In Search of Auria

by Alexis Rojas

  “What a great ride, don’t you think?” He asked so happily, but I wanted to slap him hard across the room. I got off the cart and gathered my stuff with a straight face, “Where is the exit, I must go.”

  “Of course!” He hopped off the minecart and took me to the staircase along the wall. Meanwhile, after leaving the cart, four gnomes came out of the wooden shack carrying buckets of water and pieces of cloth. They started washing the minecart. At the top of the stairs, there was another gnome beside another pulley system connected to yet another “pressure box”. After the gnomes at the bottom cleaned the minecart, this one would use the pulleys to raise it to the top. On the opposite wall there was an arch made of twisting roots and ivy; it was another illusion wall.

  “Here it is,” said Harwit, “Pass through here and you will immediately walk outside the mountain.”

  I was still upset about the ride, I just wanted to leave without even thanking him. But before I left, Harwit pulled on my pants.

  “Erik, before you go, I want to let you know I appreciate all that you did for me here. The Know Quest I’ll embark on and the status it shall grant me among my people will certainly change my life. Thank you so much.”

  His words softened me up and dulled the anger away. I kneeled beside him and smiled, “It is I who should be thankful. You selflessly presented me to your Nomac and took me to where I needed to go. Because of you, now I am that much closer in rescuing the woman I love.”

  He grinned and nodded. I stood and headed for the arch.

  “Farewell, Harwit. Until we meet again.”

  “Farewell, Erik. I hope we do someday.”

  He waved me goodbye as I walked through the rock and to the outside world.

  19- Lady by the Water

  I exited the gnome’s domain by the rock illusion Harwit showed me. It took me to the foot of the mountain, an area full of thornbush and barbweed. Luckily, it was not that thick and I slipped out to the road. Beside the road was an immense lake. The sunrays of the afternoon sparkled on the crystal waters. I took out the map to verify my position. It appeared I was on the road beside Lake Glissia, the largest body of water in the country. At that moment, a farmer passed in front of me. He sat on a wagon full of hay, hauled by a grey horse. The man looked like a decent fellow, and I was sure he was going to offer me a ride. But when he noticed I was all dirty, burned, and stinky, he hurried the horse and passed me by. I didn’t blame him; I didn’t look like the most proper guy around.

  I walked to the waters of the lake and took some time for myself. I splashed my face, washed a couple of stains off my clothes, and cleaned the sweat and soot off my body. As I refresh myself, I admired the blue sky with the drifting clouds, the sharpness of the far away mountains, and the reflection of it all on the surface of the lake. I was in a country that was at war with my own, a country with danger at every corner. But nevertheless, it was a place of sheer beauty.

  The waters cooled and revitalized my body. It would make my journey south on the road more comfortable. My next stop would be the fortified city of Ambros, and after that, the capital, Vidana. Auria, I would see you soon.

  After finishing, I walked with my usual quick pace. I was thinking about the city when I noticed something odd down the road. The farmer’s cart was in the middle of the way with no horse to pull it. I walked around, inspected it, but the farmer was nowhere to be seen. Then, I saw a puddle of fresh blood on the ground ahead. A pricking chill went up my spine. Something bad had happened. A trail of red stretched from the puddle to the edge of the lake, and there I saw a woman. She was stressfully crying while washing the blood off the bottom of her ripped dress. Her moaning and sobbing rang in my ear. I hurried to offer my help. Surely, she knew what happened.

  “Miss, are you alright? What has happened here?”

  The woman abruptly stopped crying when she heard my voice. I got close to her as she slowly turned her head to me. Her black and dirty bangs covered half her face, but I saw her features. Deep age lines around her mouth and cheeks, a long crooked nose, and large black pupils popping out her eyes. I had read about her on the Book of Beasts, but I knew the legend from long before. It was a Banshee.

  Banshees cry and moan to alert people that someone is about to die. But what they don’t know is that the ones listening to her cries are the ones marked with death. She attracts people with her sobbing and kills them. The banshee must’ve lured the farmer with her painful moaning and became her victim. And now, she had lured me.

  The moment I knew what she was, I gripped my sword and aimed for her head. But, she raised her hands and my blade bounced off them. They were almost rock like; stiff and gray, with long claws sprouting out the index and middle fingers. She whacked the sword away and pushed me on the chest, knocking me back to the road. The monster then rose from the edge of the lake, revealing her old, rotting feet.

  I quickly darted with a thrust, but she brushed to the side and slashed me. I dodged, but her spiky claws caught my bag. It ripped open and all my belongings dropped on the ground. I cagily circled around her, when she started to take a deep breath. She was about to screech. I couldn’t let her, or it would be the end of me! I dashed in swinging, targeting either her head or stomach, but she avoided me by hopping back or blocking. I finally managed to slash her shoulder, momentarily stunning her. I stepped, sword raised high, to slice her head open. But, she got me. She stretched her arms and clutched me by the ribs, squeezing her long claws on my back. I screamed in pain. I couldn’t move or free myself. She then threw me back upon the road.

  I laid hurt on the ground, grunting on the pain. It took me a couple of valuable seconds to recover, seconds that the banshee could have used to finish me off. Why hadn’t she?

  When I eventually got on my feet, she stood around fifteen feet from me. She was breathing heavily, wheezing on every inhalation. She was preparing a screech. I’ve heard people say the noise made men rabid and insane. I was about to find out.

  The banshee unleashed her shriek. Her voice was so high pitched and monstrous, my whole body stiffened in shock. It felt like daggers being rammed into my eardrums. I fell to my knees and covered my ears, immediately feeling nauseous and disoriented.

  When the banshee stopped, I almost vomited. I tried to grab my sword again, but when I looked behind me, she was already there. The old hag grabbed my head, screamed straight into my left ear and tossed me backwards like a rag doll. When I landed, everything was spinning. I felt warm blood running down my cheek and neck. It came from my ear. I could hear from it no more. I tried to turn around and crawl, but I just couldn’t control my limbs. Then, I felt something sit on my stomach. I looked about and saw the banshee fixing her dress around her legs. She pressed her knees on my arms so that I wouldn’t move. Then, with both hands she grabbed my head and lifted me close to her face, almost dislocating my neck. I trembled as I tried to shake her off, but couldn’t. She opened her mouth and showed me her rows of broken, stained teeth. She took a deep breath and that’s when I realized that this was it; my end. With every other enemy I had an opportunity to counter or flee, but here and now I was at the mercy of an irrational creature. There was no escape from my certain demise. All I had fought for had been for naught, and the reality of it glazed my eyes.

  And then, the screech. The stink of her breath and the pressure of the noise overwhelmed my senses. My mind drew blank, and my body grew numb. Foam clogged my mouth and drooled from it. I felt my spirit preparing to leave my body as my sight became blurry. Then, the noise started to diminish, and I thought of it as my other ear bursting. But, it was something else.

  My sight was regaining its focus again, and I saw a yellow and red aura thwarting the banshee. She jumped off me and distanced herself away. I managed to turn my head around to see the origin of the aura. Just a few meters away stood a bird as tall as a man. It was bright red, with blue tail feathers that trailed behind like the train of a dress. The edges of the wings were golden and its chest had a bl
ue oval pattern. It had a long neck, a sharp beak, and white upright feathers crowning its forehead. It looked like if it were the royalty of birds. But, I did notice something else; something beside its talons. The box Yang gave me was open, with broken eggshells at its side.

  “Wait… the Fenghuang?”

  It peacefully walked by me, keeping its beady eyes locked on the banshee. It then spread its wings and pointed them downwards, making it look bigger than before. There the fenghuang stood, making a statement to the banshee that it would protect me. The hag raised her claws and the royal bird fluttered its wings. They were ready to fight.

  The banshee went into a rage and charged at the bird, screaming her lungs out. The fenghuang brushed its wings forward to wedge out the sound waves. As the banshee got close, the fenghuang opened up and rammed its head down, giving the hag a head-butt to the chest. The bird started whipping its wings forward, snapping at the arms and upper body. The hag couldn’t defend herself, she could only stagger and receive the punishment. Finally, the majestic bird hopped on the Banshee’s shoulders, flipped her around the air and smashed her face into the ground. The body twitched and laid flat.

  I was astonished at how quickly the fenghuang had taken care of her. I tried to get up to show my gratitude to my savior, but I heard low grunt. The banshee was not finished yet. She rose up with a bleeding forehead and a broken nose, and again charged as before. The fenghuang covered itself with its wings like it had done previously, but this time there was no screech. This time the banshee clawed through the wings and forced them open. She slashed the bird on the chest and then unleashed a shriek to its face. My avian protector stumbled and fell back. I had to roll to the side so it wouldn’t fall on me. It started bleeding from the chest and the wing coverts, but it shook off the pain and stood in defiance. With a big swoosh, the fenghuang took flight towards the air and made its own shriek. The hag did not expect it, and neither did I. It sounded like 10,000 drums beating at the same time, with orange sound waves casting from its beak. The banshee had a taste of her own medicine, covering her ears in twinge. The bird flew down and slammed the hag to the ground, clamping its talons around her neck and chest. There it released another thunderous drum yell. The banshee groaned, but she was not giving up. She thrust her claws upward and stabbed the fenghuang’s belly. The bird cried out with a weak caw. It flew up with the banshee in its clutches and tossed her with a deadly spin. She fell to the edge of the lake, landing on her head. I heard her neck snap.

  The fenghuang dropped from the air, landing wobbly on the ground. A puddle of blood quickly formed beneath it. Still a bit dizzy from the screams I received, I managed to stand to my feet. Seeing the fenghuang wounded, I wanted to help it in any way I could. But, once again, I heard the monster grunt. It was more of a gagging since the neck was broken. She stood up facing the water and twisted her head back in place with her hands. And when she started pouting and breathing recklessly, I had the most obvious and idiotic realization.

  “If it breaths and screams… then it needs air.”

  At any other time, that would’ve been the most moronic of observations. But at that moment, it was going to save us. The hag turned around to give the fenghuang another nasty screech, but the only thing it saw was me. I ran as I could with my limping sprint and tackled her into the lake. There in the sparkling waters, I held her under and deprived her of air. She fought back, but I pushed her down by the hair. She cut and ripped my shoulders with its claws, but I kept my hold, agonizing as it was.

  Little by little, the banshee’s efforts diminished, the water calmed, and the bubbles stopped. I released her and the body emerged from the waters, her face still and emotionless. She floated away with the help of the current, resting on the surface like a dead leaf. I walked out of the water and accompanied the fenghuang. My arms were completely numb, with my shoulder muscles completely torn. The royal bird was still sitting on the puddle of blood, with the wings missing feathers and the chest gashed. I looked at it, and it looked at me.

  “Well, I don’t know about you, but I’m ready for a second round,” I joked with a sigh. I could no longer support my weight and fell on my knees. The fenghuang stretched its neck back over its body and opened its beak to sing. It let out a smooth harmonic sound, similar to a flute. Like a fountain, out of its beak flowed green sound waves that washed down its body. When the green cleared and vanished into the air, the fenghuang emerged totally healed and renewed. The wings were sharp, the chest was perfect, and the belly was restored to a healthy state. It walked to me and sang to the heavens. The green waves surged out and poured over me like a shower. For a brief moment all I could see was the song enveloping my body. It felt like a cool morning mist flowing through me. After the waves washed away, I was renovated; there was no pain, no wounds, no blood. I didn’t even felt the aches and sores I had acquired along my journey. I carefully touched my face; I was even shaved! But not only was my body healed, my equipment got fixed, too. My clothes were not torn, my bag was not ripped open anymore, and the straps on my shield were repaired. I looked just like the day I left the Forest of Agony.

  To all of this, I did not know what to say to the great Fenghuang. I could only express my most heartfelt, “Thank you.”

  It bowed, accepting my gratefulness, and with one short flap of the wings, it shot up to the skies. The dust on the road blew in all directions as it ascended like an arrow. It flew east over the Pegnion Mountains, leaving a red and yellow aura behind. It darted through the clouds until I saw it no more.

  I thought of Yang. If it weren’t for his miraculous gift, I would have died. But staying alive and being restored, I saw it as a sign. I felt more energetic and more determined than ever before. My destiny was clear to me now. I was not to die, but to save Auria. It was my fate.

  20- Ambros

  I was thrilled as I marched towards Ambros. Full of passion and determination, my mind was centered on my goal. I felt it in my very bones that Auria was near, right in the fortified city. I knew she was there.

  It wasn’t long before I saw it on the distance. Its walls sprouted from the side of the mountain and reached the edge of the water. They circled around the circumference of the lake, just demonstrating the length of the city. Made out of smooth solid rock, there was no way to climb over. Plus, sentry boxes every few meters watched everything. Three guards stood at the gates and three archers above the wall. There were people coming in and out, but they were showing some type of permit to the soldiers. I had nothing of the sort. How was I getting in?

  I continued walking and noticed a wagon stuck on the mud. It was full of lumber. The owner, a round man with a thick blonde moustache, was helping the horse pull it out. A thin bony kid tried pushing from behind. They were failing miserably.

  “Come on, heave! The cooks need this wood to fuel the fire,” the man said.

  “I’m trying,” said the kid, “It’s too heavy.”

  With their groaning and moaning, I offered my help.

  “Hello there! Looks like you need some assistance. May I help?”

  “Of course, of course,” the man said delighted. After my long journey, I would have been worn out and wouldn’t have wasted my strength on stuff like this. But, since I was renewed by the Fenghuang, this was going to be no problem at all. And, if I helped them, they might help me get into the city.

  I went beside the kid, and when prompted, we pushed. I dug my heels in the mud and heaved, so much that the wagon thrust forward and the horse almost ran over the man.

  “Gee, sir, you’re strong!” said the kid to me. I smiled and patted him on the head. I went to the owner and we shook hands.

  “Thank you very much,” he said, “I pass here and there to grab pieces of wood, but I stopped right on top of the mud. Mighty silly of me!”

  “You’re welcome. But, since I have helped you, could you offer me some help in return?”

  “Oh, I get it,” the man strained his brow, “you want money as compensatio
n! Well, you didn’t help me that much, either!”

  “No, no,” I rectified, “I seek no money from you.”

  “Then, what are you asking for?”

  “You see, my loved one has been snatched away, and I believe that the culprits are inside the city. But, since I’m not from the area nor do I own a permit, I’m afraid the guards won’t grant me access.”

  “You don’t have a permit? Where do you come from, sir?” asked the kid.

  “Well, I live close to the border of Balora and Miaflore.”

  “You have come a long way, warrior,” said the man. He passed his rough hands on his blonde moustache as he eyed me from top to bottom. He finally nodded, “Very well, I will help you. You truly look like a good man that does not seek riches, but only wants his woman.”

  “Thank you so much!”

  “But, you’ll need to change your appearance and you’ll have to hide your sword and shield.”

  I removed my sword, shield, and gambeson and hid them under the lumber. I was left only with my bag. Afterwards, the man put his hands in the mud and slapped me across the face.

  What the hell are you doing?

  I sternly stared at him. He explained that I had to look like I had been working with them. He proceeded to do the same with my clothing. I got irritated; the Fenghuang had practically made them clean and new, and now I had to dirty them.

  When I finally looked like I had taken a mud bath, we continued on the road, passed a few cottages and small fields, and arrived at the gate. No citizen was coming in or out at the moment, so all eyes would be on us. As we neared the threshold, a young and impudent soldier stopped us.

  “Show us the permit!” he barked. The man reached for a sack resting on the horse’s back and took it out. It was simply a paper with a long paragraph. The only important thing on it was the seal at the bottom. The seal was of violet wax with an image of a crow pressed in. The soldier nodded at the sight of the paper, but he got suspicious when he saw my face.