by Ben van Eijk
It looked like a bunch of dirt piles, but on some of the small hills Seth could see what looked like doors, or windows, and there appeared to be paths between the small mounds. In fact, if Seth pretended the hills were all houses, then it looked like a perfectly normal village. There were several farms which were apparently able to protect their crops from the shockwave, the fields still filled with green grass and orange trees, surrounded by wooden fences. Other fields held different kinds of fruit and plants, and long yellow grass filled many of the paddocks. There were also some cows in one of the fields, but compared to the houses they looked enormous. One cow could easily have trampled the entire village back into dust, but the fence around the livestock was appropriately sized to prevent them from doing so.
Now that Seth was getting closer he noticed the same could be said of the trees growing in the outer paddocks. If he was estimating correctly, the hill-houses were only one metre high. There was some movement other than the giants cows visible now: moving along the paths between the small hovels were the villagers. They were definitely not human, but looked small and alien to Seth. A small, wide ball comprised the body and face of the strange creature, and it had one leg elevating the body about thirty centimetres from the ground. The face of the creature, however, had an oddly human look. Sticking from the side of the body was one arm, almost always grasping a strange looking staff. The creatures moved along quite nimbly, using the staff as a second leg. The tip of each staff seemed to have some sort of claw — some of them even had a metal hand on the end of their staffs.
Seth wanted to investigate a little more before he lowered his segment to the ground. He floated over the farming areas towards the centre of the small village. Some of the hills here were multi-tiered with a much higher concentration of creatures hopping about. Through the waterscope Seth studied the villagers. There were a few houses made of wood, but mainly on the farms; inside the city, dirt seemed to be the favourite construction material. It was quite a bland looking town overall, with hardly any plant life to break up the monotony of brown.
The creatures coming in and out of the small homesteads had skin of pale grey, with a slight green tint; it was a colour that didn’t improve the aesthetics of the village. A few fences of a light brown wood were scattered through the town. Some seemed to be protecting invisible gardens while others just surrounded areas with no visible reason to justify a fence being there in the first place. Seth decided he would dock his small vessel just outside the village. He directed his segment in a straight line towards the rural areas again, then slowly descended to the ground. Seth summoned a small dirt cradle to hold his segment straight: he wanted to avoid having everything in his house roll to one corner again. He lowered himself slowly from the segment, manipulating the air around him and blowing a lot of the dust up into the air. He dusted off his robe off and started walking towards the village.
Seth soon came across one of the locals, and it stopped to inspect him. This creature had its arm sticking out from its right side and the tip of its staff had a device with eight blades in two rows of four sticking from the top. The blades had a worn looking black holster covering their pointed ends, and looked like the two rows of metal teeth could be used to pick up small objects. The creature inspected Seth.
“Greetings traveller! I didn’t realise anyone had survived the shockwave. Welcome to Dewall, a home of the Evodents! It is a relief to know that at least some humans survived. Are there any others with you?”
Seth did not expect to hear the creature talking Common and was caught off guard slightly. He stared a few seconds before he answered.
“Uhh, no, nobody else with me… how did you survive the shockwave?”
The creature laughed softly.
“We are protected by a barrier, created by two very smart people — but someone with more knowledge can tell you more about that. I have to tend to my crops, but do you need directions?” he asked Seth.
“Yes, where is the centre of Dewall from here?” Seth asked the Evodent. He had seen the village clearly when he was floating, but on the ground Seth’s sense of direction was still terrible. The creature frowned.
“Don’t know why you would want to go there boy, too many people, too busy. But if you really need to go, it’s that way.” The creature used his staff to indicate that Seth should continue on the same heading. Seth bent his body forward slightly, bowing in thanks to the farmer, and continued towards the centre of Dewall. Seth could hear shouting in the distance as he passed more fields lined with rows of trees.
The cow’s mooing became softer as Seth approached the centre of the village. Many of the creatures stopped in their tracks to stare at Seth, while others kept walking while obviously looking at him. Seth knew from his encounter with the little farmer that this town was no stranger to humans but it also seemed he was the first one they had seen since the shockwave a month ago.
Seth really had no idea where to go, but the fact that this town had survived meant it had to have to some sort of defensive technology — or the inhabitants were also capable of matter manipulation. In the Restyard, Red had told Seth that it was more than likely that anything capable of surviving the shockwave was probably a creation of the element binders Jacobus or Iselle. If they were here in Dewall at one point, it was very possible some highly valuable knowledge had been left behind, something that might help Seth control his matter manipulation enough to elevate his segment back to Swevender’s altitude. He decided to explore the village a bit more to acquaint himself with the layout; maybe then there would be some indication as to where he could look or who he could ask.
From ground level the village revealed as little about itself as it did from Seth’s previous vantage point. The hills were definitely houses; their petiteness was explained by the size of the creatures inhabiting them. Seth very much doubted he could fit inside any of them. Towards the centre, however, there seemed to be much bigger dirt structures. Their doors were still only high enough to let the Evodents through, but Seth thought if he really wanted to, he could crawl his way in. Still feeling conscious of the villagers watching him, Seth paused to look around. He heard more shouting in the distance and a few of the creatures hopping around stopped to look towards the noise. Seth headed towards the source of the shouting; over the tops of the buildings he could see a lot of the Evodents’ staffs, all congregated in one area.
Around some corners and past more dirt huts, Seth saw ten of the creatures talking amongst each other. They suddenly stopped as Seth came into view, and two of the creatures approached Seth.
“Hello human. We heard you just arrived?” asked one of the Evodents. Its staff jingled as it moved its arm slightly; it had a variety of metal devices hanging from it on small hooks. Seth was surprised word about his arrival already seemed to be common knowledge despite arriving less than thirty minutes ago.
“Yes, I was passing by and I was curious how such a village could have survived the shockwave so I –“ Seth was interrupted before he could begin introducing himself.
“Yes yes, we have a barrier, but when did you arrive? There seems to have been some trouble on the outskirts of Dewall,” said the second creature, whose staff seemed much simpler than the rest of his companions. The creature was speaking rather aggressively and Seth didn’t like the implication that he was responsible for whatever the trouble was.
Seth knew he hadn’t done anything wrong, so he decided honesty would be the best approach;
“I got here about twenty minutes ago and I haven’t done anything since I got here. I did meet a farmer who told me this was Dewall, home of the Evodents — but I had never heard of them before.”
The other creature’s staff jingled as he took a hop closer to Seth with an irritated look on its face.
“We are Evodents. I am an Evodent. Both of us are Evodents! Where have you been boy? Humans and Evodents have known about each other since I was born!”
The other Evodent spoke now:
“Yes, I find it quite surprising that you don’t know about us. You came here twenty minutes ago you say… well, we have a few more questions for you. Would you accompany us please?” The Evodent signalled to his colleague holding the staff with hanging metal objects, whose staff jingled as he hopped behind Seth and proceeded to nudge him forward.
The Evodent that had spoken last looked at Seth and then led the way, hopping down a path between some dirt huts. Seth was curious as to what was about to happen; maybe he had inadvertently broken some law by arriving here. He was quite sure he hadn’t done anything wrong so he decided he would cooperate. And it seemed the Evodent’s request was not something Seth should say no to, so he gracefully acquiesced. The Evodent behind him started pushing a little harder and pointed parts of his staff actually hurt a little. Seth turned around.
“Ow! Take it easy! I am cooperating!”
The creature, who already looked angry, seemed to get even angrier at Seth’s exclamation and took in a deep breath to respond, but he was interrupted by the other Evodent.
“Nigel, just walk behind him. We don’t even know if the human did it.” The creature, Nigel, ceased poking Seth’s back, and they continued their walk through the village in silence.
The three stopped at the front of a dirt building much larger than the rest, with a relatively huge door.
“Since you are new to Dewall, I should explain that humans do not have the best reputation here. In fact, they are renowned for being underhanded scoundrels, and we have rarely been proved wrong. Your race is the reason our incarceration centre is the biggest building in Dewall,” said the more reasonable Evodent to Seth. He opened the door and signalled Seth to walk through first, closely followed by Nigel.
Chapter 10
The Evodents were a strange sort of creature. The tallest one only came up to Seth’s knee. They were so small it seemed impossible they had enough room for a digestive system, never mind a brain large enough to support sentient behaviour. Seth had seen some strange things from his year in the Restyard but interacting with it directly felt much more confronting; a ball about forty centimetres wide with human facial features stood on its one leg explaining to Seth why he had been brought to the incarceration centre.
“Sorry about my colleague Nigel. He’s a unipedalist, always gets a bit nervous around creatures with more than one leg,” said the Evodent that had led them inside. “My name is Gary, you can sit on the floor over there,” Gary told Seth, gesturing to the opposite side of the room they had just entered.
The incarceration centre had unusual architecture: the roof was higher than necessary while the floor space was extremely limited. There was a path recessed into the wall, tracing a spiral route around the circumference of the room. It sloped upwards, and looked like it was used by the Evodents as stairs. The inside of the room was the same light brown colour that all the domiciles in Dewall seemed to be made from; so was the furniture, of which there was very little. A small staircase leading to a seat facing a large table in the centre of the room. Gary was hopping up the staircase, assisting his bouncing with his simple silver and black staff. There was no longer any sign of Nigel. Seth seated himself on the floor and leaned against the wall. Strange that they made the building to accommodate humans but they hadn’t made any human sized furniture beyond a huge table currently being used by a hopping ball that came up to Seth’s knee.
Only the tip of Gary’s head poking up from behind the table was visible from where Seth was sitting. Seth saw some papers being tapped against the table and small thuds as Gary opened up drawers in the side of the table, making a low grinding noise as the furniture seemed to made from dried mud. Gary leapt onto the surface of the table so he could look properly at Seth sitting on the floor.
“So you saw a farmer did you? It just so happens that this incident occurred out in one of the rural districts. Was the farmer’s name Michael?” Gary asked Seth as he hopped back and forth on the surface of the table.
Seth still had no idea what was going on but he continued to cooperate. Despite his ability to easily escape this situation, he knew keeping his patience was the quickest route to illumination.
“I don’t know the farmer’s name, I just asked him for directions to the centre of Dewall and the next… uh, person I interacted with was you.”
Gary stopped his bouncing and pirouetted to face Seth. He stared in silence for a few seconds before he responded.
“Well, what did he look like?”
Seth looked at the ceiling as he tried to recall any distinctive features of the farmer.
“Well, he looked like you: a ball with one leg and one arm, only his staff thing looked like it had some kind of bread slicer on it.”
“Yes yes, very funny boy, we all look the same to you humans don’t we? You lot are so obnoxious. I will only tolerate your rudeness for so long, this is a serious matter!” Gary’s volume increased throughout the sentence until he was almost shouting.
“Well I don’t want to be rude. What exactly is the serious matter you’re talking about?”
Gary’s eyes widened and he began his response with a hoarse cough.
“Hurumph. The serious matter is that one of our citizens has been killed — cut entirely in half, very strange phenomenon, and I can’t even imagine any Evodents having the means to commit such a gruesome crime. Then you show up at exactly the same time. Wouldn’t you call that suspicious?”
“Woah! Cut in half? Are you serious? Well it wasn’t me! I only came here to get information; I wanted to know more about your town’s barrier.? Killing someone is not any part of my quest, and certainly doesn’t help me reach the goal of said quest,” Seth said to Gary. In lieu of an eyebrow, the ridge above one of Gary’s eyes rose and he looked skeptically at Seth.
“All the humans I have met know about the barrier, and they also know not to cause trouble here. They know we have the means to disable you humans, and cells big enough to keep you in while you think about your misdeeds. So how about you start telling the truth, you pink, fleshy biped!” Gary jumped down from the table and hopped rapidly towards Seth.
Gary whacked Seth on the head with the end of his staff, making clear to Seth why he was instructed to sit on the floor. He grabbed the staff and attempted to wrench it from Gary’s grasp, but Gary refused to let go and was launched into the air along with his staff. Gary adeptly spun around the pole on his one hand, and his foot connected painfully with Seth’s jaw. Seth threw the staff away from him with Gary still holding it. Gary stabbed the staff into the ground and did a skilful back flip as he was flying through the air, landing safely on his single foot. He held the staff horizontally above his head and began spinning it threateningly. Nigel came bursting through a door, waving his staff around violently, screaming
“Taste metal you bipedal freak!”
Seth stood up as Nigel hopped towards him. He did not want to hurt the Evodent but he didn’t feel like another whack from one of their staffs either. Seth raised his palm towards the aggressive little sphere bouncing toward him, and the dry mud of the floor extended to form a small cage around the little creature.
“What?! What is this?” Nigel began asking himself out loud.
Gary looked at Seth with a look of shock on his face.
“H-h-how did you do that?”
Seth smiled as he responded.
“I am a manipulator of matter, and contrary to what you think, you do not have the means to throw me in any cell. But I did not cut anyone in half, that really doesn’t help me, or anyone. Do you believe me?”
Nigel superfluously threw his staff in Seth’s direction, falling well short of causing any harm with a metallic thud.
“Don’t listen to him boss! That two-footed freak will make a pillow out of your remains!”
Gary ignored the screaming Nigel and hopped slowly in Seth’s direction. Seth raised his hand the same way he had when he imprisoned Nigel. The Evodent froze, pushing the black end of his staff against the groun
d. Seth hoped he could explain to the two Evodents that their efforts were in vain, and he needed their help. He would clearly have to prove his innocence before they would divulge anything useful. Seth broke the silence.
“So, despite what Nigel may say, I’m not actually here to cause any trouble, nor did I. I only wanted to ask you for help, but I have the idea that won’t come easily”
Gary stared at Seth, his arm was still holding the staff tensely with an impressively small amount of movement.
“So, how about I find out who killed the farmer? I can be very persuasive and resourceful. I get you some answers, and you give some to me?” Seth asked the static Gary over Nigel’s scornful laughter from his mud prison.
About thirty seconds of silence passed and Seth was about to open his mouth to try again, but Gary spoke a split second earlier.
“How do I know you won’t just run away?”
“Well, I could just do that — to be honest you really couldn’t stop me.” Seth clicked his fingers and a stream of sparks jetted upwards from the palm of his hand as he continued talking.
“The fact that I am still here is a sign that I am cooperating. I know the evidence points towards me being the culprit, but I think your prejudice for humans is also playing a part here. I think I can show you just how honest we can actually be.”
Gary’s eyes fixated on the stream of sparks fountaining from Seth’s hand as he responded.
“Yes, well, I guess there is always an exception… how do you plan on finding the culprit?”
Seth smiled; he was getting somewhere with this Evodent. He let the streams of sparks dissipate.
“Well you will need to tell me what you know so far, and I will need some sort of verhil, uh, map, so I can find my way around.”
