Summoning courage, Murphy drew a deep breath and stepped away from the trunk of a great tree towards the branch.
“Come on ham boy, the light won’t stay all day” Coil called snidely from across the canyon.
“Don’t call him that Coil” Annabell reprimanded. “It’s perfectly safe Murphy” she reassured.
He gulped and stepped forward, one foot after another he pressed on. Unable to avoid watching his feet, he had a clear view of the drop below him, and the seemingly endless abyss that awaited his mistakes. The branch met another that grew from the opposite side of the canyon where the others were waiting for him.
The crossing wasn’t what had him fretting, it was the threshold. Since he was a small child he had never passed the threshold. To most it was the forest canyon that moated their village, but Murphy had always been able to see the threshold itself. To him it was a tall wall that bordered the canyon itself, a wall the colour of protection, at least, that’s what he called it.
The village of Malnir Ronkir was situated in a unique place that kept it safe from harm, though beyond the threshold the peaceful village life ceased to be. The hunters and miners of the village often returned with fantastic tales of magnificent monsters and beasts that descended from the heavens to claim mortal souls. Brilliant stories indeed , brilliant stories that Murphy had always had a desire to live for himself. Being the apprentice of a blacksmith however had determined him to have a life of supplying the men he envied.
That’s why when Annabell approached him about an expedition to a rumoured wizards tower that lay beyond the threshold, he felt he owed it to himself to accompany her, despite the mockery he knew Coil would be all too eager to provide. He wasn’t in the mood for it.
“It's easy for you Coil” Dondan called from behind him “You’ve been out there before”.
“There’s nothing out there to be afraid of for the strong Dondan” Coil replied, slamming his chest with his fist.
“You must be terrified in that case” Murphy said, shooting Coil a smirk as he stepped to safety. He decided to get ahead of his friends' comments.
“What was that!” the Chief’s son shouted back in indignation.
“I was implying that you’re weak, Coil!”
“Did you just call me weak!?”
Murphy grunted as he made the leap from one branch to the other. “And not good at listening either!”
“Oh you are so dead Hamboy!” Coil wielded that name as though it were a weapon.
“Guys, can you hurry it up already,” Annabell hugged her arms close to her chest. “It’ll get dark before we reach the tower.”
“Alright then Dondan” Coil saw an opportunity to take charge again “It’s your turn, let’s get moving”
Dondan followed in Murphy’s steps, sticking to the thickest part of the branch.
“How far down do you think it is?” Coil asked, smiling at Dondan.
“Nearly as low as your father’s standards” Murphy quipped, not bothering to look at the boy.
“Alright horse shoes, I’ve ad’ enough of your smart” Coil started, but was interrupted by a yelp from Dondan.
The moss beneath his feet had come loose from the traffic and broken away. He struggled to grip the branch as he slipped to its side, slamming his ribs on the way down. His wild scramble was unsuccessful, and the others watched in stunned silence as Dondan plummeted screaming into the abyss.
“Dodo!” Coil yelped. The others froze in shock, as the cries of their gangly friend faded within the gloom of the forest below.
“Dondan...” Annabelle’s cry faded to a shocked whimper.
Murphy grabbed a nearby vine in one hand and edged himself over to look into the abyss “Well that’s no good” he muttered ominously.
“Go see if he’s alright” Coil insisted, his eyes clearly starting to wet.
“Do you think you’d be alright after that Coil?” He asked, stepping back to the safety of the trunk.
“I’m serious, the trees might have slowed him” Coil was sounding panicked. Annabell stood by in shock, staring at the branch Dondan had fallen from.
“How do you suppose I can help him?” Murphy scoffed.
“You know magic” Annabell mumbled.
Murphy felt his mouth go dry, he gulped and considered his response. “What do you mean by that?” He asked her.
“You’re a blacksmith you idiot” Coil snapped “don’t you use runes all the time?”
Murphy relaxed. They were right of course. As his grandfather's apprentice he had a lot of exposure to runes and magical inks. In their craft they would design a rune to aid in somethings functions, the magical inks being an important part of the process. Humans would have to use a power source to empower the runes. Murphy kept it a close secret that he didn’t need to worry about using a power source, as he could just empower the runes himself. The knowledge of his power being public would spell certain danger for him and his family.
“It doesn’t really work that way” He replied.
“Why did you bring that then?” Coil barked, pointing at the fur wrapping at Murphy’s hip. Murphy placed his hand on it, feeling the vials and engraving tools inside.
“In case the wizards tower has runes you gonban” He snapped back “making a wild rune out of nowhere is completely different to tampering with them”
“You have to try something” Annabell pleaded, grabbing his arm “please Murphy, its Dodo” she begged.
He gulped, coming from her it sounded like a good argument. “Alright I’ll try then” he resigned.
He stepped past his friends and returned to the branch. Stopping, he turned to Coil. “I need a coin” he said.
“You expect me to pay you for this?” Coil asked with indignation.
“To power the rune gonban, I need a crystal coin, unless you want me to use that” He said, gesturing to the small red stone hanging around the boy's neck.
“Fine” Coil hurried to pull a coin from his pouch and forced it into Murphy’s hand “hurry up” he insisted.
Murphy took a deep breath, and stepped out onto the branch. Being sure to take extra caution, he made his way towards the centre of the canyon. He lowered himself to straddle the branch and bought his wrapping before him. Unfolding it he noted that everything was nestled in its designated place. He carried three engraving pens, all with varying tip sizes, and seven vials. Five vials held ink, one held water and the last was empty, reserved for the mixing of new ink.
The inks he carried were common, they were the aspects of fire, water, wind, stone and wood. They were the only ones he thought his grandfather wouldn’t notice a little missing, given he made an abundance of them in his workshop for sale. He hadn’t finished learning his letters yet, so writing a rune should be near impossible for him to do properly, but Murphy had a secret. He could see the colours of magic. His power was something his grandfather made him swear to keep a secret “You’d only bring us all trouble if you weren’t lucky enough to be dead” the old man had said when a younger Murphy had told him about his gift. His grandfather called the colours aspects, and he surmised on his own that each aspect could be altered into another just like the mixing of paint, with that, he found his own way to make runes work. His grandfather called them wild runes and urged him not to practice the craft, but what ElLoh Dahdan doesn’t know won’t hurt him.
You could be reading stolen content. Head to Royal Road for the genuine story.
He slid his boot off and focused on its heel. Pulling out his medium pen, he carved a boundary circle. He knew at least that the boundary was crucial. The ink drawn into the boundary would be a mix of all of the inks used within the rune itself. He then scratched a series of lines into the heel within the circle. Normally there would be shaped letters, to help the ink resonate in the right shape, Murphy just needed something to hold the ink. His plan was to fall slowly into the canyon by replicating the colour that birds glow when they settle into a glide. He hoped it would be enough to keep him from falling like a rock. He used the wind ink as his base, pouring a few drops into the empty vial, he felt this most closely matched the colour of gliding. He then added a drop of stone and a drop of water ink to deepen the tone, but it wasn’t quite right. Looking around for inspiration, he saw a small insect crawling on his unfurled wrap, an insect with wings. A smile crept across his lips as he picked up the bug and plucked its wings from its back. On their own, they had the colours of flight, gliding and a hint of something he didn’t recognise, but he was only after the first two.
He rolled the wings between his fingers, crushing them into small juicy clumps of their former majesty, and dropped them into the vial. He stopped it and shook it as hard as he could manage without losing his balance.
The resulting ink was physically a deep blue, so dense it was nearly black, though Murphy could see the aspect surrounding it. To him it looked very close to the colour of gliding, so he figured it would serve the purpose he needed it to. He took his smaller pen and dipped the nib into the vial, drawing a small amount of ink upwards into its reservoir. Carefully, he etched the ink into the lines, covering it from the elements with his other hand to keep it from drying too fast. Once he was done, he brought it towards his face and blew on it gently, trying to dry the ink all at once.
“What’s taking you so long” Coil called impatiently from behind him.
“You’re welcome to come do it faster Coil” He responded.
Coil remained silent for a moment, then grunted “just hurry up” he mumbled.
Murphy chuckled to himself, despite the seriousness of the situation, he couldn’t help but to laugh at his friends arrogance. “Very well” he declared. cautiously, he slid his boot back on, wrapped up his tools and stood to his feet. “Wish me luck” he said, looking at Annabell. He leant over and pressed the crystal coin to his boot. It’s gold colour faded to silver, through to copper then the coin turned to a dull and opaque black, its energy drained completely.
A normal human would require tools to initiate this process, he just hoped his friends didn’t know that fact.
“Good luck” Annabell finally spoke “It’s dangerous down there”.
“Thanks for the warning” Murphy laughed. He tossed the dead coin back to Coil. The boy caught the coin and looked at Murphy.
“Be careful okay” He said, a stern look on his face.
Murphy said nothing. He just nodded to Coil and took a deep breath. He stepped away from the branch, his eyes closed in anticipation. He felt the solid surface lift away from him and his stomach hurled as he expected to feel himself plummet. But he didn’t. He opened his eyes to see himself descending at a gentle pace. He wasn’t falling slowly, but he wasn’t going fast enough to raise concern. His friends left his view as he fell, replaced by twisting branches and weaving roots. He laughed with a wild gleam in his eyes. It was working better than he could have hoped. He expected to have to stand on one foot the whole way down because it was only his boot that he had enchanted. Then it occurred to him.
He hadn’t drawn ink into the boundary circle, and the rune was leaking. He quickly examined himself, sure enough the aspect of nearly glide was creeping along his body, and imbuing itself with the things he was touching on the way down. “Murphy ye’ idiot” he mocked himself in his grandfather's thick accent. He thought about the gold coin he had used to power the rune, and how that was way more energy than he needed. “This is going to last a while” he mumbled. He took off his boot and tossed it away from himself. It hit a root as he dropped past it and spun downwards, bouncing from thing to thing until it had picked up speed and gone too far down to see anymore. Alongside the maze of roots and branches he found himself descending into an increasingly thick fog.
“It’ll be fine” He assured himself, watching the boot disappear. At least the enchantment would fade from him now, eventually. He decided to put that problem aside for the moment, after all, there wasn’t much he could do right now. He focused on looking for Dondan. The fog was thick, but he could still see his immediate surroundings well enough to spot the torn fabric beneath him. He grabbed a root and guided himself to his target, his weight feeling a quarter of what it usually was, he had no issue holding himself up to inspect it. It was from the coat that Dondan had been wearing. If it was this far down it meant Dondan had fallen far enough to kill the strong, he gulped and let go of the root to continue his journey. He was sure of what he would find further down, and he dreaded the prospect, but still he continued.
An uneventful minute passed, the only evidence of his friend being broken branches and roots. Murphy was studying his surroundings anxiously when he felt a tremor. At first he thought the canyon was shaking, until he realised he wasn’t touching anything, it was him that was shaking. The trembling grew more violent, and he shivered while he watched the aspect around him shift in hue to that colour from the wings that he didn’t recognise.
Without much more warning he felt a force jerk him sideways. He flew at speed into the canyon wall with a thud, loosing a clutch of stone with the impact. Again he flew, this time upwards, he hit his head on a branch and proceeded into a wild spin. For the next half minute he bounced from one side of the canyon to the other, sending debris tumbling before himself, until his flight ceased. He felt the enchantment fade and scrambled like a mad man to get a hold of something, though to no success. He did however manage to slow his fall enough to where by the time he hit the canyon floor he was safe enough to only experience great pain.
He groaned, his body was bloody and bruised and his ego not much better. He could practically hear his grandfather's disappointment alongside the ringing in his ears.
He pulled himself to a sit and rubbed his head, examining his situation. He was sitting on a dirt ground, the foliage not afraid to overwhelm the canyon floor. Large trees and wildflowers surrounded him much like the forest above, the only difference being the cliff walls looming in the fog either side of him. Cliff stones littered the ground around him as well, evidence of his spectacular failure to draw a rune. Looking up, he could see the roots of great trees growing from one wall to the other in a web of wood and soil. A few feet from him, among some ferns he could see a water skin, Dondan’s water skin.
“Dodo!” He called out, his head aching worse as he spoke. He stood and started his search, his ankle was sprained but for the moment he wasn’t paying attention to it.
“Dodo, where are you?” He questioned to the mist.
“Murphy?” He heard a pained voice call back to him “Is that you, I can’t see you” Dondan cried.
His voice was coming from above, but Murphy couldn’t see far enough through the fog to spot his friend. So he began to climb. The task was relatively easy for him, even with an injured ankle. The forest was dense enough for him to always find a foothold. “We might be able to climb out of here” he muttered to himself, feeling optimistic. He didn’t have to climb far to find Dondan. Once he did he felt his cold sweat return.
“I’m right here Dodo” he assured him, placing his hand gently on the scared boy's shoulder. Dodo was in a state of misery. He was tangled in a mess of thick iron vine, his left arm twisted upwards and free from its socket at the shoulder. His face was bloodied from a gash spread from cheek to cheek. His left eye was nearly gone, and the right was swollen over completely. At that moment he was utterly blind, Murphy couldn’t imagine the fear his friend would be feeling.
“I messed up” Dodo coughed “am I going to die?” he sobbed.
“You’re always so dramatic Dodo” Murphy assured him, trying his best to stay calm “You’re banged up for true, but it ain’t nothing ol’ Sahta Helahl can’t fix”.
“Do you think she can heal me” Dodo sniffled.
“Aye, but I’m afraid she won’t be able to do anything about your ugly still” Murphy joked. Dodo managed a snort and smiled. “I’m going to have to get you out of this mess first though” He continued “you won’t like it but I need to leave you here for a minute”.
“Why?” Dodo asked with a panic “I don’t want to be alone” he sobbed again.
“I need to get you some Nunmah root for the pain, you don’t want me to break these vines before that, I know that much” Murphy replied calmly. Dondan considered this for a moment.
“Just be quick okay” He pleaded.
“Like the wind” Murphy said, as he began his slide back to the forest floor.
The root he was looking for didn’t need to come from a particular plant. Many of the plants in this forest shared similar properties, so he just needed to find something that glowed in the same colour that he had seen the numbing roots the healing lady used when the hunters returned injured.
He found what he was looking for with little effort, but as he was dragging himself back to the tree he had climbed, he made another unfortunate discovery. He nudged a cliff stone out of his way, and it seemed for a moment to float before returning to the ground. He gulped. Paying a little more attention to the rocks in that way he had learned to do, he saw the colour of nearly glide. The enchantment had embedded itself into the things he made contact with on the way down. Stone, branches and broken roots covered the forest floor, glowing ominously with the promise of the final stages of the enchantment.
“Murphy you fucking gonban” he reprimanded himself. Without hesitation he scurried back up the tree towards Dodo.
He announced his presence and had Dondan eat the roots, once he declared that his body had gone numb, Murphy began to free him. He used another blacksmith's trick. With his largest pen he drew fire ink into the vines with neat lines. He didn’t care about how the ink dried, this was dirty magic. It didn’t need to work a certain way, it just needed to work. He didn’t worry about the theatre of draining a crystal either. Dodo couldn’t see him so he figured he would be safe to empower the ink himself. That allowed him to only impart the amount of energy he needed for the ink to burn through the vines.
“Shouldn’t take long now” Murphy comforted his friend.
“What’s happening?” Dodo asked.
“I’m just burning through the iron vine”
“Then why are you rushing?” He pressed. Dondan could be remarkably intuitive at the worst of times.
“Do you want to stay here longer then?” Murphy laughed.
“Be honest with me Murphy, I don’t want you to...” Dodo began, but was cut off by the violent sound of a rock splintering a tree trunk right next to them. “What the fuck was that?” Dondan yelped, his new found composure lost in an instant.
“Nothing to worry about” Murphy chuckled “Just a rock”.
“Aren’t we in a tree?” Dodo queried.
“Aye, we are” Murphy responded, hurriedly drawing a thicker line into the last vine.
“What did you do?” Dodo cried.
“Why does everyone always think it's my fault?” Murphy groaned.
“Because it usually is your fault” Dodo declared.
“I resent that” Murphy stated, right before another stone flew by his face at astonishing speed. It struck higher in the trees, freeing the final thick vine holding Dondan in place. He grasped his friend and pulled him to his perch. Dodo slumped to his knees, his body too numb to stand.
“Now what?” he whined. The sound of stone and wood exploding and zipping through the air grew below them.
“We have to climb” Murphy replied, looking upwards at the task ahead. He gasped and pulled himself and Dondan closer to the trunk, just in time to avoid a large branch shooting towards the ground. It cleaved through everything in its path, cutting the branch they were standing on short, right at their feet. “We can’t climb” he continued, looking at the now open canyon above him. The trees and roots he had touched first had torn themselves free ahead of them, and the resulting chaos had cleared the canyon of its escape routes in that area.
The canyon was a mess of deadly projectiles, with no way down and no way up he resulted that his only option was to attempt more magic. He struggled to get his vial of wind ink from its home in the wrap, though the moment he had his hand around it he began to empower it all at once. Wet ink was unpredictable, as was just empowering a mass of ink on its own, that he had learned first hand just this day. His goal wasn’t control, it was chaos. He just needed the wind to be strong enough surrounding them that nothing would penetrate through. He was immediately successful in his first step. In an instant, a vicious wind tore around them, pushing them into the trunk of the tree. Then he focused on pushing the wind away from them. With an effort he exerted his will upon the ink vial, pushing his own aspect of control into the magic. This was another trick his grandfather made him hide. A human boy shouldn’t be able to control his own aspects. The wind formed a shell around them, the inside becoming suddenly calm.
“What just happened?” Dondan asked, listening to the now muffled chaos outside of their bubble.
“I just got us to safety is all” Murphy sighed, his heart beating heavy with relief. He leant against the trunk and slid to sit next to Dondan. They had little room, their legs were hanging off the edge of what was left of their branch, but they were safe. He laughed a quiet laugh, that trickled into a giggle, until eventually he was laughing like a mad man.
“What’s so funny?” Dodo questioned, Murphy’s infectious laugh starting to creep into his own voice.
“Life Dodo” Murphy sighed “and how close we just went to losing it” he chuckled.
“You’re insane Murphy LockHalm” Dodo snorted.
“And aren’t you glad for that right now” He patted Dodo on the shoulder.
“Wouldn’t you believe” Dodo laughed, wrapping his good arm around his friend.
They sat in silence for a time, listening to the chaos settle. The wind around them continued for some time after the debris had stopped flying, long enough for them both to be lulled to a sleep. It wasn’t until much later that Murphy woke to the sound of rope clapping against the cliff wall, and the sight of Malnir Hunters descending towards them, their lanterns amber light reflecting the ruin he had caused. His stomach sank as the men drew closer, they would have a lot of questions. Suddenly, he didn’t feel quite so urgent to be home.