Scouring Majula

by Matthew Satterlee

  The trees behind the ruined buildings were in bad shape as well. Many were either missing branches or had their pink leaves burned black or both.

  "It looks like a war swept through here," Tear said cautiously. "Or a really angry horde of monsters. I hope your friend didn't get caught in this."

  "It wouldn't matter," Alice said. "He's strong. The only thing that can kill him is that giant monster lurking underneath my castle."

  Tear turned a shade more pale, which was an accomplishment, because her skin was already ghostly white. "U-um, what giant monster is that? Is it... is it bigger than that serpent monster we ran into when we were looking for you?"

  "Much bigger. It could tear off giant chunks of the castle with one swipe from one of its arms. It could probably destroy the whole castle in a few minutes if it wanted to." Alice glanced back at Tear. "I'm surprised you didn't know about it. Didn't you ever wonder what all those banging sounds coming from beneath the castle were?"

  "I-I heard the banging, but I didn't know there was a giant monster lurking under the castle. I probably would've left a lot sooner if I had known that."

  Tear look so frightened that Ellen felt bad for her. "It's safe here," she said, hoping to cheer her up. "And we're not ever going back to that place."

  Alice glanced at her. "Do you remember the monster that attacked the Monad Fortress? This one was even bigger."

  That wasn't something Ellen had wanted to hear. She'd hoped there was some kind of limitation on how large monsters could become, but that didn't seem to be the case.

  "I don't want to talk about monsters anymore," Tear intervened. She looked to Ellen. "What are your friends like? I've never heard you talk about them."

  Ellen first mentioned Ludendi, who'd been her best friend before Tear, and who'd always been there to help her no matter how strange or precarious the situation. Then she talked about Barry, who'd been her first real kiss, and who'd helped her through some of her more embarrassing moments. Lastly she mentioned Trevor, who'd been distant at times, but was also the most thoughtful and observant of all her friends, past and present.

  By the time she finished, her eyes were damp.

  "It sounds like you miss them a lot," Tear said. "But don't worry, I'll help you find them!"

  Ellen smiled. She wanted to thank Tear, but she was too choked up to speak.

  She almost felt her tunic pocket again, the one that used to house her coins, but stopped when she saw Alice feeling her own pocket.

  Did Alice miss her friends as well? She had her memories of them, she had all of her memories, but did she consider them friends?

  Alice saw her watching her and jerked her hand away from her pocket. "I'll help you find them," she said, "but I need to find Amadeo first." She gasped as if she'd said something she regretted.

  "So that's his name!" Tear said happily. "Why did you wait so long to tell us?"

  Alice was silent for a moment, then she mumbled: "I don't know."

  "What about your friends?" Ellen asked Tear. "Do you have any?"

  Despite her unintentional bluntness, Tear still smiled. "I have you and Alice," she said. "You're the only friends I need."

  The long stretch of ruined buildings soon came to an end, and the forest of pink leaves continued thicker than before.

  But it didn't last forever. Some distance ahead, a large wall made of gray stones cut through the forest. For a brief moment, Ellen felt a glimmer of hope. Not only did the wall look intact, which meant there had to be people nearby maintaining it, the last large wall she'd encountered had been encasing a large piece of civilization and this new wall could very well be doing the same.

  Her hope faded as she neared the wall. It was long, possibly longer than Monad Fortress's wall, but it would not be encasing much of anything, not when a hole as wide as the pristine road had been torn into it.

  Something powerful had stormed through the area recently, smashing through the wall as it passed by and knocking over dozens of trees whose leaves now coated the ground like a pink blanket. It was not something she wanted to meet, especially not if a massive wall like the one before her couldn't keep it contained, but if her past was any indication, she was going to run into that something before she left this dimension.

  But she had friends with her now, which meant she would not have to face it or any other monster alone.

  "I'm glad whatever monster made that is gone," Tear said, pointing to the hole in the wall.

  "I'm sure it'll find us before we leave this dimension," Alice said. "At least we have help with us."

  The pristine road led straight to the wall and a gated passageway, on the other side of which the forest of pink leaves continued on without end. Ellen peered through the gaps in the gate, hoping to see a village, a house or even a tent-anything that might signify human presence-but there was nothing. She sighed and moved away.

  Tear approached the gate next, spent a moment pulling on its bars with little effect, then took a step back. "We can always use that hole to get to the other side, but..." She pondered. "What if your friend came here before that hole was made, couldn't find a way through, and turned around?"

  "He would've left a note," Alice insisted, then immediately started scanning the ground to the left of the road. Tear moved to the right and did the same.

  Brendon, L.L., and Sycamore soon caught up. They looked to be enjoying themselves as they approached, but all three put on stern looks and became silent as they neared the wall.

  "What's wrong?" Brendon asked. "I don't see any locks or chains."

  Sycamore darted towards the gate. "I bet our girl squad can't lift that big heavy gate," he said mockingly.

  He grabbed the gate's lowest bar and pulled. At first it didn't budge, but after some grunting and groaning, he managed to lift the gate all the way up.

  Ellen moved through the passageway first, careful not to lay her eyes on Sycamore's crooked grin, then Tear and Alice followed. Once she reached the other side, she quickly scanned the area, hoping now that since the gate was out of the way she might see a trace of civilization somewhere, but there was still nothing to find, only an endless forest full of pink trees.

  At least the air smelled nice. The trees gave off a faint but sweet aroma.

  "I didn't see any notes anywhere," Tear said sadly.

  "Me neither," Alice said, her voice the same. "Maybe he turned around, like you said, or maybe... he left." She shuddered.

  "He is your friend," Ellen said, "isn't he? And he said he was searching for you. You should have more confidence in him." She felt odd saying such a thing after how badly she'd regarded her friends in the past, but those days were over, and she knew better now. "And the rest of us, too."

  "I-I'll try," Alice mumbled, looking rather offbeat.

  Brendon and L.L. moved through the passageway, then Sycamore followed, letting the gate drop behind him. It landed with a loud metal crash.

  "Wandering around like this isn't going to get us far," L.L. told Alice using her typical direct, almost hostile manner of speaking. "You need to start leaving notes for this friend of yours, like he did for you. Let him know we're scouring this whole dimension to find him."

  "T-that's a good idea," Alice stammered. "I'll just... write... a note, and, um-"

  "Let me do it!" Tear volunteered. "I already know exactly what to say!"

  She bolted towards the side of the road, picked up a stick and started writing in the dirt.

  Ellen watched her work. Tear was very eager to share her message, whatever it was. She maneuvered her stick back and forth as if it was a weapon and the ground was a monster she was slaughtering.

  Brendon, L.L. and Sycamore watched her as well.

  "That'll get his attention," Brendon said cautiously.

  "Someone your age really shouldn't be writing things like that," L.L. said.

  "Where do you get these kinds of ideas?" Sycamore laughed. "You're worse than me."

  Tear smiled. "We're trying to get h
is attention. If he sees this, I'm sure he'll drop everything he's doing and come running."

  After finishing her message, Tear tossed her stick aside and rejoined Ellen and Alice.

  "What did you write?" Alice asked. "If he knows I'm here I'm sure he'll try to find me. You don't need to write anything, um-"

  Tear's smile persisted. "Don't worry about it."

  Alice still looked worried, but she didn't say anything else, probably because she didn't want anyone to know that she couldn't read. She faced forward and continued down the pristine road.

  Ellen followed behind her, watching the pink forest as she went along. There were rolling hills off in the distance. Where she hoped to see signs of civilization she instead found a long trail of broken trees. Something was wreaking havoc on the forest, something large and powerful.

  Fortunately that something did not make an appearance during the day, nor at night, which she spent sleeping inside an old stone watchtower beside the pristine road.

  The morning started with a crash; several of them. Then came the cracking of trees and the stampeding of heavy feet. They shook the entire watchtower.

  It was a monster, either dozens of them or one large one. Ellen couldn't decide which was worse.

  She pushed Tear to one side, kicked her sleeping bag away then grabbed her knife and stood up. It would not do her much good, not when her surroundings were so dark she couldn't see her own hands, but she did not plan to let whatever was stomping around outside run her down without a fight.

  "Don't move," Brendon said from somewhere beside her, his voice just barely audible over the commotion. "It doesn't know we're here."

  Annoyed, Ellen froze in place. It was bad enough that a monster had to show up and ruin their peaceful search, but why did it have to be the type that hunted at night? It was almost as if it had been designed specifically to cause her grief.

  The others soon stirred awake, and Brendon told them the same thing.

  The stomping went on and on. The source seemed to have the watchtower surrounded and was running laps around it, knocking over trees and snapping their fallen trunks into splinters.

  Brendon was right, Ellen soon realized. The monster probably suspected there were targets nearby, but it could not pinpoint their locations, hence why it was running in circles, confused. Too bad for it.

  Eventually the monster moved away, and the stomping faded into the distance.

  "It looks like we're getting started early today," Brendon said with a dry chuckle.

  He lit a small fire in the center of the watchtower, then served breakfast.

  Daylight soon came. Brendon peered outside the watchtower first, warning that the monster might still be lurking nearby, but found nothing.

  Ellen left the watchtower. The area outside had been ravaged. Trees lay smashed and broken all over, and several sections of the pristine road had been crushed into rubble.

  Despite the carnage around her, she felt at ease. These were the settings she was used to: a world slowly being destroyed by monsters. Anything else felt alien. Her biggest concern now was not how much damage the monster chasing her might cause, but how much time it would steal away from her search when it finally showed its face.

  Back on the pristine road, she told Alice and Tear: "This dimension is different from the last few we've been to. The others were all straightforward with their malice. This one is being subtle about it."

  "You've seen worse things come out at night," Alice said dismissively. "At least that one didn't find you."

  Why did she have to bring that up? Ellen quivered. Whatever monster had found its way to the watchtower last night was probably a runt compared to the monster she'd encountered in her guardian's cave hideout all those months ago.

  Tear was eyeing Alice, she noticed. She seemed to have something she wanted to say, but was hesitant to speak.

  "So that sword you have," Tear said eventually, "and the shield... can you, um..."

  Alice held her golden sword and shield up for Tear to see. "Can I create magic versions of them? No, not yet. One of Ellen's old mentors told her she likely had the power to create magic weapons, but her knife was constraining her for some reason. I'm not half as attached to my knife as she is hers, so I'd like to believe I'll be different."

  "I'm sure you can do it," Tear said with a smile. "I never imagined I'd be able to create those phantom bows, but then Ellen needed my help and before I knew it, there was almost a dozen of them floating beside me. Maybe if something like that happens to you, you'll discover your true power!"

  Ellen doubted her being in trouble would inspire any sort of action from Alice. "I'm still surprised you took after Cereth of all people," she told Tear.

  "He was a really rude person, but he was strong. And he was pretty evil too, but I don't think we could've gotten the cathedral doors open without his help, and then you would've... you know, completely alone."

  That gave Ellen a peculiar feeling. It was during her final moments in the cathedral that she had finally realized how wrong she'd been about her friends. How different would her life be if she hadn't met them there? Would she even have a life, or would that mysterious stone still be holding onto her essence?

  "Cereth attacked me in the Brazen Dimension," Ellen said, "and again in that castle, but he helped me a lot, even though I'm sure he didn't mean to. I think I can forgive him... until the next time he attacks me."

  Tear pondered. "Do you think he's still alive? You did stab him and shove him off the side of the world. That's a lot for one person to go through."

  "I've given him worse injuries, and he managed to survive," Ellen said. "I'm sure he's still out there, somewhere." That silver haired boy with the magic rifles had a knack for finding her. She'd run into him again sooner or later, she had no doubt.

  The carnage wrought by the unknown monster soon disappeared behind her, and the forest of pink leaves continued on, looking as healthy as ever. The pristine road was in perfect shape as well. Both looked as if they'd never seen a monster before, which could very well be the case.

  But it wasn't long before wide trail of broken trees appeared in the hills off in the distance. Several narrow plumes of smoke rose out of the carnage. If there had been any people in that area, they were gone now, likely dead.

  Alice seemed to have noticed the destruction as well, because she had an especially glum look on her face, and Tear too, but she was smiling.

  "I'm ready for it," Tear boasted. "I can't wait to see how many bows I can create this time. As long as it doesn't attack us while we're asleep, there's no way it can stop us!"

  Tear might be ready, but Ellen still felt uneasy. Monsters didn't have much capacity for planning or scheming, but their maliciousness had no limitations, and no number of bows or other weapons could ever keep them completely in check.

  The pristine road led to a small bridge with a gentle stream running beneath it. She paused briefly while Brendon filled up the empty flasks stored in his backpack.

  "There's a whole lot of nothing here," he grumbled as he worked, to which Alice responded by silently clenching her fists.

  "Don't worry," Ellen told her. "We'll stay until we find your friend."

  Alice seemed to relax a little, but it was very obvious she still didn't completely trust her or anyone else in their group.

  As if responding to Brendon's grumbling, something in the distance exploded. First came a bright white flare that was taller than the tallest tress, then there were several cracks of what sounded like thunder except louder, much louder, and finally a shockwave ripped through the forest, striking large swathes of trees with enough force to either uproot them or snap them in two or both.

  Ellen covered her face with her arms and braced herself for some sort of heat or pressure or force unknown to come crashing down on her, but whatever had caused the explosion was too far off to reach her.

  A cloud of pink leaves knocked free by the shockwave washed over her, but it moved so gentl
y it did not even rustle her hair.

  "It's over now," Ellen told Tear, who was clinging to her side, whimpering quietly.

  Slowly Tear's grip loosened, but she stayed close by. "What do you think that was?"

  Ellen glanced at Sycamore, who stood back on the bridge beside Brendon and L.L., a frightened but elated look on his face.

  "Don't look at me," he said. "I couldn't make an explosion that large even if I had a month to prepare."

  "You have more experience with explosives than the rest of us," L.L. said. "Do you have any idea what might've caused it?"

  "Well..." Sycamore pondered. "I don't see any flames or smoke anywhere. Do you?"

  Ellen glanced towards the source of the explosion, which lie deep within the forest of pink leaves. Sycamore was right, there was not a single hint of smoke or fire anywhere. All she could see was a several mile long stretch of twisted, broken and mangled trees.

  "It was different from the explosions my explosives create," Sycamore said. "It seemed almost... alien." He sighed. "I'm sure there's a monster involved, one that's no less than twenty feet tall. It probably has four-no, eight arms, and at least fifty legs. For weapons-"

  His frightened, childish self was coming to the surface again. Ellen looked away, feeling embarrassed for him.

  "Do you know what that explosion reminded me of?" Alice asked quietly. "The last time you tried to create a magic weapon-"

  Tear's gaze snapped to Ellen. "I thought you couldn't do things like that?"

  "I can't," Ellen said. "Every time I try, there's an explosion... a lot like the one we just saw."

  Tear looked worried. Ellen couldn't blame her. Nobody she'd ever met, not even her guardian, could explain why her would-be magic knives always exploded before she could fully summon them, nor could they explain how her shield, the translucent blue barrier she could summon that would repel any magic weapon, had come into existence. It sounded too good to be true, but the area ahead might have an answer for her.