by JF Smith
The chilling sincerity in the statement caused Gully’s fear to rise in his throat and he found himself helpless and unable to plead for his own life.
Before he could gather his wits enough to scream or yell for this patriarch person, who might be the only one to save him, the sound of thundering feet reached his ears. He did cry out when, completely out of nowhere, a large wolf, half again larger than the biggest wolf Gully had ever seen, attacked the one named Encender, bowling the dark-haired man over as the wolf snapped and snarled. A second wolf, a split-second behind, bounded up and positioned itself in front of Gully.
Gully drew back and frantically tried to free his hands again, jerking and pulling at the cords that tied him as fiercely as he could. He did everything he could to open the gap in the knots enough so he could free even one hand, but the ropes were too tight and well-tied. He tried his best to push away from the attacking wolves, but neither of them seemed interested in him.
The first wolf, as soon as it had knocked Encender down, stood back and growled savagely at him, fangs flashing white. The second wolf stayed in front of Gully, head lowered and teeth bared in Encender’s direction. To Gully’s surprise, neither of the other two men, or the bear, seemed alarmed at what was happening in front of them. They merely backed up a step or two to let the attack continue without running away or interfering.
Encender stood back up, looked around and retrieved his knife from the leaves where it landed, all while mostly ignoring the wolves. He brushed the leaves and pine needles off as he looked at Gully, helpless against the tree again, and huffed in frustration. He put the knife away in his belt and then scowled at the two wolves now between him and Gully.
“Oh, so this is how it is to be? Now that your worthless and shamed hides aren’t Mercher fighters anymore, you finally decide to turn brave and attack your own leader? Shouldn’t you have shown your cunning and valor on your own behalf a few weeks ago? Too late is too late, Gallun and Gellen!”
Gully wondered if the one named Encender had gone insane, or if it was he himself that had gone mad instead, with people carrying on conversations with bears and wolves.
He instantly decided that it was he, without a doubt, who was the one who was hopelessly insane. The two wolves stood still, but their images shuttered slightly, as when heat in the distance can make objects appear to ripple slightly, and then there were two men standing where the wolves had been, one appearing a few seconds after the other. The wolves were no longer anywhere around; it was as if they had disappeared. Gully shook his head. He wondered if he had merely dreamt the attack of the wolves.
And more, he realized it wasn’t just any two men who had appeared in front of him. It was the same two men, as naked as he had last seen them, whom he had rescued from the kidnappers not even a week earlier.
Gully decided it had to be a deceit of the dying light. The long, shifting shadows of the forest at dusk were playing tricks on his eyes. Perhaps he had hit his head roughly when he passed out, and now his mind was struggling between reality and nonsense.
Nonetheless, he found his voice and cried out, “You!” The two naked men turned briefly, one with an angry look of defiance and determination, the other with a slight smile, and faced back at Gully. “It’s the two of you! You’re the two that I freed from the kidnappers!” he cried in disbelief.
There was no mistaking that it was the same men, although they looked much better than they did after having been freed from their collars. They looked stronger, and the dried blood that had covered their faces and chests had been cleaned. They no longer had the empty, haunted look in their dark eyes.
Encender pulled his knife again and said loudly, “This is all havers and balderdash! Step aside, Gellen! This is done, before he brings every band of robbers and murderers in all of this forsaken land down upon us!” Encender tried to step around the naked Gellen to reach Gully, but Gellen pulled back his heavily muscled arm and struck Encender in the jaw roughly, knocking the man to the ground and sending the dagger flying into the leaves yet again.
“You dare strike me?!” shouted Encender while attempting to keep his voice lower. He began to stand and added, “I’ll have you expelled from—”
He was interrupted by Exoutur, who had stepped closer to the naked men and now asked the second one directly, “Is it true, Gallun? Is this the same person who managed to help free both of you?”
Both Gallun and Gellen nodded. Gallun, who still had a smile upon his face, squatted down and even put his hand on Gully’s shoulder.
“It changes nothing...” said Encender as he rubbed his chin where he had been hit, but his voice had already trailed off.
Gully, despite feeling like he was having some sort of delirious vision, and even with some of these men taking his side, continued to struggle furtively with his hands and feet and wishing desperately that his throwing knife had remained unnoticed in his boot.
Exoutur and Encender silently parted, and even Gully stopped pulling and wrestling with the knots at what he saw next. Between the two men stepped a large cat. Gully gaped at it; he knew it to be what was called an ocelot, rarely seen in the woods. And yet, after the bear and two wolves, it no longer surprised him to see the two men lower their heads at it deferentially as it stepped forward between them.
Encender began to say something, but the cat hissed at him and approached to within a few feet of Gully and the tree to which he was bound. Gully stayed still for fear of driving the cat to attack him while he was so helpless.
“Father,” said Exoutur to the cat directly, “Gallun and Gellen claim that this is the man that saved their lives.”
The ocelot turned to face the two naked men, who nodded solemnly to confirm what Exoutur had said.
The ocelot’s tail swished back and forth in irritation and then it turned to stare at Encender.
“He is an Iisenor!” puled Encender. “There is a reason, father, is there not, that we do not show ourselves to them? He was within mere feet of our camp! If he escapes, we will be at the mercy of every cutthroat for miles! We will have to flee faster than we can readily do and still hope to stay ahead of whomever he sends after us!”
A voice, an aged but very patient voice, came from behind Gully, and he twisted to see from whom it came. The voice said, “You are correct, Encender. We must be careful.”
Encender looked at the others in triumph. “You see?” he howled, throwing his arms wide now that he had someone who agreed with him.
Gully craned his neck around and caught a glimpse of a very old man, small and thin and with snow white hair, approaching the rest of them slowly and with the aid of a wooden staff as tall as he was. The man moved slowly, but it felt less due to his age and physical capability than it did to a nature of slow and careful consideration. A small boy of probably only nine or ten years followed behind him, both timid of the threat and extremely eager to see the stranger that had been caught.
The old man said, “But, my son, that does not give us the right to indiscriminately kill every one who is not one of us, yet wanders into the woods. The fear and blame the Iisenors unjustly lay upon us would be rapidly justified if we followed that path.”
The old man added as he came even with the tree Gully was tied to, “It is a noble goal to be better than those that hunt us, Encender, no matter how tempting it is to treat the same.”
The old man faced Encender and had not even looked at Gully, but the ocelot was now sitting on its haunches and studying Gully with very interested eyes. Gully, with a chance to study the cat in return, could tell it was an older one as it had a graying on its muzzle. As strange as the entire situation was in which he found himself, Gully had to admire the remarkable bearing of the cat, whose fur was beautifully spotted.
The old man had a soft, weak voice, but it was the kind that you did not dare ignore. Even tied to a tree, Gully found himself trying to sit up a little straighter out of respect for the man, and it had nothing to do with the fact that he was ho
ping the man would prevent Encender from killing him.
Gully was able to pull his eyes away from those of the ocelot long enough to see the young boy hand dark gray skirtings, like those the one named Raybb was already wearing, to Gallun and Gellen. They took the clothing from the young boy and tied them around their waists so that they were clothed like the large man, only they left their chests bare.
The ocelot sniffed at the air near Gully to get a better read on him as the old man stepped closer and then leaned on his staff. He asked Gully directly, “Young man, is this true? Was it you that saved the two before you, Gallun and Gellen?”
Gully became acutely aware that there were many eyes upon him, both human and animal. His throat felt dry and he had to cough to open it and make it work. “Yes, goodsir,” he said haltingly. “I did.”
“May I ask why you would venture into the woods to save these men from very dangerous people?” asked the man patiently.
“Oh, uh... well...” Gully stammered and tried to decide how to best answer the question. He tried to decide quickly what parts to relate and what parts to leave out.
“I was travelling down the South Pass Road and smelled the smoke of a campfire. I was curious and approached, finding men dressed as robbers with these two men, uh... Gallun and Gellen,” he said, nodding at the two, “held as their prisoners. I could not, in good conscience, leave them to such a fate.”
The old man thought on Gully’s explanation for a moment, and everyone gathered remained silent as he did so, waiting for him. The man then said, “Part of your story does not ring true to me.”
Gully shifted nervously against the tree. For the first time, he noticed that the bear was on its hind legs and standing behind the one called Exoutur, with its paws on the man’s shoulders. A few more people had now wandered up from the camp somewhere behind Gully and were watching the scene with interest. They all stayed silent, though, and did not interrupt.
Gully said, “It does not?”
“It is not like the people of Iisen to wander into the forest, especially when near dark, except for a very few that we have reason to fear and despise. How is it that you are willing to venture into a forest that all other of your countrymen would avoid at almost all costs?” asked the man.
Gully wondered whom these people were if they were not Iisen. His mind briefly flashed an image of himself roasting over a fire while wild gypsies prepared for a feast.
“Goodsir, you speak very true,” replied Gully nervously. “But unlike all other Iisenors that I know of, I grew up deep in the Ghellerweald. I know my way around the forest lands well and have no fear of them.”
The old man was quiet once again, and Gully could not help but blurt his own question out in the silence, “Have some among you been disappearing as well? Iisenors have been vanishing for over twenty years now! Freeing these two men before me pieced together the puzzle for me and I know who in Iisen is committing these foul crimes! It is why I am back now, searching, to try to gather evidence so that I may put a stop to them!”
The crowd that had gathered around began murmuring amongst themselves at Gully’s outburst. The elderly man never took his eyes off of Gully and raised his hand, only slightly, but it instantly silenced all the discussion that had erupted around him.
“I have many questions for you, young man, and I am sure you have many questions for me,” said the old man very deliberately. “I think... the time has come for the two of us to perhaps have a little supper and a more serious conversation.”
He added with a glance at the group that had gathered around the scene, “Alone.”
Chapter 13 — The Blood Seal
“You cannot be serious, father!” exclaimed Encender, stepping forward. “You do not intend to free him, do you? He had a throwing knife on him when Raybb found him! Who knows what wounds he will inflict, how many he will maim, if he gets his hands on a weapon before we take him down!”
The ocelot stood and growled slightly at Encender.
“Encender, please,” said the patriarch. “Your ardent concern for our safety is never doubted. But the quiet and small ways of fate can often be drowned out by our own suspicions and doubts, my son. Gallun and Gellen will accompany us while we talk.” He glanced at the two bare-chested men for their consent, and they both nodded their agreement to him.
Encender began to protest again but his father raised a hand at him, silencing him. The patriarch said rather flatly, “Free our guest from the restraints, Encender.”
Encender scowled but did as he was told. As he cut the ropes from Gully, the patriarch asked, “May I ask your name, young man?”
Gully froze, unable to decide which name to give, unsure whom he should be for these strange people. He finally said, “It is Bayle Delescer, goodsir.”
“Bayle,” repeated the patriarch. “My name... is Aian Mercher. I am the patriarch of the Mercher clan, some of whom you see gathered around. You have previously met Gallun and Gellen. And, of course, you have also met my two sons, Encender and Exoutur,” he said, pointing to the two men. He also pointed to the large man that had arrived with Exoutur and added, “And Raybb, too.”
Gully rubbed his wrists to get the blood flowing once again in his hands. In the darkness of the forest, the variously-colored lights of the sparkflies prevalent in the summer woods had begun to wink on and off around them.
The old man turned to the young boy and said, “Wyael, will you see to it that a little supper is prepared for us? For Gallun and Gellen as well. And take the kilts from them as I assume they will want to transform, yes?” He glanced again at the two bare-chested men, who nodded again and removed their skirts, or kilts, to hand to the young boy.
Before Gully could wonder at the sight of two men who seemed to think nothing of being utterly naked in front of a crowd of people, the images of the two men stuttered slightly and then there were two wolves once again where the men had just been.
Gully stepped back, startled by the sight, but the patriarch put his hand on Gully’s arm and smiled at him, “Let us walk, young Bayle.”
The ocelot led the way, and the wolves fell in on either side of Gully and the patriarch as everyone else slowly wandered back to what they had been doing before the commotion over the intruder had begun. It was getting dark in the woods now, and Gully could see multiple small fires lit in the distance, implying a larger encampment than he had originally expected.
As they began to walk, Aian said to Gully, “You must forgive my son, Encender. He is very protective of the clan, and does all he can to ensure our safety at a time when we are in much danger. But he sometimes takes it too far, and it saddens me that he still would prefer to act rashly before he understands what fate is perhaps working towards. I would also like to thank you, on behalf of the clan, for rescuing Gallun and Gellen. We’ve only ever recovered one other in the past, and the loss of two of our best would have been very sad, and discouraging, for the rest of us.”
As he said this, the wolf immediately next to Gully nudged up at his hand and seemed to have a smile across his muzzle, his tongue hanging out happily as he panted. Gully drew his hand back, afraid the wolf was maybe trying to bite him. He wondered, if he made a run for it, how far he’d be able to get with people and animals like this chasing him. He didn’t like the odds very much, but at least he was reassured by the very genuine courtesy the patriarch was showing him.
The patriarch continued, not even noticing, “I confess to having a very burning curiosity about you, Bayle, one that I can imagine is returned by you in an even greater share. You are our guest, though, so I will let you quench your curiosity first. You are welcome to ask any questions you have of us.”
Gully stopped walking entirely, causing the patriarch, the ocelot and the two wolves to stop as well.
“Uh...” said Gully, unsure where even to begin. “Forgive me, sir. I mean, patriarch. I will start by being entirely honest with you about one thing. I truly believe that I have hit my head and scrambl
ed my senses terribly. You will take me as crazy, but I am seeing things that cannot be real. It seems that I have twice now seen wolves turn into men, and men then turn into wolves. There is no such thing as this in the world, no such sorcery, so my mind is somehow playing terrible tricks on me.”
The patriarch nodded with a smile and said, “You say you grew up in these woods, in the Ghellerweald. Is this not the case?”
“I did,” said Gully.
“Then you are familiar with the small insects that flash a light in their tail, some green-gold, some pink, some pale blue, correct? They are out in multitudes tonight, as a matter of fact, and all around us.” The patriarch waved his hand around at the lazily blinking insects among the trees around them.
“Yes, the sparkflies,” agreed Gully. “I spent many nights of my childhood chasing after them.”
The patriarch nodded. He said, “And if you had never seen a sparkfly before, but someone had described such a miracle of nature to you, would you have believed it?”
Gully thought a moment, and replied, “I see your point. An insect that glows with its own light in the darkness would be difficult to accept as true if I had not seen them myself.”
“Your mind and your eyes are not playing tricks on you, Bayle,” said the patriarch. “Place your hand there, on Gallun’s back. The back of the wolf standing next to you, I mean.”
Gully hesitated at the idea of touching the wolf next to him, but did as he was told. The wolf allowed him to do it without so much as a jerk or a snap at him.
“He is as real as you and I,” said the patriarch. “Now remove your hand. Gallun, if you would indulge me, please transform so that Bayle may see.”
Gully removed his hand, and instantly, the man named Gallun was standing next to him. The patriarch said, “Gallun and the wolf are the same, Bayle.”