69. The Hellhound, the Prince, and the Riding Gwak

The sun was just coming up, when, ready, with stick in hand, warm boots, woolen trousers, gloves, two coats, and a magara to make a fire plus a whole bag of provisions bought in the Cat Quarter, I landed in the alley outside Swift’s refuge and raised my hand:

“I love you all, comrades! I’m leaving. Cronies, I’m leaving. Be careful of Braggart and don’t waste the money that’s left; when I come back, I want you to invite me for a drink. Ayo, Priest,” I smiled.

Rogan was standing in the alley. I gave him a gwak hug, but in a more serious way, for this was a very serious farewell. As we parted, the Priest took off his top hat, and as I looked on in amazement, he exchanged it for my cap.

“May it bring you luck, my friend. Don’t forget us.”

All this time, I had been fighting tears, but now I could not hold back. When a kindred spirit offered you his most precious treasure, it was hard not to be moved. And I was very deeply moved. I breathed heavily and stammered:

“I will not forget you, Priest. Even if a witch puts a spell on me. And neither you, shyurs. Nor anyone…”

“Come on, come on, Sharpy!” Swift laughed, landing in the alleyway. “You’ll make us all cry if you keep on. Take those bones to your old man and talk to him. Let him unscramble your head and unscramble it well. And then, as your good friend here would say, let it be as the Spirits will.” The kap ruffled my hair, his eyes smiling. “Ayo and good luck, namesake.”

I took a deep breath, and understanding that it was best that I leave at once, without further ado, I gave my hand to Little Wolf.

“Ayo and good fortune.”

And I walked away down the slope, dragging the little one behind me. I had decided to take him with me, because I was sure that, if Coldpalm had not been able to cure his bone disease, my nakrus master could. He could do anything. He was my master.

I had not reached the end of the street when Manras rushed up behind me shouting:

“Sharpy! Sharpy!”

I stopped, and the little dark elf caught up with me, his eyes wide.

“What is it?” I asked.

He bit his lip, embarrassed.

“You didn’t hug me.”

I huffed, mocking. He was a big liar. But I hugged him anyway. And as Dil came trotting up, I did the same to him and said:

“You demorjed huggy gwaks. Come on, don’t get on my bones. Really, you guys. Don’t forget to stop by Yal’s house and say ayo for me, huh? And now I’m leaving for good. Come on, hook it.”

And before Manras could insist that he, too, wanted to travel to the snowy mountains and freeze with me in forests full of wolves, lynxes, and six-headed monsters, I gave him a gentle push, grabbed Little Wolf again, and left, this time for good, pressing my stick into the mud of the Cats like a conqueror.

I had barely arrived at the second crossing when I came upon the mist hellhound, and seeing him worried me a little. During all my preparations, he had stood there, listening to my reasoning, witnessing my bargaining with the Labyrinth merchants, but when I had returned to the shelter to sleep and regain strength for the impending journey, Dakis had vanished. And now… now he was back.

I raised my eyes and looked for the hobbits, but I did not see them. Which, I must say, was a relief.

“Did you come by yourself?” I asked.

The hellhound smiled at me. I shrugged my shoulders and walked on. Instead of stopping me, Dakis walked beside me. Together we walked out of the Cats, through Tarmil, past the Evening Park, through the market, and to the Red Docks of Riskel. There was a small dirt road between the Estergat river and a ravine. And from where I was, you could see the Imperial Road from which I had arrived a year and a half earlier. Perhaps for some, that was a short time, but for me it was a lifetime. In the valley, I had been a wild child, unaware of my own world; in Estergat, I had been just another gwak, lost in an ocean of souls. And now, between these two worlds, I was more lost than ever. But Elassar would save me.

I set foot on the Imperial Road and began to walk, Little Wolf on one side and the hellhound on the other. It was a wintry day, but sunny. Carriages were blocking the road, people were shouting, waving, swearing. And as I watched them, I suddenly began to think about the world I was supposed to be exploring. What had I actually explored? A capital city, a bunch of houses, but nothing but one city. I had not seen the seas, the deserts, and the distant lands that my master had sometimes told me about. However, I had an excuse: I had found sajits and made friends. And these friends did not have to explore the world as my master had asked me to do. And what’s more, I brought him the ferilompard bones. What more could he ask for? He would be exultant, for sure!

I was not sure which way I should go. I remembered crossing a bridge, and a Cat had told me that I must have gone over the Kief Bridge over the Solitary River, and that this great forest I had passed through must be the endless Arkolda Forest. From there, we had to go along the mountains, I knew that. And then we would come to the valley. And then… I hoped my memories would help me. The squirrels would help me, I thought. And that thought brought a hopeful smile to my face.

We had been walking for about three hours—from Estergat, and now along the Imperial Road—when, tired of carrying and putting down Little Wolf, I decided to take a break. I gave the blond boy a piece of bread with cheese on it, prepared another for myself, and after a moment’s hesitation, took another piece of bread and handed it to the hellhound.

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“Are you hungry?”

Dakis responded by delicately accepting the food and gulping it down. Whoa. If he ate at this rate, our provisions would melt away in two days. I chewed my own portion and, after a silence, asked:

“Why aren’t you with Shokinori? Did you fall out with him or something?”

I felt waves of brejic energy reaching me, and I pouted disappointedly, not understanding anything.

“Too bad my master didn’t teach me brejic energy. Because I can’t hear you,” I admitted. I shrugged and smiled. “But that’s okay. Little Wolf doesn’t talk either, and I understand him ragingly well. And I’m glad you’re here, with me, and with the little one. I don’t know how long the trip will last. Yarras says it’ll take us a long time to get to Gistea. Maybe half a moon or more. And my master lives in the mountains. We’ll have to go up and up… and then back again. Maybe you’ll get tired of it and leave me along the way, eh?”

I looked at him, grimly. He looked back at me with a serene gaze. I confessed:

“I wish you would come all the way. I’d feel a lot more comfortable. Because you don’t know how many bad guys there are out there. Did you see the scar a lynx left me once? I won’t show it to you now because it’s cold. But it would have popped me off if I hadn’t—well—if I hadn’t used the tricks my master taught me.”

I let the air out of my lungs slowly as I turned my gaze to the Imperial Road. By now the traffic had calmed down, though carts still passed regularly. After a moment, I stirred and stood up.

“Come on, Little Wolf, get up. Don’t be a dawdler.”

But Little Wolf kept dawdling: he was tired, his eyes filled with tears, he sat on the grass and stamped. He got me on my nerves. I insisted, and finally was about to give up and sit down again, when the hellhound pulled me by the sleeve and demanded my attention. I saw him stand up and then point his snout at his back, he repeated the same gesture several times, turned his head towards a rider who was passing on the Imperial Road and… suddenly I thought I understood him. I laughed out loud at the suggestion.

“You want me to put Little Wolf on your back?”

The huge hellhound lay down, and after a moment’s hesitation, I calmed the little wolf down, took him in my arms and perched him on Dakis. Dakis got up, and I laughed at the astonished expression of Little Wolf. I swallowed hard when I saw the hellhound turn his back on me and invite me to… get on too.

“Goo-good mother,” I stammered. “Is it really okay if I…?”

I hesitated, but the hellhound insisted, so I put my stick over my shoulder with the straps of my bag and made up my mind. When I grabbed his fur, he did not protest. I pulled myself up on his back, behind Little Wolf. My feet did not touch the ground. Oh. Blast. Hell. I was on Dakis’ back! I could not believe it. Then the beast started to walk. I laughed at the strangeness of it all. I felt like a nail-pincher on a horse, except that instead of a horse it was a mist hellhound.

Gradually Dakis quickened his pace, trotting north. He was not betraying me: he really wanted to help me get back to my master! I was exultant, perched on his back, clutching his neck and half crushing a Little Wolf who was as amazed as I was. In the early afternoon, we crossed the Kief Bridge under the astonished eyes of the sajits, and I addressed them a radiant smile under my top hat. We passed through Hishiwa’s village, and I turned my head several times to see if I recognized his mother, but I saw only faces that turned toward me and pointed with stunned and amused expressions. I probably didn’t look as good as the Dragon Slayer Knight on his white horse, but that was all right, because nothing but trouble happened to that knight, and besides, he was a nail-pincher, and I didn’t want to be mistaken for a nail-pincher.

Dakis continued to walk at the same pace, as if he was not getting a bit tired. After several hours, I began to worry. Didn’t he need to take breaks? As night fell, I said to him:

“Hey, Dakis, don’t you need to rest a little?”

For a moment, I thought he hadn’t heard me, but then the beast stopped his steady course, made two or three turns, slowed down, and, sticking out his tongue, smiling, stopped. I jumped to the ground, grabbed Little Wolf, and laughed.

“It was so much fun! I still can’t believe it!”

I hugged Dakis, stroked him, scratched his ears, and he welcomed all this petting with obvious pleasure.

“Well,” I said then, yawning. “We need to find a good place to sleep. I used to sleep in the trees when I was travelling, but I don’t know, I don’t know… maybe there’s a charitable person around, don’t you think?”

And so we went to a barn on top of a hill. But when I got to the top, what I saw made me forget everything else: there, in the distance, was the edge of Arkolda Forest. I shook my head in disbelief.

“I still can’t believe I made it out alive.”

And, snapping out of my meditation, I pulled Little Wolf and entered the barnyard. I heard barking and stiffened when I saw two dogs, but I relaxed when I saw them quiet and wagging their tails. I glanced curiously at the hellhound and gave a smiling pout. Dakis was imposing.

I found a small stable with a donkey and a pile of straw. After hesitating whether or not to ask the owners of the house for permission, I snorted, shrugged my shoulders, and went to lie down on the straw, saying:

“We’re gonna crash here like kings!”

I shared the water in the wineskin with Little Wolf, we ate raisins, and I took out a black twig… At that moment, Dakis grunted and sniffed the rodaria root. I arched an eyebrow and handed it to him.

“Do you want some?”

Dakis blew, picked up the black twig, and threw it away. It landed in the dung. I made a face.

“Oh, well. Never mind. I got another one.”

I pulled the other one out, but to my dismay, Dakis did exactly the same with it, and the twig landed in the same place.

“Blasthell, I only had these two!” I protested. “I need them, Dakis, or I get hungry. I don’t understand what’s happening to you.”

Sitting on his hind legs, Dakis looked at me with a scolding look on his face, as if he was going to give me a lecture. Who knows what he was saying to me. I sighed loudly.

“I don’t understand, don’t insist.”

I got up and went to examine the dung. It was disgusting, but if I washed the sticks well, perhaps… The hellhound grabbed my arm with his teeth. He did not bite, but that still frightened me. I backed away as he let go of me, and returned to my bed of straw, my heart beating wildly.

“I-it runs,” I muttered. “I get it. You don’t like rodaria. You think it’s bad. But it’s not.”

Dakis huffed skeptically. I breathed in, and in spite of myself, made an abrupt move.

“All right, ayo rodaria. You win, isturbag. But only because you carry me on your back, because otherwise I would have gotten pissed, you know? But I forgive you. It’s all right,” I repeated.

And swallowing my irritation, I took the largest blanket out of the bag, lay down, listened to the sounds of the barn, and hoped that none of the owners had heard us speak. After a long silence, I whispered:

“Good night, Little Wolf. Good night, Dakis.”

Little Wolf snuggled up beside me, I pulled the blanket over him, and after glancing at Dakis, who was lying nearby, I wondered why he had wanted to help me. Was he watching me? Was he sent by Shokinori or was he coming of his own accord? Who knows.

I yawned, closed my eyes, and warming myself, leaning comfortably on the straw, I was carried away by a wonderful dream in which, riding on the back of a huge dragon, I flew and flew through the air and explored, not a city, but the whole world. My nakrus master sat behind me and said: Look at the world, Mor-eldal! But I was looking at him.