by P. G. Thomas
Lauren thought back to the mountain top where she had cradled her favorite dwarf and friend in her arms—after he had died. “NO! Not again! You’re staying here!”
“You are guests of Ironhouse, but you were proclaimed Earth Mother Ironhouse. My uncle extended privileges, protection being the first.” Grax pulled his giant ax to him, “On the stage the props look real, but they do no damage.” Running his thumb along the sharp edge, blood flowed down it, “This is real, and we know that we are not actors. Our safety is not your concern, but yours belongs to Ironhouse.” He stood up, “My bond is like my mithril ax, and it will not break. Any that challenge or threaten, our answer will be swift.” With one hand, he slammed his ax into the table, and then Amber and Gor did the same.
Logan picked up his spilled mug of bean juice, “They seem to have become a little more incense since we left?”
“Do you mean intense?” asked Steve.
A dwarf walked over with a pot of hot bean juice, looked down at the unstable table with the three axes buried into it, and pointed to a new one. As other dwarves carried the wounded table from the room, Fen and Fodu walked in and joined the group.
Lauren started immediately, “You can’t send your children with us! This isn’t a new play, a new story for your bards to argue over. Look at them, they don’t know what they’re doing, so eager to prove themselves they attack a table! When we first met Ironhouse, you were different, had fought before, but your children haven’t. They can’t follow in your shadows, and after what we went through, I don’t know why you would want to send them!”
“Earth Mother Ironhouse, they have no interest in our shadows,” Fodu said. “My daughter has no interest in jewelry. Gor like his father, maybe some, and Grax hates the forge. True, they want see the lands, and with the mine locked down for so long, they are anxious to see more. They are dwarf, Ironhouse, but no longer children. They are eager to prove themselves, which is good. Maybe not good for tables not, but I still think good.”
Fen nodded, “As they will lead our clan one day, they need to prove themselves, and we cannot break tradition.”
“What tradition?” demanded Lauren.
“The experience necessary to lead they will not find it here, so into world they must venture. Their future to lead our clan lead is not carved in rock, so they need to learn. If they are worthy, then they should adventure, as character it will build and more,” advised Fen.
Fodu cast a glance at the three cousins. “Lessons will be taught, but will they learn?” He turned to Lauren, “We would go with you, but our clan need us, so my brother and I must stay here. We knew you would not like this, but we cannot change it.” When Fodu banged on the table, several dwarves headed over carrying trays. On each was a plate stacked high with fluffy pancakes, fried meats, and more. The last placed a tray in the middle of the table, which held numerous jars of sauces and syrups.
Inhaling deeply, Lauren recognized one, “Gor’s?”
“We found his book of foods with syrups as well.” Fen stood, lifted out one, and took it to her. “He renamed this one, ‘Lauren’s Favorite,’ and it is reserved for special occasions only.”
She looked up to Fen, wiping away a tear, “What happens if something goes wrong?”
He walked back to his spot, “If a death worthy of dwarf, they will be great. If foolish they die, they are not worthy of the Ironhouse name. If they return wiser, one day they may govern. Now eat, eat like dwarf.”
*******
When they walked out onto the terrace, the second sun was cresting the horizon. John headed to the center, pulling off the platinum bracelet. Having already retrieved the medallion inscribed with the statue of Alron, he dropped it through, watching as the ring shimmer and stabilize. They all saw the image of the statue form, but the surrounding background was blurred. Followed by the three inexperienced Ironhouse warriors, the six stepped through.
What they saw shocked them: the rural town that once housed tens of thousands was gone. Nothing remained, not even the twenty-foot tall log walls that had secured it. The scene panned out looking like an inverted image of an arctic landscape, but instead of white snow, black drifts of ash were sculpted into silent, motionless waves, some reaching heights of six feet. The darkness trapped on the ground reached out hundreds of yards to the left and right, and miles in front and behind. In every direction they looked, as far as the eye could see, there was nothing except small breezes rearranging the piles of dark ash drifts. It was the sharp eyesight of Amber, who observed blackened bones protruding from the leeward side of the cinder dunes, but she remained as silent as the deceased did with her observation. The statue of their first elf protector was stained in ash. Evaporated rain drops gave the quiet blackened rock an appearance of shadow-filled tears running down it.
“Fire bugs?” asked Ryan.
Dumbfounded, John scanned the black remains of the once-thriving town, “I have no idea.”
They all heard the distress in Lauren’s voice, “Everybody’s gone. Everything. Gone?”
As they slowly started walking down the charcoal-covered street, John fell to his knees and cried out, “Give me a goddamned break! Seriously!” He looked up to the sky, “MOTHER, FATHER, SISTER, ANYBODY! A LITTLE BIT OF HELP, PLEASE!”
Eric helped him up, “What does this mean?”
Rubbing the charcoal from his hands, John started to walk towards his old house. “I don’t know. I was looking for answers, not more questions. There were so many people here, and somebody would have known or heard about us, being able to tell us what had happened. Chaos theory on steroids? I just don’t know.” Continuing to walk down what he thought was once a street, a route walked for almost three years, he was lost without the familiar sights. Heading down one blackened path, which ended too soon, he realized his mistake and returned. The rest of the group remained silent, as the images filling their visions were too disturbing for comments. Turning down another alley between the rows of black drifts, John stopped in front of one that had an odd stone structure extending from the front of it. Burnt doors that once secured the opening had collapsed in on the crude ramp, and he looked at the pile of charcoal, wiping away a tear. “I think this is my house, as Gayne would have needed to build that ramp to get the machine out.”
“So what are we doing here?” asked Logan.
“Other than finding answers…I had a room built for my cloaks and was hoping the first one would still be here.” As John started to pull away the charred boards to gain access to the basement, the Ironhouse warriors quickly lent a hand, and Steve, Eric, with Logan also joined in. Once in the cellar, they formed a chain gang to remove the debris, depositing it onto the street. John, his face and hands blackened, finally stood in front of a bare wall and pushed against a stone block. When a mechanism released, it allowed the door to open wide enough to gain a finger hold. Hinges long ignored fought his efforts, but with Eric’s help, they managed to open it. The dwarf-constructed room had withstood the fire, remaining intact, other than the water that seeped under the entrance. Where John had placed the kites, there was only a pile of rotted wood and fabric, and the wooden spool with the gold chain had also decomposed, leaving a pile of tarnished and weathered metal sitting on the floor. Entering carefully, he went to the dark back corner, and feeling the fabric of the desired garment, he lifted the heavy cloak from its hidden home. Taking it into the basement, light filtering through the burnt out floor allowed him to examine it more carefully. Then he let out a sigh of relief because it was intact. However, without the other parts to recharge it, he would be unable to siphon magic from the night skies. He turned to Eric, “We’ll need to take the gold chains back to Ironhouse. I’m hoping Fodu can build me new kites, and they’ll need that to charge my cloak.”
It took everybody over an hour to maneuverer the tangled mass of gold chains, as they had nothing to transport it on. Once outside, John materialized a magic wagon to carry the new burden back with them.
S
teve, understanding that everything was wrong, knew somebody had to speak the one question that none wanted to ask. He walked up to John, “So what do we do now?”
“I don’t know. When you were a cop, did you ever come across a body you couldn’t identify? Had no evidence to determine what happened? Something like a shotgun blast to the head. The hands cut off and no witnesses? What happened with cases like that?”
“They went cold pretty fast, but there must be something we can do here?”
“Do? What do we do?” John was on the brink. “We don’t know anybody here. Everywhere we go—more damn questions! We don’t need magic, we need a goddamned miracle!”
“News flash, I’m on your side.” Steve felt for them all, however, he was unsure of what to actually feel. He understood the frustration, as he lived with it every day; bosses, witnesses, evidence, or lack thereof, his ex-wives, disappointing his unknown kids. Back home, on days like this, he emptied a month’s allotment of shells into the paper targets at the firing range. That was until his court-ordered psychiatrist suggested a more passive release, which was when the drinking problem began.
Lauren coughed, pointed, and everybody turned to see a huge wolf. She knelt down, “Zack, is that you?” The wolf seemed to take a step back. “Zack, it’s me, Lauren. John, Eric, Logan, and Ryan. We’re all back. You remember us, don’t you?” As the wolf took a few more steps back, she called to it again. When it shifted its gaze, they followed it, seeing the second larger wolf. Lauren stood, “Crap, it was too good to be true.”
Then the first wolf went out of focus, leaving only a blur. Slowly, a new image formed. She stood up, naked. “My father’s name you speak. Tell me something only he would know.”
Chapter 10
Lauren looked at the odd stranger, whose skin was absent of any fur patches, but also had deer ears and green eyes. “Hope, is that you?” Receiving no answer, she thought back to their first visit, “You had a brother who was named after my sister. Her name was Samantha, but we called her Sam.”
The second wolf went out of focus, and from all fours, a naked man stood, who also had deer ears and green eyes, “Aunt Lauren? Is that you?”
Overcome with joy, she wiped away the tears forming. “Sam, is that you? You were both so small the last time I saw you. Where are your dad and mom? Where’s Nur?” The look that Lauren received was unexpected. “No, no, no! Tell me they’re okay, take me to them!”
Ryan wrapped his arms around her to muffle the sobs.
“Sam, Hope. What happened here?” John said as he wiped away forming tears.
Hope stepped forward, “You, you are actually them. You look so young.” She pointed, “The Champion of Tranquil Fury.” Eric, looking at the ground, nodded. Hope called out other names, “Logan the Bastard, John with so many names. Dad would laugh so hard describing how you acted when they called you Earth Mother.” Then added, “No disrespect, Earth Mother. Which one is Ryan?”
He raised his hand.
From the back, they heard one of the Ironhouse dwarves state, “Dwarf bards thought it was unfitting that named he was not, now called the Unnamed he is.”
Sam walked up beside his sister, “Better than no title…I guess.”
When the naked female had materialized from a wolf, Steve had turned his back, being unsure of what the protocol would be in this world, which was growing stranger by the day.
Hope pointed, “Who is this?”
Eric, still looking at the ground, replied, “He’s Steve, new here.”
John pointed to the back of the party. “Sam, Hope. May I introduce to you Amber, Gor, and Grax Ironhouse.”
Realizing that all eyes were avoiding them, Sam stepped forward. “Look, we have been running naked in the woods for a long time. You may consider us undressed, but to us, clothes, like so much more, lost their meaning a long time ago, so get used to it.” The others turned and faced the children of Zack, but quickly turned their gaze so they looked to the side or the sky. Sam scanned the group, “Can we leave this place? There are too many ghosts that call Alron home now.” The two then went out of focus, replaced by large polar bears, which were a stark contrast to the blackened surroundings.
As the nine followed them towards the gates of Alron, Steve picked up his pace until he was beside Eric. “At what point do you become so accustomed to this world, that when you see something new, you don’t freak out?”
“Last time, I spent four years here. When I arrive at that point, I’ll let you know.”
They continued to walk through the ghost town, following the polar bears as they headed out the east gates, stopping a quarter-mile away where some trees had fallen over. The two bears went out of focus, taking their human shapes, and sat down on the deadfalls. When the others had done the same, Sam looked at them, “Why? Why have you returned now? Why not sooner when Mom pleaded with you to return?”
“You know that is not fair,” began Hope. “Dad explained that they would never be able to hear Mom’s prayers or pleas for help.”
Then Sam stood, turned, and sat down with his back to the small group, “Then why are they back now?”
“Something happened.” Then Ryan briefly explained the past events, adding, “What happened here? What happened to Alron?”
Hope looked at Sam, “I will tell them the first half, so you can tell the second,” to which he nodded. Closing her eyes, hoping the absence of light would diminish the dark memories, she started. “For years, all we heard were your stories, and we would beg for them each night before we went to bed. As there were so many, we never grew tired of hearing them. Growing older, understanding more, Mom and Dad would add to them. Some parts we liked, but other parts, not so much. I think I was about twelve when Mom first realized that Mother was getting weaker. When people would get sick, the Earth Mothers would go to the forest to find remedies, but they only found the forest dying, like they were not getting enough rain. When the Earth Mothers could no longer help, the people quit going to them, and then they began to wander off. Mom took her Earth Guards out several times in search of something, but she never found what she was looking for. From that day on, she was never the same. Even though Dad did what he could to keep her spirits up, there was something wrong with Mother, and then the rains started. Dad described it best, saying everything went down the crapper. Crops failed to grow. The suns disappeared, so life was miserable. The few Earth Mothers left were frantic, but nobody could explain what was happening. I think I was about twenty, and I still remember that day. I was with Mom and saw the reaction on her face. I thought she was going to die, helped her to bed, and then raced through the woods until I found Dad. She lay in bed for an entire month, and every day, she felt those terrible Curses but never really recovered.”
Lauren tilted her head, “I don’t understand. What happened?”
“Somebody used Mother’s magic, and Cursed her for a month. She said those Curses were stronger than any Earth Bond she had ever felt, even stronger than yours, Aunt Lauren, or should I call you Earth Mother?”
“Of all the names I was given here, I think I’ll always enjoy Aunt Lauren the best, but who Cursed Mother? Why was it so strong? Did you two feel it?”
“Mom figured it was because of Dad that we did not, him being an outlander. She took her Earth Guard out again on a long adventure, looking for other Earth Mothers and answers, but when she returned, she had lost all hope, and we never heard from Mother again. Nobody did.” Hope went quiet as she elbowed her brother.
Sam took a deep breath while he waited for his sister to go out of focus. A large bald eagle formed, and with its wings stretched out, grabbed the air and took flight. “This part is so disturbing that my sister cannot even listen to it. No one has ever heard it, and even though I witnessed the events, the right words to this day, I still do not know. It was six years after the Curse when Mom felt a second Earth Bond, Curse, or both, as I don’t know how to describe it. She tried to fight it, but it was strong, and it told all t
o worship Zymse Darpac.”
Steve, hearing the name, instinctively reached for the portrait he had purchased.
“Mom was unable to believe that an Earth Mother would issue such a command. That day, anybody who still remembered Mother forgot about her completely. Maybe we should have done something different, moved, but it was just an unrecognized name.” He stopped, rubbed his eyes, “It was a year later when the rains had ended, and things seemed to be returning to normal. Dad was up early, sensing something wrong. We ran through the woods sniffing the air, trying to determine what had him on edge. It was midday when we ended up outside the east end of Alron, finding a strange group of people. At the gates, it seemed like every citizen was gathered.” Sam stopped, and they could hear his rapid, heavy breathing, “Listen carefully to the next part, as I will never repeat it again. I have no idea on who they were, but three tall females, all wearing long black dresses, stepped forward. The odd part, they all looked the same. I had never seen one that looked like another, let alone three. We heard their words spoken in unison, ‘Bow down before Zymse Darpac,’ and from the actions of the group, we guessed it was an Earth Bond because they did.” His breathing was rapid, “Then in unison all three called out, ‘Set your houses on fire, and when it is the hottest, enter your homes.’ We were stunned, but then we saw the crowd turn, entering back into Alron. Then smoke, lots of smoke, Alron was on fire, and we heard the crowd at the front laughing. We looked to the west, saw smoke, and raced home,” Sam was almost hyperventilating, his breathing heavy, fast, “Flames had engulfed all of the buildings at home, and nobody was there. Racing back to the gate, we found Dad’s scent. He had traveled fast to the laughing group, but we lost it there. It just disappeared. We wondered back home, and when the ashes were cool, we dug through the remains of our house.” It was obvious that Sam was crying, no longer able to hold his tears back, “We found Mom’s charred bones, buried her and then her Earth Guards. With our parents both gone, we were alone.”