The Rokkaia Chronicles

by Rhys Thomas

  But I figured this traps probably wasn’t meant for catching ‘snozzcumbers.’ “What the fuck is that?” I mouthed-whispered to Ariana; as the big giant stood to its full lumbering 15-foot height. Its back had a slight hunch at the shoulders, so it’s head and neck were positioned just a little lower towards it’s chest.

  It swayed around as it rotated about, clearly trying to find whatever prey that had been caught and escaped. We ducked instinctively and I looked to Ariana again and saw a faint smile appear across her face. Thin black gaara lines webbing towards her neck.

  “How the fuck should I know you idiot?” She mouthed back at me, and I frustratingly gave the middle finger which perplexed her. Good.

  “Well considering your from here I thought maybe...” I mouthed.

  “Maybe I’d what? knew all the miraculous and majestic wonders of this foreign continent,” she mouthed back to me.

  “Good point,” I conceded. “Well... have you got anything like this on Pharon?”

  “Pyhronia,” she immediately corrected. “And no, there are a few creatures that I know of that share similar skin colour- but they all turn to stone in daylight.” We kept a wary eye on the giant man-thing. It turned back our way, it’s gaze sweeping from area to area.

  We ducked even further in on ourselves. But just before we did, I caught a glimpse of its face. It had a ragged beard of wiry ginger hair. A single massive eye inlaid the centre of its forehead so wide that it was bridging the space near its nose, which meant its nose looking squished. The single pupil was a dull ominous bloodshot-red and above that was a horn that reminded me of both a narwhal and a unicorn—which may not be that different- the horn I mean. Not the animal.

  The horn was a thin spearing tooth about three inches wide and a foot long from base to peak. Its mouth were a pair of thick sickly pale grey lips and cracked with dried scabs layering them. Two 5-inch tusks lipped out at the sides; through the gap of its open mouth.

  The single eyed giant swung it’s head back and forth like a monitoring spotlight but after a strenuous few minutes of silence. It paused to glance up at the sky and then turned back to the broken wiring of its trap.

  We shuffled up and watched in silence, our hushed breathing sounding heavy and loud to our own ears. *Marisa. You got any answers, you’ve been awfully quiet,* I thought to the little dragonling, her head swivelled slightly to peer directly at me.

  *It’s a wild ogre Al, a nomad. They’re usually a reclusive race hiding away at Banes Horren under their ruler: the ogress. The nomadic ogres though, are either terrible raging monsters that are cast out for cannibalism, or they’ve found another way to contain their urges and simply want to live alone.*

  *And by urges, I hope you mean a craving for strawberry ice cream and not the slaughtering kind of I’m gonna to split this man in half and fill my cup with his entrails kind of ice cream?* The look she gave me, said all that was needed. *Can they be reasoned with- can this one be reasoned with?* I asked. She looked towards the hulking ogre. It’s stupidly massive arms falling down towards it knees as it’s thick fingers moved surprisingly dexterous as they went about reassembling the wire trap.

  *Tian managed to somehow recruit a few nomads. I didn’t see how though as I had just begun fragmenting myself in search of you and needed constant rest. But either way I wouldn’t with this one, or any nomad for that matter,* she said firmly; I noted a flicker of distaste in her tone as she finished.

  *Why not? This one doesn’t seem to have lost its awareness or gone into a murderous rage,* I thought back quizzically.

  *Alaric, when I said the nomadic ogres either go blood thirsty or learn to control their rage, I never said that those that learnt control actually stop hunting people. They’re just doing it smarter.*

  My focus drawing back to the nomadic ogre as Marisa voice became wary, *this isn’t something you can face just yet, ogres are incredibly resilient and heal quite fast if they aren’t killed quickly. Their only natural weakness being water and that’s only because it conflicts with their motor functions and slows them down. We’re just lucky we aren’t facing a troll right now or we’d all be dead. The ogre included.*

  My eyebrows climbed at Marisa’s admission; but I knew she was telling the truth. I doubted anything I swung or jabbed at it with would pierce it’s thick grey skin. The ogre stood back up and extended its huge palming hands around the wiring and with a quick heave I saw the counter weight in the distant tree elevate off the ground.

  The counter weight as it turns out was a thickly sized tree trunk wound tightly in corded wiring. It’s dimension almost the same diameter as the ogres bloody leg.

  “We can’t fight this,” I mouthed to Ariana who had been patiently peering between Marisa and I, “At least not yet anyway.”

  She nodded emphatically in agreement, both of us knowing full well that even if the other could maybe stand a chance against the ogre. One of us would still be helpless and useless. Which meant, Ariana could have a chance of fighting the ogre while I stood around shouting encouraging words to her.

  We waited as the ogre finished prepping it’s trap, re-covering the wire cuff on the ground with dirt and leaves. Though it looked dumb as hell, all of its movements were carefully measured and meticulous.

  After a few extra minutes we breathed a sigh of relief when the ogre started off at a slow pace in the direction it came.

  “Oh, thank god its leaving,” I breathed just as its head swung back and it’s eye narrowed directly on our location.

  “Oh, fuck it’s coming back,” I squeaked into my hand. It took two lumbering gorilla-like steps, it’s whole body swaying with the action when a branch impacted against the side of its head. The ogre huffed in annoyance and glance upwards, I followed his focus but kept myself hidden and looked as a familiar shape darted between the trees.

  *Thanks, beautiful, you saved our asses. Think you can lure it away and then come back to me?*

  *Yes, just don’t do anything idiotic while I’m not there to laugh at you.*

  *Be safe,* I sent back my gratitude and cast a glance at the ogre as it snarled at Marisa as she swept low and extending her front claws, she sliced 2-inch-deep scrapes along the top of its head. I snapped my focus to Ariana and saw the scout had a white knuckled grip on the shaft of her axe.

  The black tendril tattoos were weaving from her fingers and into the wood of the handle. “Alright- this, this is what we’ll do. We’ll swing a wide birth around and through this forest as we climb higher. Be on the lookout for more traps. I wouldn’t be surprised if the ogre has this entire forest before us rigged.”

  The scout gave me a curt nod and forcibly relaxed and unclamped her hand. She rolled to her front flipped the axe about in her hand and notched the weapon to her back. “let’s go,” she said eagerly and slinked away. With a grave nod I followed after her.

  I could hear the raucous thrashing as trees were split and their trunks crushed as the ogres attempted to catch Marisa.

  Blinking and quickly flickering through shared sight just as Marisa spun upwards her body coiling in on itself. She stalled mid-flight and dropped; the whole thing was slightly less disorientating as I mainly kept my focus on chasing after Ariana.

  Marisa uncoiled herself and folded in her wings swooping down towards the ogre, at the very last second the grey giant swung one of its massive arms to try and knock her out the air.

  But Marisa wings shot open and unfurled; bringing her to a raking stop so that she could duck under the ogre’s swing and moved on to rake her claws across its side.

  The wounds she inflicted to its head had already healed; sealing away to be replaced by scared and broken tissue. *Return to me chick,* I thought to her and blinked away the sight. She couldn’t keep that up that pace for forever and with the way it was healing… I shook my head.

  Up ahead and few yards away I saw Aria skid to a halt, unhook her axe as thin black tendril seep into the wooden shaft. She raise her weapon overhead and flung the
axe.

  It spun end over end sailing through the air to thunk! harshly into the highest reaches of a towering sentinel tree. It’s birch white bark splintering under the impact. Most importantly though, was the thin coppery wire that snapped under the blow. Then came an ominous groan high to our left.

  I slammed to a stop by Aria as she focus her attention above us. I looked up just in time to see the release of a horizontally prone wooden log it’s sides spotted with 3-foot long stakes.

  The log detached from its holding’s and the thick vine-like cordage tied on either end swung the log down from the trees and straight towards us.

  I was still gawking when Ariana tackled me to the ground with her body.

  I just had enough time to think thank you, when she rolled off me and led flat on her side as the stake tipped log passed a foot above my body with a whoosh! I turned my head to the right and saw Ariana intently watching the log as It reached the precipice of its swing and started back towards us. Coming back from its summits I instinctively shied away from the log swing, trying to press myself even further into the ground.

  So, imagine my surprise when Ariana flips back onto her feet and starts jogging patiently away from log trap. “Aria what the hell are you-” I shouted over to her, but my words were cut short as the log flew passed my head and towards the scout. Just before the log could impact though the Valakharian scout twisted and with a black tattooed hand swinging, the gaara tendrils pulsing like corrupted shadowy veins sucking away the life force.

  Except all I heard was the distant sound of a bell chime and saw a flash as something slammed into her half a second before the log hit.

  With a deafening crash the log split in two, the twanging snap as the lengthy cordage broke, sending the split chunks sailing to either side of Ariana and skidding across the dirt.

  She breathed a heavy sigh of relief, her shoulders slumping in exertion. I just stared in amazement at her.

  The scout twirled her axe and planted it in the ‘U’ shape cuff on her back. Quirking an eyebrow at me she said in a husky tone that felt like smoke and sex to my senses, “Well you can’t lie on your back all day outworlder. Sometimes I prefer the bottom.”

  I scowled at her in arousal and annoyance and pulled myself up and out of a newly formed depression in the ground where I lay. The ground had actually sunken slightly, feeling soft and malleable to my hands like clay, as if I could shape the very earth just by excreting my will on it. Excreting, such a funny word.

  But the moment passed and with it the feeling, just as I suspected would happen, blew away.

  *My love, I’m coming back but the nomad has become induced and is following quickly behind me.* Marisa’s frantic thoughts brought my attention back to our present problems.

  “We’ve got to move faster, Marisa’s flying back but the ogre is hot on her tail,” I said quickly to the scout.

  “Okay, we’ll need to be careful though; I can’t imagine that and the wire trap being the only ones it had in place,” Aria replied grimly which I matched her speed, easily keeping up.

  “Sure—just peachy,” I muttered. *Marisa. We’re moving ahead but be on the look for traps and wire meshes or something. We don’t know how long the nomad’s had to sandbox the area fully,* I thought to the dragonling and could feel the exhaustion that was creeping slowly over her body.

  She obviously hadn’t adjusted fully to her reduced size and power yet, *don’t worry about me Love, just be careful,* she thought back.

  *You as well, see you soon.* Ariana and I moved quickly, yet cautiously, sticking to either side of each other and never breaking pace. Our attention constantly sweeping across the forest floor, searching for the tell-tale glint of the wiring the ogre used.

  We raced along through the forest sticking close to the trees. I spotted several depressions in the ground where the turf of the forest floor dipped for a couple feet and then resumed. The leaves covering the depression seeming overly dense compare to the surrounding areas. I heard a hard crunch to my right as I saw Aria’s foot sink an inch down.

  The ground before her opened up into a gaping horrific invitation, layering the concealed ditch were numerous stakes, a few tinted with days old blood. I saw the fright in her eyes, a moment of indecision.

  She could I suppose, use her gaara tattoos to create some sort netting to prevent herself from falling, but the gaara was moving too slowly along her skin.

  The black trailing lines webbing her hands, as the ink came alive slowly and crept from her flesh. I knew the gaara weakness now, Ariana needed forethought and preparation to match her gaara to any current situation.

  I made the decision for her, reaching out I caught her arm and pulled her to me. Just applying enough strength to pull her off balance and over to my side, she spun about narrowly avoiding the ditch and running alongside me.

  Acting on instinct I felt heat rise up behind my ears as my sense spread out to our surroundings. Too late, my foot tripped a wire, the unfastening and grinding as the coils wound against each other and then released. To either side wooden boards sprung up, these too were layered with wooden stakes and were set to impale us from both sides. closing like a jaw would around us.

  As Aria was just recovering from narrowly missing the ditch she was still off balance, I step back slightly and pushed her forwards the instant I set her in motion I pivoted into the board on my left. For the fraction of a second I saw that all I need to was catch the centre stake. I was a rush though and decided brute force would work just as well, and as quickly. *Alaric! Hurry!* Marisa voice shouted urgently through my thoughts, so I tuned her out and focus on the approaching board.

  My reaction seemed just as slow, but my perception was heighten. The ground was jarring from thunderous feet making a vibration jitter through the wood of the boards. My fist struck out as the stake layered board came at me.

  My coiled hand swerve the centre stake to impact against the base of the board, at the same instance the warming pressure behind my ears dissipated and I felt a force ripple down through down my head, shoulders and to the runes on my right arm.

  A shock wave of force exploded from my fist on the impact and the board crumbled in on itself and was propelled backwards, where it smashed into a tree. The blast of pressure sprayed off my forearm and sent a wave of force in the opposite direction.

  The wooden boards behind me also shattered as the wave hit them segmenting the trap and sending it careening away.

  Not bothering to even wonder how I managed that; I moved to help Ariana from where I she knelt.

  “Alaric look out!” Aria called at me, her voice shocked and frighten and I glance to my left. Eyes widening, I quickly jumped up and curled myself into a ball. Bringing my knees to up my chest and leaning my left shoulder inwards as I reinforced the arm my right.

  “Oh fuck!” I spat out quickly as the base of tree trunk came sweeping out and directly into my balled up side.

  I felt my left arm crunch under the brunt force and hissed a breath as bones broke all throughout the left of me, it became one giant bruise and I might-of blacked out.

  I wasn’t even sure where I was when my eyes snapped open again, just lying face down on the forest floor. Everything sore and tender, my pounding head was wobbly and disorientated, and it took a great groaning effort to just move.

  Someone slipped down beside me onto their knees, and roughly grabbed me making me hiss in pain and grit my teeth.

  Alaric, Al. Love please! My thoughts were a cascade of blurting voices that I couldn’t recognise.

  Several fumbling steps later my mind locked back in and everything came rushing back, *Alar!* Marisa concerned voice and I instantly blinked into shared sight and saw that she battling the ogre once again.

  Between its furious swiping attempts at her I caught sight of Ariana and myself and realised she was practically carrying me. We were only 30–40-feet away from them.

  Marisa twirled and used her smaller frame to dart about using the t
rees to spring herself to and throw. My mind raced, looking for something that could help us fight this thing. But my thought slipped out of my grasp each time I pinned one down.

  Could we use its own traps against it? But that meant knowing where they were. There was nothing I could do to help.

  Ariana was unusually quiet—well more so than usual. And we moved for several more feet till we came to stop where she unceremoniously slunk me to the floor and against a tree.

  I faced Marisa’s desperate struggle with the ogre, she was finally at her limit and panting laboriously; her bronzed and feathered ruffling with frustration.

  I caught Ariana violets eyes as she looked me over once, except they were no longer violet but completely black. All of it; even her sclera were a pitch-black-void.

  She nodded once and moved away from me and towards the ogre, she let out a sharp whistled and it was enough to peak the raging nomads attention.

  I had cringed away slightly at the blackness in her eyes, it having reminded me of the obsidian plane of my dimension and the black glassy mirrored surfaces there. Something sinister, mercurial and monstrous lurked there. And behind Ariana eyes was something akin to a seed of that place. A ghost.

  I felt that at the very core of my runic bones. My eyes closed briefly as my mind tried to dissipate the fog rolling through it.

  A terrible howling roar of agony snapped me awake suddenly and I looked forward to Marisa and Ariana both terrorising the ogre. Deep jagged wounds and slashes. Chunks of its body were missing and not regenerating.

  Instead there were thin black veins webbed throughout its wounds.

  Marisa was coiled around the ogres neck, her bronzed scales and red feathers covered in a thick coating of blood. The ogre tried to thrash out at Ariana and stumbled forward, she used that opportunity to bring her axe down. Twirling the weapon effortlessly like a baton, she then brought the axe overhead, cleaving through its forearm with the black half-moon head.