by Sam Ferguson
Once they reached the valley floor the two of them began running much faster. The grass whooshed around them with each step as the knee-length blades swiped their legs and clothes. They leapt over the brook to land in marshy grass and lilies which slowed them down considerably. The mud and muck sucked in with each step, trailing grime and pungent black goo behind their feet.
“What is that smell?” Aparen asked.
Silvi motioned for him to keep up. “Just keep moving,” she said.
A weird, cracking sound caught Aparen’s attention and he slowed to turn around. A long, scraggly skeleton arm shot up from the grass behind him. The gray, cracking fingers curled into a fist and he heard a hissing sound. Aparen turned back around and started running faster. “We have company,” he shouted.
“Curses!” Silvi spat. She pointed out to their right and Aparen saw two skeletons slowly lifting themselves upright. One pulled a rusty sword from the grass and the other slid its jawbone into place before grasping a javelin and launching it at them.
Silvi waved her hand, disintegrating the javelin with magic and yelled for Aparen to keep up.
Aparen stumbled over a root and fell face first into the muck. The grit and grime rubbed into his skin, pasted on by the thick, cold grime. He quickly pushed himself up to his feet and wiped at his mouth and nose to clear his face. The ooze clung to his skin, almost creating a string of slime between his fingers and face as he struggled to clean himself. Finally he used the elbow of his sleeve and was able to take a breath without fear of the muck getting pulled into his nose or mouth. That was when he heard the loud creaking behind him.
He turned and realized he had not tripped over a root. A skeleton hand was clasped around his ankle even now, and its owner was shakily standing up from the ground, dripping the black ooze from its ribcage and skull. Its left arm held a hatchet, and its right arm was severed at the elbow, with the rest of the arm still holding onto Aparen’s ankle.
Aparen jumped to his feet, shook the hand free of his leg and instinctively called his shadowfiend power forth. In an instant the spikes shot through his skin, his muscles bulged, and his skin turned leathery as it had before. He roared mightily and lunged forward, shattering the skeleton with one swipe of his taloned claws. Silvi tried to warn him about something, but he wasn’t listening. He just leapt from one skeleton to the next, dodging their clumsy attacks and dashing them apart with his savage blows. Shards of splintered bone cracked apart, flying all around the valley, and yet for each skeleton he destroyed, three more rose in its place.
“Aparen, we have to keep moving!” Silvi shouted.
He ignored her. A pair of skeletons moved to attack. One held an axe and the other held an old, rusty sword. Aparen grabbed the hilt of the axe, ripped it free, and then blasted both of them apart with one swing.
A hail of fire and ice rained down, destroying several of the foul beings in seconds. Aparen then turned to see Silvi standing nearby, weaving her hands quickly as she called down the magical hail. He scanned the area quickly, his heart racing and his breath hot with fury. What had been only a handful of enemies had quickly turned into an entire valley of writhing, stumbling skeletons. There were hundreds of them. Despite the hail, there was no apparent escape route.
Aparen saw Silvi struggling to send spell after spell into the mass of enemies. Seeing the fear and concentration in her furrowed brow and fierce eyes awoke something inside him. A hot fire welled within his chest. He stretched his leathery wings and soared up into the air a few feet. He opened his mouth and out spewed a stream of blue and white fire that disintegrated scores of skeletons in the blink of an eye. Then he turned and dove into the grouping closest to Silvi, breaking them apart with the sheer force of his mass. He rose with a fury, striking some with his wings, others with his claws, and devouring others with the power of his fiery breath.
As he moved through the fray, a pale yellow force rose up from the skeletons and flowed into Aparen, giving him additional strength. Any blows that managed to cut through his savagery only caused small slices which were healed almost instantly as he continued to devour his enemies’ energy. Then finally, a great thunder rolled out through the valley and all of the remaining skeletons fell back to the muck from whence they had come.
“What is your purpose here?” a loud voice echoed through the valley.
Aparen turned about, looking for the source, but he saw nothing. The black tower that had once been visible was now gone again, hidden behind a spell. “I have come for help,” Aparen said honestly.
The voice mocked him with a cackling laugh. “You come to ask for help? Then why do you come in your true form? Do you seek my power?”
Aparen calmed his nerves and allowed himself to shift back to his human form. As it had before, it drained him of his strength and he was left feeling weak. He doubled over, breathing heavily to catch his breath. “I have no quarrel with you. I heard that you had helped another before, and I wanted to ask for your help as well.”
No answer.
Silvi turned to the direction where the tower had been. “Gondok’hr has been slain. This is Aparen, and he has taken over as patriarch of the coven.”
“Interesting,” the voice mused. “Did you slay him?”
“No,” Aparen said. “He and I share a common enemy.”
“Why should I help you?” the voice grumbled.
Aparen shrugged and looked to Silvi.
Silvi nodded and took over. “We seek only wisdom and guidance. We don’t wish to take anything from you, nor do we wish to be a burden. What price would you name for your help?”
The air before them waved and shook, as if a great reflective cloth was falling from around the tower. The top of the spire came into view, and the spell disappeared entirely a moment thereafter. A large man stood at the base. His skin was dark, almost black. His eyes were brown and fixed intently on Aparen. He wore red silk robes and a pair of green velvet shoes that had long, up curled toes that peeked out from under the robes.
“I am called Dremathor,” the man said.
“I am Aparen.”
“I know who you are,” Dremathor said. “I have been expecting you.”
Aparen furrowed his brow. “If you expected us, then why attack us with skeletons?”
Dremathor laughed and a thick, brown staff appeared in his left hand. “I have the gift of foresight. I saw two versions of your visit. In the first, you came peacefully after Gondok’hr is slain in battle by one who wields a flaming sword. In the other, you come to destroy me after killing Gondok’hr yourself and devouring his power.”
Aparen looked to Silvi. His thoughts ran wild. “But I couldn’t kill Gondok’hr,” he said.
Dremathor sneered. “Not this version of you, no,” he agreed. “Seeing that you are hardly more than a fledgling, I will answer your plea for help.” He took a couple steps closer and pointed to the amulet around Aparen’s neck. “You will give me an offering. I will take one of two things. You are free to choose which you give me.”
“You want the amulet?” Aparen asked.
Dremathor nodded. “Or, you may give me your witch. The choice is yours.”
Aparen looked to Silvi, who simply stood silently looking down at her feet. Then he slipped the amulet up over his head and offered it. “You may have the amulet,” he said.
“You don’t realize how powerful that artifact is, do you?” Dremathor mocked. “This is what Gondok’hr sought, when he came to me for help.”
“I don’t care,” Aparen said with a shrug. “You can have the amulet as long as I can keep Silvi.”
“Silvi,” Dremathor echoed with a sly sneer growing wider across his face. He held up his right hand and the amulet bolted away from Aparen to land firmly in Dremathor’s grasp. “A shadowfiend who values life above power is a rare find,” Dremathor commented.
Aparen stood firm and tried to stand tall to show confidence despite the rapidly multiplying butterflies in his stomach. “So now you will h
elp us?”
Dremathor slid the amulet around his neck. “I have one more thing to ask of you,” he said. He pointed to Silvi and a cage of black bars encapsulated her instantly. She tried to struggle against it, but she had no magic that could overpower Dremathor’s spell.
“You said I could choose!” Aparen shouted as he rushed forward. He slammed into a solid, invisible wall that knocked him on his rump.
“Calm yourself,” Dremathor said. “You can earn her back, but first you must do something for me.”
“Why should I?” Aparen shouted.
Dremathor chuckled and shook his head. “Your bravery is admirable, but if you continue to try my patience, I will destroy you. You live only because I am curious to see what you might become in the future.”
Aparen slowly stood up and brushed off his backside. He cast a glance toward Silvi, but even she was standing still and silent now. “Alright, what is it you ask of me?”
“To the north, there is a vampire. He has been terrorizing some of the local villages for the last several weeks. Normally I wouldn’t interfere, but his activities have started to encroach upon territory that I like to visit from time to time, and he is drawing attention to the area that I don’t appreciate.”
“You can’t kill a vampire?” Aparen asked.
“I can,” Dremathor countered with an impatient tone. “But I want to see if you can. If you complete this task, you will win Silvi back and I will help you.”
“And if I fail?” Aparen asked.
“Then you will not have been good enough to waste my time on, and you will be dead.”
“No,” Aparen said. “Whether I live or die, Silvi should go free.”
“That is an admirable thought, but I would not agree to such nonsense. If you want her freedom, you will have to earn it. Bring me the vampire’s black heart, and I will release her to you. Fail, and she will stay with me.”
Aparen looked to Silvi for a few seconds, staring into her desperate eyes. Then he nodded. “I have little choice. Tell me where I can find this vampire.”
“I will do better than that,” Dremathor approached Aparen slowly, deliberately. A round, red leather container appeared in the air before Aparen. “In this container, you will find a map of three villages. The vampire lives in the wilderness near these villages, but the map does not show you where exactly. You will have to hunt him.”
Aparen nodded and grasped the container. “How long do I have?”
Dremathor shrugged. “Take as long as you need. Silvi isn’t going anywhere, so if you abandon the task and run away, no one will be any wiser for it. However, if you succeed, I want you to place the vampire’s heart in the container. When you do that, it will bring you back to me.”
“The container will?”
Dremathor nodded. “It is enchanted. Go ahead, open it.”
Aparen twisted the lid and looked inside. A golden, blinding light poured out and enveloped him. His stomach flipped and lurched as he lost his footing and fell over backwards. Instead of hitting the ground, his body spun continually, never touching anything as the light whisked him away to some unknown land. An instant later he was standing in a small grove of ebony trees with green moss hanging low from the branches. The scent of pine and dirt filled his nose.
“Your task has begun,” a voice said from behind him.
Aparen turned, but no one was there. He looked down to the container and pulled the map out with his forefinger and thumb. “Alright, let’s get this over with.” He slid his left hand down to his dagger and looked around. It was dark here. The light of day had fully faded away now. What little light the half-moon gave barely sparkled above the dark trees. Not knowing which way to go, he decided to cozy up to the nearest ebony tree as best he could for the night and wait for the morning to set out on his hunt.
*****
Aparen began to stir as the morning sun broke through the branches above. He hadn’t slept well during the night, and his muscles were stiff and rigid from leaning up against the tree. Slowly he pushed himself up and stretched his arms and back. His stomach growled something fierce, reminding him that he hadn’t eaten since lunch the day before. He looked around and realized he had nothing with him except his dagger and the small container that held the map.
“Perfect,” he grumbled aloud. “In a strange land with no food or water and absolutely no idea where to go.” He looked up to observe the moss hanging from the trees. He had heard before that moss would grow predominantly on the north side of trees, but these trees were absolutely covered with the stuff, as if they had been thick webs left by careless spiders ages ago.
So he looked up, through the branches as best he could, to see the sun. It had only just come up over the horizon, so as long as he kept the sun on his right and moved quickly, he could at least be certain that he was headed north.
He set off, picking his way through the brush and clumps of thick trees, ducking under the low hanging moss that smelled both pleasant and musky at the same time. He didn’t see any animals, but he could hear birds chirping in the branches above him. The ferns bent gently away from him as he walked through. Soon he spied a blackberry bush and moved toward it, plucking the sweet fruit from the thorny vines and plopping the berries into his mouth. The first couple he crushed with his tongue, pressing them against the roof of his mouth and savoring the sweet nectar, but then he began shoveling them in as quickly as he could, hardly chewing before swallowing as he struggled to bury the rumbling sounds in his stomach with the fresh fruit. The bush was as tall as he was in most parts, some areas were even taller, sprouting thorns as big and wide as his fingernails on the thick vines. His hands became stained purple as he devoured the berries and made his way around the bush, plucking off anything within reach.
As he rounded the back side of the blackberry bush something snorted and the vines shook. Aparen paused and tried to peer around the bush to see what it was. A massive head covered with black fur rose up above the bush. A long, brown and black snout pointed up into the air, sniffing loudly before the bear looked down and locked eyes with Aparen. The round, fluffy ears almost gave the beast a cute appearance, but the boy knew better. Bears in the north were temperamental at best, and not to be trifled with.
His mind raced. What had his father always told him to do when confronted by a bear? Was he supposed to play dead, or was it try to act large and frightening?
The bear’s mouth opened and it bellowed a low warning sound as white spittle flung out from its open maw. Aparen took a step back and frowned at the animal’s hot, horrid breath. The beast then dropped down behind the bush. Aparen slowly backed away, trying to put distance between himself and the bear. The bushes and vines shook again and the bear appeared around the left side of the blackberry bush, walking on all fours and head low to the ground with its large, black eyes fixed on Aparen.
The thought came to him that he could change forms, and overpower the bear, but something kept him from doing so. Even as the bear stalked closer, he remained still. He watched the bear as it meandered side to side instead of coming directly toward him. It sniffed the air a few more times and then snorted, apparently unimpressed with what it saw, and then turned to walk off in a different direction leaving Aparen and the bush. As he watched the large animal slowly lumber away he felt a different urge come over him. If he had so easily been able to absorb the energy of each skeleton, could he also consume the power of large animals?
His left hand twitched impatiently and his desire for more power bubbled up inside of him the same way greed might overcome a man standing near an unguarded pile of jewels and gems. Another pang of hunger struck his gut just then and he looked back at the berry bush.
“Fruit alone will not sustain a man,” Aparen said. He closed his eyes and summoned his true form. The transformation happened within seconds as his limbs broke and grew, wings sprouted forth over his shoulder blades, his skin took on the pale, gray color and the hardened texture and his horns and claws e
merged from their hidden places. When he opened his eyes, he not only saw the animal before him, but also its energy swirling around it. He launched into a great leap, extending his wings and gliding over to land atop the animal’s shoulders and neck.
He pierced the bear’s thick hide with his claws and forced the creature down to the ground. It bellowed angrily and rolled its massive body over in an attempt to either throw or squish Aparen. Aparen released the beast and landed harmlessly on the ground. The bear then rose on its back feet and roared so loudly that it caused a ringing in Aparen’s head. A massive paw swung down and connected with Aparen’s left shoulder, sending him to the ground. He barely managed to escape as the bear lunged for the spot where he landed, snapping his massive jaws together.
Aparen turned and unleashed a fireball from his right hand that blew the fur clean off of the bear’s left side and seared the skin underneath. The bear growled furiously and charged in again. This time Aparen took to the air, allowing the beast to sail harmlessly underneath and then he dropped like an eagle, digging his right claws into the back of the bear’s neck while latching onto the bear’s massive skull with his left. Aparen focused on the bear’s energy as he dug in with his claws as deeply as his strength would allow.
The bear’s energy, a strong maroon aura that enveloped the animal, suddenly was drawn toward the beast’s head. The animal lost its strength, collapsing onto the ground. Its back muscles twitched and quivered. Then, the beast exhaled loudly and the dark energy released from its forehead to be absorbed by Aparen’s hand. It flowed into him warmly, strengthening his limbs and expanding his mind. When it was over, he cleaned the beast using his dagger and then he roasted it with magical fire before eating his fill of the grilled, savory meat.
Mind and body now fed to the brim, he was ready to continue his hunt.
As he changed back into his human form he did not feel weak like he had before. He felt normal, or possibly even stronger than normal. He looked back to the half-eaten carcass and smiled as he now realized there had been no reason for him to fear an animal of the forest. He was now a master over such beings, and the bounds were limitless to what he might become.
