There were of course many soldiers, who weren’t happy. At least 15 of them tried to run away along the path and into the hills. This is why the last group was set up in the village, to hunt such people down. It was led by the person best suited for it—Kazena. Villasboro was truly surrounded by a difficult terrain. It was easy for someone of Kazena’s caliber to track these men. Not even one of those who ran, escaped.
I split my time between the group helping Grim and the one training villagers to fight. I visited Flora a few times to get some herbs, to heal better from some of the minor injuries I had. Usually she was available in her store. When I went there, for probably the fifth time, I walked into Flora’s store and looked around for her. She wasn’t there. She was in the tent set up for the critically injured. I waited around for her, when I saw the suit of armor and the gigantic blade that I had seen during the fight with Azrial.
I had completely forgotten about that warrior. I was a little confused about the identity of this warrior, as at the time of the battle I had thought Johotei was the warrior. But given the suit was here, it could mean only one thing. The warrior was critically injured and was being treated by Flora. I made a mental note to ask her about that man’s identity and wellbeing. I wanted to thank the man in person for helping Elbir.
Flora soon came back into the store.
“Hi there. I hope you didn’t have to wait for too long,” she said, as she bustled into her store. She was busy through the day, taking care of patients, running around to get supplies for potions, making the potions. She had been at it for a while. It was showing. She looked extremely fatigued.
“Not at all. You look tired, Flora. You should get some rest yourself.”
Flora gave me a tired smile. “It’s nothing. I am just glad that all my patients are doing well. I just need to apply some warming potion on my injury. It usually helps. Hope you don’t mind waiting for a minute more.”
Saying that, she lifted her shirt on the left. There was a large bandage applied, which had turned brown, because of dried blood.
I sprang up in alarm. “Flora, you are still bleeding. Please sit down. How can I help?” Flora was the physician. I panicked as to how I could help the physician.
Flora waved me off. “You are a silly young man. I’m fine. This is not blood. This is the color of the potion I apply. It is a paste that is red in color.”
She unwrapped the bandages to reveal a large scar, stretching across the torso. The area around it had turned blue. I was further alarmed, even though the wound was not bleeding.
“Oh my god, Flora! How did you get hurt?”
“Well, in the battlefield there are bound to be injuries.”
That was true, but it was still difficult for me to see her injured. “But Flora, you are the only physician in this village. You have to keep yourself safe! Otherwise, the villagers will suffer. I am surprised you allowed yourself near the battle.”
Flora shrugged. “That’s true. But the day Grim asked the village to start preparing for battle, I asked the daughters of Parshtel and Finester to learn healing from me, so that I would be free to fight.”
I was surprised she was a part of the fight. I did not know she was eager to fight. It was another side to her already brilliant personality. As I was about to ask about her experience in battle, she shushed me. She needed to concentrate on her dressing. She applied the red potion, which hissed as she applied it to her damaged skin. She then covered it with a fresh bandage and pulled her shirt down.
She walked into her shop. “Wait here. I’ll get your potion.” She crossed over the armor lying on the floor, which reminded me.
“Say, Flora, I wanted to know more about the warrior who fought in this armor in your shop. I didn’t think someone in our village beside Grim and the village guard were as proficient in combat as this person was. In fact the warrior was second only to Grim in terms of combat.”
Flora returned, beaming. “Really! You think so? How kind.”
I didn’t really see anything particularly kind. It was fact. I ignored it, lest I forget enquiring about him.
“So how is this mighty warrior doing?”
Flora was blushing. “Oh, stop it. The warrior is doing well. A small scratch doesn’t really hurt.”
I was glad to know that he was fine.
“Oh, great! Do you think I can meet this person? I wanted to extend my thanks for helping Elbir on the battlefield.”
Flora was still blushing, although she now seemed a little confused. “Meet this person? … Oh do you mean like in the armor? For what? Like a quick spar?”
Now it was my turn to be confused. Why would I ask for a fight to congratulate anyone? What a weird thing. Maybe she learned from the soldiers she was treating. Maybe it was what the Valantian troops did to thank a brave warrior. I had no problems complying with this tradition. We had to learn from them as much as they had to learn from us. It was important, if we had to integrate well. For two villagers to demonstrate that they embraced the soldier’s tradition would go a long way.
“Ya, sure… a quick spar would be… great. But what about injuries sustained by this warrior in battle?”
Flora waved it off. “That’s fine. I am a physician after all.”
Everyone I know was glad that she was as good a physician as she was. For this man to be battle ready after a grueling battle with a Final 100 member was a testament to her ability.
“Today evening then, right here?”
She nodded as she hurried back out. I was excited to meet this villager. Which is when I realized, I hadn’t asked her who this man was. No matter. I would know when I met him.
I went to the store again in a few hours, carrying the Dhronari with me. The warrior was present, in complete armor and with his blade.
“I am so glad to see you,” I said. “This is a new tradition to me, sparring as a means of thanking someone. But we must learn customs of the world outside too, right?”
The warrior slowly nodded.
“Here goes. My thanks, with a sparring session,” I said, as I opened the proceedings.
I fired Dhronari mentally at the warrior. It wasn’t a strong shot, but I figured I could use this opportunity to hone my skills. It travelled reasonable fast, but the warrior just casually swatted the sword away with his colossal blade, as if it was a fly. I could sense the Azmoq in my opponent’s blade. Dhronari flew away and got embedded in the ground.
This was a little embarrassing. I decided to not try weak techniques again. I summoned the sword back, and charged. I slashed, stabbed from various angles. The warrior showed surprising amount of deftness, parrying each blow from my two-foot-long sword with his seven-foot blade.
Then the warrior decided to attack. I managed to parry all the sideward slashes easily. What was interesting was that all those attacks the warrior made were without using both hands, just his right hand. It was incredible. If well trained, this villager could easily defeat many Final 100 members, when they weren’t using their Azmoqian swords. As if right on cue, to demonstrate his strength, the warrior lifted his sword with both hands and brought it down with incredible speed. I tried to block it, but the sheer power of the move was too much for me to handle. Dhronari slipped from my hand and fell to the ground as I swung around and rolled away to avoid the falling blade. Both the swords ended up embedded in the ground.
The warrior shouted out, “Are you alright?” as I got up. This custom was a strange one. If it had been someone untrained, or even me a year back, that attack could have been fatal.
“I hope that ends the thank you,” I said sarcastically as I got up. Then the warrior spoke.
“You tell me. The customs of these Valantian troops surprise me,” said the warrior. I was a little surprised to hear what the warrior said. But I was extremely surprised by the voice that spoke. Although the voice was a little muffled, it sounded quite feminine.
“I am not sure,” I said uncertainly. Suddenly, I was unsure of the gender of this
warrior. I thought back to all my conversations with people, including Florence, to check if any of them had indicated the gender of this warrior. No one really had.
“Aren’t you the one who wanted to do this?” I continued tentatively. I was facing the warrior.
The warrior removed his or her helmet. “What gave you that impression?” said Flora, looking pretty surprised.
I was shocked. The warrior, who could wield a seven-foot blade like it was a toothpick, was Flora!
“Flora… what are… what… what are you doing in this armor?” I blabbered.
“Why are you blabbering?”
She seemed frustrated. “What do you mean, what am I doing in this armor? If you wanted to spar to ‘express your gratitude’ and didn’t want me to wear the armor; why did you ask me to?”
I realized the blunder I had committed. Assuming Flora was talking for some other villager, who was the mysterious warrior, through a completely misinterpreted conversation, I thought I had to thank that “warrior” for his help to Elbir with a sparring session. Flora thought I was asking her to spar with me in complete armor because I had come across it as some custom.
I explained this to Flora, who burst out laughing.
Laughing, she went and picked up my sword and handed it over to me. “Oh boy. You are a silly one!”
I smiled. It was rather silly of me. But I wasn’t at fault, since it was completely circumstantial.
“Well, yes. But would you believe me if I told you that this was an elaborate lie to get you to laugh heartily? I have never heard your beautiful laughter. It is definitely worth the humiliation.”
Flora blushed a little. “The outside world has made you a smooth talker. Thank you for the compliment.”
Sidestepping that humiliation with a dash of humor, I asked, “But Flora, truly you have become a good fighter. How did this happen?”
We started to slowly walk back to her store. She held the large sword over her shoulder, resting the flat of the blade on her shoulder. Although a great weapon in combat due to its strength and range, it was a bother to carry. As she lugged it till we reached the store, she told me her story.
“Well, it wasn’t expected. Once Grim called for the village to be prepared to defend itself, I started preparing as well. I started to stock my store with potions and train two more people, so that I would have more help if or when a battle would occur in Villasboro. During one of my trips with the other two into the forest, there was a branch of the Agrecea tree, which can be quite heavy, yet loosely attached. It works well as a defense mechanism for the tree. But Finester’s daughter Dory didn’t know this and stood below such a branch as it fell. I saw this and caught the branch from its tip. Grim, who also happened to be in the forest, saw this.
He immediately asked me to teach Dory and Ria all that I knew about emergency care so that he could train me to fight. I was more than willing. And I progressed well under his teaching. So he decided to create this sword for me. I loved my weapon so much I gave it a name – Haiton. He was also creating armors for all. Given that he created a sword for me, Parshtel and Johotei asked Grim to create my armor first so that at least one person was completely combat ready, before moving onto anyone else. And so I became your mysterious warrior,” she ended with a smile, as she proceeded to remove her armor.
“Glad we had this ‘thank you’ spar. You are right, I haven’t laughed that hard in a long time. It was definitely worth it. See you around!” She waved, then headed back to the tent to take care of the wounded.
As I left, I was happy that I could bring some joy to her. I was returning to Grim’s training sessions when I saw Karn and Elbir. I hadn’t seen them for almost a month as they carried out their planned deception.
“Hello there! The man who can control Azmoq!” shouted Karn as he spotted me. He had healed completely in the last couple of weeks, with no marks anywhere to show that he had been hurt.
“Hi there, six-bladed man. How come you are here?”
“The time has come,” he replied seriously. “The Valantian troops have been sighted marching towards the village. The preparations for our little deception are complete. Now, it’s time to see if it’ll work.”
Grim and the four of us decided that we had to be at the forefront, in case the deception did not work out. Karn and I were to take the center stage. The rest of them would stay behind, to cover our retreat if things went wrong. We also had the village guard, Parshtel and Flora for more fire power. We all headed out to the northern exit. Just as we took the first turn, we saw what had been done.
The entire path was covered with trees. Live ones. The path had first been dug up. Then trees from the forests on either side had been selected for the ease of movement and physically uprooted from their spot and replanted onto the path. Then some scrubs, creepers and foliage were also moved to create the right look, which was that there was no path. They had covered almost ten kilometers. It was a miracle that they had moved these many trees in just a month, and planted them in such an inconspicuous manner.
Although the path looked authentically covered, the issue was that there were still about a hundred kilometers of cleared path which the Valantian army would travel before coming up against an impasse. There needed to be an explanation for that. That’s where Karn and I came in. Elbir with his severed leg would be a little suspicious. So he stayed in the background with the others, hidden atop the trees.
We all reached the end of the replanted forest in a couple of hours. It was difficult to traverse the path, but that was deliberate. It had to be as dense as the rest of the forest. We reached the front of the path and waited. The Valantian troops were about a day away, according to the villagers working as scouts that Karn had deployed. The day passed in idle banter, with an uneasy tension in everyone’s hearts. If this deception failed, they would have to fight and kill the entire army that approached before anyone could escape. And then repeat the whole process of deception again, on the next, and possibly much larger, army which the Imperium might send.
As the day passed, we could hear the troops getting closer. The two of us got to work, chopping up some wood. The captain of the division asked for a halt as soon as they saw us. We acted completely surprised. They seemed genuinely surprised.
Karn spoke with complete servility. “Hi there, Captain. Top of the morning to you! How can we be of service to the Valantian troops who have travelled upon our humble path?”
The captain was suspicious. “Soldiers raise your swords,” he directed the two soldiers in front of him. “Who are you two?”
Karn said, lowering his head. “I am Basil and this is Austin. We are humble lumberjacks, sir.” I lowered my head as well.
The captain squinted. “What are you two doing here? Why is this path suddenly ending here?”
Karn pretended to be confused. “I apologize captain, but I don’t quite understand the problem. This path was created by us. And so, because we haven’t been able to push any farther, the path ends here.”
The captain was surprised. “You both created this path? This 100-kilometer path? Why? How? Are you insane? Do you think I am insane? Tell me the truth or get skewered right here.”
Both of us dropped to our knees and elbows, prostrating in front of the captain. We mocked fear. Karn still did the talking. “My apologies, sir. We do not want to offend you in any manner. We are telling you the complete truth. Please give us a chance to explain our actions and intentions.”
“Go ahead,” the captain said curtly.
Karn stuttered, telling the captain about “our lives so far,” acting out a fearful commoner perfectly.
“Captain, we… both have been lumberjacks all our lives... We travelled across the land, getting odd jobs here and there… and it didn’t earn us a great living… Well… A few years back, we came to this side of the country… What we realized… from conversations was that a lot of trade did not happen in this part of Morgenia… because of the forests blocking the path o
f the Grand River. If a path was open… maybe trade could flourish through the river.
So we decided to create such a path. We have been trying hard to cut up a path all the way to the Grand River. It has taken us 10 years to make this progress. We had more men, but they left due to the dangers of this task. So only the two of us are left.”
The captain was now thoroughly confused. “Isn’t this the path that we have to take towards …” then not wanting to sound stupid, he asked, “Was there another army unit that came here some time back?”
Karn still was on the ground, and so was I.
“Yes captain. There was. They weren’t convinced this path was the end and that there was nothing beyond. I tried to warn them about the dangers ahead. I don’t know if anyone was convinced. Anyway, when we returned after a few weeks, having sold some products unique to these forests in nearby villages, we found a lot of them had died while entering the forest. We are still finding their bodies, sire. We will soon stop chopping in this direction if we continue to find bodies.”
The captain was afraid now. “What bodies? How did they die? Who killed them?”
We continued to prostate. “Of course, sire. We will explain. The forest here has a particular drug called, ‘Blue Haze.’ I am unsure if you are familiar with it. It is the reason that these woods are infamous as the forest of delusion, Deliganti Verde. The drug is secreted by many trees in this forest.
“This drug induces severe hallucinations. If the person doesn’t exit the territory of the Blue Haze, they die as their minds can’t handle these visions. Sometimes, these hallucinations drive people crazy and they kill each other. It is the forest’s way of protecting itself. Many of our crew members suffered from the Blue Haze, despite knowing about it. A couple of them died also. That is why all of them left. I told the Major that this was the danger. But he didn’t listen. I told them that there had been three people, who had gone into the forest months back, but only two came out and rushed off. They were still lucky. But not everyone usually is. One of the survivors was with the army unit – he convinced the major that I was lying”
Age of Azmoq: The Valantian Imperium Page 49