by P. G. Thomas
He replied very quietly, “This is why I sent students out. Something here does not feel right.”
John nodded in agreement, wishing they had gone to Alron, so that he could have retrieved his first cloak, but they continued down the path.
“Mirtza, do you recognize anything?” asked Lauren.
“I was following your voice, Earth Mother Ironhouse.”
“Don’t call me that.”
With his eyes, he pointed to the Granite Guardian, who rode the blood wolf in front of them. “That would be disrespectful, Earth Mother Ironhouse.”
“Fine.”
Mirtza stopped, pointed, “There, is that your tree?”
“Where?”
He went to the front, “There was a path around here somewhere.” When he realized what he was doing, he stopped and returned immediately to Gayne, who was standing in the middle of the group. “Keep looking, we’ll find it.”
“Tree with a hole in it, I can see it,” replied Eric, standing on his toes.
Continuing to move to the west, Lauren eventually turned down what almost resembled a path, and seeing the large tree with the hole, which she had crawled into so long ago, she remembered the dreams, the love. “Here it is.”
The group followed her voice, arriving at a large clearing, and in the middle of it, a thick tree with a large hole carved into its base.
“So what now?” asked Lauren.
“To be honest,” replied John, “I was hoping you would know what to do, like the last time. Do you see anything that might be a new staff or similar?”
Everybody walked around, testing all of the trees, but they snapped off in their hands.
Frustrated, Lauren asked, “What now?”
“I don’t—try crawling into the tree?”
Lauren walked over, remembered the Earth Mother after she had crawled into hers. Mother, I could use a little bit of help right now. Crawling into the open cavity, after twenty minutes, she called out, “Is this long enough, my legs are starting to cramp?”
John reluctantly asked, “Anything?”
“Yes, leg cramps, and they’re starting to hurt. It wasn’t like this last time.”
“Let’s go see if Logan can find Sister,” advised John.
“First, can he help this sister out? I’m not as nimble as I used to be.”
“Last time, you were smaller,” and then Logan grabbed Lauren by the hips, helping her out.
“Bastard, are you saying I’m fat?”
“Not one yet, so let’s go find my benches.”
Logan and John, leading the group, found the path, and two of the Granite Guardians started riding their blood wolves to the east. Lauren with Ryan appeared next, then Mirtza and Gayne. Steve with Eric, being the last to step onto the path, never heard the two Guardians emerge on their red-eyed mounts behind them.
John turned back to the group, “Keep your eyes open for anything strange.”
Steve turned to Eric, whispered, “Wouldn’t it be easier to point out things that looked normal, as everything in this place is strange.”
Walking nervously along the path, everybody reached out to touch the various leaves or trees, but all crumbled or broke in their hands. They had been walking for thirty minutes or more, but the overcast sky and dark forest had engulfed them in a shadow of frustration and depression, so nobody had noticed several of the guardians slip into the forest.
“What’s that mean?” asked Steve.
Eric scanned the forest, “What?”
“Those marks on your sword, they’re glowing,” then a cold shiver ran down Steve’s back, and he stopped, “like when that trollmare attacked—”
“John,” Eric called out, “I think we have a problem.”
From around them, they heard a series of sounds getting closer. Eric turned to the Granite Guardians behind him, who were now missing. The ones in front had stopped, dismounted, causing everybody to halt.
Suddenly, from the forest, they heard sounds of blood wolves growling and snapping at an unseen opponent, but the most disturbing was an unnatural howl. Dead trees began to shake from unseen collisions, and from the size of the trees, they all knew it had a significant size. More howls, snarls, and growls sounded from the forest, and none were sure what they should do, if anything at all.
Hearing a twig snap behind him, Steve turned. It looked like a mountain lion had mated with a porcupine, being cat shaped, but its body was covered in spikes. Over four feet tall at the shoulder, having teeth so large that it was unable to close its mouth. Claws so long, they were unable to retract into the massive paws. Crouched, ready to pounce, he never had time to warn Eric. Pushing him out of the way with his right hand, he unsheathed the long sword with the other. Even though it was his wrong hand, he slashed at the beast to get its attention. Spinning around, avoiding a tree, he stepped behind it, being uncertain of which side the strange creature would appear. Unexpectedly, two huge paws hugged the tree, and thinking its prey had hidden behind it, the creature drove its long claws into the thick bark. Steve, dropping the long sword, reached to his back unsheathing the two short swords, driving them into the massive paws. Picking up his first sword, he went to the far side of the tree, and with both hands, swung the dwarf-forged steel into the beast, severing the head from the body. Walking to the other side, pulling out the two shorter swords, the headless body fell to the ground, and he replaced the short swords into the diagonal sheaths on his back.
Eric looked at the beast, “You okay?”
“Yeah, but we need to get out of here!”
When they returned to the path, the group had gathered close together, but only two mounted Granite Guardians protected the eight. Gayne was on his knees with his open satchel in front of him, and in his hands, the magic bat amulets. He waved the platinum ring over them, issuing his command, “Find threats.”
John looked around, “How much farther to those benches?”
All heard the fear in Logan’s voice, “I don’t know.”
Ryan, knowing that Logan would need the magic from Sister to help find his daughters, prodded them on. “Maybe there’s only one, and the dwarves will kill it.”
Then, just as quick as they started, the forest battles ended, and the four Granite Guardians, all smiling, rode their wolves back to the path, covered in blood and gore. Their unconventional weapons, although, still had glowing blue runes warning of threats.
“John, there are too many!” It was Gayne. “They all found trollmares. A dozen or more are still out there.” He waved his hands over the bats, turning them into gold amulets, and stuffed them into his pocket.
The Granite Guardian, who held Heart of Earth Mother, turned to the group pointing to the road, before leaping onto his blood wolf and riding past them. Having only traveled thirty feet before he stopped, two other Granite Guardians raced past on their mounts. They heard noises deeper in the forest, getting closer, and heading in their direction.
“THE PORTAL, NOW!” ordered John.
Having already retrieved the stone of Alron’s statue, Gayne dropped it through the bracelet hole. Facing the south side of the path, the ring floated off, stabilized, and he was the first one through it, followed quickly by Mirtza. The others raced to it, Lauren calling out to the Guardians, who rapidly turned their mounts to the exit, but they waited until the eight were through before charging their wolves into the sanctuary provided.
As they all appeared in Alron, stumbling over each other, they all breathed a sigh of relief. However, it was short lived, as shouts of ‘MOVE, TROLLMARE ATTACK,’ were the unexpected welcoming calls.
Chapter 10
Upon hearing the alarmed shouts, the group quickly moved to the other side of the statue as forty armed soldiers ran straight towards them, showing no intention of avoiding them.
From the other side of the statue, they watched the group pass by. Lauren, her voice intense, turned to John, “What the hell is happening here?”
“I can answer that on
e already,” replied a smiling Logan.
Expecting the Town Watch, John had presumed somebody would raise an alarm when they magically appeared, especially with the six unique dwarves and their mounts, but he had never anticipated being the one surprised. Recognizing someone running toward the east gate, he stepped into the street, “RAMY?”
The captain of Alron’s Town Watch stopped at the sound of his name, “John?” He scanned the group, “Lauren, I mean, Earth Mother, Ryan—” Then a second alarm sounded. “I have no time to talk right now. Can any of you help?”
John stepped forward, “We just—”
Ramy interrupted, “Yes or no?”
“No.”
“Ryan, what about you? Or should I call you Unnamed?”
“They gave me a new title.”
He nodded, scanning the events quickly unfolding around him, watching the various groups of soldiers running to their posts, “I heard that somewhere, what is it? Raw Farts?”
Ryan’s eyes went wide, “Rage Heart!”
“Right now, names and titles do not mean crap. Can you help?”
Looking to the ground, Ryan shook his head,
“Then stay out of the way,” and they watched him run to the east but gave chase. When Ramy arrived at the gate, climbing up a ladder, he began examining the events happening beyond the wall.
As the rest arrived, they noticed six gigantic towers mounted against the walls, and on top of each sat a giant crossbow, having a span of twenty feet. Sitting at the back was an elf, and underneath him, two dwarves moved it from side to side, and two more to raise or lower it, standing at its flank. Lining the walls, elf archers stood, and mixed in with them were plain-dressed young men, some resembling children. At the gate, one hundred mithril-armed dwarves stood ready.
The elves sitting at the crossbow seats were screaming into a funnel, giving east-west directions and elevation changes. Then, with a great shudder, one of the huge crossbows would fire. After the bolt had been discharged, six dwarves would turn a wheel, which pulled the bowstring back, resulting in another bolt falling into place from the rack mounted to the side. As the action increased, elves screamed to load them faster, and the regular archers started to launch arrows at unseen opponents. Then the young men cupped their hands, creating balls of fire that they shot into the sky.
Logan smiled. My Bastards.
For twenty minutes the battle beyond the walls raged on, and then Ramy screamed, “ONE’S GETTING THROUGH, GET IT, NOW!” All of the crossbows quickly repositioned, fired, “YOU MISSED, RELOAD! TAKE YOUR TIME AND AIM TRUE!”
Lauren and John ran to the ladder, but Ramy seeing it, called to the dwarfs, “Keep them down there!”
Five rushed forward, blocking their way.
John raised his Ironhouse ring to them.
One of the dwarves, who wore his ring on the middle finger, raised his to John, which he then extended straight up.
Unexpectedly, a round of cheers broke out from those on the walls, which soon echoed throughout Alron.
Ramy pulled a metal horn from his belt, blowing into it three times, and outside the wall, vines that covered the road to the fort began to withdraw to the sides. “We have heads that need chopping so go make vulture food.” The gates opened, and ninety-five dwarves rushed out as he called to the five dwarves, “Let them up,”
The dwarves moved away from the ladder, heading out of the gate. When Lauren arrived at the top, she was completely surprised at what she saw. The front of Alron was no longer a large open space, and instead, one hundred feet away, there was an enormous earthen wall with sharpened spikes facing outwards. In front of it, a deep, wide ditch that also had the same. In front of both, an unusual assortment of trees and mixed plants, both in size and appearance now grew.
The group watched the dwarves attack the struggling beasts, which numbered almost twenty, as they thrashed in agonizing pain, and they saw the dwarves remove the heads from the misshapen bodies.
Pointing to one at the far right, “They missed that one,” advised John.
Ramy looked to the elf beside him, who nodded, “We can’t get to it because of the wasp nest it hit.”
Lauren pointed to one further out, “What about that one?”
“Turtle food, they eat the head first” replied Ramy. He turned around, “Call the Earth Mothers because we have dwarves that need healing. Go get em, boys.”
Turning around, they saw a dozen wagons race out the gate heading towards the battered dwarves, who were now hobbling back to the road. They watched as the attendants gently helped the struggling dwarves onto the flat wagons, and when full, raced back as quickly as they could.
Ramy, rubbing the palms of his hands into his eyes, tried to push the tears back, “Bravest damn thing I have ever seen. Breaks my heart every time, and I have seen it repeated too often. However, if you leave their heads on, the bloody things just hobble away and heal. I have no idea on how the dwarves can go out into that suffering every time I ask.” He turned around, called to a runner, “Tell Pintar the dwarves are drinking tonight, and to put it on my tab.”
“What’s happening here?” asked John.
“Just doing my job.”
Logan, walking around the wall, hugged the Bastards who he had met so long ago.
Steve looked over the wall, “Sons of bitches! This makes one of my tours look like they were a goddamn fairy tale.”
The wagons, carrying the injured dwarves, were arriving at the gate, and when she climbed down, Lauren saw two faces she thought would remain memories: Nur and Gingaar. She walked over to them, “Can I help?”
Nur was the reason that Zack had stayed in Calicon. Not only had he fallen in love, but also they had also started a family together. She was a half-elf, standing almost five feet tall, and if not for her deer ears, one might think she was a midlander, other than her large green eyes. However, the signs of motherhood were evident, as cooking for a family had added a few pounds. When they first met, Nur was an Earth Daughter, who with an Earth Bond had helped to stop a major fight when the Town Watch tried to arrest Lauren.
Gingaar was a typical elf, having jet black hair and eyes, familiar deer ears, and just over four feet tall. When they first met at Ironhouse, she was a timid elf who shadowed the elfin Earth Mother. Although, at seventy-five years old, she was well beyond the normal age of when girls were first called to serve Mother, but no matter how much instruction she received, her gift never blossomed, but when John, Eric, Mirtza, and Zack had been captured, it was Gingaar who had unknowingly healed most. Her gift finally recognized by John, who made the sensory connection of bare feet on the ground, that allowed her to heal Lauren and Logan before the final battle had been lost. When finally proclaimed an Earth Mother, she never considered herself worthy, but she soon came to realize there was none that she was unable to heal.
Gingaar turned with her eyes wide. “I prayed to Mother for help, but I did not expect that she would bring you here.”
Nur, hearing a voice she recognized, ran over and hugged Lauren. “Earth Mother, you are back, really back! Thank you, Mother,” and then the tears flowed from her, like water droplets from a melting icicle on a warm winter’s day.
“She didn’t, but let me help. I don’t have my staff anymore, so you’ll need to instruct me.”
Gingaar lifted up a large wooden chest, pulled out a drawer, “Rub these berries on wounds like this.”
Grabbing a handful, she went looking for the wounds as instructed.
John looked to Ramy, “What the hell’s happening here?”
“I asked Zack about that place you called Hell since I heard it enough times and was curious. Zack, well, he told me it was a place that you never wanted to visit. So, John, welcome to Hell, and I hope your damn visit is short. I have injured to look after so we will talk later.”
John, hearing a familiar squawk, turned as a bald eagle landed on a nearby building, which jumped forward, shimmered, and a naked Zack was looking at Ramy, �
��Something is happening to the north.”
He was as John remembered; his upper body a strange quilted pattern of mixed furs, both short and long, which had continued to grow, so that it was impossible to tell where one ended and the other began. There was the obvious: polar bear, skunk, porcupine, wolf, and over a dozen more. His right arm was covered in snake skin, and he could see the feathers that grew out of his back. On that fateful day, Zack had been working on a biology project in the bus, gluing furs and animal skins to a plastic case. With his open window, the resulting flames had melded the plastic and furs to his body. When the world encountered so much mixed DNA, it was uncertain of what the creature actually was, so it healed them all, and he gained the ability to morph into the various animal shapes, which the magic had spliced into his body. Even though the mass of DNA had confused the magic, it was able to distinguish between clothes and body, so whenever he transformed, his clothes stayed behind, but it was obvious that it no longer bothered him. “Zack?”
“John, what the hell?” Then he scanned the group, “Raw Farts, nice to see you.”
Ryan rolled his eyes, “Bastard.”
“Where?” asked Logan.
Ramy grabbed Zack by his naked hairy chest, “What’s happening in the north?”
“I don’t know.”
Lauren instantly turned to John.
Zack continued, “I saw three strange trollmares, but when I circled back, all I saw were three piles of dirt.”
Ramey pulled the horn from his belt, blowing it twice, and then they felt the ground begin to shake, “Self this is new.”
As they turned, three sinkholes unexpectedly appeared on the main street, and from each, a trollmare crawled out. They watched the odd creatures extract themselves from their dirt passages, moving on eight legs, with a back that looked like armor plating. Being three feet tall, they were also the same in width, measuring ten feet long. They had a mouth that was almost two feet wide, and when it opened, all could see the rows of sharp teeth inside. Regaining their orientation, the strange beast rapidly moved towards the east gate, and directly in their path, the wagons with injured dwarves that Lauren was helping to administer aid.
