The Dragon Gem (Korin's Journal)

by Brian Beam

  As I stood there, stunned, Max reached me on Telis. He stared off into the distance with me for a while. I steadied myself against Telis and turned to Max. “Did that just happen?” I asked rhetorically. Max nodded his head silently, his unblinking eyes watching the dragon disappear over the rise of the closet mountain.

  My heart felt like it had dropped into my stomach. Sure I had over a week and a half left on my Activated Contract, but that dragon could have been flying back to the Snowy Waste for all I knew. Even if it wasn’t, it was a damn dragon. How was I supposed to get the Kolarin back from it? What if it ate the Kolarin, gem and all?

  “Now what?” The question needed to be voiced, though I knew that there was only one answer.

  “Follow the dragon,” Max answered obligatorily. After a shake of his head and some gnawing at an itch at his side, he finally looked over at me. “I only know one thing for sure.”

  “What’s that?” I asked hopefully.

  “You look ridiculous in that shirt.”

  I couldn’t help but laugh, even with my chances of getting the gem seeming just a hopeless dream. “Thank you, Mister Bluntness.” I hopped up into the saddle behind Max and set Telis into a trot towards the mountains.

  So now a dragon had Kolarinapped the Kolarin named Til’ who had stolen the red gem from me that I had stolen from Brennor who had stolen it from Galius. Fancy that.

  Chapter 7

  Enter The Eldrhims

  It’s funny how things can go from bad, to worse, to catastrophic, to…well, you get the idea. I was currently still at the worse part and not quite to the catastrophe. We’ll get to that point. I just find it interesting how deep into a hole you can go without quite hitting bottom.

  In the time before my life reached that catastrophic level and beyond, Max and I made our way to the Sanderon Mountains. Lunch was eaten in the saddle and we arrived at the base of the forested peaks before evening. Even though I was beginning to view our mission as hopeless, Max seemed to be convinced that everything would somehow work out.

  “We will find that dragon, Korin. I find it unlikely that it was on its way to the Glacial Mountains.” Max sat in front of me in the saddle, staring straight ahead at the line of trees we were about to enter. His ears twitched at the flies buzzing around us.

  I had to respect his confidence, but there was no way I could agree. At that moment, I just wanted to enjoy the scenery of the forested mountains. What I said before about stopping to enjoy the beauty of the world goes double for when it could be one of your last chances to do so.

  “Thanks for trying to make me feel better, but I know when I’m beat.” Max turned to look at me severely. “Hey, I’m not saying that I’m giving up, furball. I’m just saying that I don’t need your assurances right now.” I gave him a smile, a real smile even. For some reason, I really didn’t feel all that bad about everything. I didn’t believe that I would get the gem and everything would work out, but for some reason I didn’t fear the alternative. Maybe I had just moved from denial to acceptance.

  Max’s eyes narrowed. “Well how about I have a gut feeling that your life is destined for more than being Galius’ personal servant.” With that, he curled up and fell asleep.

  “Destined,” he said. If nothing else, I in no way believe in destiny. You could try and convince me all day that there is a master plan, but I refuse to believe that people have no choice in how their life turns out. I don’t view life as one long river that takes us from point A to point B. What of all the branching rivers and streams that lead to completely different places? Scratch that analogy. Max would just argue that they all lead to the same ocean eventually. The point is that I feel people are able to choose their own path without ending at a predetermined destination.

  While pondering about the concept of destiny, I pushed back my cloak hood and led Telis up the steep, wooded slope. I could have kept Telis to more level ground going around the mountain, but at that moment, unlike with destiny, I did believe in a strict point A to point B policy. I knew exactly the direction the dragon had gone and I was going to follow its path exactly to the best of my ability. Some weaving adjustments had to be made when the terrain was too steep for horse travel, but otherwise point A to point B.

  The forested slopes of the Sanderon Mountains were not nearly as densely wooded as the forest Menar had been stationed in with oaks, cedars, and pines of a much more reasonable size. The sun actually pierced the treetops, providing at least some warmth and glowing light.

  Max must have been in dire need to catch up on sleep because I allowed Telis to rest three separate times before dinner—dismounting to feed and water the horse each time—with barely a twitch from Max. It gave me plenty of time to think about all the unanswered questions I had about my past, Max’s past, and if Menar was some kind of link between the two.

  Daylight was starting to dim by the time I finally decided to rouse Max to eat. A sleepy Max is slightly less moody than a hungry Max. After meting out some of our food, we started back up the slope.

  As Max gnawed on yet another dried meat strip, I asked, “Max, I know you said I wasn’t ready to know about the whole Menar situation, but in what way am I not ready?” I figured it was a fair question. Max had been vague about the whole thing, relying on me to simply trust his word. I did in a way, but I wasn’t happy about being kept in the dark even if it was for good reason.

  Max was silent long enough for me to think that maybe he wasn’t going to acknowledge that I had even spoke, but he finally looked back at me. “I don’t know the best way to answer that without instead raising more questions, Korin. To put it as simply as possible, if I told you, you would definitely do something stupid enough to get yourself killed long before you ever found your parents.”

  “I guess that’s a good enough reason,” I stated in acceptance. “I just keep thinking that you know something of my past that would make things easier on me.” I was trying to throw some guilt at him. As always, it just bounced off.

  “There’s no such thing as easy, lunkhead. I thought you had figured that out by now. Just trust me. I have never led you astray and I want nothing more than to help you find your parents. Well, maybe some salmon. Hey, didn’t you promise me some salmon yesterday for when this was all over? Since you claim there’s no hope, then isn’t everything over? Where’s my fish?” Max looked up at me sternly.

  I shook my head with a chuckle. “You’re impossible.”

  “Not impossible, just unlikely. I mean, being a talking cat and using magic is near impossible, but here I am.” His smarmy look held the truest cat-like expression I had seen on him in a while.

  It was time to up the guilt factor. “Look, I thought that maybe I deserved a little more than what you’re telling me given that I’ve taken care of you all these years.” Max arched what would be an eyebrow on a human. He did have a point there. “Okay, maybe it’s the other way around, but I’ve always treated you well.” His “eyebrow” remained arched. “Okay, okay. I’ve been with you through a lot. I just figure you can trust me to be mature enough to be let in on some of your precious knowledge.”

  Max sighed. “Listen Korin, I just cannot. Even if I told you everything, nothing would change. Menar would be after us either way. Plus, if I told you and you realized there was nothing more that I could do to help you, I don’t know if I could handle it.” Whether he couldn’t handle the shot to his pride or couldn’t handle the fact that he’d feel like he was letting me down, he didn’t specify. I let the matter drop.

  I gave him a warm smile. “Well, I guess I can hold on to a little hope so that maybe I can get out of spending money on that tasteless fish you like so much.”

  Max couldn’t even stammer out a smart-aleck response at that. He just stuttered a little and ended with, “You really are an ass sometimes. A real ass.”

  We fell into another silence. I still didn’t know how I felt about him keeping so many secrets, but I wasn’t going to be able to dig them out of h
im yet. I told myself I’d find a way, though.

  After finishing our food in silence, I pulled my oil lantern from the saddlebags as the forest continued to darken. After lighting it, we were surrounded by an orange glow that made me feel that we were somehow separate from the sloping mountain in our own little world trapped inside another world of near darkness.

  Suddenly, from in that other world, an ear-splitting screech that seemed to start and stop in a strange cadence, echoed from somewhere off to the side of our bubble of light. The suddenness of the sound almost made me fall sideways off my saddle. Telis pulled to a halt and whinnied, rearing up on his hind legs. The noise was a strange amalgamation of a wolf howl, hawk screech, and bear roar. Nothing in my wildest imagination could make that sound. After hearing the dragon roar that morning, I was pretty sure that it didn’t come from any dragon. Similar yet distinct sounds echoed from in front and behind us. Whatever had first made the noise had buddies.

  Now, I’m usually not one to jump at noises in the night, but first of all, the high-pitched staccato screeching could not have been made by anything good. Not by anything natural for that matter. Secondly, the noise also just about scared the life out of Telis. Thirdly, the noise had put Max on alert. Max had leapt to all fours, back arched and tail rigid, his fur sticking out all over giving the illusion of doubling his size. His ears were flattened and he seemed to be trying to look everywhere around us at once with jerky turns of his head. A low growl escaped his throat.

  My heart was in my throat and my stomach burned. Those echoing shrieks were downright chilling. If I had to describe the sounds in a word, it’d be “evil”. “Max, what’s going on?”

  Max had not let down his guard. “We have to get out of here, but there is nowhere to go. We cannot take on three of them.” I wasn’t sure if Max was talking to me or himself.

  “Come on Max, throw me a bone here. What can’t we take on?” Maybe I didn’t want to know what a wizard cat could find that frightening. I was pretty sure he wouldn’t be scared of your standard everyday forest creatures.

  Finally, Max acknowledged me, but he constantly scanned the area around us without looking directly at me. “Korin, you will listen to me and do exactly as I say. We are about to be in some trouble here. I am the only one here who knows what we are about to be dealing with, so follow my orders or we may not live through the next few minutes.”

  “And what are we dealing with?” I questioned, dreading the answer.

  “Eldrhims.” He kept it as simple as that. His lack of some kind of wisecrack meant he was dead serious.

  Although Max had never been a liar per se, my mind had trouble believing him. My quickened pulse and the blood draining from my face said that my body and heart did, though. “Eldrhims?” I added skepticism to my voice to mask my fear. After the dragon fiasco, I had some pride to maintain even if that incident hadn’t been witnessed.

  Max’s eyes did flash up to meet mine this time with as severe a gaze as I had ever seen from him. “Yes, eldrhims. As in servants of Rizear summoned with magic into this world. As in dark, black-hearted, evil, super-powered monsters of Rizear’s domain in the afterlife.” He resumed his surveying of the blackness around us. The screeching increased in volume as whatever made the sounds drew closer.

  Before I had seen the dragon earlier in the day I had never known true fear. Before Max’s talk of eldrhims, I had never known that what I had thought was true fear was nothing compared to what I felt at that moment. Chasus would have been disappointed by the fact that I was frozen in place and unable to even think enough to move. He always said idleness led to death. At that moment, though, all my energy went towards trying to wrap my head around the concept of the existence of the fabled creatures out in the night and simply trying not to faint.

  Eldrhims are nightmarish creatures used in stories to keep impish kids in line with the threat of the minions of Rizear, the god of death, coming to get them if they didn’t behave. According to the stories I heard as a child, supposedly no two eldrhims look alike. Allegedly, each is a separate tortured soul who had lived a life of evil before being taken into Rizear’s grasp. What sins they had committed in life determined what form their eldrhim body took. I didn’t believe in all that, but those stories were all I knew about eldrhims.

  Maybe Max was wrong. He couldn’t know for sure that the sounds had come from eldrhims. Surely if he had seen an eldrhim before or had even heard one’s screech, he would have told me about it. Then again, there were a lot of things he hadn’t told me.

  My mind swam with questions to ask Max while also trying to convince itself that since I didn’t believe in Rizear, I couldn’t believe in eldrhims either. I wanted to ask Max what we were going to do, but “I thought you weren’t religious,” were the only words I could get out as I mirrored Max’s frantic search of the surrounding forest. His cat eyes were much better than mine in seeing in near-darkness, but I still tried to see beyond our circle of light. My sword had ended up in my hand, though I didn’t remember drawing it.

  “I did not say I believed they were Rizear’s servants. Now shh,” Max commanded. “They are close and coming on all sides but this one.” He gestured his head to our right. “Blow out the lantern. When I say so, we are going to go as fast as we can that way. I think I can hold them off if we keep them behind us. Our only hope is to keep much distance as we can between us and them until sunrise. Once the sun rises they will be banished back to where they came from.”

  “Telis can’t keep up a pace like that all night. He’ll die,” I argued.

  “I know,” Max shot back angrily. “We have to do what we have to do.” The thought of losing Telis after all our time together was a dagger to my heart. I was about to argue when Max screamed, “Go!”

  My fear took over and I sent Telis into as fast a gallop as he could go, accidentally dropping the lantern at the lurch of his momentum. The lantern flame went out behind me, plunging us into darkness.

  Sure, running seemed like a good plan, but without being able to see ahead of us, luck would truly need to be on our side for Telis to not break a leg or run into a tree. I figured we had probably already used up whatever luck we had not having to run up the mountain to get away. We actually had to run at an angle partially downslope.

  I hoped Max appreciated that I trusted him enough to run from what I would have called nothing more than a myth only minutes prior based solely on his word. If we lived, maybe it would even be enough for him to be a little more sharing with his guarded knowledge.

  Holding the reins in one hand and my sword in the other, I pushed Telis blindly through the night. Telis handled the craggy ground with surprising ease. I struggled to remain in the saddle with my one-handed grip on the reins as the tree branches smacked me in the face, fraying my nerves. I couldn’t see Max, but I could feel him pressed against my legs.

  The next thing I knew, my chest slammed into a low branch and I lost my grip on the reins, tumbling over Telis’ rump and landing head first on the forest floor. I recovered quickly—silently giving thanks that I didn’t land on a rock or end up impaled on my shortsword—and starting running to catch up with Telis who was still galloping off into the night.

  Even my fear was not enough of a motivator to catch me up to the charging horse. The muscles in my legs cramped. My throat was dry. Sweat poured down my forehead, stinging as it entered my eyes and ran over the multiple scratches on my face from the ride through the tree branches. My lungs were aflame. My heart seemed to pump lye through my body as it tried to beat its way out of my chest.

  “Max,” I screamed to no benefit. Even a wizard cat would have trouble controlling a spooked horse. To top it all off, not only were the screeching howls getting closer, but I could hear shuffling movements and a strange grunting behind me.

  Given that my life was on the line once again and that I obviously couldn’t outrun whatever was behind me, I stopped, turned, and raised my sword before me. I wasn’t about to let some el
drhim kill me with my back turned. That would just be plain embarrassing.

  The shuffling turned to distinct sounds of feet, or whatever eldrhims have, crunching through leaves. The sound of heavy breathing seemed close as if the creature was within arm’s reach even if I couldn’t see it in the small area that I could make out around me. There was an almost deafening screech as I tensed to attack my unseen foe. Everything that happened next only took a second, if that much, but it felt like an eternity.

  From behind me came a whooshing sound along with an uncomfortable warmth like a fire bursting into existence. Sure enough, a ball of fire streaked mere inches from my head to the area in front of me. The illumination from the fire gave me a split-second glance at the monstrosity lunging at me.

  The supposed eldrhim looked like some kind of large primate a hand taller than myself. That is, if primates had two horns sprouting from where ears should be and another two curving inwardly from either side of its chin. Well, that and if the primate had a pig snout for a nose. Okay, the body looked like a gorilla at least. Its body was covered in patchy orange fur with jaundiced-looking skin peeking out between the patches. Its huge, over-long arms ended in hairless three-fingered hands with claws as long as my hands protruding from each finger. Both its arms and both its legs were of a different length as if nature decided just making it ugly wasn’t cruel enough. Its entire head was mainly free of hair except for a couple random tufts, one looking like a unibrow above its large black eyes. The creature had a horrible case of underbite with sharp fangs differing in length protruding from each side of its lower lip. Spittle leaked out of both corners of its mouth as if it were anticipating a good meal.

  If you think that there is no way I could have picked up that much detail in the brief second that I had, put your own life a mere second from being ended. If you live, you will have the last thing you saw before you thought you were going to die precisely detailed and permanently etched into your mind. Trust me.