‘Beelzabufos!’ screamed Brigid as the one blocking her path turned a great yellow eye in her direction. Panic was rising inside her. She worked through her mind searching for the runes she knew that might help. Brinn had made her run drills of rune and castings before whilst balancing glassware atop her head. Brinn had always said that she would need to hone her concentration whilst using them, one broken line or wobbly shape could mean the difference between shooting fire and having it burst in her face. She’d had to draw on her eyebrows all that Summer because she couldn’t get it right. She had thought it ridiculous at the time, and now more than ever she wished she had practiced the forms under pressure with a little more enthusiasm. She continued to search her mind, yet the forms would not come. She had used the runes for fire to fight off the Lycapods. That would have to do. She at least knew those better than any other. They were part of her now, part of every hammer stroke of everyday she spent in the workshop. The beelzabufo’s tongue flew darted like slimy lightning from its mouth before you she could create the rune and use it. She felt a hard shove to her side and Blink intervened with his sword swinging. The blade was sharp and yet the tongue engulfed the entirety of the blade wrenching it from his hands. She heard Blink cry out, but the words were lost in her ears, they meant nothing when she was finally ready to strike with her own attack. Now’s my chance. I can do this! She felt for the rune she had used earlier. It came easier now. She formed it in the air with her index finger and another and another in succession. With the palm of the same hand she slammed it into the first two glowing red runes sending bolts of streaming flames at the creature. The flames hit the creature’s oily skin and fizzled into nothingness. It roared in anger, a great guttural bellow that reverberated off the water. Fire doesn’t work! I knew that. I knew that! Why didn’t you remember that, Brigid? She scolded herself inside. Brigid stifled the anger she felt with herself for losing focus and forgetting all she knew about these lands. Losing her temper here would help no one, least of all her focus. In Tory, they had shown her how they drew the beelzabufo toads out of their deep mud holes. They had taught her the rune that told the water to become ice; it was just as she had used the rune that heated the air and drew it into her flames. The runes acted as a conduit for elemental combination and change. The beelzabufo toads grew slow and sleepy from the cold. The locals would then attack them. All those nights she had spent eating cooked beelzabufo toad, all the lessons they taught her, and a little fear took it all away. Maybe more than a little fear, yet it had been enough to break her for a moment. This was not how she intended to be. Swallowing her anger Brigid slammed her fist into the final rune and aimed it at the beelzabufo’s eyes. It bellowed again and noticed Blink shifting and splashing in the water, he was calling to her, telling her to run. I’m no coward Blink. I’m Brigid Leorossa, blacksmith of the Iron Lioness. Innais will be wrong about me I swear it. Having briefly blinded it she made her move. She felt for the rune that would freeze the water and formed it in her mind. She traced the intricate segments with both hands creating two of them on the water’s surface. She would need more ice and power than these individual symbols could provide. Usually, the people of Tory did this with many runic casters. Not thinking she drew circle interlocking and connecting the runes. She raised her hands in the air drove them as hard as she could into the glowing white runes stilled there in the water. The effect was instantaneous. The water cracked and froze in a chilling stream at the beelzabufo arching up and the dark watered ice crystals pierced the tough hide of the creature but did not stop there. The ice consumed the entirety of the beelzabufo toad that was visible above the water. The monstrous shape stopped dead where it was frozen. I did it. She can’t tell me I can’t handle this anymore. I did this Innais. I did… Bridgit felt the exhaustion of the spells take their toll. She had put too much of herself into those last runes. How many times had Brinn and Innais warned her of channelling too much of The Torrent through herself into the rune? How she begged to learn magic only to be trusted with runic symbols. It was impossible for them to draw so much she would die; It was a failsafe in their design and purpose, however in a fight fainting from overexertion was fatal no matter the forms. She felt the fool for not remembering, for not keeping her head enough to measure the flow and her limits.

‘You’re a fool Brigid Leorossa. A fool that…,’ whatever else she had wanted to say was lost as exhaustion took her. She slumped into the arms of Blink.

Blink caught Brigid in his arms. She was still breathing and conscious but whatever she had done had taken everything she had. Blink had seen spell runes before. He had encountered them on many traps or warnings on items Horrog had used him as a shield for. They always had some kind of trigger that activated them. Brigid’s were different, it was as though she was the trigger, the fuse, and the explosive powder all rolled into one. She seemed fine for now, but he could hear his friends dealing with the other toad. He looked to Nessus, their eyes glowing brighter and with more arcane veracity than he had seen before. Nessus was holding the toad at bay with a barrage of flames that swirled around them. Seeing what Brigid had done to its companion and with the distraction of flames buffering its back it had turned to other prey than Blink. Whist the beelzabufo, as Brigid had called them, was being held back by the flames they didn’t seem to be hurting it at all. Blink looked to the water where Ra’Handa had fallen, and Danu had gone in after her. The strange insects were gone and Danu was bringing Ra’Handa toward the sturdier path beneath the churning water. Blink saw that the insect was floating dead on the water’s surface, its spear-like nose cut off and still protruding through Ra’Handa’s shoulder.

‘She’s alright,’ said Danu panting. ‘If we can get out of here, I can heal it,’ she said. Ra’Handa stood on her own now and looked toward Nessus and the beelzabufo.

‘Look at their eyes. I knew they’d go too far and blow us all up,’ she said angrily.

‘This isn’t the time, Ra! They need our help,’ said Blink. It was then that Brigid looked up to see Nessus moving as best they could through the water directing the flames at the beelzabufo toad. The toad was growing more agitated with every jet of flames.

‘Fire won’t work,’ she managed to get out through rasping breaths.

‘Nessus! Fire doesn’t hurt them! Get out of there!’ called Blink. Nessus did not seem to pay attention. Their eyes continued to glow and be fixed on the monster before them. It was then that the beelzabufo toad withdrew from Nessus, leaping away from the path and let out a series of calls into the air. These were different to the roars of challenge it had given before. Each sound was an echoing hoot. The waters back down the path they had travelled ruptured with geysers as more of the toads emerged. Their hulking lumbering forms moving to the defence of the call and the potential for prey. The creatures were on Nessus faster than they could wade through the waters to escape; the two new arrivals flanking Nessus easily. The toads lunged and whilst Nessus was able to avoid some of them it was difficult to avoid the last in the gouts of water from their landings. A large horn found it’s place in their side forcing them to lose concentration on the flows of The Torrent they were holding. Nessus’s eyes returned to normal as they screamed of agony and were cast aside into the water.

‘Nessus!’ Blink yelled and handed Bridgit to Ra’Handa. He began running forward to protect them and threw himself into the fray of the creatures. Danu called after him, ‘I’m coming too!’

Danu’s form shifted into the shape of one of the beelzabufo toads and she launched herself at another of toads, goring it with her own great vicious horns. It bellowed and sank into the water. Blink reached Nessus and felt the white-hot rage fill him the same way it had on the ship. I won’t let my friend die. I won’t be afraid anymore. I won’t be a burden them. Let Brigid call me a coward after this. Heat burned within him pushing away the chill of wading through the swamp. He felt it find every part of him, his skin prickled as he became more aware of himself than he ever had before. It rose to his throat begging for release and so Blink set free a roar that came from deepest parts of himself. As he did so his ears grew pointed and covered in hair, huge fangs and claws burst from his mouth and hands, and in his clawed hand appeared a long pointed white bone blade with hackles of long wolf fur at the hilt.

‘GET AWAY FROM THEM! GET AWAY!’ he yelled. Blink dove for the closest toad and ran it through with his blade slashing wildly as blooms of bloody water blossomed in the air. He turned to the last of the beelzabufo toads that was making its move against Nessus. An elongated fleshy tongue extended but not before another reached him, scooped him up and drew him to the mouth of the toad form of Danu. She rolled her bulging yellow eyes and fled the scene with Nessus in her maw.

‘Blink! Leave it and make it for the cave,’ pleaded Ra’Handa as she moved as quickly as possible with Bridgit in tow. Brigid was wobbly on her feet now but able to move with Ra’Handa’s assistance. In the haze of his rage Blink could barely hear the call of his old friend. He felt the desire to tear and rip and bite the creature before him. He wanted to sink his teeth into its throat with every fibre of his being. Blink could hear more of the creatures coming in the distance. He felt their quaking weight in the water about him. It seemed the bellows reached farther than they had thought. There was a part of him that relished in the thrill of fighting them all and proving himself as the strongest. Yes, he should. He must. He was greatest of all living things in this place and must make that known. These fell denizens would know him and fear him. He was not the cowering slave boy at the mercy of others. He was lord and king of this wild, he was Master to all and servant to none but himself. It was then that a face made it through the anger and the hunger that threatened every moment to take him. He saw the woman from his dreams staring down at him. She was beautiful, smiling, more love in her eyes than Blink had ever known possible in his sorrowful life of slavery. She stared right through to his soul, to the young man he truly was. To whom he wanted to be. This isn’t me… I’m not a monster or a killer. Even if I had killed Demera, it was to save Ra’Handa and to be free. I don’t want to be this thing of fury, he thought looking upon her. How he longed to reach out and hold her in that moment. To have her say that all would be well, and it were all just night terror. The rage softened and Blink could suddenly think clearly. He was still in the form of this wolf beast, he still held the sword, but he was himself again. Blink turned toward his friends and ran as fast as he could. The beelzabufo toad give chase behind him. With every leap it shook the waters and the ground beneath them. It was gaining fast, and Blink could feel rather than see the tongue of the creature extend forth directly at him. He turned and slashed with the blade only this time it cut the creature slicing the tongue through the middle. It slowed but continued to advance. His lungs were burning as the water became shallower and he reached the cave rolling headlong into the mouth of the darkness within. The beelzabufo toad’s immense size and horns met with an earth-shaking collision with the mouth of the cave causing it to collapse inward sealing them all inside.

The story has been illicitly taken; should you find it on Amazon, report the infringement.

The darkness of the cave was broken as several small glowing lights like fireflies began to dance around Danu and her staff. More and more of them gathered as they settled around her companions shedding a soft yellow glow sending shadows dancing over the cave walls. Dust was still settling from the cave, but they could see well enough that a passage was visible heading deeper within. The transformation that Blink had undertaken subsided, and he felt himself again. His vision became a mixture of colours from the small lights and the hazy grey of his dark vision. As the dust settled and his eyes adjusted, he realised the glowing lights were like floating tufts of dandelion. A groan of pain came from Nessus as they held their bleeding side. Danu crouched beside them and planted her staff in the softer dirt. She spoke under her breath, holding her hands out before the wound. As she did so her staff began to grow. The staff sprouted thick roots and branches and these same roots twisted slowly toward Nessus’ wound. Small intricate vines encased the wound and began stitching it closed. Nessus gritted their teeth at the shock of pain. A heavy sweat breaking across the face. Their makeup had been smeared from the water and was streaking further.

‘Aggghhh,’ they cried again and again with each stitching. Danu continued to chant whispered words. Once the wound was closed a thick, soft moss grew over the top it, sealing it from infection. She stopped her chant and sat back for a moment catching her breath. It seemed it had taken much of her energy to cast the spell.

‘That should stop the bleeding for now and prevent any infection. I can do more after I rest,’ she said through breaths. ‘Ra’Handa let me see your shoulder,’ she said calling her over. Ra’Handa sat beside her away from Nessus who was now lolling in and out of consciousness from the pain of the procedure.

‘Blink, I need to you pull this out,’ she said indicating the spear needle from the insect creature. Blink obliged and gripped it hard.

‘Should I count?’ he asked.

‘Just pull,’ said Ra’Handa bracing.

‘But keep it straight. I don’t want to have to heal more damage than already exists’ added Danu quickly. Blink did as they asked and pulled has fast and as straight as he could manage. Ra’Handa grunted as he did, holding back the truth of how painful it must have been.

‘This should be easier,’ said Danu. She began the same chanting as before and her staff grew more branches, vines, roots, and leaves. The wound was knitted and sealed with moss as Nessus’s had been. By the time she was done her staff had become a small tree within the darkness of the cave.

‘Stay still and let it do its work. We will have to rest here for a while,’ she added slumping to the ground holding herself up with both hands pressed into the dirt. Blink nodded and checked on Brigid. She was leant against one of the far walls, sweat drying on her face and panting but she seemed to have recovered somewhat from the fight.

‘You ok?’ he asked and sat beside her.

‘I’m fine she said. I just put too much of myself into those last runes. I’ll be ok after we rest.’

‘What did you do back there? I didn’t know you were a mage,’ he added. She laughed a little at that.

‘I’m not a mage. I just know a few spell runes. It’s all she’d let me learn,’ she added with some indignation.

‘She?’ asked Blink.

‘Innais. My mother… well… adopted mother.’

‘Your mother!’ he exclaimed. ‘You’re the daughter of the guild master?’

‘I am. She took me in when my parents died. They were friends. She’s been overprotective of me ever since. Now Innais… she’s a powerful mage and far older than she looks. I begged her to teach me, but she wouldn’t, so I asked Brinn to show me some dwarven metal work and she did. She then helped me convince Innais to show me some spell runes I could use in the smithy. Innais thought that if I worked for the guild as their smith I couldn’t go out and get myself into trouble, so she allowed it… in the end.’

Blink listened to her story, shocked that, that woman at the guild could ever be a mother. Then again Blink didn’t really know what it meant to have a mother or what they did. The only mother he had ever known was Cookie. She had been kind and did her best to keep him from Horrog and Demera, but she was only the cook and had her limits. She would give him food scraps and when he was smaller hold him when he cried. But she always left him at night to return to her own children. She would also leave him there, still a slave, not really a child. Just a possession of Horrog’s in the form of a boy. Perhaps she was no mother at all to him.

‘Don’t pity me for having no parents,’ said Brigid annoyed and mistaking Blink silence.

‘Oh! No it’s not that. Umm… its nothing. I was just thinking of someone I knew,’ he said avoidantly.

‘Fine! You don’t have to tell me anyway,’ she said sullenly looking away from him.

‘No! Really, it’s not like that. It got me thinking about my own past is all,’ he said. He hoped she would understand. He was too tired to deal with her temper. She regarded him closely considering him. She seemed to decide to believe him, if only to ferret out the truth.

‘Your own mother?’ she asked. The question he vainly wished she would not have asked. He sighed.

‘I… I don’t have one. I never met my parents,’ he said solemnly.

‘I’m sorry,’ she said. ‘At least I got to be with mine for a little while before they died. That must have been hard,’ she said trying to console him. So there was a softer side her after all. He had wondered when they arrive in Tory to see her crying.

‘It’s ok. You can’t miss what you never had,’ he said wondering who he was trying to convince. Of course I can miss having a mother. What I would have given to be with her instead of being a slave to Horrog. For a moment the thought of the strange woman in his dreams and vision amongst the toads. She certainly felt warm and loving as he thought a mother must be. Don’t hang your hopes on a dream… they’ll always be gone in the morning, is what Fisk would say. Maybe he was right. Hopes and dreams were not about get to them out of this mess. Hopes and dreams didn’t feed hungry bellies or avoid and switching.

‘Besides. I have Ra. She’s more family than I’ll ever need. And more trouble,’ he added with a smile.

‘Oi! I heard that,’ Ra’Handa said with a with mock incredulity. Brigid allowed herself a smile too. She supposed Dellwier and Terrick had been family of a sort much her life. Brinn and Rhett’sa the aunt and uncle she’d needed. The family that was deeper than any obligatory bond of blood. They sat for some time before Brigid broke the silence.

‘Danu? Your magic is different than mine. I’ve seen some folk in the guild use things to channel their magic, but nothing like yours. Are you using runes I’m not able to see?’ she asked inquisitively.

‘Hmm? Me? Oh! No, I don’t need to use runes,’ she said perking up. ‘There are many ways to connect to The Torrent,’ she added as if preparing to give a recitation of lessons.

‘The Torrent?’ Blink asked.

‘You really don’t know anything do you,’ she said with a raised eyebrow.

‘I know what it is,’ he said defensively. I do know what it is. In some small way. But Danu didn’t have say so like that, Blink was thinking to himself. Danu carried on in her lecturing tone as though he had not spoken.

‘The Torrent is the source of all magic and creation. It is in everything around us, the plants, the air, the stones, and even ourselves. Sometimes The Torrent builds up and causes strange things to happen and even rifts in the veil between worlds. All kinds of things.’ Blink tried to follow as she spoke but was struck by the idea that there were other worlds beyond his own. The world kept growing larger and far stranger than his small dark room in Horrog’s mansion. Although Blink supposed it wasn’t his room anymore. Strangely that thought saddened him. He had had so few things to call his own all his life, to lose even that dark old storage room felt a considerable loss. Danu carried on not noticing.

‘Magic wielders can channel The Torrent’s flow by connecting their own into it. Masters of the channelling can do so without something to focus with, but it takes time and much work. Most usually need something to help them do so like runes or in my case, my staff,’ she said indicating the small tree.

‘So, the staff makes you turn into animals?’ asked Blink.

‘Well… that’s something else, I guess. I’m not really supposed to talk about how the druids do that. But we do still communicate with The Torrent in a way I suppose,’ she said half to herself.

‘What about Nessus,’ Ra’Handa asked with concern.

‘Hmm… well…’ she considered. ‘If I had to guess… hmmm,’ she continued to think for a moment making sounds and furrowing her brow.

‘Right!’ she said after a moment as if the answer had spung upon her. ‘I have absolutely no idea,’ she said. And you scold me for not knowing something, Blink thought to himself with a shocked expression on his face. Ra’Handa laughed at that. Blink was glad to hear her laughing again. He had been worried about her since they arrived in Dayargain.

‘Ask them when they’re awake,’ said Brigid. ‘Let’s get some rest before we move on. The people of Tory know these caverns well, we can spare some time before looking for them.,’ she added.

‘I’ll take first watch,’ said Blink. He was tired from all that had happened, but he did not want to sleep. Not after all the nightmares and dreams and certainly not so close to the sword that Nessus had thrown in the ocean. He hadn’t discarded it this time but rather left it propped against the wall beside him. He would need something to protect himself with since the beelzabufo had taken his other sword. Blink thought of the woman that had appeared to him when he changed. Who is she? Could she really be my mother? No, it must just be a hallucination or a dream. It couldn’t be. Blink did not want to think about it. If she was his mother, then she was gone. It wasn’t worth getting his hopes up only to have them shattered. Ra’Handa was his family; he didn’t need any other.