Siddel and his fellow hunters would go into the forests every day and used traps and guile to kill whatever they could. Not only did this get them meat, but every kill meant an elemental, too.
Whatever their various systems, the Lonehills had found a way to survive in this place. A way that had worked for decades, by the looks of it. I needed to learn it.
The clan never ate together during the day, instead snatching a little time away from their different jobs and eating fish and meat parceled up in leaves. They only came together at night, always when the sun went down and their fires sprang up.
Cooking pots would come out. The smell of stew would permeate everywhere, mixing with the aroma of burning wood. They’d all gather around the fire, the adults exhausted from labor and the kids tired just because it was getting late. They’d eat, talk, joke, sing. Even dance, sometimes. There was one kid, a green circle, who could produce a drumbeat from his palms.
I usually ate a little stew and then headed away from the clan. That was always my thing. As much as I wanted to sit and relax, I had to get stronger.
So I’d walk beyond the tent line and just outside of camp, but still where I could see the glow of the fires and hear the Lonehills. Sometimes Roddie would join me, sometimes not. If there were animal bones in the stew pots and Mardak, the cook, looked in a generous mood, then Roddie didn’t join me.
Alone, I summoned up the energy that my day labors hadn’t wiped from me, and I worked on things.
First, I put on a new set of robes that Pendras had given me. These were just like the ones everyone else wore, but tighter fitting, which gave me better movement. They were also better suited to my size, which was good since I was a little taller than most people around here.
I wasn’t vain enough to think that they’d made them especially for me. I was probably wearing a dead man’s robes.
Well, the dead guy didn’t need them anymore.
It wasn’t just the better fit that made me happy, though.
Equipped: Lonehill Novice Robes
[Robes made by Lonehill mages using seamstress techniques that have never been revealed to outsiders.]
Effects: +15% spell building speed when cycling stances
Ah. The mages were pretty flexible, and they could work stances that would put a yoga master to shame. But, they had a helping hand. I was getting more and more convinced that their medallions helped them, too.
Alone and in my new robes, I got to work. It was always the same. First, stretches to loosen up my muscles. You know, bending down and touching my toes and holding it until my calves burned. Planking on the floor until my abdomen was screaming murder at me. That kind of thing.
Knowing the stances from the levita book by memory, even if I couldn’t do them yet, I practiced them again and again.
I swear, some of the shapes you had to pull to work this sucker…wow. Even going so slow I could have been mistaken for a statue, it was impossible. I became pretty adept at making sure I fell onto my forearms, though. Busting your nose and hurting your wrists a dozen times teaches you that skill, at least.
Was this really a spell for novices? I found it hard to believe. It was just so damn tough. Then again, should mastering magic ever be easy?
After one fall, I’d tell myself to keep going.
After the fifteenth, I’d start to get pissed at myself. Some nights that would drive me on to keep practicing, other nights I’d decide to get some sleep and hope the gods of yoga visited me while I dreamed.
Tonight, I had already hit fall number ten, and I’d barely started practicing. I was in the middle of hrr-levita stance number 3 – which involved an almost impossible act of balance – when I saw lights in the sky.
At first, I thought it was a shooting star, but this was more a beam of light than a flash. It was constant, and it was colored a misty green, like the northern lights.
It spread outwards, forming a great circle, which looked like a door in the night sky. Beyond it was another world; I saw a pale blue sky surrounded by clouds.
And then a figure came through it.
Holy shit!
This was a portal, and I could swear the sky beyond the portal looked like Earth’s.
Was this really it? Another person from Earth had come here?
Quest Received: Investigate the Portal
Investigate the portal that has opened.
Reward:?
A quest from my text friend? Truth was, I was already going to investigate. I mean, this could have been someone else from Earth. Selfish, lonely reasons aside, this poor guy or girl was going to wake up scared and alone. I had to go.
Besides, though it was hard to judge distance when looking at the sky, I was pretty sure it couldn’t have been more than five kilometers away. I usually covered more than that distance when I went hunting with Siddel. I knew the land in that direction now.
I was going. No question.
I gave a brief glance to camp and wondered if I should go tell the others. Their first reaction when they saw me was to tie me up, after all. What if they did the same to the newcomer?
Then again…wandering away from camp, in the dead of night? Did that sound sensible? Nope.
I sprinted back to camp. The evening meal was over, the fires were dying. Most people had gone to their own tents to sleep and do other stuff, leaving only a few stragglers and whoever pulled sentry duty for the night.
Luckily, I saw Siddel sitting by the fire. Siddel was the opposite of what you’d expect for a hunter; he was the biggest mage in camp, lumbering in step and less agile than a panda, except when it came to using his arrow spells. Stealth was not his forte, but he’d yet to disappoint the clan when they needed meat.
“Isaac, sit,” he said. “Take meat. Drink drink.”
Huh. My lessons with Rosi were really starting to pay off now, because it was becoming second nature for my brain to translate some of their words for me. I guessed that was the thing with languages. Reading from a book helped, sure. But the real way to learn them was full immersion in their culture.
“Siddel. Sky. Circle of bright,” I said, pointing. “No, not bright. What’s the word for light…”
Siddel followed my finger. He looked at the sky, where the portal had disappeared. It was gone now, and the sky looked as if the portal had never been there at all.
“One in need of sleep, Isaac?” he said.
“It saw. I mean, I saw. Over there. Where sky sits. Light. Big circle.” Damn it, what was the word for portal?
“Porten, Isaac?”
Yup, that was it!
I nodded. “Not far walk.”
Siddel looked to the main tent, where the old mage and Pendras, who I now knew to be his nephew, slept. He poked his head inside the tent, but then left. He seemed to think better of telling them. Maybe he didn’t believe me, or maybe the older mages were sleeping.
He stood up, fastened his robe, and patted me on the back. “We go hunt for light.”
I had taken note of where I saw the portal by the position of the stars, so there was no chance of us getting lost. Siddel relied on me to point our way, and I relied on his intimate knowledge of the land to make sure that way didn’t involve straying into the various swamps and bogs that littered this place. The nights had been a little warmer lately, and you could never trust your footing on the ice that covered pools of water. Not that many of the Lonehills would do that again.
“Isaac,” said Siddel, in a hurried but hushed voice. He held up his index finger and bent it once.
I knew what that meant from the numerous hunting expeditions I’d gone on with Siddel. I got to all fours on the ground, then lowered myself onto my belly. Siddel must have heard something.
We stayed there, silent and unmoving, for what felt like hours. Finally, Siddel nodded.
“Talnak,” he said.
I shrugged, having never heard that word.
He made a mouth shape with his hand, opening it and closing it. Then, he cupp
ed his hand around his pointy ear.
“Ah talking. Or voices,” I said.
We crept on, heads ducked low and our robe hood pulled up so we were almost completely blended into the night, and then we headed north.
After five minutes of this, I heard voices coming from ahead.
Not just voices though; voices speaking English!
Siddel had stopped, but I had to see this. It had been so, so long since I’d heard my own language coming from anyone who wasn’t green-skinned.
I dropped to my knees and I crawled, spreading my hand over the ground before even lifting a knee, just to make sure there were no twigs for me to crack.
I went this way for only a minute or so, when I saw them.
There was a clearing ahead of me, and the ground had wisps of red light burning over it, as if someone had scorched it with a flamethrower and neglected to put it all out. It must have been the portal light.
There were four darkened figures nearby, and opposite them was a gangly figure, who was kneeling with one leg and had his head ducked, staring at the ground.
“Doesn’t look like an ogre,” said one of the men.
“No shit, you think?”
“I mean, he’s small. Maybe our size.”
“I was being sarcastic.”
Another of the group spoke, but in an entirely different language. French, maybe? I didn’t know.
It was too dark for me to see their faces, but I knew they were human, and this fact was enough to make me want to run out to see them.
But I held my nerve and stayed where I was. Human or not, it didn’t matter. I needed to get a handle on them. They were plenty of bastards back on Earth, so being human meant nothing.
Siddel joined me now, slumping onto his stomach. I did the same, and we both watched the group.
I noted that they were armed. One with what might have been a masonry hammer, one with a hand axe, two with swords. They wore bulky clothes. Coats, definitely, and they maybe had armor underneath. That was just a guess based on their weaponry, but it was impossible to say.
The figure got to his feet now. He was eight feet tall and gangly as hell, with long, curled fingers that, quite honestly, could have been bananas. He started walking, taking oversized steps.
The humans fell into a hush. The figure began to walk away from them. Five meters away, he kneeled at the ground and began to mumble to himself. Then, one of his giant index fingers glowed orange, and he used it to draw a pattern of light on the ground. I don’t know what it was. Some kind of rune, maybe.
As the figure began walking around the perimeter and leaving these strange marks at various intervals, I think the humans were too confused to do anything. They watched him, no doubt waiting for him to finish so they could talk to him.
I had to admit, I was pretty curious what this guy would have to say. My gut feeling was, nothing. No chance this thing, whatever it was, would speak English.
The figure had drawn six of his runes of light by the time he finally finished and then walked back toward the humans.
The people tensed up now. They bunched together, and I could see their shoulders firm up. Weapons were slightly raised. Not enough to be aggressive, but enough that they showed caution.
The figure gave them a bow, like an actor at the end of a performance.
“Met,” he said. His voice sounded strange; almost as if he’d said the words far away, and they had been carried here by the wind. “The Circle Children. Seen them, humans?”
The humans looked at each other. “Circle children?” one said.
“He means the imps. The guys with marks on their heads.”
The French human said something. Probably something in French. Who’d have thought? God knows what he actually said.
One of the humans shrugged. “Ain’t seen much of them. They have a camp, but they cast spells to hide it. You could walk right by it and not notice a thing.”
The figure drummed his fingers on his chin. It was a sight, let me tell you. His fingers were seven inches long, and his chin at least nine inches. The sound was like someone tapping on wood.
“Around here, the circle children?” said his ghostly voice.
“Maybe.”
“Delight to meet. Hope you enjoyed your life.”
“Huh?” said one man.
Another man raised his sword.
But then the runes began glowing, and beams of light shot out from each one until they formed a circle around the figure and the people.
First came the sounds. Sinister cackles and low, rumbling growls. Then came the shapes; figures climbing out of the runes. Things I had never seen the likeness of before.
Some kind of demons, maybe? Whatever they were, dread seemed to drip from them. It turned the night air even colder than it already had been.
One human dropped his weapon, and the axe clanged on the ground.
From another man came the unmistakable sound of liquid trickling onto the ground from the bottom of his trousers.
I’ve gotta admit, I was worried. My stomach had tied itself in knots. Even Siddel was clenching his fists.
The humans backed into each other as the demonic shapes left the runes and walked over to them.
And then the screams began.
Horrible, stomach curdling screams of pain. The sound of flesh tearing, of blood splattering onto the ground.
And then the screams stopped.
That was it. Over in less than a second.
The demons tore through the humans at an insane speed, eviscerating them until there was nothing left but a pile of guts and bones.
Holy hell.
The figure walked over to a rune mark and rubbed it with his foot, breaking the circle of light. The demons disappeared as if sucked away, and once again there was silence and darkness.
I didn’t dare move then. This thing, this gangly creature with its horrible fingers and oversized arms and legs…the only thing I knew was that I didn’t want it to see me. Even Siddel, the veteran mage hunter, felt the same.
We waited as the figure walked away. Where he headed we didn’t know because the darkness was heavy and we lost sight of him, but we waited an hour to be sure he was gone, and then we waited an hour more.
It was only then that I got to my feet and sprinted over to the clearing, where I saw that strange insects had already gotten to work on eating the humans’ remains. The ground was stained red and strewn with flesh and organs, and the smell was enough to make me gag.
Despite that, there was something there. Something I had expected to be there.
I remembered what I had found after I killed the hell kittens. The thought that had come to me.
Everything is worth killing.
Was I really going to do this?
I had to. After all, these guys were already dead. No use their deaths going to waste.
I reached out and grabbed something from the ground.
Received: [Human] elemental x4
And just like that, I was a grave robber. No, worse. I was a corpse defiler. Still, what was I supposed to do?
In this place, a world where weird-ass creatures summoned demons who killed people before they even had a chance to blink, I needed every edge I could get.
I was about to take the dead guys’ weapons, but they were gone. Siddel patted his bag. “For clan.”
For the clan? I’d never seen them use weapons. Maybe they melted them down or something. Either way, the weapons would go to Nino, the clan’s inventoryman, and good luck persuading him to part with anything. The guy’s whole life was centered around hoarding his stuff and making sure every item in the clan’s possession was used to maximum efficiency.
Quest Complete: Investigate the Portal
I bet you’re glad you took this quest, aren’t you?
Reward: 1 Kinesis elemental
CHAPTER 17 – The Runenmer
“Isaac de far. He saw dar portal. El da nafeck un rune. Lights. Demons. Tu meena…”
Seriously; it was fifteen syllables long. In my head, I settled on calling him the first syllable; Red. If I was ever asked to repeat his full name, I’d just act dumb. Which wouldn’t be hard, let’s face it.
Pendras kept interrupting Siddel’s story to ask questions, and I could see Siddel was getting frustrated. I wanted to help, but my language wasn’t up to par.
Red reached out with a bony hand and tugged Pendras. “Na, Pendras. Give Siddel talk.”
Give Siddel talk?
No, he must have said let. I had mixed up a couple of words. I was improving, but I had a hell of a long way to go.
Either way, Pendras stayed silent while Siddel told the rest of the story. By the end, Siddel looked shaken, as if repeating what he’d seen had made him relive it.
Seeing him like that worried me because he was normally cooler than an ice giant’s ass. Assuming there were ice giants here, of course. With cold asses. Who knew?
Just three days earlier, Siddel and I had been hunting in the forest when we heard footsteps. It wasn’t long before we learned that we were surrounded by wolves.
While I had begun cycling hrr-chare, Siddel had stayed calm. He’d face them down, growling at the pack leader. The wolves stared at us for a while, then decided there were easier meat snacks to be found. Siddel was a guy who didn’t scare easily.
After listened to his story, Pendras and Red were silent as they absorbed it. Finally, Red looked up. He seemed like he had aged even more in just the last minute.
“Da Runenmer,” he said.
The Runenmer. That was the name of the gangly, eight-foot-tall, rune making, demon-calling freak, apparently. Good to put a name to a face.
I had no idea how Red or Pendras knew his name, and I hated even thinking about the thing. Every time I did, when I pictured the first humans I’d seen in weeks dying in a chorus of screams and gushes of blood and flesh, I felt my stomach knot itself.
Everything Is Worth Killing- Isaac's Tale Page 13
