‘I called him also,’ a voice said in Mirrortac’s head.
‘I nought doubt it,’ Mirrortac answered out loud.
‘Then why did you take it home?’ Fillytac scolded.
‘I did not speak to you.’
Fillytac shrugged and glanced around him. ‘There be no other here,’ he said.
‘Oh, I guess not,’ Mirrortac quickly countered, covering for his spectral accomplice.
Mirrortac scanned the desert for some sign of cool relief but could find none.
‘We must find shade or perish here,’ he said, attempting to rise.
Fillytac reached out his hand and pulled the erfin to his feet, then they both shuffled off into the searing sand dunes in a vain attempt to find some shade or a cool place. It was not long before the liquid-bearing pouch was empty and both erfins were reduced to a crawl before collapsing in the heat.
Mirrortac was not certain of how long he had been unconscious or even where he was; but he knew he was awake and alive. Gradually he became aware that he was laying in the shadow of some large creature that had taken rest beside him. He could hear the rhythmic sound of its sleeping breath and smell its peculiar odour, an odour that was unlike anything he knew. As his vision cleared, he saw the glaring golden sands outside the shadow and remembered the heat and his thirst. He was still thirsty but in the shadow of the animal the air felt cool, almost refreshing.
Mirrortac rubbed feebly at his eyes and focussed on the creature. He reckoned it to be two erfin-lengths from nose to tail and an erfin-length high while resting on its six feet. Its fur was a golden creme colour and the soles of its tri-toed feet were thick to withstand the heat of the sand. The milk-filled teats of its underbelly were a welcome sight. Mirrortac edged up to a teat, and curving his lips around it, sucked in the cool milk. His tongue and his whole mouth and throat rejoiced in the cool draught as he drank his fill. Unlike Merma-mead, the taste of it was bitter yet refreshing nonetheless. As he drank, he became aware that the animal actually generated a cool air around itself, particularly within its shadow. There was a snort as the creature awoke, craning its neck around to look at who partook of its milk. The creature blinked at him, silently surveying him with its three eyes, which were perched on its head like glistening black teardrops. Its head was narrow and ended in a long floppy snout. Everything about its face seemed exaggerated, even comical - its ears pointed upwards in two thin sheaths of skin as it blinked sideways at him. Fillytac, who had been laying alongside him, awoke with a start, and looked at the creature and Mirrortac’s milk-splashed mouth with disbelief. He tried to speak but his throat was constricted and dry. Mirrortac presented a teat to him. ‘Now it be your time to drink. This is life. Do nought question the giver.’
Fillytac hesitated a few moments before gingerly wetting his finger with some of the milk from the teat. He licked his finger and his eyebrows rose with surprise. Then he tried to squirt some into the pouch and finally gave up.
‘Just drink,’ Mirrortac urged.
Fillytac overcame his etiquette and placed his mouth around the teat, sucking noisily and deeply once he realised his thirst and the refreshing taste of the creature’s milk.
The creature snuffled at them with an expression of curiosity then casually stood up, once more indifferent to the erfins’ presence. When the creature moved, the two erfins moved with it, dependent upon the cool generated by its body to keep them safe from the harsh sunlight. They followed closely as the creature nuzzled over the sand and stopped over a spot. With a glonking sound, it dipped its floppy snout deep, shovelling and throwing up sand with a great activity. Then it stopped its shovelling and burst open its mouth, munching at the insects it had uncovered. Mirrortac examined the insects, which were running about in alarmed circles, disturbed by their exposure to the air and sun. The creature continued to swallow them up with its long pink tongue, unperturbed by the erfin’s close scrutiny. The insects’ distended abdomens burst open in the creature’s mouth, releasing an unknown sticky fluid that the creature seemed to favour especially. Mirrortac picked up one of the insects and tasted the sticky contents - it was tangy and bitter yet was not counter to his liking. And the meat of the insect provided some small sustenance. He ate more of them until he was satisfied, silently thanking Mateote for sending him this strange but very beneficial animal.
He caught Fillytac’s bewildered expression as the elder shook his head. ‘I may drink of the milk from this creature but I will nought feast on the pestilence of the ground, especially of this Mateote-forsaken place,’ Fillytac scowled.
‘You will in time. Milk alone will nought sustain you,’ Mirrortac grinned.
Nearby, a youngling of the creature awoke from its own slumber and joined its mother, eagerly tugging at a teat to extract the much-needed milk. Neither creature showed any fear of the erfins and they were allowed to drink of the mother’s excess supply of milk whenever their thirst needed to be sated. Together, the four wandered about the desert until Luma sank below the horizon once more. In the night they rested, Mirrortac laying his head against the belly of the animal, partly to keep cool but also as a means of waking him up should the animal decide to arise at any time.
Throughout the night the massive dunes rippled and shifted in their place. Mirrortac awoke often, sometimes discovering that they were within the valley between dunes while at other times they would be on top. Above them, the indigo dome of the sky was asparkle with thousands of moon-drops which Mogog - the little god of the moon - had sprinkled across the night to keep the earth company while he went upon his errands in the Underworld. Mogog was the son of Mateote who banished him from the earth after he was discovered making love to the goddess of the sky, Luma. Mateote cast Mogog into the night where he would forever search for Luma who ruled the day. The nearer Mogog came to Luma, the less he would become until he was nothing; then he would begin the slow cycle of becoming full again. In this way, Mogog was forever doomed to his never-ending search for Luma who would always be beyond his reach. Luma, likewise, searched for him among the mountains and plains of earth, casting her bright light upon everything in her frantic and vain search for her lost love.
Mirrortac awoke with a start as his head hit the sand. The animal had decided to arise and seemed to be waiting for them. A faint orange glow preceded Luma’s rise into the day. The erfin stretched and fingered his greenstone necklace, looking out across the endless dunes which dominated every horizon now. He found Fillytac already awake and prepared for more travel. The creature and its youngling ambled away with the erfins behind, sharing in their insectine meals and milk. The creature and its youngling wandered farther into the wastes; taking with them the uncertain erfins. The day passed and another night then another day. Red fur grew back thick upon Mirrortac, providing token protection against the heat. The sand of the dunes was gradually becoming coarser as they penetrated farther into the desert where they found other insects and worms to eat. Still Fillytac would not partake of the ‘pestilence’, satisfying himself with milk alone.
Mirrortac looked out on the foreverness of Nug and sighed. ‘Where is this edge of the world?’ he shouted, throwing up his arms in despair. ‘The world is mooniths larger than any realise.’
‘This be the end of the earth!’ Fillytac proclaimed.
Fillytac stamped his feet and looked thoughtfully at the creatures. ‘If I were to follow my foté about such as this, we would be lost in the Wood of the Nite Wolf. Mateote knows where, but I will guide these creatures.’
The elder erfin directed the animals north. Occasionally they saw others of the three-eyed creature grazing on other dunes, and there were also new strange animals that were large and hairy with wide-ended tusks that they used to dig up the sand. Within the sands lived also an animal, a furless creature the size of an erfin. It burrowed out of sight whenever they came close, and they could hear its digging as it burrowed deeper below the dunes. All these new creatures were timid and afraid of the erfins yet unafraid o
f the creatures that had become their companions.
After 41 days in the desert Mirrortac’s fur had grown long and thick. The insect and worm diet was wearisome but there was nothing else to eat. ‘We must catch the digging animal,’ said Fillytac. ‘It looks good to eat.’ But the burrowing creatures could not be caught and they would not eat their benefactors. The sands were now coarse and crystalline in structure, sparkling with a sharp brilliance from their many facets. Fine sand was mixed in with the coarse crystals that tended to collect in the hollows.
Mirrortac could feel a change in the wind direction. Fillytac was alarmed when he sighted an ominous cloud of red dust whirling towards them from the west. ‘Oh Mateote! The earth has come to consume us!’
The creatures immediately hunched up their legs under them and lay their heads close to the sand away from the approaching storm. Mirrortac decided their instincts were the best judge of the situation, and lay down next to them, listening to the howl of the air as the dark red cloud rolled in over the dunes. Fillytac huddled alongside, quaking with fear. The sand began to bounce up all around them as the roar of dust and sand closed in. Then, quite abruptly, the air became a raging din of stinging darkness. The erfins snuggled in to the protection of the mother creature’s body as the sand pounded them, biting at every exposed part. Mirrortac could not dare open his eyes but lay still, huddling into the sand beneath him as the storm continued. All the day the storm howled until Luma was gone and well into the night, nearly to the dawn.
The erfin awoke buried beneath a hillock of dust and sand. He dug his way out and shook off the particles from his fur. His companion creatures were nowhere to be seen. And neither was Fillytac.
‘Fillytac!’ he shouted. He scanned the horizons but saw nothing save the peak of what appeared to be a mountain to the north. The change in the landscape was astonishing. The storm had somehow moved him a considerable distance. He was standing on top of a dune at the edge of a plain of bright sparkling sands. The light of Luma reflected off the plain in a rainbow of wonderous colour. Red and blue and green winked at him from amongst the coarse crystal sands and the air around him was cool compared with the heat that had plagued his march since the start.
Mirrortac slid down the side of the dune and stood at the edge of the crystalline plain. At close quarters he was even more amazed to discover the sands were littered with numerous greenstones and other gems. The colour of the finer sand was itself a shining gold - in fact, in the legends of the demi-gods this sand was what they called aureum, which, along with the gemstones, was considered precious and sacred to them. Mirrortac stepped onto the sands and gemstones, each step making rubbling sounds as the crystals clattered against each other. The peak of the distant mountain thrust up at the sky like a giant finger and groups of the large hairy beast roamed the sparkling plain. A movement nearby alerted him, and he saw a furry arm writhing out of the sand. He reached out and grabbed the arm, tugging until its erfin owner came scrabbling out, covered in grains of sand and aureum. Fillytac spat and gagged.
‘Great Mateote! I was nearly consumed alive!’ He cleared his eyes and tried to gain his bearings. ‘Where be we now?’ he jabbered, then looked up with delight. ‘Mateote?’ But his smile vanished, replaced with disgust. ‘Nay, another heathen place!’
‘Perhaps what I seek is here,’ Mirrortac mused. ‘We must go to this mountain. At worst it be a relief to the burning sands,’ he encouraged.
Fillytac flopped down on the sand. ‘I am weary. You go ahead. I will follow after a rest.’
Mirrortac ventured a few steps onto the plain, and then turned to his friend. ‘I will return as soon as I can.’
‘Go!’ The old erfin waved him away.
Mirrortac trudged towards the peak, which diverged into two separate mountains as he drew nearer. A dome-shaped mountain took form in front of the higher spire that rose behind it. Both mountains were made of a shining aureum and stone and caverns could be seen leading into them. By midday, the mountains loomed high above him, spanning some 1000 erfin-lengths at the broadest dimension of the dome while the spire was some 3000 erfin-lengths up. Mirrortac rounded the west side of the dome and was struck by the sight in the distance of a plain of stone spires and a weird hue of deep blue spanning the horizon beyond. He was about to speculate on this new vision when he noticed something odd about one of the hairy beasts standing nearby. It was quivering and unsteady on its feet. Like the companion creatures, it too had six feet, which could just be seen beneath its long shaggy coat. Two wide-ended tusks poked out from between the hair. There was a slight movement to the beast’s right. Mirrortac swung his head around and saw what was a strange legless being of the colour of orange and cream. It moved as though half sitting with a single flap of muscle which acted as a leg to pull it slowly across the sand. Its skin was reticulated and smooth like snakeskin and it was able to support itself upon two clawed hands. Two large and round blue eyes dominated its oval-shaped head that was covered in a thin layer of grey hair. A single horn jutted out from its forehead and two fangs protruded out of the corners of its mouth.
The being, whatever it was, faced the huge quivering beast, concentrating its horn at it. In moments the beast collapsed in a quivering heap and was dead yet no arrow had been cast, no sword had been plunged into its heart. Sensing danger, Mirrortac withdrew Moongleam and backed slowly away. The being noticed the movement and swivelled its head around to look into him with its unfriendly face. Mirrortac felt suddenly sick. All his body was instantly numb and his arm went limp. His sword dropped into the sand. Then, just as quickly, the nausea and numbness left him, but he still felt unsteady on his feet. Mirrortac regarded the being with fear. What dark power did this being possess? He bent down slowly and recovered his sword. The being was making loud barking sounds at him and cocking its head from side to side upon its neckless body.
‘Gabok! Gabok! Boka-Bik!’ it shouted at him, but like his first meeting with the faugs, the language was beyond him. Perhaps they have their own brand of Yu-essence, he pondered. But that would be too much to reckon upon.
Then, as though the thought had triggered something, Mirrortac licked his tongue as he tasted the very real flavour of Yu-essence. He felt his mouth and throat warm quite tangibly while there followed the after-taste of merma and a rustling sound in his ears. As he again focussed on the being, its barking gradually took form and he was amazed that he could understand it.
‘What are you that stands on its hind feet, you with your hair of fire? Did Wa-Ku send you? It cannot speak? Shall I eat it? Nay, it wears the stone. Nay, it wears the stone. Why does it not speak?’
‘I can speak,’ Mirrortac interrupted. ‘I am Mirrortac, Princeling Mirrortac of the Faugs and Mirrortac of Eol beyond the Wastes of Nug and the Faug Forest. I have come across the wastes from a place of trees and mountains. I have come to...’ Mirrortac bit his lip and went silent.
The being paused as though listening for more words, so Mirrortac continued. ‘And you oh weird one. Such weirdness in neither creature nor people have I seen. Who are you?’
The being looked him up and down, chomping with menace as it did. Then it laughed with an amusing honking sound.
‘Weirdness? Weirdness!’ it honked. ‘It speaks of weirdness when it is all that is weird in Petrosium! What is it speaking of trees? What is trees? I see no trees yet I see this that creeps out of the desert and calls me weirdness! It is as the Bilk that I have killed here yet it walks on its hind feet and speaks to me. It calls itself Mirrortac, Princeling Mirrortac, Mirrortac of Eol, Mirrortac of Faugs and yet it tells me nothing. It lacks words. Weirdness? Weirdness! Rock and stone, fur and bone. It belongs to both: fur and bone that we eat, rock and stone our home. What is it? Should I eat it anyway? Nay, it is speaking... it has the stone. Maybe Wa-Ku sent it. Maybe it is sent to listen. Yes, it wants to know who I am. Then I will tell it ... will I? Yes, I will tell it. It wants to know. Then you, Mirrortac, listen to me. I am Ro-Ku-Ku Buk Eekta Bu Mar Teeka W
ok-Bok Luku Uk out of Meeka-Tu-Ro-Ku-Ku-Mar Buk-Buk La Tuka Be Hoona of the fifth level of the cavern of Petros under the Dome of Petros.
‘I hatched at the ten-hundredth Petros moment of the seven billion, five hundred and four million, three hundred and nine-seven thousand, nine hundred and six-two Wa-Ku day. On my first day, I was too stupid to know anything and sat in the cave crawling around in circles. On my second day, I was still quite stupid and crawled around in the cave in circles and eating Bilk meat that was brought to me. On my third day....’ the being rambled on, detailing everything it did for every day of its 3,600 day life. Luma had crossed the sky to the west and it was night; still the being would not stop talking.
Mirrortac did not know what to do. The being’s incessant talk on such trivial detail was more wearisome than the endless desert. Time was passing and night was already upon them. He had endured enough.
‘Must you tell me every day of your life? This is tiring to the ear and I am hungry for food and rest. You have said so much, I have lost memory of your name and even IT is more than my memory can hold for long!’ he said.
The being looked very startled. ‘Hasty Mirrortac! Hasty Mirrortac!’ it barked. ‘I have not yet finished telling you who I am. If it cannot wait for a simple introduction then how can I tell it of my family? Where are its manners? Its ear is tired! It has two ears but speaks of one. What does the other do? They spring out of its head like those of the Colglom that wander the desert. But the Colglom stay on all their six feet. Does ITS ears tire? I don’t know. It stays in the desert. Maybe it does not want to listen either but at least IT is not hasty. Hasty! Hasty Mirrortac! Even its name is hasty. I say it and it is gone in one swallow. Mirrortac, Princeling of Faugs, Mirrortac of Eol! Silly Mirrortac! Hasty Mirrortac! Mirrortac is hungry. Mirrortac wants to eat rest. How does it eat rest? Does it want my Bilk? Go kill your own Bilk. Or perhaps it wants a Pok-Pok. Do you like Pok-Poks? I suppose it doesn’t know what a Pok-Pok is. Yes, it looks stupid at me. It doesn’t know what a Pok-Pok is. A Pok-Pok digs under the sand. It has two hands like me but it does not speak. It is stupid. It digs under the sand and the Bilk digs after it. The Bilk eats it and I eat the Bilk. I eat the Bilk so I eat the Pok-Pok. You understand now. But you are still stupid. I will ignore it and eat my Bilk,’ the being arched up its foot-like muscle and pulled itself slowly along towards the bilk.
The Wizard's Sword (Nine Worlds of Mirrortac Book 1) Page 15