by Billy Wong
The frog-men still did not respond, and Rose saw more surfacing around them. If she and Finn didn't get serious soon, they might think to overturn the boat and dump them into the water. As Rose's heart pounded faster in her chest, Finn asked, "Time to start killing yet?"
She sighed, chopped through a sternum so that its owner fell away. "It seems we have no choice."
Finn's mace crushed a skull, knocking the dead frog-man into another beside it. The latter cracked its head on the edge of the boat as it fell, leaving it stunned until Finn stomped its neck and snapped it like a twig. More swam towards them. Rose slashed at the face of one that sprang up. It splashed back down half decapitated, two of its companions swimming hastily out of the way. But now several creatures still in the water raised spears.
"Looks like you're no Kayla when it comes to relations with other races," Finn remarked as the missiles flew. They raised their shields, but could not cover their bodies completely, and both cursed while cold metal pierced their flesh. Ripping out a spear that had lodged just above her hip with a gasp, Rose threw it back into a froglike face, and the head burst out of the back of its skull.
She glanced around, watching for the next attack, but none came. Instead, the frog-men had begun to mutter amongst themselves in an unknown tongue. "What's going on?" she asked—right before she caught the word "Kayla" in their speech.
Her husband pulled a spear out of his shoulder and said, "Looks like you did something right. Maybe they think you're her back from the dead. You look the part, dark hair aside."
They waited there, bleeding and in pain yet curious as to what would happen next. An especially large frog-man emerged from the depths. It was about the same height as its fellows, but perhaps twice as wide, and spoke a few words in Old Speech that Rose recognized. "You know Kayla?" it asked in its low voice.
She tried her best to answer. "I... I don't know if I'd say I know her. But I know of her, yes." Finn hadn't learned much of the old tongue, so she would have to explain their conversation later, if they survived the day.
"You killed so many so fast, you must be great warriors."
"Passable enough, but we don't want to fight anymore. Let's talk, we don't need to continue this bloodshed."
"What you want talk about? You want take land of gods away? You not take land of gods away, though you kill us, we fight until last of our lives!"
"What do you mean, land of gods? Are you talking about the lake?"
"Yes, water land of gods. Gods sleep under here, under lake. You humans invade gods' land, make us have to fight."
But hadn't the townspeople been fishing here for a long time? "When did you start seeing people invade your gods' land, and being forced to fight?"
"Few weeks ago, when we see humans appear above lake. So we make them go away, stop them from harming sacred place."
That made no sense. How could the creatures only start to notice the humans fishing weeks ago, when they'd been doing so for a lot longer? "What are they doing to harm the sacred place?"
"They put things in the lake. That not good, to change what gods made."
This was going nowhere. But then, she thought maybe people had begun using some new equipment or bait which the frog-men wouldn't tolerate. "Can we go back to town? We'll try and sort this out, but you have to let us go so we can talk to the others of our kind."
The large frog-man shouted something in its own tongue to the others. "You go now. They not fight you. But you not stop other humans, we fight again."
They rowed back to shore, Rose explaining to Finn what she'd discussed with the frog-men. Stepping onto land, he said, "What the hell, that doesn't make sense. Could they be lying?"
She hadn't even considered that possibility. "Probably not. It's hard to believe they wouldn't have noticed the fishermen until now, but then if they were lying I'd expect something more plausible. Let's talk to Alan again."
He lifted her shirt to examine the wound over her hip. "By the way, you okay?"
"Yeah, just a scratch by my standards. It was a little scary fighting on the boat like that, though. Hope we don't have to do it again."
#
"Did your fishermen start doing anything different that might have made the frog-men notice you in the last few weeks?" Rose asked the elder as she sat wincing in a short chair. "Maybe using different bait, different gear?"
"I don't think so—at least, I haven't heard of any new trends."
"Then what about individual fishermen?" Finn's tone came out somewhat harsher than Rose might have liked. "It doesn't have to be the whole group that brings trouble to itself, when it could be one idiot in it."
Alan's voice stayed calm as always. "I don't keep that close an eye on what every man does. You could trying asking around."
"You know, you're not being very helpful when it's your people we're trying to save."
"I would tell you more, if I knew."
Rose took her husband's arm before he could get any madder and dragged him outside. "What's wrong with you? You can't expect him to know everything about everyone in town."
"Just annoyed as usual you got hurt helping these people, and even though it turns out this could be their own fault, they're not making it easy for us to figure it out. Guess the old man might not be to blame. His uncaring tone kind of irks me, though."
"I don't know that it's so much 'uncaring' as controlled..."
"If you say so. Anyway, what are we going to do once we find whoever stirred up these frog-men's wrath?"
"I'm not sure." She smiled. "Hopefully they'll accept an apology."
They started asking around town about people's choice of fishing gear, but did not find that anyone had made significant changes to the bait they used, nor switched away from their simple wooden rods and line. Then Finn decided to ask about garbage being dumped into the lake. It seemed like an idea with potential, but again yielded no results. Probably if somebody had put something into the lake, they wouldn't admit it, even if doing so would benefit the community.
Flustered, Rose asked Alan to hold a town meeting, where they warned the people not to dump anything into the lake nor change their fishing gear. Then, promising they would try to talk the frog-men out of attacking anymore, the couple returned to the lake. A short wait later, the large creature Rose had spoken with before swam up from the depths, and she said, "We've told them to stop doing whatever it was that offended you. Will you please let them come back to fish? They need their food too."
"If they not disturb sacred place... all right. They swore?"
Not exactly, but Finn had warned them sternly enough she didn't expect them to forget for a while. "I think you'll be okay."
"You honorable humans, not to try kill us. Not everyone would do this way."
Rose smiled. "Thanks. I try to be good, though it's hard to tell what's right sometimes. Say, what do you know about Kayla, anyway? You recognized her name."
"Yes, we thought you know her. We know her."
Though its Old Speech was not the best, its use of the present tense caught her attention, and she asked, "You do know she's dead, right?"
"Yes, she die. Very sad, but brave death."
She exhaled with slight relief. "What was she like?" Maybe these creatures would know more about the ancient heroine's life, having been associated with her in generations past.
"She great warrior. Made many friends of all kinds, fought evil to preserve land's safe life. Then come great evil from across east sea, they fight and she die. But darkness take her place, took power in her guise. Sought to stamp out every threat, destroy any rebellious race. In end our gods conquered her shadow, but paid heavy price. Then they go to rest, await better times. Left us here, to watch for the signs."
Rose thought she understood, though she was a tad saddened by the emphasis on the disasters after Kayla's death over what she'd done in life. She tried to piece things together from what she'd seen in the dreams and what she now knew. It seemed like after dying to de
feat Deathend, Kayla's body had been taken over by an evil force, which used her fame and power to help establish its own oppressive reign. And in the end, the gods these frog-men worshiped had defeated that evil before going away themselves.
"These gods of yours, what were they like?"
"Big, very big. Good in magic, art, and building. Once they help Kayla fight evil from across sea, then killed her darkness and preserved her legacy."
The giants that had built the fortress in the Valley of Ghosts? They would fit the story well. After defeating whatever evil had taken Kayla's body for its own, they must have entombed her corpse in honor to the woman herself, rather than what her flesh had become. Rose shuddered to imagine herself ending up the same way. She remembered what Kayla had said in her dream, and wondered if that evil might really be still alive. "Thanks for telling us." Having answered her questions, the frog-man disappeared beneath the waters.
"That was boring," Finn said, "what with me not understanding a thing you said. You talked about Kayla, right?"
"Yeah, apparently, these creatures worship the giants who helped Kayla in the past as gods."
He laughed. "More fake gods? I doubt any real gods would let a human woman rule them as queen."
"Well, we don't know that she actually ruled them, and wasn't just drawn on the throne to show their reverence. I mean, I don't think they were actual gods. But with respect to her standing among them, you've got to remember she was a powerful mage. Sad how young she died; I think if she didn't, she would have accomplished a lot more."
"She accomplished a lot anyway. What does it matter, though? It was so long ago."
"Yeah, but her story makes me think of myself a little. She was the great champion of good at the time, the only one who could face Deathend and stand a chance. But even though she beat him, she died, and her body was taken by another evil for used as its tool. She wasn't much older than me when she found there would be no happy ending for her... sometimes I think about such a thing happening to me, and it scares me."
"I'll protect you."
Though she'd suffered grave injury plenty of times despite his efforts, the familiar line always brought comfort to her, and she replied softly, "I'm sure you will." Tears began to run down her cheeks. "What a wimpy girl I am, to cry when there's nothing to cry about. Hold me, will you?"
He hugged her and kissed her face. They sat there for a while before the water, sharing the warmth of their bodies so that she imagined their souls melding together. Then he poked her cheek. "You're gaining weight."
"Gaining it back, you mean," she said with a chuckle. "Way to ruin a romantic moment, Finn."
"Don't worry, pudgy. I love you just the same."
Rose grinned. "Want to go back to town and give them the good news?"
"They can probably tell we've got good news. Some of them have been watching us cuddle out here."
She looked back to see a few men and one woman peeking at them from afar. Grabbing Finn's head, she pulled him into a long kiss. Whatever time they had left, she would live it without shame.
They returned to town and announced the lake should be safe again. Though some of the fishermen appeared skeptical that they would have been able to talk the monsters into accepting peace, most of the townsfolk cheered. Night having fallen, they went to the inn to sleep, and Rose returned to the battleground in her dreams.
#
Rose stared at the mighty figure of Kayla as they faced each other on the quiet plain. More cooly than she felt, she said, "You're the evil that took her form, aren't you?" After all, "Kayla" had claimed the end of the fateful battle to be her beginning.
The wind howled, blowing the hair up from both their heads alike. Kayla's face remained impassive as she replied, "I suppose you could say I'm evil. But don't close your ears to me just for that. You know she was weak, right? No one else thought so, of course; they all thought she was so strong and brave, that nothing could make her afraid. They were so wrong... everything she did, every choice she had to make, brought her fear."
"Yeah, and? She still did it—still acted when she had to. It doesn't matter that you doubt, if you can push that doubt aside in your time of need."
"You doubt too, then? You wonder if what you do is right, and yet you go on anyway."
Rose nodded. "Yes, I'm always thinking about how many I've killed, how much joy my blade's stolen from their families, whether the things I've done were really just, and where my bloody path will take me. Doubt's part of something called a 'conscience' which keeps us from turning into monsters, and I wouldn't have it any other way."
The dead woman averted her gaze slightly and sighed. "I think you misread me, Rose."
"How's that?"
"You suspect I intend to come back and use you in Kayla's place, isn't that right?"
"Aren't you? Don't worry, I've got a pretty good record for withstanding magic brought against my mind."
Kayla smiled. "I can't say I wouldn't be intrigued to test your strength against mine, whether mental or physical. But no, I have no intention of coming back, even if I could. I'm just telling you, it was doubt that opened the way for what you hate."
The evil, she meant? It seemed she was denying that had been her. "What do you mean?"
"Kayla was too weak, you see. She knew what she had to do, but it hurt her too much to fight for what she should. Until she had her son, and he taught her to live."
"But Kayla died too young for that to be literal, no? And what does that have to do with the evil that possessed her body?"
"I'll tell you... another night." The dreamscape blurred and faded away.
#
Rose awakened the next day frustrated by her experience. She hadn't quite reached whatever big revelation loomed ahead, yet already felt dread of the evil that might yet survive tighten its hold on her heart.
Finn yawned and turned over beside her. Seeing her worried face, he asked, "What's wrong?"
She hadn't told him before because she hadn't been sure of their importance, but now felt the need to do so. "I've been having these dreams where I see Kayla, or some being in her guise, after her death. She told about how she was weak with doubt, and her son changed her life. But what scares me is that she says doubt opened up the way for an evil to invade her body—an evil my gut tells me might soon rise again."
"What, a couple dreams about Kayla after seeing her corpse and you're already convinced they mean something?"
"They feel too real. I don't know how else to explain, but I don't believe they're just my imagination running wild."
"Okay... so why is it you're so worried?"
"Like I told you, she said that doubt is what makes one vulnerable to the evil's influence. I value questioning my own actions. But if this evil returns..."
With a smile, he shook his head. "Your always second-guessing the decisions you make can be pretty annoying at times. But as for this evil, aren't you too mentally strong for it to have its way"
"That's what I told her. I just hope it'll be true."
"I'm here too. You think I'd let you fall under the hold of evil, when you'd get all worked up over it once I've shooed it away? For my sake and yours, I had better keep you safe!"
Rose laughed. "You're right that we have sturdy, stubborn minds. But if it's an outside force that we can't stop and keeps trying to worm its way in, I don't know if even I'll be able to resist forever."
"I'm sure we can find a way. How many daunting enemies have we conquered?"
"Many, I know. But at least they all had an identifiable form, even the ones without a solid body."
"Maybe you could ask Kayla what it really-" Screams from outside interrupted, and he leaned out the window to ask loudly, "What on earth is going on?"
"The frog-men are attacking!" somebody cried. "The frog-men are attacking!"
What? They had just negotiated a peace yesterday! Rose ran outside with Finn and saw that this time the frog-men had come on land to stab at whoever came in ran
ge. Already, over a dozen corpses lay near the shore and several more in and near floating boats. "What are you doing?!" she demanded in Old Speech while she ran forward. But she couldn't see the big one anywhere.
Nearby, a frog-man thrust at a cowering woman. Rose acted the only way she could, deflecting its spear and striking back. Her sword cut the spearhead away and continued on, nearly taking its wielder's head off. Stepping over the body while it gushed from its gaping throat, she warded a thrown spear with her shield. "Your friends sure are being nice," Finn said.
"I don't know why the hell they're doing this." She dodged a jab, lopped off another opponent's arm and cut the next in half. Blocking a stroke knocked another Finn's way.
He brained it with his mace. "There's more of them than I'd have expected—how many, would you say?"
She looked around and hazarded an estimate. "Maybe a hundred fifty or thereabouts? But where's their leader? I don't want to fight."
"Why are you still so ambivalent about killing these things?" Finn asked as he shattered a ribcage, making its owner flop to the ground kicking madly in pain. "They're attacking the town after they agreed not to!"
Rose blocked another flying spear, charged its thrower and chopped through its thigh. "I know. But I don't think they're being treacherous for the hell of it—they must have been provoked somehow."
"What, you think somebody was that stupid already?"
"Maybe they have a grudge against the rest of town, who knows? But I need to find that big frog!"
Finn grabbed an opponent and hurled it into a quartet of its comrades, bowling them over. "He might not be too eager to talk, after all of his kind we've killed."
Seeing a frog-man run a fleeing fisherman through from behind before she could do anything to stop it, she spat, "He'd better talk, for the sake of his race." She charged the killer and slashed into its side. The force of the blow lifted it into the air with her sword through its ribcage, then it flew off the blade to land at the feet of three allies. They rushed her, and she met them halfway. A single slash removed two spearheads, another glanced off her shield. She cut low, and two sets of stinking guts spilled on the earth.