Yawning, Nevin forced his eyelids open, straining not only against the weight of exhaustion, but also to see the nearly invisible form of Theis against the darkness gathered beneath the treetops of the Upper Traagen. How the man in black could so easily pick his way through the increasingly hilly terrain without slowing to find his footing made Nevin jealous. It felt like the ground threatened to sweep him from his feet if he took more than five steps without pausing to look down, and each time he did, he lost sight of the constantly moving man in black.
The ceaseless murmur of cicadas chased them as they fled north, rising and falling in intensity as the three maneuvered their way through the creatures’ midst. The effects of that morning's rain lingered, the soft dirt sinking beneath his boots in places where it should crumble instead. A gust of chill wind swept past them, thick with the crystalline scent of melting snow.
Nevin hugged his chest and shivered. The season was still too young for late night treks into the northern woods, but the day's events had stolen any choice he'd had in the matter. Still, it wasn't just that. Maybe it was the heavy curtain of night...maybe it was the terrible knowledge of what may or may not be following them...but Nevin couldn't help but shake the feeling that the three of them weren't alone. That something else lurked out there in the trees, and that maybe it was growing less and less content with simply watching.
He turned his eyes to the canopy above, uttering a quiet curse at Theis for forcing him to leave behind that simple shielded lantern.
“It'll slow you down, ” he'd said dismissively, snatching the lantern from Nevin's hand and jamming it down on Ishen's kitchen table. “And anyone with an eye will see you in the dark. Can't protect you from everything, boy.”
I'd have argued harder if I'd remembered tonight was a null moon.
The closer their group got to the northern treeline, the fewer trees there would be. Already, the weaker silver maples had ceded their territory to the narrower and hardier tower pines, an exchange that would open up the canopy above and allow more light to fill the forest floor than many places in the lower elevations. And yet, if Nevin remembered correctly, the two rings of Etro were in descent; they wouldn’t be visible again for at least two days, and their absence would greatly reduce the moon’s pale blue radiance.
“Hey, Aidux, you okay over there?”
“I'm ready for a nap,” the cat said, his child-like voice no more than a breathy whisper as he wadded through the swishing ferns beside Nevin. “Long day, and my feets are singin'. How's about you? I bet your legs are getting all itchy by now, huh?”
“Uncomfortably so, but I'm making do.” Nevin scratched at the tops of his thighs, the constant thrum of blood pouring through his muscles creating a odd tickling sensation that always showed up during long treks through the woods. Scratching never helped, but it felt weird not to try. “Do you smell anything, hear anything?”
There was a brief pause, and Nevin could hear the cat's nose going to work. “Here and there, all day long. At one point, I thought they were all around us...peoples, I mean. Sweaty, stinky peoples, but a few minutes later, they were gone. But nothing recently, and nothing right now. But it's really late. I'd imagine they're all really tired.”
He could empathize. The man in black had kept a nearly breakneck pace for the later half of the day, picking his way along game trails and through gullies, silent except to chide Nevin each time the younger man somehow found himself lagging behind.
Up ahead, he heard the man in black bark a curse.
“Been a long day for everyone, I guess,” he muttered under his breath.
He idly thumbed the bronze canteen strapped to his belt, not thirsty enough even after hours of walking to want to give purpose to Dalen's most prized possession. Before setting out from Ishen's cabin, Nevin had thoroughly rinsed the canteen in the swollen creek behind the building, hoping to wash away all trace of the old drunk's sour wine from its interior. He couldn't put words to why he'd ultimately decided to keep it. Having it nearby didn't exactly invoke the most pleasant of memories, but he supposed having a resilient container to carry water in would come in handy in the long run.
If he could ever bring himself to drink from it, that is.
He adjusted his pack for the hundredth time, but nothing would alleviate the awkwardness of the bulky metal weapon strapped across his shoulders. The oddly cool metal brushing against the back of his bare neck with every step added to the already chill evening, but it was the uneven distribution of the item's weight that wore on him. The object was heavier closer to the coarse stone handle, and because of that, he found himself listing to one side as he walked.
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Like having one leg longer than the other. His thighs burned not only at the effort of stumbling up and down the uneven terrain, but also from constantly working to even his gait.
A part of him wanted to reach over his shoulder and loosen the two leather straps holding the object in place, letting it slip quietly off his back and onto the leaf-strewn forest floor. The Traagen could be its final resting place, another remnant of mankind reclaimed by nature. Over time, the Fading would steadily bury it beneath layer after layer of decaying plant matter, forgotten by all but the trees and the spirits that walked amongst them.
And now that Elbin was little more than a name on a map, who would be around to stumble across it?
About an hour before sunset, Theis had led the three of them up the southern-facing side of a steep hill. The rocky ascent limited the number of trees, and as they neared the top, the canopy cleared enough for him to finally get a good look out over the whole of the Traagen Peninsula.
Nevin remembered his jaw going slack as his eyes drank in the scene.
Plumes of thick, black smoke blanketed the southern sky. Orange flames licked at the treetops, belching ash and inky soot into the air. High above, flashes of red lightning briefly illuminated the bulbous folds of a monstrous cloud as it attempted to swallow the darkening sky. The low angle of the setting sun only served to magnify its oppressive appearance.
Nevin searched the fire line, trying to find any evidence of his hometown – a roof, a chimney, anything - but the flames had advanced too far north. No recognizable landmark remained, all of Elbin gone, and with it, dozens and dozens of people and their histories.
The cat crowded up against the young man's leg. He took a single sniff of the air, then stilled. One was enough. “Do you think the fires have reached Ishen's yet?”
“I don't know, buddy. It's hard to tell.” Nevin rested a clammy palm on Aidux's head, earning a barely audible mrow from his companion. If the flames hadn't overtaken the hard-to-reach cabin yet, he knew it was only a matter of time. Elbin's destruction was nearly complete. The cold truth that he and Aidux may be the sole survivors of Vincht's assault on his hometown wrapped its fingers around his heart and squeezed.
Theis planted his foot atop a small boulder and leaned over his knee as he gazed up at the growing smoke cloud.
“We're lucky,” he said, matter-of-fact.
Nevin wiped the tears from his cheeks, a wry chuckle bursting unexpectedly from his lips. “Lucky isn't a word I'd use to describe any part of this day.”
Theis dragged a gloved finger along the outer heel of his boot, scraping free a small pile of sticky, black mud. He lifted it to his face, rubbing it slowly between his thumb and index finger. “Made it here, didn't you? Don't think that makes you lucky?”
Nevin hugged his chest and scowled. “By whose metric? I'm here because I was driven from my home, a home that doesn't exist anymore. Everyone I've known my whole life is dead or missing. Everything I've known is on fire. You may not believe in Fate, Theis, but it sure seems like the universe, the gods, and maybe even random chance is completely against me.”
He shook his head, brushing a new batch of tears from his eyelids before they could gather the strength necessary to run down his face.
“I sure don't feel very lucky.”
Theis let out a long, disappointed sigh and straightened. One by one, he pulled his gloves tight around his fingers. At some point, he'd replaced the shredded right glove with a fresh one, and the newer black leather squeaked as his flexed his singed fingers.
“Try pulling your head out of your ass. Might could see things a bit more clearly then, boy.”
Nevin balked. “Wha-”
“Shut up.”
Stunned, Nevin's mouth clamped shut.
Theis shoved a finger his direction, piercing the air like his hand was a blade long enough to stick the younger man in the gut. “You're lucky I came along when I did, otherwise you'd just be a stain on Ishen's floor right now. You're lucky to have made it out, not just alive, but with your friend over there in tow.”
He took a few steps toward Nevin, raising his hand to show the thin layer of mud coating his gloves. “And you're extra lucky it rained this morning, otherwise, that fire you see, off in the distance? Likely would have been on our heels the whole way out. And with the way you've been trudging along behind me for the past few hours, feeling sorry for yourself, it may have even overtaken us before we could escape.
“So if you want to feel bad, fine. You want to cry? Go for it. Mourn the dead. Mourn your past. But don't lose yourself to it. Focus on what you can control, what you have going for you. We're not out of this yet, boy.”
Theis pulled away from the overlook and headed for the treeline. “Now let's go, before the wind shifts north and takes away our head start.”
Nevin squeezed his eyes closed against a painful jolt of light, and he heard Dalen's voice again. You can run if you want, but we're gonna get ourselves a little huntin' party together, and then we'll see, won't we, boy?
A small part of him was relieved to be free of the old drunk, but despite the violent invasion of Elbin, despite the all-consuming inferno raging across the whole of the southern Traagen, the larger part of him suspected that Dalen was somehow still out there, that escape wouldn't be so easy as all this.
When Nevin looked out at the smoking woods below them, he could almost feel the old drunk staring back up at him.