The next morning, Tenthé was the last to get up. When he sat down to eat, he noticed everyone looking him, except for the Envoy and the kids, who’d run off to check out the craters; all that remained of a number of the hills that had been there last night.

“What?” he asked.

“You did something!” Elishua accused him loudly. “I have a good time sense and there’s a few minutes missing. I was making rounds, then all of a sudden, all Hells is breaking loose, and there you are, just outside your tent, standing like it was a summer day, while the rest of us are falling everywhere because the earth is shaking so hard! And when the shaking stopped, you come over and talk to me as if I was a bug, not even worth the air I breathe. They you go back in your tent without trying to talk to anyone else.”

“Yeah, I guess.” Tenthé answered, missing the entire point.

“That wasn’t like you,” Elishua replied, obviously exasperated. “What was going on?”

“We were being attacked, so I ran them off.”

“How? You might be hiding something, but that would take enormous power, and I don’t even know what form of magic was being used… do you?”

“Yeah. Kind’a. I let one of the others handle it. This was something they could do better than me.”

“Others? What others?”

“Oh, you know. The other you-s that live in the back of your mind.”

“What?”

“What, what?”

Elishua was floundering. Magister Grenville stepped up.

“So Tenthé, there’s more than one of you in there? In your head?”

“Well, yeah. Same as everyone.”

“Ah, I see. Do all of you fight to see who’s in charge?”

“Course not! Don’t be stupid. They’re all me. Just from different places. We agreed I’m best for here. Most of the time. And I handle dying better than most of them.”

With this, he continued eating like nothing was the matter.

“Um… right.” The Magister replied before leaving Tenthé to finish his breakfast. Snagging Elishua and Leo, she led them to the edge of the camp.

They stopped once they were far enough away that Tenthé probably couldn’t hear.

Leo spoke. “So, he’s crazy. Whatever was in the hills had to be something easy, and was scared off by the wards. The kid’s trying to take all the credit.”

Just as the others were about to argue, the Envoy joined the group. Ignoring the byplay, she told them what was in the crater. Bones, human and otherwise, mixed with clothes and armor, bags, boxes, and scads of small things such as coins, iron nails, and jewelry. Whatever it was that lived there had been waylaying travelers for quite some time.

When none of the others responded with the amazement she had been expecting, she figured something else was going on. At that point, Elishua recounted what Tenthé had said.

The Trachteur was quiet for a second, then replied, “So. I have no idea what you are trying to accomplish. The boy’s the same as he always has been, just we know more, now. Since we’re in the middle of a campaign, I don’t see the need to make a fuss. Besides, if he could run off the things that made those hills, I’m not sure we really could do anything, anyway.”

Even though Leo snorted at this, the Envoy continued, “I recommend we treat him like normal, at least until we have a reason not to. And, after I’ve seen what we were involved with, I think we’re only here this morning because of what he did. Come and have a look. See what you think.”

With this, the group walked up the slight slope of the nearest decapitated hill. It was just as she had said: all that remained was a crater lined with the remains of previous travelers and local beasts. A second crater showed much of the same. The bottom of each crater was crisscrossed by drag marks from something huge, tens of paces deep, with the freshest gouges heading away from the camp, disappearing into the remaining hills.

With this evidence of the size of the beasts, Leo appeared a little less confident of himself, but kept his own counsel.

As tempting as it was to dig through the detritus, no-one felt it was proper. After some discussion, they decided it would be best to report what was here to the authorities in Angel City and to those in the City Proper when they had the chance.

Maybe, on the way back, they would return for a bit of a look-see. You know, just in case there was something that shouldn’t be left out in the open that scavengers, or rather, other scavengers, might take.

The kids finished their roving and returned to camp. After eating, everyone cleaned up, packed, and headed back to the trail, which, for the most part, skirted the hills. With the knowledge that some of the hills may not just be piles of dirt, it was deemed safer to stick with the trail, even with the risk of the Hoard and ambushes. Elishua and the Envoy kept their eyes on Tenthé, but he acted no differently than usual, riding as he always had, keeping alert.

The kids mentioned they had intended to climb one of the higher hills, but decided to wait until they were closer to the City. And, after ensuring that the hill was just a hill and nothing more.

The rest of the day passed without incident, save for the normal colorful things that might be plants or animals, and the nuisances that were scared off by a few spells or the kids.

That night, they set up next to the trail, and no-one, except Tenthé and the kids, got much sleep. The next few days were similar, although the group settled down when nothing out of the ordinary occurred. Of course, this was the Wilds, where ordinary didn’t exist, but, at least, there were no attacks of any significance.

Four days after the incident with the hills, things were proceeding normally: the team was riding in single file with the kids ranging ahead. The trail they were on was passing through a number of smaller hills.

And, just as they reached it, a small hill in front of them began shaking, causing dirt to slough off. A horrendous roar accompanied the movement, and then a kid flew high overhead, heading back the way they had come. Then the hill began moving toward them!

Elishua rushed up the line to get next to Tenthé.

“Is this one of the things you fought the other night?” she yelled, the only way to be heard over the roaring. Before he could answer, a second small hill right beside them began shaking too, and then the ground jolted as a third hill they had just passed started to move and roar too.

It was too noisy to talk, so everyone pulled their mounts into a circle, while Leo emptied some of his amulets of their heavy-duty spells, aiming at the first hill. The result was spectacular, with explosions and flames blowing dirt high into the air.

But, as the smoke and dust cleared, it was obvious the damage to the creature was minimal. The spells may have caused it to pause in its advance, but other than that, it appeared unhurt. The reason was soon apparent, its outline was blurry, indicating some type of shield. Worse than that, arcs of lightning crackled over its surface, hinting at some kind of offensive ability, as if its enormous size wasn’t enough.

Magister Grenville concentrated, and the faint sheen of a barrier appeared surrounding the group, causing the nearest hills creature to pause. There was little joy, because the Magister began to struggle as one of them dragged itself forward to push against her shield.

“I can’t hold this for very long,” she grunted.

“What can we do?” Leo spat. “My spells hardly touched them and I don’t have anything better!”

The tale has been stolen; if detected on Amazon, report the violation.

The Envoy was the coolest of the group, except for Tenthé, who, as usual, wasn’t showing any emotion at all.

Pointing, she stated, “We can retreat to that hill over there. Of course, that assumes it isn’t another of those creatures. But, it might be a trap! I guess we could try moving out into the plain.”

“No, the hill’s the best choice,” Tenthé said, surprising everyone. “Once those things get going, I don’t think we can outrun them. Under their shields, they look fast.”

“Do something soon!” the Magister gasped. “I’m almost out of power.”

“Leo, lay fire on all of them,” the Envoy ordered. “It might not hurt, but it will give us time to get to the top of that hill!”

For once, Leo didn’t argue, moving around to cast his spells on the three beasts. The noise was tremendous, and everything was immediately covered in smoke and dust as the group rushed for the small hill. For once, the burros seemed to agree that this was in their best interest, they showed speed that had been unsuspected until now.

As they managed to open up some space, Leo yelled, “I’m out! Gods help us now!”

Fortunately, they had reached the hill. The burros rushed up the grass covered slope, reaching the top just as the beasts emerged from the obscuring clouds to race forward, proving Tenthé’s statement that they could move quickly.

The Magister concentrated, and smaller shields appeared in front of each of the approaching beasts. Apparently, they couldn’t jump, because two of them stopped, and one actually tripped over the shield that blocked its way. Getting back on its feet was obviously difficult for the huge creatures, the downed one was struggling.

The Magister moved her shields to stay in front of the other beasts as they tried to go around.

“How long can you keep this up?” the Envoy asked Magister Grenville.

“It’s easier than making a dome, but… maybe five minutes. No more,” she replied.

The Envoy turned. “Tenthé, are these the beasts you fought off before?”

“Well, kind of,” he answered. “I think these are the kids. They’re a lot smaller and don’t have Mental Magic. In fact, they seem immune. Probably so they can survive their parents.”

This opened a whole slew of questions that didn’t need answering right now. Ever practical, the Envoy asked, “So, can you do anything?”

“Well, uh…”

“It’s not a hard question!” she yelled. “Answer it!”

“Yeah, but I was hoping…”

“I don’t care what you were hoping! Whatever you can do, do it! Otherwise we’re monster poo!”

Even so, she worried he was going to rebel. Instead, a resigned look crossed his face and then he turned to look down the hill.

Suddenly, there was a loud Blat-at-at-at and a string of intensely bright dots streamed over his shoulder, crossing nearly instantly to the nearest creature. The dots completely ignored the shielding and stitched across the beast’s body. That wasn’t all. They came out the other side, smashing into the ground and tunneling into the dirt. Two more Blat-at-at-ats sounded, and the second and third beasts were hit.

Each one paused, then slowly slumped down, their blurry shields dissipating, leaving massive mounds of flesh and hair, with far too many legs, all twitching in death.

Other than Tenthé, the rest of the group were alternating between rubbing their eyes, and ears. The spell had been loud enough to deafen, and so bright that everyone was seeing spots.

Leo, who may have had some defense which reduced the effects, was backing slowly away from Tenthé. Most likely coming to the realization of just what he had been taunting for the last few months.

Elishua was the next to recover.

“What the Hells was that!” she yelled, not just because her hearing was gone. “That spell had to be Sage level at least, if not higher! It went right through those shields! I know the power of the spell Leo was using, and this was kilo-paces above those!”

Nearly spitting, she urged her mule beside Tenthé, looming over him.

“Is this all a game to you? Are you some sort of monster, just toying with us?”

In her anger, she seemed to have forgotten just who she was yelling at. She jerked back as a very strange shield popped into existence around Tenthé; a semi-transparent cloud made of the circling figures of many different types of ghosts and skeletons.

As the others recovered enough to see, they also edged away from Tenthé, since no-one knew was going on, or what they should do.

Except for the Magister.

“SO… THIS IS WHAT THAT MEANT,” she said, unaware that she was yelling.

“LET’S WAIT UNTIL WE RECOVER,” she continued, still yelling. “I MIGHT BE ABLE TO EXPLAIN SOME THINGS.”

Just then, everyone gagged as the stench of the dead beasts reached them. With their magic gone, it was apparent that personal hygiene had been a major problem for the huge creatures.

Elishua, who had grown up on a farm, found that even she was having trouble keeping her breakfast down. The Envoy had already spewed once and was looking like there was more to come. The burros took over the decision process and raced down the opposite side of the hill, around the crater left by the first beast, and onto the trail, where they ran full tilt away from the site of the battle. Fortunately, they had opted to go in the correct direction.

This turned out to be a good thing, since the grass on the hills was whipping back and forth as creatures rushed toward the promise of a feast. The sky was also filling up with increasing numbers of flyers, as all manner of beasts passed overhead. Ordinarily, this would be a cause for concern, but everything was focused on the source of the stench, paying the travelers no mind.

Eventually, as the roars and bellows of feeding and fighting faded behind them, the unprecedented enthusiasm shown by the burros dissipated, and their speed dropped to normal. At that moment, Yu, who must have avoided the first creature somehow, rode his burro up the group. He was towing another burro without a rider.

He didn’t appear concerned about An, who, honestly, until that moment, everybody had forgotten about and was most likely the one who’d passed overhead.

Maybe not wisely, the riders and the Envoy clumped together, most of them eying Tenthé.

Elishua took charge. “Tenthé, what happened back there? How could you possibly have spells that powerful? Why didn’t you tell us at the College… wait. Let me start again. Are you a Sage? Or a God? Or something like that?”

Tenthé still had his strange shield going and Elishua realized if he declined to answer, there was probably nothing she could do about it.

Fortunately, that situation didn’t arise.

“Um,” he began as his shield faded somewhat. Not gone, but reduced.

“Lots of times, when people find out what I can do, they try to suck me into their plans. Sometimes I figure out I’m not on the right side, and then I have to fix things.”

He paused, memories chasing across his face.

“I found it’s best to stay by myself and let everyone forget me. But, that gets boring, so I do stuff, take risks, fight the old gods, or talk to… well, someone I know. She finds me jobs and helps me get better, if I’ve been having a hard time.

“The College was something new, and it was fun for a while. You treated me like a regular person. Sort of.

“But I knew it wouldn’t last. Too many people plotting and planning. The Assassins taught me how to see what was really going on, which would let us figure out who really hired us, and whether it was a righteous job.”

Leo gasped. “You’re an Assassin? Uh…”

“No.” Tenthé replied. “They’re all dead. I hired them to kill each other off, and the last one, I fought. He was the best, but I knew a lot more than he did. I tried to make it fair, but he still lost. I didn’t make it too fair.”

Elishua opened her mouth to say something, then reconsidered and shut it.

“I guess it’s my turn,” Magister Gledhill injected. “As you all know, well, it might be news to the kids, but, I’m an oracle. I see versions of what will come, and, mostly, it’s very difficult to decide if they’re likely to happen, or not. What I look for is evidence to help clarify things.”

Just then, a bundle of teeth, fur, and claws leapt at the group from the grass beside the trail. Tenthé’s shield proved to be more than defensive as a pair of white boney arms shot out and ripped the creature in two. The pieces dissolved into nothing and the arms withdrew.

Magister Gledhill muttered, “Is that a semi-autonomous shield? Where did you pick that up?”

When Tenthé didn’t answer, she continued her original explanation.

“As you might guess, shields are my strongest regular ability. The whole oracle thing is separate, it can happen to anyone. It isn’t a power. More of a calling.

“And it has been telling me that this has been coming for quite a while. What “this” is, is currently unclear to me, but it’s something big. Not that this trip isn’t big, but it’s necessary for other events to occur. Again, I don’t know exactly what these events are.”

“So, there. That’s what I have.”

In general, the rest of the group looked as if they had just discovered the final chapter of a fascinating book was missing.

“Yeah,” Leo drawled. “Thanks for telling us… what? Nothing! What we need to know is, can we trust him? Is he what we thought, or rather, is he dangerous? Is this whole trip a waste of time?”

The last few sentences came at increasing volume.

“Let me just gut her,” the Envoy muttered.

Surprisingly, Yu spoke up. “Leave him alone. Tenthé’s our friend. He’s helped us a lot, and he’s good people. All he’s ever done is his best, and that’s what he’s doing now. The prophetess isn’t going to tell you all she knows. She told you she can’t. If she did, it would be a lie, anyway.

“And… if any of you managed to do something to Tenthé, which isn’t possible, An and me would make sure none of you were ever seen again.”

On that happy note, he turned and rode ahead.

Tenthé added, “Yeah. That’s another reason I didn’t want to do what I did. The kids have been my friends for a long time.”

With that somewhat confusing non-explanation, he sped up to catch up with Yu. Shortly afterward, Magister Gledhill followed.

The remaining three looked at each other and picked up the pace. It wasn’t safe to get too far behind.

After a few minutes, Elishua said, “You know, in all the stories, the hero goes off with his, or her, faithful friends. Lesser heroes, but still important. Accompanying them are all the others. Regular soldiers, and such. At the end of the story, the heroes return, but usually, no-one says what happens to everyone else.

“And, I just realized something. Us? We’re those others.”