by N E Riggs
The trees grew thicker, slowing them down. “Climb!” Bellon yelled.
In front of him, David saw Niam grab a low hanging tree branch and scramble up effortlessly. Anur and Conal also found trees to climb. David whirled around desperately, looking for a tree with lower branches. He couldn’t jump and climb like the others could. And he could hear the dogs barking, now very close.
Then Bellon grabbed him around the chest and threw him at a tree. David let out an undignified yelp, but Bellon had thrown him high enough for him to grab the lowest branch. He wrapped his arms tightly around it then pulled with all his might. He got a leg up and dragged himself on top of the branch, back against the trunk of the tree.
He looked down and found that Bellon was still on the ground, and now the dogs were almost upon them. David could clearly see their sharp teeth and claws, and he swallowed hard at the length of each. Bellon wouldn’t be able to find a tree to climb before the dogs were on him.
The dog closest to Bellon fell suddenly, its chest smoking slightly. David realized that the others had opened fire. He drew his agitator and aimed. The front rank of dogs all fell within moments, but more came.
Bellon took a solid stance and drew his lance, waiting coolly. David heard swearing and the sound of someone crashing to the ground. Then Conal was beside Bellon, his sword drawn. David forced himself to focus on the dogs, shooting as many of them as he could before they reached Bellon or Conal. He switched his agitator to his left hand and drew Bramira. As he had so many times in practice, he continued shooting while he threw Bramira. It gleamed as it ripped through one dog after another.
Suddenly the last few dogs were running away. David caught Bramira shakily, almost dropping it. He hung it from his belt and holstered his agitator, then carefully climbed down out of the tree.
“You never should have climbed back down!” Bellon said.
“Thought you might need some help,” Conal laughed, though it was strained. David turned away from the tree and saw that Conal was lying on the ground, left leg covered in blood. A pile of corpses surrounded him and Bellon. There was more blood, on Conal’s face and Bellon’s arm.
“I was fine,” Bellon said, hands clenched into fists. He turned and stalked a few feet away. David, Anur, and Niam walked up to Conal to inspect the damage. Pulling out her pocket knife, Niam cut Conal’s pant leg away to reveal deep teeth marks.
Together, Niam, Anur, and David cleaned Conal’s leg, rubbed some anti-infection cream into it, and wrapped it in bandages. “It’s not that bad,” Niam said. “I don’t think you’ll need stitches or anything.”
“And none of the dogs looked rabid,” Anur added cheerfully.
Conal smiled at them, his dark face seeming paler than usual. “Might have trouble walking though,” he said. He tried to get up, but his leg wobbled badly and he had to sit back down. David and Anur grabbed him under his arms and helped him up. “Thanks.”
“Just look what you’ve done,” Bellon said, whirling back to face them, scowling at Conal. “We’re going to have to slow down for you. We may not make the finish at all!”
“You could just say thank you,” Conal said, still smiling even though he was gritting his teeth.
To stem the argument, David said, “I’ll help him walk.”
Bellon nodded curtly. “Let’s get moving. More of those dogs might come back.”
“Barghests,” Niam said. “I’ve read about them.”
“Whatever,” Bellon grunted. “Isha, keep going.”
Anur nodded and took the lead again. David and Conal followed, with David acting as crutch for Conal. Niam fluttered behind them, looking worried, while Bellon kept watch from the rear. Niam put her agitator away and picked a long, sturdy branch up off the ground.
After a few minutes, Conal said softly, “Thanks for helping me. I couldn’t do this by myself.”
David felt his cheeks grow warm. “Least I could do.” The only reason Conal had gotten hurt was because he’d felt he had to help Bellon. And Bellon would have made it up a tree if he hadn’t been too busy helping David. So really, the injury was David’s fault. Helping Conal walk was the least of what he owed Conal and Bellon.
It might be what he owed, but it wasn’t easy. Conal had to lean a lot of his weight on David. And they were walking at a fast pace. Before long, David was breathing heavily and wondering when they might take a break.
“Here,” Niam said, suddenly appearing at his side, holding out the thick branch she picked up earlier. She’d cut it down a bit and smoothed out the side, and had left the top wider. It was almost a proper crutch. Conal took it and shoved the branch under his arm. David and Niam stayed near, as he was awkward with it, but the group was able to move at a brisker walk, and David wasn’t so tired anymore.
They continued walking through the afternoon, eating ration bars for lunch as they walked. Just a few months ago, David was sure he’d have been exhausted from all the walking, but he still felt full of energy. All his conditioning was paying off. Or maybe that was his gift – there had never been a single day he could point to when he felt he was at his peak condition, but it had been long enough that he should have his gift by now. Or maybe it was a combination of both his gift and his training. He was pretty sure someone had said that was how it was supposed to work.
The scenery remained constant, mostly wooded areas with occasional breaks. They forded two more streams and passed a large lake to their left early in the afternoon. They saw more animals, but only the non-scary type, like birds and squirrels and deer and a fox. David could happily go the rest of his life without seeing another giant dog – barghest, as Niam had called it.
Bellon made them keep walking well past dusk. Even after night fell, he had them pull out flashlights. Finally, though, he let them stop for the day. They’d come across a small hill with steep sides that Bellon judged to be a safe place to stop. David and Niam had to help Conal get up the hill, and he collapsed immediately at the top. Niam changed the bandages on his leg.
“Garna, you can take first watch,” Bellon said. “Then Isha, then myself, then Kemp.”
Conal made a face. “I can keep watch too,” he said.
Bellon crossed his arms over his chest. “We were slowed down today because of you. You need to sleep so you can walk faster tomorrow. We didn’t get as far as we should have.”
“How far did we come?” Niam asked.
Anur said, “About eighteen miles.”
Niam frowned. “That should be good enough, shouldn’t it?”
“Don’t be stupid,” Bellon snapped. “Who knows what we might find tomorrow or the day after? We need to push as long as we can. Now get to sleep.” Taking his own advice, he unrolled his sleeping bag and climbed in.
David and Niam helped Conal get comfortable, then David and Anur also settled down while Niam sat on a stump near the edge, flashlight in one hand, agitator in the other. The ground seemed very hard and uneven – David had never before slept outside, not like this. He closed his eyes, slowed his breathing, and counted his heartbeats. He managed to fall asleep faster than he expected.
It felt like only minutes later when Bellon shook him awake. David climbed awkwardly out of his sleeping bag, rubbing his eyes. He wished he could throw some water on his face, but he didn’t want to waste any from his canteen. They’d seen plenty of water so far, but, as Bellon said, they had no idea what lay ahead.
He stood at first, afraid he’d fall asleep if he sat, pacing a bit and swinging his arms around. He wondered what the local time it was. His watch said 4:10, but he wasn’t sure how accurate that was. The night was quiet, and every time he heard rustling he jumped and moved his flashlight. An owl hooted softly. He hoped that was a good sign. Animals were supposed to be intelligent — surely, they wouldn’t stick around if there were any barghests in the area.
He sat down after about thirty minutes and stared up at the sky. Without any city lights obscuring them, the stars seemed very bright. He tried to
find familiar constellations but couldn’t. He sighed and reminded himself that he wasn’t on Earth, so of course the stars would be different. He wondered what the stars looked like on Bantong; he hadn’t seen them yet.
As he stared at the sky, he thought about this strange world that was also called Earth. He wondered if there were any people here or if there were only animals. He hadn’t seen anything yet that would indicate civilization, but maybe they were just in a remote area of the world. He wondered what sort of world would have creatures like the barghests. They weren’t that much different from regular dogs, just bigger and nastier.
Finally, he could hold it off no longer, and his thoughts turned to his fight with Scatha. She didn’t think he would pass the test to become a Sword Priest. He knew he wasn’t as good as the other acolytes, but he’d worked so hard over the past three months. He improved far more than they had, since they’d already been so good. After all that time and effort, he just had to become a Sword Priest.
What would he do if he failed? He still couldn’t go home, and he’d been stupid and offended his Lost Priest. He’d be left on his own to find a job and a home on Bantong. He shuddered at the thought.
The thought of not becoming a Sword Priest bothered him much more than the thought of not being with Scatha anymore. He was fond of her, he supposed, when he wasn’t busy being terrified of her. Whatever they had between them – he wasn’t sure what it should be called, but it definitely wasn’t a real relationship – hadn’t been about affection. They rarely spoke at night, and Scatha was always gone when David woke up in the morning. She’d said a sexual relationship was allowed between a Vicar and an acolyte, but it had never seemed right to David.
So part of him was relieved that his relationship with Scatha had run its course. Another part of him wondered if he was doomed to have only that type of relationship for the rest of his life. The sex had been nice enough, but David wanted more than that.
The sky in the east started to lighten. David watched the sky turn a million different shades of blue and pink. When the sun finally appeared over the horizon, he shook the others awake. They put their sleeping bags away and had a breakfast of ration bars – David was looking forward to eating real food soon. The ration bars had plenty of protein but little flavor.
Anur again took point as they continued north. The trees seemed sparser this morning. At first David thought it was just his imagination, but by mid-morning, the trees had thinned out, and they were now on a large, open plain.
David kept looking around him, sure that more giant dogs would jump out and attack them at any moment. Being able to see further made him more nervous, not less. Off to the east, he could see animals that looked like buffalo from a distance, but David wasn’t willing to believe that was all they were. Anyway, even normal buffalo could seriously injure a person, if what he’d learned about Indians in school was at all accurate. The others kept looking at the buffalo too, and he was glad he wasn’t the only one on edge.
Around noon, David caught sight of a large expanse of blue to the north, where they were headed. As they got closer, he could see it was a large body of water, covering everything to the northeast. Before he could stop himself, he asked Bellon, “Was there an ocean on your map?” He hadn’t looked much at the map himself, since Bellon and Anur were confident in their navigation skills.
Bellon scowled. “It’s a lake, not an ocean. And yes, it was on our map. We’ll follow alongside it.”
“Okay. Whatever you say,” David said, holding up his hands. If Bellon’s map was so accurate, couldn’t he have mentioned the lake earlier?
By the time they reached the lake, the buffalo had wandered off, so David felt a little better. Conal was looking pretty tired, so they stopped to rest and eat lunch. David took his shoes off and rubbed his feet while he ate his ration bar. He stared out at the lake. Suddenly and fiercely, he wished John were here with him. John loved traveling and seeing new sights. If John were the one trapped on an alternate world, he’d probably be having a blast. If they’d been trapped here together, David would have spent all three months laughing and making bad jokes and only worrying late at night.
“How much further have we come today?” asked Niam. She pushed sweaty, golden hair out of her hair.
“Maybe another ten miles,” Anur said. “We’re over halfway.”
Niam sighed. “Oh, good.”
Bellon finished his ration bar and stood. “We should keep going,” he said. Niam helped Conal to his feet, and David put his shoes back on. His feet ached. As soon as he got back to Bantong, he was going to put them in a tub of warm water and leave them there for at least four hours.
During the afternoon, they walked along the edge of the lake. They still traveled north that way, and there were no obstacles in their way. A lovely breeze wafted off the lake which made the walk much more pleasant. Late in the afternoon, they finally had to leave the lake, as its edge veered to the west. More woods appeared to the east and David spotted some deer along the edge.
They walked until the sun had nearly set. They weren’t able to find a high spot to camp in, but the ground was level and clear, so Bellon and Anur judged it safe enough for the night, with Anur reminding them to keep an eye on the woods. Conal fell asleep as soon as they stopped. Niam checked his leg again and said it was looking as good as could be expected.
David was given last watch again. Unlike last night, this time he fell asleep as soon as he closed his eyes. Bellon had to shake him hard before he finally roused. He crawled reluctantly out of his sleeping bag and spent his watch walking around the camp, trying to keep awake.
Anur and Bellon consulted the map again over breakfast. “We have maybe another fifteen miles to go,” Anur said. “We should be able to make it. There are some hills near the end that might slow us down. How are you doing, Conal?”
“Better,” he said. Niam rebandaged his leg for the day and helped him to his feet. David had seen his leg, and it didn’t seem to be infected, but all this walking couldn’t be good on him. He needed a proper doctor. Or, since they’d return to Bantong, a Heart Priest.
“Let’s go,” Bellon said and they started the last day’s march. They all moved more slowly today, tired by the exertion of walking and fighting and then sleeping on the hard ground. As he walked, David rubbed his shoulders and moved his arms about, keeping his muscles loose. Once they were back on Bantong, he could easily sleep for a week. After a long, hot bath, that was.
He kept a close eye on the forest, wary of more monsters. He felt sure that they’d be attacked again before finding the gateway back. Around mid-morning, the hills Anur had promised appeared. The forest thinned out a bit elsewhere, but covered everything to the north. They had no choice but to walk through it. David kept a hand on Bramira as they entered the forest and jumped at every little bird call. He should be glad of the birds, he thought. If there were any barghests about, the birds would probably fall silent.
Unlike the forest they’d arrived in, David wasn’t able to enjoy this one, even if the fall sights and scents made him crave a pumpkin spice latte. More than a bath and sleeping on a comfortable bed, he looked forward to not having to be nervous all the time.
It was around noon when David noticed he couldn’t hear as many birds. He tensed, listening harder. But no bird calls filled the air. He glanced behind him at Bellon, whose face was strained. Swallowing, David gripped Bramira harder.
Rustling sounded behind them, and they whirled. Large, dark sharps appeared from the underbrush, moving fast and directly towards them. “Attack!” Bellon shouted, drawing his agitator and his lance. David whipped out Bramira and his agitator, placing his back to a tree. He could see the animals racing towards them: more barghests, saliva dripping from their long, sharp teeth. There were less of them than last time, maybe twenty, but they had no time to climb into the trees.
Bellon and Anur attacked first, hitting the barghests at the front of the pack. From the corner of his eye, Dav
id saw Niam push Conal against a tree and placed herself on his left side, where he was injured. Then he had no attention to spare for anyone but himself. He threw Bramira, aiming for the center of the pack, and fired his agitator at the same time. He moved as quickly as he could, not even bothering to aim properly before taking shot after shot. He grabbed Bramira out of the air and threw it out again.
And then the barghests were upon them. David caught and held Bramira, swinging it around like a knife as a barghest leapt for his throat. He sliced through the creature’s chest, shearing flesh and muscle and bone alike. The barghest fell to the ground at his feet, and he shot the one behind it, just as it was jumping towards him. He hit it, but its momentum carried it further and its corpse crashed into him, slamming him back against the tree.
He gasped as pain flared through his back. He lay against the tree for a moment, stunned. Someone screamed – it was high pitched, meaning Anur or Niam. He shook his head, telling himself to focus. Pushing the dead barghest off him, he climbed back to his feet. He turned to see Niam and Conal barely fending off three barghests. He shot one of them, and Conal and Niam killed the other two.
Turning again, David looked around for more monsters. Bellon sliced through the last of the barghests, and there was silence, save for their own heavy breathing.
“Is everyone okay?” Anur asked. She wiped her bloody sword clean on the grass and yanked dark, sweaty hair from her eyes. There was a lot of blood on her, but she didn’t seem injured.
“I’m fine,” David said, hiding his wince as he pushed off the tree. His back ached, but he didn’t think he’d broken anything. And he was in a much better shape that the other three.
Conal and Niam were both covered with cuts. Bellon’s head was bleeding, and his eyes were unfocused. “I’ll take care of him,” Anur said, nodding to Bellon. David nodded back and walked over to Conal and Niam.