Tranquil Fury

by P. G. Thomas

  Lauren interrupted their conversation when she returned several minutes later with the elves and two full water skins. At the same time, Panry Moonshadow emerged from the woods with six large male deer, which had saddles, and packs on their backs, each with a huge rack of impressive antlers. Lauren jumped onto the wagon seat beside Mirtza and Eric, “Please, let us continue.”

  Cethail Highbreeze and Erust Huntinghawk leaped onto the back of their stags, and started back down the path. Alron Icefeather looked at Babartin and Careel Dawnfalcon, who nodded. Then Alron Icefeather and Panry Moonshadow rode beside the wagon, and before anybody could ask, Alron said, “Shortly Dawnfalcons does follow.”

  As they were riding along John asked Lauren, “Is it alright if I examine your arm? I want to make sure you are not injured.”

  “I am fine,” she replied.

  “Please? I would feel better if I could see it for myself.”

  “Fine, have a look.” John moved to the other side of the wagon, where she had her arm outstretched. There was no blood, yet her jacket had received a clean cut, and as he was feeling where the injury should have been, he felt strange leaves under the outer fabric of her jacket.

  She pulled her arm back, “Satisfied?”

  John just nodded his head, and then noticed that the elf clothes were no longer the multi-camouflaged color, and instead they were now a solid deep green.

  They travelled along the forest paths and roads for many hours, and when they stopped to make camp, Lauren handed Ryan and Zack each a water skin. “Drink half, and use the other half to wash your wounds.” Lauren once again, did not join them for their meal, nor did she say anything else that night. She took a blanket, made her bed at the end of the wagon, and the elves made their own camp, avoiding the others.

  The odd behavior and distance that Lauren had created, coupled with the secrecy of the elves, had put the others on edge. Mirtza went up to tend the oxen, while Eric retrieved the chests, and John laid out the bedrolls. Logan began gathering firewood, and Zack and Ryan moved up to the front seat of the wagon, as far away from Lauren as possible. As he worked, Logan kept thinking about the covered forest, and the weird stone benches. A dozen times that day, he had checked his arms for the strange tattoos, but found nothing. As he finished stacking the firewood, he checked his arms again, and as he stood, he did not see the kindling begin to smoke. By the time Mirtza went to pull out the pots and pans from the chest, a fire was already blazing, and he thought Logan had used Zack’s lighter. Mirtza prepared the meal in quiet, not because he asked for it, but because everybody was trying to figure out what was happening.

  After they ate, Eric spoke first, “Mirtza, what is happening? What is up with Lauren? The elves? Who were those two that tried to kill Lauren?”

  Mirtza held up his hand, “Those are easy questions to answer.” He reached into his pocket, mimicked pulling something out. “What I hold in my hand is a very special book, as it has all of the answers to every question in the universe. I will give it to you so you can look up the answers yourself.” He leaned over to Eric with his hand outstretched.

  Eric tried to grab the book, but there was nothing there, and gave Mirtza a dirty look, “What's wrong with you?”

  “Eric, I wish it were that simple. It appears that Lauren is receiving guidance from an unknown force, and I have heard her speak, as you have. It is not the distrusting little girl, with the timid voice that I met a few days ago. I have looked into those eyes, and they are not the eyes of a little girl. That staff she holds, there is something special about it. There is an order or sect here, they really do not have a name, and I do not know much about them, but they get direction from one called Mother.” Mirtza picked up a handful of earth and let it fall back to the ground, “As I understand it, this is Mother, but Mother is more than the ground you walk upon. She is some sort of divine knowledge or presence. Those who receive the gift from Mother, they are known as Earth Daughters and Earth Mothers. Maybe this is how Mother talks to those chosen, but in truth, I do not know how this communication works, have never met one, and have only heard about them in school. My best guess, that strange staff is somehow connecting young Lauren to Mother. Mother, in turn, is guiding her, and giving her knowledge that is beyond Lauren. That staff is three different trees, but I think one is Ironwood. That sword strike should have broken the staff in two, and she should be dead. When she used it as a weapon and hit her assailant, it should have broken, but she broke her opponent in two.”

  John spoke up, “Inside her jacket, where the sword hit her, there were leaves. How could leafs stop a sword?”

  “I do not need the book Eric ignores to answer that one, as they would have been Ironwood leaves. There was one back at the covered forest, where I found her, but I did not think it was possible to pick those leaves.” He then went on to tell them about the rip in the tarp, how the forest was growing at her little camp. How he thought the tarp was magic, and that when she caused it to rip with her strange staff, it reacted like the magic spell he had heard. He also proposed that was the reason for the riders, “As for the well, the song she sang, her eyes, the strange voice that she speaks. I think it all comes from the staff, though I do not know how. I don’t know why the riders stopped chasing us, and I have no idea what will happen next.” Mirtza went over and offered to help Ryan wash his wounds, who gladly accepted. Mirtza smelled the water and poured some into his hand, “It looks like water.” He then gave Ryan and Zack a mug, “Drink up boys.”

  Ryan pulled his shirt and pants off, and Mirtza looked at all of the scars, old and new, “Is this customary in your culture?”

  “No, I was involved in a bad accident. It seems that they were able to put me back together, after I fell off the wall.”

  “If I were you, I would avoid walls.”

  John noticed that Ryan was healing extremely fast, as seven days ago he could only walk a few feet. Two days ago, he could stand on his own, but not walk any distances unassisted. Today you would never know he once relied on a wheelchair. The same with Zack, two days ago, extensive burns caused him great discomfort every time he moved, but now he was walking without any pain. John was confused about all of this, but he was more concerned about what was happening with Lauren. As for the elves, that completely corrupted any logical explanation he could think of.

  As Ryan got dressed, Mirtza asked Zack if he would like some help, but Zack declined, as he did not want anybody to see the hairy growths that were spreading over his body. As they had been riding along in the wagon, he had continued to pick at the plastic, and the last of it had all fallen off the day before. Zack slipped away into the forest when nobody was looking, and found a private spot to remove his clothes. While the open wounds had scabbed over, furs covered almost his entire abdomen now, and the feathers on his back were a real, well a real pain in the back. He tried to pull them out again, but they would not let go of their grip. As he washed the furs, feathers, and snake-skin on his shoulder, he hoped the water was truly ‘magic,’ and that he would soon be able to pick the strange skins off, as easily as he had picked off the melted plastic. And as he drank the water, he hoped it would drown the strange dreams he was now experiencing.

  Alron came over after they were done their meal, and advised they would stand guard, so the six found a spot to sleep, and went to bed, as Lauren was already fast asleep.

  *******

  Morning came and both camps prepared and consumed a meal in quiet. Alron came over to them, “Henceforth, mine men shalt take front guard, and two will follow behind as rear guard. Thou shalt travel with us to our home, five days from here.” Throughout the days travel each one would cast a glance at Lauren, hoping she would acknowledge them, tell them what she knew. But the entire trip Lauren just stared into the forest, never once looking at her traveling companions. The silence was driving the six of them crazy, but between Lauren and the elves, silence seemed to be the best course.

  That night, Logan once again gathered
the firewood. His forearms had been sore all day, and gathering the wood gave him purpose. Once again, everyone was preoccupied when Logan was stacking the wood, and nobody realized that as he turned his back, that the embers where smoldering, quickly igniting into a blazing fire.

  John stayed up late that night, his mind racing with all of the assorted puzzle pieces: the strange forest, magic, the healing, elves, Lauren’s peculiar behavior, and there did not seem to be any logical connection between them. It was as if somebody had put an assortment of puzzle pieces into one box, and had given it to him. As he tried to link the fragments, he gazed at the stars above, seeing a large, bright half-moon in the dark overhead skies. As he watched it, he was surprised to see a meteorite was orbiting it, actually three. Over the hour as he glanced at it, he saw three large, elongated asteroids leave the dark shadow, and traverse across the reflected light from the three suns, and as it got later, a display similar to the Earth’s Northern Lights began to put on a show. It grew in intensity and brightness, greatly exceeding anything he had watched on his computer at home, and eventually, his eyes closed and sleep calmed his racing mind.

  *******

  The next three days were the same. Breakfast, travel, lunch, more travel, supper, sleep. By the fourth night, everybody had fallen into the same routine, except tonight, Mirtza saw Logan place the last of the wood above the kindling, but before Logan stood up, Mirtza saw the freshly kindled flames start to lick the dry sticks above it. He was just about to approach Logan, to find out where he had gathered the wood, thinking it had some sort of magical property, when Lauren tapped him on the shoulder.

  “Mirtza, I owe you an apology. I have not been myself lately, and if it were not for your help, we would surely be dead by now. You have been a great assistance to us, and I would like to thank you for all that you have done. I really don’t know what is happening, but I have a feeling, that for now everything is going to be fine.”

  He looked at her, “No apology is required, but thank you all the same.” What have I gotten myself mixed into?

  That night, Mirtza was able to coax Lauren to join them for the meal by making two pots of tea. In the first, he placed a large quantity of tea, hoping that the exaggerated aroma would get Lauren’s attention, while the second contained the proper amount of tea. As the uneasy quiet began to creep up on them, Mirtza regaled his new friends with stories about growing roots and raising pigs. While the conversation was not as brilliant as the stars above, it was better than the deafening silence, and it almost seemed like a regular night of camping, except for everyone’s overall confusion.

  It was late into the night, and John was lying awake still looking at the light show in the sky, when Lauren walked over, and kneeled beside him, “John, what is happening?”

  John was surprised at both Lauren’s appearance and her question, “What do you mean?”

  “Don’t play stupid with me, crap is happening. Crap that seems to have me stuck in the middle. One day I am a simple schoolgirl, and the next, I wake up in a strange freaking world. Some stranger picks us up, drops us off in a dying forest, and then I am healing Ryan and Zack. I know things, things that I shouldn’t know. And there are times where it feels like I am looking through somebody else’s eyes.”

  Lauren’s distress managed to push the sleep to the back of John’s mind, “Let’s walk. It helps me think.” They started walking down the road when Alron Icefeather, dressed in black, stepped out from behind a tree. While John stopped, Lauren kept walking, but as John passed Alron, he heard a whistle, and had a strange sensation that Alron followed them. Lauren reached into her coat pocket, pulled out a berry, which she crushed onto the head of her staff, creating a soft blue light that led their way.

  “John, I have killed.”

  “I know. I was there.”

  “There were others. That dust cloud that followed us from the covered forest. I asked the forest to kill them.”

  “What do you mean?”

  “I don’t know why, but that song. I asked the trees to stop those that followed us. Somehow, the trees set a trap for them, and I am pretty sure they killed them.”

  “How do you know that?”

  “Haven’t you been listening, I don’t know how I know these things, I just do. John, am I evil? Is that why those men were trying to kill me?”

  “Lauren, I have only known you for three years. I don’t think you have an evil bone in your body. They attacked you, and you simply defended yourself. Those elves killed the second.”

  “What about those that chased us, they could have been sent to help us? Or to kill me?”

  “There is a lot of strange events happening, much of it I cannot explain. Actually, there is nothing that I can. How do you feel inside, deep in your heart? Or gut?”

  “I think we are supposed to be here John. I don’t think our arrival was an accident.” In the dark, John never saw her pupils dilate into large dark circles, only heard the change in her voice, “Now I hath bothered thou enough for one night. Let us return from where we came. Morrow shalt be a long day, much sleep thou wilt need.” With that, Lauren turned on her heels, headed back to the camp, moving so quickly, she caught John unprepared, and left him standing alone in the dark.

  Alron stepped out from the forest, “Friend John, does naught worry thine self. I does think that Mother does now guide young Lauren. To the camp, let us return.”

  “Alron, may I ask you a question?”

  “John, friend of Lauren, thou are free to ask, mine answers does be few.”

  “Do you know what is happening?”

  “Protect and serve. Mine answer does be that John. Protect and serve. Beyond that, all else I does leave to Mother.”

  “Who do you protect and serve?”

  “Those that Mother does select.”

  “Is Lauren one of them?”

  “A good question thou does ask. Alas, thine answer does naught be known at time present.”

  John followed Alron back to the camp in silence, his head buzzing with even more questions, and eventually found Lauren in a deep sleep, but he wanted to shake her awake, demand answers. Science should hold the key to unlocking mysteries, but in a world filled with magic, John felt like a sheep in a cattle pen, completely out of place. He was just hoping the sign on the building didn’t say ‘slaughterhouse’. As he grabbed his blankets, he looked up to the blazing stars, “Mother. If you are up there, please look after my friend Lauren.” It was a heartfelt request, and a cold surrender, in a world void of science, faith was the only currency.

  Chapter 9

  Snow-capped mountains had been growing on the horizon each day as they traveled west, and on the last day of their journey, they entered the foothills. It was dark when they stopped in front of a mountain rock face, where Alron jumped off his stag, and slammed his closed fist on it. Slowly, a large door opened and a dwarf standing about four feet tall emerged, “Worried we were. Friends I see brought you have.” His voice was rich, thick, seemed to resonate deep inside of him, rolled up as if it was escaping a mineshaft, which somehow amplified its bulky texture, but not the volume. Unlike the elves, whose words sounded song like, it took a few seconds for them to understand the dwarven words.

  Alron turned to the wagon, “May I introduce thine host, Bor Ironhouse.” The door opened wide enough to accommodate the wagon, and they entered a large stable carved out of solid rock. As the elves dismounted and put their stags into pens, nobody noticed that Ryan became slightly nervous. Bor told Mirtza where to store the oxen, and instead of changing them back into gold amulets, which may have alarmed the dwarves or elves, he put them in the pen as requested. The rest exited the wagon with their backpacks, and Lauren clutched her staff and leaf pouch. The stable was huge, but the space seemed empty by comparison, as the stables were large enough to hold several hundred animals, but only a dozen small ponies called it home.

  Bor closed the large outer door, and headed to the back of the stable, the others quickl
y following the odd individual. Bor turned down a corridor, and after a short distance, stopped in front of a wooden door, which he opened. Bor’s deep voice echoed off the stone walls, amplifying it even more. “To bed the rest have gone. Welcome proper, tomorrow will have to wait. These be old cavalry quarters. Grand they may be not, but comfortable. Far cabinet, fresh sheets find you will. Comfortable more than ground cold.” He pointed to the doors at the far end, “Leaves and trees no more. Comfort instead awaits you it does.”

  Alron walked over to Lauren, “I shalt return in the morning. In comfort rest now, thine trouble does be behind thou. Host Bor or his brothers will check on thou this night, but thou are now safe.”

  And with that Bor and the elves left, closing the door behind them. The last few days had been hard on the six, as the nights were colder, which greatly affected their sleep. There were over a hundred beds in the room, so like Little Red Riding Hood, each tested one, until they found one just right. Eric could not find a bed long enough, so instead, slept on the floor, with lots of blankets. As soon as each one lay down, they fell asleep, warm, and comfortable, with the exception of Ryan. The last thing he muttered was “I hate caves,” but was so tired that he soon forgot that he was underground.

  *******

  Bor followed Alron up to the sleeping quarters, and waited for him to go into the Earth Mother’s room, as he knew he would. When he was sure that the hall was empty, Bor walked across the hall, knocked on his brother’s bedroom door, and entered.

  “Aaro, awaited arrived.”

  From the darkness, a deep thick voice answered, “Be you sure?”

  “Be they must, six Alron escorted they were.”

  “The ones they be?”

  “Brother, months since Ironhouse receive guests new. Sure I cannot be, but brother, among them a giant walks.”

  Aaro sat up, and lit the candle beside his bed, “Giant?”

  “Aye. Me plus half tall he stood.”