Eternal-One held a deep curiosity about the ways of the world, and he also believed that there was no greater wisdom of the world than that found in ancient songs. So he spent several months traveling to all the lands that were subject to his house and recording every song the people knew, especially those which were of excellent and beautiful composition. But there was one song he heard from an old woman living in the eastern wastelands which were the home of what remained of the demon tribe of Broad-Terror that especially filled his heart with mystery and longing. It went thus:
Oh, I was born in the great City
Where towered peaks of gold and gems
Where phoenixes went to brood
But when the scent of foreign honey
Dragged me by the nose
I abandoned hearth and home
And never again saw the great City
He asked the old woman: "Was there truly a city like the one in the song?" She replied: "Who can know? This song is hundreds if not thousands of years old. If there ever was one it can't be anything but ruins now. But they say our people once sat at the top of the world when we were still living in the east. Then there could have been cities like that. But an aging people tends to forget these things so easily. And what, this is nothing but a little ditty the men like to sing while they plow, for all we know that 'great city' was only a dozen straw shacks, and the 'phoenixes' were sparrows, and so on."
Eternal-One reflected deeply on the old woman's report. Then he went to his father with this proposal: "Father, in collecting the songs of the peoples of distant regions, I have heard legends of a great City that once stood in the regions beyond the eastern wastelands. With your permission, let me take a company of warriors there to see if anything remains of it." Tengir was pleased with his son's penchant for enterprise, but did not think he would find anything, nonetheless he said: "Go. Take Cedar-Root and his company of five hundred with you." And Eternal-One left at once, bringing with him, in addition to the company of Cedar-Root, a dozen friends and two of his teenage sons.
It took over a month to penetrate into the regions beyond the eastern wastelands, and as soon as they arrived the wild tribes who lived there made it known that their presence was not welcome. Whenever these encounters occurred, Eternal-One wanted to ask them if they had heard of the city too, but most of them were not receptive to words and only wished to give battle. But they were no match for the Tengir's highly-cultivated warriors, so after the men had dispatched a few, the rest would run off. One day, when they had already gone several hundred miles in, they captured a local chieftain as he tried to flee. He was not aggressive and wanted to speak to Eternal-One, and this latter was very eager to grant him an audience. When he questioned him on the ancient City, he said: "It's true, the ones you call 'demons' were once the masters of this corner of creation, but as with all things our old Empire was buffeted by the seasons and shaven down by the years. They say a hundred major tribes stayed in the old heartland, while fifty went west, fifty east, fifty north and fifty south, but who knows how many of these tribes are even left. There were once hundreds of kings, too, but I reckon less than ten are still around, and the rest are nothing more than petty lords like myself and the rowdy bunches your father has wrangled. Yes, I've heard many things about your father, even out here his name is despised. But I harbor no evil feelings against him, do you know why? Because our race was already defeated centuries ago at the moment we became addicted to money, wine, gambling and vice--he is only acting in his rights to sack us of the domains we let go to waste. After all it is the Earth that elects her steward." Eternal-One responded: "But do you know where the remains of the great City are? I presume that was the capital of your old Empire." And the chieftain: "Buried beneath our feet, perhaps. A couple of my cousins still worship at the ancestral burial grounds, which is supposed to be close to the site of that old city. Not that you will find much of interest there, but you ought to tag along if you're so curious." The chieftain's cousins happened to pass through the next week on their way to the burial, and they allowed Eternal-One to accompany them.
When they reached the burial, they saw that it consisted of a massive earthen mound that sat very conspicuously in the middle of a yellow prairie. The cousins did rites to honor their ancestors, and while the rites appeared very solemn and noble in the eyes of Eternal-One and his followers, they could not understand their meaning. In the meantime, Eternal-One commanded all his men to search for traces of the ancient city. Day after day they searched, but nothing did they find. Nearly three months they spent in that district looking for the remains of the city, but truly it was hardly more than a wilderness--not even a shard of stone or pottery did they find. And they could have stayed longer, for there was more than enough game to sustain them, but the warriors were bored and longed to see their families. They went home.
On the way home, they heard that a river they had followed on the outbound trip had flooded, so altering the lay of the land that they would have to seek another way. They were forced to march through a great forest, and while that forest was by no means excessively dense, it would regularly fill with mist which, combined with its strange passageways and tangled corridors, made it challenging to navigate. Many times it was clear to them that they were not going the right direction and would have to change paths. The journey came very near to halting, when there was an incident involving Eternal-One's two sons, named Bright-Shell and Bright-Eye. When in the evenings camp was set up, these two would often go off on their own, for they were sturdy and alert for their age and their father trusted that they would not come to any harm. One evening they wandered into a small clearing, beckoned by the appearance of a bright specter that looked to be standing there lost in reverie. As they drew closer the specter disappeared. It was dark, the moon was not full. Bright-Shell fell into a hidden traphole, impaling his leg on a spike. His brother summoned warriors at once and they managed to rescue him and dress his wound, but a great deal of blood remained pooled at the bottom of the hole, which they surmised had been set up there by local hunters. After all were asleep in their tents, a figure of shadow appeared at the traphole and collected the pooled blood in a little flask. Having done so, the figure vanished into mist.
After a month of wandering in the forest, they made it out. A few weeks later, they were back in the Tengir's country. Eternal-One was disappointed that the journey had borne no fruits, but that did not stop him from regularly seeing dreams of the ancient city, and he knew that one day he would he would make another expedition to search for it. The leg of his son Bright-Shell healed fully, but a scar remained for the rest of time to come.