“Questers?” Jack asked, thinking of Regan and the Ravagers.
Lord Scratches shook his head no.
“Bandits?” Lana said.
Lord Scratches chirped.
“Bandits,” Stann said. “What you want to do, Jack?”
“We’ll turn north. We’ll try going around them.” If the bandits were camped out in the Ancient Lands it was for a reason. Jack had no intention of finding out what that reason was. They weren’t far from the border of Westdrift, and it could be that they were just camping out in the Ancient Lands to avoid local authorities, or they could be scavenging for artifacts; whatever the case, Jack wanted nothing to do with them.
They changed direction and continued on their way. After an hour of travel, Jack sent Lord Scratches back into the air, and he didn’t see any signs of the bandits. Relieved, Jack kept them going towards the first location on the map. According to Colin there was an old fort ahead, part of the old Westdrift Empire before it had retracted to its current size. The lands had also been orc territory at different intervals of history as well. Although the traditional orc lands had been more north, according to Colin at the height of the Great War, when things really started to fall apart, orcs controlled much of the lands to the south and east of the current orc territories, and that included this land.
After another hour of travel, they spotted the old fort.
“Finally,” Stann said. “I was getting bored of walking.”
Talia laughed. “You know we’re only stopping here long enough to find a good spot for a portal circle, then we’re moving on.”
“What?” Stann said. “Why aren’t we looking for stuff?”
Jack shook his head. “Did you listen to anything we talked about this morning? Or yesterday, for that matter?”
“Sure, go west and look for artifacts.”
Talia groaned. “Seriously?”
“What?” Stann said. “I don’t need to think about planning. That is Jack and Colin’s job.”
“It wouldn’t hurt to pay attention,” Jack said. “What if we somehow got separated and had to meet up at a new location?”
Stann shook his head. “That wouldn’t happen. I read the handbook; I know we should never split the party.”
Jack laughed. At least Stann had started paying attention to the handbook.
“Sometimes things happen and we can’t always follow the handbook, you need to pay attention during planning meetings, you’re too important to the team to be lazy just because something isn’t your job,” Talia said.
Stann sighed. “Fine. Tell me what our current objective is.”
“We’re doing a quick recon of sites that we think we should search later and building a network of portal circles we can come back to later.”
“And what if we find something good here? We just going to leave it?”
“Of course not,” Jack said. “If we find good stuff, we take it, but we aren’t going to be staying here long enough to do a proper search, just nose around and build a circle, then move on. We’ll come back another day.”
“I suppose that makes sense,” Stann said. “OK. Let’s get to it.”
As they got closer to the old fort, they could see that it was large and had been built in sections.
“Some of that is orc design,” Stann said as they went through the open outer gates. “But the rest is definitely human.”
“According to Colin’s research, this fort changed hands several times over thousands of years,” Lana said. “Same with many of the forts to the north and west of here. When one army invaded the other, certain parts were destroyed, then rebuilt by the conquerors.”
They looked around and saw one main building that had obviously been worked on by both man and orc, and several outbuildings that were also of mixed design style. Orc buildings were taller, with rounded walls and high windows, while the human buildings were square or rectangular with smaller doors and windows. The roofs of the two different styles were also different. It made for an interesting and strangely appealing-looking fort. Perhaps it was just the non-uniform appearance that made it feel less military in nature, but the old stone buildings had a certain character to them that Jack liked.
“Over there,” Talia said, pointing to one of the nearest outer buildings. It was small compared to the main fort itself, but looked to be completely intact.
Stann led them to the building and checked the door. He opened it with care, keeping his shield up and ready in case something was in it. Inside, they found nothing. It looked like it might’ve been an old storage room, but there was nothing interesting inside. On the bright side, it was perfect for a portal circle.
Talia went to work making her circle.
While she worked, Lana pulled out food and cleaned off one of the tables in the room.
When Talia was done, they enjoyed a cold lunch. Anything stored in the magical satchels was always a few degrees cooler, and fresh as if it had just been placed in it, no matter how long it had been in there.
Done with the meal, they left the small building.
Stann looked around. “You sure we can’t explore? I’ll bet this place has lots of swords and armor, maybe even good orc armor.”
“Next time,” Jack said.
“But what if those bandits that Lord Scratches saw come here?”
“I’d rather not be here if they do arrive,” Talia said. “Besides, you need to relax, Stann. The next place on the map is also in ancient orc territory. Actually, most of the places we’re heading to today were once orc territory at one time or another.”
Stann smiled. He seemed content with knowing that. Jack guessed it wasn’t exploring that Stann was interested in as much as it was finding orc armor. Not that Jack blamed him. Now that Stann had his amulet and the ability to use the stone-body spell, his armor was overkill. He needed something lighter. They’d discussed spending money on it but, since they were exploring a lot of ancient orc territory, Stann had been content to wait in hope of finding something special.
“Let’s get moving,” Jack said. According to the map, they had another ten miles or so to travel to the next location, and depending on the terrain that could be a couple hours or a whole lot longer.
As they went further west and north the terrain continued to get more barren. But it did make for fairly easy travel. Their maps were good enough—they knew which valleys and canyons to follow. They were getting close to the second location when Lana pointed to the north. “Looks like buzzards are circling something.”
“Want to take a look for us?” Jack asked Lord Scratches. Jack wasn’t sure what the little dragon would think about getting too close to a flock of blackheart buzzards. From their research notes, they weren’t only scavengers, but also birds of prey when the opportunity presented itself.
Lord Scratches looked at Jack for a second. The look made Jack feel like Lord was wondering if he was an idiot. The little dragon then flew off.
“Are you sure that’s a good idea?” Lana asked. “I mean, Lord is a dragon and all, but blackheart buzzards are no joke. They’re easily three times his size and can take down most creatures, especially when the flock is working together.”
“I trust Lord Scratches,” Jack said. “He’ll be fine.”
“I don’t know,” Stann said. “I’d feel more comfortable if we went that way instead of just waiting here. I don’t want to leave Lord Scratches to himself in case the buzzards attack.”
Jack was relieved to hear the others voicing their concerns; it matched his own feelings. He was confident the little dragon was far tougher than his size might indicate, but a flock of blackheart buzzards was as Lana so eloquently put it, no joke. “OK. Let’s head that way. “
They took their normal battle formation and Jack cast his healing and mana spells over the group. If there was to be a battle with the blackheart buzzards, they were going to be ready.
Keeping one eye on the sky, Jack followed Stann north towards the buzzards. The
y were flying tight circles around something, and occasionally one of the buzzards would dive down before rejoining the others. Meanwhile, Lord Scratches was circling wide around them. The buzzards didn’t seem to notice Lord Scratches. Jack hoped it would stay that way and that Lord would come back, but he kept circling the buzzards.
The group kept going forward until they crossed over a ridge and saw a most strange sight.
There was a mage, fighting a huge beast that looked like a bear crossed with an armadillo. Meanwhile, a pair of blackheart buzzards were snapping at the mage from behind.
“What do you want to do?” Stann asked.
Jack looked at the battle. They didn’t know the mage, but he looked like he was in trouble. He could be dangerous on his own, but Jack wasn’t going to leave him to fight for himself. “We help the mage. Full speed attack.”
Stann grinned and started running towards the battle. Jack ran behind him.
Jack was glad they’d practiced this formation before. Stann was far faster than Jack, so it had taken a while for Stann to learn the right pace to run at where he didn’t have to look back to make sure Jack wouldn’t fall behind.
When they got close, Jack gave the signal and Lana and Talia started firing. Lana aimed at the arma-bear while Talia fired her magic at the buzzards. Jack also aimed his fire at the two buzzards. One of the buzzards above them started to swoop down towards them, but before it could get to them Lord Scratches flew into the buzzard with incredible speed. There was a poof of feathers exploding. Jack saw the buzzard and Lord Scratches fighting as they fell to the ground.
Turning his attention back to the fight on the ground, Jack saw that Lana’s arrows were bouncing off the arma-bear’s armor-like hide. “Focus on the buzzards,” Jack said. While the girls fired at the buzzards, Stann had reached the arma-bear and was slashing at it with his war hammer. The arma-bear was huge. Each time its claws hit Stann they damaged his armor, and Stann himself.
Jack instinctively focused his healing on just Stann.
Stann recognized that Jack was increasing his health and charged the bear, getting as close as he could. He took more damage from the bear, but was also able to do more damage.
Jack cast his healing spells as fast as he could. Slowly, Stann’s health was starting to drop faster than Jack could bring it back up. But then the arma-bear was hit by a barrage of magic from the mage, Talia, and Lana’s arrows. It fell to the ground.
Jack looked around. The two buzzards were dead, as was the arma-bear. Lord Scratches popped out from behind a dune and flew to Jack’s shoulder.
The mage was tall and had short salt-and-pepper hair. He smiled at them. “Thank you for the timely assist. I’m in your debt.”
“What happened?” Jack asked. “We saw you fighting the arma-bear and the buzzards.”
The mage raised an eyebrow. “Arma-what?”
Jack blushed. The big bearlike creature.”
“Oh, you mean the dargow. Yes, well, I was doing a little light housekeeping and I came out to get some fresh air, and the dargow attacked. It landed a fairly substantial blow, which broke my staff and hurt my casting arm.” The mage paused to look at his hand. “As you can see it is now healed, but I was limited for a while by what I could cast, and dargow have a high immunity to magical damage, so it was taking most of my energy just to create shields to defend myself while trying to heal. The fight was about an hour old when the blackheart buzzards saw what was going on and got involved. I managed to kill one of the beasts and wound two others, but the wounded ones, unable to fly off, were nipping at my heels so to speak while others would fly in for an attack on myself and the dargow. It was quite the three-way battle.”
“Housekeeping? You live out here?” Stann asked.
“Goodness, no. I just had some magical items to collect. I’m assuming since you are here you know that this was once the magical fortress of Verhax Buntner, one of the great orc mages of the xtang era.”
Jack shook his head. “We knew there was an interesting site nearby, but we thought it was just a normal fort.”
“Oh, no. At the height of the xtang era, this was the most important structure within a hundred miles. It doesn’t look like much from the outside, but the underground areas were vast and had a treasure trove of powerful items. I, and a few friendly mages I share information with, have taken the majority of those items over the years, but there are still a few treasures to be found. Would you like to see? I’m sure you’ll find an item or two worth taking.”
“We’re first-year students at Darkthorn Academy, every ancient item is worth something to us,” Talia said.
“Ah, Darkthorn Academy questers, that makes sense. I suppose they are the only ones outside of the orc historians that would have solid records of the orc buildings in this part of the Ancient Lands. I’m surprised they let first-year students out into the Ancient Lands. It is dangerous out here, even for one as experienced as I.” The mage looked towards the dargow. “You never know when a magic-resistant beast will attack you. But anyways, you certainly have my thanks and permission to explore the ruins here. I won’t mind if you remove whatever items of value are still in it.”
“Thank you,” Jack said.
Stann turned to Jack. “Can we please explore these ruins now? I don’t want to wait!”
The mage frowned. “Why would you wait? You’re already here.”
“We had a plan,” Talia said. “I just got enough mana to use portal spells, so we were making our way through the Ancient Lands making a series of portal circles that we could use later.”
The mage frowned. “Why didn’t you just use a dragon? You are from Darkthorn.” He then paused and nodded. “Right, you are first-year students. You have no dragons.” He glanced at Lord Scratches. “Let me rephrase that. You have no rideable dragons.”
“Right,” Talia said.
“I suppose it wasn’t a bad plan. Not terribly efficient, but a good way to get started in the Ancient Lands. I’ll tell you what. As a reward for your assistance I will take you to several locations in the Ancient Lands that should be interesting for first-year students like yourself. You won’t find any items of significance, but you should be able to find more than enough items to pay your dues, and you’ll have several portals circles in parts of the Ancient Lands that are much farther than you could walk in a day or two,” the mage said.
“That would be amazing,” Stann said. He then looked at Jack. “I mean, if Jack agrees.”
“I think it would be great as well,” Jack said.
Stann pumped his fist.
“Right,” said the mage. You two magic users… wait. What are your names?”
“Sorry, I’m Jack Vance, that is Stannerios Morwerk, this is Lana Liahorn, and that is Talia Payra.”
“A pleasure. I’m Mage Nowak. Now, before we get started… Stannerios, are you able to skin this beast?”
Stann grabbed the dargow and struggled with it until he was able to turn it and expose its belly. He pulled out a small skinning knife that Jack hadn’t even known he’d owned and started slicing the softer belly skin. He looked up at Mage Nowak. “Yes, I can skin it.”
“Excellent. After I’ve returned with your friends, we’ll make a quick trip to the markets of Chajon.”
“Chajon,” Talia said with what sounded to Jack like reverence.
“Where’s Chajon?” Jack asked.
“In the Kingdom of Vernon,” Talia said. “Are you from Vernon?”
“Among other places,” Mage Nowak said.
Jack had more questions, but he didn’t want to be rude, not when the mage was offering so much help.
“Once you’re done skinning the dargow, I suggest butchering it the same way you would a wild boar. If Chef Ramsey is still at the Academy, he will give you a pretty penny for the meat and cook you one of the best meals you’ve ever had. Also, while you’re at it, collect the blackheart buzzard carcasses, they will be valuable in Chajon.”
“I’ll do it,
” Lana said. “I’ve skinned a few buzzards in my time.”
“Leave the carcasses intact,” Mage Nowak said. “For some reason, blackheart buzzard carcasses are more valuable that way. Personally, I don’t see why, but who am I to argue with market prices. Now, Jack and Talia, if you would each grab a hold of my robe.”
Jack looked at Lord Scratches. “Stay with Stann and Lana. Protect them.” Jack wasn’t sure they needed it. But the way Lord Scratches had handled that buzzard made him more comfortable with leaving him with Stann and Lana. Splitting the party wasn’t advisable, but the opportunity here was worth it.
Jack and Talia grabbed the mage’s shoulders and, in a flash, they were standing in front of an ancient city of ruins.
“This is the ancient city of Pailron. You’ll find it easy enough in your Darkthorn maps room.”
Jack and Talia quickly worked on making a circle. The spot they’d landed seemed to be in a wide open and safe location. While they preferred closed buildings and secured locations, beggars couldn’t be choosers. This spot was plenty good enough.
When they were done, Mage Nowak transported them to another location. This one was a wide-open plain except for one narrow but tall mountain. But there were signs of ancient battle everywhere.
“The Battle of Arderwan happened here. To the north is Mount Arder. Another easy location to track in your maps room.”
After the second circle was made, Mage Nowak took them to the third location. This one was a large temple on the edge of an ancient city. “The city of Borcha, and the temple of Rahmann.”
Jack raised an eyebrow. Rahmann was a dwarven god. Where in the Ancient Lands were they? Certainly nowhere near Westdrift.
“I recommend avoiding this temple until you’ve levelled up a little. You’ll need more mana to travel here than you will the first two locations, and to be honest I haven’t spent much time in the temple. It still has a lot of interesting dead beings and other critters that would be extremely dangerous for first-year students. But it could be the most lucrative of the locations I’ve given you.”
After they built their third circle, Mage Nowak returned them to Stann and Lana. Both were sitting on a large rock, beside the pile of blackheart carcasses and the dargow skin.
Menacing Misfits: An Epic Fantasy Adventure (Darkthorn Academy Book 1) Page 33