"You don't have super cold weather in winter or super warm like in summer, if these words mean anything to you."
"We know them, but more from the other worlds my people have visited or have been forced to go to since leaving Atropos. From what I have seen over a decade here, my world (at least in this area) doesn't change very much. It could be because of the clouds overhead moderating the weather or maybe it has always been so. I haven't researched Atropos to that depth," Helios replied appearing thoughtful. The last admission seemed to spark the idea that perhaps the dragaoin should consider that research having overlooked that part of his education.
"On Wataris, where many of my race of genasi live, we have different seasons especially out near the poles. There are entire continents of ice, but it is one of the two moons circling Gamrahna. Stories tell of differences between the settled moons and the planet they circle though."
The word 'moons' felt more natural to Alec as she spoke, but 'planets' was odd. Astronomers spoke of stars seen through their telescopes and planets as well, often just round stones reflecting light back at the stargazers' lens. Hearing her speak of her world as being three with two circling the other, while not even knowing it by experience; was simply weird to the boy.
Helios noticed Alec's eyes and chuckled, "You speak of things that he doesn't understand, Shaelamee Wateripple."
The girl frowned at the addition to her name, but tried to ignore it as she replied, "He's young and from a different world... another planet." She nodded as if it explained her point exactly. "It isn't unexpected that they might not know of such things.
"Have your people gone to other worlds or into space?" she asked gesturing towards the cloud covered sky.
Frowning at the concept, Alec explained, "Alus has been visited by other races from other worlds, but magic has always brought them through doorways... sort of like the one that I fell through to get here. Some races joined us in a friendly way, others have tried to conquer us instead; but always they have come through the doorways. No one lives on our moons... at least as far as we know."
A longing smile as the girl gazed upward towards the sky crossed Shaelamee's face. "My people once traveled between the stars... or so the legends say. It makes sense since the same sort of people lived on Gamrahna as they do on its moons."
"Do your people still travel between the moons and the world they circle?"
Her face saddened at the question before she shook her head. "For some reason such technology was lost. It was as if the ancients chose to erase the information about the ships which settled three worlds. Why I don't know, but I guess that they had their reasons."
The three continued to ride. Coming closer, Alec noticed strange purple trees, others with yellow bark on their trunks and several other odd pieces of flora that would make no sense in his world. One type even had flowers that glowed. Purple, blue and red fluorescent colors made him want to reach for one that appeared close enough if he stretched to touch it.
Shae's hand caught his forearm pulling it down making it impossible to touch the strange leaves. "No, don't touch those!" the girl warned insistently.
"Why? Will the tree eat me or something?" he chuckled; but having seen enough of Atropos to know that there were certainly dangers here, Alec was half serious as well.
"The glowing trees are the most dangerous ones. They invite you to touch with their coloring, but each colored leaf has different properties that you won't wish to experience."
Helios grunted and countered, "It is hardly that bad. My people use the blue leaves after collecting them wearing gloves to promote sleep for example."
Sighing at the dragaoin, Shaelamee explained, "If you don't have gloves and touch those leaves you'll fall asleep in moments. Then the tree's roots will move enough to snare your sleeping body pulling it under the ground making sure that you never wake up again so it can feed off whatever makes that mistake.
"The red one burns flesh with the juices on its leaves while its bark will sting your bare flesh. If you're still dumb enough to try eating its bark or the fruit during season, your insides will burn. Take in enough and it will kill you."
Helios pointed at the tree with blue leaves. "That is the Cysgu or sleeping tree. The red we call Oparzenia or burning tree. The juices can be harvested to be used to burn away weeds or even to etch metal."
"What does the purple one do?" Alec asked keeping his hands well away from the plants. Without thinking, the boy's arms encircled the girl in front of him feeling more secure and protected even though she was smaller than him.
Chuckling mirthlessly, Helios answered, "That is actually two plants there. The Cyffuriau has the purple leaves and moss like bark. Touching or eating the leaves and fruit causes visions or stupor. Some people collect it with gloves to use the juices in making drugs to escape reality. It was illegal among certain societies.
"Those unwary might touch the leaves and get the full effect. If they wander too close to the tree, the Udusic vines which live on the bark will ensnare a victim pulling him to the trunk to strangle and crush him. Then both plants can feed off the dead body."
Alec felt Shaelamee shudder in his arms at the explanation from the dragaoin.
"What other plants and trees do I need to avoid here?" the young wizard asked his companions feeling more worried than he had before. It was bad enough facing things that were obviously trying to kill you like the hollows, but now he needed to worry about trees eating him too?
"Those are the worst of them," Shae replied, "but they are dangerous enough. Camp too close to the Cysgu or Udusic and you might never wake up also. They're sneaky plants... though anyone with knowledge of their properties can usually be smarter than a tree."
Helios chuckled at her remark, but didn't add anything more to her explanation.
"So you have plants that want to kill you. You have monsters in lakes trying to kill you and your dead come back trying to kill you. Why did you want to come back here?" the boy asked incredulously though he knew that he was exaggerating slightly in his observation.
"It is home," the silver rider answered with a smirk. "Surely the world you come from isn't completely safe? It is just nature that one creature tries to feed on another to live. Some plants you eat, but die and they feast on you."
"Is your home world dangerous too?" he asked Shaelamee curiously.
Shrugging, the girl replied, "It has its predators too, I suppose. Helios is probably right. It is nature that one thing feeds off another to continue the cycle."
They moved forward entering the tree line and Alec began to note that this was less a forest like they had seen near the lake and more of a jungle. The temperature felt like it rose too and with it the humidity. He was soon sweating enough that if Shaelamee's skin was adding water to his, the young wizard couldn't really tell.
"What are we supposed to be looking for here?" Alec soon questioned as the world began to feel like he and Shae just trying to keep Helios in sight through a world of encroaching plant life.
"Ediyem says we should know it when we see it," Helios replied sounding surprisingly confident when Alec thought the answer rather vague.
A disbelieving grunt from Shaelamee made the boy understand that she felt the same way. After moving further along, Helios shared, "The ones we were following came this way."
"These undead have been acting oddly. Perhaps this is what Ediyem meant about knowing something when we see it," the genasi girl suggested. She squirmed as if uncomfortable in Alec's grip, though he doubted it was anything to do with him. Her fingers would settle over his forearms often as if she were being reassured by the touch.
Shaking his head, the silver scaled leader disputed the thought saying, "They are acting unusually. That is true, but why? That is what the commander wants us to find out."
Shaelamee sighed.
Hearing sounds deeper in the greenery, Alec asked quietly, "Are there animals here as well?"
"One would assume so," the girl replie
d glancing back to him over her shoulder. While she didn't sound or act anxious, Alec wondered how she could be so calm. They were following undead Zmaj that apparently wanted to kill them. They had also run into at least one animal that might want to eat them. So far, Alec had yet to see anything here that would make him feel welcome. Even the trees apparently wanted them for food. It was an insane world.
More sounds of leaves rustling and an occasional snapping branch made Helios halt his animal turning his head this way and that. It felt like a trap. It sounded like they were surrounded as well, but what might be pursuing them now?
Shaelamee summoned a strange looking sword into her hand. Blue steel in appearance, the blade seemed to also hold water in the fuller channels on either side of it. Markings that appeared to be runes shifted as if alive within the water making Alec wonder what kind of magic must be in it. He also wondered how she had brought it into being from seemingly nowhere. It was amazing magic and yet he had heard no words of a spell before it appeared.
"Watch our backs," she breathed for him to hear.
He nodded even though the girl wasn't looking at him this time. Her usual humor had been set aside as the feeling of being surrounded settled in heavily.
Spurring his salamander forward, Helios gestured for them to follow. The dragaoin knew that they might run into an enemy, but hoped that moving forward might throw off the aim of an attack as they tried to adjust for the salamanders pushing onward. Certainly more sounds in the brush from behind and to the side could be heard, but they didn't run into an enemy in front of them right away.
A guttural howl from the right preceded three shapes leaping out of the brush at them. Their salamander reacted shifting away from the attackers but nearly threw Alec from its back in the process.
To his surprise, Shaelamee swung the blade at the closest of the shadowy creatures driving it back before leaping out of her saddle to the ground. Her blade swung again trying to connect with the surprisingly swift lizard like being. It looked like another hollow to Alec, but this one was quicker than any they had seen so far. It was like each hour of each day made them faster and more intelligent also.
"Hold still, you mangy hollow!" the girl cried before using the blade to cast green fire towards the evasive Zmaj.
More hollows leaped out from the left even as two more closed from the front.
"Shae!" he called worriedly to the petite blue girl swinging her blade at the three adversaries.
Ignoring him, the genasi caught one with the fire as her reach extended beyond the end of the blade with the use of her magic. Green light flared as flames caught its scales and the fire clung to it even though Alec thought that there was nothing to truly give life to the fire on its body.
Helios used the rays of cold on those attacking him from ahead and the side. Ice formed on their bodies slowing them marginally, but there were so many Alec feared this would be the end of them. There was no defensive fence protecting them on any side this time.
Pulling on the reins that the girl had surrendered as she leaped down to fight, Alec maneuvered his mount to face their rear. Barely managing the turn in time, he watched as more of the undead creatures attacked from behind them. Already muttering the ancient words for a spell, the novice wizard extended his right hand and loosed the magic towards the newest attackers. Wind blades spread from his fingers striking the lizard men. A head was nearly taken from the shoulders of one. A lucky strike, he had to admit to himself, as the other blades did less to the other three entering his vision.
The soaked cloth unwrapped around Shaelamee's leg forming a solid shield blocking the claws of one of the Zmaj on her left as it went for her exposed side. It was almost like the girl reacted to the attack on instinct like some wild wizard. Alec knew of a few and others that had nearly been what were widely known as wilders. Their magic was unlike a trained wizard's. They didn't always use words or gestures to pull out the magic. It could react on instinct like a wilder which could use lightning to defend or attack. Such casters were also dangerous since many couldn't actually control the magic. Fire wilders had been known to burn down their own homes or harm family members before the wizards who searched for burgeoning magic users could find them. It was the dark side of magic too often.
Alec couldn't keep his attention on the others completely while having to defend their rear. His mount snapped at one of the undead which came too close. Its teeth sunk into the solid neck, but in the salamander's jaws it was nothing. Whipping the Zmaj around like a dog with a towel, his mount broke bones and snapped vertebrae before tossing it away in distaste.
The novice wizard wasn't much more trained as a rider and much less with respect to the salamanders. Having to hold on desperately with one hand and a squeeze of his legs, Alec barely got off another burst of wind. Squeezed into the shape of a spear, the boy managed to target another hollow. Using his eyes to guide the spell into its chest, the ribs and flesh covering a still, blackened heart exploded as the shaft of concentrated air drove through the creature. Vertebrae broke. He wasn't certain if the flesh mattered to a hollow's animation, but with a severed spine the creature fell to the ground. Its mouth still moved as did its arms.
A second spear shattered the hollow's skull ending its animation abruptly.
Helios leaped off of his saddle like Shaelamee had a moment earlier, but the dragaoin disappeared from sight as he cleared the salamander. Reappearing a split second later on the ground between three hollows, lightning erupted where his feet touched the ground. Thunder echoed through the jungle as the hollows were thrown into the air with the force of his spell. Three bolts of lightning sprung from the silver dragon's fingers striking each of them unerringly. Holes formed in the bodies. One head rolled free to bounce on the ground.
Following up with a short sword drawn from his belt, Helios finished the other two off stabbing them in the head to destroy whatever brain matter might be driving them.
One of the hollows managed to grab Alec's leg in the chaos as more of the undead Zmaj joined their comrades from the jungle concealment. Another wind spear did the trick. It was one of the quicker air spells that he knew. Air was his best element, but he could use fire also. Noting the burnable flora around them, the boy worried that unleashing that element here might end up catching them up in it at the same time. He continued to stick with the safer spells. They worked well enough and the young wizard could only feel relief that there were no magic users that could help turn the tide.
The hollows had the numbers, but magic could destroy hundreds with a little room to work. This jungle limited their ability as wizards, but the three held their own disabling more and more of their attackers. Helios and Shaelamee knew how to kill the creatures. They had been doing it for awhile now and they had become good at putting undead hollows down. Even away from the safety of their fort, the two magic users were able to do their jobs without suffering any real harm.
Alec suddenly realized that the supposedly unthinking hollows had begun to withdraw like the night before. It was as if they continued to test the wizards and when they suffered some losses the creatures would decide as a group to retreat. The novice thought it strange that they acted almost perfectly in concert with one another. One minute the hollows were attacking. The next they were running away as one.
"Stop running away!" Shaelamee screamed in annoyance before the girl ran after the ones she had just been fighting. "Come back here and die, you..." Her voice died out as the blue wizard disappeared from sight. It was as if the plant life could make both sound and the sight of her disappear at the same time.
"Shae!" he called after the girl.
Helios leaped back into his saddle. "Where did she go?" the dragaoin queried moving his salamander towards Alec at the same time.
Pointing in the direction he had seen Shaelamee go, the boy replied, "She just ran after them."
"Follow me closely and keep watch for another attack just in case," the dragon man ordered sending his salamander
into the thicker brush without fear.
The salamanders were large beasts, but amazingly they seemed able to slip through the brush with little trouble. They weren't completely quiet, but they moved quickly. Alec thought that they were likely pushing through as quickly as Shaelamee would be able to on foot at least.
Hoping to catch her before the girl got into more trouble than she could handle, Alec did his best to keep Helios and his lizard in sight.
Shaelamee was caught up in the heat of battle. Seeing the hollows retreating yet again was too much for her to forgive. They had interrupted her sleep and run away. They ambushed them and ran away. It was so annoying that it made her angry.
She could see them and would have flung a magic spell at one of the creatures except that they managed to dodge through brush that would likely prevent them from ever being hit. Knowing that she would either need to be closer or find a gap in the foliage that might give her a clear shot with a spell, Shaelamee ran after the creatures determined to take them down once and for all.
A clearing seemed to appear out of nowhere. One of the hollows was out of sight, but there was still one directly in front of her. Casting an eldritch blast in its direction, the girl was pleased when the bolt of green energy struck it dead center in the back knocking it to one knee. A second blast struck it as the girl caught up.
The hollow started to stand looking wobbly. Bringing her sword in a swish of air towards the creature's neck hoping to sever the head from the shoulders, Shaelamee was surprised when it ducked the blow.
Something wet landed on her shoulder.
The feel of something in her hair that felt sticky made the genasi worry that perhaps a hollow had struck a blow. It hurt and felt like a blunt weapon had hit her. Perhaps not a true weapon, but a fist; she considered taking a second swing at the hollow.
Smart Alec in the Dark Lands Page 13
