Sagiro’s Story Hour, Part 193
It’s a beautiful afternoon.
Kay is fifty feet out in front, scanning the woods for signs of human habitation. The others trail warily along, full of mistrust despite the gentle breeze and harmless woodland creatures. For four hours they tromp through the trees while the ground rises gently uphill. No one is speaking much. Everyone expects something horrible to happen at any moment.
Something up ahead flashes through the trees running perpendicular to their route. It’s a deer, bounding and leaping through the light underbrush. In just a few seconds it has disappeared again into the forest. Two human teenagers, one boy and one girl, follow closely in pursuit of the deer. The Company is still a good twenty or thirty feet away from Kay and the hunters don’t even see her, concentrating instead on their prey.
“Hello!” shouts Kibi, obviating any further need to discuss first-contact procedures. Morningstar rolls her eyes.
The hunters come to an immediate halt at the sound of the dwarf’s voice. The boy drops into a crouch while the girl draws her bow. The party can see they wear simple homespun clothing. Both have long hair. Even from this distance the surprise on the hunters’ faces is quite clear. They whisper to each other briefly.
Morningstar starts casting detect thoughts and Step begins to detect evil. After a few seconds the paladin shakes his head and murmurs, “I detect no evil nearby.” But before Morningstar can start skimming surface thoughts the two hunters stand and dash away into the woods, shouting “Sa Roha! Sa Roha!” loudly as they run. They are soon out of sight, and a few seconds after that the sounds of their cries become swallowed by the forest.
No one moves. Everyone looks at everyone else.
“That went well,” says Aravis, shaking his head.
At least now Kay has something to track. The Company sets out again following in the direction of the two teenagers.
“They’re like the Yuja,” comments Dranko. “Maybe they’re friendly too.”
Everyone hopes so.
The ground continues its upward slope toward the descending orange sun. Another hour passes during which the climb gets more and more steep and strenuous. With maybe an hour still before sunset they crest the hill and find themselves at a steep drop-off, looking down into a lovely valley over a mile across. At the bottom of the valley is a village, dozens of small and simple buildings nestled in among trees and streams. Shaved fields speckle the opposite slope. It looks like between five hundred and a thousand people might live there, though few can be seen at this distance.
No alarm bells are ringing. No armed soldiery is charging up the hill at them, or waiting in any obvious place down below. Taking this as a good sign the Company starts to descend along an actual trail that snakes down into the village along a series of switch-backs.
“It looks like a very nice place,” says Ernie nervously. “I wonder what’s wrong with it? I mean, you know that some kind of terrible soul-sucking evil awaits us.”
Only half-joking, Morningstar adds: “Maybe it’s an illusion and there’s a monster waiting down there to eat us.”
Slowly the Company picks its way down to the valley floor. They try to look as non-threatening as possible given that they’re armed to the teeth. Aravis, who carries no weapon, goes in front. A few minutes later they reach the bottom of the hill and walk toward the little town. The path they’ve been following slowly widens into a solid dirt road with cart ruts. Soon they pass buildings off the road – little buildings, houses, something like a general store.
There are no people out in the streets, but the members of the Company spot figures in the windows of homes, peeking out nervously. Other than the clanking of the party’s own metal armor and weapons, the only sounds are of birds crying overhead and some distant noises of livestock. Reaching an unspoken accord the party comes to a slow halt in the middle of the road. Thinking that they look too threatening for anyone to come talk with them, Ernie unbuckles his sword and lets it drop to the ground.
“You’re surrendering?” murmurs Grey Wolf.
“Shhh… look.”
From between a farmhouse and a closely built shed, maybe fifty feet off the road, a small girl comes walking out. She looks to be six years old, maybe seven. Still standing by her house she stops and stares at the Company. Step detects evil, and shakes his head.
“Hello there!” calls Ernie.
The girl just stands there, a serious and puzzled expression on her face.
Aravis casts tongues, but at the sight of his chanting and arm motions the girl turns and flees back behind the house. He shouts “hello!” after her, but she’s gone. In other nearby buildings Dranko can see people by their windows whispering to each other.
“We mean you no harm!” calls Aravis, speaking toward the girl’s house.
“Ask if they want any turtle jerky,” says Dranko. Flicker elbows him in the leg.
“We seek only information,” shouts Aravis.
A small number of people – maybe three or four – appear in the doorways of other houses. They are looking at each other across the road, and at the Company, and in toward the center of town. Their expressions are unreadable. They all look like normal humans.
The young girl walks slowly out of her house (this time emerging from inside) and slowly approaches the Company. She is unarmed, holding nothing, and stares at them with wide, questioning eyes. From another doorway across the street an adult male approaches, though more tentatively than the girl. Other folk of all ages, growing braver, start to emerge from their homes and edge toward them. A teenager bolts from one of the houses and heads toward the heart of the village. Dranko sits down on the road to better express his peaceful intentions.
The girl walks right up to them.
“Hi there!” says Ernie cheerfully. “My name’s Ernie.”
The girl blinks confusedly at him.
“Hello,” says Aravis.
The girl’s head jerks quickly to face him.
“Hello,” she says gravely.
Ernie digs out a traveling cake and holds it out to her. “This is tasty and safe,” he says.
She looks curiously at him again, and her expression takes on… annoyance? Then she turns back to address Aravis.
“Who are you?” she asks.
“We come from a place very, very far away,” says Aravis.
“But… how can that be?” says the girl.
“Do you have a concept of magic?” asks Aravis.
“Yes. Elder Tog does some magic.”
“We came through a magical doorway,” says Aravis.
“There’s a doorway? Where?”
Her eyes widen. She clearly finds this very interesting.
“It was in the woods,” explains Aravis. “Shortly after we came through it, it disappeared.”
“We must tell Tog!” exclaims the girl.
The man arrives and nervously says hello. The six-year-old girl looks up at him, and then back to Aravis.
“Oh, excuse me,” she says, sounding embarrassed. “My manners. We are so unaccustomed to strangers. My name is Del. What’s yours?”
“I am Aravis. This is Grey Wolf….”
Aravis goes through introductions for each member of the Company. Del repeats each name as if committing them to memory. She glares a bit at Dranko, who makes a face at her as he’s introduced.
“A bit uncouth,” says Aravis in a low voice, “but really quite a nice fellow.”
“What happened to your eyes?” asks Del.
“I have inside my head a very powerful artifact that affects my eyes and skin,” he says simply.
“Does it hurt?”
“No, and I see normally.”
“I’m sorry. I did not mean to interrupt.”
Aravis finishes up the introductions. Dranko peers at her curiously.
“Ask her how old she is,” he says to Aravis.
“Do they not speak our language?” asks Del, looking over at Dranko.
“No, they don’t,” says Aravis.
“But you do.”
“When you saw me waving my arms, I was casting a spell that allows me to speak in your tongue.”
“Ah,” says Del brightly. “Neat.”
Her eyes twinkle.
“We have not had visitors in many years,” she says. “Are you part of the Stillness?”
Aravis pauses, wondering to what she refers.
“I’m not aware of what the Stillness is,” he concedes.
“It is what we’re all a part of,” Del says as if explaining to a child. “It is part of the test. The examination.”
Aravis repeats all of this to the rest of the party.
“I didn’t study for any test,” says Ernie nervously.
“Then we are not in it,” Aravis tells Del.
The girl absently scratches her side, mulling over what she has just learned. The Company watches her expectantly.
“You came here through a doorway,” says Del. “What is on the other side of it? Does it lead to the rest of Cressella?”
“I don’t know the place Cressella,” says Aravis.
“You’re from beyond?” Her eyes widen again.
“We come from a land of giants, creatures more than twice our size,” says Aravis.
“We have to take you to Tog,” says Del. “He will understand these mysteries.”
The older man has been observing this conversation with interest, but has deferred to Del throughout. Aravis glances at Dranko, at the small crowd that has started to gather nearby.
“If you don’t mind me asking,” he says to Del, “how old are you?”
She grimaces as if she’s been expecting this question.
“I’ll turn eighteen in a month,” she says. “It’s part of the Stillness.”
A larger crowd is approaching from the center of town. At its head is an old man with a tall gnarled walking stick. His dress is reminiscent of Eigomic, with furs, beads and feathers. There are two antlers protruding from the sides of his head, though when he gets closer the Company sees that these are part of a headdress and not an actual anatomical feature.
“That’s him!” says Del excitedly. “Tog! Strangers!”
(When Aravis hears “strangers,” the others hear “Sa Roha.”)
Aravis bows before him.
“Greetings,” says Tog, his deep voice old but strong. “Are you the leader?”
“For the moment, I speak for us,” answers Aravis.
“Tog! Tog!” says Del. “They came through a doorway in the forest!”
Elder Tog’s face betrays a rush of emotion at this. But the old man composes himself quickly and asks:
“Do you need food? Water?”
“For now we are fine,” says Aravis.
The crowd, over a hundred people in all, has formed a rough circle around Tog, Del and the Company. Though much of their attention is bestowed unabashedly on the newcomers, they seem more interested in how Elder Tog is reacting to them. Dranko notices some children near by and starts playing with a coin, making it dance along his fingers and vanish into his sleeve. Usually kids find this mesmerizing, but even the youngest children are ignoring him and watching Tog. A six-month-old baby in her mother’s arms regards him for a moment with a keen, disturbing gaze.
“I must ask,” says Tog to Aravis. “Are… are you from the Antlered God?”
Aravis thinks for a few seconds before answering.
“I don not believe so. But I do not rule out the possibility that he has guided our way.”
“Tell me, please, how you came to be here?” asks Tog.
Aravis gives him the condensed version:
“We traveled across a land of giants. We came across one of their towns where there was a tower. After fighting against some of the creatures we found the method of opening that tower, and when we stepped through its doorway it took us here. Shortly after we arrived, the door we walked through seemed to disappear.”
Tog frowns.
“Which direction?” he asks. “Can you point to the doorway?”
Aravis points upward in the direction from which they walked. Tog’s frown deepens.
“I have walked those woods many times. There is no doorway there.”
“And there is none there now,” says Aravis.
“There are no doorways!” Tog says loudly, suddenly addressing the crowd as much as Aravis. They have all been listening intently to the exchange, leaning in and giving one another meaningful looks. Now they lean back and murmur among themselves.
“I think I should speak with you in private,” says Tog quietly to Aravis. “My people are not used to strangers. We have not had visitors for some time.”
Aravis relays this to the rest of the Company.
“You want to keep secrets from them,” says Dranko, even though Tog can’t understand him. “I’m with that.”
Aravis scowls.
Tog again addresses the throng of townsfolk.
“People of Green Valley, I must speak to these strangers alone. Go back to your homes. They pose no threat. I will discover what purpose they serve in the Antlered God’s designs. All will be clear. I promise this to you.”
He leads the Company through the crowd, which instinctively parts for them. Morningstar stares at the six-month-old baby, who stares back at her with large unblinking eyes.
“Just imagine,” Morningstar says, half to herself, and as horrified as she is curious. “Not being able to speak, or communicate, trapped in a baby’s body…”
The crowd slowly disperses as the Company follows Tog.
“My people have not been outside Green Valley,” he says as they walk. “It is the will of the Antlered God that they should not stray!” (He says this loudly enough that most of the departing villagers can hear.)
As they walk he gestures to Kay’s array of weaponry, and Step’s swords, and then vaguely to everyone else.
“Do you expect combat?” he asks. “You are heavily armed.”
“The land we come from is very dangerous,” says Aravis.
“You should not need such things in Green Valley. We are a peaceful folk.”
The Company passes by small yards, fields, houses, stores, and many shrines to the Antlered God. Tog’s own house is modest and comfortable. Once inside they go through another round of introductions, after which Aravis says:
“You should know, it’s possible that we will be followed. I don’t know for sure.”
“By what?” asks Tog.
“There are forces, and some specific individuals, who wish to destroy us,” says Aravis matter-of-factly. “They wish to prevent what we need to accomplish.”
“We are not warriors,” says Tog. “We have hunters, Aravis, for deer, and to make sure the wolves do not menace us. We cannot fend off an army.”
“If you do not wish us to stay, we will not,” says Aravis.
Tog looks thoughtful.
“No, I will not send you off. I need to know where you are in the Antlered God’s designs.”
Outside Tog’s house the sun has finally set behind the mountains. The ten members of the Company, plus one cat and one monkey, sit closely in the small house. (Scree has remained hidden in the earth, enjoying the saturation of powerful magics there.) The windows are open and a cool wind stirs the air. Tog pours himself a cup of water from a wooden pitcher and takes a long drink.
“Have you… aged?” he asks.
“You mean since we’ve arrived?” answers Aravis. “We’ve been here such a short time, we have no way to tell.”
“Perhaps it is part of the test,” says Tog, switching thoughts. “The Antlered God judges us on how we treat you.”
“Why are you being tested?” asks Aravis,
“I don’t know.”
After a half-minute in which no one speaks, but during which Tog seems to be working something out in his head, Aravis asks:
“How old are you?”
“I was sixty-eight when the Stillness began. I am nearly eighty now. The Antlered God is watching us, judging us. He created the Stillness to… get a better look at us, I believe. That’s what I am calling it: the Stillness. It has been over eleven years since the Stillness was first observed. It has been a trying time. We have not… had traffic from from outside the Valley in all that time.”
Tog takes a deep breath. He’s made up his mind about something, maybe that the Company is worthy of his trust, or that some hope is close to being fulfilled.
“Before I continue, I… there are things my people do not know. There are things that they should not know. That are dangerous to know.”
Aravis nods his head, and Elder Tog tells his tale.
…to be continued…
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