Return of the Darkness

by Andrew G. Wood

  With the foul taste of tainted blood in his mouth, Finley had Sessi run as fast as his legs could carry him. He could feel the wolf getting nearer to his position, but he could also sense the creatures giving chase closing in. “There are nearly here,” he said to the elven guards, although keeping his own eyes shut, he could hear the order for them to get ready.

  As Sessi came into view, it was a strange, surreal sight. He could see himself and the other elves, but through the eyes of his wolf, and though he quite liked seeing the world through the eyes of Sessi, Finley open his own eyes effectively returning to his own feelings and senses. He could see the wolf pup sprinting and panting, tiring, just as the first of the creatures giving chase bounded into view.

  The sound of bow strings strumming, and the sight of arrows soaring through the air was a welcome one. The first two arrows missed, hitting a tree, as the first beast, seemingly the one in charge, waved a long clawed hand, sending the two others out wide. This small but very clever change in position actually said more about the beasts than the untrained eye might have realised. With the three creatures all spreading out and effectively attacking from different angles, they were making it more difficult for the elven guards, who now had to aim at three separate targets as opposed to concentrating their fire when the beasts had been close together. In exercising this one simple manoeuvre, the creatures of darkness had shown a level of tactical intelligence not seen before. The Balgraf it seemed had evolved, adding intelligence to their list of attributes.

  Finley felt a certain relief as he realised the creatures had slowed just a little, as their attention now turned to a new target. Sessi managed to run right up to him, thankfully unharmed and just a little out of breath. Finley barely had time to reach down and rub behind the wolf’s ears as a show of affection and praise, when Karesh gave him a nudge. With the elven guard having hit two of the beasts with at least two arrows each, all three creatures still threatened them.

  Karesh drew his sword, despite his mother’s wishes he should remain out of the fight. Finley cursed as he had not even thought about bringing a weapon. As the first creature leapt up, its torso now with five arrows embedded within it, the elven guard was forced to take cover. Bows and arrows were no use now, as each elf drew swords, backing away to form a protective guard around Leyna and her children. The three creatures made life more complicated by sidestepping around, meaning the guards could still not concentrate on just one.

  “Good idea wanting me to bring them closer!” Finley mumbled sarcastically. He did not really expect a reply, but he got one from his mother. “Their hides appear thick and almost impervious to our arrows,” she said glancing from left to right. “I told you my arrow was ineffective,” he snapped back a little angry that no one had listened to him as always seemed to be the case.

  “When I say so. I want you boys to make a run for the bridge,” their mother said.

  “We are not leaving you Mother,” Karesh said holding the sword Finley had given him and pointing it towards one of the creatures. “Are we Finley?” the orc added.

  Finley, much to his shame, had already thought of turning tail and making a run for it but had changed his mind, instead just confirming what Karesh had said. One of the guards grabbed a horn that hung from his belt and put it to his mouth giving off three short blasts, quickly repeating it before letting go and concentrating on the fight.

  The elven guards to his right sliced and hacked at the first creature as it slammed into them. Karesh was quick to jump forward and help out a guard who had been downed by the beast, slashing down with his sword as it tore at the unfortunate elf’s neck with its massive claws, sending a stream of red blood up into the air. Finley felt a little helpless as he watched the spectacle, and decided to make a grab for the dead elf’s sword. Sessi growled and snarled, but Finley kept the wolf from trying to intervene.

  With the guards struggling to keep the beasts at bay, Finley stepped back as another guard fell to one of the much stronger opponents. He feared not only for himself but his mother and brother and was seriously thinking that whoever had decided in enticing the creatures to chase Sessi, had been a colossal mistake. He turned to see one of the other druids holding the tip of his staff skywards, and muttering something under his breath, and he thought this was not the time to start uttering prayers.

  A narrow beam of light seemed to hit the tip of the staff, and after a few seconds, the druid in questions pointed it towards the creature nearest to him. The light then shot forth from the staff and struck the beast snapping away at one of the guards valiantly fending it away with skilful swipes of his sword. The air quickly filled with the smell of burning flesh as the druid’s magical light was quickly joined by another from his mother, holding her own staff in a similar fashion. One of the beasts cried out, lashing out wildly before slumping to the ground.

  Just as Finley was beginning to think the druids could repeat the process again for the two remaining beasts, he noticed both the druid and his mother stagger as if the process had affected them in some way. Without so much as a second thought and realising how futile it was for him to swing a sword around wildly, more in the hope of actually hitting anything than any certainty, he took hold of his mother’s staff. At first, she seemed not to want to let go, but something about the look he gave her, must have persuaded her otherwise.

  Finley picked the gap where another elven guard was already injured on the ground and thrust the staff outwards. The creature leant back slightly ready to launch another powerful swipe before it was sent sailing through the air backwards. Without waiting to admire his handy work, he turned his attention to the remaining beast, its wounds dripping black foul tainted blood onto the ground as Karesh and two other guards mercilessly hacked away at it. Finley took a deep breath and pushed out the staff once more, launching the creature up into the air. Such was the force behind this strike that the beast slammed into one of the tree trunks so hard it was killed instantly. The cracking sound of bones breaking as it hit was quite sickening to hear, but Finley had no remorse in killing such a foul beast.

  The remaining, surviving creature, the first he had sent flying backwards, staggered back to its feet. The beast looked about, before deciding its chances of victory were seemingly much less than they had been, and rather than attack again, it turned tail and ran off back into the trees. With one elf dead and three with noticeable injuries, even the idea of giving chase was out of the question, as Finley’s mother took her staff back, but not without first giving her son a strange look.

  Karesh helped make sure the two downed beasts were dead and assisted dragging one of the corpses back. Several riders approached from the direction of the bridge, riding at speed. “And here comes the cavalry, late as usual,” one of the guards said returning his sword to its scabbard, before regathering the bow he had discarded on the ground. With the horses now available, at least the wounded could be quickly ridden back to the town to receive treatment. Furthermore, it also meant Karesh did not have to drag the dead balgraf, that his mother was insistent they needed, to experiment on.

  Leyna was glad everything had turned out for the best, although was saddened by the loss of life. As the one in charge of the little excursion she was responsible, and was having doubts she had made the right decision in having Finley and Sessi brings the creatures to her. There were, of course, several positives to come from all this. They had learned that these new creatures were much tougher and even more ferocious than any they had seen before. Moreover, they had shown a level of intelligence not thought possible, a tactical awareness that showed these were no longer mindless killers. Their skin was thicker, and while their arrows had pierced and wounded the animals, they had not succeeded in taking it down as would have been expected. Whether this was the case with all the creatures of the darkness or just these few, Leyna needed to find out.

  As they made their way back across the bridge spanning the calm blue waters of the lake, Finley and Sessi trudged along
at the back of the group. With his head looking down at the stones under his feet, he did not notice his mother had stopped and waited for him to catch up. “What magic did you use?” she asked making him look up.

  “Magic? No idea,” he said sounding a little glum.

  “How did you learn?” she asked him.

  Finley walked on a few more steps, with Sessi doing likewise at his side, before stopping altogether. “It is a little strange really. I knew I could do the whole throwing them back thing because I did it before in my dreams.”

  “Really? How unusual…and very interesting,” his mother replied gesturing for them to walk on noticing Karesh was now waiting for them to catch up.

  Had her son some hidden talents, tucked away somewhere in his mind. The idea that he might be this Zerus Maldhor character surfaced again, but how could a boy born less than sixteen years ago be someone that had lived hundreds of years ago? Whatever the reason, she knew the answers were out there somewhere. Having given up on her son once, albeit for his own safety, she was not about to do so again. Finley was undoubtedly showing gifts surpassing those expected by the various magical classes. A wolf pup with whom he shared not only thoughts but senses as well, signs of a druid, yet like no other she knew of. Now he had shown her that perhaps he also had the skills of a shaman, utilising the power of the air, without ever being taught how to do so.

  Chapter 20.

  Galdrac and his group were nearly at their destination. An elven town known as Beseklin. Now little more than a collection of ruins, and an outer wall that had crumbled with time. Once a popular place for the farmers of these lands to sell their wares, it was also the main stop off point for those who had wished to travel further on to the coastal areas much further west.

  Built up on a plateau making it the prominent feature for miles around, with a good solid stone outer wall, it was thought of as a safe place to live. However, the forces of darkness had ravaged these lands, and despite the efforts of those defending Beseklin, it had fallen, just as those defending it had done so.

  In the early morning half-light, Galdrac looked up at the two huge stone pillars that would have once supported the large wooden gates, now long since gone, but the remains of the large metal hinges could still be seen. The outer wall itself, was now more or less just piles of rubble, although there were still one or two areas that still stood as they had before the great war. The once elegant cobbled streets inside the town were now nothing more than stones interspaced between the dark, dry mud they had once covered. Some of the buildings had been destroyed in the war, while others had merely been abandoned to suffer the rigours of time, their timbers now rotten and the buildings they once supported collapsed into piles of rubble.

  This place, once a hive of activity and wealth, would now act as their base camp. From here, Galdrac hoped to send scouts out to check the surrounding areas for any signs that the creatures of the darkness were in the area. Being as nobody knew where they were coming from, or how they became to be, any place not yet explored was potentially a possibility. The only building still standing in Beseklin was, strangely enough, the oldest. Near the centre and built before any of the homes and outer walls, it survived to this day, and still in reasonable condition.

  With a slated roof and thick stone walls, it had strangely outlasted everything around it. Galdrac trotted his horse right up to the building, surprised to see just how good the state was. On first sight, it would appear the small church had barely weathered at all as if somebody had been keeping it maintained. The stone steps at the entrance way were even bereft of any rubble or dirt as if they had been swept that very morning. The paint on the doors looked recent, and Galdrac realised something here was not quite as it should be. Even the land around the church seemed different somehow as if still alive.

  Signalling for his group to be silent, Galdrac slipped down from his horse, and after making sure he had his staff in hand, tentatively moved up the three steps towards the door. He slowly turned the handle and pushed the door open, which did so far too easily considering the place was supposed to have been abandoned hundreds of years ago. He heard the sound of several of his group drawing their swords as they moved just a pace or two behind him.

  Inside, it was unsurprisingly dark, with only a narrow shaft of light angling in from a small window at the far end of the building. After pausing and gesturing for a lamp to be brought up to the front, he waited impatiently hoping his eyes would become accustomed to the gloomy interior. Just as the lamp was lit and passed to him, he turned quickly, hearing a noise, from somewhere inside the church.

  Holding the lamp slightly in front, with one hand, and his staff firmly held in the other he ventured a little further inside. “Hello. Is anybody there,” he asked out into the dark shadows, hoping who or whatever was there, was not dangerous. Galdrac stopped in his tracks as a young elven girl stepped forward into the line of sight, quickly followed by a couple of older elves. A further three slowly made an appearance a little to Galdrac’s left, as he stood astounded. “What are you all doing here?” He asked.

  There was a short silence, as he looked from elf to elf for somebody to respond. In the end, one of the more senior looking figures stepped a few paces closer and explained. Apparently, there had been a small number of elves surviving in Beseklin since the war. They grew what little food they had in a small patch of land at the back of the church, although despite all their efforts any crop they had planted outside the church grounds had failed. As to why that was the case they did not know, but with the food, they could grow, and capturing the rainwater they had managed to exist.

  Galdrac was not quite sure how anybody could survive in these lands for more than a few days, never mind still be here hundreds of years after it was supposedly lost. The land here was tainted, although not to the extent of the Wastes and former home of the trolls, further south. Nevertheless, little of substance appeared to grow in these once fertile soils, aside from a few hardy shrubs and trees, there was virtually nothing for a hundred miles or more. Most of the rivers and streams had simply dried up, and even those that remained were bereft of any life, as the waters were thought to be poison. Yet here in this ruin of a town, stood a small oasis of life, where the taint appeared not to have an effect.

  While it was evident the few survivors were barely surviving, growing just enough food to exist, they had managed to do so for a very long time. Although not having an abundance of supplies himself, Galdrac knew he could spare a little, which he duly offered. After explaining who he was and what they were doing here, an elf by the name of Gaolin offered to show him around what little they had.

  Gaolin was probably in his middling years, and the young female elf was apparently his daughter. The girl’s mother, however, had passed two winters ago or taken by the darkness as he referred to it. Galdrac had a few guards set up around the town, just in case of trouble, although Gaolin insisted it would probably be unnecessary. The creatures of darkness very rarely passed through the ruins, perhaps not even realising anybody was left living there. However, Galdrac was concerned that his own arrival may have drawn a little more attention, especially should anything have spotted and tracked them during their travels.

  Just as Galdrac had been told, Gaolin showed him an area of land at the back of the church that was quite unlike anything he had ever seen before. In these forsaken lands, was this small oasis of life. Planted in neat rows, were various different types of vegetable, with a few fruits to one side. At the centre of all this was a tree, bearing apples. “This is our life. The tree bears fruit all year, and has kept us alive even through the bad times,” Gaolin explained.

  Galdrac was impressed by the sight, even though he did not understand how all this could be. The druid travelling with him appeared equally confused as to how all this was possible. “We believe it is the will of the goddess Heralin,” Gaolin explained. “We pray to her each evening before we settle down.” Although Galdrac was no expert on the deities of th
e world, he did know that Heralin was the goddess of the elves, said to have created them when the world was born. As to whether gods existed or had even played a part in the creation of the races, he was not sure. He never considered himself a pious man, but Galdrac knew that the entity known as Abalyon was once said to have been a god, before being banished by the others, and he definitely existed.

  Despite travelling through the night, most of Galdrac’s group seemed content enough to get by with just a few hours’ sleep. Their hosts did not appear to mind them being there, and if anything, appeared excited by the fact that they had guests. The problem for Galdrac was what do about them. Surely he could not leave them all here to continue with their isolated existence, scraping by with little food and water. Yet he knew taking them back would be problematic, and would likely slow him down considerably, something he did not really want.

  After a couple of hours’ rest, Gaolin invited Galdrac to take a walk. The elf appeared to be the one in charge, despite not being the eldest, he did seem to be the one the others turned to for direction and advice. His clothes were ill-fitting and rather threadbare, but it did not seem to bother him. The two walked up the narrow stone steps that led up to the roof of the church’s tower. From there Galdrac could see across the ruins of the town and beyond into the bleak looking landscape.