son, and
continued: "Let me see it."

Obediently but hesitantly the little boy gave the pebble to his father. The
pebble was coarse, as if covered by sand, and about the size of a small bird's
egg. The core of the pebble was glass. There was definitely something odd
about this pebble, and that made the father curious.

"Where did you find this?", he asked the little son of his. The boy shrugged,
and picked his nose. "Tell me now! Or do you need some sense smacked into
you!", said the father, raising his voice a bit. The boy started to shrug, and
the father smacked the poor kid's temple with his calloused farmer's hand.
"Last warning! If you want to eat today, tell me now!", said the father with
noticeable anger in his voice. He was getting furious.

Sniffing sadly, his head still ringing from the blow, the farmer's son said to
his father: "But... The nice sky-lady said... Not to tell anyone..." At this
point, his father interrupted his son: "Sky-lady? What are you talking about?
Did the lightning hit your head yesterday when you were out playing in the
rain, or what nonsense is this?" The odd behaviour of the boy made the father
rather serious.

"No, but...", started the boy, and was interrupted again with another smack.
Tears started to form into his eyes, as the battle between telling his father
the truth and obeying the nice sky-lady, Laesa, raged on in his head.

Suddenly, there was a flash in the dreary grey horizon, followed by large
raindrop hitting the boy on his nose, interrupting his train of thought. A
late summer's storm was approaching, fast.

"Oh damned... Rain, today, again..." started the father, his attention drawn
to the weather instead of his son's find, the pebble. "Looks like you earned a
supperless night, son. Come now, mother must be waiting already", said the
father. The boy sniveled, picked up the pebble his father had dropped
absentmindedly, and followed his father. "Thank you, sky-lady, for your timely
help", thought the boy on his way home.

...

That day was imprinted into mister Cane's memory like no other. It was far
more vivid memory than his first love, or anything. It was not because the
abuse by his father, but because what had happened earlier that fateful day.

...

The week had been unusually wet. It had rained, rained some more, rained with
thunder, rained with hail, rained with wind. The ditches had needed clearing,
which had been a miserable and back-breaking job for his father. This was the
first day that it hadn't rained, yet, and he had gotten permission to go out
and play, and he had eagerly taken the opportunity to leave the house.

Outside, the sun was shining, the grass was green, and the girls probably
prettier, but that was of no concern for the youngest son of the Cane family.
He was headed to the nearby river, for he wanted to become a fisherman when he
grows up.

He could already hear the rush of the overflowing river. One more hillock to
cross, and he would be at his favourite fishing spot. Brushing aside the low
tree branches, heavy with wet leaves, he stepped on top of the hillock. Then,
he gasped and gaped in awe: the sandy riverbank had been taken over by...
bunnies?

The bunnies, oblivious to the entry of young Cane, went on with their
business. They were sniffing on something on the sandy beach, and wobbling
oddly. The air smelled odd, noticed the young boy. He would learn years later
from the alchemists when wandering the world that the smell in question was
that of a substance called ozone.

He had managed to close his gaping mouth by now, and was considering his next
move. "They are only bunnies..." was fighting with the thought "There are so
many of them..." when suddenly, all the bunnies stood up, pricking up their
ears. Time stood still for what felt like hours, but probably lasted only a
few seconds, as a gigantic dragon flew over. Luckily the dragon didn't notice
the bunnies or the boy, and after the dragon was out of sight, the bunnies,
wobbling and odd, disappeared into the woods.

On the beach the boy found the pebble. It was lying on the blackened sand, in
a small hole, as if it had fallen from heights great enough to cause a small
crater on impact. As he reached for the coarse pebble, he felt a zap on his
fingers, causing him to instinctively withdraw his hand. The zap... it filled
his head with strange thoughts. Casting them aside, he quickly picked the now
inert pebble, and...

...

Mister Cane never told anyone what the nice sky-lady, presumably Laesa, told
him during that moment. But one thing was sure - the youngest son of the Cane
family was not to be a fisherman. It became evident he was smarter than the
usual farmers, but was never apprenticed by any guild master. Instead, he
became a trader of curiosities, a traveler and a self-learned jack of all
trades. But most of all he desired one thing - more pebbles like the one he
found in his youth.

During his travels he found a name for the pebbles. Old alchemists called them
'fulgurite', claiming them to be natural phenomena caused by lightning meeting
the sand. Most commoners thought not much of them, just happily accepting
mister Cane's usually plentiful offers of gold for their findings.

Nowadays, mister Cane and his associates have set up shop in Laenor, which is
aptly named after the goddess Laesa - the inspiration of his work. Why they
settled on the dwarven lands is a bit of a mystery, but there are rumours
circling about heresy in Agathoria committed by mister Cane. Whether the
rumours are true is yet to be seen.

Heresy or not, several prominent and some often clandestine religious
organizations have taken interest on Cane's life-work. Prophesies are being
examined with utmost care. Portents are being interpreted. Augurs have been
placed to the far corners of the world. And most of these point to Laesa, the
goddess of the weather. Her worshippers are quite tight-lipped about the whole
thing. They just mutter about the usual 'climate change', 'floods',
'droughts', and 'tears of Laesa'.

Maybe there is a new cult on the rise. Maybe the end of the world is coming.
Maybe the tears of Laesa can never be found. Maybe there are visitors from
other worlds walking among us. Maybe those maps to ancient locations are worth
something. Maybe this, maybe that. It is up to you to find the truth, if there
is one to be found.

++ Heidel