by Brian Beam
I took that time to regain my footing and make for my shortsword. Luckily, there was enough light from the magic blade to illuminate where it had been flung by the bullratopus’ tentacle. With my sword firmly in hand, I went in for another attack, adding the preservation of Til’s life to my motivation for taking down the gods-forsaken eldrhim.
The bullratopus had its back to me as I came upon it, giving me very little light from the sword sticking into its front. Til’ was still stabbing away, the wild, severed tentacle and claws barely missing him. The blood from the tentacle was spraying on Til’, though, and I knew from the reddened burning patches of skin on my hands and face that Til’ had to be in agony. Even so, he continued his attack and was very vocal as he did so.
“Take that, eldrhim. Try to kill my friend, huh? Can’t reach me, can you? Here, have another,” he taunted as if having fun. The scene would have been comical if not for the fact that we were both still in danger of being killed.
I took the opportunity of having the bullratopus’ back to me to hamstring the beast with a quick slash to one of its legs. While such an injury would have dropped any normal creature, the bullratopus just let out another inhuman, mind-numbing screech and spun around with perhaps a little bit more of a limp than its mismatched legs had created before. With a clawed paw reaching for Til’ and a tentacle that was all but useless, the creature bent at the waist to drive its curved horn at me.
I could have laughed at the stupidity of the bullratopus as I adroitly stepped to the side as the horn stabbed at me and promptly stabbed my short-sword through its temple. I expected it to fall to the ground right then, but apparently it decided to fight death in addition to Til’ and I, and lifted back to a standing position. Smart little me was still holding onto the grip of my sword and went flying up as it stood.
Before the bullratopus could focus its clawed attack on me, I planted my feet down on its shoulder and hooked an elbow around its horn. With as quick a motion as I could manage as the bullratopus jerked every part of its body around to throw Til’ and I from it, I pulled my sword from its temple and thrust it downward through the top of its head, pushing through the resistance of its skull.
I held on for dear life as the eldrhim continued to flounder around. I threw a quick glance down to Til’. “Hey Til’, how are you doing this fine evening?” Hey, either the bullratopus was going to die or we were. Might as well throw in some inappropriately-timed humor until we found out.
Til’ looked up at me, his entire face burned red from the black blood of the bullratopus. Chunks of hair were missing from his head and I assumed I was in the same shape. His exhilaration was probably the only thing keeping him going through the pain. “Wet,” he replied curtly in perfect comedic timing.
Even with death staring me in the face, I laughed. The laugh was cut short as the creature started shaking its head even more aggressively to rid itself of me. However, all it really did was let my sword stir around in its skull as I firmly held onto the hilt.
The clawed bear-paw rose up as if to swipe at me, but stopped straight up in the air and the bullratopus toppled forward. I wasn’t as prepared as I should have been and when it landed, I lost my grip and was thrown forward. Til’ flipped feet over head off its back, narrowly avoiding landing on the curved horn and landed behind me.
The night was now completely black with the sword’s light buriend beneath the bullratopus eldrhim. Every inch of my body burned from eldrhim blood or muscle strain, but I burst into a deep belly laugh and was joined a moment later by Til’. I laughed until I cried, wondering if I had finally gone crazy.
“Oh, Til’, why are we laughing?” I asked through the laughter.
“We’re alive,” he responded breathlessly.
He was right, we were alive. That was cause for celebration. I continued laughing through the pain until a dream-filled sleep took over.
Chapter 15
Ten Days, Nine Lives
“Remember our love for you, Ingran. That is one thing that can never be taken from us, or you.”
****
I awoke to burning flames enveloping my body. Well, that was what it felt like at least. My mind had not yet caught up to my sensory perception and I sat up, smacking at my body to put out the fire engulfing me. There were no flames, though, only bare skin.
I was sitting on top of one of Sal’s itchy, wool blankets, damp from the wet ground, in nothing but my smallclothes. My skin was intact and was its natural color, but I still felt like I was covered in the bullratopus eldrhim’s acidic blood. A hand to my head felt a full head of short, choppy hair and I breathed a sigh of relief. Vanity, thy name is Korin.
As my mind caught up to my body, I took in my surroundings. I was still in the fall-colored forest of the Sanderon Mountains with bright morning daylight piercing the treetop canopy over me. What I could see of the sky looked cloudless, but the sun did little to warm the air. A quick downward glance revealed one of my own blankets from Telis’ saddlebags at my side that I must have thrown off when I woke. I threw the brown blanket over my shoulders as I shivered. The cold helped me to ignore the pain.
For a brief moment I thought back to the only snippet I could remember from my dreams. My mother had called me Ingran. Had that been my name before I was taken in by the Karells? Menar had called me that as well. Knowing I had no way to figure out the answer, I looked around for the others.
Til’ was asleep under a blanket off to my side, but seemed okay. He was breathing, his long raven hair was also grown back, and there was no sign of eldrhim-blood burns on his exposed face.
Telis was hitched to a tall oak in front of me, perfectly content gnawing on the plant life in front of him. Sal’, with her dirty robe and disheveled sandy hair, was sitting close to Telis on the tree that the bullratopus had pulled down, picking dead mice from her wicker case and throwing them down with much more force than necessary. By the number of mice before her, I figured she couldn’t have many left. She was staring at me with eyes narrowed in anger.
“Um, good morning?” I greeted uncertainly, already wincing from the scolding I could see coming from a mile away.
“What did you think you were doing?” Sal rose up, dropping her backpack, and stormed towards me. “Thinking you could take those eldrhims on by yourself while Til’ runs off after you like some Averinax-blooded hero. Then, you both pass out when more eldrhims could have shown up. I almost had half a mind to leave you both to your fate.” Sal’ stopped in front of me with a finger held up at my nose as if to help make clear that she was being serious. Like her raised voice didn’t do a good enough job of that already.
Sal’s screaming had woken Til’ who shot up with a scream, slapping at his half-naked body. Apparently, Sal’s healing had led to Til’ having the same reaction as myself when I had woken. It took him a moment to realize he wasn’t on fire. That just left him to deal with the fact that having that realization did nothing for the pain. However, Til’ either had a high pain tolerance or was just good at hiding it since once he realized he was okay, he just looked over at us tiredly.
“Oh, hey guys,” he greeted sheepishly as he pulled the blanket back over his naked torso. With that, Til’s sheepishness disappeared in a flurry of guileless wonder. “That was crazy last night. Sal’ did you see the eldrhim? It was huge. Wait, where’s the body?”
“Not another word,” Sal’ growled, shifting her pointing finger to the naïve Kolarin. “You two probably would have died if I hadn’t shown up to heal you.”
“Uh, I still hurt,” Til’ responded meekly.
Sal’ thrust a hand into her wicker case and at the same time, a clump of mud rose from the ground and flew at him. It landed a good three feet in front of him. Even though she missed him horribly, he shut up. I debated if it would be worth confessing to him later that her magic didn’t always work like she meant it to. Given the look in Sal’s eyes, I decided that it would be smarter to avoid doing anything to anger her further. I made a note t
o inform Til’ on why there was no sign of the eldrhims’ bodies, though.
“Anything else?” she inquired angrily to the frightened Kolarin. Til’ may have had the courage to stand up to an eldrhim three times his height, but it looked like that courage didn’t apply to angry sorceresses. He quickly shook his head with wide eyes.
“Sal’, calm down,” I started before realizing the stupidity of my words. I cringed in anticipation. Think before talking, not the reverse.
Sal’ rounded back on me, her jaw clenched and thrust forward in her ire. “If you ever do something that stupid again without even asking for my help, I swear I’ll—”
“Hey, she grew my hair back,” Til’ exclaimed, cutting off Sal’ as if she were not presently chewing us out. “Korin, did you see?” The next chunk of mud hit him square in the face and he was knocked back to the ground. She hadn’t even taken her eyes away from me, making the mud-slinging attack even more impressive.
Til’s interruption did not save me from her continued tirade. “Do you even care about your own life? After Max’s sacrifice for you, I’d think that you would.”
Those words hurt more than any eldrhim blood or trees flung at me ever could. My breath turned to ragged gasps as I felt the tears form in my eyes. “You’re right,” I replied as the first tear made its way down my cheek.
What had I been thinking? Max had died trying to keep Menar from killing me. He had died in trying to keep me alive. I could have thrown that gift away with my careless actions. I had been trying to keep Sal’ and Til’ safe, but if they wanted to help me, who was I to ignore them? I couldn’t help but think back to when Sal’ had said she was tired of being unappreciated. My leaving them to fight the eldrhims alone, as though Sal’ and Til’ couldn’t have been of any help, could not have helped that feeling.
“I’m sorry,” I whispered before fully giving into the grief of having lost my best friend
Sal’ dropped to her knees and flung her arms around me as I sobbed. “I was so scared,” she cried. I could feel her tears against the side of my face. Whether they were for Max or concern for me didn’t matter. It just felt good to have her there to comfort me.
I felt a hand grip my shoulder and looked over through my tear-hazed vision to see Til’ crouching next to me with a condoling expression on his muddy face. His silver eyes were glistening with unshed tears, giving testimony to the Kolari value for life.
We all stayed that way for several minutes until Sal’ finally leaned back and Til’ stood up. I wiped away tears with the back of my hand, my wet face chilly in the morning air.
Til’ gave a shiver and wrapped his arms around himself. The fact that he was mostly naked didn’t seem to bother him aside from the cold. “So, why don’t we have clothes on?” he asked innocently, breaking the lamentful atmosphere. I let out a chuckle through my sniffling attempt to compose myself.
Sal’ playfully smacked Til’s arm. With the way Til’ had to throw a leg forward to keep himself from falling, maybe it hadn’t been so playful. “When I found you guys, that eldrhim blood had eaten away your clothes to tattered rags,” she explained rubbing wearily at her tear-stained eyes. They were probably red from a lack of sleep too. I wondered how much sleep she had gotten. Had she even slept knowing that the eldrhims could have shown back up? I couldn’t imagine how tired she had to be after everything. She was probably running only on sheer emotion.
“Oh, okay,” he replied. “So, uh, I guess this is going to be a cold trip.”
Sal’ huffed and stalked over to her backpack and pulled out two robes like the one she was wearing, only one was the color of tree bark and the other was the color of twilight. She tossed the tree bark one to me. The fabric felt like silk, but was thick like wool. I pulled it over my head, sticking my arms through the sleeves and let the robe drop over me. It was way too tight. When I stood, the bottom stopped halfway down my shins. I guess you take what you can get. At least I was warmer.
Sal’ had tailored the dark blue robe to fit Til’ using the sewing kit from my saddlebags. It was hard to be mad about her going through my stuff since she had healed me and all. Well, mostly healed me; I still felt like I had stood naked in the Summer sun for half a day and my back felt like someone had beat me like a dusty rug. I was alive, though, and that’s what mattered.
My boots, sword belt, scabbard, and coin purse had survived and I promptly equipped them. The scabbard and coin purse did have a couple spots worn thin that hadn’t been there before, but were still perfectly functional. Sal had already put my shortsword in the sheath. As I pulled my boots on, I realized that it looked like I was wearing a dress. I guess fate had decided that the bright purple shirt had not been embarrassing enough.
Menar’s baldric apparently had not made out so well, but the hard, ebony scabbard had survived and was tucked under the flap of one of my saddlebags with the sword sheathed in it. Til’s belt sacks were tied together and draped over the saddle.
After a quick survey of my coin purse to see that the dragon egg, Contract, coin pouch, and glowing black stone were all intact, I joined Sal’ and Til’ for a silent breakfast of apples and dried meat from my stock. Both of their heads were held low with sullen looks on their faces. I could only wonder what mine looked like.
I had trouble making myself eat as I thought about never getting to talk to Max again. Did I even want to continue my journey to find my parents without him? Could I? I continued to nibble my food as the tears started back down my face.
After everyone was done eating, I took a deep breath and tried to hold my composure as I looked to Sal’ and Til’. “I want to give Max a proper burial before we move on,” I choked, trying not to break out into sobbing again.
Sal’ looked at me as if she could feel my heart breaking. “I think that would be good.” Her arctic eyes started to tear up again.
“I could recite a Kolarin funeral passage,” Til’ offererd solemnly, his normally childish enthusiasm absent. Til’ had told me that the Kolari valued life above all else and by the look in his eyes, his words had been true.
“I’d like that,” I replied with a sad smile, pridefully taking in the fact that Max had made a positive impact on the two of them in just the couple days they had known him.
I walked over to Telis to retrieve my spade and Max’s body. I was opening a saddlebag when I noticed that Sal’ had followed me.
“Are you going to be okay?” she asked concernedly.
I sniffed again and had to take a deep breath before answering. “Max has been with me for nearly my whole life.” The tears started again. “I just wasn’t ready for this.” Sal’ embraced me again as I cried into her shoulder. “He deserved better than to die like that. He had so much good in him. Why did this happen?”
Sal’ just rubbed my back as I clung to her and whispered in my ear, “It will be okay with time. I promise.”
Breaking from the embrace, I gave her as much of a smile as I could manage. I was sure I would be okay eventually, but I had never lost anyone so close to me. It felt like my world had crumbled to dust.
I turned back to the saddlebag, adjusting the sword that Menar had given me to get into it. “Sal’,” I began with a sniffle. Sal’ turned to me from heading back to where Til’ was seemingly practicing the passage he had spoken of. “What did the sword do to him?”
Sal’ gave me a weary, sad look before shifting her gaze to the ivory grip with its intricate lacy gold pommel and crossguard sticking out from the scabbard. “From what I can tell of the aura around it in addition to what I saw last night, it seems that it is enchanted to absorb any magic cast at its bearer and reflects it back at the caster,” she explained. “I’ve never seen anything like it. That kind of magic power has not been seen for centuries. The Academy would probably give me Rank just for bringing that in.” She suddenly looked back to me, appalled. “I’m sorry, that was inappropriate.”
I held up a hand and shook my head. “No, it’s okay. After I finish this Cont
ract, you can take it and go home if it will help you. I don’t want anything to do with the weapon that killed Max.”
“I want to help you, though. You still need to find your parents and these eldrhims may still come after you,” she protested.
I let out an involuntary, dry chuckle. “I’m pretty sure they can’t find me once I destroy this,” I told her as I pulled the shining black stone from my coin purse and held it in front of her. “After I finish the Contract, I just want to go home.”
Sal’ cast her gaze downward and I saw a tear drop from her cheek onto the ground. “Korin, can you ever really go home if there’s even a chance the eldrhims will still be looking for you?”
Anger suddenly bloomed in me. “Fine!” I screamed, Sal’s eyes widening at the shock of my reaction. “I’ll just hole up in a cave until they come find me.” Sal’ looked down, averting her eyes from mine, and I saw several more tears fall. As quickly as the anger struck, it left. Grief likes to play games with your emotions like that. “I’m sorry, you didn’t deserve that. You’re right, I can’t go home.” That was a hard truth to accept.
However, as the words left my mouth, I realized exactly what I had to do. I had to track Raijom down wherever he was and confront him. For my friends and family to truly be safe, one of us had to die. For the first time in years, I no longer felt my purpose was to find my parents, but to stop the wizard who had torn my world asunder in mere days. Once the dragon egg was in Galius’ hands, I would start working towards that new purpose.
“I have to find Raijom,” I declared solemnly.
Sal’ brought her beautiful tear-stained face up to meet my eyes. “And I will help you,” she avowed, her ice-blue eyes filled with resolve. “Besides, with everything that I’ve experienced since meeting you, I’m sure I’ll find a way to gain my Rank in no time,” she added, her pouty lips turning up into a small smile.
