The Gods' Games Volume 1 & 2: Graphic Edition (The Gods' Games Series)

by Quil Carter

  Ben warmed his hands as well. “I wish we could,” he said simply, the thought of convincing Teal to stay here was never far from his mind. He was already feeling safer being inside a house again.

  After loading the stove with wood the two of them walked back to the river. Once again Ben felt like he was stepping from one dimension into another. The dark woods between the cabin and the river disappeared, and with that the closed-in muggy feeling of the forest vanished as well. When Ben walked into the sunlight he took in a deep satisfying breath of fresh air and immediately took his boots off.

  Teal’s blue tunic was already off of him, quickly followed by the dingy grey wool shirt he wore underneath. Soon after his boots got kicked off, then his thick wool socks and finally, his trousers.

  Teal waded into the water wearing only a pair of white cloth shorts that were tied with drawstrings above the knee. He had commented to Ben that they were called skivs; they weren’t bad, but Ben did miss his old boxer briefs.

  Ben stripped down to his own skivs and although the sun was out his arms erupted into goose bumps. He walked over and saw Teal, now up to his waist in the running water, with his arms stretched out and his facial expression in full concentration.

  Ben found himself pausing as he looked at his friend. This was the first time he had seen Teal without layers of clothing.

  At first Ben was taken aback by just how skinny Teal was. His waist was narrow and slender and his hip bones stuck out, his prominent ribs framed a spine that showed off every notch. It was shocking enough without the other feature of Teal’s body that Ben immediately noticed.

  Teal’s back was covered with scars from what looked like being whipped, and his left shoulder blade held a rough discolouration that could’ve been burn scars. It was shocking and extremely sad to behold, and the fact that Teal was happily scanning the river with a smile on his face seemed to make it all the more depressing. This young hibrid had obviously been through many terrible events and yet still he could smile and enjoy things.

  Questions filled Ben’s mind, enough that they danced on his lips. But he knew, once again, now was not the time. So he swallowed them down and walked into the cold running river water.

  Ben sighed as the water washed over his sore feet and cooled them. He took a few more steps into the deepening water before, curiously, he started to feel anxious.

  “Something wrong?” Teal asked, seeing unease on Ben’s face.

  “I don’t know why, I just feel nervous in the water,” Ben said, shaking his head in confusion.

  Teal stifled a laugh, which got him a look from Ben.

  “What?” he demanded, looking down at his pale feet, the raw blisters now turning from deep red to a rosy pink.

  Teal had to take a moment to fully stifle his onset of laughter. “Oh, I’m sorry,” he said though his grin said otherwise. “I didn’t know how it would work with you, since you’re a former human. Hibrids hate water.”

  Ben looked up from his feet and said with an annoyed grunt, “I liked water back in my world.”

  “You’ll get used to it. I didn’t really have a choice since I needed to fish, though I still despise getting wet,” Teal said.

  Then, before Ben could even open his mouth to answer back, Teal dove his hand into the water. So quick it was like a hot knife slicing through butter.

  Teal wrenched his arm out of the river, a silver salmon thrashing in his hand.

  “So easy!” Teal exclaimed happily. He grasped the wiggling fish with both hands; the tips of his fully extended claws imbedded into the salmon’s shimmering skin. He quickly waded over to the shore, his face as bright as the sun above them.

  “Are there more in there? Did you see more?” Ben asked hurriedly, his excitement started to outweigh his newfound dislike for water. He peered over to where Teal had been fishing and took several cautious steps in.

  “Many more. Go and try while I kill this thing,” Teal called as his bare feet crunched against the gravel behind Ben.

  Ben put his arms out like Teal had and started looking into the water. The river water was cold, especially near his more sensitive areas, but he pushed past the discomfort and scanned the crystal clear river for any movement. Eventually he heard the crunching of beach rocks return as Teal came back from dispatching the salmon.

  “Anything?” Teal asked.

  Just as Ben was about to tell him no, he saw a flicker of silver to his left. Without thinking he dove his hand into the water and, to his shock, he wrapped his hibrid claws around the salmon.

  “Holy crap!” Ben shouted in surprise. He almost retracted his hand from sheer surprise but managed to get a hold of himself. He quickly extended his claws into the thrashing fish and held it up to Teal.

  “Good job, Ben!” Teal exclaimed proudly.

  Ben walked up to the river’s edge with a proud grin on his face. “Look, it’s bigger than yours too!”

  Teal gasped, taking Ben’s fish from him. “You’re going to make this into a competition are you? Is that your plan?”

  Ben walked back into the water as Teal grabbed the small knotted piece of wood he had found for a club.

  “It won’t be much of a competition,” Ben teased. “I seem to be a natural.”

  “Natural joke perhaps,” Teal said in a singy voice as he walked back into the woods.

  “Don’t make me hit you with another rock, hibrid,” Ben called.

  After he had cleaned their second fish and deposited the innards back into the lake, Teal joined Ben in the river. As the hour went on their fishing competition did too, finally tying the two at five fish each.

  “We better head back,” Teal said as he strung the last of their fish on a thick vine he had found inside of the forest.

  Ben glanced up at the now darkening sky. As the last of the sun started disappearing back into the canopy he started to feel chilly.

  “I was so close to beating you too,” Ben said, taking one end of the string of salmon.

  “I was letting you win – trying to raise your self-esteem and all of that,” Teal scoffed as he held onto the other end of the vine. The two of them started walking into the forest towards their hopefully warm cabin.

  “I’ll be smoking what’s left tomorrow, and I would love to have more to dry. So I say we hold a tiebreaker tomorrow,” Teal said.

  “Sounds good.” Ben smiled, smacking a bug off of his arm; it was now whitewashed from being in the river for so long. “I love smoked salmon.”

  The shack was warm and welcoming when the two of them got back. The fire Teal had lit blazed strong in the fireplace and soon it was sizzling under the skivs Teal had hung up over the stove to dry.

  After putting on a kettle for some tea, Ben followed Teal outside to start hanging up the salmon. The nights were cool and the salmon would be ready for smoking the next day.

  “What do you want to make for dinner tonight?” Teal asked after the last of the salmon had been hung up.

  Ben thought for a minute. “Well, I was never much of a chef, but I guess even the most mundane things on earth might blow your mind here.” He tapped his finger onto his chin. “We have a fire finally, so… how about frying some cheese sandwiches and frying the salmon?”

  “Sounds perfect,” Teal replied. He picked up one of his daggers and started slicing one of the salmon into steaks.

  Feeling like a pro now, Ben picked up the magic backpack and took out their food. He was tempted as all hell to try and summon his wallet but today had been a pleasant day and he didn’t want to make himself upset, or have Teal not trust him with the pack anymore. He saved that potential discovery for another day and started preparing grill cheese sandwiches for the evening meal.

  “My father had this recipe for salmon, I can make it if you want,” Teal said as he dusted the salmon steaks with salt from a leather pouch.

  “Sure, I’ve never really been much of a chef and I’m definitely not picky,” Ben said, putting the finishing touches on the sandwiches.
“Did your father like to cook?”

  Teal nodded, then his content face became sombre. “After the war he was so important that everyone told him to stop cooking – said it was beneath him. He didn’t care; he cooked for us all the time.”

  “Was he a war hero?”

  “I think he was… he never talked about the war though. Every time I asked I got a swat from my mother and when I was old enough she gave me a rather brisk talk about how I was never to ask my father about the war or what happened during… so I never asked again.”

  “Evercove and Alcove, right?” Ben asked, remembering the conversation they’d had when he’d first arrived in Alcove.

  “The Demenos War, or the Black War as it is commonly called,” Teal replied in a hushed tone. He was now coating the salmon in flour and spices though his mind was obviously elsewhere. “It was over a quarter century ago and it lasted five years, I think. My father said I was born in a castle but I was raised on the road… my last home was called Fenhold.”

  A silence fell on the two of them, only broken up by Teal who brought the salmon steaks over to a cast iron frying pan. He laid them in the hot oiled pan, filling the cabin with the sounds of sizzling.

  Ben watching him the entire time with a curious look on his face.

  “You and your family stayed in this cabin before, didn’t you?” Ben asked. He looked up at Teal to see that he had paused. A heavy cloud seemed to be looming over his friend’s face, he seemed sad but also deep inside his own memories.

  Ben felt tempted to pull back his questions but tonight seemed different. They weren’t on the road or sleeping in hammocks, maybe tonight would be a good time to get to know his friend a bit more.

  “How did you figure that out?” Teal asked in the same quiet tone. He sat down beside the stove with the skin of silverwine in his hand. Ben reached beside him to a cobweb-covered wooden shelf and got out two wooden cups.

  Ben tucked his wool shirt over his hand started wiping out the inside of the cups.

  “You’re really happy and relaxed here,” he said, then smirked. “Even with a Serpent knight looking for you and, although if you deny it, the possibility of a malkah.”

  Teal laughed, but the sadness remained in his eyes. “I do feel better here, yes. I think I might’ve needed this break just as much as you. Your world took a lot out of me.”

  “Yeah, I can only imagine, and I thought it was scary here,” Ben remarked, handing the wooden cup to Teal to fill. “Though, still, the idea of being stalked gets to me.”

  “You’ll get used to it.”

  Ben did a double take. Teal had said that in such a quiet voice Ben knew he wasn’t meant to hear it.

  He looked at Teal His wavy red-streaked blond hair fell over his face as he filled up Ben’s cup with a stream of peachstone silverwine. The fire from the wood stove’s open door flickered against his skin and, like when he observed the scars on Teal’s back down by the river, Ben saw more scars on his arms.

  “What happened, Teal?” Ben finally asked.

  Teal froze.

  “Right… hibrid ears,” he said quietly. “I guess I’m not used to being around my own kind anymore.”

  Ben took the cup from him and took a sip as Teal poured himself a glass. He had developed quite the taste for the fizzy, calming drink. Something told him he would be drinking a lot of it tonight.

  “You know so much about me, thanks to the demigod,” Ben said with a forced laugh that did nothing to break the heavy tension that had befallen them. “But… I don’t know anything about you. I don’t even know if you’re Teal or Tealander.”

  “Oh, that…” Teal said slowly. “I don’t want anyone knowing my name’s Teal… or my House name.” He started absentmindedly clawing his arms again. His claws were fully extended and digging into arms that looked like they’d suffered years of Teal’s anxiety.

  “Who’s after you?” Ben asked next.

  The sound of light snapping mixed in with the sizzling of their food as Teal nervously cracked his knuckles.

  “His name’s Keleon,” Teal said after several moments had passed. “He lives in the Pyre, or Castle Alcove, where Erick lives. He’s his military advisor but his official title is Grand Master.”

  Teal took in a deep breath and closed his eyes as he exhaled. “He – he killed my family. My mother, Keiryn, my father Cruz, and my older brother Eagen.” Then his lips pursed. Ben’s heart broke when he saw Teal’s large green eyes fill unshed tears. “Wow, it’s – it’s been so long since I spoke their names out loud.”

  “Why did he kill them?” Ben’s voice was now nothing more than a sharp whisper. He could feel his heartbeat rise with the tension in the room.

  “My father was a war hero; him and his best friend Anagin,” Teal replied. “They exposed Keleon, who at that time was a general for King Calin, and his sister as traitors. She was hanged, he was imprisoned but escaped.”

  Teal went on, “When my father heard of Keleon escaping, he went on the run with us. Left behind the small homestead he was given, Fenhold, and fled– but after several years, Keleon found us.”

  “You don’t have to go on, Teal,” Ben whispered, putting his hand on his friend’s knee. “I’m sorry, I–”

  “There isn’t much more to say, Ben,” Teal said. He had stopped fidgeting and was now just staring into the fire. “In the end, they were dead; their bodies thrown on top of a pile of hay. And I was left to die beside them.”

  “But you were able to escape?”

  Teal nodded. “He knows I escaped. He would send one of his elves to check on me every evening. They had bets on how long it would take me to die.”

  Ben swore and turned away from his friend; he got up off of the chair and started to pace back and forth.

  “That’s why you’ve been such a recluse? Because he’s looking for you?”

  Teal shook his head. “He’s in King Erick’s court now from what I’ve heard, and it’s been ten years. He probably thinks I’m dead by now. I don’t want him to think or hear otherwise though. I go by Tealander because of that, but my birth name is just Teal.”

  Ben paused. He had more questions to ask, but he didn’t want to put his new friend through any more pain. He decided to try and lighten the mood instead.

  “And that demigod chose you to come to my overpopulated planet to find me? You poor thing,” Ben said lightheartedly.

  Teal glanced up at him and smiled; his eyes still brimming.

  “Yeah, strange, huh?” Teal said. He wiped his eyes then busied himself flipping over the salmon steaks. Ben handed him the sandwiches to start grilling beside them.

  “I can see why you’ve never had a proper friend before,” Ben said as Teal dusted the steaks with spice from a pouch.

  Teal chuckled though it was weighted with sadness. He got up with the bag of spice and started walking towards the wooden table. “Friend? What’s that?”

  Ben put his hand on Teal’s shoulder. When Teal turned around Ben put his arms around him and hugged him.

  “I haven’t had a hug in – in ten years,” Teal said, his voice starting to crack under the weight of his emotions. “It’s weird being touched by someone again, someone I trust at least.”

  “We’ll find Keleon one day, just you and me,” Ben said, then added completely straight-faced. “And we’ll sodomize him with your father’s sword and saw his head off with your brother’s.”

  A look of perplexed shock graced Teal’s face, before a moment later he burst into laughter. Ben grinned at his friend before turning to grab another piece of wood for their fire.

  “Hey, you said you had a House name; that’s a last name, right? What was it?” Ben asked as he threw the wood into the hot embers.

  Teal looked down as the wood sent a shower of sparks up into the air, each little flare reflecting in his eyes like fireflies against an emerald moon; eyes that Ben knew had drank more than their share of sadness and pain. He could only guess just how many layers of grief and a
gony lay just underneath Teal’s surface.

  “Fennic,” Teal whispered after several moments of silence had passed. A faint, melancholy smile appeared on his face as the orange flames danced their reflections on his willowy frame.

  “I was once Teal Fennic.”

  12

  Not surprisingly the both of them slept in the next day. Once they awoke late in the morning they had some leftover salmon and sandwiches for breakfast, practiced sword fighting outside, and eventually started on the smoked salmon.

  When they finished with the salmon, and were both covered in scales and blood, they walked down to the river with a bar of ash soap and a rough cloth. Ben almost ran the entire way to the river, not only did he hate smelling of fish, but he hadn’t had a proper bath since he had come to Alcove.

  “You’re not that dirty, Ben,” Teal said as he observed Ben scrubbing his skin with the sudsy rough cloth. Teal was standing waist deep in water, washing their clothing with another bar of soap.

  “I’m used to having hot showers every day,” Ben said, his tongue sticking out of the corner of his mouth as he scrubbed the back of his neck. “How can you go back to this?”

  Teal laughed and shook his head, his wet blond and red hair flattened up against his forehead. “It was nice, I admit, but nothing beats a running river.”

  Ben scoffed. “Crazy hibrid.”

  “How are your feet feeling today?” Teal asked. He waded back to the shore of the river with the clean clothes and started wringing them out.

  “Better,” Ben said honestly. “I’m hoping this break will get me through until we get to Alé.”

  Teal threw the wrung clothes into an old wooden bucket. “I’m looking forward to some horses myself.” He picked up the bucket and started walking towards where the forest started again.

  Ben dunked his head under the river water to get the last of the suds off and shook his head. “Are we going back now?”

  “Yeah, I want to get the clothes dry, or else we’re going to be rescuing Alcove in our skivs.” Teal glanced behind him and smiled at Ben as he shook the water off of his body. “When we get dry, let’s try some sword fighting again.”