Chapter Nine: Aefort
There was only one stop along the hyper-rail line where a passenger could disembark between Gartol and the Summit. This unmanned weigh station was at the mouth of Hadrian's Canyon. Originally, it was built because from time to time, the river flowing through the canyon would flood and submerge the hyper-rail line. If this happened, a passenger could exit at the weigh station and walk a rather treacherous cliff-side trail for the remainder of the journey to Gartol. The Gartolians had since figured out how to stop the canyon's flooding, so now the only reason that someone got out at the weigh station was if they wanted to travel into the woods.
Once they had reached the mouth of the canyon, Xander slowed the car to a stop and the two companions exited the hyper-rail. The moons provided enough illumination for Xander and Belkore to easily find the forest trail. They followed it for several minutes. As the trees became larger, the sounds of the forest increased until the canopy was alive with the nighttime songs of the woodland animals.
“I don’t know how anyone could sleep with all of this noise,” grumbled Belkore. “How much farther?”
“Don’t know. Never been here,” replied Xander.
“What if he’s asleep?”
“Then we wake him up,” said Xander.
“If you ask me, anyone who would choose to live out here instead of in the city, has officially lost their mind,” said Belkore.
“Oh, I don’t know,” said Xander as he pulled back a tree branch that was blocking the path. “I think it would be kind of fun.” As he said this, he let go of the branch and sent it springing back towards Belkore who just barely managed to duck underneath it.
“Are you ever going to grow up?” said Belkore.
“I certainly hope not,” replied Xander. Then he held up his hand. “Wait a minute. Did you hear that?” Both Gartune stopped walking. The birds were quieter now. Xander looked around slowly.
“I swear to the gods, if I walk into some crazy Aefort trap, I’m going home,” said Belkore.
“Quiet!” whispered Xander. “I think somebody is watching us.”
“You smell,” said a voice from above the two Gartune. Belkore and Xander looked up. In the tree above them, hunched on a large branch, was a grey-haired Gartune. His bare feet curled over the tree branch and his knees were pulled up to his chin. To his side he held a eüroc, planted in a notch in the bark.
“I think he was talking to you,” whispered Xander to his friend.
“I was talking to the both of you!” replied Aefort. “I could smell you the minute you got off your little train.”
“And what do we smell like?” asked Xander.
“Idiots,” replied Aefort as he jumped out of the tree and landed softly next to the two Tormada. “You smell like idiots. And you,” he poked Xander in the stomach with his eüroc, “smell like a floater.”
Belkore sneered at his friend. “And what does a floater smell like, master tracker?” asked Belkore.
“Smugness… and fire,” replied the old Gartune.
“Hmm,” said Xander, his eyebrow raised. “So you know their smell. That could come in handy where we’re going.”
“I assume by ‘we’ you mean the two of you, because I ain’t going anywhere,” replied Aefort.
“But you haven’t even heard our offer yet,” said Xander. “I’m told that I can be very persuasive. Perhaps there is somewhere that we can go and talk?”
Aefort studied the two Gartune for a few moments. His grey, bushy eyebrows halfway concealed his violet eyes, but even so, Xander doubted that those eyes missed much. Eventually Aefort grumbled something to himself, then turned and walked into the forest. Xander and Belkore took this as a sign to follow, so they silently fell in line behind the old tracker.
Aefort’s pace never slowed, even though the path he chose contained several obstacles to traverse. With casual sweeps of his eüroc, the old ‘Mada brushed away hanging vines, scraggly bushes and tree branches, paying no mind to where the impediments rebounded, which just so happened to be at Xander. Belkore laughed from behind as Xander dodged several swinging branches. “Not so funny now, is it?” he laughed. Xander didn’t respond; he was too busy avoiding a heavy vine that came swinging his way.
Eventually, they came upon a clearing in the woods. At the center, stood an old wooden shack that couldn’t have contained more than one room inside. Puffs of smoke rose from a rusted chimney on the roof and the smell of cooking meat wafted towards the Gartune.
“Ah, good. I’m starving!” said Belkore.
Aefort frowned at him. “Then I suggest you go catch something to eat.” Belkore’s face dropped.
“Don’t be rude, Belk. You can’t just invite yourself to a man’s table. Afterall, he has a family to feed. Speaking of,” said Xander. “Are your children home? I’ve heard so much about them and I would very much like to meet them.”
The side of Aefort’s lip curled into a smile. “Then say hello.”
Xander hesitated a moment, then put his hands to his mouth and shouted at the cabin. “Hello there!”
Muffled laughter came from behind Xander. But it wasn’t Belkore. Xander spun. Standing just five feet behind him were two young Gartune; a boy and a girl. And they were identical. Twins, thought Xander, musing at the chances that The Scales would have allowed two sets of Tormada twins to occur at the same time. What are the odds? That must have been a particularly violent battle eighteen years ago for The Scales to be overwhelmed so quickly.
The brother and sister were not much more than six feet tall. Xander could tell by the color in their eyes that they had just recently received their metal. Soon they would be as tall as him, but for now they looked like normal tormans, if you didn’t look at their eyes.
“This is Damnar and Damina,” said Aefort. There was a hint of pride in his voice.
“How long have you two been back there?” asked Xander.
“Pretty much the whole time,” said Damnar. He had a big grin on his face.
“Impossible,” grunted Belkore. “We would have heard you.”
“I liked it when he almost hit you with that branch,” said Damina. “It was funny.” Belkore’s jaw dropped.
“It looks like there’s more than one master tracker in these woods!” said Xander. “Your father has trained you well.” He turned to the old Gartune. “Very impressive, Aefort. You should teach a class in Gartol. I hear they are in need of good instructors.” He glanced sideways at Belkore, but his friend was too busy scowling at the twins to notice Xander’s jab. Aefort, however, appeared to pick up on the slight and he cracked a smile.
“Who are you anyway?” asked Damnar.
“This is the prince of Gartol,” said Aefort.
Xander raised an eyebrow. “I wasn’t sure that you recognized me.”
“It’s been awhile, but you haven’t changed that much. I saw you once or twice before the king sent you off. Besides, who else would smell of Reysa?”
“Well, it’s an honor to formally make your acquaintance,” said Xander, extending his arm to Aefort. The old Gartune paused for a moment before extending his own arm. The two Gartune grasped each other’s forearms for several moments, then, surprisingly, Xander broke off first.
Aefort studied the prince with those sharp, eyebrow-covered eyes then finally nodded. “Well, come on inside, since you’re here. There may be a bit extra in the pot for ya.”
Xander, Belkore and the twins followed Aefort into the small house. Once inside, the five Gartune nearly filled the entirety of the space. There was a small, cracked table in the center of the room surrounded by three wooden chairs. There were a couple of well-stocked cupboards and shelves, but no furniture other than the table and chairs. An iron pot hung over a small hearth at the end of the room.
“Where do you sleep?” blurted Belkore as he looked around the room disapprovingly.
“We sleep where we want!” exclaimed Damina.
“Why would anyone want to sleep indoors
when you could be outside with the stars and the animals?” added Damnar.
“And what if it rains?” asked Belkore. The twins just shrugged. Belkore shook his head and began to take a seat at one of the chairs but Xander quickly shot him a glance that made him stand back up. Aefort grunted as he stirred the concoction bubbling inside the pot.
“So, let’s have it then,” he said as he continued to stir. “The sooner you tell me why you’re here, the sooner you can leave.”
The twins sat down in their seats at the table and eagerly watched Xander as if he was about to tell them a story.
“Well, you see,” began Xander. The twins looked up at him excitedly. They were hanging on his every word. “There’s been an incident in Reysa. A couple of Reytana have escaped into the forest and they need to be found.”
“So why aren’t you searching for them yourself right now?” Aefort dipped a spoon into the pot and tasted the concoction, then went back to stirring.
“Excellent question!” said Xander. “I would expect nothing less from such a seasoned tracker. Your reputation indeed precedes you.” Aefort shot Xander a glance that very clearly said ‘get to the point or get out.’ So he continued.
“I suspect that the escapees are going to join up with the Lost Reytana. So I gave them a bit of a head start, knowing that, with your help, we could easily pick up their trail later and follow them to their destination.”
“Which you assume to be the hideout of the Lost Reytana,” said Aefort.
“Correct,” said Xander.
Aefort sipped his concoction again, this time approving of the result. He began to ladle the stew into bowls. Belkore watched greedily as the old Gartune placed a bowl in front of Damnar and Damina, and then sat down at the table to join his children.
“So you think that you’ll be able to find the single most sought-after location in the entire Crescent?”
“No, I think that we will find it!” exclaimed Xander. Belkore rolled his eyes at his friend’s exaggerated excitement but the twins were eating it up just as fast as they were eating their stew. Belkore scowled at Damnar and Damina as they shoveled spoonful after spoonful into their mouths, totally oblivious to the salivating Gartune standing next to them.
“Then you’re a fool,” said Aefort, turning his attention to his own bowl. “Even if you did find their lair, which even your own father hasn’t been able to do for the past eighteen years, what then? Do you expect to take on the entire Reytana army by yourself? Do you think they will just let you leave and go tell the king their location? No, if you find them, then you’re dead. And if you don’t find them, well… I don’t want to be the one to tell Hadrian that you have failed.”
“You’re assuming that the only way to find the lair is to get caught,” said Xander. “Well, I don’t plan on getting caught. This mission is strictly reconnaissance.”
“What if you find the escaped Reytana before they lead you to the hideout?” asked Aefort.
“Ok, not strictly reconnaissance,” said Xander. “If we find the fugitives and they don’t lead us to the hideout, then we’re taking them prisoner.”
“Just like that?” asked Aefort. “You don’t think they’ll fight?”
“You are awfully concerned about fighting,” grumbled Belkore. “You may be old, but you’re still a Gartune. We don’t shy away from a fight!”
Aefort slowly looked up from his bowl. Xander shook his head. He knew that any chance they had of Aefort joining them had just vanished.
“There’s that old Belk charm,” said Xander.
“You two should be going now,” said Aefort.
Xander patted Belkore’s shoulder and led him out of the house. “Come on, we’ll just have to track them on their own. How hard can it be?”
The two Gartune hadn’t taken ten steps outside of the house when they heard a voice shout, “Wait up!” from behind them. Damnar came rushing out of the shack. He carried a eüroc with a small bundle tied to the end of it.
“Take me with you!” he exclaimed.
“Me too!” came another shout from the shack. Damina burst through the door, tying a similar pack onto her own eüroc as she did so.
The twins stood eagerly in front of the prince, awaiting his orders. They looked as if they wanted to salute, but were unsure as to the proper form, so they simply stood at attention with their arms straight at their sides. Xander looked past the brother and sister towards the house behind them. Standing in the doorway was Aefort. He wore a disapproving look on his face, but he gave Xander a small nod anyway.
“Well, it looks like we have our gang after all,” said Xander to Belkore. “Let the hunt begin!”
Belkore scoffed and then turned towards the forest but Xander held him back. “Why don’t we let these two lead the way.”
The hyper-rail car was more crowded now. Xander leaned back in his chair and inspected his 'gang.'
In their youth, Belkore and Xander had been at the top of their combat training class. They constantly competed with each other to see who was the strongest, the fastest and the most skilled. Over time, their competitiveness grew to a friendship. Though Belkore did not share Xander's quick wit, he shared his quick reflexes. There was no other man that Xander would have trusted to fight next to him.
Belkore sat by himself in the corner of the hyper-rail car and stared reproachfully at the brother and sister across from him. Twins were a rarity amongst Tormada and often occurred during times of battle. This was because The Scales sometimes became overwhelmed with the incoming auras of dead Tormada and occasionally let too much of the aura spill into the river. This occasionally resulted in twins. Twin children were considered blessings in both the Reytana and Gartune culture, because The Scales only regarded the twins as one child. Thus, a twin constituted a "bonus" Tormada and a few bonuses could turn the tide of any battle.
Chances are, Damnar and Damina would not be responsible for turning the tides of a battle.
It was shortly after the end of the Eighth Great War that Aefort decided to adopt the twins. Actually, decided may be the wrong word. He was persuaded to adopt them. Aefort had no interest in being a father and was perfectly content to live a solitary life. But, at nearly two hundred years old, that solitary life was nearing its end. The Gartune (and in particular Hadrian) decided that before he returned to The Scales, he would need to impart his wisdom to a new generation of Gartune. For, Aefort had a particular skill set that was unequaled among the Tormada. He was the best tracker in The Crescent. The Gartune would not let his skills die with him, so they insisted that he adopt children and impart his knowledge on to them. Enter Damnar and Damina.
Just because Hadrian had mandated that Aefort become a father didn't mean that he was required to be a good one. He fed and clothed the children, as was his responsibility, but that was about the extent of his parenting – until the twins turned ten. For some reason, Aefort decided that ten was the proper age to become a tracker.
Since he had never trained anyone before, he didn't exactly have a blueprint for the most effective method for teaching his craft. He just did the first thing that came to mind. One day, he took the twins out into the middle of Dellwood Forest, and left them there. They had no gear and no instructions, just the remains of their own tracks to follow back home.
Once he had left, it began to rain. After three days and no sign of the twins, Aefort began to rethink his decision to abandon them in the forest. However, that afternoon Damnar and Damina stumbled through Aefort's front door; wet and hungry but smiling ear to ear. It was then that Aefort knew they were naturals.
He began to actually teach, and the twins soaked up his knowledge with a ravenous thirst. They started to take weekly trips out into the woods. Aefort would blindfold them and then leave a trail to follow home. Eventually, that became too easy for the twins, so he began to leave false trails as well. One day, he decided to lead them directly into a mendkin hovel. Fortunately, the beasts had already eaten that week, so the twi
ns were able to escape unharmed, but they learned their lesson and that was the last time they were fooled by a false trail.
Soon, the twins' skills began to approach that of their very own father. News of two young trackers spread throughout the city, even reaching the ears of Xander in Reysa. Still, Xander’s first choice had been Aefort. But if he couldn’t have the master, then he would take the apprentices. The idea of chaperoning two adolescent Gartune as they grew into Tormada was not what Belkore had in mind when he agreed to join Xander's search party, and he made no effort to hide his displeasure.
"I would put that down before you hurt yourself," said Belkore to Damnar as he clumsily twirled his new eüroc in his hand. The young Gartune frowned but acquiesced to the older ‘Mada. It was unwise to get on Belkore’s bad side this early in the journey, so he sat back in his seat and pouted. Next to him, Damina fidgeted quietly with the button on her eüroc that triggered her chosen tre'ance – a tiny saw blade that spun rapidly as it went up and down the top half of her staff. Her eyes gleamed as she watched the devious device whiz up and around her eüroc. Belkore shook his head disapprovingly. "Kids..." he grumbled to himself.
"You know, maybe if you two are lucky, old uncle Belkore here will show you how to use those things," said Xander.
"Not bloody likely," replied Belkore. "You chose those idiotic contraptions. You figure them out."
"You'll have to forgive him," added Xander. "He's more of a traditionalist when it comes to tre’ance choices."
"Yeah?" asked Damnar. "What did you choose?" he asked, pointing at Belkore's staff.
Belkore tapped a hidden button on his eüroc and a large, gleaming scythe popped from the end of his staff. Simple, deadly, and incredibly intimidating. The twins eyed it with equal parts fear and admiration. Damina glumly retracted her saw blade and looked down at her feet.
"Hmmmph", snorted Belkore as he retracted his scythe with a satisfied smile.
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