Passage to Ausra

This series is not as developed as the first three as the plotting would have relied on what future publishing plans were going to be and the eventual interaction of the WaveDancers with the other EQ tribes. However, this fourth series would have dealt with parental abandonment issues, and takes place approximately two and a half years later. The major plotpoints are as follows:

* A meteorite hits the surrounding land near the Bay of Solitude, and the grotto is destroyed. Most of the WaveDancers manage to get away except for Jormak and Sleia who are stuck in the internal chambers with all the children. Sleia's leg is pinioned by a boulder as the ground breaks up around them, and the entrance caves in. Jormak is forced to take responsibility for the children when the rock floor drops away around them, and he is stuck on a narrow ledge with them. As they navigate through the danger area, Shoresprout loses her footing, and falls onto a coral outcrop that starts to crumble beneath her feet. Below her is a sheer drop into oblivion. Jormak cannot reach her, and Inkbottom helps him by dangling over the edge to grab Shoresprout's hands while Jormak anchors him. As the coral breaks away beneath Shoresprout's feet, Inkbottom manages to grab her hands but their fingers slip, and she plummets to her death. Jormak struck with remorse finds super-strength and manages to guide the other children to safety comforting them as they express their grief. Sleia helps and begins pulling rocks from the caved in entrance at the same time that Rhialdor frantically pulls them from the other side until they create an opening together. Jormak pushes the children and Sleia through and just manages to escape himself as the whole grotto collapses, and the grief-stricken WaveDancers make their way to the shore. Father and son stand united in the tragedy of the situation. Jormak manages to pull on all his emotional resources to support Inkbottom, Zadori and Burdekin. After many nights of mourning it is only Sleia who sees that despite his composure he is shaking, and she follows him to a quiet place where she offers him solace and comfort when he breaks down.

* The WaveDancers decide to split into two parties: one to stay and rebuild the grotto (ie. Tentus, Hyfus, Tilaweed, Kirith, Rhialdor, Korillia, Inkbottom, Illora, Shardon), and the other (Barmek, Raenafel, Shoseabee, Kadva, Burdekin, Zadori, Lazik, Maron, Paffa, Irralee, Rydos and the two babies) to go and find Ausra, the mother of the WaveDancers, to get her help in rebuilding the colony as perhaps only she can make the colony whole and at peace again. Tentus tells them that Ausra does not belong: she left them long ago when they needed her strength and guidance, and he does not want to see her anymore.

* Just before they depart, it is revealed that Sleia and Jormak have bonded in a deep love for each other. They have finally realised how similar they are: possessing both great athletic prowess but also deep emotional souls. They say they are not going, but have chosen to remain in the shattered grotto. When asked why, we see that they have had their legs moulded into tails by Raenafel.

* After many trials and tribulations including encounters with seals, walruses and a great variety of marine life, the seafaring party (in much warmer clothes) end up in the polar wastelands of the World of Two Moons, and in the icy graveyard of the great horned whales. Amongst the bones and unicorn-like horns they find the skeleton of an elf clutching the remains of a narwhale to her body. It is Ausra. She has died with her constant companion, the narwhale, who had saved the lives of the first comers when they had nearly drowned in the Vast Deep Water after battling the Wailing River and the Maraeva on the Cliffs of Peril.

Raenafel removes a necklace from Ausras neck which has a large crystal talisman in the centre. Rydos recognises the necklace, and tells them that it was fashioned from the same substance as the palace, and was intended to be a gift from the newcomers to the humans of this world. Ausra had carried it on her since that fateful day, but had never had cause to bestow it on any of the inhabitants of the land. Raenafel gets some impressions from the wand for it carries its own memory, and receives information on Ausra's last days. The group realise that Ausra had not run away from the colony but had deliberately set off to seek help for her children. And like Ausra, they are now given the prize from the palace: knowledge that other elfin tribes exist on this world. They understand too, that in order to grow and flourish, they must become explorers rather than remain isolated, and cross-pollinate ideas, genes, and traditions to realise their full potential.

The group return home with the news to find that the foundations of a newer and better WaveDancer colony have been established, and Tentus finds peace in the realisation that his mother was doing her duty and had not betrayed them through her weakness as he had suspected.