Re: Thanks for the weekend's entertainment
anon said:
Sagiro,
...
I hope you keep the Story running for a long time.
Thanks,
anon
Me too!
Here's another update.
Sagiro’s Story Hour, Part 197
The Company looks at the door for a few seconds.
“We should follow her,” suggests Dranko. Grey Wolf casts
invisibility on Dranko and Flicker and the two rogues slip out into the night. Fortunately Del doesn’t try anything stupid, going straight back to her house and slamming the door behind her.
“You’d think she was eighteen,” Dranko thinks to himself.
Back at Matt’s barn Dranko says to Aravis,
“You want to tell Tog about this in the morning?”
“I don’t know if we want to get the girl in trouble,” says Grey Wolf.
“I think he probably knows already,” says Ernie.
“Well I don’t think it’s right,” says Flicker, causing heads to turn. “Tog shouldn’t be keeping secrets from people. They should be free to make up their own minds!”
“Flicker, you’re a genius!” says Dranko sarcastically. “We’ll just send a whole mob of these people out ahead of us into the cave. The monster will eat them, and get full, and then we can come in and kill it while it sleeps off the meal.”
Ernie, on whom sarcasm is occasionally lost, sputters.
“Dranko, that’s the worst plan you’ve ever had!”
“I’m aware of that,” says Dranko with a sigh. “I’m making a point.”
After some debate the Company agrees to visit Tog the next morning and tell him about Del’s visit.
“He’s going to think it’s out fault for agitating people,” says Ernie, “but she came to us! He needs to know that his people are unhappy.”
* *
In Tog’s house the next day various spells are cast to circumvent the language barrier.
“We got a visit from Del yesterday,” says Dranko.
“Of course she did,” says Tog sagely. “No doubt she pressed you for information. I trust you kept to our agreement and told her nothing? Very headstrong, that one.”
“They know something is out there,” says Aravis.
“She made some guesses,” adds Dranko.
“What guesses?” asks Tog curiously.
“She thinks you know more than you’re telling,” says Dranko. “She thinks that since we got in, there must be a way out someplace.”
Tog nods. “Reasonable assumptions to make.”
“She thinks that you saw something out in the woods,” says Kibi.
“I think you need to consider that the time is over for protecting them from the truth,” says Aravis.
Dranko leans forward in his chair. “If we do our job right, we’ll kill the thing in the cave. We’re going to try to end the Stillness. I don’t know if we’ll succeed, but we’re going to try.”
“You think the answer is in that cave?” asks Tog.
“I think the answer is beyond that cave,” answers Dranko. “Maybe another two or three
worlds past the cave.”
“Worlds beyond…” says Tog, looking puzzled. “I don’t understand what you’re saying.”
“Where we are right here, we think, is a different world than the one we came from. Picture it this way. You know how in a flood a hillock can become an island? When you left your city and came here to Green Valley, we think that someone took this hillock…”
He gestures to indicate the whole village.
“… and turned it into an island. That’s why the Stillness exists.”
The rest of the Company looks impressed at Dranko’s metaphor.
“Why would the Antlered God allow such a thing?” Tog asks quietly.
“He works in mysterious ways,” says Dranko. “It’s not our job to question. But it’s possible that the Antlered God sent us to drain the water away. We think we might have to go to another two or three different islands before we find a way to do that.”
“And the cave is an island,” says Tog. He stays silent for a minute, thinking.
“I have had a thought,” he continues. “I’ve toyed with it since I first met you. You are… powerful warriors, clearly. You wear magical gear, have the bearing of seasoned fighters…”
“And we have the scars to prove it!” says Dranko. He lifts his shirt to provide the visual evidence.
“That wasn’t necessary,” says Kibi, wincing.
“Hey, I didn’t drop my pants this time,” whispers Dranko.
Tog pretends not to notice.
“My people have seen you,” he goes on. “They know that even taken all together they could not fight as well as you. There are rumors abounding about you. Heroes from another world. Indestructible. Saviors. Perhaps… perhaps it is time to come clean, now that I can use you. Here is my plan. I will tell you all of it, because you are a part of it.
“I will gather the townsfolk and I tell them what I saw, ten years ago. I will endure the backlash. I will explain that there is a doorway and a cave and it would lead to their deaths without question. I tell them that you are going to go into that cave, and there will be one of two outcomes. If you do not survive, that will be a convincing lesson for the rest of them, that that is not the way to escape from or end the Stillness. Your reputations are such that if
you do not succeed, my people will know that
they could not succeed. On the other hand, if you defeat the beast in the cave, then the cave and what is beyond becomes open to us. We could escape that way.”
“What’s beyond that cave might not be any safer,” says Ernie.
“But it would be worth exploring, surely,” says Tog.
“We could be the scouting party for them, check things out,” says Kibi.
Tog sighs.
“My people have begun to suspect that I have some ulterior motive for not wanting them to explore, to leave, to look for a way out. I wish to prove to them that that is not the case! The only reason I have withheld information from them is that I don’t want them eaten by that thing, or blasted by its lightning! I have no issue with them exploring, looking for ways out. I think the Antlered God would approve of us taking initiative, once it is safe.”
The Company nods in agreement.
“When will you be ready to go?” asks Tog.
“We need a month,” says Dranko.
Ernie perks up.
“If you’re going to tell them, can I have my party?”
Tog smiles. “It would best to do both on the same night. It would be good to have something cheerful going on when they learn the news.”
* *
For a few more weeks the Company trains, though Tog requests that they leave Matt’s barn and remove themselves to the woods. Their presence in the town fuels too much speculation and Tog doesn’t want things coming to a head before he’s ready. Dranko practices with his whip. Snokas and Morningstar alternate sparring and praying. The wizards keep their noses in their books for hours on end. Grey Wolf does slip into town one afternoon and pays for the blacksmith to make him a couple of short lengths of chain, which he needs as components for a new spell.
One Certain Step distances himself from the others as much as he can without attracting notice. He often goes for long walks in the forest, finding clearings where the sun shines down to sit cross-legged in the grass. In the weeks since arriving in Green Valley he has still not found peace in his heart. Each morning he wakes to greet the sun, but instead of joy and serenity he feels a deep foreboding, and a fear that Kemma will remove Her grace from him. His silent prayers become mingled with fits of angry self-doubt.
One afternoon in the final week of their training, while sitting in prayer in a forest meadow, Step manages to quell these doubts, not so much by solving them, but by burying them beneath a new resolve to serve even more as a champion and protector of his companions. Regardless of his deeper misgivings, his bravery and fighting prowess have always served him well, and soon they will be facing some horror that has already attacked Tog with no provocation. Instead of brooding on the past, he should be preparing for the upcoming battle.
As he stands and prepares to return to the others, thick clouds blow across the strange orange sun.
* *
On the final day before setting out for the cave, Ernie is in a cooking frenzy. Tonight is the big village-wide party that he’s been so looking forward to. The prospect of feeding dozens (if not hundreds) fills his heart with joy. Townsfolk throughout Green Valley are abuzz with anticipation, collectively sensing an important announcement or revelation.
The sky is relatively clear and the air dry and cool, but there is a crack like distant thunder from off in the woods. A few minutes earlier Dranko, Aravis, Flicker and Grey Wolf had headed in that direction with mildly guilty looks on their faces.
“Yondalla’s raisin bagels!” Ernie exclaims. “What are the
doing out there?”
Some townsfolk turn to look curiously in the direction of the noise. Elsewhere Morningstar’s eyes narrow as she listens to the thunderous boom.. She has a suspicion, but… no, surely not. All the same, she ought to go check…
* *
The four of them have arrived in a secluded clearing a quarter-mile outside of town.
“Morningstar will kill us,” notes Aravis. Flicker is perched on a tree limb looking back toward Green Valley.
“I’m ready,” says Dranko, gritting his teeth.
Grey Wolf casts
ironstorm around Dranko, and the rogue leaps and dodges the iron filings. The spell is followed up quickly by a
lightning bolt, and Dranko nimbly avoids the crackling electricity sizzling around inside the
ironstorm’s area.
“That’s the easy one,” thinks Dranko to himself. “Now the hard part.”
“Here it comes,” says Aravis.
He casts
chain lightning at Dranko. In seconds the whole hemisphere of iron bits is filled with a raging storm of electricity. Dranko ducks, weaves, swivels…
“Aaaaaaaaahhhhrrrgg!”
…and falls to the ground, horribly burned. He crawls out from the
ironstorm and heals himself up. Fresh scars appear all over his body.
“Do you want to stop?” asks Grey Wolf.
“No! I think I almost had it that time. Give me a minute, though.”
Dranko casts
protection from elements: lightning on himself this time before going back into the mass of iron filings.
“Ready?” asks Aravis.
“Guys?” calls Flicker from his tree. No one listens to him.
Dranko steels himself, and Aravis casts another
chain lightning. Dranko is absolutely ready this time – and
still can’t dodge out of the way. There’s too much lightning, no gaps, no places to lunge and turn. The protective spell absorbs all the damage but his shirt is somewhat seared.
“One more time,” he insists. “Aravis, you have one more today, right?”
“I do, but…”
Dranko casts
resist elements: lightning on himself.
“That should be enough. Come on, one more.”
“Guys, we should…”
Flicker is interrupted by Aravis's third
chain lightning, which burns new patches of skin off of Dranko’s body. The
resist elements helps, but not entirely. Again he crawls out from the
ironstorm, and lies on the grass, bleeding.
“Guys!” shouts Flicker.
“What is it?” asks Grey Wolf, finally hearing him.
“Er… Morningstar is here.”
Morningstar had crested the closest hill just in time to see Aravis cast his third spell. Now she bursts into the clearing, her face livid. Dranko is lying on the ground, with Aravis and Grey Wolf standing over him. The hair on all three of their heads is standing almost straight out.
“What… what are you doing?” she cries. “Aravis, what is going on here? Grey Wolf? Explain!”
Dranko rolls and looks up at his fiancee standing over him.
“I’m trying to make sure I survive the next time we want to…”
“Be quiet,” snaps Morningstar. She casts
heal on him.
“I… you… I… “
Unable to find adequate words for Dranko, she turns on Aravis.
“You should know better!” she shouts.
Aravis looks sheepish as Dranko gets to his feet.
“If it makes you feel better, I think I’ve come to the conclusion that I never want to get caught in an
ironstorm/chain lightning again. Grey Wolf’s I can dodge, no problem, but Aravis’
chain lightning I can’t get the hang of. It comes from everywhere! It… er, I… uh, yeah.”
“This experiment is over,” says Morningstar flatly. She turns around and marches back toward town. A few minutes later the other four follow her. By this time there are several spits of meat turning over fires in the town square, where the feast is taking place.
Grey Wolf turns to Dranko has they approach.
“Smells like something other than you is cooking,” he says grinning.
…to be continued…
