Elf Mastery

by Bryant Reil

  Kyla turned to see where the mammoth was taking her. It was difficult to focus as she was bouncing up and down in the howdah. It wasn't painful, as it was well cushioned, but she had a hard time orienting her head and feet in the directions they were supposed to be pointing.

  It occurred to Kyla, briefly, that an elf girl bouncing around on the back of a mammoth while being chased by a dwarf on a pig was a wonderful addition to the already comic scenario, but fear had come back and was ruining the humor.

  She managed to brace herself against the back of the howdah and peered behind to see Dunkin racing behind, zigging and zagging around boulders and bushes which the mammoth had trampled over with ease. Yet despite the mammoth's great size and more direct path the pig was gaining. Kyla didn't know how to speed up or steer the mammoth and watched helplessly as Dunkin closed in. He tossed his Lug-rock aside, and though the momentum carried it bouncing forward, it soon changed direction and rolled back toward Lug's remains. Dunkin stood in his saddle as the pig approached. Kyla watched as the pig pulled up alongside the mammoth, and Dunkin squared himself next to the howdah's strap that wound below the mammoth's belly. She quickly looked for something she might throw at him to dislodge him from his mount, but besides her bag, which she was loathe to part with, there was nothing but soft pillows. She did attempt to throw one of these but the rush of air sent it backward.

  In a remarkable feat of athleticism Dunkin leaped from the pig's back, grabbed the strap of the howdah and started scrambling up the side of the mammoth. Kyla, both impressed and afraid, threw her bag over her shoulder, grabbed the howdah strap on the opposite side and started to climb down. It was difficult, as the mammoth jostled as it ran, but her childhood years of climbing trees were not wasted and she managed to reach the mammoth's belly. It was still a bit of a drop; not so much she would be afraid of making the leap normally, but the rough, rocky ground and the speed at which she was moving made her think the landing was going to be rather painful. Fortune smiled on her as the pig, still running alongside the mammoth, crossed under its belly. She supposed she could drop herself onto its back, take the reins, and ride back to Lug's location.

  And land in the saddle she did. Fortune was fickle, however, and though the pig was much smaller than the mammoth he bucked much harder, and so Kyla was sent sprawling along the rocky ground. It was as painful as might be expected. She came to rest in a shrub which had already dropped its leaves but had its thorns quite intact.

  Kyla lay disoriented for a moment, but a trumpet blast shocked her mind back into focus. She heard Dunkin shouting in Dwarven, though she couldn't see the mammoth through the trees (though the path it had taken was clearly marked by broken branches, crushed shrubbery and broken saplings). She scrambled to her feet and ran through the shrubs toward the mountains.

  It didn't take too long to break through to a shallow stream. The water was low, so she was able to cross easily. However, there was no cover mid-stream so she hurried to the other side and hid behind a small tree. She could still hear Dunkin shouting in the distance, accompanied by occasional blasts from the mammoth. She wondered if she should go back to find Lug but feared crossing the stream bed again. She knew Lug would be fine, and hoped he wouldn't worry, but she decided she wanted to survive and so quietly made her way through the trees toward the mountain.

  It was half an hour to the nearest base. The trees stopped far short of what should have been the tree line. The mountain protruded from the ground so steeply she doubted she could climb it, and was surrounded by boulders. It looked as though part of the mountain had once collapsed and crushed the surrounding forest. There was nothing growing on it now; it stood out on the landscape like a great monolith. She supposed there must be a cave or doorway, as the Digans likely lived underground, but she could see nothing from here, so she climbed onto the pile of rubble and began bounding from rock to rock, hoping that luck might play its part.

  Kyla was disappointed when luck finally did show up, but was playing for the other team. Dunkin charged through the trees standing on the mammoth's head, holding the ears and using them to steer the great beast. The mammoth did not appear to enjoy this arrangement. Nor did Kyla. She panicked and bounded toward the monolithic mountain, hoping the mammoth wouldn't be able to cross the rocky terrain. Sure enough it stopped as it arrived at the field of boulders. Dunkin shouted at the beast and yanked its ears, but the mammoth reared and let out another great blast. Whatever pain Dunkin was inflicting could not convince the creature to risk the unstable terrain. The mammoth turned to run the other way, forcing Dunkin to leap off.

  Kyla didn't know if Dunkin could shadow travel like Linkin, but doubted it or else he would have already done so. She was relieved at first, as he gingerly tested the stability of each stone and made slow progress, but then he started pitching rocks at her and she had to try to take cover behind larger boulders. Occasionally she would hear a loud cry in Dwarven and hoped Dunkin's frustration was a sign that he might give up the chase.

  Then she heard another voice. She couldn't understand the words but she recognized Linkin. Her heart beat faster. She quickly drew her light orb from her bag, hoping to keep the area around her well lit enough he couldn't sneak up on her through the shadows, but she found that scrambling over the boulders with one hand was slowing her down more than it was helping. She looked back to see Linkin flitting from boulder to boulder. The patches of shadow were small and irregular, so there was no direct route to Kyla, but he was outpacing her progress. Behind she could see Dunkin shaking his fist and yelling at Linkin, who had a smug expression and occasional maniacal laugh.

  Kyla surveyed the rocks ahead, mapping the route with the fewest shadows. She was so focused on escape she forgot to be afraid, and soon circled to the end of the boulder field. An old stony path led along the edge, peppered with loose stone, and led into a tall but narrow crevasse in the side of a steep cliff. She quickly turned and saw no sign of Linkin. Hiding wouldn't be easy, for if she crept into the shadows Linkin might spring on her at any time. As she had no other choice, and as this was likely the entrance to the Digan's home, she hoped she might be able to find some help inside. She ran for the opening, holding her light aloft, but before she arrived she saw a flash of darkness along the line of a crack which extended right up to the top of the cliff. Linkin had found a route over the mountain. She was able to reach the cave before him, and lit the entrance with her orb. But it was too late. Linkin had already caught up, and grinned from the mouth of the cave.

  “Dunkin thought he should be the one to kill you! You never hurt him though, did you? No. It was the other one. The air spirit. You hurt me, though!”

  “Why can't you just leave me alone?” Kyla shouted. “I don't even have that stupid rubbing with me!”

  Linkin clicked his tongue. “You're making Erebus change his plans. Well, not change them. Delay them. I told you this would happen. Now we have to deal with the cold dark. But I still want the rubbing. That's why I had to catch you first, when I found out you were coming here. You'll never defeat Erebus. But I can release Chaos. End this. End everything. Nothing more to worry about. No more running. No more fear. Don't you want that?”

  Kyla was confused. “Don't you work for Erebus?”

  “Well, yes. No. I do what he tells me, yes. He didn't tell me to come here. To come after you. He said don't worry about it just yet. Change of plans, you see.” Linkin started moving forward slowly as he spoke.

  “Stop it!” Kyla held the light orb in front of her and started to back away.

  “I don't want to hurt you. Even though you hurt me. We can work together, see? You see? You give me the rubbing. I'll give it to Erebus. He'll go back to the original plan. He doesn't want a war. He only wants darkness. Chaos, Order, doesn't matter to him. He'll awaken Chaos, if he can; if we give him the means. And we can end all of this. No more misery. No more fear. No more.”

  “I already told you I don't have it with me!”

  “I know
, but I can protect you from Dunkin. He's strong but he's stupid, you see? Then you can get the rubbing and bring it to...”

  A silhouette appeared in the mouth of the cave. “Stupid, am I?” Dunkin growled. “What are you doing here anyway, you twit?” Dunkin walked up to Linkin and shoved him to the ground. He shouted something in Dwarven, and Linkin shrank back against the cavern wall. Dunkin started toward Kyla, who turned to run, but a sudden tremor shook the ground. The floor behind her cracked and dropped into a cavern below. She heard a thunderous crash of stone and looked down the newly-formed chasm to gauge its depth, but the orb from her light couldn't penetrate that deep. It was too wide to jump. Dunkin strode up to her. Linkin shouted something and his face alternated between terror and rage. Dunkin glared at Kyla. Red-tinted saliva dribbled from the side of his mouth, and he hacked and spat a mouthful of bloody phlegm onto the stone floor.

  Kyla decided she would rather risk the jump than deal with him. She turned to make a quick leap but he grabbed her bag, which was strung around her shoulder, and pulled her back. Kyla closed her eyes and prepared herself for the blow she knew was coming.

  A squeal interrupted them. A saddled pig, likely the one Dunkin had been riding earlier, charged into the cave and leaped at him from behind. He turned and let go of Kyla to meet his assailant, but he was too late. Kyla quickly dropped to the ground and the pig launched itself at Dunkin, who pushed the pig away but in doing so lost his balance, tripped over Kyla, and rolled into the chasm. His screams ended with a painful-sounding thud, and the pig turned and ran squealing out of the cave.

  Kyla stood a moment, her eyes moving from the chasm, to Linkin, to the mouth of the cave after the pig. It was so odd and very unlikely. Linkin, too, looked puzzled, though showed some relief. He crawled toward the chasm and peered down, yet kept a close eye on Kyla.

  “He isn't dead,” Linkin said. “Hurt badly. Maybe Erebus will save him again. Maybe not. Not until after sunset.” His voice turned to a growl. “I should finish him off. He wants eternal darkness. We can't have that. You and I know.”

  Kyla didn't know what to make of her situation, but it was clear Linkin followed Erebus out of fear, not loyalty.

  “I'm going to stop Erebus,” she told the dwarf. “Just let me go.”

  Linkin sat on the ground with his knees to his chest and wrapped by his arms, his eyes transfixed to the chasm. “I serve Erebus. I can't let you capture him. Only, together we could let Chaos free, and end our existence swiftly. Erebus will come, I think, to save Dunkin. He will seek you out, too. When you meet him you will understand. You will bring me the rubbing.”

  A cool breeze tossed Kyla's bangs from her face, carrying with it the faint smell of moonflowers.

  Chapter Twenty-Nine

  Warm Soft

  Kyla was suspicious of Linkin's sudden amicability, but he even went so far as to retrieve a log to help her cross the chasm. She thought, for a moment, he would push her into the pit with Dunkin, and watched him warily as she crawled across. When she reached the other side she kicked the log into the hole. There was a crash below, followed by a muffled shout. Dunkin was alive, and very unhappy.

  Destroying her little bridge was a meaningless gesture: she knew Linkin could follow her through the shadows, and she had cut off her own retreat. This turned out for the best as she otherwise never would have had the courage to wander deeper into the cave alone. As she left, Linkin retreated to huddle against a wall at the mouth of the cave. Her stomach pitted as she pressed into the darkness, her light orb casting hideous shadows. Even the echo of her own footsteps made her jump.

  Kyla felt more afraid now than she had been under pursuit of the dwarves. While they were chasing her she had been scared but too busy to think about it. Now she had nothing else to do but think about the alone-ness and underground-ness of this part of her journey. She worried, too, about Lug and Inga, but was ashamed to admit that her fear for herself overshadowed her concern for them. This was probably normal, but she didn't like it. Her mother and father always worried about her and Bit first, and Kyla admired that kind of courage. She didn't have it, but she did have her yo-yo, which she pulled out. It would at least keep her a little preoccupied.

  As she climbed farther in and deeper down, it became evident that this cavern had once housed a community. The walls became sharper and less worn, pillars reached from the floor to the ceiling, and carvings decorated the walls. Flecks of color indicated they had once been painted. They were difficult to make out. Kyla thought one looked like a group of people handing their laundry to a stone giant.

  It became colder, too, and Kyla shivered. She wasn't going to survive this. She had planned poorly, in her haste. She was never good at it – every trip she made with her family started with her mother going through her bags to make sure she packed what she needed. She never did, but never worried as she felt she could live off the land if necessary. But not down here. This was not a place for an elf.

  Kyla's body numbed from the cold, and her mind from the fear. Her mind turned off as her feet stepped forward, and she quite lost herself as the corridor broke into branches. A moment of clarity inspired her to pick up a chalky stone she found on the ground, and she began to mark her path, but even this became automated.

  The rooms became more elaborate, and sharper in detail. After a time, she noticed the walls and floor were covered in a phosphorescent dust that emitted an eerie green light. Stone doors were cut into the walls, though had no hinges, and looked as though they slid open. Kyla knew she wouldn't be strong enough to manage it. She passed through one section that seemed to have been carved for smaller folk. Wooden doors decorated this section, though most were rotted and many collapsed from their hinges. There was little else to see.

  To add to her fears, Kyla became anxious as she realized she had no sense of time down here. She could have been walking one hour or ten. Regardless, she was fatigued, and decided she needed a rest, so she found a small room, pulled out her blanket, and huddled in a corner.

  ***

  Kyla awoke with a start. She didn't know why, as it was deathly silent. Her heart skipped as she realized she had left her light orb on, hovering above her head, and thus had exposed herself to any number of threats from the darkness. There was a rumbling and she tapped it off. The rumbling stopped.

  “Kyla?”

  She tapped the orb and dashed out of the little room. Lug was standing a few yards away.

  “You found me!” she shouted in a half-sob and threw her arms around him. “I thought I'd be lost down here forever!” She let go. “I'm sorry I left you! How'd you find me.”

  “Crazy dwarf. And chalk.” He pointed to Kyla's most recent marking on the wall.”

  “The dwarf? Linkin told you where I was?” Kyla began to warm up to him.

  “No talk to me. Talk to self.”

  “Oh.”

  “You are okay. That is good.” Lug looked around. “Someone is here. I feel. They are close.”

  “You can feel them? Oh, that's so wonderful! Thank you, Lug!”

  “No thank me. You in serious business. Sorry I did not understand before. I take you to Digans.”

  Kyla followed as Lug walked ahead. He still seemed sluggish, and she worried for his health, but knew no remedies for a creature made of stone. He led her through a maze of doorways, and though he often had to stop and many times turned around to try another passage, she felt comforted to have him to follow.

  Lug spoke after several minutes of silence. “Right way. I feel them.”

  The tunnel eventually led to a large door. Kyla sighed and walked up to it, placing her hands against the flat stone slab. “Can you get this open?”

  There was a rumble. Kyla jumped as a pile of squarish stones rose to her left. It was an elemental, like Lug, only more aligned in color and shape to the blocky gray caverns. It was made of larger stones than Lug, but about the same height overall. Its asymmetrical head and eyes made Kyla uneasy. She hated to judge the cre
ature without knowing it but it looked creepy.

  “Lrrrrmmmrch rrrkhmr.” It took a moment for Kyla to realize that was language. It had the same deep echoing voice as Lug but instead of the hint of a distant rock slide it had an air of stone sliding on stone. Kyla looked back at Lug for a translation.

  “Rrrrkmmrrr rrrkhm.”

  The stone elemental paused a moment. It rumbled something and stepped to the door which slid open on its own and closed again as the stone creature passed the threshold. “He go ask chief if we come in.”

  It was only a few seconds before the door slid open again and the stone guard waved them inside before returning to his post. The interior was well lit. A dozen or so of the stone creatures sat or stood around the room. Most were not much larger than Lug, and a couple were even smaller. All but one: the largest of the creatures was sitting on a mound of rubble and stood to tower over the rest. He looked three or four times as tall as the others. He approached Kyla and Lug with deafening steps that shook the cavern and caused some of the dust to drift like snow to the floor. The great elemental took a knee and looked the two visitors over. He was most interested in Kyla and slowly extended a finger to her side and rubbed her shirt. As he did this a smaller creature, who was watching from the side, ran up and started squeezing the shirt fabric. He was an odd-looking one, even less symmetrical than the others. The great Digan let out a low rumble and the smaller one backed away.

  “Rrrrrmrkhr mrmrh.” The stone giant stood to its full height as it addressed Lug.

  “Mrkhr mrr rhkhrm.”

  There was a silence. “What are you telling him?” Kyla asked.

  “He ask why we come. I say we want aur-auri...goldstone.”

  The large stone creature strode to the second-largest who was seated by the pile of rubble and conferred for a moment, then returned.

  “Krhm krhm mrkhrk.”

  “He say he trade for soft. Clothing.”