“Good morning” responded Shyrea in her Elken accent. She sat down and reached into her pouch. She handed Raveena and Kiella each a handful of berries for breakfast, and promised she had more if they were hungry enough for seconds.
“Thank you” responded Raveena, though she looked at both the berries and Shyrea with thinly veiled suspicion. Shyrea didn’t appear to notice. She just went about eating, and once Raveena saw her eating the berries, she felt more comfortable eating them herself.
“What are these?” Raveena inquired.
“Ogenberries” answered Shyrea. After she ate a few more, she added, “Only eat these, the dark ones. The lighter ones will keep you up for weeks, and you’ll likely hallucinate the whole time. Eat too many, and your mind probably won’t come back with you even after the effects have passed. These, though, are harmless. And delicious.”
Raveena looked them over, making sure they were all very dark indeed, then went back to eating them because yes, they were quite delicious. After a little while had passed, Raveena spoke again.
“You don’t hate us? Don’t hate the outsiders?”
Suddenly, things got much more tense at the camp. Kiella was worried. She’d had time to get comfortable with the Elken, she knew that Raveena hadn’t, but she hated to see Raveena make Shyrea uncomfortable. She felt much more secure with her there. She didn’t want Raveena to scare her away.
“Hate you? Hmmm . . . Not either of you in particular. Are we fond of the fact that your people try to kill us if we leave this forest? No. But we Elken try to think in terms of individuals. You two have done me no wrong, so I give you the benefit of the doubt. Should I not?” She looked up and stared Raveena in the eyes when she asked this.
Raveena quickly backed off.
“No, no. Of course you should. I’m sorry. I didn’t mean to sound unappreciative. We are grateful you are here with us. And Kiella just told me that we owe you our lives, and that I am indebted to you and your people twice over for mine. It’s just . . . this is all very new to me.”
They went back to eating in semi-awkward silence. Kiella was glad it had stopped there. She was the first to stand up and act ready to go, hoping that if she sped things along Raveena would ask no more questions, and wouldn’t risk alienating Shyrea and turning her away before they even began their journey. The other two quickly followed suit, and they were off.
The day was off to a great start. With Shyrea leading them through the woods they were making great time. Kiella cringed, though, as Raveena couldn’t help but resume the conversation, and the line of questioning, that she’d begun before they’d left camp.
“So,” Raveena said to Shyrea, “We’re the killers? Just us? You don’t remember why the Elken were exiled in the first place? Why we had to push your people into these woods, and forbid you to leave them?”
Kiella couldn’t believe it, how fast the goodwill had been squandered from their group. She jumped to Shyrea’s aid.
“Raveena. You’re being ridiculous. We owe her and her people our lives!”
“No. No. It’s okay” said Shyrea. She thought for a moment to choose her words carefully, then continued. “We remember. That was a long time ago, and only the work of a few. The Elken in general, we as a people are peaceful. We mean no one harm. We wish for peace in the realm. That’s why we honor the truce. That’s why we stay in these woods. We don’t want to spill outsider blood, any more than we want to see our own people’s blood spilled. We value all life, and if the best way to preserve lives is to honor the truce, then that’s what we do.”
Raveena looked unimpressed.
“The Massacre of Pbotholem; that means nothing to you? How can you say your people are peaceful? How can you say you don’t want to spill human blood?”
Shyrea now, clearly, was uneasy. Her beautiful eyes were fixed to the ground in front of her. She did her best to keep her cool, but the Typhorian was making it extremely difficult to do so.
“I am taking a great risk coming with you. If I cross the line with you and I am discovered as an Elken, then I may be put to death. I and my people have saved your life. Have I not shown enough good will for you yet? You’re still not convinced that I’m not more than just a blood-thirsty savage?”
Raveena still distrusted the Elken, but she bit her tongue and held back any response. Kiella jumped in.
“Shyrea, I’m sorry. Raveena was unconscious when you and your people did so much for us. As outsiders, we have all heard the tales of the Elken. We have been raised with a very different picture of you and your kind than what I have now seen to be true. Raveena, you must drop this. Shyrea is here to help, surely you can appreciate that. Thank you, Shyrea.”
Shyrea nodded. Kiella glared at Raveena, hoping her obvious scorn and disdain would keep her from talking anymore. It worked. Raveena frowned gravely, but she gave up her diatribe, for the time being.
Before long, the woods grew dark. The sky had turned from blue to dark grey, and it was clear that a storm was about to come. Shyrea said she knew of caves that would give them shelter, but Raveena felt that they would take them too far off course. She refused to stray from the most direct path to Typhoria, even though Shyrea warned that the coming storm would likely be a serious one. Kiella grew concerned as she heard the thunder in the near distance, but there was no reasoning with Raveena. Once the rain came, and began to pour down by the bucket loads, it was too late to change course for the caves. The forest floor quickly became slippery and footing became treacherous. The rain fell so hard and fast that it was difficult to maintain one’s sense of direction, and with their garments drenched they were shivering. Raveena finally realized that she had made a mistake by not heeding the Elken’s advice. When Kiella asked if Shyrea knew of any other shelter they could still reach, Raveena did not object.
Shyrea led them quickly through the woods. The rain was coming down extremely fast and hard, and they were on a slight incline. Their footing became nearly impossible as the forest floor became a sea of mud and running water. The conditions were worsening to a serious degree when their destination finally came into view: a small cottage hidden in the middle of the forest. It was rugged but strong looking, and with a candle flickering in the window, it looked very dry and warm. They pushed strongly forward through the storm, and finally reached the door. When they were on the porch, almost out of the rain, Kiella turned and looked back. Shyrea was nowhere to be found. Raveena and Kiella stood there for a few minutes, trying their best to see through the pouring rain, and figure out what had happened to her. They backtracked as best they could, but there was no sign of her. The rain was coming down too hard, and there was nowhere else to look, so finally they went back to the door and knocked. After a momentary pause, an elderly woman opened the door and greeted them. They asked if they could enter, and she welcomed them in.
“What were you two doing out in the rain there?” the old woman asked as she poured them some hot tea after fetching them some warm bear skins to wrap themselves up in. “Why are you this far into the forest? This is no place for humans. At least not your like. The poachers, those people . . . well, they’re hardly people at all, but they can handle themselves out here. The rest of you humans, though, the posh ones from the kingdoms . . . this is no place for you.” Somehow, she managed to keep this from sounding condescending; not that Raveena or Kiella were in any place to complain. The woman sat down in front of them with a cup poured for herself. The house was small and cozy, but extremely dark, and not particularly well kept. There was dust and cobwebs all about. An orange cat played with a mouse in the corner which had either succumbed to injuries already, or was playing possum now in one last ditch attempt at survival. The woman noticed. “Oh, caught another one! Good girl, my Sweetie!” The cat went to her and plopped into her lap. She stroked its neck and it immediately began to purr. Then she addressed her guests.
“My, you two are a pair of beauties. I don’t get many visitors anymore. No, none at all, hardly. This is
a treat. I had a good feeling about today when I woke up, but then, with this rain . . . well, I thought maybe I was wrong about it. But now I see that it is a special occasion.”
Kiella wasn’t paying the old woman much attention. Her eyes were fixed out the window, trying to catch a glimpse of Shyrea.
“What’s wrong, love?” inquired the elderly woman. “Did you lose something out there?”
“A friend.” Answered Kiella. “She was right behind us, just minutes before we got here. She was the one who led us here.”
“Oh no? A human, one of your type, out there in the rain? Disappeared? Oh, it’s probably too late for her then. These woods will swallow up your kind on a good day. On a day such as this? She probably got swept away in the mud, or maybe the wolves grabbed her. It could be anything out there.”
“Oh, but she’s not one of our kind. She’s one of the exiles. These woods are her home.”
The old woman’s face suddenly turned angry and wretched, her eyes smoldering in the flickering candle light.
“An exile? You mean she is one of the Elken? No wonder she’s gone. She knew she wouldn’t be welcome here.” The old woman hopped up and looked intently out the window through the rain. “Smart one, your friend. If I caught her, I’d turn her into stone, or into a rat and feed her to a snake. Or a cockroach, and crush her under my shoe. Or another mouse there for Cressa to kill.” Cressa meowed and rubbed her side against her owner’s leg. “Yes, that’s right. I’d feed her to you, my Sweet.”
Kiella and Raveena looked at each other, wondering what they had gotten into. What was Shyrea thinking, leading them here, to this crazy woman?
“Turn her into stone? Into a rat? A roach? You mean, like a spell?” asked Kiella, nervously.
The woman turned back towards her with an incredulous expression.
“Of course with a spell! I’m a Tagi. That’s what I do. Your people would call me a witch. What would you expect from me?” She then went back to the pot of tea and politely offered Raveena and Kiella more. Both were slow in offering her their cup. “Oh great. Now you’re scared of me, eh? Well don’t worry. Your friend is wise. I like humans. You have nothing to fear from me.” Then she gave them a wry smile. “As long as you don’t cause any trouble.” She followed this up with a wink to imply she was kidding, but it still made them a bit uneasy. Raveena finally, not wanting to offend and hoping that she was a witch of her word, allowed her to refill her cup. Kiella did too. They were still freezing cold, and the tea was helping considerably.
“Why do you hate Elken?” asked Kiella, after a short time had passed and she became slightly more confident that she wasn’t in imminent danger of being turned into a roach herself.
“Oh. Those smug bastards. Magic comes too easily to them. Born with it, they say. They aren’t craftsman. They aren’t students. They don’t learn proper spells, or proper casting. Not most of them, anyway. There’s no art to what they do. Yet, they’re the ones who get magical gifts from the gods? They don’t deserve them: they’re wasted on them. Lucky bastards. I wouldn’t let one of them in my house. Your friend knew that. If I see them near my property, I shoo them away with sticks. They’re lucky I don’t do worse!” Suddenly, without warning, Cressa bit the old woman. She was shocked. “What has gotten into you, my love?” She set the cat down and the cat rushed into the other room. The woman looked perplexed as she looked after the cat. “She has never done that.” Her concern quickly passed. She smiled warmly at her guests. “What is it that brings you two beauties to these woods?”
“Well,” answered Raveena, “We’re trying to get back to my kingdom. We’ve got to warn them. The Gekken have returned.”
“Oh, thank goodness love, I was afraid you were mute! So glad you finally spoke!” she giggled to herself. “As for the Gekken: they are vile beasts. Their thirst for blood and violence knows no bounds. But oh, they are handsome in a way, I think. We used to see them sometimes where I was from. Used to take them as slaves, once in a while. Usually for heavy lifting, but also in the bedroom. Their cocks are enormous! Your kind, your kind were always slaves where I’m from.”
Kiella and Raveena didn’t like the sound of that. Kiella spoke up.
“Where are you from?”
“Oh, far far from here. You wouldn’t even know about it. We keep it that way on purpose, my people. You know what you call the Far Realm? Well, our realm is beyond even that. You wouldn’t know of it because it is so far, and because humans who go there don’t usually come back. No, we don’t think much of humans there. If a human is deemed useful, then they’re made into slaves. If not, well, we might use them to practice spells on, or worse. That’s just how the Tagi are.”
“If the Tagi think so little of humans, why are you different? Why are you helping us?”
“Oh. Well, I used to think like the others. We all were brought up that way. You don’t even think about it. We think of humans like cockroaches. The humans are cockroaches, and the Elken are our sworn enemy. Oh yes, I think maybe there’s some jealousy behind that. We might be jealous that they can practice magic without spells. But we are so far beyond them when it comes to spell casting, there is no comparison! We fought the Elken, finally had it out once and for all, a thousand years ago and then they came here, to this side, to your realm. We are still in control over there, and for the most part, the Elken stay away.” Cressa was back on her owner’s lap now, but at this point she suddenly bit her again. The Tagi woman was shocked. “What has gotten into you love?” She quickly set the cat onto the floor and pushed her away. “I don’t know what is wrong with her. She is normally the sweetest cat.”
“Why are you here, and why do you like humans?” asked Kiella.
“Oh. Well . . . I fell in love with one. He was brought in, captured, as a slave. Some Tagi comb the other realms, looking for slaves. He was caught and taken back to our realm. I purchased him, but there was just something different about him. Something happened. One day, I was debating whether to practice my spells by turning him into a turnip, and then just a week later I couldn’t imagine life without him. It happened so fast. I still don’t remember how. What it was. It just, happened. And then . . . I saw it differently. I saw him differently. I saw everything differently. We couldn’t stay there. All the Tagi stay there, they never leave, except the slavers. But we had to. There was no life for us there. I would have been mocked, made a joke for loving a human, and they probably would have killed him to try and make an example of us. They might have even killed me, too. We left, and we traveled and traveled. It took us so long. We thought we would never find the right place. He wanted us to be sure we were far far away from there. That he and our children would never have to fear the Tagi slavers again. Finally, we came here, and it seemed far enough. It seemed good. It seemed perfect, really. He built this house. I built the furniture, made all the decorations, while he toiled away on the roof, the walls, everything. We got here in the spring. He spent all summer and half the fall building it. He finished, just in time before the cold came. And we were so happy.”
“Where is he?” asked Kiella.
The old woman paused and rocked for a moment.
“He died. We always knew our time together would be short. My kind live much longer than your kind. We were prepared for that. Thought we might only have a few decades together. We were ready to cherish them, to savor every moment. But the first winter came, and he grew sick, and he died. He was fine one day, and then a week later he was gone. Humans are so fragile. Tagi, we have a strong constitution. I never get sick, so I didn’t bother to learn many healing spells. Never got good at them. I can turn a flower into a stone, or a donkey into a hummingbird in my sleep, no problem. I can make a river flow backwards, or give a boar wings, but I couldn’t find the right spell to make him well. And then he was just gone. Forever. He’s there, in the back.” She pointed out the window to her backyard. It was immaculately organized, with flowers and vegetables and small trees planted in perfect rows.
She pointed to a spot underneath a beautiful old withered tree, one that was not indigenous to this forest. There, in its shade, the most beautiful patch of flowers in the whole garden was planted. “He’s buried there, under that tree. It was the first thing we planted when we chose this spot to settle.”
Raveena and Kiella just sat in silence, sad for the woman’s loss. Judging from the age of the tree, it had been planted a very very long time ago. How long had she been alone here? As nervous as they were to be alone in the house of an eccentric old witch, she did seem to treat them well enough, and they couldn’t help but feel badly for her. The three sat for quite a while, staring out at the rain, and for quite a while it seemed like it would never stop. But, finally, eventually, the rain died down, and a glint of sun peeked through the clouds. Almost immediately, Raveena was up and preparing to leave.
“Oh? Leaving so soon, Love?” asked the old woman.
“Yes, we must. I’m sorry.” Answered Raveena. “Thank you so much for your kindness.”
“Oh no, it’s nothing at all. I’m glad you came. It was good to have company. Please, come back anytime. You are both always welcome.”
As they stepped towards the door, Raveena looked back at the old woman.
“You know, with the Gekken coming, we could use all the help we can get. Would you like to come?”
For a moment, the woman looked as though she forgot her age. Her eyes sparkled and she smiled wistfully, but then, just as quickly, her eyes dimmed again. She looked out the window at the garden.
“Oh no, Love. I’m quite sorry, but I must stay and tend my garden. There is no one else to do it. I can’t leave it.”
Kiella could see that she was staring at the spot where she had laid her husband to rest, beneath the tree, as she said this. They thanked her again, and were on their way.
Raveena and Kiella had only made it a half mile or so, when Kiella turned around and there was Shyrea, in her green cloak, walking right along with them, as if she’d never been gone.
The Dawn of the Raven Omnibus 1: Episodes 1-5 Page 9
