“Good idea. It would be very inconvenient if I suddenly returned to my normal size when I’m inside a city or something.”
“The explosion would be bad too.”
“Yeah, that would also be bad—wait, what explosion?”
“Oh, just the instantaneous release of your entire mass in the form of compressed magical energy.”
“I see. And, do these explosions happen often?” I asked, a feeling of dread settling into my stomach.
“No, of course not. Only one out of ten stones will explode. Truthfully, I’m curious how big the explosion would be. The last time a stone detonated, it destroyed some castle back on Rhan. Really pissed off the royal family, it did. Of course, yours is ten times bigger than that stone.” He patted my scales and smiled at me. “But worry not, I’m sure that won’t happen to your stone.”
Then why mention it? I sighed internally and began to wonder if I genuinely wanted the stone after all.
Chapter 4
"YOU DO KNOW THE GIRLS aren't going to want to leave you alone after so long apart, right?" Lena casually said whilst preparing her bag for the journey.
"What they want is, unfortunately for them, not what I'm concerned about at the moment," I somberly replied. We were approximately twenty miles from the town of Sheehan, and this would be the last town for a thousand miles where we could resupply. The girls had their own equipment to see to, and I’d be damned if I would be the reason they were using subpar equipment.
Lena finished pulling her bag strap tight, then looked up at me. "Whatever, but they’re not going to like this.”
I gave her a dry chuckle and my approximation of a shrug. “They’ll get over it. Besides, I’ll have my hands full dealing with Uriel.”
"Alright, I understand your point."
"I figured you would—"
"Yeah? Well, maybe you can explain it to me because I sure don’t understand." Ayla came out of nowhere and spoke in an annoyed tone. "Why is it that every time we get together, you always send us away?"
I turned my attention to her. “You know that isn't what's happening, Ayla."
"Do I? Wouldn’t be the first time you sent me away without caring about what I wanted.”
I narrowed my eyes at her. "Is that so?" I looked back at the rest of our group. "And do the rest of you think the same?" I looked at each of them individually and, to my surprise, most of them nodded in the affirmative with only Fenris replying negatively.
"You do what you do because it's what you believe to be best." He shrugged. "While most here have faith that you could protect them from just about anything, I know otherwise."
"You’re not helping, Dad," Hali muttered.
Fenris rolled his eyes and looked at his daughter. "Despite your opinion of the Fatass, Hali, the fact remains true that he isn't invincible. The fact is never truer than when he's around us... Isn't that right?" Fenris asked while meeting my eyes.
"Surprisingly, Mutt. In this instance, you are correct," I admitted.
Hali and Ayla spun their heads to stare at me. "Are... Are you saying we're a burden to you?" Ayla whispered.
"No, that’s not what I’m saying."
"Sure, sounds like it. Fine, if you want us to leave, then we'll go with Lena."
"But Ayla—,” Lena began.
"No," Ayla interrupted her. "Father has made his decision. Let's not argue with him about it."
"Ayla is right. Arguing with master is not the way to change his mind," Findral said quietly.
Hali looked between the two for a couple of seconds. “Fine,” she sighed. Hali and Ayla then split off from the group to prepare themselves for the journey.
"That could’ve gone better," Fenris muttered.
“Yeah,” I sighed. “What ever happened to the days when they would do as I said without throwing a fit about it?”
"Those ended the day they grew up and got engaged," Fenris snorted.
I shot Fenris a blank look and stared him down.
“What? I’m just saying you still see them as little girls, that’s all.”
"Are you trying to say you don't?" I asked.
Fenris smirked and turned his head in the direction the girls had left in. "Of course, I do. I probably always will see them as the little girls that used to beg me to race them around on my back," he admitted.
"When will the two of you get it through your heads that they aren't those little girls anymore?" Lena asked in an exasperated tone.
Fenris and I looked at each other, then back at her. "Never. Not in this lifetime," was our simultaneous response.
Lena groaned and cupped her head between her hands. “I truly pity those poor girls. With you two guard dogs around, they’ll never get married," she muttered, though said “guard dogs” heard her all the same.
"Hey, I resemble that remark," I chuckled.
"Eh, you've called me worse," Fenris mumbled, then he and Lena walked off to finish their preparations, leaving me alone with my thoughts.
I am sorry for my words, girls... But... I don't know what I would do if something happened to either of you. I internally sighed. I laid my head down and closed my eyes while I waited for Uriel to arrive so we could get started. Unbidden memories of the past rapidly appeared and disappeared until I eventually dozed off.
THE SOUND OF SOBBING echoed throughout a darkened inn. I followed the sound to a door across the hall from where I’d been sleeping. Lifting my hand, I tentatively knocked. “Ayla?”
The sobbing quieted down, though I could still hear the occasional sniffle through the door.
“Ayla, are you okay?” I asked quietly.
“Go away...” Her voice sounded raw, like she’d screamed it hoarse. “I’m fine; sorry for waking you.”
I pressed the button on the handle and pushed the door open. Ayla was lying on her side with her arms wrapped around her body and her knees pulled close. Her damp eyes reflected the light from the candle sitting on her end table as she stared at me. I found myself staring back. How could someone make something this pure, this innocent cry? What kind of monster did it take to cause this much grief in a little girl?
Not for the first time since coming to this world, I felt completely and utterly powerless.
I walked over and sat down beside her on the bed. “It’s okay to cry, Ayla,” I said quietly. “Everyone does.”
“You don’t.” She sucked in a breath, causing her snot filled nose to rattle.
“Of course, I do,” I told her quietly. “And for the same reasons you do.”
She was quiet for a while, but I didn’t mind. I just sat with her in the darkness. At some point, my hand had begun rubbing her back, much in the same way I’d done for my own daughters all those years ago.
“I miss her...” she cried. I didn’t need to hear the name to know who she was referring to.
MY EYES SNAPPED OPEN and I looked around to see if anyone was nearby. Once I was satisfied, I laid my head back down. Your safety will always come first, Ayla... So long as you and Sarah live, I'll do anything to protect you... even from the monster inside of me. I looked around at the dead plants surrounding me, and the darkness that was spreading out from me as I unconsciously sucked in ambient magic. And if that means I have to keep sending you away until I learn to control this? Then that's a sacrifice I'll gladly make time and time again.
Chapter 5
A FOUL ODOR FILLED my nose and I came to with a violent cough. I glared down at Uriel, who was even now puffing on his pipe. “How can you smoke that crap? It smells like an ogre’s ass.”
Uriel ignored the question in favor of smiling around his pipe. He pulled a large red stone; about the size of a grapefruit, out from beneath his robe and held it out for me to inspect.
"Have you decided where you want it?"
"I have."
"Then get comfortable, Master Torga. This is going to take a while."
"Of course, it is," I sighed. I laid my head back down and closed my eyes, while Uriel got
to work digging a large magic formation into the ground.
An hour or so later, I watched as Uriel finished carving a symbol into the ground around my head. Though there were no words involved in his making of the symbol, Uriel would often stop to mumble something to himself before continuing. After a while, I could no longer contain my curiosity. "What's the symbol mean?" I asked while looking at the various lines and curves. There were nine in total, with each line ending in a circle around my head.
"It represents the original nine worlds" was Uriel's distracted reply.
"What do you mean?"
"Well, if you believe the humans, the gods created the worlds for the various races to inhabit. " Uriel walked over to a circle on the top right of the symbol. "Niflheim, the world of ice and birthplace of dragons." He drew an upside-down triangle in this circle. He moved to the opposite side and pointed at the circle opposite of Niflheim. "Muspelheim, the world of fire and birthplace of the giants." He drew a square here, then moved to the next circle down. "Alfheim, the birthplace of the elves." He drew a small swirl inside the circle. Again, he moved to its exact opposite. "Svartalfheim, birthplace of the dwarves." Here, he drew a diamond. He moved down to the next circle and drew a leaf inside it. "Jotunheim, birthplace of the Titans." He moved to the next circle and drew two straight vertical lines. "Midgard, the birthplace of the humans." Then he walked to the three circles in front of Torga's head and drew from left to right: two horizontal swivels that looked like a river, a sideways eight, and three interconnected circles inside the remaining one. "Helheim, the final resting place of the dead," he said, motioning to the one on the left. "Vanaheim, the first world of magic." He motioned to the one on the right. And finally, he pressed his cane into the ground in front of the last circle and looked into Torga's eyes. "Asgard, The home of the gods."
"And, just how accurate is this?" I asked.
Uriel shrugged and started moving again. "No idea. These legends are so old, I don't think anyone actually knows the truth."
My eyes glazed over for several seconds as I thought about my few interactions with a “god” and I began to believe in the story, if only slightly. "You said this is what the humans believe, right?"
Uriel just nodded as he walked over to his bag and started rifling through it for something.
"What do the elves believe?"
At my words, Uriel paused and looked up. "We don't believe the gods created the worlds at all." He reached into his bag and pulled out a five-centimeter-long, by two-centimeter-wide metal stake and walked over to Torga.
"We believe that the lady—the being you know as Yggdrasil—is the first and it birthed the gods to be its caretakers. They, in turn, created the gods we know today for much the same reason."
I wanted to ask more questions, but Uriel silenced me with a shake of his head. "The time for talking is over. We must begin or we won’t finish before sunrise," he said while indicating the moon above.
"Very well, proceed."
"I will and I apologize in advance, Torga."
"For what—AGHH!!"
Uriel had waited for the moment I opened my mouth to stab the stake as far as he could into the bottom of my jaw. The stake pierced in between two scales and then extended to dig itself even deeper into my hide. With every second that passed, the stake wormed its way deeper until it reached my jawbone. Only then did it stop and begin to return to its normal size. Uriel yanked the stake out and began to clean it off while he inspected his work. "You know, Torga, I'm impressed you managed to stay conscious through that."
Though I was still in a lot of pain from having the jewel inserted, I managed a glare at him. "Don't underestimate the willpower of a guy who willingly jumped into lava, Uriel."
He nodded his head in agreement. "Fair point. Even so, I’m surprised you didn’t ask for the anesthetic." Uriel walked back over to his bag and began to put everything back into its place, then he turned back to me.
“There was an anesthetic?” I hissed.
"Yep.” He pulled a pen-sized cylinder out of his bag and walked over to me. “You should get some sleep. The jewel has to sync itself with your magic before it'll be of any use to you."
Before I could react, Uriel slammed the cylinder into the spot where the jewel was located, and I immediately felt like someone had dunked my head into a bucket of ice water. However, by the time Uriel pulled the cylinder out of the wound my eyelids felt like they were fifty times heavier than they were a minute ago. Before I knew it, my eyes were closed, and I was fast asleep.
"HEY, FATASS, WAKE UP," Fenris shouted into my ear.
I peeked through cracked eyelids at the sound and glared at Fenris. "Must you always be so loud, Mutt?" I grumbled as I lifted my head off the ground and looked around. I counted off each of his friends as they entered the clearing, but... Someone was missing. Actually, a lot of people were missing as the trader’s caravan was also gone, but I couldn’t see Ayla, Findral, or Hali anywhere.
"Hey, Mutt, where's—"
"Damn Fatass, I knew you must've been hungry, but did you have to eat so much of the forest!?" Fenris yelled while staring with his mouth agape at the several miles of forest that'd been turned into a wasteland. The trees were gone, large swaths of grass were missing, and even the nearby stream had disappeared.
"You should've returned sooner, then!" I barked. However, my anger at Fenris' question soon evaporated as I once again tried to find the trio.
"Hey, Lena? Where's A—" Again I was interrupted, this time by Talia and Solon running up to Fenris.
"Hi, Torga!" little Talia squeaked. Her long black hair bounced as she ran into my side and proceeded to hug me where she could. “Did Uriel finish helping you?” she asked.
Unlike Hali and her mother, Talia was told around her eighth birthday that she just didn't have the magical power to become a full druid. Because of this, instead of being trained by her mother, she was trained by Fenris in the ways of martial combat. And by the gods was she ever good at it. She was blessed with the thin body of an elf, the strength and speed of a beast-man, and the instincts of a Warg. Once Talia matured a little bit, she would be a force to be reckoned with.
“Yes, he did.” I couldn’t help but chuckle at her exuberance.
“Sorry, Torga. She slipped away from me," Solon said by way of apology. He took Talia by the hand and led her off.
Deciding to look around for any other interruptions, I raised my head and glanced around at everyone. Lena, Solon, Talia, Uriel, Fenris, and Lena's chosen elf bodyguards were all I could see.
"Lena, where are the girls?"
Lena, who'd been in a rather animated chat with her daughter, froze at the sound of my voice. "Who?" She asked without turning to look at me.
I narrowed my eyes into thin slits as a low hiss began at the back of my throat. "Let me rephrase the question. Where. are. Ayla, Findral, and Hali?"
Lena slowly turned around and nervously chuckled at my question. "I'm sure they’re around here somewhere," she finished lamely.
After staring at her for several seconds and getting nowhere, I decided to change targets.
"Fenris?"
Despite the rather obvious glare his wife was giving him, Fenris answered Torga immediately.
“They went on ahead to Asgard."
"Alone?"
Fenris snorted. “Don’t give me that look. I didn’t know they were leaving either.”
"Ah. Well, then. Thank you for telling me."
"Yeah, Yeah. No need to get all 'nice' on me. I just didn't want to hear you whining that 'your little girl could be in danger,' for the next three days." Fenris smirked up at me.
"Your little girl's out there too, you know?" I sneered.
That wiped the smirk off his face.
"Don't remind me," Fenris growled.
I turned my attention back to Lena, who was staring holes through the side of Fenris’ head. "Why didn't you tell me about this?" I asked her.
"Because..." Lena paused as
she collected her thoughts. "Because no matter what you think, or how you feel about the matter, Ayla is an adult now, Torga. If you're there to solve all of her problems or make all of her decisions for her, then she'll never grow up."
"I see..."
Lena breathed out a sigh of relief. "So, you'll let her do this on her own?" she asked with a smile... that very quickly turned to fear as her eyes met mine. Lena had been looking at everything but my eyes while she explained herself, so she never noticed the atmosphere around her change.
"I see,.." I repeated. "You believed yourself to be right, so instead of simply telling me the truth and trusting that I was mature enough to let MY daughter make her own mistakes, you chose to hide it from me. What else have you hidden from me; I wonder?" I whispered just loud enough for her to hear.
"N... Nothing."
"The funny thing is... I don't believe you. I've known for years that you've kept things from me, and I accepted that because I was sure that it was your business and your business alone. However, do not believe that just because we are friends, I won't destroy you if it means protecting those girls. Am I being clear enough for you?" I hissed.
Lena shakily nodded her head. "C—Crystal."
Fenris placed himself between Lena and me. "I'll forgive you because of the circumstances,” he snarled. “But don't you EVER threaten my wife again!"
“You’re also my friend, Fenris. So, I’ll extend this courtesy to you. If you—if either of you—do something that leads to any of those girls getting hurt, I’m holding the two of you personally responsible.” I stared down at them. “Now, help me find our daughters before I lose my temper and do something I’ll regret.”
Interlude: Ayla’s Choice & Findral’s Duty
HOURS AFTER PULLING their disappearing act, Ayla, Findral, and Hali landed in a small clearing outside the village of Millhall, approximately seven hundred miles east of the rest of their group. The reason they were able to cross such a vast distance in such a short amount of time was solely due to Findral’s ability to fly while carrying them. This was no easy feat, however, and Findral was currently lying on the ground, panting from exhaustion and unable to move.
A Snake's Path (A Snake's Life Book 2) Page 4
