Wisdom Moon / 21 / 1206 A.F.
I don’t care anymore. I don’t care if it’s dangerous. I don’t care if it’s not part of the curriculum. I don’t care if I die. The classes aren’t helping me. None of the students are a challenge. I need real experience. I need a real fight. Two months in, and I still haven’t fought a single mirage. That changes tonight. I’m fed. Got my canteen, a hatchet, two torches with plenty of oil, a lance with some gunpowder charges, steel-toed boots, armored pants, a good helmet, my goggles, freshly crafted chain mail, and a crossbow. Ten bolts. If I need any more to kill something, I deserve to die. I have no intention of dying tonight. I couldn’t bare to embarrass my folks like that…
Managed to sneak out without waking Seth up no problem. There’s no perimeter guard or rules demanding that we stay on campus overnight. I just don’t want Seth butting in. I need to get stronger so I can finally beat him… we’ve been tying for ten years straight and I can’t stand it anymore. I’ll beat him eventually… doesn’t matter how many mirages I have to slaughter. He’s going down.
After twenty minutes of hiking east, I reach the entrance to the Gulch. There’s a dirty stone fort built right on the cliff. Looks about three stories tall and as wide as ten carriages. Looks aged, but sturdy. The windows and doors are all equipped with steel drawbridges that allow for extra security should the mirages get a little cheeky. There’s a small ensemble of crossbowmen and cannons pointed downward into the Gulch to the right of the fort. It’s lit only by a series of torches lining the stone walls of the fortifications. There’s only two soldiers looking down at the Gulch and they look rather bored. The rest are either playing cards, polishing their weapons, or taking naps. I march right up to one sitting next to a campfire outside the fort. “Hoy. You awake?”
“Unfortunately.” The soldier yawns and turns to me. She’s got a dirty braid and an even dirtier helmet. “How can I help you?”
“How do I get into the Gulch?”
“You’ll see a ladder behind the second cannon.” she rubs her eye and cracks her neck. “Got a death wish or something?”
“Nope. Training.” I give a little salute to her and begin heading towards the cannons. “Thank you.”
“Hey, if you die, mind if I loot you?”
“Knock yourself out.”
“Thank yoooou.” the woman chimes.
Past the two cannons. Now at the edge of the Gulch. I can’t see five feet past the precipice. Awesome. I latch onto the ladder and begin my descent. It’s cold… very… very cold. More so than usual. It’s also wet. I feel like there’s something crawling inside my lungs with every breath I take. It’s not painful or even uncomfortable… quite the opposite in fact. It smells like a very mild perfume. Feels lighter than air, but heavier at the same time. Steady breaths. Steady breaths. Don’t get too excited.
After two minutes of climbing down, my feet hit the ground. Sounds like grass. Air feels far more moist. I light a torch and find that a thin layer of water has condensed atop my clothes and armor. Even my hair is wet. No matter how much I shake the water off, more just keeps coming on. No matter. I pull my lance out of my satchel, extend it, and begin proceeding through the mist. The mist seems to have lightened up a tad… Not sure if it’s because of the torch or because the mist is lighter down here, but I can see a tad further. I can only see about ten feet in front of me, but it beats nothing. Both of these torches have enough fuel for only three hours. If I don’t get a good kill by then, I need to retreat. No way am I surviving in total darkness like this.
I’m shaking. I can’t stop smiling. I’m finally going to kill a C by myself. If I’m lucky, maybe I can get a B to show up. Maybe I should’ve brought some food to get them to come to me. No no… I couldn’t do that. That’d be too easy. It’d take the fun of the hunt away. My breathing’s going crazy. My head feels light. Really light. Feels good. I feel like I can do anything. I begin sprinting as fast as my legs can carry me.
There’s nothing but reeds all around me. They only go up to my knees, but I’m starting to hear some mushy sounds each time I take a step. No trees or rocks or hills to be seen. Just reeds, reeds, and more reeds. I can’t hear anything besides my footsteps and the sound of my own breath. No crickets, owls, or even a single mouse to be heard… I never realized how hollow the night sounded without animals. I don’t even see anything rustling in the reeds. Come on. I’ve been running for five minutes already. Surely there must be something! I can’t stop now! I decide to go with my gut, turn right, and continue running through the reed-filled darkness. How is there nothing here!? What are they guarding against!? Is there some state secret hidden in here!?
rrrrrr
Upon hearing something, I stop immediately. Rustling. I know that’s rustling… but where is it coming from? Stop. Calm down. Don’t breathe. I look all around me and see a little patch of reeds swaying back and forth. There’s no wind, so it has to be something there. Don’t breathe. Don’t move. Not until you get a good, clean look at what’s there… Let it come to you and if it doesn’t then you give chase.
My vision’s starting to blur a little… No. No. It has to be the mist. Vision’s fine. I just got it checked earlier this week. Although… the Gulch is getting a little… turbulent. Either I can’t stand straight, or the very earth beneath me is wobbling like a bloated farm pig. Don’t lose focus. I can’t wait anymore. I stick my lance in the ground, pull my crossbow out of the holster on my hip, and take aim at the rustling. When did my crossbow get so heavy? I can hardly keep my arms steady. My right arm wants to beat something to a pulp, but my left arm just wants to sleep. I can barely stay awake, but my eyelids are flickering like crazy… and now I’m hearing some humming… Why? What badass would be singing down here?
I take a deep breath, force my arms to steady the crossbow, and I fire.
YIP
The sound of a pained animal echoes through the reeds. That sweet, familiar sound is more than enough to shoot me awake and get my blood pumping again. Why does my skin feel cold? Doesn’t matter. I holster my crossbow, pick up my lance, and approach the source of the noise. I peek over the reeds and find a grey bodied quadruped lying against the ground with a crossbow bolt stuck through its neck. Silver fluid seeps from its mouth. A black tongue nearly three feet long lies idly on the ground. Looks like a wolf, but more mangy. An eerie light flickers on and off from within its eyes. It sounds like it's trying to breathe, but it’s too busy drowning in its own blood. Bone-like armor arches across its chest and hind legs. Tail as long as a horse with spikes jutting out of the end.
“Damn…” I whisper. “Just a Yapper…” I sigh and plunge my lance in its head to finish it off. Can’t believe you made me waste a bolt like that… I feel my lance pierce its skull, but its eyes are still flicker. Come on already. I keep skewering the bastard until the light fades from its eyes. With each stab, I wake up a little more. Vision gets a little clearer too, but just a little. Its body ceases making sound and dissipates into mist. Doesn’t even bother leaving a stone behind for me. Useless mirage… even coyotes can be made into jerky and cheap pelts.
I take some more deep breaths and fall to one knee. If I didn’t have my lance for support, I would have collapsed onto the ground. I don’t know what’s wrong with me… My body feels light, but my heart feels heavy. My mind’s wide awake, but the rest of my body says otherwise… Just as I’m about to fall asleep, I hear the humming once more. It’s loud, but calming. I feel my mind getting clearer just by listening to it. Breathing and heart rate is calming down too, so that’s nice. I see a blue light manifest in the darkness to the right of me. Just staring at it makes me feel so warm…
My legs move on their own and I begin to chase after the light. No matter how much I walk, it’s always just out of reach… but it’s getting warmer and the humming’s getting louder. More distinct too. It feels like the humming’s coming from inside my own skull at this point. Just as I’m about to leap for the light, a massive set of long, sharp, moist teeth erupt from the darkness. The light is gone. I’m just staring inside a mouth with no end. It reeks of iron and decay and it's wetter than any swamp. Just as the teeth are about to cleave me in two, something pulls me out of the thing’s mouth and onto my butt. The back of my head plops harmlessly against a damp puddle of mud. I look up and see Seth plunging a lance into… something’s giant lip. I can’t see anything past the giant mouth before us except for the blue light from earlier… It’s now waving far above us as if it is dangling off something. The humming’s still continuing… I’ve never seen or read of a Mirage like this. The mouth doesn’t look hurt or even annoyed. Some silver fluid pops out of the thing’s lip and spreads all over Seth’s chest.
“Aw come on!” Seth digs and twists the lance into the lip a little more. “I just got this cleaned!”
The teeth begin to grind and gnash against each other before opening once more.
“Alright!” Seth turns around, helps hoist me up, and begins bolting away from the mouth as fast as he can. “Retreat!”
I get up and quickly catch up to Seth. My legs feel woozy and I’m not running straight at all. It’s a miracle I haven’t tripped yet. Seth’s running the same way. If it wasn’t for the adrenaline, I’m sure both of us would be mirage chow right about now. The earth trembles behind us as a pair of enormous, sloppy sounding footsteps begin to make chase. Maybe it sounds like a frog? Or a worm? Or a caterpillar? I don’t know! I’m too focused on running! I can’t think! “Seth! What the hell are you doing here!?”
“Thought about getting in some late night training!” Seth laughs, but his laughter quickly changes to whining. “You?”
“Me too!” I yell.
“Hah!” Seth chuckles again. It’s not a good chuckle. It’s the kind of chuckle you make when you think you left a torch aflame at home or when you forgot to chop firewood before ma comes home. “Great minds think alike!”
WRRRRRRYYYY
A roar from behind us rattles my spine and nearly shatters my eardrums. I’d stop to cover my ears if I wasn’t so absolutely terrified.
“BAIL TO THE SIDE!” I yell.
“On it!” Seth leaps to the left and lands in a bunch of reeds.
I leap to the right and feel something graze up against my back. It’s scaly, wet, cold, hard, and sharp. Sounds like an axe cutting against my armor. I land on my belly and my helmet goes rolling off into the darkness. I’m uninjured though. I look behind me and see a large mass of… something quickly waddle through the mist and miss us completely. “Seth! You there!?”
“Yeah! I’m good! Good call!” Seth calls out before getting interrupted by a series of loud booms.
BOOM BOOM BOOM
Each boom was accompanied by a tremendous tremor. It sounded like a castle had just imploded near us. My head’s still woozy. My legs are trembling. I’m not dying here. Not like this… Along with the tremor, it sounds like some big, soft flesh slapping against mud.
“I think it’s turning around…” Seth gulps.
“Ya think?”
“Do you have any idea what that mirage is?” Seth shoots a crossbow bolt into the darkness.
“I was about to ask you the same thing…”
“Hahaha… oh this is bad…” Seth shoots another crossbow bolt into the darkness before running away again. “Come on, Astrid! We gotta book it!”
“Right…” I kneel down in the reeds and quickly take inventory… Okay… okay… Torch is still lit pretty well. Got two containers full of oil, two charges on my lance, and nine bolts… all against a thing that shakes the earth with every step.
BOOM BOOM BOOM
The mirage starts charging once more.
“Astrid!” Seth cries. “Come on! Move!”
I try to start running, but I can’t. I can’t feel my legs. My brain feels like it’s liquid. I’m starting to see my family… this is bad… this is bad… If I don’t finish this soon, I’m not finishing this… Only got one option. “Coming!” I lie to Seth and hobble into the path of the mirage. It gets closer and closer. Within seconds, I can see the lips and slimy teeth once more. Each of the teeth has to be at least three times my height. Its maw opens once more… and I jump inside.
“ASTRID!” I see Seth turn and yell once more just before the lips and teeth close.
I land on a giant tongue and am now trapped inside the beast’s maw. It’s tongue keeps flopping and shaking around trying to get me into its gut… I’m not letting that happen. I dig my lance into the thing’s tongue and hold on for dear life. After about two minutes of rapid tongue shaking, the beast calms down, lies its tongue flat once more, and resumes running forward. Despite how awkwardly it's running, its mouth is rather stable. I barely have any energy left… I need to get this over with. I let go of my lance, rest my torch against the tongue, and reach for my oil canteens. I open them, spill the contents all over the mouth and a bunch down the thing’s throat. I’m not sure how effective this will be… but there’s only one way to make sure. I pick up my torch and chuck it down the thing’s throat. Come on… come on… I wait for what feels like an eternity… and nothing. Not any light. Not a sound. Not any warmth… Guess I-
FWOOOSH
Fire erupts from the back of the thing’s throat and the whole mouth soon gets engulfed in flame. The tongue thrashes and the creature bounces wildly to try and put it out, but it’s no use. The fire keeps on raging - with me in it. Hot hot hot hot hooooot! This is bad! I can feel my chain armor melting and melding to my shirt. The temperature shoots up a hundred degrees within a few seconds. I’m more awake… but the smoke is making it much harder to breathe, see, and function. The teeth look far too sturdy to pierce… I’m going out through the cheek. I trudge over to the beast’s cheek and manage to trip only twice on the way there. I get in a wide stance, pull my lance back, and plunge it as deep into the beast’s flaming cheek as I can. I only get as deep as the blade. Can’t even twist or dig the lance in any deeper. My feet are burning. My eyes are watering. My brain feels like it's melting. I need to get out now! I push the button on the lance and watch the cheek explode before my very eyes. Tissue gets thrown about everywhere, hot silver fluid bursts all over me and burns me, and the explosion only intensifies the flames around me. My legs had grown so weary that the recoil from the blast was enough to blow the lance out of my hands and push me onto my back.
The tongue’s still burning and now I’m lying on it. I’m roasting. I would toss off my armor, but it's too hot to even touch. My shirt has since melted off, leaving the blazing chain mail to meld into my skin. I considered just lying down and letting the flames engulf me for a moment… I hear that burning alive isn’t so bad once all the nerves on your epidermis are burnt off.
But then I decided that was stupid and decided against it. I do my best to ignore the searing hot armor against my skin, get back to my feet, and sprint back over to the gaping mouth wound. Looks bad. Real bad. Not enough to pierce the outer flesh… but enough to deal some good damage. I can see all kinds of giant burst-open blood vessels spewing liquid out and a bunch of torn and burnt tissue dissolving off the thing’s cheek. I grip the lance, dig it out of the wound, lunge it back in there with all my might, press the button, and watch an explosion of tissue and fluid burst out of the thing’s cheek again… The lance is broken. Warped and weakened by the heat and split in twain by the force of the blast… At least I kept my footing. The cheek’s flesh has grown more decrepit and wounded. The side of its mouth now resembles chunky tomato paste as opposed to a cheek. I’m not staying in here any more… I grab my hatchet and begin whacking away at its flesh. I make some decent progress, but the fire burns the head off the handle after only five whacks. I don’t care… I don’t care… I don’t care… I’m not dying here…
I lift myself into the cheek crater and begin digging myself out with my bare hands. I feel fluid and tissue dig under my nails and dead muscle wrap around my arms… but I can feel the outside… it’s almost there… just a little… more… Just as I’m about to faint, I punch the cheek and feel my fist pierce the last layer of flesh. I feel the outside. It feels so wet and cold… The feeling of dew against my fingertips is just enough to get me to continue onward. I dig both my hands into the new wound and start tearing it as wide as I can… Barely manage to get it two feet wide… but it’ll do... I barely manage to squeeze myself out and plop out onto another pile of mud. Sweet… cold… mud… I’ve never felt anything so sweet. The moisture and chilly temperature makes me flop around in it like a pig. I rub it into my burnt skin and just bury myself in as much of it as I can… I want to become one with the damp, cold ground.
As I rub wet mud under my still hot armor, I watch the mirage burn and thrash about a mere five feet away from me. Smoke is escaping through its maw. Its movements are getting slower and sloppier by the second. Seth is still firing crossbow bolts at it. How many of those did he bring? I think I see thirty broken bolts around the mirage. Seth looks madder than I’ve ever seen him. Eyes are bloodshot. Tears and mucus are glopping down his face. He’s yelling something, but it's not intelligible. He sounds more like a rabid beast than a man at this point. I can barely hear it since most of my head is buried in mud… but it’s so loud… even the mud is vibrating from his shouts.
This tale has been unlawfully lifted from Royal Road. If you spot it on Amazon, please report it.
Before long, smoke ceases to rise from the mirage’s mouth. The dangling blue light fades. The beast stops moving and its body begins to contort and swirl inward on itself. Its body continues to condense, twist, and morph until it poofs into a cloud of mist and dissipates into the air. Now the only light illuminating the scene is a flickering torch lying at Seth’s feet.
Seth hauls butt over to me. “ASTRID! Oh my gosh!” he dives into the mud and hugs me tight. “I thought you were dead! What the crap were you thinking!?”
Upon feeling my armor finally cool down and his arms wrap around my body, my eyelids slam shut. “I was… thinking tactically…” I rest my numb cheek against his forearm.
“You idiot…” Seth’s arm shakes and I feel his chin rest against the top of my head. “Don’t you ever try to pull something like that again. Do you understand me?”
“Why?” I grit my teeth and slap some mud on Seth’s chest. “I solved the problem and saved your butt…”
Seth just kisses my mud-soaked forehead and helps me up. “You’re right… sorry. Thank you for that.”
“No problem.” I grin. “Consider us even.”
“Will do.” he grunts, pulls my arm over his shoulder, hoists me up, and starts trudging towards the dropped torch. “You’d think an ugly bastard that big would’ve dropped something, huh?” he bends down and picks the torch up with his free hand.
“Yeah… well… I beat its ass in, and that’s what matters.”
“True… Are you okay at least?”
“All my clothes got burnt through. All I got is pieces of burnt armor covering me.”
“That’s… not great.” Seth begins heading back to the ladder. “We need to get you to the infirmary asap.”
“I don’t need any infirmary… just give me an ice bath… and I’m good to go.” Even though my eyes are closed, my head still feels full of songs and voices. Now, I don’t even feel like I’m in my own body. I can’t move my limbs at all, but Seth is still going strong.
“Shut up. You’re going to the infirmary whether you want to or not.”
“Bu-”
“Astrid.” Seth’s voice cracks. “Please.”
I exhale and rest my cheek against his shoulder. “Alright...Do you have anything that can keep me from passing out?”
“You didn’t bring any blues?”
“Didn’t think I needed it…”
“Damnit, Astrid…” Seth sighs, stops, and begins shuffling around in his pocket. He presses a small cube to my lips a few moments later and resumes trudging on.
I take the cube into my mouth and begin to chew it. Soft edges. Softer texture. Kind of feels like toffee, but it’s taste is awful… tastes like lunar tea, but if lunar tea had ash mixed into it. I. Hate. Tea. The ash taste is actually better than the tea taste. I chew and chew and chew. My mouth begins to salivate. My eyes start to open and my vision isn’t as blurry as it once was. Sure, it isn’t great, but it's definitely an improvement. My head feels… a little better. I feel like I’m in my own body again and my hearing’s gotten a little clearer. The humming has ceased, but now I’m hearing a completely unrelated song. It’s the song Seth’s mom would sing when we would laze about around the fireplace.
“Well?” Seth asks. “Feel any better?” he turns left and continues leading us through the darkness. It’s still as quiet as ever. No other mirages or animals in sight… Good. I don’t know how I’d deal if there was another one.
“Yeah.” I nod and shoot him a thumbs up. “I can actually move and keep my eyes open… damn shame this has to taste like garbage.”
“Oh, come on. Tea’s good.”
“Tea’s garbage. No matter what tea I drink, it always tastes like a watered down version of a better drink.”
“I’m sorry to hear that.” Seth chuckles. “You must live a very flavorless life.”
“Uh huh. Sure.” I keep chewing on the thing. My limbs are calmer than they’ve ever been. My adrenaline’s still pumping, but the blues seems to work in tandem with it. Neither one’s disabling the other. It just feels like they’re just keeping each other in check. “This is good stuff though… I’m going to sleep well tonight.”
“Please tell me you’ll stock up on blues next time you decide to go into mist, okay?”
“I promise.”
We manage to find the ladder and pull ourselves out of the Gulch. Took me ten minutes to climb the damn thing, but it was worth it. No way was I letting Seth pull me up. We got over to the fort and were stopped by the same sleepy guard from earlier. “Wow there, mud monster. What are you doing running around like that?”
“Got engulfed in fire.” I yawn and spit out the blues onto the grass. “Long story. Got a shower and a bed I can use?”
“Holy crap. You’re the wench from earlier.” she lets out a cackle. “Good to see you’re still kicking.” she points to the fort behind her. “Tell them ‘cold carrots are the best’. Infirmary’s on the first floor to the immediate right.”
“Thank you.” I wipe a glob of mud off my face and flick it onto a nearby tree. Got to the fort, told them the password, and they let us in no problem. Showed us to the door on the right and told us to treat ourselves to any medicine we needed since it was all paid by our tuition. The room’s fairly large. Three empty, clean beds towards the back, a cabinet full of medicines to the right of me, a rack full of lances and crossbows to the left of me, and a large bathtub just in front of that. I get to the bathtub immediately and turn the cold water nozzle as hard as I can. Icy water begins to fill the tub.
“Here ya go.” Seth pulls out three towels from the cabinet and tosses them over my shoulders. He walks over past the bathtub to the corner of the room and pulls three empty buckets up beside me. “They said dump all the mud you can into the towels and buckets. They don’t want the drains getting clogged.” Seth says before heading over to one of the beds and lying down.
“Fair enough.” I begin scooping all the mud I can off my body. By the time I’m done, I feel ten pounds lighter and two buckets are full with mud. There’s an uneven mesh of armor from the top of my stomach up to my shoulders. I try to pull it off… but it’s stuck to my skin. I can wiggle my fingers under some parts that aren’t melded. I roll up a smaller towel, put it in between my teeth, and fasten my grip over the metal. One… two… three! In one swift motion, I manage to get only the chest part off, but the thing is still attached to my shoulders. A beastial cry escapes my lungs and I hunch over the tub as tears begin to cloud my vision. I can see some blood drip into the tub and some burnt skin still attached to the sheet of armor.
“Astrid!” Seth shoots off the bed and sprints towards me. “What the hell are you doing!? Let me help!”
“GMGGTMH!” I push him away, readjust my grip, and pull the rest of the sheet of metal off. It took three good yanks, but it's finally off… I chuck the bloody, fleshy piece of metal against the wall, and fall into the bathtub with the towel still clenched in my mouth. If it wasn’t for the towel, I’m sure I would have woken up the whole fort. Icy water surrounds my body up to my neck and I just let it wash over me. I’m too tired to shiver. My heart rate doesn’t go up and my limbs don’t shake either…
“Astrid!” Seth shuts off the water, pulls me a little bit out of the tub, and gets a good look at my chest. He takes a deep breath, takes another chunk of blues out of his pocket, pulls the towel out of my mouth, and pops the blues in. “Thank gods… It’s not as bad as I thought… Please chew this.”
I suppress another yell and start chewing the thing. Any pain in my chest is soon numbed. I feel like I’m just drifting in a calm ocean while a warm sunset graces my body.
Seth meanwhile rushes over to the medicine cabinet, takes out some bottles, pulls up a stool next to the tub, and pours this viscous fluid out of the bottles and onto my shoulders. It’s colder than the bathwater and makes my shoulders feel heavy and numb. Seth begins rubbing the liquid into my shoulders. Wow. Ow. He’s really getting in there… where did he learn to massage like this? I’m feeling muscles relax that I didn’t even know were tense. Any remaining burn pain in my shoulders is melting away with each press.
“That feel okay?” Seth asks before rubbing some of the salve onto my neck. “Make sure your chest’s above the water.
“Feels good…” I lean my head back. “Gotcha…” I pull my upper body out of the tub. “Where’d you learn to massage like this?”
“What are you talking about? I didn’t learn to give massages.”
“Well, you should’ve… you’re really good at it.”
“Thank you.” Seth slathers some salve on my chest and begins rubbing it in as well. Hard to say how much it's helping. I can barely feel any pain or discomfort with all the blues in my mouth.
“What’s the salve anyway?”
“Helps with burns and doubles as a painkiller. You’ll be sleeping super well tonight. Just be sure to floss after you spit that blues out. I don’t need your teeth decaying.”
“Thanks for the reminder…” My eyes start to close again. I’ve never felt this comfortable. Everything about this just feels right. I feel like I belong here. The blues eventually loses all flavor so I spit it out into the bucket beside the tub.
“Do you feel any pain?” Seth asks.
Before I can reply, I fall asleep and slink into the tub.
Warm Moon / 8 / 1218 A.F.
I awaken with my back flat on the ground. “BWAH!!! AHAHHA!!!” My body launches awake and my arms lunge out in front of me. My limbs are shaking, my breath is rapid and uneven, and my sight is still adjusting. I’m aiming my crossbow at everything and ready to stab the first thing that moves. My movement and aim is encumbered. There’s this big, heavy, warm weight over me. I’m not cold in the slightest. Both the sleeping bag and the blanket had been cast over me in my sleep. It’s a little past dawn, David is doing some light, slow stretching with his butterknife in his hand and his back to me. My body shakes and rattles and my mind races for a whole minute more before finally calming down and slinking back into the confines of the blanket. I stare up at the sky. Cloudy again. Just watching the clouds lazily make their way east to west calms my nerves. Can never explain why. They just do.
I try to get up, but a violent coughing fit starts and sends me keeling over back to the ground.
“Astrid!” David rushes over to me and bends down. “Are you okay? Do you need my help?”
“Yeah!” I slap my chest and heave. “I feel great! Thanks for aski-” Coughs interrupt my speech once more. Eyes water, face grows hot, and I feel something slowly inch up my throat. With one last cough, I spit it out. Hoo… I feel loads better. A mushy, indigo clump now lies amidst the grass. “That’s better… hah… hoo…”
David grimaces at the clump and steps back. “Ew…”
“Eh, you get used to it.” I spit again, stand up, and stretch. “Comes with the job.”
“Not really… you could just not smoke so much.”
“And get corrupted?”
David opens his mouth, but immediately closes it and nods. “Fair point…” he begins rolling up the sleeping bag. “Are we departing?”
“Yep.” I throw the blanket over my shoulders, sling the trunk onto my back, and crack the knuckles in my right hand. “And you’re carrying the sleeping bag and lantern.”
“Absolutely.” David places the lantern in the sleeping bag, rolls it up, carries it in his arms, and we’re on our merry way.
We continued walking east along the Fortuna River. The once flat farm plains give way to hilly terrain teeming with trees. David’s short legs make him lag behind me constantly, but at least he’s quiet.
“Hey… Astrid…”
“Yes?”
“Why do you hate mages so much?”
“Because they’re cowards. Ooooh look at me. I can shoot fire. Unga bunga me shoot fireball from far away. Me so good. Me so smart. Me too weak to fight up close so I cheat.”
“That is mean… training your mind is as important as training your body.”
“Tell that to the Lombards.” I readjust the trunk and continue walking up the hill. “Hey… you remember what happened on the deck of the Phantom, right?”
“I believe so.” David scratches his temple.
“What did you see?”
“It was somewhat hard to see… but I know I saw you shaking on the floor. You kept crying and yelling too.”
“Was there anything on me?”
“Uh… I think? I could not make out any features though. The mist was too thick.”
“Did you hear anything weird?”
“Uh… Hm…” David stops and rubs his head. “I only heard you screaming. What do you mean by weird?”
“Nothing. Forget it.”
A few more hours of walking and we reach Fortuna Falls. It’s a tall, tall waterfall surrounded by boulders, deer, and some other travelers. Trees of all shapes and sizes grow out of the rocks in the walls of the falls. Deer drink and sleep beside the river. Travelers are swimming and relaxing by the falls. I can even see two people meditating under the waterfall. There’s plenty of ways down, but only a few up. There’s a collection of climbing ropes and makeshift ladders left behind by other travelers along the boulders. An effort to dig a tunnel through the back of the waterfall to make passage easier started a while back, but was interrupted after the last Athesian-Lombard war started. The brass needed all the soldiers and supplies they could muster, so every infrastructure project was basically abandoned. I can still see some people digging away behind the waterfall clearing any dirt and bedrock they can manage. I hope it’s done soon. Climbing with the trunk on my back is going to suck.
“Whoa…” David stops in his tracks and marvels at the falls. “I have never seen a rainbow so big.”
“Yeah, yeah. Let’s get moving.” I continue past him and head for the boulders.
“Wait! Cannot we stop for a picnic? We have been walking all day!” David tugs at my sleeve.
“And eat what? You refused to hunt twice today and there’s nothing around here to eat.”
“What do you mean? Just look around! The Matriarch has blessed the land with abundance! There is a patch of Whittlegrass right here and delicious apples hanging from the trees!” David kneels down, plucks handfuls of Whittlegrass, and begins devouring it like a starving calf.
I point up at the apples. “Those Dumbapples taste like garbage till they’ve been fermented for three months and Whittlegrass is more effective as an aphrodisiac than sustenance.”
“What is an aphrodisiac?” David gulps down a bunch of Whittlegrass.
“Haha. You’ll know when you’re older. Hurry up.”
“Wait! Wait up! Please!” David grabs some Dumbapples, shoves them into his robes, and catches up to me. “I am so hungry… please. Let us stop. Just for a little bit. I want to enjoy the view. I have never seen the falls before.”
“Watch it on your own time.” I grab a rope and begin rappelling up a boulder. “Do you want to sleep in a warm bed tonight or no?” I look down at David.
David looks up at me, sighs, then takes a bite of a Dumbapple. “Yes, ma’am…”
“Then climb.” I climb up the boulder, toss the rope down to David, and watch. “C’mon.”
“Right…” David rubs his hands together, grabs onto the rope, and begins climbing up the ladder. “Hnngh… Hah…” I can see David’s arms and legs begin to waver five seconds into climbing.
“Ah, come on. You can do better than that. Pump those arms!”
“I… am… trying…” David eventually climbs to the top of the boulder, crawls onto it like a lizard, and lies out on top of it like a cat by a fire. “Hoo… hah…”
“Attaboy.” I nudge him with my foot before making my way to the next rope. “Just six more boulders and we’re at the top.”
David sounds like a hog that just had a spear shoved into its lung.
“Quit whining.” I grab the rope and begin climbing again. “I swear, kids these days are so spoiled…” I climb up the next four rocks with minimal trouble and wait for David to catch up. The trunk makes balancing a bit harder, but it makes for a good training weight. May have to keep this thing on me next time I go hunting. Might make it more exciting. While I wait for David, I can’t help but appreciate the view. I can see the forest slowly turn to farmland that just goes on forever. I can see eagles soaring through the skies and the Range Mountains to my left. I had forgotten what an open sky looks like. I feel so small. Feel so free. The wind feels nice. I don’t care if I get blown off. I feel like I can fly.
I hear David gasping for breath and look down. “Hurry up already. You can catch your breath when you’re done.”
“Astrid…” David’s sweating like a pig. “I cannot take this… I am going to fall.”
“You’re not going to fall. Get up.”
“No, Astrid… I am going to fall.”
“You’re not going to fall.”
“I’m goi-” The rope escapes David’s hands and his body begins falling.
My body moves on its own, swipes my left arm towards him, and catches him by his scrawny little arm.
David’s crying and sniveling like an idiot, but he’s alive. “WAAAAAH! AAAAAH!”
“David.”
He’s still crying.
“David.”
Still blubbering.
“DAVID!” I pull him up on top of the boulder and place him on his feet.
“AAH!” David opens his eyes, wipes his cheek, and finally shuts up. “Aa-ah… Oh… I am alive…”
“I told you you’re not going to fall.” I turn around to the last boulder and start climbing up the rope. “Now come on. We’re almost done.”
“Wait… Please wait… I really need a break this time…” David falls onto his butt and catches his breath.
“Really?”
“Yes… Really…” David lies down, blows his nose on his robe, and looks up at the sky.
I look at David then at the top of the falls. It’s just one more boulder to the top. Looks about twenty feet tall. I can make that. I turn around back at David. “Are you ready yet?”
“Not yet… please just give me two minutes.”
“No.” I pick David up by his arms and begin spinning him around.
“AAAAH!” David starts crying again. “A-astrid! S-stop! P-please! I’m sorry!”
“JUST SHUT UP ALREADY!” I yell and chuck David atop the falls. He manages to land on a soft patch of dirt just as he begins his arc downward.
And yet he still won’t stop crying. “AAAH!”
“David! Shut up!” I grab the rope and begin climbing up.
“T-that was mean! Why did you do that!?” he looks down at me from atop the falls with snot dripping down his nose.
“Cause it was faster.” I climb to the top of the falls and throw the rope back down. “Now get up. We’re halfway to Serenissima.” I nudge him with my foot. “Move.”
“Bleghegh…” David blows his nose on his robes again and wipes his eyes. “How much longer till we get there?”
“That depends on you.” I step over David and continue Northeast.