by Eric Vall
“You are very clever, Miss Haruhi.” I smiled as I gave her a low bow, and she gave me a curtsey then turned to walk down the street alone.
“I wouldn’t say its cleverness, Master, just being knowledgeable. If you keep killing them, gods are going to disappear from history altogether, and we’re going to need someone to pass down the legends of those once mighty beings. Who better to protect the tales of old than a librarian?” she called over her shoulder with a smirk.
“There will only be one god who will never be forgotten in the end,” I called out loud enough for her to hear, and I could hear Haruhi’s laughter as she trudged on with her cigarette tightly clamped between her lips.
“Crack the earth apart, rip the heavens to shreds, do whatever the hell you like, Master,” she said as she turned back once more and looked me dead in the eye. “In the end, the God of Destruction will rule over all, isn’t that right?”
Chapter Eleven
The city of Eifersucht wasn’t as bustling in the morning like it was when we first arrived. The sun barely peeked up from the east as we left the Purple Conch where we rented a room for the night. I pulled out the map Haruhi had given us the night before and examined it as we stepped over a bridge towards the north side of town. Carmedy yawned loudly and rubbed at her stomach with a sad expression, and Rana ruffled the black cat’s short hair.
“I know you’re upset, but not every tavern is going to serve pies in the morning.” The redhead smiled as she tried to cheer up the alchemist.
“I haven’t had any pie since we left Tamarisch,” Carmedy whined as she rubbed at her sleepy emerald eyes.
Annalise snorted as she turned back to look at the cat from beside me. “We haven’t been away from Tamarisch for more than a week. Our cook gave you a pie right before we left, remember?” the swordswoman chided through a grin and Carmedy hung her head sadly.
“I tried to make it last,” the cat-woman whined as she dropped her paws to her sides dejectedly.
“As I recall, you ate the entire pie within five minutes of leaving the Tamarisch palace,” Morrigan said with her face straightforward while Fea and Macha bobbed up and down on her shoulders as she walked smoothly.
“I said I tried to make it last, okay?” Carmedy grumbled then giggled to herself. “It was a perfect pie though, one of the best I’ve ever had.”
We were almost out of the town of Eifersucht, nearly to where the floating city ended and the rough terrain of the mountain began, when a man called out to us. I prepared myself to be assaulted with flirtations, but surprisingly, very few romantic words came from the shop owner.
“Going up the mountain, are ya?” he called to us. I turned, and my minions stopped in their tracks beside me as he beckoned us over. “Not sure where you’re going, but the terrain up the mountain is too harsh for such lovely ladies to walk by foot.”
I looked down at my minion’s feet at his mention. Their shoes were sensible and fine for the other places we had traveled before. I glanced up towards the trail we were heading up and saw it was steep and uneven with large rocks and boulders.
“What do you suggest we do?” Rana snarked as she cocked her hip out. “Fly up the mountain?”
“Nay, the last thing that could fly you to different places were dragons, and those have been dead for a long time,” the man said as he waved us over to the before-unseen crates behind him. The crates stood about eight feet tall and had thin wooden slats on the side to allow air flow inside, and as we moved closer, we could see what was inside. “But how about a distant cousin to dragons?”
Inside the crates were huge chickens, taller than the average man and large enough to ride. The strange beasts tilted their heads at us as we moved closer and clucked loudly as they shuffled their massive scaly feet. They were beautiful birds, each one a deep black color, but when the feathers hit the light, they transformed into a rainbow of blues, greens, and purples. Carmedy rushed forward and curled her paws around the bars of the crates and peered in with huge emerald eyes.
“They’re so pretty,” she breathed. One hen came closer, and Carmedy reached in to allow the bird to smell her paw. “It’s okay, girl, I’m not going to hurt you.”
“Distant cousins to dragons, huh?” Rana sarcastically asked as she rolled her eyes. “They’re chickens.”
“No, no, no, love,” the owner said cheekily as he waggled a finger in the fox-woman’s direction. “They are not chickens, these are Machstein Bantams. Completely different species than chickens.”
“Looks like a chicken, smells like a chicken, it’s a chicken,” the fox sneered.
The shopkeeper frowned and waved a discouraged hand in her direction. “Call them whatever you like, but these babies are the best way to get up and down the mountain,” he said directly to me with a broad smile as he slapped the side of one of the cages. The birds inside squawked in protest as they scurried away.
“How much are they?” I inquired with a straight face.
“For the five of you, I’d say five hundred coin each, and I’ll throw in some saddles and side bags for free.” He smiled as he weaved his fingers together and rested them against his portly belly.
I walked around the cages and observed the birds inside. Their yellow eyes watched me, and none of them backed away when I reached inside to pet the side of the largest male. His red comb stood straight up, and its tips pointed elegantly. Chickens or not, they were still magnificent creatures to look at. I turned back to the owner with my hands held behind my back.
“Two hundred coin and the saddles for free,” I stated sternly, and the shopkeeper's mouth dropped open as his eyes bulged from their sockets. I wanted to smile but held it in as Rana gave me a thumbs-up from behind the owner's back.
“T-two hundred? Are you insane?” he shouted into the open air as he threw up his hands in exasperation. “You do realize I’m trying to make a living here?”
“Then we will take our business elsewhere. You can’t be the only shop in Eifersucht that sells these animals.” I shrugged as I motioned for my minions, and we turned our backs on him as we started to head down the street.
“Wait! Sir!” he shouted as he followed after us frantically. “Three hundred and fifty! Meet me in the middle, please, I beg of you!”
I stopped in the middle of the street and stroked my chin thoughtfully, then turned back to the shop owner with a smirk. “Three hundred and we’ll have a deal.”
The man threw his hands up into the air over his head and sighed loudly as he returned to his shop with his shoulders slumped. “Fine, fine, come get your chickens.”
“Told you they were just chickens.” Rana chortled under her breath as she elbowed Annalise, and the swordswoman let out a raspy laugh as we returned to the shop.
My minions and I watched as the shop owner led each bird out of the cage, fitted it with a shiny leather saddle, and attached the reigns. He brought them over one at a time, and Carmedy was the first to come forward to the bird she had petted through the cage earlier. The black cat put her booted foot in the stirrup and slung herself up and over into the saddle. She adjusted herself until she was comfortable then urged the bird to walk forward.
Unlike regular chickens that moved in jerks and bobbed their heads while they walked, the Machstein Bantams moved gracefully in long strides almost like a horse. Carmedy leaned forward and hugged the neck of the great bird, and it twisted its head around and stared down at her with one golden eye. It blinked once then gently pecked at the crown of the cat’s head. Carmedy giggled and ruffled the feathers on the hen’s head affectionately. The bird crooned deep in its throat and blinked once more in approval.
Once I paid the owner and he returned inside with grumbled curses under his breath, I mounted my bird, too. I had purchased the rooster, and he was much larger than the four hens my minions rode, my head a good foot and a half taller than theirs as we steered our birds back towards the trial ahead. As I had seen with Carmedy and her hen, the ride was smooth, and th
e rooster’s three-toed feet quickly scaled the boulders and rocks on the way up with agile hops and jumps.
“What are you going to name your chicken?” Rana asked as she turned around in her saddle and looked back at Carmedy,
“Kura, it means chicken in my native language.” The alchemist giggled as she ran her eyes over her bird lovingly.
“I never knew you spoke a different language,” Annalise said with furrowed brows, and Carmedy nodded slowly, her black hair ruffling in the light breeze that brushed through the trees.
“Of course,” the cat said wistfully as her eyes drifted through the thick woods. “On the islands of Canarta, we speak three different dialects which all stem from the main language that’s used on the largest island.”
“Carmedy,” I said as I turned back, and she lifted her head to me with a faraway smile, “can you tell us about the islands of Canarta? I don’t know much about them and would love to hear more.”
“Sure!” the cat cried happily as she wriggled in her saddle. “The islands of Canarta are made of four islands. The main island is called Kegawa. The second largest is Isukā, then Nekoka, where Haruhi is from! Then I’m from the smallest island called Mauntenraion. It’s hot there all year round, and I kind of miss it right now. No offense Annalise, Tamarisch is beautiful and all, but how can you stand it being this dang cold all the time?”
“You get used to it, especially if you were born here. You don’t know anything different.” The swordswoman shrugged as she let out a raspy snort.
“I don’t think I ever will.” Carmedy sighed as she looked off into space. “Canarta is a long way away, it took a month to get to the mainland where I met you guys. Can you imagine how far away we are now? It’d probably take three or four months to get back.”
“It is quite natural to feel homesick,” Morrigan assured in her bored voice, and Carmedy nodded along as she gave the pale woman a soft smile.
“You said each island has a different dialect, so does that mean you can speak all four of them?” the fox-woman asked from behind as she took up the back of our group.
Carmedy turned around to face her in her leather saddle. “Well, all the dialects are just shortened forms of the main language on Kegawa, so roughly, but I can’t go to the main island and hold a full conversation with anyone.” She stroked Kura’s feathers with soft motions as we moved along the path.
“Is everyone on the islands a cat?” Annalise asked over her shoulder as she kept her eyes on the road ahead.
“Yeah! Well, mostly.” The cat excitedly nodded, and I smiled as I watched her gush over her homeland. “There are humans, and we even have an elven district too! However, they’re not pure-blooded elves like Morrigan.”
“Do foxes have their own language, Rana?” the pale elf asked, and the fox’s lips pressed into a hard line as she thought.
“Not that I know of,” the redhead admitted as she ran a paw through her thick curly hair. “We don’t congregate together as cats do. I honestly have no idea.”
“There must be a society of foxes out there somewhere,” Carmedy pensively spoke as she tapped her chin. “I mean, I come from a society of cats, Morrigan comes from the High Elves, Annalise is a human and they’re everywhere. There’s gotta be a secret burrow or something where they all live.”
“I’m telling you, there’s not,” Rana said with a dismissive shake of her head. “Foxes aren’t social people, we don’t stick together. Even if they find mates and pop out a few pups, the males don’t stick around for very long.”
Silence enveloped us as Rana’s words sunk in. We all knew the situation with Rana’s mother and siblings, but the few words she had spoken were very telling. The fox rarely spoke of her father, the one time she did was when I finally got her to open up to me, and she only told me he walked out on her mother.
“I’m sorry, Rana,” the black cat said softly as she slowed her bird to a crawl and came up beside the fox-woman. “I shouldn’t have brought it up.”
“It’s okay, pussycat, I know you didn’t mean anything by it. You were just curious. I was the one who should be apologizing for bringing down the mood.” Rana smiled kindly over to her sister as she reached out and ruffled the cat’s black hair.
Carmedy purred in response, then sat up straighter in her seat as a thought dawned on her, and her emerald eyes found mine through our party. “Master, do the gods have a language?”
“They do.” I grinned as I inclined my head to her, and her face broke with excitement. “There is no name for the language, but we use it only when in the god’s realm.”
“Can you say something in your native tongue, Master?” Morrigan asked. Fea bobbed her head in agreement, and Macha cooed softly as they flitted up to rest on her much larger bird’s head like a perch. “I have never heard a god’s tongue, and I would quite like to hear it if you would.”
I thought for a moment on what I should say to my minions, and when it came to me, I turned around in my saddle to face all four of them with a gentle smile.
“Pulchrum estis.” The words vibrated up my throat in the language I knew so well but hadn’t spoken in so long.
They stared at me in silence for a long time, and all the way in the back of the group, I watched as Carmedy repeated the words to herself with a look of concentration on her face. Her silky black ears twitched once as she repeated them silently once more. Morrigan’s eyes closed, and she seemed to breathe the words in like the pine scent around us as we made our way through the forest.
“What does it mean, Master?” Annalise asked, her stunning freckled face serene as she spoke.
“All of you are beautiful,” I told them, and each of their faces shifted out of shock to joy.
“That was so sweet.” The black cat sighed dreamily as she held her paws tightly to her chest.
“When did you get so smooth?” Rana joked, but from the blush in her cheeks and the constant whipping of her tail, I knew she enjoyed it as much as Carmedy did.
“Your compliments are as sweet as honey, Master.” Morrigan bowed her head to me, and her cheeks were also dusted a light pink as she hid her face from me.
I turned my eyes to Annalise, but she didn’t speak. She only gave me a look that let me know she wanted me, right here and now, in the middle of the freezing forest, and if we had the time, I would have obliged her.
As our group moved deeper into the woods, the bigger the trees got, and I could see why they were called Obri Giants. The circumference of the trunks of each tree was large enough for ten men to link arms and encircle them. I leaned my head back as my bird moved gracefully forward and through the tree cover, I caught peeks of the bright, blue sky high above. It was peaceful here, and I enjoyed it thoroughly along with the comforting presences of my minions.
We made quick progress with the help of our Machstein Bantams, and I was glad we had purchased them. The birds were agile and surefooted as they hopped from rock to rock, and their scaly feet never slipped or faltered. I reached into the void pocket and unfurled the map Haruhi had given us.
If our birds moved quickly enough, we should reach the Liebe’s dungeon before sundown, and I traced my finger along the snaking black line of the trail we were currently traveling. The trip was ten hours in total, and we were making good time, about halfway through our journey when I heard one of my minions laugh softly behind me. I smiled to myself, turned around, and just listened to the soft giggling in my ear as it washed over me.
It stopped suddenly then started again, this time louder as if one of them had come up directly behind me. I turned my head and stared in confusion as all four of my minions and their birds were walking close together farther away from me than I had expected. Annalise raised her head to me and grinned widely as the breeze brushed back her chestnut braid. I didn’t return the smile, and it dropped from her face.
“What’s wrong?” the swordswoman called up to me, and I shook my head, befuddled.
“Were any of you just laughing?”
I asked back, and all four of my minions looked at each other then back to me and shook their heads no. “I heard someone laughing right behind me.”
“Maybe there’s a brook nearby? You might have heard that and mistaken it for laughter,” Rana shouted to me but I looked back down at the map, and there were no bodies of water near where we were.
“Come here,” I instructed in a low voice, and they all bucked against their birds, urging them forward, and quickly closed the distance between us. “Stay close to me, there’s something strange going on here.”
My minions nodded silently and kept their birds in tight formation to mine, only apart by a few feet and within arm’s reach. Our party moved along the path slowly, and I scanned the trees for anything suspicious. Before, the forest had been teeming with life and the sounds of birds calling back and forth to each other while squirrels and other wildlife rustled through the brush. Now, though, there was nothing but the soft cooing of our Bantams as they worked their way along the rough path. It was unnervingly quiet, and I could tell my minions were already on edge.
Even from this far away, I could already feel the Liebe’s power. He may not have been a powerful god, but the power he did possess was strong enough to reach into the city of Eifersucht. We must have already been in his sights this close to his dungeon. I knew we were only a few hours away from the mouth as it was clearly marked on the map, but I didn’t think we would encounter his presence outside of the dungeon. Most gods only held power within their domain, but the Liebe was different. The cold air was filled with his scent, an odd flowery and sickly sweet smell, as it wafted over my minions and me.
“You must be a fucking idiot or a god to have set foot in this forest,” a voice giggled over my shoulder.
I glanced back at my minions but knew none of them would ever think to speak to me that way. No matter they’re differing moods, they always spoke to me respectfully as their Master and lover.
I faced forward again and swept my eyes across the path ahead of us, but there was nothing strange or out of place that I could see. Then the honey-sweet scent brushed past me again with a soft peal of laughter, and I gritted my teeth.