Smart Alec in the Dark Lands

by Donald Wigboldy

  It tried to stay low, but Shaelamee brought the blade straight down onto its head. Only shifting aside would save this hollow from her wrath.

  "Ha, not this time!" the little warlock cried out gleefully seeing the focus of her rage fall to the ground with a thud and a splatter of dark blood.

  Another strange glop of liquid hit her from above and seeing no other adversary in sight, Shaelamee looked up trying to figure out what had hit her. She felt no pain from whatever it was this time. Touching her head, the girl noticed thick purple liquid on her fingers. Just barely noticeable through the green leaves, Shaelamee noticed fluorescent purple leaves.

  She stepped back and complained with worry, "Oh great."

  Using some of the water on her body, Shaelamee tried to drive the purple juice of the Cyffuriau tree away from her skin in the hope that she wouldn't feel the influence of the liquid. If she was in time surely her ability to keep water on her skin could protect her from the hallucinogenic properties.

  She spotted the green vines surrounding the trunk of the tree and continued to push back. Surely she could avoid walking into these vines even if the drug did manage to affect her, Shaelamee thought.

  Colors seemed to shift. Uttering a little curse, the water genasi stumbled falling to her knees. She shook her head trying to clear out the fuzziness. Her balance was out of sorts, but the girl still found herself smiling.

  "Whoa," she moaned before settling back onto her rear in the grass. The hollow was dead a few feet away, but the small clearing was large enough that no dangerous plants reached out to grab her. Her concern for such things was already becoming a hazy thing, however.

  Suddenly the genasi felt thirsty. She smacked her lips and her tongue tried to make her saliva return as her mouth felt dry. Looking for the water soaked scarf, the girl realized that it must have been lost.

  "Dang it. Where did that thing go?" complained the girl as she sat.

  A wave of heat ran through her. A fever perhaps? Shaelamee untied her top with her magic. Grabbing it with both hands, the girl brought it towards her mouth lusting for the water glistening on the cloth. She had buried the liquid in the scarf mostly, but there was some on the top after fighting and chasing the hollow so far. Water dripped into her mouth between her lips. There was some salt in it, but her race could filter that out easily enough.

  Her thirst assuaged for the moment, Shaelamee tried to stand. The colors of the plants around her made her dizzy.

  She scratched her arm. The chitin bracer felt so heavy and itchy too. Throwing it to the ground, the girl tossed the other one at it right after. Still itching, Shaelamee tore the leg armor off as well. Her skin itched everywhere now, but the skirt was the worst.

  "Stupid armor, it's even worse than clothing. Why do they all want me to wear this itchy stuff anyway?"

  The girl stumbled even as her fingers tossed the skirt away. Falling onto the ground, Shaelamee felt the grass against her skin. Pretty certain that she could count every piece; the genasi lay onto the ground accepting the poking and prodding of the green blades against her skin.

  Shaelamee looked at her empty hand and wondered where her sword had gone. "Oh yeah, I think it went back inside of me. So convenient."

  The girl's head felt fuzzy, but her skin itched less now. "Stupid armor."

  Noise came from somewhere that she couldn't pinpoint, but it seemed really loud to the girl. Her eyes opened to look up and Shaelamee had to squint at all the shifting colors. Was there a sun to see now? So many yellows and whites were blinding her.

  "Shaelamee!" a pleasant voice called her name.

  "Alec?" she asked the air and tried to roll over to push up onto her knees. Another deeper voice called out to her as well. It was Helios, but the dragaoin's voice didn't feel as nice as Alec's, the girl thought hazily.

  Stumbling on wobbly legs, the genasi tried to focus on the world around her but the colors continued to confuse her. Her head was fuzzy, but strangely the rest of her felt good though overly warm. She was also still thirsty.

  Shapes pushed through the green. Shaelamee squinted seeing many other colors besides the green. The sun must be out for once and it was dazzling, the girl thought in confusion.

  "Shaelamee, are you alright?" something large and predominantly blue asked or maybe it was something above it. The girl couldn't tell. Her head remained unable to think clearly and she could barely stand.

  Her hand touched the wall of blue and it pulled away. "So, blue, why do you run? I am tired of chasing things today!"

  Something touched her shoulders. They felt nice, not itchy this time. Out of the fog of dazzling colors, Shaelamee suddenly saw a familiar face.

  "Pretty boy," the girl mumbled reaching up to hold Alec's face between her hands. "Such a pretty boy," she repeated before the light began to darken.

  The clouds rolled in and darkness filled her mind. Her eyes closed and the girl started to fall. It felt like it went on forever, but there was also the feeling of being held.

  Shaelamee smiled and lost her fight to stay awake.

  Chapter 11- No Face

  "Shaelamee!" Alec and Helios called out alternatingly. Though they had been attacked and there must be hollows around, the two men didn't worry over being heard. The creatures had found them when they had tried being quiet anyway, so what would a little noise do?

  Alec didn't really want to know the answer to that question; but he figured if Helios was willing to do it he could also.

  "There!" the boy called out before jumping off of the salamander. His landing wasn't as practiced as the others' had been and Alec stumbled before catching himself.

  He reached out and found the scarf that had been around Shaelamee's leg before the battle. It was very wet as if it had been soaked in the lake or maybe been in a heavy downpour.

  Lifting it for Helios to see, the young wizard said, "She went this way for sure."

  Helios nodded. "I was pretty certain, though why the girl ran so far I don't know. She isn't usually this crazy."

  Alec remounted the salamander tying the scarf to the saddle behind him. He was in the front saddle where Shaelamee had been. Worrying over the girl that he had only known for a short time, Alec spurred his salamander forward again.

  He had been the one leading this time and the novice wizard realized that perhaps Helios should have been the leader. The silver dragon man had been able to track the hollows before and could probably use a spell to track the girl now also. Glancing over his shoulder at Helios, he couldn't make out the exact emotion in those strange, alien blue eyes. He never could though.

  When their path led them close to some of the fluorescent trees that he had been warned about earlier, Alec balked pulling back on the reins to stop the salamander.

  "Those trees..." he began.

  "She went this way," Helios said pointing just barely to the left of the closest of the dangerous trees.

  Carefully navigating their way past them, Alec noticed the feeling of magic. He used his ability to sense magic as he had been taught at his school. It had been one of the earlier lessons given and, when his vision failed to penetrate the brush around him, it was the magic that rewarded him for his practice now.

  Entering a small clearing, Alec spotted a confused looking Shaelamee stumbling around in the grass. She was naked... again, but there was purple goo on her shoulders and in her hair. Her eyes looked odd to him and it was like she couldn't see the world around her properly. The black pupils of her eyes were so large that he barely saw any green.

  "Shaelamee, are you alright?" he asked moving towards her slowly while riding his mount.

  Helios pointed at the ground before gesturing up at the trees to the right. They had moved to the side of the dangerous trees, but he could see both the broken open fruits on the ground in the clearing as well as the trees that they had avoided.

  The girl said something unintelligible and poked at the blue salamander's face. Unappreciative of Shaelamee's fumbling touch, his
mount pulled away from her uncomfortably.

  Sliding off the giant lizard more carefully this time, Alec moved to catch Shaelamee's shoulders. The girl looked ready to fall over at any moment.

  "Preetty ba," the genasi mumbled as she reached for his face. Her hands felt warm as she pressed the palms to his cheeks. "Sch a preetty boy," Shaelamee added with a smile on her face before her eyes rolled back in her head.

  Her legs buckled and she would have fallen if Alec hadn't been able to catch her.

  "Be careful of the juice on her. It still could affect you too if it touches you. If I am forced to guard the two of you alone, we might be in trouble if the hollows attack again," Helios warned gruffly.

  "She feels warm," Alec said looking up at the silver dragaoin. "She never feels warm like this."

  "The Cyffuriau fruit juice is essentially a poison... not a dangerous one aside from the confusion that might place a victim near the vines or one of the other dangerous trees, but still a poison none the less. Her people don't have these plants where she comes from though and maybe it acts on them differently than my people.

  "She definitely looks under the affects of the Cyffuriau though."

  Alec settled the girl onto the ground gently making certain to avoid the purple on her skin and in her hair. Her hair looked dryer than normal to him. While he hadn't known her long, Shaelamee's hair had always looked wrapped in water. It had made it glisten and even spray droplets of water if she turned her head quickly. Her skin was almost dry also.

  For a human, her condition would seem normal; but for a creature referred to as a water spirit on occasion, Alec had a feeling that this was dangerous for her health.

  "We need more water for her, I think. I'll need some to wash this juice off of her also."

  "Our canteens were filled this morning," Helios stated dropping from his saddle. "If we use it all on cleaning her up, we may have to go back to the stream or the lake. It will lose us time."

  "Do you think we can go on with Shaelamee like this?" the young wizard asked rhetorically.

  Sighing, the silver scaled man nodded and replied, "I suppose that you have a point."

  His vibrant blue eyes looked around before Helios said, "I had better set out the air shields while you clean her up. We can hope that the hollows will leave us alone, but better safe than sorry."

  Tossing a pair of canteens to Alec first, Helios then began setting up the stakes as he had for the camp the night before. The young wizard looked for some cloths to wipe the purple liquid off of the fallen girl and noted the first piece of fencing with a feeling of relief. He didn't like their position here either. There was a dead hollow and the broken purple fruit. The clearing wasn't very large and Helios had to make certain not to get too close to the Cyffuriau tree with its guardian Udusic vines making the space seem even smaller.

  Starting with her shoulders, Alec wiped off the purple goo and was onto trying to clean up her hair before he realized that he had been helping the girl without his usual feeling of embarrassment. Maybe he was getting used to the odd free spirit of the water genasi or maybe it was simply that when she was asleep Shaelamee couldn't work to embarrass him. Whichever it was, the young wizard shifted his attention to her hair without giving the rest of her much of a glance.

  He did look at her face, however. While her skin was blue, the shape and features were quite pretty. Even the blue skin was so smooth and clear of imperfections that Shaelamee merely looked exotic to the boy. Her hair was also surprisingly soft and she had no broken ends as far as he noticed. It was as if the girl had given it the most care of any woman he had ever met.

  The purple goo fought him more here and it took more work to get it all off of her. How much the juice would affect her through her hair, he was uncertain. Everything related to these odd plants was new to him and Alec was getting to the point of frustration just trying to catch up to everything he needed to know just to survive here.

  "I think that I got it all. How long will the affects last? Is there a cure we can give her?"

  "There is a cure, but we don't have any with us or even at the fort. It goes bad after a relatively short time and since very few scouts have ever been affected by it, the Ciemnosci don't bother to have us make it. The only other cure is just to let it run its course."

  "How long does that take?"

  "For a dragaoin, maybe half a day; but for one of her kind I can't be certain. Shaelamee is also very small compared to the adults of my people, so that might affect the time also."

  Alec noted the air fencing set up mirroring the outer the edge of the clearing. There wasn't much of an area for the two salamanders to remain apart from their riders and with all five of them inside the clearing it became apparent of just how small it was.

  They wrapped the genasi girl in a blanket near the middle of the clearing. Believing it out of range of any other falling fruit, Helios and Alec kept watch over her while doing their best to spot any potential threats coming from the dense jungle brush.

  Glancing over to the sleeping blue girl, Alec noted how innocent she looked just lying on the ground in the blanket. Her face also seemed too young looking for the age that he had been told.

  "Is she really twenty-four?"

  "Hmm?" the dragaoin turned his head towards the boy curiously.

  "Well, she is certainly skilled in magic which takes training usually, but sometimes her actions seem more... child like; I guess you would call it. I mean, she is pretty and can act very sexily; but the way she teases me feels more like a girl closer to my age. If that makes any sense."

  Helios considered the idea and answered, "Well, most of the races keep track of their ages using the calendars of their home world. We use Ciemnoscian hours as a measurement of days, but no two worlds have the exact same calendar length.

  "Not every world has twenty-five hour days or three hundred fifty days in a year like Atropos."

  Alec shook his head and countered, "I am not certain of the exact length of a Ciemnoscian hour compared to our measurement of time, but our year is about three hundred sixty five days as we measure it. Twelve months also."

  Nodding, the silver dragaoin replied, "Well, that just proves my point."

  "How long are days and years for her people?"

  "Shaelamee is from Wataris, one of her planet's moons. Both moons apparently rotate similarly and measure a little over twenty-two hours. Gamrahna is larger and likely takes longer for its rotation making for longer days, though all three circle their sun in the same amount of time making a year.

  "I believe that their year is only equivalent to about three hundred of their days."

  Alec tried to do the math and kept failing. He would need a pad and pen to try to make sense of the difference between their worlds, but if their hours were similar then the genasi year was much shorter than for his world making her much younger than he had believed.

  "And what is the Ciemnosci world like?" he asked curiously.

  "Ah, that is a different question, Alec," the dragaoin replied with a smile. "If you mean years and days again, their days are twenty-six hours long and their year is three hundred sixty days.

  "Now if you mean what is it like as a place, well that would take a lot more discussion.

  "Their sun is yellow, but feels distant making the land more shadowed. It has helped their vision for seeing in dark and dimly lit places including underground where many of their buildings are formed." The dragon man glanced upward at the clouds in the sky masking whatever sun there must be and he added, "It is how this world looks since we lost the war and the black sand destroyed so much of Atropos."

  "And now your people serve or have joined the race that destroyed your world?" Alec asked in confusion. There had been wars with winners and losers on Alus as well. While not a student of history, the young wizard knew some of the stories and few who had been conquered usually suffered their rulers' dominion for long or willingly.

  Shrugging, Helios replied, "We had litt
le choice. There were many survivors, but the land couldn't support so many and the Ciemnosci were going to mine more time magic from Atropos which would make more areas uninhabitable for awhile.

  "My people were offered sanctuary on other worlds. Some even went to stay on the genasi moons," he said gesturing to the sleeping girl. "Others preferred Cenestraya when it was offered. Those who moved were offered varying positions. Those with magic like me and Shaelamee tend to join the army. We get paid fairly well and when we retire there will be land that we can buy cheaply also."

  "But you serve the people who destroyed your world," Alec countered with a frown as he gestured around them at the trees and sky. "These hollows are byproducts of what they have done too?"

  "They seem to be, yes." The silver scaled face frowned back, but it was more from annoyance at Alec's questioning of his people's choices than the question itself, the boy thought. "Our people aren't slaves though, Alec. We have joined the Ciemnosci and their allies. It may not have started as friendly, but we get along and things have been run fairly since then."

  Shaking his head, the novice wizard questioned the air more than the dragaoin as he asked, "So they fought and destroyed Atropos, but now it is fair? Your people were exiled from your world, but you get along with those who did it?"

  "You don't understand, Alec. You're just a boy and have likely never gone through anything similar. My people are pragmatic. We joined a more powerful foe and have gained strength from them in turn."

  "You don't ever find yourself wishing to fight back and throw them off of Atropos?"

  "They barely touch Atropos now. My people could move back, if they wanted. Some even have, but the hollows make it hard even if the land has begun to come back to life."

  Feeling the conversation had become strained; Alec stood up from where he had been sitting and slowly turned in a full circle. "Can hollows climb trees? You said that they can hide underground too. Should we be setting other defenses than these air shields?"