“A rock is following us,” James mentioned to the gleemix a few steps ahead. The only reply from the little monster was the swiftness of its feet increasing the pace.
“It’s rolling, along the road,” He continued in disbelief. The dirt road they were on wasn’t even tilted right for rocks to roll. It had heavy wheel tracks separating the sides and the occasional stone that emerged from the earth. And a said rock rolled just a few meters behind them.
James stumbled as he looked over his shoulder at the pursuit and frowned at his pained feet. The boots rubbed at his toes and heels in an unending war of attrition. From what he felt with each step, he was losing this battle.
It was his first time outside the city walls, and he had taken the chance to observe the outside area in detail. Contrary to his frenzied imagination, it was mostly boringly flat; Massive grassland fields swallowed the scenery, only broken up by the scattered gatherings of trees. So much grass amassed in one place made his eyes itchy and the top of his mouth protest.
More or less a typical hike in the countryside by his book. Boring, unending, beautiful. That was when he spotted the rolling rock.
“Don’t talk,” The gleemix said in defeat. “This is no simple rock, soon it will lose interest.” He made to continue forward but when he saw James pause to take a closer look, he screamed between clenched teeth “NO! No, you dumb human, we must move now! Leave it, or it won’t leave you!”
The gleemix was alarmed, and that was…alarming. James instantly went back to walking ahead resisting the urge to look at the potentially dangerous not-rock rolling just behind him. From then on he winced at every sound that came from his rear.
The gleemix striding beside him gave him a long exasperated look as if he were looking at an oversized toddler holding a fork near an electric socket. But how was he to blame? A rolling rock was the only interesting thing happening for miles.
Nevertheless, his survival instincts told him to listen to his guide. By the time he stopped hearing rolling noises coming from his arse, they had arrived at their destination.
The Kildashan peaks emerged in a long line expanding as far as his eyes could see, an impregnable wall from the north to the northeast. And before them, a valley lay lazily clutched by the mountain’s roots. If he turned to look the other way he would spot Avi’Gale in the distance as a grey smudge in a green canvas.
Their hike had taken about an hour and it had been rather solitary. Few trudged their way north towards the mountains from Avi'Gale. There was little reason for the normal folk to do so. No path would take them to the other side of the Kildashan peaks from this side and only the foolish would try their luck when there was a perfectly good alternative, a well-maintained road leading westwards out of the city and then curving north past the mountains.
The few that made their way toward the mountains were either seeking the treasure or the danger the mountains were famous for.
James wasn't certain for which one they were here for as he stood before the valley. From his vantage point, he could spot about half a dozen individuals scattered among the vegetation, humans, and a couple of beastkin going about their business. Yet what commanded his attention was the cacophony of sounds assaulting him.
Oh, that's why they are called fghels.
Fghel, Fghel, Fghel, Fghel. The insistent cries surfacing around the valley could only be compared to a colony of choking seagulls. Loud crashes followed soon after, and James swore the earth trembled slightly beneath his feet each time. Shouts from the men and women were barely audible among the commotion, almost like an afterthought.
And when he finally laid eyes on a fghel, he failed to keep his mouth shut. Its body was the size of an adult sea lion, yet it resembled an aged ginseng root with bright green grassy hair decorating its crown.
He saw a beastkin in brown fur and clad in leather armor holding twin axes and swiping one downwards, focusing on the green crown. The fghel howled its name in distress. In a spasm it contracted, folding its body in two, and in a blast of motion unfolded like a spring, jumping awkwardly three meters high up in the air.
The gigantic rootlike creature overshadowed the beastkin who scattered in haste, while the fghel was airborne. Still, the loud crush almost floored her, and a second later a cloud of earth pelted her with debris and dust.
“Wh..What is this?” James asked the smug gleemix.
“That's what you will be doing for the next 15 days.”
“You call this farming?” James asked rhetorically. Maybe the strange language they were conversing in didn’t translate well.
“It damn certainly is. It took a year of effort to grow the fghels. Time and again we came here to care for them as they grew inside the earth and now is the time for the cult to harvest, before any others sniff out our yield. Pay attention, I’ll show you once how it is done.”
The gleemix started walking casually towards an overgrown bush, unhooking his axes and holding them readily at his sides. James couldn’t point out the target but followed cautiously behind him, keeping his eyes open for the fghel.
“Stay back,” The gleemix ordered extending one axe and barring the way forward.
James stopped fully alert for any danger. Being crushed by the half-ton creature would without a doubt send him swiftly to meet Ditr, an end he would rather avoid.
This content has been misappropriated from Royal Road; report any instances of this story if found elsewhere.
He stood back and watched as the gleemix reached the bush and tapped the earth with the opposite end of the axe blade. The axe butt was hammer-like, probably designed for this purpose, as the little monster continually tapped on the earth.
Soon, the bush vibrated along and James noticed the unearthing of the fghel as it wiggled free of the soil. It spasmed in tune with the hammer blows, ever more releasing itself from the clutches of the earth.
Once it was three-quarters out, the gleemix chopped with precision, the blade of the axe targeting the stem of the green crown.
There was some resistance as the blade met the rough skin of the fghel and deflected most of the blow. The green grasslike crown shivered. And a deafening wail of distress came out of the creature.
The gleemix didn’t hesitate one bit as he took a few steps back anticipating the devastating blast of motion. The fghel burst free of the ground and soared through the air landing in a tremor-producing crush a few feet away.
The axe blade met it again as if it was expecting the exact place the creature would land. The gleemix strained with the effort to chop through the hard outer skin. He got two more attacks before he retreated. This time however James was able to spot a rather deep wound on the base of the crown.
The dance went on and on, in a jumble of dust, sweat, and cries. The gleemix moved swiftly with trained movements, hitting the exact spot accurately while the creature resisted with increasing urgency.
Until with a grunt of effort the gleemix diced through and separated the grass-crown from its body. The fghel’s body stilled on the ground as if frozen. The grassy crown vibrated, though unable to move from where it had fallen off.
The gleemix wiped the sweat from his face with a sleeve and then grimaced as the dirt formed crumbs and rivers on his forehead. He sheathed his axes and carefully lifted the grass crown, examining the cut. When he was satisfied with what he saw he brought it to James.
“Look, this is the fghel head. We need this intact to plant and grow it for the next year’s harvest. The other part, the body, we will load in a cart at the day’s end and bring it to Avi’Gale.” He said extending the grassy crown for James to have a better look.
It looked like a plant from up close connected to the rough skin a ginger root would have, and if James hadn’t seen it move he would have easily been convinced that it actually was one. One thing he was certain of, however. He wasn’t at all ready to start chopping fghels.
“Mmm, I see,” He said yet his mind was still replaying the scenes of battle he had just witnessed.
“Now it’s your turn, try not to die human,” The gleemix said with a toothy grin. He handed him the two axes knob-first.
James hesitated but the gleemix pushed the weapons aggressively onto him. He took them out of reflex, feeling his grip slip momentarily from his sweaty palms.
“Under that tree, you see the fghel? Go and tap the axe next to the head. It will come out.” The gleemix said pointing at a nearby tree.
James wanted to say no, he wouldn’t do it. How did he get roped up in this kind of situation he was not so certain. From an innocent blessing to risking his life was a big leap. And his skill with the axe was abysmal too, chopping wood certainly hadn’t prepared him for attacking a living moving target. At least it looked close enough to a root that he didn’t particularly feel guilty, but…
He took a deep breath to clear his mind of his thoughts. This was training he said to himself. To improve and get to the good side of the cult. Being alone in a fantasy world was a stark weakness, and this was his chance to get solid allies. So chopping fghels was the path towards that goal.
Yes, this was the correct mindset he needed.
He walked towards the tree the gleemix pointed at with determination. He leaned and tapped repeatedly on the soil next to the grass crown with his axe. The fghel wiggled out of the earth shortly thereafter. Before it could jump free James swung one of the axes putting as much strength as he could to the attack.
The blow landed lower than where he was aiming. But that was still okay since the sensitive part that he had to be careful of damaging was higher, on the creature’s head. He prepared the axe for a second swing, keeping the other blade pointed at arm's length on the fghels body, centering his aim, just as he had seen the gleemix do.
The blade flew cutting the air towards its target, when, in an instant, the fghel cried a booming shout and folded itself. The speed of it caught him by surprise, and his attack missed, almost cutting at the grassy crown.
James’s eyes widened in alarm and he cursed as he threw himself back. It was a close thing because not a moment later the fghel exploded up in the air blasting the ground left and right. James rolled and rolled putting as much distance as he could and prayed that the flying oversized root would miss him when it landed.
He heard a cackle from the gleemix over the noise but he didn’t find anything funny about his situation. He was holding his axes tightly on his chest so that the blades didn’t somehow slice at him as he scrambled awkwardly out of the way.
With all the adrenaline rushing through his nerves he was barely conscious of how fast he went. He only realized it as he heard the fghel landing and looked surprised when he saw that he was almost 10 meters away from it.
“Wow there human, the fghel is that way, where are you going?” The gleemix commented with glee from where he was sitting on a rock.
“Shut up, I know that,” he replied whizzed, mostly from all the scrambling he had done to get away.
He got up rubbing at his elbows and went in for another round.
—-
On the fifth try, he thought he had the timing right. Simply swinging and jumping out of the way could go wrong so many times. He was slow but he was learning.
Actually, the only thing slow was the progress he was making in cutting the crown out of the fghels body. He was much slower than the gleemix, but that was understandable. Yet all his movements were fast, incredibly fast. The minor agility was a blessing, metaphorically speaking.
He loved it. When the fear and stress of farming fghels subsided, he had the opportunity to revel in his newfound speed. While he had tested it briefly in his room the other night, it was one thing to throw punches in the air and another to jump around swinging an axe.
He tried his limits, pushing against them again and again, as he swung the axe. The vibrations from the blows almost didn’t bother him anymore. He could feel some pain in his wrist and he would probably have some callouses on his palms but he didn’t care at that moment. Not even his boots bothered him as much as before.
He almost wished to continue when the gleemix stopped him from going in for another chop.
“Time for you to head back human. I'll finish it here, and you have work to do back in the city,” The damned little monster shouted over the wails of the fghel. He knew James had been enjoying himself.
He was drenched in sweat with dirt stuck on him. It had taken him an hour of trying and he had almost finished separating the head from the body.
Stopping to take a breather he felt his exhaustion crush on him like a fghel. Maybe it wasn't a bad idea to stop even if he left his first hunt unfinished.
"Wash yourself in the river, and head back. I'll pick you up tomorrow morning," The gleemix said as he took the axes from him.
"As you say buddy," James replied and vowed to finish up his next target properly.