“Today was supposed to be a day of rest, and here we go to establish diplomatic relations with a king,” says my grandfather walking beside me, “You know, you could take the rest of the day off and I could give you a half day tomorrow.”

“Uzuri wants me to do this now, so I’ll do it,” I say somewhat frustrated with the new knowledge that if I had just asked to go to the teratolion I might have had another break somewhere in the last half a year of training.

“That girl has you absolutely enthralled,” jests my grandfather with a hearty laugh.

“Well, if the incident today didn’t occur, maybe we would have more time. Gehenna may be down, but he isn’t just a meathead, as he was the one who forced the hand of a king. If anything, I may have shortened our time significantly,” I say as I walk faster toward the western wood.

My grandfather catches up to me and slaps me on the back or at least tries to as his hand passes right through me, “well, you may be surprised to know that I was going to speed up your training anyway, but for other reasons. I was planning on using today to prepare a curriculum while you relaxed, but here we are.”

“That’s good to know. I still can’t believe all that is happening today, is actually occurring. Half a year ago, Gehenna would have broken me in two for even trying to resist him, and now I am stronger than him. I’m so strong that it kind of disturbs me, as I only really wanted the strength to save Uzuri, and not… well… do what I did,” I say my hands instinctively clutching as the bloody memory seems to replay sensationally upon them, “but with your training, I’ve already become a better healer, as I know the origin of disease, and am learning better techniques to heal like the importance of sterility. I may have botched today, but in the future, I’ll be more a healer than a brute!”

“That’s a good way to look at today, though again perhaps still a little idealistic,” says my grandfather shaking his head as he walks next to me, “though, I think I should ask if you can handle the teratolion on your own. I’ll be there to help if you need me, but I really should be preparing your curriculum.”

“I’m not sure if I can, as I’ve never seen a teratolion before or even know if they’ll welcome me or kill me,” I say looking at the dark cliffs that encircle and imprison me in this valley.

“I can’t speak for you Skath. You are the only one who can see me after all. Also, I feel that you doing this on your own may be valuable for your future under the dominion of Argentum,” says my grandfather slowly fading away next to me, “if you wish to not physically harm others, diplomacy is an essential tool, so consider this another lesson and training exercise. I know you can do it, and I’m literally a thought away if you need me.”

My grandfather disappears and I am left to my own devices. My resolve wavering, I cannot help but agree with my grandfather. He cannot speak for me, so I must be the one to speak and act. I picture Uzuri in my mind’s eye and know that if I am to free her and not have her recaptured the teratolion must be involved. In addition, the only way for me to create a peaceful resolution to freeing Uzuri is through the teratolion, so I must be brave and face them. My resolve now strong again, I jump from the ground and with controlled bursts I kick off of tree trunks and propel myself through the forest. I fly through the forest, until I reach the western face of the obsidian cliffs. I grab a branch and it snaps as I swing my legs forward to catch myself as I come in for a landing.

Recovering from my crash landing, I run up to the stygian wall and start running alongside it trying to find the tunnels I have sprinted past so many times before. I hadn’t been focusing on memorizing landmarks during my training, so trying to find the teratolion tunnels became an exercise of patience as I ran alongside the wall. There aren’t many places the tunnels can hide as the valley is an enclosed loop. Eventually, I find the tunnels, and I take a step back and see that teratolion holes dot the wall going all the way to the cliffs edge above me. I could just leave under my own power if I were to jump from tunnel to tunnel. The temptation makes me want to try it.

I bound up from where I stood to a tunnel above the one that was ground level and begin making leaps from one hole to the next. I had to hang myself off the edge of each hole and spring off my toes, so I’d be close enough to the cliff face to push myself into the next tunnel with my arms to prepare my next jump. I felt the signs to rest when I had reached halfway up the tunnel ladder, and I looked over the valley.

The village looked so small and insignificant from up here. I could barely see it amidst the blanket of leaves that carpeted the valley below me. From up here, my problems and worries were made so small, and it frightened me to confront that thought in myself. Even with all the progress I had made, I’m basically just an ant in someone else’s eyes.

“How did a human get up here,” says a voice behind me, and I turn and see my first teratolion.

If a bat, mole, and human had a child it still wouldn’t describe what stood before me. The teratolion wore a sash over its face covering its eyes. The upper body of the teratolion was incredibly large and muscular, and his gigantic arms and massive hands dragged on the ground. His body was covered in a coarse sort of hair, except for his chest. He didn’t wear anything to cover his upper body, but his nether regions were covered by a sort of skirt. A long rat-like tail snaked its way out from his skirt behind him.

It approached me at first with only moving his legs, but then swung his torso forward through a sort of knuckle walk. Each hand had a long claw that seemed to be like small daggers tied to each of his long fingers. The teratolion put his muzzle into my face, his nose having what appeared to be finger like appendages of its own, and it moved its large bat like ears forward as if to focus in on me.

“Well don’t be rude and continue to stare!” says my grandfather in my head, “introduce yourself and why you are here!”

“My name is Skath son of Turas son of Angtos!” I say in a sort of nervous shout, “and I am here to tell the king of his granddaughter, who will soon be by his side once more!”

“You’re kin of our creator, I might as well push you off this cliff for blasphemy,” says the teratolion coming even closer to me and as I back up, I now teeter on the precipice of doom.

“Place your hands one in front of the other. I’ll let you use a spell I’ve prepared in my essence reservoir,” says my grandfather, and I immediately follow his orders. I place my hands in the way my grandfather described and the symbols on the gloves begin to glow. In front of me carved into the air the symbols of the sun and moon blaze into existence. A blue crescent moon and red sun made of fire collide into one another and combine into a purple symbol representing an eclipse.

The teratolion bounds backward on his fists and holds his hands out to shield his face. He then bows before me. I can hear him muttering prayers under his breath.

“It’s alright. There’s no need for any of this,” I say just as surprised as the teratolion by the fire display and the teratolion’s reaction to it.

“The hands of Angtos have returned to us, and before me stands one who could very well be our creator’s reincarnation, and you expect me to not give praise?” says the teratolion continuing to prostrate himself to me, “the child of teratolion kin, comes to us bearing a holy relic and you say I do not have to worship the creator. I never expected such humility from our gods.”

“I never expected them to form a cult around me,” says my grandfather in my head with his eyes being as wide as mine are in this moment, “I thought they would hate me for cursing them with this form, and abandoning them, but it looks like I was wrong.”

“Come, young god I will take you to the king,” says the teratolion still refusing to look at me and getting up from the ground. He beckons me with his claws and begins to fist walk to run down the tunnel and I have to jog just to keep up with him.

“How did you make the multicolored flames?” I think to talk to my grandfather.

My grandfather shakes his head in my mind’s eye, as if he is disappointed, “we had a lesson on this before. Remember that certain elements burn different colors, so in burning potassium, copper, and strontium we get the different colored flames. The only thing I needed to do was a simple combustion reaction and add said elements to create the different colored flames. Honestly, those pyrotechnics were more chemistry than soulcraft.”

“Right, I guess that will be something we review in the future,” I think and my head nods up and down confirming my suspicion, “also, when were you going to tell me I had access to your spells?”

“It’s because you don’t,” says my grandfather glaring at me in my head, “what type of teacher would I be if I just gave you everything. You’ll be making your own essence reservoir soon enough.”

A rush of excitement dances in my mind, as I find myself giddily tripping in the rapidly darkening tunnel. I see the teratolion turn back to me to check on me and seeing that I was fine beckons me again. When the tunnel was near pitch dark, and the light of day no longer reached us, a new dim glow illuminated the stone walls. I looked up and saw that the light was coming from a bioluminescent moss. Several colors of the moss grew from the ceiling and walls. Each color of moss made a distinct line going forward through the cave system.

“We will be following the royal path,” says the teratolion pointing to a line of yellow colored moss, “in case we become separated follow the golden glow of our king. I know that even gods struggle to see in the dark.”

You might be reading a pirated copy. Look for the official release to support the author.

I nod appreciatively now having a path to follow. We eventually arrive at an opening in the tunnel, and we continue our journey on a stone bridge whose edges were marked only by the glowing mosses. I look over the edge of the bridge and see several teratolion in a sort of market. The teratolion below appeared more as shadows to my eyes, their outlines only really visible to mine whenever they pass a patch of luminescent moss. As I squint, I notice that some of the moss was cultivated in a way that they formed patterns on each storefront marking the purpose of each store.

I hear something zoom past my ear, and I look and see a teratolion holding onto a device that used a wheel to attach himself to a cord of some sort to fly down to the market below. I look behind me and see that the teratolion also use ropes and ladders to scale walls to various tunnels. It appears that only the elderly use stairs and the paths that my guide and I are using.

I look ahead of me and my guide had stopped at the other end of the bridge to wait for me. I jog to catch up to him and we enter another tunnel. We walk in silence as we follow the yellow moss, taking several turns and walking to what I assume is the very heart of the mountain. Eventually all other colors of moss disappear and only the yellow moss remains and instead of just being a line it was gardened in such a way that it makes elaborate designs on the walls of symmetrical geometric patterns. There is so much moss that my eyes no longer struggle to see in these halls.

The teratolion stops because we have arrived at a gate of some sort made of some dark metal inlaid with copper, silver, and gold in the same geometric patterns that the moss made on the walls. If this is what the world outside the walls has in store for me, I no longer care that I am essentially a slave. To see more of this world’s peoples and cultures like this just might be worth every sacrifice I’ve made up until now.

Two guards approached me and my guide. Both teratolion guards wore more clothing than my guide, as both wore two sashes forming a cross over their chests, and longer cloth blind folds. The teratolion guards are perturbed by my presence and at my guide. I didn’t understand a word they were saying, but the language they spoke sounded like a song of various more animalistic sounds like growls, with what I assume words being determined just as much by pitch as specific combinations of syllables.

My guide points to my hands and continues his explanation. The two guards look at me and back at my guide and both appear credulous at first, but my guide is persistent. The guard which I’m assuming is the senior between the two guards raises his two claws as if to signal that he will permit my guide’s insistent request.

“You, who’s hands are blessed of our god, and speaks of our lost princess,” says the senior guard pointing to me, “come with me, but if you so much as give me any reason to fell you where you stand, your death will be swift and sure.”

The other guard looks at his senior with a look clearly manifesting his apparent lack of confidence in his senior’s decision. However, being obedient to his authority, he goes to the gate with his senior and helps him open the doors. Behind the doors was a massive hall made almost completely of the obsidian substance that makes the outside walls of the black cliffs. The walls were decorated with geometric designs made of various precious metals. Crystalline pillars made of a clear but distinctly white stone formed columns leading down the hall and between these pillars hung massive tapestries of intricate make and design.

My guide stopped at the gate and signaled for me to follow the senior guard down the hall, whose illumination didn’t come from moss but from the crystalline pillars. I walked behind the teratolion guard until we reached a small wooden throne where a plump, elderly teratolion sat draped in all manner of fabrics. Upon his head was a golden circlet, which had strips of cloth tied to it. The elderly teratolion also wore an extravagant and absurdly long head band that wrapped around his eyes and crisscrossed his entire body in diamond patterns.

“Mlinzi why have you permitted this human to step into my halls!” says the teratolion king pointing an old, wrinkled claw toward me.

The guard kneels before the king and I copy him, “My Liege Upendo, this boy wears the sacred hands of our creator, and brings word of our princess.”

“Mlinzi, this can’t be! Boy, what news do you bring of my precious kin,” says the teratolion king getting up from his meager throne. He hobbled to stand before both of us, his hands were outstretched for a brief moment as if in a thoughtless gesture of hope, only for him to regain his composure and rest his arms behind his back.

“I have come to tell you that I will soon free your granddaughter Uzuri from Unadeam,” I say still bowing myself to the king.

“Rise boy, as you speak words that comfort my soul,” says the king extending his hand to me, and I grab his hand as he lifts me with an astonishing strength, “please tell me your name. Tell me the name of he who seeks to fulfill the wish of this old man.”

“My name is Skath, son of Turas, son of Angtos,” I say and prompted by my grandfather I repeat the gesture that he had instructed me to convince my guide of my identity. The same sun and moon of flame appear to our sides and combine behind me to make the violet eclipse symbol.

Upendo the king of the teratolion brings his hands together in front of his face in shocked reverence and I see a glistening shimmer upon his face. He walks forward and embraces me, to both my and Mlinzi’s shock. I wrap my arms around the old teratolion and feel like maybe I should have come here sooner.

“The son of the kin of my fathers’ and our creator, has come to save my precious granddaughter. My prayers have been answered,” says Upendo the king of the teratolion as he breaks his embrace with me. He signals for me to follow him to his throne, and he takes his seat upon it once more.

“Please sit with me and tell me of her,” says the king gesturing to a rug below his throne.

I look back at Mlinzi who makes quick gestures to signal to me to go and join the king. I cautiously walk to be at the king’s feet and sit with him. He places a hand upon me. His massive hand covers almost half of my back but unlike the guards’ claws his claws were cut back so instead of the feeling of daggers pressing into my spine, it felt more like a massive human hand was upon me.

“Skath tell me of her. Tell me Uzuri. I’ve waited so long just to hear news of her at least once,” says the king gesturing with his fingers in a beckoning motion as if to summon the words from my mouth.

“She is kind and has saved me more times than I can count. She loves good stories, even if they aren’t entirely true. Though, when it counts, she can definitely see through a lie. Sometimes we spend hours just talking about the world around us, as we both dream about what is out there for us. Once I thought the world had nothing for me, but she helped me raise my eyes to the heavens,” I say looking at the teratolion king as he clasps his hands and rocks himself as he listens, “I love her dearly… I mean I love many things about her as she has so many good qualities... She also likes to paint.”

I clasp my face in my hands embarrassed of what I said. I somehow confessed my feelings for Uzuri, not to her but her grandfather. I feel a gentle hand rest upon my head, and I look up at Upendo. His expression is somewhat hard to interpret due to having a snout, but I can tell he is smiling.

“I look forward to meeting her,” says Upendo raising both his hands in the air, “I thought I wouldn’t live to see the day.”

“It will be soon, as my training to be a celandil is near complete,” I say again averting my eyes from the king to show some form of respect, “I just ask that you maintain guards at the bottom most cave entrances until that day comes, as there may be a need to protect her and myself when I come to return her to you.”

“Consider your request fulfilled,” says Upendo joyously as he raises a hand toward Mlinzi, and he immediately stands and runs to the caverns behind us, “what else will you require of us? How may we help you?”

“Honestly, that may be all you can do… If teratolion are seen anywhere in the valley of Unadeam it may endanger Uzuri,” I say shrugging and finding myself more and more comfortable in the presence of the king, “as long as we have safe entry and protection after passing into the tunnels of your kingdom, I think that will be enough.”

“So how long must I wait until I can see my precious granddaughter?” asks Upendo putting both his hands on my shoulders.

“Half a year will be the maximum time it’ll take, but due to recent events the timetable may be significantly shorter,” I say biting my lip whilst clenching my hands behind my back, “I can’t tell you a definitive amount of time, but it’ll be soon. Please be patient with me as besides myself there is really only one other that fights to free her.”

“There is another, then who is it? It cannot be one of the people of Unadeam. Does this mean Turas has reconsidered and will come back to our aid?” asks the king in disbelief.

I chuckle as I say, “my ally is one of Unadeam and the very child of Gehenna your adversary that seeks to help Uzuri his sister.”

“No… that can’t be. How could a full child of Unadeam and especially a child of that monster have ever been raised to have mercy in his heart?” gasps the king as he raises a finger to me. It was then I knew that now that I was in good rapport with the king maybe I should probably ask him about my secondary objective.

“There are many good and innocent people in that village,” I say under my breath, “which brings me to ask you, when I do return Uzuri, could you spare them?”

“It is hard for me to believe that those people have a drop of good blood in them. They slaughtered my ambassadors who brought them gifts and returned our attempts at kindness by returning my ambassadors’ heads on stakes. Those ‘people’ even attacked us directly and our blood was spilt in our homes. All we desired was to create trade, so that I could better feed my people,” says Upendo looking up toward the tapestries above him, one of which appeared to depict exactly what he was describing, “their leader, a shaman of some sort led her people against mine, even though we repeatedly tried to establish peaceful relations. It truly looked like nothing would quench their bloodlust until every last one of them was dead. However, your father helped us end the bloodshed and for that I am grateful.”

“The story I was told was different, but then again it was my mother who was one of Unadeam’s people who told me the tale,” I say not realizing that the wars were created through a misunderstanding fueled by religious fanaticism driven by my grandmother.

“Then you must know why Uzuri is in that village and not here with her people,” says the king taking another mournful glance at the tapestry above us.

“I do, and I in no way wish to defend Gehenna and will gladly deliver him to you for the justice that he has long avoided,” I say feeling guilt in saying it, but the words of my grandfather resonate in me as I know and hate that Gehenna’s blood no matter what I do will be on my hands, “what I ask is that those that had no direct hand in Uzuri’s imprisonment will be safe, as they are innocent of Gehenna’s crimes.”

“Though, many were complacent in using her as a ward to supposedly exorcise us from that valley,” says the king shaking his head, “however, you are helping us and I will make you a compromise, but you will need to accept it before I offer it.”

“This may be the only way,” says my grandfather in my head, “though, I would be one to scream from the heavens to read the fine print and hear the terms before acceptance, this may be your only shot at saving as many people as possible once Uzuri is free.”

I hate that the lives of so many are held in the balance of something I won’t even know the conditions for, but if this is my chance, I’ll take it, “I accept your terms Upendo.”

“The decision to spare the village isn’t one for either of us to make. For even though we both have been wronged by them, I know she has suffered more,” says Upendo with a knowing glance toward me, “I know how she suffers, as I was there when the shaman woman declared her sentence. It is for Uzuri to decide whether the people of Unadeam are guilty and worthy of punishment for their complacency and support in the crimes of Gehenna.”