World of Taroo

by Jimmy Eriksson

  He arrived at the beginning of the night and found the open travel lodge then got a bed for the night with a meal before he slept. In the morning, he left the village and a bit outside, put the map out on the grass. He studied it again and decided to go through a forest to save time. Only thing was that there had been reports about some people hiding in the forest lately and setting traps for the travellers. When they had caught them, they robbed and left them to walk out and in one known case, a person was dragged out dead. He believed it was bandits that once in a while came back to cause anguish for those using the road as their way.

  One of the commanders had not long ago cleared out the forest but the bandits always came back. They were unable to leave any soldiers there all the time so the bandits took their chances. He had the sword with him but if they were too many, he would have to be quick out. Either way, this path would be better since the others had other trouble on them and would lead to harder obstacles later on, he knew. He rode towards the forest and soon saw the thick forest spread as long as the eyes could see. He entered and with the day already being high noon, he would have to hurry to make through before sunset.

  After an hour in the forest thinking he might be able to get through without incidents, one suddenly happened. He finally got the reality of the woods when two men came from behind, and they looked like bandits. Jay started to ride fast, and the horse had no problem with running fast since all the king’s horses were trained to be strong as well as fast. Jay saw them lag behind but he had a report in mind and it said one of the people that were mugged ran in to a net that was placed on the road. Jay then saw the same trick being used on him as the net covered the path. Jay slowed down and made the horse take a longer route in the thicker forest to run around the net.

  Two other men on horses came up fast when Jay was on the road again, and one of them jumped towards Jay with a knife. Jay kicked the horse in the side that made it move to the side so the man misses completely. He fell on the ground with high speed landing on his shoulder. The other man found it hard to catch up to the fast horse, and Jay saw him disappear behind. Not all roads in the forest were unsafe but if picked wrong, it was possible to meet the bandits. Jay saw a merchant in front and as he ran past, he told the man to hurry up. The man put some speed on but Jay could see he would be attacked by the man on the horse. He did not hesitate despite having an important mission and turned the horse around. He saw the wagon again during the same time as the bandit was coming in visible eyesight. The merchant asked for help and said he must reach the next village since he had medicine with him. He offered to pay Jay for his protection for the rest of the way out of the forest.

  Jay intercepted the bandit that had his sword drawn. Jay stood still with the horse and blocked the road then pulled his sword out as well. The bandit rushed towards Jay, and at the point of strike, Jay blocked hard making the man lose his balance to then fall on the road. The man tried to stand up but got a heavy foot in the head as Jay rode past that knocked him out right away. He heard the call of help from the merchant and rushed towards the man. When he came up to him, the merchant was already being threatened and had stopped. Three men stood with drawn weapons and moved them towards Jay when he rode up close to them. They told him to leave all the money and run away, but Jay was fast off and drew his sword. The men moved forward but one of them stayed behind the other two. Jay blocked one strike, and at the same time, hit the man hard with the shaft. Jay then attacked the other bandit before he could react that had to block but Jay slashed him over the leg. The man fell down and Jay kicked him in the head hard.

  The last man stood ready and looked like he had no fear inside of his eyes. He struck at Jay fast and many times over in an attempt to beat Jay. The man was a better swordsman but still no match for Jay who cut the man on the side of his body making him fall on his knees after getting the chance. The man stood up and struck again but once more fell to the ground as he got the sword over the shoulder. He changed his hand and continued to strike but Jay was getting fed up with the bandit. The fight ended as the man suddenly attacked the merchant to take him as a hostage and the merchant had to move to the side. The merchant ran behind the wagon to try to get away from him. The man never got close enough because with a fast stab, he fell down to the ground a final time with Jay’s sword in the back.

  The merchant thanked Jay and asked if he would take him up on his offer to escort him out of the forest. Jay agreed as he dried the sword off the blood of the man then dead. Still trying to look like he was not a soldier, Jay asked the merchant why he came into the forest without protection. The merchant told him the forest was supposed to be cleared but he guessed the bandits must have come back. He said he had been robbed before and he was never harmed. They only took his supplies which he rather gave than his life. They left and Jay built up a story that he was a bodyguard for Prince Grummel of Ocenia that the man believed.

  They got no more trouble from the bandits and when the night was almost upon them, they reached the end of the forest that then led out to a rocky landscape. The man thanked Jay again and handed him some money but Jay, who did not need the money, said no. He had to eventually accept the money when the man insisted and said it would be of great insult if he would said no. The man gave, instead of money, some silver squares made by the jeweller in the town he lived in.

  Jay continued through the land and the boulders really stretched far up and the wind made the rocks sing when it picked up during the night. The land was big and after riding for an hour in the morning, he came to a beach. There were some people at the sandy warm open beach and he saw a town not far away. He knew he had walked into Ocenia because of the colours of the flags and the statue placed on a rock. It was of King Tambo as a young man, and he was holding a book depicting the peace treaty signed by every kingdom.

  The kingdom of Ocenia and had never aligned themselves with anyone in a fight but had the army to defend their own land well. They had a greater knowledge of machines but never shared with the neighbouring lands to keep themselves neutral. The evolution of machines was in a higher speed here than anywhere else and much was kept secret, even from those living in Ocenia, by the army. The land may not have been at war for long time, but the king still made sure he could defend the border in case trouble found its way there. King Tambo was not a fool and had seen how the tensions had been raised the last few years between the lands. He, therefore, made sure his engineers stayed on top of the industrial revolution that was sweeping the lands. Even if the people had seen much of what their country could do, much was only seen by those high up in the army. However, anyone walking past the many plantations could look upon impressive machines that collected crops for various purposes. Some would probably be similar to windmills, Jay had thought to himself as he walked by but other ones he had no idea what they might be.

  He arrived to the small town and was greeted by the guards that wondered what his business was with the town of Nara. Jay told the truth that he was on the way to the Domoro Land and only passing through. He said he wished only to stay for replenishment of the supplies that were running low. The guards let him through and he found himself in the markets where they had things he had never seen. This was truly a strange land, he thought as he looked at some mechanical things that were being sold. He came to a food store and the air was cold inside of the store. He saw several types of food that he never had laid eyes on before and asked the shop keeper what it was. The man was a happy man and gave Jay a piece of one of the products he sold.

  Jay couldn’t believe the taste of the food and said to the man he had never had anything like it. The man laughed and gave Jay a piece of sausage and said it was free because he was new in the town. Jay thanked the man but also picked up some other food in the store and paid with the coins he had. He left and came to a bathhouse and had heard about these before from other guards and decided to try it out. He went in and told the woman standing at a table that he had never been in a place l
ike this. He said he didn’t know where to go but the woman showed him the way happily. She informed him about the rules and that he was only allowed to be wearing a towel in the bath house. Jay found it strange but did what he was told since he didn’t wish to break the rules in the bathhouse and he was not very shy in front of other men. The shock for Jay came later when he realised that the women and men shared the bathhouse. He saw some pretty women laugh in one of the baths and decided to move away from them fast. He felt embarrassed but he didn’t want to go out because of it.

  He found a bath with some men in it and sat down in it. The bath was warm and nice so he could relax in it finally. He found himself in a conversation with a man who had spotted that he was a traveller from another land. They talked about the great tournament and that the man’s son competed a few years back and came to the semi-finals. He was then the owner of the bathhouse that had proven to be a success. The son’s picture was on the wall, and Jay learnt he was in the big sword competition. Jay said he as well was in the tournament a few years back but in the tournament leading up to the big games. He didn’t mention that he won since he didn’t want to draw attention towards him.

  He left the bathhouse shortly after since he was on a mission and soon departed the town of Nara. The guards let him through wishing him luck and he continued towards the open landscape again. He came to the Shamo desert before the day had ended and he had heard much about it. It was not really a full desert at some places of it but the earth was continually spitting out sand from underneath then sucking it back in as fast as it came out. Some different spots had harder ground, and there was a way to navigate through without any danger. The night had started to come and Jay knew it would be a grave mistake to rush in then during the darkness. He stayed at the edge and would go the next day when he could see where the safe path was. He put the tent up and lit a fire that warmed him well in the chillier night. He ate some of the food he had bought and found them very sweet. He would pick some up on the way back to Gon so he could try and maybe get some ideas for some new dishes.

  As Jay was about to sleep, he heard a loud noise coming from behind. He was out of the tent fast and saw a wagon with two men on it riding in to the Shamo desert. He wondered why they were in such a hurry and wished to risk their lives in the dark. He soon saw the reason as two people came running after them on horses and they had guard uniform on. They rode into the desert and disappeared over the sand hills. Jay thought about it for a while but fell asleep after feeling more tired than usual. The morning came, and he walked in the desert following a track that was drawn behind the map. He saw a pillar reaching up over the sand and knew it was marks for where the safe route went. They were all over the desert so it was easy to get through.

  There were several ways to go in the desert but all of them went through an old town that was once in the desert. It got destroyed hundreds of years ago and no one could rebuild it as he knew the reason for which he soon would encounter. He walked for an hour and then saw the two guards standing and talking to each other. Jay came close and the guards asked him if he knew the route through safely. Jay said he did and wondered what they were doing all the way out there. One of the men pointed out to a patch of sand and the wagon from the night before was having its wheel pointing up there. The guard said that the men were wanted for smuggling and when they tried to flee, they took the wrong way in the darkness. The sand had swallowed them and there was no chance for them to be saved. The wagon was somehow still up but the horse and the men disappeared down the sand even if that also sank slowly.

  Just as the man had finished, the wagon disappeared and they could only see sand again. The guards told Jay to be careful of sand worms that were hiding further in and had begun to come out again then rode back to the open lands again. Jay wondered about the sand worms that he had never seen and could not see anything on the map but had heard about them. They didn’t always come out and were rarely seen but when they did emerge, it was best to run fast.

  After some time, he saw some of the sand geysers that was spitting up sand in a pillar form and there were smaller as well as bigger ones. He could finally see some buildings that only had their walls still up and was having sand high on the walls. It was quiet and it didn’t look like there was anything alive in the desert. A few rumbling sounds came and what he thought was the geysers turned out to be exactly what he didn’t wish to encounter as he saw a worm further away. The sound was fairly frequent and all around him then. He saw a skeleton sitting covered partly in the sand and in a matter of seconds, he found out what the guards were warning him about and a few worms the size of dogs were quickly out of the sand which got the horse spooked. They were not many and he could easily take them on but not knowing if there were more, he believed it would be risky to find out.

  Jay rode quickly forward but he saw the worms in front as well and brought his sword out. As he passed, he chopped the worms clean off and continued on with the horse. He came to a more open space and the worms didn’t seem to be at this place so he slowed down. He finally saw some mountains and looked at the map showing him a route through there that lead in to the land of Domoro. After coming to the end of the Shamo desert, he met a group of priests that had a temple nearby, and they invited Jay to join them at supper which, of course, Jay accepted happily. He feasted with the priests that night and enjoyed the wine with food that was cooked by one of the priests. He also learnt that the desert got the name from the settlement inside it that Jay never knew. They told him the settlement got destroyed a few hundreds of years ago and was young before it was destroyed by the sand that kept spitting up.

  The priests were not really sure why the desert started to, one day, spit the sand up but stories about magic were mentioned. Even if he had, himself, seen the earth stone perform the things he thought were impossible, he still didn’t really like magic. Since the priests seemed to have conflicted stories about what happened, he went back to eating. He was allowed to set his tent up in the backyard where other travellers had put their sup. The next day, he set out to the mountain but listened to one of the travellers that had been observing some soldiers from the kingdom of Darcolia coming in and out from the mountain. This was new information for Jay and he would consider taking another route but that would increase his travelling time by three days. He had to be careful and make sure to avoid the soldiers. If they saw him, maybe he could pretend to be a traveller to them, he hoped.

  Jay decided to go the path he set out to do and made his way into the mountain. It didn’t take long before he met another merchant that told him that the guards were up the road maybe by a two-hour ride. He asked if there was a way around them but the merchant said the road only diverted from where the soldiers were. Jay had to go on, and true to the word, the soldiers had a small camp set up in front of him. He was stopped by a soldier and his heart rose in his chest. The man asked the nature of his business and Jay said calmly that he wished to see the land and discover new and different places. Jay was told the lands were experiencing some tension but Jay told the soldier he had no interest in the wars. The soldier looked at Jay who did fit the description of a traveller but still called his superior to have another look.

  The officer of the small group of thirty men came up and asked Jay again, and after some time, the officer saw him to be no problem. He let Jay go but also gave him a pass on a paper and Jay spent the remainder of the day walking through the mountain. Sometimes, he met other soldiers and had to show them the piece of paper that the captain had given him and they let him continue. He camped near other people that had come through and there were also some soldiers from the Darcolia land camping there as well as some citizens of Darcolia. His disguise of pretending to be a traveller worked great, and no one suspected him of being anything else.

  When he read a book that he picked up in the small town, he heard some voices talking to each other but he couldn’t see who it was. It was not until they walked past that he realised that the voi
ces came from other soldiers from the land of Domoro. He wondered why they were letting the soldiers be there and got a feeling that perhaps Queen Lisaro had already aligned with King Arobe; the king did have a cousin that married one of the queen’s relatives then living in Redonia. He learnt something that was not helping either, and was he not happy that he had to take a different path than originally planned.

  The soldiers had shut off part of the way causing him to walk many more hours than he would had otherwise. He tried to sleep but like other nights, this one became light and short. He woke up and would have to travel another full day before he could see the end of the mountain at the pace he had to have. If he could use his horse, he would be there already but the mountain would not be a great place to step wrong so the horse got injured. Nothing more happened during the day, and it was not until he met a young family that he stopped as they invited him to their camp, and with the day falling short, he accepted the invitation. He offered them some of the food he got in the town, and they gave back some of the strange fish that was dried and very tasty but salty. They said the soldiers had not come into the land and were staying in the mountain. They, as well, didn’t know why Queen Lisaro let them wander in the mountain but since they were leaving, they didn’t care.

  Jay stayed with the family and left in the morning towards the opening of the mountain. He arrived not long after and looked upon a wide open landscape that had small lakes everywhere. He knew he had stepped into the land and started to descend the path leading down to the land. He saw many waterfalls, and well down at the bottom, he met a lone man with a backpack that was walking the land. Jay asked if the way he was going would take him to a village and showed him the map. The man said the village was there, but it was being moved to another location because of an accident regarding a waterhole that threatened the whole village. He said the army was building a new modern village and they were almost done. Jay thanked the man and headed off towards the new village not too far away. He found it when he was high on a hill and saw the army build the walls around it.