Halcyon Rising: Breaking Ground

by Stone Thomas

  “I shouldn’t be so close,” she said. “It just makes me want you more.”

  I put my hands on her face and lifted her to eye level. Her skin was soft. Her eyes were wide with emotion.

  “I don’t want to take advantage,” I muttered.

  “I want you to,” she said. “Please, I need it. It’s the only way I can get my focus back.”

  No more holding back. I may not have another chance if I turn her away now, and I wanted her too. I may not be in heat, but thoughts of being with her had been percolating in the back of my mind since I met her. I leaned forward and kissed her. She tilted her head back and let me.

  Vix’s tail curled around my body and pulled me closer until our bodies were pinned against each other. She reached in front of her and unhooked her top while I undid the lacing on my vest. When we pulled our leathers away her breasts pressed against my bare chest.

  She started to whimper as I kissed her neck and worked my way down. She reached for my pants.

  There was no going back now. I wasn’t a worthless boy taking up space in Meadowdale’s temple; I wasn’t an orphan that no one cared about, or a weakling consigned to a life of killing rats and sleeping while hungry. I was skillmeister now. I was a man. I was home.

  I was wanted.

  +17

  The next few days were productive, and my relationship with Vix had only changed for the better after we explored each other’s bodies in the forest. Her mood improved, her focus increased, and I started to work a little harder too. It was strange. I hadn’t set out to impress her until after we became intimate.

  Truth be told, we had done it a few times before Vix decided I should keep chopping wood while she started construction. I was happy that we had enough materials for her to start building, but there was part of me that was a little uncomfortable with our arrangement. Cindra had also shown an interest, and I felt like I was betraying her by sleeping with Vix instead of her.

  “Twenty more logs,” I said, driving the donkey cart up to the temple’s door. Cindra and Mamba stood there directing a dozen snakes with large blocks of stone on their backs, as well as a horde of cockroaches that carried a single block on their many combined backs.

  “I think I figured out what comes next,” Vix said. She had drawn out a diagram in the dirt with a stick. “The temple’s front door stands at the end of this long path, which is flanked on both sides by a hill that rises gradually, like someone long ago had chipped this path out of the hillside itself. Then the temple is built inside the hill under its peak.

  “I propose to build a wall around the hill and place an entry gate at the path, then build towers into the wall, a tower on top of the hill, and—”

  “How many towers do you think you can build in just a few days?” I asked.

  “And are they all just archery towers?” Cindra asked. “I’m the only archer.”

  “I’d like to request a stage,” Mamba said, “so I can dance under the moonlight.”

  “I can build towers, or something stupid like a barracks,” Vix said. “We don’t have people to fill a barracks, so you’re getting towers.”

  “Maybe start with two towers, at the base of the hill where the path to Nola’s temple starts.” I said.

  “Fine,” Vix said. “Two towers. But then I want to build a wall.”

  “Towers are harder,” I said, “which is why they only opened up at your newest level. They’ll probably give you better XP, which means I can train your skills higher when you’re done. Skip the wall for now.”

  “You’re the boss,” she said.

  Duul’s army is making better time than I had expected, Nola said.

  “When do you think you can have two towers completed?” I asked.

  “I’ve worked it all out,” she said. “It should take me twelve hours per tower. It also takes 200 stone and 100 wood, but we have more than enough resources right now.”

  “How much do we have?” Mamba asked.

  “A total of 460 stone and 390 wood,” Vix said.

  “We need to keep collecting,” I said. “That way, Vix can build more defensive buildings once the two towers are done, if there’s time.”

  “My snake friends don’t mind,” Mamba said.

  “The roaches do,” Cindra said, “but leave them to me.”

  “Actually,” I said, “see if you can convince something more substantial to help. It may take time to learn what makes other critters tick, but finding something with increased strength and carrying capacity will be worth the investment.”

  “I’ll walk the forest and see who I can find,” Cindra said.

  “As long as Mamba’s okay in the quarry alone?” I asked.

  “Oh yes,” she said. “Dancing in the dark is freeing. I just wish that brockerball would dance with me so I wouldn’t have to dance alone.”

  I looked at Cindra for a moment, concerned. “Don’t worry,” she said. “The brockerball is terrified of snakes.”

  “Good,” I said. “Then I guess we all have our orders.”

  Not all, Nola said.

  “If you’ll excuse me,” I said. I walked into the temple to find Nola, still folded up inside her crystal cocoon.

  More of the gods have perished in the last few days, she said, but only minor ones like me. I’m worried most for my mother Sajia, the goddess of premonition. She’s no minor deity, but she lacks the physical strength to resist an attack if Duul approaches her city. My family has always been more cerebral in that respect.

  In normal times, I would reach across the psychic network of the gods and contact her, but I have closed myself off from it for the time being to prevent Duul from locating me. If you hear anything about Landondowns, please let me know. It’s on the other side of the human lands, next to the elf land border.

  Of course, I said. I’ll keep an ear out.

  I returned to the forest to chop wood for the remainder of the day. Occasionally a forest monster would wander toward me, but I slayed them handily thanks to Razortooth. I didn’t mind the XP, but I did mind taking time away from gathering lumber.

  I walked alongside the donkey cart that evening, carrying the day’s final load of wood.

  “There you are!” Vix said. “It’s finished!”

  I looked up at the tower. From the outside, it was all stone. The structure didn’t encroach on the path to the temple, but it did add a sense of gravity to the site. Mamba and Cindra were on the tower’s roof, staring down at us.

  “Come on!” Vix said. We entered a door at the base and wound up a spiral wooden staircase. Wooden beams supported the hardwood floor above.

  The view from the roof was phenomenal. Treetops stretched as far as I could see in every direction, except north, which was interrupted by the peaks of ravaged buildings in my former home. Meadowdale looked dark and defeated.

  “Is that Valleyvale?” Vix asked. Sure enough, to the east, we saw the city’s temple, standing taller than the tree line.

  “Yes,” I said. “Too bad I can’t ever go back there again.”

  “It’s just as well,” Cindra said. “That Blade gangster would probably just ask for more training, and that’s a conversation you don’t want to have.”

  “Do you think what the Mayor said was true?” I asked. “That Scar had gone to the Inn to kill me and take the gold Blade used to pay us for training?”

  “The Mayor seems as trustworthy as Blade,” Cindra said. “I wouldn’t put any stock in his words.”

  “We should get some sleep,” Mamba said. “My hips are tired from all that dancing.”

  “Does that dance have a name?” I asked. “The one you use to control the snakes?”

  “I just call it the mamba,” she said.

  “You can’t call it that,” Vix said. “There’s already a dance called the mambo.”

  “How does that one go?” Mamba asked.

  “Sort of like this,” Vix said. She took Cindra’s hand, and put her other hand on Cindra’s shoulder. Then she
stepped forward, leading Cindra back a step before reversing course. Their hips pivoted with each movement, and then they did a slight spin.

  “That looks like fun!” Mamba said, reaching her hand toward me. I led her in the same moves I saw Vix employ with Cindra, and the four of us danced on the tower’s roof in the moonlight until we tired out.

  At night, we had taken to sleeping in the recovery beds, and tonight was no different. It turned out, the beds weren’t just stone slabs meant to help people recuperate after laying on the stone spikes in the meditation room. These beds had special properties, and our HP and AP recovered quickly when we lied on them. Even without sleeping, we visited the beds a few times per day to rebuild our strength between tasks.

  In the morning, I’d round up another pile of logs while Vix started – and completed – our second tower.

  +18

  They’re closer than ever now, Nola said. It was late afternoon, and I had loaded another cart with wood.

  How close?, I asked.

  They could be here before nightfall.

  Vix may not be done with the second tower by then, I said.

  I’m scared, Arden.

  I know, I said. I was scared too, but it didn’t seem like the right time to say so. I’ll check in with Vix.

  I rode as quickly as I could back to our base. The newest tower was in good shape, but still hours away from finishing.

  “Vix?” I called out from just outside the tower. “When do you think this tower is done?” No response. “Vix?” I entered the tower and climbed to the third story, where I found her laying down wood for the floor.

  “Thank the gods,” she said. “I’m having a hard time here, Arden. Take off your pants.”

  “Vix, we can’t,” I said.

  “I’ll do all the work,” she said. She started to untie her top.

  “Duul’s forces are picking up their pace. We don’t have time to spare.”

  “Oh,” she said. “How tight is our timeframe?”

  “We need this tower ready now,” I said. “I’ll get Cindra and Mamba.”

  I felt bad leaving Vix in that state. Apparently heat was a deep, unrelenting urge to mate that even the randiest man wouldn’t understand. I didn’t understand. But I knew that it tortured her not to get the release her body craved. Still, we had to make some sacrifices if we hoped to hold off Duul’s forces.

  I wound my way around the hill and toward the stone steps that led down into our quarry. Mamba nearly ran into me as I stepped off the last step.

  “Whoa!”

  “Sorry, Master Arden,” she said. “Look.” She held out her hands, continuing to gyrate her hips the whole time. There was a small flake of something golden in one palm, and a tiny clear crystal in the other.

  “What is it?” I asked.

  “This isn’t just a quarry,” she said. “Cindra found a vein of iron which we couldn’t pull from the earth, and a gold deposit. That’s a gold flake! I could make earrings with this, large hoops that dance in time with my hips.”

  “Yes, and that gem?” I asked.

  “Oh, right,” she said. “An energem. There are larger ones in there too, but we couldn’t break them free.”

  “That’s amazing,” I said, “but we can’t focus on that now. We need to get to the towers. Duul’s forces are coming.”

  She stopped her dance. Cindra emerged from the shadowy tunnels with two gi-ants under her control, each carrying a stone block.

  “Leave those,” I said. “We need to go.”

  Cindra, two gi-ants, twelve snakes, and I all trekked back to the towers. The sun was starting to set when we found Vix, banging away at the stones that formed the top story.

  She needs to hurry, Nola said.

  Twelve hours is a fair time for a tower, I said. I trust her, let’s let her work.

  Cindra gathered her bow and arrows and climbed to the top of the one completed tower. Mamba danced idly at the base of the second one, waiting for Vix to finish. She made a game out of stepping on the small holes in the rocky ground that let the light into the meditation room below.

  I took Razortooth and stood outside the temple’s front door. This is where Vix and I would defend the temple against any creatures that made it past the towers. The enormity of the war coming our way pumped adrenaline through my veins. I didn’t want to think about it, for fear that I would crumble before it even started. We were four people that had only just met. What match were we for the god of war?

  My only hope was that his forces were weak after battling constantly. After all, it wasn’t Duul himself that came, it was some lesser demon under his control. It had to run out of energy at some point, right?

  After the sun disappeared beneath the horizon, Vix climbed from the tower and gave Mamba the go-ahead. Mamba raced to the tower’s roof while Vix fetched her hammer, shut the stone door to the temple behind her, and sat down by my feet.

  “I’m tired, Arden,” she said. “I wish I had time for a quick nap in the recovery beds.”

  “I know,” I said. I was tired too. Chopping and hauling wood was backbreaking work. We needed to stay vigilant though. We’d fight with whatever energy we had.

  Waiting was nerve-wracking, but eventually we heard the heavy footfalls of an army on the march. Metal clanged from the weapons they carried and trees screeched against the hard-bodied creatures that cut a path through the forest, on their way to a target they’d hope to destroy, enslave, or both.

  My leg started shaking. I wanted to stay strong and firm, for the others if not for myself. I didn’t want to become a mindless rage machine like Duul had turned Cahn into, or the other men of Meadowdale. I didn’t want to hurt anyone.

  The sound of marching got louder. Still, we waited. Cindra and Mamba would do what they could, then Vix and I would fight hand-to-hand until we couldn’t fight anymore.

  Was I wrong to rope them into this? The promise of training their skills wasn’t worth their lives. I wanted to protect Nola, but I wanted to protect them too. I wasn’t sure how to do both.

  The oncoming army reached its loudest volume. Then the sound began to taper. As though they didn’t know where they were going.

  We’re not their target!, Nola said.

  Then who is?, I asked.

  Oh, she said. I was so relieved that they were leaving, it didn’t occur to me how dire things would get for Gowes. They’re heading toward Valleyvale.

  “Stand down!” I yelled. “They’re going to Valleyvale.”

  Mamba and Cindra climbed down from their towers, visibly relieved.

  “What do we do?” Vix asked. “Let them destroy the only city within a day’s walk? Let them accumulate extra fighters and seal the city’s women inside?”

  “We’re four people,” I said. “I don’t want to put you in harm’s way if we can avoid it.”

  “I’m in harm’s way, no matter where I go,” Cindra said. “I was wrong to think I could strut into the elf lands and find Mercifer. I’ve seen what we’re up against now. It wouldn’t be fair to you, or to Nola, for me to abandon you after you saved me and provided me a home. I want to stay. I want to protect the temple.”

  “I’ll stay too,” Vix said. “Where I came from, I was just another builder. It was my job, but that was all. Here I feel like it’s a purpose. These buildings matter. It’s the gods that saved our races from the first God War, and if protecting Nola can help save us all from the second one, count me in.”

  I looked at Mamba next.

  “I was never planning to leave,” she said. “My snakes are your snakes.”

  “Then it’s settled,” I said. “We’re a team. And if we want our efforts to matter, we can’t just sit here and wait for war. We have to meet it head on. I’m going to Valleyvale.”

  “Nola will be vulnerable if we all go,” Vix said. “As much as I’d like to Wallop a few baddies with my new hammer, I should stay here and keep building so that we’re prepared when Duul comes.”

  “You’re
right,” I said. “You should all stay. Gather resources and build our defenses. I’ll travel lighter as one person anyway.”

  “You be careful, Arden,” Cindra said. “I need you to come back in one piece.” She took my hand and pressed a handful of small rocks into my palm. They was the energems we had found, and the one tiny energem she and Mamba had collected from our new mine.

  “You all be careful too,” I said. “I’ll be back soon, good as new.”

  +19

  I tracked the sounds of Duul’s foot soldiers through the woods, careful to stay far enough away that they wouldn’t see me. I assumed they wouldn’t hear me over the sound of their own marching, and I was right. En route to Valleyvale, I had an advantage they didn’t: I was just one person.

  With Razortooth in hand, and with my new leather gear equipped, I slipped through the trees ahead of the dark army. By the time I got to the front gates of the city it was hours later and the forest was dark, but the oncoming troops were far enough behind that I couldn’t hear them approaching.

  “What business do you have in Valleyvale?” asked a man through the small viewing door built into the city’s front gate.

  “I need to see the Mayor,” I said. “I’m the head priest of Nola’s temple.”

  “I remember you,” the man said. “You’ve been banished. Go away.”

  “There’s an army marching toward your city,” I said, “and if you don’t let me in to warn the Mayor, you’ll all die.”

  “You’re marching on Valleyvale? You’re a fool!”

  “Not me, Duul.”

  The viewing door slammed shut. A moment later, the front gate creaked open. Three archers, still perched atop their guard tower, aimed their crossbows at me while I stepped inside the city. One false move and they might shoot, my head priest status be damned.

  “You wait here,” the man said. Then he scurried deeper into the city.

  Minutes went by. Precious minutes that brought the forces of evil closer to this city. Finally, the man ran back. Behind him, walking as though his world were not on verge of falling apart, was the Mayor. His ridiculous long shirt in all its loud colors was still buttoned from the neck all the way down.

  The two witches he had with him last time also approached, one carrying an oversized battle axe, the other wielding a long wooden staff. They must be his body guard.