Shylldra
The sun had disappeared behind the treeline by the time they saw the sign for Tivik, just a wooden board on a post nailed into the side of the road but at least it was confirmation they were going the right way. They hadn't been overly concerned, but there'd been no sign of human habitation for hours.
“So how are we going to explain me?” Shylldra asked.
“What do you mean?”
“Well this is a tiny little village. It's not even really on the imperial highway. If I show up without some kind of reason for showing up there's going to be a lot of talk.”
“You're afraid someone will come looking for you, but we don't even know if anyone's still after us. No one's bothered us since the city.”
“You might be right. But I still ought to have some explanation just in case. It would mean hiding that I was a priestess still, but maybe I could just be your assistant?”
“An assistant shoveler? No.”
“Why not?”
“Because you have noble arms. You've never done a hard day's work in your life...”
“Excuse me! When I first joined the temple...”
“And the fact that you think whatever story you're about to tell equates to plowing the fields or working the piles is proof of it. Trust me on this. You claim to be digger from Downwind, they'll all take one look at your arms and know you're lying in a second.”
“What's wrong with my arms?”
“Nothing. That's the problem.”
She opened her mouth to reply but she couldn't think of anything to say. Sometimes talking with Hallek was perfectly natural. Sometimes it felt like he belonged to some kind of secret commoners club with handshakes and codes she wasn't alowed to know, and it drove her insane.
I have so too done hard work! She thought grumpily. And besides I'm not a noble anymore! Well, officially. And I'm not so naive I don't think Hallek wouldn't have the same kind of problem if he suddenly showed up at the palace but...but I work hard, damnit!
“I know!” Hallek said. “You could be my wife!”
“What?” Shylldra gasped.
“Is that really such a horrible thought?”
“Well no. Not really, not...not like that. But Marriage is a sacred pronouncement in front of the gods! We can't just...just pretend we're married!”
“Ah. This is a priestess thing.”
“Not a noblewoman thing?”
“Nope. Just a priestess thing.”
She thought about it for a while.
“Actually it probably is a noblewoman thing. Marriage is kind of a big deal to us. I mean this whole mess I'm in is because of it. But I'll tell you what. You can be my fiancé. That's...that would be alright. And when you were leaving I got permission from the temple to come with you. That part's even true, Maia herself wanted me to come with you.”
“Alright. You can be my fiancé. As soon as we get to the...to the village....”
It was full dark as they rounded the corner into what was left of Tivek. Houses were shattered or left in charred husks. The place stank of smoke and death, the wind blowing ashes into the treeline. They found their first corpse a few paces in, a pile of discarded bones covered in blackened flesh and bite marks.
“Good gods,” Shylldra said as Hallek pulled on the Minmi's reigns to stop the cart. They both got out, walking around the ruined village in numb astonishment.
“What...” Hallek choked. “What the hells happened here?”
Shylldra gripped her staff as they walked deeper into the village past the ruined houses. They found a few other shattered piles of bones as they walked through town, as well as one or two penned-off areas covered in blood and bones and drying gore.
“Casae,” Hallek said. “The livestock they were raising here. Whatever happened here got to them too.”
Something shot towards them out of the trees and they jumped. Before they even had time to scream they saw it was harmless, small and bright and colorful. The tiny feathered dinosaur perched on Shylldra's staff and cocked its head at them, staring with glittering eyes.
“It's a microraptor,” Hallek said. “Like the one at the arena, the night we met. How did that get here?”
“It can fly. And they live in the forest. I think it's the same one. Maybe it recognized us?”
“Tchwaaark,” the microraptor said, leaping off her staff and gliding to a pile of rubble. It cocked its head again in an unmistakable gesture of beckoning. Not having a better idea what to do they followed it to the largest standing structure in town. A whole corner was still standing and in the ruins were hundreds of tools from rakes to picks to shovels, knives and saws and axes, all piled up in a heap. The ground around it had been smashed absolutely flat but some of the tools lay around it in deep furrows, almost as if they had been trying to run away under their own power.
“This was an infuser's shop,” Hallek said, digging through the doors of an intact table. “Maybe it can still feel the infusions? They say some animals can do that.”
“You must have been so scared,” Shylldra said to the little dinosaur. “Poor thing. Why not just fly back to the city though?”
The microraptor sat on a pile of rubble and started tugging at the rocks with its forelimbs. Curious, Shylldra helped it pull the rock aside and came up with a sword. Despite the dust and grime around it the bone was gleaming white, the infusion runes beautifully carved along the leaf shaped blade.
“Hey I've got something over here!” Hallek said. “It's a journal or something. By a Master Infuser Brank and an Apprentice Infuser Dalluth. Last couple of entries are by Dalluth...says he was left alone and he found something amazing. He didn't want to say what, even in writing, but he was going to make some kind of masterpiece out of it.”
“He did. Over here.” Hallek lifted the sword as soon as he saw it, giving it a couple of practice swings.
“It's beautiful. It's the most amazing sword I've ever seen! But it feels...weird.”
Shyllrea reached out and rested her fingers against the blade.
“Because it's not infused yet,” she said. “There's just a little essence in it, to strengthen the blade. There isn't really enough essence or soul to empower the weapon.”
“What kind of bone is it though?”
“Over there,” Shylldra pointed. Lying in the still standing corner was a curled up corpse. It was as old and rotted as the other dead things, and parts had been cut off to make the sword, but it was like the scavengers had been too scared to go near it.
“Sweet Maia,” Shylldra gasped. “They killed its child.”
Before Hallek could ask what she meant a bellowing roar echoed through the trees. Birds and pterosaurs scattered in an enormous cloud as the ground began to shake. She thought she could see a line of trees wave back and forth as if something huger were approaching them through the forest.
In their hands, the sword trembled happily.
“We have to go,” Hallek said.
“Right now,” Shylldra agreed. “Leave the sword!”
They dropped the sword back in the dirt and ran for the cart. The minmi was already skittish as they hurried to its side, every roar and thud from the jungle making it jerk like it had been poked. And then the giant predator exploded out of the forest and it was too much. The minmi bolted as they were trying to climb on, braying pitifully as it worked its stubby legs as hard as they would go. Minmi, like most of the great armored dinosaurs, weren't built for anything like speed but its panicked flailing let it quickly outdistance the two desperate humans running after it.
The creature emerged from the palms to tower over the village, itsroar still hammering the air like a battering ram. It was almost sixty feet long. It had the basic shape of the great hunters—in fact, Shylldra reminded herself, it was one of the very firstof the great hunters—but there was no mistaking it for any other species. Not even among the four Fangs.
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It was thicker set than a tyrannosaurus with longer, stronger arms. Its legs were stockier, it's head thick in the snout where the tyrannosaur was sleek. Unlike a tyrannosaur it had a cluster of spiked scales on the back of its head and neck, not horns just thick jutting scales raised a few inches from the rest. Where a tyrannosaur was uniformly green or brown this creature's scales alternated between dark green and a pale gray, almost white, in a swirling mottled pattern. Those were the technical differences. The ones Shylldra had actually read before, in a reference book about the great hunters.
And as cosmetic descriptions went, they were alright. But when it came to truly describing what she was seeing...brutal. That was the word she wanted. The creature towering over the village was brutal. It had power and presence the same way the indricotherium had. The weight of being the biggest, the strongest, the most powerful. The sheer power of finding yourself scampering around the feet of a true titan.
Giganotosaurus, Shylldra thought numbly. Norak was right. One of the Fangs really DID come here.
A tyrannosaurus liked to rule, dominate, control. A giganotosaurus was built to destroy. The thicker snout was like a battering ram. The jagged teeth were meant to rip and tear. The thicker, more muscular body was held so tightly it felt like an arrow drawn tight in a bow. Every swish of its long balancing tail felt like the swing of a club. Even the lighter patterning on its scales made it look like it was wearing warpaint.
It bellowed again, its swinging tail casually snapping a tree in half. Hallek and Shylldra dove into an old dug out cellar covered by a pile of rubble. Shylldra clutched her staff to her chest and began chanting a prayer to Maia.
Protect us, she begged. Protect us from harm. Guard us from ourselves. Muffle and hide our heartbeats to keep us safe. She felt the internal wind of the prayers working but she had no idea if she'd called enough of Maia's power to defend them from one of the Fangs. The Microraptor clung to her chest like a child, as if begging her to hide it from the monster.
Hallek
The giganotosaurus stomped through the village until it reached the ruined infuser's hut. It sniffed the wreckage, shifting the rubble around with its snout. After a few moments it reared back and let out another roar. This one was different. There was rage but there was also...frustration. Confusion. Sadness. The giganotosaurus honked miserably and kicked at the rubble.
“It's the sword,” she said. “It can still feel its child's essence in the sword. That's why it hasn't left the palm forest. The poor thing must be starving. It can't be hunting enough food for itself in here.”
“Shylldra I think...I think there's only one way out of this. I think we have to kill it.” She's looking at me like I'm crazy. Well that's alright. I probably am crazy. I just don't see another way of living through this. “I'm serious Shylldra, look at this place. Think of all the time we spent on the road and no one we passed knew it was happening?”
“Everyone knew something's been wrong with the forest!”
“But a whole village destroyed by one of the Fangs? I didn't hear anything like that, did you? And news like that should have gotten around...if there was anyone alive to report it. The gigantosaur...”
“Giganotosaur. Gigantosaur is a long neck.”
“Whatever!” Hallek hissed. “The point is he killed everyone in the village, and then he killed anyone else who came by the village. And not one of them escaped.”
“They killed his child. Just to make a sword. He's crazed. Raging. I can't blame him for that.”
“I'm not trying to blame it I'm trying to survive it. We didn't kill its kid. The people who did are all lying in little heaps of bones around here someplace. If we can't get away from it we have to go through it.”
“And how do you plan on killing him?” she said finally, and Hallek almost sagged in relief. He didn't expect either of them to live really, but going out there to try and kill that thing without her support—even just emotional support—had felt a hundred times harder than the task's basic level of impossible.
“It's just an animal. A huge, dangerous, terrifying animal but an animal. If we cut the thing it’s going to bleed. If it bleeds enough it’s going to die, just like anything else. It's out of its mind with panic and rage, and you said yourself it can't have been eating right lately. Things like that normally live on the western plains right? You said it yourself it can't be getting enough to eat. Maybe it's getting weak.”
“Or maybe it’s just getting dangerous.”
“Hey, I've got an infused sword right here. If Milkaamek could take out a fang with a metal ax...”
“It really was metal. I saw Dakkareg's memories, remember? I don't know why but he used a metal ax.”
“Well I don't know about that. I don't have anything as ridiculous as a metal weapon to hand anyway. Maybe I can't kill it but I can probably hamstring it. Cut the ankle. That would give us time to run away.”
Shylldra looked worried, but thankfully she didn't object to the plan. Hallek was painfully aware just how easy it would be for someone to talk him out of it. It probably wouldn't take more than a word. A noise. A stray tree branch could fall and Hallek might take it as a sign from the heavens. Because sneaking out of hiding all by himself to attack on one of the Fangs with his little sword sounded an awful lot like the stupidest thing he'd ever done.
“Now's your chance,” she said, and Hallek stamped down the wave of base betrayal that rose up from his gut. “I'll pray for all the protection Maia can give you.”
The giganotosaur had bent down to root through the wreckage of a house for something. It stood with its head practically buried in the ground, its tail raised and, most importantly, one ankle just a few steps from their hiding place. He crab crawled from the wreckage towards the giganotosaur. He'd never appreciated just how small he was until he had to look up at the enormous thing and force himself to swing his sword at it.
It twisted in his grip.
He'd heard of people getting to know their soul infused items. Of the personalities of the creatures inside remaining, even communicating with their wielders. Shylldra claimed to have two living in her staff she talked to on a regular basis. He'd never experienced it himself until the moment his own sword told him he was crazy.
It panicked in his hand as he tried to swing, a wild slash that never even touched the dinosaur's scales. He pulled back for another but the sword slithered in his grip to break free from this lunatic who was trying to get them both killed. You're already dead! He tried to tell the sword. Or at least think at it very loudly. Apparently, in the face of the giganotosaurus, that mattered very little.
And Hallek didn't have time to try and convince it, because the dinosaur had finally noticed something was going on. It raised its head to look at him. Hallek threw the sword at it. The blade curved away in midair, but for once the panicking blade helped out as it flew wild in the opposite direction, distracting the dinosaur as it followed the movement. He used the distraction to bolt back to Shylldra and the makeshift hiding place.
“Are you alright?” She asked him as he slid back under the rubble.
“Metal,” he said.
“Did you hit your head?” she started checking his head for wounds.
“No!” he said, pushing her away. “I'm...I'm fine. But the first emperor...metal can't be infused. It doesn't have a soul inside it to remember being alive. That's why he fought it with a metal ax. He needed a weapon that wasn't scared of it. He needed a weapon that wouldn't run away!”
“And it didn't matter if it was weaker and less reliable," Shylldra followed his reasoning. "Because infused weapons wouldn't work anyway. But how does that help us? There aren't any weapons around here that won't be terrified of it!”
“Actually there's one. Just one. And we're running out of time.”
The giganotosaur had reached the discarded sword and places a three toed foot on it to hold it still, since it was still trying to roll away. It was sniffing it like a trained hunting animal, and if Hallek had any doubts they were dispelled when it raised its nose to the air rolled its head back and forth, sniffing.
It had his scent.
“Okay. I'm going to try and draw it away.”
“Hallek!” Shylldra hissed.
“It's got my scent anyway! That's probably how it chased down everyone who saw it. At least you can get out of here. And I have a kind of sort of plan.”
“That sounds kind of sort of like a way to die.”
“Let me get going before I remember to be afraid. It's gonna be coming this way any second.”
“Okay. Okay listen, if it's anything like a tyrannosaurus it's got a big important vein in its neck. Just like us. That's how Milkaamek did it.”
I doubt that's going to come up. Not only did he plan on trying to hamstring it again he figured if he got that close to the thing's neck it was all over.
“Thank you. Now I gotta go.”
Bolting back out was the hardest thing he'd ever done. Especially since the giganotosaurus had turned in his direction.
It roared as he ran out of cover, thundering after him. It might have been his imagination but he thought it sped up when he realized where he was heading. In the flattened town the corner of the infuser’s shop was practically a tower. And in it the only weapon Hallek could think of that wasn't terrified of the Fang. He scooped up the sword just as he felt the hot, stinking breath wash over him and he looked up to see the sky filled with maw, the giganotosaurs gaping mouth a hole in the sky ringed with razor sharp teeth. It lunged down to snap him in half but on some mad instinct Hallek jumped and curled himself into a ball as the jaws snapped shut around him.
This must be hell.
The giganotosaur's mouth wasn't actually big enough for a human so he stayed curled up, clutching the sword to his chest, squeezed in the hot and dark and tight. The air stank of carrion. He slid back and forth on the giganotosaur's eerily smooth tongue, and every time he slipped the edges of teeth like knives sliced into his arms and shoulders and sides. The creature shook its head back and forth, bouncing him against the teeth. And then Hallek felt muscles begin to work around his head and realized it was trying to swallow him.
“No!” Hallek shouted. “Screw you!”
He braced his feet against the roof of its mouth and swing the sword up. The tip just barely poked into the flesh, but it was enough to make the let out an infuriated roar. Cool fresh air washed over his face along with blessed moonlight, and Hallek rolled towards freedom.
Sensing its prey about to escape the giganotosaur's head lunged forwards again. Hallek instinctively tried to shove it away. The move was awkward in midair, turning him more than affecting the dinosaur, but it was enough to avoid ending up back in its mouth. Teeth caught his tunic, sliding into the fabric and tearing it until Hallek swing by one shoulder from a strip of cloth. It shook its head trying to dislodge him, swinging Hallek like a pendulum. He swung inches from its neck and despite the choking fog of panic that filled his mind Shylldra's advice echoed through his head. He raised the sword in his free hand and swung blindly.
The blade caught the dinosaur's neck and slid in like butter. A fountain blood sprayed from the wound, covering the sword and Hallek in a thick, oily coating of red. The blood seeped into the runes carved into the blade and the world went...tight. Like ice that had frozen in an instant, as if the universe had clenched its fist. All of a sudden there was an intense feeling of coming together. Of a whole being formed out of parts. He actually felt the blade’s infusion take hold.
And then he was in pain. There was a sword through his neck. His child was gone.
What? Wait...
His arms were in agony. His shoulder was pulled out where he hung from his shirt, but that was secondary to the burning, the terrible burning of his wounds.
Why is...no...
His legs were giving out. He was falling. He was slipping away.
He was a sword now.
He was a human.
His arms hurt and throbbed where blood had seeped into the cuts.
No wait. I didn't mean...I didn't want...
Damnit, after all of that I'm still going to die.