by Jada Fisher
Regardless, she wanted to save them, so they were allies. Tuni smiled. “Of course. They’re my friends and I’d do anything for them. Besides…” She turned and gave Asoka a glance. “We need their help more than ever, so them sitting in cells does us no good.”
The girl smiled, but the large male got in front of her. “We appreciate your willingness to help us, but we cannot go against the force that is at that camp. There are so many knights, so many horses, and our arrows will do nothing to their armor.”
“We were lucky to all get out of their alive,” chimed an older tree folk woman.
“Yeah, we had the stealth advantage before, but now they are prepared and have the numbers,” said another. A spattering of agreement went through the village, and Tuni feared she was losing them, but they were forgetting one vital advantage they had.
She rose to her feet. A bit too quickly, and the effort pulled on her wound, making her suck in a breath that she hoped no one noticed.
“You’re all right, it won’t be easy, but there is one very important weapon that we have that they will have no counter for.”
The large male crossed his craggy arms, his bow tucked against his side. “And what would that be?”
Tuni didn’t hide her coy grin. She glanced at Asoka, who grinned back. “We have a sage. We have magic.”
On cue, Asoka muttered a spell softly under her breath and they all watched in awe as tendrils of clean, clear water appeared out of the air and wove around her like banners fluttering in the wind. Asoka snapped to attention, her arms going straight at her side and her staff gripped firmly against her scaled thighs. The tendrils formed around her back and acted as extra arms. Not what Tuni was expecting, but a pleasant display that got the point across, nonetheless.
Tuni looked back at the tree folk, who watched Asoka with a reverence they hadn’t had before. Sure, she’d said that she was a sage, and they may have felt her aura, but it was another thing to see magic at work firsthand. If they had doubts before, Tuni was glad to watch them fade behind excited eyes.
“That was just for show. An inkling of what she can do. With her on our side, the knights won’t stand a chance. I don’t care how many of them there are.”
The tree folk girl came and stood at Tuni’s side. They were about the same height. Her mossy hair smelled like roses, though Tuni didn’t spy any of the flowers nearby. “We can do this. Remember what the knight told us. The forces of Al-Sevara will keep taking and taking until we have nothing left if we let them. We have to take back our freedom and push them out.”
Tuni couldn’t help her beaming smile. Those were Dorrick’s words, eh? He sure had changed in the brief time he’d been with them. Oh, if only he hadn’t been born a city boy. What if he had lived his whole life in the wilds? They’d have been the best of friends if she’d known him. Though, if he wasn’t a knight, he wouldn’t be the person he was. He was strong and brave and cared about other people and genuinely wanted to help. He wanted to help when he was a knight, even if his beliefs were ignorant and misplaced. Would he be that person had he grown up differently? Likely not.
The girl’s words, being that they came from one of their own, roused what remained of the tree folk’s trepidation, and they were soon cheering and hollering, ready for battle. Well, that was less effort than I thought it would be.
After that speech, the village took little time to prepare again. More than half of them had to stay behind, being children, elderly, and the wounded, along with a collection of skilled warriors to protect them. The rest of the village, mostly young in age and healthy in body, readied themselves, stringing bows and crafting arrows and sharpening rough daggers. Tree folk were archers almost exclusively, so this fight would have to be long distance.
That was fine by Tuni. She was in no shape to tussle with someone again and certainly not with a huge, armored knight.
Her and Asoka sat around and rested as the village prepared for war. After a while, the tree folk girl that had roused the village to action came and sat by them, crossing her slender legs beneath her. She held a woven basket filled with edible roots, nuts, and some fruits. As if on sight, Tuni’s stomach rumbled, and she and Asoka graciously ate.
The girl smiled at them and made herself comfortable. “Thank you for the help. I feared Dorrick and Shandi would be left to the mercy of the humans, and we’d be powerless when their armies came back here.”
Tuni’s teeth crunched on some nuts. They were naturally salty, and she enjoyed them greatly even if she wasn’t familiar with them. “Helping others is what we do.”
“Damn humans, always taking what isn’t theirs,” she said with a scowl, her gaze momentarily distant. Then she snapped back to the moment and looked at Tuni. “No offense.”
The wildling laughed. “Oh, none taken. Trust me, I’ve made a life of riling up the city folk that wandered near my neck of the woods.”
The still-nameless tree folk girl chuckled too. “Good.” Her gaze turned curious as her amber eyes looked past Tuni and at Asoka. “What are you? If you don’t mind me asking. You don’t smell human.”
Asoka smiled and took a large bite out of what looked like a brown potato, but the inside had a dark bluish hue. “I’m not. I’m mer. We live in the seas. We can breathe underwater and dive deep and our legs turn to tails. See.”
Her legs didn’t turn to a full tail, but she demonstrated her scales receding and reforming on her skin. The girl gasped with glee. Tuni smiled and couldn’t blame her. It had been a sight to take in for her too.
“That’s amazing!”
“Yeah, I think so,” Tuni added. Asoka batted her lashes and looked away with a face full of heat.
“Oh, I realize I haven’t introduced myself,” the girl said. She stood and made a sort of half-curtsy as she dipped her head. “My name is Ash’yali.”
“Ash’yali!” Tuni exclaimed. Both Ash and Asoka looked at her with bewilderment. Tuni felt her cheeks flush and she quickly swallowed the nuts she was chewing. “Sorry. I knew I knew who you were. Dorrick mentioned you and I forgot your name. The way you talked about him made me think that maybe you were the one who’d rescued him from his idiot self.”
Tree folk couldn’t blush like humans and mer could, but if they could, she had a feeling that Ash was doing so. She averted her eyes and giggled weirdly as she tried to find the right words.
“Well, I couldn’t let him starve to death out there.”
Tuni laughed. “I would have been tempted at first.”
Ash’yali flashed a grin. “I wouldn’t blame you. He knew so little. He was like a lost faun wandering alone in the woods.” She looked at the sky, and Tuni could tell that she was thinking of their mutual idiot knight. “But he has a good heart.”
The wildling nodded. “Yeah, he does. He always tries to do the right thing.”
“This human sounds very fascinating,” said Asoka as she gulped down the last of that potato thing. “I very much look forward to meeting him.”
“I’m sure you’ll get along.” Then Tuni had a thought and grinned as she looked back at her pretty mermaid companion. “Although he gets very flustered around pretty women. You looking like that might just give him a heart attack.”
Asoka just about choked on her food and then turned into a storm of laughter that they all enjoyed.
It was strange, how well the three of them all got along, three girls of similar age and likes, but of three altogether different species. Human, mer, treefolk, laughing together and just enjoying each other’s company. This was the type of coexistence, the type of fellowship, that Tuni craved, the type of world that Gayla, Asoka, and the other sages were fighting for. Well, most of them. Bishta wanted to destroy the world, and Reshni only cared for her horrible human city. Who knew about the other sage? Tuni didn’t even know their name.
They ate in silence for the last few minutes when Tuni started, remembering something. “Oh, Ash, do you know Taska? She used to bring me here as children. I ha
ven’t seen her.”
Immediately, Tuni knew that she wouldn’t like the answer. Ash’s eyes went distant, and she hugged her knees to her chest. Without a word, she reached down and plucked one of the flowers from between her toes and examined it in her palm until a warm breeze carried it away.
“She’d dead,” she finally said, her voice low and solemn. “She was killed when the knights attacked us.” She suddenly laughed harshly and raked her long fingers through the tangled moss on her head. “And to think, she was cut down just as Dorrick and Shandi showed up. What if they’d come a minute earlier?”
Tuni gulped. Ash and Taska must have been close, though that wasn’t a surprise. Tree folk communities were very tightknit. Tuni didn’t remember Ash from when she came here as a child, though there were plenty of tree folk kids she’d played with.
Knowing her friend was dead was another blow to her heart that she didn’t need. Sure, it was years since she’d seen her, but Tuni had always intended to come back and reconnect, if she ever found the village.
Now that option was closed to her. She’d never get to see the woman her friend had grown into.
She reached out and put a hand on Ash’s hard skin. Hers was softer than most, feeling more like a wet soggy log covered in algae. Soft and hard at the same time.
“I’m sorry,” was all she could muster. “You must have lost so much, and I’m sorry we couldn’t have done more. As the Sage of the Earth’s disciples, it’s our duty to help preserve the wilds, and we weren’t here in time.”
The tree folk girl shook her head, though she kept her eyes on the ground. “It’s okay. It isn’t your fault. You aren’t all-knowing and all-powerful. All that matters is that you all came. We’d all be dead and this whole area a field of black grass and scorched trees if not for Dorrick and Shandi.”
She was right, but Tuni still felt like maybe they could have done something. That was a silly thought, she knew. Asoka and Tuni had been thousands of miles away in the Ten-Thousand Isles and had no way of knowing of their danger. And same for Shandi and Dorrick. Maybe Gayla would have sensed it since she was so in tune with nature, but the sages weren’t gods.
“We’ll make this right,” Asoka declared. She stood, her fists clenched at her sides, even the withered one, which must have hurt.
“Thank you,” Ash said, also standing.
Guess we’re all standing.
Tuni pushed to her feet with her crutch and was happy that the pain her wound caused was minimal for once. It was getting better. Which it needed to, because she needed to move somewhat freely if she were to participate in the upcoming battle.
It didn’t matter how injured or uncomfortable she was, though. No matter what, Tuni was ready to fight to save her friends and fight to save her wilds. For that, she’d lay down her life if need be.
Not something I ever thought I’d say, she thought, but the more she thought on it, the more she knew it was true. This was her calling: saving the world, fostering nature, and protecting it from human and dark sage alike. It was a mission, a purpose that she’d never had before, and she believed strongly in it.
So she would fight, and Tuni just knew in her heart that they would win.
11
Tuni
They spent the night there in the village. Tuni didn’t want to waste any time, because who knew if and when the knights might kill Dorrick and Shandi, but she knew that all needed to be rested and ready if they wanted to win this fight. Asoka more than anyone. The spell to transport them to the hut had taken a lot out of her, and Tuni wanted her to be as rested as possible.
But as soon as dawn came, Tuni was up and ready. She never used to be much of an early riser, but living with Gayla had changed that.
Thankfully, the tree folk were up at dawn too and she didn’t need to rouse anyone. They were ready. Only Asoka was a little groggy and offered some protest, but Tuni got her sorted fast.
They ate a fast breakfast then all the warriors assembled at the western edge of the village. There was a nervous, excited energy about them. Tuni thought it had something to do with Asoka being on their side. Having magic as a weapon was definitely something to be both nervous and excited about.
Ash came up to the wildling and got her attention with a tap of the shoulder. Tuni raised an eyebrow.
“How will you fight?” she asked, her eyes wandering to the feeble knife at Tuni’s hip.
“I… Well, I used to have a bow, but that, uh, got broken recently.”
Ash frowned, then skipped away without another word, leaving Tuni to stare after her with pinched brows and curious grimace. It didn’t take too much longer for Ash to appear again with the big male from before—Baralek—in tow. His eyes appraised Tuni’s healing but still battered form. As he came to a halt and loomed over the wildling, she noticed that he had two bows slung over his shoulder.
He flipped one around and offered it to Tuni. “This one should work for you,” he said and placed the bow in her arms.
Tuni’s eyes lit up as she held the fine weapon. It was a light brown wood, expertly polished so it shone in the sunlight. The ends were carved to resemble the heads of hawks. Or eagles? Not important. What mattered was that it was a perfectly-crafted bow. The weight was balanced well, and as she drew the string back, she found the resistance was just right. Being her usual archer self during the fight would still be difficult and come with some pain, but she wouldn’t be defenseless, leaving Asoka and others to worry about themselves and the fight and not have to watch over her.
Even so, Tuni almost felt bad accepting such a fine gift. “I… I can’t take this. This is just too nice of a gift.”
The tree folk shook his head. “You are our ally, and a disciple of the Girl O’ Green, who has watched over these lands for a millennium. Her legend is great, and her followers have always been friend to our people. It would be my honor to have you wield this bow.”
He offered her a slender quiver of fine leather filled with about two dozen arrows, the arrowheads made of bone and pronged so that taking them out would be terribly painful on whatever they hit. More gifts that she felt bad about accepting.
Tuni sighed. She could make a stink about it and return them later. For now, he was right, and she would need the weapon.
She bowed deep. “Thank you for this gracious gift. I will be sure to put it to good use.”
He smirked. “Be sure that you do.
Tuni shouldered both the quiver and the bow, and she had to admit that it was good to have that comforting weight again. She was less enthused about using it against a person, even if the people in question wanted to burn down the wilds and kill her friends. She’d fight them, and defend everything she held dear, but killing was killing, and she didn’t look forward to the prospect of ending any life.
Tuni would swallow that horrible prospect for now. In the meantime, they needed to head out.
Baralek, who appeared to be the de facto leader of sorts for their war party, rallied everyone together. Tuni grinned, her body positively shaking with anticipation. Just last a little while longer, Dorrick and Shandi. We’re coming.
Ash came over to her and Asoka with a determined grin spreading wide on her face. “Are you ready?” she asked. Tuni and Asoka both nodded, though the mer looked a tad pessimistic. The wildling couldn’t really blame her.
“Have you ever shsalited?” she asked.
“We’re doing what?” Asoka asked, her brows pulled together in concern.
“Shsaliting, it’s like…”
“Hard to explain,” Ash said. “But the best way to describe it is like swimming through the earth. Like you can move freely through nature like water, even though you feel the full weight and pressure of everything around you.”
Asoka nodded, and to her credit, she seemed to understand. “Sounds like when I go diving into the crushing deep. Feels like I have the weight of the isles on my shoulders.”
Tuni remembered her very brief swim as a mer into that da
rk deep. It had been an exhilarating experience on the whole, being a mermaid, but when they’d gone that deep, she hadn’t liked that feeling, the pressure of it all. The weight, the whole world pressing down on her, made it hard to breathe with her temporary gills. She supposed the mer had their whole lives to get used to that feeling, but Tuni figured she never would. She’d stick to the shallows.
It had been years since she’d shsalited, and though she wouldn’t call it a pleasant feeling, she didn’t remember hating it. Not like the whole world was pressing on her back. But it had been a while so maybe she’d feel differently now.
“This is the fastest way to get there,” assured the large male. “Now that we know where the work camp is, we can get there in an hour or so, not the few days the walk would take.”
“Ah, then I suppose that’s the most logical thing to do,” Asoka agreed. And they were both right. They didn’t know how much time Dorrick and Shandi had. Maybe they wouldn’t do anything to Shandi, but Dorrick was a former knight that had apparently clashed with his ex-comrades on more than one occasion. The knights didn’t seem like a forgiving group, given that they exiled Dorrick for something that wasn’t even his fault. Would they execute him? She didn’t want to delay any further and risk finding an unpleasant answer to that question.
Plus, of course, there was the whole matter of Sage Bishta trying to destroy the world and kill them, so they definitely didn’t have time to waste.
The tree folk slowly began to melt into the earth and the trees one by one, and Asoka gasped at the spectacle of it. It really looked like they were sinking beneath the surface like it was water.
As they all left them, Ash stood between Tuni and Asoka. She hooked her arms around their elbows and pulled them close. She flashed Tuni a smile.
“You ready?”
Tuni nodded, though she knew that question was really for the mer that had never done this before. Asoka gulped once and then gave a shaky, half-scared/half-excited nod. With that, Ash’yali took a deep breath.
