Jal began the first part of the hike at a ground-eating pace. It ran for nearly two hours before slowing to a walk. It could see the mountains in the distance and went up and down many hills before stopping for the night. It noticed the many edible plants that grew in the hilly treed area. “It’s a good idea that I packed cases and bags to put things in,” it thought to itself. “I’ll stop here on my way back.” It walked through a forest and found an open meadow.
“Convocare ze tent,” Jal pointed the wand at the tent. Jal walked around the perimeter and put double stakes in the ground. After putting its sleeping bag in the tent, it began to go through the supplies, taking out what it needed for the night. Jal carried a bag and found some blueberries, collecting enough for an evening meal. This time it watched closely for a bear. It came upon mulberries, hazelnuts, and wild leeks. Closer to the meadow, where its tent was, there was garlic mustard, and something that looked like artichokes. Felinus Nipus and blackberries grew near one another, and it added red clover from the meadow to its collection.
Jal was hesitant to start a fire. But then it saw a big rabbit. It noticed that there were plenty of rabbits running around in the meadow, so it set a small snare with wild carrots as bait. Jal was busy making a fire ring to cook it on and when an animal let out a scream, Jal knew it was a rabbit. The rabbit and salad that night was very satisfying. It found two rocks to pound with and cracked some of the acorns available to make a meal for breakfast. It was a quiet, restful evening, and after Jal packed up the equipment in the morning, it marked the location of the spot on its electronic pad.
Jal wound its way out of the meadow and through the forest to where it had stopped. The hills began to get steeper, and Jal realized that it was nearing the mountains. It climbed a tree to see what lay ahead, but all it could see was rocks and trees. After walking for several hours, Jal came to a small creek. It filled the canteen and dropped a water purifying tablet into the canteen. It walked for another hour as the tablets worked, and eventually came to a stopping point. Jal dug in its pack for bokan jerky. After jumping into a tree, Jal looked around and sat chewing. It could see flashes of light in the mountains, and it realized that the sun was reflecting off something. Maybe there were other humans in the mountains. It looked around for predators, and not seeing any, jumped down, shouldered its pack and went on. Jal changed its trajectory a bit aiming for the flashes that it saw. It walked all afternoon along the outskirts of a forest watching for predators but didn’t see any. In the late afternoon, Jal stopped. Again, it found a place between some trees to set up the tent. It walked around the forest looking for things it could dig up and eat but came up empty handed. It was in an elevation that it hadn't been in previously.
It was up the next morning and began to climb up the lowest mountains, moving toward the flashes of light. Higher and higher it climbed, realizing that it was likely that it wouldn’t find anything to eat. “It’s not too far now,” it thought as it stopped for a drink. “I need to go more north.” The sun was nearly overhead when Jal decided to rest. It looked around at how far it had come. “Will I find anything?” it wondered, “Maybe Jan’s right and there’s nothing here.”
As it went further north, it couldn’t see the spot it had been trying to get to. Suddenly the reflection blinded Jal. “What is that?” Jal moved up through, what seemed to be, igneous rocks. Eventually it came to the source of the light. Clouds passed over the sun, and Jal stood looking at a black rocky area. “What is this?” Jal asked itself. “It’s hot. It’s hard and looks glassy. What should I do?” Jal sat down on a big boulder and tried to remember the charms listed in the books Eiske had. “I guess I could chip some off and take it with me. I can identify it later.”
There was a sudden movement at the left periphery of Jal’s eyesight. “I am the great Tezcatliopoca, guardian of the obsidian rock. Why do you come to my mountain?” a deep voice roared.
“I am Jal Jomari, an explorer. I saw the shine of the rock in the distance and wondered what it was.”
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“This is my mountain.” Jal ducked as a large rock came flying over the precipice of a steep incline. “I will kill you!”
“I’ll go back down to the forest.”
The response from Tezcatliopoca was a boulder targeted directly at Jal. Jal dropped to its knees as the boulder cleared his head by centimeters. “You are afraid to fight me! Some explorer you are! You came to see the world, and you run?”
“I don’t want to fight!” Jal shouted.
This time a series of smaller rocks were thrown in sequence at Jal. Jal saw an overhang in the rocks and crawled underneath it. “So, you think you can hide from me? I will find you! I know these mountains, every crag, cave and nook.”
Jal took out its hand shovel and dug into the loose stone under the protrusion. “Grav,” Jal said as he pointed his wand at the shovel. The shovel dug while Jal used its hands.
“Come out so I can kill you!”
“I don’t want to fight!” Jal wished it knew magic that would make the shovel dig faster and deeper.
“I do! You will not get off this mountain unless you kill me or I kill you!” A small avalanche slid down the mountain in Jal’s general direction.
Jal's hands shook. Those boulders were huge. “Dig, shovel, dig!” Jal didn’t know how big Tezcatliopoca was and Jal wasn’t sure it wanted to know. “How can I see that monster, and how can I defeat him?”
Jal quickly considered all the spells it knew. If it could get the monster in its vision where Jal could see it, but the monster couldn’t see him, Jal might have a chance. A tiny, little chance, but a chance, nonetheless.
When it saw the monster made of rocks, how tall it towered over him and how big its arms were, Jal nearly shat its pants.
Tezcatliopoca''s head swiveled 360 degrees as stomped down the incline.
Jal's gut tightened and it took a deep breath. "What spell would work?". None came to mind, as Jal invoked the defense charm. "This is crazy!" The idea was silly, almost preposterous, but maybe, just maybe, it would work.
As Tezcatlipoca got closer to where Jal was hiding, Jal’s fear grew proportionately. Jal pointed his wand at the monster and shouted, “Verblide!" The monster waved its arms in the air wildly, because it couldn’t see. Jal began to lob big rocks at its head. When that didn’t work, Jal went to “Plan B.”
“Optilen! Draeen!” Jal rolled the wand in its hand. The monster went a few inches into the air and spun in wild circles. “Vri jat ing!” Jal shouted.
Tezcatliopoca, released from the spin, sailed through the air and with a loud crash hit one of the big rock formations. The ground shook. Jal, emboldened by its success, decided to try a harder spell. Would it work? “Verstroon!” Jal shouted. The big monster’s particles of dust were scattered over the mountain side.
“Is it over?” It sat down under the ledge that the shovel had been digging under. Jal stopped the shovel and put it back in the pack. The silence was overwhelming. Jal sighed with relief.
Jal climbed out of its hiding place and slowly crept back to the obsidian. There was a cave in the side of the mountain. Jal looked at the cave. “What’s in there? Is it another Tezcatliopoca?”
Jal’s stomach was in a tight knot. A patch of soot was on the ledge in front of the cave. “Why would a rock monster have a fire?” Jal listened for several minutes but didn’t hear anything. It found a big bundle of sticks with a long log at the bottom. “I don’t think I can carry that.” It pointed to a big stick with its wand “Optilen!” It slowly rose from the mass of sticks and wood. Jal laid the heavy branch on the ground in front of the cave. “Vurbeg!”
Jal nervously walked into the cave with the torch. It was empty, except for a pile of rocks at the back. “Is it all rocks? Or is there something underneath?” It pushed the rocks aside and was relieved to find there was nothing there.
Jal had to think about its studies. It had studied igneous rocks and it was pretty sure the black rock was extremely hard. Jal recalled that if it could find the right spot, the obsidian would split, and it could be very sharp. “Shore!”
There was a crack and several layers of obsidian fell off in sheets. “I’m not going to be greedy,” it said to itself.
Jal checked how high the sun was in the sky, realized how late it was in the day and how hungry it was. Could it sleep in the cave, or would something come in and attack it? Jal considered the charms around its neck. “I can use the light-yellow stone to protect the tent while I sleep and the medium yellow stone to prevent anyone from entering the cave.” Satisfied with this decision, Jal made a fire, heated some water from the canteen and added some beef jerky. It slept uneasily that night and woke up several times, wondering what it would face in the morning.