by Noah Layton
I had killed men in plenty of ways, but I had never strangled anyone before. It was painful and slow, like drowning, but he was one of them, and he deserved it – the power I felt with this being’s life literally in my hands, combined with the fact that he likely had knowledge of my missing wife’s fate, only made me grip harder.
That was right… Fate. For all I knew, she could have been dead.
‘The women,’ I said, trying to think of a similar word. ‘Wives.’ I pointed to Lara and Elera where they stood nearby, looking out into the forest. ‘Where?’
I allowed the wood-elf to turn his head beneath my grasp slightly. He set his eyes on my wives, then looked back to me.
He smiled.
A guttural, cackling chuckle followed through the massing of blood and bile in his mouth.
‘WHERE?’
I brought my face to within half a foot of his. I didn’t care if he spat at me – I would pummel his face into the ground.
But then, in his dying moments, he managed a single, obscured utterance.
‘Zagor… Zagor…!’
He looked so happy with himself that he almost managed to shout it, but the exertion of those sounds were the final efforts of his life. The smile sharply faded, his whole body tensed, and then he went limp beneath my grasp.
I stared into his lifeless eyes for a moment longer before pulling my hand away and looking up to Ralos.
I expected him to be shaking his head in self-contented disappointment, but instead he was looking at the wood-elf’s corpse with a deeply unsettled look on his face.
The moment he caught me looking at him he readjusted his expression to the stern one that he always had, his brow furrowed and focused.
After ascertaining no outside threats, my wives re-joined me at my side while Ralos’s guards joined him.
‘Did he speak of anything?’ One of the guards asked.
‘Nothing of consequence,’ Ralos replied flatly.
‘He said something,’ I said, looking between them. ‘Zagor. What does that mean?’
The guards both sniggered to each other.
‘What’s so funny about that?’ Elera asked.
‘It is but a story,’ one of the guards said, cleaning the blood from the tip of his spear.
‘The demi-god of a feral people,’ the other chuckled. ‘Likely begging to be handed into the arms of his overlord. His words are of no use.’
The guards returned to tending to their weapons. I glanced between them, then back to Ralos, expecting to see a look of silent mockery – but that wasn’t it. Seriousness was still present.
He glanced up at me once more from the body and turned away sharply, cleaning off his weapon on a blanket covering a nearby log.
‘We are not far from the bridge of Keltamir,’ he said. ‘It is best that we find somewhere to sleep for the rest of the day until night falls. Moving onto the wood-elves’ land in darkness would be much more beneficial to us.’
‘Is stopping really the best plan?’ I asked. ‘The more time we leave between catching up with them, the more likely they are to be in real danger.’
‘Darkness will aid our mission greatly. Invading their land during daylight will be a death sentence. We are of no use to our lost people dead.’
I could usually pull my tactics together to get through the impossible, but with the loss of Santana my mind was still all over the fucking place. The anger and the grief over her kidnapping had clouded my judgement more than I could even begin to believe.
As much as I hated to admit it, Ralos was right. He might have been an asshole, but he was a decent tactician.
We quickly searched the wood-elves encampment for any information, but there was nothing of consequence. Out of habit I searched their inventories but found that they were carrying few things on their persons aside from minor rusty weapons and old pieces of food.
We destroyed what was left of the camp, then amongst us quickly heaved the bodies of the five human-sized wood-elves into thicker sections of shrubbery in the forest.
The wood troll was impossible to move. We could tell that just by looking at him, as well as the shaking that the ground had given off when his body had struck it.
Instead we did our best to cover him with bark and leaves, hoping that the creatures of the forest would feast on his remains and his comrades’ before another wood-elf troop came along and found them.
I knew that they were expecting our approach, just not in what form or from what direction.
But if they found the bodies, their land would be on an even higher alert, ready for our imminent approach.
Once the job was done we continued through the forest for another mile, moving quickly and quietly without the help of the potions of haste at a steady jog.
Around three miles from the bridge of Keltamir Lara’s voice called out to us.
‘Hold.’
The six of us grouped together quickly and looked to where was she pointing.
I wasn’t sure what I was looking at at first, but then my eyes focused on an unnaturally flat section of wood high in the trees above. The branches that supported it were thick and stable, and as I followed it further I saw that it was connected to a cluster of other trees that supported further platforms of planks hidden among leaves and foliage.
‘No ladder,’ I commented.
‘The wood-elves do not require them,’ Ralos said, looking up to the lookout post. ‘They are excellent climbers. They simply crawl up the trunks. It is why we remove any taller trees in the forest surrounding our homeland. The high ground gives them too much of an advantage. We must find our own way up.’
By my estimations the platforms were ten yards above our heads. That distance stretched out horizontally on the ground was nothing, but vertically it was a whole other story.
Dropping from that height would be like falling out of a fourth story window, and if the fall didn’t get us then the wood-elves surely would.
But it was our only choice. If our enemies really did abandon their posts once they were done with them, then it made sense for us to occupy one that had been left behind.
We could be safe, if at least only for a few hours.
At the base of a nearby tree we found a low-hanging branch that was sufficiently strong enough to hold the strain of our repetitive climbing.
Elera went first. I went to give her a leg-up, but she ignored my gesture and leaped up to it deftly, pulling herself onto its surface and then climbing sharply to the next.
Living in the forest her whole life had afforded my nymph more than a few extra skills, namely moving fast. As I watched her move higher and higher, I just hoped that her blue skin wouldn’t be an easy target against the greens and browns of the wilds.
I tried to rest easy on the fact that she had survived this long.
Lara followed; she wasn’t as fast, but the lean strength she possessed took her upwards quickly in pursuit of Elera.
All that was left was for me to follow.
I jumped and grabbed the branch, wrenching myself up and securing my footing. I had never been afraid of heights, especially considering the fact that I had been a pilot in my previous life, and this time was no different; scanning the branch just ahead, I calculated my jump and leaped forwards, swinging a little on the thin but sturdy pole of wood and using the momentum to swing myself up and onto it.
Just behind me, Ralos and the guards made short work of the path through the trees. They kept up with me just fine, their lean forms moving so swiftly it was as if they were carrying half of their body weight.
In no time the distance from the ground multiplied, and before I knew it I and my wives were crowded on a cluster of branches just a few yards from the edge of one of the platforms.
‘One of us should go first,’ Elera suggested, looking over her shoulder at me from her crouched position. ‘We need to make sure there are no threats.’
‘I’ll go,’ I said. ‘Just hang back in case anything goes wrong.�
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‘Why are we delayed?’ Ralos called up from behind me. ‘Rest is not a commodity that is easy to come by in these parts.’
‘You can be well-rested or you can be dead,’ I called back. ‘I thought you’d be the first to want to approach this strategically.’
‘My strategy is to kick the door down and start swinging. I would advise you do the same while you are up there.’
‘I’ll take that into account,’ I called back, flipping him off with my middle finger over my shoulder.
‘What is that?’ Ralos asked. ‘What is that hand gesture?’
‘It means thank you.’
I moved carefully past Elera and Lara, edging along the jut of a broken branch and readying myself for a jump.
I had to time it perfectly. A single fault in my technique and I would go plummeting down to the earth below.
Trading and building in Agraria might have worked like a video game interface, but getting hurt didn’t bring make a dropping health bar appear.
Flesh could be sliced and bones could be broken, and death was very real.
I swayed myself, one foot on the branch and the other on the platform, then launched myself forward.
The end of my foot reached the edge of the platform, and one of my yearning hands just managed to grab hold of a higher branch that allowed me to wrench myself up.
I metaphorically wiped my brow, but there was no time to congratulate myself. The moment I had made sure that my footing was secure, I retrieved my sword and scanned the treetop lookout-post.
It was spread out between two canopied layers of branches and leaves; those below that had obscured our view, and those above that kept the sunlight at bay a little.
The boards were secure enough, stretching out across several trees and wrapping around trunks. It took the form of a sophisticated treehouse, offering a secure space to relax.
I held my sword before me, edging along the panels and examining every area that lurked beyond my eyeline, behind tree trunks and around corners.
There was no sign of a threat, but there were signs that the wood-elves had been occupying this area some time ago. Logs acting as seats and old pieces of food were scattered around, even an old spear that was broken in two and the rusting head of an axe that had been left behind.
To my relief there were no enemies present, and there was plenty of space for us all to get some rest in the meantime.
I returned to the edge and looked back down to my companions.
‘It’s safe,’ I called over to them. ‘You can all come on up.’
Elera moved first. I offered a hand to her as she jumped across, but she ignored me completely once again and landed expertly on the platform before shooting me a smile and brushing past me.
Lara moved next, grabbing my arm for support but not needing it.
‘Don’t suppose you need me to hold your hands, do you?’ I said down to Ralos and the guards as they followed the route to where I and my wives had just been standing.
‘Hardly,’ Ralos said arrogantly, looking to his guards.
They moved first, and for the first time I saw the brilliance with which they moved. One after the other, the guards propelled themselves through the air at a speed that seemed impossible to my eyes. I stepped aside sharply as the first launched himself straight at me.
My head spun in his direction, and for a second I thought that the speed would bring him down hard onto the wooden platforms – too hard, for that matter, to the point where he would bring the whole structure down, and us with it.
Instead I was surprised to see the lightness with which he landed. His connection with the boards hardly made a sound.
I turned just in time to see the second guard do the same, landing gracefully.
Impressed, I turned to see Ralos, the last of our group, readying himself to make the jump. The guy was full of himself, and I had no doubt he would be the same about his upcoming move.
‘Stand aside, human,’ the heir said. ‘We sun-elves may appear to land lightly, but do not underestimate our strength. I would sooner knock you down.’
‘Whatever you say,’ I replied, standing aside and leaving him enough room.
Ralos jumped – and his foot slipped.
He yearned forwards, his hands madly scrambling with minds of their own for something, anything, to cling on to.
That anything had to be me.
I moved sharply forwards. Throwing myself to the ground and leaning over the edge, I reached out and wrapped both of my hands around Ralos’s forearm.
By some miracle I caught him.
His body was heavy as he swung in the air by my grasp. For a moment he looked down at the drop below, past his swaying legs from ten yards above the ground.
Then he looked up to me.
It would have been easy to gloat, but in that moment, as we glared back at each other flatly, there was no judgement, no smile, no anger.
I grunted with strained effort, wrenching him up a little before balling my hands into a fist. Tensing, I lifted the sun-elf up until his free hand could grab hold of the platform ledge.
From there he pulled himself up, and I stepped back to let him make his entrance.
He breathed deeply, wiping himself down and looking back over the edge before meeting my gaze again.
‘Thank you,’ he said quietly, bluntly even, before nodding at me and brushing past, into the innards of the post.
***
After making the place a little more comfortable with the help of some blankets, we had set up a small sleeping area near the point along which we had arrived. It would be seven hours till sundown, allowing enough time for us to rest and eat something before the trek to the bridge at nightfall.
We agreed to take hourlong shifts on lookout until then, but my main concern was actually managing to get some sleep. I had been forced through training designed to test the mind and the body to their limits back on Earth, but sleeping during broad daylight was something that I always found tough. I craved total darkness.
That wasn’t the only thing stopping me from sleeping, though. The thought of stopping during our mission to rescue Santana felt like a betrayal of everything I held dear.
But deep down I knew that I had to do it. Our group was composed of strong fighters, but we were of no use if we went in swinging blind in an attempt to rescue our stolen women, falling asleep before we had a chance to land a single stroke.
Fortunately, the sun-elves had methods for just such an occasion.
One of the guards handed round a single large red leaf to each of us, including Lara and Elera who were leaning up against a large tree trunk by my sides as we stretched out beneath blankets.
The girls took it casually, but I only examined it in confusion and looked back and forth between them
Lara tore off a piece of the leaf and consumed it, then Elera did the same.
‘What the hell are you doing?’ I asked them both.
They both failed to respond, Lara shaking her with a grin at the edge of her lips while Elera stifled a laugh.
The sun-elf guard that had handed them to us replied before consuming his own.
‘Aurora leaf,’ he said simply. ‘To help you sleep. Place it upon your tongue until the taste disappears, then remove it. Your shift is last, so I suggest that you use all of it.’
He placed a piece in his mouth and headed to his own bedroll.
I examined the leaf once more, then placed it into my mouth.
To my surprise it possessed the sweetness of milk, then honey as the tiny spores pressed against my tongue.
I indulged in the flavour until it vanished, then removed it and set it aside, just a few moments after my wives did the same.
‘I cannot believe you don’t know what aurora leaf is,’ Elera giggled.
‘I’m not from around here, remember?’ I said. ‘There’s a lot of things I don’t know.’
‘It is probably best that you do not know about such a thing. If you
take it too much you can’t sleep without it.’
I settled into my bedroll and tried to clear my mind. Even though my missing wife was still on my mind, the leaf took control, and within minutes I had passed out.
***
Sunlight glowered through the trees into a heavenly clearing. Within, a woman was standing. Her hair was a beautiful, sun-kissed red, her dress a much darker colour.
‘Santana?’
I moved closer, feeling weightless. I couldn’t hear my footsteps on the dry, leafy ground, but I knew that I was getting nearer to her.
If I could just reach her.
I began to run. The forest stretched out endlessly, her image moving further away.
I sprinted harder, rushing ahead for ours until everything condensed, and she was right in front of me.
‘… Santana?’
‘Please don’t leave me to die, husband.’
I placed a hand on her shoulder and turned her towards me.
The first thing I saw was the bouquet of flowers held in her hands. They were flourishing and budding perfectly.
I looked up at her smiling face.
‘Are you… Are you okay?’
She didn’t respond, only continued to smile back at me.
Her smile became wistful and she looked down at the flowers in her hands.
I followed her gaze. They wilted rapidly and began to decay, as if weeks were passing in the space of seconds.
‘Jack…?’
I looked back up and no longer say my wife.
Her face was decaying like a rotting corpse, her hair withering. Her eyes dried and turned to rot, dripping down her face, and her mouth opened in a silent scream.
‘No…’
I staggered back, and her arms raised like a zombie.
She collapsed towards me, falling into my arms and crumbling into dust.
‘Santana?!’
I shuddered awake and sat up sharply. The sun had become low, filling the lookout post with a deep orange light. By my sides, Elera and Lara were sleeping soundly, and on the other side of the platform the guards were doing the same.
Had I said that out loud or was it part of the dream?