by David Oliver
Mosquitos.
So many mosquitos.
Seya and Borza sat comfortably as we slapped, scratched and cursed our way through a bleak breakfast where we doubtless ingested as many mosquitos as we did our food. Clouds of them swept the swamp, hunting down any warm-blooded creature that dared rise its head above the surface. I quickly began to believe that the predators in the waters below were nocturnal by choice in order to avoid the incessant swarms.
The climb through the swamp continued to be unpleasant, but moving was far better than being a stationary target for the bloodsuckers and so we attacked it with aplomb, sprinting through the boughs at a pace that belittled the previous day’s endeavours. As we forged further into the swamp trees began to be replaced by metal wonders, albeit wonders covered in thick layers of vines and mud. Some had wheels, some had legs, some big, some gigantic; the only things they had in common was that they were all made of metal and thankfully non-moving - I had far too many dark thoughts of friends of Ash’s scorpion defender hunting us through the swamp and a glance at Cassius’s worried face showed he was thinking the same.
Fortunately none of the metal machines woke up and we were soon just as comfortable using them as methods of transportation as we were with the trees, just replacing the creak of boughs with the groan of metal.
Some half day after we began we encountered our first sight of civilization. Wooden platforms began to adorn the trees and swamp waters below. To describe them as ‘tree-houses’ in the same context as children within the empire play with would be doing the Sunfa clan an injustice. The further we went into their territory the more it became clear that it was an expansive construction that spread over a large area. Walkways attached each platform, removing the need to travel through the trees themselves. The largest platforms surrounded the giant metal constructs that towered out of the centre of the swamp, some of the central constructs hosting multiple levels until they rivalled some of the towers in Anderal and dwarfed those in Forgoth. Seya and Borza held back, drifting into the shadow of the swamp whilst Anatha led the way confidently forwards, hopping onto one of the walkways and strolling along the swaying platforms as though she had every right to be there. Cassius and I followed behind, ignoring the growing group of people who gathered around us; the majority of them looking lean but with the wiry muscles gained from hard living. Anatha walked to the largest platform, the base of the tallest tower in the central ring where hundreds of Sunfa had gathered to greet us with an excited murmur.
Anatha strode forward and stood in the middle of the platform with an imperious look on her face. With sharp, guttural sounds she spoke to the crowd and looked satisfied when a voluptuous woman strode forward. A short, expressive conversation began that neither Cassius or I could understand that was punctuated with what sounded like argumentative tones, but each woman’s eyes held nothing but intense satisfaction at what was presumably a very intriguing conversation. Some five minutes of intense conversation later the two women nodded and with a gesture from the Sunfa leader we were guided to a nearby building that contained a number of bunks.
“So…” Cassius said slowly, looking outside at the crowd of Sunfa who were seemingly having great fun watching us, “what happened there?”
“Erin’ea is a feisty conversationalist,” Anatha said from the nearby bunk. “The Sunfa love a good debate. They don’t get many visitors but thoroughly enjoy talking with those they do receive. Unfortunately much of the body language comes across as hostile and combined with there being probably five people in the world, myself included, who speak their language, anyone who somehow stumbles in here might get the impression that they are an angry and inhospitable tribe. As it is they are generally most abiding and in this instance will give us a vibrating cube.”
“Excellent!” said Cassius with an exultant grin. “I’m glad that you’re with us Anatha. Attempting to do this without you would have been-”
“-impossible,” she cut in. “Another reason why I was asked to join you.”
I studied the old woman closely. After a moment she noticed my regard and cocked an eye. “Yes?”
“What’s the catch?”
She gave a craggy smile. “Nothing much. You just have to hunt the Sunfa’shak.”
Cassius’s laughing face turned to stone. “The what?”
She coughed. “Loosely translated, Sunfa’s bane.”
The old woman didn’t even have the decency to look abashed.
“And what precisely is Sunfa’s bane?” I asked through gritted teeth.
“I’m glad you asked, Calidan,” she replied, a wide smile on her face. “As far as I can tell, the bane of the Sunfa clan is an eel.”
“An eel?” replied Cassius dubiously.
“An eel big enough to swallow a full-grown man whole and has apparently taken a particular interest in human flesh. Apparently it likes to lurk around the waterside walkways and attempt to knock people off the pontoons. Most of the immediate waterways are heavily staked to prevent creatures getting through but as you know, eels are slippery. The Sunfa have attempted to hunt it themselves but so far they haven’t had any luck. And for reference, the title of Sunfa’shak is awarded for any creature that has killed more than five members of the clan. As you might have guessed and considering the denizens of the swamp that we have seen so far, that title has been awarded to creatures on numerous occasions. Apparently humans can be quite a tasty treat in these parts.”
I sat down on the bunk. “An eel?” I said weakly, thinking of falling into those dark waters. “That doesn’t exactly sound like something we have trained for...you couldn’t have bargained for the cube?”
Anatha gave me a look of blistering scorn. “Do you see much in the way of gold or trade around here? If I offered the Sunfa gold they would look at me with questioning eyes and probably throw it in the swamp - it has no value here as it is of no practical use. The cube is one of their key treasures; as you know they have a burning fascination with all things from before the Cataclysm. As such the trade offer had to be of an item that had equal value - hunting and killing a threat to their tribe was one of the few options available that could be done in a quick time frame. So deal with it.”
I tried to ease my frown; she spoke an annoying amount of sense.
“Okay,” Cassius breathed to himself. “So we have to kill an eel. Won’t be the first big and scary creature we’ve had to kill eh Calidan?”
“And it will definitely not be your last,” smirked Anatha. “This isn’t one that you can go in on relying on brute force, you’re going to need to understand your foe and use skill to kill it...or else you’ll find yourselves the prey.”
Sitting down heavily on a near bunk I let out a long, slow groan whilst pressing my temples with my fingers. “It’s never easy is it? ‘Go into a spider cave’, ‘meet some trolls’, ‘fight a skyren’, ‘kill an eel’. Just once it would be nice to have a fight against something we have trained for,” I complained.
“It’s a rare day that a Great Heart bonded gets sent for a ‘normal’ mission,” Anatha replied drily. “Not that many missions that Imperators are involved in can be considered normal. Monster hunting is a key consideration when you have your own monster to assist, so you might want to get used to it.”
“Fun times,” I answered.
She ignored my sarcasm. “And you have been training against myself and Borza for the last few months so don’t act like you have no experience fighting dangerous creatures.”
Point to her.
“Fair enough,” I replied finally. “Any advice on fighting an eel?”
“Don’t fight it,” she retorted. “You’re thinking about this like it is going to be a battle. It is most likely not a Great Heart so it isn’t going to be particularly intelligent. Hunt and trap it. Force it into an area of your choosing rather than the other way round.”
Cassius nodded knowingly at her words. “She’s right Calidan,” he said. “If we can get it somewhere small a
nd difficult for it to manoeuvre then Asp should be able to take care of it with a clean hit. We just have to herd it somewhere.”
“You both make it sound so simple,” I muttered, laying back on the cot and closing my eyes. “We just need to herd a swamp dwelling eel, a creature that is known for being incredibly wiggly and hard to catch at the best of times, to somewhere slightly less swampy...whilst being in the centre of a swamp.”
“Who said anything about it being any less swampy?” Anatha retorted. “We’re in a swamp, that’s going to be hard to do. Why not just trap it? Use the Sunfa to help you build stakes and traps, get them to lower them down around the eel or get it to go into a cage. Cassius only said he needed a clean shot. If it is trapped in a cage half submerged in a swamp then I’m sure that what he can conjure with Asp can do the job. Isn’t that right boy?”
Cassius nodded. “I’m certain that Asp will cut through the cage, water and occupant. If we can get it to that stage then the job will be done.”
I miss Cassius being that confident. To be fair, I miss Cassius being anything other than completely insane. I couldn’t help it though, his stalwart belief in himself and his ability to complete any task put in front of him was infectious. Suddenly fighting a killer eel in its own territory didn’t seem quite so bad.
“Will the Sunfa help us do you think?” I asked, directing my question at Anatha.
“Of course. They want this creature removed and will support any decent idea as to how to do it. The actual killing of it is down to you though.”
“And will you help?” I asked again, raising an eyebrow at the ancient Imperator.
“If it looks like you will die then I might step in. Emphasis on the might. This is your mission.”
“The Academy trains us to use all tools at our disposal,” I quipped, a small smile on my face, “I like to think that in this instance you’re a tool,” I placed heavy emphasis on the last word.
She stared at me for a long moment and I began to wonder if I had gone too far then a gleeful cackle began to shake her frame. “Best one yet boy, well done!” She gave another chuckle and shook her head in amusement. “The reason I am here is foremost to help this mission succeed, the secondary reason is to oversee your bond with Seya and how you work together. I will not step in unless there is mortal danger, but if it does look like one of you is going to die then I will do my best to stop that from happening. Happy?”
Better than the fourth-year exam then, I mused before nodding. “Happy.”
“Good, then get your planning hats on and figure out the best way to do this.”
✽✽✽
On the eve of the third day since we met the Sunfa tribe I found myself perched in a low-slung tree holding a long piece of rope that dangled into the water. Cassius and Anatha were nearby and both Seya and Borza were still maintaining their distance from the Sunfa but positioned as close as they dared without being seen in order to assist if needed. We were located within the Sunfa central area and so within the series of stakes and walls that the Sunfa had arrayed to protect their town as much as possible. The hope was that if the eel was inside the area then it would be the one to come to investigate the bloody slab of meat that was attached to the rope, rather than a whole host of other swamp denizens if we were to do this further out. We had built a cage with the help of the Sunfa and reinforced it with as much wood and vine as they could spare. It was big enough for Cassius and I to lie side by side in and so we hoped it would be large enough for the eel to enter. Once it did then Anatha would drop the rear gate and Cassius would unleash Asp upon the inhabitant.
Fool proof. Obviously.
Three hours of holding that rope; anticipation slowly giving way to boredom. Some fish came to investigate but nothing larger than a carp. Once I thought I sensed something larger moving towards the cage but it must have decided against investigating further. Either the Sunfa’shak had moved on or it wasn’t interested in what we had to offer.
Or… I grabbed my knife; it isn’t interested in what’s on the menu. With a quick cut I sliced the meat of my forearm and let a small stream of blood trickle into the swamp water below. Barely a minute later I sensed something fighting its way through some thick rushes in the distance and not long after that the cage shook violently as something long and sinuous churned the swamp water. Instantly Anatha dropped the rear wall and Cassius unsheathed Asp. With intense focus on his face he raised the blade high and a shimmer of energy gathered around the razor-sharp edge. With a bark of effort he cut downwards and the air shattered as energy sheared out from Asp, slicing through the air at blinding speed and dissecting the cage in two. Frantic thrashing grew more frenzied as a pool of blood spilled out into the surrounding water and then the murky liquid stilled.
Shouts of joy, celebration and awe began to erupt from the onlooking Sunfa. They had told Anatha of how they had tried to hunt the eel with bow and spear but the scaled creature had shrugged off the majority of the blows they had landed. To see Cassius sever it in two with one blow must have been mighty indeed.
Cassius swung down lightly and perched on the broken cage. He stared intently into the water for a long moment before stabbing down with an impassioned thrust.
“It’s dead,” he voiced calmly, flicking the blood and water off Asp and sheathing it. The Sunfa cheered even more loudly, exuberant in Cassius’s victory. Even Anatha allowed herself a small smile at a job well done.
I was moving before I even knew I had sensed it. I’m not sure what gave it away; a current that seemed out of place or the brush of a reed on the water’s edge, but one second I was basking in a job well done and the next I was airborne.
It turned out that the Sunfa’shak was either a cannier predator than we had imagined or it was actually more than one creature. If so then the beast that Cassius had killed was probably half the size of the one that followed. It had closed in quietly, biding its time - or maybe it had always been there, who knew? The last ripple of movement gave it away as it propelled itself out of the water, its serpentine bulk winnowing through the air in a twisting torsion of coiled power. Its jaws hung wide in that creepy manner that eels can do and I had no doubt that it could easily swallow me whole. Perhaps that would have been more pleasant than what followed, for as my desperate tackle knocked Cassius off the cage and sent him sprawling into the water the gaping maw closed around my side and in an instant I was gone.
Chapter 31
Sunfa’shak
The world rushed past in a horror of blinding water, mud and brief, desperate clutches of air. Jaws clamped like steel around my belly and hip; teeth grinding against bone. I could taste blood in my mouth and by the furious vigour of the creature that carried me, it could too. I tried to reach for a knife, any knife, but my right arm was pinned against my torso inside its mouth whilst my left arm flailed uselessly outside. Rocks, branches and who knows what else battered every part of me that was outside the eel’s mouth as it threaded its way into the swamp. Calls of horror and dismay came to me in drops of sounds in those brief moments where my head was above water. I tried to scream but the pain and fear rendered me incapable.
After a few eternal moments my brain switched from blind panic into pure survival. It recognised that I wasn’t immediately dead and decided that it wanted to keep me that way. I began fighting back, hitting with my free hand where I could but unable to cause much damage. I managed to reach into my boot and grab my spare knife but lost it when my shoulder collided with something hard enough to drive all of the air out of my lungs. Out of weapons, I turned back to striking the creature but it was only when I shattered a tooth and began using it to stab into the surrounding soft tissue that I noticed any semblance of pain in the beast, and that was when it decided to get nasty.
Something I did not know about eels. Certain ones have two types of jaw. The outer jaw holds its prey and once it is secure the second jaw comes forwards and drags the prey into the depths of its belly. Not knowing this at the time, feeli
ng something else rip into my arm from inside the eel was beyond terrifying. Thankfully I had enough of my body outside of its mouth to avoid being dragged into its stomach and continued delivering micro cuts that did nothing but piss it off.
My foot hit a patch of solid ground and suddenly I had purchase! Instinctively drawing on Seya’s power I bucked my hips and heaved. The eel found itself raised out of the water and slammed onto the tree root that my foot had found. I had hoped it would take the hint and let go, but the eel was nothing if not tenacious and its mouth didn’t remotely budge. It bundled up its coils and hit forwards like a piston, upending my footing and driving me into the mud and water.
I fought and fought and fought, but its writhing coils trapped my legs and stopped me from getting purchase again. As my vision began to darken an earth-shattering roar split the night and I found myself raised out of the water by the eel’s teeth as Seya bit down on its neck, crunching through flesh and bone with ease. I could feel her fury in the vibrations that carried through the creature’s body and thrummed through mine. With a savage crunch her teeth tore through the back of its neck and the eel’s thrashing began to still. A moment later two simian hands grasped either side of its jaw and almost effortlessly the eel’s jaws were forced apart, wider and wider until the top jaw sheared off entirely in a gout of blood and gore.
The last thing I remember was looking into the horrific visage of Anatha’s craggy face and then everything went black.
✽✽✽
I awoke to the sound of celebration. It is a pleasant thing to be awoken by people having a combined good time. Not just a bunch of drunks in the early hours of the morning - that is nothing but an annoyance - but waking up to a tribe wide party? Not bad.
Not that I could take part in it mind. I was bandaged almost head to foot and judging from the tender feeling in my shoulder, chest, hip and upper thigh, my wounds were still very much healing. Seya sat in the corner of the room with her eyes shut and body still. I could feel the power she was forcing through the bond between us; sending my body’s natural repair methods into overdrive.
