Ancient Belgarath, the Eternal Man, the First Disciple of Aldur, grandfather of the Rivan King and general all around personage of some import...is sitting peaceably on one of the lower hanging branches of a tree that doesn't really have any low hanging branches, drinking a beer. His feet are dangling about twenty feet above the ground, and after a ( Read more... )

Seeing as it's been many hundreds of years - a couple of thousand, even, at least - since Belgarath last set foot in this beautiful, swirling lack of direction, he's pleasantly surprised to discover that at least one of the boltholes he'd established is still there. 'Bolthole' is an interesting description for what it actually is - a both very ( Read more... )

The Vale is a holy place; the Tree, abandoned towers and a few still inhabited (some of them off-and-on). A certain amount of tension goes out of Belgarath as he leaves the nexus for his home, leading Jalal towards what has got to be one of the pig-ugliest towers ever built. Petrified tree-stump, dude. It was not designed for beauty -- unlike ( Read more... )

It's been repeatedly observed that it's been repeatedly observed that Belgarath could easily be set alight while into his work and might not notice until his beard caught the flames too. (And then only because his view would be interrupted ( Read more... )

It's half midnight and Belgarath has found it so easy to readjust to the Vale, but not so easy to get used to a pup underfoot. Particularly not when he's trying to work. Tego is sleeping for now, and he was...trying to, but there are some nights harder than others ( Read more... )

Belgarath prepares for the arrival of his newest guest in several ways. Firstly, he acquires for himself his daughter's medical texts. Then he sends Tego to spend the day with Beltira and Belkira, giving absolutely none of them a reason why beyond 'busy'. He has a few reference materials of his own that he's dragged out of the dust, but he's ( Read more... )

Belgarath, having evidently decided to take responsibility of Tego himself and not actually having any set home other than his tower, returns to the Vale with the boy and steadfastly ignores the queries of his brothers -- for now.

The tower looks rather like a petrified tree stump made out of stone, and for that matter has a large rock rather than ( Read more... )