Guards Vestige

by Alexander Adams

  When he returned, Daniel struck the stones together; causing sparks to fly toward the plant down. It didn’t seem to take long, but by the time the fire was roaring and the warmth was spreading through his wet and chilled body, the forest was black and he’d used nearly every stone he’d gathered. Jeremy had fallen asleep, his head listing to one side. Daniel sat next to his brother and checked his brother’s forehead and clothing. Thankfully, the clothes had mostly dried and he wasn’t too cold. Daniel sighed happily, pulled his knees to his chin, and stared at the fire as he thought on the day.

  No one had seen a valgret in the forest surrounding Sapella’s Crossing since before Daniel was born. As far as he knew, valgrets never ventured beyond the mountains. They usually stayed near the Bulwark in the west and The Spines to the east, where travelers were a rarity and they had free reign in the area. According to the stories he’d been told, they were vicious animals and highly territorial. Why one was here, and why it had been shot and wounded, made no sense to him.

  His thoughts were interrupted by a groan from Jeremy. “Daniel?”

  “What is it, bud?”

  “What if that thing comes back?”

  “I’ll stay awake and watch for it. I’ll keep you safe.”

  Daniel sat sleepy-eyed with his back against the dirt, and watched the forest grow brighter. As the sun rose, rays of light pushed through the treetops, cutting through the gaps like golden blades. He’d struggled to keep his eyes open but had managed to keep his promise and stay awake through the night, peering into the forest the entire time. The fire had gone out hours before and was now nothing but glowing coals and smoke. Daniel had debated going for more wood while it was still burning but had decided it was better to let what little was left burn out and stay with Jeremy. He also considered letting Jeremy sleep a little longer but decided against that as well.

  Daniel shook his brother awake. “Hey bud,” he said, “let’s go. We’ve got a long walk ahead of us.”

  Jeremy groaned and rubbed sleep from his eyes. “My clothes are still soaked.”

  They were hardly damp, but Daniel smiled and humored him. “Yeah, mine too. Come on, we need to get going.”

  Daniel kicked dirt onto what remained of the coals, more out of caution than necessity, before leading Jeremy back to the river. They started their long walk upstream, climbing over fallen trees and pushing their way through undergrowth. Thankfully, close to the bank it was relatively clear, and for several spans they walked unhindered. Daniel had never been in this part of the forest before. Though the unfamiliarity didn’t bother him thanks to the guiding river next to them, he was still concerned about the valgret. The more he thought about it, the more he believed that it had survived the fall. Meaning, it would be between them and home.

  “Do you think the monster is gone?” Jeremy’s question in the silence startled him.

  Daniel lied. “Of course it is. If it wasn’t, it would have found us by now.”

  “What if it comes back?”

  “Then you run upriver toward home and I’ll try to lead it into the forest.”

  “What if it’s faster than you are?”

  “Then I’ll go for a swim in the river again.” He smiled at his brother to reassure him but clearly failed.

  Jeremy’s face still wore a sour and worried expression.

  They kept walking, stopping occasionally to listen to the sounds of cracking branches or birds taking flight in the distance, always keeping an eye out for black fur and grey skin. Daniel thought back to the scene at the falls. The valgret had zeroed in on him after he had struck it along its wounded side. It had completely ignored Connie and Alphonse as he and Jeremy backed away. It was like it had been toying with them. He was sure it had even smiled, and possibly laughed at them. Which was impossible, he knew that. None of it made any sense.

  After several hours of walking, Daniel glanced up and saw the sun was directly above, signaling midday. The journey home was taking longer than he’d expected. The speed of the rapids had carried them farther than he would have guessed. He just hoped they wouldn’t have to spend another night in the forest. If he had been alone he would be moving faster, but with Jeremy he had to slow his pace. His brother wasn’t the most graceful person. He tripped over his own feet more often than not.

  The air around them grew eerily quiet. Daniel was uneasy. The forest was always full of sound. But now there was nothing. He felt as if they were being watched. Suddenly a loud crack came from the tree line, quickly followed by another, and then another and the sounds grew steadily louder.

  “Daniel?” Jeremy gripped his brother’s arm.

  He gently started to push Jeremy behind him as the sound from the trees grew louder still. Soon the sounds were near enough he could make out an occasional grunt or curse mixed in. Daniel’s tension eased. This wasn’t the valgret, he was sure of that at the least.

  In the next moment, a large man burst through the trees and tripped on an exposed root, causing him to stumble forward into the open. “Verhova save me,” the man grunted, “I hate the bloody forest.”

  The stranger was taller than Daniel by several inches. He was wide and muscular, with golden blond hair and a thick beard, both trimmed short and slightly unruly, with several pine needles sticking out of them. He wore bulky, heavy leather armor dotted with orange-tinted steel studs. Slung across his back was a large kite shield with orange veins running across it, much like the studs that dotted his armor. At his waist was a sheathed broadsword, black leather wrapped around the hilt. The sword’s pommel and guard were made of the same veined metal as the shield. It was a peculiar coloring Daniel had never seen before. Yet, he was sure he had seen, or at the very least heard of it before. But he couldn’t quite place where. It reminded him of water reflecting firelight or a stone etched with a jewel vein.

  The stranger regained his balance and looked around. When he spied the brothers, he pointed at them with an armored hand and said, “Are you Danny?”

  The question made Daniel uneasy. He kept his brother behind him since the man clearly had an idea of who he was. “I’m Daniel,” he answered. “Who are you?”

  The man approached them with an outstretched hand and a massive smile. “My name is Kenneth. I’ve been looking for you two all morning.”

  “Who are you?”

  “I’m Kenneth. Weren’t you listening?”

  “No, I mean—” He was cut short by another figure breaking through the wall of underbrush, though she did so with far more grace. She rushed over and placed a hand on the man’s arm and said, “Kenneth!”

  This woman was short at five feet and rather thin. Her cropped black hair was matted with sweat, as were her clothes—loose-fitting black, with a skirt in addition to trousers. Her armor was thinner and sparser than Kenneth’s, covering only her chest, lower legs, and forearms. She gripped a short sword that was etched with orange. Slung over one of her shoulders was a rather plain, large bag.

  “Where is Mila?” she asked.

  Kenneth looked back at the trees before answering. “She caught sight of it when you split off and went after it. If we’re lucky it will lead her straight to the rest of the pack. It seems like we finally caught up with them. Just in time too.”

  The more Daniel looked at them, the more something nagged at him about their appearance.

  Kenneth glanced at the brothers. “We have to get them out of here,” he said. “Take them upriver, back to Sapella. I’ll find Mila and the two of us can deal with the pack.”

  “Are you sure?” the woman sounded concerned.

  “We’ll be fine, there were only a few left and they were injured. Should be no problem,” Kenneth said, before he pointed at the brothers. “Just get them out of here.”

  The woman nodded and began pushing Daniel and Jeremy with firm but gentle hands. Daniel glanced behind and saw Kenneth disappear int
o the trees, already grumbling about the density of the forest. Once he was gone, Daniel dug his heels into the dirt, making them stop in their tracks.

  “We’re not going anywhere with you,” he said to the woman, “until you tell us who you are and what you’re doing out here.”

  She sighed and nodded. “I’m sorry. You’re right; I can’t expect you to tromp through the woods with a stranger.” She smiled and reached out her hand. “I’m Claudia Wells.”

  Daniel shook her hand hesitantly. “Daniel Summers and this is my brother, Jeremy.”

  Claudia’s smile disappeared. “I know this must be rather frightening for you, but we have to get out of the forest as soon as we can. It’s not safe here. I promise I’ll explain on the way. But we have to keep moving.”

  Daniel considered for a moment. It wasn’t as if they really had a choice at the moment. They were heading the same way, after all. Claudia stepped up to walk beside instead of behind them as they resumed their trek.

  “You boys are lucky Kenneth found you when he did,” she said. “There was one just through the trees watching you, but Kenneth’s so loud it heard him coming a mile away and ran off.”

  “There was one what?”

  She looked at him as if he were joking. “A valgret of course.”

  His heart skipped. “It was watching us? Just watching?”

  “They tend to do that.”

  Daniel glanced at Jeremy, who suddenly looked very frightened. He changed the subject. “So, uh, how did you find us?”

  She laughed softly. “A lot of stumbling around trying to keep up with Mila, the stumbling being quite literal for Kenneth. We might have passed you had it not been for him scaring it off like that.”

  “How did you know we were out here in the first place?”

  “Your friends were looking for you around the falls yesterday evening. We ran across them while we were tracking the pack. They told us what happened. We sent them back to town and started searching for you ourselves. But it got dark on us and we couldn’t keep stumbling around blind with valgrets in the area, so we made camp next to the river and started looking again at first light.”

  Daniel noted the plural. “You said valgrets. How many are there?”

  “There’s more than one?” Jeremy asked. He gripped his brother’s arm tighter.

  Claudia saw the fear on Jeremy’s face. “Oh, uh, there’s only a few,” she said. “Don’t worry. Mila and Kenneth can handle them just fine.”

  Daniel glanced at Claudia’s armor again. Suddenly it dawned on him: tracking valgrets, orange-etched steel, and the leather.

  He thought he knew who they were now, but he had to be sure: “So who are you people, are you apart of a mercenary band?”

  “I’m a scholar with the Dragon Guard.”

  Daniel simply stared. He’d known the answer was coming, but it stunned him all the same.

  When Claudia noticed he hadn’t replied, she turned and looked at him inquisitively. “Are you all right?”

  “You’re really a Dragon Guard . . . ”

  “Yes.” She stopped walking. “Is that bad?”

  “No, it’s just, uh . . . ” He felt foolish. He didn’t know what to say.

  “He wants to be one,” Jeremy answered for him.

  Claudia’s gaze swept to Jeremy and then back to Daniel. A smile spread across her face. “Is that so?” she said. She lightly pushed Jeremy along and kept walking, forcing Daniel to come out of his stupor and follow.

  “Yeah,” Jeremy said, “he’s wanted to be one for as long as I can remember.”

  “That’s quite a long time,” Claudia said. She glanced behind her at Daniel. He knew his face was flushed.

  “He even has a book of stories about Dragon Guards,” Jeremy continued. “He reads it all the time.”

  “That’s interesting. What kind of book?”

  Jeremy shrugged. “I’ve never read it because I don’t know how, but it’s real small and the stories are really short. He read it to me a couple times before.”

  Claudia smiled as she glanced back again. “Very interesting . . . I might have to read this book myself.”

  Daniel’s face felt like a fire as he whispered to his brother, “Please shut up.”

  Jeremy either didn’t hear him or simply ignored him. “He was even reading it yesterday.”

  “Well, he’s very lucky then. We can take him with us to Vigil after we’ve dealt with the pack. The Dragon Guard would love to have him.”

  Daniel’s heart skipped. Did he hear that correctly? They were going to take him with them?

  Jeremy sounded sad: “He can’t go.”

  Claudia glanced at Daniel. “Why’s that?” she asked.

  For a moment he’d completely forgotten about why he hadn’t already left. “I can’t go,” he said, “without my, uh, my mother’s blessing.”

  “Why not? I left without my parents’ approval when I was around your age.”

  “I just can’t leave her like that.” He sighed. “It’s complicated.”

  “I see. Well, I hope it becomes less so.”

  He desperately wanted to steer the conversation away from him. “So, what exactly is a scholar? I’ve read about the different sects in the book but it’s not really very detailed.”

  “We’re mainly diplomats, historians, medics, and so on.”

  “How many different sects are there, anyway?”

  “Well, there’s scholars, there’s—”

  A loud crack from the tree line cut her off.

  She whirled at the noise and drew her sword in a blur of motion while placing the brothers behind her. For a long moment the only sounds were their breathing and the wind whipping through the trees. Not once did Claudia move while focusing on a single point ahead of them. She never averted her gaze as the seconds dragged on.

  All at once, a growl broke the silence and a blur of fur and teeth barreled toward them. A valgret leapt at them.

  Claudia reacted quickly. She crouched and swept her foot out, knocking both brothers’ legs out from under them and sending them to the ground. The creature’s momentum carried it over the three of them. It tried to grab them as it sailed past, flipped end over end, and splashed into the river behind them.

  “Run!” Claudia shouted as she helped Daniel and Jeremy to their feet.

  They started upriver. Daniel risked a glance behind them and saw the valgret slowly clawing its way out of the water. Once on land, it started after them without hesitation at an alarming speed.

  Claudia too saw it gaining on them and hurried them on. They dodged low branches and jumped over rocks and roots. Jeremy stumbled and started to fall but Claudia grabbed him by the tunic and threw him over her shoulder with surprising ease for her size. They ran as fast as they could but Daniel heard the valgret getting closer. He forced himself to keep his eyes forward.

  Ahead of them, a woman in black suddenly emerged from the trees. She lifted a longbow and drew back the string as she aimed right for them, pausing for a moment before she released the arrow, seemingly sending it straight at them. Daniel heard the whoosh and felt the wind as the arrow passed by his head.

  The valgret howled with pain. The arrow had clearly struck its mark. With incredible speed, the woman grabbed another arrow from the quiver hanging from her belt and fired again. They slid to a stop next to her as she readied another arrow. Daniel looked back at the creature as it slowed, then came to a stop a dozen feet away from them, clearly more cautious after its injuries and their swelling numbers.

  Claudia gripped the stranger’s shoulder. “Mila!” she said. “Thank Verhova you’re here. Did you find the rest of the pack?”

  Daniel took a moment to look the woman over. She was as tall as Daniel and almost as slender as the longbow in her hand. She wore nearly the same style of armor as Claudia,
though with added protection along her shoulders and biceps as well as her thighs. Beneath it she too wore plain black, along with a ragged black scarf wrapped around her neck and pulled over her head like a hood, obscuring her face in shadows.

  A soft voice spoke from beneath the hood: “They’ve moved on.”

  “Then why is this one still here?”

  Mila turned toward Daniel. “From the story told to us, I would guess it wants him.”

  Daniel was confused until he looked back at the creature. Now that he could see it clearly, he realized it was in fact the same one from the falls. It still had the broken arrows in its shoulder and chest, which were now accompanied by two more in nearly the same spot on its breast. It locked its gaze on Daniel and crouched low to the ground. Mila and Claudia immediately stepped in front of the brothers, sword and bow at the ready. The valgret reared back slightly before growling again and starting forward at a careful pace.

  Before it completed a second step Mila fired another arrow into its chest, causing it to stumble backwards. In the same instant Claudia lunged forward and slashed at its outstretched right arm. She cut deep, making the beast flinch and back away. Claudia ran past and to its side. The valgret swung its left arm at her head, the clawed hand spread wide. She ducked low and backpedaled out of its reach, her back now to the raging river.

  The valgret lunged for her again but was pushed back by another Mila arrow, which embedded itself in the beast’s chest at an angle. It howled and jumped at Claudia, who rolled forward and underneath it. She rose and spun with amazing speed to drive her sword into its back, burying half the blade.

  This time the valgret didn’t just howl. It screamed in rage as it whirled and caught Claudia in the stomach with its forearm, sending her backwards into a tree and to the ground.

  Mila fired again, but the creature turned its back, hiding the spot Mila had been aiming for. The valgret walked awkwardly, keeping its back to Mila but advancing toward Claudia. Mila fired two more arrows, planting them next to each other at the nape of the beast’s neck. She was clearly trying to get through the thick hide and cause lethal damage but to no avail. The valgret raised its arm over its head and flattened its hand, preparing to drive its claws into Claudia’s chest.