The Axe's Edge

by Summers, Derick J. M.

  That would be the forest helping you heal, El spoke softly in his mind. Are you planning on coming home tonight?

  Sorry, I guess I kind of lost track of time out here.

  Logan felt a little sheepish as he thought about all the work that was going undone while he played hooky in the forest and El’s laugh carried through their link.

  Oh, don’t worry about the work. The boy you hired arrived with the donkey and supply wagon this afternoon, so there will be plenty for you to do tomorrow. Enjoy your break.

  It’s not a break, he replied defensively. I’m exploring the forest for any signs of potential threats.

  Of course you are. Serious work. I would never suggest that it seemed an awful lot like playing in the woods.

  Logan mentally stuck his tongue out at her and the last thing he heard was her laughter as she let go of the contact between them. Logan snorted out loud.

  Playing, he thought. She thinks I’m playing.

  A sound in the distance caught Logan’s attention. His sensitive ears strained for further noises as he cocked his head in the direction of the sound. Again he heard it, a soft scrambling noise in the distance. Logan silently followed his ears deeper and deeper into the forest.

  As Logan closed on the disturbance, he realized that it wasn’t a horde of enemy soldiers coming to kill him and his kin. Logan sighed aloud. He was going to have to get past this fear of his, before it debilitated him.

  Seriously, he ranted at himself. I’m afraid to venture more than a few miles from the house because I’m terrified we’re going to be attacked again. First of all, El, Tanel and Smash are all perfectly capable of taking care of themselves and second, it’s not like my presence is going to stop an attack from happening. Logan snorted at himself derisively. If anything, my presence might very well instigate an attack. Enough’s enough. I have to let this go.

  The noise came again and Logan realized it was concentrated in one area to the west. Approaching stealthily, Logan realized that it was clearly not the sound of weapons or armour. The scrambling had grown in intensity as he had neared the source of the disturbance. It reminded Logan of claws scraping against stone.

  As Logan approached the source, he found that the forest floor was becoming treacherous. It was no longer even remotely level and it seemed to fall in on itself in places. Large holes and caverns dotted the area with the forest trees and foliage doing its best to fill these areas with green life. It was in one of these holes that Logan finally found the sound he had been tracking. The hole he found was relatively fresh and the forest had not had time to reclaim the opening. Peering carefully over the edge, Logan was surprised at the depth of this particular pit. He was even more surprised at the occupant struggling to free itself at the bottom.

  The figure in the hole was a pale, mottled, and grey in colour, with incredibly wide shoulders and a mop of shaggy dark hair on op of its head. Its massive, overlong arms ended in massive heavy hands, each finger ending with a severe looking claw. The creature was currently trying to use those claws to climb its way out of the pit. It was failing. The creature’s weight was too great for the weakened clay walls and every time the creature heaved itself up it simply pulled a portion of the wall free with its claws.

  Logan recognized the creature trapped at the bottom of the pit. He’d met one before on his travels north through the Great Swamp. It was in fact an ogre, though in fairness this particular one was small for its species and Logan wondered if it might be a young one. Regardless of its size or apparent lack thereof, the creature was still far too large to be able to climb the soft pit walls. There was the possibility that it might succeed in tearing enough of the wall away that it might be able to escape by making a makeshift ramp, though as Logan watched it seemed far more likely that it would simply create a landslide and bury itself under rocks and earth.

  Logan watched the young ogre take another crack at pulling itself up the crumbling clay wall. Again, its weight was its downfall and it tumbled back into the pit still clutching handfuls of the porous stone. Moving away from the pit, Logan searched the surrounding forest for something he could use to assist the trapped creature. Whatever he found it would need to be strong. The ogre might be small for its species but that still made it bigger and heavier than Logan himself. If he’s had to guess, Logan figured the ogre stood at least a foot larger than he himself, and was likely weighed a good hundred pounds more.

  Ogres, very solitary creatures, were poorly known or understood in Tir’an. In fact, the creatures were so rare that many didn’t believe the big creatures existed at all, putting down stories about them to simple myths and legends designed to scare children or entertain at parties. Logan and his friends knew better, they had encountered one of the massive creatures in the Great Swamp, when he, El and Lan had crossed it on their way to free Tanel. That one had easily been nine feet tall with limbs like tree trunks. Thankfully, it had wanted little more than to be left alone.

  Logan collected a number of the thick vines that twined their way up the forest trees. A single vine would never hold an ogre, even a juvenile one, but he figured that if he braided several of them together he might just be able to create a workable rope.

  Nimble fingers making short work of the vines, Logan was soon ready to attempt to free the trapped ogre. Tying one end of his vine to a large tree, Logan approached the edge of the pit and peered over. The young ogre was clearly frustrated. A scattering of small rocks and stones surrounded him, evidence of his failed attempts to climb out of the hole. Logan threw the free end of the vine rope into the pit and the ogre looked up in surprise.

  Dark, beady eyes sunk deep in a heavy brow peered up at him. Logan met the ogre’s gaze and motioned for him to take the rope. The ogre watched him for several moments cocking his head to the left and then to the right as he studied him. Logan noted that this ogre was just beginning to develop the protruding tusks that he had seen on the one in the Great Swamp.

  Definitely a juvenile, he thought to himself. I wonder where mom and dad have gotten to.

  Logan beckoned to the young ogre again and was pleased when it finally approached the vine rope. Logan smiled in what he hoped was reassurance and nodded encouragement.

  “That’s it, that’s it,” he found himself repeating as the ogre began to pull on the braided vine, bracing its feet on the rock walls of the pit. Unfortunately, its previous exertions had left the creature exhausted and to Logan’s dismay, he watched it fall back as its arms gave out and it slipped back into the pit with a roar.

  Logan thought for several moments. Finally, he began the most frustrating game of charades he’d ever played. He again caught the ogre’s attention and tried to mime tying the vine rope around his waist. He hoped the ogre would get the idea. Unfortunately, it just stared at him with those small beady eyes, obviously not understanding what Logan was asking it to do. Frustrated, Logan pulled the vine rope up and actually tied it around his waist, showing the ogre exactly what he wanted. The ogre watched him intently. Logan untied it and threw it back down to the waiting ogre. Thankfully, the ogre seemed to finally understand and proceeded to secure the rope. Logan smiled and nodded encouragingly.

  When the ogre was finished with his knot, it looked back up toward Logan expectantly. Logan nodded and mimed holding the rope. The young ogre wrapped his massive hands around the vines and looked quizzically at Logan.

  Here we go, thought Logan.

  Wrapping his own hands around the vines and bracing his feet, he pulled the vine rope taut. With a smile and a nod to the ogre in the pit, Logan began to pull. Hand over hand, Logan hefted the ogre off the ground. Initially caught off guard, the ogre swung toward the rock wall in surprise before bracing his feet to allow himself to walk the vertical surface. Logan had been correct. The ogre was at least a hundred pounds heavier than he himself but his over-long arms and blacksmith’s muscles were up for the task. His grip, like the iron he worked, held firm and inch-by-inch he pulled the creature from the
pit. With a final heave as the ogre reached the lip of the pit, they both tumbled onto the forest floor.

  Taking a moment to slow his breathing, Logan pushed himself back up to his feet. The ogre had already regained his footing and was fumbling with the vine around its waist. Logan was struck by the similarities between his and the ogre’s body shape. Both were very wide through the shoulders, about one and a half times what would be considered proportional to a human and almost twice that of an Elf. Both had overlong arms and relatively short legs that allowed them to move on all fours as the mood struck them. Not to say they were exact matches, far from it actually. Amongst other things, the ogre had small, beady eyes, while Logan’s were large and wide offering him incredible night vision.

  And thankfully, I didn’t develop the upward pointing tusks or the snout of a nose, thought Logan. Talk about not fitting in.

  With a start, Logan realized that the ogre had finished with the vines and was studying Logan as closely as Logan was studying him. Logan chuckled at this and held out his arm to the ogre in one of the more universal signs of friendship. The ogre looked at him for a moment before clasping Logan’s arm in a crushingly powerful grip. A growl rumbled from the ogre.

  “Thank you,” translated Logan’s talisman.

  “Welcome,” Logan replied with a smile and a nod. The ogre turned and lumbered into the forest.

  Logan watched him for a moment or two before turning back toward home himself. The sun was now low in the sky and Logan realized that there was no way he was going to make it home before dark.

  I’m going to be late, he thought to El.

  I was wondering what you’d gotten up to out there, she replied.

  Logan smiled to himself as he moved through the darkening forest.

  Wait ‘till I tell you about our new neighbour.

  The Joyous Monotony Of Life

  Unsurprisingly, the rebuilding and running of the homestead turned out to be a full time activity that just seemed to eat away at the hours. It also required everyone’s focused attention, which conveniently left very little time to worry or stress. As the busy days slipped into busy weeks, the incident with Ar’n’tor and his crew of warriors and mages became little more than a memory. Not a particularly pleasant memory, but a memory all the same.

  Logan had told everyone about their new neighbour when he’d returned from the forest, but so far he was the only one to have met the young ogre. Neither El’dreathia nor Tanel reported seeing the ogre, or any trace of it, during any of their forays into the forest. Initially, Smash had been concerned that the ogre might be a potential threat to the women and despite Logan’s warnings to the contrary he brought up his concerns over dinner. Tanel had frowned severly at the big man, crossing her hands across her chest while El created a wall between the troll and his food. Their displeasure at the suggestion they needed protecting was clear and Smash quickly dropped the subject.

  Logan had hoped his friend had gotten the point, but the next morning at breakfast, Logan found him collapsed face first into his bowl sleeping peacefully. Tanel’s self-satisfied smirk told Logan that Smash had foolishly pressed the issue about the need to protect females. With a sigh he’d pulled his friend out of his bowl and left him snoring at the table while he went about fixing his own breakfast. El and Tanel both studied Logan in silence, waiting for him to say something, anything. He’d simply raised both hands in mock surrender and quietly left for the forge to eat his breakfast in relative peace.

  The forge had become the place where Logan spent most of his days. Using the iron stock he’d gone into town to fetch, he first built a set of tools for himself and then began working on tools and other miscellaneous items to sell in Solan Bay, often losing himself as he worked long into the night. Thinking about it, he realized that this was one of the happiest times in his life. The work was hard and strenuous, but he loved being incredibly busy and losing himself in his projects. He loved the simple physicality of the work and the artistry of the design. In many ways, it made him feel closer to Hagar, the man who had raised him like a son, but it was more than that. Logan experienced a sense of clarity that he found oddly freeing to his spirit when he focused on the task at hand and nothing else.

  From the beginning, Smash had tried hard to make himself useful around the forge and Logan quickly began including the big man in his craft. Logan was thrilled to find that the troll seemed to have a natural affinity for the smithy. Before too long, Logan had Smash working on his own, tackling a number of simpler, smaller projects, developing the big man’s skill and dexterity with the various forge tools. Admittedly, he’d had to customize some of the tools for the troll’s larger hands, but the time he’d lost doing that was quickly made up by having four hands to share the load.

  For El’dreathia, the weeks of work and activity represented a time of peace and relative relaxation. Aside from her own magical studies, she assisted Tanel with the herbs and other medicinal plants the young healer needed for her healing arts. Both women benefited from the shared experience and Tanel found herself learning a great deal about Elfin magic as her own human magic continued to develop. Tanel’s life seemed to be in a state of flux. Freed from the pain and horror of her enslavement, she found her senses and abilities expanding at an incredible rate. In many ways she was still more than a little fearful about magic, but it flowed so easily through her and it seemed such a natural thing that she was unable to ignore it. Tanel felt that she was undergoing a re-awakening into a strange and vibrant new world that she’d never realized existed. Working with El’dreathia eased that rebirth.

  With as much of an education as she was providing Tanel, El was pleasantly surprised to find that she herself was gaining as much as she was giving. El’dreathia’s Elfin teachers had always taught her that human magic was an abomination against nature. That, if allowed to flourish and grow, it would taint the purity of the Elfin magical power, but working with Tanel, El decided that she disagreed.

  In her opinion, rather than taking anything away from or tainting the magic, as she understood it, the human magic seemed to offer a new perspective. It could almost be described as a spice that added some new flavour or level to an already familiar dish. Unlike Elfin magic, which focused on accelerating and channelling the natural rhythms of the energy that flowed through all things, human magic was distinctly more aggressive. It seemed to stem from an act of ‘will’ imposed on the energies that comprised the world, altering those energies to suit the mage’s specific desires. It was easy to see how such an approach could have catastrophic results on the world as a whole, but El could also see that there were potential advantages to this approach.

  She and Tanel used much of their time together to explore the mysteries of both. Soon, the two women were mixing the two magical styles into each other, using the advantages of one to counter and overcome the limitations of the other.

  Another of Tanel’s duties soon became dealing with the village of Solan Bay. Logan’s hero status made it challenging for him. He had never been fond of being the centre of attention, and even though it was now a positive attention as opposed to the far more negative type he had endured growing up, he still found himself uncomfortable with it. Likewise for El, with her Elfin beauty the attention she received in town was more of a hindrance than a help. She, too, preferred to avoid it whenever possible.

  This left the responsibility to Smash and Tanel. In Smash’s case, the residents of Solan Bay were still not completely comfortable dealing with a mountain troll, though they were quickly becoming used to his presence as he often accompanied Tanel. So it came to be that every couple of weeks Tanel and Smash would walk into town, leading their donkey and laden cart to sell Logan’s metal work or her own medicinal herbs. They would also take the opportunity to purchase anything that they couldn’t make or grow themselves.

  Over several months, with regular visits, they were able to put away enough supplies to carry them through the coming winter. The old trade routes to
Solan Bay were opening up again and thanks to favourable weather for the seed the former slaves had brought back with them, the town had produced something to interest the visiting merchants. A couple of them took particular interest in Logan’s iron works, often comparing it favourably to his father’s. It wasn’t too long before Logan found his work in high demand.

  Gods, This Resort Is Popular

  El woke with a start. One of the wards she had set deep in the forest surrounding the house had been triggered. She had set the wards to trigger silently to ensure that no would-be intruder would be given a warning that their presence had been noted. Rather, the wards simply set off an alarm in El’s mind. Someone was in the forest and they were coming this way.

  Letting a part of her consciousness drift away from her body, she allowed her thoughts to be taken by the winds and carried through the forest. The tripped ward called to her like a beacon, as it was designed to, and the freed portion of her consciousness flowed toward it. Casting about, El was careful not to allow too much of her presence to manifest. If there was another group with mages in the party, she didn’t want them to know that the element of surprise had been lost. Admittedly, this also limited the amount of information that she would be able to gain, but it was a matter of balancing the risk and the rewards. The element of surprise was a significant reward and any knowledge she gained would be useful.

  As she searched, she became aware of the approaching group. Holding as far back as she was, she was only able to tell that it was another large group, though not as large as Ar’n’tor’s, and that they were moving quickly. If she were to hazard a guess, she would say that they were Elves, though whether that was because that’s how they felt or because that’s what she was expecting was something she didn’t feel certain. Returning through the forest to her body, she experienced what she knew to be a very normal sense of disorientation as her awareness again became solely bound in the temporal confines of her physical self.