Of Wind and Waves - Chronicles of the First Age, Book One

by Nathan Quiring

  The jumble of noises cascading down the path quickly resolved into three distinct sounds, the voices of young boys. Alec had his back to them, but the sudden halt of high pitched banter adequately informed him of the exact moment he had been discovered. His hands darted into the water, almost silently, then splashed back out with writhing lengths of scale and fin restrained in each fist. He turned to exit the water and heard a clatter.

  The boys stood slack jawed, a collection of fishing rods lying where they had dropped them. Alec had a hard time restraining his mirth as he reached the bank, then they all found their voices simultaneously.

  “How the-” “-now way-” “Teach me!”

  The last broke through the clamor and was quickly repeated by the other two boys, accompanied by an irresistible gleam of desire and awe. Alec killed the fish and tossed them to the grass near the bank, then rubbed his chin in an exaggerated expression of deep thought.

  “Well…” He said slowly, enjoying the suspense evident in the increased pleading on the children’s faces. “Perhaps, if you take me back to your village, I might show you a few tricks.” It was highly likely they would have simply run away from the big scary stranger if he hadn’t impressed them so thoroughly with his fishing prowess.

  “Woohoo!” “Saaaweeeeet!” “But you gotta do it again first! Pleeeease?”

  “Well of course I do, got to get enough fish to impress all your friends don’t I?”

  They spent the next hour adding to the string the boys had brought until they had ten silvery fish; Alec had switched to spearfishing with one of his knives secured to the end of a stick so the boys could employ their rods. He had asked them about the surrounding area and was impressed by their knowledge, though at the same time slightly worried by their parents’ lack of caution in allowing their young children to roam so widely.

  He had also been wondering whether Grey would brave the new company or simply shadow him until they left, when the youngest boy, Liam, his dark brown hair mostly shrouding bright blue eyes, raised his small hand to point into the trees and whispered a warning.

  “That’s a really big cat!”

  The only explanation Alec could conjure to satisfy the incredibly quick acceptance the boys showed toward his feline friend was naivety, they must never have encountered any sort of predatory cat.

  “Well, we got some tabbies, to keep rats away from the food, but they’re really small.” Liam said when Alec asked.

  “Ya,” Tom added,”I bet he could get all the rats in one day!”

  “Hmmm, I’ve never had rat before,” Alec stated in a mockingly thoughtful tone, “is it any good?”

  The boy’s collective disgust was comically exaggerated. “We don't EAT them!” Danny said with a shudder.

  “I can’t imagine them tasting much different from squirrels, and those aren’t bad at all!” Alec responded.

  They all laughed, obviously not believing him one bit.

  “How much further now?” He asked as they continued down the trail, the bright green and golden leaves overhead telling him it was just about noon.

  “Almost there!” Danny piped. The other two boys were racing Grey down the trail and back, laughing when the lean cat tackled them, the whole group rolling around in the leaves before racing off again. A light breeze, softened by the dense plant life, began playing with Alec’s crimson mane and he ran his fingers through it, eventually tying it back with a thin string he had made from the same red strands. The dirt and crushed leaves of the small path gradually widened as they began to catch glimpses of distant wooden structures.

  “See!” Danny said, “I told ya we were almost there!”

  “Yes yes, I see! Where should we take these?” Alec asked, lifting the string of fish over his head, being careful not to drag it in the dirt.

  “Usually we just give em to ma.” Danny said thoughtfully. “Most times we don’t catch more than two though…”

  It was the lack of smoke that caught Alec off guard. Normally they took what they wanted and burned the rest. The dozen bodies lay in a pile in the center of the empty dwellings. Furrows in the dirt led to the tangled mass of flesh, mutely telling the tale of where the deceased had originally fallen. It seemed they had been gathered there for a more thorough search, as they were uniformly naked. The majority were young men, most likely taken in battle considering the wide array of wounds they exhibited, but a few were older, slit throats describing a more forlorn end. One body was separated from its fellows, lying face up and unspoiled, laid out almost straight but for oddly bent legs, almost as if he had simply collapsed.

  “Papa!” Liam cried, running forward and falling across the clothed body of his father.

  The man had been tall with a strong chin and lined face. Bright blue eyes stared sightlessly in an expression of fierce terror. His throat had been crushed.

  Alec, who had followed Liam to his father’s corpse, then stood and looked back around. Tom’s face was blank and pale, his right foot frozen in the beginning of a dash and right hand slightly outstretched, as if time had stopped just as he had decided to go to the comfort of his friend. Farther back Danny knelt where Alec had discarded the string of fish. Though silent, his body shook with what could only be the greatest of tears.

  As Alec’s gaze continued to sweep, stopping just short of where he knew the mound of forsaken remains lay unburied, he caught sight of Grey reemerging from the tall grass that grew between the log houses and the border of the forest. Grey had vanished as soon as they discovered the town’s fate and the look he then gave his two legged brother was anxious and urging, laden with warning, though only Alec could read such empathy in the deep grey eyes. His red tail flicked back in the sudden rush of air as he leapt forward, scooping up Tom with one arm and Danny with the other, then dashed East towards the mountains. Grey loped toward Liam; the eldest of the three boys, he was the quickest to regain his wits and understand what was happening. With a push from the cat’s wide forehead, Liam hurried to catch up with Alec.

  Just as the last of the group was enveloped by thick woods, more than a dozen hard looking men began slinking through the lifeless town, looking for something, or someone.

  Alec carefully set the two boys down, so as not to disturb the underbrush or make any noise; by then Tom had regained his ability to move and promptly vomited. Danny’s face was dry, but he had a haunted glaze to his eyes that was far more worrying. Alec shifted his attention to Liam, who was kneeling on the soft ground with his left arm draped over Grey’s sturdy frame.

  “They were waiting for anyone who was away while they were taking the town, is there anyone else who might be coming back?” Alec whispered, bending down to Liam’s ear.

  “Um… No…” He began, shaking his head lethargically, then he became suddenly alert. “Wait! There’s-” the boy began, almost shouting at his realization before Alec slapped a hand to his mouth.

  “Shhh!”

  “Sorry,” he whispered, a slight falter coloring his voice, an aftershock of hastily buried grief, “there’s that old plant guy that lives all by himself, he’s really old. He comes to town sometimes for food and stuff.”

  “We should go warn him, where does he live?”

  “There.” Liam whispered, pointing toward the mountains. “It’s about as far as the lake.”

  They waited for the raiders to return to whatever hole they had come from, then took off; carefully at first, still wary of discovery, then dashing recklessly through the forest. For ten minutes they ran, leaping fallen trees and dodging bushes and roots as the boys led the way, Grey loping beside them with an almost casual grace. Alec could easily outrun the boys so he stayed at the back, constantly looking over his shoulder in case they had been followed.

  The more he thought about what he had seen the more it worried him, the monsters they ran from looked nothing like the usual band of wandering raiders. They wore what could almost be called uniforms of carefully mottled green and brown, and even had actual we
apons; swords that weren’t repurposed metal scraps but thin and elegant lengths of mirror bright steel. They were also far more organized than those he had dealt with in the past.

  Being the adroit hunters they were, he and Grey had always come upon these noisy bands of fools and worthless men without being noticed. After turning the hunters into prey and mercilessly executing justice, they feasted on the twice captured spoils of whatever town had failed to defend itself adequately. He felt no empathy whatsoever for people who preyed on those weaker than themselves, ‘weak’ people like his parents. He killed that line of thought and glanced back over his shoulder for the umpteenth time and felt a moment of panic as something snagged his foot. He fell.

  Blackness. Then voices, distant and alien; three shrill, one crackling and wheezy, and a rough tongue on his hand.

  The light hit his barely open eyes with the shock and sudden force that the blackness had what felt like moments before, as if bringing a needed balance of contrast to his muddled brain.

  “He’s awake!”

  The shrill exclamation stabbed his already blinded eyes like a flaming needle. He closed them again, wincing from both the light and sound, not to mention the incessant pounding that had replaced his whole head. He heard small feet pounding away, the repeated announcement becoming faint as the pain overwhelmed him.

  “Here, sit up and drink this.” It was the dry leathery voice he had heard from afar. “It will help with the pain.” The voice was soft, but with some remnant of assurance, authority, something he could not quite place; some sense that, whatever the voice said, it was right and could be trusted. “Tommy, grab those cushions. Liam, help me elevate him.”

  “What’s ‘elvate’ mean?”

  “Just help him sit up. Yes, put them there, behind him. Good.”

  Alec felt hands lifting his shoulders, then lowering him back down. He tried opening his eyes again. No good.

  “Here, drink it.” The slow, steady voice urged. “It will help you relax.”

  A rough curve of hot metal brushed his lips. The smell was strange, overpowering mint that almost masked a sickly sweet something. He drank. The warm, slightly creamy liquid rolled over his tongue with a pleasantly numbing sensation, then the same down his throat. The pain receded, as did his sense of self, and he slept.

  Ria

  Blood was in the air. She could smell it, rich and intoxicating. Blood mingled with sweat and fear. The sweat was theirs, hers and her brothers’ and sisters’; a familiar mixture with distinct scents, the pack and its members. The fear was their prey, the fear and the blood.

  A burst of movement brought the great elk in view as it crashed through numerous low hanging branches with Pine right behind it, his bared fangs and muzzle spattered in blood. Ria and her brother, Red Fox, were already at a run and quickly matched speed with the chase, veering left to tail their panicking quarry. Just as they caught up with Pine, another wolf collided with the Elk’s flank, claws and teeth digging deeply into the taut flesh. The scent of fear burst into full blown madness as the animal took a wrong step, already off-balance by Fern still clinging to its side, and fell, rolling to a stop and almost crushing the young wolf before she leapt clear. Pine, their alpha, let loose a thrilling howl as Ria and Red Fox darted in for the kill.

  After many nights of nothing but unworthy prey, goats and sheep mostly, it was exhilarating to bring down such a mighty beast. Recently they had taken to stalking a pack of two-legs who kept many such easy meals with them, though the fluffy slow animals had been surrounded by men with fire the last few nights, forcing her pack to seek more challenging prey in the woods. Fern and Red Fox dragged the Elk to their den; Ria being the weakest and Pine the alpha left the blood siblings to the task.

  She thought of herself as Ria, though she knew not why, and named her fellows for that of which their scent most reminded her. Pine did not smell of the grand, needled-leaved tree but rather something in his musk hinted to sturdy, imposing dignity. It was the same for the rest. She could not guess how they titled themselves in their own minds, if they did at all, and often she wondered at the reason for the expansiveness of her mental ability when all she knew of life as a wolf was the hunt, loyalty to her family, and her place in the pack. She could not explain what, but knew some difference between her and her family distanced them, the true cause ever evasive to her questing mind.

  As they neared their home, the smell of pups played across her snout; jubilance, mud, and playful sweat. Then too the uniquely delicate aroma of White, the matriarch of the pack and the mother of the five month old pups. The beautiful flower that was her namesake was also rare, with a delicate fragrance of running water and sunlight on grass. Ria knew not its name but was always taken by its vibrant colorlessness, similar to the Lady’s coat, in vibrancy if not color. As the light grey wolf came out to meet them, pups trailing in a wrestling tangle of fur and delight, her darker mate cantered nobly ahead, the two meeting with a tender brush of noses. Ria, not burdened by the spoils of the hunt, engaged the young pair, River and Sparrow, in their desperate duel.

  River was a very light brown and ran constantly, never in the same direction for long. She moved with the fluidity and grace of water, though her rapidly lengthening legs often got the better of her and sent her sprawling, much to her brother’s amusement. Sparrow took after his father, his deep grey coat a useful cloak in the dark of night, or it would have been if he wasn’t constantly bounding after every moth or bee that caught his eye.

  The troublemakers were in the middle of one of their innumerable brawls when Ria collided with them, quickly pinning each and subduing their buoyancy, if only for a short time. Her intervention allowed the others to fill their stomachs without disruption and Fern soon brought a haunch over for the pups. Soon they would be allowed on their first hunt. The thought was both worrying and, somehow, hilarious, she could only imagine the ruckus they would cause if left to themselves, but that was fun for another day and she was hungry.

  The warning howl that woke her was repeated almost immediately by Fern, who had been sleeping next to her. Green light dappled with bright yellow sun beams told her it was early morning, a clean scent of dew and crisp air filled her nostrils, but her focus was on what had woken her. The howl came again, Red Fox was not far away and sounded worried and angry. Ria leapt to her paws and groaned, regretting how much she had gorged herself on the tender elk the night before. Fern, who had shown more discernment, was already bolting toward their brother while White nudged Pine awake with her slender snout. Ria groaned again, then bounded off in the wake of Fern’s silent trail.

  She knew something was wrong when she heard both her siblings snarling, but when the underbrush gave way, the scene that revealed itself stopped her cold. The overpowering sense of recognition slammed into some wall in her mind she had never felt before. The two men that stood there were completely unknown to her. It was something else, something bigger about the scenario; the way they crouched with their backs to each other, the way the wolves slowly circled them, it had all happened before, had happened to her. It made no sense, but she could think of nothing else. She stood there, unmoving as stone, as the rest of the pack emerged around her. White and Pine joined the circle while the pups brushed up against Ria, the touch bringing her only slightly back to the present.

  The bigger man said something, sounding curiously like the growls coming from her family, then the smaller one, still quite big for a man, replied. He had yellow hair, the color of the small flowers that grew among the grass in the hills to the west, almost like sunlight, and his words were a melody so different from the growls of his companion that they sounded like honey, though there was an edge of ice to the golden sweetness. The grey haired one growled again and Ria was shocked to find that she understood him. The feeling of some great slamming against that hidden wall came again, jarring the meaning she had found from her mind, but the golden sound came again and she made it out.

  “I’m not going to kill t
hem, why you feel obligated to I have no idea, but I will not.”

  “Fine.” There was so much snarl in the word that Ria almost missed its meaning. She could actually feel a part of the wall begin to crack. Whatever was happening to her was frightening but she needed to focus on the incident unfolding before her, so she forced it away and came back to her senses.

  Just then Fern leapt, mirrored by White from the opposite side of the slowly revolving circle. Ria felt sure they would strike home, ending this crazy encounter and removing whatever had stimulated her revelation, but a staff in Sunlight’s hand knocked Fern aside, sending her limp body to crash through a bush. At the same time something far more horrific happened. Snarl had slashed down with what Ria had at first thought were sticks similar to his companions longer one, but when White slammed to the ground at his feet with deep gashes across her back and blood pooling out around her Ria knew them for vicious long claws and feared for her Alpha’s life. By then Pine had followed Fern, dodging the staff and snapping in at Sunlight’s ankle, drawing blood. But Red Fox had delayed his attack, perhaps fearing Snarl’s glinting claws, and instead allowed them to fall on Pine.

  Snarl hacked once, twice, three times and Pine fell dead, releasing his hold on the younger man’s leg. Red Fox took advantage of the opening and connected with Snarl, his two great claws clattered to the ground as they rolled off, the wolf’s own claws and teeth flashing furiously as the huge man’s fists pummeled his ears and ribcage. Ria took far too long to enter the melee; when White had fallen dead Ria froze in shock, but when Pine did likewise, she lit into a raging fury and bounded after Sunlight who had turned to aid his fallen companion.