Of Wind and Waves - Chronicles of the First Age, Book One

by Nathan Quiring

  Leif spent more time than ever in the Kata, practicing before every meal instead of just breakfast. It was becoming ever more difficult, while at the same time becoming more natural. The sensation wasn’t new to him, it had been the same when he first mastered all the steps and truly began flowing from one to the next, this time it was magnified tenfold. His mind, instead of drifting and relaxing while his body worked, was involved more than ever with learning how to incorporate the wind with every movement. He felt as if he was only then truly learning the Kata, as if all his life he had been pretending; a child wearing his father’s shoes and thinking himself a man. It was glorious.

  On the map were other, less obvious marks. Some looked like crude huts, all of them to the north and west, most of these were crossed out. Others were vertical lines with arrows pointing out from the top half. They were quickly approaching one of the latter marks and Leif’s curiosity was building.

  They had planned it out beforehand, Leif would walk ahead just within Ria’s range of vision and she would follow with the bow. If something happened she would hide and pick off whoever she could from afar while Leif distracted them. They really had no idea what to expect, but Leif felt sure it would either be far too large to surprise them or too insignificant to pose much of a threat.

  He walked slowly, stepping carefully around twigs and leaves in the thin forest as he cast his gaze all about in search of anything out of place. He could see further than normal because of the sparse trees but he had no idea where exactly the marker was supposed to indicate, they were as close to the right area as he could make out, the map just covered too large an area to be so precise. A quick glance behind allowed him to ensure Ria was keeping up, though he had no doubts of her woodcraft, she was almost as quiet as he was.

  The quick glance, however, turned into a long stare as she made a face at him and he retaliated. She crossed her eyes and stuck out her tongue; he cocked his head and lolled his tongue like a dog. Then the third silly face she started to make turned into an urgent, determined glare and he turned around to see three men in thick dark brown and grey clothing, holding long, thin, and appallingly familiar blades.

  “Well well, what have we got here boys?” The big one in the center said, mouth splitting in a crooked smile, his full brown beard seeming to offset his bald, shiny head. He stood just a bit taller than Leif and was twice as wide, he wouldn’t be a problem.

  Leif gave a slight nod to his right, then took two short, quick steps left, darting behind the leftmost man and snapping his neck while, almost simultaneously, a short arrow sunk into the right man’s eye. They both crumpled limply. The large man was quick, quicker than Leif had expected, but not quick enough. He swung upwards with his sword, but Leif simply phased his arm right through it and solidified with his hand around the man’s thick neck in a blood choke. With his left hand he twisted the man’s arm, forcing him to release his weapon, then bringing it around his back, turning to face towards the once empty forest.

  A snarl and then a cry brought his attention back around and over his shoulder he saw Ria attached to another dark clad man’s back, ripping out his throat out with her teeth, two more men lay dead a little further off.

  Satisfied that she was taking care of herself, he looked back around at the last two figures, standing five or six strides off. They were both fixed on Leif’s face, looking considerably conflicted, then one of them shuddered and fell, wooden shaft through his throat. That was the breaking point for the other and he ran, losing himself in the trees before Ria could drop him.

  “That’s the last mistake you’ll ever make” the large man gurgled, letting out a gagging chuckle.

  “What do you mean?” Leif asked.

  When he only continued to gurgle, Leif gripped tighter and then threw the man to the ground, pressing his face into the dirt with his foot using the thick, hairy arm for leverage.

  “Answer me!” He shouted as Ria dashed up beside him.

  He coughed in the dirt, gasping out the words, “He’s going straight for the fort. He’s goina come for you for sure now, you got no escape!”

  As his words cut off with another gag, Leif could just make out the sound of a horse, galloping away to the north.

  Alec

  Brutality and blood reigned in the arena and Alec was growing more disgusted with every contest. The rules were simple, anything goes. And when the victor was made apparent, the crowd of at least a thousand people decided the fate of the looser. It was almost always death.

  Gerard seemed set apart from the excitement of the rest of the men. He sat in the middle near the bottom where a special, high backed chair had been brought out with Alec and Taylor on either side. He watched contentedly, though without any real investment in any of the struggles; simply a ruler overseeing his subjects’ entertainment.

  The fights between two men ended with one dead or horribly wounded and the other promoted and significantly richer. Then, after the final one on one match; two of the biggest soldiers duking it out with their bare fists until one was little more than a bloody mound, there came the man versus beast fights.

  First, a smaller man with a large wooden shield and heavy mallet took on two very angry rams. He seemed to be doing well, deflecting the ram’s head butts with the shield, then giving a return blow from the mallet wherever he could, but he rarely seemed to do much harm to the ram’s thick skulls, and eventually he tired. Both beasts charged him at the same time, one breaking his legs, the other colliding with his skull; the sickening crunch resounded across the stands. The crowd, almost every soldier in the fortress, hooted and cheered at the spurting blood as the rams were put to sleep and presumably returned to their cages.

  After this came a few different wolf fights, the most exciting of which involved four large wolves facing off against the fittest looking soldier yet wielding two axes. The wolves were well coordinated and surrounded the man quickly, attacking in unison, but the axes flashed with amazing precision and speed as the man darted in between the rending teeth and ripping claws, quickly crippling two wolves before twisting away from the center of the ring.

  “This one shows promise.” Gerard intoned to Taylor in a deep rumble, surprising Alec. He had become just as engrossed in the display as the rest of the crowd, whose thunderous cheer greeted the man’s success with considerable enthusiasm.

  “Bring him to me afterwards, should he succeed.”

  “Yes sir.” Taylor shouted over the crowd, nodding sharply. He didn’t seem to care either way.

  The wolves had circled back around, though one was limping and another lying where it had fallen, crippled and blood soaked. Alec felt sure that the man; Marcus was what the crowd had begun chanting, was sure to prove victorious, but had learned by then how quickly the fights could change course.

  He continued to back around, keeping the wall behind him as the remaining wolves circled slowly; waiting for a sign of weakness. Suddenly they struck, the two unwounded animals leaping simultaneously, causing Marcus to back quickly, then turn away from the third animal that snuck behind him and almost caught him off guard. It went for his legs and took a last second blow to the skull that not only killed the animal but also broke the axe handle. In that moment the other two darted in again, one sinking its teeth into the arm still holding a weapon as the other went for his legs. He was able, somehow, to bring his remaining axe down on the second wolf, cutting deep into its exposed neck while the final wolf still tore at his upper arm. He dropped the axe from his savaged arm into his opposite hand and swung upward toward the last animal’s throat, but stumbled over one of the bodies, falling to the ground with the vicious animal on top of him.

  The crowd gasped, some beginning to boo loudly. Alec was no longer surprised at how quickly they changed their minds; it seemed blood was all they cared about.

  He slowly dislodged the animal from his arm and began grappling with it on the ground. The wolf ripped into his bare chest many times before he finally rammed the brok
en axe handle up through its mouth and into its brain. He stood laboriously and was helped off the blood soaked earth as the crowd cheered deafeningly.

  After the corpses were removed, the announcer shouted out the next match and Alec’s sense of foreboding, drowned out for a time by the steady mixture of adrenaline and disgust, became full-fledged horror.

  “And now, finally, we have the bear!” he shouted, extending a hand toward one of the gates, where the huge bear from earlier that day was being lead into the arena by a group of men with long sticks and ropes to the most overwhelming outbreak of shouting and stomping of feet yet.

  It wasn’t the announcement that caused him to clench his fists in fury and fear; it was what was happening at the other gate. Three small children were forced through, all so stunned at what was happening that they just stood there in shock. Alec recognized them immediately. It was Danny, Liam, and Tom. Alec was just about to leap down to stop the madness when he felt a massive hand rest gently on his shoulder.

  “I think you have been looking for these, have you not mon fils?”

  He looked up to find the giant looking down at him with, of all things, pity.

  “I hoped you would give up the foolish desire you first had, but it seems that you are incapable of accepting my truth.”

  Alec was too consumed by fury and terror to move. Gerard held him there for the few minutes it lasted. He shut his eyes and tried to block out the screams and cries for help, but it was too much. By the time it was over, he was shaking uncontrollably. Worst of all, everyone around him seemed completely in favor of the slaughter. Perhaps Gerard was right, perhaps humanity really was as he envisioned.

  “Since you so long to face me, I will give you that chance. I will show you why you should have joined me, instead of foolishly seeking my destruction.”

  At this Taylor smiled, the first sign of pleasure Alec had ever seen him express. Gerard released him and four other men took his arms and lead him down to the blood and dirt. He didn’t resist in the slightest.

  “My humble subjects,” the monster boomed out, quickly silencing the raucous crowd of blood thirsty raiders, “Today you witness the punishment for insubordination. Today you witness the greatness of your master. Today you see why I am the rightful ruler of humanity!”

  The crowd roared.

  Four

  Alec

  Calm fell over Alec as the masses hushed`. Gerard stood ten paces away, tall and ominous as a mountain. Alec had defeated mountains before. They had taken his sword and knives but the giant carried no weapons either. He took a cautious step forward, but the monster made no move. He took another, beginning to circle, and still Gerard waited.

  “Jeremiah is my man entirely, he informed me as soon as you found him.” He said, turning slightly to keep Alec before him.

  “He values his life too much.” Alec responded, already having guessed the truth.

  “Or perhaps you value yours too little.”

  “I value my freedom and the freedom of others more.” Alec said, the rightness of his path giving him courage.

  “Freedom is a lie. Freedom is bondage. Freedom only frees you to fall, to fail, to die without my guidance. Freedom is weakness.” He spoke calmly, exuding the immovable confidence of an ocean.

  “You lie!” Alec shouted, tired of the mental games and trickery. He charged.

  Four bounding strides and he was in; left jab to the stomach and right uppercut toward the man’s unnatural jaw. He stepped away, left hand numb and right forearm stinging from Gerard’s block. He circled again, wondering how best to approach.

  “You have no hope of defeating me.” The beast said, slowly lowering the arm he used to block. “I am superior in every way.”

  Alec was done with talking. He took a step, then kicked around at Gerards knee, quickly spinning around behind to give a straight kick to the other knee. Gerard didn’t even move and Alec felt like his toes were broken. He kept circling as the giant turned to face him again.

  “I will allow you one more attempt before I end this, compris?”

  It was too much. Alec charged him, head butting his stomach with as much force as he could muster, but he came away dazed, head throbbing. Then the man moved, not fast, though no one could call it slow. He moved as an avalanche moves; unstoppable, uncontrollable, and with terrible power. He clamped a rock hard fist around Alec’s throat, lifting him off the ground, then threw him ten strides into the stone wall.

  Alec crumpled, his consciousness slowly beginning to drift, and he knew he had failed, that his death had come. But it didn’t come. Instead, as he was quickly submerged in deep, dark, blackness, he heard the deep monster voice speak once more.

  “Since you judge freedom more valuable than life, I will grant you the latter in exchange for the former. Sleep well, for you will awake a slave.”

  Ria

  The ugly man smelled of anger and greed and slightly of fear. Leif hadn’t needed to question him for long to get answers, it seemed that the bald man didn’t care what Leif knew, or that it didn’t matter, or something. She was a bit confused by the whole situation. He did keep going back to the same thing though, seemed pretty confident about it.

  “You don’t have a chance against him! And he has hundreds of us to come find you!”

  At one point he even suggested they let him go and maybe they could join him and his master. He didn’t even have any problem with explaining exactly where his camp was and how many there were, though Leif didn’t seem to believe him about most of what he said.

  Leif sighed again, she felt like it was the hundredth time he had done that, then asked a different question. “Are there any more horses?”

  The man became distraught at this, then scowled again, “Course there isn’t, he would have cut them loose when he took off.”

  “Well, I guess that’s it. Now to figure out what to do with you…”

  “I told ya! You don’t have a chance, you should just join up with us! With how good you are without even a blade, He’d take you on for sure. And her,” here he looked at Ria, a new smell joining his stench as he looked her up and down, a nasty grin splitting across his hairy face, “She’d make a nice addition to the whores back at camp. Ya I’d like me some of-“

  Ria drew and released, then again, placing a sharp point in each eye, pinning the filthy man’s head to the broad tree against which he had been sitting.

  As Leif turned to her, she answered his question before he asked. “If we didn’t kill him, he would have come after us until we did. Besides, I didn’t like the way he was looking at me.”

  Leif’s face took on a constrained, odd look for a second before he forced it away, the expression worried Ria slightly, but she knew she had done the right thing. She was just about to say more in her defense when he turned and began to depart.

  “Wait, I want a sword.” Ria said quickly, darting over to the nearest one and snatching it up.

  “What, you don’t like the taste of blood?” Leif said, his voice tinged with sarcasm.

  “Not particularly, why, would you rather I’d just died instead?” She asked, becoming angry. She actually had enjoyed it, more than she would have wanted to admit.

  “Fine, fine, I’m sorry. Let’s just get out of here.”

  They found a stash of food and water inside a small shell-cloth tent as they were leaving and Leif said something about it probably being an outpost or something, Ria didn’t quite understand what he was talking about, and he didn’t seem eager to try to explain it jus then.

  They kept going north as the wind picked up, blowing in from the sea over the rocky ground. She thought over what the disgusting man had claimed; hundreds of fighting men, a huge, high walled fortress, and the comment about ‘whores’ that she forced Leif to explain to her. It all sounded like a really strange place and began to intensify her worry about what he was planning.

  “I’m sorry for snapping at you.” She said, breaking the long silence as the sky had just
begun to darken. “I’m just scared.”

  “I know. I am too. It was just… I don’t know. Something about the way you ripped out his throat; it reminded me how Cal used to fight.” He said slowly, obviously not sure how his words would affect her.

  She understood how, from his point of view it might look similar. “But, he was mad with hatred.”

  “I know, I know.” He interjected.

  She continued, almost as much to herself as to him. “I’m still mostly wolf, Leif. I just attacked, I didn’t really think about it.”

  “I’ll try to teach you what I can with that then.” He said, still strangely stiff. “I never was as good as Cal, and now any weapon would just fall from my hand when I shift.”

  It was an elegant blade, though it reminded her of the monstrous city somehow. It was slightly longer than her arm and was almost as thin as a blade of grass, save for the handle, which would have fit three of her small hands comfortable. Its width was the same all the way from the handle to a thumb length piece at the end where it bent back to a razor point. The whole thing was slightly curved, feeling amazing when she swung it in a wide arc. Leif helped her fix a long strip of some special material to her belt that she could slide the sword into, he called it a scabbard. It was nice because she could use the bow comfortably and still have quick access to her sword, though it banged around a lot when she moved.

  As much as she practiced with her human claw, she spent even more time mentally exploring her body, trying to find some way to become a wolf again. It was just so much less complicated.

  Alec

  The dark, torch lit stone walls and cage bars greeted Alec’s waking eyes with the kind of hopeless dreariness that breaks souls. He looked around, finding the bear to his left and, of all things, Grey to his right. He had been wearing his usual heavy leather pants, vest and long coat, but now he had nothing but a loincloth. Thankfully it was somewhat warm in the cave, though he was still shivering.