Into the Light (Axe Druid Book 1)

by Christopher Johns

  I pulled another set of clean clothes from my inventory, a dark blue shirt and a pair of simple, black trousers, and put them on after I was clean. The little people had gone except our little friend. While the others continued cleaning themselves, I went in for more information. Like a direction of travel.

  He pointed and said, “It’s that way, north and into the forest. I don’t know where it holes up, but you’ll recognize it when you see it. And do mind the trees.”

  “Okay. I’m sorry, but you never told me your name.”

  “Names have power, Zekiel.” He emphasized my name. “You haven’t earned the right to call me by anything yet. Prove yourself with this, and I might be inclined to give you a name.”

  Quest Alert

  Hog Wild – This tiny Fae has asked you to either kill or drive off a Fel-Hog who has been drinking their Lake’s water if you can.

  Isn’t that wild?

  Reward – Information and ??? EXP.

  Unknown experience? That was odd, but oh well, it had to be done, so let it be done.

  We finished cleaning ourselves and our gear while we laid out a basic plan. We had options on this kind of quest, and avoiding bloodshed after what we just witnessed was on all of our minds. So I would attempt to speak with our target while the others followed at an easy distance. If things went well, the beast would leave. If things went to hell, well, I could at least count on my friends to get there to save my bacon. Hopefully.

  After a few minutes of walking, Bokaj caught the trail that we would need to follow to find the Hog. Broken twigs and branches brought attention to the hoof-made grooves in the ground where the animal made multiple trips a day to get fresh water. We followed the path for about ten or fifteen minutes or so while keeping the tracks in sight and eventually came to a large entanglement of trees that seemed to form a den. The roots formed a gaping entryway that seemed dark at first, but as I watched, the light seemed to filter into it a little.

  I nodded to my friends and stepped forward until I was about halfway between my friends and the entrance. I activated Nature’s Voice and shouted, “Hello?”

  Nothing for a moment, then a rustle off to my right. I turned and crouched a bit, ready to spring out of the way. A bush began to shift and rise as a pig-like snout cleared the ground and snuffed. The bush continued to rise, and soon, a large, four-foot-tall swine that had to weigh hundreds of pounds was staring at me with brown eyes. Brown tusks, thick and powerful, jutted out from its mouth that looked like small trees that had just begun to sprout. Green moss grew on its sides and forehead over skin pitted with stones and bark. The creature looked like it was meant to live in a forest. Made of the forest itself.

  It looked strong, and I noticed that I couldn’t see a level attached to it. Come to think of it, I hadn’t seen one for the little Fae either. Weird.

  “Hi,” I said as I tried to force myself to relax.

  “You speak to me?” she asked. Her voice was distinctly light and feminine for such a large, porcine figure.

  “Yes, we came to ask you a favor. I know you don’t know me, but just hear me out.”

  “Okay.”

  That was easy. “The Fae who guard the lake you go to say that you are bothering them. They want me to hurt you. Yes, hurt you, to make you leave. I don’t want to hurt you. Could you move on? Maybe find somewhere else to get water?”

  “I like here, though,” she said as she raised her head. “Places to hide. Food. Water for all, not just little folk.” She snuffed the air a bit. “Bring friends?”

  “Yes. They’re back there. We didn’t know if you would be mad about me trying to get you to leave, so they stayed back a bit to give us space to talk.”

  “Friends nice. No friends here. Lost here.” She was sad. I could feel it.

  An idea hit me, and I wanted to go over it with my friends really quick.

  “Do you want to meet my friends?”

  She stilled and eyed me for a minute. “Not hurt?”

  “We won’t hurt you. I give you my word.”

  As soon as I made the promise, a weight settled on my chest for a moment, and a notification screen popped into sight.

  ALERT!

  You have made a promise here in the realm of the Fae. One’s word is their bond, and if broken, can have disastrous effects.

  Choose your words carefully here, young friend.

  One of the Gods must have been looking out for me on that one. Holy shit. I tried not to break my word once given, but this was just insane.

  “Come on out, guys. She’s cool.” I turned my head to call back to them. “No weapons.”

  Everyone came forward slowly, and she regarded everyone for a moment, then stepped forward slowly. She stopped at each of us and snuffed at our chests. Learning our scents, she admitted when I asked her.

  “I’m thinking we take her back to the lake and try to talk things out with the little protectors. I thought of something they said, and I think I can make it work.”

  “Have her act as a guardian or something?” Balmur suggested, completing my thought.

  “Bingo.”

  “I like it,” Jaken said. He reached out slowly and patted the pig on the head with his gauntleted hand.

  I asked the pig what she thought, and she agreed, pleased at the concept of having a home and friends.

  We made our way back to the lake, the pig—I needed a name for her, but somehow, Bacon and Babe just didn’t seem cool—led us to it. She and I spoke for a bit; I had to re-up my spell, but it was a good chat. Gave us time to plan.

  She cleared the tree line before we did, and I heard the little folk begin shouting out commands to battle stations. I sprung forward with my hands raised. “STOP!”

  A dozen bows lowered slightly, but I felt two stings on my left palm that almost dropped me to my knees. I looked, and there were two toothpick-sized arrows sticking out of my palm. A third of my health was gone from two tiny arrows. Fuck me, if they had all fired at once, I would have been a dead man. I pulled the arrows out, a couple more points of health off, and healed myself. My magic felt denser than normal, but that could wait to be investigated.

  “Why is it here?!” screeched the same little Fae that had given me the quest. “You mean to kill us all and take our lake? NEVER! SCOUNDRELS!”

  “SILENCE!” I roared as little voices began to raise in alarm again. “No one needs to die. I bring you a proposal.”

  The little negotiator leapt onto the water and raised his own bow, arrow nocked and aimed loosely in my direction. He stayed quiet and nodded to me to speak.

  “She’s lost. Alone and afraid. You all said that you couldn’t dissuade her from drinking of your lake. What if she were to help defend it in times of need? Like another guardian. All you would have to do is share your water with her, and she would happily be your ally. What do you say? Can you do it?”

  “No,” he said flatly. “We asked you to get rid of her because we didn’t want to share our water, not for you to make bargains and deals. Get rid of it.”

  “No,” I said just as flatly.

  “You don’t want your information? Fine. Stay banished.”

  “Okay. I keep my word. I and none of my friends will harm her, so if she decides to decimate your ranks and take the lake, so be it. Later.” I waved and turned away to walk back into the forest. I hoped my plan would work. If only Bokaj could speak for us; his Charisma was the shit.

  That’s when I heard the snuff and angered oinks of my newest friend. I heard her ripping at the ground beneath her hoofed feet. She let out a screech and charged at the lake. Once I was safely behind the trees, I turned and watched it unfold. True to what I had said, she didn’t feel a single thing as the little projectiles bounced off her hard skin. She lowered her head and brought it to the side, sending a group of little people flying out of the water.

  “Aim for her eyes!” shouted one. I waited long enough.

  I popped back out into the open, off to the side so as no
t to take an errant arrow, and once more made my presence known, “Enough!”

  The little ones stopped again but didn’t lower their bows. “You are a betrayer!”

  “No, I’m not. We agreed to exchange services. If—and you said if—I could get her to go away or kill her, you would give me information. I didn’t want to kill her, so I didn’t. I also didn’t drive her away from the only place she knows when she could have bettered your defense of this lake which is what you really seemed to need. I tried to give you that, and she was willing to be a part of the team, but you attacked her. You attacked me. Now I’m not quite certain you ever meant for us to come back for the information.”

  He huffed and stomped his little foot. A drop of water plopped up and onto the top of it, and if the situation wasn’t as tense as it was, I might have laughed at the ridiculousness of it all. Somehow, I think that might really have pissed him off, so I kept my bearings.

  “I just wanted it gone!”

  “Here’s a question: what is so important about this lake?” I asked finally. I had to admit I was curious.

  “I can’t tell you.” He crossed his arms. “It’s a secret.”

  “Tell you what, if you can give me a satisfactory answer—one that I can’t refute at all—then I will take the Hog and my friends and leave you in peace. The only reason you would see us again is if we just happened to get lost, and, to sweeten the deal, I won’t divulge it to anyone else. How does that sound?”

  “Your word?” he asked slyly.

  I sighed. The little shit—though I couldn’t blame him—knew the laws here better than I.

  “I swear it.” The familiar weight settled on my chest as it had last time.

  “Good.” He stepped off the water and onto land.

  He stepped closer to me, so he wouldn’t have to shout the secret—I thought, anyway—and the big animal by my side huffed threateningly.

  “It’s okay, dear,” I cooed. I patted her solid side and waited.

  “This water is sacred to my tribe. Drinking it or bathing in it allows the creature who partakes to live longer. It grants strength and recovery. It’s what keeps my tribe strong and healthy. If we don’t care for it and use it wisely, it’s gone. We protect it to protect ourselves. That’s why this beast is so strong. She’s drank the water. Bathed in it.”

  “But doesn’t that mean she also has a reason to want to protect it? Think about it—you would have an almost unstoppable protector to fight beside you to keep creatures from getting to the water long enough for you to defeat them. All she wants is friendship and a little water. Some place to belong.”

  He seemed to mull it over a bit. “What you say makes sense, and as captain of the Lake Guard, I can approve it. She just drinks so much!”

  “Do you have spell casters? Does it rain here?”

  He shook his head. “Our casters reside with our queen, and rain is rare.”

  “Do you have a large basin?” I looked around, but the little creature just shook his head. “No. I’ll see if I can’t do something. Give me a little bit.”

  I racked my brain for a little while. In some of the stories I had heard as a kid, in all the books I read and games I had played, there were objects that made water. Drinkable water. What if I tried it myself?

  “Hey, guys, I’ll need some stones about fist size or larger. Find at least ten. I don’t know how many I might need.”

  They set to their part, and I set about mine.

  I walked away from the lake, about forty feet, and began to draw a large circle with my great dagger. I’d need to do some maintenance on it later but no biggie. Once the circle was about two feet in diameter, I shifted into my bear form and began to carefully dig it out until it formed a bowl a foot deep at the center. While I did that, the rocks piled up behind me. I shifted back and used my diamond claw ability to carefully cut the rocks down into flat and rectangular or square shapes. After that was done, I pressed them into the ground inside the hole I made, snuggly against each other, kind of like tiles on a floor.

  “We have any metal that we don’t need? Copper or something?”

  The guys checked their inventories and produced a couple pounds of iron that we collected after fighting the Goblin King.

  I heated the metal much the same way as I had when I first tried enchanting and used the now-melting iron to seal the cracks between the makeshift tiles. I inspected my work and had both Jaken and Balmur look it over. They found a couple of places that looked like they could reinforce, so I had them guide me while I fixed them.

  Once the corrections were made, I used more melted iron to make a small circle on the bottom of the bowl. It was about the size of a fifty-cent piece, and to finish the piece, I embedded a cut sapphire that Balmur provided from his inventory into it so that it laid flush. I spent the mana to summon some Ice Knives to fill the bowl.

  While I let the metal cool, I tried to devise an engraving and spell that would make a self-refilling water bowl. Once I thought I had it, I realized I would need one final ingredient.

  “Can you give me a drop of the lake water?” I asked the tiny Fae. “I need it to complete this enchantment. You can carry the droplet yourself if you have to, but you’ll have to wait until I tell you.”

  “It will keep her from drinking from our lake all the time?” he asked skeptically.

  “If it works, she will only need to drink from the lake itself if the effects aren’t permanent. Are they permanent?”

  “Sadly, no. They last a few years or so, dependent on the amount of water used.”

  “Okay, So, you might have to add a drop to it every couple weeks or a month. I’d say bi-monthly just to be safe.”

  He mulled it over and acquiesced. He brought out a tiny vial and dipped it into the lake. He brought the droplet back and stood silently next to me, eyeing my work with obvious curiosity.

  I sat down and cleared my mind, then thought of the engraving. I summoned my mana and went to work. The engraving began at the edge of the basin. Water marks, three symmetrical flowing lines one over the other, sealed the water in so that it would rise to that level and stop. Then a whirling watery spiral worked its way to the base of the structure where it met the heart of the enchantment, the sapphire. On it, I engraved an infinity symbol with a drop of water forming at the center of it. It was there that I had the Fae Commander pour his vial. A single drop of lake water met my mana just as I had almost stopped. I felt the spell swell with power, and water began to rise from the gem. Once it met the seal, it stopped, just as planned. My enchanting leveled up to 27 as well.

  “Magnificent,” he breathed. He stuck his hand into the water and pulled it out. “It’s potable. That’s all that matters.”

  “I’m going to try it out now.” I motioned for my hog friend to come over and introduced her to my creation.

  She lapped the water up greedily, and once it was almost gone, the basin filled to the seal once more.

  “She has all the water she could need,” I said. “She won’t drain your lake, so will you take her as a protector?”

  “We will now. Thank you.” He smiled.

  The little shit.

  Quest completed!

  Hog Wild – You went above and beyond to keep your word to both parties. You’re alright, kid.

  Reward – Information and 1,000 EXP.

  “The place you seek is in the north. A village is there, filled with your people. They may be able to give you more information on how to return to the Prime.”

  “Thank you. Treat your new friend well.”

  He looked at me in surprise and nodded. “And you want nothing in return for your creation?”

  “You have nothing that you can give me but your name, and to be honest, I don’t want it if you aren’t willing to give it.”

  “You are an odd creature,” he observed suspiciously, “but things must be exchanged here. Good will is hardly ever truly good will, and I will not have you return here to collect some unknown ran
som from me because I am indebted to you. Stay here.”

  He went out onto the water, then came back with something in his hand. “Who among you is the best tracker?”

  All of us pointed to Bokaj, who stepped forward with Tmont slinking just behind.

  The little creature bid him to kneel, and he stepped forward and threw water in his eyes.

  “What the– oh,” Bokaj said. “Oh, that’s cool as fuck.”

  “What is it?” Balmur asked.

  “It’s a map that he just added to my sight. Kinda like our usual ones but this one works specifically for here. I can’t read shit on it, but I can tell where we are and where we need to go.”

  “Sweet, works for me.” I looked at the Fae and smiled. “Fair trade.”

  “Good. Please leave,” he said.

  The ungrateful little shit.

  We patted our big pig friend who was busy greedily drinking from the water basin, but she seemed content.

  According to Bokaj, we weren’t too far from the village. Maybe more than a few hours depending on our pace, so we decided to try and cover as much ground as we could.

  I called Kayda back to me and put her into my collar. There was no telling what hunted in these skies, and I wasn’t going to risk her. Hell, there wasn’t even a chance for us to use our mounts here just for the simple fact that the whistles didn’t seem to be working. Looked like we would be hoofing it.

  Near as we could tell, it would have been around noon to mid-afternoon on Prime, so we weren’t all that tired physically, just emotionally drained.

  Chapter Twenty-Six

  We walked for a few hours in relative silence; none of us were really in the mood to eat so we just drove on further. We walked until we had to stop to rest, rested, and had some water, then took up on foot again. After about six hours of walking at a good pace, we reached the marker on the map, but we didn’t see anything among these huge trees.

  I’m not talking normal sized trees. These were the kind you could drive a car through. Gigantic. As I followed them up toward the sky, I noticed what it was we were searching for. The village.