by Scott Wale
“It was a common mining explosive that I had used in my own operation”, Tradok explained. “The smell was only emitted when the explosive had been charged. Ironically, the smell was meant to be a safety precaution to let the handler know that the device had been ignited.”
“I never did figure out what I was delivering all of those times, but I did realize it wasn’t a game I wanted to be involved in anymore”, Nevit said. “Tradok offered me a job as a personal assistant. It came with minimal pay, but he said I could reside with him.”
“I wanted to ensure my face was in the public as little as possible after escaping Prominence”, Tradok explained. “For whatever reason the personal assistant role fell apart and now Nevit just scrounges off of me.”
“I like to think I’m your personal jester”, Nevit said.
“Expensive entertainment”, Tradok muttered.
Jandra glided towards the watercraft screeching a warning. Fenrit, Nevit and Tradok watched in anticipation as the raptor landed next to the Alejade and the two began to communicate. Alejade took a moment after the short discussion to digest the information she had just received.
“Jandra says there are cliffs ahead that line the river bank for quite a distance”, Alejade relayed the news. “She says the river gets a little rough three quarters of the way through, so if we want to travel this leg by foot then now is the time to get off the river.”
“You’ve traveled the river before, right, Tradok?” Fenrit asked.
“Long ago, but I’m guessing it hasn’t changed much”, Tradok replied.
“How bad does it get?” Fenrit continued the line of questioning.
“I don’t think it’s anything we can’t handle”, Tradok replied. “The bigger deterrent is hiking around the cliffs. You can either go over them with a taxing vertical climb that will only be made worse by having to haul the watercraft or around them, which will take enough time that it probably makes more sense to just continue on foot at that point. If we stay with the river, we’ll save time and more importantly energy.”
“I trust your decision”, Fenrit said firmly. “We’ll stay on the river. We can’t afford to lose more time. Alejade, you may want to secure your staff to the craft and I will secure my bow and satchel as well just in case.”
“There’s always the mountain seraphs to protect over us”, Tradok said with a grin.
“Mountain seraphs?” Nevit asked curiously.
“They’re only a legend”, Fenrit was quick to answer. “Or at least from what I can tell their existence is questionable.”
“So you’ve heard of them”, Tradok said with a surprise.
“You don’t travel the plains without hearing about all the mysteries that Faunar has to offer”, Fenrit said. “I know premaliers who have sworn to encounter a mountain seraph. It’s always the same story. They’re caught in a life threatening situation and suddenly a being of extreme beauty comes to their rescue. There’s never a physical interaction with the being. It seems to never be anything more than a hallucination that provides a moment of clarity wherein a decision is made that ends up being lifesaving.”
“Sounds like you have a fair amount of skepticism”, Nevit pointed out.
“The orators of the stories are credible people, but the mind is a difficult thing to understand”, Fenrit defended himself. “Once the mind hears an idea it can latch on to it forever and then later on when it encounters holes with things it can’t explain it’ll do its best to patch those holes.”
“That doesn’t explain the origin of mountain seraphs”, Nevit argued.
“True, but I’m also not claiming I have everything worked out into a consolidated rationale”, Fenrit said.
“Fenrit has never been one for Faith”, Alejade joined the conversation.
“Faith has its place, just not when there’s a lot at risk”, Fenrit summed up his beliefs.
“I’d argue that’s the most important time to have faith”, Alejade countered.
“This argument won’t be settled now if ever”, Fenrit concluded. “I think I see some rapids ahead, so we should probably make sure the craft is positioned appropriately.”
Jandra squawked out a confirmation to Fenrit’s suspicion. The white tips of the rapids grew more apparent as the craft moved downstream. Fenrit gave the craft a few light paddles to ensure it headed into the rapids head first. The craft sailed relatively smoothly over what turned out to be gentle ripples.
“Good practice run, but I believe it gets worse than that”, Tradok exclaimed.
“From what I can see, not anytime soon”, Fenrit observed.
The current of the river picked up and the watercraft began to move swiftly downstream. The elevation was dropping creating a slight downward slope in the river, which was hardly noticeable to any of the passengers. For a while the cliff walls slowly began to close in on the river and then they opened back up becoming wider than they were at the canyon entrance. Patches of unavoidable light rapids were picking up in frequency, but Fenrit and Nevit kept the watercraft straight and steady. The current slowed and the craft entered a large pool where the water was almost still. Realizing that they had nearly lost all forward momentum Nevit and Fenrit paddled through the pool and back into a portion of the river with enough current to move the watercraft. The current once again began to build and the group all gazed upon the obstacle downstream that was quickly approaching.
Several large rocks jutted from the river creating treacherous looking rapids. For the first time the group saw more white than blue. The rocks didn’t create a complete barricade across the river, but no one in the group had yet to spot a point where the watercraft could pass through.
Jandra took flight and quickly scouted the situation. She spotted a single point that was wide enough for the watercraft and circled over it calling out to Alejade that the craft would need to reposition itself under her if it were to make it through. The noise from the rapids muffled Jandra’s call and Alejade failed to notice the raptor’s position above an opening that was not visible from where Alejade stood.
“Paddle back with all you’ve got until we can find a passage”, Fenrit barked out to Nevit.
“Paddling backwards isn’t exactly my strength”, Nevit called back turning around so he could feverishly work against the current with every last muscle.
Fenrit liked Nevit’s idea, but Fenrit needed to keep his eyes on the river. Steering was now vital in getting the watercraft through the obstacle and hopefully to calmer waters on the other side. Alejade and Tradok could have served as his eyes, but he didn’t want to deal with the delay between their orders and what his arms would instinctively do. No one on the watercraft appeared to be an expert on reading rivers, so his instinct carried just as much merit as anyone else’s.
Tradok stepped to the front of the craft to see if he could get a better view. He knew his height would give him an advantage over the others in this situation. Fenrit and Nevit would need to concentrate every bit on keeping their arms going. Their current effort wasn’t even enough to keep the craft from losing ground. The barrier was slowly closing in and hitting it would only be disastrous. After scanning for a few moments Tradok finally spotted the opening below Jandra.
“You two keep fighting the current, I’m going to move us over towards the raptor”, Tradok yelled out. “There’s an opening directly beneath the raptor and I think we’ll have enough time to reach that side of the river. Alejade, you might as well brace yourself while we paddle just in case.”
Fenrit spun around at Tradok’s words allowing himself to give that much more effort against the current. Tradok moved to the center of the craft and detached the oar he had secured to the watercraft at the beginning of the expedition. He repositioned himself back at the front of the craft and started paddling hard in Jandra’s direction. The current seemed to be picking up as the craft drew nearer to the rocky barrier in the middle of the river. Nevit and Fenrit’s arms began to burn as they gave everything they
had to fight against the current. Their muscles were approaching the point of complete depletion and without the backwards momentum the ride would be over promptly. The craft was bound to slam into the barrier in just a few moments at the current rate. Tradok tried to counteract this as much as he could by paddling with an angular motion that was not only in the direction of Jandra, but also provided propulsion back upstream.
“Get low, but continue to paddle”, Tradok screamed over the current. “If we make it, it probably won’t be without scraping against the side of a rock.”
Alejade heard the panic in Tradok’s voice. The muscle power to reach their goal was fading fast and the outcome of failure sounded dreadful. Her idleness became a sense of irritation in her head. She was an untapped resource that could potentially save the entire group from its predicament. Alejade sprung up and detached her staff from its secured location. She pierced the water with the head of the staff, which was only slightly broader than the body. The staff was not ideal for paddling, but it was better than nothing and maybe it would provide just enough momentum to clear the edge of the rock.
Alejade’s arms tired quickly, but she fought through the searing pain. She had only performed a few paddle thrusts before she realized time was moving along at a pace just above being completely frozen. She looked up just as the craft approached the final protruding rock. She was unable to accurately judge whether the craft would have enough clearance, just barely scrape the rock or worse.
The craft hit the rock with a thud and then jolted the craft backwards only to be caught by the current again. Tradok, Fenrit and Nevit dropped their oars concluding any further efforts would not gain them any progress and grabbed hold of the nearest object that would work as a suitable anchor. Alejade flung forward as the craft struck the rock, but managed to brace her legs against the side lip of the craft and avoid being flung overboard. The current began to push the craft forcing it to roll around the rock while simultaneously creating a dizzying circular motion. Alejade had still not grabbed anything with her arms to brace herself. She stood up in the raft with a precarious balance due to the odd directional forces she was experiencing. The raft thwacked into a second rock that was hidden from sight due to being slightly askew from the first. The reaction from the impact caught an unbalanced Alejade and hurled her over the lip of the craft into the rock and then ricocheted her body into the river. The craft followed through with its rolling motion and shot back out into the river intact. The current died down a few moments later as the craft made its way over the final rapids.
“Alejade!” Fenrit screamed.
Fenrit stood up once the circular motion had stopped and began to survey downstream. Nevit and Tradok also got to their feet and moved to opposite sides of the craft seeing if they could catch a glimpse of Alejade among the fleeting rapids. Jandra landed in the craft not realizing what had happened. She had circled overhead during the entire occurrence, but had not had her eye on the group when Alejade was thrust from the watercraft.
“She’s somewhere in the river”, Fenrit yelled desperately trying to recruit the raptor’s help. “I need you to get up high and start looking for her.”
Fenrit’s commands were ineffective. He wasn’t sure what to do to get the bird to aid in the hunt. Would Jandra eventually realize what fate had become of Alejade and begin the search on her own? Fenrit began frantically pointing at the river while making eye contact with Jandra. The raptor continued to stay on her perch in the raft.
“I need you”, Fenrit continued to plea.
“Surely she’ll realize Alejade is gone”, Nevit reasoned.
“The river has calmed, maybe if I jump in as well she’ll understand”, Tradok suggested. “Let me at least grab a flotation device first.”
“No, I have an idea”, Fenrit said as he gazed at Tradok’s floatation device that was secured right next to Fenrit’s satchel.
Fenrit snatched his satchel from its secured spot and opened it up. He began to feel through the various inventory items until he felt the texture of the item he was looking for. It wasn’t the most familiar texture yet, but Fenrit was familiar enough with the remaining inventory that he knew he had grabbed ahold of what he was after. He pulled his closed hand out of the satchel and opened up his fist palm side up to reveal the aft crystal.
“I don’t know if this is going to work, but it’s worth a try”, Fenrit said. “You know what this is?” Fenrit said levitating his arm up and down until he caught Jandra’s attention who then focused on the item in his hand. “Maybe it doesn’t matter whether you know what it is or not. What I really need is for you to help me. Alejade has fallen in to the river and I need you to help me find my sister. Do you understand me?”
Jandra turned her gaze from the aft crystal to Fenrit’s eyes. Fenrit returned her gaze with intensity waiting for a response. The raptor opened her beak.
“I will find my companion”, she said spreading her wings then taking flight.
“I heard her”, Nevit said in astonishment.
“So did I”, Tradok confirmed.
Fenrit stood in silence stunned that his trick actually worked.
Jandra sailed over the river basin looking for any signs of Alejade. The water moved gently along just beyond the barrier that had dislodged Alejade from the craft. Any signs of struggle would stick out conspicuously. The canyon walls sank back down to the water’s edge not too far down from the barrier and were soon replaced by banks similar to those present at the beginning of the group’s river voyage. Jandra began searching the river banks sorting through the various debris that had washed up on to the shore. Among the debris Jandra finally spotted a lead. Alejade’s staff laid on the muddy bank being pushed higher and higher up the shore as the river’s jostling current kept bouncing against the staff.
Jandra dipped towards the staff’s position and touched down on the shore just above where the staff laid. The jostling river began to embed the staff into the muddy banks settling the staff into a permanent resting place. Jandra used her new point of view to explore her surroundings. She surveyed the river once again and then bounced around on her talons making a full circle in an effort to examine everything around her. No further signs of Alejade were to be found in this area. It was time to take flight again and move further down the river with haste. Jandra planned to move a ways downstream and then slowly return to the group seeing if she could spot something on the way back upstream. Scouting was all about obtaining different points of view and this fact was not lost on Jandra.
The river had slowed to nearly a halt farther downstream. This lasted for a considerable stretch before it picked up a little speed and finally dumped into Lake Sier. Jandra scouted the calm stretch for a ways before turning around to rendezvous with the rest of the group. The raptor had not seen any other signs of Alejade and the section of the river with little to no movement seemed ideal for picking out any additional evidence. The Chafel didn’t appear to have been pushed to the shore, which was not good news for her chances of survival.
Jandra approached the section where she had spotted Alejade’s staff. A new object had been deposited on the river banks only a short distance up from the staff. Jandra descended slightly to get a better glimpse of the mysterious object before deciding to make a complete landing for a more thorough investigation. As Jandra finished her landing process she noticed the object was Alejade’s cloak. The tessellation of dark colored diamonds had camouflaged the cloak from the air making it difficult to discern the object’s identity. Jandra hopped from her safe, dry landing spot on the shore to on top of the cloak. The instant her talons hit the cloak she knew a body was underneath. Jandra moved to a position of hovering above the cloak and lifted the back portion with her talons revealing Alejade’s charcoal gray fur patched with muddy clumps from the river bank. Alejade was not moving and based on the Chafel’s orientation her face was planted in the mud. It was unclear if air was reaching Alejade’s lungs. Jandra grasped Alejade’s cloak between the
Chafel’s shoulder blades, but failed to budge the motionless body. The raptor cocked her head upstream and noticed the craft with the remainder of the group was approaching her position. Jandra screeched at the highest volume she could muster catching Fenrit’s attention.
“Over there, it looks like Jandra has found something”, Fenrit called to the rest of the group.
