Bearballs would have wanted to redress this imbalance by challenging Titania to a fight, but he couldn’t do that at this time. We were on an important mission that could save the clan, duels between party members would never be allowed, lest injury impair our progress. So, Bearballs got back at Titania the only way he could.
“Here you go, Isaac. All done,” said Bearballs as he walked back over and made to return the empty bowl.
Having just received her food, Titania was still standing there. As Bearballs passed near Titania, he pretended to trip on a rock and stumbled forward into her.
The bump was minor, but it did its job. Struck in the back, Titania and more importantly the bowl she held jerked forward, whereas the soup in that bowl did not.
The entire volume of soup splashed onto Titania’s poncho like outer cloak. Titania’s reaction was immediate. She lifted the front bottom edge of the cloak, quickly forming a bowl like depression halfway down her chest that caught the spilt soup, preventing it from running down and making a mess out of everything.
“What the hell!”
You would have expected the one wronged to be the one complaining but Titania simply stood there carefully containing the mess. It was Rose who made the outburst.
Rose set aside her half-eaten soup and stomped over to confront Bearballs.
“What? Accidents happen,” Bearballs claimed.
“What did he say?” Rose asked me. I translated for her.
“Oh please, you did that on purpose,” said Rose.
“Let it go,” Titania sighed, shocking Rose. Titania should be mad, she should be up for a fight.
“See, she knows it was an accident. Oops my bad. I, Bearballs will try to be more bear and less balls in the future.” He quickly deposited his empty bowl on the ground next to me and scurried away.
Titania carefully manipulated her cloak and her bowl to return the pool of spilled soup to its proper place. Then she simply strode off as of this whole matter had concluded.
“Hey, Titania, don’t you need something to eat?” Rose asked, chasing after her.
“I have something to eat.” Titania gestured to the bowl she was holding.
“What are you talking about? That stuff is ruined. I’m sure Isaac can give you a fresh batch.” Rose looked to me, I nodded in agreement.
I’d intentionally sized the portions specifically to finish the pot. There was only a single portion left, but I could always get something else, it wasn’t as if it took much effort.
As for the condition of Titania’s salvaged soup, her cloak was weatherproof so little of the soup had seeped in and due to her quick reactions, almost all of it was returned. However, while the cloak didn’t have mud or anything caked on it, this wasn’t Earth where clothing was washed after a single day of use. I wouldn’t be surprised if it had been a week since it’d last been cleaned. There were probably a number of nasty contaminants in the soup.
“No thanks. Trust me I have had far worse,” said Titania, refusing the offer.
“But...” Rose continued.
“It’s fine, let it go,” I told Rose as I nodded my head in understanding.
“What? Why?” Rose asked.
“It’s an Othan thing,” I explained. “They care a great deal about wasting food, so Titania won’t just throw it out. It’ll make her look worse than Bearballs. What he did could have been an accident but Titania would be choosing to throw out food many in Doraga are desperate for.”
“I guess that sort of makes sense,” said Rose, calming down a bit though not entirely. She still didn’t like the overall situation, neither did I. “Thanks. Now come on. Eat with me.”
I lost myself in Rose’s giggly smile and accidentally burned myself with the hot soup I served myself before I followed Rose to her spot next to the fire.
We both ate. Rose finished relatively quickly but that was okay because it allowed her to take the lead in our discussion of the exciting flight we’d just experienced. Much of the flight had been too dark for Rose to see the landscape but she still enjoyed the clear night sky and the burgeoning light of the early morning.
“Not bad,” Wy-1 said to his brother.
“Yeah,” Wy-2 agreed. “I am glad we got the food before it went cold. The Fallen girl’s intentions are pure.
“Yeah, shame that nothing I have seen indicates she belongs here,” said Wy-1. Othans didn’t put much stock in kindness, a bit was okay because it promoted trust and team unity but too much was a liability. Sometimes cruel things need to be done.
“We have not seen anything of her ability yet, but that does not even really matter at this point. From the way she lets Bearballs beat on her, she does not have the nerve necessary for what we are trying to do,” said Wy-2.
“Yes,” Wy-1 agreed.
The two brothers were close to where Rose and I were seated near the fire. We both heard their conversation. With the two brothers, there were at least three in the group that looked poorly upon Titania.
“We need to give her a heads up,” whispered Rose, looking towards Titania who’d decided to take her meal a dozen yards away from everyone else situated near the fire.
“Yeah,” I nodded. I set down my bowl, I was finished anyway, and the two of us walked over to Titania.
“Hmmm.” Titania looked up as we approached.
“We came to give you some advice,” I explained. We told her about Wy-1 and Wy-2 and suggested that she try to stand up for herself more and to push back against Bearballs’ antics.
Titania remained quiet, almost defensively withdrawn as she heard all of this. I couldn’t help but notice this behavior, it was strange for her. The quiet part wasn’t but before she’d always have a look of hard forthrightness like she was ready to take on whatever came at her, but now it looked like she wanted to curl up and hide in a corner or outright disappear. I realized she’d been this way since we’d met back up briefly in Doraga and wondered if something had happened to her on my friends’ journey. If something had, why hadn’t Rose mentioned it? I was missing something.
Even after we delivered the advice, Titania remained nonresponsive.
“What do you think about all that?” I asked, prompting Titania to respond.
“I do not think I can do those things?” Titania finally answered.
“Why? We are just asking you to be more like your rough and rugged normal self,” said Rose. Apparently, I wasn’t the only one who noticed Titania’s change in behavior. “If things carry on like this the others might force you out of the group.”
“I am not sure that is a bad thing,” said Titania.
“What… what do you mean?” Rose was shocked. I wasn’t far behind her.
“I do not know if I belong here with the rest of you. You two and Zelus can wield magic and the rest are elite clansmen while I’m just…” Titania sighed.
“I don’t understand why you’re being like this,” said Rose. “You’re always so calm and certain. You led us through beastman territory all the way to Doraga alone. We wouldn’t have been able to do that without you. I don’t see how anything has changed. We are still traveling through rough terrain. We still need your help.”
“You have others to guide you now, others better than me. How useless I have been is proof of this. I agree that I put on a brave face so good that I sometimes tricked myself, but now I see how weak I am,” said Titania.
Titania cast her gaze towards a distant mountain, by far the largest in the area. Her eyes faded over as if she were reminiscing over something, not really paying attention to Rose who continued to probe Titania for a better answer.
“I think the only way you could understand is if I explain how I got here. You already know I am from the Othal Confederation, but I never told you how I ended up this way,” said Titania.
“Oh, very well,” said Rose, as if she were frustrated her cajoling was being put off for something else. I didn’t understand why she was being like that. I for one was quite interested i
n hearing Titania’s backstory.
“Go ahead, whenever you’re ready,” I said.
“I grew up in the shadows of the Dragonmount, as the offspring of clansmen of what at the time was Nest,” Titania began. Her very first sentence, caught me off guard. She’d come from Nest so technically we were in her old backyard. No wonder she’d been depressed, we were crossing through the remnants of her destroyed homeland that also happened to be where she’d lost everything.
“My parents were a hawkman and hawkwoman, so they were considered moderately talented and served the clan well. Because of Nest’s relatively mountainous terrain, flying forms are even more desirable than they are in most other clans. All children in Nest dreamed of the day they will go out and get their wings, dreamed of the day they will leave the ground and take to the infinite freedom of the sky.”
“Of course, above all others, the most desired flier was the king of the skies, the wyvern, which made its roosts only on the highest mountain peaks.”
“I was no different than any other of my age, I too dreamed of flying, and I too was foolish enough to believe myself one of the best, believe that I too could become a wyvern, like those two over there,” Titania nodded towards Wy-1 and Wy-2.
I’d known that Titania had a thing for flying. One of the first times we’d interacted was because she’d wanted a copy of my flying claws, an electromagnetic artifact that could be used to swing between buildings in Crystalpeak like Spiderman. It wasn’t flying, but it was close. Thinking about them, I made a note to make a new artifact for Titania in the same vein as my gravity spear when I had the time. Then she could really fly.
“So, when I was seventeen and my Blood Moon came, a wyvern was precisely what I sought. Like many Nest youths, the moment I drank from the blessed goblet, I was scaling the Dragonmount. There were only two mountains with wyverns close enough to the village to make it in the three-day time limit. The village was already halfway up the Dragonmount so even though reaching the top was more difficult, it could be done faster, leaving more time for hunting.”
“I thought myself lucky when I set off. The conditions were about as close to perfect as could be hoped for. The skies were clear, the wind was strong but consistent, much better than its normal variable gale forces, and best of all the season was perfect. It was late fall/early winter so the first snowfall had not come, yet the wyverns had gone into hibernation.”
“I quickly hiked my up the mountain, making my way to the 2200 foot cliff face that separated the normally traversed parts of the Dragonmount from the wyverns’ roost at the summit. The hundred or so youths seeking a wyvern began to scale the cliff face.”
“I climbed through the evening and a bit into the following morning, not stopping until I found a spider cactus. It was not tasty but they provided the sustenance one needs to continue. Without the cactuses growing on the cliff, you would have to find a way to make the climb while carrying water, which would waste a lot of time and energy if not rendering the path impossible.”
“After my feast, I found a large ledge and slept. That first evening was a short one since the ceremony had taken up the first half of it, but I still made it about a quarter of the way up. I knew that with an early start and a bit of luck I could reach the top by the next sunrise leaving me with a day and a half to hunt down a dozing wyvern.”
“I woke late in the afternoon. It was then that I took my first good look at how everyone else was doing. Of the hundred or so competitors I saw as I began my climb, only half were still attempting the accent. Many of the others had poor luck in finding spider cactuses or realized the climb was going to be harder than they had imagined and turned back. In either case, they had to cut their losses and climb back down. They still had time to find a different beastform, but their hunt for a wyvern was over.”
“Unfortunately, not all failed climbers went into a peaceful surrender. I also saw a score of bodies splattered around the cliff’s base. Twenty had fallen to their deaths.”
“A part of me wanted to give up then and there. In the years since, I have wished I had done just that. But at the time, I did not want to make all the time and effort I had already spent go to waste.”
“I continued climbing and everything went well at first. I quickly made my way about three quarters of the way up. Even in the relatively bright light of the full moon, I could no longer see the ground below but only my slowly approaching destination above. Hard exertion over an extended period drenched my entire body in sweat. This included my hands and fingertips.”
“At just the wrong moment, as I was repositioning one of my legs to a higher foothold, those sweaty hands slipped. I slapped my hands furiously against the rock wall, trying to regain my hold elsewhere, but I found no last ditch salvation. I fell.”
“I do not remember what happened next but there is no mystery. I hit my head going down. When I woke, it turned out I did not fall over a thousand feet to the ground and my death. Instead, I had fallen thirty feet, where I hit a ledge.”
“It was around noon and I could still see the last couple climbers nearing the summit, the rest had presumably finished one way or another. I was not too late, not technically. If there were still people climbing, I still had twelve hours to make it to the top and hunt a wyvern. My time was running out, but I knew it was still possible.”
“I resumed my climb, pushing my body to its limits, ignoring the pain of my overdrawn muscles and lingering injuries. I knew that at any point one mistake and I could fall again, probably to my death, but I still made one risky maneuver after another to speed my ascent. I had no time to play it safe and frankly, in my mind running out of time was just as bad as slipping. Remember, I grew up being taught to despise all the Fallen, that their upbringing was a waste of clan resources and an embarrassment to their families. I did not want to go that route.”
“I am still somewhat proud of that last ditch rushed climb. In some regards, I think of it as my best performance, before or since. I had everything working together. My body was strong and steady, my mind fast and flexible. I suppose it is a shame that it is also a moment so tainted by how things ended up that I do my best to avoid thinking about it... About everything around those few days.”
“But I seem to have gotten off topic. Let me continue. About two hours after sundown, I dragged myself over the final ledge. I had made it to the top. Even so, I could not relax, could not celebrate. The job was only half done.”
“The blessing from the Blood Moon Ceremony lasts precisely three days. Since it had taken place around midnight, that gave me three or four hours to find a wyvern, kill it and eat its heart. Fortunately, the top of the Dragonmount was not large. It would not take long to find anything.”
“I swept my eyes across the area, looking for any signs of my competitors or the caves in which wyverns dwelt. In this stage, it was important to be aware of the others. Many would die fighting over access.”
“I saw no one around me, but I did see a set of dark caverns, the famed wyvern dens. I could not enter yet, not unarmed. So, I quickly went through the standard procedure of fashioning a weapon on Dragonmount’s peak.”
“I found two stones, each roughly half the size of my head and pounded one against the other until the rock I pounded split on both sides to form a sharp edge. Such an implement is not great, but for something like the Blood Moon it was good enough.”
“Up to this point, I thought it strange I had not run across any of the other competitors. I should, at the very least, have seen those who were successful as they left in the sky. I should have noticed it then, but I was in too much of a rush.”
“I entered the den feeling ready for everything. I guess I do not have the best imagination. It was not long before I heard a voice coming from deeper in the cave. It seemed like the voice was talking to itself, complaining about being tasked with ‘this dirty job’ and debating with itself on how best to ‘clear up this mess.’”
I approached slowly and carefu
lly, keeping quiet and close to the walls to reduce the chance of being spotted. About 50 feet in, I found the source of the voice. It was a fully armed and armored beastman. All around him were scores of young naked bodies, all the competitors who’d succeeded in the climb. I watched in horror as the armored beastman continued to go about what he was doing, strapping the bodies together into a large mass.”
“I now understood what I had overheard. The ‘dirty job’ was the act of killing all the competitors and the ‘mess’ that needed cleaning up was the disposal of the bodies. The large mass of bound bodies might have been too much for a person to move but it would be a simple matter for some beastforms. I knew what the murderer would do next. He would leave and would be headed straight towards me.”
“We were taught to prepare for everything and remain steadfast in every scenario, but forgive my young self, I panicked. I quickly turned to leave, I needed to get out of there fast, and in my rush, I accidently kicked a small stone. The stone ricocheted off the cave walls back towards the entrance. Each strike was not very loud but in the dead silence of the cave, it did not take much to be a giveaway.”
“I knew I did not have a chance sneaking out now, so I gave up all such pretense and made a mad dash for the exit. Seconds later, I heard a roar of realization from behind me as the murderer began his pursuit. I was out of the cave in seconds and at the cliff’s edge not long thereafter. The moment I was there, I jumped off.”
“I knew I did not have the time to carefully scale down but was not foolish enough to believe I could survive falling all the way down. I kept close to the side of the cliff and was caught on a narrow ledge twenty feet down. I felt my stomach press down against my bladder as my legs did their best to absorb the impact.”
“It hurt like hell but as far as I could tell I was intact, which was a good thing since it was not long before I aimed and repeated the performance. Over and over, I leapt down the Dragonmount in 20-30 foot increments. Pain and bruises built up, multiple falls does that, but I could not stop. I could hear the clang of metal behind me, I was still being pursued.”
The Ice Lands Page 27
