by Faith Naff
“Blessed be the Lady of the Forest,” chanted the crowd.
Shimmer’s head darted up as her eyes widened. The human’s voice was not amongst the crowd. It had been so discernible, so easy to pick out amongst the chorus of other voices, but now it was missing entirely. She couldn’t help herself. Curiosity overwhelmed her sense of devotion and her head whipped around in a flash.
He was gone.
She didn’t know where he’d gone, she didn’t know why, and, more importantly, she had no idea why she cared. What was it about this human that was keeping her so enthralled? Whatever it was, it was finally winning out over all of her senses. She hopped up to the balls of her feet, crouching down on her fingers like a cat waiting to pounce.
“By Lady’s grace, what are you doing?!” Snowflake asked. She stayed still in her stance of reverence, but turned her head slightly and talked from the side of her mouth. Shimmer’s antics were starting to get the attention of other elves and even humans in the sparsely populated section of the shoreline. Attentions were being taken away from the wisdom of the high priestess and turning towards the strange behavior of a young elf refusing to show this moment the respect it deserved.
“I don’t know,” Shimmer answered, and it was the truth. She didn’t know what was compelling her actions, but she knew that they were somehow tied to the mysterious human behind her that she’d never met before in her life and she had to discover the reason behind them. “Please forgive me.”
Before Snowflake could utter another whisper of protest, Shimmer pivoted on her feet and bounded back towards the trees as fast as she could. She could hear other elves around her gasp, a few even whispering some remarks she would rather not have been able to make out, but her decisions were set in motion and there was no going back now. Though the high priestess continued to address the good citizens of Moon-hollow, Shimmer disappeared across the shore to the trees and back into the forest which held the village.
With the festivities going on at the edge of Sky Lake, the village of Moon-hollow was completely deserted. Shimmer’s eyes darted back and forth as she ran. They scanned the huts made of sticks and grass that wrapped around the trunks of trees or sat atop their thickest branches with bridges of rope and vine crisscrossing between them. Her gaze ran up and down each heavily worn path between the trees. There was no sign of anyone, elf or human. She was alone.
Shimmer’s swift run gradually slowed to a jog and finally a complete stop. Reality was starting to catch up with her mind and it was grabbing hold of her by the ankles. The mysterious human was nowhere in sight and she couldn’t for the life of her come up with a compelling reason why she’d suddenly decided to chase after him. She knew she was prone to doing foolish and occasionally reckless things, but this was unexplainable even to her. She loved the Lady and loved hearing the high priestess speak. It was her favorite part of any big gathering and she’d just blown it off and embarrassed her family to chase after a human that she didn’t know and didn’t even like.
She had just started debating with herself whether she should return or go hide until this whole thing blew over when she finally caught some movement in the bushes. Off past the briars behind the last hut before the forest took a downhill slide into a low valley, Shimmer could see the cloak and boots of the mysterious human as he crouched low against the ground. He was staring down the hill intently, his head twitching left and right sporadically as his ears caught the faintest sounds echoing through the trees.
Shimmer didn’t know what he was doing, but she had gone to ridiculous ends to find him and she wasn’t about to leave until the two of them at least spoke to one another. She approached slowly, watching him after every step she took as if waiting for a reaction. The human male stayed as he was, head darting with the sounds and eyes glued on the dense forest below. She could hear the stream running through the valley now, rushing down from the vast body of Sky Lake behind her. It was that stream that had cut the valley over years dating back before the elves even settled this part of the forest.
The human still didn’t move, not even turning his head to look upon the company he had suddenly found himself in. His focus was too strongly taken by something beyond sight, and the realization of that was starting to worry Shimmer a great deal. If the whole citizenry of Moon-hollow was at the edge of the lake, what could he be monitoring down in the deep valley?
“Did you hear it, too?” he finally asked. He didn’t tear his gaze away from the valley, but he at least acknowledged that he was no longer alone.
Shimmer stopped dead in her tracks as her heart skipped a beat. It was the rush of excitement felt when prey stalked by a hunter finally sensed danger and bounded off without warning. She took a moment to regain her breath and hurried over to the human’s side. “Hear what?” she asked.
The human turned his face towards her. The sight of his eyes made her lose her breath again. They were much bigger than an elf male’s and rounder. The light blue of them was enchanting. Up close, she could see the coarseness of his face. The tiny, dark stubble of hair poking out of his chin and cheeks trapped the dust from the ground he’d kicked up while taking his position on the top of the hill. Elven men did not grow hair on their faces, and even seeing his cut down to the edge of his skin still made him seem so wild, so animalistic. She’d never been this close to a human before, and the experience thus far was far different than she ever imagined it would be.
The human gave her a puzzled look. “If you didn’t hear it then why have you come?”
Shimmer scrambled for an answer. After all, she had no idea what compelled her to leave her people at the lake and venture into the village after him. How would she be able to sell him a story she couldn’t even sell to herself? “It’s not like a Harmonious to leave when the high priestess is speaking,” she answered. “I was curious what tore you away.”
“Fair enough,” the human said as he looked again into the valley. “Back at the shore I heard voices on the wind, voices that gave me a shiver. Even now, I sense a presence here that is far from welcome. It is down there, coming closer by the second. I can’t hear it with my own ears yet but I can sense it.”
“Sense it?” Shimmer asked skeptically. “What matter of human trickery is this?”
“No trickery,” the human said. “The Lady blesses me with great gifts. For what purpose I do not know, but I do know that…” His sentence trailed off as his head rose into the air. He turned his right ear towards the valley as his hands lowered to the ground.
Shimmer opened her mouth to question him, but soon she was able to hear it, too. There was a rumbling in the distance. She could hear leaves rustling violently and entire branches breaking as easily as twigs underfoot. The ground began to shake with a small tremor that grew larger and larger with each beat of her now racing heart. As the sounds grew louder and closer, she heard voices, voices no creature of Order could ever make. They were horrid, sinister grumbles and cries mixed with low roars of beasts she had only ever heard of in terrible tales but never seen with her own eyes. She held her breath as she realized all these terrible things would be upon the village in a matter of moments.
The mysterious human grasped Shimmer by the shoulders and pulled her towards him. Her eyes locked with his stern, determined gaze. “We have to run,” he said. “Now!”
Chapter II
Shimmer and her mysterious new human companion were only able to make it halfway back to the shores of Sky Lake before the hoard was upon the village of Moon-hollow. The chilling noises growing louder and louder in the distance had foretold their arrival. There were snapping limbs and the thunderous footsteps of thousands of feet trampling the forest floor en route to the elven village. Of course, most terrifying of all had been the grunts, snarls, and roars of the creatures as they approached. Shimmer had never heard such noises before, but she had heard of them and had always hoped she’d never experience them for herself.
As they ran for the party still gathered at the lake,
an innumerable hoard of goblins came rushing up the bank from the valley below and fell upon the village of Moon-hollow like a gale-force wind through the trees. They were hideous creatures; standing only four feet tall with hunched backs and deformed proportions. Their eyes were bulbous, often of uneven sizes, with large mouths full of crooked, filthy teeth. Their hands sported only two fingers and a thumb, thin, bony, and each longer than a human hand. They had ears pointed at the top like an elf’s, but often they were mangled from a lifetime of fighting and scavenging.
Shimmer looked back and screamed as she saw the innumerable mass of disgusting creatures rising up from the valley and pouring into her village like water from a breaking dam. There was no end to them. They destroyed homes and other fixtures as they passed, but she couldn’t tell if they were doing it deliberately or if it was an unfortunate circumstance of so many trying to fill such a small space so quickly. Either way, these uninvited guests were making quick work of destroying her home.
The dark-haired human grasped her wrist as they ran, trying to get her to keep up with his pace. His legs were much longer than hers, and he couldn’t afford to slow his pace to match hers. However, he also didn’t wish to leave her behind to the mercy of the goblins racing towards them. “Hurry, we must get back to the water!” he shouted.
Shimmer tried to say something in response, but it was all she could do just to draw enough air with each breath. She was exhausted, light-headed, and terrified. However, a series of sudden tremors in the ground below soon gave her a whole new reason to be afraid for her life. She and her human companion stole a glance back as a series of loud thuds echoes through the trees and shook the forest floor. Rising from the valley came a dozen enormous trolls.
Trolls were monstrous, humanoid creatures with thick skin as gray as a stone. Their enormous hands drug the ground at the ends of arms as long as their entire body. Their long, tusk-like teeth jutted out from a pronounced underbite. When the trolls opened their jaws they roared like a dragon, and the sound made Shimmer all the more terrified.
Trolls and goblins together in the Lands of Order; the entire notion made no sense. Such vial creatures never ventured out of the Savage Lands, especially not this deliberately and in such numbers. Such an attack was incomprehensible. What could have possibly possessed them to make such a daring and foolish move?
“We’re almost there!” the human shouted as they neared the tree line at the edge of the lake. Shimmer could already see the crowds of elves on the shore through the trees, but could hear nothing over the thunderous trampling behind her. From the looks of confusion and fear she caught on the faces of those elves, she was sure they could hear it, too.
“Run, everyone! Run for your lives!” the human yelled out as he and Shimmer crossed back through the tree line and onto the rocky shore. “The village is under attack!”
“What is the meaning of this?!” Rosewood shouted as she ran towards Shimmer and her human companion. “This is a sacred rite!”
“Goblins, Priestess!” Shimmer shouted at the top of her lungs. “Goblins and trolls attack the…!” Before she could finish her statement, the hoard of savage beasts crashed through the tree line, filling what little room that was left upon the shore. Hundreds of elves found themselves instantly trampled underfoot, meeting a terrible fate as the goblins rushed over them. Many more were pushed back into the water as the shoreline could suddenly hold no more persons upon it. Those that could swim well raced out into open water in hopes that their attackers would not pursue them where their feet could not touch ground.
“To arms!” Rosewood shouted as the elders surrounded her. It was a standard command, but this situation was far from a standard act of war. There had been no warning whatsoever, and the actions of these vile creatures were so unfathomable that no drill or tactic had ever been devised for it. All the poor high priestess could do was send her people fleeing as her unprepared soldiers tried to hold off the hoard. All these truths Shimmer could deduce just by looking into the fear-filled eyes of her leader.
“Snowflake!” Shimmer shouted with her hands cupped around her mouth. “Snowflake, where are...?” Her question transitioned into a scream as a beady-eyed goblin leaped through the air towards her, his bony fingers poised to grasp her face and neck.
The right arm of her human companion shot out, meeting the goblin in the air and smashing into its lumpy, bulbous throat. The creature tried to roll back to its feet, but it was gasping for air through a crushed windpipe and had no strength for anything else. The human’s boot found the side of its head and with a mighty kick sent the goblin flying through the air to a final resting place on the shore.
“We need weapons!” the human shouted as he drew a large hunting knife from a strap on his left leg. Another goblin rushed up to attack him but found only a blade lodged in its throat.
“I have to make sure Snowflake is alright!” Shimmer shouted. She had no reason to stay by this stranger’s side other than a lack of survival skills and an overwhelming desire to continue living. This human seemed willing to protect her in this chaos and she wasn’t about to turn up her nose at such a gesture. However, she wasn’t leaving Snowflake to the mercy of this attacking hoard.
“Without weapons we won’t last long enough to find her!” the human protested.
A sword-wielding elf male came charging past them with his blade outstretched. Shimmer watched as the edge of his sword raced across the neck of a goblin, sending its head flying off in a different direction from the rest of its body. The elf warrior turned to face another foe, but was met too quickly by another goblin jumping onto his back and sinking his ghastly teeth into the poor elf’s throat. Shimmer covered her mouth to muffle her scream while she watched the elf’s eyes, full of terror, open to their widest just before his body fell limp.
The dark haired human rushed forward with his hunting knife, plunging it into the top of the goblin’s head while its teeth were still stuck in the slain elf’s neck. He shook the blood from his dagger before returning it to its sheath. Reaching down, he pulled the sword free of the corpse’s grasp. As another goblin ran past he swung the sword low. The racing goblin tumbled to the ground as it suddenly found itself with only one leg to stand on.
“Follow me!” he shouted. “If we follow the tree line around the eastern bank of the lake we should be able to escape them!”
“I’m not leaving here without Snowflake and my family!” Shimmer shouted in protest.
The human groaned in exasperation as he plunged his sword into another goblin as it rushed towards him. “Stay here and die then! I’m not going to…!”
“Shimmer!” Snowflake screamed in terror.
Shimmer’s large, pointed ears perked up at the sound of a familiar voice. She twirled in a circle, scanning the carnage and chaos around her for any sign of her distressed friend. When she finally caught a glimpse of Snowflake, she gasped.
Poor Snowflake was high above the ground, trapped in the clutches of a massive troll that was making no attempt to handle her gently. Her body whipped back and forth, like a toy in the hands of a child throwing a tantrum, as the troll smashed through wave upon wave of elves on the shore.
“Snowflake!” Shimmer cried out. She was powerless to save her friend, and one wrong flail from that troll’s arm would snap her in half like a twig if she wasn’t smashed into the rocks below first. She turned to her human companion and slapped her palm repeatedly against his left shoulder.
The dark-haired human was finishing up with relieving a goblin’s head from the rest of its body when he felt the tap on his shoulder. Instinct told him to swing with his blade and leave whatever was tapping him in two pieces, but he was thankfully able to override that decision with reason. As he turned, he could see Shimmer pointing up at the troll frantically with wide, tear-filled eyes.
“I take it that’s Snowflake,” he said to himself.
“You have to save her!” Shimmer shouted. A sudden swing of the human’s sword towar
ds her head caught her by surprise, but the blade sailed over her, slicing through the belly of a goblin as it attempted to leap onto her back. Shimmer spun around just in time to see the grotesque little creature fall into a bloody pile on the shore. She turned back to him.
“I don’t have to do anything!” the human shouted as he fought off another goblin rushing in. “I don’t know why I’m even working so hard to keep you alive!”
“Help!” Snowflake cried out as she flew through the air in the grasp of the flailing troll.
Shimmer turned back to her friend in distress. Snowflake was bruised and bloody now, and there was no telling how bad the injuries really were. She looked around frantically, desperate for anything she could use to help her friend. Her search led her eyes to the fallen goblin at her feet. The dead creature’s body was mangled and covered in blood, but there was something on the corpse that caught her eye. Atop its head was a small, crudely made helmet of iron with a single, arrowhead-like point at the top.
Acting out of desperation, Shimmer snatched the helmet from the dead goblin’s head and raced across the rocky shore towards the troll. A goblin stepped into her path, attempting to block the way. Its eyes were wide as it opened its mouth and extended its arms, determined to pull her to the ground and tear her apart.
Shimmer held the crudely forged helmet out in front of her, allowing the point on top of the dome to press hard into the goblin’s sternum. She watched its eyes, previously full of blood-lust, open wide in terror. With the creature skewered, she dropped her arms to the left. The goblin’s body was diverted away, crashing onto the ground. Shimmer’s makeshift weapon was now covered in blood but still extended out before her like a battering ram as she raced towards the troll.
As the dark-haired human pulled his sword from a goblin’s chest, he turned to see his new elven companion racing towards the troll holding the goblin helmet. He could clearly see what she intended to do, but wondered if she realized it was a fool’s errand. With the coarseness of that creature’s hide, along with its massive size, a strike from that crude weapon would amount to little more than a bee sting.