Chapter 13

The day after the gerion tribe incident, anom took his slepneir, grabbed all his valuables, and headed east. Towards the mountain pass. He would then head south, to the dark forest of the elves, but before setting off, he was stopped by his father. He was tasked with giving him a pouch. Handing anom the pouch, he told him to wait, until he was on the trail to open it. Waiting over half a day, he finally looked inside, and found a much more complete map, than he had taken with him.

Some places were marked on the map with notes added, and a small letter on the bottom. The letter read, “Your armor was destroyed, this place can make you a set fit for the gods.” Then, on the bottom, a word underlined. "BOTTOM." Looking in the pouch, the bottom pulled out, and a shiny, pitch black, obsidian coin, was placed underneath. The precious coin was swaddled in a sandwich of wool, and down feathers, preventing the fragile coin from breaking. "Damn! They knew it was too valuable and I wouldn’t take it, so they waited until I left, and gave it to me in a note. I did need a new set of armor though." Looking back at the false bottom, he noticed a very small, and fine necklace. Picking it up, he admired the simple, silver pendant. Examining the necklace, he was curious though, "why did they put this necklace in with the valuable map and coin."

Out of curiosity, he put it on, only to suddenly disappear. "Whoa! I’m invisible?! This, is a magic necklace?! This is great." Ecstatic, he put everything back in its place, holding onto the necklace and map, and attached the necklace to his belt. "I’ll find a way to pay them back later. I might as well go and see what this place has to offer. After all, they are the most famous blacksmiths on the continent, maybe even the world."

Looking at his new, larger map. He began to realize the size of this world. Maps were almost non-existent here, and if you did have one, even a vague one, you were usually seen as a spy, or an enemy to be killed. Not many people traveled very far, from what he had heard, and seen. Very few merchants are willing to try to open up new routes, and confront the wilderness, and all its horrors. Even big governments are not able to produce large, accurate maps. Most would probably only have regional maps at best. However, the map in his hand seemed fairly detailed, and very, very large. If this map is right, then the world he was on right now, should be much, much larger, than earth was.

The continent that he was on right now was one of twelve, and was around the size of earth’s old supercontinent, before it had broken apart, and drifted to different areas of the seas. The continent resembled a cattle skull. A triangle, with its bottom point cut off, and made almost square. The middle of the continent bulked outward, like the eye sockets to a cattle’s skull. Most of the other continents looked to be unmapped, with no, or very little details. Only their shape could be seen. With how large each continent was, it was likely that this map was the life’s work of many people, or at least a few long lived giants. Looking at the map to plan his journey, he soon wished lady, or frostfire, would have been with him.

Looking at the notes and places marked on the map, Hephaestus’s guild was marked on the largest mountain in, “the king’s mountain” range. However, it was far beyond the mountain pass that he would need to take to reach the elfish forest. He would have to go around the mountain range after reaching the forge. The humans were likely to be watching the mountain pass now anyway, "straight east it is then!"

Spurring the slepneir forward, he began to run. Passing many smaller forests and hills along the way, he pushed forward for a full week. Trudging through rivers and marshes along the way, until he discovered smoke stacks in the air. Counting them, he counted around a hundred fires. "There must be a village here." Thinking for a moment, he jumped off his slepneir, and tied him to a nearby big pine tree. Grabbing the necklace at his hip, he put it on, disappearing entirely.

Making his way towards the smoke, he made sure to walk as silent as possible, and leave as few footprints as he could. Not easy, now that he was much, much, heavier than he had been. Fortunately, his new height, actually made things easier, instead of harder to hide. Now that he had the necklace, he was able to look over many of the trees, instead of trying to hide behind them. However, his weight was a big problem still. He sunk in everywhere he walked, unless it was an especially dry, and hard ground. Not leaving footprints, was proving to be difficult.

Skulking forward, he soon heard the sounds of people talking, and children playing. "This must be the village." This was the first time he had seen people, since coming to this world. Well, the first people who get didn’t have to kill, and who didn’t try and kill him. "I wonder if they are the same type of people as those on earth. I can spare a little time and check them out. Maybe they have a sorcerer I can take, I mean hire, as a teacher." He muttered under his breath.

Sneaking forward, he discovered the main pebble road of the village. Both sides of the road were covered in different buildings. He was able to see a general store, judging from the various foods, tools, and supplies lined up in the store. This appeared to be the biggest business in the town, complete with a second story. Next to the general store was a bar, and saloon, which seemed to be perpetually busy.

Looking farther down the road, most of the buildings appeared to be industrial. However, one looked residential, but had a plaque hanging on it, just like other businesses. The plaque had a staff and herbs on it. "Maybe a doctor? Or an Alchemist? Or Botanist?" "Unless it’s a doctor’s office, it’s strange to have a specialist like that in a village this small."

Across the street, he could see a blacksmiths, and granary, along with a plethora of other businesses. Smaller roads connected to the main road like a trees trunk, sprouting finer branches. These smaller roads were covered in residential houses, and workplaces. The village even had a wood mill, and what seemed like a nice looking church.

It looked like what he would imagine a medieval European church looking like. Looking at it, he was suddenly curious, "what do people in this world worship." "After all, they have to know magic exists here, and I’m sure they have at least heard of some of the magical beings that exist all around this world." Walking closer to the church, he could see an item that they had hung on the top of the building. "It looks like a bronze tree. Maybe they worship nature?"

Watching the wagons, and carriages, being pulled along the road, the village seemed to have a certain sense of vitality. He could even see a barrel of apples, sitting outside of the general store. Looking around, until the store clerk went upstairs, he snapped up the barrel of apples, placing it into his pouch. "Giants tax, hehehe." "Well, I would pay for it, but I think they would rather I didn’t with the amount of panic and the chance of things going wrong if I did reveal myself to pay for it. This reminded me though, I should grab a few pallets of oats and hay for my slepneir. I should grab a few barrels of ale for dad too." Taking his time, and looking at the house's in the town, he enjoyed his apples, and continued down the road.

Reaching the outskirts of the city, he carried a new pallet of oats, and sweet feed, for his slepneir. He also snagged a few dozen barrels of ale for him and his father. Reaching the outskirts, he discovered the biggest residential house, of the whole town. It was a three story mansion, made almost entirely of brick. It looked almost like a castle, with its rounded tower corners, and flat roof, with multiple doors leading to it. This was the only home in the village taller than he was, but he could still see the roof, when he stood on his tip toes.

Stolen from its original source, this story is not meant to be on Amazon; report any sightings.

Looking around the mansion it was immediately apparent that the owner was extremely wealthy. The mansion had multiple sets of armor as decorations, and he was able to count over 20 horses in its fields and barn. That wasn't even taking into account the hundreds of cows and bulls roaming the fields.

In the back of the mansion was a beautiful flower garden, where a young blonde girl was pruning flowers in the sun. Despite her previous actions of pruning and caring for the flowers, when she left the garden, the servants truly taking care of the extravagant garden, came out, and seemed to be well practiced in mending, and fixing the damage done to the flowers. Anom saw them rolling their eyes, as they attempted to fix what he would imagine would be her barbaric chopping, and destroying, of the roses, and flowers.

Many of the servants look different though. They do not look like the owner, or other people in town. They look, almost fake, almost plastic like, and robotic. "I’m not sure though as since I have grown so fast, that being next to humans feels strange anyways. After all, the average human barley comes up to my ankle or shin now. It feels like I’m looking at tiny dolls to begin with. However, I’m sure these servants look different, I just don’t know why. Maybe they are a different race? They look just like other humans though. Hmmm… I’ll keep an eye on them and see if they do anything different than normal." Something else that he noticed, was that when they thought they were alone, they would walk up to each other, stop, and look directly into the others eyes, and stand still, for around 10 seconds. They did this a few times each, almost like they were communicating. Waiting to see if anything would happen, he soon discovered a young boy hiding in the nearby tree.

Climbing to the highest branch, growing closest to his sweetheart’s window, the young man took out a few pebbles, and began to toss them to the nearby window, and balcony. Soon, the door opened, and the blonde girl from earlier appeared. "Thomas Woodmanson! Are you mad! You know what happened the last time you banged on my door and yet you still have the gall to do it again!" Smiling guiltily, Thomas replied. "I wouldn’t usually bug you, but I can’t find Mary, and Robby and Trevor are out trapping with dad, and won’t be back for weeks. Me and Missy found something weird in the woods, and want you to come see it."

Frowning, Amanda replied. "Why would I want to come see it? Besides, I hate to hike, you know that." With a clever smile on his face Thomas retorted. "Well I figured you would want to come because you’re always going on and on about wanting to be like your dad and become a plant guy or whatever, and we think it’s a new species!" Tempted, Amanda questioned him. "Seriously? You better not be lying to me Thomas or so help me I will whoop you! Looking around the fields she looked up to see the position of the sun. Well, if it’s not too far we can go now. But, the sun is going to be setting in three or four hours and we can’t be out at night. Especially right now with all the adults freaking out."

Feeling proud, Thomas responded. "Duh, I’m not stupid! Let’s go! Get your book and weird little bag." Annoyed, Amanda retorted. "Shut up! It’s a field kit for the last time! I’m coming right now." Her figure quickly disappeared from the doorframe, reappearing not 10 minutes later running out the front of the mansion. She began running towards the forest, meeting up with Thomas along the way. Deciding quickly, anom quietly followed the duo heading towards the forest. After all, it was getting late, and he still needed to feed the slepneir, and if the movies are to be believed, the duo of teenage angst, and hormones, is bound to fall into some kind of danger, or something.

Following as the teenagers went deeper into the forest he was honestly impressed by the abilities of the male as he began to pull up trip wires and hang traps, hunting for furs, and meat, as they traveled. They seemed to be headed towards a known camp, as they walked with ease, and obviously knew the path well. Finally making it to a bigger tree in the area, Thomas began to whistle, and a ladder was thrown down from the surprisingly well hidden tree house above them.

If they hadn’t stop here, anom might have even missed it. Going up the latter, they meet up with a third female inside the tree house. The new female had long brown hair that was put in a ponytail, and was wearing brown overalls, and a white t shirt. She looked younger, and was noticeably shorter than her two friends. "took you two long enough I was beginning to think you weren’t coming back." Afraid of angering the girl, Thomas replied. "I couldn’t help it, Amanda took forever to get here."

Feeling aggrieved, Amanda replied. "You guys are lucky I’m even here so stop complaining. So are we going to go or what?" Not wanting to waste any more time, Missy responded. "Fine, let’s go." Missy took her bag from the table and they all began to climb down the tree house. Hiking in the forest they finally came to a section that had a massive, bizarre tree growing in the middle of a barren area. This was completely different than any of the other trees in the area, and quite unique. Walking towards the massive tree, Thomas moved to the front of the group. The tree was a massive, pine tree, but the trunk was pure white, and the pine needles were a deep red.

Feeling proud of himself, Thomas spoke up. "See? Look how weird this tree is!" Amazed and confused, Amanda replied. "I’ve never heard of a red and white pine tree. How strange. Going up to the tree she opened her bag producing a jar for a sample from the tree, and a scalpel with tweezers. Going up to the tree she cut some of the pine needles and discovered that they were hard, like metal and covered in a red slime. What is this?"

Deciding Thomas to impress Amanda, Thomas retorted. "Why are you using those tweezers, it’s just a tree. See? Grabbing a handful of pine needles he pulled a small branch from the tree with a crisp snap. Ouch, Gross! Throwing the branch down he had red goo all over his hands along with a new scratch from the hard leaves."

Shocked, Amanda shouted. "Dumbass! Don’t you know some plants are poisonous! Don’t blame me when you get a rash. Walking towards the trunk she soon found it was hard, much harder than wood should be, and the red coloring was from the gunk sliding down the trunk. Putting some of the gunk in a new jar and colleting a piece of the tree branch she began to take notes and drew the tree in her notebook. My father will love this! I’m sure this is a new species!"

Studying the tree, Missy began getting a odd feeling. "There aren’t any pine cones. It doesn’t have any fruit or anything either." Embarrassed from earlier, Thomas snapped. "So what? Did you want some new pretty pine cones for your collection? The tree is pretty but that’s about it." With her instincts screaming at her to leave, Missy replied. "I don’t like it."Dreaming of her father's praise, Amanda replied. "well I think it’s beautiful and love how deep red it is. Plus, I have always loved the smell of pine trees!"

Unsure Missy of what to say, Missy meekly replied. "I didn’t mean it’s not pretty… never mind, are we ready to go yet? My parents are going to freak out if I’m still in the forest after nighttime. You know all the adults are going crazy with the disappearances and talk of monsters in the area." Still caught up in her excitement, Amanda replied. "Just give me a few more minutes and we’ll leave after."

The teenagers stayed sketching the tree for a few more minutes and then, once the blonde was finished, they packed up and began their journey back to town. "How odd, the tree was truly beautiful with its deep red coloring and pure white trunk. However, how can they stand its smell?" Walking up to the tree, the smell of rotting meat began to assault anom's nose. "They said this smells like pine? Can’t they smell it?" Looking around the trunk of the tree he began to push the dirt around seeing if he could discover anything.

Eventually, the stick he had swirling around hit a pile of, something. Dragging it out, he thought it might be a tent cover, or some other type of material. However, it was stuck on the roots of the tree. Putting a little effort into pulling it I heard a rip, and the flap of material was pulled to his feet. Pulling out his water, he poured it over the mud riddled material, only to feel a shiver of cold go down his spine, when he realized, it was the loose skin of a face, and upper body of a human being. "What the hell is this?" Having a bad feeling about the whole situation he tossed the skin back to the tree, and began walking back to his slepneir.

Finally arriving a few hours later, he fed his slepneir a few bags of oats, and half of the barrel of apples he had recently procured, along with his normal feed. Thinking about the red and white tree, he began to wonder what it was. He had never heard about a tree like it before. "Also, they said people were disappearing. I wonder if something was killing and skinning people. Only to later bury them out by the tree? But, I only saw the one skin suite. I guess I can stick around for a while to see what was going on in this town."