July 2023 ver.

Devin rolled over again and again. She sighed then twisted around until she could see the sleeping lumps that were Rowan and Avery. Both had been asleep for hours. She sat up. This was pointless. Instead of trying to sleep for the moment, she scanned their surroundings instead. The camp was on a slight slope. They had thought it better to pick a spot between hills and near a tree for wind purposes, but this also meant they lacked a good vantage point of nearly any direction.

The teen climbed to her feet and stretched her arms. The cold air was at least pleasant after walking all day in the heat. She suspected it was anxiety that had her energy so high still. Whatever it was, energy to burn was energy to burn. She started to walk, but didn’t go very far. Probably not the best idea to wander off in a random direction even if she could see perfectly fine in the moonlight. Everything in the area looked the same to her here. When the girl pivoted, her attention fixated on the tree. “Huh.”

She swept past her sleeping family to glance up and down the trunk of the plant. She circled it once. Yeah. Yeah, this was how to fill some time. One branch at a time, she hauled herself up. The top of the tree rattled with her shifting around to find a good view.

The half-emeran leaned against the trunk. It really was just them here. Alone. For miles. Maybe there wasn’t anything to be afraid of out here. At least, not tonight. She let her eyes close.

x x x

“I think I see the village!” Avery was his brightest since his mental training resumed. His tail had certainly raised in spirit. She attempted to squint in the direction her brother pointed. It was still small, so when he tried to take up a jog, she reeled him back in by the shoulder.

She cautioned him, “Don’t get so excited that’s still pretty far.”

Her brother slumped into hispriorsorry state, “Oh, right, because walking takes forever.” She gave him a reassuring pat. Rowan really was torturing the poor kid. “Which I’ve been meaning to ask, are we always going to be walking?”

“Not all the time, but don’t get your hopes too high, because it’s definitely going to be our main mode of travel. Horses aren’t cheap and with three of us we’d need two. Plus, I don’t know if I could teach you how to ride one very well. But some towns have carriage services or ferries. Marion, for example, has both. It’ll speed us along once we have some leads or at least get us to somewhere else to look for some.” Her cousin started rubbing his chin while studying the town in the distance, “Yeah, I think we have time for one more round.”

She noticed Avery stiffen at the words. Rowan turned to him and the boy shrunk under his gaze. Once again he was commanded to sleep. He tried his damnedest, staggering a few steps, but ultimately… Devin caught him right as he started to tip over. She hauled him onto Rowan’s back this time.

The sun was climbing higher and eventually Avery jerked when he suddenly awoke for the third time today. It was taking an obvious toll. She wondered about offering some praise. “You’re doing a lot better than you were yesterday.”

The boy slithered back to his own feet, growling to her, “Don’t patronize me.”

Devin scoffed, “I’m not, so would you just take the stupid compliment?”

He merely grunted for a reply this time. She had to bite her tongue before she started sassing off about letting him fall face first into the dirt next time. He was just irritated from the fog forced on him. It wasn’t his fault, but if he snapped at her one more time, the dirt it was.

“Oh, would you look at that. We’re basically here.” Devin snarkily observed for a change in topic.

Rowan jogged ahead so he could stand next to the fences that were coming up on either side. “I’d like to welcome you both to… Rallen!” There wasn’t too much to look at in the immediate vicinity yet. It seemed it was mostly a farming community so these fences enclosed sections of fields. Devin stopped a moment to take in the view of the wheat. Overgrown fields. For some reason this made her stomach flip. She knew Rowan had only left here a week and a half or so ago, but that should have been enough to get help and start recovering, right?

They progressed to what passed as a central hub for this sort of location and her hopes sank for him, “All the stands are destroyed.” No one had even cleared the debris.

Avery crouched to trace fingers through the dirt, “The land here is gray?” She looked to her feet. She scraped her boot sideways a couple times to find that the top layer was indeed gray, but underneath still held the color one would normally expect.

“That’s not earth,” their cousin corrected. “Once a person was turned to stone they usually ended up being crushed into dust. Not just people either. It attacked animals too, and even plants would turn to stone if that poison, er venom, touched them. Anything alive.” He didn’t look at them when he spoke this time. The mage stayed ahead with his back kept to them. She knew it was so they couldn’t see his face. She could tell as his gait lessened that this wasn’t what he expected, or rather, not what he hoped. The buildings were quickly clustered together. They were dead center in the village heart, but not a single soul was in sight.

“H-hey!” Her brother swerved to run to some porch steps.

“Avery, that’s not-!”

His hand reached out to a woman sitting on the steps, clinging to the railing. Avery recoiled from her the moment his fingertips met her form. “Oh. She’s…” He slunk back to his kin with his head down. For once he didn’t protest when he was patted between his ears by their elder.

Rowan finally faced them, “We’re not going to find anyone here. I guess I shouldn’t be surprised.” He rubbed at the back of his neck, unable to completely hide his disappointment.

Avery was at a loss, “But you killed what was doing this, right?”

“Yeah. Come on,” their cousin quickly diverted, “we’ll stay where everyone was holed up. Probably left some supplies there.” They followed him to a single story building made entirely of stone rather than wood or a mixture. “Apparently it couldn’t comprehend a stone building with non-stone contents.”

Devin tilted her head, “I guess that makes sense? Sort of? How did anyone figure that out?”

He flashed her a frown, “When it didn’t tear a huge hole in the wall next to where they were hiding for once.”

Avery had his own set of quandaries, “I’d really like to know why though. Why turn things to stone? Why this town? What did it eat if it petrified everything it saw?”

This tale has been unlawfully lifted from Royal Road. If you spot it on Amazon, please report it.

He was offered a smile that was a mix of amusement and perhaps exasperation from Rowan, “Important questions, but I didn’t really have the luxury to find out.”

“Right, sorry, Rowan.” The boy apologized timidly.

“Don’t apologize. You didn’t do anything to warrant one.” A pat on the back. She wasn’t sure if Rowan was capable of harboring a negative emotion toward them. As much as they both worried about his opinion.

They filed inside and the scene before them was depressing to say the least. It was an ordinary home and the contents of the establishment were a mess. The portion dedicated to being a kitchen, that they entered into,had been ransacked. Any supplies found had likely been piled on the table before being strewn over the surface and left in its current state. She’d wager it was the result of them haphazardly picking it over when they fled.

There was only one real bed shoved in the back corner of an adjoining room. The other spots were made out of whatever comfort could be scrounged up. Blankets, hay, pillows, clothes. A couple of these makeshift beds weren’t empty either. They didn’t dare peel back the sheets. That horrible dust was everywhere in here as well. A notable scorch mark was on one of the walls. He really did set the house on fire for a second.

Rowan sat his bag on the table. “No sense staying more than the one day. When the time comes you two should share the actual bed. Tenderize some of your muscles.” He was doing his best to stay lighthearted, but it really wasn’t working. They were going to be sharing a room with the dead.

Her and her brother offloaded. Devin went to the bed to pat at the surface. She was glad to find nothing under the blankets, but each pat sent a puff of gray spiraling into the air. When she looked back to the kitchen, Avery was examining the sad supplies. Most of it was dried and salted foods. What they had already been eating most of the time and not enough of any one thing to get a good taste even if it was something enjoyable. He noticed her watching. They shared a heart-broken stare before ceasing their efforts to find staying here okay.

They rejoined Rowan outside. He was crouched not too far from the door. He had his hands cupped together at the back of his neck. The state of the village was eating at him. The mage picked up a little piece of stone that probably used to be a part of someone. He rolled it over his fingers a couple times before giving it a toss nowhere in particular.

Devin and Avery exchanged another glance. Neither of them really knew what to do. She was the older sibling though so she took up the mantle.

A couple steps closed the distance, “Hey, Rowan-.” The wind shifted. “What is that unholy smell!?” Devin gagged. She could hardly breathe. Even with her sleeve held over her nose and mouth it did little to abate the scent.

Rowan rubbed his face, “I have a pretty good guess.” He stood and walked off with purpose, cutting a direct path to what seemed a random location to them. As they rounded a corner the odor grew and the siblings about jumped out of their skin.

The corpse of a giant beast lay not far from a barn. Its head was split open. The body had bloated and bugs swarmed over it. A couple other wounds tattered the flesh as a few other carrion types had picked it over when it was fresher.

“They just left it like this? What the shit?” She couldn’t believe her eyes.

“You two keep clear. I’m going to clean my mess up now that I can.” A fire roared to life at his command on the fallen beast’s flesh. However the flesh didn’t want to catch on its own. Rowan, frustrated already, sighed. “This is going to take a while.” He crossed his arms and watched the fire crackling higher and louder at his prompting. Some of the body was catching, but it wasn’t going to cut it. He was going to have to keep pumping mana into this until it was charred bones. This only made it worse for their noses that they firmly kept covered or plugged from this point. Their cousin was apparently accustomed to the horrible stench.

Avery had wandered around to peer at the thing’s face beneath what had to be the killing blow. “Hey, you know what?” He was pinching his nose and trying to breath through his hand; his fun facts came out whiny and breathless, “I think I’ve seen this in one of grandpa’s books before. Yeah! Definitely! They’re native to low mountain ranges. Which while we are close I wouldn’t say this area qualifies. I wonder how it got all the way down here?”

It had her thinking out loud, “I wonder… if it got lost. Maybe that’s why it attacked everything.” It was probably scared. Now she pitied it more than she feared the poor thing.

“That would solve one mystery!” He was perhaps too excited with having such a reasonable conclusion presented to him.

“What are the other ones?” Her and Rowan eyed her brother.

“Well… why did everyone just leave the village like this?” Their cousin averted his gaze again. A dark, stoic outline against his flames. Avery noticed the change in demeanor immediately. He looked at her like he wanted to ask if he said something wrong.

Devin moved her weight from leg to leg to drag the words out of herself, “Avery… that’s not… that’s not a mystery. It was the only decision they could make.”

“Huh? But their homes, their land, their work?” He was so genuinely confused that it physically hurt that they were going to have to tear apart his illusion.

Rowan explained so she wouldn’t have to, “Those things didn’t matter anymore. It was too hard to stay. There’s too many memories here to remind them of what they lost.”

Slowly, the youngest also turned his eyes to the flame, letting go of his nose, standing not far from Rowan, “Is that… why we left?Why we never went back?”

Devin sighed as she came to stand shoulder to shoulder with her blood, “Yeah.”

The mage informed his younger party members, “We didn’t leave the way these people did. We put our dead to rest before we moved on. That’s why and how we know who died and who escaped. Collected what mattered most that we could carry. Even if we wanted to stay, we wouldn’t have been able to do it. Most of the outpost was wrecked and with everyone who could fight dead… we were defenseless.” He inhaled deeply, “I still remember gramps’s face after going through my mother’s things…”

“We weren’t the only survivors, were we?” Avery asked.

Rowan replied, “Hm? No. I think maybe a third of the elf community we lived with survived. I’m not entirely sure.We split from everyone else.”

This only made her brother more curious, “Wait, everyone else stayed together and we split from them?”

A nod, “Things were too strained. Our family… was the heart of everything.Communally and financially. Even defensively. My dad was a pretty successful mercenary and people came from all over to see gramps for his expertise. Your parents headed the garrison.” Rowan gave them each a frown from his center position, “The holes our parents made weren’t ones that gramps could fill by himself. I think he didn’t want his focus pulled away from us either. Not to mention… well… we were trusted to protect everyone and we failed. Not just a little bit either.”

Her gaze lowered. She felt hot and not from the fire. No, she was still burning with shame. Gramps had been through so much. Most of it for them. Even if they were able to make amends. How could she have said what she did at all?

She was salvaged from her thoughts as Avery suggested, “Maybe we should go back.”

“What? Why would we do that!? It’d only be more of,” she gestured around them, “this!” The young woman couldn’t help the reflexive exclamation.

“The whole point is we’re looking for Aunt Luci!” His gestures pleaded for them to listen to his thought process. “Maybe there would be something that would give us a hint on where to look for her.”

For the first time she heard Rowan snap, “I don’t want to see that place ever again.” The felines were shocked silent. His fingers dug into his arms, “I can’t.”

Her eyes went from his hold on himself to his face, “Rowan, you’re going to hurt yourself.”

He let go and shook himself out. A fresh smile was soon ready for the two, “Ya know, you don’t have to stay here for this. Why don’t you both go back and rest? This smell is awful. It has to be killing you.” To her it was obvious that he needed some time alone so she didn’t give Avery much room to voice a choice. Her arm took him by the shoulders to navigate them both away.

x x x

The petrified corpses of some of the villagers were mere feet from them. But what were they supposed to do? Bury them? Now she was thinking about trying to lift one only for it to crumble and send piles of dust billowing from the bedding in her clutches. Why didn’t she just ask for them to move on?

“This was a terrible idea. I’m sorry, guys. I wanted you both to be able to sleep in a real bed and recover.” They hadn’t even made it to laying down yet. “No. Terrible doesn’t cut it. Horrendous is the word.” She heard him exhale sharply and looked to see him recollecting his things from the floor. “Let’s just head out and spend a day camped elsewhere instead of this nightmare inducing village.” Avery immediately fled the area. He was by the front door before she even took one step.

The three set off into the gathering darkness as the sun set.