by Pirateaba
Now though, the camp looked like it was under lockdown. The children were nowhere to be seen, but Ryoka thought they were in the tents. Gnolls with bows and spears stood at the edges of the camp, and groups of them moved into the camp and out of it, talking with Urkrsh before heading out again.
Something was clearly wrong, and Ryoka jogged over.
“Urksh.”
He looked at her.
“Ryoka Griffin. I am pleased to see you well. But this is a bad time for greetings. Forgive me if I do not offer you all the hospitality.”
“No. That’s fine. But what’s wrong?”
Urksh nodded to Hekra and she trotted off to join a group of hunters heading out. Ukrsh watched them go and shook his head before he looked at Ryoka.
“Mrsha. She is missing.”
A hole opened up in Ryoka’s stomach. She stared at Urksh.
“How?”
He shrugged.
“We do not know. This morning she went out to help gather plants from beneath the snow. She wandered from the gatherer with her and we have not seen her.”
“She just left? Did anyone hear anything?”
“No. But that is not uncommon. Young cubs, they wander a mile or two away to help or play.”
That seemed like a risky way of looking after children, but Urksh explained.
“Even if they are a ways away, children may howl. And we take care that they do not enter places where any monsters may lurk. She was only gone for a few minutes, but when the caretaker searched, she was nowhere to be found.”
“Wouldn’t she have said where she was going?”
Urksh shook his head. Ryoka knew she was asking all the stupid questions, but she had to. Her stomach was beginning to churn. Mrsha? It seemed like just yesterday she’d seen the Gnoll rolling in the snow and following her about.
“Mrsha is different, no? She is healthy, yet she does not speak though her throat is undamaged.”
“Is she mute?”
The Gnoll looked at Ryoka, confused. Did they not have mute Gnolls? She shook her head.
“Can she make any sounds?”
Urksh nodded.
“Yelping, growls. Small sounds. She is young, but even children can howl. That we have not heard her is worrying.”
It was a terrible question, but Ryoka had to ask.
“…Could she have gotten hurt? Injured? If a monster—”
The Gnoll instantly shook his head, which made Ryoka feel better.
“If she was attacked, she would have made a sound, no? And if she were dead, we would smell blood. No. Something scared her as she was wandering. That, or else she went looking for something.”
There was an inflection in his tone that made Ryoka hesitate.
“Something? What kind of thing?”
The Gnoll Chieftain did not immediately respond. He looked towards the sky. It was just past midday, but the storm clouds the faeries had warned Ryoka about were closing in.
“A smell in the air. It is faint. And it may be nothing, but some of our hunters feel as though they are being watched.”
He looked at Ryoka.
“Normally we would have more searching. But the miners, they are not back, no? We have not the numbers to mount a search.”
He was worried. Ryoka could tell in the way he changed his manner of speech. Gnolls usually said ‘yes’ at the end of sentences, but they only used ‘no’ when they were upset or angry.
“You can’t get in contact with them?”
He hesitated.
“We may howl, but they are a few day’s journey away. If we do not find Mrsha before the storm comes…”
He didn’t finish the sentence. If there were tracks, or…a body, they would be covered by the deep snow. And even if the young Gnoll was alive, could she survive that cold a night?
“Forgive me Ryoka. I must go lead another search. We are combing the mountains where she was.”
Urksh bowed to Ryoka and began to walk off. She didn’t even think. Ryoka caught Urksh’s arm as he started to leave the camp with other hunters.
“Let me help. I can run, and I owe your tribe a debt.”
The Gnoll looked at her, and then nodded.
“You are limping. We have a poultice. Use it and then join us. We will need to move quickly before light fades.”
He loped off, and Ryoka stared around the campsite. High in the air, the Frost Faeries hovered, watching.
“Do you—?”
Ryoka bit her lip. They wouldn’t answer. Mortal affairs. She shook her head and moved towards one of the tents. Healing poultice, and then she would run. As fast and as far as she could. She owed the Gnolls a debt.
More than that, she wanted to see Mrsha’s face again. But a small part of Ryoka was whispering in fear, and she had to push the voice back.
Let it not be so. It was just an accident, a lost Gnoll. Nothing more.
Everything would be fine.
—-
Ryoka ran through a forest, Gnolls spreading out around her. They ran in a curious bounding motion across the snowy landscape, separating so that each Gnoll could cover a large patch of land.
Normally Ryoka wasn’t anywhere near as fast as a Gnoll, with her heavy winter clothing and boots. But she’d abandoned all of that to give herself some more speed and mobility. She’d wrapped her feet in fur and bound it to her legs instead of boots and she was down to her shirt and pants.
It was risky, and Ryoka could feel the chill in the air. But so long as she got back to the Gnoll’s camp she would be fine.
And she needed to move fast.
“Mrsha!”
Ryoka shouted as she ran through the forest. Frost Faeries flew around her, their translucent forms for once lacking the vibrant energy they normally possessed. They flew over Ryoka’s head, silent, watching. She ran, paused, and called out again.
“Mrsha! Can you hear me?”
Around her, Ryoka could hear faint howls in the distance. The Gnolls were calling out for Mrsha in their own way, pausing to listen. But they clearly heard nothing, because they howled again from different spots a few minutes later.
Where could she be? Urksh had said she was gathering a plant which grew high up on the slopes, and yet the Gnoll child could have ranged down the side of the mountain or in the forests. Normally the adult Gnoll would have smelled or found her instantly, but for some reason she’d disappeared.
She knew not to wander far off, and she would have made a sound if she was attacked. So then why had she gone so far away? Ryoka’s mind was racing as she ran and called out, and each suspicion she had was worse than the last.
“Mrsha!”
The small Gnoll had light brown fur and an inquisitive, curious face. She had always been poking around in Ryoka’s things or touching the Human girl while she was in camp. At first it had been annoying, and then it had been almost relaxing. The Gnoll child was unafraid of Ryoka, and she’d enjoyed bothering the girl.
Ryoka wished she could feel that small claw poking into her back.
“Mrsha! If you can hear me, call out!”
Was there magic she could use? Ryoka ran out of the forest and up a slope, looking for places where a young Gnoll might have tripped or fallen. Pitfalls, a subterranean cave entrance, a Shield Spider nest—Urksh said they’d cleared out all of the nests nearby and marked the ones that they hadn’t, but could Mrsha have fallen into one?
Surely the Gnolls would have checked. She would ask when she got back. Ryoka ran up the slope, ignoring the way her feet slipped and legs cramped up.
The mountain was silent. It loomed overhead, higher and higher, the snow gradually giving away and revealing rock the higher you looked. No sane person would climb that mountain. But would a young Gnoll do that if she was afraid?
Afraid of what?
Ryoka ran upwards, calling out. Frost Faeries flew around her as Ryoka shouted, waiting, hoping for a reply.
But no one answered.
—-
“Rest. You must rest, Ryoka Griffin. Eat this.”
Ryoka looked up. Urksh was offering her something. She reached up and found he had a bone with cooked meat on it. She took it and bit, ignoring the heat and bloodiness of the food.
She wanted to keep moving, but her body had grown too tired. And the Gnolls had come back to camp, most of them, anyways. Ryoka had gone back to see if anyone had found Mrsha, but they had not.
They hadn’t found anything.
Forest. River. The frozen lake. The higher passes. Even the few caves they knew of, both inhabited and not. The Gnoll [Hunters] and other adults had scoured each location, even travelling further than they thought Mrsha could move. But they hadn’t found any tracks or signs of her. And that was telling, because the girl would have left some fur or traces of her passing, wouldn’t she?
And now the mood in the camp had changed again. Instead of the subdued panic Ryoka had sensed earlier, now the Gnolls were silent. Completely so. The [Hunters] still conferred, but there were less of them going out to search. They had few spots left to cover.
They were giving up hope.
Urksh sat with Ryoka by one of the fires as she ate mechanically. She looked at him.
“I’ll head out again after this. Give me a few minutes.”
“You must rest. It would not do to lose you. It is beginning to snow.”
He was right. Dusk had set in, and with it, the storm had finally arrived. Thick flakes were beginning to fall from the sky, and they were only the beginning. Soon, wind and snowfall would make visibility impossible. And then—
Ryoka’s hand tightened on the bone and she nearly burned herself. She let go and wiped her hand on her pants.
“She’s not lost yet. There are places we haven’t looked. Higher in the mountains, perhaps.”
Urksh shook his head.
“She knows that there is death up there. She would not go unless she was desperate.”
“And if she was?”
His gaze was steady as he met Ryoka’s burning stare.
“If she was, she would know that there are many deep crevasses. If she fell into one, we would never hear her or catch her scent. If she survived the fall.”
Ryoka looked away and clenched her fist. Urksh looked at the sky.
“We do not think it is that. Only a monster would chase her so far, and most are too smart to go high up. The ones in the mountain are large enough to spot and smell…but another might have caught her.”
She looked at him. Urksh stared into the fire. He had searched longer than most, as long as Ryoka, and dark sweat still stained his fur.
“A Wyvern can grab even an adult up in seconds. If it swooped down, it would take only seconds.”
Ryoka stared at Urksh. But she saw the same expression on his face. Gnolls were practical. They would keep looking, but if they didn’t find her by tomorrow, then realistically Mrsha would probably be dead.
Humans might look for far longer than that, in hopes of finding a miracle or the remains. But Gnolls had to face facts or die in the wilderness.
“She’s not lost yet.”
“No. And we will search for her until we have lost all hope.”
He stood. Ryoka hesitated, and stood with him.
“Magic?”
If they had any, they would have used it. Urksh shook his head.
“Our [Shaman] knows no spells that will aid us. He can heal and fight but little more.”
“A beacon, then. If she’s just lost, maybe we can show her the way back. I have a spell that might—”
Again the Gnoll shook his head.
“She knows where we are camped. And we should not draw too much attention to ourselves. Not tonight.”
He looked at her.
“There is something in the mountains. We have sensed it.”
Ryoka nodded. She had too. She pointed, and the Gnoll looked up.
“The Frost Faeries seem to think there’s something out there too. They disappeared when I met Hekra—I think they were expecting something else. They won’t help if someone’s life is in danger, and there’s that army…”
She’d told Urksh about the army coming this way when she’d remembered. He’d simply shrugged. Gnoll Tribes had their own peace treaties, and the Stone Spears had no issues with any Drakes at the moment.
“If there is something we will fight or flee. We have watchers and there is nowhere to hide in this flat space. But we dare not send the entire tribe out to look any longer.”
Ryoka nodded.
“I’ll keep looking. Don’t worry about sending someone with me.”
Urksh looked at her directly.
“You will not find her by searching the same places again, Ryoka Griffin. Do not waste your strength.”
Ryoka bent down and tried to tie the wrappings around her feet even tighter. She’d begun to get frostbite by the time she’d returned, but she’d been able to run far faster like this. It was worth the pain, especially since she could use the healing poultice.
“I have to look.”
“If you had a location, I would go with you myself. But this is a vast wilderness. Who will tell you where she has gone?”
She tried to ignore the voice of reason. Gritting her teeth, Ryoka bent to touch her toes and tried to stretch.
“I don’t know. I just have to h—”
She paused. Who would help her search? Gnolls were experts in this terrain. The Stone Spears knew every spot in the area. Who would be better at tracking than they were? Who could see—?
Her eyes travelled upwards.
The Frost Faeries. They’d been so silent as Ryoka searched. They hadn’t disappeared, but they hadn’t said anything. Normally they’d be showering Ryoka with remarks and jokes, but now they were just watching.
Perhaps they were worried about Mrsha too. They liked children. But maybe there was more to it than that.
“We are forbidden to help in mortal affairs.”
Ryoka said the words very quietly. Urksh looked at her, and another Gnoll’s ears twitched across the camp.
“What do you mean by these words, Ryoka Griffin?”
The faeries weren’t looking at Ryoka. They were staring elsewhere, but she knew they knew she was watching them. And their eyes were good. They could sense an army on the move a day away, and they’d known when the hiding Gnoll was there. They could see through a Necromancer’s enchantments, and even a Dragon’s.
“They know.”
All the Gnolls looked up. The Frost Faeries stared down, faces expressionless as Ryoka pointed at them.
“I want to speak with you.”
One flew down. Urksh’s eyes narrowed and he squinted just to the left of the faerie, but Ryoka just stared grimly at the faerie as she flew in front of the Human girl and the Gnoll Chieftain.
“What do you want, mortal?”
“You know where Mrsha is, don’t you?”
The faerie looked at Ryoka silently. Her face wasn’t filled with mirth or mischief or any of her normal range of emotions. It was old again. Old and timeless and terribly dispassionate.
“What if we do?”
“Tell me where she is.”
The faerie shook her head.
“This is no concern of ours, mortal. And we are bound not to interfere with your lives.”
“Tell me.”
Urksh looked at Ryoka. She remembered that he couldn’t her. She looked at him.
“They know.”
Instantly, the Gnoll grabbed for the faerie, but she just flew around his hands and froze his paws. He growled, but suddenly all the faeries were around the Gnoll. The other Gnolls in the camp had seized their weapons, but they hesitated as the central fire and then all the fires in the Gnoll camp suddenly went out.
There was a dangerous look on the faeries’ faces.
“We are not bound by your rules, but ours, mortal. And ours are ancient as time itself. We do not interfere with your concerns.”
“What if I offered you
a trade? Something worth breaking the rules?”
Ryoka had no idea what that could be. But she was desperate. The Frost Faerie looked at her and shook her head.
“You have naught that would suffice. And the price is too much for you to bear.”
Urksh hissed as he cracked the ice on his fur. He looked at Ryoka.
“What do they say?”
“We don’t have anything they want. And Urksh—I think they’re not allowed to help us.”
He shook his head and stared at the faeries.
“We cannot force them?”
The faeries stared at Urksh dispassionately. Ryoka shook her head hard, noting the other Gnolls and the bows they were not quite raising.
“Don’t try. Please. They might do a lot of damage to you, and I’m not even sure you can hurt them.”
Urksh stared hard at the faeries, but eventually nodded. Bows were lowered, but the expression remained. Now everyone was staring at the faeries, and they were watching Ryoka. Silently.
“There has to be something I can offer. Something you want.”
“You have nothing you can give us, Human.”
And if a faerie said it, it was probably true. But Ryoka couldn’t’ leave it like this.
She turned away from the faeries. Not to leave; but to pace. Urksh watched her silently as Ryoka walked back and forth.
Think. Think of faeries. They made deals. They never gave anything without asking for that much or more in return. They…honored their word.
None of this could help. Not if they didn’t want to make a deal. Or couldn’t.
“Stories?”
But stories weren’t enough. Not for a life. Not if this was what Ryoka thought it was. Think. What could she do to faeries? Nothing. She was like dust in the wind compared to them. She had nothing to threaten them. Nothing to offer them. Then, what did they want?
Ryoka looked up. Faeries. She had nothing to give them, but they were still faeries.
“Do you want Mrsha to die? Is that why you’re not helping?”