by Paul Yoder
Reza’s harsh tone seemed to mostly go unnoticed, Fin answering in an overly dramatized regal voice, “Sultan Metus, I am not. King Fin—yes. With the powers vested in me, I remove the leadership of this daring adventuring group,” he said while taking off an imaginary crown from Reza’s head, placing it over Nomad’s, “and turn over this task to—what was your name again?”
“Nomad,” Nomad said, mildly humored, though trying to keep a straight face, aware of Reza’s extreme dissatisfaction with the lightheartedness of the group, though having a very hard time due to the alcohol.
“Nomad! There we have it. Look how he fits right in. And just think, you would have been dead a few times over without having him around. So out of anyone, you should be the one begging him to come along with us. We’d be better served to have him with us! And that little one over there,” Fin said, looking sideways at Jadu, whispering the last of his speech, “Well,…he makes very good liquor.”
“That he does!” Cavok agreed from his spot which was still on the ground.
Reza looked around momentarily, only Nomad and Bede making eye contact, realizing that she was furious, sobering the two up a bit.
“We’re heading to Brigganden. A whole city rumored to have been sacked a year ago and occupied by an arisen army; which, due to recent events that we’ve witnessed, I would say has quite a bit of validity to. On top of that, Bede, Fin, Cavok, and I are being paid very handsomely by Sultan Metus, the sultan of the Plainstate himself, to infiltrate and scout out the city in the most hostile of conditions. Eight of the first ten scouting parties he sent out didn’t return, and the two that did return, came back gravely wounded with little of their sense intact. We’re veterans. Elite Scouts if you’ve forgotten our official title. Seasoned experts in our trade. How could we responsibly allow two civilians we just met to join us in such a dangerous venture?” Reza fumed, stirring herself up even more the more she spoke.
The mood around the campsite had turned quickly. Fin, realizing fun wasn’t going to be tolerated further in her presence, met Reza’s glare once, stood up, took a jug of Jadu’s moonshine, and walked off into the night, mumbling loud enough for Reza to hear.
“Ever the life of the party, eh ol’ girl,” then issued a command to an almost comatose Cavok, “C’mon, Cavok. You’ll have no fun drinking that flagon here. There’s a guard tower a hundred paces back calling our name.”
The hulk of a man slowly got up, heeding his companion’s call, marching off out of the camp’s glow, Jadu perking up from his sand bed.
“Think they aim to deconstruct my brew? I’d better go watch them,” Jadu slurred, weaving dizzily off after the two departing men.
“Reza, this is a subject that could have been brought up in the morning,” Bede said, hand held over her eyes, either to express disappointment with the way Reza handled the situation and escalated the conversation, or to hold her dizzy head still.
“You should have distributed that bit of wisdom to Fin then. He’s the one that brought adding new party members up,” Reza snapped, turning her glare to Bede.
Bede sighed, contemplating on her answer for a moment.
“I don’t know if Fin was joking about inviting Nomad and Jadu along, or if it was his way of seriously broaching the question, but to be honest, I had been thinking along similar lines. Perhaps the fates brought these two along our path for a reason.
“I set forth with you, Fin, and Cavok on this mission not for the pay, but because whatever it is that’s within those city walls should not be allowed to fester. Getting Sultan Metus information of the threat he faces is essential for him to formulate a strategy of attack. Until he gets good intel, he feels it to be unwise to launch a military campaign against the city takeover. The more help we have to infiltrate Brigganden, the better, in my opinion. And Nomad has already shown he’s more than capable of taking care of himself. He hasn’t shown it to us—he’s shown it to you, Reza.”
Reza released her stare, looking off over the dunes, features hard, obviously frustrated with how the evening went.
Nomad, along with Bede, hadn’t partaken nearly as much as the other three, but he had had enough to know to watch his words. He put a hand on Bede’s, thanking her for her words, and sat up straight, knowing to stand would have put his credibility into question, and said as soberly as he could, trying to answer Reza’s reservations with having him in the group.
“Though I felt the question of me joining your path lingering in the air today, no one has issued an invite to join your group on its mission until now, if all that could be considered an invitation. This is not my first language after all.
“If your concern is how you will pay me, I do not require payment. And if your concern is how I can take care of myself—you saw firsthand that I can.
“Without promise of payment or knowing the fine details of your mission, my motives may concern you of why I would choose to join a group facing very steep odds.
“I hold this name for a reason. Nomad. It is what I have been for so long now. No one even knows my name anymore. I have been an outsider, with no ties to others for so long, I almost forget why I travel on at times. But I found something I once had in you and Jadu, and I am quickly finding in Bede and the others. A human connection. I forgot how reassuring it is to be with others that have your concern in mind—that do not look at you as just a passerby.
“I have my issues—my demons that follow me—but it seems you all understand demons. If I could travel with you good people for a time, even if it is just for this mission of yours—well, it would mean a great deal to me, and I promise to help you see your objective through to the best of my ability. I need to reconnect with someone, something, if only for a while.”
Bede put an arm around Nomad and squeezed him tight. Nomad thought he saw Reza’s lips twitch slightly, trying to assess how his response had affected her. Perhaps it was a trick of the flickering firelight, but he thought he saw moistness rim her eyes as she turned away from the two, mumbling, “We’ll discuss this in the morning,” as she stormed off.
Watching Reza walk out of the firelight, Bede waited a moment before turning back to Nomad, gently asking, “What’s your real name?”
“Loved ones knew me as Hiro. My formal name is Kazuhiro Kasaru. The Kasaru family are one of the older houses in my homeland. Though we were never extremely wealthy, my ancestors have had great influence and the occasional spotlight in my people’s history. It is a family I could be no prouder of.”
Bede smiled warmly and said, “It’s a lovely name, Hiro.”
Bede patted him on the back then stood up to stretch, letting out a long yawn.
“Well, it’s far past my bedtime. I had better turn in,” she said, looking to see Nomad had not looked away from the direction Reza had stormed off in.
“Don’t you worry about Reza. I’ll have a good chat with her tomorrow once everyone’s head is a bit clearer. I talked to the boys and they seem enamored with you two, and I think Reza agrees, it’d be nice to have a man in the group that didn’t always behave like a child for once,” she said, chuckling a little at her own comment.
“We’d love to have you and Jadu in our company.”
Bede met Nomad’s eyes once more, then turned to head to her bedroll, leaving Nomad to reflect on the evening’s light, and heavy, conversations.
11
Lurkers Under the Sand
The next morning, the camp was quite still, most waking up well after sunrise, with the exception of Reza. Nomad had prepared a breakfast enough for the six of them with the last of the victuals he had in his stores.
Jadu’s firewater had done a number on Fin and Jadu in particular, who, besides Cavok, had drank the most. Neither spoke much the early part of the morning, which in Jadu’s case, was a noticeable oddity to the rest of the group.
Cavok, as soon as he was up, began packing his things for the road, helping Bede to clean up the rest of the site as if
the amount of drinking the previous night hadn’t even occurred.
By the time everyone had eaten and finished packing up, Reza was chomping at the bit to get the group moving away from the ruins as soon as possible, multiple times looking up to see the sun rising higher and higher, signaling their tardiness of getting on the trail again.
Strange to Nomad was the lack of talk regarding his and Jadu’s joining the group. They hadn’t reached a firm agreement last night with Reza, who Nomad understood to be the leader of the band. But with no resistance met when they finally shipped out of camp as all of them headed in the same direction over the first few dunes, leaving the ruins behind, he figured a silent agreement had been struck between her and the two new members of the traveling company.
“Brigganden is to our south, sixteen leagues from the ruins. It’ll take a full day to cover half that distance. We’ll camp tonight once the sun has set. No drinking—” Reza commanded, pausing to meet eyes with Fin, Jadu, and Cavok, then continued her briefing.
“Tomorrow, we’ll finish covering the rest of the distance to bring Brigganden into sight. We’ll need to remain on high alert tomorrow. No more campfires or lights. Though rumors speak of the threat we are to assess as being the arisen, we must not assume that to be the only threat we find present at Brigganden.
“We’ll send Fin ahead to scout a safe path to the city gates. Once he returns with a clear route there for all of us, we’ll make our way into the city and investigate. I have detailed maps of Brigganden which we’ll all look over tonight to construct a detailed list of locations we’ll want to work through and discuss our overall goals more clearly, but in general, we are to collect as much information about our enemy currently occupying Brigganden as we can.”
“To observe the arisen go about their daily routine would be quite the scientific opportunity!” Jadu piped up, realizing, perhaps for the first time, what their broad mission’s aim was to be.
“This is not a scientific fieldtrip,” Reza almost shouted back, which caused a silence in the marching company for a few moments until Jadu had another thought he felt he needed to voice.
“How are those lesions coming along, Reza? There were some on your lower regions when you were under my care that concerned me. Might be permanent disfiguration down there—never know. I’d very much like to update my notes—”
Jadu didn’t get far in his inquiry as Reza halted, grabbed Jadu by the collar, and dragged him, his little legs doing their best to keep up with the almost frantic rate of pace Reza kept as she walked away from the group until they were over a dune out of everyone else’s sight.
Besides Fin and Cavok’s humored chuckles at the little man’s audaciousness in the face of Reza, the group halted their march and worriedly waited, all muttering silent prayers for Jadu’s safe return.
Reza marched along back up the dune, returning to the group looking just as she had left, very disgruntled. Worry spread through the ranks, being voiced aloud by Fin when he whispered a sincere, “Rest his soul. He was a dumb, smart, brave, little man—and we shall all miss his legendary drink.”
Just as Fin finished his eulogy, Jadu came popping over the sand dune, writing fiercely in his leather-bound notebook, making his way back to the group.
Pleasantly confused, Fin slapped Jadu on the back once he was back to the group and said in a jesting tone, “Unscathed! But how?”
Jadu looked up from his notebook to see all eyes on him. Always excited to talk, given the platform, he lifted his finger up in the air and was about to speak when Reza turned around and gave him a glare that could have made any sentient being uneasy. Curling up his finger, he dove back into his notes and started writing again.
Attention turned to Reza, who now looked back at the group with an unconcerned look.
“Smartest thing I’ve heard him say,” she said, turning around, leading the camel forward again.
“But I didn’t say anything,” Jadu piped in, looking up from his notes, skipping to catch up to the moving caravan, causing a facepalm from most in the group. Cavok, however, laughed and picked Jadu up, giving him a seat on his shoulder, the whole group picking up the pace once more along the endless dunes.
“Good spirits and good humor. I like this one,” Cavok said, getting an agreeing smile from Fin and a disapproving, but humored, stern look from Bede.
The dunes were a rusty orange color as the sun hung low in the sky, still persistently beating upon the traveling group as they made their way over what must have been their hundredth dune that day.
Conversation had long since ceased, as the group silently made one final push to gain as much ground as they could before nightfall forced them to pitch camp.
It was Cavok who caused everyone to pause momentarily when he stood up straight, almost pitching Jadu off of his shoulder, saying in a deadly serious, low tone, “Stench on the air.”
Jadu and Nomad didn’t know if Cavok was aiming to lighten the mood with an odd joke, but looking at the others who were just as pensive as he was, Nomad thought to put a reassuring hand over his sword hilt and scanned their area for any perceivable danger.
“There,” Cavok pointed to a sinkhole in the dip of the next dune. Putting Jadu down on the ground, the large man sprinted over to the hole in the sand, slowing up as he neared the crest of the pit.
Reaching in, he scraped his fingers along the hole’s roof and held up his hand that was now covered in black, greasy sludge.
“Waste worms,” Cavok proclaimed. “They burrow under dunes and line their tunnels with slime to harden the sand to make large dens underground. This slime is fresh.”
The group halted. Looking to one another, not sure of the next move they should make. They listened as Cavok wiped his hand of the sludge and continued.
“They often make their tunnels purposefully close to the surface of the sand so prey will fall in. As long as we don’t tread on thin crust and fall in, we should be fine. They aren’t much of a fight above ground,” Cavok called out as he started making his way back to the group.
“Well how do we know if we’re walking on thin crust?” Reza asked Cavok, who was being very deliberate to retrace his footsteps back the way he had come.
“We don’t. Unload the camel and send it in front of us. Light some torches. They hate fire. Even the smell of it they’ll avoid—unless they’re starving. They’ve been known to surface for food if they’re desperate enough,” Cavok called out as he made it back to the top of the dunes the group had halted on.
“The sun is midway over the horizon. It’ll be dark within a quarter-hour. Do we do as Cavok advises and send the camel ahead of us and travel into the night to get out of these waste worms’ territory, or do we set camp in a valley and make sure to light a large campfire tonight?” Bede asked, holding a hand over her eyes as she assessed the sun’s position.
Reza looked to the setting sun, large, expanding shadows already stretching across the dune beds below them, answering her own question before anyone else had the chance to reply.
“I don’t like the idea of walking through the night with the chance of one of us falling into a worm’s den. Let’s set up camp in a trough and use the rest of the firewood we have. We won’t be using it after tonight anyways.”
With no objection offered to Reza’s decision, Cavok swatted the camel forward, leading it down into the closest dune valley, finding a relatively level area to start pitching camp.
The camel still carried two large bundles of firewood which Cavok unlashed and tossed over in a pile in the middle of the depression.
The bundle hit the dune floor, breaking through the surface of the sand, instantly opening up a widening sinkhole.
All but Cavok and the camel were still only halfway down the slope when the dune bed started to crumble, the hardened sandy crust breaking away in slates, falling into a large, dark pit.
Bede and Jadu started to rush down to Cavok who stood pensively next to th
e camel when Nomad, Fin, and Reza grabbed and halted their rush to assist a stranded Cavok who stood paces away from the lip of the pit.
“Hold!” Cavok commanded, looking up to make sure Bede and Jadu heeded his order, then looked back to the newly-formed hole in the ground, which seemed to have ceased growing.
The camel pranced uneasy, Cavok looking at the beast with a threatening glare, grabbing the shaggy flank in an attempt to calm the beast. The gesture did the opposite, the rough grip of the burly man only causing the camel to start back-treading away from the newly formed hole.
Cavok turned and readied himself to leap back to the base of the dunes, but as he crouched, readying himself to spring to the others, the whole hollow ledge he and the camel were on collapsed, dropping them both into the blackness of the freshly-opened cavern.
“Cavok!” Bede cried out as Reza leapt past the group towards the edge of the cavern’s roof.
“Rope!” Reza called out, extending a hand to the gawking group.
“All our rope is on the camel,” Fin hastily replied back.
With that, Reza dropped her shield in the sand, turned, and jumped into the black mouth of the pit.
12
Into The Worm Hole
The landing was rough since she couldn’t see the floor until she impacted it. Hitting the ground, she managed a rough roll, throwing off a bit of her gathered momentum.
Standing up on uneven ground, slabs of ceiling causing her to almost topple, she squinted her eyes to look for Cavok through the settling fine sand that now lingered in the air.
The cavern she was in was large, but the dust and darkness made it difficult to see anything past a few paces in front of her. Looking up, she narrowly managed to dodge more falling crust followed by a flow of sand, which added more dust in the air, making it hard to even judge the height of the roof.
Pitching forward, tripping over another slab of crust, she landed hard on the sandstone floor. Pulling her head up, she started to crawl on her hands and knees, feeling her way until she grabbed on to something large and hairy.
