“Jarus – that’s what happens,” said Pious as he threw a small pebble into the creek, sending a ripple of light through the water. “I’ve been taking it for almost 10 cycles, but it feels like only recently it has started working. At least I am begging to remember recent events,”
“Well, at least you don’t have to run off and disappear from Sanctuary – that’s already been done for you!” said Tyr.
The four men all sat by the river, taking their rest, appreciating the restoration of light and the return, albeit minimal, of their vision.
Small translucent Glimmerfish swam against the gentle current, presenting a small light show in the water. Tyr started laughing to himself, and Sincerus turned his head and looked at him. “What are you laughing at?” asked Sincerus.
Tyr looked at Pious. “Aren’t you worried about the King of the Forest?”
“There is no King of the Forest,” replied Valerus, shaking his head at Tyr.
“Faunshit there isn’t… I met an Arboreal Cleric who swears that there is. He was lost in this same forest and stumbled across the King’s village. He even showed me some mushrooms that the King’s wife gave to him.”
“If there was a village in this forest, we would know about it!”
“No, you wouldn't, because it's hidden!”
“You really can talk some shit, Tyr,” said Sincerus. He threw a hand full of loam from the stream's edge at Tyr.
“Hey, to Shayde with you!” said Tyr, throwing a handful of loam at Sincerus – one twice as big and twice as hard. Sincerus turned to the side, and let the dirt hit his back, laughing to himself.
“The Great Bearded Beast, they call him!” Tyr continued, as he stood up and started pacing along the riverbank.
“I thought that was the weaver's name for you,” replied Sincerus, smiling at Pious before glancing towards Tyr, expecting a fist or foot to fly towards him. Tyr just stared at him instead.
Sincerus sat up and turned to Pious. “So, Pious - how does it feel?”
“How does what feel?” asked Pious, staring into the waters.
“The news, how do you feel about the good news?”
Pious turned and stared at Sincerus. “What news, Sincerus?”
“Serana told me before the last change of shift,” said Sincerus, before he fell silent and stared at the ground uneasily, realising he may have inadvertently made a mistake.
“She told she was going to tell you,” he muttered to himself.
Pious pointed at Sincerus. “No circular rhetoric, Sincerus. What news?” said Pious, staring at him with impatient and expressionless eyes.
“That she is with child,” replied Sincerus, still staring at the ground.
Pious sat silently and stared into the distance, speechless. The rest of the party shared glances with Sincerus, who gave a shrug and a facial expression as if he didn't know what to do next.
“No – it’s not possible. We have tried…,” he muttered to himself.
Sincerus looked at Pious with a smile on his face. “It is – it happened,” replied Sincerus, in a joyful tone. Then he shook his head. “I’m sorry – I shouldn’t have brought it up, especially now. It was insensitive of me.”
“Are you crazy?” said Pious. “That is the greatest news I have ever heard.” He went over to Sincerus and hauled him to his feet, hugging him and looking him in the face.
“We need to get Serana out of Sanctuary somehow. Who knows what she is thinking at the moment,” said Pious, as he thought back to the moment when Serana had told him that she had important news for him – and her request for him to come and see her.
“Maybe, that her brother and betrothed are a couple of good for nothings?” replied Sincerus with a smile.
“She knew that already,” said Tyr, walking over to Pious. Valerus stood up from his resting place under the branches of the Astram and did likewise.
Tyr slapped Pious on the back and shook his hand. “Congratulations, daddy man,” said Tyr, with a smile.
“Truly Beneficent,” said Valerus, as he shook Pious's hand. Pious nodded his head with a newfound enthusiasm and energy.
“I’m going to take her to Serica and finally leave this place,” said Pious, with sheer determination.
“What are you saying – you’re finished?” asked Sincerus.
Pious laughed. “Yes – most definitely. I think that is obvious, Sincerus. Draetor has made sure of that.”
“Sometimes I think we are no better than the Savage. If anything, we should be grouped with the Shadefiends,” said Valerus, annoyed at the injustice that had befell them.
“If you go, I’m going with you. Now that we’re branded, we’re worse than dead here,” said Sincerus.
“Agreed,” said Pious. “So, here’s my plan. We head east, through the Engulfing Forest to the Cove of Lights. We head south from there to Landsbeach. We can wait it out there – we can get on board a barge there somehow. Then we can get a message into Sanctuary, arranging for our loved ones to meet us.”
“You think that Anna will come with me? She has told me she wishes to leave Sanctuary,” asked Tyr, with seriousness.
“Of course! She would be more than welcome on Serica,” replied Pious.
“You may even be able to convince Tana to come along, Sterny,” said Pious, nudging Valerus on the shoulder. A smile crossed the face of Valerus.
“Do you think taking the most powerful and deadly female in all of Elysia, back to the ultra-fem capital that trained her – is a wise thing Pious?”
With a laugh of agreement, he brushed off the remnants of moss and soil from his pants. “Enough. We should keep moving. We need to head towards the Engulfing Forest.” He turned and began walking away from the group. The three others stared at each other in confusion, then smiled, following Pious.
Pious began walking along the bank of the stream with newfound vigour and a smile, his way guided by the dim blue light of the water with the other three following roughly in his footsteps.
Eventually, they came across a small pond. The water stopped at a small rock outcropping which had created a small dam pool. The water seeped through a bed of fine white porous rock, re-emerging below the outcrop as another stream. The sound of the bubbling brook providing an ambience of calm.
“If we cross here and venture northeast, we should eventually meet the eastern stream,” Pious said, looking eastward into the depths of the dark forest.
“Why not just follow the river north, then east?” asked Valerus, pointing along the stream to the north.
“Too many Rapax,” replied Pious. He walked to the base of an Astram Willow and began moving the soft soil with his feet. Then, crouching next to the roots of the tree, he brushed through the ground with his hand.
“But before we do head deeper into the forest, we are going to need some light. What we need to do is look for a small fungus about the size of a fist. We will find it not very far from the banks of the stream, just below the ground near the roots of the Astram Willows.”
He continued digging. “They shouldn’t be too hard to find, and one should be enough.”
The three others set off, crouching down next to the base of the willows, rummaging in a similar fashion to Pious.
Not long had passed before Tyr let out a victorious laugh. “I have found one,” he said, as he pulled the egg-shaped fungus from the soil It was slightly larger than two fists placed together.
He stood upright and walked over to Pious, as did Sincerus and Valerus. Tyr brushed some of the excess soil from the surface of the fungus.
Tyr stretched out his arm, gesturing for Pious to take the fungus. It barely fit into Pious's hand.
“Pitch Truffle – and this is a big one,” said Pious, as he collected the rough, blackened fungus, which was covered in a thin layer of loam and soil. He placed the fungus on the riverbank, nestling it safely into the soft mosses.
“Great. Now we need to make some torches. We need to find some good, solid sticks. Tear
off some material from your tunics to wrap around them.”
The four set off again searching for some sturdy sticks to turn into torches, rummaging through the brushes below the trees. Each of the men found a sturdy stick and wrapped his strips of cloth around the end of the stick.
Pious dropped his stick alongside the Pitch Truffle and sat down next to it. He picked up the truffle with both hands and began to crack the fungus open on an exposed rock that formed part of the aquifer. As the truffle cracked, a thick, tar-like mass slowly oozed out of the opening. He split the truffle in half carefully and placed the two halves in his lap, then gestured for someone to pass him a stick. Sincerus placed the first one into his hand. One by one, Pious dipped each of the torches into the black acrid liquid and passed them back to his comrades. He dropped the almost empty halves of the truffle onto the ground and stood up.
Walking over to the bank of the creek, he rubbed the sticky end of a torch into the soft mosses that grew there, so that they clung to the torch. He took a few careful steps towards the edge of the stream and plunged the torch into the waters. Underneath the water, a flash of light burst forth, and the water started to bubble.
Pious withdrew the torch, which burst into orange flames and let off a thick plume of smoke as it left the water.
The others looked at each other with surprise and then copied Pious, all igniting their torches in a similar fashion. The torches generated significant heat, warming their cold bodies and faces. The light from the torches illuminated the trees with a dull orange glow, dispersing the foreboding darkness ever so slightly.
“Let us go,” said Pious, as he walked towards the aquifer. He carefully crossed the stones that formed the banks of the naturally–formed dam wall, being careful not to slip on the damp rock.
Once Pious had crossed the stream, he headed in what memory assured him was a northeasterly direction from the aquifer. The four men walked through the dense forest, weaving in and out of the trees illuminated with a dull auburn hue from the torch fire, banishing the fog from their midst – with a small share of the light snaking upwards, thieved by Nox.
Along their seemingly endless route, the forest began to change, shifting from hardy, needled conifers to soft, lush, delicate plants, most with very large leaves and peculiar flowers of many shapes, fragrances and colours. The temperature also changed, as the cold air began to shift to a warm and humid atmosphere. Between the intermittent howls of the Shadefiends, the sound of erupting steam geysers bursting forth from the forest floor broke the silence.
The four noticed a circular clearing in the forest ahead of them, devoid of the usual ground cover – but with several small bushes scattered through the clearing. “That may be a good place to set up a camp,” said Pious, pointing to the clearing.
As they crossed the threshold of the clearing, the silence of their journey broke suddenly, interrupted by a horrific and extremely loud shrieking, as the ground vegetation in the clearing began to rustle. The small plants appeared to lift themselves from the ground and ran into the forest using their roots as legs.
The Nursery
“There are a bunch of creatures far east from here, deep in the Engulfing Forest. A few of our lads had a run in with ‘em, after hunting Forest Faun too far to the east. They roughed our lads up and let them go. The lads hired some mercs from Redemption's Glory and decided to go and mess them up. They never came back.”
Plainslager soaked discussion at the Temple of Spirits,
Breach Foreman of Cranes.
Noted in the 152nd Cycle of Purity.
The four men, well drilled, formed a circle, back to back and torches to their fronts defensively. “In the name of all that is good, what was that?” said Tyr, peering into the darkness of the jungle and vainly trying to stare past the light of the torch.
“I have no idea. I have never heard such a horrendous cry before,” replied Valerus, looking around vigilantly. The shrieking continued, yet the rustling, as well as the wailing, became more distant.
“That was the sound of fear, regardless of what made it,” said Pious, turning his head to Tyr. The four drew laboured breaths, inhaling the heavy humidity deeply.
From the canopy above, a flailing object fell on top of the men. A series of vines wrapped around Sincerus's neck and face, obstructing his vision and breathing. Vines began to rapidly wrap around the feet and bodies of the three remaining men, snaking around their arms and legs.
Sincerus raised his torch over his shoulder and thrust it into their assailant, striking it several times.
The assailant let out the same shriek that they heard earlier. The other men started swiping at the vines around their feet with the torches, causing the vines to release them.
Sincerus lunged forward, striking the assailant several times with his torch as it began to shake and curl into a ball. The four men turned around to face their assailant. Tyr and Pious, who had been tripped up by the vines, slowly stood upright.
In front of them, a strange shaking mass shrieked loudly as flames engulfed it. The mass had a slightly humanoid form, yet it was completely constituted of vegetative matter. Its head looked like a large orchid. Its vine-like appendages stopped writhing as the shrieking came to halt. Soon the only sound was the crackling of the flames as they completely consumed the mass. The petals that made up the head of the creature opened widely and then fell limp.
The men quickly turned their heads and looked into another part of the jungle, where a multitude of roars emanated from the direction in which the shrieking had retreated earlier.
“Now what?” said Sincerus uneasily. The roaring grew louder and got closer as the four turned to face the jungle.
Valerus tightened his grip on his torch, as his face steeled with resolve. “Shadefiends?”
“No – Shadefiends don't carry light,” replied Pious uneasily, as he noticed traces of light approaching from the same direction as the roaring.
With lightning speed, several large fur–covered creatures burst forth from the jungle walls. With incredible reflexes, the beasts darted through the four men, splitting them up, throwing swipes with their powerfully clawed arms.
The men tried to defend themselves as much as possible – punching, grappling, ducking and dodging – but they were unarmed, exhausted and outnumbered and the attackers soon managed to hurl the men to the ground. The men found themselves rapidly detained, with snares drawn around their upper torsos, preventing any movement of their arms.
The four men were forcibly pinned to the ground by muscular, bipedal creatures holding long sticks with lassoes at the ends. They tried to struggle, but the lassos were tight and effective, held with brute strength by the mighty creatures. They were wearing loose tunics, over the top of their fur-covered bodies.
Two of the beasts stood above the smouldering mass, murmuring unintelligibly to each other. One of the beasts turned to the detainees and roared ferociously. The whole pack of beasts began roaring with tremendous ferocity and started kicking the men like rag dolls.
All four men lay on their sides on the ground, bound strongly and unable to move. “I should have taken that retirement commission,” said Valerus to Tyr, who was lying directly in front of him, causing Tyr to let out a laugh.
Almost instantly, their captors gave them both swift kicks. “Get them up!” shouted one of the shaggy beasts, as he bent to pick up Tyr.
The beasts hauled all four men to their feet. Pious and the Tribunes stood in shock. Sincerus turned his head and looked at the face of his attacker.
“They speak?” shouted Sincerus, looking at the beast in complete shock.
The beast holding Sincerus punched him in the cheek. Sincerus grimaced in pain and looked to the ground with clenched teeth. The beast, who was in the process of picking up Tyr, began to speak.
“Of course, we speak. You don’t. Shut up!” the beast shouted back at Sincerus, pointing in his face, as another beast–man moved in from behind and slipped a noose–like g
ag over Sincerus's head and into his mouth, pulling it tight and locking it in place with a toggle. The same action was taking place with each of the other detainees.
Pious sat quietly, trying to swallow the gathering spit in his mouth. As he swallowed, he sniffed the air, his face registering disgust at a somewhat familiar, overpowering and unpleasant odour of excrement and other filth. Pious looked to the side and noticed a few pairs of small glowing dots at the edge of the jungle clearing.
“Put these accursed fires out!” shouted the beast–man holding Tyr, pointing to the burning torches lying on the damp ground. Another beast–man picked up a pile of dirt and walked over to one of the still brightly burning torches.
The beast–man holding Pious dropped the snare rod to pick up a pile of earth. After he had picked up the soil, he walked towards a nearby burning torch.
Pious struggled immensely, placing his hands underneath the snare and using all his strength to loosen it and push through, in a frantic effort to withdraw the rope from his mouth. He grabbed the switchblade from his pants, opened it swiftly and cut the gag from his mouth.
“Don’t do that!” he yelled at the top of his voice, as the dirt fell from the beast–man's hands to the burning fire below.
Pious felt the Surge rush through his veins as his heart started to pump harder, louder and slower, as the Surge focus directed his senses toward the oncoming threat. Pious stabbed the switchblade into the soft soils of the clearing.
As soon as the mound of dirt had smothered the light from the burning torch, a Rapax lunged forth from the darkness, digging its talons into the upper shoulder and chest of the beast–man, who was almost entirely in darkness, except for the faint light of an adjacent burning torch.
Another Rapax charged from the darkness, howling and hissing as it bit deep into the beast–man's leg. The beast–man, resisted strongly, crying out wildly with fear and aggression. He stabbed at the Rapax that was biting into his leg. The tip of the spear dug deep into the back of the creature, yet did not diminish the foul monster's resolve.
Exhumation: An Epic of Existentia (Acts of the Sojourner Book 1) Page 17