The Stones of Earth and Air (Elemental Worlds Book 1)

by V. M. Sang

  Cledo put his feet on the edge of the bed and began to lick his master's face.

  'Get off, Cledo,' Pettic demanded. 'I'm feeling ill. Leave me alone.'

  He rolled over away from the dog. Then his stomach recoiled again and he rushed outside and just managed to get through the door before he lost a good proportion of last night's feast.

  A rather wobbly Woller approached.

  'Feeling bad, are you?' he asked sympathetically. 'I'm not really surprised. Both you and young Klondor had rather a lot to drink. He's behind his hut now, doing exactly the same as you. The boar hunt will need to be postponed for today. I'll make sure there's only fruit juice or water tonight so you'll be fine tomorrow. Anyway, most of the village is in a bad way this morning, myself included. I'll go back to my hut now and lie down in the dark again. I only came out to see how both you boys are.'

  As Woller wobbled across the square again, Pettic staggered back into his hut and returned to bed.

  When he woke again he felt a little better, but very thirsty. He got up and went to find some water. Quite a lot of people were out and about now, but there no one was working in the fields today.

  He managed to find someone to tell him where he could get a drink, and shortly began to feel much better. Klondor came out of the headman's hut and greeted him, if a little gingerly.

  'What a time we had last night!' he called.

  'I'll believe you,' Pettic replied. 'My memory's a little vague about quite a lot of it. I hope I didn't disgrace myself.'

  'Don't worry about that. I'm sure you didn't, but even if you did, no one will remember. There was more drink flowing last night than I can ever remember.'

  'One thing's for sure though. We can't start our boar hunt today. I'm not feeling well enough.'

  The other young man laughed. 'No more am I, Pettic. We'll leave tomorrow morning though, at dawn.'

  'Will your father be angry that we've not gone today as planned?'

  'No! He was as drunk as the rest of the village. He knew what would happen and we'd not be going today. In fact, Woller already predicted a start tomorrow would be the best. My father only put it about we were going today so we could get the feast done yesterday. He knew we'd be in no fit state after it.'

  'Very clever. I suppose that's one of the reasons he's headman. Being clever.'

  'Some might call it underhand. The feast's supposed to take place the evening before a big event. Still, we'll be off tomorrow. I can't wait. It's about time they allowed me to go on an adventure of my own, but ever since my brother was killed, I've been kept close to home. I owe Woller one for saying I should go with you. He said it was the will of Jakim or somesuch.'

  The two young men spent the day together talking about everything under the sun. They planned their hunt in detail, discarded the plans, made new ones then came back to the original one. Klondor petted Cledo, who wagged his tail and licked his master's new friend's hand. Then they noticed the villagers getting ready for the evening meal and they repaired to the Square to eat.

  That night, Klondor dragged his bed from the headman's hut into the guest hut. They planned to leave early, before the sun and the people rose.

  As the sun's first light showed over the hills, the two young men and the wolfhound approached the lake in the valley below. Klondor told Pettic the boar had last been seen in the hills on the opposite side of the lake. They passed another village at the head of the lake. People called out to them and Klondor waved but they did not stop.

  They continued round the lake and stopped to have a drink. It was not the habit of the people on this world of Terra to eat in the middle of the day and so they contented themselves with a drink before continuing to a narrow game trail that led down to the shoreline.

  From here the trail led up into low hills that gradually climbed up to high mountains. By nightfall they had reached a forest and they set up camp by a small stream.

  They had no tent. The temperatures in this part of the world meant sleeping outside was an attractive prospect. The only thing that Klondor insisted on was Pettic douse himself in a liquid made by boiling up some kind of herb in water from the stream. It would keep the biting insects away, Klondor told him.

  Pettic did as he was told. He had experience of the discomfort of insect bites on his parents' farm. He had scratched one to try to relieve the itching and it became infected. He had been quite ill from the infection and he did not want to repeat that experience.

  During the night, Pettic awoke to feel something crawling up his arm. He looked and saw the biggest spider he had ever seen in his life slowly making its way towards his face. It was black with yellow stripes and looked dangerous. He nearly jumped up but, not knowing if it were poisonous or not, he remained as still as he could. He called out to Klondor. The other young man woke and instantly assessed the situation.

  'Don't move!' he told Pettic. 'If you move it may be spooked and bite you. Trust me, you don't want to be on the receiving end of a bite from a tiger spider.'

  Pettic remained as still as he could while his friend took a dagger from out of his boot. Then, as quickly as Pettic could think, Klondor had slipped the knife under the creature's belly and flicked if off Pettic's shoulder, for it had reached that far. Then, equally quickly, Klondor threw his knife and speared the spider cleanly as it ran for the cover of the trees. Only then could Pettic begin to breathe again.

  'Thanks, Klondor,' he said. 'That was pretty neat.'

  'A tiger spider's bite is very nasty. They don't usually kill, they don't have enough poison for that, but they have enough to make you wish they had. I didn't think there were any around here. Seems I was mistaken.' He paused and looked at the sky. 'We could be setting off now. It's still a little time until sunrise, but I don't suppose you'll feel like sleeping again now, and I'm not sure I do after that.'

  When the two had packed up their things, they ate a little cheese and bread they had brought with them and set off once more.

  After a couple of hours, Klondor told Pettic they were approaching the place where the boar had last been seen and they slowed down. Klondor began to cast around for any signs of the animal.

  Soon he found what appeared to be prints of a large cloven-hoofed animal. He deduced this was the creature they were hunting but told Pettic that the tracks were a few days old. They had a drink and gave Cledo one too, before setting off in the direction the tracks took.

  The boar had wandered around, backtracking several times. Twice they lost the tracks but soon managed to pick them up again. Once he realised what the men were tracking, Cledo helped by sniffing out tracks they had not noticed.

  It was not generally difficult to follow where the animal had been because it stopped at regular intervals to forage leaving turned up soil, but the creature followed such a winding track it took them most of the day before they came to where the creature had its lair.

  A cave loomed ahead in the side of a hill. The tracks led into this cave. It was still daylight so there was no sign of the nocturnal animal.

  The two young men decided to wait until the creature came out of the cave. Boars have very poor eyesight and so they had few worries about being spotted if they were in the trees. There was plenty of brush around and a small pond lay not far away with evidence of having been used as a wallow for the animal.

  Cledo, now scenting boar strongly, began to jump around and Pettic had to use all his authority with the dog to get him to sit calmly and wait.

  Shortly, the sun began to set. Pettic and Cledo stayed where they were while Klondor worked his way through the brush to the other side of the cave. When it was almost fully dark Pettic spotted something moving in the cave mouth.

  There stood the biggest boar Pettic had ever seen. It was easily the size of a small pony. It was white and its little eyes were pink, confirming Pettic's view that it was an albino. Its head was large, about one third of its body, as is the case with all boars, and it had a large mane of white hair on its shoulders.
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  Pettic wondered if it had reproduced. An adult male that size would have surely won any fights for females. If this were the case, then perhaps there were other potentially large and dangerous beasts out there.

  The boar stood in the entrance and sniffed the air. When it thought it safe, it came out of the cave and trotted off towards the pond where it drank.

  An old carcass lay there. Pettic thought it was probably some carrion the boar had been eating. Boars rarely killed large animals even though they were omnivores, preferring to eat small things but this creature was so much bigger than the average boar it may require bigger game. Borrin had certainly told of it killing people, and not just in self-defence.

  The sound of a nightjar came from the other side of the cave. Klondor gave this sign to say he was going to attack. Pettic lifted the bow from his back and nocked an arrow. Drawing the string back as far as he could he aimed at the boar.

  Saying a silent prayer to Jakim, even though he was not a god of his world, Pettic released the string. The arrow flew true and struck the boar on his shoulder. At the same time a javelin flew at the creature from the other side of the cave. The javelin stuck into the thick muscle on the beast's other shoulder. It gave a scream of pain and turned in a circle not knowing which aggressor to attack first.

  'Go, Cledo,' Pettic told the dog and the wolfhound leaped joyfully towards the boar, barking his pleasure.

  Hearing the dog, the boar turned towards this more immediate danger. He put down his head to try to injure the dog with his massive tusks. Cledo twisted away and gave Pettic another chance at a shot. This time his arrow went wide.

  The boar moved around, trying to have another go at Cledo making the aim difficult. Then Pettic saw Klondor rushing the animal from his hiding place. He had a metal-tipped spear raised to give the killing blow while the boar was distracted by Cledo.

  Unfortunately, the boar, having caught Cledo with his tusks threw the whimpering dog aside. He heard the young man and turned to this threat. He charged. Klondor jumped to one side just in time and managed to rip a cut in the boar's hide all down one side. Then he tripped.

  With a scream, the boar charged towards Klondor's prostrate form. Pettic could not let his friend be killed as his brother had been. He let another arrow fly. This time he hit the boar again, but did not make a killing blow.

  The boar decided the two previous attackers were no immediate threat and turned to Pettic. Pettic thought his red eyes looked evil as he charged. He could not nock another arrow in time so he drew his sword.

  The creature came on towards him and time seemed to slow. He knew his death was rushing towards him and he silently apologised to Torren, Lucenra, the king and queen, and his country for failing at the first hurdle.

  He raised his sword and just as the animal was about to try to impale him with his tusks, he stepped aside and brought it down, point first, onto the boar's neck. It fell dead at his feet.

  He could hardly believe his luck, but before doing anything else, he went over to his friend. Klondor seemed to be unhurt except for a slight cut, not from the boar, but from a branch that he had landed on when he tripped.

  Cledo was not so lucky. The dog lay whimpering and a large cut stretched along one side. Pettic knelt down beside his faithful companion and stroked the wolfhound's head. Klondor came up and knelt down by Pettic.

  'I have some herbs in my pack I think'll help him,' he said. 'I'll get them.'

  He left to get the herbs leaving Pettic with his dog. The young man patted the brave creature and was rewarded with a lick.

  'I'm sorry, Cledo,' he told the dog. 'You were very brave, but I shouldn't have sent you against a creature like that one.'

  The dog raised his head and looked at Pettic as if to say, 'I'd like see you stop me!'

  Klondor returned with the herbs and a waterskin of water. He poured some of the water onto Cledo's wounds and gently wiped them. Then he covered them with the herbs and bound a cloth around the dog's middle to hold them in place.

  'We should stay here in the cave to let the herbs begin to do their job,' he told Pettic. 'Can you lift Cledo and take him inside?'

  Between them they got the large dog into the cave. It smelled of boar but they decided they could put up with it. Once Pettic was satisfied Cledo was comfortable the pair went out to butcher the boar. Its skin would be worth quite a lot, Klondor said, as they skinned the creature before butchering the carcass. They took some of the offal into the cave and gave it to a grateful Cledo along with a bowl of water Then Klondor lit a fire to cook some of the boar meat, which they ate with gusto.

  That evening Pettic told Klondor of his worry the boar had fathered some piglets. They decided they had better search the area for any herds of sows to see if any had white piglets, or any that seemed extra large. They would have to wipe them out if they wanted to rid the area of this menace forever.

  The next morning, leaving Cledo in the cave with strict instructions to stay where he was, the pair set off to scour the surroundings. They had no success during the morning, but in the afternoon spotted signs of a herd of sows with piglets. They tracked them to a clearing in the wood.

  Sure enough, there was the herd. Most of the piglets were normal, with dark stripes running down their backs but there were two pure white ones and one that looked rather large, although it was difficult to say if it were exceptional or not.

  Pettic decided it was not worth the risk and so he nocked an arrow and let fly at one of the white ones while Klondor threw a javelin at the large one. This spooked the herd and they began to run.

  There was still one white piglet alive. They needed to kill it too. Noting the direction the herd had gone they went to collect the two dead piglets.

  'A pity to kill these,' sighed Pettic. 'Only babies, too. They had no chance of a life, poor little things.'

  After carrying the dead piglets back to the cave and checking on Cledo, they went after the herd again. This time they managed to kill the remaining white piglet with no trouble and took it back to the others. As the sun crept lower and lower in the sky they settled down for the night.

  Cledo seemed a little better the next morning. Klondor put some herbs in his water but the dog refused to drink it. All the persuasion Pettic used failed to get him to drink the herbs. He took some liver from one of the piglets, chopped it up and mixed it with some of the herbs. The dog gobbled it down not noticing the unusual taste, or if he did, it was not strong enough to trouble him.

  The two young men decided to stay in the cave until Cledo was well enough to walk a reasonable distance. Klondor worried about infection, because the wild pigs were known to carry a number of diseases, but as the next couple of days passed and the dog showed no sign of sickness, Klondor began to be hopeful that he would recover fully.

  It took a week before Cledo could walk well enough for them to leave. They loaded the meat and skins into their packs. The temperature in the cave had been cool enough so it had not spoiled.

  They approached the lake and the village on its banks. A couple of women, who were down at the water's edge, spotted them. The two ran back to their village and by the time the pair reached it, a deputation of men approached demanding to know if they had been successful in their hunt.

  It surprised Pettic that this neighbouring village knew of their hunt, but then news was always readily learned.

  Klondor pulled the boar skin from his pack and spread it on the ground.

  'It wasn't a phantom at all, you see,' he told the assembled people, 'just a regular animal. It was large, yes, but it was what Pettic called an albino. That is an animal born with no pigment in its skin. Albinos have red eyes too, which added to its frightening appearance.'

  'Why did it only come out at night?' asked someone in the gathering.

  Pettic answered. 'Because it had no pigment the sun burned it very easily. You people live in a place with strong sunlight and so you have dark skin. The dark pigment helps to protect you from burning.
I come from a cooler land and so I don't need so much pigment. This animal had none of the protective pigment and it needed to keep away from the sun. It spent the days in a cave.'

  The headman of the Lake Village insisted they come in to celebrate the end of the boar. Klondor told Pettic they must accept or it would be a slight on the village, and so they followed the villagers. To his surprise, as they entered the square, his earring began to feel warm

  The headman took them to his own hut while the people prepared a feast. Pettic glanced round, but in the dim light he could see little. He knew the emerald was here in this village somewhere. Still, he could do nothing about it in the present circumstances so he settled down to talk to the headman about how they managed to kill the boar, and to tell him about how they had also killed the piglets he had fathered.

  As darkness fell, The impromptu feast began. They had been told which of the huts had been prepared for them to sleep in after the feast, and they put their things in it. After that they went down to the lake to bathe. They had not been able to wash properly in the pool by the boar's cave as it had been very muddy, churned up by the animal's feet. When they felt clean they went to attend the feast.

  They were guests of honour and sat on either side of the headman, who told them his name was Shillor. His children, two young boys of about thirteen and eleven and two daughters, one of whom was about sixteen and the other about ten, sat on each side of Pettic and Klondor. Cledo was also included in the feast. He lay at Pettic's feet and Pettic gave him choice bits of meat. The two young boys especially fussed the dog, and he lapped up the attention.

  Pettic decided he would not drink the amount he had at the feast prior to their leaving Klondor's village. They both thought they should leave early the next morning. They had already been gone longer than they thought, what with Cledo's injury and hunting the piglets.